On Wednesday, May 20, Pope Leo XIV continued his general audience series dedicated to the Second Vatican Council. Just beforehand, he met privately with one of the assembly's last living participants: Cardinal Francis Arinze. The cardinal participated in the conclusion of the assembly, which took place over four sessions from 1962 to 1965 and involved more than 2,500 bishops from around the world. Today, only four of these bishops are still alive.
Before kicking off a new series of catecheses on the liturgy, Pope Leo XIV met privately with 93-year-old Cardinal Francis Arinze at the Vatican.
The world's youngest bishop
Listed on the Pope's morning agenda, 93-year-old Cardinal Francis Arinze — prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments — took part in the final session of Vatican II. At the time, he was the coadjutor bishop of Onitsha, a diocese in southern Nigeria.
Pope Paul VI appointed him to the role on July 6, 1965, making him the youngest bishop in the world at just 33 years old. Two years later, he became the archbishop of the diocese. He held the post until 1985, simultaneously serving as president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria from 1979 to 1984.
He then served as president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue from 1984 to 2002, and later as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 2002 to 2008. Although he hasn't been a cardinal elector since 2012 (when he turned 80), he remains actively involved in the life of the Church and frequently takes part in Vatican celebrations.
The last surviving Council Fathers
At 93, Cardinal Arinze is by far the youngest of the four living Council Fathers, as the other three are centenarians. The last surviving participant who attended all four sessions is 104-year-old Mexican Bishop José de Jesús Sahagún de la Parra, the oldest living bishop in the world. He's also the longest-serving member of the episcopate, marking 65 years as a bishop this year. He's the last living bishop appointed by Pope John XXIII.
The other two living participants of Vatican II are South Korean Archbishop Victorinus Youn Kong-hi and Belgian-born South African Bishop Daniel Verstraete. They were both born in 1924.
A legacy of liturgical reform
Successively presided over by Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI, the Second Vatican Council profoundly transformed the Church's relationship with other Christian denominations and world religions. It also sparked a major liturgical reform, which remains contested by traditionalist circles.
This theme of the liturgy is the exact focus of the catechesis that Pope Leo XIV gave on Wednesday morning, just moments after his audience with Cardinal Arinze. The Nigerian cardinal oversaw this very dossier at the Vatican during the last three years of Pope John Paul II's pontificate and the first three years of Pope Benedict XVI's.
