Download or read book What Happened at Vatican II written by John W. O'Malley, S. J. and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During four years in session, Vatican Council II held television audiences rapt with its elegant, magnificently choreographed public ceremonies, while its debates generated front-page news on a near-weekly basis. By virtually any assessment, it was the most important religious event of the twentieth century, with repercussions that reached far beyond the Catholic church. Remarkably enough, this is the first book, solidly based on official documentation, to give a brief, readable account of the council from the moment Pope John XXIII announced it on January 25, 1959, until its conclusion on December 8, 1965.