Abstract
The Ecclesiological Investigations International Research Network organized a major international conference at Georgetown University, Washington National Cathedral and Marymount University, in 2015, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. The council, one of the most important events in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, initiated a process of renewal, transition, and openness that affected not only Catholics, but all Christians, adherents of other religions, and the secular world. The Washington conference received worldwide media attention, with highlights including keynote addresses by several cardinals, archbishops, and bishops as well as eminent scholars from a wide and diverse range of backgrounds in terms of geography and expertise alike. This second of three volumes emerging from this event assesses how Vatican II opened up the Catholic Church to encounter, dialogue, and engagement with other world religions. It begins with a contribution from the late President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, followed by a section devoted to exploring the impact, relevance, and promise of the Council's Declaration on Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate. The volume turns next to explore how Vatican II in general has influenced and helped develop method in both interfaith dialogue and in the intellectual and comparative study of world religions in the post-conciliar decades. The final thematic section of this volume is devoted to a range of perspectives on the fruits and future of Vatican II’s opening to other faiths. The volume draws toward its conclusion with a moving and evocative reflection from one of the leading pioneers in contemporary comparative theology, Jesuit Francis X. Clooney.
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- 1.
The third volume is edited by Peter De Mey on the ‘hard sayings’ of Vatican II—passages and conceptions in conciliar texts that remain stumbling blocks for dialogue.
- 2.
See www.ei-resarch.net. The full program as well as films and images from many of the conference sessions can be accessed at http://dc2015.ei-research.net.
- 3.
From a sermon reported in The Irish Times (10 December 1965).
- 4.
John W. O’Malley, ‘Vatican II: Did Anything Happen?’, in Vatican II: Did Anything Happen?, John W O’Malley, Joseph A. Komonchak, Stephen Schloesser, Neil J. Ormerod, edited by David G. Schultenover (New York and London: Continuum, 2007), 52–85 at 84–85. This passage admirably sums up O’Malley’s now classic study, What Happened at Vatican II (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008).
- 5.
In a homily preached on April 16th, 2013, as reported widely, for example, https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/rejecting-holy-spirits-work-in-vatican-ii-is-foolish-pope-says and https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/francis-vatican-ii-beautiful-work-holy-spirit. Alas, the report on the Vatican’s own news website no longer features the original page on which it was reported: http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-2nd-vatican-council-work-of-holy-spirit-but-s. Furthermore, the summary record of the pope’s homily that day also no longer records those words, see http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2013/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20130416_spirit.html.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
The interview, ‘Trente ans de souvenirs’ (30 Years of Memories), was conducted in 1964, as cited in Joseph A. Komonchak, ‘On Yves M.-J. Congar, O.P. (1904–1995)’, Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America vol. 59 (2004), 162–166 at 163.
- 8.
Paul Lakeland, The Council That Will Never End (Collegeville, Mn., Liturgical Press, 2013).
- 9.
Paul VI, Ecclesiam Suam (6th August 1964) §56.
- 10.
Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, October 28th, 1965), http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html, §1.
- 11.
Ibid., §5.
- 12.
Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, December 7th, 1965), http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html, §28.
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Mannion, G. (2018). Catholicism Embracing Its Religious Others. In: Latinovic, V., Mannion, G., Welle, O.F.M., J. (eds) Catholicism Engaging Other Faiths. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98584-8_1
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