Shortly after the First World War, Romano Guardini coined a phrase that was soon winging its way through German Catholic circles: “A process of immense significance has begun: the Church is awakening in people’s souls.” Vatican II was the fruit of this awakening; it expressed in its documents and presented to the whole Church as a patrimony the knowledge that had matured through faith during the four decades from 1920 to 1960, which were so full of
Page 13