Spirit of Vatican II
Encyclopedia
By the spirit of Vatican II is meant the teaching and intentions of the Second Vatican Council
interpreted in a way that is not limited to a literal reading of its documents, or even interpreted in a way that contradicts the "letter" of the Council (cf. Saint Paul's phrase, "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"). This has led to a great diversity of understanding of the phrase.
of Hong Kong
used it with regard merely to an openness to dialogue with others, saying: "We are guided by the spirit of Vatican II: only dialogue and negotiation can solve conflicts." Michael Novak
described it instead as a spirit that "sometimes soared far beyond the actual, hard-won documents and decisions of Vatican II. ... It was as though the world (or at least the history of the Church) were now to be divided into only two periods, pre-Vatican II and post-Vatican II. Everything 'pre' was then pretty much dismissed, so far as its authority mattered. For the most extreme, to be a Catholic now meant to believe more or less anything one wished to believe, or at least in the sense in which one personally interpreted it. One could be a Catholic 'in spirit'. One could take Catholic to mean the 'culture' in which one was born, rather than to mean a creed making objective and rigorous demands. One could imagine Rome as a distant and irrelevant anachronism, embarrassment, even adversary. Rome as 'them'."
called for what he called the authentic spirit of the Council to be respected. In the book, The Ratzinger Report, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
also distinguished the true spirit of the Council from false interpretations, blaming the disappointed hopes for renewal on "those who have gone far beyond both the letter and the spirit of Vatican II", and calling for a "return to the authentic texts of the original Vatican II".
Years later, when he had become Pope Benedict XVI, he decried the "hermeneutic of discontinuity" according to which the Council texts do not express the true spirit of the Council, so that "it would be necessary not to follow the texts of the Council but its spirit." He added: "In this way, obviously, a vast margin was left open for the question on how this spirit should subsequently be defined and room was consequently made for every whim."
hold that the Council and subsequent interpretations of its documents moved the Church away from important principles of the historic Catholic faith; these principles include the following:
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
distinguished between "Catholic Rome" and the actually existing Rome
, declaring that, while he and his followers were faithful to "Catholic Rome", they refused to follow "the Rome of neo-Modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies which were clearly evident in the Second Vatican Council and, after the Council, in all the reforms which issued from it". A priest of the Lefebvre-founded Society of St. Pius X
similarly declared that "Rome is now the headquarters, not only of the Catholic Church, but of the Modernist Mafia which has invaded and subjected it", and that "the multitudes of ex-Catholic shepherds and their sheep who have either defected or drifted into a new religion" might well be called "Roman Protestants".
and Church tradition but also to the actual teachings of the Council and its official interpretations.
An example concerns unauthorized and in some cases arguably un-Catholic elements introduced into celebration of Mass
. These violate the Council's decree on the sacred liturgy and official Church documents on the matter, which state: "It is not possible to be silent about the abuses, even quite grave ones, against the nature of the Liturgy and the Sacraments as well as the tradition and the authority of the Church, which in our day not infrequently plague liturgical celebrations in one ecclesial environment or another. In some places the perpetration of liturgical abuses has become almost habitual, a fact which obviously cannot be allowed and must cease."
set forth this view in a 2005 speech to the Roman Curia
and described it as the view proposed also at the start and at the close of the Council by Popes John XXIII
and Paul VI
.
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
interpreted in a way that is not limited to a literal reading of its documents, or even interpreted in a way that contradicts the "letter" of the Council (cf. Saint Paul's phrase, "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"). This has led to a great diversity of understanding of the phrase.
Variety of significance
The spirit of Vatican II is invoked for a great variety of ideas and attitudes. Bishop John Tong HonJohn Tong Hon
John Tong Hon is a bishop of the Catholic Church. In his youth, he spent ten years living in Huadu, Guangzhou before returning to Hong Kong. He earned a master's degree in philosophy from the Chinese University of Hong Kong before going on to doctoral studies at the Pontifical Urbaniana...
of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
used it with regard merely to an openness to dialogue with others, saying: "We are guided by the spirit of Vatican II: only dialogue and negotiation can solve conflicts." Michael Novak
Michael Novak
Michael Novak is an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. The author of more than twenty-five books on the philosophy and theology of culture, Novak is most widely known for his book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism...
described it instead as a spirit that "sometimes soared far beyond the actual, hard-won documents and decisions of Vatican II. ... It was as though the world (or at least the history of the Church) were now to be divided into only two periods, pre-Vatican II and post-Vatican II. Everything 'pre' was then pretty much dismissed, so far as its authority mattered. For the most extreme, to be a Catholic now meant to believe more or less anything one wished to believe, or at least in the sense in which one personally interpreted it. One could be a Catholic 'in spirit'. One could take Catholic to mean the 'culture' in which one was born, rather than to mean a creed making objective and rigorous demands. One could imagine Rome as a distant and irrelevant anachronism, embarrassment, even adversary. Rome as 'them'."
Spirit of the Council as interpreted by the Popes
In a 1994 document Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
called for what he called the authentic spirit of the Council to be respected. In the book, The Ratzinger Report, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
also distinguished the true spirit of the Council from false interpretations, blaming the disappointed hopes for renewal on "those who have gone far beyond both the letter and the spirit of Vatican II", and calling for a "return to the authentic texts of the original Vatican II".
Years later, when he had become Pope Benedict XVI, he decried the "hermeneutic of discontinuity" according to which the Council texts do not express the true spirit of the Council, so that "it would be necessary not to follow the texts of the Council but its spirit." He added: "In this way, obviously, a vast margin was left open for the question on how this spirit should subsequently be defined and room was consequently made for every whim."
Legacy of the Second Vatican Council
The Council's legacy has been a topic of fierce debate since the 1970s, with roughly three camps disputing among themselves on the correct hermeneutic of conciliar teachings : Liberals, Traditionalists and Conservatives.Liberals
Liberal Catholics have written of their expectation that the Council would mark a new springtime for the Church, their hope "that priorities and practices within the church could be radically different as we returned to the roots of our faith--to the early centuries, not the add-ons of the last 300 years." They have spoken not of the spirit of the Council, but of its actual reforms, which, they say, "today, crafty, sometimes vengeful conservatives are rolling back".Traditionalists
Many traditionalist CatholicsTraditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
hold that the Council and subsequent interpretations of its documents moved the Church away from important principles of the historic Catholic faith; these principles include the following:
- the belief that the Catholic Church is the one and only true Christian church founded by Jesus Christ;
- the belief that the modern idea of religious libertyFreedom of religionFreedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
is to be condemned; - an appropriate emphasis on the "Four last things" (Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell);
- a devotion to scholastic theologyScholasticismScholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
and - an organically grown apostolic Roman liturgyRoman RiteThe Roman Rite is the liturgical rite used in the Diocese of Rome in the Catholic Church. It is by far the most widespread of the Latin liturgical rites used within the Western or Latin autonomous particular Church, the particular Church that itself is also called the Latin Rite, and that is one of...
, as they define the Tridentine MassTridentine MassThe Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
.
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Marcel Lefebvre
Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre was a French Roman Catholic archbishop. Following a career as an Apostolic Delegate for West Africa and Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, he took the lead in opposing the changes within the Church associated with the Second Vatican Council.In 1970,...
distinguished between "Catholic Rome" and the actually existing Rome
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, declaring that, while he and his followers were faithful to "Catholic Rome", they refused to follow "the Rome of neo-Modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies which were clearly evident in the Second Vatican Council and, after the Council, in all the reforms which issued from it". A priest of the Lefebvre-founded Society of St. Pius X
Society of St. Pius X
The Society of Saint Pius X is an international Traditionalist Catholic organisation, founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre...
similarly declared that "Rome is now the headquarters, not only of the Catholic Church, but of the Modernist Mafia which has invaded and subjected it", and that "the multitudes of ex-Catholic shepherds and their sheep who have either defected or drifted into a new religion" might well be called "Roman Protestants".
Conservatives
Conservative Catholics respond to Traditionalists' complaints by pointing out that the unauthorized radical changes made in the name of "the spirit of Vatican II" are contrary not only to canon lawCanon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
and Church tradition but also to the actual teachings of the Council and its official interpretations.
An example concerns unauthorized and in some cases arguably un-Catholic elements introduced into celebration of Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
. These violate the Council's decree on the sacred liturgy and official Church documents on the matter, which state: "It is not possible to be silent about the abuses, even quite grave ones, against the nature of the Liturgy and the Sacraments as well as the tradition and the authority of the Church, which in our day not infrequently plague liturgical celebrations in one ecclesial environment or another. In some places the perpetration of liturgical abuses has become almost habitual, a fact which obviously cannot be allowed and must cease."
Hermeneutic of continuity
In the understanding of the Second Vatican Council propounded by the Popes, it is wrong to interpret the Council, as the above groups do, in terms of "discontinuity and rupture", a hermeneutic that, he said, "has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology". To this interpretation he opposed "the hermeneutic of reform, of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is a subject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God." Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
set forth this view in a 2005 speech to the Roman Curia
Roman Curia
The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope...
and described it as the view proposed also at the start and at the close of the Council by Popes John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
and Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
.