"Across the Gulf'' a historical and psychological study of differences of opinion in the reception of the second vatican council (1962-5) in Australia

The reception of the second Vatican Council (1962-5) amongst Roman Catholics in Australia has been a time of change and upheaval in the religious life of this community. This study illuminates the process of reception by exploring both published material on the period since the Council and interview material. The exploration utilizes both historical and psychodynamic perspectiv.es. The context for the study includes the debate amongst historians and others as to whether the Council repositioned the Catholic Church in relation to modernity and whether this repositioning is now in retreat and, more broadly, whether Catholic life since the Council is an instance of what many call the battle with fundamentalism taking place in all the Abrahamic religions-Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The published material examined is made up of autobiographical writing, reminiscences, reflections, opinion pieces, some early historical writing and one work of fiction which together cover the whole time period from the close of the Council in 1965 to the end of 2011. My focus as researcher was on authorial voice as evidenced in style and choice of content. Participants for interview were selected for approach by the researcher according to their known or reputed viewpoints on Australian Catholic life after the Council in such a way that a wide range of opinion on the changes was represented. Reflecting the present leadership structure of the Catholic Church, the sixteen participants were made up of eleven priests, two Religious Sisters and three lay persons, all married women. All except two resided in the Melbourne Archdiocese. Participants were given a plain language statement listing doctrinal and moral issues in dispute within the Catholic community and asked to comment on any of these or on any other issues salient to them from their own perspective. These responses were transcribed and analysed.thematically. The focus of participants also ranged over the whole time period of the study. Issues chosen by them for discussion and evaluative comment were similarly diverse. Both the responses of participants and the published works were also examined using a psychodynamic lens. Some published accounts expressed joy and others horror at the changes that followed Vatican II. Similarly, they also alternate between satisfaction and dissatisfaction at more recent attempts on the part of Catholic authorities to rein in or reverse changes that had taken place. The psychological defence of splitting was manifest amongst both the enthusiasts for the changes and their opponents, though there was wide variation in the strength of this tendency from person to person. There was evidence, stronger in the published sources, that changes in Catholic thought and practice since the Council did, amongst some, disturb psychological ~alencies in the areas of attachment, sexuality and authority. There was strong evidence that the capacity to view the d9ctrine and practice of the Church through a historical lens was critical to the capacity to accept change as development rather than deformation. The study contributes to the literature around cultural change and its difficulties especially in the field of religion where key individual and societal values are expressed.