New Pope Takes Over

Second Session - 29 September – 4 December 1963

Gentle Pope John XXIII, having summoned the Council, was called home to the Lord after the First Session without having the chance to formally promulgate a single decree of the Council. However he will live on as the Pope, who responded to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and launched the most famous ecumenical council in the life of the Church to date.

As part of his plan for the continuation of the Council, Pope Paul VI issued a revised version of the way of proceeding of the Council in order to correct some defects in the organisation observed during the First Session.

He also enlarged the Board of Presidents to 12 members, whose duty was to see that the rules were observed and to deal with any difficulties which might arise. He also appointed 4 Cardinal Moderators, whose task was to take turns in moderating the discussions in the General Congregations. He also changed the rule governing voting to 50% plus one as the majority needed for the rejection or deferment of a schema or part thereof. He further appointed a Press Committee to improve and expand the world-wide press service.

His Holiness also increased the number of non-catholic Christian observers such that there were 31 more present at the Second Session than at the First Session. Also the number of lay Catholics attending the Second Session increased by 10, drawn from various countries. The unfortunate thing about this increase of 10 is that they were all men!

The Public Opening of the Second Session

This opening session occurred on 29 September 1963, and Pope Paul VI delivered a clear address in which he underscored the pastoral nature of the Council, listing the following four purposes:-

a. To define more clearly the Church, especially in regard to the position of the bishops;

b. The renewal of the Church;

c. To promote the restoration of unity among all Christians;

d. To initiate a dialogue with the contemporary world.

After the Pope’s presentation, the assembled Fathers began the discussion on the revised Schema on the Church. As expected there was a heated debate on the handling of the relationship in the Schema between the Collegiality of the bishops and its relationship to the Primacy of the Pope as defined at Vatican I. A further division arose among the Fathers over the question whether the Schema on the Blessed Virgin Mary should be a separate text or should it be part of the Schema on the Church. After a lively debate, the question was put to the vote on 29 October, and by a very narrow margin (1,114 to 1,074) the assembly decided to incorporate it into the Schema on the Church.

Cardinal Frings v Cardinal Ottaviani

Over the period 5 – 15 November, the Schema on the Bishops and the governance of Dioceses was discussed, and there occurred a crossing of swords between Cardinal Josef Frings (pic), who criticised the methods of the Holy Office, and Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, the Secretary of the Holy Office. This has been recorded as a rare and dramatic confrontation.

After the Frings-Ottaviani dust had settled, the Council Fathers went on to discuss the first three chapters of the Schema on Ecumenism and these were approved on condition that they would be revised. The rest of this Schema was deferred to the Third Session.

Enlarging the Commissions

On 21 November, the Holy Father announced that the number of members of each Commission was to be increased from 24 to 30. As expected the Episcopal Conferences nominated candidates and the Council Fathers elected most of the new members on 28 November, with the Holy Father appointing the rest. At one level, the purpose of this change was to expedite the work of the Commissions, but at another level, it seems to have been aimed at helping to bring some recalcitrant Commissions into step with the wishes of the Council’s majority.

In his Motu Proprio, Pastorale Munus, dated 30 November, the Pope either granted or declared to be restored to bishops, certain faculties and privileges, whose character was so insignificant as to highlight in the minds of many Fathers and observers, the degree to which the Episcopate had in the past become dependent on the Papacy.

Concluding the Second Session - 4 December 1963

During this Session, the Council Fathers passed the Constitution on the Liturgy by a vote of 2,147 to 4; this vote reflects the years of study and research on the Liturgy across the globe, and the intensity of the debate at the first and second Sessions of the Council on this Schema.

The Decree on the Communications Media was also passed by a vote of 1,980 to 164. These two texts were the first of the final documents of the Council to be approved and promulgated by the Holy Father. As was the custom, the Council Fathers were encouraged to submit comments during the interval between the Second and the Third Sessions of the Council, which comments would help the Commissions in their revisions of the texts of the outstanding Schema.

Furthermore the Coordinating Commission, acting in accordance with the Pope’s wishes, reduced the number of topics for discussion; thus those on priests, religious, education of the clergy, missionary activity, marriage and Catholic education were reduced to a series of basic principles on which the Fathers were expected to agree easily and without public discussion in the Third Session.

The fleshing out of these principles was to be left to the post-conciliar bodies. All of this was aimed at ensuring that the Council would end its work during the Third Session! 

To bring the curtain down on the Second Session, the Holy Father announced that WOMEN, the neglected species, were to join the lay men as Auditors of the Council, and that for the first time there were among the observer-delegates, representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Thus the Second Session was both hectic and constructive with the passing of the Constitution on the Liturgy and the Decree on Communications Media, as a result of the changes which we noted at the beginning of the Session and those also implemented during the months of working.

The Third Session would also prove hectic, but not the final session of the Council, as some of the Fathers were anticipating.

Interesting Fact:

Despite having been one of the most famous defenders of the traditional Magisterium of the Church, at the end of Vatican Council II, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani gave up his ideals and aligned himself with Paul VI and the progressivist current.

Indeed, on October 28, 1965, he granted an interview to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in which he affirmed that thenceforth he would defend the new principles of Vatican II.

Responding to a question of the journalist, Cardinal Ottaviani declared:

"I am a soldier who watches over the gold reserve. Do you think I would fulfill my duty by arguing, abandoning my post, turning a blind eye? My son, 75 years are 75 years! I lived them defending certain principles and certain laws. If you tell the old soldier that the laws are going to change, it is obvious that as an old soldier he will do everything to keep them from changing.

"But if, nonetheless, they change, God will certainly give him the strength to place himself in the defense of the new treasure in which he believes. Once the new laws become the treasure of the Church, an enrichment of the gold reserve, then only one principle counts: to serve the Church. And this service means to be faithful to her laws."