Newspaper Page Text
EFFECTS AWAIT JUDGEMENT OF HISTORY
The Southern Cross, December 16, 1965—PAGE 3
Capsule Look At 4 Pope John’s Council’
THE LATE POPE John XXIII signing Motu Proprio
Convoking Second Vatican Council.
By James c. O'Neill
VATICAN CITY (NC>—In all
likelihood only three people
attending ceremonies in the
Basilica of St. Paul's Outside
the Wall on that rainy thunder
ous morning of Jan. 25, 1959,
knew that Pope John XXIII had
a secret to announce to the
world.
Even when the papal Mass
was over, the thousands who
had attended did not know that
the Pope, who had been elected
less than four months earlier,
had gone to the adjoining Bene
dictine abbey and shocked the
assembled 17 cardinals by de
claring his intention to sum
mon an ecumenical council.
The world learned of the
news in a terse bulletin of
less than 200 words composed
by the Secretariat of State and
released hastily by the Va
tican press office. In short it
declared the Pope planned to
hold a synod for the revitali
zation of the diocese of Rome,
to call an ecumenical council
to work toward unity, and
lastly to revise the Church’s
Code of Canon Law.
Today, seven years later,
the Church and the world still
do not know the far-reaching
effects of Pope John’s deci
sion. Even on the day it was
announced, its significance
was misunderstood. Many
newsmen thought it was to be
some sort of “summit
meeting” of the heads of
Christian Churches. This in
terpretation was quickly
clarified by the Vatican which
announced that it was to be
composed of only the world's
bishops in communion with the
Roman Pope.
The three who knew what
Pope John intended to do that
day were himself, his secre
tary, Msgr. Loris capovilla,
and the then-Secretary of
State, Domenico Cardinal
Tardini.
Pope John later enjoyed
talking about his surprising
announcement. He revealed
his intention privately to Car
dinal Tardini, who immedi
ately reacted with great en
thusiasm. But the Pope recall
ed publicly that when he an
nounced it to the cardinals
gathered at the Abbey of St.
Paul's, they sat in shocked
silence. Pope John also en
joyed recalling that later each
of the cardinals came to him
individually to express his ad
miration and to explain his
silence was due to the fact
that the idea was overwhelm
ing and left him breathless.
Msgr, capovilla, who was
the Pope's most intimate as
sociate and who is still to
day his literary executor, re
vealed recently that while
Pope John had said the idea
to call a council had come to
him as an inspiration, the idea
of a council was something
Pope John had long thought of.
The moment of inspiration,
according to Msgr. Capovilla,
came when the Pope decided
that now was the time to hold
the next ecumenical council.
Four years went into pre
paring for the council. The
chief architect of the work
during most of this period was
•Cardinal Tardini. His most
active aide was Msgr. Pericle
Felici, who later was made an
archbishop and named secre
tary general of the council.
The years of preparation
represent an enormous a-
mount of work. The world's
Catholic bishops all were in
vited to submit ideas, sugges
tions and recommendations,
as were the Religious orders
and congregations, the Catho
lic universities and faculties
of theology and other centers
of learning. By the time it was
all sifted, analyzed and or
ganized, a total of 70 sche
mas, or projects, had been
compiled.
It is significant to note that
in its four sessions with 168
general congregations, the Se
cond Vatican Council pre
sented the Church and the
world with 16 final documents.
The preparatory com
missions, set up in June, 1960,
were headed by the cardinals
of the Roman curia. The work
on the various drafts for pro
jects to be presented for de
bate went smoothly and the
general precouncil feeling in
Rome was that it would be a
relatively simple and rather
short event. Little did they
know.
At last, on Oct. 11, 1962,
the opening day arrived. A
magnificent procession of the
Catholic hierarchy of the
world, more than 2,000 of
them, moved wave on wave
into St. Peter’s basilica, and
Pope John was borne through
the thousands in St. Peter’s
square.
Inside the basilica were
special diplomatic missions
from nations all over the
world. There were also ob
server delegates from lOnon-
Catholic Churches and also
from the World Council of
Churches, unprecedented in
the history of past councils.
There were two last minute
and rather surprising ar
rivals, prelates representing
the Orthodox Patrarichate of
Moscow.
The first shock of the coun
cil came at the very first gen
eral meeting on Oct. 13. The
Pope had already named,
sometime before, the presi
dents of the council's 10 work
ing commissions, again all of
them cardinals of the Roman
curia. But it was to be the
assembled council Fathers
who were to chose the mem
bership of the commissions.
Even before the business
of the day began, AchilleCar
dinal Lienart of Lille, France,
rose and asked to speak. He
presented a motion to delay
voting on those who were to
fill the 160 commission offices
(16 council Fathers on each
commission) until the Fathers
had a chance to consult with
each other about who would
be the most competent men
to chose.
Joseph cardinal Frings of
Cologne, Germany, announced
he supported Cardinal Lie
nart’s motion. Thus the first
meeting adjourned in less than
an hour, and those who thought
the council was going to be a
rubber-stamp affair got their
first, but by no means last,
surprise.
When the council resumed
work on Oct. 16, the results
of the choice showed that no
“straight ticket” had been
followed and that composition
of the commissions was widely
internationaL
At the third general meet
ing, the council Fathers is
sued a joint statement to the
world promising to work for
peace and social justice and
stressing that “all men are
brothers irrespective of the
race or the nation to which
they belong.”
At the fourth meeting the
Fathers began the long series
of debates by opening the dis
cussion of the Liturgy schema.
One important development in
the early phase of the first
session was the Pope’s deci
sion to grant equal rank and
status to the Secretariat for
Promoting Unity with the 10
commissions. This decision
gave the secretariat an
equality in debate and in par
ticipating in all work of the
commissions which related to
its competence. It also raised
the secretariat’s president,
Augustin cardinal Bea, to the
same stature enjoyed by the
presidents of the commis
sions.
Discussion on the liturgy
schema closed after the 18th
general meeting and the coun
cil next took up a schema
which was very much disliked
by many council Fathers. It
was the schema on Divine Re
velation. The bone of conten
tion was centered mainly on
the fact that it held there are
two distinct and separate
sources of revelation, the
Bible on the one hand and
tradition on the other.
Those who were opposed to
it maintained that the matter
was by no means theologically
settled as the schema sug
gested, and that it would be
a great mistake for the coun
cil to adapt that position with
out more study. Among the
reasons advanced was that it
would create ecumenical dif
ficulties with the Protestant
Churches, many of which hold
that the Bible is the sole means
used by God to reveal Himself
and His truth to us.
A vote was taken on the
acceptability of the document
in general. The results of
that vote were not revealed
by Archbishop Felici, who re
ported that the needed ma
jority had not been reached.
At this point Pope John step
ped in and on his own authority
ordered the document to be
withdrawn and redrafted.
The Pope’s intervention was
credited with saving the coun
cil from an agonizing snarl and
prolonged debate. The entire
affair revealed, as did much of
the debate on the use of the
vernacular in the Mass, that
the more conservative, tra
ditional view was not the pre
vailing view of the council as
a whole.
Before the first session ad
journed on Dec. 8, 1962, the
Fathers began debate on a
document on social communi
cations and on another on the
nature of the Church.
While the council adjourned
without producing any concrete
final results, the first session
had laid the groundwork for
much of the results of the next
sessions. It also had demon
strated most effectively the
independence and diversity of
thinking among the Fathers.
And perhaps most important,
it brought the bishops closer
together and made them far
more aware of th e universal
character of their office.
Between the close of the
first session and the opening
of the second, Pope John died
on June 3, 1963. Immediately
on his election, Pope Paul VI
announced he fully intended to
continue the council. The se
cond session opened Sept. 29,
1963. This time 63 non-Catho-
lic observers were present.
centered on the document on
the nature of the Church. The
main accomplishment of this
session was the final approval
and promulgation of the Con
stitution on the Liturgy, one of
the most sweeping and im
portant accomplishments of
the entire council.
Immediately after the se
cond session Pope Paul esta
blished a body headed by Gia
como Cardinal Lercaro of Bo
logna, Italy, long a champion
for liturgical reform, to im
plement the constitution. The
Catholics of the world have
already experienced some of
the effects of that document,
but there are many more to
come. By the time it is fully
implemented the Mass and
many other ceremonies will
have been greatly altered.
Also in the second session,
a decree on communications
media was approved and pro
mulgated. The Pope, at the
suggestion of the council,
transformed the Pontifical
Commission for Motion Pic
tures, Radio and Television,
headed by Archbishop Mar
tin J. O'Connor, an American,
into the Pontifical Com
mission for Social Communi
cations. Its task will be to
establish a central office for
exchange of ideas,techniques
and developments for the
world’s dioceses within the
wide field of modern com
munications.
One of the most hotly de
bated subjects of the second
session was that on the col-
legiality of bishops. The doc
trine in effect teaches that the
bishops as a whole, together
with the Pope, share in the
government of the Universal
Church and that they and the
Pope are a college founded
by Christ just like that form
ed by Peter and the Apostles.
Much opposition to this tea
ching came from those who
feared that the doctrine in
fringed on papal infallability
and the primacy of the pope.
However, the doctrine was
warmly supported by great
majorities when five test
questions on the subject of
collegiality and on restora
tion of the permanent rank of
deacon were voted on.
Another stormy area of the
second session was the dis
cussion on the first part of the
schema on bishops and the
government of dioceses. The
Fathers voiced much criti
cism about various policies
of the Roman curia, the top
administrative offices in
Rome which assist the pope in
governing the Church. Just
prior to the opening of the se
cond session, Pope Paul re
ceived the Roman curia and
informed its members he was
planning to reform some as
pects of the organization, and
he asked them to submit sug
gestions and ideas. The first
results of this speech came
two years later when he re
formed various practices of
what used to be called the
Congregation of the Holy Of
fice, now called the Congre
gation of the Doctrine of the
Faith.
In his closing speech of the
second session on Dec. 4,
1963, Pope Paul carefully a-
voided taking sides on any of
the matters still being pro
cessed. But immediately after
the council he ordered a
speed-up of the council work
and a drastic reduction in size
of many of the documents.
The third session opened on
Sept. 14, 1964, and closed on
Nov. 21. Its concrete accom
plishments were the approval
and promulgation of the Con
stitution on the Nature of the
Church, a major dogmatic
work of great significance for
future theologians and for all
Catholics. It served also as the
major reference point for al
most every other document
produced by the council.
Two other decrees were
published: on Ecumenism and
on Eastern Catholic Churches.
Both were Milestones in the
Roman Catholic Church's atti
tude and policies in the field
of Christian unity, and they
realized in part Pope John's
great desire to foster this
unity.
While the third session did
produce some magnificent do
cuments, it closed on a note
of gloom because the long
awaited Declaration on Reli
gious Liberty failed to be
brought back to the floor for
voting after it had been re
vised.
With the arrival of 1965,
Pope Paul made it clear that
the session which opened on
Sept. 14, 1965, would definitely
be the last. And although it
had an enormous workload
before it, the council did live
up to the Pope’s expectations.
The reason for this was that
so much groundwork had al
ready been done in previous
sessions.
True to the Pope's promise
at the close of the third ses
sion, the new declaration on
religious liberty was the first
matter of business. The
American hierarchy was again
in the forefront supporting the
text which had been largely
written by the American theo
logian Father John Courtney
Murray, S. J.
The council closed on a note
of Ecumenism and peace. A
joint statement of Pope Paul
and Orthodox patriarch A-
thenagoras I of Constantino
ple, whom the Pope had em
braced in Jerusalem in early
1964, was read both in St.
Peter's and in Istanbul at the
Patriarch’s cathedral.
Likewise, Pope Paul chose
to end the council on an ecu
menical note by inviting the
Protestant and Orthodox ob
servers and delegates — who
by this time numbered more
than 80 — to join him in a
unity prayer service at the
Basilica of St. Paul's Outside
the Walls.
For Wedding Invitations
It’5
The Acme Press
1201 LINCOLN STREET
PHONE 232 6397.
Beytagh Construction Co.
RESIDENTIAL
REMODELING
LIGHT COMMERCIAL
EL 4-3556 — Savannah, Ga.
1537 Montgomery Crossroads
c
F. POWERS
INSURANCE
120 E. BAY
PHONE AD 3-2184
SAVANNAH, GA.
SEASON^
GREETINGS
McKenna Supply
Co.
Wholesale Plumbing
Heating And Water Works Supplies
600 WEST 51st. ST.
AD 2-7141
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
Look for the Friendly
QUALITY MILK AND ICE CREAM
"Your Family Gets The
MOST From Foremost"
SAVANNAH, GA.
2424 DRAYTON ST. PHONE 233-1107
She wiahitty fat
World's Greatest
Stereo & Hi-Fi
ALBUMS
At. Savannah's
Lowest Prices
The New
Dixie Appliance
Center
Bull at 41st Streets AD 6-8616
J. P. Stevens
Engraving Co.
SOCIAL COMMERCIAL
Wedding Invitations
Engraved Stationery—Reception &
Visiting Cards
Monogrammed Stationery
Acknowledgement Cards
College & School Diplomas
117 Peachtree, N.E. — Atlanta, Ga. — JA 2-6870
the ‘aoad ole datyb
'Uou c/ujfrfced youi ow-al
Tfaw- *Do. *)t
7^ ea&y way at Savannah &
Italian Club Lot
Bee Road & Victory Drive
“QUALITY CHRISTMAS TREES”
Firs From British Columbia
Treated Scotch Pines
ScuACUtnciAd
'pineAt
Selection
17 E. BROUGHTON ST.
SAVANNAH
The opening discussions