|
47 years ago today, Pope (now the Blessed) Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council amidst striking splendor and immense excitement. The First Vatican Council had been held in the same Basilica of Saint Peter in 1869-1870. Then, the number of bishops who could attend fitted into one transept ( a side section) of the great church. In 1962, almost 2500 bishops and other participants filled the enire nave of Saint Peter's. The Pope had announced his decision to convoke an Ecumenical Council in 1959, and the day arrived.
Pope John had carefully chosen the date: October 11th. It was the Feast of the Maternity of Mary, the Mother of God. He wanted to confide the Council to the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom he was deeply devoted.
The world was fascinated by the traditional grandeur of the Liturgy and ceremonial of the Vatican that seemed timeless and the glorious music of Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli and the traditional and powerful chants sung by the combined Papal choirs.
Pope John XXIII did not live beyond the first session. He died in June, 1963 and was succeeded by Pope Paul VI who presided over the next sessions of the Council and post-Conciliar reforms. At his death in 1978 the Church over which Pope John XXIII presided was vastly changed.
Gone was the old Liturgy, the music, the almost Byzantine Papal ceremonial; and indeed the very Feast itself that Pope John had specially chosen as the inaugural date, swept away in the liturgical reforms promulgated in 1969.
So many other things were gone as well. The Church that had so confidently "opened the windows" to the world seems diminished and indeed, in retreat.
It has been observed by Father Benedict Groeschel that the "balance of payments" has gone badly for the Church: much more of the world has entered into the Church than Catholicism has influenced the world.
I find it difficult to rebut that observation.
Let us invoke the intercession of the Blessed John XXIII for the Church he served so long and so hoped would flourish and be the Mater et Magistra ( Mother and Teacher) of the nations.
|