Yet More Light on Vatican Council II

The section on persons active at the Council lists studies concerning some sixty-three Council Fathers and twelve groups of Council members such as African bishops, Australian bishops, Belgian missionary bishops, and Lateran University alumni (pp. 116-31).5 The most-studied Fathers are Cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens of Mechelen and Bishop Emiel-Jozef De Smedt of Bruges; they each are the subject of ten studies.\n Vischer's reports destined for circulation among the WCC divisions were written in English, but those to the general secretary, Willem Visser't Hooft, on more sensitive matters were written in German.46 For the history of the Council, the archived observers' reports reflect perceptions that combine nearness to the event with involvement yet, because of their status as observers, achieve a critical distance. Valuable is the brief text of Lutheran observer Skydsgaard, who made constructive contributions to Council documents and singled out in early 1966 the ultimate, but often hidden, aim of the Council: to serve the Gospel of Christ's grace.48 Other observers and guests at the Council gave interviews and lectures that soon appeared in books, such as the Congregationalist observer George B. Caird and the Lutheran guest Cullmann.49 Others remained at their typewriters to compose global accounts of the Council based on their observations during the Council, such as the Anglican Bishop of Ripon John Moorman, the Methodist Albert Outler, and the Lutheran Edmund Schlink.50 This is a very selective list, which does not encompass interviews of and articles by the observers on the whole Council that appeared in various periodicals.