Similarities between First Vatican Council and Second Vatican Council?

Answer 1

Anther answer from our community:

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The main difference between the Second Vatican Council and the twenty ecumenical councils that preceded it is the the first twenty councils were always primarily concerned with doctrinal concerns and with pastoral concerns secondarily. I believe all of the previous councils had been called to deal with particular heresies that had arisen, from the First Council of Nicaea which dealt with Arianism to the Council of Trent with dealt with Protestantism, I'm not sure about the First Vatican Council. The Second Vatican Council, however, dealt with no doctrinal issues whatsoever and was not called because of any problems with heresies but was primarily a pastoral council. Blessed Pope John XXIII called the Council to deal with updating or making the Church more sensitive to the issues in the modern world. Unlike the previous Councils which settled heresies, the Church had to deal with a number of heresies that arose after the Council.

Answer 2

The First Vatican Council produced two documents (A & B below) and defined Papal Infallibility. The Second Vatican Council was an entirely pastoral Council mostly dealing with the laity, their call to holiness, and an "updating" or making more relevant the presentation of the faith in the modern world. The First Vatican Council ended prematurely due to war, and was never formally closed. The Second ran for four years and produced an immense amount of relevant directives for the Church. The First was implemented without much of a ripple, although several schisms broke off who objected to its defined doctrines producing the Polish National Church, and the Old Catholic Church, among others. The Second Vatican Council, as of 2012, is just now being implemented as modernists took control of the Church and tried to implement the "spirit of Vatican II" in the forty years after the Council, all of which was a complete failure harming the Church's members greatly in their effort.

Decrees of Vatican Council I:

A. The dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith defends the fundamental principles of Christianity against the errors of modern Rationalism, Materialism, and Atheism. In the first chapter it maintains the doctrine of the existence of a personal God, Who of His own free volition for the revelation of His perfection, has created all things out of nothing, Who foresees all things, even the future free actions of reasonable creatures, and Who through His Providence leads all things to the intended end. The second chapter treats the natural and supernatural knowledge of God. It then declares that God, the beginning and end of all things can also be known with certainty by the natural light of reason. It then treats the actuality and necessity of a supernatural revelation, of the two sources of Revelation, Scripture and tradition, of the inspiration and interpretation of the Holy Scripture. The third chapter treats the supernatural virtue of faith, its reasonableness supernaturalness, and necessity, the possibility and actuality of miracles as a confirmation of Divine Revelation; and lastly, the founding of the Catholic Church by Jesus Christ as the Guardian and Herald of revealed truth. The fourth chapter contains the doctrine, especially important today, on the connection between faith and reason. The mysteries of faith cannot, indeed, be fully grasped by natural reason, but revealed truth can never contradict the positive results of the investigation of reason. Contrariwise, however, every assertion is false that contradicts the truth of enlightened faith. Faith and true learning are not in hostile opposition; they rather support each other in many ways. Yet faith is not the same as a philosophical system of teaching that has been worked out and then turned over to the human mind to be further developed, but it has been entrusted as a Divine deposit to the Church for protection and infallible interpretation. When, therefore, the Church explains the meaning of a dogma this interpretation is to be maintained in all future time, and it can never be deviated from under pretence of a more profound investigation. At the close of the Constitution the opposing heresies are rejected in eighteen canons.

B. The other dogmatic Constitution is of equal, if not greater, importance; it is the first on the Church of Christ, or, as it is also called in reference to its contents, on the Pope of Rome. "The introduction to the Constitution says that the primacy of the Roman pontiff, on which the unity, strength, and stability of the entire Church rests, has always been, and is especially now, the object of violent attacks by the enemies of the Church. Therefore the doctrine of its origin, constant permanence, and nature must be clearly set forth and established, above all on account of the opposing errors. Thus the first chapter treats of the establishment of the Apostolic primacy in the popes of Rome. Each chapter closes with a canon against the opposing dogmatic opinion. The most important matter of the Constitution is the last two chapters. In the third chapter the meaning and nature of the primacy are set forth in clear words. The primacy of the Pope of Rome is no mere precedence of honour. On the contrary, the pope possesses the primacy of regularly constituted power over all other Churches, and the true, direct, episcopal power of jurisdiction, in respect to which the clergy and faithful of every rite and rank are bound to true obedience. The immediate power of jurisdiction of the individual bishops in their dioceses, therefore, is not impaired by the primacy, but only strengthened and defended. By virtue of his primacy the pope has the right to have direct and free relations with the clergy and laity of the entire Church. No one is permitted to interfere with this intercourse. It is false and to be rejected to say that the decrees issued by the pope for the guidance of the Church are not valid unless confirmed by the placet of the secular power. The pope is also the supreme judge of all the faithful, to whose decision all matters under examination by the Church can be appealed. On the other hand, no further appeal, not even to an ecumenical council, can be made from the supreme decision of the pope. Consequently the canon appended to the third chapter says: "When, therefore, anyone says that the Pope of Rome has only the office of supervision or of guidance, and not the complete and highest power of jurisdiction over the entire Church not merely in matters of faith and morals, but also in matters which concern the discipline and administration of the Church throughout the entire world, or that the pope has only the chief share, but not the entire fullness of this highest power, or that this his power is not actual and immediate either over all and individual Churches, or over all and individual clergy and faithful, let him be anathema."

Answer 3

Actually, beyond the fact that they were both Ecumenical Councils of the Church and held at the Vatican, that is about the extent of the similarities, everything else was different. The Second was purely a pastoral Council, the First was a doctrinal Council.

Answer 4

Many of the previous Councils had been concerned with threats to the Catholic Church from heresies in various forms. The Second Vatican Council broke new ground because it recognised the right of all persons to hold whatever religious beliefs they wished, free from any form of coercion, and to worship openly in such manner as they choose. It stated that the right of parents are violated, if their children are forced to attend lessons or instructions which are not in agreement with their religious beliefs. In doing so, it turned centuries of Catholic dogma on its head. The Church had sanctioned the deaths of untold thousands of non-believers, but now states unequivocally through the Declaration on Religious Freedom passed by the Council in December 1965 that religious freedom is based on human dignity, and is a basic right for all people and for all time. Perez Zagorin (How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West) considers this a complete reversal of the Catholic Church's former inimical attitude to toleration.

Answer 5

Vatican 1 was a dogmatic council and specifically addressed papal infallibility. Vatican II was a pastoral council (no dogma defined, no infallible teachings).

Answer 6

It was more pastoral than dogmatic.