ˌVatican ˈCouncil, the
either of two important series of meetings in the Roman Catholic Church, in which leading members of the church discussed questions of belief and practice. The First Vatican Council (1869–70) developed the idea that the Pope was infallible (=always right when talking about matters of belief). The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) discussed the relationship of the church with the modern world, and one of its results was that church services began to use modern languages instead of Latin.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲