STEUBENVILLE, OH—On October 11–12, over 200 participants gathered at Franciscan University of Steubenville to attend Vatican II at 60: The Legacy and the Controversy, an academic conference commemorating the 60th anniversary of the October 11, 1962, opening of the Second Vatican Council.

Conference speakers addressed the major teachings of Vatican II, controversies arising from its misinterpretations or false applications, developments in the role of women in the Church, and liturgical renewal and reform.

“It is difficult today to get a sense of what things were like before Vatican II, and what the Council intended to do and not to do,” said Dr. Stephen Hildebrand, Franciscan University dean of the School of Theology and Philosophy, professor of theology, and conference organizer. “This can get lost amidst our liturgical and theological controversies. This conference brought light and charity to these often difficult and divisive questions.”

Acknowledging these controversies, Dr. Alan Schreck, conference speaker and Franciscan University professor emeritus of theology, said the conference underscored the continuing need for the teaching of this council to be accurately known and faithfully implemented today.

“The conference highlighted how the teachings of the council are, in the words of Pope St. John Paul II, and confirmed by the two popes since then, ‘a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning,’” said Schreck.

Select audio recordings of conference presentations may be found here.