One more year till the official, independent and impressive niche celebrations which look to give rise to criticisms, varied reflections, controversy and much more.
But this is typical of the Second Vatican Council which was just about accepted and recalled by the Church, only to be picked up on with greater continuity and perseverance by the Popes that succeeded John XXIII and Paul VI, and which continues to create controversy. Its implementation, reception and complete assimilation by the Christian people, has not yet taken place according to many.
Meanwhile, others see it as too great a leap forward with respect the Church’s tradition and willingness not to be “contaminated” by the world in terms of its relations with other religions or loosen many of the principles that form part of its doctrine.
The Pontifical Commission of Historical Sciences has organised an international convention due to take place in Rome in exactly one year (3-6 October 2012), to discuss the interpretation of the Council, in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of the Second Vatican Council.
During the convention, criteria will be established for this research, “it will be the arrival point for a vast international study led by Church History Societies and Church Archive Associations in different countries, under the aegis of the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences.”
The research, which will be composed of a number of reports written by specialist researchers in various countries, “will constitute a real world mapping of the personal archives of the Conciliar Fathers, and the convention will be the final verification stage; a comparison and summary of all the research carried out on the various archived documents.”
The list will be defined at another big convention expected to take place on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Council’s closure, where the results of the analysis of these peripheral archives will be presented.
The Pontifical Lateral University’s Centre for the Study of the Second Vatican Council is promoting a series of conferences organised in collaboration with France’s Centre Saint-Louis. The meetings will take place between February and May 2012, on the theme: “A review of the Second Vatican Council. History and theology”.
Among those called to speak at the events will be the chancellor of the university, Bishop Enrico dal Covolo, Jean-Dominique Durand and Giuseppe Lorizio. The idea behind the conferences is to compare two readings, a historical and a theological one, of the Council’s documents.
Monsignor Enrico dal Covolo shares the reading of the Council proposed by Pope Ratzinger on 20 December 2005, when he preferred the continuity approach instead of that of the Second Vatican Council as a break from Tradition.
Nevertheless, he explained that the Pontifical Lateran University intends to examine “all the available documents on the work of the Council, without making any premature judgements or conclusions, starting with the notes and diaries of the fathers and theology experts that took part in the processing of declarations and other approved documents.”
“Only this way, that is, with a truly scientific and impartial work process, will it be possible to verify which of the two hermeneutics the correct one is, in fact.”
After the 2012 and 2015 conventions, the results gathered, “whatever these are,” will be presented at a separate international meeting. The chancellor explained that “in order to bring everything to light as we are determined to do, the research work will have to be completely impartial.”
According to the Salesian bishop, the reflection on the “vexata quaestio” of the Council’s hermeneutics, is emblematic of the mission of a university such as that the Lateran one.
There are so many international meetings that it is impossible to list even a few of them. One element that is definitely indicative, bearing in mind the work of monumental proportions that was carried out in the ‘90s by Giuseppe Alberigo and Alberto Melloni, is the research and demonstrations calendar of Bologna’s John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies.
In relation to this, there is an interesting bibliography of studies on the Council by Massimo Faggioli, updated constantly by the magazine of the “Christianity throughout history” Foundation, run by Giuseppe Ruggeri.
Other unpublished in-depth studies can be found on the portal dedicated especially to the Second Vatican Council: http://www.vivailconcilio.it/