The Legacy of the Second Vatican Council: An Orthodox Perspective

Perhaps the greatest legacy of the Second Vatican Council is that there is a legacy. The events stemming from the council have in many ways surpassed it in importance. Or, to put it another way, the council became so much more than simply the documents that emerged from it, in that they were embraced and put into practice. This is no small thing, since we all know that too often documents sit and sit, and we cannot help but wonder whether, with regard to many documents, there is any legacy of which to speak. Therefore, one could argue that the events leading up to the council and the events subsequent to it were more important than the council itself; it is safe to say that many Orthodox might agree with this. With the initiation of the Orthodox-Roman Catholic Consultation in the United States in 1965 (now called the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation) and the establishment of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church by Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Demetrios in 1979, (1) the efforts for aggiornamento have moved forward at a regular and, some would suggest, surprisingly quick pace. (2) The changes in the approach to the Orthodox by the Catholic Church over the last century or so have been significant: from Pope Pius IX's extraordinary tactlessness (3) in his encyclical In suprema Petri apostolic sede (January 6, 1848), to Pope Benedict XV's creation in 1917 of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches and the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome for the study of the Christian East, to Pope Pius XI's encyclical Rerum orientalium (4) (September 8, 1928) and John Paul II's Apostolic Letter, Orientale lumen (5) (May 2, 1995), there has been an ongoing desire for reunion between the two churches, and the sincerity of that desire has grown over time. In this presentation, I would like to highlight the great legacy of Vatican II as observed by an Orthodox. I would be remiss in not mentioning, from the start, a personal expression of gratitude with regard to this legacy. The willingness on the part of Catholic institutions of higher learning to admit and hire non-Catholics has benefitted many budding theologians. I have the council to thank both for my doctoral degree and for my job; I graduated from The Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC, and currently teach at a Catholic college, Providence College, in Providence, RI. Without the Decree on Ecumenism, there is a good chance that I and many other Orthodox would not have been supported for study at the graduate level, and, even more certainly, we would not have been employed in academia. Therefore, I have reaped a personal benefit from Vatican II and imagine this benefit has also been enjoyed by many Catholic and Protestant laity. When speaking of the legacy of Vatican II, I will approach the discussion from three perspectives: (1) from the perspective of the importance of dialogue; (2) from the perspective of the increased importance of the role of conciliarity in the life of the Church, in particular, with regard to decision-making; and (3) from the perspective of the influence of the council on the dismantling of the communist system in many Eastern European countries. 1. Dialogue The dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox churches that resulted from the decision put forward in the Decree on Ecumenism (6) began in what some might call a romantic way. I am not speaking of the meeting in Jerusalem of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, (7) or of the mutual lifting of the anathemas in 1965 (an action that was more significant for the Orthodox), (8) or even of the tenth anniversary of the lifting of the anathemas. I am speaking of the work that took place in France long before the council was called. As divine providence would have it, there were a unique group of Catholic scholars and a unique group of Russian Orthodox emigres who arrived in France after 1917. …