FEATURE
Reform of the Reform David Gornall SJ looks at where we are now, fifty-five years after the Second Vatican Council
O
ur drastic and strange experience of coronavirus has given us a great opportunity and incentive to re-evaluate our situation in society, and the reality of our own lives. We are also fiftyfive years on from the closing of the Second Vatican Council, in 1965, and this gives us also the motivation to reassess the progress and situation of the Church since then, and especially in our own day. Changes in the Church are often labelled ‘Reforms of Vatican II’, although very many of these significant and major changes were not foreseen by the Council Fathers, or contained in the Council documents, but were instigated following the Council, under the banner of being ‘according to the spirit of the Council’. These include, the installing of freestanding altars, and Mass facing the people, Holy Communion taken standing and in the hand, the Sign of Peace before Holy Communion, and the multiplication of lay Ministers of Holy Communion, the introduction of women lectors and girl servers, and the almost total eclipse of Latin in the liturgy, replaced by the vernacular. As well as these, there was the introduction of a New Rite of Mass, together with a number of new Eucharistic Prayers, and the introduction of a new Sunday and Weekday Lectionary. Also, there was the renewal, and publication in the vernacular, of the Breviary. These changes were generally approved, and in some cases promulgated, by the Holy See. The life of the Church
What has been the effect of all this, in the life of the Church, and have they had a significant effect on the Church’s mission of evangelization and the transformation of society? There have been definite positive results, such as the greater involvement of the laity in the life of the Church, and the greater scope for the gifts of women in its life, the increased awareness and facility of the
26
laity in making use of Sacred Scripture, progress in catechesis (although this has been a mixed picture), the ministry of permanent Deacons (foreseen by the Council), and the more understandable and acceptable image of the Church to society at large. In the Religious Life of both men and women, there has been a re-engaging with the original documents and intentions of the founders (encouraged by the Council document). Improved ecumenical relations between the various Churches, and better relations with Jews and Non-Christians, were also positive fruits of Vatican II.
However, looking back over the last decades, there have been notable negative factors both in the life of the Church and in its place within the wider society. Perhaps the most obvious one of these is the huge decline in Mass attendance of Catholics; in many nominally-Catholic countries this is now minimal. Coming fast after this, is the equally great decline in vocations, both to the Priesthood and to the Religious Life. Many Religious Congregations now face de facto extinction, and dioceses have faced drastic pastoral reorganization of parish ministries. Both these phenomena have been generally
SPRING 2021
