SIXTY YEARS FROM VATICAN II: POINTS OF NO RETURN AND NEW UNCERTAINTIES. TOWARDS A GLOBAL AND SYNODAL RECEPTION OF THE COUNCIL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/theol.cath.latina.2025.LXX.2.01Keywords:
Vatican II, reception, global Catholicism, Catholic traditionalism, neo-conservativesAbstract
This article aims to highlight some of the key issues for understanding the current moment in the reception of Vatican II and for a new phase in the research and implementation of its message at sixty years of its conclusion (1965–2025). The greatest novelty to consider, also in light of pope Francis’s pontificate, is the complexity of global Catholicism in the 21st century: this brings to the fore questions and interpretative frameworks of the Second Vatican Council that are both connected and partly different from those typical of the English-speaking, American and European theology, which dominated the interpretation of the council’s message for the first decades after Vatican II.
Article history: Received 30.10.2025; Revised 12.11.2025; Accepted 14.11.2025;
Available online: 22.12.2025; Available print: 30.01.2026.
References
1. Francesco: Discorso del Santo Padre Francesco ai partecipanti all’incontro promosso dall’Ufficio Catechistico Nazionale della Conferenza episcopale italiana, 30 January 2021 https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/speeches/2021/january/documents/papa-francesco_20210130_ufficio-catechistico-cei.html?fbclid=IwAR00ByhgFWSpifdezxB7jin-Tc-DCyHsOt15uBL30AcJ5B73zWBGnqJUhaY.
2. Francesco: Lettera del Santo Padre Francesco al Prefetto della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede circa l’accesso delle donne ai ministeri del Lettorato e dell’Accolitato, 11 January 2021, https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2021/01/11/0016/00033.html.
3. Leo XIV, Catechesis on the Occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra aetate, October 29, 2025 https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2025/10/29/0809/01439.html
4. Arenas Pérez, Sandra Ester, Edoh F. Bedjra, Catherine E. Clifford, Margit Eckholt, Massimo Faggioli, Nontando Margaret Hadebe, Peter Hünermann, Shaji George Kochuthara, Carlos Schickendantz, Klaus Vellguth, and Mary Mee-Yin Yuen, Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil – Ereignis und Auftrag Bd. 1: Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil: Allgemeine Einführung und Hermeneutik. Einführung und Hermeneutik, Freiburg: Herder, 2024 (English translation Vatican II: General Introduction and Hermeneutics, volume 1 of the series Vatican II – Event and Mandate, Leuven: Peeters, 2025.
5. Borghesi, Massimo, Francesco. La Chiesa tra ideologia teocon e «ospedale da campo», Milano: Jaca Book, 2021 (Catholic Discordance. Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis, Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2021).
6. Chinnici, Joseph P., American Catholicism Transformed: From the Cold War Through the Council, New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
7. Clifford, Catherine and Massimo Faggioli (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
8. Clifford, Catherine E., Kristin Colberg, Massimo Faggioli, Edward P. Hahnenberg (eds.), The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis, Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2025.
9. Clifford, Catherine, Massimo Faggioli, Richard Lennan, and Ormond Rush (eds.), Vatican II – Event and Mandate. Intercontinental Commentary of Vatican II, vol. 5: Vatican II in North America, Australia and Oceania. Vol. 5, Leuven: Peeters, 2025 (Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil – Ereignis und Auftrag Bd. 5: Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil in Nordamerika, Australien und Ozeanien, Freiburg: Herder 2025).
10. Colberg, Kristin M. and Jos Moons, SJ, The Future of Synodality. How We Move Forward from Here, Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2025.
11. Faggioli, Massimo and Bryan Froehle, Global Catholicism: Between Disruption and Encounter, Leiden: Brill, 2024.
12. Faggioli, Massimo, “Que reste-t-il de Vatican II? Sexisme, racisme, crise des abus et régimes d’historicité dans l’Église”, Revue Théologique de Louvain 55.2 (2024) 194–212, DOI: 10.2143/RTL.55.2.3293499.
13. Faggioli, Massimo, Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning, New York: Paulist, 2012. Fantappiè, Carlo, Metamorfosi della sinodalità. Dal Vaticano II a papa Francesco, Venezia: Marcianum, 2023.
14. Luciani, Rafael, Serena Noceti, Carlos Schickendantz (eds.), Sinodalità e riforma. Una sfida ecclesiale, Brescia: Queriniana 2022.
15. McGreevy, John T., Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis, New York: W. W. Norton, 2022.
16. Moore, Brenna, Kindred Spirits: Friendship and Resistance at the Edges of Modern Catholicism, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021.
17. Noceti, Serena and Roberto Repole, Commentario ai documenti del Vaticano II, 9 vols., Bologna: EDB, 2014–2022.
18. O’Connell, Gerard, “Pope Francis Says Vatican II Was ‘a Visit of God to His Church’ in New Interview”, America (February 28, 2023), https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/02/28/pope-francis-synod-tertio-244818/.
19. O’Malley, John W., What Happened at Vatican II, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.
20. Rahner, Karl, “Towards a Fundamental Theological Interpretation of Vatican II”,
21. Theological Studies 40.4 (1979) 716–727.
22. Rush, Ormond, The Vision of Vatican II. Its Fundamental Principles, Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2019.
23. Theobald, Christoph, La réception du Concile Vatican II, vol. 2: L’Église dans l’histoire et la société. L’Évangile et l’Église, vol. II/A, Paris : Cerf, 2023.
24. Theobald, Christoph, Un concile qui ne dit pas son nom. Le synode sur la synodalité, voie de pacification et de creativité, Paris: Salvator, 2023.
25. White, Thomas Joseph OP, “A Leonine Revival”, First Things (13 May 2025), https://firstthings.com/a-leonine-revival/.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Theologia Catholica Latina

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
