What were the chief reforms in the Church from the Second Vatican Council?

Answer 1

The chief reforms in the church from the second Vatican Council were: the use of the vernacular language instead of Latin in the Holy Mass; the church tabernacle displaced from the central aisle and the usage of revised Eucharistic prayers in the church. There were the direct reforms.

Answer 2

Pope John XXIII wanted to restore all things in Christ, and "update" the Church to make it more relevant to today's world, in other words, to make Catholic Christians live their faith and go out and evangelize. He sought to put the laity on an equal footing as far as living their baptismal vocation and they could not just "coast" letting the sisters and the priests do all the leg work. Below are ten achievements listed on the website at the link below (American Catholic)

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WHAT THE COUNCIL ACHIEVEDHow do we assess the impact of the Council? I'd like to propose 10 remarkable achievements. These I consider the most important and lasting fruits of Vatican II.

1. Renewing the liturgy. The Council's call for renewal included the Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, sacraments, and the liturgical year. This liturgical renewal emphasized the Mass as the prayer and sacrifice of priest and people united in Christ, the call to active and intelligent participation by the whole body of Christ, and openness to incorporating worthwhile customs and traditions of every culture and people.
2. Placing greater emphasis on sacred Scripture.The Council called for a much fuller menu of readings from both the Old and New Testaments in the Sunday and weekday Lectionaries of the Church. Since the Council urged more study and reading of Scripture, an impressive number of aids to the study of The Bible, as well as an increase in Bible-study groups, has appeared on the scene.
3. Viewing laypeople as equal members of the Church. All the Church-pope, bishops, priests, religious, and laity-are equal members through Baptism. All share in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly roles of Christ. All are called to holiness no matter what vocation or occupation they embrace in life.
4. Reinstating the baptismal catechumenate. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) is "a process of formation" and "school of the faith" (General Directory for Catechesis 91) for unbaptized adults seeking Church membership. The entire Christian community helps prepare catechumens to receive Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. It is the inspiration and model for all catechesis (GDC 90).
5. Restoring the ministry of permanent deacons.Calling to restore the ministry of deacon, a ministry of service with roots in the early Church, the Council named the deacon's tasks: baptize, reserve and distribute the Eucharist, assist at and bless marriages, take Viaticum to the dying, proclaim Scripture, instruct, preside at prayer, administer sacramentals, and officiate at funerals and burials.
6. Rethinking the concept of authority. Viewed in the spirit of the Gospel, authority is not authoritarianism and domination but a service of love in imitation of Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for all.
7. Encouraging collegiality throughout the Church. Shared ministry and authority are recognized between the pope and bishops, the bishop and priests of a diocese, the pastor and parishioners of a parish, and the superiors and members of religious orders and congregations.
8. Acknowledging God's presence beyond the Church. Vatican II acknowledged the work of the Spirit in the communities of our separated Christian brothers and sisters and in other world religions. Ecumenical efforts foster unity among all Christians and greater communication and dialogue with and respect for other religions.
9. Upholding the right to religious liberty. The Council recognized the right of every individual to join the religion of one's choice and opposed the use of force, physical or otherwise, imposing one's religious beliefs and practices upon others.
10. Accepting the world. We see the world and its inhabitants as essentially good. We never lose hope in the restoration of all things, a restoration that has begun with the coming of Christ and will reach its fulfillment and perfection when Christ comes again in power and glory at the end of time.

Answer 3

Technically the Council did not make any changes to the Mass during any of the meeting periods. The changes to the Mass came in 1969-1970 after the Council ended in 1965 by Pope Paul VI. He revised the Mass to be a little simpler and understandable to the Catholic faithful meaning he allowed the option for the Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular, meaning for it to be celebrated in common language, the language that the people spoke: English, Spanish, Italian, French, etc. However he never actually restricted to use of Latin in the Mass, he just made it optional. Also Pope Paul also made the option the option for the Readings and Gospel proclaimed in the common language.

He also brought the altar out closer to the people and "turned the priest around" for the priests to face the people during the celebration of the Eucharist.

Pope Paul allowed for the use of hymns in place of the Gregorian and other Latin chants which later became optional to use chants.

Answer 4

When it comes to doctrine or dogma, the Church is incapable of change, as she is divinely ordained by God to set forth His revelation - which cannot change. Most of the changes you are thinking about, the altars being pulled out and turned around, the Mass in the vernacular, the hideous protestant "hymns" and such were specifically NOT called for by the Vatican Council, read on:

Pope Benedict XVI in his Christmas address was very insistent on the fact that nothing that the Church teaches can change, and that the Second Vatican Council, in particular, has been subject to a hermeneutic of rupture in its interpretation. You may read the entire address here: Address of his Holiness Benedict XVI to the Roman curia offering them his Christmas greetings

What the Holy Father is trying to get to when discussing the Council doesn’t get address until more than a third of the way through his address. He points out that there have been severe problems with implementation of the Council. In other words, what has been done in the Church is NOT what the Council called for, and that the “incomprehensible chatter, the confused din of uninterrupted clamouring, has now filled almost the whole of the Church, falsifying through excess or failure the right doctrine of the faith. . .†(De Spiritu Sancto, XXX, 77; PG 32, 213 A; SCh 17 ff., p. 524). The Holy Father calls this problem the hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture “which has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology.â€

The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks ending in a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church. It asserts that the texts of the Council as such do not yet express the true spirit of the Council. It claims that they are the result of compromises in which, to reach unanimity, it was found necessary to keep and reconfirm many old things that are now pointless. However, the true spirit of the Council is not to be found in these compromises but instead in the impulses toward the new that are contained in the texts.

The Holy Father goes on to say:

The nature of a Council as such is therefore basically misunderstood. In this way, it is considered as a sort of constituent that eliminates an old constitution and creates a new one. However, the Constituent Assembly needs a mandator and then confirmation by the mandator, in other words, the people the constitution must serve. The Fathers had no such mandate and no one had ever given them one; nor could anyone have given them one because the essential constitution of the Church comes from the Lord and was given to us so that we might attain eternal life and, starting from this perspective, be able to illuminate life in time and time itself.

In other words, the Second Vatican Council could not change anything, they discussed and voted, and issued documents. The only things that changed are things that the Holy Father asked for, these were all expressed in the post-Conciliar Documents, and even then things went wildly awry in the Church.

The Second Vatican Council modestly asked if the readings could be put in the vernacular, and “perhaps some of the chantsâ€, Bishop Conference after Bishop conference asked the Holy See for an indult to approved things that they were already doing, in some cases, saying the entire Mass in the Vernacular. This is not a change that the Second Vatican Council asked for.

Another innovation most noticed by the average person in the pew was the altars being pulled away from the walls, and the priest facing the people. This was never even mentioned or thought of in any of the Council documents.

The Council Fathers asked for greater participation in the Mass, “active participationâ€. This got twisted all out of shape and people were singing hymns and neglecting to sing the Latin chants that the Council specifically asked for.

The Council asked for many things, not “change†in doctrine but a change in the people’s outlook, that they should claim their “baptismal priesthood†and become truly holy and spiritual. God willing we may see this in the future, we have seen none of the real changes that the Council asked for so far.

Answer 5

The most visible change was that the Mass could now be said in the vernacular rather than Latin.