JESUS CARITAS

1969-2009: Our diocese at 40 years of age

Part three: Building on Vatican II

By Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted | Feb. 5, 2009 | The Catholic Sun 

In part two of this series, we looked at what Vatican II aimed to do and at some of the difficulties encountered in its implementation. Since our diocese was begun only four years after the Council, both the turmoil faced after it and the fruit that has come from it have been a significant part of our diocesan and parish life.

Now, with the help of Pope Benedict XVI, let us look at two key ideas that were at work during the Council, and then see how differently they were utilized in its implementation. The two ideas are represented by an Italian word and a French word: aggiornamento and resourcement. The first of these words was given great emphasis in the years after Vatican II, while the second unfortunately was not.

Aggiornamento — bringing up to date

After World War II, and especially in the 1950s, there were many theologians and others in the Church who recognized the need for the Church to update itself so as to find new and better ways of bringing the Gospel of Christ to our contemporaries. With the many advances that had taken place in communications, travel, health care and technology, the Church needed to take steps in order more effectively to fulfill her mission from Christ.

Pope John XXIII himself embraced this notion. In his opening speech to the Council Fathers, he said, “In fact, by bringing herself up to date where required, and by the wise organization of mutual cooperation, the Church will make men and women, families, and peoples really turn their minds to heavenly things.” The Holy Father thought that some members of the Church at that time looked upon modernity with excessive caution and pessimism.

In that same opening speech, John XXIII candidly observed, “In these modern times [some] can see nothing but prevarication and ruin. They say that our era, in comparison with past eras, is getting worse, and they behave as though they had learned nothing from history, which is, nonetheless, the teacher of life… We feel we must disagree with these prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand. In the present order of things, Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by people’s own efforts and even beyond their very expectations, are directed toward the fulfillment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs. And everything, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the Church.” There can be no doubt that John XXIII was firmly committed to aggiornamento, the updating of the Church.

Resourcement — returning to the sources

John XXIII also believed that this updating would be successful to the degree that it was firmly grounded in the Church’s Tradition. In that same opening speech, he said, “Ecumenical Councils, whenever they are assembled, are a solemn celebration of the union of Christ and His Church, and hence lead to the universal radiation of truth, to the proper guidance of individuals in domestic and social life, to the strengthening of spiritual energies for a perennial uplift toward real and everlasting goodness. The testimony of this extraordinary magisterium of the Church in the succeeding epochs of these twenty centuries of Christian history stands before us.”

The Second Vatican Council did not arise out of an intellectual or spiritual vacuum. The 1940s and 1950s had witnessed a great awakening of new scholarship within the Church, especially Biblical studies, liturgical studies and historical studies focusing in particular on the Fathers of the Church. This return to the sources of the Church’s spiritual and intellectual vitality aroused an interest among many scholars and others about the rich and dynamic heritage of Christianity that was not so evident in the neo-scholastic theology that was prevalent prior to Vatican II.

Scholars rejoiced in these new theological, liturgical and historical investigations because the discoveries held more than a historical interest to them. They threw light on contemporary problems and suggested new insights and practices that would make the Church more effective in her efforts to engage contemporary cultures.

What went wrong after Vatican II

In the implementation that took place after the Second Vatican Council, the dynamic forces of aggiornamento were thrust prominently to the fore and those of resourcement were largely forgotten. As a result, seldom did the two-way dialogue between these two dynamic forces take place, leaving the impression to many that there was a discontinuity between the Church’s life before the Council and after it. Aggiornamento, cut loose from its ties with resourcement led to a kind of deconstruction of tradition within the Church.

In his book, “The Theology of Joseph Ratzinger,” Aidan Nichols describes the results in this way (p. 296), “Once aggiornamento had parted company from resourcement, adaptation could degenerate into mere accommodation to habits of mind and behavior in secular culture.” Instead of having on-going contact with the rich sources of their tradition, insuring an authentic development of that same tradition, adaptations occurred which were inspired by modern culture, not the on-going life of the Church.

Ten years after the Council, Cardinal Ratzinger had the following sad commentary on its implementation (“Ratzinger Report,” p. 29-30), “It is incontestable that the last ten years have been decidedly unfavorable for the Catholic Church. Developments since the Council seem to be in striking contrast to the expectations of all, beginning with those of John XXIII and Paul VI… What the Popes and the Council Fathers were expecting was a new Catholic unity, and instead one has encountered a dissension which — to use the words of Paul VI — seems to have passed over from self-criticism to self-destruction. There had been the expectation of a new enthusiasm, and instead too often it has ended in boredom and discouragement. There had been the expectation of a step forward, and instead one found oneself facing a progressive process of decadence that to a large measure has been unfolding under the sign of a summons to a presumed ‘spirit of the Council’ and by so doing has actually and increasingly discredited it.”

What was the solution proposed by then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI)? What was needed, he said, was aggiornamento linked firmly with resourcement; and the sources to be taken up included the teachings of Vatican II itself (read objectively), not only those from the Church’s earlier tradition.

This return to the actual texts of Vatican II in order to implement them faithfully advanced in earnest during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II and gained great momentum during the 1990s, with the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992, his encyclical on moral theology “The Splendor of Truth” in 1993, his encyclical “The Gospel of Life” in 1995, and his encyclical “Faith and Reason” in 1998.

The Diocese of Phoenix has weathered the spiritual and pastoral storms that buffeted the Church since Vatican II. We have suffered from the dissension and confusion of its earlier implementation and have profited from its more balanced implementation in the last 20 years. While that implementation is not yet completed and we still suffer from some of the after-effects of poor implementation, the fruits of the Council are more and more evident. Pope Benedict himself has shown his confidence that Vatican II’s proper implementation is well underway by the fact that he has not deemed it necessary to write a major document on this topic. Instead, he has focused our attention on the deepest truths of our faith: the love of God in his encyclical “Deus Caritas Est,” Christian hope in his encyclical “Spe Salvi,” and the Eucharist in his Apostolic Exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis.” We would do well to follow his lead in the years ahead.