In the 50 years since the Second Vatican Council encouraged Catholics to read, reflect and act on Scripture, there has been a "surging vitality in the life of the Church," according to Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

"There is nothing that the Church does that is not rooted in Scripture," he told participants at the New York Catholic Bible Summit June 16.

Turkson gave the English keynote address at the bilingual conference.

"The Bible is a means of letting the solo tune of Jesus fill the whole of human history," Turkson said.

Listeners nodded in agreement when Cardinal Turkson said it was unusual for Catholics to open a Bible before Vatican II.

They listened to the word of God at Mass and heard it explained in homilies and the catechism, he said.

Dei Verbum, the council's document on divine revelation, opened Bible ministry to Catholics and urged them to be informed Christians by venerating God's word.

"The Bible is one of the gifts that God has given to the Church," he said.