Pope Francis on Tuesday recognized the 60th anniversary of the convening of Vatican II, underscoring the importance and impact of the Council on the Church.

“#Pope Francis: Vatican II taught the church to look around, "being in the world without feeling superior to others, being servants of that higher realm, the Kingdom of God, bringing the good news of the Gospel into people’s lives & languages; sharing their joys and hopes,” Catholic News Service tweeted. 

The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, was an ecumenical council that Pope St. John XXIII called in early 1959. Its purpose was to offer a means for spiritual renewal and a chance for Catholics around the world to unite in Rome, Britannica says. The pastoral needs of the council were several, but the most important was the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” which brought the laity more into the liturgy and introduced the “novus ordo” that most Catholics are familiar with today. Vatican II produced 16 documents and it came to an end in 1965 with Pope Paul VI. 

Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire offers a collection of resources for Catholics to check out if they are curious about Vatican II. Barron discusses the significance of Vatican II in a number of videos on the site. 

Pope St. John XXIII, born Angelo Roncalli, became Pope in 1958, at the age of 76. He served until his death in 1963, his Vatican Biography says.

Those who elected him viewed him as a short-term transitional leader, with few thinking that “the pontificate of this man of 76 years would mark a turning point in history and initiate a new age for the Church,” the biography says.

His most noted accomplishment was the convocation of Vatican II in 1962. It was a key factor behind his canonization by Pope Francis in 2014. 

“Since his death on June 3, 1963, much has been written and spoken about the warmth and holiness of the beloved Pope John,” the biography continues. “Perhaps the testimony of the world was best expressed by a newspaper drawing of the earth shrouded in mourning with the simple caption, ‘A Death in the Family.’"

A.C. Wimmer wrote an article for the Catholic News Agency, saying Vatican II aimed mostly to help modernize the Church and its Masses. Four sessions in St. Peter’s Basilica resulted in “four constitutions” that changed the future for the Catholic Church. 

Wimmer’s article includes a timeline of the formation of Vatican II.

Pope St. John Paul XXIII, known as the “Good Pope,” first talked about creating the council in 1959. This was followed by the establishment of 11 commissions in 1960, by HUMANAE SALUTIS.

About 2,500 bishops attended when the council convened in Rome in 1961 and in 1962 official sessions began. 

The first session addressed several topics, with the main one being “the collegiality of bishops, the relationship with other religions and religious freedom,” according to Wimmer. 

Pope St. John XXIII died in 1963, and Pope Paul VI was elected three weeks later. Vatican II continued its work and on Dec. 4, 1963, the Church officially adopted other languages besides Latin into the liturgy. 

In 1964, Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, was issued. Other famous documents include: The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes. 

The council proclaimed a Jubilee Year in 1965 to help the Church get accustomed to the changes, then closed the books on its service. 

Besides Barron’s website, people who want to learn more about Vatican II can look into the latest book by George Weigel, a Catholic author and the official biographer of Pope St. John Paul II. The book is called “To Sanctify the World: the Vital Legacy of Vatican II” and Amazon sells it.