Fifty years ago today, Sunday, January 25, 1959, "Good" Pope John XXIII anounced to a small group of cardinals at a prayer service in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to close the week of prayer for Christian unity that he would convene an Ecumenical Council--a gathering as rare as it is authortiative, able to shift the direction of the church in a way not even a pope can do. At dotCommonweal, church historian Fr. Joseph Komonchak paints the scene. And at NCR, Jason Petosa provides context for this earthquake in the life of the Church--what Jesuit historian...