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Perhaps the most famous, and most influential product of the council is the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium.
In its first chapter, titled "The Mystery of the Church", is the famous statement that "the sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour... this Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him" (Lumen Gentium, 8). The document immediately adds: "Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its visible confines."
In the second chapter, titled "On the People of God", the Council teaches that God wills to save people not just as individuals but as a people. For this reason God chose the Israelite race to be his own people and established a covenant with it, as a preparation and figure of the covenant ratified in Christ that constitutes the new People of God, which would be one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit and which is called the Church of Christ (Lumen Gentium, 9). All human beings are called to belong to the Church. Not all are fully incorporated into the Church, but "(t)he Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christ, but who do not however profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter" (Lumen Gentium, 15) and even with "those who have not yet received the Gospel", among whom Jews and Moslems are explicitly mentioned (Lumen Gentium, 16).
The title of the third chapter, "The Church Is Hierarchical", indicates clearly its contents, outlining the essential role of the bishops and of the Roman Pontiff.
There follow chapters on the laity, the call to holiness, religious, the pilgrim Church, and Our Lady. The chapter on the call to holiness is significant, because it indicates that sanctity should not be the exclusive province of priests and religious, but rather that all Christians are called to holiness. Of course this was always the Church's teaching, but many felt that the idea had been obscured in the public mind.
The chapter on Mary was the subject of a particular debate. Original plans had called for a separate document about the role of Mary, in order to keep the document on the Church "ecumenical", in the sense of "non-offensive" to Protestant Christians who object to the veneration of Mary. The Council Fathers, with support of the pope, however, insisted that Mary's place was in the Church, and therefore, her chapter should appear in the Constitution dedicated to the Church.
One of the first issues considered by the council, and the matter that has had the most immediate effect on the lives of individual Catholics has been revision of the liturgy. The central idea was (from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy):
Vatican II went much further in encouraging "active participation" than previous Popes had allowed or recommended. The council fathers established guidelines to govern the revision of the liturgy, which included allowing the very limited use of local languages instead of Latin. As bishops determined, local or national customs could be carefully incorporated into the liturgy.
Implementation of the Council’s directives was carried out, under the authority of Pope Paul VI, by papal commissions, and, in the areas entrusted to them, by national and regional conferences of bishops.
The council sought to preserve the central role of Scripture in the theological and devotional life of the Church, while overturning the work of earlier popes in crafting a modern approach to scriptural analysis and interpretation. A new approach to interpretation was approved by the bishops. The Church was to continue to provide versions of the Bible in the " mother tongues" of the faithful, and both clergy and laity were to continue to make Bible study a central part of their lives. This affirmed the importance of Sacred Scripture as attested by Providentissimus Deus by Pope Leo XIII and the writings of the Saints, Doctors, and Popes throughout Church history.
The role of the bishops of the Church was brought into renewed prominence, especially the whole group of them, seen as college that has succeeded to the group of the apostles in teaching and governing the Church. This college does not exist without its head, the successor of St Peter. Accordingly, it is false to claim, as some did at that time, that the Council gave the Church two earthly heads: the College of Bishops and the Pope. "It is not a distinction between the Roman Pontfif and the bishops taken together, but between the Roman Pontiff by himself and the Roman Pontiff along with the bishops" (Explanatory Note incorporated into the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium).
In many countries bishops had held regular conferences to discuss common matters. The Council gave official recognition to these conferences, whose decisions, however, are not binding on the individual members unless adopted by a two-thirds majority and ratified by the Holy See.
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