That bit of strategy in the opening days of the Council drew the lines between the two main groups of bishops, who became known as “conservatives” and “progressives.” On the conservative side, said Father Francis J. McCool, a Jesuit Bible scholar from Maryland, were “those who see in the future a threat to the past.” On the progressive side were “those who see in the future the promise of the future.” The two conceptions collided on almost every issue.
