Everything about The First Vatican Council totally explained
The
First Vatican Council was summoned by
Pope Pius IX by the
bull Pastor Aeternus of
June 29,
1868. The first session was held in
Saint Peter's Basilica on
December 8,
1869. It was the 20th
ecumenical council of the
Catholic church. Nearly 800 church leaders attended.
The
Pope's two primary purposes were to define the dogma of
Papal Infallibility and to obtain confirmation of the position he'd taken in his
Syllabus of Errors (
1864), condemning a wide range of positions associated with
rationalism,
liberalism, and
materialism.
In the three sessions, there was discussion and approval of only two constitutions:
Dei Filius, the
Dogmatic Constitution On The Catholic Faith (which defined, among other things, the sense in which Catholics believe the
Bible is inspired by God) and
Pastor Aeternus, the
First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ, dealing with papal primacy and infallibility.
The definition of papal infallibility was controversial, not because many didn't believe the pope to be infallible when defining dogma, but because many who did so believe didn't think it prudent to define the doctrine formally.
John Henry Newman, for instance, thought such a formal definition might push away potential converts. Some feared it might lead to renewed suspicion of Catholics as having a foreign allegiance. This view was taken by two-thirds of the bishops from the United States and many from France and Germany.
About 60 members of the council effectively abstained by leaving
Rome the day before the vote.
Archbishop Antonio María Claret y Clará, confessor to the Spanish royal court and founder of the
Claretians (Claretian Missionaries), strongly condemned the "blasphemies and heresies uttered on the floor of this Council," and was one of the strong defenders on the issue of papal infallibility and the primacy of the See of Rome. He was the only member of the council to be canonized as saint (beatified in 1934 and canonized by
Pope Pius XII in 1950). He died in a Cistercian monastery in Fontfroide, France, in
October 24,
1870. The discussion and approval of the constitution gave rise to serious controversies which led to the withdrawal from the church of the
Old Catholics.
The outbreak of the
Franco-Prussian War interrupted the council. It was suspended following the entry of the
Italian Army in Rome, the so-called
capture of Rome, and never resumed. It wasn't officially closed until decades later in
1960 by
Pope John XXIII, when it was formally brought to an end as part of the preparations for the
Second Vatican Council. The First Vatican Council marked the triumph of the
ultramontanist movement, which supported a central
Vatican-based government of the Church. An increasing awareness of their own identity among Roman Catholics worldwide was detected, and the numbers of converts to Catholicism as well as the numbers of vocations to the religious and priestly life increased, along with clearly pro-Catholic political activity of Catholics in their native countries. Along with this, a stronger involvement of laymen in the outward working of the Catholic Church evolved, and the council would indirectly lead to the stimulation of the
Liturgical Movement, which would particularly flourish under
Pope Pius X.
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