Bp. Pieronek on Vatican Council II - the biggest event of 20th century in the life of Catholic Church

Biography

This year falls the 50th anniversary of general Council called in Rome by the pope Ian XXIII For four years (1962-1965) during the Council bishops from all over the world analyzed present religious situation and pointed out effective ways of preaching the Gospel in present-day world. The Council together with the Pope constitutes the entity of the highest authority in the Church, that is why provisions of this Council, named later as Vatican II, became the world's sensation and were accepted with great interest not only by Catholics.

Coulcil's documents gave the impulse to many changes within the Church. National languages were introduced into the liturgy instead of obligatory Latin. Bishops declared strongly for religious freedom of every human being, ecumenical various religion dialogue. They declared for undertaking dialogue with the world as it is today, for the model of relations between the Church and National community, which respects independence of both those communities and allows them to cooperate for the common good of individual and the society. Of course, they are only some of the more important issues, which the Council took care of.



In the history of the Church, there has been 21 General Councils so far, participated by the bishops, who were able to arrive. Contemporary efficient means of transport, especially air transport, allowed 2000 bishops - Polish ones among them, despite the problems with gaining the passports in times of PRL (Polish People's Republic) - to arrive to the council 50 years ago. Among them, Cracow metropolitan, bishop Karol Wojtyła let himself to be noticed together with already well known cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the Primate of Poland, taking part in a few crucial issues of the Council.

Vatican Council II, as a world-wide known event has great records, photo-graphical as well, made by television stations, thousands of professional and amateur photographs. The photos presented here, are my personal documentary made on amateur plates. I was a priest at that time, studying in Rome during the Vatican II.

It explains a certain monotony of the collection, because the direct access to the event was limited. That is why most of the photos were taken at St. Peter's Square, Available to wide publicity. When the door to the Vatican Basilica, where the Council took place, were opened it was possible to meet the bishops entering or leaving the church in order to go by themselves or use reserved coaches to their resting place.

It was possible to get into the Basilica after getting a special permission - usually it was a ticket to a mass celebrated by the Pope. A rare occasion to present the insides of the conference room and incredibly colorful picture of its occupants on a single photo.

The third possibility to take photos of Council's participants were at the place of their living, because Polish bishops enjoyed hospitality of two Polish Church Institutions from Rome - Polish Institute at via Pietro Cavallini 38 and Polish Collage on Aventine at Piazza Remuria 2A. Living together with the students allowed the students to go sometimes for a short trip with their own bishop and record it with a few photos.

Not all of the photographs are possible to describe after 50 years time. I am an amateur photographer and I surely hunted for Polish bishops, but most of the time I had no idea who the interlocutors were or where they were from, apart from those cases where the colour of their skin of a specific type of clothes gave me some clues.


It seems that this documentation, although incomplete, gives some external image of the Council, which was available at that time to anyone who has been interested in it. However it does not show the enormity of the changes, which were initiated by its thoughts and decisions of the Church and the world. This wealth of Vatican Council II was enclosed in its doctrinal and pastoral documents, followed by a peculiar avalanche of regulations, which allow to initiate modifications postulated by the Council in many fields of life.

Reform of institutions and structures of the church was apparently the easiest, but it was much harder to bring about a change of mentality conditioning the effectiveness of any changes. Cardinal Wojtyla, being aware of this fundamental difficulty of believers' assimilation of the spiritual achievements of the Council, undertook the gigantic work in Krakow, which he called: 'Learning Council'. He claimed that it is necessary and possible. Moreover, he has prepared a book entitled: 'At the basis of regeneration. Study on the implementation of Vaticanum II', which was in fact a kind of handbook for the participants of the Pastoral Synod of the Archdiocese of Krakow, convened by himself. During the Synod, in special study groups, they have been trying for nine years to assimilate the true message of the Council to the faithful and give them a conciliar key of assessment and behavior of Christian in today's world.

The Synod of Krakow (1971-1979) turned out to be a good school of the Council at that, very difficult times in Poland, but it was also a valuable pastoral experience with which the Metropolitan of Krakow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla took care of the Catholic Church, as Pope John Paul II.

The Second Vatican Council in photography by Bp. Tadeusz Pieronek