A reform movement more daring than anything since the Reformation.
When the Second Vatican Council opened its first session about 20 years ago (Oct. 11, 1962), most conservative Protestants paid scant attention. Four hundred and fifty years of venomous charge and countercharge had made it almost impossible to recognize Catholics even as fellow Christians, much less to comprehend that their church was about to embark upon a reform movement probably more daring than anything since the Reformation—certainly more daring than anything we might consider for our own churches or denominations. Ancient patterns of theological discourse, ecclesiastical organization, and devotional practice were to be overturned in less than a decade. The Catholic church and its witness to the gospel were to be “brought up to date” (aggiornamento in Italian).
Some of the subsequent changes are striking, even to a casual Protestant observer. Worship services are conducted in the language of the people. The priest faces the congregation as he leads them in the celebration of Communion, frequently offering them both bread and wine. The exposition of God’s Word in sermons and the sacrament of baptism are now a more prominent part of the service. An English-language version of Holy Scripture can be found in most Catholic homes, whether or not it is read daily, just as in Protestant homes. Congregational singing in some Catholic churches could easily rival that of some Protestant churches. At the main church on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress” is the second hymn in the book.
All this may sound very “Protestant,” and indeed, some Catholic commentators have remarked that certain of these reforms came 500 years too late. But Vatican Council II also remained true to Catholic tradition as a whole, often recovering older themes and teachings that had been lost or minimized during the later Middle Ages and the Counter-Reformation.
Looking back over the last 20 years, evangelicals cannot help but notice the Catholic church’s more ecumenical stance. Vatican II threw the church’s doors wide open to discourse with other Christians, whom it now embraced as “separated brethren” rather than as unbelievers drowning outside the ark of salvation. Conservative Protestants soon discovered they had much in common with Catholics, beginning with a shared faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ. Both Protestants and Catholics have also experienced certain movements in common over the last two decades. The charismatics had a profound effect upon both, and despite continued differences, Catholic and Protestant charismatics have enjoyed close fellowship with one another. The cry for social justice has generated similar debates in both communities about the nature of social and political action required of those who fully embrace the gospel. Through it all, understanding has deepened: prominent evangelicals now journey to Rome, churchmen regularly talk with one another, and common moral and educational issues have brought Catholics and conservative Protestants increasingly together in the political arena.
Increased contact has also proven bewildering. Within the one Roman Catholic church may be found what is, in effect, the entire spectrum of Protestant Christianity, from fundamentalism to liberalism and liberation theology. Catholics themselves are deeply divided precisely over the interpretation and implementation of the council, some claiming too much of the old tradition has been lost, others saying reform has not gone far enough. But, since all Catholics are pledged to uphold the conciliar decrees as a work of God through the Holy Spirit, any evangelical who wants to understand contemporary Catholicism ought to begin with a thorough reading of the Documents of Vatican II (ed., A. P. Flannery). Some of it may seem difficult or strange to the uninitiated, but evangelicals should respond sympathetically to its emphasis upon the church as the “pilgrim people of God,” upon Scripture as containing everything necessary for faithful lives, and upon the pastorate as called to lead God’s people compassionately toward holiness and everlasting bliss.
The theological impact of the council has perhaps been the most surprising. Thomas Aquinas, the Tridentine decrees, and neoscholastic theology—all of which defined Catholicism theologically for centuries—have, intentionally or not, lost their place of honor almost overnight, and nothing else has as yet taken their place. The theologians who paved the way for the council are now themselves considered either too traditional or too radical. A new Catholic openness to contemporary philosophy has eaten away at the Aristotelian underpinnings of much neoscholastic theology. Still more significantly, the wholesale importation of modern higher criticism has had a deeply corrosive effect.
It has been, all in all, a time of considerable experiment, with extremes of all kinds. Perhaps during the next 20 years a new theological synthesis will emerge. Or perhaps, in the wake of ecclesiastical decentralization and linguistic pluralism, the Catholic world will become almost as varied as the Protestant world. At any rate, a door has been opened to the Protestant world that is not likely to shut again for a long time to come.
JOHN VAN ENGEN1Dr. Van Engen teaches medieval history at the University of Notre Dame, and is currently vice-president of the Christian Reformed Church in South Bend, Indiana.
