"From the Catholic point of view the Document does not move one millimetre away from the Second Vatican Council" -Pope Francis
Category: Vatican II at Sixty

Vatican II Failed, Not the Church
Constance embodied the hopes of reformers going back half a century. But its attempt to enshrine Conciliarism in its documents nearly tore the Church apart.

Paul VI: Refounder of Catholicism
Religion Department Academics of a certain sort love to scandalize undergraduates by telling them that Jesus is a marginal figure in Church history; the real founder of the religion, they whisper, was Paul. In fact, they persist, the religion should …

Post-War Catholicism in the United States
Above: the first evening Mass in the diocese of Milwaukee consecrates the diocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1954. Photo credit. A very interesting and provocative reprint, the first volume of Integrity will be welcomed by all those …

300 Years of Masonic Infiltration
There was such a dramatic change in the social and theological dispositions towards Freemasonry amongst many European, Argentinian, and North American Catholics immediately following the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, that, at minimum, should have provoked a …

Games People Play with the Holy Spirit
Dear Dr. Kwasniewski, Watching Mass of the Ages Episode 2 and your interview with Raymond Arroyo brought up some questions I’ve been struggling with. First, doesn’t it seem like the Novus Ordo was close to what the Council Fathers intended? …

The Coetus: Trad Godfathers at Vatican II
Above: Archbishop Lefebvre with Pius XII. Lefebvre and other members of the Coetus were respected by the popes before Paul VI, including by John XXIII. There will be factions. This is the first rule of all voting assemblies, from the …

In Defense of Manuals and Manualism
Above: engraving of Melchor Cano. Editor’s note: this article appears as a response to our article which included critical remarks about pre-Vatican II manualism, and is meant to be a balancing treatment on the period in theology. See also “The …

Vatican II and the American Deep State
Above: US government officials with Catholic president John F. Kennedy. Before he died, Robert Blair Kaiser, Time magazine reporter at the Vatican II Council, told me that the reporters were “participant-observers to influence the schemas.” This was part of a …

Paul VI Did Not Exist: A “Nostalgic” Response to George Weigel on Vatican II
Above: Pope Paul VI with one of his greatest critics, Joseph Ratzinger, whom he appointed bishop and then cardinal in 1977 before his death. When Vatican II Turned Forty Twenty years ago, a week before the fortieth anniversary of the …