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[Catholic Caucus] “Complexities and paradoxes in the history of the Church”: Vatican II, John XXIII, Ottaviani, and the Tucho Fernández challenge- by Roberto de MatteiThe appointment of Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has a symbolic weight of great import. In a certain sense, it represents the culmination of the pontificate of Pope Francis, who has meant to send a clear sign to those he referred to, at his meeting on 24 November 2022 with the members of the International Theological Commission, as the “backward-looking” of the Church.Another signal in this...

How Have Vatican II’s Ecumenical Wagers Against the Blessed Virgin Mary Panned Out?“I am campaigning, AS MUCH AS I CAN, against a consecration of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, because I can see the danger that a move in this direction would constitute.” (Yves Congar, My Journal of the Council, entry for September 17, 1964) What, in Yves Congar’s eyes, was so dangerous about consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? As we can discern from the devastation he expressed following Paul VI’s declaration of the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mater Ecclesiae” (Mother of the...