The
Anti-Cross Council
The spirituality
of the Cross and the changes wrought in the Catholic Church subsequent
to the Second Vatican Council
This
is the text of a conference given at Holy Cross Seminary on Saturday
September 14, 2002,
feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, patronal feast of Holy
Cross Seminary
by the Seminary Rector, Father Peter R. Scott.
Audio cassettes of the conference are available from Holy Cross
Seminary for $6 Australian each.
In Roman antiquity Crucifixion was the most cruel,
most severe, most terrible, most shameful of all punishments,
a torment reserved for slaves and non-Roman citizens who had comment
offenses against the public order. In order to add to the disgust
with which it was regarded, it was prescribed that the bodies
not be removed from the cross, but that they be allowed to be
ripped apart by vultures and other birds of prey.
How could such a horrifying and disreputable symbol become the
glorious sign of our Faith, our only Hope, and the banner of our
King, as we proclaim it in the Vexilla Regis? By what strange
kind of paradox could this sign of a curse have been erected into
the glorious throne upon which the King of Heaven Himself desired
to enter into His Kingdom? What is the sublime novelty that enabled
the mystery of the Cross to bring about the transformation of
the world?
The
mysterious power of the Cross
Our Lord certainly spoke very explicitly about the Cross. However,
it is hardly to be supposed that the Apostles, vying for the highest
position as they did, unable to stand faithful at the foot of
the Cross during the crucifixion, truly understood the full import
of such expressions as: "He who does not take up his cross
and follow me is not worthy of me" (Mt 10: 38) or Our Lord’s
assurance that without taking up our Cross we cannot follow him:
"If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow me". However, as St. Luke adds,
he who does not do so "cannot be my disciple" (Lk 14:27).
St. Matthew expresses the same astounding reality in slight different
words: "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses
his life for my sake, will find it" (Mt 10:39).
In fact, it was only the Holy Ghost who could enlighten the Apostles
as to the power that the Cross had acquired on Good Friday, when
God the Son deigned to shed His divine blood upon the Cross for
the Redemption of mankind. It is from the moment of the Passion
that this mystery shines forth (fulget Crucis Mysterium),
as we sing on Good Friday: "Behold the wood of the Cross, upon
which the Saviour of the world hung".
St. Paul’s extraordinary understanding of this mystery is repeatedly
the focus of his Epistles. He explains how the humiliation of
the Cross was the necessary means chosen by God to overcome the
opposition of the sinners that we are and bring us back to Himself,
reconciling "both in one body to God by the Cross, having slain
the enmity in himself" (Eph 2:16), "author and finisher
of Faith, Jesus, who for the joy set before Him, endured a Cross,
despising shame and sits at the right hand of the throne of God".
It was only by emptying and humbling Himself that he would be
exalted and win the victory that was His: He "emptied Himself,
taking the nature of a slave…he humbled himself, becoming obedient
to death, even to the death on a Cross". (Phil 2:7&8).
It is for this reason that he teaches that it is only through
the imitation of the lowliness of Our Savior’s humiliated state,
i.e. through the mystery of the Cross, that eternal salvation
and the gates of heaven will be opened wide to us, for thus He
will "refashion the body of our lowliness, conforming it to
the body of His glory" (Phil 3:21). Thus he has no hesitation
whatsoever at condemning those who refuse this mystery, who "are
enemies of the Cross of Christ" and proclaiming their eternal
damnation: "Their end is ruin, their god is the belly, their
glory is in their shame, they mind the things of earth" (Phil
3:18 & 19).
Hence the universality and obligatory nature of devotion to the
Holy Cross among Catholics, truly the sigh of the Son of man by
the love of which the elect will be recognized on the last day.
The vision of Constantine the Great – "In hoc signo vinces
- In this sign you will vanquish" - his subsequent victory
over Maxentius, the first display of the sign of the Cross on
his labarum, and the subsequent discovery of the true Cross by
his mother, St. Helen in 326, simply furthered the recognition
of this most profound and simple truth of our Catholic Faith.
This appreciation of the Cross as inseparable from the living
of our Faith is magnificently expressed by Pope Pius XI in his
letter to the German hierarchy condemning the evils of National
Socialism Mit brennender Sorge of 1933: "The Cross of
Christ…is still for the Christian the hallowed sign of Redemption,
the standard of moral greatness and strength. In its shadow we
live. In its kiss we die. On our graves it shall stand to proclaim
our Faith, to witness our hope turned towards the eternal light"
(§31).
Mortification
- the mystery of the Cross
What precisely is meant by "the doctrine of the Cross",
that it might become "foolishness to those who perish",
but "the power of God" "to those who are saved" (I Cor
I:18), so much that St. Paul "determined not to know anything
among you, exception Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (I Cor
2:2)? What is it about the Cross that is so specifically Catholic
that without it is impossible to accomplish God’s will?
If the Cross is the instrument of Christ’s death, it must necessarily
mean for us the dying to ourselves, to our pride, self love and
passions that we call mortification. It must mean the generous
and positive will to suffer for the love of Christ, according
to the example of St. Paul: "I rejoice now in the sufferings
I bear for your sake; and what is lacking of the sufferings of
Christ I fill up in my flesh for his body, which is the Church
(Col. 1:24). The Cross consequently symbolizes the willing
and joyful death to ourselves: "They who belong to Christ have
crucified their flesh with its passions and desires". (Gal
5:24).
However, a more precise view of this mystery reveals that the
embracing of the Cross involves a multitude of different elements
or spiritual convictions, all inspired by divine grace and impossible
without it:
1. Profound contrition for
sin, for if the Cross is a reparation for the punishment due to
our own sins, then it is manifestly obvious that the very first
element in understanding its mystery is the consciousness and
sorrow for our sins.
2. Expiation or some kind
of suffering to unite with Christ’s suffering to pay the
temporal punishment due to sin is a necessary consequence. Such
meritorious and temporary suffering takes the place of the eternal
and fruitless penalty that we ought to have received for our sins.
Thus applies to us what St. Luke says of Our Lord: "It was
necessary for him to suffer, and so to enter into His glory" (Lk
24:46).
3. Sacrifice of our self-will
is also necessary, according to Our Lord’s command before following
Him: "let him deny himself".
4. Poverty of spirit or detachment
from the things of this world is also necessary for the imitation
of Christ, who had nowhere to lay his head, according to the words
of St. John: "Do not love the world or the things that are
in the world…the world with its lust is passing away, but he who
does the will of God abides forever" (I Jn 2:14-17).
5. Chastity according to
one’s state in life, "because all that is in the world is the
concupiscence of the flesh…" (I Jn 2:16)
6. Obedience and humility,
without which there is no imitation of Christ and no overcoming
of the pride of life (Cf. Phil 2:6 – 8).
7. Abandonment to Divine
Providence, as a manifestation of the sacrifice of our self-will,
following the example of Our Lord’s sixth word on the Cross: "Into
Thy hands I commend My spirit" (Lk 23:46). It is from such
abandonment that comes the generous acceptation of trials and
tribulation, and the desire to bear them after Our Lord, unlike
Simon of Cyrene. This is also what enables us to see scourges
as a sign of God’s blessing, mercy and love: "Those whom I
love, I rebuke and chastise, be earnest therefore and repent"
(Apo 3:19).
8. Fortitude, patience in
bearing evils, and magnanimity, the great desire to practice virtue
for the love of Christ, are the consequently of such abandonment.
9. Hope, finally, is also
inseparable from the mystery of the Cross, for it is the assurance
that God’s mercy and compassion are applied to our souls through
the Cross that alone enables us to embrace it, as the Apostle
says: "For our present light affliction, which is for the
moment, prepares for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond
all measure;" (2 Cor 4:17).
Such is precisely the
mystery of the Cross, that is central to the very life of divine
grace in our souls. The question remains to consider whether or
not this mystery is present in the theology of the post-conciliar
reform.
The
Precursors
It is interesting for us to consider two errors that prepared
the way for Vatican II, and which were each in their turn condemned
for the absence of the mystery of the Cross. The first is the
heresy of Americanism, condemned by Pope Leo XIII in 1899 in his
encyclical letter to Cardinal Gibbons entitled Testem Benevolentiae.
In it, he explains that the essence of Americanism, and the foundation
of the new ideas that it represents is that the Church must adapt
to the humanism of the present "adult" times, abandoning its former
severity both in doctrine and in the discipline of daily life.
It does this by giving precedence to natural abilities, such as
the ability to get things done, and to natural virtues, such as
efficiency and productivity, demeaning the so-called passive virtues,
such as patience, humility and mortification. It is obvious from
the preceding considerations that this is effective a denial of
the Cross, and that it means a contempt of the evangelical virtues
of poverty, chastity and obedience, of whom Christ is the perfect
model. The consequence of this is the contempt of the religious
life and the undermining of a truly supernatural life of grace,
built necessarily upon the mystery of the Cross, i.e. mortification.
This cult of action, success and progress, as the Pope mentioned,
became a kind of dogma, effectively relegating the Cross to the
background.
In
1907, St. Pius X was even more clear in his condemnation of Modernism
in his encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis, clarifying
from the very beginning that the ultimate root of this heresy,
the sewer of all heresies, was the rebellion against the mystery
of the Cross: "It must, however, be confessed that these latter
days have witnessed a notable increase in the number of the enemies
of the Cross of Christ, who by arts entirely new and full of deceit
are striving…as far as in them lies, to utterly subvert the very
kingdom of Christ" (§1).
The
Spirit of Vatican II
It
is not without interest for us to examine the various aspects
of the post-conciliar reform, and to consider the relationship
that each of them has with the spirituality of the Cross. Most
obvious is the very spirit of Vatican II, clearly manifested in
Gaudium et spes the document on the adaptation of the Church
to the modern world. Pope Paul VI described it as a "new humanism"
in his discourse at the public session for the formal closing
of Vatican II, on December 7, 1965, in which he summed up the
whole purpose of the Council. It was, he explained to be a response
to the secularism of modern man and to his spirit of independence
(which, by the way, St. Pius X, in his first encyclical E supremi
apostolatus, called apostasy from God): "The religion of
God who made himself man has met the religion (for such it is)
of man who makes himself God" and he goes on to explain that
what happened was neither a clash nor a struggle: "What happened?
A shock, a battle, an anathema? This could have happened, but
it did not …An immense sympathy for men completely overwhelmed
it. The discovery and study of human needs...has absorbed the
attention of our synod". He followed with the following profession
of faith in humanism that is the key to understanding the spirit
of Vatican II: "You, modern humanists, who renounce the transcendence
of divine things, at least acknowledge this merit and recognize
our new humanism, for we more than anyone practice the worship
of man".
Here lies the fundamental motive for the aggorniamento,
the continual, ongoing and substantial changes in the teachings
and life of the Church: the divinization of man. Placing man first,
a new relationship of friendship and not of opposition has been
created with the world. However, such is not the Catholic perspective,
according to which the love or hatred of the Cross divides mankind
into two opposing groups: those who are of the world and those
who are not. Cf. Jn 17:14: "The world has hated them because
they are not of the world, as I am not"; and I Jn 2:15 – 17:
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in
him…". Necessarily small is the number of those who are true
followers of Our Lord in poverty, suffering and humiliation, for
the Cross is the narrow gate that few find: Mt 7:14: "How narrow
the gate and close the way that leads to life! And few there are
who find it". It is consequently manifestly obvious
that the one reality that has been evacuated from Christianity
by the post-conciliar church, and that has made possible the new
humanistic adaptation to the world is the mystery of the Cross.
Moreover, the more one examines the different aspects of the post-conciliar
theology, the more one realizes that they are all characterized
by the absence of the Cross.
The
Liturgy
It is in the Church’s public prayer that the post-conciliar spirit
is most obvious to the faithful. The list of doctrinal realities
that have either been entirely obliterated from the prayers of
the liturgy, or at least deliberately pushed into the background,
is impressive indeed: hell, judgment, the wrath of God, the wickedness
of sin, the greatest evil, the temporal and eternal punishment
owed for sins, detachment from this world, purgatory, prayer for
the poor souls, the Church militant, Christ’s Kingship on earth,
the triumph of the Catholic Faith, the merits of the saints,
the conversion of non-Catholics. Note that these are the very
same truths that are deliberated omitted from sermons, and that
they are the dogmas that relate most closely to the mystery of
the Cross.
For, firstly, the apparently "negative" dogmas, such as hell,
judgment, the wrath of God, the wickedness of sin, detachment
from this world would be incomprehensibly harsh without the mystery
of the Cross, in which God’s mercy is allied to His justice, His
patience is associated with His holiness, His love united to His
majesty and His kindness inseparable from His greatness.
Secondly, the teachings that express the necessity of reparation
for sin, including purgatory, penance, sacrifice would fill us
with dread and despair if it were not for the Cross and its continuation
in the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
Thirdly, the dogmas that express the Communion of the Saints necessarily
take their root in the merits of the Cross, upon which all human
merit, effort and good words are entirely founded. These dogmas
include the invocation of the merits of the saints, praying for
the poor souls, the combat of the Church militant herself, fighting
for the (Social) Kingship of Christ on this earth and for the
conversion of non-Catholics.
Also crucial for an understanding of the new liturgy is the whole
question of the new theology of the Paschal Mystery that is at
the basis of the reforms of the New Mass (Cf. The Problem of
the Liturgical Reform published by the Society of Saint Pius
X). This paschal mystery theory is that of a redemption without
the cross and without reparation for sin. For sin does not, according
to this theory, incur a debt owed to divine justice, and nothing
needs to be done to repay the outrage to the divine Majesty that
sin brought about. Consequently, it considers that Christ’s vicarious
satisfaction, that is his paying for our sins and on our behalf,
was not essential to the Redemption. The Redemption is really
just the ultimate manifestation of the eternal love of the Father.
It is for this reason that every reference to propitiation, that
is to the satisfaction owed to God to repay the punishments due
for our sins, has been removed from the new reformed rite of Mass.
The exclusive reference to the Risen Christ, as symbolized by
crosses that no longer have a corpus, is ultimately an indirect
negation of the mystery of the Cross. The Vatican II beliefs that
believers of all religions can be saved, since Christ enters into
union with every man in virtue of the Incarnation, are the corollary.
The
Priesthood
The post-conciliar Church’s manifest difficulties with celibacy,
particularly manifested by the unhindered infiltration of homosexuals
and pedophiles, is but the consequence of a new concept of the
priesthood, in which the priest is reduced to the level of a presider
or president, as indicated in the definition contained in Art.
7 of the instruction that introduced the new Missal of Paul VI.
(Instruction Generalis), especially in its original text.
This new concept, however, goes even further than this. At its
root it is a deliberate confusion between the spiritual priesthood
shared by all the faithful and the sacramental priesthood that
the priest alone has and that enables him to offer the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass. This confusion is deliberate because it has as its
purpose to introduce into the minds of priests and laity alike
the idea that the priest is just a man like other men, that he
is not to be regarded any differently from them, and certainly
not as another Christ, personally standing in the place of God
made man and representing him on this earth. He has the same needs
and rights as any other man, for example with respect to recreation,
and for those who are logical with themselves ultimately with
respect to marriage also.
One wonders what could be the motive of such deliberate confusion,
so alien to the Faith and to the Catholic way of thinking. In
fact, there is only one explanation. It is the deliberate elimination
of the mystery of the Cross. The new Mass is no longer essentially
regarded as an unbloody renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary. Being
a meal of men, it needs a president to preside, just like the
traditional Mass, being the sacrifice of God, needs a priest to
offer it. The priest of the New Mass consequently no longer needs
to live a life of ascetical mortification, sacrifice and obedience,
nor to follow the example of Our Lord, who "was heard because
of his reverent submission. And he, Son though he was, learned
obedience from the things that he suffered." (Heb 5:7&8)
The
Religious Life
The defections from the religious life are legion, as every Catholic
knows. It is no accident that many of these took place in the
fifteen years that followed the close of Vatican II. This was
not just because the doors were opened to change, and the religious
no longer felt bound by a ball and chain. The reason was the lack
of a special goal for religious. The service of God became equated
with the service of man, which then became the new end of the
religious life, rather than striving for perfection through self-denial
in order to assure one’s own eternal salvation. This anthropocentric
revolution in the minds of the religious life removed the special
ideal from their lives. Why make the efforts any more? A person
can serve man and be kind to man in the world just as easily as
in the convent, without the restrictions and hindrances of the
religious life.
Humanism replaced the Cross, through which alone we have at the
same time the love of our own soul, and the true, supernatural
love of our neighbor. It was an immediate consequence that religious
obedience, or entire submission simply out of the love of God,
disappeared to be replaced by utilitarianism, or what is useful
to one’s neighbor in the purely temporal order. The destruction
of the community life followed in turn, replaced by individualism
or self-government at all costs, applying to religious the liberal
principles of independence and egalitarian emancipation.
Education
A marked characteristic of the post-conciliar church has been
the idealization of youth, that has been called "Juvenilism"
(Cf. Romano Amerio, Iota Unum p.196). According to this
way of thinking youth is to be particularly honored for its continual
seeking, its uncontrolled spontaneity, and for its liberation
from formal ties and rules.
This, however, is the destruction of education, for it neglects
the fact that youth is a time of potency, that is of incompleteness,
of imperfection, of frequent and ready change and of lack of conviction.
It is far less perfect, since it is far removed from the immutability
of God. It consequently needs a firm master to draw it towards
true convictions and to protect it from fallen human nature’s
rebellion and propensity to sin. So readily even the idealistic
youth will be entirely subverted by his passions, by his self-centered
feeling of infallibility, that he will convince himself in apparent
"good faith" of error, all due to a lack of willingness to receive
the wisdom handed down by the experience and knowledge of older
persons. Education ought consequently to be the drawing out of
a person’s potential by forming true convictions by dependence
upon a wise instructor. It is the exact contrary of spontaneous
self-seeking.
Where does this replacement of spontaneity for education by handing
down, that is by tradition, come from? Surely from the absence
of the Cross. Does it not take a great mortification of the intellect
as well as of the will to receive from another? Is it not the
Cross which alone will ensure that we seek dependence upon others
rather than independence by ourselves, by which we know and recognize
our personal inadequacy and insufficiency (Jn 15:5"Without
me you can do nothing"), by which we overcome our selfish
self-sufficiency and learn to depend upon the wisdom of the ancients.
It is this mortification of the spirit, essential consequence
of living the mystery of the Cross, that the idealization of youth
entirely rejects.
The modern pedagogy is based upon the philosophy that truth transcends
both student and teacher, that is that it is essentially subjective.
Education is consequently nothing more than the transmission of
an experience of learning. It is ultimately but self-education,
the very notion of authority and submission of one’s intellect
to it being removed. A teacher is a helper and a friend, but not
a master who directs. Just as protestantism substituted private
judgment for dogmatic authority, so does the modernist educator
substitute subjective examination or personal choice for objective
truth. But just as the ultimate self-teaching and self-government
was the sin of our first parents, in which we participate through
our own sins, so likewise can there be no substitute for the Cross
in the re-establishing of order, in the denying personal autonomy,
in submitting ourselves to the objective truth of our sinfulness,
showing us our wound of ignorance, our need for the Redemption,
for grace, and for guidance. There can be no substitute for the
Cross in a Catholic philosophy of education.
Feminism
The post-Vatican II woman is proud of her emancipation. She is
now on an equal level with man, and she can do everything he can,
including read in church, speak publicly or even preach in church,
distribute Holy Communion, make sick calls, and even to be appointed
"pastor". She considers that she can be just as much a leader
as man can be. The principle of such unnatural egalitarianism,
woman’s rejection of her traditional functions and duties is not
really feminism at all, but masculinism, making women as much
like men as possible. This is nothing less than the application
of the principle of independence to the social role of women,
unshackling things that are dependent by nature and confined to
specific roles of support, as if there were something inferior
or pejorative about a role of dependence and support. It is also
a refusal of the so-called "passive" virtues so well demonstrated
by Our Lord on the Cross, notably patience, meekness, gentleness,
humility.
Can there be any doubt that the obliteration of the feminine and
supportive role of women is a denial of the Cross, its humble
self-abnegation, its lesson of denying our self will to help another
and to do God’s will? Many consequences follow. Mary’s so magnificently
feminine role of dependent cooperation in the mystery of Our Redemption,
the mystery of her Co-redemption at the foot of the Cross, by
which she became Mediatrix of all graces, is thereby evacuated
of all meaning. For the modernists she is just there to watch,
or as John Paul II puts it several times in Rosarium Virginis
Mariae, to contemplate the face of Christ. If the Woman who
brought God into this world and who crushed the serpent’s head
is not necessary, then the same must be said of any other woman.
Another consequence is rampant vanity, the abandonment of the
sense of modesty (i.e. of the sense of shame of one who is aware
of the disorder of fallen human nature), and the denial of the
Church’s teaching on the necessity of avoiding proximate occasions
of sin, under the excuse that the forming of relationships is
a necessary step in growth in maturity and in the capacity to
love. If woman has, by losing her femininity, cheapened herself,
it is because she practically denies the necessity of mortifying
fallen human nature, that is of the Cross one more.
Penance
The modern abandonment of works of penance on the grounds that
sorrow for sin should be interior is ultimately a denial of the
unity of body and soul. In fact it is just as necessary for the
human sinner to express his compunction by physical acts of penance
as it was for Our Lord to redeem us by his physical death on the
Cross. It is not hard to see that this exclusive emphasis on the
interior is but an excuse to eliminate all true sorrow and expiation
for sin, and to deny the reality of the debt of the temporal punishment
for sin, which no longer has to be paid, according to the new
theology. The minimization of purgatory and indulgences goes hand
in hand with the elimination of outward words of penance. Of course,
according to such a perspective the sufferings of the Cross have
no purpose either.
Ethics
Situation ethics is the name that Pope Pius XII gave to the transference
of the judgment of right and wrong, and of good and evil from
the objective to the subjective domain. All morality depends upon
the situation in which a person finds himself. There is no outside
rule. It eliminates the natural law, making all morality depend
upon the eye of the beholder. Personal conscience becomes a rule
unto itself, in direct contradiction with the very notion of law,
according to which an individual, contingent being conforms itself
to an absolute by the ordering of reason, that derives from the
eternal law, the mind of God Himself.
This independence of the conscience and its refusal of submission
to any external standard is based upon the theory of man’s autonomy,
which is called anthropocentrism. This theory was clearly taught
by the Vatican II document on the Church in the modern world,
Gaudium et spes. It is there stated that it is to man that
"all things must be ordered, as to the center and culmination"
of all creation (GS 14), and that man is willed "for himself"
(GS 24) and that consequently he is no longer willed for the greater
glory of God. It is a practical denial that God is the center
of all things, which He made for Himself (Prov 16:4), and that
if God was made Incarnate on this earth for us and for our salvation,
it was not that we are the end of the creation and the Redemption.
To the contrary, it was to make satisfaction to divine justice
for our offenses, and to restore to God the due honor that He
is owed by His creatures, and which can only be given by our salvation.
Consequently, there is only one answer to anthropocentrism, and
it is the very same mystery that anthropocentrism denies - the
mystery of the Cross. Just as the Cross demonstrates how hopelessly
inadequate we are by ourselves, so also is it that Our Lord died
on the Cross because he loved us and because it was His Father’s
will that by such satisfaction He would redirect sinful human
nature back to God, its only final end. It is this direction of
everything in him to Almighty God, effectively denied by the new
theology, that can alone be the basis of true objective morality.
The
Death Penalty
The 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church, while admitting
the possibility of the legitimate use of the death penalty in
the Church’s traditional teaching, strictly limits it to its deterrent
and remedial benefits for society (§2266), thereby "rendering
the aggressor unable to inflict harm". However, it entirely
overlooks the principal reason in the Church’s traditional teaching,
which is that of restitution of the public order of justice, so
disturbed by the crime. If it does admit that punishment can have
an expiatory value, it is only "when his punishment is voluntarily
accepted by the offender" (Ib.), thereby making it a purely
subjective and personal expiation, rather than the public, social
restitution demanded by justice. Furthermore, there are in the
same catechism such strong statements against capital punishment
in virtue of the dignity of the human person (Ib. §2267) and the
demands of evangelical charity (Ib. § 2306), that even the above-mentioned
possibility is practically denied, as can be seen by the universal
opposition to the death penalty by the Pope and the modernist
bishops. This denial of the objective requirements of justice
is inseparable from the denial of the mystery of the Cross, which
is that of Christ’s vicarious satisfaction for the punishment
due for our sins. Consequently, it is ultimately the refusal of
the Cross which is at the root of the refusal of the demands of
justice present even in the natural law.
Dialogue
Both the word and the reality of dialogue are an entire post-conciliar
novelty in the Catholic Church. It is based not only on the false
principle of freedom of expression, but also on the idea that
all truth is problematic and open to discussion. Furthermore,
it is understood that Catholics have something to learn from non-Catholics
in spiritual things, for they must speak with them as if they
did not possess the truth. After a while, the whole question of
who possesses the truth becomes considered as irrelevant. For
it necessarily maintains that nobody has to sacrifice his opinion
in the mutual exchanges that take place, that is that there are
no fundamental points of contradiction between opposing religious
viewpoints. It is consequently in its very nature a denial of
Christ’s superior authority, and of His use of that authority
in instituting the Church. It is the Cross that teaches the mortification
of the intellect, by which it will only discuss on the level of
objective truth, which makes all dialogue impossible. Cf. Gal
2:20. "The life that I now live in the flesh, I live in the
Faith of the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up
for me".
Ecumenism
The fundamental basis of Ecumenism, the sharing of prayers and
religious experience with non-Catholics is the principle of non-proselytism,
namely of the abandonment of all effort to make converts. This
renunciation of all proselytism was explicitly acknowledged with
respect of the Orthodox in the 1993 Balamand agreement, and with
respect to the Jews in the August 12, 2002 statement of the U.S.
bishops. It has likewise been the necessary understanding for
all inter-religious meetings, in particular those sponsored by
Pope John Paul II in Assisi in 1986 and again in January 2002.
This clearly means indifferentism with respect to the universality
and expansion of the Catholic Faith and of supernatural truth
throughout the world, and consequently indifference to the mystery
of the Cross, the objective cause of our Redemption.
The harmony of Catholics with non-Catholic and even non-Christian
religions that is sought for by such meetings is not unity and
is consequently not the fruit of the Cross, only capable of creating
unity amongst those who are at odds, as St. Paul states: "For
he himself is our peace, he it is who has made both one" (Eph
2:14). Clearly this is not possible with non-Christians, who do
not believe in the divinity of Christ, or with non-Catholics who
although they may believe in Christ do not venerate the passion
or understand the power of the mystery of the Cross. In its place
ecumenism establishes an egalitarian humanism, according to which
false religions must be recognized as valuable means of salvation,
for as Vatican II say, they have "many elements of sanctification
and of truth" (Lumen gentium, §7), for they "have
been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the
mystery of salvation" (Unitatis integratio, §3).
They are consequently all valid, changeable, historical expressions
of a single world-wide religion of immanence, which means that
God is to be found in every man, regardless of his character,
of his virtue or of his life, and regardless of his acceptation
of supernatural truth. This is, in fact, exactly what Gaudium
et spes (Vatican II document on the Church and the modern
world) means when it states that "Christ is in a certain way
united to every man" (§22). In this way the Cross is entirely
evacuated of meaning, and if all men are united to Christ, it
is whether they know it or not, and whether they love the Cross
or not. Consequently the Christ that they are united to is a disincarnate,
cosmic Christ, one in whom the real human nature, and the superabundant
sufferings of the Passion have somehow become superfluous.
Collegiality,
Religious Liberty and Liberation Theology
You might wonder what these three novelties have in common. Collegiality
is the denial of personal authority in the government of the Church,
reducing it to a democratic process, and making all the world’s
bishops (together with the Pope) a second supreme authority in
the Church, equal with the Pope himself. Religious Liberty is
the new idea that all the false religions have equal rights to
practice their false worship as the Catholic Church has, and that
they cannot be prevented from doing so, provided that they do
not harm the public order. Liberation Theology is the substitution
of earthly justice and peace as the Church’s goal, instead of
a heavenly kingdom.
They do indeed all have a common denominator. All three groups
of ideas have as their goal earthly happiness. They aim at some
human harmony to be found on this earth, either amongst Catholics
by the democratic process in the Church allowing the expression
of all ideas (=collegiality), or with non-Catholics by allowing
to all religions freedom of expression (=religious liberty), or
with non-religious people by demonstrating that Catholics can
be just as zealous for earthly well being as they are (=liberation
theology). In all cases, it is an attempt to "rescue" the Church,
considered unpopular, by making it appealing to the world, and
by making it embrace the false principles of the French revolution,
which are anti-Catholic because they limit human life to the dimensions
of this earthly existence: namely Liberty (= Religious Liberty),
Equality (= Collegiality) and Fraternity (= Liberation Theology).
By promoting such ideas the Church becomes a modern democracy
with a religious veneer, namely the vehicle for a man-centered,
immanentist religious feeling to promote earthly well-being.
All three of these false philosophies – for they are philosophy
and not religion at all – are a manifest rebellion against the
authority of God, to whom all of mankind must be subject, which
is only possible through the power of the Cross, "exerting
the power by which he is able also to subject all things to himself"
(Phil 3:21). There is no other source of divine order, no
other means to give true, supernatural freedom, dignity and harmony
to mankind, as St. Paul says: "For it has pleased God the Father
that in him all his fullness should dwell, and that through him
be should reconcile to himself all things, whether on the earth
or in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross."
(Col 1:20). All three of these philosophies have become a
autonomous, self-sufficient good, independent of and devoid of
all reference to God, by their absence of any connection with
the mystery of the Cross.
The
Sacraments
The new post-conciliar theology constantly emphasizes the aspect
of the sacrament that they are a sign, overlooking that they are
efficacious signs, producing the grace that they symbolize. The
downgrading of the ex opere operato effect of the sacraments
reduces them to becoming symbols of subjective events, and thus
a "sacrament" comes to include everything that symbolizes the
sacred, and no longer the seven sacraments that "contain and
effectuate" (Catechism of the Council of Trent, p.139) the
grace that they symbolize. It is in this sense that the Church
itself is defined as a sacrament (Lumen gentium, §1). However,
to redefine the sacraments in such a way is to confuse the true
sacraments with any other symbolic mystery and to undermine not
only Catholic doctrine, but also the basis of the Catholic life
in the administration of the sacraments.
The seven sacraments are profoundly different from all the other
signs or mysteries that can be spoken of. The seven sacraments
not only symbolize something present, as every sign does, but
also symbolize a past real event and a future grace to be obtained.
The past reality is the cause through which all seven sacraments
bring about our sanctification, namely the Passion of Our Lord
Jesus Christ. The future reality is the final end for which the
sacraments exist, namely everlasting life, to which the sacraments
give a right. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches this very simply: "Consequently
a sacrament is a sign that is both a reminder of the past, i.e.
the passion of Christ; and an indication of that which is effected
in us by Christ’s passion, i.e. grace; and a prognostic, that
is, a foretelling of future glory" (S.T. IIIa, 60, 3). All
the sacraments have their effect of producing everlasting life
through the Passion of Christ.
However, according to the new concept of sacrament, enlarged to
include any sacred, symbolic mystery, a sacrament is no longer
a sign of the past reality, namely the Passion, nor of our future
hope, everlasting life. It is simply a sign of something present,
without relation to either of these. A sacrament is a mystery
that relates to our consciousness here and now, that is to our
gift of faith. It has consequently become a purely subjective
symbol, limited to the present, or to the "today" of our experience,
separated from the Passion and from eternal life. The new theology
of the sacraments, with its whole new emphasis on community experience,
is consequently an evacuation of the Cross.
Hence baptism is no longer primarily to remove Original Sin, but
to introduce into membership in a community. Penance is for reconciliation,
and no longer for the forgiveness of the guilt of actual sin and
for the remission of the punishment that is due to it, possible
only through the mystery of the Cross. The beautiful prayer that
the priest recites after each Confession in the traditional rite
is an illustration of this traditional understanding of the sacrament
of Penance: "Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi, merita Beatae
Mariae Virginis et omnium sanctorum, quidquid boni feceris vel
mali sustinueris sint tibi in remissionem peccatorum, augmentum
gratiae et praemium vitae aeternae – May the Passion of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all
the saints obtain for you that whatever good you do or whatever
evil you bear might merit for you the remission of your sins,
the increase of grace and the reward of everlasting life".
Likewise, Extreme Unction is no longer considered as a purification
and immediate preparation for death, nor Confirmation the source
of fortitude that will enable us to die for the Faith as Christ
did on the Cross, nor is Matrimony considered as the source of
the spirit of self-sacrifice that makes parents place children
first. Matrimony is now considered primarily as a "communion
of life and love" (Gaudium et spes, §48). In each case
the Cross is evacuated as the source of the holiness that the
sacraments give.
The same applies even more for the Blessed Eucharist, in which
the concept of a meal has totally taken over, and eliminated the
Blessed Sacrament as a remedy for our failures, venial sins and
weaknesses and as the gage of everlasting life, for it has eliminated
the mystery of the Cross. Hence the love that it inspires is not
a love of reparation for the ingratitude of men, starting with
ourselves, which is so much a part of our daily visits of adoration
to the Blessed Sacrament. Entirely different is the traditional
devotion to the Blessed Eucharist, not just as to a meal, but
as to the sacred banquet that opens up to our souls to everlasting
life by applying the grace of the Passion in the most sublime
and perfect way. This is described beautifully in the antiphon
written by St. Thomas Aquinas for the feast of Corpus Christi,
that the priest recites in the traditional rite when he administers
Holy Communion outside Mass: " O sacrum convivium in quo Christus
sumitur, recolitur memoria passionis eius, mens impletur gratia
et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur – O holy banquet, in which
Christ is received, the memory of His passion is renewed, the
soul is filled with grace, and there is given to us a pledge of
future glory".
Conclusion
The Cross is not simply omitted from the spirit of Vatican II
and its reforms. It is not just a dysjunction or separation. There
is a profound, consistent, fundamental and across the board opposition
to the Cross. Whatever aspect of life is examined under the optic
of Vatican II, we find every time a deliberate and universal rejection
of the mystery of the Cross. It is for this reason that Vatican
II can legitimately be called the Anti-Cross Council.
As Romano Amerio point out in Iota Unum, p. 754, whenever
there is crisis or confusion, the cause must be sought for in
the absence of a principle of unity coordinating the multiplicity
of different goods and activities into one. However, the Church’s
principle of unity is precisely the mystery of the Cross, for
this was his hour, for which he came into the world: "For this
reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I
may take it up again." (Jn 10:17). It is the elimination of
this principle of unity that is responsible for the crisis of
the post-conciliar church, that, in 1972, Paul VI rightly called
"autodestruction".
Every attempt to find another principle of unity has failed; e.g.
the dignity of man, human consciousness, liberty, equality and
human brotherhood. The reason for this is that it takes an external
and transcendent principle to unite a society, group or organization.
It cannot attain to unity by something within itself, that is
immanent to itself, by only by some superior principle over, beyond
and superior to that which is to be united. Falling back upon
some interior element such as personal conscience or freedom can
only ultimately cause further division, as every member goes his
own way.
It is the grace of the Passion and the power of the Cross that
unites the members of the Church, the mystical body of Christ,
to their head, and to one another. It is the only source of justice,
restoring the order destroyed by sin, and the only hope for us
to practice the charity so necessary to the restoration of divine
order. Hence it is ultimately the deliberate exclusion of the
Passion and Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ that is the cause of
the present crisis in the Church, nor can there be any other response
than the total reinsertion of the Cross into theology, spirituality
and Catholic life.