Mary the Mother of God, obstacle to ecumenism

Those who have studied the history of the Second Vatican Council will doubtless be familiar with the abrupt and unforeseen rejection of the Council's meticulously prepared schemata.  The European episcopal conferences, primarily those of Germany, France, and the Low countries refused the 72 documents prepared three years in advance and demanded the right to determine the orientation of the Council, to which astonishingly, Pope John agreed. What few may know is that the hasty effort marshaled by Pope John XXIII in the early months of 1963 to get new drafts approved and sent out to the Council Fathers included a schema on the Blessed Virgin Mary.

About this draft, Fr. Ralph Wiltgen, S.V.D. writes,

The proposal officially submitted by the Fulda Conference to the General Secretariat of the Council also quoted from Protestant writings. Bishop Dibelius, of the German Evangelical Church, was quoted as saying in 1962 that the Catholic Church’s teaching on Mary was one of the major impediments to union. Other German Protestant authorities, such as Hampe and Kunneth, were quoted as saying that the Council Fathers in Rome should remember that they would be erecting a new wall of division by approving a schema on Mary.
According to Father [Karl] Rahner [S.J.], whose written comments were distributed to all participants in the conference, the schema as then drafted was “a source of the greatest concern” for himself and for Fathers Grillmeier, Semmelroth, and Ratzinger, who had also examined it from a theological point of view. Were the text to be accepted as it stood, he contended, “unimaginable harm would result from an ecumenical point of view, in relation to both Orientals and Protestants.” It could not be too strongly stressed, he said, “that all the success achieved in the field of ecumenism through the Council and in connection with the Council will be rendered worthless by the by the retention of the schema as it stands.”
- Fr. Ralph Wiltgen, S.V.D., The Inside Story of Vatican II (formerly titled the Rhine Flows into the Tiber), © 2014 Tan Books

Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J., and his protege Fr. Josef Ratzinger
at the Second Vatican Council as theological advisors.

It is not this author's intent to inflame emotion against the architects of the Second Vatican Council.  However, fifty years later as seen in the light of the prophecy of Our Lady of Fatima, this effort to set her aside in the interest of man-made agreements with theological dissidents appears eminently blameworthy.
The Fatima prophecy warned that unless the Pope and all the Bishops of the world in a united act of public religion consecrated Russia to her Immaculate Heart, that country would flood the world with errors and war. 

Not only did the two Popes conducting the Council avoid the best opportunity since the prophecy was given to obey our Lady of Fatima, not a word against communism was included in the Council's sixteen constitutions, decrees, and declarations. 

It is important to understand the reasons and motivations for downplaying the Mother Of God at Vatican II. Ecumenism was one of its primary goals, as well as a new orientation towards serving the world as laid out by John XXIII in his last encyclical Pacem in terris.

The new orientation was summarized by Fr. Marie Dominique Chenu as follows:

"The text to be put forward in the council was approved by John XXIII, and by Cardinals Liénart, Garrone, Frings, Dopfner, Alfrink, Montini and Léger. It emphasized the following points: that the modern world desires the Gospel, that all civilizations contain a hidden urge towards Christ, that the human race constitutes a single fraternal whole beyond the bounds of frontiers, governments and religions, and that the Church struggles for peace, development and human dignity. The text, which was entrusted to Cardinal Lienart, was subsequently altered in some parts, without relieving it of its original anthropocentric and worldly character, but the alterations were not liked by those who had promoted the document in the first place. It was passed by two thousand five hundred Fathers on 20 October." (Iota Unum, Romano Amerio, ch. 42)

The listing of errors and assumptions listed above are too numerous to address in this brief summary. Let it suffice to say that if the 'modern world' desired the Gospel, something went terribly wrong in the decades following the council. Not only did the world (as it has always done) continue to reject the Gospel, but the Catholic Church herself entered a period of steep decline which continues unabated to this very day.

If explaining the Catholic doctrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a separate document seemed risky to many of the theological advisors at Vatican II who considered ecumenism to be prioritized above the Message of Fatima, then surely enough time has elapsed to recognize the results of their chosen course. There is still no union with the Oriental Churches; no agreement with the multitude of Protestant denominations and sects, and certainly no peace on earth.

To be fair to the Council Fathers, a short section of Lumen gentium, styled the Constitution on the Church does address the Blessed Virgin Mary in a salutary way, with this caveat:

"...those decrees, which have been given in the early days regarding the cult of images of Christ, the Blessed Virgin and the saints, be religiously observed.(22*) But it exhorts theologians and preachers of the divine word to abstain zealously both from all gross exaggerations as well as from petty narrow-mindedness in considering the singular dignity of the Mother of God.(23*) Following the study of Sacred Scripture, the Holy Fathers, the doctors and liturgy of the Church, and under the guidance of the Church's magisterium, let them rightly illustrate the duties and privileges of the Blessed Virgin which always look to Christ, the source of all truth, sanctity and piety. Let them assiduously keep away from whatever, either by word or deed, could lead separated brethren or any other into error regarding the true doctrine of the Church." (LG, ch. VIII)

One need not stretch their imagination too far to ponder whether the Fatima apparition was itself an occasion of scandal not only to Protestants, but to certain churchmen whose decisions are now chronicled for the world to see and judge.

The "disobedience" of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

Good and devout men of sincere faith and piety can and do disagree about the course of action selected by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. What few understand in depth is that disobedient clergy in the Church achieved a theological and liturgical coup at the Second Vatican Council making what was forbidden just a half-decade prior now the law of the Church. It is absolutely necessary to see the disobedience of these men as suddenly not only accepted, but promoted in the Church. So the "disobedience" of Monsignor Lefebvre isn't really disobedience to the Tradition and perennial magisterium of the Church, but a disobedience to the prudential judgment of two Popes who tried to bury Tradition. In the case of Paul VI, it turns out his suppression of the TLM was not only illicit, but a grave crime against the faith. John Paul II's motu proprio accusing Monsignor Lefebvre of self-excommunication was nullified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

As time goes by and the Catholic Church continues to plummet downward in a death-spiral of crisis, Archbishop Lefebvre is not only justified in his actions but it becomes clearer that he more than any other single priest helped to save the Church from even worse degrees of apostasy.

[editor's update: the German Diocese of Trier is consolidating 172 parishes into 35 and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, PA is consolidating 188 parishes into 48 while 34 priests are caught in a disgusting scandal of sodomy in the Diocese of Naples, Italy.]

It is also worth noting that Pope Benedict XVI's position is that the crisis in the Church was caused by the collapse of the liturgy. This is why Catholics can so confidently rally behind the action of Archbishop Lefebvre; he, more than any individual in the Catholic Church helped preserve the sacred liturgy in all its purity, mystery, integrity, and beauty.

Its Time to Face It

Its time to face it.

According to Pope John Paul II, the Prayer Meeting of All Religions at Assisi in 1986 is the TRUE hermeneutic of the Second Vatican Council:

Assisi Prayer is a "visible illustration, an exegesis of the events, a catechesis, intelligible to all, of what is presupposed and signified by the commitment to ecumenism and to the interreligious dialogue which was recommended and provided by the Second Vatican Council."
(Christmas address of the Pope to the Cardinals and members of the Curia on 22 December, 1986, L'Osservatore Romano, 5 January 1987, page 7)

"Look at Assisi in the light of the Council!"
(Papal address in the General Audience of 22 October, 1986)

So the ultimate message of Vatican II is that all religions are legitimate ways to pray to the one God (although some are polytheist and others atheist) to achieve Vatican II's ultimate goal: peace in this present world, not the salvation of individual souls from sin and damnation.

Moreover, every single person that holds Pope John Paul II to be a real Saint currently beholding the beatific vision is compelled by sacred duty to spread his message that by His incarnation, Jesus Christ, divine Second Person of the holy Trinity united Himself to each and every man forever.

You need to engage in dialogue with all religions, encourage them to practice their hideous errors as authentic prayer to the one true God, and work for the goal that is supreme, even above salvation: peace in this present world.

"If you see me traveling the length and breadth of the whole world in my efforts to meet with people of all civilizations and religions, it is because I have faith in the seeds of wisdom which the Spirit has planted in the conscience of all these various peoples, tribes and clans; from these hidden grains will come the true resource for the future of mankind in this world of ours" (John Paul II's speech to youth in Ravenna, May 11, 1986, quoted in Tutte le encicliche dei Sommi Pontefici, ed. dall'Oglio, p.1821).

And please preach that the Third Person of the holy Trinity is the author and inspiration of all the religions in the world:

"It must first be kept in mind that every quest of the human spirit for truth and goodness, and in the last analysis for God, is inspired by the Holy Spirit. The various religions arose precisely from this primordial human openness to God. At their origins we often find founders who, with the help of God’s Spirit, achieved a deeper religious experience. Handed on to others, this experience took form in the doctrines, rites and precepts of the various religions.
In every authentic religious experience, the most characteristic expression is prayer. Because of the human spirit’s constitutive openness to God’s action of urging it to self-transcendence, we can hold that “every authentic prayer is called forth by the Holy Spirit, who is mysteriously present in the heart of every person.” (Address to the Members of the Roman Curia, 22 Dec. 1986, n. 11; L’Osservatore Romano English edition, 5 Jan. 1987, p. 7).

I tremble to even paste these quotes because of what they suggest - no, what they proclaim:

"We experienced an eloquent manifestation of this truth at the World Day of Prayer for Peace on 27 October 1986 in Assisi, and on other similar occasions of great spiritual intensity.
The Holy Spirit is not only present in other religions through authentic expressions of prayer. “The Spirit’s presence and activity”, as I wrote in the Encyclical Letter Redemptoris missio, “affect not only individuals but also society and history, peoples, cultures and religions.” (n. 28).
JOHN PAUL II GENERAL AUDIENCE Wednesday 9 September 1998

This "Saint" whom many proclaim as a "John Paul the Great" (Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J.) and others want honored with the title "Doctor of the Catholic Church" (Fr. John T. Zuhlsdorf) either needs to be followed as an example of heroic virtue, exceptional sanctity, and prophetic significance or denounced as a promulgator of strange and alien doctrines condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi gregis.

God help me. I never wanted to come to any such conclusion.