Wednesday, April 12, 2023

The Acta of the Second Vatican Council: Now Freely Available in Their Entirety

It gives me great joy to announce, nearly eight years since I first started this project and three years after the last update, that all sixty-two volumes of the Acta et Documenta and Acta Synodalia of the Second Vatican Council have now been digitised! This means that the entire primary documentation of Vatican II is now freely accessible to both researchers and the general public, via archive.org.

We currently find ourselves in an era where even the highest authorities in the Church are claiming, for example, that the Council changed our fundamental liturgical theology, that the celebration of Mass versus populum is a sign of the “concrete manifestation of the acceptance of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council”, and even that the current farce that is the “synod on synodality” is “at the heart of the work of renewal the Council was encouraging”. All of this revisionist history would, of course, be very surprising to the Council Fathers, and the Acta makes this abundantly clear. As Archbishop Agostino Marchetto has put it, the Council’s Acta are (or should be) the “secure basis” for its interpretation. Now that this mammoth digitisation project has been finished (Deo gratias!), it is my hope that this neglected body of primary source material will be better utilised by historians, theologians, scholars - indeed, by anyone who is interested in what Vatican II actually said!

I would like to express my deep gratitude to all those people who, over the years, have been very encouraging and generous in their support of this project. Particular mention should go to Rev Fr Damonn Sypher, F.S.S.P. and Mr Roger McCaffrey, who were incredibly helpful during my acquisition of some of the out-of-print volumes of the Acta et Documenta, and Mr Fernando Penachin, whose help with scanning AS III.2, III.4 and III.6 has been absolutely invaluable. Many, many thanks!
Pope John XXIII during the preparation of Vatican II

The Antepreparatory Period of Vatican II (1959-60)

Acta et Documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II Apparando.
Series I (Antepraeparatoria)

Volumen I: Acta Summi Pontificis Ioannis XXIII
This volume contains all the documents, letters, speeches, etc. given by Pope John XXIII in the antepreparatory period of the Second Vatican Council.

Volumen II: Consilia et vota Episcoporum ac Praelatorum
The eight parts of this volume contain the written submissions and replies (vota) to the letter sent to the bishops and prelates of the world asking what they would like to see discussed at the upcoming Council. Parts 1-3 are for Europe, part 4 for Asia, part 5 for Africa, part 6 for North and Central America, part 7 for South America and Oceania, and part 8 for religious congregations.
Appendix voluminis II: Analyticus conspectus consiliorum et votorum quae ab episcopis et praelatis data sunt
The two parts of this appendix to Volume II provide an analytic overview of the vota. They are distilled into 9,348 brief propositions, organised by subject, with each proposition having one or more diocese/religious order cited in the footnotes.
Volumen III: Proposita et monita SS. Congregationum Curiae Romanae
This volume contains the vota of the various congregations of the Roman Curia.

Volumen IV: Studia et vota Universitatum et Facultatum ecclesiasticarum et catholicarum.
The two parts of this volume contains the vota of the various Catholic faculties and universities around the world. Part 1 (in two tomes) deals with the institutions in Rome, and part 2 contains the vota of the institutions outside of Rome.
Indices
The antepreparatory series ends with this index volume, which includes detailed statistics of the responses and response rates for the worldwide Church.
Pope John XXIII signing the apostolic constitution Humanae salutis (25 Dec 1961), solemnly convoking the Second Vatican Council.

The Preparatory Period of Vatican II (1960-62)

Acta et Documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II Apparando.
Series II (Praeparatoria)

Volumen I: Acta Summi Pontificis Ioannis XXIII
This volume contains all the documents, letters, speeches, etc. given by Pope John XXIII during the preparatory period of the Second Vatican Council.

Volumen II: Acta Pontificiae Commissionis centralis praeparatoriae Concilii oecumenici Vaticani II
The four parts of this volume contains the acts of the Central Preparatory Commission, which met over seven sessions from June 1961 to June 1962 in order to discuss and refine the schemata that would be put before the Council at its first session.
Volumen III: Acta Commissionum et Secretariatuum praeparatoriorum Concilii oecumenici Vaticani II
The two parts of this volume contain the final drafts of the schemata from the ten Preparatory Commissions and two Secretariats.
Volumen IV: Acta Subcommissionum Commissionis centralis praeparatoriae Concilii oecumenici Vaticani II
The three parts of this volume (part 3 in two tomes) contain the acts of the various subcommissions of the Central Preparatory Commission that also examined the draft schemata before the Council started.
The bishops and prelates of the world at the Council

The Second Vatican Council (1962-65)

Acta Synodalia Sacrosancti Concilii Oecumenici Vaticani II

Volumen I: Periodus prima
The four parts of volume I cover the first session of the Council (October 11 - December 8, 1962).
Volumen II: Periodus secunda
The six parts of volume II cover the second session of the Council (September 29 - December 4, 1963).
Volumen III: Periodus tertia
The eight parts of volume III cover the third session of the Council (September 14 - November 21, 1964).
Volumen IV: Periodus quarta
The seven parts of volume IV cover the fourth and final session of the Council (September 14 - December 8, 1965).
Volumen V: Processus verbales
The three parts of volume V contain the documentation relating to the Central Coordinating Commission of the Council in its various forms.
Volumen VI: Acta Secretariae generalis
The four parts of this volume contain the documentation relating to the General Secretary of the Council, Archbishop Pericle Felici, covering the four sessions of the Council (with some of part 4 also going up to 1967).
Indices
This volume, keyed into Volumes I-IV, contains various indices, the major one being the index of names of bishops and prelates at the Council.

Appendices
Although published as part of the Acta Synodalia, the two parts of the appendix also partly cover the antepreparatory and preparatory periods. The first part mainly contains extra material and documentation found in the archives after the publication of the Acta. The second part is mostly extra indices, to be used in conjunction with the relevant volumes of the Acta.

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