· Vatican City ·

11 October 1962: Sixtieth Anniversary of the Opening of the Second Vatican Council

The challenges of the Church and the world yesterday and today

 The challenges of the Church and the world yesterday and today  ING-042
21 October 2022
Ninety-two year old Cardinal Paul Poupard’s gaze lights up as soon as I mention the date: 11 October 1962. His blue eyes look at me, bursting with joy, a youthful enthusiasm, which is the theme of our conversation. “I remember that day as if it were yesterday. There had been a storm and then the sky had turned blue and white. I had been working on the third floor of the Secretariat of State for three years, and I remember that when I went downstairs to the bronze door, I saw a procession of bishops, a trail of white. It was like a vision, something incredible. It was like seeing the Church and truly seeing her as she was. As Cardinal Newman used to say as a young man, there is a difference between the Church in theory and the Church in practice”. “Then I see myself in Saint Peter’s Basilica in the section reserved for the authorities, ...

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