In the third part of his series on the The Documents of Vatican II Tom McMahon reflects on the impact the Second Vatican Council had on him, and his priest colleagues at the time of the Council. It created disquiet in the minds of hears of some — a disquiet we're still living with. For others it opened a whole new way of relating to Jesus.

The atmosphere triggered by Vatican Two at the time...

Mairzy Doats (Mares Eat Oats) and "does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy … kidilleat ivy too, wouldn't you…" You serious Catholica readers look up Mairzy Doats on YouTube and try that on for size as Tom takes you back to one of the original psychological doors to new worlds that Tom first encountered...

The setting is Mrs. Rodey's Mission Dolores school cafeteria in 1938 and our pastor, Bishop Thomas A. Connelly, is singing the whole song, much to the amazement of this writer then 10 years old. In psychology we have what is called The Little Professor, my 5-year-old grandson Sebastian is one as he tilts his head and looks at his grandfather after hearing something with which he is not yet familiar — a new doorway of knowledge being opened. As I write on July 7, 2010 I find myself tilting my head and the Little Psychologist in me sees this handsome black-suited cleric, who wears an episcopal bishop's cross and ring, singing this worldly song to a bunch of kids.

In 1938 and today I am aware that the human world can mix with the world of God. I had begun the process of demything the Roman Catholic priesthood. A doorway into life had opened and there will be many more doors that would invite me. In 1938 I really did not know the meaning of "Mairsy Doats", even though I had memorized all the words like any normal kid. I would go from grade school to the 12 years process of learning the sterile myths of priesthood. I would be "forever 14" … outside the real world until I was demythed by John the 23rd and my becoming a family man.

A newspaper clipping from Tom's archive illustrating the style of reporting at the time of Vatican II. Click the image to enlarge it to readable size. Frank Maurovich lives in New York, former editor of Oakland's Catholic paper THE VOICE and thereafter Maryknoll magazine. Frank is a Mitty Man,our spending 12 years together in seminary, a Menlo Man of '54. Together we served as army chaplains ;"Wah" married Betty in Peru, adopting two war orphans. I played basketball against Frank in 1940 and we maintain a close friendship 70 years later. Frank was a great friend of Belgian Cardinal Suenens and had him speak concerning Vatican Two in Ca.

I share with you the feeling of exhilaration as we enjoyed in 1964 reports coming from classmates who were reporters for Catholic newspapers at the Vatican Two sessions. Local newspapers offered insights as the documents were published while two Menlo Men of '54 sent home inside stories of the reforms of the Roman Catholic Church (See example at right).

My Ford stationwagon was weekly jammed during winter months with clerical peers on one day ski trips of 450 miles to and from Squaw Valley. We finally made time out rules, time for breviary and eating without serious talk. I had spent the first seven years of priesthood in pathological assignments, where alcoholism, lack of concern for people, and clerical egotism were a way of clerical life. Basically all I did before 1962 was say Mass, perform sacraments, and take census, with a teen club to liven up a church that was boring and dead. I was very much alone, except for my young priest friends, stationed with problemed older priests wondering how to interest people in the matters of God. I look back now and see myself on the brink of depression and despair. I was beginning to feel trapped in a no win—all lose situation. Vatican Two was my salvation as a human being.

Pope John the 23rd did not attend the first session, offering a clear signal to the gathered bishops that the Council was theirs, not a one pope show. John had summoned bishops from all over the world, those who were rich and those who were poor. John the 23rd saw to it that third world bishops had airline tickets and proper clothing. John had called for the Council only a short two years before the first session in 1962. Conservatives gathered up the left over documents of Vatican One, aka the Pope's Council, wherein Pius the Ninth had himself declared infallible. The powerful top dog pecking order of the Roman hierarchy gathered in Rome for a quick restatement of Episcopal power. They were summarily rebuffed. Little did they realize the weighty theologians, Rahner, Congar, Schillibeeckx, Suenens, Haring, etc., etc., who knew the mind of John the 23rd and had prepared a whole new agenda. The first session lasted a few weeks and the bishops were sent packing, sent home to study and to choose a periti, aka a skilled theologian. This Council would examine theologies, history, and the social role of the church in society. When they returned in 1963 a whole new future was outlined for the Roman institution. We were on our way to being more than "Mass priests". The church had outgrown Trent and there was vivid memory of World Wars One and Two, incubated in the old Holy Roman Empire. A blue print was in place with great skeletal reforms that would ideally reach into the lives of the world's people. The future rebuilding of the work of the Roman Catholic Church was on its transitional way and the laity was invited to partner with the clergy. The process would take time! And there was opposition.

If one reads carefully the 16 documents of Vatican Two one will find only positive statements, encouragements, hopeful possibilities, and reinforcement for living the way of Jesus. Nowhere is there to be found a condemnation, nor an excommunication, no threats nor violence. An old European version of religion literally began to die at Vatican Two. The bishops of Vatican Two, perhaps unwillingly for many, signed the death warrant of a medieval church. Hope pervades all documents, a positive restatement of the mind of the historical Gospel Jesus. Today psychologically it would be called cognitive therapy. The documents are evolutionary blue prints that needed to be fleshed out by humans.

Back home priests were summoned to study sessions; education was underway and the priest would say Mass in the native language, the presider (a new term) facing the people and Mass was becoming a communitarian experience. The presider was to offer a homily, a personal reflections on the Gospel way of life ... the spiritual life of the priest was talked about as crucial to the efficacy of the sacraments, they now seen as living experiences and non-automatic rituals. The laity was called The People of God — we shall address the Document on the LAITY later in this series. We formed priests' senates and parish councils and a newness began to cover the old void [Genesis Ch1, vs1].

The reaction begins to emerge...

Yet out of nowhere, silently and viciously the older clergy began to react. Their power positions were under attack and they did not like the people having a voice. Some said John the 23rd had been captured by the Russians and taken to Moscow for a lobotomy and the devil had taken over the Roman Institution. There was shit aplenty hitting the curial and clerical fans. Quietly six new breed and bright eyed Vatican Two clerics were moved to the southern part of the archdiocese of San Francisco, an area soon to be made a new diocese; we were out of the hair of the old bishop as he fought to retain power. Four of the six would marry by 1980, joining the 27,500 priests who abandoned Rome and celibacy to work in alternate vineyards of the Lord. Now we had the mystery of how deep had the seeds of Vatican Two been sewn? On those trips to Squaw Valley to ski we had discussed possible backlash and opposition to change. We wondered if Vatican Two would take. My mother had given me a bronze plaque "O GOD, YOUR OCEAN IS SO BIG AND MY BOAT SO SMALL".

Dying in 1961, Archbishop John Mitty never knew Vatican Two. Mitty had sanctioned the Spanish Mission Band, six priests dedicated to working with the poor; he also set in motion catechetical instruction for public school children, a program that was carried out by the laity and flourished in the 60's and '70's. The Spanish Mission Band met its doom as Mitty became ill and future bishop Leo Maher did the programs in. Leo's standard of a good priest was one who could make money. On the national scene the so called American pope, Cardinal Francis Spellman, came home early from the Vatican sessions, wanting no part yet demanding his seminarians scab graves as the cemetery union struck. In Rome aged Cardinal Octaviani warned of the future destruction of religion and turned the mind of Paul the 6th to decry contraceptive practices. In 1966 Archbishop Joseph McGucken spoke at Tom McMahon's invitation to 125 families gathered in study concerning the document on Bishops and I wondered if Joe ever read the document or any of the Vatican documents of which 1800 bishops had approved. At the time the theology was prevalent that a legitimate Ecumenical Council was higher authority than a reigning pope; in time John Paul the 2nd would nullify this age old theology and return sole power and authority to the pope of Rome and the Curia. The old church and the new church was on a head-on collision course.

Arguments broke out publicly at clerical meetings. Elder priests saw God as being trashed and the church being made a fool of … meat ok on Friday and Mass attendance off and all due to those renegade priests and their stupid Vatican Two teachings, which the old clergy had never read or understood. People over the years became confused, splitting in their want for the good old days while a gray-haired membership held tightly to the old way. Massive numbers began to leave the institution to seek the way of Jesus. Bishops were unable to comprehend the turmoil. in America the bishops became obsessed with pelvic problems, becoming outspoken experts in the field of human sexuality while their clergy secretly sabotaged morale and reputation.

The post-WW2 generations have no idea how vast and deep are the John the 23rd changes that are now permanent fixtures. They are changes of attitude much more than mere change of liturgical practices. A cleric ordained in 1980 has no idea of the value of Vatican Two and their position has become one of the blind leading the blind. There is no trustworthy leadership in the American Catholic Church. Today an adult convert to Catholicism has no idea of how the SPIRIT changed the face of the Roman Church. Thomas Arthur Connelly is dead and Raymond Hunthausen bravely lead the people in protest of the nuclear train that dangerously crossed the United States, a move that warranted then President Ronald Regan to ask Rome to dismiss the Dutchman — old Roman church uniting with corrupt government to beat down a Jesus' peace movement. There is still opposition to reform, coming from the highest places in the Roman system. Yet Jesus is at work, patiently and calming, one person at a time, preaching the Beatitudes and his Father's way of peaceful renewal.

PS: Mairzy Doats ... and anyone remember "Hutsut rolson on the rivolrol and a brawlit brawlit sewit"? Swedish song of the 1930's that I can still sing (but spell poorly?). The hutsut is a Swedish Town, the brawlit is a boy and girl … hutsut is their dream. The love couple was another doorway of Tom's demythologization. The lyrics and the image of the Swedish boy and girl in love stayed with me, offering curiosity to my imagination. A 1930's depression kid became a dreamer where man and woman could be lovers. The seeds were sewn. The idea of a priest was becoming a square life hole with a round celibate peg.

PPS: (Editor) Tom also sent me an appendix to this post entitled "THE DAY AFTER A CLASSMATE'S FUNERAL — a calliope of thoughts" It's about a classmate John mentioned in previous posts. Tom writes: "was old church in the modern world without even knowing it. What a group, these Menlo Men of '54! We were/are transition people — one foot in the old world and one in the new. Our service to people in Jesus' name has been a glorious ride." I am posting the reflection on the Catholica forum and you will find it at: www.catholica.com.au/forum/index.php?id=52364

Tom McMahon in San Jose. Ca. enjoying my reflections on Vatican Two. 12/07/2010

©2010 Tom McMahon

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