V. II is easy reading. And it's fun.
There's just sixteen documents: 9 decrees, 3 declarations and 4 constitutions (only two are "dogmatic").
Everybody has their favorite and mine is the Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity (Ad Gentes).
Among English-speakers there are many myths about the Vatican Council. Meanwhile, nobody has taken the time to read two bits of it.
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Great advice. For years, I have put of reading the text. After Pope Benedict's December 2005 Address to the Roman Curia on the Hermeneutic of Continuity I had decided that the time had come to read the text. I was surprised to find that much of what had prevented me from reading the texts were only myths.
To fully understated the seriously ambiguous documents of The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) Catholics need to understand the theology from which thy came.
NO! JP, they are certainly not easy to read!
True nobdy has taken the time to read the Council.
These same persons who continuously lament the departure of past times have been untrue to themselves and others by not reading and knowing what the Council says.
The whole concern with the documents of the Council is education in one form or another. This is because to educate is a prime function of the Church as teacher of mankind and is put into clear focus in the Council.
Interesting to note in the documents of the Council is that it (the Council Fathers) limit themselves to strong statements of basic positions. It really is not much new, except to get along better with the world.
It was a time, as today, when the role of the Church in education was challenged. This had been a growing threat in Catholic countries even before the Council.
In the framework of moral formation, do not fear the Council as Protestants fear the Catechism.
Dear Orbis Catholicus,
In late 2005 our priest, then a member of the FSSP, held a series of classes on the documents of Vatican II. All of us attending the classes attend the EF of the Mass, but some the OF as well. The classes were beneficial and I suspect those imbued with 'the spirit of Vatican II' would also benefit.
As for the comment about the theology, which informed the documents, well the bishops in attendance were the products of the pre-Vatican II seminaries. Cardinal Stafford's recent comments on the reception of Humanae Vitae in the USA shows the
difficulties existing among many clergy who had attended seminaries in the 1940's and 1950's.
There are no monocasual explanations for the problems facing the Church though the devil's temptations are always there.
In Christo,
Anthony Bidgood
My favorite is the Decree on Priests.
It is a bore how Vatican Two go on and on about "renewal" within the Church; the "spread" of the gospel throughout the world; and of "dialogue" with the modern world, but that was the '60s!
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