A Priest Looks Back on Vatican II

The twentieth anniversary of the formal opening of the Second Vatican Council on October 11, 1962 is a suitable occasion on which to reflect on its effects to date. Both admirers and critics agree it was the most important event in the Catholic Church in this century. It also has had consequences so far removed from its stated goals that the growing number familiar only with the former find it hard to believe the latter. To judge the effects fairly we must recall the goals and put the Council in perspective.

Vatican II—which was intended to complete, not undo, Vatican I—met under quite different circumstances and had very different effects. It was the largest, the freest, and one of the longest Councils. Vatican I, which opened on December 8, 1869, was interrupted by the Italian seizure of Rome on September 20, 1870 and was adjourned sine die on October 20 of that year with most of its agenda untouched. Occasional suggestions that it be reconvened were judged inopportune. The matter seemed less urgent because so many of the reforms—or, as we would say today, so much of the updating—expected from the Council had been attended to by the Holy See.

JK

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John H. Knox

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The twentieth anniversary of the formal opening of the Second Vatican Council on October 11, 1962 is a suitable occasion on which to reflect on its effects to date. Both admirers and critics agree it was the most important event in the Catholic Church in this century. It also has had consequences so far removed from its stated goals that the growing number familiar only with the former find it hard to believe the latter. To judge the effects fairly we must recall the goals and put the Council in perspective.

Vatican II—which was intended to complete, not undo, Vatican I—met under quite different circumstances and had very different effects. It was the largest, the freest, and one of the longest Councils. Vatican I, which opened on December 8, 1869, was interrupted by the Italian seizure of Rome on September 20, 1870 and was adjourned sine die on October 20 of that year with most of its agenda untouched. Occasional suggestions that it be reconvened were judged inopportune. The matter seemed less urgent because so many of the reforms—or, as we would say today, so much of the updating—expected from the Council had been attended to by the Holy See.