This fall the Catholic Church is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Vatican II. Many churches and institutions in the area are doing lectures, presentations and talks on different aspects of Vatican II, I’m sure many of these will be listed in the Catholic Herald, so keep an eye out for ones you might find interesting. The Salzmann Library will be doing a presentation as well, but more details are to follow in a separate blog entry. This blog is about some of the books we have here for your own edification on Vatican II.
Recently released, Yves Congar’s “My Journal of the Council” is a translated work of his thoughts and actions throughout the entire council. At just under 1000 pages, one can just read straight through it, use it in conjunction with another book, or read sections of it if a person would just be interested in a small part of the council.
Of course, we always have the documents from Vatican II and many works written shortly after Vatican II finished, that are sometimes fun to read to see if what they said happened, is happening or didn’t happen. We have many works on Vatican II and the history of it by Fr. John O’Malley, considered one of the foremost Vatican II historians, including several of his lectures about the council on CD.
Two books out this year that are proving to be very popular are Richard Gaillardetz’s “Keys to the Council: Unlocking the Teaching of Vatican II,” and “Vatican II: 50 Personal Stories,” edited by William Madges and Michael Daley. “Keys to the Council” tries to take a step back and identify the key conciliar passages that help us to appreciate the vision that the council fathers were trying to achieve. As you might guess, “Vatican II” is a collection of short, five-to 10-page essays written by distinguished Catholic and non-Catholic authors on the different aspects of Vatican II – the council itself and what has come after.
These are the tip of the iceberg for information on Vatican II, so come in and learn more as the 50th anniversary draws near.
As always, if you have any ideas and comments for things I could change, please let me know. If you have any books that you have read or have read the books I mention, please leave a comment. We here at Salzmann also want to know what people are reading. Comments are always appreciated – anything I can do to make this better I will strive my best to accomplish.
Here is some basic information about the library:
- Our standard hours are Tuesdays, Thursdays, 12 to 8 p.m.; Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Our address is 3257 S. Lake Dr., St. Francis, WI 53235, right next to Henni Hall, due west of the South Parking Lot.
- The library’s phone number is (414) 747-6479. If you would like to contact me through email, it is mschrauth@sfs.edu.
- There is free Wi-Fi available.
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- The library catalog is available online.
