For those paying attention to the pitched battle between the SSPX and the Vatican (or a few bureaucrats therein), Bp. Schneider presents a clarifying essay.
Here's the guts of it:
...Among the other twenty ecumenical councils, one finds numerous pastoral or disciplinary statements and documents that are no longer applicable today ... as well as non-definitive doctrinal statements (e.g., on the matter and form of the sacrament of Holy Orders from the Council of Florence) that were later corrected by the Magisterium of the Church. One cannot absolutize every concrete historical form of Church leadership, for doing so would eliminate the necessary distinction between, on the one hand, the unchanging and enduring truths of faith (Depositum Fidei) and, on the other, the various modes by which those truths are transmitted (e.g., a pastoral statement, non-definitive doctrinal statement, or ex-cathedra definition), each of which carries a different degree of authority and binding force.
Today, however, to be in full communion with the Holy See, one must accept those affirmations and teachings of Vatican II that are pastoral and certainly non-definitive in terms of their magisterial nature. This raises an important question: Why is the unconditional acceptance of the texts of Vatican II presented as a conditio sine qua non for full communion with the Holy See, while no comparable requirement exists with respect to the pastoral, disciplinary, or non-definitive teachings of the preceding twenty Ecumenical Councils?
Among the non-definitive teachings of Vatican II there are several—particularly those concerning religious liberty, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, and collegiality—whose formulations are ambiguous and difficult to reconcile with doctrines taught consistently by the Magisterium from the era of the Church Fathers through the period immediately preceding the Council.
There is also the question of the ritual and doctrinal deficiencies of the Novus Ordo Missae. Such concerns can no longer be dismissed out of hand...
.The good Bishop's observations and questions are not only sincere, but valid. The ambiguities expressed in some of the VatII docs have been remarked upon since they day they were published, and by people of good will (and some not-so-good-willed.)
We are not adherents to SSPX, and we attend a New Rite parish--but are perfectly comfortable in the Old Rite and are sympathetic to those who prefer it.
It appears that Pope Leo is .........ahhh.........ambiguous about this whole thing. He is certainly hesitant about attempting to enforce any sort of "ban" on the Old Rite. That said, some of his lieutenants in the Vat are hell-bent for leather to crucify the SSPX along with the Old Rite.
Stay tuned.
2 comments:
We need the old rites clarity in Church teaching as we are failing with the Vatican II B.S.
For example look at the state of the culture:
40% of All Babies Born in U.S. Last Year Were to Unmarried Mothers
https://www.lifenews.com/2026/06/05/40-of-all-babies-born-in-u-s-last-year-were-to-unmarried-mothers/
Get rid of Vatican II and the SSPX Problem goes away
…….WE speak of the things which you see with your own eyes, which We both bemoan. Depravity exults; science is impudent; liberty, dissolute. The holiness of the sacred is despised; the majesty of divine worship is not only disapproved by evil men, but defiled and held up to ridicule. Hence sound doctrine is perverted and errors of all kinds spread boldly. The laws of the sacred, the rights, institutions, and discipline — none are safe from the audacity of those speaking evil. Our Roman See is harassed violently and the bonds of unity are daily loosened and severed. The divine authority of the Church is opposed and her rights shorn off. She is subjected to human reason and with the greatest injustice exposed to the hatred of the people and reduced to vile servitude. The obedience due bishops is denied and their rights are trampled underfoot. Furthermore, academies and schools resound with new, monstrous opinions, which openly attack the Catholic faith; this horrible and nefarious war is openly and even publicly waged. Thus, by institutions and by the example of teachers, the minds of the youth are corrupted and a tremendous blow is dealt to religion and the perversion of morals is spread. So the restraints of religion are thrown off, by which alone kingdoms stand. We see the destruction of public order, the fall of principalities, and the overturning of all legitimate power approaching. Indeed this great mass of calamities had its inception in the heretical societies and sects in which all that is sacrilegious, infamous, and blasphemous has gathered as bilg water in a ship’s hold, a congealed mass of all filth……
—- Mirari Vos, On Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism
Pope Gregory XVI, 1832
Post a Comment