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History
Internal Assessment
Word Counts:2152
To what extent did the social implications of the time impacted the Catholic Church
reformation in the 1960s to the 1970s changing the practice of women dressing veils
mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:4-6?
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Table of Contents
Section A: Evaluation and Identification of Sources ................................................................ 3
Section B: Investigation............................................................................................................. 4
Section C: Reflection................................................................................................................. 8
Works Cited.............................................................................................................................. 10
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Section A: Evaluation and Identification of Sources
This assessment has the objective to answer the question: To what extent did the
social implications of the time impacted the Catholic Church reformation in the 1960s to the
1970s changing the practice of women dressing veils mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:4-6?
Using two different primary sources, document “Declaration on the Question of Admission
of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood Inter insigniores” (Seper), published by the
Congregation For The Doctrine Of Faith, and “journal article Some Social Implications of the
Vatican Council” (Cushman 132-138), coupled with a varied range of other sources. The first
one expressing the point of view of, later argued, insiders of the Catholic Church, present on
the Second Vatican Council, and members of the institution of the Congregation For The
Doctrine Of Faith. The journal, offering a different perspective for the analysis of the same
event, provides an analysis focused on the outside of the event. Both of the sources were
selected as both of them complement each other, at the same time offering different
perspectives of the same fact.
The first source that was designated for evaluation was the document Inter insigniores
(Seper). Originating from the Congregation For The Doctrine Of Faith, the document is an
explanation of various decisions made in the Second Vatican Council. The content of the
document presents insider reasoning for the decisions made by the Catholic Church in the
Second Vatican Council. Its purpose is presenting the view, and rationale, of the discussion
about questions raised on various practices of women inside the Church, being very helpful,
once the document does provide only a small part dedicated to the subject of the question
chosen. Its value and reliability is given by the institution who published it, being the most
important, and also the oldest, of the Catholic Church, to look after heresies, schisms,
practices and moral questions inside of the Church, having everything published and
produced there examined, in some way shape or form, by the pope, and various figures of
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authority inside the Church. However, it’s noteworthy to highlight some serious limitations of
the source, being that it doesn’t present the full discussion, or the full range of motives, that
lead up to the decision in question. As the real reasoning could only be seen in the
discussions that happened during the Second Vatican Council, while in the voting for the
resolution of the matter. The source presents a small explanation that was filtered by the
committee of the institution who wrote the document, which contributes to its limitations.
The secondary source originates from a small part of the Social Studies Conference
Papers on the “New Europe”, in which Robert E. Cushmann, talks about the Second Vatican
Council, a major event that was impacting and promoting changes on the whole European
continent, also contributing to the phenomenon of the “The New Europe” in the 1960s. The
main purpose of this document is to present a different approach on the Second Vatican
Council, as its content goes on to be analyzed not on the particular lines of inquiry of the ones
at the council. But also including societal sentiment that could lead the Church to take a more
“progressivist” approach at the council, and ending with some practices that were seen now
as retrocade. The source acquires major value as the author was living before, and during the
events in question, giving him the opportunity to see the influences that society suffered
before the Council, and how they affected some of the decisions that were made in it. The
limitations appear on the behalf of the article’s writer, who is methodist, and therefore,
believes in the exact opposite of relevant practices presented in the first article, which could
cause the writer to have bias towards the subject being examined.
Section B: Investigation
The first Vatican Council(1869-1870) emerged as a Church natural response to the
emerging theories influencing the society at that time, such as rationalism, liberalism, and
materialism (“First Vatican Council”). The approach the Council adopted when debating
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about these matters were, majorly, reaffirming the Church’s traditional positions, majorly
going against them, and deciding matters such as the papal infallibility, clarifying that the
pope, under certain conditions, can only speak the truth. Stopped by the potential capture of
Rome by the Piedmontese troops, the Council didn’t achieve nearly half of what it was
planned to, leaving many topics to be futurely discussed (“First Vatican Council”). Nearly a
hundred years later in 1962, the Second Vatican Council was opened, once more having the
Church to discuss contemporary matters which were surging, and were radically affecting the
society at the time (“Second Vatican Council). One of the major purposes of the Council was
to “Bring to the Church up to date”, as the latent modernism movements, and the starting
liberal, and progressivist movements, such as feminism, inserted lines of inquiring at society
that were seen as conflicting to the Catholic Church at the time, and thus, a major part of
society was seeing the Church a distant institution who couldn’t relate to the societal
problems, culture, and way of living anymore. Conversely, what was at the First Council a
irrelevant part of the bishops, who were involved at the Council decisions, that adopted a
“progressivist” perspective, the Second Council had a majority of the ones present to want to
engage with the modern world, rather than confronting it.
Despite, a throughout context of why the Second Vatican Council ended up
happening, and how it contrasted greatly opinion wise from the First Council. To understand
the matter of veiling of women at the Church being put up to discussion at the first place, it
still required to understand what societal pressures, and newly flourished stream of thoughts,
impacted on the explanation as to why this issue was even brought up to voting, as to its
permanence as a rule on the Church as a thousand year old practice at the Catholic Church,
and what made it some prominent among the society in general to stand up against this
practice that was not really questioned until 40 years before.
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The societal transformations that were taking place occuring the mid 19th century and
early 20th century, particularly the rise of the feminist, had great impact on how the
discussions on the Second Vatican council were conducted. The first wave of feminism was
greatly influenced by the Abolitionist movement, as groups of women who were organizing
themselves in many places such as their local churches, seeing the Black men and women
fighting for their rights, began to also see themselves in this struggle for constitutional rights
(“Feminism: The First Wave”; “First-Wave”). Starting the first wave of feminism, in which
their focus were things as constitutional rights, such as the right to vote, owning of private
property and filing for divorce (“First-Wave”). This first wave would start to challenge the
traditional views of the Church, particularly on the matter of the divorce.
Once more being influenced by the black movement, the second wave of feminism
this time perceived the Civil Rights movement in a struggle for changing how society saw
them, also reorganizing the hierarchy of which they were inserted (“Second-wave
feminism”). Being strongly influenced by this, the second wave fought against the patriarchy,
and perceived ways that they were repressed. Coupled with the start of the Sexual
Revolution, and things such as the Women’s Liberation movement, now the fight was against
systematic oppressions against them, questioning and redefining cultural, and practical
validity of the established patriarchy, challenging the current gender roles, and rejection of
religious morality (“SECOND WAVE OF FEMINISM”). Which put targets on institutions
who were not directly targeted before, and the Catholic Church was one of them. Placing
topics to debate such as the obligation of veiling for women in the Church, the use of the
contraceptive pill and also the question for the admission of women to the priesthood. These
practices were seen by the feminists as tools of repression that were used against them.
To better understand the Church’s reasoning behind the decision for the requirement
of women veiling being turned to be now optional, it is essential to look further into the first
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source. The Inter Insigniores document, although it does not provide a full explanation about
the issue that is being analyzed in this investigation, it gives us a large context to understand
as to where was the thought of the Church on the issues relating to women. The document
starts reflecting on the role that women started to take on, most present on Christian
countries, and how they are being more present in public life, even going on further to
claiming that the overcoming of discrimination based upon the basic rights of the people,
needs to be put on second place, so the fight against discrimination based on sex can be the
primordial issue, further highlighting how the Council was impacted by the social movements
present at the time cited before. Primarily, the document does some reflections as to how the
role of women has changed throughout the antecedent centuries, until reaching the age of the
council. The fourth part of the document regards the “Permanent Values of the Attitude of
Jesus and the Apostles”. Making the comparison between the Church at that moment, and the
attitude of Jesus and the Apostles, in which they address how the admission of women at the
priesthood was accordingly to their will, and rather not because of the influence of the their
time, making a comparison to the issue of this assessment “But it must be noted that these
ordinances, probably inspired by the customs of the period, concern scarcely more than
disciplinary practices of minor importance, such as the obligation imposed upon women to
wear a veil on their head (1 Cor 11:2-16); such requirements no longer have a normative
value.”
With the lack of a deeper explanation made by the Vatican itself, other sources such as
the journal article “Some Social Implications of the Vatican Council (Robert E. Cushman,
1965)” will be used to further enrich the analysis. The second primary source focuses more
on the social effects that can be seen on the Second Vatican Council, rather than comparing
what social effects the Council brought. The author understood the social pressures that
manifested the Church to “bring-up-to-date”, could be seen as the end of the constantinian
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era, where the Church tie with the state was now over, seeing as only a tool for spiritual
guidance, and the vowel for the religious liberty was made, making the Catholic Church not
the only source of truth. Another document the author cites is the Schema XIII, the most clear
example of the Church trying to put a dialogue with the secular world, where the document
goes through the issue at the time of birth control and its use.
In conclusion, the reforms of the Catholic Church during the 1960s and 1970s, which
decided the change of the veiling practices of women, were majorly rooted in societal
pressures, coupled with the theological reflection of the Church. As feminist movements and
broader social transformations of the time highlighted the gender roles, and called for the end
of systemic oppression, the Church was faced with a pressing requirement for counseling
their traditions with secularization of the modern world. This dynamic tension was brought
from internal theological explanations, as seen in the document presented by the Holy See,
and with external societal analysis, such as Cushman’s exploration. I believe that combining
the Church's internal theological reasoning, with the societal critiques of the time being the
major catalyst for change, offers the most convincing explanation for the shift in this Church
practice.
Section C: Reflection
The investigation conducted allowed me to understand the difficulties and struggles
historians may encounter through their investigation. While exploring the internet in the
pursuit of finding reliable information, which could be also used as sources for the analysis
relating to the Second Vatican Council, as the majority of data found did not contain people
who were alive at the time of the event, present inside the event or only talked about it in a
generic way, not going onto deeper analysis. Highlighting how burdensome it can be for
Historians to find sources of information, especially primary sources, that are well grounded
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and valid, largely when talking about events that were rather closed, private, or did have a
reduced number of witnesses.
An essential part for this investigation was finding sources that were divergent on the
topic, providing an understanding from both insiders and outsiders present at the time of the
event, enriching the analysis with different perspectives. Again facing the issue of finding
sources from insiders, due to the fact that the majority of documents and analysis produced
by insiders belong to the internal documents of the Roman Catholic Church, and are not
public. Only being able to use the official document which the Church used, being almost
impossible to determine how real are the perspectives presented on the real reasoning for the
Church decisions. Making me acknowledge the challenge that historians can face with hidden
bias from authors, or institutions.
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Works Cited
Seper, Franjo. “Declaration on the question of admission of women to the ministerial
priesthood”, Holy See, 15 October 1976,
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_d
oc_19761015_inter-insigniores_en.html.
Accessed 14 March 2025.
Cushman, Robert E. “Some Social Implications of the Vatican Council.” The High School
Journal, vol. 49, no. 3, 1965, pp. 132–38. JSTOR,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40366287.
Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "First Vatican Council". Encyclopedia Britannica, 1
Dec. 2024,
https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Vatican-Council.
Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Second Vatican Council". Encyclopedia
Britannica, 3 Mar. 2025,
https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Vatican-Council.
Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
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“Feminism: The First Wave”. National Women’s History Museum, 5 April 2021,
https://www.womenshistory.org/exhibits/feminism-first-wave-0.
Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
Masterclass. “First-Wave Feminism: Timeline and Criticisms”,Masterclass, 11 October 2022,
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/first-wave-feminism.
Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
“Second-wave feminism”, Khan Academy,
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1960s-america/a/sec
ond-wave-feminism
Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
“SECOND WAVE OF FEMINISM, Gale, 13 Oct. 1970,
https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/womens-studies/collections/second-wave-femi
nism#
Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
