The fact that until the 1980s almost no one, ever - over the past 350 years - questioned the infallibility of canonizations is attributable to two factors: (1) the rigorous process put in place by Pope Urban VIII in 1634 which included a comprehensive examination of the candidate's life and doctrine by the Promotor Fidei through the office of "devil's advocate"; and (2) a minimum 50-year 'cooling off' period before a candidate could be declared Blessed due to the excitement and hubris that may surround his/her cult shortly after their decease. In rare cases this 50 year waiting period was waived due to multiple miracles and the exhuming of incorruptible remains 30 years after burial, as in the case of St. Pius X.
John Paul II gutted the Code of Canon Law established by Pope Benedict XV (actually developed by the Curia of St. Pius X) and abrogated 141 canons that dealt with beatification and canonization. There is no more devil's advocate, only one miracle is required (and the threshold for these modern 'miracles' is remarkably low). The speed, haste, and hubris by which the conciliar Popes have been beatified is unprecedented in Church history.
Between 1314 and 2014, exactly two Popes were canonized, whose heroic virtue and Papal careers could never be questioned: Sts. Pius V and Pius X. Since John Paul II died in 2005, two Vatican II Popes have been canonized, and another beatified, [ed. note: Paul VI was also canonized in 2018] even though the Church fell into precipitous decline during their pontificates or as a direct result of their prudential decisions.
Professor Donald S. Prudlo, Associate Professor of Ancient and Medieval History at Jacksonville State University in Alabama and Assistant Professor of Theology and Church History at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College writes:
"As an historian of sainthood, my greatest hesitation with the current process stems from the canonizations done by John Paul II himself. While his laudable intention was to provide models of holiness drawn from all cultures and states in life, he tended to divorce canonization from its original and fundamental purpose. This was to have an official, public, and formal recognition of an existing cult of the Christian faithful, one that had been confirmed by the divine testimony of miracles. Cult precedes canonization; it was not meant to be the other way around. We are in danger then of using canonization as a tool to promote interests and movements, rather than being a recognition and approval of an extant cultus."
- Professor Donald S. Prudlo
One need not be a Church historian or a theologian to detect what is going on here: the attempt to canonize the "mere pastoral council" known as Vatican II.
My personal opinion is that the "mere pastoral council" of Vatican II should be completely and totally scrapped and the "radical changes" to the mass and church, likewise, need to be done away with ... the novelty of the "New Mass" has proved to be bad for the church and the Modernism and acceptance of ecumenism has watered down the faith of the Church and we see how that has effected the priesthood by the changes to Canon Law by Pope John Paul II by decriminalizing homosexuality in the clergy (and acceptance of homosexuality by the church even as an illicit "lifestyle" is destroying the Church and driving Catholics away to "other faith traditions" ... It seems to me that a "pastoral council" would be just that "pastoral" and not doctrinal because Church doctrine has changed and the Mass has been Modernized and made to resemble a protestant gathering and the addition of the doxology at the end of the Lords Prayer to make the Mass more acceptable to protestants along with many other changes like it is no longer the Sacrifice of the Mass, but the celebration of the Eucharist (a Memorial Meal, the re-presentation of the Lords Supper ... NOT a sacrifice) and the prayers of the Mass, many done away with, and the ones retained, most have been "protestantized" to make them acceptable to non-Catholics. Modernism and Liberation Theology has been accepted and a move to Socialism has been afoot since Vatican II and the move away from traditional homilies to "social justice" homilies has been a disaster because instead of teaching about sin and what will send us to hell (for eternity) we are being taught a "social justice theology" from Liberal Theology ... where socialism is the key, man is the center of the church and not God, it is theology away from God to a theology of Man ... Get back to being God Centered and not Man Centered, away from the world and back onto eternity with God, away from pleasures of the flesh to sacrifice and suffering for God ... Modernism needs to be condemned and we need to return to Traditional Church Teaching and Worship and away from all the Modernism that has been foisted upon the faithful, get away from our current protestant view of the way we present ourselves in the sanctuary instead of like protestants do in their "churches" especially when the Eucharist is present in the tabernacle and the sanctuary lamp is alight ... and we need to return to a sense of Christian Modesty in public as well as Church ... I will end my rambling rant and hope it makes sense to you as it does to me ... let us get away from modernism and return to tradition in every day life as well as Church and worship and the teachings and instruction of the faith ... bring back the sacred and get rid of the modern, we have lost the sacred in favor of modernism.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense to me, Ken! Thanks for the detailed comments!
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