Poster for talks on Vatican II at Blackfen. We will be looking at the texts.
For some time, various pressure-groups have been urging us to rediscover Vatican II, to celebrate those halcyon days when everything changed and we realised that the Church of the fifties was dead and a new dawn was breaking upon us – a New Pentecost, no less.
Now that the Year of Faith has begun, and many parishes are busily dusting off their copies of the documents of Vatican II, a new fear is beginning to stalk the land: “Vatican II fundamentalism.” There has been some nostalgia for the days when the young priest cast away his collar and took up a guitar, Latin was thrown out, and dissent from the teaching of the magisterium became widespread. This is rapidly giving way to panic that the People of God might actually read the documents – this would be disastrous because they will not see between the lines to the hidden meaning, and will only read the bad bits.
They will learn that Vatican II taught that the Pope is infallible, that we should give religious assent of mind and will to his teaching even when he is not infallible, that Latin should be retained as the language of the Church, that “both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence”, that Catholics “may not undertake methods of birth control which are found blameworthy by the teaching authority of the Church in its unfolding of the divine law” and other embarrassing assertions that should be left covered in a reverent silence.
For the "true believers" in the hidden meaning of Vatican II, the prospect of the laity discovering the texts is indeed a worry. There is a panicked scramble now to protect people from naively reading the actual documents of the Council as though they had an authority over and above the experiments in liturgy, doctrine and morals which followed in its wake.
Unfortunately, Pope Benedict’s indulgence is for lectures in the Acta of the Council – the last thing that the "true believers" want.
15 comments:
Father,
I hope for those of us who won't be able to get to Blackfen and back home in an evening, you will be posting the texts on line?
I know pastors of a more conservative persuasion are quite happy to demonstrate this year that the Council did not chuck Latin, chant, sexual morality, and the Roman collar out the window, but I none thus far have really explained two things:
1-Was a Council really necessary?
2-Did this Council address the issues it met?
When I first read Lumen Gentium and Gaudium et Spes I was struck by two things: the remarkably optimistic tone of these documents and seeming lack of need for their existence. I could not find anything firm and orthodox in these documents that is not stated in other councils, encyclicals etc. and the presentation is no different.
Point is: was the Council REALLY needed?
Father, are you trying to start a revolution?
Heavens, next you will expect Catholics to act in accordance with their Belief, rather than believing in accordance with their actions.
That is positively dangerous. Are you aware that you could cause the Tabletistas to have apoplexy?
I bought a whopping great volume of the V2 documents at Worth Abbey during the summer with the intention of reading it. Trouble is, it's a bit big to read on the train to and from work (which is where I do most of my reading, so I think I'm going to have to get the individual ones to (I hope) confirm me in my suspected Vatican II fundamentalism.
But are not all those things which followed Vatican II now part of the sacred tradition of Vatican II, & have thus acquired their own status within the Church irrespective of what the documents of the Council say? ;-)
What is/are the best books , translations, interpretations, of the Vatican II Council?
Dear Fr Finigan. Thank you very much for the opportunity to learn about the actual documents of Vatican II.
It suddenly hit me, like a bomb going off, that I had NEVER read/heard/discussed/learnt the Vatican II documents.
I shall be at your Blackfen talks.
Deo Gratias.
No need to do so, Padre.
I just have to look at all the dead souls and heresy all around me to judge the fruits of Vatican II.
Freemasons and witches in our Diocese Office and running the Office at our Parishes.
Catholics have been chased into the rural areas of Holy Mother Church while demons have their day.
I'm all for hunting down the Spirit of Vatican II and killing it.
*
Would love to come to them all but can only make the last one. Will you make/post videos of them? Please do!
More! More! More!
I will be posting the texts of the talks online.
I'm not sure, but I think the reference in the post to a "New penetecost" is supposed to be ironic. How ironic then that Archbishop should have spoken about the need for just that at the Synod of Bishops.
Well, where are they then?
Not ready for publication I'm afraid. Apologies for that. I will be revising them and beefing them up rather for the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy where I am speaking next June.
It amazes me how improperly this Council was implemented. If every priest and bishop and lay person actually kept to the true intentions of the Council, none of the nonsense we are experiencing right now would have happened. There are actually people out there who think using Latin at Mass is "not Vatican II" whereas the Council said it was to be preserved. These are things we need to follow and implement.
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