Welcome to Vatican II—Voice of The Church
The purpose of this website is to promote and illuminate the teaching of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the most consequential event in the modern life of the Catholic Church.
Vatican II marked a profound moment of renewal. It reshaped the Church’s understanding of itself, revitalised its inner life, and transformed its relationship with other Christian communities, other religions, and the wider world. Those who participated in the Council—or lived through its unfolding—often spoke of an exhilarating sense of rebirth, a moment akin to a new Pentecost.
At the opening of the Council, Pope St John XXIII set its enduring tone:
The Church should never depart from the sacred treasure of truth inherited from the Fathers. But at the same time, she must ever look to the present, to the new conditions and the new forms of life introduced into the modern world.
In the decades that followed, speaking positively about the Council was, at times, met with hesitation or suspicion. Yet more than sixty years later, interest in Vatican II has been renewed—encouraged in part by Pope Francis’ pastoral emphasis on the People of God and his commitment to synodality, both deeply rooted in the Council’s vision. In 2017 he urged the Church:
…to announce the Gospel in a new way, more consonant with a profoundly different culture and world… The Church must always refer itself to that event [Vatican II].
Pope Leo has continued this trajectory. In his first address to the cardinals on 10 May 2025, he affirmed:
I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.
And again, in January 2026:
Thanks to Vatican Council II, the Church has something to say, a message to give, a communication to make, striving to seek the truth by way of ecumenism, interreligious dialogue and dialogue with people of good will.
Amid the many challenges facing the Church today, the words of Pope St Paul VI remain strikingly relevant:
Whatever our opinions were about the Council’s various doctrines before its conclusions were promulgated, today our adherence to the decisions of the Council must be whole-hearted and without reserve… The conciliar doctrine must be seen as belonging to the magisterium of the Church and, indeed, be attributed to the breath of the Holy Spirit. (Address to the Roman Curia, 23 April 1966)
Although the Council took place in the 1960s, its teaching has lost none of its relevance. As St John Paul II wrote on the eve of the new millennium:
…there [in the Council] we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning.
This website draws especially on the insights of those who experienced the Council first-hand, including Cardinal Franz König of Vienna and the English Benedictine Christopher Butler—both distinguished scholars, Council Fathers, and members of the influential Theological Commission.
To learn more about the aims of this website and to explore recommended foundational reading, we invite you to continue here.
