Spirituality: Vatican II in relation to previous councils

What is special about Vatican II in relationship to the two previous councils is, therefore, that it made its decisions with full awareness of the reality of change and full awareness that the reality affected the church in all aspects. For a council to act with such an awareness of change is itself a significant change.  Underlying the boldness with which the council accepted the reality of change was the assumption that the appropriate change did not mean losing one's identity, but, rather, enhancing it or salvaging if from ossification. If such change achieved its goal, it entailed a process of redefinition that was both continuous and discontinuous with the past.