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    Vatican II at 50

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    angersjay
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    of 5
    Be SSM eM eM MM MM MM He MMe MMe SMe Me He He Se Se He He H_ HH HH_ He He T= Council, which opened 50 years ago this fall, was one of the 20th cen ‘tury most significant developments, pro- foundly altering the word’ oldest continuous institution, Because a major shift in a rel gious body numbering 1.2 billion adherents worldwide will impace other institutions in the West and around the globe, the debace ‘over the meaning of the Council as been in tense eve since. Vatican II continues co have serious consequences, not only for questions ‘of faith and morals, but for everything from ‘Obamacare to religious liberty from interna- sional affses to democracys tue foundation. Forward and Back very beginning, Conducted over four sessions from 1962 to 1965, the Church’ 21se ecumenical council —the see- ‘ond to be held in St. Peter's basilica—was perhaps the largest deliberative body ever as- sembled: over 2,500 participants including Bishops, advisers (called peri), and observ- xs. The usual politicking went on behind the scenes, bue debates overall navigated between «wo large cerms, one Italian, the other French, Aggiornamento updating”) was the side of the Council that sought to make the Catholic ‘Church a more open, confident instcution, Essay by Robert Royal Vatican II at 50 unafraid of engaging and even trying 10 transform the modern world. It would leave ‘behind the defensiveness thac dominated the Church after che upheavals of the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolucion. Ressourcement ("return tothe sources), aterm coined by poet and essayist Charles Péguy a halEcentury earlier, called for a re-engage- ment with Scripeure and the fuller tradition that in the view of some Catholic thinkers, had been neglected by a narrow focus on rneo-Scholasic philosophy and theology. The ‘Council Fathers, s the more than 2,000 bish cops who paricipared were called, indicated early on that they also wanted to shift froman emphasis on the Church asa juridical institu tion on the model ofthe modern nation-state toa view of che Church asa living, universal community of Christians seeking salvation. Fromtheoutside—especiallyroanyonewho thinks of religious questions solely in terms of familiar politcal partisanship—ic mighe seem that aggiornamento and ressourcement refer t9 liberal and conservative impulses, respective- |y, Bur this is to misunderstand them, and as things actually played out, the picture is more complicated. Some radicals sought co use the ancient sources against modern Catholicism, believing it was the Church chat should be transformed by che world. Other Council par- ticipants, like Keakow’s Bishop Karol Wojtyla, the farure Pope John Paul II, accepted the Claremont Review of Books « Fall 2012 Page 90 i" ‘modern emphasis on freedom, human dignity and reason (as George Weigel indispensable Biography Witness to Hope (1999, updated 2005] makes cleat), but believed the only way to modernize properly was through a deeper appropriation of tradition: ressourcement 38 a recovery of a richer sense of the human and the divine, and therefore, avery different kind of aggiornaments. Politicized interpretations proper started carly, however. The New Yorker ran a series of articles during the Council’ three years by ‘Xavier Rynne” (che pen name of American Redempeorise priest Francis X. Murphy), which created a dramatic narrative in which evil conservatives sought to block angelic pro _gressives, especially “good Pope John” XXIII, who had convened the Council (The articles were later collected as a book, Letters from Vatican City (1965). Ralph M. Wilkgen’s The Rhine Flows into the Tiber (1967], a less par- tisan account from the same period, had far less influence) Ryne’ tale persists despite the fact that Pope John, in his opening speech to the Council clearly expressed his wish to find a more effective, modern mode of ex- pression “to transmit the doctrine, pure and ineegeal, without any attenuation or distor- tion, which throughout twenty centuries... hhas become the common patrimony of men.” Bu he liberalizing pope was a storyline the [New Yorker liberal readers, and many others, see ‘were only too happy to swallow. Time maga- zine dd its pare by naming John XXIII 1962 “Man ofthe Year” ( porteay Vatican Il as a break from che Church's benighted past the ewo most recent popes, both of whom partici pated inthe sessions as briliane and vigorous young men, have insisted upon what Benedict XVFealls “hermeneutic of continuity” They would not return to the Church as ie existed before then, even were such a thing possible, bbue—Council men through and through— they have worked to see its reforms pro- dluce frue ehat will las. Ie seems absued on its face given the nature of Catholicism thae the Council intended a break with tradition in faith and morals. As the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus once observed, although pro- sgressves have divided Catholicism into pre- Conciliar and post-Conciliae, declaring the former superseded—a lot of whar makes up Catholicism predates the 1960s. Schools of interpretation have arisen on both sides. In ely, for example, partisans of discontinuity drew together many liberal aca- demics in both Europe and America to pro- dducea five-volume History of Vatican II(1996— 2005), issued by Orbis Books, the publishing arm of che Maryknoll Order, which became radicalized after the Council. A briefer eeat- ‘ment from thesame general perspective can be found in John W. O'Malley's What Happened a Vatican II (2008). Meanwhile, a recent book emphasizing continuity, Il Conciio Vaticano TL Una storia mai seritta (Vatican Council Tl A History Never Writen (2010), by Roberto de Mareia distinguished Catholic historian and former vice president of the Ialian National Research Council, remains untranslated, though a group of American scholars made similar arguments in Vatican II: Renewal with- in Tradition (2008), edited by Matthew Lamb and Matthew Levering. Looking at Catholiism—or any religion— as only a kind of political party misses much ‘of what makes religion poten, for good or ill: you wontt understand how a Muslim or Jew ‘0 Catholic comes to certain stubborn choices. ‘Whatever you think of homosexualiey, for example, co treat the Catholic teaching like “policy postion” as if a bunch of Roman prelates with to0 much time on their hands concocted it instead of inheriting it from the whole Christian and Jewish tradition—not to mention, nature—manifests a stunning his torical ignorance. Some people actually do be- lieve fidelity co sacred eruth is infinitely more Continuity consequential than adjusting settled teach- ings to changing mores. [ that demanded the Second Vatican ‘ounci. Even Pope John remarked that strictly speaking, “a Council was not nec- essary” His cll for a new council had come asa shock (a French magazine called ie a "ges- tute of serene boldness’) because the Church in the 1940s and50s was so strong. Ie knew what it believed and attracted many vocations to the priesthood and religious life—such as the gifted Thomas Merton, whose runaway 1948 bestseller, The Seven Storey Mountain, spoke to many seeking meaning and truch in the aftermath of World War Il. What’ more, the Church ran an impressive global nerwork of schools, hospital, universities, and. relief Modern Times The coherence of Catholic teaching and the Church's authority make it one of the few institutions still capable of resisting the general cultural revolution of the past half-century. agencies. There seemed no reason to tamper with such a winning formula But John XXII clearly wanted to change some hings, and to settle ochers left hanging when the First Vatican Council was suspended in 1870 after conquering Italian forces, ed by Garibaldi captured Rome, One was che nature of the Church, which was never as happy with throne-and-altar collusion as cites often sug- gest. Some scholars even suspect that Vatican snororious proclamation of papal infalibilicy was intended to assert Church freedom from state control ("Gallicanism,” a term originat: ing in France, came to refer to the State in- tervention in. appointments of bishops and cocher leaders, with che areendane dangers cha, say, the Chinese Patriotic Church run by the Communist government displays eoday) In any event, the advent of secular, democratic states in Europe raised the question of how the Church should relate to them and what the Church's nature should be in modern cr cumstances. The Council Fathers—fllowing the pope's lead—would decide in the const ‘Claremont Review of Books « Fall 2012 Page 91 Be Re Se SM MS Se He MMM MMH MH MMMM SMH MH He He MM SM HH MH MH MW tution Lumen gentiam chat the nature of the ‘Church was more like an interpersonal com- munity and less like a state bureaucracy. Sixteen documents in all wee issued over the course of che Council, addressing the na- ture and role of the Church and ies worshi the duties ofits bishops, priests, religious, and Iaitys its educational and missionary work; its relation to other Christian and non-Christian faiths; and its views on religious freedom and con the media. The most immediate and strk- ing change came in the aftermath of the first document to be promulgated, Sacrosanctum coneilwm, the Constcation on the Sacred Liturgy. The Couneil Fathers’ cautious em- brace of introducing modern languages into the Holy Mass resulted in the sudden shift from the numinous and dramatic Latin livur- {gy to flae and insipid vernacular. The sophis- ticated licurgical reform movement thar had developed in Germany and France over the previous century was pushed aside by a popu list rush to throw out anything allegedly be- yond the understanding of ordinary lay people. ‘The Council’ cal to educate the laity to par- ticipate more fully in the traditional licurgy, perhaps even co learn Gregorian chant, was simply ignored. Instead, we got felt banners, guitars, and theologically suspece confections like "On Eagle's Wings” and "Let Us Build the ity of God.” Those who wanted ro argue tac the Council was a radical break from the past «could point to just about any Catholie parish ‘on Sunday morning a evidence. British novelist Evelyn Waugh erupted: “The Mass is no longer che Holy Sacrifice bue the Meal at which the priests the waiter. The bishop, I suppose, is the head waiter” In his very las eter, he wrote Easter used co mean so much t0 me. Before Pope John and his council—they destroyed the beauty of che leurgy. 1 hhave not yer soaked myselfin petrol and gone up in flames, but I now cling o che faith doggedly without oy. Churchgoing is a pure duty parade. I shall nor liver see it restore. He died eleven days later, on Easter Sunday 1966, afew hours after hearing the traditional Latin mass. Alongwith LumengentiumandSacrosanctum conclu, wo more constiutions—Dei ver- ‘bums, On Divine Revelation, and the last ro be ‘promulgated, Gaudium et pes, On the Church In the Modern World—made a total of four major statements intended to give the inter pretive key to the whole Council. As might be ‘expected, if something as deep-rooted as the Latin Mass and the popular devotions sue- BeBe Me MM MMM See He He Se Se Se Se He He He SHSM MHM—H_—HM—HCHCH CSCS rounding i could be so easly disrupeed, the same was likely when ie came to other large ‘questions. Perhapsiewas inevitable during the cultural chaos ofthe 1960s and "70s. ‘The New Dialogue took multiple steps in the righe direc tion. Inthe mid-19th century, Pope Pius IX famously declared that “error has no rights” and at the close ofthat century Leo XII lamented the separation of church and state—a heresy condemned as “Americanism.” ‘Ac the Second Vatican Council, the Church embraced religious liberty in the declara- tion Dignitatis bumanae, influenced by che work of an American Jesuit, ohn Courtney ‘Murray who served as perius to New York's Francis Cardinal Spellman, though the fall theological justifications and concrete immpe- ‘mentation remain muddled. (In> The hind Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (1993), Samuel Huntingeon credits the Church's renewed stance rowards liberty as contributing, with varying levels of plus bility, co the “third wave” of democratization, ning with Portugal's 1974 Carnation Revolution, and moving to Spain, Latin ‘America, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe) After. MTR lle Ageold currents of anti-Semitism within Catholicism were definitively repudiated in another Vatican IT declaration, Nostra acta. (Shortly afterhis election John XXIThad had the Latin word peridas—"faithless"—struck from the-Good Friday liturgy in reference to the Jews 0 as not ro be confused with ‘perfidi- ous," or treacherous.) And there was healing of longstanding rifts wieh other religious bodies. “The pope and the patriarch of Conseantinople lifted the mutual excommunications going back to the Great Schism in 1054. And the (Church began a headlong rush to “dialogue — ‘with Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Eastern faiths, and even non-believers and those who denigrated the Church, yet who, i was argued, might have some portion ofeuth. “There was innocence and sometimes even foolishness in how the new dialogue was car ried out—a sharp departure from the old Catholic realism about human nacure and

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