Quote of the Day (Fr. John W. O’Malley, on How Vatican II Differed From Prior Councils)

“A feature that most obviously distinguishes Vatican II from all previous councils is the new style in which it formulates its enactments. Unlike previous councils, Vatican II did not operate as a legislative and judicial body in the traditional sense of those terms. It laid down certain principles but did not, like previous councils, produce a body of ordinances prescribing or proscribing modes of behavior, with penalties attached for nonobservance. It tried no ecclesiastical criminals and issued no verdicts of guilty or not guilty. It most characteristically employed a vocabulary new for councils, a vocabulary filled with words implying collegiality, reciprocity, tolerance, friendship and the search for common ground. Instead of ignoring this distinctive feature, explanation and analysis of the documents’ literary form seem to be indispensable for understanding the council.” — John W. O’Malley, S.J., “Misdirections: Ten Sure-Fire Ways to Mix Up the Teachings of Vatican II,” America, Feb. 4, 2013

Quote of the Day (Cardinal Suenens, on Vatican II and Renewal)

“Vatican II was the heir of those great movements of renewal which were and are stirring in the heart of the modern Church; the biblical, liturgical, patristic, theological and pastoral renewals. The Council caught and channeled these currents, and, under the influence of the Spirit, made of them mighty rivers whose strong currents caused the waters to penetrate deeply into the heart of the sea.”-- Leo Jozef Cardinal Suenens (1904-96), “Our Church” (1970)

Quote of the Day (Fr. Hans Kung, on the ‘Roman Way’)

Q: “But hasn’t John Paul II given Communion to non-Catholics, making exceptions every now and then?”

A: “Of course he made exceptions, and probably also Cardinal Ratzinger [later Pope Benedict XVI] has made exceptions. That is the Roman way: to give favors to the favorites. It is an indication that they are not honest in this issue. If they would be honest, they would permit the others what they do themselves.”—Hans Kung quoted in Laura Sheahen, “Towards a 'Continual Reform of the Church': Interview with Hans Kung,” Beliefnet, February 2004

Today marks the 85^th birthday of Dr. Hans Kung, the Swiss-born prelate who is the last surviving the last surviving theological adviser to Vatican II. In 1979, the Vatican stripped him of his authority to teach Catholic theology, though he remains a priest in good standing. In the decades since, he has tangled with the man whose hiring he had once urged at the University of Tubingen in Germany, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict VI). (One notably exception to this: a surprising talk the two had during Benedict's term as pope, when the cordiality of the meeting was largely maintained by sticking to subjects they could agree on.)

Some of Kung’s positions—notably, a call for “voluntary euthanasia”—are highly questionable. But the Church hierarchy swung into action against him most of all because of his criticism of its retreat from the Vatican II ideals of openness, with his broadsides against papal infallibility counting most heavily against him.

Through the years, the Church has been filled with theologians (e.g., Teilhard de Chardin) and even saints who have run afoul of its governing body from the Middle Ages, the Curia, only to be rehabilitated at a later time. Kung might not live enough to see the “Vatican Spring” he has called for, but in years to come he will be seen as a prophetic voice against a “Roman way” of hypocrisy and lack of internal dialogue, I'm sure. His tart response to the question above indicates impatience with a governing body unnecessarily arbitrary and petty.

(Photo of Hans Kung from 2009.)

 

Quote of the Day (Teilhard de Chardin, on 3 “Weak Stones” in the Church)

“It has sometimes seemed to me there are three weak stones sitting dangerously in the foundations of the modern Church: first, a government that excludes democracy; second, a priesthood that excludes and minimizes women; third, a revelation that excludes, for the future, prophecy.”--French priest-paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Letter to Christophe de Gaudefroy, October 7, 1929, Lettres inedites

Today marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of a thinker who would find himself profoundly outside the mainstream of both current Vatican thinking and atheist-scientists on today's bestseller list—a man who felt that science would be “increasingly impregnated by mysticism,” but who also observed with unblinking eyes an institution he nevertheless loved and obeyed, no matter what it cost him mentally.

During his ministry, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was continually forced to defend his theories by reactionary forces in Rome. He did not live to see the triumph of his thinking at Vatican II. In the years since, he has become a model of prayerful, expectant waiting for change within the Roman Catholic Church—an attitude forged in the crucible of WWI, when, despite seeing untold horrors, he continued to believe that Christ would redeem the carnage. As he wrote his cousin Marguerite:

“Only the image of the crucified can sum up, express and relieve all the horror, and beauty, all the hope and deep mystery in such an avalanche of conflict and sorrows. As I looked at this scene of bitter toil, I felt completely overcome by the thought that I had the honour of standing at one of the two or three spots on which, at this very moment, the whole life of the universe surges and ebbs places of pain but it is there that a great future (this I believe more and more) is taking shape."