Link to the Finding Aid

Abstract: The Val J. Peter - Vatican Council II Collection contains published and non-published documents associated with Peter's involvement in the Second Vatican Council, including schema from various commissions, as well as information about some of the efforts taken by the Council to reach out to the laity.

Collection Size (number of document cases and boxes):

3 linear feet; 7 boxes

Collection Description (Ex., administrative notes, diary, printed matter):

The Val J. Peter - Vatican II collection consists of the documents he acquired during the preparation for and convening of the Second Vatican Council. Peter's collection includes the public documents from a variety of the commissions, including on ecumenism, the role of the laity, and the Church in the Modern World. His collection also reveals more about what it entailed to stay in Rome during the Council. He kept hotel information, newspapers from Vatican City, and the contact information to reach other participants. Peter also kept programs from various masses he attended, as well as encyclicals and sermons, and even a program from an opera that participants of the Council attended. The National Catholic Welfare Conference convened and received literature on effective broadcasting. Other notes show that the National Catholic Welfare Conference also convened to discuss several schemata, and admitted several new countries to the International Committee. Rev. Val Peter also kept some blank copies of emendation forms: these would have been circulated among participants when discussing various schema and proposed changes.  The collection also contains a bound book that summarizes spoken statements and voting results from the fourth session, constitutions and decrees, papal encyclicals and sermons, digests, and several images from the Council.