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| Ideas & Identity: Catholic students in the National University of Singapore, 1951-85 (Part II) by Nick Chui Yongtai (Cont’d) |
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The Aquinas speaks out
Unlike previous Councils, the Second Vatican Council, which lasted from 1962 to 1965, was called into being by Pope John XXIII when there seemed to be no particular crisis in the Church. Rather, Pope John XXIII hoped that the council would provide a fresh burst of evangelical energy for the Church to convey its message to the modern world. McInerny noted that “The emphasis of the council should thus not be doctrinal but pastoral.”12 However, what was supposed to be a Council of renewal was reported in newspapers as a Council where what was old was quickly being questioned and discarded. Journalistic accounts soon divided the Council further into heroes and villains with “open-minded, warm hearted, highly intelligent innovators repeatedly thwarting plots by Machiavellian reactionaries.”13 Michael Novak, writing a new introduction to a book he published at the time when the Council was in progress, conceded that “journalistically, it was much easier to portray the sheer novelty of the council then to portray its continuities with the past.”14 Some far-out ideas While the tone of the Aquinas was not as shrill as what would later occur in 1970, a clear demarcation of the pre- and post-Vatican II Church was apparent. The 1964 articles mentioned that the Church would change, but only in non-essentials.15 While such a statement seemed acceptable in theory, to decide what was really essential and what was not was an altogether messier business. Articles poured forth suggesting what must have been considered radical changes to Catholic self-understanding. Ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue were portrayed as the way to go and Christian unity seemed to be on the horizon as Catholic prelates met leaders of the various Protestant churches.16 However, along with this reorientation came other proposed changes, such as proposals that priests shed their clerical garb and nuns come out of the convent to immerse themselves in the life of the world. A 1966 article argued it would be more sensible to see original sin not as a fall from an original state of holiness, but simply a way of expressing the handicaps man initially has to face as he gradually progresses or evolves towards perfection.17 What was, however, even more drastic were calls for various radical innovations to the Catholic Mass. While a bitter debate ensued in the Catholic News over possible changes to the liturgy, Catholic university students were clearly in favour of the most radical changes possible. Articles discussed various radical innovations to the liturgy in attempts to democratise the Mass, and raised questions such as: Why reserve Holy Communion only to Catholics? Why must the wine be reserved only for the priest? And should not the laity be given the option to pick up the consecrated Host from the ciborium themselves; after all, aren’t they no less important or worthy than the priest?18 How about kitchen-table Masses instead, said in private homes where the priest does not wear vestments and where secular songs and readings are used?19 |
Pope Paul VI's groundbreaking ecumenical work graced the cover of Aquinas 1964. 
Mea Maxima Culpa: A cartoon in Aquinas criticises how Catholic education instills a terrible guilt complex. |
Next  The usual suspects get roughed up
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12 Ralph M. McInerny, What Went Wrong with Vatican II (New Hampshire: Sophia Institute Press, 1998), p.25 13 Hitchcock, Off the Rails, p.8 14 Michael Novak, The Open Church, new edition with new introduction (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction, 2002), p.8 15 Liam Egan, New Look In the Church, Aquinas 1964 p.15; Lee Beng Tjie, The Council and the Laity, Aquinas 1964, p.32 16 Wilfred James, Towards Christian Unity, Aquinas 1965, p.7-14 17 Bernard Swan, Thoughts on the Fall and Original Sin, Aquinas 1966, p.15-20 18 Drama in the Liturgy, Aquinas 1968, p.49-51 19 Symbols, p.10-11 |