With these words Benedict XVI inaugurated the Year of Faith at the Mass celebrated at place of St. Peter's in a solemn ceremony with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, some Eastern Catholic patriarchs and cardinals and bishops from all over the world. Vatican II was noticeable. Now, we can ask ourselves: is the Council still alive? Hasn't everything been said about it? Indeed, has not everything been done in its name?

The Council was a reform, not a rupture. It did not propose anything new in subject of faith, nor did it want to replace the old, but it proposed that this faith should continue to be lived today, in a globalized and changing world. This is what was meant by dialogue with the modern world, and this is also a pending task. As the Pope exclaimed yesterday, "if today the Church is proposing a new Year of Faith and New Evangelization, it is not to commemorate an ephemeris, but because there is a need, even more than 50 years ago!"

"Today it is more necessary than 50 years ago to proclaim Christ, joy and hope that frees from pessimism in the desert of a world without God". To solemnly inaugurate this year, the Gospel was enthroned, as it was done in the conciliar sessions, and the seven final messages of Vatican II were delivered together with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. "Today's Gospel tells us that Jesus Christ, consecrated by the Father in the Holy Spirit, is the true and perennial protagonist of evangelization." The evangelical and evangelizing tone of these words must therefore continue to resonate in our world. That is why we still need a lot of Vatican II.