Original scientific paper

Željko Mardešić and the Second Vatican Council

Ante Bekavac

Abstract

Nobody doubts that the Second Vatican Council was a milestone for the Western Church in the 20th century. Not only did it influence its contemporaries but it also became an invitation to further activity in the spirit of its guidelines that were often new and provoking. This included some quite new ways to act. After so much time, the Church embarked on a completely new path to man and the world in which he lived. Željko Mardešić was deeply aware of this, because he himself belonged to the people who in their life and activities tried to keep up with the Council and give effect to its guidelines and spirit in practice. Constantly asking himself, in the changes of time, what really was the spirit of the Council, what was the way to act that corresponded with the dignity of a Christian, he would embark on his own internal search for the spirit of Christianity that the Council outlined. The approach to the difficulties and problems of his time required evangelical and Council awareness in order to participate in a dialogue, in the peaceful solutions to what bothered us. Precisely his remembrance of these important years of the Second Vatican Council would illuminate his path to the knowledge he would carry with him through life. To Mardešić the Council is the path that should and must be taken. Only those who are brave and want to be involved in light of the Gospel will find themselves on the path of the Council whose approach to the modern world and man was completely different that that of all the preceding ones. This is an attempt to reflect Mardešić’s personal, intimate experience of the Council, from his earliest childhood memories to adulthood, soaked with the experience of life. All his involvement was absolutely in keeping with the Council and Gospel. The path of the Church is the path of man, and he was deeply aware of this in his relation to the Church and the Council. His legacy today clearly shows that his writings were in such a spirit of the Council.

Keywords

Christianity; Church; Second Vatican Council; Gospel, face of Christianity; world; worldly weakness and power; modernity; man

Hrčak ID:

74610

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/74610

Publication date:

25.11.2011.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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