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 (October 2, 1998)

 

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Vatican I's Bad Prophet

By Msgr. George G. Higgins

October 2, 1998

 Public television recently featured a two-hour documentary on Vatican Council II. As a participant in the council, I found it a very enjoyable trip down memory lane. It brought back happy memories of the most important religious event of the 20th century. Alas, however, it also reminded me that many if not most of the people I met at the council have gone to their reward.   In any event, the program prompted me to reread some of the principle texts of the council and to try to put them in historical context by rereading the one-and-only English-language history of the First Vatican Council, "The Vatican Council, 1869- 70," by Dom Cuthbert Butler.
 It's a useful history of Vatican I, but the author, it turns out, was a bad prophet. In winding up his history of Vatican I, Father Butler observed that "should the Vatican Council be called into being again, it is impossible to imagine a renewal of the wild worldwide excitement in which the council of 1870 was held."
 From one point of view, there was an element of truth in Father Butler's observation. He was correct in prophesying that Vatican II would take place in a less exciting political atmosphere and would be able to carry on its work without interference by political powers.
 On the other hand, we now know that Vatican II aroused far greater public interest than Vatican I or any other previous council in church history. Father Butler's book illustrates this difference dramatically. First published in 1930 -- 60 years after the event -- it is still the only English-language history of Vatican I and a very incomplete history at that.
 By contrast, scores of English-language books on Vatican II have appeared, and many more undoubtedly are in the offing.  There are many reasons for this dramatic contrast in public reaction to the two Vatican councils. Father Butler put his finger on one reason which is worth attending to. I refer to the matter of conciliar secrecy.
 Father Butler thought that the rigid rule of secrecy at Vatican I was a serious mistake. At the beginning, he wrote, an influential group of bishops made a representation on this matter of secrecy, urging that it was totally against the spirit of the age and that it would in all likelihood occasion far greater trouble than the free and open publication of all that took place at the council.
 "The event seems to show," he concluded, "that there was much truth in the contention, and that less excitement, less storm, less suspicion and misunderstanding would have arisen, had ... reporters of the public press been given entrance to the debates. Certainly, if ever the council meets again, the surest way of killing off excitement, and even of public interest in its proceedings, would probably be to broadcast all with loudspeakers over the world: Soon even the most curious would tire of listening in!"
 Father Butler, it will be noted, was opposed to the rule of secrecy in Vatican I because, in his judgment, it created more rather than less public interest in the proceedings. Given the highly charged and rather unfriendly political atmosphere of the late 19th century, his point of view is understandable.
 Happily, the rule of secrecy at Vatican II was greatly (but not completely) relaxed after the end of the first session. As a result, completely contrary to Father Butler's prediction, even the least curious began to listen in. Thirty some years later, they are still listening in more attentively than he or anyone else could have predicted.
 I cannot help but think that Father Butler would be happy about this unexpected turn of events if he were still alive and would be saying even more vigorously (but for different reasons this time) that the rule of secrecy regarding church affairs is counterproductive.

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