Vatican II Series - Part I - Notes

Session 1 – Opening the Windows

• Every council takes around 100 years to settle in – we’re still in the churning white water
• (I’ve heard 40 years, 50 years, and now 100 years… which is it?!)
• Reason for the Council
• Usually dealing with a particular problem, but not V2
• Dealt with lingering issues of the reformation
• Councils are adequate, comprehensive, but not exhaustive
• Upheaval, advances, challenges: cosmology, philosophy, science, politics, economics, communication, sexuality, etc.
• Communication increase
• Past Councils
• Jerusalem – 49 (Do Christians need to be Jews?)
• Conflict for another twenty years (see Paul’s letters)
• Conflict ended in AD 70 with the Roman Empire destroying the Temple
• Edict of 313
• Constantine made it legal (and preferable!) to be a Christian
• Nicaea – 325
• Arius said Jesus was created, not God
• Council determined that Jesus was consubstantial with the Father – God
• Didn’t cover the issue of his humanity!
• Chalcedon – 451
• Not only completely divine, but completely like us in humanity as well (but sin)
• And so on…
• Council of Trent – 1545-1563
• Reform of the Church (countering Luther)
• Seven Sacraments
• Mass
• Discipline
• Justification (countering Luther’s idea as heresy)
• Vatican I – 1869-1870
• Faith and Reason
• Not in opposition
• Faith enlivens reason which informs faith
• Constitution on the Church, Pope, and Bishops
• Determined the role of the Pope, his universal jurisdiction, and defined papal infallibility
• Council was suspended in 1870 because of political turmoil
• (Pope John XXIII closed Vatican I!)
• Theological Currents before Vatican II
• Modernism (19^th-20^th centuries)
• Pope Pius X wrote a document condemning these heresies; an oath against modernism was even in use
• Biblical Studies
• Doctrinal Development
• John Henry Cardinal Newman
• Patristics
• Theologically, V2 was a result of studying the early Church Fathers
• Liturgical Studies
• France, Germany, and US
• Theological Scholarship
• M.J. Lagrange – L’ecole biblique (1890)
• Pope Leo XIII – 1893 Encyclical encouraging modern biblical scholarship
• Pope Pius XII – 1943 Divino Afflante Spiritu on biblical studies
• Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
• 1881 – Born
• 1904 – Ordained priest
• Seminary Prof. of History and Patristics
• Bishop’s Secretary
• Delegate to Bulgaria, Turkey, and Paris
• The “ceremonial” Pope, because Montini (Paul VI) was not yet a Cardinal
• 1958 – Elected Pope
• Jan 25, 1959 – Announced Council
• Stunned silence: not necessary, no crisis
• Purpose: aggiornamento (bringing up-to-date)
• Open the windows
• Let the fresh air of the Spirit blow in, so that the rich treasury of the Church can blow out into the world
• The Church is not a museum
• The substance of the faith does not change, but the way it is expressed can change
• INTERMISSION
• Henri de Lubac
• First 1000 years, Eucharist = “mystical body”, Church = “real presence”
• Scholastic Catholicism reversed the two
• St. Cyril of Jerusalem – Communion in the hand
• Council – October 1962
• Non-Catholics invited
• Established the Secretariat for Christian Unity
• Three years of preparation
• All Bishops consulted
• Opening Speech
• “Prophets of gloom” and the defense and advancement of truth – presented
• October 11
• Bishops intervene and change the schemas
• Separate document on the Virgin Mary scrapped
• Mary was included in the document on the Church
• US Bishops hold press conferences
• Council – June 1963
• Pope John XXIII died of stomach cancer on the Xth after first Session of V2
• Pope Paul VI elected on the 21^st
• Pope Paul VI
• Continued the Council (although he did not have to)
• Took priestly celibacy and birth control off the table
• Gave a re-opening address on September 29, 1963
• Pastoral council
• More fully define nature of the Church and the role of the Bishop
• Renew the Church
• Restore unity among Christians, seek pardon for Catholic contributions to separation
• Dialogue with contemporary world
• Ecumenism and Inter-religious
• Mutually lifted the excommunications of 1054 with Patriarch Athenagoras in 1964
• Met with religious and world leaders
• Michael Ramsey (Anglican)
• Travelled to Holy Land and the UN
• Blessings of Vatican II
• A universal world Church presence
• Bishops’ Conferences
• Evangelization
• Laity
• RCIA
• Liturgy
• Engaging the world
• But these blessings are like newborn babies – blessings… but challenges with a lot of work