Why Stand Up for Vatican II ?

Introduction

We feel that our Church is at a crucial point in its history. It is now forty five years since the Second Vatican Council and for many who are now members of our Church it is just an historical event in the past.

For those of us who lived at the time of the Council, we will never forget what an exciting time it was for us.

The changes in our Sunday worship were only part of the sense of renewal that was sweeping through our church. Pope John XXIII had asked for 'aggiornamento' the bringing up to date of our church and we felt that this was really beginning to happen. As the windows of the Church gradually opened the Spirit blew in, giving the People of God worship in the vernacular, breaking down post Reformation sectarianism, endorsing the work of biblical scholars, affirming the primacy of conscience, acknowledging the need to learn from the secular sciences, breathing Joy and Hope into the Church. The Council called for real collegiality and collaboration among all the members of the Body of Christ. The world, God's world, needs once again to embrace this spirit, not a retreat into a museum of the faith of yesteryear. We need a prophetic lead from our bishops to take up this challenge.

Where the Council was taken seriously people began to sense that the Church was not something outside of themselves to which they owed obedience and which consisted of the clergy but that they were the Church and that we are all involved in its worship and its work and mission. Sadly, of course, this was not happening everywhere and a great deal depended on the enthusiasm of our priests.

For those of us who were not around at the time of the Council we may not realise that many of the things we take for granted such as our involvement in the life of the church through Parish pastoral councils and finance committees and through sharing in the administration of the sacraments and the care of our communities are all the result of the teachings of the Council. The changes in our worship are only a reflection of what was to happen at a deeper level.

Again, so much has depended on our priests and while there are those parishes where all of this has been happening, there are some where the Council seems almost to have passed them by.

Added to all this, there are now signs that our church both internationally and in our own country is looking back to what some perceive as 'the good old days'. Recent actions emanating from Rome which appear to receive an uncritical reception by our own bishops lead us to believe that there is a real danger that the many blessings that the Second Vatican Council brought to our church are liable to be thrown away by what can only be called the 'restorationist' or 'rejectionist' view currently fashionable in some parts of the Church.

This movement seems to be gathering pace and the restoration of the Tridentine Mass in some parishes, even to its superseding the Mass in our own language and reducing the level of participation to which we have grown accustomed is only an external sign of something much deeper which is happening. The reasserting of the power of the priest together with 'his' control of all that goes on in the parish together with the discontinuation of various ways in which the people have been involved in both worship and the life and ministry of the church are all further reminders of this. The forbidding of the discussion of the ordination of women and even of married men is also just one more example of this.

We feel that the renewed theology of the Church and the spirit which grew out of the Council is being strangled and our Church is in serious danger of becoming more and more dysfunctional.

We believe that the time is short and unless we do something now it will be too late.

What do we want to achieve?

We want to make the occasion of the forty fifth anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council in 2010 an opportunity for our Church to celebrate all that the Council achieved and stands for and to petition our bishops to re-commit themselves to the teachings of the Council and to implement programmes for the further renewal of our church along the lines that the Council promulgated.

We note that the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris in the name of the French Church has already announced that he will be initiating a programme of five years preparation for the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council since so many have known nothing of it or remain unaffected by it.

Apart from this, in broad terms we are standing up for:

1. A recognition that the Church begins with us at the level of our local parish community and the universal Church is the communion of such communities. This affects the governance of our Church locally, nationally and internationally.

2. A recognition that lay people are the Church and should, therefore, have a part in the decision making of our Church.

3. A commitment to the renewed vision of the Church that the Council proclaimed, both as sacrament and sign of the coming Reign of God and the catalyst in the world for bringing this about in conjunction with those of other churches and other faiths.

4. The admission of women to the ministry of the Church at every level.

5. The admission of the married to the ministry and an end to compulsory celibacy.

Others may want to add to or subtract from these but our aim is to create an inclusive campaign which will have a broad appeal. If anyone would like to comment on this list or make suggestion please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To raise awareness

We want to raise awareness within the minds of the faithful of the importance the Second Vatican Council played in putting in place the Church many of us have grown used to as we have grown up. And we want to ensure that this is the Church that we pass on to our children and grandchildren. For example we believe that many people are not aware that one of the consequences of driving the Tridentine Mass into the centre of parish worship immediately excludes the reception of Holy Communion under both kinds, the use of Special Ministers of the Eucharist and the exclusion of females serving on the altar.

We do not believe that this is what the vast majority of Catholics want nor do we accept that many of the other changes being gradually introduced would be welcomed by the majority if they were informed and consulted.

Much that has been happening has been done without any consultation and people find that they wake up one morning and find that life in their parish and the nature of the way they worship has changed.

The strange death of The Sign We Give

In 1995 the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, after much research, consultation and discussion issued a report entitled The Sign We Give. In his introduction to the report Bishop Crispian Hollis, quoting a discussion held at the Bishops Conference says “We are convinced that the manner and style of relationships in the Church are part of the sign it gives and, for this reason, we must develop patterns for collaborative ministry as a key feature of Church life to come.”

The introduction goes on to say “The report addresses the urgent need we have to working and collaborating in the Church – patterns which respect and cherish the essential dignity and consequent responsibility for the life and mission of the Church which belongs to every baptised Christian.”

The introduction concludes with the following statement – “I believe that it (the report) contains the seeds of a revolution in the way in which we live and work in the Church today. The revolution is not simply one which will affect radically our internal structures: it is a revolutionary insight into the way in which we exercise our mission, which is to proclaim the Good News in today’s world.”

As Bishop Hollis says the report recommends that all of the structures of the Church in England and Wales must be opened up to all of the baptised to fully participate in. And that such is the importance the bishops place on collaboration, consultation and involvement of lay people and priests collaborating together they state that is a key feature of the ministry of the life of the Church to come.

We might well ask where this approach to collaborative and consultative ministry has gone and we see little evidence that more than token attention has been given to this approach to ministry anywhere in the Church.

Of course there are exceptions where an individual priest has enthusiastically grasped the opportunity of collaborating with his people in furtherance of the mission of the Church. But we fear that examples of true collaboration are few and far between. We recommend that the report, The Sign We Give, be taken down from the shelf in every diocese, dusted off and presented once again to the people as the way forward for the Church as intended when originally published.

To energise people

We want to energise people to recognise the new understanding of the Church that the Documents of the Council proclaimed and to stand up for the gains made during the Second Vatican Council in relation to the role of lay people in the Church and a greater recognition of the Council statement about the priesthood of the baptised; the commitment to a vernacular and participative liturgy; the governance of the Church locally and nationally. And also by placing aggiornamento (the opening of the windows as suggested by Pope John XX111) in a more central position in how we view the world.

To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Council

We hope and pray that our bishops will lead us in presiding at a Mass to celebrate the anniversary of the Council in their Cathedral churches some time during 2010 and inviting their people and priests to celebrate such a Mass in the parishes, perhaps on a common date fixed by them.

We want the whole Church in England and Wales to join together in celebrating the anniversary of this historic event which brought new life, commitment and participation to many thousands of lay people who had previously experienced a Church that appeared to be owned by the clergy.

We do not accept that the view current in some circles, that a Church following the mysterious notion of the hermeneutic of continuity, is truly representative of the legacy of the Second Vatican Council. We want to see a firm commitment by all to openness, lay involvement and a vernacular liturgy as the true legacy of the Council.

We would also like to see a process of education take place in every diocese and parish enabling people to deepen their understanding of the benefits which the Second Vatican Council brought to the Church in England and Wales. This could be done in every parish by encouraging a process of consultation as suggested in the document “The Sign We Give” recommended by the Bishops Conference in 1995, (referred to above).

In referring to the influence of the Second Vatican Council this document said “The Second Vatican Council gave the Catholic Church a renewed and dynamic understanding of its nature and purpose. It presented the Church as a communion of life, love and truth and an instrument for the salvation of all; as the light of the world and the salt of the earth it is sent forth into the whole world.

Two of the most striking new emphases in all the Council said about the Church are those which laid foundations for a collaborative ministry; the emphasis on mission, and the recovery of laypeople’s full share in the life holiness and mission of the Church.”

We call for a new commitment to true collaborative ministry throughout our Church which would support the celebration for this anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and help to reenergise the life of the Church in England and Wales.

How you can get involved

A petition

As we have already said, we hope and pray that our bishops will lead us in this celebration by presiding at a Mass in their Cathedral church some time during 2010. You can play your part by signing the petition calling on our hierarchy to support our call for a nationwide celebration of the 45th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Details of how to do this are shown above.

Encourage all of your friends and fellow parishioners to visit this website and sign the petition or if you wish print a copy and ask people to sign it, or write to the address below and ask for a paper copy, completed copies should also be returned to -

180 Blackfen Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA15 8PT.

Ask your diocesan bishop to sponsor a Mass at the Cathedral Church to Celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.

Ask your bishop to arrange to preside at the Mass and, if there is a priest who you believe would be an appropriate preacher and who would do justice to the event, suggest his name also to the bishop.

You could also explore the possibility locally of getting other people involved to assist with this. Our recent experience of listening to what people have to say suggests that there are many people who share our views and who may be willing to get involved.

To do this we need to identify who lives where so that we can group people into diocesan groups to enable the initial approach to come from a group of people in each diocese. To get this initiative under way we need to ask you to:

1. Confirm that you would like to be involved.
2. Confirm that you are happy for us to share your email address with other people living in the same diocese, so that you can communicate with each other.

You can do this by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

We can help by providing a draft letter for you to use or amend and perhaps by attending the Mass with you, but ideally this should be a local initiative.

Following the Mass we suggest that it might be possible for a short social event to be arranged either on church premises or nearby. A speaker could be arranged (we could help with this unless you want to make arrangements locally), to give a short address followed by a discussion.

From the Mass and this social event, further support could be generated perhaps leading to a local group being established and, eventually a larger meeting in the diocese so that as we approach the end of 2010 a further celebration can be held in every diocese.

If you would like to join us in this initiative please send an email to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it – tell us what diocese you live in and give us permission to share your email address with other people in your diocese.

We would also welcome other suggestions for how we could celebrate this historic event and we invite you to post a short message on our notice board entitled Why I am Standing up for Vatican II.

Frank Regan, Derek Reeve, Pam Wearing, Bernard Wynne