Melbourne News

Knox lecture 2012: Australia and Vatican II

Wednesday 23 May 2012

By Laura Meli
Kairos Catholic Journal

THE 2012 Knox Lecture on Wednesday 16 May commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the opening session of the Vatican II Council with a presentation by Rev. Associate Professor Orm Rush, lecturer at St Paul's Theological College, ACU, on “Australia and Vatican II: Assessing the Reception of the Council.”

Vatican II ushered the Church into the modern world but, as Fr Rush pointed out in his opening statement, “Vatican II still has a long way to go,” and it’s only recently that, “its’ vision is finally becoming a reality in the Church.”

To listen to the lecture, select the play button below.




Throughout his presentation, delivered at the Cardinal Knox Centre in East Melbourne, Fr Rush bought to life the real experiences of Australian bishops who were present at the Council. He quoted from Jeffrey Murphy that, “Vatican II wasn’t so much a council as a complex of many councils: discussions, dinners, conversations, coffees, conference meetings, colloquia, and chats with foreigners.” For many of the bishops, the official proceedings, especially the speeches, were considered to be “tedious” if not “alienating” but, as Auxiliary Bishop of Perth, Miles McEuen, commented, “It was long tedious work, but at the same time you felt that it wasn’t dealt with in a haphazard way.” Over the four years the Council was in session a total of 38 Australian bishops took part in the Council, authoring 64 submissions of suggestions of additions and revisions for documents, and signing a total of 25 more.

It was also in these meetings that the hierarchy of the Church built important relationships with theologians. One Australian bishop recalled that, “Bishops sat at the feet of theologians and were led to serious reflection in preparations for the momentous decisions they had to make.” 

The laity also played an active role in the life of the Council. Sydney born Rosemary Goldie, referred to by Pope John XXIII as ‘la piccinina’, ‘the little one’, was involved in a sub-committee for the formation of the Decree for the Apostolate of Lay People. Rosemary is acknowledged to be the author of a single sentence in Article 9 of this document which states, “Since in our time, women have an ever more active share in the whole life of society, it is very important that they participate more widely also in the various fields of the Church’s Apostolate.” As Fr Rush commented, “perhaps more then any of her national hierarchy the direct Australian contribution to the final document on the laity was to be made by ‘la piccinina’”.

The aim of the Vatican II was to renew and reform the Church and “No other council in Church’s history has ever attempted such a wide ranging review of the Church life.” When the Australian bishops boarded their ships following the closing mass in 1965, with 16 weighty documents in their luggage, they did so, “charged with bringing the Council home.”

Essentially, the two “buzz words” of the Council were ressourcement and aggiornamento; ressourcement, meaning a return to the sources, tradition and symbols of what the Church has always believed, and aggiornamento, meaning “bringing up to date” the Church’s teachings and reading the “signs of the times” to determine what is needed for the Church in the modern world.

As John XXIII stated at the opening of the council, the aim of Vatican II was, "to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion". Our present Pope Benedict XVI calls us to remember these words and interpret the Council’s spirit of reform as one that has elements of both continuity and discontinuity, so that we see the Spirit of Vatican II as being the same Spirit that has always guided and inspired the Church.

The message of the Vatican II is one of encouragement and hope. Its message is that, “all of the baptised, married, single, religious, priests, bishops, popes, are called to holiness, so that through their lives the power of the gospel may shine forth as a lumen gentium, a light to all people, just as Christ was.” This means that we must proclaim the gospel, “not in monologue but by entering into dialogue” in concentric circles within the Church, amongst Christians, people of other religions, and all those in the wider society.  
One Australian bishop when asked if there had been conversions among the Australian bishops across the four years replied, “Certainly, Australian bishops were changed and positively influenced by the Council and moved beyond former attitudes… so to use your words, there were conversions at the Council.”

“Five decades on, the Council continues to call us all to conversion to its vision”. Indeed, the fruits of Vatican II are still ripening and being bought to life in the Church. Fr Rush’s presentation is a call for us, the “Pilgrim People”, to continue to open our arms to receive the graces of Vatican II and work towards its vision becoming a reality in the Church today.