The Second Vatican Council was a meeting of
the world’s bishops for four sessions between October 11, 1962 and
December 8, 1965.
Pope John XXIII, in his opening speech to the
Council (November 11, 1962), declared its aims to be the following:
|
Second Vatican Council in
session
|
|
- that the Catholic Faith should be kept and taught,
- but taught in the language of modern man by a magisterium “which
is predominantly pastoral in character,”
- and this without resorting to any condemnations,
- thus appealing to all peoples (this Council was to be
ecumenical, not only in the sense of being a general council of the
Church, but also in that of appealing to the religiosity of all people
of whatever religion).
Pope Paul VI agreed with his predecessor:
[Vatican II] was the most important [event]
because... above all it sought to meet pastoral needs and, nourishing the
flame of charity, it has made a great effort to reach not only the
Christians still separated from communion with the Holy See, but also the
whole human family. (Closing Brief, December 8, 1965)
With such ideals, it is little wonder to find
Catholic teaching presented:
- weakly (no definitions or condemnations),
- confusedly (no technical, scholastic terminology),
- and one-sidedly (so as to attract non-Catholics).
All such vague and ambiguous teaching, already
liberal in its method, would be interpreted in its true liberal sense after
the Council. Consider, for example:
|
Conciliar teaching
|
How interpreted by Rome[1]
|
The liturgy of the word is stressed (Sacrosanctum
Concilium, §9),[2] and the banquet aspect (§10), as well as
active participation (§§11,14), and therefore the vernacular
(§§36,54).
|
|
Catholics should pray with Protestants (Unitatis
Redintegratio, §§4,8).
|
|
The Church of Christ subsists in
(not is) the Catholic Church (Lumen Gentium, §8),
|
It is also in “separated Churches”
(Ut Unum Sint, §11).[3]
|
which has separated brethren in separated “Churches”
(Unitatis Redintegratio, §3),
|
All the baptized are in Christ’s Church (Ut
Unum Sint, §42).
|
which ought to be as sisters (Unitatis
Redintegratio, §14).
|
And so there is no need to convert,e.g.,
the Orthodox.[4]
|
Seminarians should take into account modern
philosophy, progress in science (Optatam Totius, §15),
|
Secular university studies and abandoning
Thomism.
|
psychology, and sociology (§20).
|
Open spirituality and
subjective morality.
|
Marriage and married love equated (Gaudium
et Spes, §§48,50).
|
|
The Church renounces privileges civil
authorities grant her (§76).
|
Catholic religion no longer to be the
religion of any States.
|
Wish for a world authority (§82).
|
Full support for UN
|
Rite and formula of penance are to be revised
(Sacrosanctum Concilium §72).
|
Face to face confessions and General
Absolutions.[5]
|
Extreme Unction should be an Anointing of the
Sick (§§73,75).
|
New matter, form and subject (i.e.,the
sick, not just those in danger of death).
|
Table footnotes
1 How Rome's guidelines are further
interpreted as seen in the parishes is a whole other story.
2 The documents of Vatican II are referred to
by their introductory Latin words, or by the initials of these.
3 Ut Unum Sint, Pope John Paul
II, May 25, 1995.
4 Cf., The Joint International
Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church
and the Orthodox Church, which forbade mutual "proselytizing." Balamand,
Lebanon, June 17-24, 1993.
5 Does this affect the "substance
of the sacraments" over which the Church has no
power? (Cf., Pius XII, quoted in principle 5)
|
|
More gravely, the Council was hijacked by the
liberal elements within the Church, who from the very beginning schemed to
have rejected the pre-conciliar preparatory schemas and replaced by
progressive ones prepared by their own “experts.” The liberals were also
able to get their members onto the Council Commissions. The new schemas,
passed as the Council’s decrees, constitutions, and declarations, contain,
more or less explicitly, some of the same doctrinal errors for which
liberals in the past had been condemned. Let us take by way of example the
following passages:
|
Vatican II teaching
|
Catholic teaching
|
"Man is the only creature on earth
that God has wanted for its own sake" (Gaudium et Spes,
§24),
|
"The Lord hath made all things for
Himself" (Prov. 16),
|
and "all things on earth should be
ordained to man" (§12).
|
...to help him save his soul.
|
Moreover, "by His incarnation the Son
of God has in a certain way united Himself with each man" (§22),
|
God assumed an individual nature (e.g., Dz.
114),
|
so "Human nature... has been raised
in us also to a dignity beyond compare" (§22),
|
"...a little less than the angels..."(Ps.
8:6)
|
and because of "sublime dignity of
the human person" (§26),
|
Only he who lives well is worthy (Apoc. 3:4).
|
his "rights and duties are
universal and inviolate" (§26); including:
|
He who buries his talent will be stripped of
it
|
"The Vatican Council declares that
the human person has a right to religious freedom..." (Dignitatis
Humanae, §2),
|
Contrary
condemned statement:
"Liberty of conscience and of worship is the proper right of
every man..." (Pius IX, Quanta Cura)
|
"...all men should be immune from
coercion on the part of ...every human power so that, within due limits,
nobody is forced to act against his convictions nor is anyone to be
restrained from acting in accordance with his convictions..."
(§2),
|
Contrary
condemned statement:
"...the best condition of society is the one in which there is no
acknowledgment by the government of the duty of restraining... offenders
of the Catholic religion, except insofar as the public peace demands" (Pius
IX, Quanta Cura).
|
"This right of the human person to
religious freedom must be given such recognition in the constitutional
order of society as will make it a civil right" (§2),
|
Contrary
condemned statement:
"Liberty of conscience and of worship ... should be proclaimed
and asserted by law in every correctly established society..."
(Pius IX, Quanta Cura)
|
"...the Spirit of Christ has not
refrained from using (separated churches) as means of
salvation" (Unitatis Redintegratio, §3), and so,
|
|
"ecumenical action should be
encouraged so that ... Catholics might cooperate with their separated
brethren ...by a common profession before the nations of faith in God and
in Jesus Christ..." (Ad Gentes, §115).
|
|
Why, even concerning non-Christian
religions: "The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is
good and holy in these religions. She has a high regard for the
manner of life and conduct..." (Nostra Aetate, §2),
|
"All the gods of the Gentiles are
devils." Ps. 95. "... beware lest thou have a
mind to imitate the abominations of those nations" (Dt. 18:9).
|
"Now, episcopal consecration confers,
together with the office of sanctifying, the duty also of teaching and
ruling..." (§21).
|
"This (episcopal) dignity,
in fact, depends immediately on God as to the power of orders, and on the
Apostolic See as to the power of jurisdiction..." (Deesemus
Nos, Pius VI).
|
|
The Council itself both encouraged liberal
trends (and its encouragement became post-conciliar Vatican policy) and
departed from traditional Catholic teaching, but it has no authority for
either (principle 5).
Our position must be:
...we refuse ...to follow the Rome of neo-Modernist and
neo-Protestant tendencies which became clearly manifest during the Second
Vatican Council and, after the Council, in all the reforms which issued
from it. (1974 Declaration of Archbishop
Lefebvre)
And it is neo-Modernist tendencies that the
Council is all about ("...Pope John Paull II makes not Holy
Scripture, but rather Assisi, the shibboleth for the current understanding
of the Council." Pope John Paul II's Theological Journey
to the Prayer Meeting of Religions in Assisi, Part I, p. 46 [appendix 2]).
But wasn't the Council infallible?
- Not by reason of the extraordinary magisterium, for it refused
to define anything. Pope Paul VI himself, in an audience on January
12, 1966, said that it “had avoided proclaiming in an extraordinary
manner dogmas affected by the mark of infallibility.” (cf. the
declaration of the Theological Commission of March 6, 1964, and
repeated by the Council's General Secretary on November 16,
1964: "In view of conciliar practice and the pastoral
purpose of the present Council, this sacred Synod defines matters of
faith or morals as binding on the Church only when the Synod itself
openly declares so." It never did.)
- Nor by reason of the ordinary universal magisterium, because
this is not a defining power, but one of passing on what was always
believed. The “universality” in question is not just one of place (all
bishops) but also of time (always) (cf., Vatican I and principle 6).
- Nor even by reason of the simply authentic magisterium, because
the object of all magisterium is the deposit of faith to be guarded
sacredly and expounded faithfully (Vatican I, Dz 1836),
and not to adopt as Catholic doctrine the “best expressed values of
two centuries of ‘liberal culture,’” even if they are “purified”
(Cardinal Ratzinger, Gesu, November 1984, p. 72; cf. Gaudium
et Spes, §§11, 44).
|
|
More on this topic
|
50-year
assessment of Vatican II
The response given by the Society! I think that everything is summed
up in one word, and that is Archbishop Lefebvre. All that we have,
all that we do, we have received from Archbishop Lefebvre... 1-18-2013
DICI
Is the SSPX
heretical?
A 4-part reply to Archbishop Mueller's recent statement that Vatican II
must be accepted as an integral part of the magisterium or be considered
heretical... 12-19-2012
Can we
commemorate the Council?
Recently an academic was bold enough to compare the celebration of the
50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II on October 11, 1962, with
the secular ceremonies held in 1989 in honor of the 200th anniversary of
the French Revolution... 11-9-2012 DICI
Misplaced
conciliar optimism
50 years after the opening of Vatican II, we are quite far from the
optimism of John XXIII, who declared on October 11, 1962: "It
seems to Us necessary to state our complete disagreement with those
prophets of gloom who always announce catastrophes"... 10-26-2012
The Second
Vatican Council: A History Never Written
This is certainly what many a traditionalist thinks about this major
Church event of the 20th century. The real history of the Council needs
to be written-up right! Well, this in fact is the title of a
non-traditional professor, Roberto de Mattei offering a distinct
viewpoint from what the Bologna school has offered since then...
10-12-2012
Vatican II: a
"stupefying superficiality" of Magisterium
In Vatican II, a Much-Needed Discussion, Msgr. Gherardini
wrote: "With a stupefying superficiality they stretched out over the
previous Magisterium a veil, or a shroud, preventing the observer from
taking his bearings from the past, from the Tradition that is a
constitutive part of the Church and the central pillar of Christianity..." 10-12-2012
DICI
Some notes on
the resolution of the crisis in the Church
Learning from history how the crises of the Church were solved in the
past, the expectation and/or demand of a total reversal of Rome’s present
positions as a pre-condition to our “reunion” appear to be utopian and
illusory.
Some people seem to be expecting the Pope to
fall on his knees, cry out his mea culpa, apologize before
the whole world and retract everything that has been done since Vatican
II... 5-25-2012 DICI
Catholic
Faith or the Triumph of the Will?
Dr. Rao: Nowhere but nowhere does anyone ever find the Church of
Christ - infallible and divinely prudent at one and the same time -
requiring a sweeping wholehearted acceptance of everything doctrinal, and
pastoral (as opposed to dogmatic) that every ecumenical council has
proclaimed... 5-23-2012
Is
recognizing the SSPX questioning the Council?
"The rift between the Holy See and the SSPX arises because the
Society rejects these particular elements of Vatican II [religious
liberty, ecumenism, collegiality], not because of an intention on the
part of the Holy See to defend Vatican II as a whole"… 4-19-2012
“Magisterium or living tradition?”, Fr. Gleize denounces a false dilemma
"Why this confusion? Why reduce the living magisterium to the
magisterium of the present? Because since Vatican II they have been
trying to invent a new magisterium. The magisterium is redefined, because
its task [now] is to express the continuity of a subject and no longer
the continuity of an object..." 2-3-2012 DICI
SSPX answers Roman expert
L’Osservatore Romano of December 2, 2011, published a study
by Msgr. Fernando Ocariz, one of the four experts who represented the
Holy See during the recent doctrinal discussions with the SSPX October
2009-April 2011). The central question of the magisterial value of the
Second Vatican Council is addressed straightforwardly, yet nevertheless insufficiently... 1-31-2012 
|
Debate about Vatican II: Fr. Gleize responds to Msgr. Ocariz
On at least 4 points, the teachings of Vatican II are obviously in
logical contradiction to the pronouncements of the previous traditional
Magisterium, so that it is impossible to interpret them in keeping with
the other teachings already contained in the earlier documents of the
Church’s Magisterium... 12-29-2011 DICI
Msgr.
Gherardini: Vatican II is not a super-dogma
A translation of an insightful article by Msgr. Gherardini which provides
an answer to Msgr. Ocariz's recent published defense of Vatican II. The
article causes one to ask: If the Second Vatican Council is part
of the Magisterium what adherence must be given to its text? 12-12-2011
The Second Ecumenical Vatican Council: a Debate That
Has Not Taken Place, by Msgr. Brunero Gherardini
This book is a sequel to The Second
Ecumenical Vatican Council: a Debate To Be Opened, that appeared in
2009. In this new work, Msgr. Gherardini does not stop at deploring that
the debate on Vatican II shouldn't take place, he even shows why it would
be more indispensable than ever today. And above all, he indicates how
this debate could be opened, giving the reader the first elements of a
rigorous analysis, far from sterile invectives and blind ovations... 9-19-2011
Collegiality
Fr. Basil Wrighton explains this keynote error of Vatican II and the
liberal machinations that caused its adoption by Vatican II
Roman
Protestants
This classic 1982 article by Fr. Wrighton demonstrates how "the
spirit of Vatican II" is protestantizing Catholics
Off Center
Is belief in the Catholic Faith "left", "right" or
"center"? Supposedly after Vatican II, such groups do not
indeed exist and exemplify how closely Catholics adhere to the
"super" Council. This philosophical defense by Dr. Peter
Chojnowski demolishes such a liberal view
What Should
We Make of Assisi I & II?
Explains dangerous theological mentalities of Assisi I (held in
1986) and its devastating consequences. Also applicable to Assisi II
(2002). Include further related materials
|
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment