AIMS OF THE COUNCIL
Pope John Paul XXIII expressed the aims of the Second Vatican Council very eloquently and aptly when he professed that he wanted to “throw open the windows of the church” (Dionne, 2011, para. 6). He wanted to turn the Church away from the negative “prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world was at hand” (McBrien, 2008, p. 159) and engage with the world as “the church is not a museum of antiques but a living garden of life” (Dionne, 2011, para. 6). This presented an innovative and fresh vision for the Church, who had for centuries treated the wider world as a very separate entity to itself. The pope aimed for the Church to be a much more accessible, approachable and understandable place that embraced the unity of humanity rather than being seen purely in its highly structured institutional form (Shreiter,1999).
The four overarching aims of the council that were professed by Pope Paul VI in the second session after the shock death of Pope John Paul XXIII were:
· Developing a strong vision of the Church
· The renewal of the Church
· The unification of Christian faith
· The opening up of dialogue between the Church and the temporal world (McBrien, 2008).
REFLECTION: What are your aims for creating a more engaging experience connected to the Sacrament of the Liturgy with your class?
The four overarching aims of the council that were professed by Pope Paul VI in the second session after the shock death of Pope John Paul XXIII were:
· Developing a strong vision of the Church
· The renewal of the Church
· The unification of Christian faith
· The opening up of dialogue between the Church and the temporal world (McBrien, 2008).
REFLECTION: What are your aims for creating a more engaging experience connected to the Sacrament of the Liturgy with your class?