Pope Benedict XVI comments on the Second Vatican Council

NEW POPE BENEDICT SAYS ‘JOHN PAUL LEFT US A CHURCH THAT IS MORE COURAGEOUS, FREER, YOUNGER’

Both Ratzinger and then Karol Wojtyla were key architects of the Second Vatican Council. In this vein, Pope Benedict noted that, “With the Great Jubilee the Church was introduced into the new millennium carrying in her hands the Gospel, applied to the world through the authoritative re-reading of Vatican Council II.”

“Pope John Paul II”, he said, “justly indicated the Council as a 'compass' with which to orient ourselves in the vast ocean of the third millennium. Also in his spiritual testament he noted: ' I am convinced that for a very long time the new generations will draw upon the riches that this council of the 20th century gave us'.”