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Second Intervention of Prominent Italian Professor on Vatican II On July 29, Catholic Family News published a report by Dr. Maike Hickson about an important intervention of Professor Enrico Maria Radaelli that was in reply to the recent criticisms of the Second Vatican Council by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. In that report Dr. Hickson noted that in addition to the intervention published at the end of it Dr. Radaelli had written a longer essay on the topic. We are pleased to publish here an English translation of this second article. In this lengthier discussion, Professor Radaelli examines in greater detail...

Vatican II: A Lawyer’s Perspective The Second Vatican Council continues to provoke concern, as shown by the recent open letter from priests, scholars, and journalists in support of calls from Bishop Schneider, who believes it contains errors and ambiguities needing correction, and Archbishop Viganò, who has suggested it might be best to forget the whole thing.I don’t have much to add to discussions of the authority and interpretation of the Council or its documents. I’m not a cleric, nor even an amateur theologian or historian. But I’m a lawyer, and that gives me a perspective on the issues which might...

[Catholic Caucus] TURN TO TRADITION -- a response to George Weigel Fr. Richard G. CipollaRecently George Weigel offered an Op-Ed titled  “A Paradox for the Next Pope” as part of the Wall Street Journal’s Houses of Worship series.  He quite rightly calls attention to several issues that will confront the successor of Pope Francis:  confronting and ending the terrible scandal of sexual abuse by clergy; reform of the financial structure and administration of the Church; and the challenge of supporting the vitality of the Catholic faith in those disparate places in which it found and at the same time...

Prominent Italian theologian defends Archbishop Viganò’s Vatican II critique: ‘Take off the Dogma and you will unleash the Antichrist” Prominent Italian professor lauds Archbishop Viganò and discusses doctrinal confusion since Vatican II Professor Enrica Maria Radaelli, a prominent Italian theologian, has now joined the Vatican II debate and strongly endorses Archbishop Viganò’s critique of the Council and its ambiguities and manipulations. Quoting Father Schillebeeckx and Cardinal Suenens, the professor shows how key figures intentionally inserted ambiguous formulations and used the term “pastoral Council” in order to relax the Church’s doctrinal teachings. But he warns us: “Take off the Dogma and...

Bishop Schneider lists problems in Vatican II documents that lead to ‘relativism’ ‘For me the deepest problem of Vatican II is the relativization of Jesus Christ and the Gospel.’ ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 28, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― The auxiliary bishop of Astana has called for the correction of texts promulgated by the Second Vatican Council that have led to “relativism.”  “I think that one day the Church should formally correct (expressions in) Lumen Gentium 16, in Nostra Aetate and also (one) in the Ecumenical Decree on Non-Christians that (says)  the Holy Ghost is using them as instruments,” Bishop Athanasius Schneider told...

Could roots of Vatican II council result in a church that leaves God behind? German priest and theology professor Hubert Windisch comments on recent ‘justified criticism’ of Vatican II Closing shot of Pope Francis' January 2016 prayer video showing baby Jesus, Buddha, a menorah, and Muslim prayer beads (misbaha). July 27, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Professor Hubert Windisch, a German priest and retired professor of pastoral theology (he taught at the University of Freiburg), has written a commentary for LifeSite on the current discussion of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and its aftermath.  Referencing Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò and Bishop Athanasius...

[Catholic Caucus] Magister vs. Viganò. Who Is Right? (Hint: His name begins with “V”.) Sandro Magister, a prominent critic of the current pontificate—with good reason aplenty— seems to have abandoned his critical faculty when it comes to the suggestion by Archbishop Carlo Viganò that, for all the trouble it has caused, the best approach to the Second Vatican Council is not the endless pursuit of Benedict XVI’s “hermeneutic of continuity,” whose meaning remains elusive, but rather simply “to to drop it ‘in toto‘ and forget it.” My co-author Tom Woods and I made the same argument back in 2002 in...

Establishment Churchmen Rush to Defend Vatican II after Viganò’s Remarks The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is generally regarded as one of the better, if not the best, Star Wars films. If you haven’t seen it already, the plot involves Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine (the “bad guys”) throwing down the hammer against the “rebel alliance,” a ragtag group of freedom fighters trying to bring justice to the galaxy, against all odds.The various responses made by establishment Catholics in recent days to the blunt but undoubtedly true remarks made by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò about Vatican II mirror what played out...

[Catholic Caucus] Catholic layman reveals strategy he used to overcome priest’s Communion-on-tongue ban 'I want all Catholics to know that receiving Holy Communion on the tongue is their right, and what they can do to regain that right, because it works!' July 23, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – “I want all Catholics to know that receiving Holy Communion on the tongue is their right, and what they can do to regain that right, because it works!” A French reader told LifeSite of his personal experience of being refused Communion in his local parish because of COVID-19 guidelines, and of his successful fight,...

Man Cannot Live on Vatican II Alone It’s a Friday. A boy and his father head out in their boat to fish. The plan is to catch supper.“Dad, we’ve been out for two hours and haven’t caught anything,” remarks the boy sullenly. “The water is too dirty right now,” notices his father. “Let’s try something different.”“I was thinking we could change our lures. These crankbaits would get more attention,” offers the young lad. “No, son, listen to me,” begins the older man. “You notice that our boat is relatively clean, yet the water is awfully dirty. We need to open...

[Catholic Caucus] Popular priest accuses some Catholics of ‘self-righteousness’ who receive Communion on tongue kneeling 'Fr. Longenecker should publicly support Catholics who wish to honor their Lord and God with all their heart, soul, mind, and bodily strength' At St. Peter’s Basilica on November 3, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI distributes Holy Communion on the tongue to the kneeling faithful. July 21, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — On July 19, Fr. Longenecker tweeted the following: He begins by setting up an alternative: “Which is better?” It may turn out that neither option is good, as if one were to say: “Which is better?...

[Catholic Caucus] Our Disbanded Spiritual Police IF, AND WHEN, we have another genuinely Catholic pope, he could do worse than to begin his first encyclical by quoting the opening passage of Pope Pius IX’s Quanta Cura: With how great care and pastoral vigilance the Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, fulfilling the duty and office committed to them by the Lord Christ Himself in the person of most Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, of feeding the lambs and the sheep, have never ceased sedulously to nourish the Lord’s whole flock with words of faith and with salutary doctrine, and to guard it...

[Catholic Caucus] WHETHER IT IS LICIT FOR A CATHOLIC TO QUESTION VATICAN II? Marco TosattiDear Stilumcuriali, Giuseppe Pellegrino, whom you know not only for his work as a translator for Stilum Curiae but also for his memory of the renunciation of Benedict XVI, has sent us a reflection of contribution to the open discussion in these days on the lawfulness or otherwise of discussing Vatican Council II. Enjoy your reading. Whether it is licit for a Catholic to question Vatican II?Objection 1. It would seem that it is not licit for a Catholic to question the teaching of Vatican II. For...

[Catholic Caucus] Church scholar: Proper understanding of Mass requires Communion on tongue Fr. Lanzetta emphasized the importance of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue to bring back the rightful reverence due to the Holy Eucharist. July 16, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — As part of today’s conference on the importance of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, a Franciscan theologian emphasized the importance of understanding theological reasons for receiving Holy Communion in this manner.  Recently, churches and bishops have requested the faithful receive Holy Communion only in the hand or, in some cases, have outright banned the reception of Holy Communion on...

50 priests, scholars, journalists thank Viganò, Schneider for raising Vatican II questions July 15, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Today, more than 50 priests, scholars, journalists, and other persons of prominence published an Open Letter to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, thanking these two prelates for their recent statements in which they discuss some problems of the Second Vatican Council's documents that might need a further evaluation and correction.  The signatories of this letter regard this discourse about the Council and its aftermath to be of crucial importance for the good of the Church. Among them are prominently the Italian church...

[Catholic Caucus] De Mattei: Fake news? No, historical truth The Council of Constance (1414-1418) On his blog Settimo Cielo of July 13, the Vatican reporter Sandro Magister was highly critical of Bishops Carlo Maria Viganò and Athanasius Schneider, hurling an accusation at them for spreading “fake news”. * The term “fake news” was used also in reference to Monsignor Schneider’s theses, whereby the Church, in Her history, has corrected doctrinal errors committed by precedent ecumenical councils, without, in this manner, “undermining the foundations of the Catholic faith.” Magister accuses Schneider of historical incompetence, citing, as evidence, a brief intervention by...

[Catholic Caucus] Viganò Calls Francis An "Argentinian Liquidator” Already before Vatican II, the Faith was weak, Archbishop Viganò wrote on June 24 to Italian Father Alfredo Morselli (MarcoTosatti.com, July 14).Viganò explains that many bishops at Vatican II were intellectually corrupt, since the solid preparatory documents could so easily be replaced with cheap innovation texts.For Viganò, Vatican II was a "dishonest operation" and a "scam carried out against the faithful and the clergy.”Since Vatican II, he explains, the Church went on a "slippery, unfortunate and destructive path” that finally reached "the bankruptcy of the company at the hands of its Argentinian...

A pessimistic look at (catholic) church re-openings after Covid-19 Father Illo: I think we'll be down to 5-10 percent Father Joesph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea in San Francisco,  gave a 14-minute homily of Sunday, July 12.A 15-second excerpt:Our church leaders are hoping that when the church restrictions are lifted that people will all come back to Mass. I don’t see it , Before Covid, 75 percent of Catholics did not come to Mass every Sunday on a regular basis. How many of the 25 percent attending will return? I think we’ll be down to 5-10 percent of...

[Catholic Caucus] Catholic filmmakers to create ‘stunning’ documentary on richness, beauty of Traditional Mass 'The documentary aims to show that the beauty of our timeless traditional liturgy will begin to restore the Church.' OAKWOOD, Ohio, July 12, 2020, (LifeSiteNews) – A group of filmmakers is working to create a “stunning” documentary about the Traditional Latin Mass that will show the “beauty of our timeless traditional liturgy” with the hope that such a film will help “begin to restore the Church.” The film, called “Mass of the Ages,” will focus on the beauty and meaning of the Latin Mass as well...

When receiving Communion in the hand can be sinful July 2, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Many bishops around the world are attempting to compel Catholics, who are in the right dispositions to approach the Holy Eucharist, to receive Our Lord in the hand, contrary to their well formed consciences about the risks involved in that method and contrary to their canonical rights to receive on the tongue. I have received many questions from worried Catholics asking if the bishops really have such authority and if it is ever right for the faithful to go along with such decrees. Here, I present...