Wednesday, April 12, 2023
 The Acta of the Second Vatican Council: Now Freely Available in Their Entirety
Matthew Hazell

It gives me great joy to announce, nearly eight years since I first started this project and three years after the last update, that all sixty-two volumes of the Acta et Docuмenta and Acta Synodalia of the Second Vatican Council have now been digitised! This means that the entire primary docuмentation of Vatican II is now freely accessible to both researchers and the general public, via archive.org.

We currently find ourselves in an era where even the highest authorities in the Church are claiming, for example, that the Council changed our fundamental liturgical theology, that the celebration of Mass versus populum is a sign of the “concrete manifestation of the acceptance of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council”, and even that the current farce that is the “synod on synodality” is “at the heart of the work of renewal the Council was encouraging”. All of this revisionist history would, of course, be very surprising to the Council Fathers, and the Acta makes this abundantly clear. As Archbishop Agostino Marchetto has put it, the Council’s Acta are (or should be) the “secure basis” for its interpretation. Now that this mammoth digitisation project has been finished (Deo gratias!), it is my hope that this neglected body of primary source material will be better utilised by historians, theologians, scholars - indeed, by anyone who is interested in what Vatican II actually said!

I would like to express my deep gratitude to all those people who, over the years, have been very encouraging and generous in their support of this project. Particular mention should go to Rev Fr Damonn Sypher, F.S.S.P. and Mr Roger McCaffrey, who were incredibly helpful during my acquisition of some of the out-of-print volumes of the Acta et Docuмenta, and Mr Fernando Penachin, whose help with scanning AS III.2, III.4 and III.6 has been absolutely invaluable. Many, many thanks!

The Preparatory Period of Vatican II (1960-62)

Acta et Docuмenta Concilio Oecuмenico Vaticano II Apparando.
Series II (Praeparatoria)

Volumen I: Acta Summi Pontificis Ioannis XXIII

This volume contains all the docuмents, letters, speeches, etc. given by Pope John XXIII during the preparatory period of the Second Vatican Council.

Volumen II: Acta Pontificiae Commissionis centralis praeparatoriae Concilii oecuмenici Vaticani II

The four parts of this volume contains the acts of the Central Preparatory Commission, which met over seven sessions from June 1961 to June 1962 in order to discuss and refine the schemata that would be put before the Council at its first session.

• Pars I: Sessio prima: 12-20 Iunii 1961; sessio secunda: 7-17 Novembris 1961
• Pars II: Sessio tertia: 15-23 Ianuarii 1962; sessio quarta: 19-27 Februarii 1962
• Pars III: Sessio quinta: 26 Martii-3 Aprilis 1962; sessio sexta: 3-12 Maii 1962
• Pars IV: Sessio septima: 12-19 Iunii 1962

Volumen III: Acta Commissionum et Secretariatuum praeparatoriorum Concilii oecuмenici Vaticani II

The two parts of this volume contain the final drafts of the schemata from the ten Preparatory Commissions and two Secretariats.

• Pars I: Commissiones: Theologica, De episcopis et dioceseon regimine, De disciplina cleri et populi christiani, De religiosis, De disciplina sacramentorum
• Pars II: Commissiones: De sacra liturgia, De studiis et seminariis, De Ecclesiis orientalibus, De missionibus, De apostolatu laicorum. Secretariatus: De scriptis prelo edendis et de spectaculis moderandis, ad christianorum unitatem fovendam

Volumen IV: Acta Subcommissionum Commissionis centralis praeparatoriae Concilii oecuмenici Vaticani II

The three parts of this volume (part 3 in two tomes) contain the acts of the various subcommissions of the Central Preparatory Commission that also examined the draft schemata before the Council started.

• Pars I: Subcommissio de normis condendis
• Pars II: Subcommissio de materiis mixtis
• Pars III-1: Subcommissio de schematibus emendandis. Sessiones I-VII, 22 Ianuarii-11 Maii 1962
• Pars III-2: Subcommissio de schematibus emendandis. Sessiones VIII-XIV, 15 Iunii-20 Iulii 1962

The Second Vatican Council (1962-65)

Acta Synodalia Sacrosancti Concilii Oecuмenici Vaticani II

Volumen I: Periodus prima

The four parts of volume I cover the first session of the Council (October 11 - December 8, 1962).

• Pars I: Sessio publica I. Congregationes Generales I-IX
• Pars II: Congregationes Generales X-XVIII
• Pars III: Congregationes generales XIX-XXX
• Pars IV: Congregationes generales XXXI-XXXVI

Volumen II: Periodus secunda
The six parts of volume II cover the second session of the Council (September 29 - December 4, 1963).

• Pars I: Sessio publica II. Congregationes generales XXXVII-XXXIX
• Pars II: Congregationes generales XL-XLIX
• Pars III: Congregationes generales L-LVIII
• Pars IV: Congregationes generales LIX-LXIV
• Pars V: Congregationes generales LXV-LXXIII
• Pars VI: Congregationes generales LXXIV-LXXIX. Sessio publica III

Volumen III: Periodus tertia
The eight parts of volume III cover the third session of the Council (September 14 - November 21, 1964).

• Pars I: Sessio publica IV. Congregationes generales LXXX-LXXXII
• Pars II: Congregationes generales LXXXIII-LXXXIX
• Pars III: Congregationes generales XC-XCV
• Pars IV: Congregationes generales XCVI-CII
• Pars V: Congregationes generales CIII-CXI
• Pars VI: Congregationes generales CXII-CXVIII
• Pars VII: Congregationes generales CXIX-CXXII
• Pars VIII: Congregationes generales CXXIII-CXXVII. Sessio publica V

Volumen IV: Periodus quarta
The seven parts of volume IV cover the fourth and final session of the Council (September 14 - December 8, 1965).

• Pars I: Sessio publica VI. Congregationes generales CXXVIII-CXXXII
• Pars II: Congregationes generales CXXXIII-CXXXVII
• Pars III: Congregationes generales CXXXVIII-CXLV
• Pars IV: Congregationes generales CXLVI-CL
• Pars V: Congregationes generales CLI-CLV. Sessio publica VII
• Pars VI: Congregationes generales CLVI-CLXIV. Sessio publica VIII
• Pars VII: Congregationes generales CLXV-CLXVIII

Volumen V: Processus verbales
The three parts of volume V contain the docuмentation relating to the Central Coordinating Commission of the Council in its various forms.

• Pars I: Consilium praesidentiae (1962). Secretariatus de Conc. negotiis extra ordinem (1962). Commissio de Conc. laboribus coordinandis (Sessiones I-VII: 21 ianuarii - 23 octobris 1963)
• Pars II: Commissio de Concilii laboribus coordinandis (Sessiones VIII-XVII: 29 octobris 1963 - 7 octobris 1964)
• Pars III: Commissio de Concilii laboribus coordinandis (Sessiones XVIII-XXIII: 15 octobris 1964 - 1 decembris 1965). Moderatores (30 octobris 1963 - 26 octobris 1965)

Volumen VI: Acta Secretariae generalis
The four parts of this volume contain the docuмentation relating to the General Secretary of the Council, Archbishop Pericle Felici, covering the four sessions of the Council (with some of part 4 also going up to 1967).

• Pars I: Periodus prima : MCMLXII
• Pars II: Periodus secunda : MCMLXIII
• Pars III: Periodus tertia : MCMLXIV
• Pars IV: Periodus quarta : MCMLXV

Indices
This volume, keyed into Volumes I-IV, contains various indices, the major one being the index of names of bishops and prelates at the Council.

Appendices

Although published as part of the Acta Synodalia, the two parts of the appendix also partly cover the antepreparatory and preparatory periods. The first part mainly contains extra material and docuмentation found in the archives after the publication of the Acta. The second part is mostly extra indices, to be used in conjunction with the relevant volumes of the Acta.

• Appendix: Prima
• Appendix: Altera