Today in History

- Cardinal Augustin Bea, credited with drafting Nostra Aetate and guiding it in numerous meetings through various obstacles during the Second Vatican Council. Bea was first President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

Fifty years ago today, Pope John XXIII gave notice of his intention to convene what became the Vatican II Council (25 January 1959). Wikipedia writes ....

Throughout the 1950s, theological and biblical studies of the Roman Catholic Church had begun to sway away from the neo-scholasticism and biblical literalism that the reaction to the Modernist heresy had enforced since the First Vatican Council. This shift could be seen in theologians such as Karl Rahner S.J., and John Courtney Murray S.J. who looked to integrate modern human experience with Christian dogma, as well as others such as Yves Congar, Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and Henri de Lubac who looked to what they saw as a more accurate understanding of scripture and the early Church Fathers as a source of renewal ("ressourcement") ..... One of the most controversial documents was Nostra Aetate, which stated that the Jews of the time of Christ, taken indiscriminately, and all Jews today are no more responsible for the death of Christ than Christians ....

And this week B16 lifts the ban of excommunication of four bishops from the Society of St. Pius X, a group that has not agreed to accept the authority of that Council, and which has as a prominent member, "Bishop" Richard Williamson, who has called Jews the enemies of Christ and who denies the Holocaust..

Here's a bit from Fr. James Martin's latest post at America magazine's blog ....

[...] This morning, the New York Times affirms that, quoting Cardinal Walter Kasper, the prefect of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Vatican's point person in Jewish-Christian relations, who said that he was not consulted about the decision. "It was the decision of the pope."

Is the pope seeking reconciliation with the extreme right, even at the cost of downplaying the authority of the Second Vatican Council? (The Society of St. Pius X has not agreed to accept the authority of the Council.) For one answer to that, see our exhaustive cover story, by Joseph Komonchak, one of the leading experts on the Council, entitled "Novelty and Continuity: Pope Benedict's Interpretation of Vatican II."

Another point: While some have argued that the comments by Bishop Williamson--who has denied that 6 million Jews could have died in Nazi gas chambers during the Holocaust--are unrelated to the theological import of the removal of the ban of excommunication, there is an obvious link. One of the Second Vatican Council's most important documents, "Nostra Aetate," marked the beginning of a new age of friendly relations between the church and the Jewish people, and ushered in an era of greater understanding. It is not surprising that the bishop who made such scandalous statements about the Holocaust belongs to a group that has rejected Vatican II, because this necessarily means rejection of "Nostra Aetate."

Also, the four SSPX bishops were consecrated in an "illicit" ordination by the breakaway Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a move that sparked the original excommunication. Yet just last summer, the Vatican threatened the excommunication of Roy Bourgeous, the Maryknoll who participated in the (illicit and invalid) ordination of a woman priest. In other words, the excommunication of both sprang from the similar offenses to church teaching. One could even argue that the consecration of bishops was a greater threat to church unity.

Which raises the question: Why reconcile with the far right but not the far left?

If you're interested, there's a short essay by Fr. Richard McBrien at The National Catholic Reporter - John XXIII calls the council

And here's a video I came across about Vatican II. It has some great images of the Council and some interesting commentary from many different guys - it's worth a look (you have no idea how hard it was to find one that was positive :) ....