section_path: Notable views/Interpretation of Vatican II
section_name: Interpretation of Vatican II
paragraph_text: Interpretation of Vatican II
  
  Tagle served from 1995 to 2001 as one of more than 50 members of the editorial board of the five-volume, 2,500-page History of Vatican II. Completed after discussions at 14 international conferences with contributions from over 100 scholars, it is seen as the seminal work on the Second Vatican Council. Its principal editors, Alberto Melloni and Giuseppe Alberigo, are identified with the Bologna School of ecclesiastical history which views the Second Vatican Council as a "rupture" with the past. Tagle's contribution, written in 1999 when he was not yet a bishop, was a 66-page chapter in the fourth volume of the History called "A November Storm: The 'Black Week ' " which covered the final days of the council's third session in 1964, when several actions by Pope Paul VI caused alarm among reform forces.
  
  Tagle's work has been criticized from opposite viewpoints. In 2005, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, a "continuity" advocate, assessed Tagle's chapter as "a rich and even comprehensive study", but called it "unbalanced, journalistic, and lacking objectivity expected of a true historian". Hans Küng, a principal critic of Pope Paul's conservative impact on the council, endorsed Tagle's view that the Roman Curia's influence on the Pope forced the Council documents to make "theological compromises", but said Tagle was unable to develop an explanation or justification for Pope Paul's positions, so that "in the closing section his writing degenerates into sanctimoniousness".
  
  John L. Allen Jr., a Vaticanologist, reported that Cardinal Marc Ouellet (the Holy See 's prefect for the Congregation for Bishops and protégé of Pope Benedict XVI) maintains his "full support" for Tagle. Allen also reported that a Vatican official indicated that he read Tagle's 1999 essay — after media reports highlighted it — and found nothing objectionable. In fact, he was impressed by Tagle's defense of Paul VI in that Tagle wrote that Paul followed a strategy of "listening to all views, especially opposing ones", and was willing to "sacrifice his personal popularity to save the council and its future". This official also said that it is difficult to suggest Tagle is opposed to Pope Benedict's reading of the council since one of the sources Tagle cited was the writings of Joseph Ratzinger. The Vatican news analyst Sandro Magister reported that Tagle's identification with the Bologna School would have hurt his chances of becoming a bishop had the members of the Congregation for Bishops – who considered Tagle's candidacy for archbishop – known of it when considering his appointment.
  
  In a 2012 interview, Tagle maintained that the Council represented no rupture in the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. He added that he does not subscribe to the "rupture theory" that the Catholic Church before 1962 is disconnected from the present church. Tagle's views on Vatican II have influenced his views on Islam and atheism, commenting in 2018 that "Vatican II stressed that we Catholics should respect non-Catholics and their religions. We also respect those who do not believe in God. All people should strive to respect those who differ from their beliefs."
  
  Tagle served from 1995 to 2001 as one of more than 50 members of the editorial board of the five-volume, 2,500-page History of Vatican II. Completed after discussions at 14 international conferences with contributions from over 100 scholars, it is seen as the seminal work on the Second Vatican Council. Its principal editors, Alberto Melloni and Giuseppe Alberigo, are identified with the Bologna School of ecclesiastical history which views the Second Vatican Council as a "rupture" with the past. Tagle's contribution, written in 1999 when he was not yet a bishop, was a 66-page chapter in the fourth volume of the History called "A November Storm: The 'Black Week ' " which covered the final days of the council's third session in 1964, when several actions by Pope Paul VI caused alarm among reform forces.
  
  Tagle's work has been criticized from opposite viewpoints. In 2005, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, a "continuity" advocate, assessed Tagle's chapter as "a rich and even comprehensive study", but called it "unbalanced, journalistic, and lacking objectivity expected of a true historian". Hans Küng, a principal critic of Pope Paul's conservative impact on the council, endorsed Tagle's view that the Roman Curia's influence on the Pope forced the Council documents to make "theological compromises", but said Tagle was unable to develop an explanation or justification for Pope Paul's positions, so that "in the closing section his writing degenerates into sanctimoniousness".
  
  John L. Allen Jr., a Vaticanologist, reported that Cardinal Marc Ouellet (the Holy See 's prefect for the Congregation for Bishops and protégé of Pope Benedict XVI) maintains his "full support" for Tagle. Allen also reported that a Vatican official indicated that he read Tagle's 1999 essay — after media reports highlighted it — and found nothing objectionable. In fact, he was impressed by Tagle's defense of Paul VI in that Tagle wrote that Paul followed a strategy of "listening to all views, especially opposing ones", and was willing to "sacrifice his personal popularity to save the council and its future". This official also said that it is difficult to suggest Tagle is opposed to Pope Benedict's reading of the council since one of the sources Tagle cited was the writings of Joseph Ratzinger. The Vatican news analyst Sandro Magister reported that Tagle's identification with the Bologna School would have hurt his chances of becoming a bishop had the members of the Congregation for Bishops – who considered Tagle's candidacy for archbishop – known of it when considering his appointment.
  
  In a 2012 interview, Tagle maintained that the Council represented no rupture in the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. He added that he does not subscribe to the "rupture theory" that the Catholic Church before 1962 is disconnected from the present church. Tagle's views on Vatican II have influenced his views on Islam and atheism, commenting in 2018 that "Vatican II stressed that we Catholics should respect non-Catholics and their religions. We also respect those who do not believe in God. All people should strive to respect those who differ from their beliefs."