Vatican II

Preparing the Way for Vatican II: CS Lewis' Mere Christianity
CS Lewis

Preparing the Way for Vatican II: CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity

05/17/2024 Bruce Strom 3

CS Lewis did not wave the flag of ecumenicism, attending this conference or that on interfaith dialogues, but instead prepares the way, saying that what denominational creed you profess is less important than whether you truly believe the core Christian teaching of the two-fold Love of God and neighbor. This was the key change wrought by Vatican II, no longer did the Catholic Church believe you needed to be Catholic to be saved. Likewise, CS Lewis is against the notion that Catholics cannot be saved. […]

History

Ratzinger Report, by Future Pope Benedict XVI, Preparing for Catholic Catechism

01/13/2023 Bruce Strom 1

Cardinal Ratzinger teaches us: “Every council that bears fruit must be followed by a wave of holiness. Thus it was after Trent, and it achieved its aim of real reform for this reason. Salvation for the Church comes from within her,” not solely “from the decrees of the hierarchy. Whether Vatican II and its results will be considered as a luminous period of Church history will depend upon all the Catholics who are called to give it life. As Pope John Paul II said in his commemoration of Charles Borromeo in Milan, ‘the Church of today does not need any new reformers, the Church needs new saints.’” […]

History

Was Pope Benedict XVI proactive in the pedophile priest sex scandal?

01/11/2023 Bruce Strom 0

Penance is what Christians do; Christians repent. Unfortunately, many secular media interpreted these gestures by Pope Benedict as an admission of personal guilt.
During this time Cardinal Ratzinger confessed, “The greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without but arises from sin within the Church.” “The Church has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice.”
The media can be unfair at times. Pope Benedict XVI said that “we must be grateful for every disclosure. The truth, combined with love rightly understood, is primary. The media could not have reported these incidents had there not been evil in the Church herself.” […]

History

Milestones: Memoirs of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Future Pope Benedict XVI

01/06/2023 Bruce Strom 0

Archbishop Ratzinger teaches us that “this psalm from the wisdom tradition shows the straits of faith that comes from the absence of earthly success. When you stand on the side of God, you do not necessarily stand on the side of success.” “When the psalmist stands in before God, in the presence of God, he grasps the ultimate insignificance of material wealth and success and recognizes what is truly necessary and what brings salvation.” […]

History

Pope John XXIII Opening Address to Vatican II, and Yves Congar, True and False Reform, Conclusion

11/09/2022 Bruce Strom 0

Pope John Paul XXIII opens his speech with:
“A positive proof of the Catholic Church’s vitality is furnished by every single council held in the long course of the centuries.” “And now the Church must once more reaffirm that teaching authority of hers which never fails but will endure until the end of time.”
This echoes Congar’s sentiments that true reform must rediscover the ancient traditions of the church, that the moral teachings never change, but history itself does change, and the church must change with history. […]

History

Yves Congar, True and False Reform, Part 2, True Reform by Returning to Tradition

11/04/2022 Bruce Strom 0

Yves Congar reflects: Who were the successful reformers? Who were the divisive reformers? Successful reformers are those reformers who respect the tradition of the church, whose reforms seek to return the church to its ancient traditions recently forgotten, to return to the ancient sources of the faith. These successful reformers include St Francis of Assisi, and St Thomas Aquinas, and he contrasts them with reformers who broke with the church, including Peter Waldo and Luther, while being careful to acknowledge when these divisive reformers did provide valuable spiritual and practical insights. […]

History

Yves Congar, True and False Reform, Part 1, Finding Common Ground

11/02/2022 Bruce Strom 0

When Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, reflected on this book, he asked, “A reform of the church? Is such a thing really possible?” Yves Congar reflects, What is the role of the church? Is the church the hierarchy in the Curia; or is the church the parishioners in the pews? What are the sacraments? What is the church’s definition of commonly misunderstood concepts, such as infallibility?
This book, along with help by the Holy Spirit, encouraged the pope to call for a church council, and helped set the tone for Vatican II. As Yves Congar teaches us, spiritual reform cannot be a revolution, false reform divides rather than unites. […]

History

What Happened at Vatican II, Embracing Democracy and Modernity

05/04/2022 Bruce Strom 3

Pope Benedict once said that both the supporters and opponents of the Second Vatican Council have one characteristic in common, and that is, most of them have never read the decrees or the history of Vatican II and are ignorant of the actual teachings of the council. His solution was to draft the Catholic Catechism, but unfortunately, nobody reads that either. […]

Morality

Can Good Catholics Read Hans Kung? Should Devout Catholics Read Hans Kung?

03/13/2021 Bruce Strom 0

Can Good Catholics Read Hans Kung?  Should Devout Catholics Read Hans Kung?  We should all read books on theology, philosophy, and psychology with discernment, testing them first against Scripture then Church teaching, and you should definitely read the books by Hans Kung with discernment.  Most importantly, by learning more about why the Catholic Church was goaded into announcing this discipline against Hans Kung, we can learn anyone who wishes to read and discuss these timeless topics can do so with humility, without succumbing to pride. […]

Catholic Catechism

Council of Trent, The Reform Council Foreshadowing Vatican II

12/06/2020 Bruce Strom 4

Was the Council of Trent a reactionary council?  This is a common perception, that the Council of Trent initiated the Catholic Counter-Reformation to defend the Catholic Church from the influences of the Protestant Reformation started by Martin Luther, and that the Vatican II Council was a rejection of Trent, steering the Catholic Church in a more liberal direction.  Father O’Malley’s history leads to a different conclusion, that the actual Council of Trent, as opposed to the later impressions of Trent, is really a progressive council that is a precursor to Vatican II.  Indeed, the documents of Vatican II and the subsequent Catholic Catechism both cite the Council of Trent extensively.

The post Reformation polemics are to blame for this misunderstanding of the nature of the Council of Trent.  In Father O’Malley’s words, “When Pope Pius IV confirmed the council’s decrees, he forbade the printing of commentaries or notes on them without explicit permission of the Holy See.”  The Pope really had no choice, the Catholic Church was besieged, had the Pope not restricted access to the minutes of the Council of Trent, protestants would have taken out of context and distorted the debates to discredit the Church.  But this prevented balanced scholarship on Trent for four hundred years, until Pope Leo XIII opened the Vatican Archives in 1880.

Also, when he confirmed the decrees of the Council of Trent, Pope Pius IV established the Congregation of the Council that functioned for four hundred years, until the time of Vatican II, 1966.  Many of these interpretations of the Council of Trent were more reactionary than the Council itself, partly in response to the polemic pressures encountered by the Catholic Church.  In Father O’Malley’s words, “the Congregation’s decision promoted the impression that the council answered all possible questions, even on subjects it in fact never addressed, and that is left little room for change or further development and local adaptation.  This impression became an integral element in the myths about the council.” […]