Research Guides: Vatican II: Contemporary 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.

Letters from Vatican City: Vatican Council II (First Session): Background and Debates.
By Xavier Rynne.
New York: Farrar, Straus, 1963.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
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 online version is available on the Internet Archive, a trusted source, but one for which it is necessary to create a free account and login.
The Second Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 29 to December 4, 1963.
By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1964.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
Based on articles originally written by Redemptorist priest Francis X. Murphy for the monthly magazine New Yorker.
The online version is available on the Internet Archive, a trusted source, but one for which it is necessary to create a free account and login.
The Third Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 14 to November 21, 1964.
By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
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 online version is available on the Internet Archive, a trusted source, but one for which it is necessary to create a free account and login.
The Fourth Session: The Debates and Decrees of Vatican Council II, September 14 to December 8, 1965.
By Xavier Rynne. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
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 online version is available on the Internet Archive, a trusted source, but one for which it is necessary to create a free account and login.
Council Daybook.
Washington, DC: National Catholic Welfare Conference, 1965-1966. 3 volumes.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
Based on the press releases of the predecessor body to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Includes English translations of some speeches.
The online version is available on the Internet Archive, a trusted source, but one for which it is necessary to create a free account and login:
Session 1 and Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Vatican II.
By Antoine Wenger. Paris: Centurion, 1963-1965. 3 volumes.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
Written by a French Augustinian priest. The first volume has been translated into English and is available online and in print.
The online version is available on the Internet Archive, a trusted source, but one for which it is necessary to create a free account and login:
Session 1 (French)
Session 2 (French)
Session 3 (French)
Session 4 (French)
Le Concile au Jour le Jour.
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 (Report from Rome). See also his personal diary, Mon journal du concile; English translation: My Journal of the Council, available online and in print.
Session 4 (French) is available on the Internet Archive, a trusted source, but one for which it is necessary to create a free account and login.
Vatican II Notebook: A Council Journal, 1962-1963
Marie-Dominique Chenu. Adelaide, South Australia : ATF Theology, 2015.
For print version locations, see the UofT Library Catalogue.
Chenu was a French Dominican friar, who served as theologian to several bishops at the Council.
L’Enjeu du Concile.
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.
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.
Tagebuch des Konzils.
By Wolfgang Seibel, Luitpold A. Dorn, and Georg Denzler. Nürnberg: Johann Michael Sailer, 1964-1966. 3 volumes.
Vatican Diary: A Protestant Observes … Vatican Council II.
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.
Three of the four volumes are available on the Internet Archive, a trusted source, but one for which it is necessary to create a free account and login.
Session 1
Session 2
Session 4
Mit evangelischen Augen: Beobachtungen eines Lutheraners auf dem Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil.
By Max Lackmann. Graz, Austria: Styria, 1963-1966. 5 volumes.
Lackmann was a Lutheran minister from Germany who acted as a news reporter at the Council.