Sir, - Arthur McDermott reminds J. N. Tansey (September 10th) that "Vatican II was not a dogmatic council. It was a pastoral council, nothing more". The reminder is misleading on both counts.
Were the intentions of Vatican II not in part dogmatic, how could one explain the fact that one of the central documents of the council (Lumen Gentium) was subtitled by the same council as a "dogmatic constitution"?
The reference to being nothing more than pastoral is curious. It seeks to downgrade the status of the teaching of the council to a "merely" pastoral level, with the possible implication that it is not to be taken all that seriously. This is to misrepresent the sense in which the council wished to be pastoral, as is clear from the introductory note to the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Here the word "pastoral" is given the meaning of relating the church to the world of today from the basis of dogmatic principles.
Contrary to Arthur McDermott's reminder, I believe it would be more accurate to say that Vatican II contained important dogmatic elements. It was a pastoral council, nothing less. - Yours, etc., Rev Raphael Gallagher,
CSsR,
Via Merulana,
Rome.