Latest / The Catholic Current / LTACL: No One for Vatican II? (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.)

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LTACL: No One for Vatican II? (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) · The Catholic Current

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  Does the name Harry Houdini mean anything to you?
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  He was a famous illusionist magician in the early part of the 20th century, and he was
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  an escape artist.
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  You know, they'd put a straightjack on him, they would wrap him up in chains, they'd nail
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  him into a barrel, then, you know, put him over a waterfall, and somehow he would escape.
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  And you wonder, how's he going to do it?
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  How's he going to do it?
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  I want to relate that to a question of the church and about full communion with Rome
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  and full communion with Rome as measured by full acceptance of the Second Vatican Council.
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  That seems to solve a lot of problems, you know, who's on what side and who's not.
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  Actually, it's not that easy.
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  Stay with me.
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  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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  Recently, I had a little presentation on the confusing issue of what it means to be in
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  full communion with Rome.
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  And is it all the way in, all the way out?
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  And some people reputed to be in full communion with Rome are celebrating people who are not
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  manifestly at all in communion with Rome and proud of it, and yet the SSPX described as
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  an imperfect communion with Rome is viewed with suspicion, disapproval, etc.
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  I'm not an apologist for the SSPX.
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  I'm just trying to understand, and maybe we can work this out together.
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  So let's take the litmus test for full communion with Rome.
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  It's the Second Vatican Council.
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  You've got to accept all of the documents.
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  Now St. Pope John XXIII, who convoked the council, said that the Second Vatican Council
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  was a pastoral council and not a dogmatic council.
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  And St. Pope Paul VI, who concluded the council, agreed this was a pastoral council and not
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  a dogmatic council.
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  And Cardinal Fernandez, the current, as of this recording, Prefect of the Dicastery of
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  the Doctrine of the Faith, he said the documents of the Second Vatican Council cannot be corrected.
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  Now how something cannot be corrected and also be not dogmatic but pastoral, let's put
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  parentheses around that for a moment, shall we?
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  Let's continue.
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  Now my claim is that I think that almost no one, almost no one, fully accepts the documents
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  of the Second Vatican Council, not all of them, and that's a problem for defining who's
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  in full communion with Rome or not.
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  What do I mean by that?
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  Let's jump away from the council for a few years and go right to 1968, 1968.
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  That's when St. Pope Paul VI, assisted by a Polish bishop named Karol Wojtyla, produced
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  the document Humanae Vitae, which reaffirmed the Church's traditional teaching regarding
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  artificial contraception and abortion.
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  A hard no on both.
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  Now what happened immediately afterwards?
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  Well, you had famous theologians like Father Charles Curran outright reject it.
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  He had hundreds of theologians sign denunciations of this, and even some bishops' conferences
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  said that it was a probable opinion, Humanae Vitae was, and you can just kind of make up
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  your own mind about teachings of the Church.
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  You're on your own, and I think one of the most famous was from the Canadian bishops'
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  conference was called the Winnipeg Statement, which, by the way, the Canadian bishops have
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  never withdrawn or repeated.
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  So you've got a clear dogmatic Church teaching, but you do you, seem to be the consensus of
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  a lot of Episcopal conferences, and it seemed to be the consensus of very many theologians
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  and academics.
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  Now why is that a problem for full communion with Rome?
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  Because Humanae Vitae, promulgated in 1968, simply reiterated and confirmed what was said
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  in the Second Vatican Council regarding abortion and contraception.
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  Oh yes, the document Gaudium et Spes, paragraph 51, which refers to abortion as an unspeakable
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  crime, also takes artificial contraception off the table.
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  It's not morally licit.
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  Now here is the question.
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  If full communion of Rome requires full acceptance of all the documents of the Second Vatican
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  Council, and Cardinal Fernandes says the documents cannot be corrected, we've got a problem.
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  Because between 1965 and 1968, it was clear that very many clergy of a variety of ranks
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  and very many lay people, in rejecting Humanae Vitae and choosing contraception and, God
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  save us, abortion, de facto rejected the Second Vatican Council.
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  Because remember, full acceptance of every document which cannot be corrected is a litmus
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  test for full communion with Rome.
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  But Father, no, Father did some research, Population Research Institute and some others,
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  and survey data suggests strongly that American Catholics contracept and abort at the same
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  rate of their secular counterparts.
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  In other words, they reject Humanae Vitae, they reject Gaudium et Spes paragraph 51 from
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  the Second Vatican Council.
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  Does that mean they're not in full communion with Rome?
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  Well, you know, Father, statistics, surveys, yes, yes, I know.
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  But look around.
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  Look around.
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  Talk to your pastors, talk to your bishops, brother priests, let me know if I got this
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  wrong, but there has been a dearth of infant baptisms in the United States and the Western
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  world in general since the 1960s.
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  So for people who are getting married and remaining Catholic, going to Mass, they're
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  not having kids.
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  Are they all infertile?
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  Are they all practicing NFP?
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  Data shows very, very small percentage of married couples practice NFP, which is a topic
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  in itself for another time.
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  So the fact that there has been a steep and steady decline in infant baptisms and parishes
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  in America and the West is strongly indicative and correlates with the other data that many
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  Catholics outright reject Humanae Vitae, the contraception abort, and de facto reject
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  the Second Vatican Council, which means, so we're told, they are not in full communion
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  with Rome.
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  Imperfect or in communion, I don't know, that hasn't been decided, but notice that when
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  folks want to pray in Latin in the manner of the saints and the martyrs, they're shunted,
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  they're shamed, they're investigated, they're banished, and their bishops receive documents
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  from Rome urging and demanding that these people be led, these recusants, these reprobates,
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  be led to the full acceptance of the documents of Vatican II.
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  Now, if full communion with Rome requires full acceptance of all the documents of Vatican
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  II, including Gaudium et spes, paragraph 51, and survey data and baptismal data indicate
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  that they're not, that they're contraceptive and aborting like everybody else, then they
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  are not in full communion with Rome either.
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  And as far as I know, there haven't been encyclicals and urgent mandates to lead the contracepting
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  and aborting Catholics to the full acceptance of the Second Vatican Council, which is the
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  litmus test for full communion with Rome.
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  So we're back to Harry Houdini.
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  It looks like we're in a straight jacket with chains and a barrel, nailed shut, going over
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  Niagara Falls.
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  What do you think?
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  Now, I'm nobody special, I'm just some guy from New Jersey that God's been good to.
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  I am, as Walker Percy might say, just a simple country pastor preaching a little gospel,
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  teaching a little philosophy.
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  Maybe I got this all wrong.
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  In which case, leave a note in the comments.
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  You can contact me at thestationofthecross.com slash askfather.
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  And if you think I'm right, let me know that too, because we're going to have to come back
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  to this a lot.
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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.