“The Church at Vatican showed joy, optimism and was not afraid”

At the age of 32, Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze was the youngest bishop in the world when he participated in the last session of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II).   

On October 11, together with eleven other bishops who had taken part in that historic event, he joined the celebration in St Peter’s Square for the 50^th anniversary of the Council’s opening, and the inauguration of the Year of Faith. 
 
As the youngest of the 69 surviving Vatican II fathers, he greeted Pope Benedict at an audience for bishops on October 12. Some days later I talked with him about his exchange with the pope then, and about his memories of Vatican II.
 
What did the Pope say to you at that audience?
 
He was happy and he said to me: “It must have been an unforgettable experience for you.”   I replied, “Holy Father it is an unforgettable experience!”  
 
What made it an unforgettable experience?
 
I was ordained bishop just two weeks before the last session began.  I was the youngest bishop in the world, and being the youngest and knowing there was so much I did not know, I had no fixed ideas so I was open to what the Council was saying. I listened and I read its documents back and forth. It was inspiring.
 
There, I experienced at first hand the universality of the Church. I knew about this in theory already but to see the bishops from all parts of the world gathered together was something else, something one does not forget.   
 
Then I was struck by the great sentiments of joy and optimism at the Council. “Joy” - the Church then conveyed an image of joy, and of not being afraid of the world. “Optimism” – yes, I use that word even though some have accused “Gaudium et Spes” (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) of being over optimistic.  But my reply would be to ask them: what do you expect the Church to be?  Do you want the Church to be pessimistic about human nature, about cultures, about the calling, the vocation of the human person?  Shouldn’t the Church be optimistic about these?  The Gospel is actually optimistic, it’s Good News. When the angels appeared to the shepherds at Christmas night they announced Good News.  Gloria in excelsis Deo is certainly not pessimistic!  So I believe it’s better for the Church to be more on the side of hope than on the side of no-hope.  
 
That’s what struck me about the Council, together with the whole idea of ‘communion’ which has been emphasized ever since. We are a body communicating in Christ who brought us together, rejoicing in Christ, celebrating the mysteries of Christ, called together by Christ, we are a family.  Indeed the 1994 African synod chose to use the word ‘family’, and ‘family spirit’ to convey all this.  
 
Really, I was inspired by the Council: it projected a Church open to the human person as such, to the world, to other Christians, to other believers. It was truly remarkable. It defined my whole life as a bishop.
 
What has the Council given to Africa?
 
It has encouraged missionary activity. This was already going on but the Council strongly encouraged it, in various documents.
  
Then Vatican II put the spotlight on ‘culture’ and ‘inculturation’. Four years later, Pope Paul VI focused on Africa when he visited Uganda, and on 31 July 1969, when the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) was inaugurated, he told the Bishops of Africa: “You Africans are to be missionaries to yourself”. He encouraged inculturation, and said once you share the same worldwide Catholic faith, you can and you must have an African Christianity. That was really something in 1969!
 
The Council also encouraged work for justice, peace and development.  Now almost every diocese, and certainly every Bishops’ Conference in Africa, has an office for this purpose. It is not a new doctrine, but the emphasis is new in the Church: it tells us we must live our faith also by paying attention to this dimension. Over the past fifty years the Church worldwide has been paying greater attention to this whole area thanks to Vatican II.  
 
The Council’s promotion of dialogue with other religions must have been significant for Africa.
 
Certainly, this is very important for Africa: the meeting of the human person, and therefore inter-religious contacts, collaboration.  I use these words because at times when one says ‘dialogue’ some only think of discussion. In our continent there are three religions: Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion – which is the main religious background. I must say also that the Council’s affirmation of the Bible is also very important for Africa. As you know, Africans love the Bible, and the bishops and priests encourage them to read it.  Then, the Vatican II documents are most supportive of the lay apostolate, and of the apostolate of each person in the Church, and especially the lay faithful. Furthermore, as a consequence of the Council we have Bishops Conferences and SECAM.

So you don’t belong to the group who say Vatican II made a lot of problems for the Church and created confusion?
 
I do not belong to that group!  You see with sixteen documents, if people have their own fixed ideas they are likely to find one or two lines that seem to justify what they say, but if a person doesn’t have fixed ideas and simply reads the documents as they are, the result would be a very happy one.  I think those documents have very much to tell us, even today. 
 
In North America and Europe there has been some polarization over Vatican II and people have not experienced much of the joy, optimism and family spirit you mentioned earlier.
 
Yes, they miss the spirit of Vatican II!  They seem to be people with fixed ideas; they have their agenda pre-decided and don’t give the Council a chance to speak.