I love this type of round table discussion it is a thoughtful and insightful debate on the second Vatican Council by traditional & orthodox Catholics.
Will watch the above shortly. Sounds like this might be the right place to add this: What Pope Benedict Tried to Warn Us About After Vatican II
This is quite good. There is an interesting tension that Nicholas brings up which is that the young generation is simply looking for the truth. They know everything is corrupt and are tired of doom pilling. So while older generations care about what happened in the church, the young generation cannot connect because they don't have an understanding of what happened and it all looks like doom pilling. As well, the younger generation has more of an interest in what they can do to help the situation instead of talking about it. I am not saying they have a better perspective, but that they have a different perspective. So the question becomes one of how to connect with the youth who are seeking truth, who don't necessarily have a good understanding of everything. Also, a tweet by Taylor Marshall came up stating that 99% of Catholics have never read the Vatican II documents. Yet the church continues to believe that Vatican II needs to be the entire theme of the church. As many keep saying, the octogenarians are stuck in 1965. I honestly am beginning to believe that we have a bureaucracy problem in the church. That somehow when bureaucracy and vocations are mixed together we get weird problems. I think for all the conversations I have heard on vatican II the bottom line comes down to people connecting with God, and clearly the NO doesn't do it for everyone.
I am surprised how many people (especially Americans) are asking questions about Vatican 2 and its fruits. I remember there was a time when you would be considered something of a nut job for doubting it all. Perhaps this is the reason why there is such hostility from the Vatican towards the USA. The fact that so many there are asking inconvenient questions.
In a sad kind of way the Vatican reminds me of a teenager desperately unsure of itself and seeking attention. For instance a concert it held recently. Why on Earth is the Vatican staging concerts and drone displays and light shows? Most especially those that are secular. It really is like an insecure teen who is wondering what to do next. Also so much constant chatter and talk and press conferences and meeting. Endless chatter and bustle. Constantly wanting to be on the news and desiring somehow to be famous and talked about.
This is a really good point, as it points to the immaturity of the Vatican currently. They love bureaucracy and live on donations. Which is completely disconnected from the Catholic youth who are facing problems of trying to find work, starting families and so on. Which means they are facing the cross and are trying to find ways to exist with it, while the Vatican is stuck in the mindset of the 60's and social wars. Of course, the Vatican wont likely be changing direction any time soon. But the youth have to learn and adapt, and quickly at that. So they are learning that the passions aren't good, they are learning to stay positive in the face of suffering. To keep their focus on Jesus. That in spite of everything Jesus is still with them. While the Vatican is focused on staying woke and encouraging communism. Those who actually help the youth, like Sam Shamoun, will continue to gain momentum. I have kind of come to the conclusion that Truth in the end always wins. I mean, I have always believed this. But somehow I know it on a deeper level. These sorts of games coming out of the Vatican won't win because they aren't aligned with Truth. I think this is the immaturity of the Vatican, thinking that a desire can be exchanged for reality. So while prophecy explains how this collapse will play out, the nature of why the collapse will happen is already known. It's why empires have repeatedly come and gone while the church still exists.
The Columbans based in Ireland have a long history of missionary work throughout the world. Most of them are aging priests now who are scattered across the Far East, South America, Afghanistan and such places. I suppose they do great work with the poor and the disadvantaged. But what struck me from reading their magazine called Far East is that most of their programmes seemed to be of a social nature rather like an NGO. One would often see in their magazine pictures of their priests along with their parishioners. They were obviously highly embeded within the communities but usually in civies, indistinguishable in their dress as priests. Their whole theology seemed to be based around the social, the cry of the poor, climate change etc. Never any solid theology, talk about sin or salvation of souls or much in the way of Scripture. I suppose it was all Liberation Theology. One time they had on the cover of their magazine a picture of the statue of Lenin. I did not like it. It seemed to be glorifying Marxism / Leninism. I stopped reading the magazine then. I imagine the Columbans would have been very popular with Pope Francis and indeed now with Pope Leo. In the recent video of Ann Barnhardt I was fascinated to hear her talk about the original schema promulgated at the outset of the Vatican II Council. She said that it set out the essential aims of the Council which were to denounce Communism and to usher in the Fifth Marian Dogma, i.e. to proclaim the Blessed Virgin Mary as Mediatrix and Co-Redemptorix. I wonder has anyone seen that original unmodified schema of the Council?
I recall a discussion involving a well respected priest in our Diocese, who shared how the original schema was tabled and a new one assembled. As I recall, the older one contained a strong critique of communism.
It seems like communism is the seductive spell of bureaucratic grifters. It gives credence to a victim mentality whereby people can blame and shame everyone for their woes, and the bureaucratic grifters will indulge this because it empowers them. The bureaucratic grifters will even go out of their way to propagandize people with this very mindset because it solidifies their structure. The ego becomes glamorized by the idea that nothing is its own fault and that the government will help them succeed. But it becomes a self defeating paradox, because the very structure which holds the promise of enabling a person to succeed, becomes that whose goal is to crush any threat to its power. Have those in power in the church become glamorized? Have they become useful idiots? Have they given up their faith for faith in communism? Have the church authorities become reliant on hand outs from governments, there by becoming part of the bureaucratic class? When the Columbans are out in 3rd world countries, are they helping them come to God so they stop acting on their passions? Helping them to understand that when they build each other up that is when they are actually building wealth and prosperity? I really liked this two minute tweet I saw yesterday. https://x.com/RealSeq16/status/1979698280930951273 I think there is an entire mindset that needs to change and when it changes it needs to change forever.
Good essay. I think you've hit the nail on the head. Communism is already here, driven by those who wish to control the people. The time of the pharaohs has returned. But what truly enables this ideology is the lack of belief in the God who loved us. Without God, human beings lose their dignity and become annoying animals that express their opinions and speak uncontrollably. An animal that grows like a plague and destroys the planet with its waste. A selfish, smelly animal that saturates beaches, shopping malls, and even Himalayan base camps. An animal that must be exterminated.
I remember a priest on EWTN say that Cardinal Ottoviani had produced the schema and that he actually wept when he saw how Vatican 2 was hijacked. Interestingly, Ann Barnhardt said in the interview you reference that Ottoviani was the ghostwriter of the prophetically beautiful Humane Vitae encyclical. Pope Paul VI had promised his Freemasonic friends that he would Protestantize Catholic sexuality. I also remember a priest of that era say in another EWTN interview that 90% of his fellow US priests wanted contraception approved and were sure it would be under Paul VI. They were very unhappy with Humanae Vitae. Maybe that's why most Catholics still contracept.
I have posted this before but here goes. In the early 1970s there were two Catholic brothers who had an OB-GYN practice together. At some point, they split up because one brother wanted to dispense birth control.
My beautiful wife, Geralyn, once shared with me at a point when we had three children, without mentioning the priest's name, that he brought up the subject of contraception in the confessional. I doubt she ever went to that padre again.
