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How Well Is Vatican II Known? By Msgr. George G. Higgins The Yard Stick June 21, 1999  For the better part of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) I lived with approximately 15 U.S. bishops and priests in a Rome hospice known as Villanova. Roughly the same number of French bishops and theologians, plus a few from Yugoslavia, occupied a separate wing of the same friendly home away from home.  Recently, going through my books about the council, I discovered to my pleasant surprise a group photo of all those who had lived at Villanova. This long-forgotten souvenir brought back happy memories. But, as I examined the photo, I was saddened to discover that a large majority of those who shared with us Villanova's hospitality have gone to their reward.  The same is true of the vast majority of the approximately 2,500 bishops and theologians from the world's four corners who took part in the council in St. Peter's Basilica.  This means that of all the living U.S. bishops, only a few attended the council. One era has given way to another.  All of this lends added weight to a point made by sociologist James Davidson of Purdue University at the recent Catholic Press Association convention. Davidson said that 40 percent of those he surveyed said they did not know anything about Vatican II. Two-thirds of those who had at least heard of the council said they did not know enough about it to have an opinion on whether the changes it led to are good or bad.  I suppose the logical place to begin addressing this pastoral challenge is in our seminaries and in the institutes which specialize in training lay ministers. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect few of today's seminarians and prospective lay ministers have read the council documents from beginning to end. But merely reading the council documents will not fill the gap. Only a study of the council's history will enable people to put the council documents in their proper historical and theological context.  Fortunately, scholarly English-language histories of the council and of the movements and events that led up to it are steadily becoming available. The best is the five-volume, multilingual series co-edited by Father Joseph Komonchak of The Catholic University of America, who, in my opinion, is the leading U.S. expert on the council. The English-language volumes in this series are being published by Orbis Books. The first two volumes are now available; the third will be released this fall.  Within the near future, Orbis also will publish under one cover the four-volume, popular-style council history written by Redemptorist Father F.X. Murphy under the pseudonym ``Xavier Rynne''(his mother's name was Rynne).  Numerous English-language commentaries on the council documents are in print. In fact, before the council ended in 1965 the number of such commentaries far exceeded the number of books in print even today about Vatican I, which ended 130 years ago.  The relative dearth of English-language books about Vatican I is unfortunate because it is almost impossible to understand Vatican II outside the context of its predecessor council. This is particularly true when it comes to understanding what Vatican II said (or to some extent failed to say) about the relationship between papal primacy and episcopal collegiality.  Crossroad recently published a series of scholarly volumes on this subject. One volume in particular -- "Toward a Papacy in Communion: Perspectives from Vatican Councils I and II,"' by German theologian Hermann Pottmeyer -- is an invaluable contribution for understanding both councils and their relationship.  The gap in people's knowledge of Vatican II, which Davidson highlighted, is a serious pastoral problem. But, as noted briefly here, ample resources are available to those responsible for addressing this challenge.   Papal Social Encyclicals   Other Catholic Social Teachings General Articles of Interest  Catholic Worker Connection Msgr. George Higgins  Home Page E-Mail: Fr. Sinclair Oubre