Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, is one of the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council

Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...

. It was approved by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI

Pope Paul VI

Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...

 on December 4, 1963. The main aim was to achieve greater lay participation in the Catholic Church's liturgy

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

.

Contents

The numbers given correspond to section numbers within the text.

1. Introduction (1-4)
2. General Principles for the Restoration and Promotion of the Sacred Liturgy (5-46)
   1. The Nature of the Sacred Liturgy and Its Importance in the Church's Life (5-13)
   2. The Promotion of Liturgical Instruction and Active Participation (14-20)
   3. The Reform of the Sacred Liturgy (21-46)
      1. General Norms (22-25)
      2. Norms Drawn from the Hierarchic and Communal Nature of the Liturgy (26-32)
      3. Norms Based Upon the Didactic and Pastoral Nature of the Liturgy (33-36)
      4. Norms for Adapting the Liturgy to the Culture and Traditions of Peoples (37-40)
      5. Promotion of Liturgical Life in Diocese and Parish (41-42)
      6. The Promotion of Pastoral-Liturgical Action (43-46)
3. The Most Sacred Mystery of the Eucharist (47-58)
4. The Other Sacraments and the Sacramentals (59-82)
5. The Divine Office (83-101)
6. The Liturgical Year (102-111)
7. Sacred Music (112-121)
8. Sacred Art and Sacred Furnishings (122-130)
9. Appendix: A Declaration of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican on Revision of the Calendar

Title and purpose

As is customary with Catholic documents, the name of this Constitution, "Sacred Council" in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, is taken from the first line of the document:

1. This sacred Council has several aims in view: it desires to impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of the Church. The Council therefore sees particularly cogent reasons for undertaking the reform and promotion of the liturgy. (--Sacrosanctum Concilium)

Participation of the laity

One of the first issues considered by the council, and the matter that had the most immediate effect on the lives of individual Catholics, was the revision of the liturgy. The central idea was that there ought to be greater lay participation in the liturgy.
Many have claimed that Vatican II went much further in encouraging "active participation" than previous Popes had allowed or recommended. Popes Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII consistently asked that the people be taught how to chant the responses at Mass and that they learn the prayers of the Mass in order to participate intelligently. For its part, Vatican II never asked for the involvement of the laity in the sanctuary that is typical of post-conciliar practice. The council fathers established guidelines to govern the revision of the liturgy, which included allowed and encouraged greater use of the vernacular (native language) in addition to Latin, particularly for the biblical readings and other prayers. As bishops determined, local or national customs could be cautiously incorporated into the liturgy.

Consilium

Implementation of the Council's directives on the liturgy was carried out under the authority of Pope Paul VI

Pope Paul VI

Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...

 by a special papal commission, later incorporated in the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and, in the areas entrusted to them, by national conferences of bishops, which, if they had a shared language, were expected to collaborate in producing a common translation.

See also: Mass of Paul VI

Mass of Paul VI

The Mass of Pope Paul VI is the liturgy of the Catholic Mass of the Roman Rite promulgated by Paul VI in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council...

, Liturgy

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

Further reading

• Linden, Ian, Global Catholicism: diversity and change since Vatican II (London, Hurst and Co., 2009), p. 337.
• Kenneth D. Whitehead (ed), Sacrosanctum Concilium and the Reform of the Liturgy: Proceedings from the 29th Annual Convention of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars (Scranton (PA), University of Scranton Press, 2009), 210 pp.

External links

• Full text in English through the Holy See's website