Thanks to Dr. Christopher Barlow (see Dr. Christopher Baglow joins Larry Chapp to discuss Yves Congar and Integralism) for this Wojtyla quote:
"At the afternoon meeting, in discussion of the comments on Chapter II [of Gaudium et Spes] as a whole, Mgr Wojtyla made some remarks of an extreme gravity. He said" we are considering only the questions posed by the new world situation supposedly described in Chapter I; but this modern world also provides ANSWERS to these questions. And we must reply to these answers, for they constitute a putting in question of our own response. And yet, we are not taking into consideration either these answers or the questions posed for us by the fact of their existence. The Marxist answer really exists: it is not truly being considered here, although it is shared by two fifths of humanity . . . There it is not presented simply as an academic mode of THOUGHT, but it penetrates and shapes the whole of life in which humankind is called to live and work." [CAPITAL letters in original] (Yves Congar, "My Journal of the Council", 1 May 2012, p 714).
The scene of this quote is highly significant--a meeting of the working committee on Schema 13 [Chapter II of Gaudium et Spes] including Congar and many other prominent resourcement theologions. Bishop Wojtyla and the Polish delegation enter as outsiders, unknowns (Bishop Wojtyla only got approval from the Communist authorities to attend at the "last minute"). As such, this is a bold challenge from Bishop Wojtyla, one that produced a lasting impression on members of the committee (see Congar, "My Journal"). Wojtyla's focus on mission and evangelism, practiced in a place where such efforts could get one tortured and killed, are surely prophetic in the gauzy setting of a Council working group. I believe this boldness comes from his long history, at this point in 1965, of opposing the Communist's propaganda by not directly opposing them but by focusing tightly on the Good News of Jesus Christ. Such a tact required much deliberation and focus, since a misstep could get one into trouble, as welled a discpline of communication.
