Hi Mr.Bunson! Greetings in St. Thomas Aquinas...

I am Joseph Legaspi from the Philippines and a teacher on a Catholic University in Manila. i just would like to ask on what is really the reason on why the Catholic Church had so many councils? Just like the Vatican Councils, Lyon Councils, Ephesus, Chalcedon to name a few. can you please cite major reasons why they meet? thank you so much and more power to ewtn.

God Bless You!!!

Joseph Legaspi

Church councils are formal assemblies of cardinals, bishops, theologians, and heads of religious orders as well as other Church representatives who have been convened to examine or discuss matters of religious or doctrinal importance or to formulate regulations on Church teaching or discipline. Councils have varied throughout history in size and importance. For example, there are so-called local councils that bring together the religious leadership of a region – province, exarchate, or patriarchate – that have only limited authority, with jurisdiction extending to clearly defined boundaries. The most important of councils are the general, or ecumenical, councils of the Church, bringing together the bishops and representatives from the entire world. An often monumental assembly, these ecumenical councils act with the highest of all possible authority and thus must be summoned by the pope and its acts approved by him. There have been twenty-one general councils in history; the last was Vatican Council II (1962-1965). By custom, the first council was described in Acts (15:6) when “The apostles and the elders were gathered together” at Jerusalem.

The most solemn and official gathering of all the bishops in the world, the ecumenical council is so termed because it is genuinely universal. When convoked by the Supreme Pontiff, the Ecumenical Council constitutes the highest teaching authority in the Church. Such gatherings are thus not summoned lightly and historically have represented the Church’s response to important moments or severe crises. According to the Code of Canon Law (canons 222-29), an ecumenical council must be convened by the Pope, and the decrees must be sanctioned and promulgated by the Holy See if they are to have binding force.

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