Editing Second Vatican Council (section)

== Background ==

=== Biblical movement ===
Pope Pius XII's 1943 encyclical {{lang|la|[[Divino afflante Spiritu]]}}<ref>{{cite web |title = DIVINO AFFLANTE SPIRITU ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII |url = https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_30091943_divino-afflante-spiritu.html |website = www.vatican.va |access-date = 27 February 2023}}</ref> gave a renewed impetus to Catholic Bible studies and encouraged the production of new Bible translations from the original languages. This led to a pastoral attempt to get ordinary Catholics to re-discover the Bible, to read it and to make it a source of their spiritual life. This found a response in very limited circles. By 1960, the movement was still progressing slowly.<ref>{{cite web |title = Biblical Scholarship 50 years After Divino Afflante Spiritu: From September 18, 1993|url = https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/100/biblical-scholarship-50-years-after-divino-afflante-spiritu |website = americamagazine.org |date = 18 September 1993 |access-date = 27 February 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title = Light in our darkness – celebrating Divino Afflante Spiritu |url = https://europe-southwest.c-b-f.org/2018/10/11/light-in-our-darkness-celebrating-divino-afflante-spiritu/ |website = europe-southwest.c-b-f.org |date = 11 October 2018 |access-date = 27 February 2023}}</ref>

=== {{lang|fr|Ressourcement}} and {{lang|fr|Nouvelle théologie}} ===
{{Main|Nouvelle théologie}}

By the 1930s, mainstream theology based on [[neo-scholasticism]] and papal [[encyclicals]] was being rejected by some theologians as dry and uninspiring. Thus was the movement, called {{lang|fr|ressourcement}}, the return to the sources: basing theology directly on the Bible and the [[Church Fathers]]. Some theologians also began to discuss new topics, such as the history of theology, the theology of work, ecumenism, the theology of the laity, and the theology of "earthly realities".<ref>{{cite web |title = The Second Vatican Council, by BC Butler |url = https://vatican2voice.org/3butlerwrites/vat2_bcb.htm |website = vatican2voice.org |access-date=22 May 2020 }}</ref>

The writings, whose new style came to be called {{lang|la|la nouvelle théologie}} ('the new theology'), attracted Rome's attention, and in 1950 [[Pius XII]] published {{lang|la|[[Humani generis]]}}, an encyclical "concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic doctrine". Without citing specific people, he criticized those who advocated new schools of theology. It was generally understood that the encyclical was directly against the {{lang|fr|nouvelle théologie}} as well as developments in ecumenism and Bible studies. Some works were placed on the [[Index of Prohibited Books]], and some of the authors were forbidden to teach or to publish. Those who suffered most were [[Henri de Lubac]] {{Post-nominals|list=[[Society of Jesus|SJ]]}} and [[Yves Congar]] {{Post-nominals|list=[[Order of Preachers|OP]]}}, who were unable to teach or publish until the death of Pius XII in 1958. By the early 1960s, other theologians under suspicion included [[Karl Rahner]] {{Post-nominals|list=[[Society of Jesus|SJ]]}} and the young [[Hans Küng]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

In addition, there was the unfinished business of the [[First Vatican Council]] (1869–70). When it had been cut short by the [[Capture of Rome|Italian Army's entry into Rome]] at the end of [[Italian unification]], the only topics that had been completed were the [[Pastor aeternus|theology of the papacy]] and the [[Dei Filius|relationship of faith and reason]], while the theology of the episcopate and of the laity were left unaddressed.<ref name="Back 2">{{cite book | last = Bokenkotter | first = Thomas | title = A Concise History of the Catholic Church | publisher = Image | location = New York | year = 2005 | isbn = 0-385-51613-4 | page = 337 }}</ref>{{Sfn|Hahnenberg|2007|p=44}} The task of the Second Vatican Council in continuing and completing the work of the first was noted by [[Pope Paul VI]] in his encyclical letter {{lang|la|[[Ecclesiam Suam]]}} (1964).<ref name=suam>Pope Paul VI, [https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_06081964_ecclesiam.html Ecclesiam Suam], published on 6 August 1964, accessed on 14 August 2024</ref>{{rp|Paragraph 30}}

At the same time, the world's [[Bishop (Catholic Church)|bishops]] were challenged by political, social, economic, and technological change. Some of those bishops{{who|date=September 2024}} were seeking new ways of addressing those challenges.