It was Oct. 11, 1962, and the
bishop of Inchon, Korea, was walking in a procession of more than 2,200
other bishops into St. Peter's Basilica on the opening day of the Second
Vatican Council.
"Every light was on in the basilica because of television," he said.
"Literally, my mouth dropped as I walked in and looked up. Because I was
used to little tiny chapels, small churches in Korea. This was
unbelievable.
"I thought I was at the gate of heaven," said Bishop William J. McNaughton, speaking about his first visit to Rome.
Fifty years later to the day, the U.S.-born bishop was back, one of 15
council fathers -- out of the 70 still alive -- who made it to an
outdoor Mass in St. Peter's Square marking the golden anniversary of
that momentous event.
Bishop McNaughton, 85, attended all four sessions of Vatican II from 1962 to 1965, missing only two days because of illness.
He said the council's "greatest highlight" was the approval of "Lumen
Gentium," the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, "a magnificent
document" that dedicates an entire chapter to the subject of the "people
of God."
That term has sometimes been interpreted as a reference to the laity,
the bishop said, but a reading of the constitution should make it clear
that it refers to everyone in the church, including the pope and the
bishops.
Bishop McNaughton speaks with regret of other instances of ignorance or misunderstanding of the documents of Vatican II.
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, "Sacrosanctum Concilium,"
authorized moving the tabernacle that houses the Eucharist to a separate
devotional chapel, he said, but many pastors simply shunted it off to
the side of the main sanctuary.
"I thought that was a big mistake," the bishop said. "People today do
not have a full understanding of what the tabernacle means, and it's
that Christ is present in the Eucharist in the tabernacle."
The same document called for fewer statues in churches, but some
authorities "just removed all statues and put our Blessed Mother's
statue out in a corridor, or out in the lobby," he said. "It was obvious
they were not reading this document."
"Perfectae Caritatis," the Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the
Religious Life, directed religious women to modify their habits
according to the "circumstances of time and place and to the needs of
the ministry involved."
"It didn't say that the habits would be removed, and I think that was a
big mistake," the bishop said, because the habit is a "sign of
consecration."
To correct and prevent such misunderstandings, the bishop
enthusiastically endorses Pope Benedict's call for Catholics to reread
the council documents as part of their observance of the Year of Faith,
which opened with the Oct. 11 anniversary Mass.
The bishop also agrees with Pope Benedict's teaching, reiterated by the
pope at an audience with the council fathers Oct. 12, that Vatican II
must be understood in continuity with the church's millennial
traditions, not as a radical break with the past.
"There's no rupture in the documents of the Second Vatican Council with
previous councils, the previous teaching of the church," Bishop
McNaughton said.
"Look at the footnotes," he said. "There's constant reference to the
various ecumenical councils of the church ... and also there's a lot of
reference to the fathers of the church. So it is a continuity."
The bishop accordingly rejects arguments that the council was somehow to
blame for the decline in Catholic observance and the rise of secularism
over the subsequent half century, especially in Europe and elsewhere in
the West.
"The council didn't cause this," he said, noting for example that
"Gaudium et Spes," the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern
Word, is explicit in its condemnation of abortion, which the bishop
points to repeatedly as a characteristic evil of today's "pagan world."
Winning back that world for the church is the aim of the new
evangelization, the subject of a three-week world Synod of Bishops that
opened at the Vatican Oct. 7. However unpromising the political
landscape may appear for that project, Bishop McNaughton is ultimately
hopeful.
"It's the grace of God that's going to do it, we're just instruments,"
he said. "It's through prayer and sacrifices, hidden penances, that we
will help to bring many back to the faith."