Massimo Faggioli, PhDIf you are in your mid-50s or younger, you probably have no real sense of what the Church and the liturgy were like before Vatican II and 1969 when the Church first started celebrating an official Mass in English! Since then, the Church in the United States has been doing pretty well in general to celebrate Mass so that people feel like they are participants and not just mere spectators. 

But it wasn’t like that 50 years ago. And who knows what the Church and its liturgy will look like in the next 50 years—or even in the next 10 years! Could it be possible to go back to a pre-Vatican II way of being Church? Did we lose something over the last 50 years? Did we gain something even more valuable?

Have you ever wondered:

  • Why does Vatican II matter at all today? Isn’t that past history, and shouldn’t we focus on the future of the Church?
  • What happened at Vatican II that makes any difference to how we celebrate the Mass today?
  • How do the changes made by Vatican II affect me personally and the future of the Church today?
  • What would happen if Vatican II had never existed? What would happen if the Church leaders today really embraced what happened at Vatican II?

As the Church marks 50 years since Vatican II’s first document on the liturgy, the Diocese of San Jose, in collaboration with several communities of women religious in the Bay Area, will host a day-long workshop with Massimo Faggioli, PhD, a world-renowned theologian and expert on the history and meaning of Vatican II. Dr. Faggioli will help us understand the deeper meaning behind the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, why some still resist the work of the Council, and what the past has to show us about our future as Church.

The Liturgy and the Church of Vatican II: Why It Matters
with Massimo Faggioli

December 7, 2013
9:30a to 3:00p

Saint Simon Parish
1860 Grant Road, Los Altos, 94024

Registration: $5.00 (includes lunch)
For more info, contact Diana Macalintal

Please register below.