The reception of II Vatican Council is one of the most important ecclesial processes occurring in the Catholic Church since the second half of the 1960’s. Factographic analysis of the process allows one to distinguish – in the history of the Church in Poland – three phases of reception of Vaticanum II. These are: 1) the early phase (1966-1978) with two clear stages: 1966-1972 and 1972-1978; 2) the mature phase (1978-1989); 3) the late phase (1989-1999). Conditions connected with the functioning of the Church in totalitarian state had a considerable influence on the reception of the Council in Poland, its specificity, dynamism as well as the actual possibilities of applying the teaching in the life of church communities. The present article presents respectively the political and systemic conditions; legal and canonic conditions; religious and social conditions. Special commissions headed by the Council Commission, set up by the Episcopal Conference of Poland, should be viewed as the institutional tools of the reception of the Vatican Council. To depict the process of the reception of Vaticanum II in Poland – in the first stage of the early phase (1966-1972) – a few characteristic areas of the post-council renewal have been chosen. A visible sign of introducing post-council changes was the renewal of the liturgy and biblical studies (a new edition of liturgical books in Polish was initiated and a new critical translation of the Holy Scripture published – the Millenium Bible). The renewal of collegiality and synodality consisted in drafting and putting into effect the Statute of the Episcopal Conference of Poland (1969); strengthening and deepening the pastoral character of the institution of diocesan and provincial synods; reinstating Presbyteral Councils. Much was done to give the ecumenical movement new reviving impulses. Preparations were made to conduct a modern renewal of church structures (project drafted by Archbishop Bolesław Kominek and his co-workers in 1967). Final accomplishment came partly through the resolutions of the bull of Paul VI Episcoporum Poloniae Coetus from 1972. Vatican Council II also brought considerable changes in the perception of the role of the laity in the Church. There was a revolutionary change of the paradigm of participation of laity in the life of the Church (from presence to involvement). In Poland it was followed through on the example of two formationally different Catholic movements (the precursory milieu of ZNAK and – the originated by Rev. Franciszek Blachnicki (...)
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.