Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning by Massimo Faggioli (review)

Massimo Faggioli’s intimate knowledge of the historiography of the Second Vatican Council comes to life in this densely packed work. Before his move to the United States, he belonged to the team at the (now styled) Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII at Bologna, led by the late Giuseppe Alberigo and then by Alberto Melloni, which produced, among many publications on the Council, the classic five-volume History of Vatican II. Thereby, and surely assisted by the very rich collection on the Council within the Fondazione’s library as well as by the numerous conferences on it that were sponsored there and elsewhere by Alberigo and Melloni, Faggioli has acquired remarkable knowledge of the primary and secondary sources relating to the Council as well as of the personalities who have been writing about it. He has already written extensively on the Council, so the present work may be considered the crown.

The book’s concern is to appraise the various interpretations of the Council that took place during it and afterward. The year of publication (2012) marks the golden jubilee of the Council’s beginning in 1962; so it is an appropriate time for these reflections. There have already been many publications and conferences marking the jubilee, and plenty more are planned for the next few years—so far with a variety of emphases regarding interpretation but all revealing the Council’s continuing vitality and fascination. Within this context, Faggioli’s work emphasizes the fierceness of the struggle within the Council, as the word battle in the title clearly indicates.

The six chapters approach this central theme of struggle in various ways. Chapter 1 provides a chronological approach, as the titles of the subsections indicate: “What Vatican II Said about Vatican II (1960–65)”; “Vatican II: Acknowledged, Received, Refused (1965–80)”; “Vatican II: Celebrated and Enforced (1980–90)”; “Vatican II: Historicized (1990–2000)”; and “Towards a New Fight over Vatican II?”. The approach of the other five chapters is thematic, with one major theme treated in each chapter. Chapter 2, “Questioning the Legitimacy of Vatican II,” examines the topic of legitimacy under the following subheadings: “Opposite Extremisms”; “Vatican II: A Reform Council”; “The Traditionalists: Opposition and Rejection of the Council”; “The Lefebvrian Schism and Vatican II”; and “Different Destinies for Vatican II’s Fringe Groups.” Attention to the smaller or “fringe” groups is welcome; too often the Council is interpreted only in terms of the simplified categories of “conservatives” and “progressives.” On the other hand, there is the danger that the focus on “battle” obscures or minimizes areas of consensus among the Council participants, including consensus on some issues among participants who were divided on others: liturgy, missions, exemption (or non-exemption) of religious orders, and war, for example.

Chapter 3 looks beyond “Beyond Rome,” with perceptive sections on “Vatican II and Its Ecumenical Appraisal”; the publications “Concilium, Communio, and Post-Vatican Theology”; “Liberation Theology and Feminist Theology”; and “Catholic Theology in New Places: Vatican II in Africa, Asia and Australasia.” Chapter 4 looks at the differing Augustinian and Thomistic approaches to the Church and the world—an important, albeit somewhat hidden, underlying theme among the Council members and recently highlighted by Pope Benedict XVI’s appreciation of St. Augustine. Chapter 5, “The Clash of Narratives,” focuses principally on ecclesiology and liturgy. The final chapter surveys the broadest themes and looks to the future, as indicated in its title, “Macro-Issues of the Debate about Vatican II.” An epilogue, extensive footnotes (pp. 145–85), and the well-arranged bibliography conclude this excellent and fascinating study.