The Second Vatican Council was the most important global Catholic event of the 20th century. Pope Saint John XXIII encouraged him to seek the updatethat is, the updating of the Church to bring it closer to today’s world.
It began in 1962 and was divided into four stages. Around two thousand council fathers from all over the world participated and prepared various texts that brought important changes in the Church, such as the celebration of the Mass in vernacular languages.
Bishop Lefebvre died excommunicated in 1991 for consecrating as bishops, three years earlier, Bernard Fellay, Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta, without the approval of Pope Saint John Paul II.
Within the framework of the Vatican’s dialogues with the Lefebvrists, in 2009 Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of the four bishops.