October 11, 2012, marked the 50th anniversary of the opening convocation of the Second Vatican Council. Called by Pope John XXIII, the decisions made at the council affected every aspect of theology and worship within the Church. In the wake of Vatican II, the Catholic Church began to worship in native languages, reaffirmed the centrality of the Bible in the life of the faithful, and began to reach out to the modern world and those of other faiths in unprecedented ways.

Our guest, Fr. Bruce Cinquegrani, looks back over a lifetime spent in the priesthood. Fr. Bruce's ministry parallels the last half century of the post-Vatican II Church. Deciding to become a priest in the years immediately before the council, he entered the pastorate in a Church profoundly different than what he expected. Yet for Fr. Bruce, and many priest like him, his feelings are not of disappointment, but of hope for what is still to come as the effects of Vatican II continue to unfold.

Fr. Bruce Cinquegrani is pastor of St. Brigid Parish, TN, and is Episcopal Vicar for Divine Worship, Spiritual Life, and Catechesis in the Diocese of Memphis.