A New Reformation 1963–1978

Despite the warning signs, there was a general sense of well-being in the English Catholic Church in the decade before the Second Vatican Council. Catholics felt that they had become an accepted part of the English religious landscape; the bishops were looking forward to continued quiet expansion and there were some tentative moves towards ecumenism through the medium of the Secretariat for Christian Unity established by Cardinal Heenan in 1962. The English Hierarchy went to Rome in 1963 expecting to complete the work of the First Vatican Council that had ended abruptly in 1870 and never formally concluded. They were unprepared for the changes brought about by the Council in its spirit of aggiornamento, and the impression has been given, perhaps erroneously, that the Hierarchy felt many of the changes were unnecessary, particularly in England. Liturgical changes for example, were introduced conscientiously, but with little enthusiasm, pastoral guidance or explanation, and so failed adequately to address the hopes and fears of the Catholic in the pew. In this, the diocese of Middlesbrough responded in a similar manner to the rest of the English Church.

This was partly the result of episcopal change in the diocese. In 1967, in accordance with new canons, the elderly Bishop Brunner tendered his resignation and was succeeded by a diocesan priest, John Gerard McClean. Having no experience of the Council, the new bishop was in the unenviable position of learning and leading at the same time as his priests and people, many of whom were either struggling to understand why changes were happening or frustrated because the changes were too slow and hopes that had been raised, perhaps unintentionally, in some people's minds for a new sort of Catholic Church that gave the laity an equal collaborative form of ministry, appeared to have been dashed. This was possibly due to a widespread misunderstanding of the nature of the Council in England generally, for its documents were never intended to be implemented within a short period of time. They were more of a blueprint for the Church in the modern world – an agenda for change that would take place over years rather than months – and were about change in attitudes rather than change in doctrine.