THOROUGH is the

keynote of the Council preparations
By Fr. Herbert Keldany
IT is now pretty clear that the second Vatican Council will open in Rome in the autumn of next year. No doubt the Pope will make a formal statement in due course, perhaps during the next meeting of the main preparatory committee in October.
Everything confirms the wisdom of those who said that three years would be essential for a thorough preparation. As the months have rolled by one thing emerges most clearly, the great thoroughness that is being given to the preliminary work.
Not many less than a thousand bishops and priests are working on the various preliminary cornmissions, some have been busy in Rome through the summer months others concerned with Christian Unity have just held a special meeting in Germany.
INDIRECT PARTICIPATION
TWO other important matters have gradyally come to be clarified with the passage of time. One is the parlicipaltiono our separated Christ
ian brethren, and the other that or the laity.
Both are bound to be indirect in a gathering of the whole Cathlie hierarchy, but each has now been shown to be so important as to lead to special arrangements which may outlast the Council. And in the process the true nature of the Church has become very clearly understood.
Many people thought at first that the Council would be mainly concerned with Unity, but it has gradually been recognised on all sides that the time is not ripe for such a council. Not only are minds not made up, but to prepare agendas would take much longer than three years.
However we now have the secretariat for Unity, which is likely to continue its excellent work and
even accelerate it after the Council, and we have our own secretariat in Britain from which much is expected.
On the other matter, it is clear that the laity have been consulted and in certain circumstances made valuable contributions. The pastoral concern of the bishops will not allow them to forget the needs of their flocks while they are in Rome. and steps have already been taken to ensure that decisiens immediately affecting them will be transmitted by alerting the next world congress of the Lay Apostolate to sleet soon afterwards.
APPRECIATING OUR BISHOPS
ANOTHER valuable gain the preparations have already produced is a better understanding of the role of the bishop and therefore of the structure of the Church,
Too seldom do we stop to think what is meant by saying that the bishops are the successors of the Apostles. the chief pastors of the Church. the vicars of Christ on earth. Of course we know that they ordain priests and so help to provide its with the sacramente. They confirm us and provide dispensations for marriage or other impediments, but it is fair to say that we seldom think of them in relation to the Church as a whole.
This is just what the council has made us do.
UNDERSTANDING GOD'S PLAN
AN interesting point made recently in an article in La France Catholique which pointed out how the approach of the Council has underlined the true relationship of the laity to their bishops. So far from
neglecting the interest of their flocks. many have made great efforts to gather the state t.lf opinion among their people on all questions relevant to the Council.
On the other hand the huts iiistead or thinking about their relation, or lack of relation, with their own bishop have come to a new understanding of the role of bishops in the Church. Whether in the past. today or tomorrow they are not only the successors of the Apostles through whom flows the life of the Church and the sacraments are transmitted. but each one in his way is the Vicar. or chief delegate, of Christ in his part of the world.
Something of the mystery and wonder of the Provisional plan for our salvation is now understood as never before, and thus will undoubtedly have important results in the Council's work.
ONE LAYMAN'S RECORD
TTHESE various clarifications are the result of a genuine and growing interest in the work of the Council. which is found on all sides, This may be illustrated by the record set up by one layman, the dietinguished French journalist M. Jean-Pierre Dubois-Dumee, associated with the papers, Vie Cuthulique Mush* and Informations Catholiques Internarionales. In the space of a few months he has spoken about the Council in a TV programme. published two pamphlets bearing on it, written ten articles in French, English and Spanish, helped to organise a study week-end at which several members of the preparatory commission spoke. helped to produce a special number of his paper entirely given to it, made a gramophone record about it and given forty-two lectures.