With spring only a few weeks away, I’ve been thinking about the Second Vatican Council, which ushered in a new springtime for the Church. So, I went back and took a look at how The Tablet covered the opening of the Council.

“500,000 Witness Procession Opening Council” screamed the banner headline of the Oct. 13, 1962 edition. A smaller headline, “Thousands of Bishops Take Part” introduced a wire service story written by Msgr. James Tucek. He described the hour-long procession through St. Peter’s Square and into St. Peter’s Basilica. He went into great detail as to the shape of the bishops’ miters, the differences in the garments of the Eastern Rite prelates, and finally the appearance of Pope John XXIII, the man who had summoned the Council, who was carried on a portable throne at the end of the line of march.

Inside the world’s most famous church, Mass was celebrated as prayers for the success of the Council’s proceedings were recited.

The conclusion of the news story was almost prophetic: “The Second Vatican Council had now begun. Three years of preparation had come before this day. All the power of Heaven and earth had been summoned to answer a successful outcome of what would follow. What would follow was known only to the mind of God Whose Holy Spirit was already at work.”

Others stories in the edition described how Vatican II was the first Council to be held in the electronic age, noting that not even typewriters or electricity were available for the First Vatican Council in 1869.

An interesting sidebar article detailed the 21 bishops with ties to the Brooklyn Diocese who were attending the Council. Of course, Bishop Bryan McEntegart, the fourth Bishop of Brooklyn, was there. He was accompanied by Auxiliary Bishops John J. Boardman, Charles R. Mulrooney and Joseph P. Denning.

The front page featured two photos of local bishops waving upon departing for the Council from Kennedy International Airport. Bishop Boardman was shown with a Pan Am insignia prominent and Bishop Denning was pictured boarding a TWA jet.

But there were others like Bishop Apollinaris W. Baumgartner, OFM, Vicar Apostolic of Guam, who was a native of College Point in Queens, and Bishop Aloysius Willinger, CSsR, of Monterrey-Fresno, Calif., who had been ordained to the episcopacy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, Brooklyn, in 1929.

Two prelates from the Far East were natives of Brooklyn — Bishop William Kupfer, a Maryknoll missionary who was born in Brooklyn and attended Cathedral College and was the first Bishop of Taichung, Formosa, and Bishop James V. Pardy, another Maryknoller from Brooklyn who was the Bishop of Chang Ju, South Korea.
There was also Bishop John J. Carberry, a Brooklyn priest who was serving at the time as Co-Adjutor Bishop of Lafayette, La.; and Brooklyn native Bishop James E. McManus, a Redemptorist who was Bishop of Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Even then, foreign-born priests who had ministered in the diocese, had returned home as bishops. So, we read the name of Bishop John Shojino Ito of Niigata, Japan, who had served for two summers in St. Clement Pope parish, South Ozone Park.

All these men, with ties to the Brooklyn Diocese, were Fathers of Vatican II.

The secular media of the 1960s knew that advertising in The Tablet would pay off for them. So the issue contained an ad from The Saturday Evening Post. In keeping with the high ecumenical expectations of the times, the Post ad carried a banner which read; “Can Pope John Unite Catholics and Protestants?” Such a line would still get readers today.

There was also a full page ad from The New York Herald Tribune. Most of the page was white space, but there was a single paragraph which simply read, “And when they are gathered, the Holy Spirit shall speak to their minds and there shall be wisdom in their words.” An effective ad! It could also work today.

It’s interesting looking back and seeing how The Tablet chronicled the different events in Church history. The Catholic Press certainly serves as the papers of record when it comes to the life of the Church. As The Tablet approaches our 100th birthday on April 4, 2008, it’s a reminder of the place that the diocesan newspaper had played in the lives of people of faith in the Diocese of Brooklyn.