Debate on the Second Vatican Council
The new book by Prof. Roberto de Mattei, entitled Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta (The Second Vatican Council: a story which has never been told.)Vatican Council II. The story which was never told), by Lindau Editions, has been published in Italy in the past few days. An vigorous debate has ensued with the participation of distinguished apologists such as Francesco Agnoli, Mario Palmaro, Alessandro Gnocchi and Corrado Gnerre on the one hand, and the progressive historian Alberto Melloni, of the so-called Bologna school, and the moderate sociologist Massimo Introvigne. on the other. Prof de Mattei has himself taken part in the debate with his article published in the newspaper “Libero” on December 12, 2010.
Forty-five years have passed since the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, the 21st such council in the history of the Church, but the problems arising from it remain alive and well. One of these problems is the relationship between the “letter” (the texts) and the “spirit” of the Council. These are advanced, respectively, by the two rival schools of continuity and discontinuity. The confrontation between these two schools, however, is in danger of becoming a dialogue of the deaf. The documents promulgated by Church authorities do not all have the same value, theologically speaking. If Benedict XVI expresses some opinions in an interview, as has happened in his latest book Light of the World, these should be received with great respect because they come from the Vicar of Christ. But regarding authoritative teaching, there is a difference between an interview and the definition of a dogma, since the former does not compel the assent of the faithful. The same can be said of a Council like Vatican II, which, as a solemn gathering of bishops united with the Pope, proposed authentic teachings that certainly do not lack authority. But only someone who ignores theology could attribute a level of “infallibility” to these teachings. Not all Catholics know that Papal infallibility applies only to rare, solemn pronouncements on matters of faith and morals, and many more non-Catholics do not understand this either.
A Council has the authority that the Pope who convokes and leads it would like to attribute to it. All the pronouncements of Popes John XXIII and Paul VI before, during and after Vatican II emphasise its non-dogmatic and pastoral dimension. Benedict XVI attributes to it the same pastoral and non-definitive intent and yet the “hermeneutic of continuity” he advocates is completely misunderstood by many Catholics, progressives and conservatives alike. The affirmation that Vatican II is in continuity with the Church’s Magisterium obviously presupposes the existence of some doubts and ambiguities in Council documents which therefore require some interpretation. For Benedict XVI, the criterion of interpreting such passages cannot be other than the Church’s Tradition, as he himself has repeated many times. If one agrees, on the other hand, with those such as the followers of the website “Viva il Concilio” (“Long Live the Council”) that Vatican II created a hermeneutical criterion for re-interpreting tradition, this would be paradoxically to attribute interpretative force to something that needs to be interpreted. To interpret tradition in the light of Vatican II, instead of the other way around, would be possible only if the position of Alberigo (the author of a very substantial 5 volume History of Vatican II) is accepted, which gives interpretative value not to the “letter” or the texts, but to the “spirit” of the Council. This is not, however, Benedict XVI’s position, which is critical of the hermeneutic of discontinuity precisely because it attributes primacy to the spirit , not the texts. Msgr. Gherardini, professor emeritus of Ecclesiology at the Lateran University, in his volume Concilio Vaticano II. Un discorso da fare (2009) has developed well the correct criterion of theological hermeneutics. Either one claims, as Gherardini does, that the Council’s doctrines are not compatible with previous definitions, and that they are neither infallible nor unchangeable and therefore not binding, or one assigns to the Council an authority that obscures the previous twenty councils of the Church, abrogating or replacing all of them. On this last point there does not seem to be a difference between the historians of the Bologna school, as Professor. Alberto Melloni, and sociologists such as Massimo Introvigne who seem to attribute infallibility to Vatican II.
There is also a second problem that goes beyond the question of the continuity or discontinuity of the Council texts, and it is not so much about theology as about history. It is the theme I wanted to tackle in my recent book Il Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta (Editore Lindau). I have not attempted to undertake a theological reading of the Council documents, in the sense of wanting to assess whether they are in conformity or not with the Church’s Tradition, but I have tried instead to give a historical account of all that happened in Rome between October 11, 1962 and December 8, 1965. It is a work that complements theological studies and should not cause anyone to worry. It is impossible to understand the alarmist reactions of those who fear this history will be grist to the mill of the hermeneutic of discontinuity. Would this be a good reason for not writing the history of Vatican II? Should its history be left entirely in the hands of the Bologna school, which has made scientifically valuable but ideologically tendentious contributions? If elements of discontinuity were to emerge at the historical level, why should we fear bringing them to light? How can one deny a discontinuity, if not in the content then at least in the new language of Vatican II? A language which consists not only of words but also of silences, gestures and omissions can reveal the deeper currents of an event even more than the content of a speech. The history of the unexplainable silence about Communism on the part of a Council that should have been concerned with the facts of the world cannot, for example, be ignored.
The historian who has this task cannot isolate the texts of Vatican II from the historical context in which they were produced, because it is precisely the context, and not the texts, with which the historian is concerned. In the same way, the Second Vatican Council cannot be presented as an event that was born and died in the space of three years without considering the deep roots, and the equally deep consequences, that are also found in the Church and in society.
Separating the Council from the post-conciliar period is as unsustainable as separating the conciliar texts from their pastoral context. No serious historian, still less a person of common sense, could accept this artificial separation, which is born more from a partisan position more than from a calm and objective evaluation of the facts. Today we are still living with the consequences of the “Conciliar revolution” that anticipated and accompanied the revolution of 1968. Why hide it? As Leo XIII said when he opened the Vatican Secret Archives to scholars, the Church “must not fear the truth.”
Roberto de Mattei
http://www.lepantofoundation.org/2011/obawa-przed-asyzem/
Forty-five years have passed since the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, the 21st such council in the history of the Church, but the problems arising from it remain alive and well. One of these problems is the relationship between the “letter” (the texts) and the “spirit” of the Council. These are advanced, respectively, by the two rival schools of continuity and discontinuity. The confrontation between these two schools, however, is in danger of becoming a dialogue of the deaf. The documents promulgated by Church authorities do not all have the same value, theologically speaking. If Benedict XVI expresses some opinions in an interview, as has happened in his latest book Light of the World, these should be received with great respect because they come from the Vicar of Christ. But regarding authoritative teaching, there is a difference between an interview and the definition of a dogma, since the former does not compel the assent of the faithful. The same can be said of a Council like Vatican II, which, as a solemn gathering of bishops united with the Pope, proposed authentic teachings that certainly do not lack authority. But only someone who ignores theology could attribute a level of “infallibility” to these teachings. Not all Catholics know that Papal infallibility applies only to rare, solemn pronouncements on matters of faith and morals, and many more non-Catholics do not understand this either.
A Council has the authority that the Pope who convokes and leads it would like to attribute to it. All the pronouncements of Popes John XXIII and Paul VI before, during and after Vatican II emphasise its non-dogmatic and pastoral dimension. Benedict XVI attributes to it the same pastoral and non-definitive intent and yet the “hermeneutic of continuity” he advocates is completely misunderstood by many Catholics, progressives and conservatives alike. The affirmation that Vatican II is in continuity with the Church’s Magisterium obviously presupposes the existence of some doubts and ambiguities in Council documents which therefore require some interpretation. For Benedict XVI, the criterion of interpreting such passages cannot be other than the Church’s Tradition, as he himself has repeated many times. If one agrees, on the other hand, with those such as the followers of the website “Viva il Concilio” (“Long Live the Council”) that Vatican II created a hermeneutical criterion for re-interpreting tradition, this would be paradoxically to attribute interpretative force to something that needs to be interpreted. To interpret tradition in the light of Vatican II, instead of the other way around, would be possible only if the position of Alberigo (the author of a very substantial 5 volume History of Vatican II) is accepted, which gives interpretative value not to the “letter” or the texts, but to the “spirit” of the Council. This is not, however, Benedict XVI’s position, which is critical of the hermeneutic of discontinuity precisely because it attributes primacy to the spirit , not the texts. Msgr. Gherardini, professor emeritus of Ecclesiology at the Lateran University, in his volume Concilio Vaticano II. Un discorso da fare (2009) has developed well the correct criterion of theological hermeneutics. Either one claims, as Gherardini does, that the Council’s doctrines are not compatible with previous definitions, and that they are neither infallible nor unchangeable and therefore not binding, or one assigns to the Council an authority that obscures the previous twenty councils of the Church, abrogating or replacing all of them. On this last point there does not seem to be a difference between the historians of the Bologna school, as Professor. Alberto Melloni, and sociologists such as Massimo Introvigne who seem to attribute infallibility to Vatican II.
There is also a second problem that goes beyond the question of the continuity or discontinuity of the Council texts, and it is not so much about theology as about history. It is the theme I wanted to tackle in my recent book Il Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta (Editore Lindau). I have not attempted to undertake a theological reading of the Council documents, in the sense of wanting to assess whether they are in conformity or not with the Church’s Tradition, but I have tried instead to give a historical account of all that happened in Rome between October 11, 1962 and December 8, 1965. It is a work that complements theological studies and should not cause anyone to worry. It is impossible to understand the alarmist reactions of those who fear this history will be grist to the mill of the hermeneutic of discontinuity. Would this be a good reason for not writing the history of Vatican II? Should its history be left entirely in the hands of the Bologna school, which has made scientifically valuable but ideologically tendentious contributions? If elements of discontinuity were to emerge at the historical level, why should we fear bringing them to light? How can one deny a discontinuity, if not in the content then at least in the new language of Vatican II? A language which consists not only of words but also of silences, gestures and omissions can reveal the deeper currents of an event even more than the content of a speech. The history of the unexplainable silence about Communism on the part of a Council that should have been concerned with the facts of the world cannot, for example, be ignored.
The historian who has this task cannot isolate the texts of Vatican II from the historical context in which they were produced, because it is precisely the context, and not the texts, with which the historian is concerned. In the same way, the Second Vatican Council cannot be presented as an event that was born and died in the space of three years without considering the deep roots, and the equally deep consequences, that are also found in the Church and in society.
Separating the Council from the post-conciliar period is as unsustainable as separating the conciliar texts from their pastoral context. No serious historian, still less a person of common sense, could accept this artificial separation, which is born more from a partisan position more than from a calm and objective evaluation of the facts. Today we are still living with the consequences of the “Conciliar revolution” that anticipated and accompanied the revolution of 1968. Why hide it? As Leo XIII said when he opened the Vatican Secret Archives to scholars, the Church “must not fear the truth.”
Roberto de Mattei
http://www.lepantofoundation.org/2011/obawa-przed-asyzem/
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