2026 Catholic Media Association First Place Award, History
A renewed approach to the critical study of the event and documents of Vatican II, necessary for responding to the challenges facing today’s church.
Packed with new insights from some of today’s most highly regarded voices on the Second Vatican Council, The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis enacts the living tradition of the church by proposing a richer history to be told sixty years from its celebration, and a broader theology to inspire our work today.
Vatican II did not anticipate our contemporary challenges, nor do its documents provide specific guidelines or step-by-step instructions for addressing them. But that does not make the council irrelevant. As a touchstone of the church’s magisterial tradition, the Second Vatican Council remains foundational for the life and mission of the Catholic Church today. However, like any monument of the tradition, the council requires ongoing investigation, critical analysis, and constant reconsideration from a diversity of contemporary perspectives if it is going to contribute to the living tradition of the church.
Through historical and theological lenses, the contributors aim to rediscover forgotten voices and overlooked moments of Vatican II that may have something even more important to say today. Each chapter promises to surprise, enlighten, inspire, and teach in fresh and unexpected ways. The contributors offer readers striking insights on the council’s teaching related to the sexual abuse crisis, antiracism, politics, the Synod on Synodality, and much more. By reexamining the teaching of Vatican II from the perspective of our present ecclesial crisis, readers will have a better understanding of how its legacy and limits affect the ongoing reform of the church in a much-changed theological, ecclesial, and social landscape.
Contributors:
Matteo Caponi
Catherine E. Clifford
Kristin M. Colberg
Agnès Desmazières
Massimo Faggioli
Theresa Gardner
Edward P. Hahnenberg
Timothy Hanchin
Tuan A. Hoang
Mary Kate Holman
Jaisy A. Joseph
Florian Klug
William Kuncken
Josephine Laffin
Martin Madar
Evgeniia Muzychenko
William I. Orbih
Bernard G. Prusak
Daniel A. Rober
Table of Contents:
Contents
Introduction: Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in Our Present Ecclesial Crisis ix
Catherine E. Clifford, Kristin M. Colberg, Massimo Faggioli, Edward P. Hahnenberg
Part One: Hermeneutics of the Council in an Age of Crisis
Chapter 1: A Further Reception of Vatican II: Interim Report from the Synod on Synodality 3
Catherine E. Clifford
Chapter 2. The “Spirit of Vatican II” and the Legacy of the Council Today 21
Martin Madar
Chapter 3. Integralism and the Reception(s) of Dignitatis Humanae 37
Daniel A. Rober
Chapter 4. Lumen Gentium and Doctrinal Ambivalence: Abel and the Interpretative Task of Filling the Gaps 53
Florian Klug
Chapter 5. A Unity Beyond the Human? Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Ecological Crisis 73
William G. Kuncken
Part Two: Contemporary Crises and the Limits of Vatican II
Sexual Abuse
Chapter 6. Vatican II’s Silence on Child Sex Abuse: Challenges and Limits of a “Pastoral” Agenda 93
Agnès Desmazières
Chapter 7. The Limits and Legacy of Vatican II’s Teaching on Priesthood: The Bishops’ Responses to Clerical Sexual Abuse in Australia 109
Josephine Laffin
Chapter 8. Jointly Committed: Examining the Sexual Abuse Scandal as a Case of Institutional Vice in Post-Vatican II Catholicism 129
Bernard G. Prusak
Sexism
Chapter 9. Glorified and Liberated? Toward a Feminist Ecclesiology of Vatican II 147
Mary Kate Holman
Chapter 10. The “Synodal Process” and the North American Reception of Vatican II on Women in the Church 163
Theresa Gardner
Racism and Colonialism
Chapter 11. Disrupting the Idolatry of Blood: Catholic Antiracism as a Necessary Expression of the Council’s Renewed Soteriology 181
Jaisy A. Joseph
Chapter 12. Conciliar, Postconciliar, and Postcolonial: Vatican II, Paul VI, and the Church in South Vietnam 201
Tuan Hoang
Chapter 13. Vatican II and Caste in Postcolonial India: Brahminization of the Catholic Church or Catholicization of Brahminical Power? 219
Evgeniia Muzychenko
Chapter 14. Vatican II and the African Catholic Church: A Decolonial Critique 235
William I. Orbih
Chapter 15. Becoming Antiracist: Post-Vatican II Catholicism and the “Sin of Racism” 253
Matteo Caponi
Part Three: Ecclesial Responses
Chapter 16. Discerning Disciples: Lay Agency Sixty Years After Vatican II 275
Edward P. Hahnenberg
Chapter 17. Catholic Higher Education at Our Lord’s Tomb: Toward a Pedagogy of Holy Saturday in Our Age of Contempt 295
Timothy Hanchin
About the Authors 313
Index of Names 317
About the Author :
Catherine E. Clifford is professor of systematic and historical theology at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada. She is presently vice president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and serves as a North American delegate to the XVI General Assembly of the Synod on Synodality. Among her recent publications are The Oxford Handbook on Vatican II (2023), co-edited with Massimo Faggioli, and Vatican II at 60: Re-Energizing the Renewal (Orbis, 2024).
Kristin M. Colberg is associate professor of theology at Saint John's University and School of Theology and the College of Saint Benedict, and the sole U.S. member to serve on the theological commission for the Synod on Synodality. She received her doctorate at the University of Notre Dame in systematic theology. She is the co-author with Jos Moons, SJ, of The Future of Synodality: How We Move Forward from Here (Liturgical Press, 2025), author of Vatican I and Vatican II: Councils in the Living Tradition (Liturgical Press, 2016), and the co-editor of Speaking Truth in Love, a festschrift in honor of Cardinal Walter Kasper (Liturgical Press, 2014). Colberg also serves as a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC).
Massimo Faggioli is professor of historical and contemporary ecclesiology at the Loyola Institute at Trinity College Dublin and the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, and a contributing editor for Commonweal. He is an internationally-established scholar in the area of Vatican II and the papacy especially, and a renowned public commentator on church affairs. Among his books with Liturgical Press are The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis (2025); True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium (2012); Pope John XXIII: The Medicine of Mercy (2014); and Sorting Out Catholicism: A Brief History of the New Ecclesial Movements (2014).
Edward P. Hahnenberg is the Breen Chair in Catholic Theology at John Carroll University. He is the author or co-editor of seven books—including Theodore Hesburgh, CSC: Bridge Builder (2020); Theology for Ministry: An Introduction for Lay Ministers (2014) published by Liturgical Press. He is a past delegate to the U.S. Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue and former theological consultant to the U.S. Bishops’ Subcommittee on Lay Ministry.
Review :
"This welcome collection aims to bridge the distance between Vatican II and the diverse contexts in which the council unfolded and continues to be received. The essays engage critically with the council as part of the church’s living tradition, which contributes to pastoral, ethical, and ecclesiological questions while also being notably, even disastrously, silent on issues the church continues to face today. The volume insightfully highlights the need to learn from Vatican II’s contributions as well as its lacunae in the hope of responding more actively to concerns such as racism, colonialism, sexual abuse, and misogyny in the church and world today."
Amanda C. Osheim, PhD, Professor of Practical Theology, Loras College
"Vatican II didn’t quite join all the dots of its teaching; nor could it have anticipated the crises and new perspectives that have emerged during its reception. But it did give its receivers some direction on how to do so, especially by reading the signs of the times. This book acknowledges that, like every general council of the church, Vatican II’s interpretation and adaptation in new contexts requires honest attention to its shortcomings and postconciliar challenges, by attending to the overall vision of the council. This book presents an important advance in Vatican II research."
Rev. Dr. Ormond Rush, Associate Professor, Australian Catholic University
"A significant fresh contribution to the vast literature on Vatican II, shaped by four distinguished scholars deeply committed to the historiography and ecclesial reception of the council. Its freshness is in going beyond such concerns to ask after the lacunae in the council’s focus, narration, and implementation, and what it means to bring its trajectories into conversation with the crises, concerns, and possibilities of today’s Catholic church in diverse global contexts. Its significance lies not just in the stimulating set of studies it gathers together but in the direction and character of the conversation it opens."
Paul D. Murray, Professor of Systematic Theology, Durham University
“The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis is a fresh and balanced assessment of the impact of the Second Vatican Council, thoughtfully examining both its achievements and its limitations while incorporating diverse global perspectives, and offering nuanced insight into the Council's reception and ongoing relevance for addressing contemporary challenges within the Church.”
Catholic Media Association
