The reception of Vatican II in Australia since 1965.

On Sunday 12 September Fr Richard Lennan gave a fascinating address to a packed meeting of members and friends.

Richard began by defining reception as the process through which an ecclesial community incorporates into its own life a particular custom, decision, liturgical practice or teaching. There are three issues for understanding reception:

1. What is the shape of the ecclesial community as it begins reception?

2. What are the characteristics of the material the community is to receive?

3. How do the processes of reception affect file ecclesial community?

Prior to Vatican II (October 1962). our faith seemed clear, certain comprehensive, and we also knew who our enemies were. Some of the Australian bishops didn't see a need for a council, and didn't prepare for it very well. However Jeff Murphy said in the Australasian Catholic Record that. once Vatican II began, the Australian bishops participated with a willingness to engage with the process of renewal and reform.

Richard then quoted Dr Karl Rahner SJ, a significant advisor to the Council, who said that Vatican II took a responsibility for the world, rather than being suspicious of post-Enlightenment cultures, as it had been during Vatican I. Vatican II had two great themes: aggiornamento and resourcement, i.e. the old and the new, a developing tradition rather than a fixed Tridentine world view; and, secondly, a recovery of the primacy of Scripture.

According to the historian John O'Malley, Vatican II was the first Council not to condemn anyone, the first Council called on to do something, rather than respond to crisis in belief or governance, and the first Council to formulate a pastoral constitution. Jeff Murphy has written that some Australian bishops had difficulty in embracing religious liberty, ecumenism and openness to world religions.

Walter Kasper has analysed Vatican II's reception in Australia as threefold:

4. The phase of exuberance. Parish councils were formed, lay spirituality enhanced, there were large scale changes in Religious life and changes in forms of piety.

5. The phase of disappointment. It was a time of confusion with a desire for change that had little to do with the Council outcomes. Humanae Vitae made a big impact and there was a decline in the numbers of priests and Religious. By the 1980s Catholic nostalgia was evident and the commitment to renewal and reform ebbed away, with the Church seeming to lag behind the secular world in terms of feminism, democracy and collegial decision-making.

6. The present phase. There is a need for re-engagement with Vatican II. We need to acknowledge the Council as the work of the Holy Spirit, avoid saying the Council wasn't valid and engage with the complexity of contemporary culture, which will require faith in the mystery of God and the church.

Richard Lennan concluded by saying that Karl Rahner was probably fight when he said that Vatican II was only a beginning, rather than an end in our search for truth.