About Vatican II - Preface

This section now offers a newly broadened treatment of central aspects of the Council itself. Plans are in hand for further development. Forty years after the momentous events of 1962-65, this section both draws on and complements the many other important commentaries in book form dating from the sixties up to present times.

Several Council Fathers are represented, but theological and ecclesiological issues are largely presented through the published and private writings of Bishop Christopher Butler OSB. Extracts from private letters are unique to this site.

The Council documents are on the Vatican website here. It may be useful to print out, or acquire, a personal printed copy for further study.

While the Second Vatican Council is the highest current expression of the Church’s teaching authority, wide research indicates that many key teachings of the Council are being neglected - or even reversed in some aspects. It is perhaps against the trend at the beginning of the 21st century, but there can be few Christian concerns more important than the study of Vatican II. We attempt to facilitate this study through the experience of men who were there in Rome and in the various commissions.

Contributions from Council Fathers

Some commentaries by Fathers, experts, or observers were written and published while the Council was still in progress. Examples are On Liturgy (1) and On the Church. The understanding of the documents by men who produced them and recorded that understanding at the time cannot be rated too highly.

Pre-eminent in the new material are chapter 1 of a new book Open to God, Open to The World by Franz, Cardinal König (2). Another new article to this website is the Foreword to a book The Constitution on the Church published just one month after the promulgation of the document De Ecclesia, by then Abbot BC Butler OSB. Following the Council, each man in his own lifetime, strove to raise awareness of the teachings of the Council, to explain and implement the teachings, and to emphasise the importance of the major themes.

The chapter from Cardinal König’s last book Open to God, Open to the World is highly relevant today, being so recently written and published (in 2005). Because of his distinguished position as one of the prime architects of the Council, Cardinal König’s hopes and expectations from the Council and what he sees as subsequent failures, must be of prime importance to the whole Church. Further, König was a personal friend of Pope John and of Pope Paul. We are greatly indebted to the Cardinal’s publishers and his editor for their permission to post the first chapter of the cardinal's book. The entire book (2) is strongly recommended to readers.

The website already contains much of Bishop Butler’s writing. Butler’s own chapter-length overview, The Second Vatican Council, is already on the website, but the new material mentioned above, focuses more closely on the pivotal document On The Church.

As distinct from König’s book which was published in 2005, Butler’s 1964 foreword to the book De Ecclesia captures the immediacy of the new thinking and must surely be one of the very first accounts of the Document On The Church - in English certainly. Less well-known, and as an abbot, ecclesially of a lower rank than most members, Butler nevertheless emerged from the Council as an international figure. With the likes of König, Suenens, Doepfner, Alfrink, Lercaro, Frings and Hurley, Butler was among the top one percent of those who made clearly positive contributions - widely recognised at the time as forward-looking and important. Those eight names represent one third of the Fathers listed in a series of personal profiles of the most distinguished men at Vatican II (4).

In his Foreword, Butler was writing about the Document On The Church (De Ecclesia also known as Lumen Gentium) before the Council had actually ended, and only a month after the document had been promulgated on 21 Nov 1964. Many of these early books on the Council fulfilled a great demand and served many purposes. They provided an eager public with the Council documents in translation, along with an informed commentary.

The significance of Butler’s account is enhanced by his scholarship and by the immediacy of his account. The significance of König is that he was one of the most senior Council Fathers and in later conclaves was papabile (a possible candidate for election as Pope). His office as Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna, gave him a higher initial profile than Butler. But Butler rapidly emerged from a previously scholarly distinction, but relative monastic seclusion, to international recognition. In the second session he had the rare distinction of being elected, by all the Fathers, to the Theological Commission, which oversaw all doctrinal matters. After the Council he became a consultor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). During the Council, König was the mastermind for the document Nostra Aetate (On Non-Christian Religions), which is so vital for today‘s circumstances. Only slightly younger than Butler, König survived him for almost 20 years and thus his last book was written forty years after Vatican II had ended. By then he had accumulated vast experience and retained the wisdom of a balanced and universally respected man who was almost 99 at the time of his death.

Rationale and Configuration of this Section

The teaching of Vatican II is nothing less than the central, authentic teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, which should inform and direct every activity in the Church. Forty years after the Council closed, we fail badly in this respect. The Council continued the universal Church’s traditional faith and so the reasons for the failures in implementation need urgent debate.

This section will eventually be the largest section on this website. Unlike most other sections, there are several major sub-sections under this main heading ‘About Vatican II’. Each of these major sub-sections mainly carries it own Introduction to Section, so that introductory matter is not too remote from the section contents. The introductions are by lay members of the small website team and will be attributed to their authors.

It is intended to pinpoint major milestones in the progress of the Council and to cover the significant aspects of the Council. For example, a prime Council concept is that the essence of ‘Church’ includes the whole People of God. Attention is also drawn again here to another main section: Future Challenges which will also be filled out further. Future Challenges will contain matter that was left open or unresolved by the Council and is in need of further development.

Lay Contributors

Laypeople founded this website. However, from the outset, there have been invaluable contributions and support from clergy: Cardinals, Bishops and religious. Their support remains the back-bone, as it were, of the website. Without knowing its lay origins, ironically, the original site was described by one early commentator as too clerical!

Contributions will remain well balanced between clergy and laity.

Brief details of some lay contributors can be found in Who Was Who. Newman made pertinent comments on lay people, as did the Council.

What is a Layman?

Bishop Butler had a unique and succinct way of encapsulating aspects of the different ministries in Church. In an article entitled Approaching a New Era, written shortly after the Council he suggested:

The question is not: What is a layman?., but: What is a Christian? A different image of the Church results.

Butler had been emphasising the concept of the People of God. This in turn is based on a common baptism. Necessarily to maintain balance and, of course, from conviction as well, he included:

The papacy and the hierarchy have an indispensable function in the Church. But it is less a function of initiation and command than of co-ordination … The motto for Church authority should be ....”Quench not the Spirit”.

Conclusion

The major purpose of this section - indeed of the whole website - is to make available both the letter and the context in which Pope John’s Council was developed and completed by Pope Paul. As far as possible we report the work of men who were there, who witnessed events and who helped formulate the teachings. One writer said: “Only Pope John could have called the Council; only Pope Paul could have completed it”. Paul VI attributed the end result to the “breath of the Holy Spirit”. It bears constant repetition that The Spirit of the Council must not be separated from the letter of the documents, nor vice versa. The website attempts to give a rounded account.

Footnotes

(1)    The Church’s Worship Mgr J.D. Crichton, Geoffrey Chapman, London 1964

(2)    Open to God, Open to the World Franz König, Continuum, London, 2005

(3)    The Constitution On The Church of Vatican Council II Ed. Edward H Peters CSP, Darton Longman and Todd. London. 1964: comprising: The Constitution text, a commentary and a Foreword by Butler, then Abbot of Downside

(4)    Men who make the Council, Ed. Michael Novak, Notre Dame University Press, 1965