Louvain Studies 28 (2003) 48-70 BOOK ESSAY Mon journal du Concile Yves Congar and the Battle for a Renewed Ecclesiology at the Second Vatican Council Gabriel Flynn 1. Introduction When Pope John XXIII summoned an ecumenical council in January 1959, it was recognized that a new climate was stirring in the Vatican.1 The announcement was greeted with excitement in the world at large. But most of the Roman Curia thought a council unnecessary. Even the Italian bishops dis- trusted what the Pope had decided to do.2 The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century had caused the church to assume a defensive position. The intellectual, industrial, and scientific revolutions of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries respectively, had frozen the defensive posture into a fix- ture that injured the church and obfuscated its mission in the world. Pope John XXIII, guided by an innately astute assessment of the yearnings within both the Church and the wider society, sought to restore the Church’s mission of service to the world, a task of gargantuan proportions, as the inexorable march towards secular humanism in the West continued to gather momentum. John XXIII, the pope beloved of Catholics and of many Protestants, was nothing if not a real- ist. He knew that without a general council of the Church, his ambitious plan for ecclesial renewal would almost certainly founder. If all over Europe aggior- namento had come to symbolize bringing the Church up to date, the hoped for 1. Henri Daniel-Rops, The Second Vatican Council: The Story Behind the Ecu- menical Council of Pope John XXIII, trans. Alastair Guinan (London: Harrap; New York: Hawthorn, 1962) 12. 2. Owen Chadwick, The Christian Church in the Cold War, The Penguin History of the Church, 7 (London: Penguin, 1992) 116. MON JOURNAL DU CONCILE 49 renewal, epitomized in this term, also engendered suspicion and opposition in certain quarters. The summoning of an ecumenical council inevitably led to a fierce battle between conservatives and progressives at the highest level in the Catholic Church. At stake was a true reform of the Church and its liturgy, its relation- ship with the modern world, its ecumenical relations with the other Christian Churches and with other world religions, as well as the continued renewal of Roman Catholic theology. Without the contribution of Yves Congar (1904- 1995), one of the most influential minds at Vatican II, the process of renewal initiated there would have been seriously impeded, and the battle for a “real council,”3 a council capable of substantial reform, might not have been fully realized. The true story of that battle has, for the first time, been revealed to the wider world with the publication of Congar’s long awaited conciliar diary, Mon journal du Concile (2002), edited and annotated by Éric Mahieu. Within the compass of this article I cannot, of course, discuss at length the influences that shaped Congar’s character and career. Nor, in an essay devoted to his con- ciliar diary in particular, can I undertake to assess other factors that had a bear- ing on the elaboration of his most important theological goals. But at the same time I am convinced that a correct understanding of the nature and significance of Congar’s diary is not possible without some knowledge of the man, his char- acter and vocation, and his substantial role at Vatican II; and I want at least to make it easier for the reader to consider sympathetically his style of theologiz- ing, and his interpretation of the Second Vatican Council. From the outset, Congar regarded his vocation as being “at once and by the same vein, priestly and religious, Dominican and Thomist, ecumenical and ecclesiological.”4 Following his ordination on 25 July 1930, Congar was appointed professor of fundamental theology at Le Saulchoir, the Dominican faculty of theology in Paris. Congar taught at Le Saulchoir from 1931-1939 and from 1945-1954. By the end of the 1930s, he had become one of the leading theologians of the French church. He became well known, in the first instance, because of his theological conclusion to a survey on unbelief conducted by La Vie intellectuelle. The other reason that accounts for the emergence of Congar was the launch, under his direction, of the Unam Sanctam collection by Éditions du Cerf. Marie-Dominique Chenu, his colleague and mentor, saw in this new collection “one of the most beautiful fruits of our theology at Le Saulchoir.”5 Congar’s intellectual endeavors were enriched by his association with Action 3. Yves Congar, Mon journal du Concile (hereafter Journal), edited and annotated by Éric Mahieu, 2 vols. (Paris: Cerf, 2002) I: 4 (end of July 1960). Unless otherwise stated, translations from the French are mine throughout. 4. Yves Congar, Une passion: l’unité, Foi Vivante, 156 (Paris: Cerf, 1974) 14. See Yves Congar, Journal d’un théologien (1946-1956), edited and annotated by Étienne Fouil- loux and others, 2nd ed. (Paris: Cerf, 2001) 20. 5. See Étienne Fouilloux, “Frère Yves, Cardinal Congar, Dominicain: itinéraire d’un théologien,” Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 79 (1995) 379-404, p. 386. Chenu is cited here by Fouilloux who does not give the source of his reference. 50 GABRIEL FLYNN catholique, a highly respected lay organisation in Belgium and France, as well as with the French worker-priests.6 Following the ravages of the Second World War, during which Congar was a prisoner of war (1940-1945),7 and of his exile from Paris (1954-1955), a result of the restrictive measures taken against lead- ing Jesuit and Dominican theologians in the wake of Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Humani Generis (12 August 1950),8 Congar was eventually allowed to return, not to Paris, but to Strasbourg in December 1955. This serendipitous transfer was due to the sympathetic intervention of Jean Weber, Bishop of Strasbourg. Congar immediately recommenced his work which he describes as “that of an inner renewal, ecclesiological, anthropological and pastoral.”9 He was named a Consultor to the Theological Commission in preparation for the Council on 20 July 1960, and then a peritus at the Council itself, thus ending a painful period of intellectual and spiritual exile.10 Congar’s contribution to the renewal of the Church at the Second Vatican Council cannot be properly appreciated without reference to his personal suf- ferings, which he bore with patience and courage. Congar describes, in stark terms, his response to the sufferings he endured at the hands of Church author- ities in the period before the Council. He writes: “I only succeeded in over- coming all this, both spiritually and at the level of ordinary human sanity, by complete resignation to the Cross and by being reduced to nothing [rien].”11 Congar’s sufferings were, however, not without purpose. His commitment to truth and to the Church ensured an exceptionally respectful reception for his views among the Fathers of the Council.12 Pope John Paul II has praised Con- gar for his immense contribution to the work of Vatican II.13 Timothy Rad- cliffe, former Master of the Dominican Order, in his sermon at Congar’s Requiem Mass on 26 June 1995, paid tribute to his contribution to the Coun- cil and to the renewal of the Church in the context of his physical and spiritual sufferings. Radcliffe spoke of four moments of grace in Congar's life: the friend- ships he formed during World War II in the concentration camps of Colditz and 6. See Yves Congar, “Dominicains et prêtres ouvriers,” La Vie spirituelle 143 (1989) 817-820. 7. See Yves Congar, “Letter from Father Yves Congar, O.P.,” trans. Ronald John Zawilla, Theology Digest 32 (1985) 213-216, p. 214. 8. Pius XII, False Trends In Modern Teaching: Encyclical Letter (Humani Generis), trans. Ronald A. Knox, rev. ed. (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1959). 9. Yves Congar, Dialogue between Christians: Catholic Contributions to Ecumenism, trans. by Philip Loretz (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966) 44. Chrétiens en dialogue: contributions catholiques à l’œcuménisme, Unam Sanctam, 50 (Paris: Cerf, 1964) LVI. Following the initial citation, the page numbers of works in the original language will be given in round brackets. 10. Journal, I: 3 (end of July 1960). 11. Congar, Dialogue between Christians, 43 (LV). 12. M.-J. Le Guillou, “Yves Congar,” Bilan de la théologie du XXe siècle, ed. Robert Vander Gucht and Herbert Vorgrimler (Paris: Casterman, 1970) II: 791-805, p. 795. 13. John Paul II, “Télégrammes du Pape Jean-Paul II à Mgr Jean-Marie Lustiger, et au P. Timothy Radcliffe,” Documentation catholique 92 (1995) 690. MON JOURNAL DU CONCILE 51 Lübeck; membership of the Dominican Order; participation in Vatican II; and the hope of seeing perfect unity among Christians. In these moments of grace for Congar, Radcliffe says, it is possible to observe the mystery of suffering trans- formed into communion.14 A consideration of how Vatican II became a cata- lyst for the theologians, especially the French and Germans, who had worked for the renewal of ecclesiology in the difficult period before the Council, would reveal that Congar’s contribution to ecclesiology is at the heart of the renewal in Roman Catholic theology. As regards Congar’s role at the Council, I shall dis- cuss it briefly in the next section. 2. Congar at the Council The Second Vatican Council, arguably the most important event in the his- tory of the Catholic Church since the Protestant Reformation, is certainly at the zenith of twentieth century ecclesiology. The Council marked the beginning of a new and important phase in Congar’s theological career. The success of his ecclesiological program is nowhere more apparent than in its impact on the teaching of the Church at Vatican II.