[Catholic Caucus] Will Leo XIV Reaffirm the Forgotten Truths of Paul VI’s 1968 Credo?

The Remnant Newspaper ^ | May 22, 2025 | Robert Morrison

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[Catholic Caucus] Will Leo XIV Reaffirm the Forgotten Truths of Paul VI’s 1968 Credo?

For those defenders of the Vatican II revolution who consider Paul VI to be a saint, there should be little justification for resisting his 1968 Credo. But the need for Leo XIV to boldly proclaim these truths can be measured by the extent to which they have today been abandoned even by those men who purport to revere the legacy of Paul VI.

In his Open Letter to Confused Catholics, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre praised Paul VI’s 1968 Credo of the People of God, Solemni Hac Liturgia, as a true light in the darkness that had spread since Vatican II:

“[A]mong all this tumult a light has shone forth capable of reducing to nought the attempts of the world to bring Christ’s Church to an end. On June 30, 1968 the Holy Father published his Profession of Faith. It is an act which from the dogmatic point of view is more important than all the Council. This Credo, drawn up by the successor of Peter to affirm the faith of Peter, was an event of quite exceptional solemnity. When the Pope rose to pronounce it the Cardinals rose also and all the crowd wished to do likewise, but he made them sit down again. He wanted to be alone, as Vicar of Christ, to proclaim his Credo and he did it with the most solemn of words, in the name of the Blessed Trinity, before the holy angels and before all the Church. In consequence, he has made an act which pledges the faith of the Church. We have thereby the consolation and the confidence of feeling that the Holy Ghost has not abandoned us. We can say that the Act of Faith that sprang from the First Vatican Council has found its other resting point in the profession of faith of Paul VI.”

Archbishop Lefebvre had justifiably criticized Paul VI on various occasions, and yet he still considered the 1968 Credo to be truly Catholic. Whereas other men might have denounced everything from Paul VI because he had permitted so much harm to the Church, Archbishop Lefebvre’s unshakable Faith allowed him to objectively evaluate the work of a man who had unjustly persecuted him.

Perhaps, then, Cardinal Goh and other cardinals voted for Cardinal Prevost with the thought that he could correct Francis’s moral and doctrinal errors.

Today, with the recent election of Pope Leo XIV, we have occasion to revisit Paul VI’s Credo to consider whether those who purport to lead the Church today still believe it. As we will see below, many aspects of the Credo are at least implicitly rejected through the Vatican II path that Leo XIV has said he intends to continue. At the same time, though, we do not yet have certainty regarding the way in which Leo XIV will address the errors promoted by Francis, through Synodality or otherwise. However, if we consider the words from Cardinal William Goh’s recent interview, we see some reason to hope that Leo XIV could potentially undo some of those errors:

“Your Eminence, do you think you cardinals elected the right man? Yes, I think Leo XIV is exactly the pope the world needs at this time. Francis strengthened the missionary dimension of the Church, trying to bring the Gospel to all of humanity, including sinners, the marginalized, the vulnerable. But I think the least pleasant aspect of his pontificate has been that, in his attempt to reach everyone, in terms of doctrine and morality the teachings were not properly explained, or, rather, appeared ambiguous.”

Perhaps, then, Cardinal Goh and other cardinals voted for Cardinal Prevost with the thought that he could correct Francis’s moral and doctrinal errors. Many Catholics can readily name several ways in which Leo XIV ought to rectify Francis’s errors, ranging from abandoning Fiducia Supplicans to reversing Traditionis Custodes. Beyond addressing these well-understood errors, it is also vital for Leo XIV to address the more foundational errors that oppose Paul VI’s Credo. As such, it is worth considering four portions of Paul VI’s Credo that have been dramatically undermined not only by Francis but by the entire Vatican II revolution.

The Church Must Guard, Teach, Explain, and Spread the Immutable Catholic Faith

Paul VI insisted that the Catholic Church must guard, teach, explain, and spread the Faith:

“20. Heiress of the divine promises and daughter of Abraham according to the Spirit, through that Israel whose scriptures she lovingly guards, and whose patriarchs and prophets she venerates; founded upon the apostles and handing on from century to century their ever-living word and their powers as pastors in the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him; perpetually assisted by the Holy Spirit, she has the charge of guarding, teaching, explaining and spreading the Truth which God revealed in a then veiled manner by the prophets, and fully by the Lord Jesus. We believe all that is contained in the word of God written or handed down, and that the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed, whether by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal magisterium. We believe in the infallibility enjoyed by the successor of Peter when he teaches ex cathedra as pastor and teacher of all the faithful, and which is assured also to the episcopal body when it exercises with him the supreme magisterium.”

All of this conflicts with the ecumenical movement and Synodality, which compel their proponents to minimize Catholic teaching for the sake of making the Church appear less objectionable to those who resist its immutable teaching. As a result, many souls who identify as Catholic no longer know the true Faith.

Many aspects of the Credo are at least implicitly rejected through the Vatican II path that Leo XIV has said he intends to continue. At the same time, though, we do not yet have certainty regarding the way in which Leo XIV will address the errors promoted by Francis, through Synodality or otherwise.

The Catholic Church is Necessary for Salvation

Although Paul VI supported the ecumenical movement, his Credo includes two paragraphs that directly oppose the false ecumenism so prevalent today. The first relates to the need for non-Catholics to be reunited with the Church:

“22. Recognizing also the existence, outside the organism of the Church of Christ, of numerous elements of truth and sanctification which belong to her as her own and tend to Catholic unity, and believing in the action of the Holy Spirit who stirs up in the heart of the disciples of Christ love of this unity, we entertain the hope that the Christians who are not yet in the full communion of the one only Church will one day be reunited in one flock with one only shepherd.”

As discussed in a recent article, Leo XIV has already made some statements affirming this essential teaching. Paul VI continued by emphasizing that the Church is necessary for salvation:

"23. We believe that the Church is necessary for salvation, because Christ, who is the sole mediator and way of salvation, renders Himself present for us in His body which is the Church. But the divine design of salvation embraces all men; and those who without fault on their part do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but seek God sincerely, and under the influence of grace endeavor to do His will as recognized through the promptings of their conscience, they, in a number known only to God, can obtain salvation.”

This reiterates the Church’s teaching that there is no salvation outside the Church unless one (a) is truly faultless in his or her failure to be Catholic, and (b) sincerely seeks God and strives to do His will through the promptings of his or her conscience. Even then, the number of those who are saved outside the Church is a “number known only to God.” This opposes the heretical orientations of those false shepherds who encourage non-Catholics to remain in their religions.

The Mass is a True Sacrifice in Which Christ is Truly Present

With the promulgation of the Novus Ordo Missae, many Catholics no longer understand the Mass as the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally. Paul VI attempted to counteract this problem, which he had tragically fostered by approving the new Mass:

“24. We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars. We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His body and His blood which were to be offered for us on the cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the body and blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence.”

At this point, there is no indication that Leo XIV would ever consider restoring the Traditional Latin Mass to the rightful status it enjoyed prior to the promulgation of the Novus Ordo Missae. Nonetheless, if he truly seeks to cooperate with God’s grace he will surely recognize the need to allow priests to say the Traditional Latin Mass without restrictions.

Francis subordinated matters of the Faith to the globalist priorities. Leo XIV has already shown some inclination to restore the rightful balance between spiritual and temporal affairs, but much more work remains to be done to overcome the predominance of worldly concerns.

Paul VI continued by placing greater emphasis on the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament:

“25. Christ cannot be thus present in this sacrament except by the change into His body of the reality itself of the bread and the change into His blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive. This mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church transubstantiation. Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of this mystery must, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine, as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.”

Paul VI saw that the nature of the Sacrifice of the Mass required Jesus to be truly present. A practical corollary of this has been that as the external manifestations of the Sacrifice have been eliminated, Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence. A Novus Ordo priest can tell the faithful from the pulpit that Jesus is truly present, but they often sense from the complete lack of reverence for the Blessed Sacrament that this cannot possibly be the case. The most effective way to rectify this would be complete restoration of the Traditional Latin Mass.

The Church Cannot Conform Herself to the Things of this World

Finally, Paul VI addressed the evil which quite possibly stands as the rationale for why the Church’s enemies have attempted to subvert the Faith — they have wanted to conform the Church to the world:

“27. We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church of Christ is not of this world whose form is passing, and that its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of science or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men. But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men. Without ceasing to recall to her children that they have not here a lasting dwelling, she also urges them to contribute, each according to his vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate. The deep solicitude of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, for the needs of men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore nothing other than her great desire to be present to them, in order to illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all in Him, their only Savior. This solicitude can never mean that the Church conform herself to the things of this world, or that she lessen the ardor of her expectation of her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom.”

Francis subordinated matters of the Faith to the globalist priorities. Leo XIV has already shown some inclination to restore the rightful balance between spiritual and temporal affairs, but much more work remains to be done to overcome the predominance of worldly concerns.

It is too early to know how the new pope will confront the errors that have undermined Paul VI’s Credo, but in a May 16 audience, Leo XIV spoke of “three essential words that represent the pillars of the Church’s missionary activity and the aim of the Holy See’s diplomacy” — one of these words was “truth”.

For those defenders of the Vatican II revolution who consider Paul VI to be a saint, there should be little justification for resisting his 1968 Credo. But the need for Leo XIV to boldly proclaim these truths can be measured by the extent to which they have today been abandoned even by those men who purport to revere the legacy of Paul VI.

It is too early to know how the new pope will confront the errors that have undermined Paul VI’s Credo, but in his May 16 audience to members of the diplomatic corps, Leo XIV spoke of “three essential words that represent the pillars of the Church’s missionary activity and the aim of the Holy See’s diplomacy” — one of these words was “truth”:

"The third word is truth. Truly peaceful relationships cannot be built, also within the international community, apart from truth. Where words take on ambiguous and ambivalent connotations, and the virtual world, with its altered perception of reality, takes over unchecked, it is difficult to build authentic relationships, since the objective and real premises of communication are lacking. For her part, the Church can never be exempted from speaking the truth about humanity and the world, resorting whenever necessary to blunt language that may initially create misunderstanding. Yet truth can never be separated from charity, which always has at its root a concern for the life and well-being of every man and woman. Furthermore, from the Christian perspective, truth is not the affirmation of abstract and disembodied principles, but an encounter with the person of Christ himself, alive in the midst of the community of believers.”

If Leo XIV is sincere in his desire to promote truth, he must explicitly oppose the errors so prevalent today. He must of course oppose the headline errors that turned so many serious Catholics against Francis, but his efforts will be inadequate unless he can remind all Catholics of the truths that Paul VI (with all his faults) boldly pronounced in 1968. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

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TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; History; Theology
KEYWORDS: ecumania; popebob; sinnods; vcii

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