Latest / The Catholic Current / Did Synodality Hijack Vatican II? A Cardinal’s Warning

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Did Synodality Hijack Vatican II? A Cardinal’s Warning · The Catholic Current

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  Do you want to get YouTube mad at you in a hurry, a really big hurry, ready to put the
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  smack down at a moment's notice?
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  All you got to do is copyright violation.
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  Take something, act like you own it, and then YouTube, in its infinite wisdom, will find
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  you out and smack you down and say, that's not yours, cut it out, acknowledge who really
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  owns it.
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  And I was thinking, what if that happened in the life of the church?
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  And you might say, well, Father, whatever do you mean?
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  Well, you know, the hot topic in the news these days is synodality and the synodalists
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  and the very great excitement about synodality.
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  And remember, our friends who are the biggest advocates for synodality say that they own
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  the Second Vatican Council, which according to Cardinal Fernandez, those documents cannot
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  be corrected.
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  Let's take that at face value.
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  They say they own Vatican II, they are the heirs of Vatican II, and that synodality is
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  the inevitable outcome of the Second Vatican Council, and the full flower and completion
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  of the Second Vatican Council is synodality, and the synodalists are the best stewards
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  ever of the best council ever.
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  That's roughly what their claim is.
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  But what if, hear me out, what if it's not true?
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  And what if the one to enforce the copyright ban against the synodalists regarding their
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  misclaims regarding Second Vatican Council is none other than the council's greatest
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  champion and enforcer, Cardinal Ottaviani of the Holy Office?
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  Stay with me, I've got a story to tell.
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  Hi, I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTague, your host here every day, The Catholic Current,
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  coming to you from the station of the Cross Catholic Media Network.
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  Let's take a closer look.
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  Glad you're here.
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  The Second Vatican Council was brought to a close by St. Pope Paul VI on December 7th,
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  1965.
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  On July 24th, 1966, Cardinal Ottaviani, who is the head of the Holy Office, later known
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  as the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, now the DDF, sent a circular
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  letter to the presidents of the Episcopal conferences throughout the world regarding
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  some sentences and errors arising from interpretations of the decrees of the Second Vatican Council.
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  So it wasn't even a year yet, and apparently people were messing up.
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  And that really set Ottaviani off, because he was so devoted to the council that he said
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  that it was the job of the bishops to interpret it and enforce it and apply it properly.
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  He said this, it is the right and duty of the hierarchy to monitor, guide, and promote
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  the movement of renewal begun by the council so that the conciliar documents and decrees
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  are properly interpreted and implemented with the utmost fidelity to their merit and their
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  spirit.
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  So this is a big deal, and Ottaviani has positioned himself as the copyright enforcer of the Second
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  Vatican Council, and he's enlisting the aid of the bishops of the world, and he points
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  out some areas where people are betraying the letter and the intent of the council.
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  And that's what kind of caught my eye and caught my ear, because I says, gosh, the self-identified
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  heirs and stewards of the council, the advocates of synodality, seem to be running afoul of
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  what Ottaviani wants to enforce.
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  He said one large area was regarding sacred scripture, the accuracy of the text, the infallibility
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  of the text, the inerrancy of the text.
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  And he said that some people seem to be abandoning a just notion of the true value of the historical
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  text.
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  And that got me to thinking, the advocates of synodality that I hear will tell us frequently
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  that St. Paul got lots of things wrong, especially regarding same-sex attraction, and that the
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  evangelists got things wrong, especially with accounts of miracles like the multiplication
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  of loaves and fishes.
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  Some of the loudest advocates for synodality say, no, no, no, it wasn't that our Lord did
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  the work.
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  It's that our Lord moved people to share.
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  Well, and we know this because Vatican II, onward to synodality, and Cardinal Ottaviani
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  says not so fast.
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  He also offers a warning regarding the integrity of doctrine.
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  He said some affirm that dogmatic formulas are subject to historical evolution, and even
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  point that their objective meaning is susceptible to change.
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  Oh my.
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  Well, that really sounds like the loudest, most enthusiastic proponents of synodality,
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  doesn't it?
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  Let's take a look at the recent release document from study group number nine.
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  Their document is called Theological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment
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  of Emerging Doctrinal, Pastoral, and Ethical Issues.
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  Well, what's an emerging ethical issue, according to study group number nine?
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  Well, the experience of same-sex attraction.
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  Apparently, that's something new.
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  It's only been around since...
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  It's not clear, but it's definitely emerging, so it's definitely new.
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  And I got to think, gosh, you know, St. Paul wrote about that, doctors of the church like
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  St. Peter Damian wrote about it, St. Peter Canisius wrote about it, St. Catherine of
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  Siena wrote about it.
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  I don't see how this is an emerging issue, but let's grant that for now, that there's
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  this newly discovered issue of same-sex attraction.
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  And if we just listen to the lived experience of people who experience the emerging issue
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  of same-sex attraction, then we're going to need a new paradigm.
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  We're going to need, we're told, pastorality, and pastorality, whatever that means, is going
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  to be deployed against what are called pre-packaged doctrines, and against doctrinalist or even
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  fundamentalist crystallization.
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  So according to the defender of Vatican II, the enforcer of Vatican II, Cardinal Taviani,
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  doctrine is not subject to change, and clarity is our friend.
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  But according to the people who've discovered this emerging issue of same-sex attraction,
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  Vatican II, of which they claim to be the heirs, requires fundamental change, mutability
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  of doctrine and dogma, and clarity is not our friend.
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  Cardinal Taviani warns already in 1966, and for those of you playing at home, 1966 came
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  before 1968 when Humanae Vitae was released by Saint Paul VI, and it was after Gaudium
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  et Spes, paragraph 51, which took artificial contraception and abortion off the table,
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  Cardinal Taviani says that there are people who reduce the teaching authority of the Roman
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  pontiff to merely the sphere of opinion, which is exactly what many bishop conferences did
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  when Humanae Vitae was released.
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  So the synodalists, who for the most part apparently are not on board regarding the
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  Church's perennial teaching regarding contraception and abortion, and apparently are not on board
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  with the Church's traditional teaching and perennial teaching regarding same-sex attraction,
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  they've suddenly marked out for themselves what Cardinal Taviani would describe as an
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  ambiguous relationship with the Second Vatican Council.
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  He also says that moral tradition is at stake, and he says the errors against it are no less
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  trivial.
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  He writes this, in fact, some dare to reject the objective criteria of morality while others
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  do not acknowledge the natural law, preferring instead to advocate for the legitimacy of
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  so-called situational ethics.
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  So among these emerging ethical issues, including the newly discovered issue of same-sex attraction,
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  Cardinal Taviani, guardian of the Second Vatican Council, would say that our friends the synodalists,
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  they are rejecting scripture, the magisterium, natural law, and one might even say regard
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  certain very obvious well-known documented truths regarding human anatomy.
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  Finally, Cardinal Taviani also sends a warning about ecumenism.
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  He says this, it is regrettable that some interpret the conciliar decree in their own
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  terms, proposing an ecumenical action that offends the truth about the unity of the faith
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  and of the Church, fostering a pernicious irenicism and an indifferentism entirely alien
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  to the mind of the Council.
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  Well gosh, then maybe, if I understand Cardinal Taviani and his enforcement of Second Vatican
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  Council properly, maybe it is premature to suggest that all Christians are already one,
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  and maybe there are some harder conversations that Mrs. Mullaly and the Holy See need to
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  have about the right relationship between Canterbury and Rome.
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  So friends, we have a bit of a conundrum.
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  On the one hand, the most enthusiastic advocates of synodality claim to own Vatican II, require
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  the acceptance of Vatican II in its entirety, at least that's how I read what Cardinal Fernandez
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  says to the SSPX, and the documents of Vatican II cannot be corrected.
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  And the synodalists claim to be the heirs and stewards of all the good fruits and the
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  inevitable outcome of the Second Vatican Council.
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  If that's true, then what about this apparent copyright violation?
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  I think Cardinal Taviani says, you're representing Vatican II in a way that's at variance with
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  what the text actually says, and at variance with the enforcement actually required of
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  the bishops.
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  So I'm not a bishop, I'm not a cardinal, I'm not a prefect of anything, and again, maybe
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  I'm wrong.
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  Maybe I'm misreading Cardinal Taviani, maybe I'm misreading scripture, maybe I'm misreading
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  the text of Vatican II.
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  So I want to hear from you.
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  What do you think?
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  Does synodality merit a copyright strike from Cardinal Taviani?
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  Or are the synodalists correct that they are the inevitable outcome of the Second Vatican
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  Council?
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  Leave comments below or write me, please, at thestationofthecross.com slash askfather.
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  Meanwhile, think on these things today, take them to prayer, and talk about it with those
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  you love.
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  Go in peace and please do pray for me, for I am a sinner.