Rhine Group Controlled Vatican II

By: Dr. J. P. Hubert

In reading Fr. Ralph Wiltgen's book The Rhine Flows into the Tiber: A History of Vatican II, I have become increasingly convinced that the Second Vatican Council was hijacked by the Bishops, Theologians and Periti (theological experts) of the Rhine River Valley countries. The most powerful members seem to have been Germany, Austria and the Netherlands although Belgium, Switzerland and France were an influential part of the central European powerhouse that rode roughshod over the council almost from the start but certainly by the beginning of the second session when Paul VI liberalized many of the rules which had been instituted by John XXIII. A similar scenario was suggested by Romano Amerio in his book Iota Unum: A Study of Changes in the Catholic Church in the Twentieth Century.

The one overriding characteristic which unified the Rhine group was their theological liberalism. Important liberal (read Neo-Modernist or heterodox) theologians who served as Periti and advised the Rhine Bishops were Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, Fr. Edward Schillibeeckx, Fr. Aloys Grillmeier, Fr. Otto Semmelroth, Fr. Karl Rahner and Fr. Hans Kung. These men all espoused ideas which were part of the Modernism that was called the "synthesis of all heresies" by Pope St. Pius X.

The tragedy of the Second Vatican Council was that the Rhine group almost singularly came prepared to advance their radical agenda which aimed to theologically liberalize the Catholic Church. The more orthodox members of the episcopacy were for some reason caught flat-footed. They were entirely ill-prepared for what transpired. It seems odd that they never apprehended the "spirit of rebellion" that was clearly present and growing ever since Pius X wrote his encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis on the errors of the Modernists. Inexplicably, the Church behaved as if it had no enemies with which to contend, nor threats from Modernists to defend against and to protect the faithful from. It is difficult not to see a demonic imprint in what transpired.