In the early 1960s, as a young man estranged from the Episcopal Church, I followed with great interest the deliberations and decrees of Vatican II. What was especially appealing was the council's theological vision of the church, not as a massive institution with a conservative bureaucracy, but as the people of God, the body of Christ, a living organism including all who follow Christ. Largely as a result of that inspiration, I returned to the Episcopal Church in 1967, bringing my wife and children with me.
Read Ormonde's account of studying for the permanent diaconate in the Episcopal Church at Notre Dame Seminary, a Roman Catholic seminary in New Orleans, during the heady days when the windows opened by John XXIII were still letting in the breeze.
Mimi, I wonder if anyone else of my age was similarly affected by Vatican II. At the time, many of us were excited by the fresh wind of John XXIII.
ReplyDeleteOrmonde, I was still in the RCC at the time of Vatican II, and a good many of us had great hopes for the future of the church. And then John XXIII died, and Paul VI became pope after the death of John Paul I, who lived only 33 days, and gave us Humanae Vitae, which dashed our hopes for the fresh breeze to continue to blow. Then when John Paul II was elected, the turnaround from Vatican II took on real momentum and continued with Benedict.
ReplyDelete