Gaudium et Spes 22 with Dr. Larry Chapp
On Dec. 8, 1965, the Second Vatican Council concluded after three years of episcopal deliberations and decisions. Ever since, voices have been raised — in both delight and despair — accusing the council documents of representing a “hermeneutic of rupture” with the faith, morals, and practices of the pre-conciliar Church.
On Dec. 8, 1965, the Second Vatican Council concluded after three years of episcopal deliberations and decisions. Ever since, voices have been raised — in both delight and despair — accusing the council documents of representing a “hermeneutic of rupture” with the faith, morals, and practices of the pre-conciliar Church.
An important corrective to this erroneous interpretation of Vatican II has been the international Catholic journal Communio. Founded in the early 1970s by leading Catholic theologians, including Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, and Joseph Ratzinger, Communio articulates a “hermeneutic of continuity,” insisting that the Second Vatican Council can — and must — be interpreted as a coherent development of the Church’s unchanging Tradition rather than as a radical break from the past.
Standing in this venerable line of Catholic thinkers is the American theologian Dr. Larry Chapp, host of the Gaudium et Spes 22 podcast. The title references the Second Vatican Council’s teaching that “The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light.” (GS, 22) It is this Christocentric perspective that informs Dr. Chapp’s interviewing style: faithful, reasonable, intelligent, accessible, and always good-humored. His podcast has been live for the past six years, with over 200 Catholic conversations to choose from in the back catalogue alone. It’s well worth checking out.
