Church and Society: The Laurence J. McGinley Lectures, 1988-2007

34. Benedict XVI: Interpreter of Vatican II: October 25, 2005

34 Benedict XVI Interpreter of Vatican II October ,  L ike his predecessor John Paul II, Benedict XVI was present at all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Whereas Karol Wojtyla, the future John Paul, took part as a bishop, the young Joseph Ratzinger did so as a theological expert. During and after the council he taught successively at the universities of Bonn (1959–63), Münster (1963–66), Tübingen (1966–69), and Regensburg, until he was appointed archbishop of Munich in 1977. In 1981 he became prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a post he held until the death of John Paul II in April 2005. In his many publications, Ratzinger has continued to debate questions that arose during the council, and in some cases has expressed dissatisfaction with the council’s documents. In this respect he differs from Pope John Paul, who consistently praised the council and never to my knowledge criticized it. For this reason, Ratzinger’s comments on Vatican II are particularly intriguing. We may conveniently divide the material into three stages: his participation at the council, his early commentaries on the council documents, and his later reflections on the reception of the council. After surveying these three areas, I shall examine his changing reactions to the four great Constitutions: those on the Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), on Revelation (Dei Verbum), on the Church (Lumen gentium), and on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes). 468 Pope Benedict XVI: Interpreter of Vatican II 兩 469 A Theologian at Vatican II At the council, Ratzinger was much sought after as a rising theological star. He worked very closely with senior Jesuits, including Karl Rahner, Alois Grillmeier, and Otto Semmelroth, all of whom kept in steady communication with the German bishops. The German Cardinals Josef Frings of Cologne and Julius Döpfner of Munich and Freising, strongly supported by theologian-bishops such as the future Cardinal Hermann Volk, exercised a powerful influence, generally opposing the schemas drawn up by the Preparatory Commission under the guidance of Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani and Father Sebastian Tromp, S.J. Late in the first session, Ratzinger was named a theological adviser to Cardinal Frings, a position he held until the end of the council. Many of his biographers suspect that he drafted Frings’s speech of November 8, 1963, vehemently attacking the procedures of the Holy Office. In combination with other events, this speech probably influenced Paul VI to restructure the Holy Office and give it a new name, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. During the first session, several official schemas were distributed by the Preparatory Commission with the expectation that the council fathers would accept them, at least in revised form. The German contingent were generally content with the proposed document on the liturgy, but reacted adversely to those on revelation and the Church and sought to replace them. With regard to revelation, Ratzinger agreed that the preliminary schema was unacceptable and should be withdrawn.1 At the request of Cardinal Frings, he wrote an alternative text, which was then reworked with the help of Rahner. To the annoyance of Ottaviani, three thousand copies of this text were privately circulated among the council fathers and experts. Yves Congar, though generally sympathetic, calls the RahnerRatzinger paper far too personal to have any chance of being adopted.2 He also criticizes it for taking too little account of the good work in the preparatory schemas.3 Gerald Fogarty calls it a barely mitigated synthesis of Rahner’s systematic theology.4 Notwithstanding the rejection of their schema, Rahner and Ratzinger had some input into the new text prepared by the Mixed Commission named by Pope John XXIII. Both were appointed as consultors to the 470 兩 Church and Society subcommission revising the new text.5 Rahner strongly advocated his personal position on the relationship between Scripture and tradition.6 Ratzinger helped in responding to proposed amendments to the chapter dealing with tradition; he also had an opportunity to introduce modifications in the chapter dealing with the authority and interpretation of Scripture.7 On the Church, Ratzinger joined with the German bishops and with his fellow experts in getting the idea of the Church as sacrament deeply inscribed into the Constitution—a concern to which Frings spoke on the council floor.8 Both Ratzinger and Rahner...