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? I say this because (a) we know that Bugnini was secretary of the committee that…
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 Roman Senate to the US House of Representatives. To believe that this rule does not…
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 Authority of the Scholastics.” -TSF Note: This topic includes much confusion surrounding exactly the…
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 worldwide assault on Catholic doctrine, noticed years before, and Vatican II provided an opportunity for…
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 opening of Vatican II, Mr George Weigel, a great admirer of that assembly, wrote an…
Sixty years ago this month, Papa Roncalli was carried into the Second Vatican Council after an hours-long procession and delivered the speech (“Medicine of Mercy”) which opened that council. I believe that in time, historians will later call this council the “Post-War Council.” Why? Because the Council was dominated by the post-World War II context…
Above: the celebrated heretic, Hans Küng (1928-2021). One can only hope and pray that the celebrations for him have not continued for eternity in the fires of hell. Requiescat in pace. Ave Maria. In our last essay we discussed some of the trends of decline in theology before Vatican II. These were the aspects that produced…
If we want to address the problem of hyperüberultramontanism, we are going to need to talk about a decline in theology that occurred before Vatican II. We need to understand the roots of these issues and how they developed in our history of Catholicism in modernity. To do that, we have to cover some basics…
The Declaration of Truths recently signed by five bishops provides the Church with a clear document capable of uniting Catholics against the enemies of Holy Church. But in order to unite, faithful Catholics of every stripe will need to agree on this: the pastoral approach of Vatican II must be abandoned — but without abandoning…
