Pope Francis and Catholic dioceses across the country recognized the importance and impact of the Council on the Church as Vatican II celebrated its 60th anniversary Tuesday.

“#Pope Francis: Vatican II taught the church to look around, "being in the world without feeling superior to others, being servants of that higher realm, the Kingdom of God, bringing the good news of the Gospel into people’s lives & languages; sharing their joys and hopes,” Catholic News Service said in a tweet, quoting Pope Francis. 

The Diocese of Phoenix also marked the day.

“Today is the 60th anniversary of the opening of the 2nd Vatican Council,” it said on Twitter. “Bishop (Timothy) Dolan kicked off a video series on Vatican II with this introduction in his Sunday homily. Brief videos on each of the 16 V2 documents to follow over the next eight weeks.” 

You can watch Dolan’s first video on the documents on Vatican II here. 

The Second Vatican Council, colloquially called Vatican II, was an ecumenical council Pope St. John XXIII first talked about in early 1959. Its aims were to bolster spiritual renewal and to let Catholics around the world unite in Rome, Britannica says. The most important pastoral need it addressed was the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” which involved the laity more in the liturgy and introduced the “novus ordo” that most Catholics today know. Vatican II produced 16 documents and it came to an end in 1965 with Pope Paul VI. 

Pope St. John XXIII, who was born Angelo Roncalli according to his Vatican Biography, became Pope in 1958.

He was 76 at the time, and few expected he would do much as the Church leader. Instead, “the pontificate of this man of 76 years would mark a turning point in history and initiate a new age for the Church,” the biography says.

“Since his death on June 3, 1963, much has been written and spoken about the warmth and holiness of the beloved Pope John,” the biography continues. “Perhaps the testimony of the world was best expressed by a newspaper drawing of the earth shrouded in mourning with the simple caption, ‘A Death in the Family.’"

The convocation of Vatican II in 1962 is rated as his greatest accomplishment, and it was one of the arguments for his canonization in 2014 by Pope Francis. 

The Catholic News Agency published an article about the Vatican II by A.C. Wimmer. He said the common theme for the many things Vatican II did was to bring the Church into the modern world. Four sessions in St. Peter’s Basilica resulted in “four constitutions” that made a big difference in the course the Catholic Church was taking. 

Wimmer highlights some key points in the Vatican II timeline:

In 1959, Pope St. John Paul XXIII, or the “Good Pope,” laid out plans for the council.

In 1960, 11 commissions were established by HUMANAE SALUTIS.

In 1961, the council convened in Rome, bringing together about 2,500 bishops from around the world.

In 1962, the sessions began in earnest. The first focused on “the collegiality of bishops, the relationship with other religions and religious freedom,” Wimmer says. 

In 1963, Pope St. John XXIII died and Pope Paul VI was elected. On Dec. 4, the Church officially moved to allow languages besides Latin in the liturgy. 

In 1964, Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, was issued. Other famous documents include: The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes. 

In 1965, the council proclaimed a Jubilee Year to help the Church get used to the new policies and Vatican II came to a close. 

To learn more about Vatican II, check out “To Sanctify the World: the Vital Legacy of Vatican II,” a book by noted Catholic author and George Weigel, who is also the official biographer for St. John Paul II. The book is for sale on Amazon.