Above, a facsimile of the book cover; Below, a photocopy of the French original. Below, we present our translation.

Quote:"The gossip is that the experts directed the Council; indeed, this is not so wrong. I recall a minuscule but revealing episode. While the Decree on the Laymen [Apostolicam actuositatem] was being dicussed, I noticed that it still had a paragraph entirely permeated with the notion of a 'mandate' given to laymen by the Hierarchy, inspired by a dualist conception - the Church on one side and the world on the other. I met with another French expert and we agreed that this was bad.

But that paragraph had already been discussed and adopted by the commission. It was impossible, therefore, to change it. So, we wrote a text to be added that corrected it. It was a second paragraph that said more or less the opposite of the preceding one. The first in a certain way affirmed dualism. But the second stated that the action of the Church must go beyond it.

The French Bishops presented our new text as their own, and it was adopted."

Quote:

Msgr. Annibale Bugnini

In the ecumenical climate of the Second Vatican Council, it has been noted in many quarters that some expressions of the Orationes Solemnes of Good Friday sound pretty bad [or "rather off"] today. It has therefore been persistently asked whether it would be possible to attenuate [or "tone down"] some of the phrases.

It is always regrettable to have to touch venerable texts, which have nurtured, so effectively, Christian piety, and which still retain the spiritual fragrance of the early Christian ages of the Church. Above all, it is difficult to retouch literary masterpieces of unsurpassed form and conceptuality. Nevertheless, it was deemed necessary to undertake the work, so that no one would experience spiritual discomfort in the prayer of the Church.

The revisions were limited to what was absolutely necessary... The seventh prayer bears the title: "For the unity of Christians" (not "of the Church," which has always been one). We no longer speak of "heretics" and "schimatics," but of "all brothers who believe in Christ." The complete text says: [he provides some of the new texts, the new prayers V, VI and VII mentioned above]

Scholars will consider and highlight the biblical and liturgical sources from which the new texts, carefully crafted by the Consilium Study Groups, derive or draw inspiration. And let us also note that the work has often proceeded "with fear and trembling," having to sacrifice much-loved expressions and concepts, now long familiar.

How could we not regret, for example, the "ad sanctam matrem Ecclesiam catolicam atque apostolicam revocare dignetur" ["and recall them to our holy mother the Catholic and Apostolic Church"] of the seventh prayer? And yet, love for souls and the desire to facilitate in every way the path of union with our separated brothers, removing every stone that might even remotely constitute a stumbling block or cause for discomfort, have led the Church even to these painful sacrifices."

(L'Osservatore Romano, March 19, 1965, p.6)

Maria Laach Abbey

Quote:The sacraments are being desecrated and man’s need for the holy and for reverence is being violated under the pressure of secularism, sanctioned by the dissenters’ “new liturgy.”… My own unhappy experience, during many years of work in the postconciliar subcommissions appointed to implement the Council’s documents, was that from the very beginning, some commission members in high positions never intended to abide by the scope or spirit of the Council decrees; they intended rather to promote their own ideas. Their spurious interpretation was largely foreign to the Council decrees and was rather that demanded by current fads and by liturgists and theologians of certain schools…. This awareness of the ruling, normative value of Holy Tradition wherein all the Councils’ authority is rooted has practically disappeared in the modern Western Church, under the pressure of rebellious theologians, some of whom have totally rejected Holy Tradition and are essentially in a state of heresy. (4, 5, 7)

Quote:I am convinced that the Consilium’s subcommissions misunderstood their true task and hence, wittingly or unwittingly, betrayed the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. (8)

Quote:We will follow the postconciliar passage from Church crisis to world crisis, from occasional disagreement to organized dissent, from differences of opinion to open rebellion, from legitimate adaptation to neo-paganism, and from God-centered verticalism to man-centered horizontalism…. I will present both theological and anthropological analyses of the postconciliar decay, showing, among other things, how the deterioration of the liturgy has led to deterioration in many aspects of life in the Western Church, and thus even in Western civilization. (9)

There was—and still is—nothing less at stake than the very survival of the Church and of Christian civilization. This threat to her survival comes not from a “spontaneous evolution” resulting from practices becoming worn out or meaningless, but rather from an organized and concerted agenda of actions that aim, by all available means, to tear down the Church and destroy Christianity. While many leaders of the Church and Christianity are sleeping, the wolves are decimating the unsuspecting flock. (11)

Quote:The dissenters recognize the ultimate primacy and necessity of the liturgy; this is why they use the liturgy as their battlefield. (12, italics in original)

Quote:Maria Laach Abbey…was the undisputed center of the Liturgical Movement and a center of spiritual renewal for all of Western Europe. On an average Sunday eighty busloads of spiritual seekers visited Maria Laach, magnificent in both its physical setting and its worship. The liturgy was celebrated there more beautifully than one can imagine: faultless yet naturally reverent, amidst a dignified yet sincere brotherly love. How often I heard visitors say, “This is heaven on earth; it couldn’t be more beautiful.” (26)

Quote:The deep impulse of the whole renewal movement, including in America, was a striving for true piety and a return to the sources of Christianity —completely the opposite of the destructive resentment of today’s dissenters. To my great sorrow I must report that many of the renewal movement’s leaders in both the United States and Europe, some of whom were my dear friends, gradually lost the movement’s original vision and no longer promote its goals. Mais où sont les neiges d’antan. How have the old dreams vanished. (30–31)

The true nature of liturgy has been perverted, resulting in social, man-centered, desacralized “services” in which awe and reverence for God’s holiness have all but disappeared…. In the heart of the Church today there exists a decay precisely the opposite of the goals of both the Council and the preconciliar renewal movement. Why was it that Christians in the decades before the Council thronged to the European abbeys that were hearts of the renewal? Was it to be entertained by popular novelties or have their ears tickled by new teachings? No; they came to share in true worship, enlivened by a solid hunger and respect for the holy, for reverence, and for objective authenticity. By participating in reverent worship and embracing objective truth, the people were freed from their unredeemed subjectivism and the often-prosaic banality of daily life. (34)

Quote:Father Annibale Bugnini, editor of the journal Ephemerides Liturgicae and professor at several Roman institutes, was our Secretary [for the Preparatory Commission for Liturgy prior to Vatican II]. He was a very capable man and an adroit politician with a special charism for bringing people together and bridging oppositions. As we will see in the pages to come, he exerted a strong (and often problematic) influence in the liturgical developments during and after the Council. (45–46)

Quote:In between sessions of the Preparatory Commissions, while most of us were working on our assigned tasks in our home countries, certain men in Rome were also busy, but in a less honest way. Some of them, thinking they had the field free for their obscure operations, went so far as to change the conclusions reached by the Members at previous sessions. In our Preparatory Commission for Liturgy, we strongly suspected a certain monsignor of doctoring texts that the Commission had approved but were not to his liking. In the aftermath, some have seen this underhanded activity as part of a general plot, but it has not been proven. [emphasis The Catacombs (52)

Quote:Between the preconciliar and postconciliar times, then, something changed drastically—including in the Council’s commissions entrusted with its work. After the Council they became more and more infected by a new high-handed spirit whereby some commission members put themselves and their opinions above the Council documents on which they were supposed to work in the very spirit of the Council Fathers. Worship became the primary victim of their high-handedness, but this man-centered viewpoint also deeply affected the problem of religious liberty and the Church in the world. It was essentially a switch from the objective, vertical ascent toward God to the subjective, horizontal gravitation in man. [emphasis The Catacombs(81)

The members of Pope Paul VI’s Consilium and its subcommissions (including myself) began their work of interpreting CSL [this abbreviation refers to the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy] in January 1964. Thus began the first phase, a time of creative work of fellows: study, meetings, and discussions within the subcommissions. This work was initially good, but it soon became infected by erroneous attitudes. (82)

Quote:In the beginning of our postconciliar work, the spirit of excitement and brotherhood was strong and generated good results, as long as the experts stuck to the text and spirit of CSL. I would like to remember the experts primarily as scholars who wanted to serve the Church.

But after working with them for some time, I came to see how their personal differences began to dominate: their belonging to this particular school or order or country, their view on the importance or unimportance of history and Church Tradition, their past scholarly work, their personal likings. Many of these men were in-depth research scholars, lopsided toward their own field of study. Secretary Bugnini, who was rather a horizontal “overview scholar,” often gently overcame these experts’ tyrannical misgrowth and brought them to agreement beyond their specialty. But personal differences quickly came to claim the status of absolute values which the more aggressive experts imposed upon others.

So gradually a rift grew among the experts. Two factors were involved. First, the ambitions, characters, and idiosyncrasies of both persons and groups became more and more blatant and difficult to handle; the situation was especially difficult between some Germans and French. Second, some experts broke more and more away from fidelity to CSL, valuing their own opinions above the Church and the Holy Spirit. These men became highly aggressive and often prevailed in the final decision-making process, as we will see. Some of my most painful memories of this period are of certain experts’ reckless tyranny, which had harmful consequences for the whole Western Church. [emphasis The Catacombs (85)

Quote:The trend away from adherence to CSL spread to the top, to Secretary Annibale Bugnini. Throughout the Liturgical Movement, the Preparatory Commission for Liturgy, and Pope John’s Consilium [here he’s referring to an earlier body, in 1962-63], Father Bugnini had been faithful to Tradition and the Magisterium. But after the Council he changed. Based on my personal friendship with him, I believe that this change arose not from purposeful malice, but rather from weakness. He seemed to me very impressionable: if someone pushed him one way, he went that way; if someone pushed him the other way, he went there instead.

But Father Bugnini was also a politician, and one who wanted power. In order to gain power he had to appear successful, so he went along with those who were the most vocal and apparently powerful. [emphasis The Catacombs He was heavily influenced by the modernists who broke from fidelity to CSL, the most outspoken of whom was Johannes Wagner from the Trier Institut in Germany. Before long, Bugnini stopped inviting to the meetings those “reactionary” members who dared to adhere to the text of CSL or to sound principles of religious anthropology. I know this as fact, because Bishop Malula and I were among those who fell out of his favor.

What role did Bishop Malula and I play in the midst of this growing tension and polarization? After a short time, Bishop Malula lost all desire to participate in the subcommissions. The revolutionary boutique of scholars made him feel useless; they treated him as an ignoramus and even insulted him. In addition, the subcommissions’ entire work was going counter to CSL and was useless for the mission countries, especially those of Africa. Bishop Malula stated this fact more than once to Secretary Bugnini. On such occasions Bugnini answered the good bishop with remarks so atrocious they are forever etched in my memory:

“Bugnini: If you cannot agree, set up your own commission in Africa.

“Malula: Where will our Church, poor as a beggar, get the funds to do such a thing, while you here avail yourselves of the money of the whole rich West?

“Bugnini: N’importe [it doesn’t matter]. We here work from the assumption that the modern Western man is the man tout court, the model of all true humanity, for all countries and cultures, and for all ages to come.”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Furious over such an arrogant and absurd insult, Bishop Malula vowed never to return. He authorized me to replace him and instructed me accordingly. I suppose Father Bugnini and his people were happy to be rid of an “enemy,” according to the emerging policy of excluding those who were faithful to CSL.

We will return later to Father Bugnini’s revealing response to Bishop Malula, for it became apparent that his opinion about the supremacy and normative value of modern Western man was part of his agenda—and consequently part of the agenda of the Consilium’s subcommissions he oversaw.

At this point, one might ask the obvious and serious question: from whence does one man, or group, get the right to impose his way of praying or celebrating upon the whole Western Church? This question goes to the heart of the dubious validity, or at least the liceity, of much of the work of the Consilium’s subcommissions, for they often worked in defiance of CSL, the only authoritative norm given by the Council. (86–87)

One of the last general meetings of the Consilium was dedicated to liturgical language. I was to give a paper on how the new Christian cultures (such as Africa’s) saw this problem. Bishop Malula and I spent several hours in deliberation and study to bring together all our experience, for the profit of the Church. The bishop, a highly-cultured man and outstanding linguist, had worked his entire adult life on building up a Christian language, in the vernacular, fitting for Holy Scripture and worship in Africa. His strong conclusion was this: worship requires a holy language, permeated with reverence and awe of God and thus lifting up the worshipers to truly meet with God and the divine world.

So I gave my talk, opening with a description of Bishop Malula’s experience and continuing with my own anthropological research. But my presentation was generally rejected. The experts had already made up their minds: they had no intention of learning from these half-wild Africans! They had already decided that the new liturgy was meant for the poorly-educated, secularized, modern Western man (the model of future culture, as Father Bugnini had said). They reasoned therefore that its language should be on this same under-civilized level —not street language per se, but close to it—so there would be no break between the liturgical services and man’s usual language outside of them. I strongly protested. In revenge, they decided not to mention my talk in the index of the proceedings. (88)

Quote:Father Bugnini’s statement, made twice in my presence, is important for two reasons. First is the persons involved. Bugnini was Secretary of the Consilium and thus had enormous influence over the subcommissions’ operation and results. Bishop Malula was the only representative of the African continent, and he henceforth boycotted the meetings in protest. Second is that Bugnini’s arrogant statement in fact rendered well the policy of the Consilium. Thus we see that the subjective, not the objective, theological standpoint of the Consilium’s Secretary (and its members) was a strong factor in decisions regarding the postconciliar liturgical documents. (132)

Father Bugnini and the proponents of change believed that the first and real foundation of “good worship” was its horizontal (i.e., man-oriented) dimension, and that its vertical (God-oriented) dimension was secondary, following from the other…. [emphasis The CatacombsThis is perhaps the primary cause of the demolition of the postconciliar Roman liturgy. The primacy of the horizontal is the basic principle of the agenda of the second postconciliar phase. In this principle, liturgy’s first dimension is horizontal, as a social action of the people to create a down-to-earth sharing among the participants. The result of horizontalizing worship is the almost totally socialized and man-centered dimension of the liturgy now found in most parishes. But this destroys the most basic meaning of all worship. It is a tragic desacralization of Christian worship, where man, not God, is central, and the liturgy becomes a fireside affair, a civil performance intended to make everyone feel happy, as in some Protestant groups. (135)

This horizontal image of man embraces the attitude that the model for man is the science-man that Father Bugnini had in mind: the human being who stands totally free from all depth-dimension, all religion, history, and tradition, and is rather geared totally toward the present reality. [emphasis The Catacombs(150)

The plaque at Jungmann’s tomb in the crypt of the Jesuit church in Innsbruck (photo by author when visiting there in 2017)

Quote:Some spiritual giants like Father Josef Jungmann exercised a soothing influence, although he was firmly opposed to some iconoclastic novelties being proposed, including the altar facing the people, an issue we will discuss later. I shared the disappointment of Father Jungmann and many other dear friends in the Consilium at the iconoclasm of our rebellious colleagues. (77)

As Father Josef Jungmann often warned the subcommission leaders (but alas! he was unheeded), the Novus Ordo was essentially built up outside the perspective of the Sacred and its demands. Proof of this is that the two “lungs” of the Sacred—reverence and symbolism—have practically disappeared from worship. And “worship” without symbolism and reverence (holiness) is a contradiction in terms. (138)

Quote:At most of these sessions, I felt I was assisting at a joke, for the bishops were often manifestly manipulated by the relators [emphasis The Catacombs—some of whom dared even to silence the bishops for their “incompetence”!

In the aftermath, some bishops told me they felt obliged to approve “the wonderful work of these all-competent experts.” Indeed, more than once in subcommission meetings I had heard bishops say, “You experts are appointed by the Church to work all these things out; the Church trusts you because you are experts. It makes no sense that we, who are not specialists, would presume to correct your work, on which you have labored so long and assiduously.” Other bishops later expressed privately to me how much they regretted the course those events took, knowing it was because they themselves “let things go,” feeling unable to change them in the face of the impenetrable wall of the experts’ perceived competence. The experts’ aggression and the bishops’ lack of real intervention explain the tenor of the documents and why many are so lacking in the pastoral dimension.

I have been a professor of theology and liturgy at several colleges and universities for almost fifty years. During that time I have gathered broad experience of the tragic inbreeding and incompetence of many who are called “experts” and “scholars.” Sadly, many of them, especially the most aggressive ones, do not deserve the confidence placed in them. (91–92)

The archimandrite expresses displeasure with many particular results of the Consilium. Thus, he speaks of “the mongrelized combination that has become the Western Rite of Confirmation” (76), and notes that “the suppression of the subdiaconate was inconsistent with a return to the ancient sources as intended by the Council Fathers” (94); as for the rite of the consecration of churches, “the dropping of some valuable Carolingian elements deprived the rite of symbolism that had given it the mystery-filled dramatics so beloved by the faithful —and which had been an element of ecumenical rapprochement with the East” [emphasis The Catacombs(ibid.).

An unspecified meeting connected with liturgical reform, posted at the Dicastery for Divine Worship

Quote:One of Pope Paul’s queries of these Protestants [who had been invited as consultants to the Consilium] had been whether or not the planned Mass rite, the Novus Ordo, would bring the Catholic Church closer to her Protestant brethren. It is asserted that the Protestants’ unanimous “yes” tipped the scale toward its final introduction. [emphasis The Catacombs I personally asked Father Louis Bouyer, who was close to Paul VI, what influenced the pope to choose the Novus Ordo. He said in essence that the pope was instructed and convinced by the subcommissions’ rebels that the Church, and the Protestants, wanted this Mass. So the pope said, in essence, if that is so, I give in. The Novus Ordo was indeed favorable toward ecumenical efforts with Protestants—but it gravely hurt those efforts with the Eastern Churches, contrary to the Council’s intent. (99)

Quote:Loyal and orthodox liturgists were perhaps the most disappointed by the new Missal. They knew that perfection and unanimity are impossible, but they also knew there is quite a distance between a particular option and a mediocre result which comes from constantly compromising on essentials. They immediately recognized that the Novus Ordo exceeded all measure of compromise. Moreover, they were critically aware of this fact: the Novus Ordo is not faithful to CSL but goes substantially beyond the parameters which CSL set for the reform of the Mass rite. (98, emphasis in original)

Quote:For many people, the vernacular was the great “savior” that overshadowed and justified all the other changes; unfortunately, however, it became a sort of narcotic that dispensed them from further critical thinking. (100)

Quote:The postconciliar writers essentially created a new Office, contrary to the instruction of CSL 23…. The flaws in this new Office are many; here I will emphasize just one. If the Divine Office is to be truly the “prayer of the Church,” it must be provided a dual structure and ethos—one for private prayer and one for recitation or singing in common. Some patterns for ease of singing, such as the Gregorian or Byzantine systems of eight tones, should have been built in. But the president of this subcommission refused to allow a dual structure, and the Office was treated as a text to be merely read or silently meditated upon, not celebrated…. This subcommission’s experts took as their paradigm “praying a private text” instead of “celebrating a liturgy of prayer”; hence they failed to provide actions or rubrics or gestures (except eventually incense at the Magnificat in Vespers), which would have been of great benefit.

This situation urges us to again ask the question: Who in the Church has the right to impose his way of praying upon the whole Church? And who has the right to interrupt the centuries-old organic flow of prayer tradition in the Western Church and also to ignore the ancient tradition of her sister Churches in the East? (95–96)

Quote:shared with me, in deep sorrow, that some of [his Liturgical Movement friends] (including a few mentioned in this book) became part of the postconciliar “rebellion.” He said that men such as these, to varying degrees, gradually abandoned their foundation of deep prayer, spiritual discipline, and humble devotion to the Mother of God. As a spirit of pride took hold, they started considering action more important than prayer —and valuing their own opinions over Holy Tradition and the Council’s primary documents they were tasked with implementing. (xxii)

Quote:“The atmosphere of the celebration of the liturgy must be holy, clothed in awe and reverence, as befits the redeeming Presence of God’s Majesty and our answer to this Presence” (67);

“the authority of, and real recourse to, Holy Tradition take precedence over all other considerations, including adaptation” (73);

“a break with true Tradition is always a disaster for the piety of the faithful and often for the liturgy itself. Hence there is no provision for creating a new Mass, a new liturgical year, a new Divine Office, et cetera” (76).

Quote:Anyone like myself, who was moved by this perception [of the liturgy as a living network of tradition] in the time of the Liturgical Movement on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, can only stand, deeply sorrowing, before the ruins of the very things they were concerned for.

“The Liturgy Has Been Dismantled”: Portland Archbishop Robert Dwyer’s Assessment in 1971



Robert Joseph Dwyer (1908-76)

Quote:The great mistake of the Council Fathers was to allow the implementation of the Constitution to fall into the hands of men who were either unscrupulous or incompetent. This is the so-called Liturgical Establishment, a Sacred Cow which acts more like a white elephant as it tramples the shards of a shattered liturgy with ponderous abandon.

Quote:Who dreamed on that day that within a few years, far less than a decade, the Latin past of the Church would be all but expunged, that it would be reduced to a memory fading into the middle distance? The thought of it would have horrified us, but it seemed so far beyond the realm of the possible as to be ridiculous. So we laughed it off.

Quote:Filled as we are with a most ardent desire to see the true Christian spirit flourish in every respect and be preserved by all the Christian faithful, we deem it necessary to provide before anything else for the sanctity and dignity of the temple, in which the faithful assemble for no other object than that of acquiring this spirit from its foremost and indispensable font, which is the [active] participation in the divine mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer of the Church. [See here for an excellent response to those who claim that active participation as it was 'weaponized' at Vatican II, originated with Pope Pius X. - The Catacombs]

Quote:Benedict’s accommodation of the Tridentine liturgy, while pastorally motivated, undercut the fundamental principle of the liturgical renewal, for the faithful who now attend that liturgy have little opportunity for active participation.

Quote:In the first place, with regard to studies, We will and ordain that scholastic philosophy be made the basis of the sacred sciences. It goes without saying that if anything is met with among the scholastic doctors which may be regarded as an excess of subtlety, or which is altogether destitute of probability, We have no desire whatever to propose it for the imitation of present generations (Leo XIII. Enc. Aeterni Patris). And let it be clearly understood above all things that the scholastic philosophy We prescribe is that which the Angelic Doctor has bequeathed to us, and We, therefore, declare that all the ordinances of Our Predecessor on this subject continue fully in force, and, as far as may be necessary, We do decree anew, and confirm, and ordain that they be by all strictly observed. In seminaries where they may have been neglected let the Bishops impose them and require their observance, and let this apply also to the Superiors of religious institutions. Further let Professors remember that they cannot set St. Thomas aside, especially in metaphysical questions, without grave detriment. (Pascendi gregis #45)

Quote:Now since the decree on the interpretation of holy scripture, profitably made by the council of Trent, with the intention of constraining rash speculation, has been wrongly interpreted by some, we renew that decree and declare its meaning to be as follows: that in matters of faith and morals, belonging as they do to the establishing of Christian doctrine, that meaning of holy scripture must be held to be the true one, which Holy Mother Church held and holds, since it is her right to judge of the true meaning and interpretation of holy scripture.

In consequence, it is not permissible for anyone to interpret holy scripture in a sense contrary to this, or indeed against the unanimous consent of the fathers."

-Vatican Council, Chapter II, On Revelation

Quote:7. Therefore we define that every assertion contrary to the truth of enlightened faith is totally false [34].
8. Furthermore the Church which, together with its apostolic office of teaching, has received the charge of preserving the deposit of faith, has by divine appointment the right and duty of condemning what wrongly passes for knowledge, lest anyone be led astray by philosophy and empty deceit [35].
9. Hence all faithful Christians are forbidden to defend as the legitimate conclusions of science those opinions which are known to be contrary to the doctrine of faith, particularly if they have been condemned by the Church; and furthermore they are absolutely bound to hold them to be errors which wear the deceptive appearance of truth.
(Session III, chapter iv)

Quote:For in the vast and varied abundance of studies opening before the mind desirous of truth, everybody knows how the old maxim describes theology as so far in front of all others that every science and art should serve it and be to it as handmaidens. (Leo XIII., [i]Lett. ap. In Magna, Dec. 10, 1889).

Quote:6. Such fictitious tenets of evolution which repudiate all that is absolute, firm and immutable, have paved the way for the new erroneous philosophy which, rivaling idealism, immanentism and pragmatism, has assumed the name of existentialism, since it concerns itself only with existence of individual things and neglects all consideration of their immutable essences.

Quote:To finish with this whole question of faith and its shoots, it remains to be seen, Venerable Brethren, what the Modernists have to say about their development. First of all they lay down the general principle that in a living religion everything is subject to change, and must change, and in this way they pass to what may be said to be, among the chief of their doctrines, that of Evolution. To the laws of evolution everything is subject - dogma, Church, worship, the Books we revere as sacred, even faith itself, and the penalty of disobedience is death.

...Consequently, the formulae too, which we call dogmas, must be subject to these vicissitudes, and are, therefore, liable to change. Thus the way is open to the intrinsic evolution of dogma. An immense collection of sophisms this, that ruins and destroys all religion. Dogma is not only able, but ought to evolve and to be changed. This is strongly affirmed by the Modernists, and as clearly flows from their principles." (Pasc. 36, 13)

Quote:Is evolution a theory, a system or a hypothesis? It is much more: it is a general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforward if they are to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light illuminating all facts, a curve that all lines must follow.

- Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution, p. 130.

Quote:I want to emphasize again that I decidedly agree with [Hans] Kung when he makes a clear distinction between Roman theology (taught in the schools of Rome) and the Catholic Faith. To free itself from the constraining fetters of Roman Scholastic Theology represents a duty upon which, in my humble opinion, the possibility of the survival of Catholicism seems to depend.

(Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, from a chapter in the book Zum Problem Unfehlbarkeit – “The Problem of Infallibility”, a series of essays edited by Karl Rahner and published in 1971)

Quote:"Thus, the human race has passed from a rather static concept of reality to a more dynamic, evolutionary one. In consequence there has arisen a new series of problems, a series as numerous as can be, calling for efforts of analysis and synthesis." GS #5)

Quote:"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...."

…these words give rise to a certain conflict. They are beautiful and familiar, but are they also true? Everything seems to speak against it, for science has long since disposed of the concepts that we have just now heard -- the idea of a world that is completely comprehensible in terms of space and time, and the idea that creation was built up piece by piece over the course of seven [or six] days. Instead of this we now face measurements that transcend all comprehension.

…Do these words, then, count for anything? In fact a theologian said not long ago that creation has now become an "unreal" concept; that if one is to be intellectually honest one ought to speak no longer of creation but rather of "mutation and selection." Are these words true?

There were times when Israel was so preoccupied with the sufferings or the hopes of its own history, so fastened upon the here and now, that there was hardly any use in its looking back at creation; indeed, it hardly could. The moment when creation became a dominant theme occurred during the Babylonian Exile. It was then that the account that we have just heard -- based, to be sure, on very ancient traditions -- assumed its present form. Israel had lost its land and its temple. According to the mentality of the time this was something incomprehensible, for it meant that the God of Israel was vanquished -- a God whose people, whose land, and whose worshipers could be snatched away from him. A God who could not defend his worshipers and his worship was seen to be, at the time, a weak God. Indeed, he was no God at all; he had abandoned his divinity. And so, being driven out of their own land and being erased from the map was for Israel a terrible trial: Has our God been vanquished, and is our faith void?

Ratzinger, In the Beginning (editor's note: the people of Israel were exiled because of centuries of idolatry and grave sins, and only went into captivity after the Lord God had mercifully sent His prophets to forewarn and admonish them to repent)

Quote:“The history of the liturgy is constantly growing into an ever-new now, and it must also repeatedly prune back a present that has become the past, so that what is essential can reappear with new vigor. The liturgy needs growth and development as well as purgation and refining and in both cases needs to preserve its identity and that purpose without which it would lose the very reason for its existence[emphasis - The Catacombs]. And if that is really the case, then the alternative between ‘traditionalists’ and ‘reformers’ is woefully inadequate to the situation. He who believes that he can only choose between old and new has already traveled a good way along a dead-end street.”

(Cardinal Ratzinger – 1994 sermon on the occasion of the retirement of his brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, as choirmaster of Regensburg Cathedral)

Quote:J. A. Jungmann, one of the truly great liturgists of our time, defined the liturgy of his day, such as it could be understood in the light of historical research, as a "liturgy which is the fruit of development" . . . What happened after the [Second Vatican] Council was something else entirely: in the place of the liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over centuries and replaced it, as in a manufacturing process, with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product (produit banal de l'instant). [Introduction by Cardinal Ratzinger to La Reforme Liturgique en question (Le-Barroux: Editions Sainte-Madeleine), 1992, pp. 7-8.]

Quote:It is absolutely false to maintain, with reference to the truths of our faith, that what we believe regarding the creation is of no consequence, so long as one has an exact conception of God; because an error regarding the nature of creation always gives rise to a false idea concerning God.

—Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Contra Gentiles"

Quote:In the life of the Church and consequently, in the life of each one of her children, we will have, therefore, a period of a greater liberty, that is to say, of fewer legal obligations and less internal inhibitions.

Formal discipline will be reduced; all arbitrary intolerance will be abolished together with all absolutism; the positive law will be simplified; the exercise of authority will be tempered; the sense of that Christan liberty, which so greatly interested the first Christian generation when it was free from observance of the Mosaic Law and its complex rituals, will be promoted (Gal. 5:1).

Giorgio La Pira extending a hand to Communism with a smiling, ‘Christian’ face

• Dorothy Day called him “a saint in politics” who “took the unused homes of the rich to make homes for the poor” without their owners’ permission. (3)
  
• Paul VI characterized him as “the example every Christian ought to keep firmly in mind during his earthly passage towards the kingdom of God.” (4)
  
• John Paul II said he was “an exemplary lay Christian” for “the entire Ecclesial Community” and recommended “everyone to cherish his teaching.” (5)
  
• Benedict XVI said that as “an eminent figure in politics, culture and spirituality of the last century,” La Pira worked “for the cause of fraternal existence among nations,” setting an example to present day Catholics for “a common effort to promote this basic good in various spheres: in society, politics, the economy, cultures and among religions.” (6)
  

Paul VI praised La Pira highly and helped allay suspicions about his socialist policies

Benedict's ecumenism with schismatics, heretics, Jews and Muslims contradicts the Magisterium prior to the Council

The denial of the traditional doctrine on religious liberty brought the applause of the Revolution to Benedict XVI

Quote:“But perhaps some will say: Is there to be no progress of religion in the Church? There is, certainly, and very great ... But it must be a progress and not a change. Let, then, the intelligence, science, and wisdom of each and all of individuals and of the whole Church, in all ages and in all times, increase and flourish in abundance; but simply in its own proper kind, that is to say, in one and the same doctrine, one in the same sense, and one in the same judgment.”(5)

Quote:“Hence that meaning (sensus) of the sacred doctrine must always be retained which Holy Mother Church has once declared, and we must never abandon that meaning under the appearance or in the name of a deeper understanding.”