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The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) set out a new vision of the role of lay people in the Roman Catholic Church whereby they were no longer seen as passive recipients of clerical initiatives, but as active ministers of the Gospel. This article describes the historical context from which Vatican II emerged and outlines the scale and significance of the changes it set in train. It then considers the Council’s developing theology of the laity and the challenges of implementing it. In the local context, the article examines the way in which these issues were reflected in the pages of Open House, an independent Scottish Catholic journal of comment, opinion and reflection, founded in 1990 with the aim of giving lay people a voice, enabling them to keep the conversation about Vatican II alive. It concludes by welcoming Pope Francis’ call for a synodal church, in which all the people of God share in the church’s life and mission, seeing this as offering a fresh interpretation of the Council and a new synthesis of its teaching.
Mary Cullen (2024) studied this question.