Fr. John O’Malley, SJ, author of What Happened at Vatican II, about which see here and here, recently spoke at Vanderbilt University on Vatican II. In the first video, below, he gives an excellent context for the the entire council. The second video here – scroll down and click on the second picture of him – treats how to interpret Scrsosanctum concilium in particular.
Sacrosanctum Concilium at 47: John O’Malley video
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2 responses to “Sacrosanctum Concilium at 47: John O’Malley video”
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A marvellous talk, a fine antidote to much of the tripe blogged about the Council.
The second part may be even better. It is a nuanced presentation of the famous hermeneutic question – how should we interpret the Council?
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O’Malley offers a way of exalting Vatican II without a polarizing interpretation.
O’Malley’s highlighting the immensity of Vatican II (the largest meeting in the history of the world, central to the 20th Century) promotes Catholicism. A hermeneutic of rupture fails to promote Catholicism by underestimating continuity; a hermeneutic of continuity fails to promote the vitality of Catholicism and the importance of reform for Christian life.
O’Malley praises a hermeneutic of reform as a better way of integrating change and continuity. His three levels of reform are particularly useful. Vatican II was more than the lowest level of disciplinary reform, e.g. the Council of Trent mandating that bishops reside in their dioceses. I agree with O’Malley that Vatican II was not a great reform of the highest level such as the Protestant Reformation or Gregorian Reform; both transformed Christianity institutionally in very fundamental ways. The Gregorian Reform made Roman Catholicism institutionally very different from Orthodoxy.
Some liberals argue Vatican II was the highest level of reform, citing the end of the Age of Constantine or the Counter-Reformation. But those changes are taking place in our world; they are not Council produced changes. The collegiality model of Vatican II could become a reform of the magnitude of the Protestant or Gregorian Reform, but that remains to be seen. An excellent rhetoric of reform should make Vatican II more than a disciplinary reform but less than a great reform.
I see the model for middle level reform being provided by new spiritualities in Catholicism. In the past they have come mostly from religious orders. The solitary life, communal Benedictine life, and the Jesuit life of service succeeded one another as dominant forms of religious life. But they did not abolish older forms. The spirit or style of Vatican II is mostly about spirituality; it succeeds but does not abolish pre-Vatican II spirituality.
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