The future Blessed Pope John XXIII, born Angelo Giuseppe
Roncalli’s vision stretched far, very far.
Vatican II had to return to
its evangelical roots and get rid of the shell that had built up around
it over the centuries, driving it further and further away from its
Master.
“There will never be a Pius XIII”: to understand the meaning of Jean
Guitton’s phrase, the radical “renewal” triggered in the Church by the
Second Vatican Council needs to be taken further as the book “Il segreto dei papi”
(“The Popes’ secret”) by Bernard Lecomte, currently editor in chief of
Figaro magazine and former world affairs editor for La Croix (San Paolo
publishers, 250 pages, Euro 16).
A moving episode inspires the birth of the meeting. On 23 September
1962 John XXIII was reaching the end of his spiritual retreat in the
oratory of Torre San Giovanni (Southern Italy) two steps away from the
apostolic palace, when his doctor asked to see him.
During those final
days, the elderly Pope underwent some tests with utmost confidentiality.
The test results showed there was no hope and confirmed his suspicions
about his health.
He was a goner. It was certain he would not see it
through to the end of the Council. He had nothing to lose.
Pope John
XXIII sat at his desk on the third floor of the Apostolic Palace and
started to write the speech he was going to give on 11 October, the day
of the inauguration of the Second Vatican Council, in St. Peter’s
Basilica. He just reeled it off, without any notes. And without any
assistants, except from an abbot who took care of the text’s translation
into Latin.
The work John XXIII did to explain that the Council must allow the
Church to “dedicate itself resolutely and fearlessly to the task which
our times require”, was all his own, the writes says. Roncalli severely
criticises “the prophets of misfortune” that surround him and affirms
that the Church “prefers to use the medicine of charity instead of
taking up the weapons of severity.”
Roncalli wrote without fear.
The
“good Pope” intentionally and confidently presented a vision of the
Catholics of the future.
“It’s the story of a fluctuating Church – Bernard Lecomte comments-.
That day, Pius XII died a second death.” On the evening of 11 October
1962, the day of the inauguration of the Second Vatican Council, “John
XXIII was very tired, he was practically dragging himself along,” said
Archbishop Loris Capovilla, the Pope’s secretary at the time.
This fact
explains the Bergamascan Pope’s initial hesitation when asked to greet
the crowd that had spontaneously gathered in St. Peter’s Square, to
which he addressed those memorable words about the Moon and sending a
caress to those children who stayed at home. After his famous improvised
speech, the prelate revealed, “he asked me how it had gone and if I was
satisfied. I assured him that no one had expected such a heavy and
important reflection. The echoes of applause, song and prayer could
still be heard from the square.
But the Pope could not hear anything. He grimaced and simply
whispered: “pain”. He could not hear well. He was in pain. I was worried
because it was incredibly windy that night. He had been exposed to the
wind for too long. He saw the look of concern on my face and smiled.
Then he said to me: “Everything is grace. Pain is God’s grace, so don’t
be worried.”
He reminded me of Thérèse of
Lisieux’s final moments, when she reassured her nurse who had just seen
her coughing up more blood and was worried because it was night time
and she would never have managed to get hold of a doctor. “Sister, she
said, do not worry: everything is the grace of God.”
The Pope went towards his bed, repeating again and again: “Everything
is God’s grace.”
Before Vatican II, mass was celebrated in Latin, which
only priests understood, and the priest had his back to the
congregation. The Bible was an unknown object to faithful; hardly anyone
had one at home or was able to read it.
At the time, non Catholics were
looked upon with distrust and Jews were treated with hostility and
suspicion despite the fact that John XXIII had requested they no longer
be described as “wicked” during liturgical prayer.
Roncalli’s hopeful
way of looking at the world had not shaped the Church accordingly and
theological and cultural disagreements between the clergy and faithful
were rife. Churches in the Third World and the poor were not at the
centre of the Roman Catholic Church’s attention. It was the ecumenical
Council, all Catholic bishops in the Vatican and the “general states” of
the Church against the whole world. It shaped the Church as we know it
today and today’s experience of millions of faithful.
This is despite the fact that it was not born out of nothing, but is
deeply rooted in biblical, liturgical and ecumenical movements, which
had triggered significant steps forward in the early 20th
century.
The Council has introduced significant updates to the liturgy,
biblical studies and dialogue with other Churches. It reaffirmed the
rights of faithful, including that of religious freedom. It gave lay
people a new and more active role in the Church. It would be wrong to
reduce Vatican II to a set of approved documents, even though in certain
cases these are absolutely innovative from an ecclesial and cultural
point of view.
Through the use of spoken languages, the leading role of
faithful in the liturgical assembly, the adoption of sometimes divisive
musical methods and of musical languages, the new Mass deeply
transformed the life of Catholics throughout the world.
A new era began
with the approval of the constitution “Sacrosanctum Concilium” which
reformed the liturgy in December 1963. The Church would no longer be the
same again. Vatican II essentially marked a watershed moment which
changed the face of the Church.
It was a grandiose event: three thousand bishops (2090 from Europe
and the American continent, 408 from Asia, 351 from Africa and 74 from
Oceania) gathered in St. Peter’s for a dialogue with modernity. The
greatest meeting in Christianity was announced on 25 January 1962 and
began on 11 October 1962.
Vatican II, the twenty first Council in the
History of the Church drew to a close three years later, on 8 December
1965. Called by John XXIII, it was led and concluded by Paul VI. Of the
almost three thousand participants, only 96 are still alive.
Ratzinger
attended the Council as an advisor to the Archbishop of Cologne, Josef
Frings - an opponent of Cardinal Ottaviani, prefect of the Holy Office
and president of the theological commission – who was trying to impede
reform.