Fiddy Five years ago the best Hierarchs ever were gathered at Vatican Two

Text of Pope Paul VI’s Address Closing Council’s Second Session

by Jim Lackey

Following is the council press office translation of the Latin address delivered Dec. 4, 1963 by Pope Paul VI at the closing meeting of the second session of the ecumenical council.

We have now reached the end of the second session of this great ecumenical council.
You have already been long absent from your Sees, in which the sacred ministry requires your presence, your guidance and your zealous pastoral labors. Your work here has been heavy, and assiduous and protracted by reason of the ceremonies, studies and meetings of this period of the council...

Before concluding our labors, it would be fitting to sum up and to consider together the course of the session and its results. But to do that would make this address too long, nor indeed could it be done adequately since so many aspects of this council belong to the domain of grace and the inner kingdom of the soul into which it is not always easy to enter, and since so many of the council’s results have not yet come to maturity, but are as grains of wheat cast into the furrows, awaiting their effective and fruitful development, which will be granted only in the future through new mysterious manifestations of the divine goodness.

Nevertheless, lest we seem to leave this holy council hall without gratitude for the blessings of God, from whom this council has here taken its origin, we will remind ourselves above all that some of the goals that the council set itself to achieve have already been at least partially reached.

The Church wished to grow in her consciousness and understanding of herself. See how, on the very level of her pastors and teachers, she has begun a profound meditation on that mystery from which she draws her origin and form. The meditation is not finished, but the very difficulty of concluding it reminds us of the depth and breadth of this doctrine, and stimulates each of us to strive to understand and to express the doctrine in a way which, on the one hand, cannot fail to lead our minds, and certainly those of the faithful who are attentively following our labors, to Christ Himself from whom all gifts come to us and to whom we wish to return all, “reconciling everything in Him” (Col. 1, 20).

On the other hand, our efforts cannot fail to increase both our happiness in being personally called to form part of this holy Mystical Body of Christ, and our mutual charity, the principle and law of the life of the Church.

Let us rejoice, my brothers, for when was the Church ever so aware of herself, so in love with Christ, so blessed, so united, so willing to imitate Him, so ready to fulfill His mission? 

There is more of his speech but that blooded part says it all, no? They thought themselves THE best Catholics to have ever lived. 

This is embarrassing to read. 

Presumably, according to Blessed Pope Paul VI, the fathers of the Council were superior to all Catholics who had preceded them, every single Catholic ever, Catholics like, well, let's just roll out the A List; Athanasius, Ambrose, Augustine, Aquinas...

This Papal Pride was paraded publicly before the official Fall of the Council away from Tradition.