L’episcopato del Triveneto al Vaticano II

Overview & Synopsis

The volume reconstructs and examines the attitude of the bishops of the Triveneto Ecclesiastical Region (including the civil regions of Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, and Friuli Venezia Giulia) towards the Second Vatican Council. The research focuses on the period from the Council's first announcement to the time of its conclusion (1959-65). It is based on the documentation published in the official records of both the preparatory phase and the various phases of Vatican II. After a brief overview of the Triveneto Ecclesiastical Region and its episcopate at the beginning of John XXIII's pontificate and during the years of Vatican II, the volume offers an examination of the desiderata presented by the Triveneto bishops in view of the Council. This is followed by an analysis of the collective activity of the Triveneto episcopate during the years of Vatican II, within the limits allowed by access to the archives. A systematic analysis of the interventions made by each bishop of the Triveneto during the Council allows us to detect their specific contributions, as well as those elaborated at the level of the regional Bishops' Conference, to the future documents of Vatican II. Overall, the profile of an episcopal body with a predominantly conservative orientation emerges (with some significant exceptions, such as Joseph Gargitter, Andrea Pangrazio, Albino Luciani, especially in reference to certain issues), which, however, over the years assumed a moderate position that contributed to the Italian episcopate's adherence to the documents of Vatican II. At the regional level, the path of the conciliar renewal accomplished matured, above all under the guidance of the Patriarch of Venice, Giovanni Urbani, a reference figure of the new Pope Paul VI, who soon also identified him as the future president of the renewed Italian Bishops' Conference to coordinate the implementation in a balanced way of Vatican II in the Catholic Church in Italy.