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What Was It Like to Live Through the Vatican II Period? (+ roundup)

Tradition and Sanity

Those who move in traditional circles in the UK tell me that “everyone has heard of the Bevans.” They are a large and highly musical clan whose members have been singing for decades in liturgies and concerts. Os Justi Press is proud to have just released Joseph Bevan’s book Two Families: A Memoir of English Life During and After the Council. To say it’s an eye-opening read would be a gross understatement. Bevan vividly describes what Catholic life was like before, during, and after the Council: he shows the strengths and weaknesses of the preconciliar routine, the confusion unleashed in the 1960s, the collapse of the liturgy and especially of sacred music “in real time,” as it was unfolding. Two Families is all the more interesting (and useful) in that it takes the form of contrasting the family into which Bevan was born with the family that he himself established later on. His family of origin was largely swept along with the tide of the times, and, as a kind of conscientious objector, Joseph Bevan and his wife decided to pursue the opposite course as they rediscovered tradition and turned their lives upside-down to ensure a proper upbringing for their own large family of ten children. God has blessed them with two priest-sons and a daughter who is a nun. Today at T&S, I share some excerpts, before moving into the usual weekly roundup. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.traditionsanity.com/subscribe