Chapter 25 - FILL IN HERE
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The Spirit of the Council
What ambiguities and heterodox orientations could have been avoided if Vatican II had been a dogmatic Council and not a so-called pastoral one!
Now, when we examine the successive drafts of the conciliar documents, we perceive the orientations that they express. Let me take up some of these:
The Priesthood of the Faithful
To be sure, Lumen gentium distinguishes between the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood of the priests (n. 10). Good, but then the text comprises long pages that speak of the priesthood in general, confusing the two, or making the priesthood of the priests, one function among others, of the common priesthood (n. 11).
Exaltation of the Conscience above the Law
Likewise, it is well said that man must submit himself to the law of God (Dignitatis humanæ n. 2). Then the liberty of man is exalted with his the personal conscience (n. 3); it comes to the point of upholding the objection of conscience (ibid. n. 3) in a manner so general that it is false: “Man must not be compelled to act against his conscience.” Now, this is true only of a true conscience or of an invincibly erroneous conscience! The result is a tendency to put conscience above the law and subjectivity above the objective order of things, whereas, it is quite evident that conscience is created to conform itself to the law.
Liberal Definition of Liberty
In like manner, at all times, particularly in the declaration on religious liberty, it is repeated that there must be no compulsion and no coercion (Gaudium et spes n. 47; Dignitatis humanæ, nn. 1, 2, 3, 10). Liberty is defined as the absence of constraint. Now it is indeed obvious that there is no society without the physical coercion of penalties or the moral coercion of the fear of the penalties which the laws include! Otherwise you have anarchy. Our Lord Jesus Christ is, to be sure, not the last one to resort to constraint: what moral coercion is stronger than declared in this sentence, “He who does not believe will be condemned”? (Mk 16:16) The thought of hell is heavy on consciences; this is a good, and it is coercion. Therefore, there are very certainly some good and salutary coercion!
Confusions and Incoherencies
Furthermore, there is no distinction in Dignitatis humanæ among the religious acts exempt from coercion on the part of the State; we would have to distinguish the internal and external, the private and public acts, and not to universally attribute the same liberty! (cf. n. 2)
In a Catholic country, one is well entitled to prevent the false forms of worship from being publicly displayed in order to limit their propaganda!
If the State truly does not have the right to intervene in religious matters, then parents no longer have the right to pass on to their children, and to impose upon them, a religion either! It results in the absurd if liberty in religious matters is generalized without any distinction!
Tendency towards Religious Indifferentism
If one asserts that every religion is a path towards God, or that the State is not qualified to pass judgment on the truth of such or such a religion, he is saying nonsense that borders on the heresy that is called indifferentism: indifferentism of the individual or indifferentism of the State vis-a-vis to the true Religion.
Indeed, that the Council exhibits this indifferentism or a tendency in this direction is undeniable. By exalting the individual conscience, the spiritual values, and the value for salvation of the other religions (Nostra ætate, n. 2; Unitatis redintegratio, n. 3; Dignitatis humanæ, n. 4), it supports individual indifferentism. By uttering unheard-of absurdities, as Bishop De Smedt did about the incompetence of the State to judge of religious truth and to recognize definitively the true God, the liberals propagate the indifferentism of the State, the atheism of the State.
The fruits of this spirit and of these pernicious doctrines are there: no longer does anyone among Catholics still maintain that in Catholic countries the State must recognize the true Religion, assist it by its laws, and in the same way, prevent the false religions from propagating themselves! No longer does anyone do this!
If, for example, Colombia in 1966 was a country that was still 95% Catholic, this is thanks to the State, which by its constitution prevented the propagation of the Protestant sects: an invaluable help to the Catholic Church! By protecting the faith of the citizens, these laws and these heads of State will have contributed to leading to heaven millions of individuals, who will have eternal life thanks to these laws, and would not have had it without them!—but now in Colombia it is ended! This fundamental law has been suppressed at the request of the Vatican, in application of the religious liberty of Vatican II! Thus, right now the sects are multiplying rapidly; these poor simple people are disarmed in the face of the propaganda of Protestant sects spoiled with money and means, who come and come again unceasingly to indoctrinate the illiterate. I am not making this up. This indeed, is it not a true oppression of consciences, something that is Protestant and Masonic? That is where the so-called religious liberty of the Council finds itself!
Tendency towards Naturalism
Read Chapter V of Gaudium et spes on international relations, international organizations, peace, and war. You will find there practically no reference to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Can the world be organized without Our Lord Jesus Christ? Have peace without the Princeps pacis? This is impossible! Now the world is plunged into war and subversion particularly because it is plunged into sin. First of all, therefore, it must be given the grace of Jesus Christ; it must be converted to Our Lord. He is the only solution to the problem of peace in the world and without Him; one speaks into a void.
It was Bishop Hauptmann, Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, who presided over the commission that drew up Gaudium et spes. This commission met with Protestants in Switzerland, having as its objective that this chapter could please and have an effect on international society. How do you expect this to be supernatural or truly marked with the sign of Our Lord Jesus Christ?
I will limit my enumeration of the errors to these: I do not say that everything is bad in this Council, that there are not some fine texts to meditate on. Contrarily, I assert, with the evidence in my hands, that there are some documents that are dangerous and even erroneous, which show liberal tendencies, and modernist tendencies, which afterwards inspired the reforms that are now bringing the Church down to the ground.