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Vatican Ii on Revelation—From Behind the Scenes

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Vatican Ii on Revelation—From Behind the Scenes Theological Studies 71 (2010) VATICAN II ON REVELATION—FROM BEHIND THE SCENES JARED WICKS, S.J. The article presents interventions by certain expert-consultants (periti) just before and during Vatican II’s opening weeks in 1962. Discovering mediocrity in passages of the prepared schemas on God’s revelation, Joseph Ratzinger, Pieter Smulders, Karl Rahner, and Jean Danie´lou formulated criticisms and framed alternatives that this article reviews. In time, several key conceptions of their alternative texts, such as the soteriological centering of revelation, found a place in Dei Verbum nos. 1-6. NRICHED UNDERSTANDING OF VATICAN II can come from studying the Ewritings of the periti who assisted at the council; work with texts prepared by these expert-consultants can lead to a fresh appreciation of particular teachings of Vatican II.1 Today we can follow some of the main JARED WICKS, S.J., received his Th.D. from the University of Mu¨ nster. After many years on the faculty at the Gregorian University, he is now writer-in-residence at John Carroll University, Cleveland. His special interests include Luther, sacra- mental life, theological anthropology, Vatican II, and ecumenism. His recent publi- cations include: “The Eucharist in Ecumenical Dialogues: Advances and New Tensions,” in L’Eucharistie: Don de Dieu pour la vie du monde (2009); Doing Theology (2009); and “Cardinal Willebrands as Exponent of Catholic Ecumenical Theology,” Pro Ecclesia (forthcoming). He is drafting texts for the U.S. Lutheran- Catholic dialogue on eschatology, and mining the papers of Johannes Witte, S.J., on the foundations of ecumenical engagement in Vatican II’s Preparatory Theological Commission. The article published here originated in the address given upon the author’s reception of the Johannes Quasten Award at The Catholic University of America, School of Theology and Religious Studies, December 3, 2009. 1 I draw on work by doctoral students I directed at the Gregorian University and on my own publications on the periti. My studies include five articles under the general title, “Pieter Smulders and Dei Verbum,” in Gregorianum 82 (2001) 241-97 and 559–93; 83 (2002) 225–67; 85 (2004) 242–77; and 86 (2005) 92–134. Also, “Dei Verbum Developing: Vatican II’s Revelation Doctrine 1963–1964,” in The Convergence of Theology: A Festschrift Honoring Gerald O’Collins, S.J., ed. Daniel Kendall, S.J., and Stephen T. Davis (New York: Paulist, 2001) 109–25; “Six Texts by Prof. Joseph Ratzinger as peritus before and during Vatican Council II,” Gregorianum 89 (2008) 233–311; “De revelatione under Revision, March–April 1964: Contributions of Charles Moeller and Other Belgian Theologians,” in The Belgian Contribution to the Second Vatican Council, ed. Doris Donnelly et al. (Leuven: Peeters, 2008) 460–94; and “Theologians at Vatican Council II,” in Doing Theology (New York: Paulist, 2009) 187–223 (Appendix 5). 637 638 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES periti in their day-to-day experiences of the council, since the diaries of Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, Umberto Betti, and of the little-known but highly influential Louvain theologian Ge´rard Philips have recently been published.2 To argue this point I will below take the case of Dei Verbum, prologue and chapter 1, on revelation itself. The periti contributed all along the timeline of Vatican II, beginning in 1959 with scattered cases of future council members consulting theolo- gians and taking over their ideas to respond to Pope John XXIII’s request for suggestions about council topics. During the preparation of the council, 1960–1962, senior theological scholars such as Hubert Jedin and Ge´rard Philips were members of preparatory commissions, while some 200 consultants of the commissions worked out draft texts, redrafted them in accord with the members’ preferences, and then polished them to the point where they could be distributed to all the members as the council’s initial schemas on doctrine and on the renewal of the Church’s worship, ministries, and relations ad extra. During the four working periods of Vatican II, 1962–1965, the bishops, both as individuals and as groups in their national or regional conferences, learned much from the periti whom they heard lecturing, who circulated texts, and who composed many of the bishops’ oral and written evalua- tive comments on the schemas. During and between the four working periods, many periti rendered a hidden but essential service to the com- missions made up of council members, as these theologian assistants culled the interventions, discovered convergences, weighed their cogency, and formulated revised texts of the draft schemas, with the aim of bringing back to the council members emended texts in which many members would be satisfied to find results of their previous comments and proposals. 2 Yves Congar, Mon journal du concile, 2 vols., ed. E´ ric Mahieu (Paris: Cerf, 2002), which I presented in “Yves Congar’s Doctrinal Service of the People of God,” Gregorianum 84 (2003) 499–550; Henri de Lubac, Carnets du concile, 2 vols., ed. Loı¨c Figoureux (Paris: Cerf, 2007), which I treated in “Further Light on Vatican Council II,” Catholic Historical Review 95 (2009) 546–69, at 546–62; Ge´rard Philips, Carnets conciliaires de Mgr. Ge´rard Philips, Secre´taire adjoint de la Commission doctrinale, ed. Karim Schelkens (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), which I presented in “More Light on Vatican Council II,” Catholic Historical Review 94 (2008) 75–101, at 76–80. Umberto Betti was personal peritus for the influen- tial Archbishop Ermenegildo Florit of Florence, and for the Doctrinal Commis- sion. Betti worked with Congar and Rahner in Spring 1964 on the major revision of chapter 2 of De revelatione. From Betti, we have Diario del concilio, 11 ottobre 1962–Natale 1978 (Bologna: EDB, 2003), as well as an account, with appended documents, of the genesis of Dei Verbum chapter 2 in La dottrina del Concilio Vaticano II sulla trasmissione della rivelazione (Rome: Antonianum, 1985). VATICAN II ON REVELATION 639 Regarding this many-sided service by theologians at Vatican II, Congar’s diary challenges our understanding of the council. In three places Congar jotted down, on different days in 1965, huge claims about the theologians’ labors as essential to the council’s production of its documents and to the depth and freshness these texts would be giving to Catholic teaching and attitudes.3 These claims might seem Congar’s apologia pro vita sua.Ordo they represent an accurate perception by one deeply immersed in the council who is pointing out an aspect that should be emphasized in accu- rately understanding “what happened at Vatican II”? Another witness to the impact of the theologians is Dom He´lder Caˆmara, bishop of Recife, Brazil, in his 293 letters from the council during its four working periods.4 The letters record how much Caˆmara gained from the late afternoon lectures on conciliar topics given by the periti for the bishops during the four working periods. The letters also pass on his insights from reading on liturgy, the laity, ecumenism, biblical theology, and spirituality, in books (mostly French) by theologians, both those at the council and those exerting influence from afar. Caˆmara also observed that the episco- pates with most assurance in their council work are those who brought their own conference-periti with them to Vatican II. Now to a case-study of different periti at work behind the scenes at the council. VATICAN II’S TRANSFORMATION OF CATHOLIC DOCTRINE ON REVELATION In April 1870 the First Vatican Council issued the Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Dei Filius, which then deeply influenced the notion of God’s revelation that was held by generations of Catholic theology teachers and students.5 I would characterize this teaching as terse and correct, but in its presentation as really concerned less with what God says to humankind and more with aspects that qualify and surround God’s revelation. The text said that it pleased God’s wisdom and goodness “to reveal to the human race Himself and the eternal decrees of His will.”6 God did this (1) in a supernatural manner, conveying some truths beyond the reach of our reason, but this fits with our supernatural calling. The giving of this revelation has been (2) accompanied by the outward signs of miracles 3 Congar, Mon journal du concile 2:81, 421, 465. 4 Dom He´lder Caˆmara, Lettres conciliaires (1962–1965), ed. Jose´ de Broucker, 2 vols. (Paris: Cerf, 2006), which I presented in “More Light on Vatican II” 81–86. 5 In its original Latin Dei Filius is available in Heinrich Denzinger and Adolf Scho¨ nmetzer, eds., Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum, et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum, 33rd ed. (Barcelona: Herder, 1965) nos. 3000–45. I treat this document in my Doing Theology 17–20, and provide an English translation of the paragraphs on revelation, faith, and faith/reason at 172–79. 6 Dei Filius, chap. 2; Enchiridion symbolorum 3004. 640 THEOLOGICAL STUDIES and prophecies showing revelation’s credibility as God’s word. The con- tent, although supernatural, is still, once given and received in faith, (3) open to believers’ rational inquiry and investigation for gaining bene- ficial insights into its meaning. Thus God’s revelation of himself and of what he has decreed is qualified by its supernatural character, credibility, and penetrability by intellectual investigation of its meaning. On actual revealed content, Vatican I stated the bare minimum, while emphasizing three qualities that mark God’s revelation—whatever it might say about himself, and whatever might be the eternal decrees of the divine will about which revelation informs us. But Dei Verbum, issued by Vatican II on November 18, 1965, is much different. It gives in its prologue and chapter 1 an account of God’s revela- tion, which in its ample content is soteriologically focused on God-with-us, in Christ, to liberate human beings and lead them into communion with himself.
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