LibGuides: Vatican II: Accounts

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St. Peter's Basilica. Photo by Bob Tubbs. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons

Contemporary Accounts

There are a number of works published at the time of the Council which record the Council’s day-to-day activities, and provide some analysis of these activities. These works often serve as a vernacular language index to the official Latin-language record in the Acta synodalia (listed above).

All the texts on this page are standard sources and it is likely that most libraries supporting Catholic Studies will own one or more of them. Check you local library catalog for availability.

Letters from Vatican City: Vatican Council II (First Session): Background and Debates.
By Xavier Rynne.
New York: Farrar, Straus, 1963.
Based on articles originally written by Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy for the monthly magazine New Yorker. The most famous example of this type of literature about the Council.
The Second Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 29 to December 4, 1963.
By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1964.
Based on articles originally written by Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy for the monthly magazine New Yorker. The most famous example of this type of literature about the Council.
The Third Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 14 to November 21, 1964.
By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965.
Based on articles originally written by Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy for the monthly magazine New Yorker. The most famous example of this type of literature about the Council.
The Fourth Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 14 to December 8, 1965.
By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966.
Based on articles originally written by Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy for the monthly magazine New Yorker. The most famous example of this type of literature about the Council.
Council Daybook.
Washington, DC: National Catholic Welfare Conference, 1965-1966. 3 volumes.
Based on the press releases of the predecessor body to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Includes English translations of some speeches.
Vatican II.
By Antoine Wenger. Paris: Centurion, 1963-1965. 3 volumes.
Written by a French Augustinian priest. The first volume has been translated into English
Le Concile au Jour le Jour.
By Yves Congar. Paris : Cerf, 1963-1966. 4 volumes.
Congar was a member of the Preparatory Commission, and a peritus (official theological advisor) at the Council. The first two volumes have been translated into English
L’Enjeu du Concile.
By René Laurentin. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1962-1966. 4 volumes.
Laurentin was a peritus at the Council.
Il Concilio Vaticano II: Cronache del Concilio Vaticano II.
Edited by Giovanni Caprile.
Rome: Edizioni La Civilta Cattolica, 1966. 5 volumes.
Based on reports originally written for the Italian Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica.
Tagebuch des Konzils.
By Luitpold A. Dorn.
Nürnberg: Johann Michael Sailer, 1964-1966. 3 volumes.
Vatican Diary: A Protestant Observes … Vatican Council II.
By Douglas Horton.
Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1964-1966. 4 volumes.
Horton was a leading minister of the [American] United Church of Christ and one of the official Protestant observers at the Council.
Mit evangelischen Augen: Beobachtungen eines Lutheraners auf dem Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil.
By Max Lackmann.
Graz, Austria: Styria, 1963-1966. 5 volumes.
Lackmann was a Lutheran minister from Germany who acted as a news reporter at the Council.

Vatican II: Accounts

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Contemporary Accounts