He was not overly photogenic, but what a man! What a Pope! In 1958, the world was informed that a successor to the awesome Pope Pius XII had been chosen. There was his picture- short,very heavy, and virtually unknown. Who was Angelo Roncalli? We may not have known who he was in 1958, but we soon learned. He became Pope John XXIII, a quiet, prayerful man, in his late 70′s, who was to effectively teach both the whole world and the Church his ideas and his vision that went far beyond the bounds of Roman Catholicism, and deeply touched the hearts of men and women across the world.
The first and most dramatic single thing he did was to call the first Vatican Council. The surprise announcement shocked and stunned Vatican officials. The last world council was held in 1870, and there had only been nineteen in 2000 years. What would happen when all the bishops got together under one roof? The council would be an extraordinary event that has had tremendous effect on the day to day life of the Church. Not all of his hopes have been realized, but I for one think we will yet see its fulfillment. For me personally, one of the most important things that this Pope accomplished was to write two extraordinary documents, and send them not just to the bishops, or just the Catholics, but to the whole human family. The first was Pacem in terris, and I will come back to this in a few days with more details, but for now I want to relate it to earlier papal documents that reflected the social theology of Roman Catholicism.
Let’s go back to 1891. Pope Leo XIII wrote the first of the great social encyclicals, and his document reflects where the economic systems were at that time. Therefore, it concentrates on the relationship between workers and owners, envisioning a world of small shops and factories.
Forty years later, (and that’s the name of the second document quadrajessimo ano) and Pope Pius XI challenged a much more complicated economic world, and challenged governments and industry-wide corporations to be concerned about and to treat fairly, the working people scattered across the planet. In 1963, this beloved pope from the Italian alps had worldwide vision, and although he solidly supported the teachings and values of the two earlier encyclicals, he reached out to embrace truly worldwide structures. Pope John XXIII reached the United Nations, to international cartels and was teaching about the reality of a one world economy, twenty years before the term was popular!
To summarize, in 1891, Pope Leo XII stressed local economic challenges. Pius Xi, in 1931 moved to the national sphere. Pope John XXIII framed this issue throughout the world in an international context. My life has been dramatically affected by these three documents, and I am happy to say that the world and the effectiveness of the Church within the world is enhanced because of them.

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It has been 50 years, a half century, since Pope John XXIII called the bishops of the world to convene in the Vatican “in order to open the windows of the Church and let in some fresh air.” It was a momentous gathering, only the 20th such meeting in the whole 2,000 year history of the Church. The meeting went on for almost five years and while the bishops were only in session about three months out of the year, they had many committees that continued to work in-between the general sessions. Under the Council, it produced 16 documents on an extraordinarily wide-range of issues. There were four Constitutions promulgated and they are the most important. They include the Church, Revelation, Liturgy and The Church Today (Gaudium et Spes). Then followed nine Decrees on important subjects but not carrying the weight of the Constitutions. Finally, they produced three Declarations and these were on education, ecumenism and religious freedom.
It fell to Pope Paul VI to guide the implementation of all of these documents that had been spelled out in 103,000 words. No small task! The Council was endeavoring to update the Church after a 400 year period during which the Church had circled the wagons. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century had made the Church very fearful of any type of change and it wasn’t until the Second Vatican Council that real updating began to take place. But that updating came with shock and a period of implementation was not completely smooth.
From my perspective, things began to settle down fairly well in the 1980’s but then the rollback began. Many of the progressive changes called for by the Council began to be quietly dismantled. The Council called for every country to have a national conference of its bishops. They came into existence but gradually their prerogatives and responsibilities were dramatically limited. The document on the Sacred Liturgy had produced wonderful results allowing the Church to use the language of the people where it was functioning and the role of the laity or more accurately, the whole community was much more involved in divine worship. Since many of the translations immediately after the Council were somewhat rushed, there gradually began to be an awareness that sacred texts should be improved. The bishops of the 17 English speaking countries worked hard at producing new and improved translations, but ultimately they would be rejected by the Vatican and the Vatican would impose its own translations to be used in all English speaking countries. Etc., etc., etc.
A year ago when the 50th anniversary of the Council arrived very little was done to mark it or to refresh the memory of the Church across the world. I think that it is very important that dioceses everywhere begin renewed efforts to refreshen our memories of the importance of this event. The 2,500 bishops, working for more than four years in front of TV cameras, made great strides in accomplishing what Pope John XXIII called them to do but, regretfully, much of it has been undone and continues to be undone by a very small group of Vatican officials working behind closed doors.

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I was thrilled to see that in the last week of March all the dioceses of France sent leaders and representatives to a major session in Lourdes in order to prepare for the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. That is now fifty years ago.

I was also fascinated by the way that this country has memorialized the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It was an agonizing story reflecting, as most human events do, both heroism and cowardice. It is natural for Americans to remember such a catastrophic event, but should American Catholics not also be memorializing the Second Vatican Council? Many young Catholics know nothing about the Council and even those of us who are older are affected by the effects of the passage of a half a century. I would hope that the American bishops would decide to use their energies and vast resources to properly communicate the most important religious event of the last 200 years. I am sure somebody is working on it but I have not heard about it yet. If we should not mark this awesomely important event, it would give many the impression that many leaders in the Church would just as soon forget that it ever happened. Oh, do I want to be wrong on this one.

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The Second Vatican Council began in 1961. Nearly 3,000 bishops met in Rome for about 90 days a year for four years. It was an awesome meeting, the first meeting of the world’s bishops since 1870 and a meeting that made the heroic effort to study, evaluate and, where necessary, refresh the structures of the Church.

Americans are notorious for having short memories and not overly interested in history. Everyone who was ten years old at the time the Council ended, should be now making serious plans for retirement. I think that you can see that in the Church today not everyone is as excited about the reality of the Council as those of us who lived through it as relatively young adults. It was a period of extraordinary hope and optimism, a period in which young Catholics felt that the Church was going to open itself up in terms of its structures making room for real influence from the laity. There was no question about giving up the necessary power of the ordained in the life of the Church, but there was hope that the ordained, who controlled the power and authority at every level, would find a more effective way to utilize that power.

Adaptations were made at the parish, diocesan, national and universal levels. More laity were brought in, and the Church has made an honest effort to utilize the wonderful gifts and expertise that the Church needs and can utilize in its capable and generous lay leaders. All of that is very good. Nevertheless, those who remember the excitement, the hope and the optimism of the 1960’s are frequently found to be discouraged and saddened by the fact that those windows that Pope John XXIII wanted to be thrown open in order to allow fresh air into the inner-life of the Church have been not completely closed, but certainly lowered! Structural changes, such as the role of episcopal conferences, efforts at ecumenism, have sadly been downplayed with understandable dulling of hope and optimism for Christian unity. In administrative areas, changes that were brought about by nearly 3,000 bishops publicly debating have been frequently offset by decisions made by a small number of Church leaders operating behind closed doors. This was not the intended thrust of the Council, but this is what we are struggling through at the present time.

I have no doubt that the Church leaders, who have been endeavoring to shut down much of the Second Vatican Council, are sincere. I just believe that they are exercising very poor judgment and if they prevail, the Church will continue to contract at a tragic rate.

I want to be wrong!

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For good or for ill, seminary education is fairly standard around the world. The basic courses – four years of undergraduate work with a major in philosophy and the second four years is in the various forms of theology as well as other ecclesiastical subjects – things that need to be known by someone who is going to function in a parish or most other priestly roles. Their curriculum may be the same but priests differ dramatically in different periods of time. I don’t know if that is true of the whole world but it is certainly true of the United States. Priests who started in the seminary in the late ‘40’s and early ‘50’s were profoundly influenced by the ‘60’s, the chaos of that period and the awesome hope generated by the Second Vatican Council. They would later be dubbed as “Vatican II priests.” Sometimes that expression was a compliment, sometimes it was derogatory depending on the frame of reference of the speaker.

There are always exceptions and no description fits everything or everyone, but the Vatican II priests were optimistic about the Church’s mission to the world. They were vitally concerned about bringing the message of Jesus Christ into the failing human structures of day-to-day living and society. The bishops of that period reflected the same thing. It is very interesting to look at the list of the subjects upon which the bishops spoke out in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. They were working for peace, for freedom for everyone, for a more just societies, for concern for the poor and the vulnerable. The episcopal statements coming out of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops today are overwhelmingly “in-house” being concerned about churchy issues and they reflect a dramatic withdrawal from the mode of operation of the last generation. Both groups are bishops, both groups are faithful to the Gospel but they are very different. Will the frame of reference turn again in the near future?

Only God knows.

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People frequently hear me making the statement that the lectionary that came out of the Second Vatican Council is a wonderful spiritual gift and a first-rate school of theology.  The lectionary is a rearrangement of thousands and thousands of biblical texts into themes or in a manner to spotlight certain seasons or feasts of the Church.  Now we are in the second half of Advent and let’s take a look back to see if it has influenced us in any way.

Naturally, the main theme of Advent is expectation, looking into the future with faith and hope in our belief that God visited us in the person of Jesus.  The liturgy of Advent will lead ultimately towards the saving actions of Holy Week which brought about our redemption.  There is, however, a second theme of Advent and it is also extremely important not for the hereafter, but for the here and now.  That second theme is patience.

Patience is a natural virtue and everyone of us has a need for it but some of us are willing to admit that impatience is one of our biggest weaknesses.  Patience is a gift that brings calmness and steadfastness in day-to-day living.  Impatience is a weakness that leads to unnecessary pain and suffering.  In the second reading on Sunday, St. James told us that we should be like farmers in the winter – patiently and confidently looking forward to spring and the harvest.  He also stresses the need to be patience with each other, not to grumble but be prepared to take suffering and hardships.

Each of us should examine his or her conscience about how many people we have caused to be hurt or cry simply because we do not have the power to keep our emotions under control when irritating developments occur around us.  Being patient when nothing is wrong and everybody is behaving correctly is not much of a challenge.  Being patient in the face of bad manners and insensitivity and mechanical problems that beset all of us is a real virtue and we should strive for it.

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Yesterday, I referred to the fact that there are more than 20 million people in the United States who are former Catholics.  Why is this happening?  Both liberals and conservatives have explanations for this phenomena and both are able to make what seem to be valid points.

Many conservative Catholics feel very strongly that they know the reason and it is nothing other than the Second Vatican Council!  Those who hold this view assert that the Council removed the clear boundaries that once marked the lives of practicing Catholics – Mass on Sunday, no meat on Friday, obedience to the bishop, obedience to the clergy, fulfilling the Easter duty, etc., etc.  These were external factors that defined “Catholic living.”  Those who hold this view feel that the dramatic fall-off in the number of clergy and the near disappearance of religious women carrying on special ministries is a direct result of changes brought about by the Council.

Catholics leaning to the left assert that the departures are caused by an autocratic clergy, the gradual abandonment of the principle thrust of the Second Vatican Council and restoration of the diminishing influence of the laity and pathetically inadequate preaching.  Many also reject traditional Catholic teaching in the area of sexuality and marriage.

Both sides of this debate can make points but there are many reasons beyond those articulated by these two groups.  Since the Council, there has been an extraordinary restructuring of family life, a general increase in our society for dislike of large organizations.  This applies not only to the Church but also to fraternal organizations – bowling leagues, unions, etc.  As a nation, we are becoming evermore individualistic.

Another reason might be that many Catholics are tired of the endless arguing going on in the Church between the right and the left.  They would be much more comfortable if they could get back to a Church that was represented by stained glass windows and soft organ music.  I am afraid that this group will be disappointed.

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Is the Bible a Catholic book? For the vast majority of the people of the United States, the Bible is a factor in their lives in many different ways. This is especially true for people of the mainline Protestant faith groups, e.g. Methodist, Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, etc. The Catholic Church numerically is nearly twice the size of all the Protestant churches currently present in the United States. A very valid question would be, “Is the Holy Bible, which Christians almost universally revere as God’s word, as important to the Roman Catholic as it is to their brothers and sisters in the protestant faith groups?

The theoretical answer is that it certainly is, but a more practical reply would be that it is not. Prior to the second Vatican council, the average Catholic received very little formal study in sacred scripture. Theology, of course, would be a powerful force in the education of Catholics. Deference would be paid to the importance of the Bible, but in terms of classes, study, week-to-week use, its absence was rather obvious.

The second council has made a determined effort to turn this unhappy situation around and motivate Catholics to appreciate the Bible and make ever-greater use of it, both in their religious formation and in their worship, as well as in their liturgical ceremonies.

For today, open your Bible  and enjoy this gift from God! I’ll elaborate more tomorrow…

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Missed one!  Each day when I am writing these blogs, I try to take the liturgical calendar into consideration.  The liturgical year is one of the great gifts in the life of the Church, a source of inspiration and even sometimes…the subject of a blog!   What I missed was the Feast of St. Lawrence.  That was back on August 10^th.  We have been remembering him for the best part of 2,000 years so hopefully running a few days late wont really matter.

Lawrence was a deacon in the early Church.  The diaconate, as one of the three orders of ministry, is actually older than the parish priesthood as we know it.  The first couple of generations we just had bishops and deacons.  Gradually, the deacons were absorbed into being a step towards the priesthood and fell into disuse as a separate order.

The restoration of the diaconate is really one of the great gifts of the Second Vatican Council.  It came in a very timely manner.  In the mid-1960’s, traditional priestly vocations began to sharply decline.  That was not true all over the world but it was certainly true in Europe and North America.  Of course, it goes without saying that Mexico and Latin America have never had enough priestly ordinations.  The ratio of lay people to priests in those countries is scandalously high.

In the United States, the diaconate has been well utilized.  There was not a single deacon in the country in 1965.  Today there are over 16,000.  Deacons have been a tremendous reservoir of strength and ministry, especially in large urban parishes, which are frequently served by only one or two priests.  Because of their ordination, deacons can baptize and preach.  In addition to those ministries that flow from the sacrament of ordination, they do numerous other things around parishes – counseling, conducting funerals, serving parishioners in countless other ways.  They are a great blessing.  We should all be thankful to these generous deacons who work so hard for the rest of us without any type of material compensation.

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In December of 1965 about 2,500 Roman Catholic bishops, theologians and special observers filed out of St. Peter’s, pouring into the great piazza, encompassed by Burneni’s columns.  I am sure that they were both tired and relieved.  The conference had been running for four years and you must also allow two years of preparation.  The bishops were witnessing the end of the greatest experiment in ecclesiology since Pentecost Sunday.

The changes that were called for by the Council were awesome.  Many people connected those changes merely with the use of vernacular language and the celebration of the Eucharist with the priests facing the people.  However, the changes that were called for were far more profound than that.  The responsibility for implementing those changes descended upon the shoulders of Pope Paul VI and he struggled heroically to accomplish that throughout the years of his pontificate.  Regretfully, the staff with which he had to work was the same curia that had originally opposed the Council and they worked tirelessly to undercut it.

Today the Second Vatican Council is but a shadow of what was called for by those 2,500 bishops.  Suggestion:  every bishop, priest and lay leader should go back and study the documents of the Council. Fifty years has dimmed our memories.  We can still regain their power.

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