History Book: The start of Vatican II

JENNY ROUGH, HOST: Today is Monday, October 10th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Jenny Rough.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Tomorrow marks the 60th anniversary of the start of Vatican II—the council that reshaped the Roman Catholic Church. Here’s Collin Garbarino.

ANNOUNCER: The Vatican ecumenical council—the greatest gathering of prelates in history—has five American Cardinals present, including Francis Cardinal McIntyre of Los Angeles.

COLLIN GARBARINO, REPORTER: On October 11, 1962, thousands of Catholic leaders convened at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome for the first session of the Second Vatican Council. The council would meet every fall for four years, and it set the tone for Catholicism heading into the twenty-first century. Even at the time, onlookers knew big changes were afoot.

ANNOUNCER: The council’s immediate aim is to make church laws more compatible with modern times and to work toward a long-range plan of Christian unity.

But when Pope John XXIII announced his intention to call a council, not many within the Catholic hierarchy understood what it would address or why Catholics needed a council in the first place. Catholic theologian at Boston College Richard Gaillardetz explains in a documentary about Vatican II.

RICHARD GAILLARDETZ: Prior to the first Vatican Council, the previous ecumenical council was the Council of Trent. It had been over 300 years prior to that. So there wasn’t a lot of experience for modern Catholicism with ecumenical councils. When you add to that the papacy had become more and more powerful, at least in ecclesiastical terms, and one could make the case that Pope Pius XII, in terms of church authority, was one of the most powerful popes in the history of the church. So the mindset for many people was we don’t really need ecumenical councils anymore.

Some Catholic bishops thought Vatican II would condemn the increasing secularism of the modern world. The Cold War was in full swing and the cultural changes of the post-war generation were beginning to become evident. But the pope envisioned an agenda focused on Christian unity and evangelizing the world.

Part of that agenda involved reforming Catholic liturgy. Richard Gaillardetz again.

GAILLARDETZ: The decision is made to celebrate daily mass on a rotating basis. Now you have to understand for the vast majority of the Roman Catholic bishops comfortable with the Late rite, they had never celebrated the mass in any other ritual tradition. This is the first time they sort of realized at an experiential level that our church’s catholicity is enriched, by not just the Tridentine rite celebrated in Latin, but by the Melkite Church, and the Ethiopian Church, and the Maronite Church. The bishops experienced first hand the rich unity in diversity which is the Catholic Church.

MUSIC: “Ave Verum” by Benedictines of Mary & Queen of Apostles

Before 1962, most Roman Catholic congregations in the West worshiped exclusively in Latin. Vatican II opened the door to worshiping in vernacular languages—a change which allowed the lay person to understand what was happening during the church service.

MUSIC: “Of My Hands” by Ray Repp

Pope John XXIII died less than eight months after Vatican II opened, but his vision continued to guide the church in the later sessions.

The council adopted a new church constitution that gave the laity a greater role in church life. Professor of theology at Boston College Robert Imbelli explains the title of the new constitution Lumen Gentium.

ROBERT IMBELLI: The title of the constitution of the church is The Light of the Nations, who is Christ. Sometimes people hear “Constitution on the Church Light of the Nations” and they say, “Oh, the Church is the light of the nations, and how can that be since it's a sinful church.” But the light of the nations is not the Church, it is Christ.

The council included Orthodox and Protestant observers, who of course weren’t allowed to vote. But many of the documents coming out of Vatican II moved Roman Catholicism a little closer to Protestantism. They emphasized the importance of the Bible for guiding church teaching and the necessity of having a Biblically literate church. The Roman Catholic Church acknowledged someone could be a Christian without being Catholic, and it embraced a spirit of ecumenism, saying partnership with other denominations could be beneficial in certain circumstances. The Church also espoused freedom of religion, distancing itself from political entanglements and state support. And the Church renewed a commitment to evangelizing the non-Christian world.

James Massa, a professor of theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary explains the impact Vatican II had on Catholic-Protestant relations.

JAMES MASSA: I think prior to the council, many Protestants would have been uncertain whether Catholics were even Christian. And through the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, it became easier for Protestant Christians, Evangelical Christians, to look at Catholics and say they are my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Vatican II reshaped the Catholic Church for the modern world, but it didn’t solve all the Church’s problems. In fact it caused some, as certain voices complained the council had changed too much and others complained it hadn’t changed enough.

Over the next 10 years, the Church would lose 100,000 priests. And the ensuing breakdown in clerical obedience and rigour has been blamed for the sexual abuse that plagued the church over the last 50 years. The liturgy might be understandable now, but some Catholics complain that the search for accessibility has resulted in the dumbing down of worship—a complaint that mirrors those Protestants who bemoan the lack of substance in a seeker-sensitive church service. And in many places in the West, post-Vatican II Roman Catholicism has gone the way of liberal Protestantism, concerning itself primarily with progressive social causes rather than Christ who is Himself the light of the world.

MUSIC: “Jesus My Lord, My God, My All” by the Benedictines of Mary & Queen of Apostles

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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