Raise the subject of councils and Vatican II comes to mind. It was Pope John XXIII’s valiant and inspired attempt to breathe new life into the Roman Catholic Church by opening the windows to the Holy Spirit. It brought the church into the twentieth century and went a long way toward healing the breaches with both Orthodox and Protestant Christians. It implemented about ninety percent of what Martin Luther had called for in the 16th century, and undid some of the damage done at the reactionary Council of Trent.
Vatican I in the 1870s was very different. It declared the infallibility of the Pope and ratified the 1854 dogma of the Immaculate Conception, precipitating yet another schism. Many bishops left Rome at that time and joined the bishops of Utrecht in forming the Old Catholic Church. The formation of this church was an attempt to retain catholicity by rejecting the innovations of the pope and his curia. The Old Catholic Church still exists, and is particularly strong in Europe. It is the source of the Apostolic Succession of many independent Catholic churches around the world, including most of those in the United States.
None of the above councils are true Ecumenical Councils. They are councils of the Roman Catholic Church alone. The only “catholic” councils were the first seven, the Councils of the undivided church. They were Nicea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (430), Chalcedon (451), Constantinople (553), Constantinople (680) and Nicea (787). These are the only councils recognized by the Orthodox churches, the Roman Catholic Church, the Old Catholic Church and most mainline and evangelical Protestant churches.
If we do not require belief in the inerrancy of scripture, much less should we require acceptance of everything said in these councils. Still, they are an important secondary source of doctrine. These councils formulated creeds to combat heresy, defined the canon of the New Testament, proclaimed the Trinity, and decreed that Jesus had two natures — that he was fully human and fully divine. These pronouncements of the seven councils are rooted in scripture and are part of the “catholic faith.”
Having briefly discussed the sources of our beliefs, we now turn to the specifics of what we believe. In particular we wish to discover those core beliefs, those essentials of the faith that make us “catholic.”
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