The Ambrosian rite differs in some ways, many from the conventional rites and practices of Roman Catholicism. It is contained within Western Europe, in fact, mainly in Italy. St. Ambrose, for whom the rite is named was Bishop of Milan. I don"t know much about the rite but it is within the overall structure of Roman Catholicism but has some distinctive rites and practices. The Church calendar is somewhat different. Advent, for example, is six weeks rather than four as in normal Roman practice ( therefore, St. Nicholas, the prototype of, we all know who- falls inside advent. He is just outside advent in Roman church practices. I know because my parents were married on Dec.6. There are other differences in church costumes ( the Red vestment is used quite often, the the RC church it is reserved for celebrating martyred saints") Red indicating Blood. It is unusual as it is a variant on Roman catholicism right inside the borders of Italy!- and in a major industrial and commercial center as Milano. Imagine, if you will, the Detroit Rite. ( In my father's garage, there are many stalls!) sorry about the joke.

The goals of the Second Vatican Council, as enumerated by Pope John XXIII when he opened the Council, including making the message of the Gospel more accessible to people, it included a real effort to reach out to both our separated brethren, the protestants, with whom we had been at odds because we were still treating them like their heretic ancestors whohad denied the faith and left the Church that Christ founded. We had to accept that modern day protestants have not left the Church and are trying to follow Jesus Christ as much as their religion allows them to. The Church also made a real effort to reach out to the non-Christian people in the love of Christ and preach the Gospel. Unfortunately, this message got garbled early on, and the many in the Church made many mistakes, it is only in the twenty-first century that we are finally starting to recover what the Second Vatican Council really thought and taught, and recover our faith so that we have something worthwhile to reach out to others with.

There were over 1,400 people in attendance at the Fourth Lateran Council. The attendees included Pope Innocent III, 71 patriarchs and metropolitan bishops, 412 bishops, 900 abbots and priors, and several monarchical representatives.

The Second Vatican Council was only held fifty years ago, in the Church's history, that is practically overnight. The influence of the Second Vatican Council will not be able to be evaluated for another 50 to 100 years.

Refer to the document below at the Adoremus website;

In order of authority:

1. constitution

2. decree

3. and then declaration

The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Latin Title Dei verbum, was issued on 18 November 1965. You may view it at the link below.

I believe it was actually John XXIII who convened the Second Vatican Council. In any case, the actual reason that motivated him to do so will ultimately only be known to him alone, though we can always guess.

My feeling is that in the wake of all the horrors of World War II and he feeling that the world was on the cusp of new era, Pope John XXIII felt that he had to do something revolutionary to fit with the times.

His predecessor, Pope Pius XII, was mostly quiet as WWII raged on and the fires of the Holocaust burned, and John XXIII likely felt he had to do the opposite and be proactive to help heal the world and reconcile religions. So thinking, he introduced the Nostra Aetate, which absolved Jews of the accusation of killing Jesus and recognized them as God's people, though still affirming that Christians are God's new people in any case.

John XXIII he had to do something to prevent another future war, and religious reconciliation seemed like a good place to start.

Pope John XXIII convened the Council and Pope Paul VI made the changes to the Mass.

While it covered an enormous arc of religious doctrines and para-religious subjects ( such as church music, etc) Vatican II had little or no impact on Section V of the Canon Law- that dealing with the Matrimonial laws and practices. Direct oppositional language to other faiths was, of course toned down and expressions like ( Heretic and Schismatic) throttled back or even switched off the line. To the best of my knowledge the possibility of eliminating or even modifying the doctrine of Priestly Celibacy was never even discussed. It is within the scope of church laws that Could be modified by a future pope.

The Second Vatican Council covered Holy Orders in Christus Dominus, Presbyterorum Ordinis, Optatam totius: Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, and Decree on the Training of Priests. Their "views" if you will, is that this is a sacred calling from the Lord in which they are promoted to the service of Christ the Teacher, Priest and King; they are given a share in his ministry, through which the Church here on earth is being ceaselessly built up into the People of God, Christ's Body and the temple of the Spirit. The Council covered the Nature of the priesthood, the place of priests in the world, and their functions as ministers of God's Word, of the Sacraments and the Eucharist, as rulers of God's people. It also went int the relation between the bishops and the priestly body, the brotherly bond and cooperation among priests, and their duty to foster vocations. Their very priestly functions both demands and fosters holiness. The Council also goes into the spiritual requirements in the life of the priest and spends pages on the helps in the priest's life.

In the Roman calendar in place in 1962, the last two weeks of lent were called (in English), "Passiontide". There were subtle changes in the liturgy during this time to denote the deepening Lenten observance of the passion and death of the Lord... for example, the psalm Iudica me at the foot of the altar was not said. Passiontide started on the second Sunday before Easter (the 5th Sunday in Lent-- the weekend after Laetare Sunday) and was labeled Dominica Prima Passionis (the first Sunday of the Passion). The following Sunday was simply Dominica II Passionis seu Palmis, or "the Second Sunday of the Passion or (Sunday) of Palms". On this day and through the week (Holy Week), the liturgy would become even more solemn with the distribution, blessing, and procession with palm branches on Sunday and the reading of the passions from the different gospels on Sunday and the other days of the week. In the present calendar, Passiontide is more or less equivalent to Holy Week, with little additional outward observance compared to the rest of Lent. Two seemingly vestigial practices are observed in the current liturgy. First, the prefaces of the Passion of the Lord may be used from the fifth week of Lent, on. Second, there is a small note after the Saturday Mass of the 4th week of Lent in the current missal which notes that the crucifix and statues may be covered in the Church, according to instructions from the Conference of Bishops. (I suppose that, based on these observances, one could argue that Passiontide continues to be observed in the last two weeks of Lent with its growing focus on the Passion and death of the Lord.)

Amongst other things it referred to them as 'separated brethren' implying a common Christian faith and thus promoting ecumenism.

The 2nd Vatican Council issued a number of documents over the course of three years, the English translation of them is found in the Austin Flannery, O.P. edition of Vatican Council II The conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, which you should be able to pick up at any book store. In the footnotes on each page, Father Flannery lists the appropriate Bible verses relevant to that particular document.

The Second Vatican Council was a pastoral Council, it made no changes to Church doctrine, or to the structure of the Church itself.

Discernment is the correct orthography. It is a concept, not a process. I have never heard it linked directly to Vatican II. Much was made of Aggiornamento- an Italian Phrase that might be translated either ( Living in Today- or the Present tense) or Updating. ( note the avoidance of the more obvious term Progreso). Updating was the clarion cry- and some got a bit too far- such as audience participation which many churchgoers dislike to this day. The restyling of the Altar earned the sobriquet ( Flying Washboard_) no, not the Ford Trimotor plane with its corrugated construction!

Yes and No. It depends on how you mean "doctrines."

Some of what the church teaches is considered dogma - central truths of the faith that are revealed by God. These cannot and did not change, but our understanding of them, and thus the way the Church describes them, can and does change. In this sense there were changes at Vatican II.

Not a single article of Faith was rescinded by the Council, nor was any new dogma established. The fundamental teaching of the Christian Faith did not change, as some of the Council's critics have claimed.

Some of what the church teaches is considered doctrine - truth derived from or related to dogma, but not necessarily central or necessary for salvation. These can and do change to some degree, though again it is more often that it is the way they are presented that changes. However some things clearly changed, for example, the Church's attitude toward ecumenism and religious freedom are doctrinal in some respects, but also pastoral. And the orientation of the church changed at Vatican II towards these and many other theological-pastoral teachings.

Finally, some of what the Church 'teaches' are really disciplines. These can always change, and many did change at Vatican II, or more accurately as a result of the new principles and presentation of doctrine by the Council. This is the way we do things, like whether the Eucharist is celebrated always in Latin, or in the vernacular as a n option. This is not doctrine, but sometimes people think of theses things as such.

Certain already-established teachings were clarified (e.g. the relationship between the Blessed Mother and the Church) and the Council Fathers spent a lot of time offering guidelines for how to engage the modern world in modern was rather than only clinging to the methods of the past (e.g. the Decree on the Media of Social Communications).

The main thing for which Cardinal Augustin Bea (1881-1968) will be remembered is his devotion to ecumenism. He dearly wanted all Christians to be united on some level and tried to bring about some understanding between the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism. He had grand vision in that he wanted to bring about some understanding not only with other Christians, but with non-Christian religions as well. He was the author of many books on ecumenism, the most notable being Nostra Aetate (Our Age), which was approved by Pope Paul VI and published in 1965. He was particularly incensed by anti-Semitism and drafted another book Decretum de Judaeis (Decree on the Jews) which was finalized in 1961 but unfortunately never formally presented to the Second Vatican Council which meant his thoughts on anti-Semitism were never properly aired at Vatican II. Unlike the current pope, Benedict XVI who is a traditionalist/conservative, Cardinal Bea will be remembered as a truly progressive ecumenist who died to soon as his driving force may well have really modernised the Roman Catholic Church.

The Second Vatican Council addressed Sacraments, but it did not define them, they had previously been defined. Vatican II addressed the fact that Jesus was present in the sacraments, the He was the source of the sacraments, it gave directives for communal celebration, the Eastern Churches, indulgences for the sacraments, norms for administration of them, the purpose, sacred music, and addressed the revision of them, but it did not define them.