THE WAKE OF VATICAN II [There is a new springtime, a new awakening?]

Perhaps it is the insidious or invidious influence of my friend Ralph McInerny, but now when I hear such titles as “In the Wake of the Council,” the topic of this issue of Dossier, I start thinking of multiple meanings of the word “wake,” with which a punster like Ralph might have a fine time. A wake is what a boat leaves behind in the water, a wake is what mourners attend after a funeral, awake is what my students are not in the late afternoon.

The first sense given is undoubtedly that meant by the editors, though for some of us the second sense is all too appropriate. We have been participating in a prolonged wake for the losses in beauty, dignity, and reverence that have characterized the liturgy and church architecture since the Council and for the mangling of doctrine. I know of devout Catholics who for years have gone to the earliest Sunday morning Mass possible since there is unlikely to be any music and thus any barbaric music at that hour. Or those who travel significant distances each Sunday to find a liturgy that can raise their souls to God. Some of us have resolutely refused to learn anything about the rubrics for the Mass, or vestments, or appointments around the altar because of concern for our blood pressure and fear of losing the power of recollection needed to worship properly. There are those who have even learned to blot out the homilies and other wayward remarks by the celebrant. Those who have desired to learn what the Church teaches about something rather than what the reigning dissenting theologian teaches have, unfortunately but wisely, learned to trust little that comes from most pulpits and from the chancery office.

But perhaps the time for weeping is coming to an end. The ravages of ICEL are being reconsidered, the US bishops are revisiting norms for building churches, permission for Latin liturgies is being extended, Eucharistic adoration is becoming an underground movement of immense proportions. It is a good sign that at the University of Dallas, the students have spontaneously begun to sing the ordinary of the mass in Latin at some of the liturgies. It is now a truism to say that the more traditional orders and dioceses are attracting by far the greater number of vocations. The generation that despised orthodoxy is growing old and are drawing virtually no young people to themselves. They have been attempting for decades to dance on the graves of their enemies, but new, strong, and energetic life has sprung up that will soon be doing a more productive, a more life-giving dance.

The wake left by the “boat” that is the Council is perhaps just beginning. It has been in irons up till now or floundering in the shifting winds of those who insisted on directing its course by their reading of the movement of the “spirit” of Vatican II. The big tugboat of the Catechism has perhaps finally launched the boat of Vatican II and set it on a proper course. With the help of the Catechism, for instance, those who have been attempting to have Catholic schools and universities teach authentic Catholic dogma and doctrine have acquired a tool that to some extent blocks the dissenters from knocking holes in the hull of the ship or poking holes in the sail or putting sand in the gas tank (you get the picture, but I can’t promise I’m done yet; blame Ralph).

One of the most important elements of the Council was its claim that there is a “universal call to holiness” — that all of us must seek to be holy, not just those called to the consecrated life (which was apparently a common misconception pre-Vatican II). Vatican II was to issue in a new age of the laity where the laity were to realize their responsibility for shaping and preserving the Church and for evangelization. Oddly enough, such has happened and is happening in a fashion different, one suspects, from what could have been predicted at the time. While some of the captains and their coxswains have defected or developed a serious case of vision impairment, the crew has had to take a leadership role. I think historians might well find this period of time to be the age of the laity where the flock had to take the lead in directing the shepherds (new metaphor) where they should be headed.

One needs point only to the proliferation of pernicious sex education programs that have required massive resistance from the laity to extract them from Catholic schools, an effort not yet completed. The promotion of Natural Family Planning and the support for Humanae Vitae has been overwhelmingly a lay run initiative and is to this day is terribly underpreached by the clergy. New journals have been started, new movements, new schools, and new presses for instance, sometimes with the lead of a religious but often with little support from the hierarchy and much support from the laity. One senses somewhat recently a greater respect and support for orthodoxy among the hierarchy and clergy, especially the seminarians, so, once the whole crew is working together, once there has been sufficient reform within the Church, we may be able to undertake the desperately need re-evangelization of the culture.

There is a new springtime, a new awakening, begun with a Council that was nearly hijacked. The Holy Father in particular has been tireless in attempting to implement the directives of the Council, to reinvigorate the faithful, to teach the faith in terms accessible to the modern world, to enter the modern world without abandoning the tradition, without losing our heritage. Not only the vibrancy of his message, but the sanctity of his person even more powerfully galvanizes others. He more than any other is a man of the Council and has resolutely made it the blueprint of his pontificate. Young people have responded to him in spectacular ways. They have no interest in dissent; they are interested only in holiness. Those of us who have labored in the trenches are most grateful for and appreciative of the reinforcements and new troops the Holy Spirit is raising up for soon we may see the Church the Council envisioned.

¡Ojalá! (Spanish for "I wish it were!") Unfortunately, I don't think they're in retreat at all.

I was in Spain last week, and chats with various Spanish friends revealed that things are just as bad there. Well, less so, because the population of Spain is now considerably less religious than it was, so the scandal of clerical misbehavior and heterodox teaching have much less impact than they might have once.

One of my friends (who is in el Opus) suggested that perhaps we'd end up with a smaller church of more convinced members. This may be true, but I'll bet that the folks who are going to get all of the property, the old church buildings, and perhaps even the name of "Catholic" are going to be the heretics, who are much more powerful than the orthodox.

God can make great things out of little, insignificant things, of course, so I don't think we should write off the tiny band of orthodox (which probably includes most of us on this forum). But I don't think it's going to happen automatically and without a struggle.

"We have been participating in a prolonged wake for the losses in beauty, dignity, and reverence that have characterized the liturgy and church architecture since the Council and for the mangling of doctrine. I know of devout Catholics who for years have gone to the earliest Sunday morning Mass possible since there is unlikely to be any music and thus any barbaric music at that hour."

I know a lot of people who do the early Masses, because they can't take the circus the later Masses are - and music ususally isn't mentioned. It was so bad at my parents' parish that the pastor established baby-sitting and not so subtly told parents of young children to take advantage of it.

Those of us who have labored in the trenches are most grateful for and appreciative of the reinforcements and new troops the Holy Spirit is raising up for soon we may see the Church the Council envisioned.

Speaking in an admittedly cynical mood... I'd be happy for the "new troops" to revive the Church the Council abandoned.

"Have the two years that just passed strengthened this author's argument, or undercut it? Any comments?"

I have no idea. I know my parish is just fine. I really don't think this is the prime time to judge the future or the present of the Church and the reason for that is because the Holy Father has been pope for almost 25 years. It is only the 6th time in history that a pope has reigned for that long. Not that it is a bad thing but what if we had the same president for 25 years? During such a long period opinions harden, battle lines are drawn and it is very hard to change the status quo.

Any day now we may turn on our radios and TV's to hear that our beloved and weary Holy Father has died. As the Cardinals say, "you always follow a fat pope with a thin one." The next pope is likely to be different in many ways from John Paul II.

It will take several years, maybe as long 5 years, for the next pope to settle in, such that we can have a good idea if the difficulties John Paul II faced can be addressed for better or for worse by the next pope. So I am taking the broad view, with optimisim that a new pope with a new approach (it will have to be new in some respects, after all popes are not clones of each other) can and will sucessfully address many of the current problems and God willing find ways to bridge the gap between the right and left. I am just so sick of all the fighting.

<> It's all good

I am serious. I know I just used a popular pop culture phrase. But, it is true if used with an eye towards the future. There have been many FAR worse periods of time in the history of the Church. We ought to thank and praise God we are allowed to live during these times. It is EASY to thank and praise the Lord when things are good.

Many of my former friends in the schism routinely make brave and empty chatter about "desiring martyrdom." Yet, the moment a modicum of turmoil arose, they split for safe harbors. Martyrdom is realised by maintaing Unity in Worship, Doctrine and Authority during all times - good and bad - expecially in bad.<>

The Pope has spoken repeatedly about a new springtime for the Church but it might not be as expected. From the article above :"There is a new springtime, a new awakening, begun with a Council that was nearly hijacked."

From the listing on St. Padre Pio who supposedly told Pope JPII that he would be Pope:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/praeternatural/

"The darkness shall last a day and a night, followed by another day and a night, and another day - but on the night following, the stars will shine again, and on the next morning the sun shall rise again, and it will be springtime…"

The entire section on this prophecy of St. Padre Pio is fascinating as it seems to predict a war between our nation and Iraq.

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