• Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Vatican
  • Subscribe
The Texas Catholic
The Texas Catholic

Dallas, Texas

Today is Wednesday, March 29, 2023
  • Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Vatican
  • Subscribe
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Instagram
Home
Remembering Vatican II

Remembering Vatican II: Dallas preparations

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Bishops fill St. Peter’s Basilica as Pope Paul VI presides over a meeting of the Second Vatican Council. CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

By Steve Landregan
Special to The Texas Catholic

As soon as Pope John XXIII announced the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, preparations began. Much of the preparatory work took place at the Vatican with commissions appointed to begin planning the myriad details involved in such an effort. All the advance preparation was not in Rome, as every bishop in the world was asked to submit possible subjects for the Council agenda.

In Dallas, Bishop Thomas K. Gorman convened a group of senior clergy and asked them to suggest subjects they felt should be considered at the Council. The group included Abbott Anselm Nagy, OCist., Msgr. (later Bishop) Thomas Tschoepe, Msgr. (later Bishop) Lawrence DeFalco, Msgr. Vincent Wolf, Msgr. Ernest Langenhorst, Msgr. John Gulcsynski, Msgr. William F. O’Brien and Father Thomas J. Shields, SJ.

Among the group were future bishops of Amarillo and San Angelo, an abbot and the local Jesuit superior. Recommendations from this group tended to be pragmatic and to reflect the pastoral needs of the church as they had experienced it.

Of the nine, five made recommendations for greater use of the vernacular in the Mass and Sacraments; three came from secular priests and two from religious. Five also recommended that Favor of the Faith cases be handled by the local ordinary; all five were secular priests.

Other suggestions made by more than one included:

— Restoration of the permanent diaconate

— Shortening the divine office

— Clarification of the function of the laity

— Modification of the Index of Forbidden Books

— Permission for evening Masses

— Relaxation of the requirements for clerical dress to allow for more comfortable clothing in the hot Texas summers.

Most had a half-dozen suggestions, except for the Jesuit, who had 39. Other suggestions ran the gamut from allowing priests to join the Rotary Club to simplifying the blessing of altar stones. Several had to do with seminaries, including suggestions regarding no clerical garb in minor seminaries, a year’s novitiate for secular priests at the beginning of major seminary, stronger requirements for the study of Scripture and a suggestion that seminarians should be taught about other major modern religions. One suggestion was to have all graduate studies in special fields occur before acceptance into major orders.

A number of suggestions concerned Canon Law, ranging from simplified marriage legislation to revision of the 1918 code. There were 71 suggested topics. It is interesting to note that many of the suggested topics were addressed during the Council or in post-consular documents:

— Most liturgies are now in the vernacular.

— Catechisms and catechetical ministry have been renewed.

— Priests now normally complete graduate degrees before ordination.

— Ecumenical guidelines have been developed.

— The Index of Forbidden Books has been suppressed.

— Holy Week ceremonies have been reformed.

— Evening Masses are permitted.

— The permanent diaconate has been restored.

— The laity have become much more involved at all levels of the church.

The nature of the church became the subject of the Council’s foundational document, The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

Of all of the reforms of the Council, the one that the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy promulgated in 1963 was the first to bring the fruits of the Council to most Catholics.

Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest
Next article Brief Chronology of Second Vatican Ecumenical Council
Previous article Father Timothy Gollob: Catholics, not Musketeers, coined ‘one for all’

Related Posts

Vatican II: Fifty Years Later Remembering Vatican II
Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Vatican II: Fifty Years Later

Diversity of council fathers foreshadowed epochal transition Remembering Vatican II
Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Diversity of council fathers foreshadowed epochal transition

Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity Remembering Vatican II
Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity

Texas Catholic Classics

A look at the five Dallas law enforcement officers who gave their lives while protecting citizens during a mass shooting in downtown Dallas in July 2016.

 

How a child with special needs inspired a high school volleyball team, community and a family who heeded God’s call to protect life.

 

After a young runner collapsed at a Dallas marathon, grace and providence unfolded for those involved in the valiant effort to help her.

   

In the summer of 2016, 50 students and 25 chaperones from Dallas Catholic high schools traveled to Nicaragua for a 10-day mission trip.

 

Early on a November morning, Kenndrick Mendieta bounded from the gym at Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep toward the campus’ athletic fields as clouds lifted on a fresh new day.

 

Subscribe

Get the award-winning Texas Catholic delivered to your door. Use the menu below to subscribe now.


Subscription length




 

Photo Gallery

Click here to find your favorite Texas Catholic photographs.

The Texas Catholic Newspaper

Catholic Diocese of Dallas
Michael Gresham, Editor

3725 Blackburn Street
Dallas, Texas 75219
(214) 379-2800

Our Affiliated Sites

Texas Catholic Youth

Revista Católica

Legal and Other

Contact us

Terms of service

Privacy policy

Site map

Site powered by TexasCatholicMedia

© 2013-2019 The Texas Catholic Publishing Company. All rights reserved.