In the 27th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for The Catholic Herald, Dr Gavin Ashenden reflects on the gulf between the so-called “spirit of Vatican II” and the contents of the documentation agreed by the participating Church fathers.

He is joined by Catholic commentator Mark Lambert, author of a popular blog called De Omnibus Dubitandum Est and a regular with Dr Ashenden on the Catholic Unscripted YouTube channel, and together they try to “shed some light” on the spirit of the Second Vatican Council and what was actually intended by the documents emanating from the council itself. They consider whether the Second Vatican Council, convened 60 years ago last month, was a call to holiness and evangelisation or simply to conformity with the Zeitgeist, or the passing and quickly dated spirit of the age.