Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Mistaken Revolution - Vatican II
PipeBombNews ^ | May 20 , 2002 | William A. Mayer Jr.

Posted on 05/21/2002 10:07:10 AM PDT by johnqueuepublic

The Mistaken Revolution – Vatican II

By William Mayer, Editor & Publisher

In 1958 the Roman Catholic Church initiated a process of liberalization so widespread and fundamental that today, its repercussions are rocking the aged institution to its very foundation.

The unprecedented changes made in the wake of Pope John XXIII’s historic Vatican Council have produced the unintended consequences whose effects we now see splattered across the windshield of American culture, in the form of a torrent of accusations of priestly sexual abuse.

Catholicism is the oldest of the Christian sects and, until relatively recently, its most conservative voice.

Even the spirit of the Reformation was not able to affect the bedrock issues of Catholic orthodoxy – yet in one bloodless coup, manifest changes were promulgated which had the effect of subjecting Catholicism to a toxic dose of Protestantism - not that there is anything wrong with Protestantism, as long as you are Protestant.

While much of the non-Catholic Christian world had spun off into a secular and bizarre experiment with new ageism, the moral compass - the center - of the Catholic Church had, until the 1960s, held firm.

The core of these changes dealt with the perceived relationship between God and man, something which deeply touched every aspect of belief.

Since at least the Twentieth Ecumenical Council in 1869, the Church has been mightily aware of changes in the secular world, which tended to threaten and undermine faith and faith communities.

The new political philosophies celebrated the dual pronged Germanic imperatives; Hegelianism and Marxism. In addition the advent of modern scientific methods and theories pushed the limits of human understanding rapidly forward. All had the effect of establishing rationalism as the dominant mode of interpreting the physical world.

Rationalism seeks to order the world in a scientific manner, to make life understandable through human scrutiny. In such a setting belief and faith are often denigrated as lacking empirical vigor and being merely reliant on myth and legend.

The basic argument goes something as follows:

“The Bible, if taken literally, claims that the earth is only some 6,000 years old, since it has been scientifically proven that the earth is several billion years old the Bible is unreliable and certainly no basis for making the types of decisions that people have to make every day.”

Science and rationalism were potentially insidious because the intellectual tools they gave man empowered him in a way never seen before. Freed from myth and given alternative explanations for his place in the universe it redirected his vision away from the afterlife and towards the here and now; thus making man's more base concerns ascendant over the more elevated earlier viewpoint.

As a response to modernism, Pope Leo XIII called the Ecumenical Council to address the issues, out of which came his famous Encyclical, RERUM NOVARUM - Capital and Labor

In this groundbreaking document the Church dealt with the disparity between rich and poor - the dichotomy which Marx and others saw fit to exploit.

The official response to these troubling ideas was a loving reassertion of the idea of a personal God, a real identity who brought forth a universe out of nothing and who observes the unfolding of that creation to its ultimate end.

It also seemed to suggest that rationalism should not be feared because faith and science were not really incompatible. The Church argued that they were differing realms and therefore using the former to tear down the latter was inconsistent.

Against what must have been seen as the direct assault of new ideas, the Church held firm and while holding to tradition it relied on strict Biblical verse to charge the rich with the responsibility of helping and sharing with the poor and employing them in a fair manner. Most importantly it thoroughly and directly rejected socialism and Marxist dogma.

“Hence, it is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal...It must be first of all recognized that the condition of things inherent in human affairs must be borne with, for it is impossible to reduce civil society to one dead level. Socialists may in that intent do their utmost, but all striving against nature is in vain. There naturally exist among mankind manifold differences of the most important kind; people differ in capacity, skill, health, strength; and unequal fortune is a necessary result of unequal condition. Such unequality is far from being disadvantageous either to individuals or to the community. Social and public life can only be maintained by means of various kinds of capacity for business and the playing of many parts; and each man, as a rule, chooses the part which suits his own peculiar domestic condition.”

The entire Encyclical is well reasoned and eloquently written. It is, above all, the high tide mark with regard to a straight and intelligible defense of traditionalism.

It is all the more remarkable given the intense nature of change taking place at that time and serves, therefore, as a testament to the value of eighteen hundred years of rigorously established conservatorship.

But dogma was debased after Vatican II. It was tossed, as ashes to the wind, while forces for "modernization" within the Church began to assert the primacy of the concerns of man over nearly two millennia of established theology.

The cannon shot was issued by John XXIII’s successor, Paul VI in the Encyclical - GAUDIUM ET SPES – The Church in the Modern World.

"...The joys and the hopes, the grief’s and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted…That is why this community realizes that it is truly linked with mankind and its history by the deepest of bonds…Hence this Second Vatican Council, having probed more profoundly into the mystery of the Church…but to the whole of humanity. For the council yearns to explain to everyone how it conceives of the presence and activity of the Church in the world of today. Therefore, the council focuses its attention on the world of men, the whole human family along with the sum of those realities in the midst of which it lives; that world which is the theater of man's history…”

Out of this concern over the “grief’s and anxieties of the men of this age" Catholicism has come very close to substituting the worship of man for the worship of God. This is not said for purposes of shock, it is said as a statement of fact.

The externally visible changes in form and function since that time, are well known - a wholesales abandonment of tradition. It can perhaps best be demonstrated by the single most far reaching change to come in the wake of Vatican II, the abandonment of the beautiful Tridentine [Latin] Mass, which had been practiced since having been proclaimed by Pope St. Pius V in 1570 at the Council of Trent.

The traditional mass is a stylized veneration of and recreation of Christ’s sacrifice on Good Friday. It involves an altar, a priest and a victim [the host]. The priest performs the ceremony, with consecrated hands, his back to the congregation. The mass is conducted in Latin, its words an austere supplication for forgiveness and a sincere expression of thankfulness for the saving grace of Christ's ultimate sacrifice.

In this ceremony man’s concerns are placed in correct perspective, he is a sinner who has been given a reprieve by the intercession of a merciful God who gave his only Son as a sacrificial Lamb to atone for mankind’s offenses.

The new liturgy is without splendour, flattened and undifferentiated. It no longer draws us into the true experience of the liturgical year; we are deprived of this experience through the catastrophic elimination of the hierarchy of feasts, octaves, many great feasts of saints ... Truly, if one of the devils in C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters had been entrusted with the ruin of the liturgy, he could not have done it better." Professor Dietrich von Hildebrand, The Devastated Vineyard.

Gone is the kneeling at the communion rail, the placing of the host on the tongue of the communicant by the priest, the kneeling by the congregation during the communion rite and genuflecting before the blessed sacrament, alien concepts such as frivolous dancing have been also been introduced.

Gone also are clear statements of what it means to follow in the shoes of the fisherman as follows:

“Therefore, we humbly pray and beseech Thee, most merciful Father, through Jesus Christ Thy Son, Our Lord, to receive and to bless these gifts, these presents, these holy unspotted sacrifices, which we offer up to Thee, in the first place, for Thy holy Catholic Church, that it may please Thee to grant her peace, to guard, unite, and guide her, throughout the world: as also for Thy servant N., N. our Pope, and N. our Bishop, and for all who are orthodox in belief and who profess the Catholic and apostolic faith.”

This is orthodoxy, this is Catholicism.

It was not written to be politically correct in order to avoid perturbing other Christian sects and it wasn’t written in English - it was written in Latin for purposes of precision and if you didn’t have the motivation to learn it maybe this faith was not for you.

In the modern mass even the host and the wine are cheapened, now only merely symbolic of Christ’s body and blood not the de-facto, real thing.

The changes in the Catholic liturgy almost exactly mirror the political and philosophical changes that have taken place in the secular world since the tumultuous '60s, in fact a timeline of the advance of liberalism within each sphere is almost 100% congruent.

In the United States the job of implementing the vague ecumenism, called for in Vatican II, has largely fallen to the National Council Of Catholic Bishops.

Fueled by a long string of poor appointments, primarily by Pope Paul VI [1963-1978], this group unfortunately came to be dominated by the very revisionist forces who now openly war against Catholic orthodoxy – that it took place at almost precisely the same time the McGovernites took over the Democrat party is instructive, for it again underlines that the nature of change in the Catholic Church is driven by the same faux homocentric concerns found in the political sphere.

The corruption of what is essentially the supreme governing body of the American Church is reflected throughout. The effects of the drastic changes, forced upon Catholic laity are reflected by the inability of the Church to recruit, train and maintain priests:

The real battleground is the seminaries, for it is here where young men intent on devoting their lives to God and duty to the Church will be trained, but it is becoming increasingly clear that young straight men of conservative beliefs are being turned away, in droves, by an entrenched pro-homosexual minority that is intent on promoting ultra-modernist theology and driving straights away:

"It seems to me that the vocation 'crisis' is precipitated and continued by people who want to change the Church's agenda, by people who do not support orthodox candidates loyal to the magisterial teaching of the pope and Bishops, and by people who actually discourage viable candidates from seeking priesthood and vowed religious life as the Church defines these ministries. ... I am personally aware of certain vocations directors, vocations teams and evaluation boards who turn away candidates who do not support the possibility of ordaining women or who defend the Church's teaching about artificial birth control, or who exhibit a strong piety toward certain devotions, such as the rosary." 1995 - Archbishop Elden Curtiss, former seminary director.

No greater authority than the Catholic Medical Association has issued the following guideline:

”There are numerous reports that mental health professionals who do not support the teachings of the Catholic Church on sexuality have been chosen to evaluate candidates for the priesthood and reject candidates who do accept the Church's teachings on the grounds they are 'rigid'. There are also reports that some mental health professionals do not report homosexual attractions and conflicts in candidates for the priesthood to diocesan officials or religious superiors.

"Mental health professionals chosen to evaluate candidates for the priesthood ... should be Catholics in good standing who support the Church's teaching on sexuality, life, contraception, homosexuality, celibacy of the priesthood, the Ordination on only men, and the hierarchical structure of the Church. ... Non-Catholics and Catholics who do not support the teaching of the Church should not be employed in this task." Catholic Medical Association, "Statement to U.S. Bishops" (11/1999)

The disastrous shortage of priests - artificially created by a relatively few but powerful carriers of heresy - is being used to argue for even more egregious changes – non celibate priests and worse.

Again we see the duality, the parallels between the infiltration of the liberal/progressive/socialist dictum into the secular world - especially into the governing elite within the Democrat party - and the simultaneous assault on the world of faith.

As the political infrastructure must answer for its sins, so must this liberal iteration of Catholicism.

The existence of priestly sexual aberration is a real and serious problem, as we have previously and repeatedly stated here – we have absolute zero tolerance for it, but its incidence is certainly overstated by a media that literally hates the Church because of its conservatism. At the same time the anti-Catholic press continues to push for additional changes that will only bring more of the same.

Stated plainly, the root cause of the majority of Catholic priestly sex abuse lies in an increasingly gay Catholic priesthood – it cannot be explained otherwise – celibate heterosexual men do not desire to have sex with men, let alone boys.

Contemporary liberal philosophy is wrapped in a strong pro homosexual agenda and it is this very same philosophy that has taken over so much of the Catholic agenda.

The time has come to make its supporters accountable for the moral outrage that they have wrought on this most holy of institutions.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catholic; conservatism; homosexualagenda; liberalism; priest; sexabuse; theology
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-122 next last
To: NWU Army ROTC
Interested to hear how you would propose to fix the problems that have arisen (I have a few ideas, but probably wouldn't go over to well). God Bless

Hey Mr. NWU Army ROTC - Thanks for the interest! Here's what I would do if I were Pope to solve this homosexual molestation problem. - 1) Make a strong and inerrant statement of Catholic (and Christian and scriptural) doctrine regarding homosexuality - that the homosexual inclination is intrinsically disordered, and that homosexual acts are sins against God. Require that that doctrine be actively taught and affirmed by every seminarian and priest in the Church; 2) Throw out any seminarian or priest or bishop or Cardinal who refused to actively affirm and support that doctrine; 3) Throw out any priest or bishop or cardinal who engaged in unrepented and unforgiven homosexual activity, or who engaged in frequent repented and forgiven homosexual activity; 4) Throw out any seminarian or priest who made homosexual advances toward anyone - especially new vocations; 5) Reduce over time the number of homosexual priests in the priesthood to at the very least the same percentage of homosexuals in the population as a whole (about 2,3%) - and require of those remaining that they understand that their desires are disordered and are not to be celebrated or pushed on others; 6) Take control of the selection of new priests out of the hands of secular psychologists; 7) Forbid all priests from being alone with male minors; 8) Make clear that any reasonable accusation of child molestation will be made known to criminal authorities and that the Church will NOT protect from criminal law any priest found guilty of sexual molestation; 9) Seek forgiveness from the laity; 10) Repent before God and seek forgiveness from HIM myself for having allowed thousands of teenage boys to have been molested and raped.

Well, I think that would do for a start.

101 posted on 05/21/2002 6:54:29 PM PDT by yendu bwam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 98 | View Replies]

To: sinkspur
Can anybody produce definitive proof that we haven't ALWAYS had a "queer Church", the only difference being the sexual abuse of minors was covered up and not reported?

I can't provide such evidence. But whether that way just recently or in all the past, I still object.

102 posted on 05/21/2002 6:55:49 PM PDT by yendu bwam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: NWU Army ROTC
I consider myself an Orthodox Catholic and I think sadly, the changes of Vatican II while making some things easier, has utlimately hurt what it means to be a Roman Catholic in the World today.

I agree.

103 posted on 05/21/2002 7:19:27 PM PDT by yendu bwam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: yendu bwam
I agree, and I like what you propose. But what concerns me, at times even more than this scandal, is the increasingly progressive elements of the Church that are moving the Church away from its call. I spent four years in a Jesuit High School, and they are superb educators, but their theology is far from orthodoxy. I guess, how would you deal with the other problems, decreasing church attendance, the cafeteria catholics (those that stray from the rules). Your plan is a start and I like most of it, but their are other problems that I fear will go untreated while treating this one. Your opinion? God BLess
104 posted on 05/21/2002 7:25:57 PM PDT by StAthanasiustheGreat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 101 | View Replies]

To: NWU Army ROTC
But how does one go about moving back to a more conservative, orthodox, traditionalism that was lost after Vatican II.

Sorry Mr. NWU Army ROTC. I didn't read your question carefully and submitted an answer to a different problem! - I think that there are two things one could do immediately to help return to a more conservative, orthodox traditionalism. First, offer more conservative priests and masses to those who want them. There seems to be a tremendous hunger for such among many in America. At the very least, this would help to counterbalance the more liberal cohorts with the church. Second, with regard to authentic Catholic belief - simply require that cardinals, bishops, priests know and actively affirm authentic Catholic teachings. And provide immediate negative consequences for those who don't. This would take many years of struggle, but needs to be done. Rome has had an almost hands-off approach to the American Catholic Church, with disastrous results.

105 posted on 05/21/2002 7:26:04 PM PDT by yendu bwam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 98 | View Replies]

To: yendu bwam
I spent four years in a Jesuit High School, and they are superb educators, but their theology is far from orthodoxy.

I've never understood the allowance of debate on settled matters of doctrine within the Church. One can disagree on policies (whether or not to have women priests), and on some fuzzy theological matters. But when you have certain priests in the United States teaching things like: 1) Jesus is not really divine, 2) homosexual acts and premarital sex are fine and dandy, 3) the Eucharist is not really the body and blood of Jesus, etc. etc., you have priests who are not really Catholic. All it takes is a determined authority (the Pope or his deleguees) to root out such un-Catholic elements. Unfortunately, we have not had such an authority. At the end of the day, the Pope himself does not have the power to change matters of scripture- and tradition-based doctrine. But he certainly does have the power to insist on faithfulness to that doctrine.

106 posted on 05/21/2002 7:33:43 PM PDT by yendu bwam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: NWU Army ROTC
Ah, one thing I forgot. I believe, humbly, that many in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church suffer from the pride of wanting the affirmation of intellectuals, and also the pride from wanting to have growing parishes. Far better to teach Catholic truth and lose some parishioners than to slide away from such truth in order to gain more adherents. At the end of that road are 'churches' like the Unitarian Church, who cannot tell you one thing they actually believe in.
107 posted on 05/21/2002 7:40:05 PM PDT by yendu bwam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

To: yendu bwam
Your post is a must read. You have ennumerated the results of the homosexualization of the priesthood very accurately and completely. Thankyou.
108 posted on 05/21/2002 8:15:35 PM PDT by saradippity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: sinkspur
After you provide your proof,you are the one bringing it up post after post,thread after thread.It is only lately that I noted that you have not given one shred of evidence to support your very serious accusation.

Hint:Do you know anything about initiations into boys' clubs and fraternities and other men/male/macho bonding societies?You might try to connect dots.

109 posted on 05/21/2002 8:26:46 PM PDT by saradippity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: Bellarmine
>>>>Yes, and the schismatic Catholic Patriotic Association in China.

Have any of them been publicly excommunicated? That seems like such a difficult situation, given that so many Bishops are a part of both the CPA and the underground Church.

patent

110 posted on 05/21/2002 10:31:34 PM PDT by patent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]

To: yendu bwam
"First, offer more conservative priests and masses to those who want them."

A good idea but how would it work? Would those masses and priests be openly designated by the Bishops as "conservative" havens? I doubt it. We have to face it. The struggle between liberal and conservative Catholics is here to stay. I see no end to it short of schism or some kind of huge chastisement in the form of a natural or man made disaster.

111 posted on 05/21/2002 11:22:19 PM PDT by Theresa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: proud to be breathing
You need to reread the article you linked to. I didn't say that the Church wasn't at all responsible for the abuses that occured. That article backs up my point that the Inquisitions were abused by secular authorities. And I've NEVER heard anything about the persecution of Jews. And if it happened, what's your point? What does that have to do with the Church of today?
112 posted on 05/22/2002 4:48:05 AM PDT by GenXFreedomFighter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: johnqueuepublic
Excellent article.
113 posted on 05/22/2002 4:51:41 AM PDT by Orual
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yendu bwam
And what body parts have you removed to keep you free from sin? ;-) Remember, self-mutilation is a mortal sin.

That passage does illustrate the seriousness with which we should pursue our salvation, and you're right; many of us do not treat it with the utmost seriousness as we should.

114 posted on 05/22/2002 4:53:49 AM PDT by GenXFreedomFighter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: GenXFreedomFighter
And what body parts have you removed to keep you free from sin? ;-) Remember, self-mutilation is a mortal sin.

I have never had the courage or strength to lead the truly pure and Christian life that Jesus outlined. For instance, I (and most people I know) have not given up their wealth to follow him. At the end of the day, I do take Jesus' words as the words and intent of God - even more than the Catholic Church's interpretation of those words.

115 posted on 05/22/2002 5:01:36 AM PDT by yendu bwam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 114 | View Replies]

To: Theresa
I see no end to it short of schism or some kind of huge chastisement in the form of a natural or man made disaster.

The Pope really does have the power to require that bishops toe the line on established Catholic doctrine. He has not used that power, for whatever reason (which I do not understand). The other two alternatives are schism, as you say, or just muddling through with assaults from all sorts of alternative doctrines. I'd definitely vote for the first, but suspect we'll get the third.

116 posted on 05/22/2002 5:16:18 AM PDT by yendu bwam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 111 | View Replies]

Comment #117 Removed by Moderator

To: allend
There is no magisterial teaching for this, but there is a pretty good consensus that Mary did, in fact, grow old and die like everyone else.

What about the Assumption? I know it's a relatively new teaching, but isn't that the Church's official position on what happened to Mary?

118 posted on 05/22/2002 7:43:00 AM PDT by GenXFreedomFighter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 117 | View Replies]

Comment #119 Removed by Moderator

To: GenXFreedomFighter
What about the Assumption? I know it's a relatively new teaching, but isn't that the Church's official position on what happened to Mary?

The Church takes no position on whether Mary actually experienced death. It seems unlikely though, since natural death is a consequence of sin. Anyway, the Church merely says that "at the end of her earthly life", Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven.

No town has ever claimed to be where she is buried, as they have with countless other saints.

120 posted on 05/22/2002 9:22:59 AM PDT by Steve0113
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 118 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120121-122 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson