“Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).
Opening the Windows
By Amy Uelmen
Forty years after the Second Vatican Council
Just a few months after Angelo Roncalli became Pope John XXIII in 1958, he had what he described as a “sudden flash of inspiration” — to gather all of the world’s bishops for an ecumenical council. Many were surprised for, as he wrote in his diary, “everyone was convinced that I would be a provisional and transitional pope.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. It was time, Pope John felt, for an updating or aggiornamento. It was time for the Church “to throw open the windows so that we can see out and the people can see in.”
The 21st Ecumenical Council, the second held at the Vatican, opened on October 11, 1962. It was different from the previous twenty, for it was not in response to an immediate crisis. In his opening message, Pope John summarized his fervent hopes that the Council would open “new sources of energy” for the Church, “enabling her to face the future without fear.” To the “prophets of doom” who saw “nothing but calamity and disaster,” he offered a hopeful vision of the hand of God directing humanity’s efforts toward the fulfillment of his plans, “wisely arranging everything, even adverse human fortune, for the Church’s good.”
Of course, the Church must hold tight to its “sacred patrimony of truth,” Pope John assured. The French word réssourcement or “going back to the sources” illustrated another key focus of the Council. In particular it focused on the Bible, the Fathers of the Church and the Liturgy.
“But it is equally necessary,” Pope John said, for the Church “to keep up to date with the changing conditions of this modern world and of modern living.” What was needed at that point, he surmised, was not so much a discussion of the fundamentals of Catholic doctrine, but rather a discussion of how to make the Church’s teaching “more widely known, more deeply understood and more penetrating in its effects” on people’s lives. The purpose of the Council was for Catholic teaching to be “studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms.”
With this broad and bold agenda Pope John set the Second Vatican Council on its historic path. From 1962 through 1965 the world’s bishops gathered for four autumn sessions. Six months after the first session Pope John died and the Council was reconvened by Pope Paul VI.
Over the course of the four years of work, the Council produced sixteen documents. The constitutions, declarations and decrees touched on a wide variety of topics regarding many different aspects of the Church’s life and mission.
For example, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (“Light of Nations”), set out a comprehensive vision of the nature and structure of the Church. It reaffirmed teachings about the papacy and the hierarchy, but also emphasized that their primary purpose is to build up and serve the people of God. Ministers who are endowed with sacred power, “serve their brethren, so that all who are of the People of God, and therefore enjoy a true Christian dignity, working toward a common goal freely and in an orderly way, may arrive at salvation” (#18). While roles as bishops, priests, religious and laity may be diverse, the “People of God” model emphasizes that all share responsibility for the Church’s mission.
Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, opens with the memorable line, “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the [people] of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.” It includes wide-ranging reflections on what the life of the Church can bring to a host of contemporary issues, ranging from war and peace, family life, economic justice, and religion and politics. The document also reflects on how the life of the Church is enriched by human culture: “The experience of past ages, the progress of the sciences and the treasures hidden in the various forms of human culture, by all of which the nature of man himself is more clearly revealed and new roads to truth are opened, these profit the Church, too” (#44).
In addition to these documents on internal life and structure, and on the dialogue with modern culture, the Council also produced important statements on the Church’s relationship with Christians of other denominations and faithful of other religions.
For example, the declaration Nostra Aetate (“Our Age”) decried “hatred, persecution, displays of anti-Semitism directed against Jews at any time and by any one,” and called for “mutual respect and knowledge” between Catholics and Jews. Over the course of the decades, the declaration has become the foundation for a new era of Catholic-Jewish relations. Dignitatis Humanae (“On Human Dignity”) affirmed the right of all people to religious freedom. “No one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs,” the Council declared, and the foundation of this right is “in the very dignity of the human person” (#2).
In his December 8, 1965 closing message, Paul VI defined the Council as “without doubt among the greatest events of the Church.” It had been, he reflected, the largest gathering of bishops from every part of the world. It had generated an extraordinarily rich patrimony of reflections on the numerous questions it explored. And it marked a momentous step in reflections on how to meet pastoral needs and in reaching out to Christians of other denominations and to the whole human family.
Time has certainly confirmed these affirmations. “What a treasure there is … in the guidelines offered to us by the Second Vatican Council!” John Paul II exclaimed in his 2000 Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte. “With the passing of the years, the Council documents have lost nothing of their value or brilliance.” He described the Council as “the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century” and assured, “there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century” (#57). In fact, over the past year many have taken the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the closing of the Council to reflect on the treasures that its documents continue to offer.
Working with several universities, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace sponsored an inter-disciplinary conference, “A Call to Justice: The Legacy of Gaudium et Spes 40 Years Later.” In March 2005, it brought together close to 300 participants from all over the globe including several cardinals, dozens of dignitaries and ambassadors, and hundreds of university professors to the Vatican. The panorama of joys, hopes, griefs and anxieties that characterize our world at the dawn of the new millennium set the stage for reflections on how the social teaching of the Church may inform efforts to meet the challenges of globalization and growing economic disparities, threats to human dignity, and recurring manifestations of violence and armed conflict.
In one of his last messages, Pope John Paul II quoted Gaudium et Spes to encourage the participants to reach beyond justice, “for love goes beyond what justice can ensure” (#78). “The virtue of love that leads to forgiveness and reconciliation and motivates Christian commitment to justice must never be forgotten.”
Also in March 2005, in an event at the United Nations New York Headquarters sponsored by the Holy See, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, considered how the vision of the human person set forth in Gaudium et Spes might inform a vision for the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. “The situation of the world and its culture has changed in these forty years,” he reflected, “but the method of dialogue proposed by Gaudium et Spes maintains its validity.”
Similarly, numerous events have marked the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate and Dignitatis Humanae. In many parts of the world much work remains to assure basic protections for the exercise of religious freedom. In the U.S. the conversation focuses less on the problem of coercion and more on how to foster respect for the religious expression of all people in a society made up of diverse religious traditions. All agree that these documents were a crucially important step not only for the life of the Church, but also for strengthening the commitment to religious freedom in society as a whole.
Forty years after the Council’s close, it is clear that Pope John’s invitation to “open the windows”—so that we can see out and that others can see in—remains a work in progress. But for many the anniversary has been an opportunity to recommit themselves to the hopeful work of renewal within the Church and to strengthen its contributions to all dimensions of life in society.
“Blaze a trail that leads toward that unity of the human race,” Pope John had invited the bishops at the opening of the Council, “which is so necessary if this earthly realm of ours is to conform to the realm of heaven, ‘whose king is truth, whose law is love, whose duration is eternity.’” Forty years later, the Church continues to walk along this path to realize God’s plan for humanity, “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. It was time, Pope John felt, for an updating or aggiornamento. It was time for the Church “to throw open the windows so that we can see out and the people can see in.”
The 21st Ecumenical Council, the second held at the Vatican, opened on October 11, 1962. It was different from the previous twenty, for it was not in response to an immediate crisis. In his opening message, Pope John summarized his fervent hopes that the Council would open “new sources of energy” for the Church, “enabling her to face the future without fear.” To the “prophets of doom” who saw “nothing but calamity and disaster,” he offered a hopeful vision of the hand of God directing humanity’s efforts toward the fulfillment of his plans, “wisely arranging everything, even adverse human fortune, for the Church’s good.”
Of course, the Church must hold tight to its “sacred patrimony of truth,” Pope John assured. The French word réssourcement or “going back to the sources” illustrated another key focus of the Council. In particular it focused on the Bible, the Fathers of the Church and the Liturgy.
“But it is equally necessary,” Pope John said, for the Church “to keep up to date with the changing conditions of this modern world and of modern living.” What was needed at that point, he surmised, was not so much a discussion of the fundamentals of Catholic doctrine, but rather a discussion of how to make the Church’s teaching “more widely known, more deeply understood and more penetrating in its effects” on people’s lives. The purpose of the Council was for Catholic teaching to be “studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms.”
With this broad and bold agenda Pope John set the Second Vatican Council on its historic path. From 1962 through 1965 the world’s bishops gathered for four autumn sessions. Six months after the first session Pope John died and the Council was reconvened by Pope Paul VI.
Over the course of the four years of work, the Council produced sixteen documents. The constitutions, declarations and decrees touched on a wide variety of topics regarding many different aspects of the Church’s life and mission.
For example, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (“Light of Nations”), set out a comprehensive vision of the nature and structure of the Church. It reaffirmed teachings about the papacy and the hierarchy, but also emphasized that their primary purpose is to build up and serve the people of God. Ministers who are endowed with sacred power, “serve their brethren, so that all who are of the People of God, and therefore enjoy a true Christian dignity, working toward a common goal freely and in an orderly way, may arrive at salvation” (#18). While roles as bishops, priests, religious and laity may be diverse, the “People of God” model emphasizes that all share responsibility for the Church’s mission.
Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, opens with the memorable line, “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the [people] of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.” It includes wide-ranging reflections on what the life of the Church can bring to a host of contemporary issues, ranging from war and peace, family life, economic justice, and religion and politics. The document also reflects on how the life of the Church is enriched by human culture: “The experience of past ages, the progress of the sciences and the treasures hidden in the various forms of human culture, by all of which the nature of man himself is more clearly revealed and new roads to truth are opened, these profit the Church, too” (#44).
In addition to these documents on internal life and structure, and on the dialogue with modern culture, the Council also produced important statements on the Church’s relationship with Christians of other denominations and faithful of other religions.
For example, the declaration Nostra Aetate (“Our Age”) decried “hatred, persecution, displays of anti-Semitism directed against Jews at any time and by any one,” and called for “mutual respect and knowledge” between Catholics and Jews. Over the course of the decades, the declaration has become the foundation for a new era of Catholic-Jewish relations. Dignitatis Humanae (“On Human Dignity”) affirmed the right of all people to religious freedom. “No one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs,” the Council declared, and the foundation of this right is “in the very dignity of the human person” (#2).
In his December 8, 1965 closing message, Paul VI defined the Council as “without doubt among the greatest events of the Church.” It had been, he reflected, the largest gathering of bishops from every part of the world. It had generated an extraordinarily rich patrimony of reflections on the numerous questions it explored. And it marked a momentous step in reflections on how to meet pastoral needs and in reaching out to Christians of other denominations and to the whole human family.
Time has certainly confirmed these affirmations. “What a treasure there is … in the guidelines offered to us by the Second Vatican Council!” John Paul II exclaimed in his 2000 Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte. “With the passing of the years, the Council documents have lost nothing of their value or brilliance.” He described the Council as “the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century” and assured, “there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century” (#57). In fact, over the past year many have taken the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the closing of the Council to reflect on the treasures that its documents continue to offer.
Working with several universities, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace sponsored an inter-disciplinary conference, “A Call to Justice: The Legacy of Gaudium et Spes 40 Years Later.” In March 2005, it brought together close to 300 participants from all over the globe including several cardinals, dozens of dignitaries and ambassadors, and hundreds of university professors to the Vatican. The panorama of joys, hopes, griefs and anxieties that characterize our world at the dawn of the new millennium set the stage for reflections on how the social teaching of the Church may inform efforts to meet the challenges of globalization and growing economic disparities, threats to human dignity, and recurring manifestations of violence and armed conflict.
In one of his last messages, Pope John Paul II quoted Gaudium et Spes to encourage the participants to reach beyond justice, “for love goes beyond what justice can ensure” (#78). “The virtue of love that leads to forgiveness and reconciliation and motivates Christian commitment to justice must never be forgotten.”
Also in March 2005, in an event at the United Nations New York Headquarters sponsored by the Holy See, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, considered how the vision of the human person set forth in Gaudium et Spes might inform a vision for the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. “The situation of the world and its culture has changed in these forty years,” he reflected, “but the method of dialogue proposed by Gaudium et Spes maintains its validity.”
Similarly, numerous events have marked the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate and Dignitatis Humanae. In many parts of the world much work remains to assure basic protections for the exercise of religious freedom. In the U.S. the conversation focuses less on the problem of coercion and more on how to foster respect for the religious expression of all people in a society made up of diverse religious traditions. All agree that these documents were a crucially important step not only for the life of the Church, but also for strengthening the commitment to religious freedom in society as a whole.
Forty years after the Council’s close, it is clear that Pope John’s invitation to “open the windows”—so that we can see out and that others can see in—remains a work in progress. But for many the anniversary has been an opportunity to recommit themselves to the hopeful work of renewal within the Church and to strengthen its contributions to all dimensions of life in society.
“Blaze a trail that leads toward that unity of the human race,” Pope John had invited the bishops at the opening of the Council, “which is so necessary if this earthly realm of ours is to conform to the realm of heaven, ‘whose king is truth, whose law is love, whose duration is eternity.’” Forty years later, the Church continues to walk along this path to realize God’s plan for humanity, “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Amy Uelmen is the Director of the Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer’s Work at Fordham University School of Law.
© 2012 by the Focolare Movement (New York) •