The Catholic Trumpet: Revisiting the Catalog of SSPX Compromise

[Stone]

#9: Change (Is Vatican II Part of Tradition?)

The Catholic Trumpet [slightly adapted and reformatted] | July 7, 2025


+Archbishop Lefebvre commenting on a statement of Cardinal Suenens:

"It was Cardinal Suenens who exclaimed, “Vatican II is the French Revolution in the Church” and among other unguarded declarations he added “One cannot understand the French or the Russian revolutions  unless one knows something of the old regimes which they brought to an end… It is the same in church affairs: a reaction can only be judged in relation to the state of things that preceded it”.

What preceded, and what he considered due for abolition, was that wonderful hierarchical construction culminating in the Pope, the Vicar of Christ on earth. He continued:

“The Second Vatican Council marked the end of an epoch; and if we stand back from it a little more we see it marked the end of a series of epochs, the end of an age”. 

VS

Bishop Fellay in response to a question from the CNS as to whether Vatican II formed part of Catholic Tradition:

"I would hope so," he said, when asked if Vatican Il itself belongs to Catholic tradition...The pope says that ... the council must be put within the great tradition of the church, must be understood in accordance with it. These are statements we fully agree with, totally, absolutely," the bishop said. https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/0...holic.html

NB: As we shall see later, this same response from Bishop Fellay evinces an acceptance of the "hermeneutic of continuity."

The Catholic Trumpet note: Additionally, to further document Bishop Fellay’s acceptance of Vatican II as “tradition,” you can see for yourself: