06 February 2013

A reflection in Studies on Vatican II

Pope John XXIII is carried through the assembled Fathers during the first session of Vatican II. (Photo: Catholic News Service, Washington DC. © Catholic News Service (CNS) …from the cover of the current edition of Studies

Patrick Comerford

The current edition of Studies (vol 101, no 404) is dedicated to reflections from a diversity of viewpoints on the state of the Roman Catholic Church, especially in Ireland, 50 years after the Second Vatican Council began in the winter of 1962.

Studies is an Irish Quarterly Review. The current edition is published in Dublin this week, although it is dated Winter 2012.

The online edition contains the full text of the lead article, along with abstracts from the remaining articles.

In the lead article, ‘Irish Catholicism at a Crossroads,’ Father Gerry O’Hanlon of the Milltown Institute says: “It is a great blessing, on this fiftieth anniversary, to recall the gift of the Holy Spirit given to the Catholic Church, all Christians and the world, by the Second Vatican Council. The Council reaffirmed the good news that the church was called to be the ‘light of the world’, to reveal the love of God for all human kind and to share all human hopes and fears. The mood was hopeful and even joyous.”

My contribution (pp 441-448) is “An Irish Anglican Response to Vatican II.”

The other contributors include: Father Jim Corkery, the Jesuit theologian, ‘Whither Catholicism in Ireland?”; Father Brenan Hoban, founder member of the Association of Catholic Priests, “How did it come to this?”; writer and teacher Breda O’Brien, “Going beyond the divisions”; Professor Declan Kibberd of the University of Notre Dame, “Ireland after Aggiornamento; and Aoife McGrath from the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, “Lay Pastoral Ministry in the Church.”

Studies, which was first published in Dublin in March 1912, is published quarterly by the Irish Jesuits and is edited by the Revd Bruce Bradley. The journal examines Irish social, political, cultural and economic issues in the light of Christian values and explores the Irish dimension in literature, history, philosophy and religion.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

O'Hanlon's remark on "the dangers of a totalitarian, uno duce, una voce, approach," certainly chime with the Brezhnev-like culture of the CDF that has been evinced since the reign of Paul VI. Hope for a cooling of the Roman Ice Age?