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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Vatican II - in prospect


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I was looking for something else when I found this loose in my old Leabhar Aifrinn (1958 edition). It is the official prayer for the faithful for the then forthcoming Vatican Council.

In retrospect there are many ironies.

It envisaged a central role for the Holy Spirit, but not quite the one that turned out. The whole tone is one of assertion of traditional teaching rather than the revolution that nearly came off.

I'm not quite sure, had the outcome been known in advance, that John Charles would have so readily subscribed to the admonition to "humbly and sincerely accept and loyally fulfil whatever the Council may enact". Of course, in the event, they didn't.

There was also the expectation that the Council would in some way bring the separated brethern back into the fold and under Papal authority.

And, finally, Pope John XXIII had attached a hefty ten year indulgence to the prayer, so there must have been a fair expectation that it would deliver the goods.

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