INTRODUCTION

First edition, Oct. 12, 2012.

Italics are portions added for second edition, Feb. 2014

The word went around the seminaries in Rome on Nov. 25, 1962 that an American Protestant theologian, who in those days we called a heretic, would be speaking in one of the several Carmelite seminaries concerning the first five weeks of the first session of the Second Vatican Council. It is difficult today to remember our defensive posture at that time. When someone like myself, one of whose parents was not Catholic, applied to a religious order to study for the priesthood, a special dispensation had to be obtained.¹ And the featured speaker was not only a Protestant, but the academic dean of one of the most famous Protestant seminaries, Princeton (New Jersey) Seminary:  the Presbyterian, James Hastings Nichols.

The room was crammed with about 100 seminarians, a few having to stand. I was with Julian Williamson OMI(1938-96), a South African a year ahead of me. As we entered, people pointed out Fr. Georges Tavard, AA, who would act as moderator if necessary, for what was one of the first, if not the first presentation given in English by an observer at Vatican II. As soon as I returned to our scholasticate, I wrote up the presentation, and questions which followed.  One of Dr. Nichols remarks which I shall never forget, was when he said, with a catch in his voice “I never thought I would see in my lifetime the renewal in the Catholic Church which I am witnessing.”²  (When I was sent to the University of Pennsylvania to earn a doctorate from a non-Catholic university,  so our Washington, DC scholasticate could receive a stronger accreditation, Dr. Nichols became the much appreciated  first reader for my thesis).

Jesuit ecumenist Thomas Rausch noted recently that the observers experienced one of the “dramatic steps” of Pope John XXIII to “make Christian unity one of the two primary goals of his Council”—he gave them “first class seats in the basilica, at the head of the assembled bishops across the nave from the cardinals.”^2a Nichols mentioned in passing the great hospitality he was unexpectedly receiving.

It is certain that the Second Vatican Council profoundly influenced the seminarians studying in Rome at that time.  It is also true, as I hope to show in this article, that in our humble way, we influenced the Council too.  Much has been written about the role of the “experts” (periti), observers, and of course the bishops themselves.  But little, to my knowledge, has been written about the impact of the several thousand seminarians^,3 and several hundred priests ⁴ studying in Rome during the four sessions of the Council.  By the third session, the bishops had become aware of the role of women.  An Oblate, Armand Reuter OMI, was already teaching at the sister’s university, Regina Mundi.⁵  But there were almost no women studying at the religious universities in Rome where the men studied, until after the Council closed in 1965.  So we will limit our focus to the seminarians from 1962-65. (For the four Oblates who contributed  the most to Vatican II [Archbishop Denis Hurley, Very Rev. Leo Deschatelets, and Fathers Andre Seumois and John King], see my article “Oblates at Vatican II:  An Initial Survey,” appearing in  Oblatio I (Nov. 2012, 3: 335-53)and now available on the international Oblate website www.omiworld.org).

There would have been a small number of seminarians in Rome during the First Vatican Council (1869-70); the Jesuit Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, for example, had been training priests since St. Ignatius founded it in 1551 (hereafter the Greg). But for sheer numbers and universality, seminarians studying in Rome peaked about 1963.  We shall see that they exercised an important, subtle and real influence on the Council Fathers and experts.

CHAPTER ONE:  SEPT. 26, 1958-OCT. 11, 1962

Trip to Rome; Death of Pope Pius XII; Election of Blessed Pope John XXIII

The Oblate Constitutions and Rules in force in 1966 reflected the insight of “Romanita.”  “Having consulted the Provincials concerned, the Superior General may call to his own side young Oblates so that living near him they may imbibe more fully the spirit of the Congregation and of the Church at its source, and thereby impart greater life to the whole body” (#174).⁶ In September, 1958, when my classmates and I began our seven year course, the atmosphere was more open in the International (Roman) Scholasticate than many suspected in the various countries from which we came. Part of this was due to having about 92 young men, ages 20-27, from at least 18 different countries living under the same roof. Part of this was due to choosing young men who were very open and able to learn several languages and appreciate other cultures. And part of this was due to having a staff which appreciated the necessity of having both a strong national identity, and openness to other cultures.

I left New York Harbor on September 26, 1958 on the S.S. Independence and immediately met two very interesting and different people.  One was a Trappist priest, Romanus Ginn, OCSO (1925-2008), from Thomas Merton’s Gethsemane Abbey, KY, who was travelling to Rome to study for a degree in Scripture.  He very frankly told me about the suicides or nervous breakdowns of some Trappist candidates who had entered after serving in World War II, and had not counted on the strictness of Trappist life.  Our religious leaders were certainly not hiding from us the challenges we would face.

The second person was a seminarian in the Ukrainian rite religious order of St. Basil, from Western Canada, Andray Roman Kocwich OSBM.  Although I was vaguely aware that we Catholics who then celebrated Mass in Latin were not the only Catholics, meeting Andray and later attending his ordination on March 25, 1962,(along with 9 others, including Peter R. Moroziuk and Mark) in the Ukrainian rite, helped me begin to understand the richness and complexity of world-wide Catholicism. (In the late 1800’s, an Oblate priest, Albert Lacombe [1827-1911] had been instrumental in finding Eastern rite clergy for Catholics in Western Canada).

The S.S. Independence arrived in Naples on October 6, 1958.  I was met at the dock by the newly ordained Richard Hanley OMI, (in 1972 he became our first superior general who was a native of the USA).  We spent that night at the International Scholasticate on Via Vittorino da Feltre, in downtown Rome within sight of the Coliseum, and then headed to the summer house in Roviano, near the Abruzzi Mountains beyond Tivoli.⁷ Two days later, on Oct. 9, Pope Pius XII died at the papal summer residence of Castel Gondolfo,  and we returned to Rome to witness his burial, and the election of the pope who would summon Vatican II.

Pius’ body was brought back to Rome in a solemn procession; as it passed the Coliseum, we were about 50 yards away, looking down on the cortege from the end of our little street. The Coliseum itself, and many of the public monuments in the city, were decorated in long black drapes and curtains.  The cortege was going from the Cathedral of St. John Lateran to St. Peter’s Basilica, and we observed “a half hour (4:15-4:45) of clerics of all male orders, followed by the hearse, and many Cardinals.  The Coliseum and Forum stood mute as the conqueror of Rome was carried past.”⁸

It is most important to note that Pius had pushed renewal movements such as that of the liturgy, renewing especially the worship of Holy Week.  As an altar server, I had taken part in the Easter Vigil and the lighting of the new fire, which, until Pius renewed it, was early on Holy Saturday morning, with Easter time beginning at noon. Pius had planned to do much more, but as an important meeting of liturgists occurred at Assisi in 1956, his health began to fail.⁹  We learned later that until that time, Pius had considered summoning an ecumenical council.  (His predecessor, Pius XI, had also considered it).¹⁰

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, Cardinal of Venice, was elected pope on Oct. 28, 1958, after the second longest conclave for the 9 popes of the 20^thcentury.¹¹ To be in Rome for the election, and then to experience his entire pontificate, was an unforeseen grace for my class of 12.  I wrote in my diary:

“5:15 pm: Arrived in St. Peter’s Square.  The last wisps of grayish smoke were drifting off.  No one knew whether it was white or black.  People kept pouring into the square.  Brother L. Morin and I were on the right, about 10 ft. from the barricade.  About 5:50, the Carabinieri Band began its march down the colonnade, and we knew something was up.  The huge curtain across the central window drew back, the crowd roared, and tiny cardinals stepped onto the balcony.  In a voice strained by emotion and age, Cardinal Canali announced: “Nuntio vobis gaudium magnum—Habemus papam!”  It was 6 pm.  At 6:15 pm, in a strong, clear voice, John XXIII pronounced his first blessing.¹²

Immediately a pun by John XXIII spread around Rome.  The cardinals had selected him to be a transitory pope, un papa passagiero.  John is supposed to have demurred:  no, a traveling pope, un papa passeggiando.  He left the Vatican almost immediately to travel about the city of Rome and even once outside Rome, something his predecessor did only to go to the Castel Gondolfo summer residence, and twice to visit areas of Rome bombed during World War II.

When  Pope John’s background was published, the fact of his being raised in a family of sharecroppers in  Bergamo, Italy, then  after ordination (1904)serving as secretary to its very progressive bishop Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi caught the attention of a few.  He spent three days in Cremona, Italy in June, 1908, visiting the bishop there, Geremia Bonomelli. Bonomelli was the only Catholic bishop to send a long and supportive letter to the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, in October, 1910.  According to missionary ecumenist Sister Joan Delaney, MM, it was Bonomelli who suggested the need for an ecumenical council to Roncalli.¹³

When Roncalli was papal representative (apostolic delegate) to Bulgaria (1926-34) and Turkey/Greece (1935-44), he dealt wisely and extensively with the Eastern Orthodox Church.  During World War II, he issued baptismal certificates to Jewish families, so they could escape the concentration camps. A complex figure, his autobiography Journal of a Soul (1965) shows a very traditional spirituality. He loved to project the figure of coming from a humble, close family.  His Vatican colleagues soon realized he was dumb like a fox.

The Language Problem at Vatican II, and the International Scholasticate

Many of the bishops attending Vatican II did not understand Latin.  This would prove an enormous problem, especially during the first session, when all were expected to use Latin.  (There were a very few exceptions in Greek and French).  All classes at the Roman Universities for seminarians were in Latin.  It was only in March of my first year when I was able to laugh wholeheartedly with the rest of my class, at understanding one of the professor’s jokes. The Spanish and Italian professors spoke a very rapid Latin which took some time getting used to. The German professors delighted in placing the verb at the end of the sentence, which also required effort to recognize. Fortunately most provided written notes distributed before the courses began.

The official language of our scholasticate in 1958 was French; all notices were posted in French, and the daily spiritual conference was in French.  During our evening recreation, we were supposed to speak Italian, and once one had learned enough French, Italian was to be learned.  English was only read at the breakfast meal, but non-English speakers were expected to learn English.  Since I had five years of Latin courses, it was not difficult to learn French and Italian.

The problem was classical Greek.  Some Americans and most Europeans arrived with at least a semester of Greek. I had no Greek.  My first summer meant studying enough Greek to enable our administrators to certify that I had the equivalent of a semester.  The stress of doing this, along with non-diagnosed borderline allergies in dust mites, mould and pollen, led to continual sinus problems and a very difficult first two years.

First Visit to the Catacombs, Dec. 11.

Most who visit Rome are stunned by the catacombs.  Several of our priests had become recognized guides, and they encouraged us to consider spending time guiding groups through the public catacombs.  My diary noted:  “At 1:45 all the new brothers are given the opportunity of a trip thru the Catacomb of Priscilla.  This catacomb, one of the smaller ones, contains so many tombs we had time only for a fast 2 hour trip thru the first level, where there are many priceless first century Christian paintings.  The place is alive with the faith of the early martyrs and saints—all their symbols and pictures show their strong living faith in God.”¹⁴

Our summer residence at Roviano had four chapels off the large sacristy.  These chapels had been marvelously decorated with replicas of the catacomb frescoes.  During the months from late June to early October, we were serving daily Mass there, surrounded again by the art and spirituality of the first Christians in Rome.

Christmas, 1958

Classes were shortened on the final day before Christmas. In 1958, on Dec. 23, “The huge Aula Magna (main auditorium) was dominated by a Christmas tree decorated with actual (lighted) candles.  Each college put on some Christmas hymns or carols:  the North American featured a barbershop quartet, the Greek College caroled us (it was all Greek!), and the Oblates of course bi-lingual, with the English one ‘Deck the Halls.’  We then left to return home, for Pope John’s Christmas message.”¹⁵ It should be noted that Blessed John XXIII’s first Christmas message was mainly a summary of the 19 Christmas messages Pope Pius XII delivered to a war-torn Europe.¹⁶

The description of Christmas continued:  “At breakfast, I learned of the opportunity to go to St. Peter’s, where the Pope was celebrating a Low Mass, at his altar, at 11 am.  With Brother Juptner, from the German Province (he was three years ahead of me), we immediately set out.  …we walked all the way up to the front, and then climbed up to the wooden balcony (the Longinus Pier, the lower right of the four around the main altar), one of the choice seats in the Basilica.  We had a clear view of the Papal altar, at which only the Pope or someone delegated by him says mass. …

The Pope said the third Mass (for Christmas), and all his words were distinctly audible over the loudspeaker, but would probably have been heard by us without it, for we were so close.  The Mass was a dialogue Mass with all the people” (pp. 1-2).

While all other Latin rite Masses at this time were said with the priest’s back to the people, the papal altar faced the people.  Pope John, I believe, deliberately opted for one of simplest of Masses possible that Christmas Day.  He was staking out a papacy famous for two almost contradictory positions:  continuity with some of the traditions of Pius XII, and a radical simplicity and approachability.

The French Connection

Two very important French magazines were read during the lunch or evening meal:  L’Information Catholique, and La Documentation Catholique.  These weekly magazines were full of articles describing the various movements of renewal, especially liturgy and ecumenism.

Teillard de Chardin’s works had to be kept under lock and key, according to the directives which restricted the reading of his works.  But anyone asking permission at our seminary was readily granted access.  One French seminarian a year ahead of me, Jean- Marie Malassis (1938-78) practically lived in the restricted book area, devouring de Chardin.

We did have visitors who presented their conferences in English.  One of the first during my time occurred on Jan. 10, 1959, and was the Louisiana Cajun author Father (later Monsignor) Joseph Gremillion (1919-94), author of Journal of a Southern Pastor.  Gremillion’s talk did highlight many French sources:  Jacques Maritain, Cardinal Joseph Suhard, etc. He presented us with a list of renewal movements, and recommended that we become familiar with the 16 volumes of Pius XII’s works.¹⁷

“Preparing the Sunday Mass”

It is also difficult to remember the way Sunday Mass was celebrated, or to use the parlance of the 1950s, “offered.”  With the entire Mass in Latin, except when the priest repeated the Epistle and Gospel in the vernacular (and preached a sermon not always related to the texts), most people either prayed the rosary, had their heads buried in Latin-vernacular hand missals, or day dreamed.  Since our Sunday Mass was usually a sung Mass, we rehearsed the sung parts every Saturday evening.  We did become very aware of the differences between Advent, Christmas, etc.  as regards the various seasons.  Even more importantly, there were two language groups of students (English and French) who usually met each week to discuss the meaning of the Sunday Latin texts.  We became very quickly aware of the liturgical movement growing in importance, and that the Benedictines of Collegeville, Minnesota, were among those advocating change.¹⁸

January 25, 1959 Announcement

Many of us were still in the dining room on Sunday, Jan. 25, 1959, when some of our classmates who had gone to the papal Mass at St. Paul’s Basilica, burst into the dining area with the news of the pope’s announcement that an ecumenical council would be held.   We learned quickly that also planned was a Synod for the Diocese of Rome, and a new edition of the 1917 Code of Canon Law. The process of the synod would show Pope John in all of his traditional leanings, or perhaps his glum acceptance of the way things were done in the Vatican.  The revision of the Code would be delayed by Vatican II, and the new Code of 1983 would be very, very different from the 1917 Code.

Many have commented on the thunderous silence from Vatican officials when Pope John announced the council.¹⁹ An Oblate who did much of the heavy lifting on the Commission of Theology and the Commission of Doctrine, Leo Laberge, OMI, tells us that part of the silence was due to administrators who had barely been keeping their heads above water, now realizing that a massive flood was going to hit them.²⁰

My letter of Jan. 29, 1959 to my family stated “One of the biggest pieces of news here is that the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople requested Pope John to summon a council of the Church to discuss the conditions for the reunion of the Orthodox with us.”²¹ The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, held from Jan. 18-25 each year, was a serious event for the seminaries in Rome.  On Jan. 22, the Maronite bishop from across the Via Vittorino held the Divine Liturgy for us, and on Jan. 29 three priests from the Russicum held the Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine Russian Rite.²² Many have noted how John XXIII’s decision to announce the council during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was an indication that our relationship with the other Christian Churches would be a major part of the council.  Most of us were still using the Graymoor (1908) formula of the return of the other Christian Churches, but Abbe Paul Couturier’s formula was beginning to make itself felt:  The unity of the Church which Christ wills.

Legionaries of Christ, Spring 1959

On June 3, 2011, Bishop Brian Farrell, L.C., Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, delivered  Pope Benedict’s greetings to the World Missionary Conference 100^th Anniversary, Edinburgh, Scotland.²³ A brother of Farrell, also trained by the Legionaries, Kevin Joseph Farrell, is Bishop of Dallas, Texas.^.24 Founded only in 1941, the order grew to over 800 priests by 2010. To have two bishops from such a young order shows the positive side of this controversial group.

A former member summed up the negative side:  “It is no exaggeration to say that [Legion of Christ founder] Marcial Maciel was by far the most despicable character in the twentieth century Catholic Church, inflicting more damage on her reputation and evangelizing mission than any other single Church leader.”²⁵  Maciel broke every profile, abusing not only seminarians, but his own sons whom he fathered from several mistresses.²⁶

It was probably in late winter or early spring of 1959 that several Legionary seminarians approached my French-Canadian classmate, Guy Cyr, OMI, (1938-2011) and myself, to see if we would meet with them during one of the three fifteen minute class breaks we had most days, to polish their French and English. Our superior at the time was somewhat surprised at the request, since the Legionaires had a reputation for being very closed.  But he gave us the necessary permission.  So for six and a half years, I met at least several times a week with several different Legionaires.  I found them to be sociable and inspiring. Guy and I were invited to their seminary; as we shall see below, they visited ours. I concluded that jealousy was playing a part in the attitude of others toward this religious order.  When we first met them, they consisted mainly of Mexican and Spanish seminarians; by the time we were ordained, they were attracting Irish and American seminarians, growing faster than most other diocesan and religious order seminaries.

I shall never forget the two with whom I met the most:  Javier Orozco Camarena and Fernando Martinez Suarez.  Their ordination, on Dec. 24, 1964, a few days after mine on Dec. 16, 1964, is an event whose joy no amount of evil can remove.

Many Pre-Vatican II Leaders,  Feb-April, 1959

A very modern lay group, the Young Christian Workers (JOC, French), attracted several of us to hear its international president, Romeo Maione, at the Greg on Feb. 26, 1959. “The YCW is primarily an organization among the workers, especially the younger ones, and is very strong in Belgium, where it  originated and seems to be one of the best instruments for winning back the working classes in France.”²⁷Maione stressed a joyful Christianity and startled us with the observation that you can tell the state of a person by the type of songs he sings.²⁸

Three of us went to the Lateran University on March 13, 1959, where we heard the founder of the Better World Movement, Ricardo Lombardi SJ, speak about the Scriptural basis of his work.²⁹ The former Eastern USA Province would soon train one of its members, Roland Bennett OMI in the movement, and the retreat he organized with the Washington, DC seminary community in May, 1966 would show the renewal of Vatican II in all its complexity.

The founder of one of the few lay-led missionary groups of this time, the Legion of Mary, spoke to the seminarians of Rome (a packed house) at Propagation of the Faith College on March 21. Frank Duff’s presentation was “clear, sincere, simple, forceful, on the marvels of the Legion of Mary.”³⁰ The Belgian Cardinal, Leo Joseph Suenens,  who was the great theologian of this movement, would be a forceful voice during the Council.

At our own residence, we heard a comprehensive lecture in English during the last week of April on the history of the papacy from its modern low point in 1770-80, to its height of respect today.  E.E.Y. Hales  reminded us that popes are judged for three qualities:  holiness of life, administrative ability, and intelligence of what is occurring in the world.  He claimed that collectively, the popes from Pius VII (1800-23) until our time have surpassed any other group of popes.  He noted that this was one reason the presidency of the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) was offered to the cardinal secretary of state of the time.³¹

On the 24^th, Monsignor Luigi Ligutti (see below, FAO) presented the Communist convert, Douglas Hyde, to a packed house of seminarians at Propagation of the Faith College, “who holds us spellbound for over an hour.”³²

American Apostolate, 1959-65

Europeans joke that Americans love organization so much that when two of us meet in a foreign country, we immediately form a committee and choose one to be chair.  Certainly the American seminarians in Rome felt the need to meet, and to keep up with what was happening in the USA.  I attended my first meeting of the “American Apostolate” in late April 1959, at the Blessed Sacrament Fathers Seminary. The speaker was an American assistant general of the Society of the Divine Word, whose seminary in Bay St. Louis, MS, had been the first, and only for many years, to accept African-American seminarians.  He stunned us for several hours with the stories of discrimination by American clergy and nuns against Catholic African-Americans.  The fact that it was the Vatican which insisted that American bishops accept African-American seminarians showed the progressive side of the papacy.³³

Presentations were offered about four times a year, at different residences where there were American seminarians, and each one explored a connection with new developments in the USA.

Armenians and Melkite Basilians, Summer 1959-March 1966

As we began our summer vacation in the Abruzzi in 1959, we discovered that eight seminarians from the Armenian Church in union with Rome, under the leadership of their Patriarch, Cardinal Gregory-Peter Agagianian, would be living with us for the summer, and several subsequent summers. Most spoke fluent French in addition to Armenian.  Some spoke Arabic, with at least one, from Argentina, also speaking Spanish.  Two in my class were both from Egypt, but of very different backgrounds.  Pierre Sacroug was actually Latin Rite, but Armenian heritage.  Pierre Tazza was fully Armenian, but as Sacroug fluent in Arabic.  Fr. Alexander Tache, OMI recently told me that Tazza is now the Patriarch of the Armenians, taking the name Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni.  We glimpsed each other at the Gregorian University for the next six years, both graduating in the Licentiate (Masters) program in June, 1965.

Our superior general was in frequent contact with the Armenian Patriarch, because Cardinal Agagianian was in charge of the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith (now the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples), which oversees all the Catholic Church’s missionary work. The Armenian Seminary in Rome had no summer house, so our hospitality was offered.  We discovered that the Armenians were great hikers, and we were required to spend all day Thursday out of the summer house.  We were encouraged to take overnight hikes, which could last three nights.  I remember particularly one of the visiting American Oblate priests, who was used to hiking under the cover of forests.  Most of our hikes were in the open, and one of the Armenians carried the heavy knapsack of this priest for at least the day’s return.  They were also gifted chess players, and few of us could match them.

Most importantly, when the Basilian Order of the Greek Melkite Church wanted to have their seminarians from Lebanon and Syria introduced to missionary work, Cardinal Agagianian asked Fr. Deschatelets if they could live with us. The presence of the Armenian seminarians helped the Basilians become accustomed to Italian and international customs when they arrived at the summer house in August, 1959. We had a “soiree de famille” at the end of each summer, and the Armenians and Basilians teamed up to form a camel and took full part in the festivities.  We discovered the breadth of the Roman Catholic Church, by having these non-Latin rite Catholics live with us.  Especially during the Second Vatican Council, the Melkite Patriarch, Maximos IV Saigh, attracted much attention by his outspoken reminders that the Roman Catholic Church included much more than those of us of the Latin Rite.

When we returned to Rome in early October, it was a bit of a surprise for our staff to learn that the Basilians would not be worshipping regularly with us.  A young Basilian priest, Lufti Laham, was studying for a graduate degree in Rome. He asked for a room to offer Divine Liturgy for the seven students who had arrived for this academic year.  The chapel was quickly furnished, even though we already were at full capacity in our old and ancient building.  I got to know Said (Joe) Abboud very well; we ended up in the same class and kept in touch until his tragic death in Lebanon in the 1980’s, during one of the violent periods there.  At least three more Basilians joined the others over the next several years.  Unfortunately, attempts to discover why they stopped coming to our scholasticate, and what happened to all except Laham and Abboud, have failed. Father Laham is now the Patriarch of the Melkites,  Gregorios III Laham.³⁴

It gradually dawned on most of us that our first impression of the Melkites was too simple.  Yes, they came from what seemed to us agricultural areas, but the towns and cities of Lebanon and Syria in which they lived had a long and glorious patrimony.  Most were serious bridge players, and as they slapped their cards down and shouted at each other in Arabic, we wondered if World War III was about to break out.

Subiaco Hike, Sept. 17, 1959

At the end of each summer, the entire community gathered in the Sacro Speco (the Holy Cave) above the city of Subiaco where St. Benedict spent three years alone. Most of the seminarians hiked the 35 miles round trip. We learned of the great development in Christianity of Western Monasticism by St. Benedict, and were stunned by the 13^th century frescoes. My particular group of ten included three Armenians.³⁵

International Movies

On October 18, 1959, a group of us went to the Flemish Culture Center to see a movie on the Eskimos made by an Oblate missionary.³⁶ One of the interesting features of the International Scholasticate was the access to the films at many cultural centers, especially the British and the French.  Some of these we viewed at our seminary.  Le Defroque, about a French priest leaving the priesthood; Dialogues des Carmelites; L’Uomo del Ricshaw (the ricksaw man) were just a few which left lasting impressions.  La Strada, with Anthony Quinn, left a long memory because it was filmed near the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, which we often visited. During the summers at Roviano, we viewed films on the flat roof of the summer house, films from the nearby town cinema.  A favorite were the cape and sword Italian films of the romances during the Middle Ages.  As the Vatican Council progressed, and the seminaries became more open, we were allowed to attend commercial theaters.  I will never forget going to To Kill a Mockingbird, with a seminarian from Zaire, Clement Kifu.  As we left the theater, he asked me why the African-Americans didn’t come back to Africa, where they would not be discriminated against.  It wasn’t an easy question to answer.

Matricola, Nov. 26, 1959

Each year in late November, the Gregorian University presented awards and held an assembly for all its students.  Music was presented, and some of our seminarians who were attending the Dominican seminary, the Angelicum, would accompany us.  Louis Jolicoeur (1936-2006), from Western Canada, asked to join me for this matricola, and I noted “jazz of (North) American College was sensational.”³⁷

Eastern Rite Dawn Mass, Christmas Day, 1959

When Constantine moved the center of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, the Basilica of St. Anastasia, on the Palatine Hill, assumed great importance. Many Greeks, including the representative of the emperor, lived nearby. It became the stational church for the dawn Mass of Christmas, with the pope celebrating Mass there.  Each Christmas, the seminarians at the North American College received permission to celebrate Mass in this ancient church. My journal noted “At 5:25 Bro. Guindon (Andre Guindon, 1933-93) and I went to St. Anastasia for the stational Mass.” My interest in the ecumenical and missionary importance of Eastern Christianity was encouraged by the experience of St. Anastasia.

Even though my memory says I was wiped out for the rest of the day, the journal continues “After a short breakfast at 8:30 we left for St. Mary Major’s, to make a short visit before going to St. Peter’s.  The rain of two months stopped; the day is beautiful.  We had a wonderful view in the left arm of the cross, next to Fr. Nowlan (Edward Nowlan SJ), for the 11 am dialogue Mass with the Pope.  In place of last year’s trumpets, the Credo.  The Pope wore a red hat, like some in medieval pictures; his address and blessing afterwards were equally inspiring:  La luce, la goia, la pace (the light, the joy, the peace).”

FAO

Many of the seminarians trained in Rome would serve in Third World countries.  So the Vatican was anxious to have the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), whose headquarters was in Rome, very visible to the seminaries.  A legendary monsignor originally from Iowa,  Luigi Ligutti (1895-1983) had been appointed  in 1948 as Vatican observer at FAO, and he invited seminarians each year to an afternoon meeting  to acquaint us with issues involving food, water, cooperatives, etc.  On Jan. 14, 1960, a number of Oblates attended, where we met Armenian Pierre Sacroug, and caught up on news since the summer.

Ligutti is considered responsible for several of the paragraphs in Vatican II’s “The Church in the Modern World.” He founded Agrimissio in 1971, and this organization was mentioned at the Oblate General Chapter of 1972.

Synod of Rome, January 20-31, 1960

Seminarians living in Rome were invited to a special prayer service on Jan. 20 at St. Mary Major (just a 15 minute walk east from our scholasticate).  The following day, our Thursday community Mass day, we walked 15 minutes southeast to the pope’s cathedral, St. John Lateran, where our Mass had the special intention of the success of the synod. The following Thursday, Jan. 28, at 3:50 pm, a smiling Pope John XXIII talked at St. Ignatius Church to all the seminarians of Rome about the synod and the priesthood.  On the 31^st, at 4 pm, the pope solemnly closed the synod, and many of us attended “a wonderful talk, followed by Benediction (at St. Peter’s).  The Boy Scouts put on a torchlight demonstration after, around the obelisk and on the Janiculum, for which the Pope appears at his window and blesses us anew.”³⁸  There seemed to be little discussion of the synod’s decisions; the impression was all had been cut and dried before the actual meeting.  Not an accurate forecast of how the ecumenical council would be different.

Oblate Missiologist; Joseph Folliet (1903-72); Foyer Unitas, February, 1960

On Feb. 10, our evening conference was given by one of our leading experts in Missiology, the newly appointed provincial of the Province of France North, Joseph D’Haeyere.  As a member of the National French Committee for Missions to the Interior, he presented us with the spectrum of efforts to re-Christianize France, an effort which Pope John XXIII had dealt with in the worker priest movement.³⁹

Our conference on Feb. 19 was given by one of the most outspoken French Catholic laymen, Joseph Folliet. “What does the laity expect from the priest?  An adult interested in their cares and problems, humble. A man of prayer, distributing the sacraments as if he believed in them.”⁴⁰  Folliet was  appointed an expert for Vatican II; he was later ordained a priest (1968).

Foyer Unitas had been founded at Pius XII’s request to give hospitality to non-Catholic Christians visiting  Rome. Three of us attended a Pallotine priest Ansgario Faller SAC’s Feb. 21, 1960 conference there on Lutheranism in Germany.  I wrote to my family:  “The work in Germany between the Catholics and the Lutherans has been immense, and perhaps in the future, we will see even more amazing steps towards a closer union.”⁴¹

Eastern Churches; Thursday Community Masses

The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches were briefly united at the Ecumenical Council of Florence (1431-45?), described by Joseph Gill SJ, lecturing at the Pontifical Oriental Institute on March 6, 1960, as “A Success that Failed.”⁴² A week later, March 13, P. Stephanou SJ spoke at the Oriental Institute on Constantinople’s Patriarch Athenagoras and his attitude towards the R.C. Church.⁴³

On April 11, 1960, our awareness of our Greek heritage received another boost when our community Mass was held in the ancient Church of St. Prassede.  This, and the nearby Churches of St. Prisca (where we had our community Mass on April 12) and St. Pudentiana, are the oldest in Rome.  Prassede and Pudentiana feature priceless mosaics in the Byzantine tradition.⁴⁴

Our residence for the first four years (Via Vittorino da Feltre), was in the heart of old Rome; we almost looked down on the Coliseum, and were within a twenty minute walk of most of the historic churches.  There were no classes on Thursdays (Saturdays instead), so our morning community Mass was held on many Thursdays (and other days during vacation times), in one of the nearby historic churches.  The aromas from the little bakery stores were delightful as we passed them; the Eucharistic fast was still from midnight, so we were walking to and from the churches on an empty stomach.  There were plenty of cats and chickens visible.⁴⁵

How to Explain the Faith, Nov. 1960-May, 1961

On Nov. 15, one of the leading experts in catechetics, Canon Brien of the Catechetical Institute of Paris, presented our evening conference.  He related how during World War II, he discovered the shallowness of faith in many people.  He defined catechism as “the teaching of the Mystery of the Crucifixion and Paschal—from the fact to the mystery of the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ taught by Jesus.”  He then presented some very valuable insights about the ‘crise de liberte’ of adolescents.⁴⁶

Canon Brien was followed on Nov. 19 by one of the leading theologians of the day, Henri du Lubac SJ, who made the science of explaining the Bible (exegesis) in the twelfth century a very interesting topic.⁴⁷ Another very noted theologian, the Louvain Scripture scholar Lucien Cerfaux, gave us the evening conference on May 8, 1961: “simple, learned and goodness shining through.” ⁴⁸

Liturgists Bugnini and Braga during Holy Week, March 26-April 1, 1961

For several years, our students had helped with the Holy Week services at a convent at Via Dei Gracchi.  We never dreamed that the two Vincentian priests who led these services, and who were known as progressive liturgists, Annibale Bugnini CM and Carlo Braga CM would become so important at Vatican II, and during the revision of liturgy. Bugnini especially is the subject of much controversy.

It was a long bus trip, and on Palm Sunday, March 26, part of our group, including myself, missed the 6:30 am bus and never arrived. However, we did fully help with the Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil services, having figured out the bus schedule. It struck me later, as I led Holy Week services myself, that our liturgists needed to plan for late-comers and many normal, family oriented problems.  Devising the liturgy from a convent or seminary didn’t always work for parishes.

Documentation for Vatican II; Oblate Missiologists

On Monday of Holy Week, March 27, we had the opportunity to visit the offices and archives of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (now the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples) at the Piazza d’Espagna.  Our hosts were the Oblate missiologists Johannes Rommerskirchen and Joseph Kowalsky. They showed us shelves and shelves in many rooms, filled with the replies of bishops and diocesan priests to the questionnaire sent out in preparation for Vatican II. (It was our superior general, Leo Deschatelets, who obtained the questionnaire for the priests of religious orders).  Cardinal Agagianian and Archbishop Sigismondi put in an appearance.  We began to appreciate the enormous effort put forth by the Oblates to serve as librarians and archivists for the Church’s missionary work.^48a

Scholasticate Moves, Sept. 1961

When we returned to Rome from the summer house in early October, 1961, we moved into a wing of the General House on Via Aurelia, about a half hour walk from the Vatican (all down-hill and through a noisy tunnel under the north end of the Janiculum).  We were now in what was considered temporary quarters while the new scholasticate was being built at Via Pineta Sachetti, a task which required five years.  We could no longer visit the historic station churches during Lent, and join Pope John XXIII as he revived this ancient custom, nor could we walk to the Greg and Angelicum for our classes.  However, the noise level, which had bothered so many of us, decreased, and the new quarters were far easier to clean.⁴⁹ We were also closer to all the visitors from all over the world who came to our General House, and would be housed there during the Council.

Ecumenist/Missiologist Johannes Witte SJ, Oct. 1961-May, 1972

As I began the four year theology course in October, 1961, I was privileged to take an elective on the Unity and Mission of the Church, or Ecumenism, where the professor stressed the missionary and evangelization dimension of Christian Unity.  Johannes Witte SJ had been present at the formation meeting of the World Council of Churches, Amsterdam, 1948, not as a theologian, since Pius XII had forbidden Catholics to attend.  He participated as a journalist. During my third year of theology, I took his required course on Protestant Theology. The material distributed for both courses contained a marvelous diagram showing the growth of Christian Unity, from 1844 to 1961. Since I knew by the end of my third year of theology that I would be teaching Ecumenism at our seminary in Washington, DC, I met with Witte to obtain from him a list of books on ecumenism in French and Italian which would not be readily available in the USA.  He was most cordial.

During the 1972 Oblate General Chapter, Witte agreed most graciously to meet with William Cagney, our Oblate director of the Office of Mission and Unity, and myself.  Witte gave us some valuable advice about ecumenism and mission for our use at the chapter.

Witte’s insistence that Christian Unity and the Missionary dimension of the Church are bound together impressed me deeply and over the years has been the focus of my work in Christian Unity. For his course material, and my notes, see “Sources,” at the end of chapter two below.

Anti-nostalgia

Lest one think our days in Rome were pure paradise, the death of a parent or sibling brought home quickly the insight that religious orders were too strict in the days leading up to Vatican II. Not even the Italians were allowed to go home for a family death.  We had come down too hard on the flight from the world, and forgot the contrasting truth about transforming the world.  Vatican II would soon change that.

Time-line Problem

To meet limits of both time and space, I have omitted many events from Nov. 1960-Oct. 1962.  See the “Supplement” of note 1 above for a little more.

Xavier Rynne, Lunch, May 13, 1962

Frequently we seminarians were asked to guide either visiting Oblates, or sometimes complete strangers (but family or friends of older Oblates) through Rome.  On May 12, the superior asked me to take the next day a visiting American Oblate, who was serving as superior of our Oblates in Japan, Robert Gill, to meet with a close friend of his, the Redemptorist patristic moral theologian, Francis Xavier Murphy.  Since travel from our residence on Via Aurelia, to the Piazza di Spagna and the restaurant where we were to meet Murphy, was a little chancy, I asked if a young Oblate priest studying Church History, Clarence Menard, could accompany us and use an available car.  So we took Gill to visit the piazza, and then to meet his friend at the nearby restaurant of the Scoglio di Frisio, on the via Merulana.  Little did we know that Murphy would turn out to be the infamous author of the Letters from the Vatican City.⁵⁰During the lunch, Menard and I sat silently and in amazement as Murphy told us how he could teach anything he wanted about morality as explained in the Church Fathers, since he was the only one in the field. When many years later he admitted to being Xavier Rynne, Menard and I felt he certainly had the nerve to have written the books oversimplifying the tensions at Vatican II.

The State of Theology in the Roman Universities as the Council Opened, Oct. 1962

It is interesting to remember what Blessed John Henry Newman wrote when he studied during the academic year 1846-47in Rome, as he left the Anglican Church to become a Roman Catholic priest.  He agreed with the statement “There is no theology taught or known in Rome.”⁵¹

Things were a little better in Oct. 1962.  The more progressive universities for the study of theology were the Louvain in Belgium, the Saulchoir (Dominicans) in France, and Innsbruck (Jesuits) in Austria.  The Vatican had silenced several Jesuits during the early days of Pope John’s administration, including the Scripture scholar Stanislas Lyonnet SJ, who taught at the Biblicum just across the small Piazza della Pilotta from the Greg, and the moral theologian Josef Fuchs SJ, who taught at the Greg.⁵²

Pope John initially agreed with the silencing, as an American priest from Philadelphia experienced:  “Pope John, jolly and gracious as always, greeted Bill (Leahy) and asked him what he was studying.  When Bill answered in Italian, ‘Sacred Scripture, Holy Father,’ John instantly became upset, to the point where he almost started crying. ‘Oh my! What are they teaching you there (at the Pontifical Biblical Institute where the professors had been fired). What are they doing?  They took away Adam and Eve! Now they’re taking away the Magi!  What are we going to teach the children?’”⁵³

James Allen OMI, has related the condition of theology at the Angelicum during Vatican II. ⁵⁴One of our favorite pastimes at our residence was for the students at the Greg and Angelicum to compare our professors.  As Allen mentions, his professors of Scripture at the Angelicum were above average, and we at the Greg readily admitted ours were not quite up to the level of the Dominicans.  However, we felt that overall, the professors of Systematic Theology and Church History were better at the Greg.

Allen’s printed article “Remembering the Council,” Oblate World, Feb. 2013, pp. 6-9 is a valuable explanation of how seminarians in Rome during the Council seriously influenced it. It is not as detailed on theology at the Angelicum as his internet article. It is available on the national website www.omiusa.org, scrolling down the lower right column to the bottom for Oblate World.

Most of the professors at the Greg used the best in modern Biblical theology for their courses, taking from Protestant scholars and giving them credit.  During the initial course on the Church, for example, the Swiss Protestant Oscar Cullmann’s work on Peter was a main staple.⁵⁵ Fuchs was allowed to teach moral theology again as the Council opened, and received a resounding ovation, beginning with the Jesuit seminarians, as his course began.

Immediate Preparation, October, 1962

The annual pilgrimage of the community to Subiaco was held a little early this year, on Oct. 4, so we could return to Rome in time for the Oct. 11^th opening of the Council.  Just as Pope John had left Rome (the first time in a century that the pope was not in Rome) to place the Council on the agenda of the two shrines he visited (The Holy House of Loreto, and St. Francis’ city of Assisi), so we placed the Council at the foot of the founder of Western Monasticism, St. Benedict. Then on Oct. 7, the community took part in the morning in a solemn Mass and procession from the Roviano parish church for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  In the afternoon we returned for an hour of prayer specifically for the Council, “magnificent initiative of the scholastics to unite the Roviano population to the Church praying and doing vigil for the Council.”⁵⁶

The Russians Arrive and the Council Opens, Oct. 11, 1962

As we walked down the hill to the Vatican from our residence on the morning of Oct. 11, word was spreading like wild-fire through Rome that Monsignor (later Cardinal) Jan Willebrands of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, had just arrived with two Russian Orthodox bishops in tow.  The Vatican has thus broken the boycott that the Eastern Orthodox, especially the Greeks, had imposed on the Patriarch of Constantinople against accepting the invitation to attend as observers. (One Greek layman, Dr. Nikos Nissiotis, had already arrived in a World Council of Churches slot. We shall meet him below at Bossey in the summer of 1964).  By the second session, many Orthodox would be attending as observers.

However, this action of the Secretariate did not please all the Council Fathers.  Rome had been hosting for several days already the “Mostra della Chiesa del Silenzio,” (Exhibition of the Church of Silence) with large black banners very visible on the buildings around the Greg and Biblicum. It is hard for us today to remember the agony of seeing Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty of Hungary, tortured and brainwashed, appearing before a Communist court. The early 1960’s featured a Soviet Union and Communist Eastern Europe very hostile to religion, and a Catholic Church dealing somewhat severely with the situation.

“Of Poland’s 64 bishops, 36 reportedly applied to the regime for travel permits and 17 received them.” ⁵⁷. It seems the Communist government dared not deny the application of the primate, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski; the other 16 were bishops whom the Communists felt they could manipulate.  Among them was the young Karol Wojtyla.

There is some evidence today that a meeting in Metz, France, in August, 1962, between Cardinal Eugene Tisserant and Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Nikodin resulted in the understanding that the Russians would attend the Council if no condemnation of Communism was made.57a.

As I stood with Leroy Ehle OMI and thousands of others in St. Peter’s Square that morning, watching the long row of bishops entering the Basilica of St. Peter’s, beginning at 8:40 am and ending at about 10 am, many wondered if the reports that this would be like the Roman Synod were true.  Some of the bishops came expecting to be given documents to sign, which they quickly would, and by Christmas at the latest all would be home and finished.  Leroy had been in Rome two years, and I four, with our classes all in Latin.  We understood perfectly the amazing opening speech of Pope John, and you could almost hear our gasps of amazement as John attacked the “prophets of gloom” near him, and as he stated “The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another.”⁵⁸ No modern pope had ever publicly criticized those who worked with him; even Pius XII, who had worked to renew Biblical studies, the liturgy, etc., had not publicly put the need for renewal so bluntly.

That evening, the public buildings near the Vatican and along the Tiber had lighted candles in their windows.  We gathered in the Square again, to listen to Pope John’s chat to his Romans, mentioning the full  moon and asking the mothers to take his caress home to their children.  More Boy Scouts than ever formed a torchlight cross in the square. We were allowed to stay in the city until 10 pm.⁵⁹As we climbed back up the hill to our residence, it seemed more and more evident that this might not be a simple Council.

(Three more chapters are planned:  one for early October, 2013, just before the 50^th anniversary of the opening of the second session of Vatican II, one for early September 2014, just before the 50^th anniversary of the opening of the third session, and one for early Sept. 2015, to bring us to the closing session).

Sources:  Personal Written Documents:  Vatican aerogrammes to family:  49, allowed every two weeks, arrived in 4-6 days.  I usually typed them and they consisted of one full sheet, with another half sheet available around the address when folded.  These, and the letters below, were saved by my mother.

Letters to family:  39 sent between the aerogrammes, arrived in three weeks by ship.  Handwritten, many several pages.

No aerogrammes or letters survived for 1962; one for 1963, only a few for 1964, more for 1965.

1958 Desk Diary, used until Dec. 8, 1964.

Roman Journal, Notes, Impressions , January-August, 1959, 30 handwritten pages.

Compositions, hardcover notebook of personal reflections,  Aug. 31, 1958-Dec. 7, 1962.

Quaderno, softcover notebook of personal reflections, Feb. 1959-Jan. 1976.

Footnotes:

¹. Code of Canon Law, 1917, #987.  My thanks to canon lawyer Bill Woestman, OMI, who          observed “these impediments are not included in the 1983 code; they were thus abrogated” (e-mail of Jan. 9, 2012).  For more information on my experience at Vatican II, see “Supplement, Seminarians in Rome during Vatican II.”

². Harry E. Winter, “Notes on Dr. Nichols Nov. 27, 1962 Presentation,” copy at Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA.

2a.  Thomas Rausch, SJ, “Where Is Ecumenism Today?,” Ecumenical Trends 42 (#2, Feb. 2013): 12/23.

³. It is probable that one thousand newly ordained priests left Rome in early summer during   each year 1963-66.  Only in 1969 did the 26 national colleges of diocesan seminarians, and 100 colleges of religious men form an organization which would have the accurate numbers (see Alexandre Tache, OMI, “La Pineta Sacchetti (1966-1972),” Vie Oblate Life 64 (2005, #3).  Tache’s article, and earlier ones by Al Kedl, OMI, gives the history of our international residence.  The 1965 Orbis in Urbe Yearbook for the Greg gave the names and home country addresses of 232 of us taking the Licentiate exam in theology in June, 1965; when one remembers that some did not submit this information, the number is closer to 300 just for that department.

⁴. An Oblate priest Jim Pillar, OMI, who was studying Church history in Rome during the first session has a journal which could be very useful.

⁵.  The Pontifical Institute Regina Mundi opened in October, 1954.

⁶.  For the current Constitutions and Rules (approved 1982 and 1999, printed 2000), see Rule 137c.

⁷.  For Roviano, see James Allen, O.M.I., “Roviano nei ricordi di un religioso americano,” Acqua 39 (Oct. 2009): 74-78.  I have only this Italian version; for the English original, contact Allen.  The article, complete with photos, captures  the 1959 arrival of Allen, the subsequent 7 years of his summers there, and the changes over 50 years of a beautiful small city on the edge of the Abruzzi.

⁸.  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Oct. 10 (see Sources above).

⁹. See the internet items by Keith Pecklers, SJ, on the importance of Pius XII and the Assisi 1956 meeting.

¹⁰. John M. Samaha, SM, “Vatican II:  50 Years and Still Challenging,” Sophia 42 (Spring, 2012, #2):35.  The statement by Desmond Fisher that in his 19 years of papacy “Pius had not thought it necessary to summon an ecumenical council” is misleading: “Curial horror greeted John XXIII’s announcement of ecumenical council,” National Catholic Reporter, Jan. 25, 2012.

¹¹.  Wikepedia gives the number of ballots for each of the 9:  Pius XI required 14; John XXIII, 11.  The next closest was John Paul II, at 8.

¹².  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Oct. 28, 1958.

¹³. Sr. Joan Delaney, MM, “From Cremona to Edinburgh:  BishopBonomelli and the World Missionary Conference of 1910,” Ecumenical Review   (July, 2000):420.

¹⁴.  HEW, Desk Diary 1958, Dec. 11.  Earlier that day we had celebrated Mass in the Church of St. Lawrence in Damaso, where the martyr pope and promoter of the cult of the martyrs, Damasus is buried.

¹⁵.  HEW, Letter, Dec. 25, 1958, p. 1

¹⁶. Acta Apostolicae Sedis LI, 1959, pp. 6-12; Italian text on Vatican website, Blessed John XXIII, Dec. 25, 1958.

¹⁷.  HEW, Roman Journal, Jan. 10, 1958, 2 pages of notes. Gremillion was Secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission on Peace and Justice from 1966--74.

¹⁸.  Rev. Godfrey Diekmann, OSB (1908-2002) was editing Worship magazine from Collegeville (then known by its Latin name Orate Fratres); Dom Prosper Gueranger, OSB (1805-75)’s The Liturgical Year was a great source for us.

¹⁹.  Anthony “Tony” Massimini, who was there as a young priest from Philadelphia, PA, describes it on his blog as “cool silence”: www.the 21^stcentury americancatholic.blogspot.com/p/Vatican-ii.html.  Desmond Fisher calls the reaction from the curia “amazement” and “horror”:  National Catholic Reporter, 1/27/12. Massimini was honored by Joseph DiIulio at the U. Of PA on Dec. 5, 2013, with articles written by Joseph Tierney and DiIulio:  see the blog.

²⁰.  Leo Laberge, OMI, “Theologiens a Vatican II.  Notes et Carnets, Temoins de l’experience vecue a la Commission doctrinale,” Vatican II:  Experiences Canadiennes/Canadian Experiences (Ottawa, Canada:  University of Ottawa Press, 2011), especially pp. 383-85.

²¹. HEW, Letter, Jan. 29, 1959, p. 2; “Roman Journal,” Jan. 22, 1959, adding that the main language was Syriac, with the words of consecration in Hebrew.

²². HEW, Letter, Jan. 29, 1959, p. 3; my Roman Journal for Jan. 29, 1959 adds that a number of seminarians from the German College accompanied the priests.

²³.  Bishop Brian Farrell, L.C., “Mission in the Catholic Perspective,” available on the internet.

²⁴.  Bishop Kevin Farrell left the Legionaries after six years of priesthood and was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, serving there as an auxiliary bishop before being named to Dallas in 2007.

²⁵. Father Richard Gill, cited in “The Legion of Christ:  Operation Rescue,” New Oxford Review 78 (April, 2011,3):17.

²⁶.  ibid, pp. 17-18

²⁷.  HEW, Aerogramme, March 7, 1959.

²⁸.  HEW, Roman Journal, Feb. 26, 1959.

²⁹.  HEW, Roman Journal, March 13, 1959.

³⁰.  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, March 21, 1959.

³¹.  HEW, Aerogramme, April 30, 1959.

³².  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, March 24, 1959.  I have extensive notes on the conferences he gave at the Angelicum on March 15 and 18, 1961:  HEW, Quaderno, pp. 56-57; 58-59.

³³.  HEW, Letter, April 23, 1959, pp. 2-3.

³⁴. I’m grateful to Alexandre Tache for this information; Tache met Laham at St. Paul’s University, Ottawa, Canada. The names of the seminarians are posted on the Oblate ecumenical website:  www.harrywinter.org//Eastern.  Help is welcomed in tracing these Melkites.

³⁵.  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Sept. 17; Letter, Sept. 20, 1959.

³⁶.  HEW, Letter, Oct. 18, 1959, p. 4.

³⁷.  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary , Nov. 26, 1959.

³⁸.  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary 1958, Jan. 20, 21, 28, 31, 1960.

³⁹.  HEW, Compositions, Feb. 10, 1960, with three main, biting observations.

⁴⁰.  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Feb. 19, 1960.

⁴¹.  HEW, Aerogramme, Feb. 22, 1960.

⁴².  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, March 6, 1960.

⁴³. HEW, `1958 Desk Diary, March 13, 1960.

^44.   HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, April 11 and 12, 1960.

⁴⁵.  HEW, Aerogramme, April 30, 1959.

⁴⁶.  HEW, Compositions, Nov. 15, 1960.

⁴⁷.  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Nov. 19, 1960.

⁴⁸.  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, May 8, 1961.

^48a.. For Deschatelets obtaining the questionnaire, see Harry E. Winter, “Oblates at Vatican II:  An Initial Survey," Oblatio 1 (Nov. 2012, 3):337.

⁴⁹.  A Danish-Greenlander, Finn Lynge, became almost a symbol of the difficult noise level.  He moved to our scholasticate at Pine Hills, MS after two years (1957-59) in Rome; since leaving the Oblates, he has become one of the leading experts in the European Union on Greenland.

⁵⁰. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, May 13, 1962; Murphy first published his articles “Letters from the Vatican City” in 1963 in The New Yorker magazine; then they were printed as four volumes, Letters from the Vatican City, Vatican II Council, one for each session.  In 1999, he wrote a fascinating new introduction for a one volume summary:  Letters from the Vatican City (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis), available on the internet.

⁵¹.  Blessed John Henry Newman, Letters and Diaries XI, “To J.D. Dalgairns,” 22 Nov. 1846 (Oxford:  Clarenden Press, 1973), p. 279.

⁵².  For Lyonnet, see John R. Donohue SJ, “Biblical Scholarship 50 Years after Divino Afflante Spiritu, America, Sept 18, 1993, archived www.americamagazine.org/content/aarticle.cfm?article_id=10897; for Fuchs, see  James F. Keenan SJ, “Champion of Conscience,” America, April 4, 2005, archived www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=4100HYPERLINK "http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=4100&comments=1"&HYPERLINK "http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=4100&comments=1"comments=1.

⁵³.  Tony Massimini, www.the 21stcenturyamericancatholic.blogspot.com/p/Vatican-ii.html.

⁵⁴.  James Allen OMI, “Remembering the Council,”  www.omiusa.org, write in his name.

⁵⁵.  Oscar Cullmann, Peter: Disciple, Apostle and Martyr (London: SCM Press, 1953; rev. 1962).

⁵⁶.  Alexandre Tache, “Codex Historicus, International Scholasticate,” October, 1962.  I’m indebted to Tache for obtaining a copy of this from our archivist Maciej Michalski OMI  (thanks to Maciej for sharing it).  Translation mine from Tache’s French.  Tache also shared with me his “Le Concile Vatican II—Preparation et oeuverture (2 pp); 1965-4e session (1p).”

⁵⁷.  Placid Jordan OSB, “”49 Bishops at Council from Red-Ruled Countries,” Council Daybook, Sessions 1-2 (Washington, DC:  National Catholic Welfare Council, 1965), p. 48.

^57a.  Atila Sinke Guimaraes, “The Pact of Metz,” internet; also in The Fatima Crusader #104, Winter 2013, p. 18.

⁵⁸.  Pope John XXIII, “Opening Speech to the Council,” Documents of Vatican II , ed. Walter M. Abbott SJ (NY: Crossroad, 1989), pp. 712, 715.  His Dec. 25, 1961 speech officially convoking the Council began the process of rejecting “Distrustful souls [who] see only darkness burdening the face of the earth,” p. 704.

⁵⁹.  HEW, Quaderno , pp. 65-67; Tache, “Codex Historicus.”

CHAPTER TWO: OCT. 12, 1962-SEPT. 29, 1963

Seminarians Provoke University Reactions; Factions Form at the Council.

When the annual Matricola was held at the Greg in November, we were told by the “Magnificient Rector,” Father Pablo MUNOZ VEGA SJ (later cardinal) that our class attendance had plummeted, and our academic marks were suffering because we were skipping classes to listen to the Council Fathers, experts and others attending the Council, speak in various places. One outcome of this was that many of the seminary residences invited the Council participants to address their administrators and seminarians, at their seminaries.  (See p. 1 above for Dr. James Hastings Nichols, Nov. 25, 1962).

It became very evident during the first weeks of the first session, that there were three groups forming.  The bishops and experts from north of the Alps—France, Belgium, Holland and Germany-- led a group called the “Transalpini,” or more derogatorily, the “Nordic Fogs.”  This group saw much need for change.  The bishops and experts from south of the Alps, especially Spain and Italy, liked the Church and especially the Vatican as it was.  And the third group, with many of the English speaking part of it, and Asians and Africans too, was undecided and wondering.  Pope John XXIII belonged to all three groups, depending on the issue being discussed (see above, p. 14, n. 53, p. 15).

We learned quickly from our professors and staff and seminarians from other seminaries, that the Nordic Fogs came to Rome on BEA, not British European Airways, but with the newly appointed (June 6, 196)) Jesuit  president of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Augustin Bea SJ.  Bea’s elevation as cardinal on Dec. 14, 1959, was a tip off that this most trusted advisor to Pope Pius XII, would be a leader of the Council, probably influencing the most documents.   We also heard that Fr. Yves Congar OP, one of the two most influential theologians at the council, had dismissed this appointment, with the sneer, what does he know about Protestants; he’s a Scripture scholar!  Congar would later revoke that judgment.¹

Four of the 44 Oblates taking part in the first session of the Council had a great deal of influence.  Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban, South Africa became a leader especially in reforming seminary education. The Oblate superior general of the time, Leo Deschatelets, was certainly the most traveled missionary at the council.  Theologian John King began the council as a conservative, and became more progressive during each session.  Missiologist Andre Seumois probably sided with those wanting little change.  (I have sketched these four in “Oblates at Vatican II,” Oblatio I (Nov.2012, #3: 335-53, available on our international website www.omiworld.org).

Hurley’s noted biographer, Paddy Kearney, describes what we learned by Oct. 14.  "Something dramatic happened on the first day of business, 13 October, which would start reducing curial control.  The first item on the agenda was the election of council commissions.  …The Curia, largely responsible for selecting the members of commissions in the pre-conciliar phase, expected the bishops simply to endorse the choices they had made for the preparatory commissions.  The progressives wanted time for the bishops to get to know each other and to discuss and lobby for suitable candidates. …Cardinal Achille Lienart of Lille, France, had been primed to stand up at the beginning of the proceedings and propose a delay to give the bishops time to consult about which of their colleagues would be the most suitable.  When Lienart made this speech, there was great applause, showing that the council fathers had a mind of their own and would not allow themselves to be dictated to by the Curia. Three days were set aside for discussion before the elections would be held."²

Because Hurley was well known to the progressives, he was one of the 160 elected.

First Conferences

Hans Kung, looking like a young seminarian himself, spoke in English to our general house administration and scholastics on Nov. 28, 1962. He provoked a freezing temperature in the room when he ridiculed the Greg for having Kung’s Oblate classmate from Sri Lanka speak at the major academic celebration during Kung’s time, on the Immaculate Conception rather than on a topic more in keeping with the Buddhism of Sri Lanka.³

Some of the professors also brought in the experts, with Francis Sullivan, SJ having Gus Weigel, SJ (1906-64) give a rare class in English, on Dec. 1, 1962.  Weigel, who worked himself to death during the council, making sure that the Protestant and Orthodox observers received gracious hospitality each session, spoke on American Protestant theology.⁴

A student during those days recently remembered “Our professors at the Gregorian University taught us in the morning and served as council experts in the afternoon.”⁵

Karl Rahner, SJ, who with Congar influenced Vatican II the most of any periti, spoke in Latin at our general house/scholasticate on Dec. 4, 1962.⁶  The following evening, probably through the influence of Leo Laberge, OMI, Monsignor Gerard Philips of the Louvain spoke in French.  Laberge gives some detail about Philips’ crucial role in mediating between Yves Congar, OP, and Sebastian Tromp, SJ, so that the Constitution on the Church could come to fruition.⁷

Dec. 8 Closing of the First Session

Cynics noted that the first session had produced no documents, only the decision of Pope John to insert the name of St. Joseph in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Much more important than this liturgical addition was the celebration of Mass in other rites than the Latin, each day the council was in session. The echoing of drums during the Ethiopian Rite, for example, was something new for St. Peter’s Basilica and most of the bishops.

Most viewed the decision by the pope to allow the council fathers in favor of reform to take over, as a positive step which would produce significant results in the next session.  Word was spreading, though, that Pope John had an incurable cancer, and the choice of the next pope would be crucial for the future of the council.

Chiara Lubich and the Focolarini

On Dec. 29, a group of us visited the Abbey of Grottaferrata, and met for the first time the important lay group “Focolarini.”  Founded in the bomb shelters near Trent, Italy, during World War II by Chiara Lubich, this group would have a very important impact on the Italian Oblate formation program, the relationship of Latin Catholics with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and with Islam.⁸

Pope John’s Last Public Visit, and Repercussions

Our teachers at the Greg knew of Pope John’s illness.  So Fr. Bernard Lonergan SJ told us at the beginning of our first class on Tuesday, Jan. 22, that the pope wanted us all at what would be his last public visit. So we were let out of class early to glimpse Pope John at the Church of St. Andrea della Valle, on the Corso.⁹ Then those familiar with church history began to wonder if the council would continue under a new pope.  After all, the Council of Trent, after its first session, had been delayed from 1552-58, as the new pope, Paul IV, opposed it.

Pope John was still strong enough on Sunday, March 17 to engage Cardinal Spellman of NY in a dialogue during the canonization of Mother Seton.  Mike Cleary (1940-2010), in the class behind me, and I were fortunate to obtain tickets and attend the ceremony.¹⁰

Congar Visits Us

 During the Mardi Gras holidays of March, 1963, Yves Congar OP (see above, pp. 22-23) visited our two communities of the General Administration and the International Scholasticate.  He described the experience in his diary.  After comparing the actual structure of the Oblate building with the famous Dominican Saulchoir (near Paris), he called the Oblates “Persone molto simpatiche,” and mentioned both Fathers Perbal and Seumois. His first conference centered on the thirteen “’picole’ domande,” which the scholastics gave him. Then after supper, there was “conversazione-conferenza” with the Fathers, not the scholastics, on ecumenism, above all with the Easterners.¹¹

On March 18, the first assistant of the staff, Fr. Alexandre Tache OMI, used Congar's insights to furnish the scholasticate community some insights for the superior's feast day.¹²

Death of Pope John and Election of Pope Paul

By Friday, May 31, it was clear the pope was dying.  At 5:30 pm, “a serious crisis; Pope John receives the cardinals, offers his life for the success of the Council, repeats continuously ‘Ut omnes unum sint’ (that all be one, Jo. 17:21)”^13. Pentecost Sunday, June 2, was not the joyful celebration it usually was.  On Pentecost Monday, June 3, our entire seminary went to St. Peter’s for the Mass celebrated for Pope John in the piazza of the basilica by Cardinal Luigi Traglia.  As we were walking back to our seminary, on a beautiful Roman evening, it was announced that the pope had died at 7:49 pm, just as the Last Gospel of the Mass was being proclaimed: “There was a man named John sent by God”(Jo. 1:6).¹⁴

Seminaries were asked to furnish an honor guard as Pope John’s body lay in state in St. Peter’s.  Our time was Thursday, June 6, from 1 am to 2 am.  I shall never forget the sight, as we from our seats near the pope’s body, saw the line of people, many holding small children so they could glimpse Pope John for one last time.  The line extended out from the piazza of the Vatican, down the Via dell Conciliazione of Rome, and onto the bridge across the Tiber.

At 10:30 am, the four of us Oblates in my class attending the Greg had an exam to take.  During the school year, we rented a bus to travel from our seminary to the Greg and Angelicum, but during exam time, we were given money to take the public buses.  I was seated next to a Roman, and tried to make conversation about Pope John.  He snarled at me that the pope was a Communist sympathizer; who cared that he was dead?  I had experienced Italian anti-clericalism before, but this was a new low.¹⁵

Our superior rented a tv set, and on Monday, June 17, we watched the last of the Solemn High Funeral Masses for Pope John.  On the 19, we saw the Mass of the Holy Spirit as the conclave opened, with a history of the conclave.  About 20 of us in the seminary (which now had a capacity of about 60) had been in Rome both for the death of Pope Pius XII, and Pope John XXIII, and the subsequent elections.¹⁶

On Friday, June 21, the rented tv announced “fumata bianca” (white smoke) and we rushed to St. Peter’s and stood in the blazing noon day sun.  We heard Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani “firmly announce ‘Joannes Baptista (roar of the crowd in approval) Montini’ is Paul VI.”¹⁷ Those who feared the election of a cardinal who would oppose the council, were relieved.  In our group of Oblates, the young staff member Fr. Alexandre Tache, normally very proper, expressed his joy by throwing his Roman hat up into the air.

As Archbishop of Milan and a council father during the first session, Montini had indicated his openness to those who wanted change.  But having served so long in the Vatican before this, those content with the Church before Vatican II felt that he would listen to their concerns.  He would soon be dubbed the Hamlet pope, because he was sometimes torn between the two groups and seemed to hesitate with his decisions.

Paul VI very quickly showed that he wanted the Council documents to be acceptable to an overwhelming percentage of the Council Fathers. This would involve his adding portions to key documents at the last moment, in order for them to be acceptable to the group which emphasized the best in the pre-conciliar church.  As we shall see below in chapter four, the best example of this is the Declaration on Religious Freedom, where the pope would have to use all of his skills to bring the progressive and conservative groups together.  This document would have the highest number of dissenters.

The Paris Experience, June 28-August 3, 1963

On June 28, two of my classmates (David Kalert and Heinze Hunke) and I left Rome  by train in the evening for Paris. We changed trains early on the 29th in Milan, noticing that all the clocks had been stopped at the hour and minute their Cardinal Montini had been elected pope.  In Paris we joined a newly ordained American Oblate, Bill Reinhard, a young Italian Oblate, Fortunato Muffolini, and the American Oblate theologian John J. King, to reside at our mission procure on the Rue de l’Assomption and study French at L’Institute Catholique.

At the mission procure, we rubbed shoulders with French Oblates coming and going from all over the world, and glimpsed those across the courtyard at the provincial house of the North French Province.  We heard or saw our French missionaries in the Arctic, French speaking Africa and Laos especially.

L’Institute Catholique incorporated the former Carmelite convent, where the nuns lived who had been martyred during the French Revolution, furnishing the basis for Bernanos “Dialogue des Carmelites” (see above, “International Movies,” p. 9). We visited the Church of St. Sulplice, where the Sulplician Fathers trained our founder, St. Eugene DeMazenod, to oppose Napoleon and help restore the French Catholic Church.  We attended Mass at one of the centers of the renewal of the liturgy, St. Severin. We toured Notre Dame de Paris, and went to visit Notre Dame de Chartres, reveling in Charles Peguy’s “La Tapisserie de Notre-Dame.”  Excursions to Lisieux, Mont. St. Michel and the  city of Reims, visiting both Notre Dame de Reims, where Joan of Arc crowned the Dauphin,  and the Basilica, where Clovis was baptized, gave us a deep appreciation of some of the currents which were active at the council.

Bill Reinhard would later obtain a doctorate in Missiology and we would work together in Mission and Ecumenism, especially at the General Chapter of the Oblates of 1972.  He would also teach missiology at our seminary in Washington, DC, while remaining on loan from his permanent assignment in Brazil.

For more on John J. King’s important role at Vatican II, where he formed part of the media consultants available to the press, see above, p. 23. I remember clearly the three of us seminarians were discussing how we were going to attend daily Mass, if we had to leave the procure early in the morning for an excursion.  King told us that priests of his day considered Mass to be the most important part of their day, and would rise no matter how early to celebrate it.  And in those days, Mass could only be celebrated from midnight to noon.

We were offered many lectures on various elements of French culture.  One that left a lasting impression was by the French Academy physicist Louis Leprince-Ringuet, on July 8. Most of us were liberal arts students.  Leprince-Ringuet told us very bluntly that the reason physics had advanced so much was the team attitude.  True scientists do not work alone, but collaborate with others.  He asked us when we ever had a class in the liberal arts where we worked with another student or were part of a team.  He concluded that the liberal arts were lagging far behind the sciences because we all worked in isolation.¹⁸

Perhaps Vatican II would show that bishops and theologians could work together and produce great, creative change.  When I taught in our seminary later, it was not easy to convince either the administration or the seminarians that working together was far more preferable than working alone.  At least one of my courses at the University of Pennsylvania, dealing with the philosophy of history confronting the resurrection of Jesus, taught by Van Harvey, involved a great deal of teamwork, and ongoing contact with the university asserts this is continuing in liberal arts^.19

As I review the notes taken in lectures on Camus, Sartre, Claudel, Marcel and other authors, French history, and art, I’m grateful to the Oblate leadership which encouraged such an experience.²⁰

Men and women of all ages and countries took the courses and excursions.  Although our Roman, international seminary was not as sheltered as our national seminaries, it was still a rather regulated schedule.  This more open summer experience was a good preparation for the one to follow in the summer of 1964.

On August 1^st, our Oblate missionary bishop from Hudson Bay, Canada, Armande Claubaut, showed the community slides he had taken of the first session of the council.²¹ The following evening, the three of us returned by train to Rome, not realizing this was the busiest time of the year for train travel from France to Italy, the August holidays.  We stood all the way to Pisa, Italy, where we were able to change trains and sit on the lawn near the Leaning Tower for a few hours.

Ignatian Retreat; Second Session Begins.

Since the three of us had missed the community's annual week long retreat in mid-July, because of the Paris trip, we made a slightly longer eight day retreat from Aug. 17-24, based on the Ignatian Exercises.  Fr. Tache, who had specialized in this practice, led the retreat for us.  Later, as the turbulence of the late 1960's affected the way the Jesuits viewed this practice, it was evident that we benefited very much from the experience.²²

The second session of the Council opened earlier than the first, Sept. 29 compared to Oct. 11.  Most of us were still at the summer house in Roviano, but the excitement and interest mounted as expectations increased.

Sources for Chapter Two (in addition to those above for Chapter One).

Annotationes quaedam ad cursum Patris Witte de Unitate and Mission Ecclesiae, Motio OEcumenica  (Some Notes for Father Witte’s Course Concerning the Unity and Mission of the Church, the Ecumenical Movement).  Distributed by Witte, 15 pages.  My own written notes of the course are 27 half pages. I also have a typed two page outline.

Johannes Witte, S.J., De Theologia Protestantium (John Witte SJ, Concerning Protestant Theology), Rome, 1964-65, 102 pp.  My own written notes for this course are 21 half pages.

Footnotes for Chapter Two:

¹.  Yves Congar, OP, My Journal of the Council (Collegeville, MN:  Liturgical Press, 2012). For a thorough survey of Bea's work, see Jared Wicks, SJ, "Cardinal Bea's Unity Secretariat:  Engine of Renewal and Reform at Vatican II," Ecumenical Trends 41 (Dec. 2012, 11):1/161-5/165, 15/175.

².  Paddy Kearney, Guardian of the Light (NY:  Continuum, 2009), p. 112.

³. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary indicates the date is “about” Nov. 28. 1962.

⁴. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Dec. 1, 1962. Weigel’s published work with the American Presbyterian Robert McAfee Brown during the Council is very important; Brown later advised me a great deal on my doctoral thesis, which includes a detailed examination of Brown’s liturgical contribution to Presbyterian worship:  Catholic, Evangelical and Reformed:  The Lord’s Supper in the (United) Presbyterian Church, 1945-70 (Ann Arbor, MI:  University Microfilms International, 1976), especially 2:336-67; 349-54, 364-67.

⁵.  Edward Starkey, “Council Deeply Embedded,” America, Oct. 29, 2012, p. 30.

⁶. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Dec. 4, 1962.

⁷. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Dec. 5, 1962. For Philips’ role in developing the Constitution on the Church, see Leo Laberge, OMI, note 20, vol. 1 above.

⁸. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Dec. 29, 1962.

⁹. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Jan. 22, 1963.

¹⁰. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, March 17, 1963

^11. I am using Fabio Ciardi, OMI, “GLI OBLATI DI MARIA IMMACOLATA AL CONCILIO ECUMENICO VATICANO II,” MISSIONI OMI, 08/09_13 (www.missioniomi), p. 19, translation mine.  Ciardi notes that Congar has hard pages about Seumois: p. 20. For more on Seumois, see HEW, “Oblates at Vatican II,” Oblatio I (Nov. 2012,3)338-41).

¹².  HEW, Quaderno, March 18, index, and p. 63.

¹³. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, May 31, 1963.

¹⁴. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, June 3, 1963.

¹⁵. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, June 6, 1963.

¹⁶. HEW, 1958 Desk Dairy, June 17, 19, 1963.

¹⁷. HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, June 21, 1963

¹⁸. HEW, two pages of notes on Leprince-Ringuet, Summer, 1962.

¹⁹.  Amy Gutmann, “A Global Approach to Scholarship,” The Pennsylvania Gazette, May/June 2013, pp. 4-5.

²⁰. HEW, a total of 79 half pages, in French, Summer, 1962.

²¹.  HEW, 1958 Desk Diary, Aug. 1, 1963.

²². HEW, Compositions, 2 half pages, 4 sides, inserted, "Retreat, Aug. 17-24, 1963."