Reformanda Initiative Podcast #9: Why Vatican II is essential for understanding present-day Roman Catholicism

Posted on by Tom

Welcome to the ninth installment of our weekly Reformanda Initiative podcast series! I’m excited to present the ministry of Dr. Leonardo De Chirico and his associates at Reformanda Initiative as they examine Roman Catholic theology in order to inform and equip evangelicals.

Season 1, Episode 9: Why Vatican II is essential for understanding present-day Roman Catholicism

Show Notes

Listen as we describe the role of church councils and specifically the importance of Vatican II. What happened exactly at Vatican II? Why is it arguably the most significant of all the Church councils? Why is it essential to understanding present-day Roman Catholicism and Catholic theology?

My Comments

Pope John XXIII aka Angelo Roncalli convened the Second Vatican Council in 1962. The unofficial theme of the council was aggiornamento, the Italian word for “bringing up to date.” The purpose of the council was to adapt the RCC to the modern world. Many Protestants hailed the council for the conciliatory language of some of its documents. The RCC did change some of its window dressings at Vatican II, especially regarding its approach toward Protestants and other religionists, but the church did not change any of its core doctrines. Vatican II steered the RCC from militant doctrinalism towards doctrine-soft pastoralism and has found its fulfilment in progressive pope Francis. Sixty-years after the council, conservative Catholics criticize the council as a betrayal of the RCC, while undiscerning, ecumenical-leaning evangelicals hail it as the dawn of a Catholic-Protestant rapprochement. In this podcast, the Reformanda Initiative guys introduce their audience to the Second Vatican Council (along with some basic information on church councils in general). This is just an overview, the next two podcasts will present more detail. As the RI team points out, it’s impossible to understand today’s RCC without understanding VC2. The RI guys correctly point out that some people are misguidedly attracted to the RCC because of its dusty antiquity. Many evangelical pastors unwisely neglect referencing church history and the Reformation, as if evangelicalism is a phenomenon without a past.

Season 1, Episode 9: Why Vatican II is essential for understanding present-day Roman Catholicism
Featuring Leonardo De Chirico, Reid Karr, and Clay Kannard
December 13, 2019 – 36 minutes
https://reformandainitiative.buzzsprout.com/663850/2276192-ep-9-why-vatican-ii-is-essential-for-understanding-present-day-roman-catholicism

Next week: Season 1, Episode 10: Wrestling with the contradictions of Vatican II

19 thoughts on “Reformanda Initiative Podcast #9: Why Vatican II is essential for understanding present-day Roman Catholicism”

  3. Nuanced discussion; love how they point out even Evangelicals believe there’s a place for gathering with other churches for historic conferences; they gave the example of Westminister Confessions born from councils of Reformed believers. but the difference is this: Sola Scriptura is important!
    This post also explains the tone of Vaitcan II that seems more softening…and why. May we be discerning

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks for listening and the good comments! Yeah, I appreciated the point about many evangelical churches purposely ignoring the Reformation and other aspects of church history leaving members feeling unconnected and motivating some (nominal) evangelicals to check out the RCC.
      Yeah, understanding the changes and tone of VC2 is important. Many evangelical apologists still refer to the Council of Trent in their arguments, not realizing VC2 (unofficially) disavowed some of Trent and so they are arguing an outdated argument. The RI guys get into VC2’s main contradiction of Trent next week.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. Wow how is your cold??? My Monday we went to Long Beach to visit a friend from out of state; we went as a family to have dinner with him at OUtback State house. I was so tired I slept early and long; hence no post on the blog yet; I think God is rewiring me to be early monring bird

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks! The cold is epic. Started with a scratchy throat on Thanksgiving and it continues full-bore. Sounds like you had a good time yesterday. We had an Outback somewhat close to us but it permanently shut down during the pandemic. Yeah, I’ve noticed your later posts.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s