Bishop Floyd L. Begin and Msgr. John S. Cummins are pictured in this photo from 1962. The two attended the Vatican Council together. VOICE FILE PHOTO

By Brother John M. Samaha, SM

When we observed the Pauline Year in 2009 we also marked the half-century anniversary of the convocation of Vatican II. Fifty years earlier on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Jan. 25, 1959, Pope John XXIII had announced the convocation of a general council for the universal Church. And the Second Vatican Council was born.

John XXIII had been pope for fewer than 100 days. Trembling with emotion, he issued the call for an ecumenical council in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in the presence of 17 cardinals of the Curia and other Church servants.

The immediate reaction was — silence. Later Pope John mentioned that he expected the cardinals to be elated and overjoyed with enthusiasm. But this was not the case. Quickly and from various parts of the world several cardinals expressed skepticism, saying this was "a rash and impulsive decision," "a hornet's nest" and "premature, senseless and doomed in advance to failure." But history quickly exposed their poor judgment, and John XXIII's dauntless confidence in the working of the Holy Spirit bore rich fruit.

Now in 2012 we observe the 50th anniversary of the opening session of Vatican II.

A significant anniversary

Three years of preparation led to the four sessions of Vatican II, which began in 1962 and concluded in 1965. Blessed John XXII passed to his eternal reward after the first session, and Pope Paul VI presided over the remaining three sessions.

Three decades earlier Pope Pius XI had considered a general council, and in the early 1950s the same thought occupied Pope Pius XII. But conditions were not right. The 1959 announcement by Blessed John XXIII was welcomed by the majority of leading theologians, who wondered if this new council would be a continuation of Vatican I held almost a century earlier. But the intrepid Dominican Yves Congar expressed the confidence that this would be a new council and not a continuation of Vatican I: "I saw in the council an opportunity for the recovery of the true meaning of the episcopacy and of ecclesiology. This would be a pastoral council."

Pope John XXIII signs the bull convoking the Second Vatican Council Dec. 25, 1961. The document said modern society was advancing with technological and scientific progress for which there was no corresponding advance in morality. He wrote that he would convene the council so that the church would contribute positively to the solution of modern problems. The council assembled for its first session Oct. 11, 1962. CNS photo

Many consider Vatican II a Pauline council. The 16 instructional and directional documents reveal theological insights imbued with many themes found in St. Paul's letters enlightening Biblical theology and spirituality, the theology of the church, the universal call to holiness, liturgical renewal, engaging contemporary society. And the revised liturgical year cycles of Scripture readings for Mass draw heavily from the letters of Paul. And what authority is quoted most frequently in the documents of Vatican II? None other than St. Paul the Apostle.

In the nascent Church, Paul played a prominent role in the epochal event we now call the Council of Jerusalem (Gal 2:1-10 and Acts 15:1-22). Like Vatican II, the Council of Jerusalem dealt with challenging pastoral questions. Paul, Titus, Barnabas and others came to Jerusalem to meet with Peter, James and other leaders of the apostolic Church to meld different but complementary charisms and gifts for the good and growth of the Church. The Jerusalem Council is an early example of the very real interrelationship between the human and the divine in Christ's Church. A similar interplay was experienced at the Second Vatican Council.

Proper perspective

The past is prologue, so with wisdom we recall the past as well as point to the future. Today it is important to recall the insight of St. John Henry Newman at the time of the First Vatican Council (1870), that there is always a lack of historical perspective after an ecumenical council. "It is rare," Newman wrote, "for a council not to be followed by great confusion … The century following each council has ever been a time of great trial … and this seems likely to be no exception."

This perceived lack of historical perspective after Vatican II caused some observers to suggest erroneously that the Council rejected the historical consciousness of the Church in order to meet the needs of our contemporary world, overlooking history and tradition. Pope Benedict XVI aptly described this as a "hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture" by which Vatican II is seen as an end of tradition, a new start from scratch, a history and a theology based on a false distinction between a "pre-conciliar Church" and a "post-conciliar Church." (Hermeneutics is the interpretation of texts.)

Our faith reminds us that the Holy Spirit guided the Church through all the centuries before John XXIII's inspiration to convoke a council. The Holy Spirit was with the Fathers of the Council during the Vatican II. The Holy Spirit has been with the church during the past 50 years as we gradually incorporated the Council's teachings. And the Holy Spirit will be with the Church in all the years to come. St. Paul made this crystal clear in his writings. If we lose sight of this fundamental truth, we risk the confused thinking that the Holy Spirit would abandon Christ's Church. But we know that the Holy Spirit, like Christ Himself, is with us always.

Important lesson

Benedict XVI prudently teaches us that the false "hermaneutic of discontinuity and rupture" needs to be replaced by an authentic "hermeneutic of continuity and reform." History shows us that the Church is not always the same, but is reformed and always reforming. Continuity and reform provide the correct map for the study and implementation of Vatican II.

Blessed John XXIII told us: "This Council wishes to transmit doctrine pure and whole without attenuating it or falsifying it, but not watching over this precious treasure as if we were concerned only with antiquity. We wish to present the sure and immutable doctrine in a way that answers the needs of our time. The deposit of faith and our venerated doctrines are one thing; the way they are announced is another thing." Pope John called for the Second Vatican Council to be a synthesis of faithfulness and dynamism in the spirit of Saints Peter and Paul and the Council of Jerusalem.

Cardinal Newman shrewdly projected that it takes a century to integrate fully the wisdom of an ecumenical council. At the outset of Vatican II Pope John XXIII noted that "It is now only dawn …" We are still digesting the work of Vatican II: 16 important decrees approved by more than 2,500 Council Fathers, who cast more than 1.2 million ballots after more than 1,000 speeches and 6,000 written interventions.

As we enter the 50th anniversary celebration of the Second Vatican Council, let us consider this an invitation and opportunity to refresh and renew ourselves by rereading (or reading for the first time) the dynamic teachings of the Council. These documents reveal a Church ever faithful, a divine gift, a Church ever dynamic and a grace that continues from that very first council at Jerusalem.

Both continuity and reform are the call of Vatican II, the great Council that will always have the power to draw us closer to Jesus Christ and to each other.

Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that "The Church both before and after the Council is the same one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church journeying through time."

(Marianist Brother John Samaha is a retired religious educator who worked for many years in the catechetical department of the Oakland Diocese. He now resides in Cupertino.)

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