William O'Malley's History of Vatican II: Catholic Church Opens Its Windows to the Modern World

Today we will learn and reflect on William O’Malley’s
history, What Happened at Vatican II.
Pope Benedict once said that both the supporters and
opponents of the Second Vatican Council have one
characteristic in common, and that is, most of them have
never read the decrees or the history of Vatican II and are
ignorant of the actual teachings of the council. His solution
was to draft the Catholic Catechism, but unfortunately,
nobody reads that either.

A priest once compared Vatican II to a Japanese fishing boat. One sunny
morning a fisherman and his young son went far out to sea to fish. Late in
the day the son took a nap, and while he was napping the boat slowly
rose and slowly fell through many deep swells like the father had never
seen before. Later that day when they tried to return to their village; there
was no village, there was only death, debris, destruction, and dank water
as far as the eye could see. The little boy was devastated, their family was
gone, the little boy cried in terror, no family, no house, no village, all had
pulverized and swept out to sea. But the little boy did not find fault with
sea, as he was sleeping during the swells of the tsunami, the little boy
blamed the boat for the catastrophe.

Local
fishing
boats
departing
Fujijama in
early
Morning
Light, by
Fritz
Melbye,
circa 1869

The Great
Wave off
Kanagaw,
by Hokusai
Katsushik,
circa 1831

The Catholic Church was experiencing a great historical tsunami in
the Sixties when Vatican II met to throw open the windows of the
Church to the modern world, as Pope John XXIII, the pope who
called the council into session, proclaimed. This was not a council
pushed on the church by liberal popes. On the contrary, many
bishops from around the world eagerly participated in the
Council, this was the exact opposite of a rubber-stamp council.
Society and the Church were overwhelmed by the tsunami of
changes of the Sixties, changes set in motion by the events of
World War II, Vatican II was merely the boat seeking a better
place for the church.

The Great
Wave off
Kanagaw,
by Hokusai
Katsushik,
circa 1807

So it is with Vatican II. Many conservative Catholics
see the permissiveness of the past fifty years, the
breakdown in morals, the breakup of the family life,
the shortage of priests and vocations, the mocking of
the faithful, and they do not blame the vast sea of
change sweeping society; but rather, they blame the
boat, they blame the Church Fathers of Vatican II who
sought clear passage through the difficult waters of
the modern world.

This story also illustrates a common misconception of both Trent and
Vatican II, that Trent was the true Catholic council, and that Vatican II
abandoned the theology of Trent. The opposite is true, the theology of
Trent was adopted, with few changes, while the reforms of Vatican II were
political, they restated the Catholic faith to the world in a pastoral
manner, embracing democracy while discouraging totalitarianism. Gone
were the anathemas issued by Trent to the enemies of the church, the
church of Vatican II seeks to dialogue with its separated brethren in Christ
and indeed, people of all faiths and nations. Vatican II was a rediscovery
of the reforming aspects of the Council of Trent; indeed, theologically
speaking, it would be more accurate to refer to this council as Trent II
rather than Vatican II.

Another reason why both Protestants and Catholics regard Trent as a reactionary
council is the pope sealed the historical records of the Council of Trent because in
the polemic battles of the time, Protestants would have cherry-picked the history to
trash Catholicism. They were opened late in the nineteenth century to scholars, and
prior to the calling of the Second Vatican Council, a German scholar, Herbert Jedine,
published a three-volume history of Trent, including many of the proceedings. Only
two of these volumes have been translated into English, but they are a primary
source for John O’Malley. Which means that histories of Trent written before the
Seventies probably did not consult this history, and thus cannot be used a reliable
primary historical source.
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources used for this video. Feel free to
follow along in the PowerPoint script we uploaded to SlideShare.
Please, we welcome interesting questions in the comments. Let us learn and
reflect together!

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What Happened at Vatican II
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CATHOLIC CHURCH OPENS ITS WINDOWS TO THE MODERN WORLD
The two great wars had swept away the large continental monarchies of Europe that
once had supported the Catholic Church, and they were replaced by totalitarian
fascist regimes, and though several fascist regimes were friendly to the Catholic
Church in the short run, most were hostile or harmful to the Catholic Church in the
long run. Indeed, Vatican II is unimaginable without the changes wrought by
World War II.
For example, the fascist regime of Mussolini in Italy was initially the friend of the
Catholic Church, though he personally was neither devout nor moral, both a
murderer and an adulterer. He signed the Lateran Treaty creating the Vatican City
and guaranteed that the Church had an exclusive role in the schools and the culture.
But shortly before World War II, he went full Nazi, and started persecuting the Jews,
much to the consternation of the Pope.

The fascist regime of Spain was the friend of the
Catholic Church, and although both sides in the
Spanish Civil War were guilty of massacres, the
communists on the Republican side murdered priests
and monks and nuns by the thousands.

Once Hitler gained absolute power, the Nazis started
persecuting both the Jews and the Protestant and
Catholic Churches. The pope and some German
bishops opposed the Nazis as best as they could,
whereas only twenty percent of the Protestant
churches were Confessing Churches that opposed
interference from the Nazi regime.

The Catholic conservative Vichy French regime
collaborated with the Nazi regime, combining the
pro-life, pro-Catholic policies with assisting the Nazis
in persecuting the Jews in France.

These bad experiences with totalitarianism meant that the Vatican II
Council would embrace democracy, with all its problems, as the system
of government most conducive to religious liberty and toleration in the
long run. We discuss this in our video on the Decree on Religious
Freedom, this is a key video to understand the history of Vatican II.
We plan to record videos/blogs for the other major decrees, with their
history and studying the decrees themselves.
Another consequence of World War II was that most former European
colonies in Asia and Africa were gaining their independence, some
peacefully, some through revolution. Catholics in these countries
wanted to run the churches in their countries, and they desired liturgies
that reflected their local cultures.

John O’Malley also tells the story of the reforms implemented by the Catholic
Church in the Long Nineteenth Century from the defeat of Napoleon to the start of
World War I helped prepare the Church for Vatican II, a story we will cover in a
separate video.
We will also have a video on how Pope John XXIII came to call the Vatican II
Council into session, and the book by Yves Congar on True and False Reform in the
Church that so impressed John that he appointed Congar to a key position in the
Preparatory Commission that was preparing documents for the Council. These
initial documents were sent for comments to all bishops around the world. The
cardinals in the Roman Curia occupied key positions on the commission, they
expected that the bishops would rubber-stamp their proposal, but this did not
happen, the bishops insisted on becoming very involved in the process, rewriting
key documents from scratch.

Pope John XXIII wanted the council to be collegial in fact, although he
sometimes let it be known what his positions were, he allowed the
bishops in the Council free rein to discuss the decrees based on their
experience leading their local church and the problems they were facing
in their dioceses, and the issues the church was facing in the modern
world.

Although Pope John XXIII’s family had the lineage of an ancient aristocratic family,
the family money had been dissipated generations in the past, and now his family
were impoverished sharecroppers. He showed promise in his schooling and in his
priesthood, and his service as a medic in World War I, he held many unusual posts:
• Apostolic delegate to Turkey and Greece.
• Saved many Jews by his diplomatic efforts during World War II.
• Served as Apostolic Nuncio to secular France after the war, then Cardinal in
Venice.
His postings in the Orthodox, Muslim, and the secular world widened his horizons,
and led to his calling of the Council.
The Council would meet for four sessions, Pope John XXIII died soon after the closing
of the First Session, and Pope Paul VI was elected Pope with his promise he would
continue the work of the council. His family upper middle class, he served in the
Curia as a priest, and he intervened in the workings of the council more frequently.

Pope John XXIII
Born to humble sharecroppers.
Medic in World War I.
Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece,
Saving many Jews as a diplomat.
After the War, Nuncio to France.
Pope Paul VI
Family was upper middle class.
Served in the Curia.
Continued the work of the Council.

FIRST SESSION, FIRST TOPIC ON THE LITURGY, SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM
The first Constitution to be discussed when Vatican II was convened in October
1962, was Sacrosanctum Concilium, in English, "This Sacred Council," regarding the
liturgy of the Mass. The original document from the Preparatory Commission was
progressive, in part because the prior Popes Pius XI and Pope Pius XII, who were
popes during and after World War II, had themselves worked on liturgical reform.
Plus, the new scholarship studying the newly archives of Trent revealed that the
actual Trent proceedings indicated that they were open to a Mass in the vernacular
languages, but in the polemics of the day, the Latin mass helped define Catholicism
against the vernacular Protestants. Likewise, Trent was open to sharing both the
bread and the cup in the Eucharist with the laymen, but again, receiving only the
host was also seen as something that defined you as Catholic.

The Foundation
Mass of the Order of
Trinitarians (or Mass
of St John of Matha),
by Juan Carreño de
Miranda, 1666,
Paris, Louvre
Museum.

There was a consensus in the Council that the pastoral
problem was that ordinary Catholics were mere
spectators rather than active participants in the Mass.
Since the Latin Mass was unintelligible to many
worshippers, they instead substituted devotions such as
praying the Rosary for actual participation. There was also
a shift from the Medieval view that Redemption came
mainly through Christ’s suffering and death, with a
greater emphasis on the Christ’s Easter resurrection.

Pope Pius XII celebrates Mass in the Vatican.

In contrast, as O’Malley states, there was a shift in
spirituality, now the view is that “the liturgy is
nourishment for one’s spiritual life,” that is part of the
Church’s “call to holiness.” “Intelligibility and simplicity
were now the norms,” the new emphasis is that “Christ
is present in the Word of Scripture as well as in the
Eucharist.” This emphasis on the Word encouraged a
new emphasis of “Scripture in Catholic teaching and
piety, a major theme in the Council. While the essential
structure of the Roman Rite was to be maintained, local
adaptation, especially in missionary countries, was
legitimate and encouraged.” Thus, “local bishops or
episcopal conferences were permitted to make
decisions” regarding the liturgy.
The Foundation Mass of the Order of
Trinitarians, by Juan Carreño de Miranda, 1666

No doubt the Vatican attendees remembered the
collapse of the Jesuit Christian mission in China
when the Vatican refused to permit chanting the
Mass Chinese in the vernacular.

About a year later, Sacrosanctum
Concilium was the first
constitution to be passed nearly
unanimously by the bishops. As
O’Malley relates, “The priest,
instead of celebrating Mass with
his back to the congregation,”
“now faced the pews. This change
signified that the ceremony was
an act of worship of a gathered
community as well as a sacrifice
to God performed in the
congregation’s name.” Although
some parts of the Mass could be
chanted in Latin, “within a few
years the Mass in its entirety was
being celebrated in the
vernacular worldwide.”

(REPEAT) The Liturgy is central to the Christian experience.
O’Malley thus views this decision as crucial to the direction of
the Council, foretelling the direction of future debates, O’Malley
lists four principles key to understanding Vatican II:
• “The principle of aggiornamento, or adaptation to
contemporary circumstances.” But this decree also relied on
the “principle of ressourcement,” “a return to the ancient
sources in order to find their way. The Mass was thus not so
much ‘modernized’ as it was made to conform more closely to
fundamental and traditional values.”

• “The principle of adaptation to local circumstances.” O’Malley
quotes the decree, “The church does not wish to impose a
rigid uniformity in matters that do not involve the faith or the
good of the whole community,” enabling the church to “step
out of its European box.”
• “Principle of episcopal authority and of greater decision-
making on the local level” and episcopal collegiality.
• The final principle is encouraging the “full and active
participation of everybody present in the liturgy. This is a
principle of engagement and active responsibility, and by
implication is extends beyond the liturgy to the church at
large, to the church as the ‘people of God.’”

The Liturgy is central to the Christian
experience. O’Malley thus views this decision as
crucial to the direction of the Council, foretelling
the direction of future debates, O’Malley lists
four principles key to understanding Vatican II:
1. “The principle of aggiornamento, or
adaptation to contemporary circumstances.”
But this decree also relied on the “principle
of ressourcement,” “a return to the ancient
sources in order to find their way.
2. “The principle of adaptation to local
circumstances.”
3. “Principle of episcopal authority and of
greater decision-making on the local level”
and episcopal collegiality.
4. The final principle is encouraging the “full
and active participation of everybody present
in the liturgy.” Cardinal de Richelieu Saying Mass in the Church of
the Palais Royal, by Eugène Delacroix, 1800's

FIRST SESSION, DEI VERBUM, ON REVELATION
The Decree of Revelation, Dei Verbum, would not enjoy
clear sailing. Although it was eventually passed nearly
unanimously, it was passed late in the Fourth Session
three years later. The draft proposed by Cardinal Ottaviani
of the Curia was overly conservative and not well
received, Pope John XXIII intervened to suggest a mixed
commission representing both conservative and
progressive theologians and bishops to draft a
replacement decree.

Second Vatican Council, and Pope John XXIII, who called the council.

One key issue was the Reformation
debate on whether Scripture or
Tradition was the primary source of
Christian truth, Luther had declared
that “Scripture Alone” contained the
Christian message, forcing Catholics to
argue for the primacy of Tradition.
However, Herbert Jedine’s scholarship
on Trent revealed, in O’Malley’s words,
“that subsequent Catholic
interpretation of Trent’s few words on
the subject, used in polemic against
Protestants, had gone far beyond what
Trent intended to say.”
Martin Luther Translating the Bible, Wartburg
Castle, 1521, by Eugène Siberdt, painted 1898

The progressive council father, Yves Congar, had written a
book on the Meaning of Tradition, but he could only go back
to years following the Reformation to explore this topic,
because theologians simply did not debate this issue before
the Reformation, Scripture v. Tradition was a question that
neither the ancient Church Fathers, nor the Carolingian or
Medieval Church Fathers, discussed.
When Dei Verbum was approved, one distinguished Catholic
journal proclaimed, “We now can consider the era of the
Counter-Reformation ended and a new era for Christendom,
with unforeseen circumstances, begun.”

ENDING THE FIRST PERIOD
The conservative Cardinal Ottaviani introduced a
constitution on the church, De Ecclesia, which
sparked deep disagreements when it was being
drafted. As O’Malley noted, “the schema was
long,” including “chapters on the church militant,
on church membership, on the episcopacy, on
religious orders, on the laity, on the Magisterium”
or teaching office, “on authority and obedience in
the church, on church-state relations, and finally
on ecumenicism.” In particular, it emphasized that
“obedience to ecclesiastical, especially papal,
authority was the remedy for the ‘crisis of
authority’ in the world that afflicted even some
members of the church.”

De Smedt delivered a widely quoted speech
that even Yves Congar thought was overly
harsh, as O’Malley puts it, “he denounced the
schema for its three isms, triumphalism,
clericalism, and juridicism. The document has a
pompous and romantic style with a
‘triumphalist’ spirit, out of touch with the
reality of the humble people of God. Its
clericalism” had “everything flowing from top to
bottom, ignoring the horizontal relationships in
the church. The reality of the People of God is
more fundamental than the hierarchy of the
church. We must beware of falling into some
kind of bishop-worship or pope-worship. And
finally, the church is more our mother than a
juridical institution.” Conquistadors pray before entering Tenochtitlan, 1909

Then another bishop pointed out that the
footnotes only went back a hundred years, during
the time of the Catholic-Protestant polemic war of
words, and that there was no support cited by
either ancient or medieval Church Fathers. This
celebrated the embattled monarchial view of the
Counter-Reformation.

Before the council adjourned, Cardinal Suenens, in close
consultation with Pope John XXIII, addressed the council
and declared that a central theme was needed to give
direction to the Council. “The council should emphasize
what unites Catholics with others, not what separates
them.” “He suggested the theme, quoting from the
pope, of “the Church of Christ, light to the world,” or
Ecclesia Christi, Lumen Gentium, and Lumen Gentium
would be the name of the constitution to replace De
Ecclesia. As O’Malley states, “the theme has two parts,
the first part looks to the inner reality of the church and
asks the question, ‘What do you say of yourself?’ The
second part concerns the relationship of the church to
the world outside it, and asks questions about the
human person, about social justice, about
evangelization of the poor, about world peace.”

O’Malley continues, “The Council will
proceed with three dialogues:
• A dialogue with its own membership.
• An ecumenical dialogue with ‘brothers
and sisters not now visibly united with it.’
• And a dialogue ‘with the modern world.’”
Cardinal Suenens, speaking for the pope,
“asked that the council adopt that program
for its future work. Let us hope that this plan
that I propose will open a way for a better
hearing of the church and understanding of
it by the world today and that Christ will, for
the men and women of our times, be ever
more the way, the truth, and the light.”

“Powerful applause!” O’Malley
applauds. “This intervention did three
things:”
• “It moved the council from a
scatter-shot approach.”
• “It contributed to the growing
consensus that the original texts
needed more than touching up.”
The bishops were now expected to
be active participants in the
council.
• “This sowed the seeds” for the
drafting of a new distinctive
constitution, Gaudium et Specs,
The Church in the Modern World.
"Council ring" given to participating Cardinals

The Council adjourned the First Session with a Mass
celebrated by Pope John XXIII, which was the last
time most participants would see the pope, he
would be replaced by Pope Paul VI, who pledged to
continue the work of the council.

The body of John XXIII
in the altar of St Jerome

The Second Session began with
discussion of the new schema on the
Church, Lumen Gentium. The text
revised during the recess differed from
De Ecclesia, as O’Malley explains, “the
chapters on ecumenicism,
evangelization, religious life, and
church-state relations had to be excised
and reassigned to other commissions.
The chapters on the Magisterium and
‘obedience and authority’ in the church
had disappeared from the schema and
from the council altogether.”
Yves Congar, Vatican II Council, 1964

O’Malley continues, one obvious change was that
“with the exception of the chapter on the hierarchy,
it’s style more filled with biblical images and patristic
allusions.” “In the final version, Lumen Gentium
almost overflows with images of the church and its
members which suggest fecundity, dignity,
abundance, charism, goodness, safe-haven,
welcome, communion, tenderness, and warmth. This
style” points to “the call to holiness.” Most
significantly is added that statement that “Christ calls
every Christian to holiness and provides the grace
and other means to accomplish it, regardless of one’s
station in life. Christians fulfill the call through Love
of God and neighbor in imitation of Christ.”
Allegory of Autumn by Giovanni Paolo Castelli

Lumen Gentium refers to the church as a sacrament,
which conservatives objected to, since they thought that
the classic seven sacraments are the only sacraments.
By far the biggest controversy in Lumen Gentium was the
tension between papal authority and collegiality, or the
authority of the bishops, individually and in concert.
O’Malley spends many pages on the wrangling and
appeals to the pope on this issue, but in the end the
principal of collegiality was affirmed, as was the authority
of the pope.

Notre Dame Cathedral, and
Seven Sacraments, by Rogier
van der Weyden, circa 1450

Lumen Gentium, in the third chapter,
teaches the key theme of Vatican II that
“pastors were instituted in the church not
so that they take upon themselves the
whole burden of building up the Mystical
Body of Christ, but that they might nourish
and govern the faithful so everyone would
cooperate in accomplishing the common
task.” “Reverence and obedience are due to
pastors, but equal reverence is due to those
in the church impelled by the Spirit, who
are often laymen.”
St Thomas touching mystical body of Christ, Titian’s workshop, 1500’s

This is what Lumen Gentium
says about infallibility: “The
people of Christ as a whole
are infallible in their faith
when that faith represents a
consensus. Such infallibility
is a charism that of course
includes bishops and the
pope but does not rest
exclusively in them.” Debate
on Lumen Gentium
continued in the next
session with few changes.

One reform in Lumen Gentium was to reinstate the diaconate in
the Church, a lower level of clergy, and permit married men to
serve in the diaconate, which was somewhat controversial.
ECUMENICISM, SECOND SESSION ENDS
The widespread support for ecumenicism was, in part, a
response to the World War II experience, where both Catholics
and Protestants resisted the Nazi regimes of Hitler’s Germany
and Vichy France. For example, during the war Yves Congar
developed many friendships with Protestants as a French
prisoner of war, his was not a unique experience.

Blitzkrieg, Invasion of France

Before Vatican II Catholicism was
hostile to ecumenicism. O’Malley tells
us that during the debates Cardinal
Ruffini summarized the “Catholic
apologetics in every seminary
textbook:
• Christ founded only one church, the
Roman Church.
• Faults cannot be attributed to the
church but only to its members.
• To leave the church because of its
sinful members is itself a sin.
• The one true church fervently
hopes for the return of Protestants.
• Dialogue with non-Catholics is good
only if done according to the
guidelines the Holy See will
publish.”

Missing from the document on
ecumenicism is the call for non-
Catholics to return to the Catholic
Church. The document laid out
some principles on Ecumenicism,
that “change of heart and
holiness of life, along with public
and private prayer for the unity of
Christians, should be regarded as
the heart of the whole
ecumenical movement.” O’Malley
adds that “theology should be
taught from an ecumenical
viewpoint, not polemically.”
Pope Paul VI presiding over the introductory ingress
of the council, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani (left)

This decree on Ecumenicism was held over to the next
session, but the cause of ecumenicism was advanced
when Pope Paul VI announced that he would go on a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which was the first time a
pope had left Italy voluntarily for over five hundred
years. The pope would also visit the Greek Orthodox
patriarch Athenagoras, and at the conclusion of the
Council they would revoke the joint Catholic-
Orthodox excommunications from many centuries
previous.

Pope Paul VI on Mount Tabor, 1964

THE THIRD SESSION
What was happening in the world at this time? President
Kennedy had been assassinated, then his assassin was
assassinated, the Vietnam War was accelerating, and
French troops finally left Algeria.
There was debate from a vocal minority who insisted that
the principle of collegiality in Lumen Gentium posed a
mortal danger to the church, and this vocal minority
constantly badgered the pope, but the overwhelming
majority voted for collegiality and the final document.

It had only been twenty years since the world learned the full horror of
the Nazi concentration camps where millions of Jews had died. The
World Council of Churches had urged all churches to condemn anti-
Semitism, so originally the council had planned on a short schema On
the Jews. This led to fears in the Arab world that the Vatican planned to
recognize the state of Israel, leading to violent riots in many Arab cities
and Eastern bishops fearing for the safety of Christians in their region, so
then it was included in a schema On the Jews and Non-Christians. There
was still diplomatic pressure on the Vatican, so Pope Paul VI intervened
so the chapters on the Jews would be included in Lumen Gentium.

Young survivors at the camp, liberated
by the Red Army in January 1945

Polish prisoners in Dachau toast their liberation.

The problem was that anti-Semitic stances were
justified in the past by passages in John that
referred to the Jews as enemies of Christ, and
the famous verse in Matthew where the mob at
Christ’s trial shouted to Pilate, “His blood be
upon us and our children.” Nevertheless, when
Cardinal Bea addressed the council, he
immediately addressed the issue of deicide,
whether the Jews were guilty of murdering God.
As O’Malley relates the speech, “the leaders of
the Jewish Sanhedrin who” condemned Jesus
“were only a tiny percentage of the Jewish
people. We cannot attribute to a few people
what a few leaders perpetrated. And how can
we say that even those leaders knowingly
committed deicide when Jesus Himself asked
the Father to ‘forgive them for they know not
what they do?’”
Ecce Homo (Behold the Man!), by Antonio Ciseri, 1880

Dei Verbum was discussed, it
evaded the historical Scripture-
Tradition debate by saying the
“God is the source of revelation,
not Scripture or Tradition as such.”
“The schema innovated by
presenting Tradition in a more
dynamic way, as in a symbiotic
relationship to Scripture and as
the vital principle in the church of
the transmission and
interpretation of what God had
revealed.” “Moreover, Tradition
‘progresses’ over time, as
understanding increases with
reflection and experience.”
Bishops at the Second Vatican Council

There was also discussion on what
would become Gaudium et Spes,
the Constitution of the Church in
the Modern World. Human dignity
is a major theme, including the
dignity of human labor and the
dignity of the family. O’Malley
notes that “running through the
text were themes of human
solidarity across ethnic, racial,
religious, and socioeconomic
differences and of the obligation of
all peoples to work together for a
safer and more just world.” Council Fathers and secretaries leaving St. Peter's Basilica

The chapter on the Dignity of Marriage and the
Family departed from the traditional textbook
terms of the primary ends of marriage, the
procreation of children, and the secondary ends
of marriage, which “remedies concupiscence
and the mutual help of the spouses.” As
O’Malley states, “the document instead spoke
at length about the holiness and goodness of
the love that bound the spouses; only then did
it mention children as the fulfillment of that
love. Second, it made the consciences of the
spouses the deciding factor for the number of
children they should bear.” These were themes
that Pope John Paul II would adopt in his
teachings on the Theology of the Body. “Finally,
the schema did not explicitly reaffirm a
condemnation of birth control.”
The Marriage at Cana, by Maerten de Voos, 1597

FOURTH SESSION
The decree On the Jews and the Non-Christian Religions was now
named Nostra Aetate, or “In Our Times,” which was the first line
of the text. As O’Malley puts it, “instead of beginning with the
Jews, it began with the common origin and destiny of humanity.”
Then it discussed Hinduism and Buddhism, followed by a long
section on Muslims, and discussed Jews before the conclusion.
But the clause condemning deicide was still causing problems,
Arab states thought this had a political agenda, there were riots,
and Eastern bishops were concerned. So, Pope Paul VI intervened
to exclude the denial of the guilt of deicide from the text.

As O’Malley puts it, “instead of beginning
with the Jews, Nostra Aetate began with the
common origin and destiny of humanity.”

Pope Paul VI wanted the council to pass the Decree on Religious
Liberty before his planned speech before the United Nations, he
did not want to be embarrassed by hundreds of bishops voting
against freedom of religion. Was this a contest between bishops
of predominantly Catholic countries, who believed the state
should enforce religious conformity, versus the minority Catholic
countries, including the communist countries, where freedom of
religion guaranteed the freedom of Catholics to follow their
faith?
Indeed, the debate really did break down along those lines.

A procession of
Cardinals enters St.
Peter's in Rome,
opening the Second
Vatican Council.
Painting by Franklin
McMahon

The speech by the unrelated Joseph Lefebvre
helped sway many bishops to support the
decree. His argument as summarized by
O’Malley:
• “First, the decree would not foster
subjectivism and religious indifference;
• Second, it would not mean that the council
abdicated the position that the Catholic Church
was the only church of Jesus Christ;
• Third, it would not have a bad effect because
of the dissemination of error;
• Fourth, it would not diminish missionary spirit;
• Fifth, it does not exalt human beings at God’s
expense;
• Sixth, it does not contradict church tradition.”

The vote was taken, and it passed with a ninety percent majority.
Next the Council discussed the very long Gaudium et Spes, On
the Church in the Modern World. One challenge was that Pope
Paul VI did not want the council to drag out into a fifth session,
and Gaudium et Spes was LONG. Unfortunately, the prominent
German theologians Karl Rahner and Cardinal Ratzinger, the
future Pope Benedict, had misgivings about the text. Fortunately,
they were added to the committee modifying the text, which
resolved the problem of their opposition.

The chapters in Part I of Gaudium et Spes are:
• Vocation of the human person.
• The human community.
• The significance of human activity in the world.
• Role of the church in the modern world.

One issue was whether communism should be
condemned. Since this had already been done,
bishops from communist countries urged caution,
fearing this would invite persecution, so no new
condemnation was issued.

Lenin speaking, Bolshevik Revolution, 1930

In the discussions on Part II and political life,
they discussed the sections on nuclear arms
and warfare. Coincidentally, at this time Pope
Paul VI was addressing the United Nations in
New York, discussing many of the same topics.
In his speech, with deep emotion, he
exclaimed, “No more war! War never again! It
is peace, peace that must guide the destiny of
the people of the world and of all humanity.”
Pope Paul VI also said, “What you proclaim
here is the rights and fundamental duties of
human beings, their dignity, their liberty, and
above all their religious liberty.” Just a few
years earlier it would have been unthinkable
for a pope to say such things publicly in a
speech for the world to hear.

At the Council Ottaviani asserted, “War must be
completely outlawed.” In the nuclear age, the prior
doctrine of just wars is obsolete. Should they
condone stockpiling of nuclear weapons to
guarantee peace? The text said yes, few were happy
with this assertion.

On the section on marriage, the decree insisted on “the equal
personal dignity that must be accorded to man and wife in
mutual and unreserved affection.” O’Malley lists many small
changes made to the many decrees ratified in this session. In the
closing session, attended by Pope Paul VI, “the Joint Declaration
of Pope Paul VI and the Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras was
read regretting the excommunication of the Greeks by the Latins
and the Latins by the Greeks in 1054, acknowledging the
responsibility for both sides for the tragedy, and promising to
work toward a full communion between the two churches.”
NOTE: The Declaration does not say UNION, but full communion.

The Wedding at Cana, by Adam van Noort, late 1600’s

Marriage at Cana,
by Cornelis de
Bailleur, 1600’s

-
Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras

There were many non-controversial decrees passed with
little controversy we did not discuss, we will discuss many
in our future videos, especially when they are referenced
by the Catholic Catechism, which we will study over the
next few years. There was great debate over the four
constitutions, which we discussed.

VATICAN II CONSTITUTIONS
• Lumen gentium (Light of the Nations), Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church.
• Dei verbum (Word of God), Dogmatic Constitution on
Divine Revelation.
• Sacrosanctum Concilium (This Sacred Council),
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
• Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope), the Pastoral
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

In practice there was little difference between the
Declarations and Decrees in their effect, the controversial
declarations are in bold-face, and these two declarations
on religious liberty and practice in some ways are as
influential as the constitutions, which is why we discussed
the Declaration of Religious Liberty first in its own separate
video.

VATICAN II DECLARATIONS
• Nostra Aetate (In our time), Declaration on the
Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions.
• Dignitatis Humanae (Of the Dignity of the Human
Person), Declaration on Religious Freedom.
• Gravissimum Educationis (On Education), Declaration
on Christian Education.

The decrees and declarations included those on the
Eastern Churches, social communication, education and
the priesthood.

VATICAN II DECREES
• Christus Dominus, (Christ the Lord) Decree on the
Pastoral Office of Bishops.
• Presbyterorum Ordinis, (Order of Priests) Decree on
the Ministry and Life of Priests.
• Optatam Totius, (Desired renewal of the whole
church) the Decree on Priestly Training.
• Perfectæ Caritatis (of Perfect Charity), Decree on the
Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life.

VATICAN II DECREES
• Apostolicam Actuositatem (Apostolic Activity),
Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity.
• Orientalium Ecclesiarum (Of the Eastern
Churches), Decree on the Eastern Churches.
• Unitatis Redintegratio (Restoration of unity),
Decree on Ecumenism.
• Ad Gentes (To the Nations), Decree on
Missionary Activity.
• Inter Mirifica (Among the wonderful), Decree
on the Media of Social Communication.

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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William O'Malley's History of Vatican II: Catholic Church Opens Its Windows to the Modern World

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