Pope Benedict XVI has given us the opportunity to grow in our knowledge and participation in the Faith; here is what you need to know to make this special year meaningful.
50th Anniversary of Vatican II
The Second Vatican Council, held from 1962-1965, is unquestionably the most influential event in the Catholic Church in the 20th century. It has impacted every aspect of Catholic life.
In marking the 50th anniversary of its opening, it is becoming more and more possible to view the Council more objectively, although our generation is still too close to it not to be skewed in our perspective, to some extent.
One thing is clear however: Benedict XVI (who along with Pope John Paul II participated at Vatican II) sees it as one of his primary tasks as pope to correctly interpret the Council and to implement it as the Council Fathers intended. Yet such a task certainly has been Herculean. There are those who believe the Council was simply the beginning of a more intensive opening to the world.
Although the Council itself did not endorse such practices as artificial contraception and women priests, many who advocate for a “Spirit of Vatican II” believe that the Council was the first step in embracing these practices.
On the other hand, there is a small but vocal contingent within the Church who believe Vatican II should be jettisoned. All the problems within the Church have been placed at the feet of the Council and thus a rejection of the Council would, according to this line of thought, bring back the good times.
For Pope Benedict, this Year of Faith is one more opportunity to study the texts of Vatican II so that they might “be read correctly, … be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative texts of the magisterium, within the Church’s tradition.”
Pope Paul VI’s Year of Faith
In 1967 the Catholic Church faced a crisis of immense proportions. Following Vatican II, many within the Church called for a deeper embrace of the surrounding culture—a culture that at that time was rapidly rejecting both God and any authority. The Church was facing a true crisis of faith. Pope Paul VI saw this situation and was alarmed by it. So in response, on Feb. 22, 1967, he called a “Year of Faith,” which was to celebrate the 19th centenary of the martyrdoms of Sts. Peter and Paul.
The 1967 Year of Faith was called to reaffirm the Catholic profession of faith as so wonderfully proclaimed by the two great apostles, Sts. Peter and Paul. It was to remind a secularizing Church that the internal “engine” of the entire Church is this profession of faith. All programs, outreaches and ministries are for naught if they do not draw from the core content of Catholicism: that there is one God in three persons, that God the Son became man for our salvation, and that the Holy Spirit is with us to sanctify us and mold us into the image of Christ.
At the end of this Year of Faith, Pope Paul VI released the apostolic letter “Credo of the People of God” — a reworking of the traditional Nicene Creed. This Credo was not written to replace the Nicene Creed, but instead as a catechetical tool to allow modern people to better understand the traditional creed. It followed the Trinitarian order of the Nicene Creed, but then added sections on other elements of the Catholic faith: Mary, original sin, the Church, the Eucharist and the Word of God.
When he called for the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI recalled the 1967 observance:“It is not the first time that the Church has been called to celebrate a Year of Faith. My venerable predecessor the Servant of God Paul VI announced one in 1967, to commemorate the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul on the 19th centenary of their supreme act of witness. He thought of it as a solemn moment for the whole Church to make ‘an authentic and sincere profession of the same faith’; moreover, he wanted this to be confirmed in a way that was ‘individual and collective, free and conscious, inward and outward, humble and frank.’ He thought that in this way the whole Church could reappropriate ‘exact knowledge of the faith, so as to reinvigorate it, purify it, confirm it, and confess it.’
The great upheavals of that year made even more evident the need for a celebration of this kind. It concluded with the Credo of the People of God, intended to show how much the essential content that for centuries has formed the heritage of all believers needs to be confirmed, understood and explored ever anew, so as to bear consistent witness in historical circumstances very different from those of the past” (Porta Fidei, No. 4).
20th Anniversary of the Catechism
By the early 1990s, the Church had endured two decades of poor catechesis. Too many catechetical programs had been co-opted by a feelings-based curriculum.
Then, in 1992, the Vatican released the Catechism of the Catholic Church — an authoritative text that clearly explains the whole content of the Faith for the modern world. The reaction by the “religion experts” was one of derision: “No one will read that!” was a common response. It was believed that the Catechism might be purchased by a few theologians and universities, but would be ignored by most Catholics. Yet, when the English translation was released in 1994, it was an immediate best-seller — just about every Catholic, from the parish priest to the average family, wanted a copy. And not just to sit on the mantel: Catholics far and wide studied the Catechism; just about every catechetical book was revised to be in conformity with it, and many books and articles were published to help Catholics better understand it.
Both Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI have seen the Catechism as an authentic fruit of Vatican II. It returned to the biblical and patristic sources of the Faith and presented its truths in a way that resounds with the modern heart. We can be thankful to have such a clear and helpful guide in our walk with Christ.
The New Evangelization
The “new evangelization” began with Pope Paul VI, who first realized that the modern Church faces a new phenomenon: the need to evangelize cultures which have become “de-Christianized.”
Pope John Paul II then gave his predecessor’s insight a concrete direction when he outlined his call for a “new evangelization,” inviting the Church to find new methods and a new ardour in the evangelization of cultures. The crisis of secularism, in which even professed Christians live as if there is no God, is one the Church must not avoid, for it is the crisis of our day.
Pope Benedict XVI, like his predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II, has embraced this evangelization challenge, establishing a Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, and now calling a World Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization.
But what does all this mean for the average Catholic? The very nature of the crisis today requires each of us to engage in the new evangelization. In the past, evangelization usually meant missions: going to a foreign land to proclaim the Gospel to those who had never heard of Christ. Thus, only certain people became missionaries and performed this task.
Today, however, the mission fields are not far-off lands, but our own neighbourhoods, families, and workplaces. We are all called to these missions. In this Year of Faith, let each of us take concrete steps to deepen our knowledge and practice of the faith so that it might overflow into the lives of those around us.
We are not to be content with simply learning our faith more deeply, or even living it better — we are also called to bear witness of our relationship with Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church. We must evangelize using the means and methods by which we can most effectively reach people in our modern context.
Adapted from: OSV Newsweekly
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