What Happened at Vatican II

change and the majority who favored it as desirable and necessary...O'Malley's emphasis on the importance of style is arguably his greatest contribution to understanding what happened at Vatican II...O'Malley's book is a helpful remedy for preserving Catholic memory. It rehearses not only what happened at Vatican II for a growing number of readers unfamiliar with the debates and documents but, more important, it gives them a way to think about what happened. -- Hilmar M. Pabel The Tablet 20081018 Volumes have been written on the council, but O'Malley offers a fresh perspective by setting it in the historical context of earlier councils and by attending to the language of the documents as well as the personalities and politics of the participants...It should appeal to a wide readership, populated as it is by colorful characters and offering an original approach to the study of the council and an authoritative guide through its proceedings and documents. O'Malley conveys a vivid sense of why Vatican II remains a beacon for some and a burden for others in the ongoing conflict between conservatives and liberals--words that, as O'Malley makes clear, are inadequate to describe the complexity of the positions they describe, and the visions invested in them. -- Tina Beattie Times Higher Education Supplement 20081106 The highest accolade that the late John Tracy Ellis could pay a historian was to say that he had written a "rich" book. There is little doubt that he would have been ready to pronounce that judgment on this book because of O'Malley's thorough research, lucid presentation, balanced judgments, shrewd insights and elegant style. If you want to know what happened at Vatican II, begin with O'Malley. -- Thomas J. Shelley America 20081103 Based on my experience of the same events, O'Malley does a truly superior job of reporting the crucial details and capturing the moods and passions of that time. Secondly, he has the advantage of many testimonies not known to us back then. These, too, he handles deftly...O'Malley's book is a splendid introduction to a story of longed-for change, its good consequences and its sometimes depressing, unintended ones. -- Michael Novak Washington Post Book World 20081005 [An] acutely observed history of the Council, now the go-to work on "what happened at Vatican II." [O'Malley] is particularly illuminating when he gives the background and context to the debates (often very heated) that gave birth to its decrees. The narrative might be Whig, but the history is fair--and rivetingly told. -- Edward T. Oakes, S. J. Wall Street Journal 20081225 Father O'Malley has written one of the best and most needed books about [the Second Vatican Council]...[A] superb history...How the bishops took charge of the agenda and radically reshaped the outcome is a story of bold confrontations, clashing personalities and behind-the-scenes maneuvers, all recounted in colorful detail by Father O'Malley. A majority of bishops seemed primed for change, yet the path to final agreement was strewn with obstacles, whether from the stalwarts of the status quo or papal interventions. This is a tale with plenty of cliffhangers. -- Peter S. Steinfels New York Times 20081220 In this single volume, O'Malley has filled the need for a readable account that meets three goals: providing the essential storyline from Pope John's announcement on January 25, 1959, to the council's conclusion on December 8, 1965; setting the issues that emerged into their historical and theological contexts; and thereby providing "some keys for grasping what the council hoped to accomplish."... O'Malley analyzes Pope John's motives and goals, and masterfully lays out the contexts and important issues of the council...O'Malley's book enables one to re-experience the event of Vatican II and to ask whether its initiatives will ever be fully implemented. -- Bernard P. Prusak Commonweal 20090227 [A] lucid, coherent assessment of the Second Vatican Council. -- T. M. Izbicki Choice 20090201