Conclusion
Conclusion
The Catholic Revolution began on October 13, 1962. After the free vote for the Members of the Commissions, the Council Fathers began to realize that they could overcome the entrenched power of the Roman Curia and that they could change the Church in certain important areas like liturgy, ecumenism, the interpretation of scripture, attitudes towards Jews, and religious freedom. With the realization that they had the power to remake the Church, the bishops were swept by ecstasy, effervescence, and an extended moment of collective behavior. They challenged not the authority of the Pope but the power of the Roman Curia because they did not intend to intrude into fundamental doctrines of God, Jesus, Trinity, Eucharist, and life after death. They also did not make any judgments about matters such as birth control, divorce, or masturbation and said nothing of marriage of priests or ordination of women. Yet in fact they did destabilize many of the structures of nineteenth-century Catholicism. In the three decades since the Revolution, the conflict has continued between the leadership which orders, and lower clergy and the laity, which do not in general accept the right of the leadership to give orders on certain issues.
Keywords: Catholic Revolution, Council Fathers, Roman Curia, nineteenth-century Catholicism, lower clergy, the laity
California Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.