THIS WEEK AT VATICAN II --

50 Years Later

December 1962

 

THE END OF THE FIRST SESSION

 

What was accomplished?

 

             At the end of the first session on December 8, Pope John XXIII said that “the first session was like a slow, solemn introduction to the great work of the Council … It was necessary for brothers, gathered from afar, to make each other’s closer acquaintance; it was necessary for them to look at each other squarely in order to understand each other’s hearts; and to describe their own experiences … under the most varied climates and circumstances, so that there could be a thoughtful interchange of views on pastoral matters.”

             The U.S. Bishops’ own Council Daybook  recalled this “human side of Council” – “Around 11 o’clock each morning, scenes develop in the side aisles of the basilica which - except for the purple robes and colored marbles - could be seen in the corridors and cloakrooms of the U.S. Senate…Clusters of Bishops engage in animated conversation, form, dissolve, reform with new members…in cloakroom and coffee lounge.” 

               During the first session, the 2,500 Bishops got to know one another, realizing the vastness and the vitality of Christ’s  Church throughout the world.

 

                                                                                                                                      
 What wasn’t accomplished?   

          None of the conciliar documents was ready for promulgation at the end of the first session. The Bishops decided that the schemata which had been prepared before the Council – for the most part by curial officials – did not reflect the pastoral style of the Council.

          One conciliar historian noted that:  “The German theologian Father Josef Ratzinger called the absence of any approved Council text before the end of the first session “the great, astonishing,  genuinely positive result of the first session.”  The fact that no text had gained approval was evidence, he said, of “the strong reaction against the spirit of the preparatory work.”  This he called “the truly epoch-making character of the Council’s  first session."
                                                                                                                                                                            

What were the plans for the second session?

       Pope John expected to call the Bishops back to Rome in early 1963.  There was need for more discussion on the Sacred Liturgy, the Sources of Revelation, the Role of Bishops, and the very nature of the Church itself.  If re-writing (in some cases),  amendments (to several decrees), and preparations for topics not yet addressed could go forward at a rapid pace, the Ecumenical Council might end at Christmas 1963, which would be precisely four hundred years after the Council of Trent.

    
        That schedule was to be changed, because of the sheer magnitude of the work to be done – and because of Pope John’s failing health.  After the first session, the Bishops returned to their dioceses “changed men”;  when they returned to Rome,  they would find dramatic changes, including a new Pope – who would commit himself to the ongoing work of the Second Vatican Council.    

                                                                                                  (Coming Next:  June 1963 – The Death of Pope John, the Election of Pope Paul)

- Monsignor John T. Myler