Replication Data for: Vatican II Vota from the Catholic Church in Africa

This collection offers an English translation of the responses sent to the Vatican by bishops and prelates of the Catholic Church in Africa, requested through a letter dated 18 June 1959 (and a reminder of 21 March 1960) to propose agenda items for the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Penned predominantly by expatriate missionaries in Latin, these responses were dispatched between 1959 and 1960. One finds in them, among other things, the manifold challenges that the Catholic African missions contended with, including the ones connected with the decolonial movements rife in the continent at the time, lack of personnel and funds, contentions with especially Islam and Protestant sects in the battle for souls, as well as the dread for communism and other isms (modernism, materialism, positivism, existentialism, etc.) that these Church leaders wanted the upcoming Council to condemn as modern errors. However, it was the desire for various liturgical reforms and adaptations, notably the permission to use the vernacular in the liturgy, that stood out the most. These responses are documented in the Acta et Documenta Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II Apparando, Series I (Antepraeparatoria), Vol. II, Consilia et Vota Episcoporum ac Praelatorum, Pars V, Africa (Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1960), hereafter referenced as ADA II/V.