Madrid, Spain, Dec 11, 2005 / 22:00 pm
In comments marking the 40th anniversary of the close of Vatican II, the renowned Spanish theologian Father Olegario Gonzalez de Cardenal said given the “moral weight of Catholicism in the world,” the history of the Church, the world and Spain is incomprehensible without “taking into account what that Council meant and what has come from it.”
In an article published by the Spanish daily ABC, Father Cardenal noted, “The history of the Catholic Church in the 20th century is no longer comprehensible without Vatican II. The same is true for the history of Spain. Moreover, given the moral weight of Catholicism in the world, with its 1.5 billion members, with its presence in every geographic corner of the world and its specific vision of the meaning of human life, the history of the world in this century is also incomprehensible without taking into account what that Council meant and what has come from it. Just think of Poland, of John Paul II and the events of 1989.”
“As an internal event of the Catholic Church,” Father Cardenal continued, “it was normal in one sense and revolutionary in another. Normal because the collective search for truth is a constant in the history of the Church, together with the communitarian dimension of her expression and the ultimate decision regarding her dogmatic contents and moral demands by way of a material or representative meeting of all of the bishops.”
Nevertheless, he explained, the Council was also revolutionary “because of its proposal to rectify past history by establishing a profound connection between the Christian conscience and modernity; to bring together the best social projects and hopes with the power of the Gospel; to create attitudes, expressions and institutions in the Church that aren’t ambiguous but rather demonstrate her true essence and her mission to be God’s sign for the world.”