Catholics who condemn Vatican II QUESTION from Dave Conger on November 10, 2002 Dear Br. John Paul,
I've noticed there are Catholics out there who, while they aren't members of SSPX or any other schismatic organization, blame Vatican II for the Church's problems rather than the so-called spirit of Vatican II. Said individuals, while they consider the Novus Ordo Mass valid, nevertheless consider it highly inferior to the Tridentine Mass. Furthermore, they tend to be highly critical of the Holy Father for allegedly not cracking down on dissenters associating with those of other religions, basically accusing him of promoting religious indifferentism.
What does the Church have to say about such people? Are they committing objective sin of some kind by holding such views? Personally, I think such people are flirting with schism, but what do you and the rest of the Church think?
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on November 19, 2002 Dear Mr. Conger:
Such people as you are describing are not fully in communion with the Church. They tend to have a spirit of dissent and evaluate with what I call the hermenuetic of opposition.
Whenever we place our personal opinions and preferences above the teaching of the Church we have ceased to be loyal Catholics.
To say that the pre-Vatican II Mass is SUPERIOR to the current Mass is to misunderstand the reality of the need for reform and to misunderstand the difference between what Vatican II ACTUALLY said and what people SAY it says. Vatican II is a beautiful Council that stands squarely on the shoulders of the tradition of the Church. Anyone who says otherwise is ignorant.
To crticiize the Pope on issues of discipline of the clergy and theologian is the sin of rash judgment. We have no idea what the facts are or what the Pope has done behind closed doors.
What many of these people are doing are not necessarily sinful objectively identified to this subject, but may include several sins such as rash judgement and arrogance.
The basic problem with these people is although they may be Catholics who do not violate the teachings and disciple per se, but they do not think with the mind of the Church, that is, they do not think with a Catholic worldview.
While not thinking with a Catholic worldview is not an objective sin, it is a condition that leads us to sin oftentimes.
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