The Church and the Council: From October 19, 1963

by John Courtney Murray October 19, 1963

I write this just after the completion of the fourth general congregation in this second session of Vatican Council II. In four days, the conciliar Fathers and the attached experts have listened to 59 speeches by cardinals and bishops. It is already possible to give some idea of what is happening here.

Faith, Vantage Point

Vatican II: Early Appraisal: From March 9, 1963

by Francis X. Murphy, C.Ss.R. March 9, 1963

Any attempt to evaluate all the accomplishments of the Second Vatican Council’s first session would be not only presumptuous but also premature. Some things, however, may be profitably noted.

Faith, Vantage Point

American Catholic Panorama: From April 14, 1962

by John Cogley April 14, 1962

Some day you would like to write a book about Catholicism in America as you have known it. You keep putting it off, and the relentless years keep passing. The book will probably never be written.

Faith, Vantage Point

Theodore Hesburgh on what Cardinal Newman missed about Catholic universities

by Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. March 3, 1962

Let us not chide Cardinal Newman for writing in the middle of the 19th century instead of the middle of the 20th. But also let us not assume that what he had to say then had absolute and unconditioned validity for all such institutions in all times.