An Unfinished Council: Vatican II, Pope Francis, and the Renewal of Catholicism by Richard R. Gaillardetz (review)

This is an insightful book about the situation of the Catholic Church before, during, and fifty years after Vatican II. As the Introduction suggests, Vatican II can be pictured as an ecclesiological building project concerned with a renewed vision for the church, “undertaken in the shadow of a still imposing but largely antiquated ecclesial ‘structure.’” Before Vatican II, “Catholics dwelled in an enchanted world sustained by a sensual religious imagination . . . . The clergy were viewed as exemplars of holiness, sacramental ‘dispensers,’ and keepers of ecclesiastical order and stability.”

The pre-Vatican II church was a hierocratic, clerical institution. It was supported by five pillars: revelation conceived as truths mediated via a hierarchical magisterium issuing doctrinal propositions; a papacy exercising monarchic, centralized authority; a sacral priesthood of celibate holy men endowed with sacramental powers and unquestioned authority; a clericalized sacramental system which dispensed grace, conceived more as a “thing” rather than a transforming relationship; and a threatened, confrontational attitude to the world.

A summary of the intrigues and organizational birth pangs that marked the three years of preparation for the council, leads Gaillardetz to ask: “why didn’t the council fail?” He especially credits the dramatic effect of Pope John XXIII’s opening address to the council on October 11, 1962. The talk opened the bishops to a broader vision of the council’s potential, which they then exercised in resisting the curia’s attempts to control the agenda and outcomes.

In Gaillardetz’s view, Vatican II gave rise to a new set of pillars: a revitalized theology of revelation as God’s self-communication and offer of relationship, with an appreciation of the historically conditioned nature of doctrinal formulations; the necessity of dialogue with genuine listening, allowing for disagreement, between all the members of the church—pope and bishops, pastors and faithful—and of the church with the world; the importance of baptism as the most basic Christian identity; a renewed theology about the active role of the Holy Spirit within the church; an emphasis on episcopal collegiality—still unrealized in its potential; the missionary nature of the church, and an understanding of the church as a pilgrim community living in history. Gaillardetz chronicles setbacks to fuller implementation of all the above, coming from the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. A series of policies and documents “reinforced the ontological divide between the clergy and the laity,” and debilitated episcopal conferences.

Emphasizing the need for more synthetic interpretations toward a coherent vision of the church and a corresponding program for reform, Gaillardetz first proposes a consideration of humility as an ecclesial virtue. Humility involves honest self-assessment; it is “an intrinsically other-centered virtue;” and it is linked to the exercise of power. Each of those characteristics are shown to have application to the church, and to coincide with Vatican II’s emphasis on the language of service and collaboration.

Exploring how various spheres of ecclesial life are called to interact, Gaillardetz proposes that a theology of the Holy Spirit can enable shifting from a competitive to a noncompetitive ecclesial dynamic. That would entail a reversal of the historical process wherein the diverse roles and functions within the church were shaped into a hierarchical power structure. The relationship between the pope and bishops would be reconfigured by placing emphasis on their shared ministry of service to the church as a communion of churches, rather than power over the church. The “teaching authority” of the magisterium would have to learn to listen to and consult the faithful in order to gather their insights. Office holders in the church would have to welcome and empower the baptized to exercise their gifts endowed by the Spirit, rather than feel their power is threatened by them. A more intensive theology of the laity would no longer simply assign them a distinctively secular vocation. The relationship of clergy and laity, and church and world, would be...