Part I
The Council of Trent and the Second Vatican Council are nearly half a millennium apart, but, as Father Uwe Michael Lang points out, the liturgical focus of both highlights the importance of each.
Part II
The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century effected a profound religious transformation of European societies and has shaped the modern world in many respects. The trigger for this revolution in Western Christianity was the indulgences controversy. The papacy’s growing need for income—not least because the Renaissance popes were generous patrons of the arts—turned the devout practice of indulgences into fundraisers.
Part III
The Council of Trent’s debates on the doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass were accompanied by a discussion of concrete steps towards liturgical reform. At a general congregation of the council in July 1562, a commission was instituted to study this question. In August 1562, this commission produced a dossier on liturgical issues, the contents of which can be divided into three broad categories.
Father Uwe Michael Lang, a native of Nuremberg, Germany, is a priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in London. He holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford, and is a Senior Lecturer in Liturgy and Church History at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London. He is a Corresponding Member of the Neuer Schülerkreis Joseph Ratzinger / Papst Benedikt XVI, a Member of the Council of the Henry Bradshaw Society, a Board Member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy, and Editor of Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal.
