I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You: My Life and Pastimes

Chapter Nine: Vatican II

n i n e Vatican II in her novel the man on a donkey, h.f.m. prescott recounts in the form of a medieval chronicle the passage in England from Catholicism to a national church, showing the confusion and ambiguity that attended that change. Any Catholic who was raised prior to the ecumenical council held in the early 1960s and then has lived most of his life in the post-conciliar Church will feel an odd affinity with the characters of Prescott’s novel. Pope John XXIII, seemingly surprising even himself and certainly everybody else, called the council, and its first session—there were to be four—convenedinSt.Peter’sBasilicain1962.Whenthecouncilclosedon December 8, 1965, Pope John was dead—he died after the first session— and it fell to Paul VI to promulgate the sixteen documents which the council fathers had produced. Before he died, particularly from 1968 onward, Paul had become a tragic and beaten figure who once suggested that the smoke of Satan had crept into the Catholic Church. One can compare that somber sentiment with the exuberant optimism with which John opened the council. In his opening address, good Pope John decried the prophets of gloom, suggesting that all was well with the Church. And with the world? Well, the former must open its windows to the latter, the 121 122 Vatican II apparentpredictionbeingthatrenewedenergywouldflowfromthesecular into the sacred realm. John did not envisage a council of the usual sort, when serious doctrinal disagreements had to be settled; his was to be a pastoral council, the watchword of which was aggiornamento. John’s optimism was widely shared before and during the council. TherewasunusualexcitementamongCatholics,especiallyintheso-called First World, and great expectations of changes on the way. Not doctrinal changes, but changes in the manner and practices of the Church. This optimism became ever more heady, fueled by the contemporaneous reports of the council sessions. An American priest in Rome who styled himself Xavier Rynne reported on the council for the New Yorker, reports which became published volumes, extending their influence. Secular journalists descended on Rome and a sort of para-council began, in which members of the media sought to exercise influence on the fathers of the council . Robert Blair Kaiser’s early book, Pope, Council, and World, and even more his recent one, Clerical Error: A True Story, make it abundantly clear that a revolution was envisaged. At soirees sponsored by Time magazine, strategy and tactics were exuberantly discussed. And major pressure was to be put on changing the Church’s attitude toward sexual morality. Itisworthwhiletorecallformorethanmerelycalendarreasonsthatthe counciltookplaceduringthedecadecalledthe’60s.Thesewerethedaysof the sexual revolution, which consisted in separating the procreative from the unitive aspect of the sexual act. The estrogen pill and later developments provided chemical means of preventing birth, thus freeing the sexual act from the consequence of pregnancy. At first, at least within the Church, this was taken to have significance only for the married. Spouses seldomhaveasmanychildrenastheyphysicallycouldorcouldreasonably afford, and thus, one way or another, they act to limit the number of their offspring. There were ways of doing this recognized as morally legitimate forCatholics,themostdrasticbeingabstinence,anotherbeingtherhythm method, soon to be denigrated as Vatican Roulette. By this method, the wifetooknoteof herfertileperiodsand,beforeengaginginthemaritalact, calculated at what point on her menstrual cycle she was; if naturally infertile , the spouses acted accordingly. The pill was seen as simplifying the matter. It rendered the woman incapable of conceiving throughout the month, and thus she could engage in the marital act at will. This, it was argued ,wasatremendousboontothemarried,anditwasforeseenthathappier and more harmonious marriages would result. Of course, in the wider world, freedom from the consequence of pregnancywasseenasinitself aboontowomengenerally.Onceonlythemale could flit from flower to flower with impunity; now the female was in a condition to behave as males presumably do. It is pregnancy and children that form the basis for any argument for permanence in marriage, since the couple must take on the task of nurturing, raising, and educating the children that result from their union. Now, thanks to the pill, there was a secure means of separating sexual activity and pregnancy. Indeed , the connection between the two came to seem wholly contingent. There was no longer any need to confine sexual activity to the married. Sexual liberation was the hallmark of the ’60s. Given the talk about opening windows to the world, such developments could scarcely be ignored when the bishops came to Rome, filed into...