Vatican II Created a Pan-Ecumenical Religion

The post-Vatican II period has been characterized by persistent calls for "unity" by progressivist theologians and the hierarchy of the Holy See albeit a "forced" and false unity which has required that all doctrinal/dogmatic differences between various religions be ignored--e.g. Pope Paul VI kissing the feet of the Greek Orthodox prelate, Pope Benedict praying with members of multiple other religions and distributing communion to heretics including Brother Roger Shuutz of the Taze community, Pope John Paul II kissing the Koran etc. This has apparently been done in hopes of creating a one-world universal pan-ecumenical religion.

An important part of this Conciliar ecumenical development program has been the promulgation of so-called "anonymous Christianity" in which it is purported that all human beings have the "seeds of the Word" within them by virtue (presumably) of being created in God's image and are thus by extension recipients of Christ's redemptive work on the Cross. Thus, even polytheists and atheists are said to be capable of being saved without conversion to Christianity let alone Roman Catholicism.

What this means is that the pan-ecumenical religion of the post-Vatican II Conciliar Church is also characterized by an acceptance of if not outright belief in universal salvation--for example see the supportive writings of Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar and conservative Catholic Priest (Protestant minister turned Roman Catholic) editor of First Things Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (who quotes Balthasar on universal salvation) among other progressivist theologians such as Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx, Fr. Marie Dominique Chenu, Fr. Hans Kung, Karl Rahner, Fr, Luis Maldonado (Rahner's disciple), Cardinal's Avery Dulles, Julius Dophner, Yves Congar etc. Not only is it no longer necessary to convert to Roman Catholicism to be saved, all people with a sincere belief (albeit temporary) system who try to live by some kind of moral code--are assumed to be saved--Fr. Hans Kung for example has written essentially as much. Kung has also said:

"Decisive doctrinal differences in understanding the sacraments, above all in determining their relationship with the word as well as their origins, number, and efficacy can be considered outdated. In principle, this is valid also for the problem of the Eucharist...From the standpoint of the New Testament, it is certain that we do not need any uniform Church, much less any uniform theology..." (Vaticano III: problemi e prospective per il futuro," V. A., Verso las chiesa del terzo milennio, pp. 77-78)

Apparently, Kung believes that it is immaterial whether Jesus Christ is substantially present in a unique way in the Eucharist. The doctrine of the "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist like all other doctrinal differences is of no consequence when it comes to building the pan-ecumenical post-Conciliar universal religion of Progressivist's. What we have here is total doctrinal and liturgical anarchy/nihilism--virtually anything counts as religious belief/worship including satanism and atheism provided they are seriously/sincerely held--at least temporarily.

If one assumes that Progressivist's desire to create a pan-ecumenical religion which they term the "Church of Christ" open to schismatics, apostates, even to atheists and that doing so has become the overriding concern, to the complete repudiation of all traditional doctrine/dogma and in its place construct a generic global religion based solely on a feelings-based communitarian amalgam of disparate entities--it is possible to understand all of the seemingly incomprehensible developments which have befallen the Roman Catholic Church since 1962.

This is a shocking statement but on careful analysis it is the only one which seems to fit the evidence when looked at dispassionately in an a-posteriori way. Progressivists have systematically secularized the Roman Catholic Church and have managed through "dialogue" to remove all doctrinal stumbling blocks to the creation of a pan-ecumenical religious entity based solely on visceral comfortability and sincerity of belief. Moreover, this new universal entity via the doctrine of anonymous Christianity (invoking "seeds of the Word") provides salvation for all-- even avowed atheists. This begins to sound dangerously close to the total apostacy prophesied in Sacred Scripture.

How is it possible to harmonize this with the traditional (perennial) teachings of the pre-Vatican II popes without violating the law of non-contradiction? No wonder Vatican II repudiated Thomism and the entire scholastic system with its exquisite attention to definition, detail and rigor in polemics.

--Dr. J. P. Hubert

Cardinal Ottaviani on False Historicism

SH: Regarding those who taught that the Church must change in relation to her duties to the state and in other respects, Cardinal Ottaviani the head of the Holy Office under Pius XII in 1953 reiterated the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church:

"The first mistake of these people is precisely that of not accepting fully the "arms of truth" and the teaching which the Roman Pontiffs, in the course of this last century, and in particular the reigning Pontiff, Pius XII, by means of encyclicals, allocutions and instructions of all kinds, have given to Catholics on this subject.

To justify themselves, these people affirm that, in the body of teaching given in the Church, a distinction must be made between what is permanent and what is transitory, this latter being due to the influence of particular passing conditions.

Unfortunately, how­ever, they include in this second zone the principles laid down in the Pontifical documents, principles on which the teaching of the Church has remained con­stant, as they form part of the patrimony of Catholic doctrine.

In this matter, the pendulum theory, elaborated by certain writers in an attempt to sift the teaching set forth in Encyclical Letters at different times, cannot be applied. "The Church," it has been written, "takes account of the rhythm of the world's history after the fashion of a swinging pendulum which, desirous of keeping the proper measure, maintains its move­ment by reversing it when it judges that it has gone as far as it should.... From this point of view a whole history of the Encyclicals could be written. Thus in the field of Biblical studies, the Encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu, comes after the Encyclicals Spiritus Paraclitus and Providentissimus. In the field of Theology or Politics, the Encyclicals, Summi Pontificatus, Non abbiamo bisogno and Ubi Arcano Deo, come after the Encyclical, Immortale Dei."

Now if this were to be understood in the sense that the general and fundamental principles of public Ecclesiastical Law, solemnly affirmed in the Encycli­cal Letter, Immortale Dei, are merely the reflection of historic moments of the past, while the swing of the pendulum of the doctrinal Encyclicals of Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII has passed in the opposite direction to different positions, the statement would have to be qualified as completely erroneous, not only because it misrepresents the teaching of the Encyclicals themselves, but also because it is theoret­ically inadmissible. In the Encyclical Letter, Humani Generis, the reigning Pontiff teaches us that we must recognize in the Encyclicals the ordinary magisterium of the Church: "Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand assent, in that, when writing such Let­ters, the Popes do not exercise the supreme power of their teaching authority. For these matters are taught with the ordinary teaching authority, of which it is true to say "He who heareth you heareth Me" (St. Luke 10:16); and generally what is expounded and inculcated in Encyclical Letters already belongs for other reasons to Catholic doctrine."

Because they are afraid of being accused of want­ing to return to the Middle Ages, some of our writers no longer dare to maintain the doctrinal positions that are constantly affirmed in the Encyclicals as be­longing to the life and legislation of the Church in all ages. For them is meant the warning of Pope Leo XIII who, recommending concord and unity in the combat against error, adds that "care must be taken never to connive, in anyway, at false opinions, never to withstand them less strenuously than truth allows." ---Excerpt, Duties of the Catholic State In Regard to Religion, 1953

Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (# 9), June 29, 1896: “The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium.”
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Benedict Issues Statement Asserting That Jesus Established ‘Only One Church’

MSNBC-July 10, 2008---Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.

Benedict approved a document from his old offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that restates church teaching on relations with other Christians. It was the second time in a week the pope has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that modernized the church.

In the latest document — formulated as five questions and answers — the Vatican seeks to set the record straight on Vatican II’s ecumenical intent, saying some contemporary theological interpretation had been “erroneous or ambiguous” and had prompted confusion and doubt.

It restates key sections of a 2000 document the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, “Dominus Iesus,” which set off a firestorm of criticism among Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.”

In the new document and an accompanying commentary, which were released as the pope vacations here in Italy’s Dolomite mountains, the Vatican repeated that position.

“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” the document said. The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles.

‘Identity of the Catholic faith’

The Rev. Sara MacVane of the Anglican Centre in Rome, said there was nothing new in the document.

“I don’t know what motivated it at this time,” she said. “But it’s important always to point out that there’s the official position and there’s the huge amount of friendship and fellowship and worshipping together that goes on at all levels, certainly between Anglican and Catholics and all the other groups and Catholics.”

The document said Orthodox churches were indeed “churches” because they have apostolic succession and that they enjoyed “many elements of sanctification and of truth.” But it said they lack something because they do not recognize the primacy of the pope — a defect, or a “wound” that harmed them, it said.

“This is obviously not compatible with the doctrine of primacy which, according to the Catholic faith, is an ‘internal constitutive principle’ of the very existence of a particular church,” the commentary said.

Despite the harsh tone of the document, it stresses that Benedict remains committed to ecumenical dialogue.

“However, if such dialogue is to be truly constructive, it must involve not just the mutual openness of the participants but also fidelity to the identity of the Catholic faith,” the commentary said.

‘Not backtracking on ecumenical commitment’

The document, signed by the congregation prefect, U.S. Cardinal William Levada, was approved by Benedict on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul — a major ecumenical feast day. ...Cont.

--->Note: Catholics must welcome in hope any movement in the direction of the immutable pre-conciliar infallible dogmatic certainties which defined the Church for over 1,900 years. Yet concerns remain, specifically 1.) the matter of the grievously ambiguous texts of the Second Vatican Council which future neo-modernists will undoubtedly exploit; ambiguity which the preconciliar Church did not knowingly tolerate. 2.) also, and critically important, the fact that until now Benedict has shown no inclination to extirpate heretics who spread their heresies, destroying souls in Catholic schools and seminaries to this very hour (for me this is crucial), heretics who remain in "communion" with Benedict, saying the same Creeds (without believing them) and incensing the same altar-tables as he, leaving us mired in so small incoherence (See-click Labels below this post). 3.) An unprecedented ecumenism which involves "the huge amount of friendship and fellowship and worshipping together" which in the past was always condemned and forbidden as communicatio in sacris.

But one must nevertheless hope. One wonders, however, what is new here; the report above mentions the August 2000 document, Dominus Iesus, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith while the present pope was the head of that office. Now let's consider that document.

Whether one agrees with the other opinions or polemical tone of the author of the study that follows or not, his arguments / analysis demand answers which have stumped me. So I proceed to it forthwith in hopes that the Vatican will reply to it and not simply ignore the profound questions raised by the document itself. /Stephen Hand



Ratzinger's Dominus Iesus: A Critical Analysis by Bishop Donald Sanborn

Introduction

In August, 2000 the Vatican issued a document entitled Dominus Iesus, which was touted by the press as a defense of the Church's traditional teaching that the Catholic Church is the unique means of salvation. The Wanderer, true to form in sanitizing everything which emerges from the modernists in the Vatican, called it a new Syllabus of Errors. (The Syllabus of Errors was the wonderful document issued by Pope Pius IX in 1864 which condemned modern errors). But is this document a true defense of the Catholic Faith? No. In fact, it contains explicit heresy, and is the boldest and most complete explanation of modernist Church theology to date.

A. The Catholic doctrine concerning the unicity of the Church. The Catholic Church teaches that she alone is the unique Church of Christ, and that all other religions, whether Christian or non-Christian, are sects. They are false religions. St. Cyprian said, "There is one God, and Christ is one, and there is one Church and one chair founded upon the rock by the word of the Lord. Another altar cannot be constituted nor a new priesthood be made except the one altar and the one priesthood. Whosoever gathereth elsewhere, scattereth." [1]

B. Who are members of the Catholic Church? The Church teaches that those people are members of the Catholic Church who have been validly baptized, and who have not been excluded from the Catholic Church by means of heresy, schism, or excommunication. Pope Pius XII teaches in his encyclical Mystici Corporis:

"Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. 'For in one spirit' says the Apostle, 'were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free.' As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith. And therefore if a man refuse to hear the Church let him be considered - so the Lord commands - as a heathen and a publican. It follows that those who are divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine Spirit."[2] Cont.