Ireland and Vatican II Edited by Niall Coll Columba Press, £14.99
In his introduction, editor Niall Coll observes that “many Irish Catholics are only beginning to awaken” to the full significance of Vatican II. Reception of the Council’s teachings has, he suggests, been slow: perhaps because Irish Catholics “have never stood out traditionally in terms of their interest in theological debate”. They have apparently been more concerned with practice and devotion, with “doing faith”, and this has sometimes been “at the expense of necessary reflection and enquiry”. Fortunately, Coll adds, “recent decades have seen a greater – if still insufficient – awareness of the need to educate and form lay people for a fuller experience of their baptismal call to life and ministry in the Church”.
These are broad brush-strokes, but Coll does acknowledge that at least some Irish Catholics have responded avidly to the legacy of Vatican II and he is confident that the Council’s significance is set to grow in the decades ahead. These things, he seems to be saying, can take time and he quotes Newman to that effect: “We must recollect, there has seldom been a Council without great confusion after it.”
This is a generally optimistic book, though some analyses are located towards the bleaker end of the spectrum. Oliver Rafferty writes of a highly secularised society, of widespread religious indifference, and determines that “the Irish are gradually rejecting the faith of the Church and in a sense making the Council and its work increasingly irrelevant in modern Ireland”. The Council “failed in any real sense to renew Irish Catholicism” largely because “the Church was set on a course which has seen it go into an almost terminal decline”. For all that, Rafferty still hopes that Vatican II, “properly understood … might yet prove to be the basis of new life for the remnant for whom the Church is still a vital aspect of their lives”.
This work of putting things right dominates other chapters in the volume. Changes in the liturgy are seen by Edward McGee as “dramatic signs of renewal”, but they have also resulted in sharp polarisation. Some have identified “almost unbridled opportunity of liturgical experimentation”, while others have bemoaned an abandonment of “the ritual tradition of the Church”. At heart, McGee locates a “dichotomy between the ratio of the Council and correct liturgical understanding” with a “deficit in liturgical catechesis at the diocesan and parochial level” to blame. Education, meanwhile, remains one of the mainstays of the Church’s activity in Ireland, but more than one author laments the intrusion of “utility, pragmatism and managerialism” into educational philosophy. There is a call to remember the principal goal of pupils’ spiritual formation.
Cheerier chapters look at positive developments since the Council. A more outward-looking Church is applauded, especially the engagement with human rights and the problems of the poor or disenfranchised. The blossoming of inter-religious dialogue is likewise praised, as is the discourse around Catholic social thought. Vatican II had “more than any previous Council” to say about Mary, which was always going to be important in Ireland, and we are reminded that the Council’s “prophetic cry for peace” had a role to play in a country blighted by sectarian violence.
The scope of this book is its greatest strength. It ranges from detailed strategic suggestions to personal reminiscences and even includes reflections on Vatican II’s significance by those outside the Catholic fold. The editor envisages the volume as “a response to the new impetus that Pope Francis is giving to the Church’s pastoral application of the Council”, and Ireland will be an important proving ground.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.