Rev. Ralph Wiltgen: The Rhine Flows Into the Tiber: A History of Vatican II

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THE FOURTH SESSION
September 14 to December 8, 1965

INVITATION TO REDISCOVER GOD


It was Pope Paul Vi’s special wish that there should be, before the end of the Council, an evening prayer service for promoting Christian unity, attended by the Council Fathers and the observer delegates. The time and place decided upon was Saturday, December 4, 1965, in the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. The Pope conducted the service himself; psalms were sung, and there were Scripture readings by a French Catholic, an American Methodist and a Greek Orthodox.

In his address, Pope Paul said, “Your departure saddens us now, and creates a solitude which we did not experience before the Council. We would like to see you with us always.” There were more prayers at the tomb of St. Paul, and then Pope Paul held a reception for the observer delegates in the adjacent Benedictine monastery, where his predecessor had made the first announcement of the Council.

Rt. Rev. Dr. John Moorman, leader of the Anglican delegation, addressed the Pope on behalf of the observer delegates and guests, whose number had risen to 103 at the fourth session. “Never once in the four years,” he said, “have we felt any resentment at our presence. On the contrary, we have always been led to suppose that our presence has, in more ways than one, contributed to the success of the Council in the great task of reform to which it has set its hand.” And he added, “We believe that the days of mutual fear, of rigid exclusiveness and of arrogant self-sufficiency on either side are passing away. The road to unity will indeed be long and difficult; but it may be of comfort to Your Holiness to know that, as a result of our presence here as observers, you will have a company of more than 100 men . . . who, as they go all over the world, will try to carry to the Churches something of the spirit of friendship and tolerance which they have seen in the hall of St. Peter’s. Our work as observers is not done. I would like you, dear Holy Father, to think of us as your friends—and indeed as your messengers—as we go our respective ways.”

The Pope expressed his joy and consolation at these words. “They give us hope,” he said, “that, God willing, we shall meet again. And our meeting will always be in Christ our Lord.” As a remembrance of the Council, he gave each observer a tiny bronze bell and a Latin certificate. After being introduced to each of the observers and guests by Cardinal Bea, the Pope returned to the Vatican.

On Monday, December 6, each Council Father received from the Pope a simple gold ring symbolizing the close bonds of charity existing between the Pope and the bishops. Each also received a Latin certificate attesting that he had taken part in the Council. 

That same morning the Secretary General read a Bull issued by Pope Paul, proclaiming an extraordinary Jubilee to extend from January 1 to May 29, Pentecost Sunday, 1966. Then the Secretary General expressed his thanks in Latin verse for the cooperation he had received from the Council Fathers. Cardinal Suenens, as Moderator for the day, expressed the Council’s thanks to all officials at different levels who had in any way contributed to the organization and conduct of the numerous meetings. When he mentioned Archbishop Felici, the applause was exceptionally prolonged. More than any other official, the Secretary General had won the hearts of the Council Fathers. Despite the weight of administrative work resting on his shoulders, his wit and Latin verse had repeatedly enlivened the meetings of the general assembly, and his witticisms were often repeated by the Council Fathers.

That afternoon, L’ Osservatore Romano published the long-awaited decree of Pope Paul VI on the reorganization of the Roman Curia. “There is no doubt,” read the decree, “that the reorganization must begin with the Congregation of the Holy Office, since the most important business of the Roman Curia is given to it, namely, whatever concerns the doctrine of faith and morals, and other matters intimately connected with this doctrine.” The name of the Holy Office was changed to “Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” and numerous other changes were indicated, including the abolition of a special section in the Sacred Congregation responsible for censoring books.

On December 7, at the public session, Pope Paul delivered a long address. He said that “perhaps never before, so much as on this occasion, has the Church felt the need to know, to draw near to, to understand, to penetrate, to serve and to evangelize the society in which it lives . . . Errors were condemned indeed, because charity demanded this no less than did truth. But for the persons themselves there was only warning, respect and love.” The ultimate religious meaning of the Council, he said, might be summed up as “a pressing and friendly invitation to mankind of today to rediscover God in fraternal love.”

That morning, on the 544th and last ballot, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World was approved by a vote of 2309 to 75. It thus became the sixteenth and last Council document to be officially approved and promulgated by the Second Vatican Council. The documents on religious freedom, missionary activity, and the ministry and life of priests were also approved and promulgated that morning.

The closing ceremonies took place on the following day, December 8, 1965, on the expansive front steps of St. Peter’s, where special scaffolding and seats had been erected for the occasion.

The three-hour proceedings began with Mass celebrated alone by the Holy Father. Then gifts from him totalling $90,000 were announced for charitable institutions in Palestine, Argentina, India, Pakistan and Cambodia. The Pope also blessed the cornerstone of a church to be erected in Rome as a memorial to the Council, to be called “Mary, Mother of the Church.”

Joseph Cardinal Cardijn, founder of the movement of the Young Christian Workers in Belgium in 1925, had proposed earlier in the fourth session that a special paragraph on youth, another on workers and still another on die people of developing nations should be included in the opening pages of the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world. Much earlier, on January 4, 1964, Bishop Hengsbach of Essen had stated in America that he would consider it extremely important “that the basic results of the Council be summed up in perhaps four or five messages.” One of those messages, he said, “might perhaps be addressed to those who rule, who bear the highest responsibility for men’s destiny.”

The ideas of these two Council Fathers were partially fulfilled in a series of eight special messages read on the closing day of the Council. The first one, read by Pope Paul himself, was directed to the Council Fathers: “The hour of departure and separation has sounded. In a few moments you will leave the Council assembly and go out to meet mankind and bring the good news of the Gospel of Christ and of the renewal of his Church, at which we have been working together for four years.”

After his message, seven Council Fathers approached the microphone in turn and read messages in French to rulers, intellectuals, laborers, artists, women, youth, and the sick and poor. A representative from each group went up to the papal throne to receive from Pope Paul the text of the message after it was read. The text that had been read for “the poor, the sick and all those who suffer” was handed to a blind man, Mr. Francesco Politi, who mounted the steps with his seeing-eye dog.

Seated at the right hand of the Pope during the ceremony was Cardinal Ottaviani. Early in the Council he had called himself a watchdog who by profession had to guard the truth. His task was greater now, because he had new truths to guard in addition to the old ones. As he looked back over the Council, he could not but remember the abuse that had been heaped upon his head in the Council hall and in the press. But there were also brighter moments, like the day in early October during the fourth session when he was applauded loudly and long for proposing that “from among all nations of the world there be formed one World Republic, in which there would no longer be found that strife which exists among nations. Instead, the whole world would be at peace . . .”

Also seated near the Pope were the four Cardinal Moderators. Each of them had conducted the meetings an average of 34 times. There were those who thought that they had gone too fast, and there were those who thought that they had gone too slow. There were some who had suspected them of partiality, and of using their authority for the promotion of their own views. Being Moderators had not been an easy task. But, except for them, and except for their determination to move ahead, the Second Vatican Council could not have ended on this day.

Almost no one in the vast assembly, after the Pope, had been more influential in the passage of Council legislation than Cardinal Frings. Except for the organization which he had inspired and led, the Council might never have operated efficiently at all. He had leaned heavily upon the theologian Father Rahner; but by the end of the Council, he had come to be more cautious in accepting his proposals. Father Ratzinger, the personal theologian of Cardinal Frings and former student of Father Rahner, had seemed to give an almost unquestioning support to the views of his former teacher during the Council. But as it was drawing to a close, he admitted that he disagreed on various points, and said he would begin to assert himself more after the Council was over.

Finally, the Pope presented Archbishop Felici with the papal Brief formally closing the Second Vatican Council. A photographer caught for posterity the radiant smile which covered the features of the Supreme Pontilf at that moment. The tears and heartaches were over. Archbishop Felici went to the microphone a few steps in front and to the left of the Pope, facing the Council Fathers and the crowds in St. Peter’s square, and read the official document: “The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, assembled in the Holy Spirit and under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we have declared Mother of the Church, and of St. Joseph, her glorious spouse, and of the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, must be numbered without doubt among the greatest events of the Church. . . . We decide moreover that all that has been established by the Council is to be religiously observed by all the faithful, for the glory of God and the dignity of the Church and for the tranquillity and peace of all men.”

Later, recalling this moment, Archbishop Felici said that many memories sprang to his mind. There was Pope Paul VI, “in the center of this great assembly, joyful over the happy outcome, decreeing the close of the Council. And there was John XXIII, the originator and first inspirer of this great Council, smilingly giving his blessing from heaven.”

Immediately after the reading of the papal Brief, Pope Paul VI rose to give his blessing to the Council Fathers and to the crowds. Throwing both arms high in the air, he cried out, “In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, go in peace!” The Council was over, and the Council Fathers rose to their feet to clap and cheer.

Then the bells of St. Peter’s began to ring.