LibGuides: Vatican II: Accounts

Contemporary Accounts

There are a number of works published at the time of the Council which record the Council’s day-to-day activities, and provide some analysis of these activities. These works often serve as a vernacular language index to the official Latin-language record in the Acta synodalia (listed above).

Letters from Vatican City: Vatican Council II (First Session): Background and Debates.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .R9

By Xavier Rynne.
New York: Farrar, Straus, 1963.
Based on articles originally written by Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy for the monthly magazine New Yorker. The most famous example of this type of literature about the Council.
The Second Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 29 to December 4, 1963.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .R92

By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1964.
Based on articles originally written by Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy for the monthly magazine New Yorker. The most famous example of this type of literature about the Council.
The Third Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 14 to November 21, 1964.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .R93

By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965.
Based on articles originally written by Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy for the monthly magazine New Yorker. The most famous example of this type of literature about the Council.
The Fourth Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 14 to December 8, 1965.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .R88

By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966.
Based on articles originally written by Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy for the monthly magazine New Yorker. The most famous example of this type of literature about the Council.
Council Daybook.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .N3, Vols. 1-3 (Oversized Books) & Cardinal Wright Collection

Washington, DC: National Catholic Welfare Conference, 1965-1966. 3 volumes.
Based on the press releases of the predecessor body to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Includes English translations of some speeches.
Vatican II.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .W4, Vols. 2-4 - Library Use Only (Cardinal Wright Collection, University Archives, 1st floor)

By Antoine Wenger. Paris: Centurion, 1963-1965. 3 volumes.
Written by a French Augustinian priest. The first volume has been translated into English
Le Concile au Jour le Jour, Deuxième Session.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .C749X

By Yves Congar. Paris : Cerf, 1963-1966. 4 volumes.
Congar was a member of the Preparatory Commission, and a peritus (official theological advisor) at the Council. The first two volumes have been translated into English
L’Enjeu du Concile.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .L36, PT. 2 - Library Use Only (Cardinal Wright Collection, University Archives, 1st floor)

By René Laurentin. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1962-1966. 4 volumes.
Laurentin was a peritus at the Council.
Il Concilio Vaticano II: Cronache del Concilio Vaticano II.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .C628 Vols. 1-4 - Library Use Only (Cardinal Wright Collection, University Archives, 1st floor)

Edited by Giovanni Caprile.
Rome: Edizioni La Civilta Cattolica, 1966. 5 volumes.
Based on reports originally written for the Italian Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica.
Vatican Diary: A Protestant Observes… Vatican Council II.
Call Number: BX830 1962 .H6 1965, Vols. 1-4

By Douglas Horton.
Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1964-1966. 4 volumes.
Horton was a leading minister of the [American] United Church of Christ and one of the official Protestant observers at the Council.

St. Peter's Basilica. Photo by Bob Tubbs. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons

New CRRA Box

Click the button above to visit the Atla/CRRA website, home now of the Catholic Portal, the online catalog of rare, unique, and uncommon scholarly Catholic materials in the library collections of the member institutions of the Atla/CRRA program. An ever-growing number of the items listed may contain links to the full text!

An independent organization from its founding in 2008 until 2023, the Atla/CRRA program webpage will also connect you to the Catholic News Archive, and to the program's growing collection of LibGuides to assist users in locating scholarly research materials.

Atla/CRRA Program