Missed Opportunity

Vatican II

The Second Vatican Council was a major event in the Roman Catholic Church. It took place between 1962-1965. As the name implies, there was a First Vatican Council roughly 100 years earlier. The bishops at Vatican I didn't know that another would follow, so it wasn't named the First Vatican Council until after the second. Vatican II, as it is often called, was an ecumenical council which means all the Catholic bishops were invited to attend. Vatican II produced 17 documents.

Vatican II was not only a gathering of Catholic bishops. The council also included theologians (called "periti") and observers. Each council session lasted multiple weeks (c.f. the Council Daybook sessions 1 and 2). This gave the participants time to meet and discuss the topic at hand (e.g. liturgy, divine revelation, the role of the church in the world, etc.).

And while all this is helpful information to know when considering the council or even reading the documents, it is just as important to know that these discussions were the culmination of years of research and publications. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, there was a period of unprecedented research. Scholars started asking deep and sometimes uncomfortable questions about the liturgy, scripture, etc. This might seem unremarkable in our day of easy access to information (the internet, public libraries, public schools, easy transportation, etc.). But questioning conventional thinking on these matters was risky. Until 1966 the curia (the governing body of the Vatican) maintained a list of forbidden books.

The Opportunity

The Second Vatican Council was a time for the Roman Catholic Church to do some spring cleaning and let fresh air into the church.¹ How scripture is interpreted, how liturgy is performed, how to understand the roles of clergy are laity, the veracity of other systems of beliefs, etc. And it largely succeeded; at least, initially. I studied theology at three different schools and all of them were committed to diving deeper into understanding history, culture, interpretation, languages, etc. The complexities of passing on a semitic faith (Jesus of Nazareth was, after all, a Jew) leaves fertile ground for researchers in future generations.

Let's take scripture as an example. Most Catholic scripture scholars consider the story of Adam and Eve to be a myth. That is, they didn't exist, at least not as they are portrayed in Genesis. Myths aren't bad. Myths are not lies. Myths are engaging stories that tell us about the world. It turns out that a lot of cultures have myths on how the world started. And the book of Genesis is filled with creation myths. God created the world in 7 days; Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the garden; Cain committing the first murder and forced to roam; the tower of Babel and the emergence of languages; Noah gathering all the animals in a boat in search of a better world, etc. We could have embraced that. We could have noticed that kings visiting a podunk town of Bethlehem to pay homage to a baby would be big news; it should be big news. And yet, only Matthew mentions it. No other gospel writer mentions that momentous occasion. Paul, the first to write anything, doesn't even mention it. We should have embraced the myth of it all and not be offended at the suggestion that it didn't happen or try to create a history that fits the narrative.

The Regression

But we have regressed. For many Catholics, even priests, use biblical stories as if they were historical. And the liturgy used between 1570 and 1970 is deemed by a growing number of Catholics to be more holy. That liturgy is in Latin, often has multiple men at the altar assisting the priest who is facing the same direction as the congregation, burdened with unnecessary garments.

Buy why? Why this regression? For two reasons:

1. Human beings are generally superstitious

2. Emphasis the importance of the clergy

More to come.

Notes

1. The pope who convened the council, John XXIII, is quoted as saying, among other things, that this ecumenical council will be a "breath of fresh air in the Church." The veracity of this and related quotes is debated.

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