Some Psychological Aspects of Vatican Council II

Abstract

N OW THAT the first session of the Council has ended, we are in a better position to evaluate the psychological effects both of the period of preparation and of the initial meeting of the Council itself. In addition we can see the present Council in the perspective of Church History, particularly from the time of the Reformation. The word, council applied to the Church Councils now or recently taking place at an international level both in the World Council of Churches and the Vatican Council, and the word applied to personal counseling, are both from the same linguistic root. Webster's dictionary says: Council: L. Concilium, group of people; Counsel: L. Concilium, com= together; sel= take, grasp. We could thus say that a Council is a calling together so that a group might take counsel with itself and thus better grasp and understand its own various open and hidden aspects. A large world body like the Church, has many of the same characteristic psychological subtleties that constitute an individual human person. Consequently the Church's taking counsel with itself could thus be seen as a process not totally dissimilar to the way in which an individual person reveals himself in an intimate counseling interview secies. The point of view of this article therefore will be to attempt to draw a psychological parallel between this process of the Roman Catholic Church's taking counsel with itself in the Vatican Council and the way in which an individual person takes counsel with himself in a psychological interview. This consideration of the Church will lead, as in psychological counseling, to an evaluation of past issues and developments as they relate to the present state of the Church and to probable paths of future resolution and fulfillment as they seem implied in the growing awarenesses of the present. One of the evident characteristics in the announced intent of the present Vatican Council was that it be concerned with a renewal and rededication of itself. It was not aimed at the discussion of outside conflicts and difficulties. This focus on internal renewal and self-study also relates it to the counseling process. A person enters into the psychological counseling process of personal examination and probing into the self in order to arrive at more internal harmony and integration. But the result of this, even though not directly intended, can often be better and more effective relationships with others. In the counseling process too, what a person does in the interviews themselves is often affected by what happens outside. So, the very calling of a Council has activated forces within and without the Church which are and will have significant effects on the Church's counseling process. Moreover, comparatively small changes in a person during the process of psychological counseling can cause positive changes in those around him. This in turn can set up a kind of chain reaction that sometimes has sustained and important results long after the counseling process itself is finished. Something of this same thing appears likely to happen as a result of the present Church Council.