Beyond Secrecy: The Untold Story of Canada and the Second Vatican Council

A.J. Pell is rector of Christ Church in Hope, B.C., editor of the
Canadian Evangelical Review, and an instructor of Liturgy, Anglican
Studies Programme at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C.

Bernard Daly worked for the Roman Catholic Church in Canada for 33
years, first as a journalist, then as a communications officer for the
Canadian Catholic Bishops Information Service, then as editor of The
Catholic Register, and finally as assistant general secretary for the
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Yet it was the four years that
he spent as the only Canadian journalist for English media at Vatican II
(1962–65) that had the greatest impact on his life.

In Beyond Secrecy, Daly returns to those years to provide a public
record of the work and effect of the Canadian bishops at the Second
Vatican Council. While there are still things that are not yet public
(e.g., Bishop Hermaniuk’s personal notes have not yet been translated
from Ukrainian), Daly has done extensive research into the personal
papers of Canadian bishops, conducted interviews with participants who
are still alive, and drawn on his own notes and articles from Vatican
II. All of this was necessary because the Council (both its general
sessions and its committee meetings) was held in secrecy (and in
Latin!), with only bare summaries made available daily to the press.

The picture of the Canadian bishops that emerges is of an active,
effective, and generally “progressive” group, most of whom had
adopted as their own Pope John XXIII’s vision of a renewed, reformed,
and relevant church. In Daly’s account we discover that Cardinal
Léger was even more active in the workings of the Council than was
perceived at the time, that Archbishop Roy had built up a high-quality
team of experts to advise him, and that Bishop Busnak fought to the end
of the Council for a direct condemnation of communism in the Council
declaration on the church in the world. Daly provides extensive reports
of all Council speeches by Canadian bishops, along with diary notes
showing relationships among the bishops. This book may not be an
exciting read, but it is thorough and frank, and in it Daly has provided
a valuable service for Canadian Catholics.