Before the collection and the final announcements and the final blessing, we're going to have the first of our four-minute specials or, as people on sports radio want to call it, four-minute drills. In a moment when I start you can watch me and your watch at the same time.... See if you keep me honest.

The topic today is "The Second Vatican Council" or "Vatican II." There is a writer who says there are three groups who go to Catholic Churches today: Pre-Council people (before Vatican II), Post-Council people (after Vatican II), and the vast majority who are the "What-Council?-People" (What is this Vatican II?). Vatican II was a gathering of 2600 bishops, convened by the Pope, that met from 1962 to 1965, produced sixteen documents to fashion our best understanding of our Catholic tradition and our Christian faith, and its best direction for today and the years to come.

One question might be: How important is that council? You can answer it by asking another question. In the Roman Catholic Church, what is the highest authority? Now, all of us know the correct answer is the pastor!! Or, at least, all us pastors know that. The media and a lot of people say the Pope is the highest authority in the Roman Catholic Church. And that is not accurate. In the Catholic tradition, the highest authority is a General Council, invoked not always but most of the time, by the Pope to address the issues of the Church.

In fact, in the 20th century, probably the greatest Catholic Theologian was Karl Rahner. And he said "In 2000 years, the three most important events in the life of Christianity were the Council of Jerusalem that decided Gentiles could be baptized without becoming Jews, The Council of Trent that fashioned our Latin Mass with the back to the people and our attitude toward Protestant Christians, (which was defensive and hostile. and they immediately returned the favor!), and thirdly, one that took place in our lifetime, the 21st of the General Councils, the Second Vatican Council that took place in Rome in 1962 - 1965." What did it decide? Can't sum it up in less than four minutes....

We know it set the revision of our liturgy by calling for our own language and active participation of everyone, underlined the importance of Scripture for Catholics, changed our attitude toward relationships with other religions and with the world around us, and called for religious freedom.

If I were to underline two things that were most important from the Council, the first was recovering who the Church is, saying the Church is not as we had slipped into believing (that it's the hierarchy, the bishops, the religious and the clergy), but the Church is the people of God, all of us. And what has happened since the Council is that we have been struggling and we will continue to search for authentic ways to change our behavior and put that into practice, that we are the Church.

And the second most important thing I would list the Council taught was recovering the importance and primacy of individual conscience. It was hidden in our Theology books all along. It was even tucked into the Baltimore Catechism. But most of us didn't hear much about it growing up. The Second Vatican Council put it at the top of our consciousness and the top of the shelf, the primacy of the individual conscience. It said that all are bound to follow their conscience faithfully and, secondly, that true religion consists, before everything else, in internal, voluntary, free, free, free choices. Now that has caused a lot of confusion and growth in our Church since 1965. It calls for, first of all, freedom from all external pressure and force when people make decisions. It also calls that internally we are bound to seek the truth as honestly and as best as we possibly can.

If anyone asks you, "Do you know what the Vatican II is?" your answer now is, "I do."