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When people complain about the “post concilliar Church” they usually mean they don’t like the way people used the council to push a secular agenda. I sat through a lot of sermons, read a lot of Catholic newspapers, which were essentially copy-and-paste from the secular media; and if you disagreed with their opinion, you were “against Vatican II”.I really hope no one here actually rejects the second Vatican Council.
Much of the good stuff that was written in the documents reflects what was more or less partly underway before Vatican II. Laity were extremely active in bringing Christian ideals to secular society, more active than they are now.
Religious orders were already seeking renewal, Catholic educators and media people were adapting to changing society. There were some new ideas, such as more emphasis on Scripture, which most traditional Catholics would not object to, along with some new developments.
Some people inaccurately applaud the Council for having invented the wheel and everything good, while others denounce it as a pact with Modernism. Both are wrong. Unfortunately the Council Fathers never foresaw the massive wave of secularism driven by a combination of government, media, and education. They also never predicted the assault on Catholic doctrine, both from secular society and from parts of the Church itself. The council is not to blame for either the secular assault, or for those in the Church who exploited the open windows for their private agenda.
St. JP II and Pope Benedict had to do a lot of foundation rebuilding, which was necessary to preserve the actual Vatican II, and meet the unexpected challenges and underminers.
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