Nearly 3 years ago, in January 2023, I published my periti project. It contained 479 council periti, 49 private periti, and over 700 references.
Since then, I have added over 40 references, updated 27 periti, and discovered 3 new periti!
As a reminder, all links to the periti project can be found here: https://sharonkabel.com/periti-of-vatican-ii/
3 new periti
I found, or was made aware of, three private periti.
- Erwin, James. James Matthew Erwin, OP (1915-2000) was an American peritus who assisted Bishop Edward Fitzgerald of Winona, Minnesota (a seat currently held by Bishop Robert Barron).
- Luykx, Boniface. Archimandrite Boniface Luykx, Norbertine (1914-2004) was a Belgian peritus. He was a highly active and prominent peritus, making it all the more stressful for me that I completely missed him until now. In 2025, Angelico Press published Luykx’s memoirs, A Wider View of Vatican II: Memories and Analysis of a Council Consultor.
- Orsy, Ladislas. Ladislas Orsy, SJ (1921-2025) was a Hungarian-American peritus whose resume is simply too long to even summarize.
27 updated periti
A number of readers sent in references, filling in key biographical or contextual information for 27 periti.
- Berto, Victor Alain
- di Biagio, Agostino
- Bonet y Muixi, Emmanuel
- Brown, Raymond E.
- Cremin, Patrick
- Daly, John
- Diekmann, Godfrey
- Dietz, Donald
- Driscoll, Alex
- Erwin, James
- Frison, Basil
- Gagnon, Edouard
- Hamell, Patrick
- Kerrigan, Alexander
- de Koninck, Charles
- Labaucher, James
- Labourdette, Michel
- Martin, Francis
- McCormick, John
- McManus, Frederick
- Ramirez Dulanto, Santiago
- de Riedmatten, Henri
- Ryan, Arthur
- Skrzypczak, Otto
- Stirnimann, Heinrich
- Sullivan, John R.
- Walsh, Maurice B.
All of these periti and their references can be browsed (by date added, if you wish) in the Zotero library. I’ll highlight just a few updates, showcasing the thrilling variety of sources that make up this project:
- Frison, Basil: Deborah E. Kanter recently published Pioneers of Latino ministry: Claretians and the evolving world of Catholic America (New York University Press, 2025), a work which includes Frison.
- Walsh, Maurice B.: added his archival papers, making him the 13th peritus for whom I’ve found an archival finding aid.
- Stirnimann, Heinrich: added his dictionary entry from Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS)
- Ramirez Dulanto, Santiago and Cremin, Patrick: added personal recollections from two people who met these periti
- de Koninck, Charles: added a whole website dedicated to his life and work
- di Biagio, Agostino: added a journal article that, while not focused solely on di Biagio, included a short biography of him in footnote 61
- Cummins, John S.: added an obituary. Bishop Cummins, the last living council peritus, died in 2024.
The Irish periti
I had a number of periti whom I had designated as ‘mystery’ periti: I knew they existed, and they had a connection to the Council, but I could not find any other concrete information about them. Usually, it was because their names were too generic to search effectively, such as Arthur Ryan.
The most substantial and data-altering submission I received was from Father Bernard Healy of Ireland. He was kind enough to send me a stack of newspaper clippings on the Irish periti. I added over a dozen references from Fr. Healy’s research, and was able to add a significant amount of biographical information to the Irish periti. I was able to clarify that mystery periti Arthur Ryan and Patrick Hamell were in fact Irish, increasing the known Irish periti from 8 to 10! In the before and after screenshots below, you can see a number of seemingly small data points filled in – data points that make all the difference when disambiguating and identifying people’s names.
With more biographical information, I can rerun my searches and find more interesting research – sometimes even photos of the peritus! I might not have ever found these photos, because of the wording of the article, or – most commonly – the article not mentioning the word “peritus” or “expert”.
