The Pope reflects on Vatican II

Last Thursday the Pope gave an address to the parish priests and clergy of the Diocese of Rome in which he reflected on Vatican II. This address is now being made available on the always useful Zenit website in installments, but the whole text can be read from the Vatican website here.

This is, it seems to me, a very important speech. Much more than a leave taking of his diocesan clergy it comprises the reflections of a man who has been at the heart of the debates about the choices facing and made by the Council since before it even met fifty years ago. The Pope is clearly a man with a profound historical sense about the Church and that is evident in this address.

It is also important as it is doubtless the last word we shall hear from Pope Benedict on these matters - I am sure his retirement to a life of prayer will be just that, he will not be writing, let alone speaking in public, about the Church or the Council.

The speech is quite lengthy, and I suspect some of my friends may not entirely like some of the views His Holiness expresses about the pre-Conciliar liturgy, but it is, as I said, an important text. It certainly stands in the tradition of the hermeneutic of continuity, and it also recalls the real enthusiasm of the young peritus Joseph Ratzinger for what the Council might achieve. It can also be seen as setting out an agenda for the continuing and future perception of Vatican II.