The Spirit of Vatican II

January 10, 2011
With the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) approaching, debates are flaring over just what happened at what was a signature event of the 20th century for both the Catholic Church and the world. The current debate is a struggle to define the meaning of the past and thus chart the church's course in the future. But McDannell (Heaven: A History) shifts the spotlight from Rome to America, covering the impact of the council and its reforms there in deeply researched but lively social history that uses the affecting story of her own mother as the narrative thread. McDannell sketches the state of American Catholicism on the eve of the council, during those fateful three years, and then in the turbulent aftermath when Catholics struggled to assimilate the changes. Finally, she looks at what the council has wrought and is buoyed by the transformation. This is indispensable history for today's Catholics—and others—to learn, and McDannell has told the tale well and with a depth and context that places the council in time and space, but also acknowledges a conciliar spirit that blows where it will.

April 15, 2011

A number of books have been written about the various effects of Vatican II on American Catholicism, e.g., Mark S. Massa's The American Catholic Revolution, which focuses on big topics and well-known figures. What sets McDannell's (history & religious studies, Univ. of Utah; Heaven: A History) book apart is her use of her own family history to illustrate the effect of the changes. McDannell specifically focuses on her mother, who, with her family, moved several times as her husband took different jobs, thus experiencing the changes wrought by Vatican II as played out in a number of different parishes, some embracing the changes, some changing only reluctantly. Emphasizing the success of Vatican II, McDannell has a feel for the telling facts and incidents that give life to the story of the genuine upheaval in the church from the perspective from the pew. VERDICT A well-written history of the effects of Vatican II in America both generally and on a particular, representative family, which puts a real face on what could have been an abstract discussion.--Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ

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