Pope says Vatican II 'providential'

Sun Jan 25, 1:42 pm ET
ROME – Pope Benedict XVI has praised as "providential" the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that led to liberalizing reforms in the Church.

Benedict spoke at a prayer service Sunday marking the 50th anniversary of the announcement convening Vatican II, which led to reforms such as Mass being celebrated in local languages rather than Latin.

The anniversary came just days after Benedict rehabilitated four traditionalist bishops who were deeply opposed to Vatican II's reforms. The four were excommunicated after being consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent.

Benedict has said Vatican II was not the rupture with the past that liberals say it was, but rather a "continuity" of church history