The last living Second Vatican Council Fathers - thousands became five

To this day, the Second Vatican Council continues to shape the Catholic Church. But Bishops who took part in it are fewer and fewer 60 years after it opened - only five Council Fathers are still alive and can tell of the largest assembly of bishops in Church history.

Well over 2,000 Council Fathers deliberated at the Second Vatican Council on the renewal of the Church from tradition and set the course for the future. On the 60th anniversary of the opening of the episcopal assembly, the circle of remaining fathers is only small: six of these men are still alive, after the deaths of Canadian Bishop Laurent Noël in July 2022 and Spanish Archbishop Gabino Díaz Merchán in June 2022 shortly before the anniversary.

The oldest bishop ever

The oldest among them is José de Jesús Sahagún de la Parra, Bishop Emeritus of Ciudad Lázaro Cárdenas in Mexico. He is also the only one to have participated in the Council from the first session: in 1961, at the age of 39, he was appointed Bishop of Tula by Pope John XXIII. Today, Sahagún de la Parra, who was born on New Year's Day 1922, is also the oldest bishop ever.

Prominence from Nigeria

The youngest among the remaining Council Fathers is probably the best known: The Nigerian Cardinal and former Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Francis Arinze, will not turn 90 until November. He was appointed coadjutor bishop of his home diocese of Onitsha in 1965, the last year of the Council, when he was only 32 years old and was thus still able to experience the fourth and last session as a bishop. At the Vatican, he was responsible for one of the achievements of the Second Vatican Council as the longstanding head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Father of the Catacomb Pact

The other Council Fathers in 2022 were all well into their 90s. The Bishop Emeritus of Ivrea in Italy, Luigi Bettazzi, was born in 1923. He is the only European among the survivors, and the only one among them to have signed the Catacomb Pact: in 1965, a group of bishops committed themselves to a simple lifestyle of service to the poor in the Basilica of St Nereus and Achilleus above the Domitilla Catacombs.

Cathcon: Bishop Bettazzi died recently - 2023.  He was the last living Council father from Europe.

Consecrated by the Council Pope

When the future Archbishop of Gwangju, Victorinus Youn Kong-hi, was born in 1924, his birthplace Chinnampo, now part of North Korea, was still part of the Japanese Empire. In 1963, he became the first bishop of Suwon in South Korea, and Pope John XXIII consecrated him personally. He took part in the Council from the second session onwards.

First Bishop of his Diocese

Alphonsus Mathias also became the first bishop of a newly established diocese: in 1963, he was appointed Bishop of Chikmagalur in India and was thus a Council Father from the third session onwards. He later became Archbishop of Bangalore and presided over the Indian Bishops' Conference from 1989 to 1994.

Council Father without Episcopal Ordination

It is little known that not all Council Fathers were also bishops. One of these exceptions is Daniel Alphonse Omer Verstraete. Today he is also a bishop - in 1978 he became the first bishop of Klerksdorp in South Africa. But even before that, he presided over the Apostolic Prefecture of Western Transvaal, from which the Diocese of Klerksdorp emerged. In 1965, Verstraete became its prefect, just in time to attend the fourth and final session.

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Cathcon:  Pope Benedict was an advisor to the Council, not one of the Fathers.  I am not sure how many of the advisors or periti as they were known are still alive.