In several notable respects the Second Vatican Council marked a departure from its predecessors: in sheer quantity of documents produced, in the language in which those came to expression – scriptural and patristic rather than scholastic, in the style the council adopted – avoiding condemnation in favour of exhortation. And not least in the council itself being a media event, indeed arguably ‘the largest media event of the 20th century organized by a public institution’ (p. 4). While an exact number is difficult to establish, it has been calculated that, during the four years of the council, over 2,500 accreditations were issued to journalists covering its proceedings (pp. 136–7). In that coverage the bishops and their deliberations became front-page news.

In its various forms the media not only communicated what was going on in Rome but provided narratives that shaped perceptions of the council, among the public at large and also among the council Fathers themselves. The significance of the media in relation to the council is indicated in remarks by Pope Benedict xvi who, in a 2013 address to the priests of Rome, distinguished between ‘the Council of the media’ and the ‘real Council’ (p. 4).

Díaz-Dorronsoro frames this study in two parts, the first, on the management of conciliar information, focusing mainly on process and the second, primarily on information challenges of the council, retrieving and amplifying substantive issues that surfaced in part i. An initial chapter sets out historical, ecclesiastical and communicative contexts intended to foster understanding of the complexity of the task of reporting on the council. Changes in the media after Second World War, coupled with a lack of understanding of a new form of journalism by Vatican authorities, created conditions for a cultural clash between a journalistic ethos which demanded transparency and openness from the Church and an institutional concern that sought to preserve a necessary discretion and space for debates on many delicate issues – each legitimate in its own right. The three remaining chapters of part i treat, respectively, the conception, creation and evolution of the press office, responsible for various forms of dissemination of information on conciliar proceedings; followed by the work that office carried on during the council; and the work carried out by the council’s press committee, created at the end of the first period of the council. These chapters show a Vatican which initially failed to appreciate the amount of interest that the council would generate, but which evolved over time with attempts to meet that interest, to the point that by the third and fourth sessions major issues surrounding journalistic access had been resolved.

The second part devotes three chapters to, first, the intense debate on conciliar secrecy that took place prior to the council and intensified during its first session, and was resolved with the election of Paul vi to the papacy; then on to other problems that followed upon conciliar secrecy, as journalists relied on leaks, rumours and at times false news to add substance and interest to their stories; and a final chapter on the aforementioned ‘Council of the media’ that achieved prominence especially during the third and fourth sessions. This study is rounded out by three appendices that provide data on journalists and media accredited to the council’s press office.

Díaz-Dorronsoro’s meticulously researched and extensively documented study provides an in-depth understanding of both how the media approached the council and how the Church approached the media. The mainly descriptive chapters of part i (chs ii, iii and iv) provide a basis for appreciating how the various constituencies – Vatican authorities, council Fathers, theological experts, journalists and the audiences addressed by media – faced and met challenges as those evolved over the course of the preparatory phase and the four sessions of Vatican II (chs v, vi and vii).

The chapters of part ii may well be of greater interest for the reader. By the second session journalists were not only reporting on the council, but reporting to the council, in the sense that their stories in some cases enabled council Fathers themselves to better understand the conciliar proceedings or were even designed to influence those proceedings. With regard to reporting on the council, one form assumed by the conflict of cultures was that of an early clash of operative ecclesiologies. From a journalistic perspective, the council would only fulfill its purpose of reforming the Church if it allowed the laity to be widely informed about it and received reportage on their ideas as presented to the media. The Vatican point of view countered with a hierarchical distinction between a ‘teaching Church’ and a ‘listening Church’ – with the laity firmly on the side of the latter – and with the press subject to the direction and guidance of the clergy (pp. 226, 234–6). Another source of tension surfaced in the journalistic propensity to seek out the ‘dog bites man’ aspect of the conciliar narrative, that is, to privilege change over continuity. More broadly, there was a marked tendency to frame the council in politicised terms, as a power struggle between two factions, one vying for the Church of the future and the other clinging to an already receding Church of the past. This is the ‘council of the media’ critiqued by Benedict xvi.

One of the points of interest of this study is its contrasting reporting on the council as events unfolded with the perspective afforded by time. The so-called ‘black week’ that occurred during the third session is a case in point (pp. 349–50).

Potential interest in this book ranges beyond those who would wish to be better informed regarding the particularities of the Vatican’s handling of the media and the media’s initiatives and responses to that. The influence of the media on the council, the means adopted, prominent personalities involved, controversies that surfaced – all contribute to a greater understanding of how the council itself has come to be understood.