Irish bishops found themselves part of a conservative minority when the Second Vatican Council embarked on a radical overhaul of the Catholic Church between 1962 and 1965. The Irish Church hierarchy generally implemented the resultant changes in a hesitant and unenthusiastic manner. Criticism of their performance was generally muted but the spirit of Vatican II was not entirely without enthusiastic Irish advocates. REALITY, a Redemptorist monthly with a large and mainly young readership, experienced ongoing conflict with clerical censors in the second half of the 1960s. Material in the Archive of the Dublin Catholic Archdiocese show clashes occuring over ecumenism, Vatican II's new conception of the duties of the Catholic lay person and the issue of whether church teaching ought to be enforced by state law. A complicating factor inhibiting repressive action by the Archdiocese was the links forged by this religious magazine with the secular world of Dublin journalism.

1962 年至 1965 年间，当第二届梵蒂冈大公会议开始对天主教会进行彻底改革时，爱尔兰主教发现自己是保守少数派的一部分。爱尔兰教会的等级制度通常以犹豫和不热情的方式实施由此产生的变化。对他们表现的批评通常是无声的，但梵蒂冈二世的精神并非完全没有热情的爱尔兰倡导者。REALITY 是一份拥有大量且主要是年轻读者的救赎主月刊，在 1960 年代后半期与文职审查员发生持续冲突。都柏林天主教大主教管区档案中的材料显示了在普世主义、梵蒂冈二世对天主教平信徒职责的新概念以及教会教学是否应该由州法律强制执行的问题上发生的冲突。