What Happened at Vatican II

by John W. O'Malley

During four years in session, Vatican Council II held television audiences rapt with its elegant, magnificently choreographed public ceremonies, while its debates generated front-page news on a near-weekly basis. By virtually any assessment, it was the most important religious event of the twentieth century, with repercussions that reached far beyond the Catholic church. Remarkably enough, this is the first book, solidly based on official documentation, to give a brief, readable account of the council from the moment Pope John XXIII announced it on January 25, 1959, until its conclusion on December 8, 1965; and to locate the issues that emerge in this narrative in their contexts, large and small, historical and theological, thereby providing keys for grasping what the council hoped to accomplish.

What Happened at Vatican II captures the drama of the council, depicting the colorful characters involved and their clashes with one another. The book also offers a new set of interpretive categories for understanding the council’s dynamics―categories that move beyond the tired “progressive” and “conservative” labels. As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the calling of the council, this work reveals in a new way the spirit of Vatican II. A reliable, even-handed introduction to the council, the book is a critical resource for understanding the Catholic church today, including the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

Genres: History, Religion, Theology, Nonfiction, Church History, Christianity, Catholic

400 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2007

About the author

Rev. Father John W. O’Malley, SJ, PhD was a professor of theology at the University of Detroit, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, and Georgetown University. His specialty was the history of religious culture in early modern Europe, especially Italy. He received best-book prizes from the American Historical Association, the American Philosophical Society, the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, the American Catholic Historical Association, and from the Alpha Sigma Nu fraternity. His best known books are The First Jesuits (Harvard University Press, 1993), which has been translated into twelve languages, What Happened at Vatican II (Harvard, 2008), now in six languages, and The Jesuits: A History from Ignatius to the Present (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), now in seven languages. A companion to the book on Vatican II is his Trent: What Happened at the Council (Harvard, 2012), in five languages. He has edited or co-edited a number of volumes, including three in the Collected Works of Erasmus series, University of Toronto Press. Of special significance is The Jesuits and the Arts, (Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2005), co-edited with Gauvin Alexander Bailey, and Art, Culture, and the Jesuits: The Imago primi saeculi, 1640) (Saint Joseph's University Press, 2015). In 2015 he also published Catholic History for Today's Church: How Our Past Illuminates Our Present (Rowman & Littlefield). He edited a series with Saint Joseph's University Press entitled Early Modern Catholicism and the Visual Arts, in which thirteen titles have appeared to date.

John O’Malley lectured widely in North America and Europe to both professional and general audiences. He held a number of fellowships, from the American Academy in Rome (Prix de Rome), the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and other academic organizations. He was a past president of the Renaissance Society of America and of the American Catholic Historical Association. In 1995 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1997 to the American Philosophical Society, and in 2001 to the Accademia di san Carlo, Ambrosian Library, Milan, Italy. He held the Johannes Quasten Medal from The Catholic University of America for distinguished achievement in Religious Studies, and he holds a number of honorary degrees. In 2002 he received the lifetime achievement award from the Society for Italian Historical Studies, in 2005 the corresponding award from the Renaissance Society of America, and in 2012 the corresponding award from the American Catholic Historical Association. He was a Roman Catholic priest and a member of the Society of Jesus.

Reviews

[MyLan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is even better when John O’Malley is constantly drilling us in class on sections of it.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well done. I gave it a 4 only because I am not on the same liberal edge as Fr. O'Malley. I read this book in conjunction with Lamb and Levering's Vatican II" Renewal within Tradition. Great contrast to give a balance.

I sent the following email to Louis Kim when he sent me an extremist conservative view on Vatican II.

I am not only not sympathetic. I am appalled. This is the extreme right wing of conservative Catholic thought. And I am a conservative. I can relate to his
reaction against the extremes of the Enlightenment but not to much else.

The dispute is over whether Vatican II broke tradition or is in continuity with tradition.

Two of the major works that I have read and are both quite good, see

John O'Malley, SJ, What Happened at Vatican II

Matthew Lamb, and Matthew Levering, Vatican II: Renewal within Tradition.

For a strong conservative's view on both books, see:

http://www.firstthings.com/article/20...

Richard Neuhaus

For a pretty good balanced view on both books, see the attachment.

The Catholic Social Science Review 15 (2010): 255-259

Vatican II: Renewal within Tradition. Eds. Matthew L. Lamb and
Matthew Levering. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. x + 462
pages. $29.00 paper, $99.00 cloth.
John W. O’Malley, What Happened at Vatican II. Cambridge: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008. 380 pages. $18.95
paper, $29.95 cloth.
Russell Brewer.

[Leonardo]

Citado en Jesús, el buen Pastor de la historia humana pág.368

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Second and Much Different Council


AT A GLANCE:
An eminent Catholic historian shows his mastery of controversial subject matter.

CONTENT:
There are many competing stories about “what happened at Vatican II”. Luckily the man who wrote the book by that name is here to help us make sense of things!
The lectures are presented as a story told chronologically. We learn about the calling and intentions of Pope John XXIII, compared subtly with Paul VI’s strategy of intervention. This is an intimate and systematic look at the driving participants, the composition and presentation of key documents, and the infighting of competing groups from around the Catholic sphere. There is very little focus on the relevant doctrine and this is at times frustrating; we are told one too many times that “we don’t have time to go into that now”. Expect a straight history lesson and you will be rewarded.

THE NARRATOR:
Professor O’Malley is an esteemed Jesuit author who had firsthand access to the council as a journalist. He has devoted much time and care to this series and gives the impression of being a trustworthy source. His tone of voice occasionally hints at his opinion but he stays consistently on-topic. His speaking tempo picks up and slows without warning, making it a dangerous business to deviate the playback speed from normal.

OVERALL:
Greatly recommended for Catholics and Church history buffs seeking an objective overview of the events during Vatican II.

[Mary Helene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is JUST the kind of book I've been wanting for years - a popular history of Vatican II - what happened, with lots of juicy bits, and enough historical background for it all to make sense, and not pushing a particular agenda - just the facts, with enough storyline to make it a joy to read, which it was.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The logistics alone involved in bringing together about 3,000 people from a world-wide institution with a 2,000 year tradition to express its understanding of itself are, to say the least, impressive. The documents of Vatican II reveal a remarkable reorientation of the Catholic Church. In his lively narrative, O'Malley aims to devise a hermeneutic which gets beyond the documents to the spirit of the Council, in order to show what happened and didn't happen at Vatican II. It's a helpful account to understanding the Catholic Church today.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, it’s a wealth of information and a good inside look at the Vatican council process, but dear god did I labor through it. It’s very dry at times, and the only thing that kept me going was the information.

[Joe Boenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

John O'Malley covers every aspect of the 21st Ecumenical Council, Vatican II, from its convocation by Pope John XXIII on 25 January 1959, to the concluding ceremonies under Pope Paul VI on 8 December 1965. The author follows the work of the preparatory commissions, the working of the schema for the original proposed documents, the reworking of those schemata during the sessions of the council, and the difficult work of writing documents "in committee". O'Malley reminds the reader that Vatican II was the largest legislative gathering in human history. He avoids labels such as "progressive" and "conservative", and speaks rather of the "majority" and the "minority". He analyzes the shape that discussions took, in committee and in general sessions.

What I take away from O'Malley's narrative is not the content of the 16 documents of Vatican II -- all of which I already have read and known well, and most of which are incomplete in themselves -- but the shift in the language used by the Church, beginning with the Council. Pope John wanted a council that was pastoral, and the vast majority of the 2400 bishops present did all that they could to make sure the council remained pastoral. This council abandoned the juridical vocabulary of condemnation used in the canons of the previous 20 ecumenical councils, and embraced the rhetoric of persuasion.

“To a large extent [the Council Fathers] engage in a rhetoric of praise and congratulation. The vocabulary employed by the form is the key to unlocking what is at stake. Although it becomes more pronounced in the documents approved at later stages in the council, it is, under the circumstances, remarkably consistent throughout. Although the words can be divided into categories like horizontal-words, equality-words, reciprocity-words, interiority-words, change-words, empowerment-words, and others, they evince an emotional kinship among themselves and, along with the literary genre in which they are encased, imbue Vatican II with a literary unity unique among councils. In this way they express an overall orientation and a coherence in values and outlook that markedly contrast with those of previous councils, and, indeed, with most official ecclesiastical documents up to that point. Vatican II, a language-event” (O’Malley, p. 306).

This history of Vatican II is outstanding, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the spirit of the council, or just “what happened at Vatican II” that transformed the Catholic Church from a closed group bent on condemnation of opponents to a vast movement, centered on Jesus and on holiness of life.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good though a little long winded at times. The chapter on the “long 19th century” was especially good.

[L. M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A helpful summary as well as a penetrating interpretation of this complex and important event.

[Wan Yun · Rating 4 out of 5]

not an easy book to get through but Jesus Wept provided a good grounding of the key characters for me to start on this book; my obsession w the Catholic Church and all its politicking glory continues

my china 2025 read thus finally concludes! accompanied me through many a sleepless night in cold ass tents / shelters and through gorgeous car rides through the mountains of Sichuan

[Marc Livingstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic single volume work on Vatican II. O'Malley proving here how he really was the Church's pre-eminent historian!

[Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoroughly engaging popular history of the complicated story that is Vatican II. O'Malley reads the events of the council as groundbreaking in Catholic history. In its style of discourse and efforts of updating, the council reversed a trend in Catholicism, since at least the early 19th century, of reverting into itself and disengaging from the world which the Popes had increasingly described as perverse in its modernism. The Council Fathers instead engaged the world in dialogue in such important documents as "The Church in the Modern World." Moreoever, the Catholic Church began at Vatican II an emphasis in ecumenical dialogue amongst the Church and, what it calls, her separated brethren (viz. Orthodox and Protestant believers). While I am not too familiar on scholarship on Vatican II, I believe the prevailing trend is to interpret the council as thoroughly in line with previous councils. O'Malley offers a different take which I think is vitally important to remembering the legacy of the council. A great read for anyone interested in the Church or twentieth century history.

[Nathanial]

Day by day, blow by blow account of "the biggest meeting in history"--upwards of three thousand participants, journalists, international observers gathering for two or three months a year, over a period of five years. Why? Because the Catholic Church had become, well, the Catholic Church, and someone had to do something about it.

O'Malley identifies three main 'themes' in the Council documents: style (anyone who's been to Mass knows Catholics got 'style', but by this he means approach to tone and language), the relationship between the center and the periphery (i.e., the Curia vis-a-vis bishops), and how the Church deals with change.

Includes historical background on previous councils (especially Trent and Vatican I), summary of the previous centuries' response and/or reaction to liberal revolutions, modernism, and nationalisms, plus speculations on effects: what the Council did and did not achieve.

[Fr. Daniel Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a run-down of the main events, people, and circumstances of Vatican II.

I liked it a lot, and learned much about what happened there. I don't believe that I'll retain much because I didn't know many of the names or documents at all, so it was difficult to remember which documents were highly disputed. It was also a bit dry, especially at the beginning. It was worth my time to read once, but I likely won't read it again.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

O'Malley's history sheds light not only on what happened at the Vatican II Council but what happened in decades before it (much of the first part of the book is not about the Council at all but about events and trends beginning sometimes centuries before it)and on the ongoing debate in the Church about what happened and what it means.

[Gage Fowlkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent context for the council, helpfully bridges theological/cultural gap between Trent, Vat I and Vat II, great addition to the “What happened at…” series. Provides an excellent interpretive framework for the Canons decrees and constitutions of the most recent ecumenical council. Concise and a helpful companion to reading said canons and decrees

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book went into a lot of detail about the ins and outs of the discussions, and the themes underlying the votes and debates. Too much detail for me, though, and I ended up skimming the second half.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Turns out that I do not care what happened at Vatican II.

I'm sure this book is much more meaningful to someone who is Christian or who is Catholic. I thought it would be interesting for me because I am interested in how the forces of major religions have shaped societies.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice summary of the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council, in lecture format, by Fr. John W O’ Malley. I look forward to reading his longer book on the subject. Excellent start for Catholics and others interesting in learning more about Vatican II.

[Nick Black]

Saw in this (excellent) article: http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.d...

[Michael Ortiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, but superficial take on the Council and its effects on the Church. I would recommend only to those who have a solid grounding in the issues.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little overlong and at times too dense, it is still a good overview of the council.

[Rory Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of rupture(s) but their implication is unclear.

This is a story of personalities and individuals. It portrays the arguments which constituted the debates of Vatican II, stressing difference, conflict and rupture. This makes it an interesting read with very real dramatic tensions and senses of suspense about how matters will end. For example, Session 3 of the Council (1964) ends in a ‘black week,’ where major parts of the Council’s work seem to be at risk of being undone by the Pope. The bishops depart unsure of what will happen next, and there is even a question whether the Pope might postpone the final session of the Council.

By focusing on the characters, and their motivations and thought patterns, the book (accurately) portrays the complexities and difficulties that the council was grappling with. It sets the scene with a (very) long chapter describing a ‘long nineteenth century’ from the French Revolution (1789) to Vatican II (1962). That era is portrayed as a theological battening down of the hatches, and a pulling up of drawbridges. Differences of opinion were viewed too often as betrayal, and theologians were punished accordingly. In a state of siege that may have made sense, but by 1962 it was increasingly looking problematic.

Vatican II may have been called by Pope John XXIII to deal with Ecumenism and updating, but it was also a pressure valve which unleashed pent up frustrations about the Church’s directions of intellectual travel. The Roman Curia style was seeming more and more ethereal and divorced from what was the intellectual reality for the rest of the world. Was it really appropriate to still be learning a theology of medieval ideas, in a medieval Latin, especially in the former mission territories outside of Europe, where decolonisation was taking place?

Once the council opened, some of those medieval paradigms broke. We see the breaking occurring in the many ways in which the Council fathers forced a change to ideas in documents, and even to the very shape of the documents themselves. There was a refusal to continue with the Scholastic Manualist way of doing theology, and a refusal to continue the Counter Reformation of censuring and blaming.

The big question raised by Vatican II is whether the council was also a doctrinal breach. It changed ideas and it changed formulations. But did it change dogma? The book side steps that question. It contents itself with noting the incidents of changes, but it doesn’t press the question of the full significance of those changes. This leaves a hermeneutical lacuna at the end of the book, as if there is a final chapter missing.

That means that whilst this is a good book, and possibly one of the best books when it comes to describing ‘what happened’ at the Council, it is less adequate on conveying the implications of ‘what it all means.’ Readers who want to understand the implications of the Council’s documents will need to look to other books about Vatican II.

[Desmond Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent, straightforward look at the workings and output of Vatican II, written by the late John O'Malley, esteemed Jesuit Catholic historian. Using his vast erudition, O'Malley brings to life the immense complexity of Vatican II, providing the historical context to understand how it came to be, why it addressed the topics that it did, how different actors affected its outcome, and how it came to the opinions that it issued. He describes it as a response to the ideas and events of the "long nineteenth century," extending from the French Revolution in 1789 to the post-WW II period. He shows how each of the main ideas of Vatican II - updating the church, returning to original sources for inspiration, addressing the issues of central and peripheral control, ecumenism, church-state relations, reform of the liturgy - grew out of the need for the Catholic church to adapt to the new world it found itself in, and to shed medieval models that had come to seem eternal and unchangeable.

The book spends a lot of time with specific individuals, some well-known (John XXIII and Paul VI) and others less so. He addresses the dissenting voices, those whose opinion were not aligned with what has come to be known as the "spirit" of Vatican II." He wisely chooses to refer to the "majority," whose will is expressed to a large extent in the final documents of the conference, and the "minority," rather than using terms such as progressive or traditionalists. The role of Paul VI is perhaps the most difficult to assess, veering from thoughtful and even heroic gestures, to appearing to accommodate the minority, weakening the documents and at times pleasing nobody.

Although Vatican II occurred in my lifetime, it is still hard to believe some of the things that transpired, from the beginning in 1962 to the end in 1965. The meeting of the more than 2000 bishops, priests, and hundreds of observers, took place in St. Peter's Basilica, with the discussion of all but a few items taking place in Latin. (A few speakers spoke French.) Bishops debated the issue of church-state relations, with a sizable minority seeking to maintain the special status of the Catholic church in some countries, including prohibitions on proselytizing by other religions. The discussion of the relationship of the Catholic Church to Jews and to other religions revealed lingering prejudices, although in the end the document On Ecumenism was overwhelmingly approved. When Pope Paul VI went to visit the Holy Land at the beginning of 1964, it was the first time a pope had voluntarily left Italy in more than 500 years.

This book is the best single reference I know of for understanding Vatican II. At times it reads like a thriller, sort of a Dan Brown novel without all the idiotic parts. The fact that Catholics are still living with and debating the work of Vatican II is a testament to how essential it is to understand what happened there.

[James R · Rating 5 out of 5]

The average person doesn't need to know the level of detail that's presented in this book. Rather, I think much more compelling would be a book that tells more of a story of the Tridentine era, how that era came into question in the 1960s, and how people should move forward. This book is more like a review of the surface level stuff & names at The Council, and doesn't get into the meat of what was really going on.

In my view, Tridentine thinking is still firmly in place. The Vatican is still attempting to control the world through global orders. There are many deeply held ways of thinking that cannot be questioned, without questioning the entire Catholic Church. Many conservatives have retreated back to the Tridentine era (see: SSPX, FSSP, sedevacantists), and others are content with a kind of modified Tridentine Catholicism, such as the "conservative John Paul II Catholics."

A bigger issue to me: what does it mean to be Catholic? For liberals & conservatives alike, it seems to mean going to Mass and obeying documents cranked out by The Vatican. I think that may have worked with people until about 20 years ago, but millennials and younger aren't buying either version, so all the churches seem to be clearing out, at least in America & Europe. The Tridentine Era was replaced by the era of guitar Masses, so most people just left the entire thing.

I really doubt that The Vatican is able to reform itself. There are too many legal documents on record, there's too much history, and too much baggage. Just the concept of bishops sitting in St. Peter's and issuing documents won't work anymore. There are still numerous parishes floating along that are so banal and pointless, it's obvious to anyone that this is a dead end.

I think the most notable thing about Vatican II was that it released its grip on people, so they can go out and make changes without fear and just going through the motions of Sunday Mass. The real change that's happening will need to happen outside of the institutional structures. I think the Tridentine structures in place for 400 years did so much damage, that change from within is impossible.

I think this is a good book to read, as it gives me new ideas to think about. I think we're definitely well into a Vatican III era (which started about 20 years ago), which isn't content with the conservative Vatican II ideas.

[mahatmanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

saya sering mengacu ke konsili vatikan II untuk menjelaskan perubahan-perubahan penting dalam gereja yang makin merasuk dalam denyut kehidupan manusia modern. konsekuensinya juga pada ibadah, pada cara memahami dan menerapkan warisan tradisi dan kitab suci, termasuk juga dalam arsitektur gereja. tapi saya tidak tahu apa yang berlangsung di dalam dinding-dinding tembok vatikan tempat para teolog itu berdebat dan saling menimbang pendapat uskup dari berbagai belahan dunia.
buku ini ditulis oleh imam jesuit yang belajar di vatikan, konon tidak jauh dari tempat perdebatan itu berlangsung.
yang jelas,
sebagai sejarawan gereja, john w.o'malley ini analisisnya kritis, laporannya bermutu, bahkan saya masih mengikuti pemikiranna di tahun-tahun belakangan ini pun sebelum wafat pada 11 septermber 2022 beberapa hari lalu.
di antara gelombang yang menginginkan agar gereja kembali ke pra-konsili, buku ini menyegarkan, membikin kita siuman akan peran gereja yang harus relevan meresap seperti garam bagi dunia.

[A.J. Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about the Second Vatican Council. The author is a very good writer and with this book he's created an informative and well structured work on the Second Vatican Council. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the subject. His hermenuetical approach to the documents of the council provides a much needed framework for making sense of the sixteen documents the council produced and for understanding the so-called "spirit" of Vatican II. The author crafts an interesting story about an important council that was controversial at the time and remains so today. Many bishops at the council accused their fellow bishops of departing from tradition and betraying the Catholic faith. They were, however, in the minority, and were outvoted. Their theological descendants are with us today.

[Dave Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book accomplishes four things: First, it puts the council in its historical context. Second, it explains the high-level themes behind the 16 documents promulgated during the council. Third, it stresses the use of a new, positive, forward-looking vocabulary (such as the use of horizontal-words and equality-words), which was very different than previous councils. Finally, it provides a detailed and nearly day-by-day, play-by-play sequence of events during the council.

This book is aptly titled. While it accomplished its goal of explaining What Happened at Vatican II, it doesn't discuss how the documents from Vatican II were actually implement or what good and what unintended consequences resulted under the name of this massive amount of aspirational-but-vague change.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely invaluable. The only readable account of the events of the Second Vatican Council that is available in English. The author sets the scene with the basic history of the 1800s and 1900s. The author then describes the four sessions of the council, with just enough detail to present a coherent story, while avoiding becoming an encyclopedia. Many Catholics today know Vatican II as simply the council that allowed the mass to be said in the vernacular instead of in Latin. Reading this book will shatter that image. The Council did so much more.