They go on to say, “Prior to the
Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Catholics were known for their willingness
"to kneel, pray, pay, and obey.”
Although I was not a Catholic,
that is the age bracket I am in and that was the Catholic Church I grew up
knowing only a little bit about.
I finished my undergraduate
theology degree in 1962. Since it was a Baptist seminary I attended, there was
not a lot of study about Catholics. But of course there was some—and much of
what I learned was very soon out of date.
As indicated above, the Second
Vatican Council, often called Vatican II, began in 1962 and ended fifty years
ago this week, on December 8, 1965.
Many significant changes were
made in the Catholic Church at that Council. Consequently, much of what I had
learned by 1962 about contemporary Catholic faith and practice was out of date
by 1965.
Vatican II was the 21st
so-called Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church, and the first one
since Vatican I in 1869-70. It was called by John XXIII, the remarkable Pope
who was canonized in April of last year. Already 76 years old when he was
elected Pope in October 1958, he surprised most people, who expected him to be
nothing more than a “caretaker pope.”
One of the most significant changes made at
Vatican II was the position of the Catholic Church’s relationship to non-Catholic
Christians as well as its relationships with other religious faiths. The
“Decree on Ecumenism” was passed in late 1964, more than a year after Pope John
had died (in June 1963), but it was very much in keeping with his stated
desire.
That Decree declared that other Christians
were “separated brethren,” a remarkable shift from prior church teaching that
regarded them (us Protestants) as “heretics.”
Vatican II also greatly changed the
relationship between the Catholic Church and Jews. The “Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions”
was passed in October 1965, about six weeks before the close of Vatican II.
The fourth part of that Declaration speaks of
the bond that ties the people of the “New Covenant”' (Christians) to Abraham’s
stock (Jews).
It states that even though some Jewish
authorities and those who followed them called for Jesus’s death, the blame for
this cannot be laid at the door of all those Jews present at that time, nor can
the Jews in our time be held as guilty.
Accordingly, the Jews “should not be
presented as rejected or accursed by God.”
The Declaration also decries all displays of antisemitism
made at any time by anyone. This repudiated the abuse heaped on Jewish people
through the years because they were considered “Christ killers.”
There were also many changes in Catholic
worship and practice. For example, there was a new emphasis on lay people
reading the Bible. Also, Mass began to be conducted with the priest facing the
congregation, and the language spoken by the congregants was used in worship
rather than Latin.
Of course some things didn’t change, to the
disappointment of some of the more progressive clergy and lay people: priests
still couldn’t marry, women still couldn’t become priests, and contraceptives
continued to be banned.
Some Catholics are now hoping Pope Francis
will call for “Vatican III,” but that is not likely to happen.
But thank God for Vatican II!
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