Left: Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day in Denver in 1993. (CNS photo/Joe Rimkus Jr.); middle: Pope Benedict XVI at his final general audience in St. Peter's Square on Feb. 27, 2013. (CNS photo/Paul Haring); right: Pope Francis prays during Mass Nov. 5, 2022, at Bahrain National Stadium in Awali. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
On the morning of October 17, 1978, the newly-elected Pope John Paul II concelebrated Mass with the College of Cardinals and pledged that the program of his papacy would be the full implementation of the Second Vatican Council. That was his “definitive duty,” for the Council had been “an event of utmost importance” in the two millennia of Christian history. As I explain in To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II (Basic Books), the next 26-and-a-half years saw John Paul II fulfill that pledge, for his pontificate was an epic of teaching and witness that helped provide the Council the interpretive keys it had not given itself.
Unlike the previous 20 ecumenical councils, Vatican II did not articulate or identify a definitive key to its proper interpretation: something that made clear that “This is what we mean.” Other councils had written creeds, defined dogmas, condemned heresies, legislated canons into Church law and commissioned catechisms. Vatican II did none of those things, which was one reason why a donnybrook over the Council’s intention and meaning ensued.
In the 1975 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (Announcing the Gospel), Pope Paul VI began the process of giving the Council-without-keys an authoritative interpretation by recalling John XXIII’s original intention for the Council: Vatican II was to launch the Church on a revitalized mission of Christ-centered evangelization. John Paul II filled in the blanks of what that new evangelization would involve with his voluminous magisterium — and by his pastoral visit to the Holy Land in March 2000, which reminded the Church that Christianity began with a personal encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus, who must be ever at the center of the Church’s proposal and proclamation to the world.
At John Paul II’s side during this great work of providing the keys to the Council was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would succeed the Polish pope as Pope Benedict XVI. Like his papal predecessor, Ratzinger was a man of the Council; in fact, the young Bavarian theologian had been one of the three most influential theological advisers to the conciliar bishops. So it was not surprising that, in his first Christmas address to the Roman Curia in 2005, Benedict XVI should have forthrightly addressed the question of the proper interpretation of Vatican II.
Like the man who summoned it, Pope John XXIII, Pope Benedict knew that the Council was not convened to reinvent Catholicism; that was not what ecumenical councils do. Rather, the Council was intended to rekindle the Church’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and renew the Church’s experience of the Holy Spirit, so that, like the disciples after the first Christian Pentecost, the Church would be emboldened for radical mission. Thus Vatican II, he taught, should be understood as a Council that developed the Church’s tradition organically. Vatican II was not a rupture with tradition, but a deepening of the Church’s self-understanding in continuity with divine revelation.
Which is why, in To Sanctify the World, I suggest that the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI should be understood as one, continuous, 35-year arc of conciliar interpretation, providing the keys that unlock Vatican II’s authoritative teaching and evangelical power.
What, then, of the present pontificate?
Pope Francis has spoken of his respect for the Council. And his call for a Church “permanently in mission” certainly reflects John XXIII’s original intention for Vatican II, which Pope John summed up in one succinct sentence in September 1962: “The purpose of the Council is….evangelization.” Yet the present pontificate has diverged from the Council’s teaching in several ways.
The Vatican’s current China policy contradicts the Council’s teaching that no rights or privileges are to be given governments in the appointment of bishops — a teaching now legally embodied in Canon 337.5. The Holy See’s adherence to the 2019 Abu Dhabi Declaration and its claim that the plurality of religions is an expression of God’s will does not sit easily with the Council’s proclamation of Jesus Christ as the one, unique redeemer of humanity: the Lord who is the center of history and the cosmos.
One of Vatican II’s signal accomplishments was its strong affirmation of the authority to govern conferred by sacramental ordination to the episcopate; recent reforms of the Roman Curia, the deposition of bishops without due process and curial diktats about the proper celebration of Mass (and even the content of parish bulletins!) undercut that authority. And the pontificate’s exceptionally narrow interpretation of the Council’s teaching on the liturgy has made the implementation of Vatican II even more contentious.
These disparities will be a focus of the next papal conclave.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Pope Francis at his general audience on May 17, 2023 (left) and a painting of St. Francis Xavier in the Church of the Gesù in Rome (right). / Daniel Ibanez/Creative Commons
Vatican City, May 17, 2023 / 04:35 am (CNA).
In a world in which there … […]
Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Oct. 5, 2016. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
CNA Staff, Mar 13, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
March 13 marks the anniversary of the election of Pope Francis as the 266th successor of St. Peter. Here is a timeline of key events during his papacy:
2013
March 13 — About two weeks after Pope Benedict XVI steps down from the papacy, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is elected pope. He takes the papal name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi and proclaims from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica: “Let us begin this journey, the bishop and people, this journey of the Church of Rome, which presides in charity over all the Churches, a journey of brotherhood in love, of mutual trust. Let us always pray for one another.”
March 14 — The day after he begins his pontificate, Pope Francis returns to his hotel to personally pay his hotel bill and collect his luggage.
July 8 — Pope Francis visits Italy’s island of Lampedusa and meets with a group of 50 migrants, most of whom are young men from Somalia and Eritrea. The island, which is about 200 miles off the coast of Tunisia, is a common entry point for migrants who flee parts of Africa and the Middle East to enter Europe. This is the pope’s first pastoral visit outside of Rome and sets the stage for making reaching out to the peripheries a significant focus.
Pope Francis gives the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 2, 2013. Elise Harris/CNA.
July 23-28 — Pope Francis visits Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to participate in World Youth Day 2013. More than 3 million people from around the world attend the event.
July 29 — On the return flight from Brazil, Pope Francis gives his first papal news conference and sparks controversy by saying “if a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” The phrase is prompted by a reporter asking the pope a question about priests who have homosexual attraction.
Nov. 24 — Pope Francis publishes his first apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). The document illustrates the pope’s vision for how to approach evangelization in the modern world.
2014
Feb. 22 — Pope Francis holds his first papal consistory to appoint 19 new cardinals, including ones from countries in the developing world that have never previously been represented in the College of Cardinals, such as Haiti.
March 22 — Pope Francis creates the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The commission works to protect the dignity of minors and vulnerable adults, such as the victims of sexual abuse.
Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his general audience on Nov. 29, 2014. Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Oct. 5 — The Synod on the Family begins. The bishops discuss a variety of concerns, including single-parent homes, cohabitation, homosexual adoption of children, and interreligious marriages.
Dec. 6 — After facing some pushback for his efforts to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis discusses his opinion in an interview with La Nacion, an Argentine news outlet: “Resistance is now evident. And that is a good sign for me, getting the resistance out into the open, no stealthy mumbling when there is disagreement. It’s healthy to get things out into the open, it’s very healthy.”
2015
Jan. 18 — To conclude a trip to Asia, Pope Francis celebrates Mass in Manila, Philippines. Approximately 6 million to 7 million people attend the record-setting Mass, despite heavy rain.
March 23 — Pope Francis visits Naples, Italy, to show the Church’s commitment to helping the fight against corruption and organized crime in the city.
May 24 — To emphasize the Church’s mission to combat global warming and care for the environment, Pope Francis publishes the encyclical Laudato Si’, which urges people to take care of the environment and encourages political action to address climate problems.
Pope Francis at a Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 17, 2015. Bohumil Petrik.
Sept. 19-22 — Pope Francis visits Cuba and meets with Fidel Castro in the first papal visit to the country since Pope John Paul II in 1998. During his homily, Francis discusses the dignity of the human person: “Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it.”
Sept. 22-27 — After departing from Cuba, Pope Francis makes his first papal visit to the United States. In Washington, D.C., he speaks to a joint session of Congress, in which he urges lawmakers to work toward promoting the common good, and canonizes the Franciscan missionary St. Junípero Serra. He also attends the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, which focuses on celebrating the gift of the family.
Pope Francis speaks to the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 24, 2015. . L’Osservatore Romano.
Oct. 4 — Pope Francis begins the second Synod on the Family to address issues within the modern family, such as single-parent homes, cohabitation, poverty, and abuse.
Oct. 18 — The pope canonizes St. Louis Martin and St. Marie-Azélie “Zelie” Guérin. The married couple were parents to five nuns, including St. Therese of Lisieux. They are the first married couple to be canonized together.
Dec. 8 — Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy begins. The year focuses on God’s mercy and forgiveness and people’s redemption from sin. The pope delegates certain priests in each diocese to be Missionaries of Mercy who have the authority to forgive sins that are usually reserved for the Holy See.
2016
March 19 — Pope Francis publishes the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which discusses a wide variety of issues facing the modern family based on discussions from the two synods on the family. The pope garners significant controversy from within the Church for comments he makes in Chapter 8 about Communion for the divorced and remarried.
April 16 — After visiting refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, Pope Francis allows three Muslim refugee families to join him on his flight back to Rome. He says the move was not a political statement.
Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Feb. 24, 2016. Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
July 26-31 — Pope Francis visits Krakow, Poland, as part of the World Youth Day festivities. About 3 million young Catholic pilgrims from around the world attend.
Sept. 4 — The pope canonizes St. Teresa of Calcutta, who is also known as Mother Teresa. The saint, a nun from Albania, dedicated her life to missionary and charity work, primarily in India.
Sept. 30-Oct. 2 — Pope Francis visits Georgia and Azerbaijan on his 16th trip outside of Rome since the start of his papacy. His trip focuses on Catholic relations with Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
Oct. 4 — Pope Francis makes a surprise visit to Amatrice, Italy, to pray for the victims of an earthquake in central Italy that killed nearly 300 people.
2017
May 12-13 — In another papal trip, Francis travels to Fatima, Portugal, to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. May 13 marks the 100th anniversary of the first Marian apparition to three children in the city.
July 11 — Pope Francis adds another category of Christian life suitable for the consideration of sainthood: “offering of life.” The category is distinct from martyrdom, which only applies to someone who is killed for his or her faith. The new category applies to those who died prematurely through an offering of their life to God and neighbor.
Pope Francis greets a participant in the World Day of the Poor in Rome, Nov. 16, 2017. L’Osservatore Romano.
Nov. 19 — On the first-ever World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis eats lunch with 4,000 poor and people in need in Rome.
Nov. 27-Dec. 2 — In another trip to Asia, Pope Francis travels to Myanmar and Bangladesh. He visits landmarks and meets with government officials, Catholic clergy, and Buddhist monks. He also preaches the Gospel and promotes peace in the region.
2018
Jan. 15-21 — The pope takes another trip to Latin America, this time visiting Chile and Peru. The pontiff meets with government officials and members of the clergy while urging the faithful to remain close to the clergy and reject secularism. The Chilean visit leads to controversy over Chilean clergy sex abuse scandals.
Aug. 2 — The Vatican formally revises No. 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which concerns the death penalty. The previous text suggested the death penalty could be permissible in certain circumstances, but the revision states that the death penalty is “inadmissible.”
Aug. 25 — Archbishop Carlo Viganò, former papal nuncio to the United States, publishes an 11-page letter calling for the resignation of Pope Francis and accusing him and other Vatican officials of covering up sexual abuse including allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The pope initially does not directly respond to the letter, but nine months after its publication he denies having prior knowledge about McCarrick’s conduct.
Aug. 25-26 — Pope Francis visits Dublin, Ireland, to attend the World Meeting of Families. The theme is “the Gospel of family, joy for the world.”
Pope Francis at the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Ireland. Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
Oct. 3-28 — The Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment takes place. The synod focuses on best practices to teach the faith to young people and to help them discern God’s will.
2019
Jan. 22-27 — The third World Youth Day during Pope Francis’ pontificate takes place during these six days in Panama City, Panama. Young Catholics from around the world gather for the event, with approximately 3 million people in attendance.
Feb. 4 — Pope Francis signs a joint document in with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, titled the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.” The document focuses on people of different faiths uniting together to live peacefully and advance a culture of mutual respect.
Pope Francis and Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar, signed a joint declaration on human fraternity during an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Feb. 4, 2019. Vatican Media.
Feb. 21-24 — The Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, which is labeled the Vatican Sexual Abuse Summit, takes place. The meeting focuses on sexual abuse scandals in the Church and emphasizes responsibility, accountability, and transparency.
Oct. 6-27 — The Church holds the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which is also known as the Amazon Synod. The synod is meant to present ways in which the Church can better evangelize the Amazon region but leads to controversy when carved images of a pregnant Amazonian woman, referred to by the pope as Pachamama, are used in several events and displayed in a basilica near the Vatican.
Oct. 13 — St. John Henry Newman, an Anglican convert to Catholicism and a cardinal, is canonized by Pope Francis. Newman’s writings inspired Catholic student associations at nonreligious colleges and universities in the United States and other countries.
2020
March 15 — Pope Francis takes a walking pilgrimage in Rome to the chapel of the crucifix and prays for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. The crucifix was carried through Rome during the plague of 1522.
March 27 — Pope Francis gives an extraordinary “urbi et orbi” blessing in an empty and rain-covered St. Peter’s Square, praying for the world during the coronavirus pandemic.
Pope Francis venerates the miraculous crucifix of San Marcello al Corso in St. Peter’s Square during his Urbi et Orbi blessing, March 27, 2020. Vatican Media.
2021
March 5-8 — In his first papal trip since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis becomes the first pope to visit Iraq. On his trip, he signs a joint statement with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemning extremism and promoting peace.
July 3 — Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis, is indicted in a Vatican court for embezzlement, money laundering, and other crimes. The pope gives approval for the indictment.
July 4 — Pope Francis undergoes colon surgery for diverticulitis, a common condition in older people. The Vatican releases a statement that assures the pope “reacted well” to the surgery. Francis is released from the hospital after 10 days.
July 16 — Pope Francis issues a motu proprio titled Traditionis Custodes. The document imposes heavy restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.
Dec. 2-6 — The pope travels to Cyprus and Greece. The trip includes another visit to the Greek island of Lesbos to meet with migrants.
Pope Francis greets His Beatitude Ieronymos II in Athens, Greece on Dec. 5, 2021. Vatican Media
2022
Jan. 11 — Pope Francis makes a surprise visit to a record store in Rome called StereoSound. The pope, who has an affinity for classical music, blesses the newly renovated store.
March 19 — The pope promulgates Praedicate Evangelium, which reforms the Roman Curia. The reforms emphasize evangelization and establish more opportunities for the laity to be in leadership positions.
May 5 — Pope Francis is seen in a wheelchair for the first time in public and begins to use one more frequently. The pope has been suffering from knee problems for months.
Pope Francis greeted the crowd in a wheelchair at the end of his general audience on Aug. 3, 2022. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
July 24-30 — In his first papal visit to Canada, Pope Francis apologizes for the harsh treatment of the indigenous Canadians, saying many Christians and members of the Catholic Church were complicit.
2023
Jan. 31-Feb. 5 — Pope Francis travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. During his visit, the pope condemns political violence in the countries and promotes peace. He also participates in an ecumenical prayer service with Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Moderator of the Church of Scotland Iain Greenshields.
Pope Francis greets a young boy a Mass in Juba, South Sudan on Feb. 5, 2023. Vatican Media
March 29-April 1 — Pope Francis is hospitalized for a respiratory infection. During his stay at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, he visits the pediatric cancer ward and baptizes a newborn baby.
April 5 — The pope appears in the Disney documentary “The Pope: Answers,” which is in Spanish, answering six “hot-button” issues from members of Gen Z from various backgrounds. The group discusses immigration, depression, abortion, clergy sexual and psychological abuse, transgenderism, pornography, and loss of faith.
April 28-30 — Pope Francis visits Hungary to meet with government officials, civil society members, bishops, priests, seminarians, Jesuits, consecrated men and women, and pastoral workers. He celebrates Mass on the final day of the trip in Kossuth Lajos Square.
Pope Francis stands on an altar erected outside the Parliament Building in Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos’ Square during a public outdoor Mass on April 30, 2023. Vatican Media
June 7 — The Vatican announces that Pope Francis will undergo abdominal surgery that afternoon under general anesthesia due to a hernia that is causing painful, recurring, and worsening symptoms. In his general audience that morning before the surgery, Francis says he intends to publish an apostolic letter on St. Thérèse of Lisieux, “patroness of the missions,” to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth.
June 15 — After successful surgery and a week of recovery, Pope Francis is released from Gemelli Hospital.
Aug. 2-6 — Pope Francis travels to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day 2023, taking place from Aug. 1-6. He meets with Church and civil leaders ahead of presiding at the welcoming Mass and Stations of the Cross. He also hears the confessions of several pilgrims. On Aug. 5, he visits the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, where he prays the rosary with young people with disabilities. That evening he presides over the vigil and on Sunday, Aug. 6, he celebrates the closing Mass, where he urges the 1.5 million young people present to “be not afraid,” echoing the words of the founder of World Youth Days, St. John Paul II.
Pope Francis waves at the crowd of 1.5 million people who attended the closing Mass of World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal on Aug. 6, 2023. Vatican Media.
Aug. 31-Sept. 4 — Pope Francis travels to Mongolia, the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign country. The trip makes Francis the first pope to visit the Asian country that shares a 2,880-mile border with China, its most significant economic partner. Mongolia has a population of about 1,300 Catholics in a country of more than 3 million people.
Pope Francis meets with local priests and religious of Mongolia, which includes only 25 priests (19 religious and six diocesan), 33 women religious, and one bishop — Cardinal Giorgio Marengo — in Ulaanbaatar’s Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul on Sept. 2, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
Sept. 22-23 — On a two-day trip to Marseille, France, Pope Francis meets with local civil and religious leaders and participates in the Mediterranean Encounter, a gathering of some 120 young people of various creeds with bishops from 30 countries.
Pope Francis asks for a moment of silence at a memorial dedicated to sailors and migrants lost at sea on the first of a two-day visit to Marseille, France, Sept. 22, 2023. A Camargue cross, which comes from the Camargue area of France, represents the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. The three tridents represent faith, the anchor represents hope, and the heart represents charity. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Oct. 4-29 — The Vatican hosts the first of two monthlong global assemblies of the Synod on Synodality, initiated by Pope Francis in 2021 to enhance the communion, participation, and mission of the Church. Pope Francis celebrates the closing Mass of the synod at St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29. The second and final global assembly will take place at the Vatican in October 2024.
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Vatican Media
Nov. 25 — Pope Francis visits the hospital briefly for precautionary testing after coming down with the flu earlier in the day. Although he still participates in scheduled activities, other officials read his prepared remarks. The Vatican on Nov. 28 cancels the pope’s planned Dec. 1–3 trip to Dubai for the COP28 climate conference, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech, due to his illness.
Dec. 18 — The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issues the declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which authorizes nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples and couples in “irregular situations.” Various bishops from around the world voice both support for and criticism of the document.
2024
Jan. 4 — Amid widespread backlash to Fiducia Supplicans, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, publishes a five-page press release that refers to Fiducia Supplicans as “perennial doctrine” and underlines that pastoral blessings of couples in irregular situations should not be “an endorsement of the life led by those who request them.”
Jan. 14 — Pope Francis for the first time responds publicly to questions about Fiducia Supplicans in an interview on an Italian television show. The pope underlines that “the Lord blesses everyone” and that a blessing is an invitation to enter into a conversation “to see what the road is that the Lord proposes to them.”
Feb. 11 — In a ceremony attended by Argentine president Javier Milei, Pope Francis canonizes María Antonia of St. Joseph — known affectionately in the pope’s home country as “Mama Antula” — in a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. The president and the former archbishop of Buenos Aires embrace after the ceremony. Pope Francis, who has not returned to his homeland since becoming pope in 2013, has said he wants to visit Argentina in the second half of this year.
Pope Francis meets with Argentina President Javier Milei in a private audience on Feb. 12, 2024, at the Vatican. Credit: Vatican Media
Feb. 28 — After canceling audiences the previous Saturday and having an aide read his prepared remarks at his Wednesday audience due to a “mild flu,” Pope Francis visits the hospital for diagnostic tests but returns to the Vatican afterward.
March 2 — Despite having an aide read his speech “because of bronchitis,” the pope presides over the inauguration of the 95th Judicial Year of the Vatican City State and maintains a full schedule.
March 13 — Pope Francis celebrates 11 years as Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 30, 2022 / 12:53 pm (CNA).
Thirteen parishes in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, must stop offering Traditional Latin Masses come Sept. 8 under new rules issued F… […]
17 Comments
“The purpose of the Council is….evangelization.”
“Catholic anathema only damns Catholics to hell. No Papal Church bindings to sin affect the Protestants, who are outside the Catholic Church!”, a fellow Catholic told me. I replied, “Well then it is better for me to become a Protestant, where Papal Catholic anathemas cannot harm me or my family. We will simply sneak into Mass for the Eucharist, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, as Protestants”. “No! No! No!, If you leave the Catholic Church you are automatically anathematized and go to hell”, my Catholic friend responded.
I see Vatican II as the day ‘No Salvation outside the Church’, switched to Popes only using the ‘Keys to the Kingdom’ to only spiritually punish Catholics, not our newly accepted ‘Ecumenical’ Protestant brothers and sisters. I see this as the most tremendous injustice against Catholics. Also, what Protestant is going to want to convert to Catholicism knowing that they are only subjecting themselves to Catholic auto-anathemas and their spiritual death capabilities.
If Popes and Councils are not going to use the ‘Keys to the Kingdom’ to enforce Christ’s Laws equally applying to all people on earth, then have Pope Francis loost all Papal and Council bindings from the past 2000 years. All the worlds people will simply take Pope Francis’ and Council’s remarks as ‘Pastoral’ opinions and advice.
Matthew 16:13
Jesus replied, “Blest are you, Simon son of John! No mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. I for my part declare to you, you are ‘Rock,’ and on this rock I will build my church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
John 20:20
At the sight of the Lord the disciples rejoiced. “Peace be with you,” he said again. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then he breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound.”
The underlying principle is that non-culpable ignorance excuses you from holding heretical beliefs. That principle is holds inside and outside the Church.
The trouble is, we tend to consider all non-Catholics as strictly non-culpably ignorant, with the corollary that the more Catholic you appear, the more culpable you must be. There is a general tendency for non-Catholics to be more badly catechized (and for badly catechized Catholics to leave the Church) but ignorance is not necessarily non-culpable, even among non-Catholics. We have an obligation to seek the truth.
We assume no/low culpability in a specific person when we cannot prove otherwise to avoid the sin of rash judgement. It’s a prudent move. But it seems rather strange to assume that in the modern world, with more information in a cell phone than was available to St. Thomas Aquinas, that the reason people in general stay Protestant is that they just can’t figure out where the truth is, even with honest, persistent effort. That makes about as much sense as assuming a Catholic parish made up almost entirely of 2-child families doesn’t have a contraception problem because it could be infertility. “Those who seek, find.” Eventually.
What we get from the Church is truth, and that truth is bounded with fences, AKA anathemas. For all the disciplinary abuses in Catholic history (including recent history) the Church can’t send you to hell – only define how you send yourself there so that you can avoid it. I’ll take that deal, gladly. I see the cessation of warnings for Protestants as a tremendous injustice to *them*, not to us.
“Which is why, in To Sanctify the World, I suggest that the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI should be understood as one, continuous, 35-year arc of conciliar interpretation, providing the keys that unlock Vatican II’s authoritative teaching and evangelical power.”
And we have all seen the catastrophe that has been. When is there ever after 60 years’ time going to be the kind of hard, thorough, and courageous critical examination of the horrendous failures of Vatican II? The shop-worn bromides that Weigel continues to offer about Vatican II can no longer be taken seriously and border on the delusion and irrationality
It is not that Vatican II was a rupture from the 2000 year Tradition and Teaching of the Catholic faith. What ruptured and has continued to this day is a rupture from Vatican II and the continuous Teaching and Tradition of the Church by a mob of renegade bishops who have thrown their lot in with Secular Man.
We read: “Unlike the previous 20 ecumenical councils, Vatican II did not articulate or identify a definitive key to its proper interpretation: something that made clear that ‘This is what we mean.’”
Is there one significant exception to this observation? Two comments:
FIRST, the case is made that the Council did clarify what it meant about the “hierarchical communion” in the possibly ambiguous Chapter 3 of the schema on the Church, when it added the Prefatory Note. The note was prepared at the instruction of Pope Paul VI, and added to the schema by the pope himself, and accepted by the Council as part of the schema before the final vote of 2134 to 10….
“The pope also explicitly extended the interpretation of the note to the whole of Chapter 3, and not only to the qualifications [….] On Tuesday, November 17, each Council Father received a personal printed copy of the Preliminary Explanatory Note, and afterwards the Council voted 2099 to 46 in favor of the manner in which the Theological Commission had handled the qualifications in Chapter 3” (Fr. Ralph M. Wiltgen, SVD, “The Rhine Flows into the Tiber: A History of Vatican II, 1967, pp. 228-234).
SECOND, although briefly, the Council inserted clarity—in the schema Gaudium et spes, itself–about natural law, which today is synodally obsured:
“Contemplating this melancholy state of humanity, the Council wishes to recall first of all the permanent binding force of the universal natural law and its all-embracing principles. Man’s conscience itself gives ever more emphatic voice to these principles. Therefore, actions which deliberately conflict with these same principles, as well as orders commanding such actions, are criminal. Blind obedience cannot excuse those who yield to them” (n. 79).
[“Binding,” a word curiously absconded by the German “synodal path” which announces itself as “binding” within the non-universal tumor of Germany. You just cannot trust used car salesmen, even in red hats!]
“One of Vatican II’s signal accomplishments was its strong affirmation of the authority to govern conferred by sacramental ordination to the episcopate; recent reforms of the Roman Curia, the deposition of bishops without due process and curial diktats about the proper celebration of Mass (and even the content of parish bulletins!) undercut that authority. And the pontificate’s exceptionally narrow interpretation of the Council’s teaching on the liturgy has made the implementation of Vatican II even more contentious.”
These matters are a fair bit more complicated than Mr Weigel suggests. The undercurrent in all this is the misbehavior of bishops (those who committed crimes and the many more who covered up sin in the clergy) not to mention the running amok of many traditionalists as a response to the generous freedoms provided them by two popes–over the objections of many bishops–especially in 2007.
Any Church–universal, diocese, parish, or monastery–must be guided and governed according to particular circumstances it faces. When a Church responds with faithfulness and even bravery in the face of difficulty, as Rome did in its early centuries of martyrdoms, Christians easily recognize it. Likewise when bishops bring scandal and it results in a wide swath of suspicion, that regard falls to tatters. Placing bishops under the watchful eye of their brothers, and yes, *pearl-clutching* even lay people, is an appropriate development.
In a modern world full of immediate information, misbehaving prelates as far away as France are outed to the whole world. Sixty years ago, Cdl Ricard would remain an unknown, even if he confessed to shooting someone on the Champs Elysées. The man submitted a resignation three years ago. This isn’t quite a deathbed confession, but it’s close. If he is unwilling to defrock himself, stain his red robes black or even gray, withdraw to a monastery (if any will have him), and take the initiative to decline any further honors or participation in the C of C, his brother bishops should certainly take action.
The bottom line always is what furthers the Gospel. Fiddling around with centuries-old procedures will only embitter faithful Catholics and discourage any seeker from jumping aboard ship.
I think Mr. Weigel meant canon 377.5 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law not 337.5. Pope Francis clarified the line about the diversity of religions from the 2019 Abu Dhabi Declaration is his General Audience of April 3, 2019:https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2019/documents/papa-francesco_20190403_udienza-generale.html Following scholastic theology, we can maintain that there is a diversity of religion according to God’s permissive will. This clarification by Pope Francis is sufficient. I don’t know why people keep bringing this matter up.
We can’t deny that there is a diversity of religions in the world today. If God did not allow this diversity to exist (according to his permissive will), then it means that this diversity of religions exists AGAINST his will. This position, though, has serious theological problems. It implies that God is impotent to stop what is contrary to his will. God, in his Divine Providence, has his own reasons for allowing various religions and cultures to exist.
Did the Roman Empire exist according to God’s permissive will? Our Lord himself tells Pilate that he would have no power over Him unless it had been given to him from above (cf. Jn 19:11). St. Paul tells the Romans that the civil authority (then the Roman Empire) is a servant of God for their good (cf. Rom 13:4). God, in his permissive will, allowed the Roman Empire (with all its paganism and cruelty) to exist, and He used the Empire for certain good ends according to his Divine Providence. If God can permit the Roman Empire to exist, why can he not allow a diversity of religions to exist according to his permissive will? God’s permissive allowance of a diversity of religions in no way denies that Jesus Christ is “the one, unique redeemer of humanity: the Lord who is the center of history and the cosmos.” According to Vatican II, whatever good or truth is found in these religions is looked upon by the Church as “a preparation for the Gospel” (Lumen Gentium 16).
Mr. Fastiggi from your reference: “why does God allow many religions? God wanted to allow this:”
Sounds like an active will, not a permissive will. I don’t think any typical catholic in the pew would take it any other way, even if they were aware of this statement from the pope’s April 2019 general audience. I would guess that 99.9 % of catholics are not aware of it, so in practical terms I don’t think that the pope “clarified it.”
It’s very clear from his April 3, 2019 General Audience that Pope Francs is speaking of God’s permissive will. This is even clearer in the Italian original where what it translated as “allow” is actually “permit.” When the Holy Father says, “God wanted to allow this,” the Italian original is: “Dio ha voluto permettere questo” (God wanted to permit this). Pope Francis then says “the scholastic theologians made reference to the voluntas permissiva of God. He willed to permit this reality: there are so many religions” (i teologi della Scolastica facevano riferimento alla voluntas permissiva di Dio. Egli ha voluto permettere questa realtà: ci sono tante religioni). I don’t see how this can be understood except as reference to God’s permissive will. If God wills to permit a reality, it’s still his permissive will. You might be correct that most Catholics have not heard of this clarification. Well then we we should make it known and stop saying Pope Francis never clarified the matter.
Not to drag this out, and my final comment on this – I disagree with your last sentence that “we should make it known (the true meaning and intention of the pope’s statement). He should make it known, and the fact is that he makes many statements that others have to attempt to clarify, explain, etc. He frequently seems to do this intentionally.
Thanks for your clarification on the Italian, but, using my 99.9 % figure again, I don’t think that 99.9 % of catholics who don’t know Italian would understand the nuance.
“to permit” doesn’t mean anything unless willed is understood as referring to the Active/Passive. It does very little work semantically.
G*d willed to permit sin. Is that Active or Passive? G*d willed to permit that you marry the wrong person. That is not a sin. Active or Passive? G*d willed to permit you to choose between fish and steak for lunch on Monday. Active or passive?
“G*d Wills” is where the clarification must be.
Just like what Weigel did with his manipulation of St. Pope John Paul II’s social teaching and made it appear as a total endorsement of fundamentalist free market capitalism when in fact the Saint Pope critiqued both capitalism and socialism, Weigel is doing it here in this essay again by misleadingly and falsely portraying Pope Benedict XVI’s 2005 Christmas address to the Roman Curia as one which presented the Pope’s preferred interpretation of Vatican II as that of continuity in contradistinction to rupture. Weigel is again showing what he’s best at by twisting and manipulating the Pope emeritus’s thought when in fact the papal preference and wish was for Vatican II to be interpreted and applied as reform rather than simple continuity. Reform contains both elements of continuity and change. This is a lesson for all Catholics to not rely only on commentators but to read the primary source texts of Church teaching. Weigel is not unlike the majority of commentators who spread the so-called spirit of Vatican II which mostly consist in adding their agenda over what the conciliar bishops, deliberations, texts and event have given us as church teaching. Blinded by his agenda and biases, what Weigel perceives as divergence on the part of the present Pope, are actually Vatican II reform, not only continuity, that is today being continuously received and carried out by Pope Francis.
John Paul II had no criticism at all for free market capitalism. He had many criticisms for how it can be abused through corrupt practices as do even the most “right leaning” of conservative pundits, corruptions that can be prosecuted by statutory law. His criticism of socialism was that it is an intrinsic evil, at all times, that denies innate human diginity and individual initiative for heroic virtue. This, by the way, is what the Church has always taught.
I think Weigel is very balanced here, good pinpoint historicity and references with sharp, accurate, poignant short-list of inherently contradictory novel activities or “developments”. Easily read. Thank you.
They have opened the stables… until some future Pope is able to control the stampede, lots of damage is about to be done. The next few years will bring great pain upon the Faithful and much confusion. From external appearances it will seem as if the Church has collapsed.
“The purpose of the Council is….evangelization.”
“Catholic anathema only damns Catholics to hell. No Papal Church bindings to sin affect the Protestants, who are outside the Catholic Church!”, a fellow Catholic told me. I replied, “Well then it is better for me to become a Protestant, where Papal Catholic anathemas cannot harm me or my family. We will simply sneak into Mass for the Eucharist, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, as Protestants”. “No! No! No!, If you leave the Catholic Church you are automatically anathematized and go to hell”, my Catholic friend responded.
I see Vatican II as the day ‘No Salvation outside the Church’, switched to Popes only using the ‘Keys to the Kingdom’ to only spiritually punish Catholics, not our newly accepted ‘Ecumenical’ Protestant brothers and sisters. I see this as the most tremendous injustice against Catholics. Also, what Protestant is going to want to convert to Catholicism knowing that they are only subjecting themselves to Catholic auto-anathemas and their spiritual death capabilities.
If Popes and Councils are not going to use the ‘Keys to the Kingdom’ to enforce Christ’s Laws equally applying to all people on earth, then have Pope Francis loost all Papal and Council bindings from the past 2000 years. All the worlds people will simply take Pope Francis’ and Council’s remarks as ‘Pastoral’ opinions and advice.
Matthew 16:13
Jesus replied, “Blest are you, Simon son of John! No mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. I for my part declare to you, you are ‘Rock,’ and on this rock I will build my church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
John 20:20
At the sight of the Lord the disciples rejoiced. “Peace be with you,” he said again. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then he breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound.”
The underlying principle is that non-culpable ignorance excuses you from holding heretical beliefs. That principle is holds inside and outside the Church.
The trouble is, we tend to consider all non-Catholics as strictly non-culpably ignorant, with the corollary that the more Catholic you appear, the more culpable you must be. There is a general tendency for non-Catholics to be more badly catechized (and for badly catechized Catholics to leave the Church) but ignorance is not necessarily non-culpable, even among non-Catholics. We have an obligation to seek the truth.
We assume no/low culpability in a specific person when we cannot prove otherwise to avoid the sin of rash judgement. It’s a prudent move. But it seems rather strange to assume that in the modern world, with more information in a cell phone than was available to St. Thomas Aquinas, that the reason people in general stay Protestant is that they just can’t figure out where the truth is, even with honest, persistent effort. That makes about as much sense as assuming a Catholic parish made up almost entirely of 2-child families doesn’t have a contraception problem because it could be infertility. “Those who seek, find.” Eventually.
What we get from the Church is truth, and that truth is bounded with fences, AKA anathemas. For all the disciplinary abuses in Catholic history (including recent history) the Church can’t send you to hell – only define how you send yourself there so that you can avoid it. I’ll take that deal, gladly. I see the cessation of warnings for Protestants as a tremendous injustice to *them*, not to us.
“Which is why, in To Sanctify the World, I suggest that the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI should be understood as one, continuous, 35-year arc of conciliar interpretation, providing the keys that unlock Vatican II’s authoritative teaching and evangelical power.”
And we have all seen the catastrophe that has been. When is there ever after 60 years’ time going to be the kind of hard, thorough, and courageous critical examination of the horrendous failures of Vatican II? The shop-worn bromides that Weigel continues to offer about Vatican II can no longer be taken seriously and border on the delusion and irrationality
It is not that Vatican II was a rupture from the 2000 year Tradition and Teaching of the Catholic faith. What ruptured and has continued to this day is a rupture from Vatican II and the continuous Teaching and Tradition of the Church by a mob of renegade bishops who have thrown their lot in with Secular Man.
We read: “Unlike the previous 20 ecumenical councils, Vatican II did not articulate or identify a definitive key to its proper interpretation: something that made clear that ‘This is what we mean.’”
Is there one significant exception to this observation? Two comments:
FIRST, the case is made that the Council did clarify what it meant about the “hierarchical communion” in the possibly ambiguous Chapter 3 of the schema on the Church, when it added the Prefatory Note. The note was prepared at the instruction of Pope Paul VI, and added to the schema by the pope himself, and accepted by the Council as part of the schema before the final vote of 2134 to 10….
“The pope also explicitly extended the interpretation of the note to the whole of Chapter 3, and not only to the qualifications [….] On Tuesday, November 17, each Council Father received a personal printed copy of the Preliminary Explanatory Note, and afterwards the Council voted 2099 to 46 in favor of the manner in which the Theological Commission had handled the qualifications in Chapter 3” (Fr. Ralph M. Wiltgen, SVD, “The Rhine Flows into the Tiber: A History of Vatican II, 1967, pp. 228-234).
SECOND, although briefly, the Council inserted clarity—in the schema Gaudium et spes, itself–about natural law, which today is synodally obsured:
“Contemplating this melancholy state of humanity, the Council wishes to recall first of all the permanent binding force of the universal natural law and its all-embracing principles. Man’s conscience itself gives ever more emphatic voice to these principles. Therefore, actions which deliberately conflict with these same principles, as well as orders commanding such actions, are criminal. Blind obedience cannot excuse those who yield to them” (n. 79).
[“Binding,” a word curiously absconded by the German “synodal path” which announces itself as “binding” within the non-universal tumor of Germany. You just cannot trust used car salesmen, even in red hats!]
Ah, bishops.
“One of Vatican II’s signal accomplishments was its strong affirmation of the authority to govern conferred by sacramental ordination to the episcopate; recent reforms of the Roman Curia, the deposition of bishops without due process and curial diktats about the proper celebration of Mass (and even the content of parish bulletins!) undercut that authority. And the pontificate’s exceptionally narrow interpretation of the Council’s teaching on the liturgy has made the implementation of Vatican II even more contentious.”
These matters are a fair bit more complicated than Mr Weigel suggests. The undercurrent in all this is the misbehavior of bishops (those who committed crimes and the many more who covered up sin in the clergy) not to mention the running amok of many traditionalists as a response to the generous freedoms provided them by two popes–over the objections of many bishops–especially in 2007.
Any Church–universal, diocese, parish, or monastery–must be guided and governed according to particular circumstances it faces. When a Church responds with faithfulness and even bravery in the face of difficulty, as Rome did in its early centuries of martyrdoms, Christians easily recognize it. Likewise when bishops bring scandal and it results in a wide swath of suspicion, that regard falls to tatters. Placing bishops under the watchful eye of their brothers, and yes, *pearl-clutching* even lay people, is an appropriate development.
In a modern world full of immediate information, misbehaving prelates as far away as France are outed to the whole world. Sixty years ago, Cdl Ricard would remain an unknown, even if he confessed to shooting someone on the Champs Elysées. The man submitted a resignation three years ago. This isn’t quite a deathbed confession, but it’s close. If he is unwilling to defrock himself, stain his red robes black or even gray, withdraw to a monastery (if any will have him), and take the initiative to decline any further honors or participation in the C of C, his brother bishops should certainly take action.
The bottom line always is what furthers the Gospel. Fiddling around with centuries-old procedures will only embitter faithful Catholics and discourage any seeker from jumping aboard ship.
Well it’s about time Weigel took Francis head on.
I think Mr. Weigel meant canon 377.5 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law not 337.5. Pope Francis clarified the line about the diversity of religions from the 2019 Abu Dhabi Declaration is his General Audience of April 3, 2019:https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2019/documents/papa-francesco_20190403_udienza-generale.html Following scholastic theology, we can maintain that there is a diversity of religion according to God’s permissive will. This clarification by Pope Francis is sufficient. I don’t know why people keep bringing this matter up.
We can’t deny that there is a diversity of religions in the world today. If God did not allow this diversity to exist (according to his permissive will), then it means that this diversity of religions exists AGAINST his will. This position, though, has serious theological problems. It implies that God is impotent to stop what is contrary to his will. God, in his Divine Providence, has his own reasons for allowing various religions and cultures to exist.
Did the Roman Empire exist according to God’s permissive will? Our Lord himself tells Pilate that he would have no power over Him unless it had been given to him from above (cf. Jn 19:11). St. Paul tells the Romans that the civil authority (then the Roman Empire) is a servant of God for their good (cf. Rom 13:4). God, in his permissive will, allowed the Roman Empire (with all its paganism and cruelty) to exist, and He used the Empire for certain good ends according to his Divine Providence. If God can permit the Roman Empire to exist, why can he not allow a diversity of religions to exist according to his permissive will? God’s permissive allowance of a diversity of religions in no way denies that Jesus Christ is “the one, unique redeemer of humanity: the Lord who is the center of history and the cosmos.” According to Vatican II, whatever good or truth is found in these religions is looked upon by the Church as “a preparation for the Gospel” (Lumen Gentium 16).
Mr. Fastiggi from your reference: “why does God allow many religions? God wanted to allow this:”
Sounds like an active will, not a permissive will. I don’t think any typical catholic in the pew would take it any other way, even if they were aware of this statement from the pope’s April 2019 general audience. I would guess that 99.9 % of catholics are not aware of it, so in practical terms I don’t think that the pope “clarified it.”
Dear Crusader,
It’s very clear from his April 3, 2019 General Audience that Pope Francs is speaking of God’s permissive will. This is even clearer in the Italian original where what it translated as “allow” is actually “permit.” When the Holy Father says, “God wanted to allow this,” the Italian original is: “Dio ha voluto permettere questo” (God wanted to permit this). Pope Francis then says “the scholastic theologians made reference to the voluntas permissiva of God. He willed to permit this reality: there are so many religions” (i teologi della Scolastica facevano riferimento alla voluntas permissiva di Dio. Egli ha voluto permettere questa realtà: ci sono tante religioni). I don’t see how this can be understood except as reference to God’s permissive will. If God wills to permit a reality, it’s still his permissive will. You might be correct that most Catholics have not heard of this clarification. Well then we we should make it known and stop saying Pope Francis never clarified the matter.
Not to drag this out, and my final comment on this – I disagree with your last sentence that “we should make it known (the true meaning and intention of the pope’s statement). He should make it known, and the fact is that he makes many statements that others have to attempt to clarify, explain, etc. He frequently seems to do this intentionally.
Thanks for your clarification on the Italian, but, using my 99.9 % figure again, I don’t think that 99.9 % of catholics who don’t know Italian would understand the nuance.
“to permit” doesn’t mean anything unless willed is understood as referring to the Active/Passive. It does very little work semantically.
G*d willed to permit sin. Is that Active or Passive? G*d willed to permit that you marry the wrong person. That is not a sin. Active or Passive? G*d willed to permit you to choose between fish and steak for lunch on Monday. Active or passive?
“G*d Wills” is where the clarification must be.
Just like what Weigel did with his manipulation of St. Pope John Paul II’s social teaching and made it appear as a total endorsement of fundamentalist free market capitalism when in fact the Saint Pope critiqued both capitalism and socialism, Weigel is doing it here in this essay again by misleadingly and falsely portraying Pope Benedict XVI’s 2005 Christmas address to the Roman Curia as one which presented the Pope’s preferred interpretation of Vatican II as that of continuity in contradistinction to rupture. Weigel is again showing what he’s best at by twisting and manipulating the Pope emeritus’s thought when in fact the papal preference and wish was for Vatican II to be interpreted and applied as reform rather than simple continuity. Reform contains both elements of continuity and change. This is a lesson for all Catholics to not rely only on commentators but to read the primary source texts of Church teaching. Weigel is not unlike the majority of commentators who spread the so-called spirit of Vatican II which mostly consist in adding their agenda over what the conciliar bishops, deliberations, texts and event have given us as church teaching. Blinded by his agenda and biases, what Weigel perceives as divergence on the part of the present Pope, are actually Vatican II reform, not only continuity, that is today being continuously received and carried out by Pope Francis.
John Paul II had no criticism at all for free market capitalism. He had many criticisms for how it can be abused through corrupt practices as do even the most “right leaning” of conservative pundits, corruptions that can be prosecuted by statutory law. His criticism of socialism was that it is an intrinsic evil, at all times, that denies innate human diginity and individual initiative for heroic virtue. This, by the way, is what the Church has always taught.
I think the Catechism reads differently – at 2424, 2425, 1886, 1887.
Centesimus Annus also sets up the picture so as to differentiate nuances in words, also to suggest better words – at 42 second paragraph.
In a word we are required to practice justice beginning by subordinating capital and not making it sacrosanct and primordial.
I think Weigel is very balanced here, good pinpoint historicity and references with sharp, accurate, poignant short-list of inherently contradictory novel activities or “developments”. Easily read. Thank you.
They have opened the stables… until some future Pope is able to control the stampede, lots of damage is about to be done. The next few years will bring great pain upon the Faithful and much confusion. From external appearances it will seem as if the Church has collapsed.