Centre for the Study of the Second Vatican Council
History and Purposes of the Centre
As a result of a meeting february 20, 1970, the Centre for the Study of the Second Vatican Council was founded by two Leuven theology professors, Maurits Sabbe (1924-2004) and Jan Grootaers. This Centre, ever since, has a twofold purpose:
First, the Centre wishes to stimulate and advance systematic, hermeneutical, historical, and theological research with respect to the preparation, the history, and the implementation of the Second Vatican Council.
Second, the Centre aims both at an ongoing acquisition of archival material germane to the Council, and at the publication of works of reference and instruments of research.
During its four decades of existence, the Centre has managed to acquire a significant number of important conciliar archives, e.g. that of Msgr. Gerard Philips, joint secretary to the Conciliar Doctrinal Commission, that of Edward Schillebeeckx, and that of Bishop Emiel-Jozef De Smedt, member of the Secretariat for Christian Unity. It is noteworthy that our Centre holds the archives of various congolese missionary bishops present at the Council. Besides documenting the history of the Second Vatican Council, these papers (esp. the correspondence) reflect the political and ecclesiastical turbulence of the Congo in the 1960’s.
These years have also given the Centre the opportunity to build up close contacts and cooperation with other international institutes devoted to conciliar research. In 1988, the Istituto per le Scienze Religiose (Bologna), then led by Giuseppe Alberigo, initiated a project to publish an extensive History of the Second Vatican Council. Evidently, this large-scale project, which has resulted in the publication of five volumes regarding the Council’s history, has the full support of the Leuven Centre.
These publications were preceeded by seven international colloquia, the acts of which have been published in our Leuven book series Instrumenta Theologica and in the Louvain BETL-series
The Centre has recently co-published the Council Agendas of Msgr. Johannes Willebrands, secretary to the Secretariat for Christian Unity, and an edition of the Council Diary of the late Prof. Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009). Other than that, its activities have entailed the digitizing of a series of audio interviews with council Protagonists now freely available on its Archive Web Pages. Last but not least, the Centre is involved in the preparation of the critical editions of the Council Diaries of Greek Catholic Metropolitan Maxim Hermaniuk, in close cooperation with scholars from the Centre for Ecumenical Studies, the Vatican II Studies Centre at Laval University led by Gilles Routhier, and the University of Toronto.
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