REFORMATION IN 1517 AND TODAY
CONSIDERATIONS FROM TRENT AND VATICAN II
Keywords:
CATHOLIC CHURC, PROTESTANT CHURCH, ECUMENISM, REFORMATIONAbstract
Marking the fifth centenary of the beginning of the Reformation in
1517, this article considers the impact of the two most important
councils of the Catholic Church which followed — Trent (1545-63) and
Vatican II (1962-5) — upon Catholic-Protestant relations as well as
upon world history. Trent’s wide-ranging decrees tackled most major
issues raised by the Protestant reformation, yet the council listened to
Protestant concerns more than that is usually recognized. The decrees
of Vatican II were also wide-ranging, though with a different tone to
Trent. They led to a new epoch in relations between the Catholic
Church and the Churches of the Reformation as well as between
Christianity and the wider world.
References
Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed. N. Tanner, London and Washington: Sheed & Ward, Georgetown University Press, 1990.
H. Denzinger and P. Hünermann, ed., Enchiridion symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum: Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and
Declarations on Matters of Faith and Moral, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012
Decrees, 776-84: p. 781, canon 16, for the Society of Jesus.
Journal of a Soul, translated by D. White, London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1965, 181 (29 April 1903).