“40 years since Vatican Council II. Balance sheet and prospects”: that’s the motto chosen for the celebration promoted by the Swiss Bishops’ Conference and to be held at the abbey of Einsiedeln on 8 December to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council. The President of the Belgian episcopate and archbishop of Malines-Bruxelles, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, will devote his keynote address to this theme. It is a commemoration long prepared by the Swiss Bishops’ Conference in liaison with the rectors of the theological faculties that have given a lot of scope and emphasis to the question in recent times. The Council opened in the Vatican on 11 October 1962 and ended on 8 December 1965. Inaugurated by John XXIII, it was closed by Paul VI.
