Vatican II at 50: Male and Female, God Created Them
The recent election in the United States is being viewed as a breakthrough for women. The new Congress that will convene in January will include a record number of women: 20 senators and at least 81 representatives. Not only that, New Hampshire will be the first state to send an all-female delegation to Congress. And the South Carolina Senate, currently all-male, will see its first female Senator. Though still a minority in a male-dominated legislature, a larger presence of women is likely to add new and different perspectives to issues that affect all citizens.
This idea was echoed by Cardinal Leo Jozef Suenens of Belgium at the end of the second session of the Second Vatican Council when he asked his fellow bishops: “Why are we even discussing the reality of the church when half of the church is not even represented here?” He was referring to the fact that midway through Vatican II in 1965, the Council was totally male—some 2,500 bishops and 400 theologians. That prompted Pope Paul VI to appoint 15 women, both lay and religious, as “auditors.” That number increased to 23 women by the Council’s end. The women were silent observers, yet their presence spoke volumes. They paved the way for generations to come.
Since the Council, female involvement in the Church has grown steadily. Fifty years ago, it would have been unheard of to listen to women proclaim scripture or to see girls serve at the altar. A recent study compiled by the Center for Research in the Apostolate claims that more than half (57%) of lay leadership in parishes are women. Women have a long way to go before they are considered equal in the eyes of a male-dominated church and society, still, their presence is invaluable as recognized by the voters in the previous election, and by persons like Cardinal Suenens. As we continue to reflect upon how the Second Vatican Council changed the way we view ourselves and the world, we would do well to remember St. Paul’s charge to the Galatians some 2,000 years before: All of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with him. There does not exist among you Jew or Greek, slave or freeman, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.
Vatican II at 50: Waves of our Baptism
In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy lessons about
preparedness, presumptions and priorities are being discussed and debated. But, the most daunting teacher, both overt
and subtle, is the water itself.
Water left its mark in saltwater stains, waterlogged
homes, and ships carried far from their moorings, in destruction, devastation
and death. The power of water has once
again taught us some key lessons about the vulnerability and value of human life. Water is the primary symbol of our baptism. In baptism, we celebrate the vulnerability and value of human life. As we yield to the power of the water in baptism, we surrender ourselves to a lifelong relationship with the triune God and with the community of believers, whatever that brings. Perhaps this is why the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council kept returning to baptism as the foundation of its teachings, especially its teachings on the liturgy:
The Church earnestly desires that all the faithful be led to that full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations called for by the very nature of the liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” is their right and duty by reason of their baptism. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy #14
Our baptism gives us the grace we need to be vulnerable enough to sing and to pray fully, consciously and actively. Our baptism helps us to value one another as children of the same God. Our baptism binds us to Christ, a foundation that could never be swept out to sea or shaken from its moorings. If we take our baptism seriously and keep learning from the water, we would create a continuous storm surge of love for the life of the world.
Vatican II at 50: Oh, When the Saints...
Two weeks, ago Pope Benedict canonized seven new
saints, including the Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American from North
America to be canonized. Catholics in the United States will celebrate
and remember St. Kateri on July 14th, while Catholics in her native
Canada will remember her on April 17th, the date of her death. Throughout the church year, we remember many
men and women whom the Church recognizes as saints. By the time of the Second Vatican Council, the
liturgical calendar had become overwhelmed by the huge numbers of saints’ days. So, the council recommended some changes:
Lest the
feasts of the saints take precedence over the feasts commemorating the very mysteries
of salvation, many of them should be left to be celebrated by a particular
Church or nation or religious family; those only should be extended to the
universal Church that commemorate saints of truly universal significance. The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, #111As a result, the post-Vatican II study group charged with implementing the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy simplified the liturgical calendar. Many saints were removed. Wherever possible, the celebration of the saints’ remembrance was moved to the date of their death. On the previous calendar, many of the saints hailed from Europe. The revised calendar made room for saints from other parts of the world and gave conferences of bishops the freedom to include saints from their particular countries on their respective calendars.
As mentioned, the new calendar resulted in many saints being dropped, one of the most notable being St. Christopher. Before the Church established a formal canonization process, many saints were named based on popular approval rather than historical evidence. Christopher was one of them. Very little is known about Christopher, thus he was dropped from the official liturgical calendar. But the Church still remembers him as a martyr and counts him among its list of saints. In Greek, the name Christopher means Christ-bearer. In this month of remembering the saints, let us remember Vatican II’s call to holiness and let us pray for the courage to be Christ-bearers to everyone we meet.
Vatican II at 50: The Harvest of Vatican II
Glorious fall days, clear crisp autumn evenings,
apple-picking and pumpkin pies announce the time of harvest. Up until the 16th century when
most people worked the land the term “harvest” was used to refer to this time
of year. When we go to the grocery store
or farmers’ market or eat the food set before us, few of us think of the
farmers who planted the seeds, the hands which worked the land, or the workers
who gathered the crops that we may be nourished to continue our living. In the same way, few of us think of Thomas
Edison when we turn on our lights or Charles Babbage when we turn on our
computers or Karl Benz when we start our cars.
We simply enjoy the fruits of the seeds planted long ago by people we
never knew.
As we commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the Second Vatican Council, it’s worth our while to reflect on those who
planted the seeds of the liturgical reform:
Pope Pius XII (1876-1958) who called for reforms in the liturgy in his
encyclical Mediator Dei; Benedictine Monk Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875) who ignited a
new interest in the liturgy by re-founding the monastery of Solesmes in France
and inspired liturgically-centered
monastic communities around the world; Belgian
Lambert Beauduin (1873-1960) who called for the faithful
to be fully active in their faith, especially in the liturgy, and developed a
plan to have the Roman Missal translated into the vernacular, and who in 1924
held the first dialogue Mass at Maria Laach Abbey in Germany; Cardinal Augustin
Bea (1881-1968) who argued to expand the one-year cycle of the Lectionary so
that the faithful could hear more of the Bible proclaimed in the liturgy; American Benedictine Dom Virgil Michel
(1890-1938) who pointed out that liturgy should ultimately lead to social
justice. In fact, all of these
liturgical pioneers had a broad and hopeful vision in mind--that the renewal of
the liturgy would ultimately lead to rebirth of society at large. Fifty years later, we have had liturgical
renewal. Our liturgical pioneers planted
the seeds. We are the workers in the
fields. When we decide to reap fully
the liturgical banquet set before us, we will truly reap the harvest of their
vision and plant the seeds of justice for future generations.Vatican II at 50: It's debatable
‘Tis the season for debates. Viewers in the United States are tuning in to watch the presidential candidates wrestle, wrangle and dispute each other’s past while portraying their plans for a brighter future. Meanwhile, political-psychoanalyst commentators attempt to shed their light by watching every gesture, listening to every inflection, and tracking every truth as tweets and facebook posts light up the broadband. At the end of every debate it seems it all comes down to one question: who won?
The debates at the Second Vatican Council some fifty years ago were no less fiery than the Obama-Romney, Biden-Ryan contests. Council Fathers had hot and heavy arguments over whether the Church should change or stay the same, over religious liberty, over the use of the vernacular in the liturgy, and so on. One debate left one Cardinal feeling so humiliated that he boycotted the Council for the next two weeks!
Many would argue that it wasn’t the liberals or the conservatives who ultimately won the debates at Vatican II, but the “People of God.” But, victory is short-lived. Fifty years later, we find many of the debates seemingly settled at Vatican II still being discussed as open questions today. We would do well to remember the quote used consistently at the Council by Pope John XXIII who convened it: “In essential things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.” This sums up the essential elements of Vatican II: That the “People of God” who truly know themselves as freed and forgiven can authentically embrace the world, including those across the political divide, with charity and love. In that there is no debate.