HOW NOVEL WAS VATICAN II?

Abstract

In the list of councils traditionally recognized as ecumenical by the Catholic Church, Vatican II comes as the twenty-first and last, so far. This simple statement requires some unpacking. The word “ecumenical” comes from the Greek for house “oikos”, and so by extension refers to the whole “housed” or “inhabited” world. Ecumenical councils, accordingly, are those representing the whole Christian community worldwide. Seven councils are recognized as ecumenical by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and usually – though with less emphasis as to their binding authority – by the Protestant Churches of the Reformation: Nicea I in 325, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Constantinople II and III, and Nicea II in 787. The eighth is the controversial Constantinople IV. The remaining thirteen, from Lateran I (1123) to Vatican II, are recognized as ecumenical by the Catholic Church but not by the Orthodox and Protestant Churches, coming as they do after the beginning of the East-West schism in 1054. Some Catholics prefer to call the councils of the second millennium “general” rather than “ecumenical” councils.