We should not
fail to take this golden opportunity to honor Blessed Pope John XXIII.
I began writing this
piece on Julia Child’s 100th birthday. At least in Boston, home of her TV show, it
has been an occasion for massive celebration.
Local media put Julia’s face on front pages and lead stories, chefs and
food critics published memoirs of their encounters with her, PBS stations ran “French
Chef” marathons while hawking Julia’s books and DVDs. PBS websites offered photographs, recipes,
and more TV episodes.
Boston University’s culinary arts program (founded by Julia and Jacques Pepin) announced special Julia-inspired dinners prepared by celebrity chefs. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf released a new tablet app of Julia recipes, to complement its “JC 100” Facebook page. Many restaurants sponsored Julia Child weeks. At least three new books about Julia appeared.
All this came in the fresh wake of another anniversary taking place. To mark Universal Studios 100th anniversary, Martha’s Vineyard (where “Jaws” was shot, casting the island as “Amity Island”) revived its annual “Jawsfest.”
Like the Julia celebration, “Jaws” festivities filled the local calendar. Martha’s Vineyard hosted seminars with cast,
families, through, and local residents involved in the making of Jaws, a
multimedia tribute to the writer and cast members who have since died, a museum-like
display of private collections of memorabilia from the film, live reenactments
of favorite scenes, a treasure hunt, a movie-themed festival in a public park,
and a big-screen outdoor screening of the movie under the stars. Thousands of tourists flocked to see the movie sites, review the movie itself, and stock up on Jaws T shirts, mugs, and other memorabilia. And when real life sharks appeared off Cape Cod beaches and actually bit one man’s leg, crowds flocked rather than fled to spy the spectacle and swarmed souvenir shops for shark staff.
All of which had me asking myself: If there is this much attention for these anniversaries, what can we expect for the really big anniversary coming in October?
October 11, 2012 is, in fact, two commemorative dates in one. It is the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II in 1962, and it is also--not by accident--the feast day of Angelo Roncalli: Pope John XXIII.
By any objective standard, that makes this October 11 a very big date indeed. Vatican II was arguably the largest deliberative meeting in history, and it reset the course of the world’s largest organization: the Roman Catholic Church. And John XXIII was the man who made it happen--which is why the Church placed his feastday on October 11, rather than follow tradition by using the date of his death.
Because of John’s initiative, 2000 Bishops from five continents gathered during four consecutive autumn sessions (1962, 1963, 1964, 1965) to craft 16 documents shaping the future of Catholicism.
On opening day, October 11, 1962, he compared the gathering to the ancient Pentecost day when Jesus’ disciples, gathered in the upper room, experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that launched them as leaders of the Jesus movement, and he proclaimed his intention to make the Council a “Second Pentecost”--that is, a rebirth of the Church nearly 20 centuries after its original birth.
50 years later, Vatican II’s stands as a watershed event in Catholic history and the most important religious event of the 20th century.
But as with many transformative events in history, Vatican II’s real significance has emerged slowly and with difficulty. Although its reforms were implemented rapidly (perhaps too rapidly) between 1965 in 1975, its long-term legacy is still in limbo. Among rank and file Catholics, clergy, church officials, Bishops, and theologians we still lack consensus answers to the most basic questions about Vatican II.
Why was the Council called? What was its purpose? What did John (and his successor Paul VI) intend? What really happened at the Council? What did its document really mean? What actions did they invoke? What have they achieved? How much of the Council’s renewal was about going “back to the sources,” and how much about “updating” Catholic life? Is Vatican II a success, a failure-- or is it still unfinished? What is the Council’s future?
These questions alone make October’s 50th anniversary a big deal. If we believe that the world’s bishops gathered in council with the pope constitute the surest, most solemn forum for discerning the divine wisdom of the Holy Spirit, than we cannot afford to squander the graces and guidance of Vatican II by letting its memory die. Nor can we accept a permanent feud over its legacy.
So October 11--and the four-year 50th anniversary window that it opens--presents our people and our parishes with a golden opportunity to reflect on and build our solidarity around the Council’s vision and works. Celebrating the Council’s renewal is an opportunity to renew ourselves.
But besides the Council there is the man. For many Catholics, especially younger Catholics, John XXIII’s image and memory are obscured by the shadows of John-Paul II and now Benedict XVI. But the blunt fact is this: the papacies of John-Paul II and Benedict XVI would be impossible, indeed would be unimaginable, if John XXIII had not been pope.
For John XXIII not only led Vatican II--he also transformed the papacy itself.
Angelo Roncalli was elected at 78 to keep the papal throne warm until a younger man was ready to be elected. His electors were correct to assume that his reign would be short (less than five years), but they were wrong to assume he would sit quietly on the throne and not rock the Barque of Peter.
By 1960 the Catholic Church had been in “siege” mode for nearly a century, its guard up to defend itself against a hostile and toxic world lurking outside the fortress of Catholic life. And the pope himself was the “Prisoner of the Vatican,” literally cloistered from the world in self-imposed retreat.
Angelo Roncalli had carved his career in church diplomacy as the perfect “company man,” never making waves and always as reliable and docile as he was affable. He lived by his episcopal motto “Obedience and Peace.” But a hero lurked within, as evidenced by his actions when, as the Vatican’s apostolic delegate to Turkey and Greece during world war II, he engineered the escape of as many as 200,000 Hungarian Jews (mostly children) from Nazi clutches by issuing them baptismal certificates—for which the Holocaust Museum of Israel bestowed upon him the rare honorary title “Righteous Among the Nations” in 2004.
Once elected pope in 1958, John XXIII had no one to obey but himself and his God, and he knew that the future would require more of Catholicism then a besieged, fortress Church and a prisoner pope.
So even before announcing
the Council, he began to break with the status quo. Feeling confined within Vatican City, he
developed the habit of quietly slipping outside its walls at night so he could
wander the streets of Rome. This earned
him an affectionate nickname among the Swiss guards and Vatican personnel who
were privy to his nocturnal strolls.
They called him “Johnnie Walker.”These walks now stand as a metaphor for how John XXIII changed the papacy forever. Through his vision and the Council’s actions, the Church dropped its guard and reached out to the world.
This could not happen, of course, unless the pope himself took the lead. So, even before the Council’s end, Paul VI (John’s successor) became “the Pilgrim Pope,” visiting the Holy Land, the US, and later nine other countries. After him, John Paul II became “pope as globetrotter,” visiting more than 100 countries. And now Benedict XVI, despite his age, has followed suit.
The result: the papacy is now more visible than at any time in history, and by personifying the Catholic Church the papacy has made Catholicism’s public presence felt around the globe.
All this--the historic renewal of Catholicism and the dramatic transformation of the papacy--started with John XXIII.
So now that “Jaws” and Julia Child have been duly honored, what will we Catholics do over the next four years beginning October 11 to honor of the memory, the heroic vision, and the lasting legacy of our own “Johnnie Walker” and his Second Pentecost?
© Bernard F. Swain PhD
2011
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