Peritus

{{Short description|Invited expert at a church council}} {{italic title}} {{More citations needed|date=March 2016}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=May 2019}} {{canon law}} {{Ratzinger}} '''''Peritus''''' (Latin for "expert"; plural ''periti'') is the title given to Roman Catholic theologians attending an ecumenical council to give advice. At the Second Vatican Council (also known as 'Vatican II'), some ''periti'' accompanied individual bishops or groups of bishops from various countries. Others were formally appointed advisers to the whole Council.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

The ''periti'' of Vatican II,<ref>{{cite news|last=Weiser |first=François |title=Les experts au concile Vatican II : socio-histoire d'un affrontement culturel à l'intérieur du champ religieux catholique|url=http://www.sudoc.fr/203666054 |access-date=3 October 2018}}</ref> although their official status designated them as at the service of the council, were most often at the service of one of the two major currents which were counterposed at the Council: on the one hand, on the side of reforms in the church (in favor of ideas such as acceptance of religious freedom, revision of church–state relations, reassessment of relations with other religions); or, on the other hand, on the side of the 'traditionalists', who generally did not support changes to doctrine or to the ways in which the Church engaged in and with the world. This latter grouping espoused a continuing clash of Catholicism with certain other institutions and more 'modern' ideas and parts of society seen as problematic, as had been seen since at least the Councils of Trent and Vatican I (this was especially true for the experts close to the major grouping of traditionalists for Vatican II, ''Coetus Internationalis Patrum'' (Group of International Fathers)<ref>{{cite news|last=Roy-Lysencourt |first=Philippe |title= Le Coetus internationalis Patrum, un groupe d'opposants au sein du Concile Vatican II|url=http://www.sudoc.fr/159752655 |access-date=3 October 2018}}</ref>).

A leading reform-minded ''peritus'', Fr (later Cardinal) Yves Congar served as a consultant to the council upon the invitation of Pope John XXIII, but was hired as personal and expert theologian (peritus) at the council to Bishop Jean-Julien Weber of Strasbourg. This allowed him to attend all the general sessions and participate in discussions of any Commission to which he was invited.<ref>{{cite news|last=Woodrow |first=Alain |title=Diary of an insider |url=http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/3940 |access-date=4 November 2013 |newspaper=The Tablet |date=26 October 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201102857/http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/3940 |archive-date=February 1, 2013 }}</ref>

Periti from the United States at Vatican II were numerous. Altogether 86 US theologian experts were recognised over the four sessions of the Council.<ref>{{cite news|last=Weiser |first=François |title=The Periti of the United States and the Second Vatican Council: Prosopography of a Group of Theologians|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/article/499680/pdf |access-date=3 October 2018}}</ref>

Charles Comosy, an associate professor of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America (and peritus for Cardinal Timothy Dolan),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://religionnews.com/2026/05/22/why-anthropic-is-helping-unveil-the-popes-new-encyclical-on-ai/|title=Inside the unlikely Vatican-Anthropic relationship that's reshaping the AI ethics debate|first=Jack|last=Jenkins|date=May 22, 2026}}</ref> was one of four scholar respondents in an amicus curieae brief regarding Anthropic PBC v. Department of War in 2026.<ref>https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.465515/gov.uscourts.cand.465515.71.0.pdf</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Catholic ecclesiastical titles Category:Second Vatican Council * Category:Canon law of the Catholic Church