My name is Brandi. I am a college student and I was wondering if there are any people on here who would be willing to tell me about their experiences - both good and bad - before and after the Vatican Council II in the 1960's. I am doing a research paper on this topic and any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Brandi

Welcome Brandi!

I'm sure there are many here willing to share their experiences regarding
Vatican II. Since this is the forum where you introduce yourself maybe Catholicism 101, or the "Pub" would be where to start?

Can you tell us what school you are going to?

I was born quite some time after VatII, so I can't help you there-but welcome here

i wasn't Catholic before Vatican II... but welcome to the board and good luck with your research

We don't have too many people around who are old enough to remember Vatican II well, and many of the ones who might weren't Catholic at the time. (I was born during V II.)

I'm old enough to remember pre-Vatican II, so you can ask me!

I wasn't even born when Vatican II was going on...I have some very vague memories of Pope Paul VI, and the main thing I remember about Pope John Paul I is that he died....after that my earliest clear memories are from the early 80's....

I was born during Vatican II, but born into a Catholic family that was typically pre-Vatican II and has struggled and succeeded to fully embrace the new light it shed over the last 50 odd years.

To some people, the Vatican II encyclicals and other writings seemed like the creation of whole new concepts never heard of in the Church before and they thought it meant throwing out 'old' religious beliefs all together. So that made it naturally difficult to accept these 'new' thoughts. Others took what was more a leap of faith without really understanding why the Council was needed to address things in this way at all. Some people were excited to find that attitudes that they were impelled by Catholic culture to hold, were actually not Catholic at all but had actually snuk into the culture by stealth.

I think that the more accessible Vatican II documents have become to the general public, the more accessible have become the older writings of the Magisterium to the general public as well. That has made the transformation much easier ... to see that nothing is sudden and new at all really. It's all just the same teachings but presented to us in the light of today, for today, so that we have the best chance to grow more and more Christlike and become more and more unified with others.

I'm old also, but I don't have time to respond to the poll if you like.

Ten years ago, there were only 60 or 61 surviving Council fathers, and we're going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council in October this year. Last year, we had just three American bishops who were Council fathers. Now we have one survivor: Bishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle. I wonder if dcheney can come up with the actual number of surviving Council fathers.

A nun recommended that I read all 16 Vatican II documents formally promoted by Pope Paul VI, who was guided by the Holy Spirit. That was a good idea as all popes from Pope Paul VI through Pope Benedict XVI wanted them implemented. Pope John Paul II has helped put all quotations of the Second Vatican Council in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and revised the Canon Law, too.

You may have heard about the Third Edition of the Roman Missal, and that took some nine years to get the proper English translation. Just recently, Pope Benedict XVI wrote a letter in German to German bishops that priests should use "for many" instead of "for all" when they consecrate bread and wine into Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

I'd recommend that people including young ones start reading all those sixteen documents of the Second Vatican Council.

Thanks

But there are still a lot of the periti left.....

I'm intrigued by your choice of subject matter in view of your listed 'Religion'.
(Sorry, as a convert of only 5 years I have nothing to contribute to your subject matter ... I attended
one TLM Christmas Midnight Mass in the mid 60s ... loved the incense and was otherwise quite lost.)

L.

Yeah, the most famous of periti is Father Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. And Hans Küng is a notorious peritus.

They would have to interpret properly the Second Vatican Council. There were over 3,000 bishops who were the Council fathers. www.catholic-hierarchy lists all of them, thanks to dcheney.

Brandi,

(In case you are still reading this).

I am a 75 year old Catholic,....a high school graduate of all public schooling.

Much reading and listening, and of course, the grace of God helped me learn more about the faith.

From what I remember, and from what I hear being discussed now it seems a very good idea that Catholics should read and better try to understand the documents of Vatican II.

And, from what I heard early on right after VII ended, it now seems to me that there were innovators waiting in the wings who wanted to change what our Lord Jesus Christ taught us. They wanted it "their way" and not the Lord's way, as He instructed the Church and gave her (the Church) legitimate authority. They wanted to "use" VII to promote their views.

This topic can go on and on without being resolved; It helps for all of us to give a priority to growing in grace and putting the Lord first, and obeying Him.

Can't help you but just wanted to say welcome, and good luck with your paper! Fellow college student here

I know it must seem odd that I have chosen this topic since I am not a Catholic. But I have always been fascinated with the Catholic Church, its inner workings, its faults and its triumphs... and also my husband is a former alter boy so I wanted to better understand what his childhood was like.

But I have always been fascinated with the Catholic Church ...

I can understand that.
I always was too.

L.

I also remember the Church before VII.

I don't find it odd, personally! I think its great. I'm all for expanding knowledge on all kinds of topics, even ones we don't necessarily believe in Hope its going well!

A fair number of people here attend mass celebrated according to the 1962 missal.