Vaticanum II en de Afrikaanse strijd voor gerechtigheid (GS 63-72): Een historische studie van de bijdrage van de Afrikaanse bisschoppen aan Gaudium et Spes en de receptie ervan in Afrika (Bisdommen Awka en Yaounde)

The early 1960s saw a heightened attention to world poverty, perceived as a problem militating against socioeconomic development, especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The United Nations' First Development Decade (1960-1970) was one such attempt at combatting the poverty problem. Announced, prepared, and held during this era, the Second Vatican Council addressed this problem, notably proffering international solidarity as a key solution to help tackle it. This project set out with the goal of tracing the historical account of the Council's response to the poverty question, with particular attention to African agency and the contributions of the poverty groups at the Council in shaping that response. Through the study of the antepreparatory (1959-1960), preparatory (1960-1962), conciliar (1962-1965), and immediate postconciliar (1965-1967) phases of the Council, the dissertation presents a chronological and narrative account of how poverty was problematised and treated, as well the postconciliar reception that resulted in the creation of a poverty secretariat under the name Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace in 1967. Data for this dissertation were primarily drawn from archival resources and the three series of the conciliar acts. Structurally, the dissertation comprises a general introduction, five chapters, a general conclusion, and an epilogue. The general introduction inter alia outlines the reality of poverty as a pressing world problem in the period in question, establishing the broader historical and social context for the research. The first chapter focuses on the antepreparatory and preparatory phases. Its main conclusion is that, although some antepreparatory vota and preparatory schemata proposed the poverty problem for inclusion in the Council's agenda, the topic remained largely peripheral during these two preliminary phases. However, shortly before and during the Council, the issue gradually gained prominence, thanks to the speeches and gestures of John XXIII and Paul VI, those of certain concerned Council Fathers, and the pressure mounted by the Church of the Poor group and the conspirators, the two main poverty groups at Vatican II. The Council eventually regarded and dealt with this poverty problem as though it were integral to its aggiornamento project. Chapters two through five respectively trace the evolution of the poverty discourse across each of the Council's four sessions, while the epilogue discusses the follow-up efforts that birthed the aforementioned poverty secretariat.