CONGRESS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF VATICAN COUNCIL II

VATICAN CITY, FEB 24, 2000 (VIS) - A conference held in the Holy See Press Office at midday today presented a congress on the implementation of the measures of Vatican Council II (1962-1965). The congress is being promoted by the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee 2000 and will be held in the Vatican from February 25 to 27.

Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe, secretary general of the Jubilee Committee, made clear that the principal motive for the congress is to respond to the Holy Father's call, in "Tertio millennio adveniente," for an examination of conscience on the "reception of the council."

Archbishop Sepe said that the congress has a dual aim: "to comprehend what has emerged as a result of the council" and "to verify how much of its teachings and of the guidance of its documents has been put into effect." These documents include constitutions, decrees and declarations.

Bishop Rino Fisichella, auxiliary of Rome, stated that "putting Vatican Council II into effect touches a series of questions that go from the reform of theological studies to the formation of clergy, from the commitment of lay people to catechesis, from the ecumenical movement to interreligious dialogue, from religious liberty to inculturation."

The principal object of analysis, continued Bishop Fisichella, will not be "the four constitutions, but a number of other specific points: the primacy of God's Word in the life of the faithful ('Dei verbum,' assigned to Fr. Albert Vanhoye S.J., secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission); the ecclesiology of communion ('Lumen gentium,' assigned to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith); liturgy as the source and culmination of Christian life ('Sacrosanctum concilium,' assigned to Bishop Pere Tena Garriga, auxiliary of Barcelona, Spain) and dialogue with the world and discernment of truth ('Gaudium et spes,' assigned to Bishop Angelo Scola, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University).

Just over 200 invited guests will attend the congress, which is not open to the public. The participants include 20 cardinals and 40 bishops as well as theologians, historians, catechists, priests, religious and lay people from various parts of the world. John Paul II, who participated directly in the working group that prepared 'Gaudium et spes', will present the conclusions on Sunday evening.

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