The 2nd Vatican Council: The History - Term Paper Example

The 2nd Vatican Council: The History The Vatican II was one of the great moments in the history of our Church. It marked a time when the Church tooka look at where it was and where the world was – and sought to close the gap. The council wasn’t a sudden event; years of changes in the world and years of study among Church leaders and theologians brought us all to this great moment. It was Pope John XXIII who was given the credit for initiating the Vatican Council and he brought the spirit of informed openness that so shaped the Vatican II. In which the main purpose of the council is ‘to proclaim the truth, bring Christians closer to faith, and contribute at the same time peace and prosperity in earth.’ It was Cardinal Lienat of France and Cardinal Frings of Germany challenge the pre – selection of the 10 committees that will control the council’s voice. When the first session of the council started the councils were not that disciplined yet. So, within the 70 projects they’ve proposed only one had garnered approval from its committees. It was the reformation of the liturgy or official prayer of the church. Before the second session started, Pope John XXIII died on June 3, 1963. Immediately after his death the 2nd Vatican Council was nowhere to go. They don’t know what to do next step. But it was Cardinal Montini was well known favored by Pope John XXIII before he died. He adopted the name of Paul VI. He then eased the tension and worries of the Council members and began the second session. Two documents were approved during that time. It was the study of the church’s nature and second, the study of how it relates to the modern world. Another program was approved during the session was the agreement on a new attitude of friendship with non – Catholic Christians and the acknowledgement of the positive content of the other major religious. Third session started On September 14 – November 21 in the fall of 1964. The statements that were approved speaks on the purpose of the Church is and documents were passed that detailed the Church stance on ecumenism. Session 4 was characterized by intellectual fatigue. They have sensed that they gained much reform as was wise for the time and backed off for the moment, avoiding nasty confrontation. No new documents were approved during this session. The fifth and final session was the most industriously productive of all the session. During this session 11 documents were approved. It includes the 30,000 word review of the Church and its role in the world. It also did include revolutionary statements on Jews and members of other religious faith. After the fifth session the council was closed. But the Church under the leadership of two courageous Popes had taken steps to adapt to the modern world. What were these changes they have adapted? How radical were they? Would they have an effect on the Church in its day – to – day activities? I’ll try answering these questions one at a time. The momentum behind the Church’s ongoing renewal can be found in the teachings of Vatican II. And one common teaching they have taught us was Ministry transformation. It’s common today seeing lay women and men assisting the Mass as Eucharistic ministers. These and other lay liturgical ministers – ushers, greeters, lectors and music ministries – are visible reminders of the wide variety of laypeople who minister within the Church. Some serve as catechists or youth ministers, others as hospital chaplains, bereavement ministers, administrators of priestless parishes and outreach workers. At the same time their roles are growing, we are experiencing a decline in the number of ordained ministries. The Holy Spirit is clearly leading us to a more inclusive model of Church in which we recognize the need for both lay and ordained ministries to make the work of the Church complete. Women are among those becoming more engaged in Church ministry today, though many believe that their potential has not been fully realized. What full ministry for women should mean is a sensitive question requiring further discernment. Those awaiting greater acknowledgement in the Church also includes ethnic minorities. Catholics with disabilities and many others whose gifts have not yet been fully respected or utilized. The second common teaching from Vatican II was the dynamic liturgies. The liturgical renewal that swept through the Church after Vatican II brought new life to the celebration of the Eucharist and other sacraments. New sacramental rites and the use of local languages encourage more full and active participation. Before Vatican II, the priest celebrated Mass in Latin with his back to the people, making the action of the mass seem far away. It was easy for the faithful to fall into the role of spectators. Now the assembly is more actively engaged, helping us to experience “all of us” celebrating the Eucharist with the priest. The Church now stresses the communal dimension of all the sacraments, seeing them as “community events” not private rituals. The RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) is a dramatic sign of this communal approach to the sacraments. Before the RCIA was reestablished, the typical approach to adult Baptism was isolated from the parish community. Preparation often consisted of around six weeks of private instructions followed by baptism on a Sunday afternoon, attended by a small cluster of relatives and friends. Today, the RCIA process lasts a year or more and involves sponsors, catechists and, indeed, the whole parish. The Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist – are celebrated within the context of community at the Easter Vigil. The spirit of communal involvement is also reflected in other sacraments. The third common teaching from Vatican II was we became interested in new Scriptures. More Catholics are reading the Bible today – with more solid understanding – than at any other time in Church history. Growing numbers of lay women and men are attending theology schools, leading and/or joining Bible study groups and reading an array of solid articles or books on the subject. Priest and religious are no longer the only Scripture experts. The Church today encourages its members to make use of the new methods of Scripture study and to cherish the Scriptures. Catholics are growing in their understanding of the Bible through the benefits of historical research, literary analysis and Archeological findings. Church documents wisely steer Catholics away from literal – minded approaches and from reading the Bible as if it were a science or history textbook. Also, of note is that, through the Lectionary’s three – year cycle, Catholics are now exposed to a wider variety of Scripture readings at Sunday Mass. The use of Scripture readings has been enhanced in other sacramental rites as well. As Catholics are nourished by the life – giving word of God, they become better instruments of evangelization and of the world’s transformation. One of the most warmly received insights of Vatican II is that salvation is concerned not solely with saving souls but also with saving the whole person – body and soul. The holistic view is appealing because we naturally do not want to lose any genuine part of our human experience. Jesus mission on earth was not only to free the human heart from sin, but also to free men and women from disease, oppression and everything that hinders their development as humans created by God and destined for eternal life. When we profess our belief in the resurrection of the body, this integral salvation is implied. In The Church in the Modern World, the bishops of Vatican II acknowledged the intimate bond between the Church and all humanity. This great document begins: “The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially those who are poor and afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ. Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts.” Some people, however, are uncomfortable with the Church’s involvement in public issues. They criticize the Church for “meddling in politics.” Taking to heart and the holistic view of salvation will help us see the mission of the Church as healing unjust political structures and laws as well as unjust hearts. After discussing the success of Vatican II I also did research about the errors they have done also during the Second Vatican Council. I will evaluate the errors of Vatican II on my next statements. The first error was mutilated concept of the Magisterium. This error is contained in the incredible assertion concerning the Churchs renunciation and condemnation of error. The Church has always been opposed to these errors. However, the Spouse of Christ prefers to employ the medicine of mercy rather than that of harshness. She is going to meet todays needs by demonstrating the validity of her doctrine. With this renunciation of employing proper, God-given authority to defend the deposit of the faith and to help souls through condemning errors that ensnare souls and prevent their eternal salvation, Pope John XXIII kicked aside his duties as Vicar of Christ. In fact, condemning error is essential for maintaining the deposit of faith, which is the Pontiffs first duty, and with it, always confirming sound doctrine, thus demonstrating the efficacy of doing so with timely application. Moreover, from a pastoral point of view, condemning error is necessary because it supports and sustains the faithful, the well-educated as well as those less so, with the Magisteriums incomparable authority. By its exercise they are strengthened to defend themselves against error, whose "logic" is often astute and seductive. This is not the only point: condemning error can lead errant souls to repent, by placing the true sustenance of their intellect before them. The condemnation of error is, in and of itself, a work of mercy, rather than by renewing condemnations. To hold that condemning error should never have occurred is to support a mutilated concept of the Churchs Magisterium. In the main, the post-Vatican II Church, no longer condemning error, has substituted for it dialogue with those in error. This amounts to doctrinal error. Previously, the Church has always prosecuted dialogue with such errors and those in error. Pope John XXIII’s quote above enounces the error clearly: that demonstrating "doctrines validity" is incompatible with "renewing condemnations." This is to suggest that such validity ought to be imposed only thanks to ones own intrinsic logic, and not from external authority. But in such an approach, faith would no longer be a gift from God, nor there need any of grace to fortify faith, nor need any to exercise the principle for sustaining faith via the authority in the Catholic Church. The essential error is concealed in Pope John XXIIIs phraseology; it is a form of Pelagianism [i.e., that all men are, by nature, good-Ed.] which is typical of all "rationalistic conceptions" of the Faith, all of them repeatedly condemned by the Magisterium. The second error was the contamination of Catholic doctrine with intrinsically anti-Catholic "modern thinking." Connected to this unprecedented renunciation of error is another flagrantly grave assertion made by John XXIII in his January 13, 1963, Christmas address to Cardinals. He said that "doctrinal penetration" must occur through "doctrines more perfect adhesion to fidelity to true doctrine." However, he followed this by explaining that true doctrine ought to be expressed using the forms of investigation and literary style of modern thinking, since, to do so, is to sustain the depositum fideis classic doctrine and is the way to recast it: and this ought to be done patiently, taking into great account that all must be expressed in forms and propositions having a predominantly pastoral character. In fact, it is not possible for the categories of "modern thinking" to be applied to Catholic doctrine. In all of its forms modern thinking negates-a priori- the existence of an absolute truth and holds that everything is relative to Man, who is his own absolute value, divinized in all of his manifestations, from instinct to "self-consciousness." This way of thinking is intrinsically opposed to the fundamental truths of the Catholic Church beginning with the idea of God the Creator, of a living God Who has been revealed and incarnated in His Second Person. In the end, modern thinking means only a politics and an ethic. By proposing a similar contamination, Pope John XXIII showed himself to be a disciple of the neo-modernists "New Theology," already condemned by the Magisterium. Regarding the Catholic Churchs salvation mission, the needs of the day required of the Second Vatican Council to reinforce the rejection of modern thinking found in the prior popes-from Pius IX to Pius XII. Instead, the Council gave full sway to "the study and expression" of "authentic" and "classic" doctrine via "modern thinking." The third error of the Opening Address announced that "the unity of humanity" was the Churchs own and proper goal. This was advanced by the Second Vatican Council, which quoted St. Augustine (Ep. 138, 3) to purport that the Church be preparing and consolidating the way toward that human unity which is a fundamental necessity because the earthly City is constructed to always resemble the heavenly one "in which truth and the law of charity reign, and is the extension of the Eternal One. The error consists in mixing the Catholic vision with an idea imported into it from secular thought. Secularists do not look to extend the Kingdom of God through that part of it realized on earth by the Catholic Church. This vision is a substitute for that of the Churchs. Humanism is convinced of the dignity of man as man (since humanists do not believe in original sin) and of his supposed "rights." Besides these three errors in the Opening Address, two more theological errors were proposed in what followed. The "Message to the World" was promulgated at the start of the Council. [Archbishop Lefebvre was one of the few to criticize it.-Ed.] In miniature, it contained the pastoral line of thought that would be developed to the fullest in Gaudier et Spes. "Human good," the "dignity of man" as man, "peace between people," a pastoral in which the preoccupation with "human good," "the dignity of man," as man, "the peace between people," are its central concerns, and left aside is mans conversion to Christ. While we hope that through the Councils labors the light of faith shines more clearly and alive, we await a spiritual renaissance from which also comes a happy impulse that favors human well-being that is, scientific invention, progress of the arts, technology, and a greater diffusion of culture. "Human Well-being" is characterized according to the centurys reigning ideas, i.e., scientific, artistic, technological, and cultural progress. Should the Second Vatican Council have become so preoccupied with such things? Should it have expressed hope for the increase of these solely earthly "blessings," always short - lived, often deceptive, in place of those eternal ones founded on perennial values taught by the Church over the centuries? No wonder that, following this brand of pastoral, instead of a new "splendor" of the faith, a grave and persistent crisis has arisen? The texts of Vatican II are infamous for being ambiguous and contradictory. Suffice it by the following serious example to show how profound the ambiguity is. Vatican It’s Dei Verbum (on Divine Revelation) is called a "dogmatic constitution" because it concerns the inerrant truth of dogma. However, it expounds in an obviously insufficient and unclear way on how the truths of the Faith rest on two pillars of revelation-Sacred Scripture and Tradition-and on the absolute inerrancy of Sacred Scripture and the total historical authenticity of the Gospels. In 11, Dei Verbum lends itself even to opposite interpretations, one of which would reduce inerrancy only to "truth confided to the Sacred Scriptures...." This is substantively equivalent to heresy because the absolute inerrancy of Sacred Scripture and the truth expounded there is the truth of the Faith constantly deduced and taught by the Church alone. For an example of patent contradiction, let us look as of the October 28, 1965 decree, Perfectae Caritatis (On the Up-to-Date Renewal of Religious Life). It states that the renewal of religious life "comprises both a constant return to the sources of the whole of the Christian life and to the primitive inspiration of the institutes, and the adaptation to the changed conditions of our time...." This is a patent contradiction since, according to the three vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, the unique characteristic of religious life has always been that of being completely antithetical to the world, corrupted as it is by original sin and the very illustration of the fleeting and transient. How is it possible that the "return to the sources...and to the primitive inspiration of the [Catholic] institutes" be accomplished by their "adaptation to the changed conditions of our time?" Adaptation to these "conditions," which today are those of the secularized modern world of lay culture, are the very ones that impede, in themselves, "the return to the sources." 40 years later, what is happening in our Church in these opening years of the third millennium? We are something like passengers in an airplane circling above the airport, waiting for the weather to clear so we can see to land. What happened to the fast rate of change we experienced in those early years after the Council? The pace has certainly slowed. Church leaders seem to have decided that we need to take a break after so much turbulent change. We find ourselves in a time of consolidation and integration, taking stock of where we are. One might compare the Church to someone experiencing an identity crisis or confusing personal change. Such individuals need time to reflect and get their act together before moving on. Maybe the Church leaders sense that it is time for the Church to catch up with itself to step back a bit and put all the pieces of our fragmented vision into a new whole. This need was satisfied to some degree with the issuing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but our Vatican II pilgrimage must always move forward. It has been a very sketchy look at Vatican II. Does the vision live today? In many people, especially in some glowing centers of liturgy (at times with guns threatening not far away), the emphasis on community, prayer, Scripture, and peoplehood has flourished. In others, a strangling fear of change, usually a matter of temperament, inhibits growth. Perennial human apathy plays its part. But the relentless Spirit of Pentecost is always working—everywhere, not just where things appear bright. It is working, too, perhaps even more relentlessly, in the night of persecution, apparent failure and spiritual change. God works in seconds—and centuries. Perhaps the full impact of the Council is yet to come. Perhaps Vatican II is not yet out of baby clothes. Or, as someone has said, perhaps we are only beginning to smell the coffee. References: Website Steinmetz Jessica. “Christianity – Catholicism.” http://catholicism.about.com/od/vatican/a/chanvii05.htm Morrison, Pat. “Vatican II.” National Catholic Reporter, October 4, 2002 http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/100402/vaticanII.htm Giuseppe, Alberigo. “The History of Vatican”.1995 http://www.seattleu.edu/lemlib/web_archives/vaticanII/vaticanII.htm http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0850544.html http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/v1.html http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/   Read More