Download or read book History of Vatican II written by Giuseppe Alberigo and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 1995 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This third volume of the History of Vatican II describes the period during which the Second Vatican Council began to assume its mature and distinct character. With the succession of Pope Paul VI to Pope John XXIII the Council had a new head. With the revisions of texts accomplished during the first intersession the council had a new agenda more in line with the desires of the majority that had emerged during the first period. With the appointment of four Moderators the Council had a new leadership. The ecumenical commitment of the Council became visible, not only in the discussion of a decree on ecumenism, but in the visit of Paul VI to the Holy Land. During the second intersession the work of the Council continued, the most important features of which were the beginnings of the liturgical reform, the revision of the major texts still to be considered or voted on, and a plan to reduce many other texts to simple sets of propositions that was designed to make it possible for the Council to end with the third period.