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Council, Controversy, Conversion, and Communion

A six-week course on the Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council remains controversial in some Catholic circles.  Many people see it as involving a radical break from the Catholic past, for good or bad. Others, such as the popes since the Council, see it as a renewal and reform of the one-and-the same Catholic Church.

This is mini-course covering the main teachings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).  It also examines how the Council’s teaching has been received, misperceived, and resisted, as well as how it has shaped Catholic life and mission in the last half-century.

Tuesday nights at 7 PM PT (San Francisco) on October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9

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Course Schedule

  • Session 1 (October 5): Getting Started  

    • Why Vatican II?
    • What Vatican II Really Said: An Overview of Vatican II and Common Myths about It
    • Why It Matters Today
    • Reading for the next session: Sacrosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy)

    Session 2 (October 12): Working on Worship: Reform of the Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium)  

    • Liturgical worship: how and why did Vatican II “reform” the Liturgy?
    • Key ideas of Vatican II on Liturgy
    • Common Myths about Vatican II and the Mass
    • Reading for the next Session: Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation) 

    Session 3 (October 19): It’s a Revelation (Dei Verbum)  

    • How God talks to us and our response to him
    • The Catholic Church, Tradition, and the Bible (Is the Catholic Church ‘biblical’?)
    • The Church goes to Bible Study
    • Reading for the next session: Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)

    Session 4 (October 26): Figuring Out the Church (Lumen Gentium)  

    • Mysterious Church, and Catholics, other Christians, other believers, and non-believers
    • Hierarchy, laity, everyone called to holiness, and religious life
    • The Pilgrim Church and Mary in the Mystery of Christ and the Church
    • Reading for the next session: TBD

    Session 5 (November 2): The Other Things (Decrees and Declarations)  

    • Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches
    • Bishops, Priests, Laity, Religious Life, Ecumenism, Missions, and the Church and Non-Christians
    • Social Media, Christian Education, and Religious Freedom
    • Reading for the next session: Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World)

    Session 6 (November 9): The Church in the World as it is Today (Gaudium et Spes) and the Enduring Legacy of Vatican II  

    • The Church and humanity
    • Some problems: marriage and family, culture, economics, politics, war and peace
    • The Legacy of Vatican II: the past, the present, and the future

Register now!