During the year of faith (2012), Pope Benedict XVI continuously encouraged Catholics to rediscover the riches of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council as a means to strengthen their faith and love for the Church.

Through a thorough discussion of key themes, major documents, and historical context, this course hopes to deepen the understanding of the lay faithful as they open themselves up to the development of the Church’s wisdom.

The course will begin by focusing on the reasons which gave rise to Vatican II, it will continue by examining the common misconceptions regarding the council, move on to general principles and themes, and lastly consider the key documents which emerged from the council. Some questions that will be considered: Why study Vatican II? What is the relationship between the Church and the Modern world? How can the Church defend the deposit of faith given the rise of science and the loss of religiosity? What is the essence of the Sacred Liturgy and how can it be most faithfully preserved? Are the ministers of the Church in need of reform? Or is the Church itself simply "outdated"?

The Church's decision to form a council begins with Christ's commission to "preach the Gospel to all nations." The Magisterium is therefore given the task of teacher, and the responsibility of authentically interpreting the Word of God. Every Church council, including Vatican II, is first and foremost an ecclesial event that uniquely expresses, at a given moment in history, the divinely entrusted authority of the Magisterium and the communion of faith expressed in Church’s teaching office. If the Church is commissioned to teach, we as the Body of Christ must listen and continue to pass on the deposit of faith.

Over the past 40 years the documents of the Second Vatican Council’s have shaped, guided, and influenced almost every dimension of the Church’s pastoral ministry in Catholic education, in social ministries, in catechesis, and in evangelization. The branches and arms of the Catholic Church, while various and many, must continuously drink from their source, who is Christ.

The Church is first and foremost a mystery whose origin is in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, the light of the nations. Participating in a special way in the Paschal mystery, the Church also serves as a “light to the nations,” bringing the message of Christ’s salvific life, death and resurrection to the world.

The council did not change this most constitutive element - it rather brought clarity to its pastoral application, or as St. John Paul II once said, the council is to be as a whole "a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning” (Pope John II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 57).