Great figures of Vatican II
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T the Second Vatican Council several important theologians and key bishops made great contributions to the renewal of the Church; this piece highlights only four important personages.
Father Yves Congar, Dominican ecclesiologist, possessed a unique combination of brilliance, loyalty to the Church, and personal holiness. In 1950 Congar published his seminal work True and False Reform in the Church. Pope John XXIII, the father of Vatican II, read this work when he served as apostolic nuncio in France; it influenced him deeply. John XXIII asked Congar to serve on the preparatory commission for Vatican II.
Congar’s pivotal insights focused on renewal and holiness, the living Tradition of the Church, laity and participation, and viewing the Church as the People of God. When Congar was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1994, he noted: “The mystery of the Church was and is the center of my entire life as a Christian and theologian.”
Cardinal Augustin Bea, Jesuit biblical scholar, was requested by Pope John XXIII to serve on the central preparatory commission for the Council. In the mind of John XXIII, promoting Christian unity was an important objective of Vatican II. Bea influenced the writing of Unitatis Redintegratio, the Council’s decree on ecumenism.
Bea with his expertise in scripture had influenced the biblical encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu ( 1943) and participated in drafting the Vatican II document Dei Verbum on Revelation and the Word of God.
Cardinal Josef Suenens, primate of Belgium, was a confidant of Pope John XXIII; he found in Suenens a man who shared his views on the importance of renewal in the Church. Suenens asserted that the Church needed to examine both internal aspects ( ad intra) as well as external questions ( ad extra). Following this two- fold vision, Suenens helped shape two pivotal Council documents: Lumen Gentium on the Church and Gaudium et Spes on the Church in the Modern World.
Suenens contributed to the renewal of the life of religious women through his book The Nun in the World. He promoted the collegial dimension of Church authority through Coresponsibility in the Church. He also championed the themes of lay involvement and religious liberty.
Rufino Cardinal Santos, one of the 49 participants in Vatican II from the Philippines, is remembered, not for his theological acumen, but for the leading role he played in the effort by many Council Fathers to have a separate document on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Cardinal König of Vienna argued that Mary’s role would be best presented within the document on the Church. The König view prevailed; the title of Chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium, which reflects solid Mariology, is: “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the Mystery of Christ and the Church.”
These four figures, as well as countless others, are remembered for their love for the church, which they manifested through their active role in Vatican II.