Edited by Dom Hugh Somerville Knapman, OSB (Douai Abbey); Foreword by George Cardinal Pell

Separating the occasional high points of the formal sessions of Vatican II were long stretches of procedural tedium and usually ponderous Latin speeches. Some of the anglophone council fathers found fleeting relief in recording their reactions, frustrations and opinions in limerick form. Many of these were collected in a typed manuscript together with their translations into Latin by Bishop Bernard Wall of Brentwood. The English limericks are a whimsical primary source for the history of Vatican II which add a little extra humour, colour and insight to the formal record of the council's proceedings; their contemporary Latin translations remind us that Latin is far from being a dead language. The editor has provided notes that situate the limericks in a clearer context.

Here is a sample: 

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About the Editor: 

Dom Hugh Somerville Knapman is a Benedictine monk and priest of Douai Abbey near Reading, England. He is the author of Ecumenism of Blood: Heavenly Hope for Earthly Communion (Paulist Press, 2018). Currently he is pursuing doctoral studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham.