Christmas address to the Roman Curia by The Americanist, Benedict XVI

Christmas Address to the Roman Curia

Authored By: Pope Benedict XVI

Christmas Address to the Roman Curia

Pope Benedict XVI

Christmas, the Council and Conversion in Christ

On Thursday morning, 22 December 2005, in the Clementine Hall, the Holy Father spoke to the Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and Prelates of the Roman Curia, whom he received at the traditional annual Audience to offer them his Christmas greetings. The Pope spoke to them of major events in the year, including the death of Pope John Paul II. He also commented, at the end of its 40th anniversary, on the Second Vatican Council, its goals and implementation. The following is a translation of the Holy Father's Address, given in Italian.

…

Conclusion of Vatican II

The last event of this year on which I wish to reflect here is the celebration of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council 40 years ago. This memory prompts the question: What has been the result of the Council? Was it well received? What, in the acceptance of the Council, was good and what was inadequate or mistaken? What still remains to be done? No one can deny that in vast areas of the Church the implementation of the Council has been somewhat difficult, even without wishing to apply to what occurred in these years the description that St. Basil, the great Doctor of the Church, made of the Church's situation after the Council of Nicea: he compares her situation to a naval battle in the darkness of the storm, saying among other things: "The raucous shouting of those who through disagreement rise up against one another, the incomprehensible chatter, the confused din of uninterrupted clamouring, has now filled almost the whole of the Church, falsifying through excess or failure the right doctrine of the faith..." (De Spiritu Sancto, XXX, 77; PG 32, 213 A; SCh 17 ff., p. 524).

Saint Basil was talking about the problems created by those who rejected the infallible teachings of a Doctrinal Council, such as The Arians,  whereas the problems following Vatican Two have to do with pastoral decisions that are neither infallible or binding.

Read if for your own self and ask your own self the reasons why this unjustifiable reference was used?

https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3203.htm

We do not want to apply precisely this dramatic description to the situation of the post-conciliar period, yet something from all that occurred is nevertheless reflected in it. The question arises: Why has the implementation of the Council, in large parts of the Church, thus far been so difficult?

Well, it all depends on the correct interpretation of the Council or — as we would say today — on its proper hermeneutics, the correct key to its interpretation and application. The problems in its implementation arose from the fact that two contrary hermeneutics came face to face and quarrelled with each other. One caused confusion, the other, silently but more and more visibly, bore and is bearing fruit.

OK, what is the fruit?

On the one hand, there is an interpretation that I would call "a hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture"; it has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media, and also one trend of modern theology. On the other, there is the "hermeneutic of reform", of renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us. She is a subject which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God.

No, Vatican Two was a clear rupture with Tradition and it is not the same Church as it was prior to Vatican Two

The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks ending in a split between the pre-conciliar Church and the post-conciliar Church. It asserts that the texts of the Council as such do not yet express the true spirit of the Council. It claims that they are the result of compromises in which, to reach unanimity, it was found necessary to keep and reconfirm many old things that are now pointless. However, the true spirit of the Council is not to be found in these compromises but instead in the impulses toward the new that are contained in the texts.

But several Fathers of Vatican Two have publicly confessed that the texts were compromises- that is, the texts were political at their core and all were sullied by ecumenism and, thus, the refusal to teach the truth that excludes the other.

These innovations alone were supposed to represent the true spirit of the Council, and starting from and in conformity with them, it would be possible to move ahead. Precisely because the texts would only imperfectly reflect the true spirit of the Council and its newness, it would be necessary to go courageously beyond the texts and make room for the newness in which the Council's deepest intention would be expressed, even if it were still vague.

In a word: it would be necessary not to follow the texts of the Council but its spirit. In this way, obviously, a vast margin was left open for the question on how this spirit should subsequently be defined and room was consequently made for every whim.

The nature of a Council as such is therefore basically misunderstood. In this way, it is considered as a sort of constituent that eliminates an old constitution and creates a new one. However, the Constituent Assembly needs a mandator and then confirmation by the mandator, in other words, the people the constitution must serve. The Fathers had no such mandate and no one had ever given them one; nor could anyone have given them one because the essential constitution of the Church comes from the Lord and was given to us so that we might attain eternal life and, starting from this perspective, be able to illuminate life in time and time itself.

Through the Sacrament they have received, Bishops are stewards of the Lord's gift. They are "stewards of the mysteries of God" (I Cor 4:1); as such, they must be found to be "faithful" and "wise" (cf. Lk 12:41-48). This requires them to administer the Lord's gift in the right way, so that it is not left concealed in some hiding place but bears fruit, and the Lord may end by saying to the administrator: "Since you were dependable in a small matter I will put you in charge of larger affairs" (cf. Mt 25:14-30; Lk 19:11-27).

These Gospel parables express the dynamic of fidelity required in the Lord's service; and through them it becomes clear that, as in a Council, the dynamic and fidelity must converge.

The aims of the Council

The hermeneutic of discontinuity is countered by the hermeneutic of reform, as it was presented first by Pope John XXIII in his Speech inaugurating the Council on 11 October 1962 and later by Pope Paul VI in his Discourse for the Council's conclusion on 8 December 1965.

Here I shall cite only John XXIII's well-known words, which unequivocally express this hermeneutic when he says that the Council wishes "to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion". And he continues: "Our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure, as if we were concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us...". It is necessary  that "adherence to all the teaching of the Church in its entirety and preciseness..." be presented in "faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another...", retaining the same meaning and message (The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J., p. 715).

It is clear that this commitment to expressing a specific truth in a new way demands new thinking on this truth and a new and vital relationship with it; it is also clear that new words can only develop if they come from an informed understanding of the truth expressed, and on the other hand, that a reflection on faith also requires that this faith be lived. In this regard, the programme that Pope John XXIII proposed was extremely demanding, indeed, just as the synthesis of fidelity and dynamic is demanding.

The Thomist, Msgr Gherardini memorably asked in his must read book, "The Ecumenical Vatican Council II A much needed discussion" 

For the good of the church - and more specifically for the accomplishment of the "sales animatics" which is her primary and "supreme lux" - after decades of free exegetical, theological, liturgical, historiographical, and pastoral creativity in the name of the Ecumenical Council Vatican II, it seems to me that it is urgent that You (Pope Benedict XVI) offer some clarity by responding in an authoritative manner to the question about the Council's continuity with the other Councils - not with declamation, but demonstration, and about its ever vigorous Tradition of the Church.

An Excerpt from his Appeal to the Holy Father.

It seems he never got a response...

However, wherever this interpretation guided the implementation of the Council, new life developed and new fruit ripened. Forty years after the Council, we can show that the positive is far greater and livelier than it appeared to be in the turbulent years around 1968. Today, we see that although the good seed developed slowly, it is nonetheless growing; and our deep gratitude for the work done by the Council is likewise growing..

O, good grief. This is sad. It can not be justified.

The Church and our times

In his Discourse closing the Council, Paul VI pointed out a further specific reason why a hermeneutic of discontinuity can seem convincing.

In the great dispute about man which marks the modern epoch, the Council had to focus in particular on the theme of anthropology. It had to question the relationship between the Church and her faith on the one hand, and man and the contemporary world on the other (cf. ibid.). The question becomes even clearer if, instead of the generic term "contemporary world", we opt for another that is more precise: the Council had to determine in a new way the relationship between the Church and the modern era.

No. It. Didn't. The Catholic Church is not bound by time or beholding to a particular epoch as truth is not historically conditioned- as Pope Benedict seems to think.

This relationship had a somewhat stormy beginning with the Galileo case.   (What about its first 300 years and the uncountable martyrs? In any event, the Catholic Church was right and Galileo was wrong)It was then totally interrupted when Kant described "religion within pure reason" and when, in the radical phase of the French Revolution, an image of the State and the human being that practically no longer wanted to allow the Church any room was disseminated.

In the 19th century under Pius IX, the clash between the Church's faith and a radical liberalism and the natural sciences, which also claimed to embrace with their knowledge the whole of reality to its limit, stubbornly proposing to make the "hypothesis of God" superfluous, had elicited from the Church a bitter and radical condemnation of this spirit of the modern age. (It was not bitter. It was profound wisdom to teach the truth then)Thus, it seemed that there was no longer any milieu open to a positive and fruitful understanding, and the rejection by those who felt they were the representatives of the modern era was also drastic.

O, boo hoo. Heretics were unhappy. So?

In the meantime, however, the modern age had also experienced developments. People came to realize that the American Revolution was offering a model of a modern State that differed from the theoretical model with radical tendencies that had emerged during the second phase of the French Revolution.

Again with The American Proposition/Heresy

The natural sciences were beginning to reflect more and more clearly their own limitations imposed by their own method, which, despite achieving great things, was nevertheless unable to grasp the global nature of reality.

So it was that both parties were gradually beginning to open up to each other. In the period between the two World Wars and especially after the Second World War, Catholic statesmen demonstrated that a modern secular State could exist that was not neutral regarding values but alive, drawing from the great ethical sources opened by Christianity.

Holy Cannoli. The Calvinists and Deists who drafted The Constitution valued Liberty above all else and as Pilgrims they initially left England because they hated the Anglican Church and desired a country that would not allow religion to block their path to the acquisition and enjoyment of material wealth.

Catholic social doctrine, as it gradually developed, became an important model between radical liberalism and the Marxist theory of the State. 

The natural sciences, which without reservation professed a method of their own to which God was barred access, realized ever more clearly that this method did not include the whole of reality. Hence, they once again opened their doors to God, knowing that reality is greater than the naturalistic method and all that it can encompass.

Please. The First Amendment was intended to keep religion private and personal but that ain't Catholic Doctrine on Church-Stae relations.

Good Lord. Here is a Pope publicly addressing the Curia and publicly opposing Catholic Doctrine and substituting The American Heresy in its place.

Quick, name the Prelate who publicly objected to this?

It can't be done as Conservative Prelates and the Bloggers were always swooning over everything this Pope said.

It might be said that three circles of questions had formed which then, at he time of the Second Vatican Council, were expecting an answer. First of all, the relationship between faith and modern science had to be redefined. Furthermore, this did not only concern the natural sciences but also historical science for, in a certain school, the historical-critical method claimed to have the last word on the interpretation of the Bible and, demanding total exclusivity for its interpretation of Sacred Scripture, was opposed to important points in the interpretation elaborated by the faith of the Church.

NO. IT. DIDN'T. TRUTH CAN NOT BE REDEFINED AS THAT MEANS ONE IS CHANGING THE TRUTH.

Secondly, it was necessary to give a new definition to the relationship between the Church and the modern State that would make room impartially for citizens of various religions and ideologies, merely assuming responsibility for an orderly and tolerant coexistence among them and for the freedom to practise their own religion.

AGAIN WITH THE AMERICAN PROPOSITION/HERESY

Thirdly, linked more generally to this was the problem of religious tolerance — a question that required a new definition (CHANGE) of the relationship between the Christian faith and the world religions. In particular, before the recent crimes of the Nazi regime and, in general, with a retrospective look at a long and difficult history, it was necessary to evaluate and define in a new way the relationship between the Church and the faith of Israel.

These are all subjects of great importance — they were the great themes of the second part of the Council — on which it is impossible to reflect more broadly in this context. It is clear that in all these sectors, which all together form a single problem, some kind of discontinuity might emerge. Indeed, a discontinuity had been revealed but in which, after the various distinctions between concrete historical situations and their requirements had been made, the continuity of principles proved not to have been abandoned. It is easy to miss this fact at a first glance.

It is precisely in this combination of continuity and discontinuity at different levels that the very nature of true reform consists. 

Maybe Joe Biden thinks this way but for a Pope to claim that discontinuity is part of continuity is gibberish.

In this process of innovation in continuity we must learn to understand more practically than before that the Church's decisions on contingent matters — for example, certain practical forms of liberalism or a free interpretation of the Bible — should necessarily be contingent themselves, precisely because they refer to a specific reality that is changeable in itself.

There it is. Truth is historically conditioned. That is what Pope Benedict believed and that is what he said. Merry Christmas one and all

 It was necessary to learn to recognize that in these decisions it is only the principles that express the permanent aspect, since they remain as an undercurrent, motivating decisions from within.

On the other hand, not so permanent are the practical forms that depend on the historical situation and are therefore subject to change.

Truth is historically conditioned. He seems unaware that as Pope he was publicly acting as his own sapper of Magisterial authority. 

Talk about cancel culture.

If he could drop down the memory hole famous encyclicals he objects to, what is to prevent any Pope from neglecting any other Truth taught by a dead Pope?

Basic decisions, therefore, continue to be well-grounded, whereas the way they are applied to new contexts can change. Thus, for example, if religious freedom were to be considered an expression of the human inability to discover the truth and thus become a canonization of relativism, then this social and historical necessity is raised inappropriately to the metaphysical level and thus stripped of its true meaning. Consequently, it cannot be accepted by those who believe that the human person is capable of knowing the truth about God and, on the basis of the inner dignity of the truth, is bound to this knowledge.

It is quite different, on the other hand, to perceive religious freedom as a need that derives from human coexistence, or indeed, as an intrinsic consequence of the truth that cannot be externally imposed but that the person must adopt only through the process of conviction.

The Second Vatican Council, recognizing and making its own an essential principle of the modern State with the Decree on Religious Freedom, has recovered the deepest patrimony of the Church. By so doing she can be conscious of being in full harmony with the teaching of Jesus himself (cf. Mt 22:21), as well as with the Church of the martyrs of all time. The ancient Church naturally prayed for the emperors and political leaders out of duty (cf. I Tm 2:2); but while she prayed for the emperors, she refused to worship them and thereby clearly rejected the religion of the State.

That is SO sad. Look, this is what happened to a highly intelligent Theologian. Pray that does not happen to you. Do NOT think that truth is historically conditioned because that is a form of modernism.

The martyrs of the early Church died for their faith in that God who was revealed in Jesus Christ, and for this very reason they also died for freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess one's own faith — a profession that no State can impose but which, instead, can only be claimed with God's grace in freedom of conscience. A missionary Church known for proclaiming her message to all peoples must necessarily work for the freedom of the faith. She desires to transmit the gift of the truth that exists for one and all.

At the same time, she assures peoples and their Governments that she does not wish to destroy their identity and culture by doing so, but to give them, on the contrary, a response which, in their innermost depths, they are waiting for — a response with which the multiplicity of cultures is not lost but instead unity between men and women increases and thus also peace between peoples.

The same one, holy Church

The Second Vatican Council, with its new definition of the relationship between the faith of the  Church and certain essential elements of modern thought, has reviewed or even corrected certain historical decisions, but in this apparent discontinuity it has actually preserved and deepened her inmost nature and true identity.

Yes, the brave new world of Vatican Two CORRECTED those bad old mean Popes..

The Church, both before and after the Council, was and is the same Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic, journeying on through time; she continues "her pilgrimage amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God", proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 8)...

NO. IT. IS. NOT. THE. SAME. Prior to Vatican Two,  the encyclical Mystici Corporis taught that the Church IS the Body of Christ.

Vatican Two rejected that definition and substituted subsists in because the progressive theologians had been intellectually water-boarded by ecumenism and considered as members of the Catholic Church those who were NOT members of the Catholic Church.

Taken from:

L'Osservatore Romano

Weekly Edition in English

4 January 2006, page 4