''Sacrosanctum Concilium'', the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, is one of the constitutions of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

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

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

on 4 December 1963. The main aim was to revise the traditional liturgical texts and rituals to reflect more fully fundamental principles, and be more pastorally effective in the changed conditions of the times, clarifying the role of ordained ministers and the forms of appropriate participation of lay faithful in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

, especially that of the

Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...

. The title is taken from the opening lines of the document and means "This Sacred Council".

Title

The document's official title is the "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy", but as is customary with

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

documents, the recognised name of this constitution, "Sacrosanctum Concilium" in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, is taken from the first line (''

incipit The incipit ( ) of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of Musical note, notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin an ...

'') of the document, which sets the objective of liturgical reform within the wider context of the aims of the "sacred Council": "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; ndto strengthen whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of the Church."

Application

The principles underlying the Council's liturgical reforms were applicable to the

and to the Eastern rites, although the practical norms set out in the Constitution applied only to the Roman Rite. The Council returned to consider the Eastern rites in its November 1964 Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches.

''Aggiornamento'' and 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 renewal of the liturgy. The central idea was ''aggiornamento'' of the traditional liturgical texts and rituals to reflect more fully fundamental principles, and be more pastorally effective in the changed conditions of the times, clarifying not only the role of ordained ministers but also the forms of appropriate participation of lay faithful. Popes Pius X and Pius XII 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. Now the bishops decreed that: "To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs." Composers should "produce compositions which ... rovidefor the active participation of the entire assembly of the faithful." In all, there are 12 references to "active participation" in the document. After centuries when, with the Mass in Latin, Catholic piety centred around popular devotions, the bishops decreed that "Popular devotions ... should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some fashion derived from it, and lead the people to it, since, in fact, the liturgy by its very nature far surpasses any of them."

Implementation

Vincent Nichols Liturgy of the Eucharist 2011-01-15

The council fathers established guidelines to govern the renewal 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. Implementation of the council's directives on the liturgy was to be carried out under the authority of

by a special papal commission known as the Council for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (or the ''Consilium'' for short), 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. In his encyclical letter of August 1964, '' Ecclesiam Suam'', the pope called for the "intelligent" and "zealous" implementation of the constitution's provisions on the ministry of the Word.Pope Paul VI (1964)
Ecclesiam Suam
paragraph 91, accessed on 12 September 2024

Legacy

Pope

John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

issued an Apostolic Letter commemorating the 40th anniversary of the constitution, entitled ''Spiritus et Sponsa'' ("The Spirit and the Bride") on 4 December 2003. On 24 August 2017

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

emphasized that "the reform of the liturgy is irreversible" and called for continued efforts to implement the reforms, repeating what Pope Paul VI had said one year before he died: "The time has come, now, to definitely leave aside the disruptive ferments, equally pernicious in one sense or the other, and to implement fully, according to its right inspiring criteria, the reform approved by us in application of the decisions of the council."

References

Citations

Bibliography

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