Reverend Doctor Peter Phillips is a priest of the diocese of Shrewsbury with many years of teaching experience in universities and seminaries. He has been heavily involved in ecumenical dialogue and is also a prodigious author. Peter spoke at a study day on the topic ‘Vatican II and the Church’ at Brentwood Cathedral Hall on 8th June 2013.
Peter considered various aspects of the teaching of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, produced by the Second Vatican Council in 1964, and how such teaching has been developed in the decades after the Council. The election of Pope Francis, who likes to describe himself as ‘the bishop of Rome’, recalls the new understanding of collegiality encouraged by the Council. The ‘universal call to holiness’ is addressed to all the baptised, and the Church is the sacrament and symbol of unity for the whole human race. In Christ we discover how human beings should live. Collegiality and centrality were further topics addressed. What should the role of the laity be? How can bishops’ synods be made more effective?
The 1965 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, was also examined. Dialogue with the world is a major theme. Faith is deepened by encounter with the great variety of cultures. Such themes were developed in church writings subsequent to the Council, especially Pope Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi of 1975.