I remember going to mass as a kid with my grandmother, I have attended recently and it is very different. A family that I know no longer attends the services as they feel they are not correct and do not follow the original doctrine anymore? Can someone explain this to me? What are the changes that were made? How do they affect the beliefs of the church do they change?
This is a very inclusive question that cannot be answered in a couple of paragraphs. There have been many books written on this very subject. One of the most dramatic changes that resulted from Vatican II was a very dramatic change in the Mass.
Another primary change resulting from Vatican II is how the Church views its relationship with other religions. Some people say these changes are merely the Church reaching out to adherents of other religions to emphasize common beliefs; so called Ecumenism. Others believe that these changes actually teach religious indifferentism or that other religions or sects lead to salvation and that it doesn’t really matter what religion you hold to because there is truth in all of them.
These changes can be found in the Vatican II documents; Unitatis Redintegratio – Decree on Ecumenism and Nostra Aetate – Decree on Non-Christian Religions, as well as encyclicals and speeches given by the post councilor Popes.
One short example of these changes; Vatican II document, Unitatis Redintegratio #3 states: “For men who believe in Christ and have been truly baptized are in communion with the Catholic Church even though this communion is imperfect. The differences that exist in varying degrees between them and the Catholic Church- whether in doctrine and sometimes in discipline, or concerning the structure of the Church- do indeed create many obstacles, sometimes serious ones, to full ecclesiastical communion. The ecumenical movement is striving to overcome these obstacles. But even in spite of them it remains true that **all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ, and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church.”
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Here Vatican II seems to teach that Protestant and schismatic sect members are in communion with the Catholic Church (albeit partial), and brothers of the same Church, with a right to the name Christian. This teaching is more overtly expressed no. 819 of the 1992 Catechism:
819 “Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth” are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements.”
Christ’s Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in themselves calls to “Catholic unity.”
Now these teachings seem to contradict what has been taught by the Church down through the ages.
Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (# 9), June 29, 1896: “The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, ** who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium.”
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Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Bull Cantate Domino, 1442 : “…the holy Roman Church, founded on the words of our Lord and Savior, firmly believes, professes and preaches one true God, almighty, immutable and eternal, Father, Son and Holy Spirit… **Therefore it [the Holy Roman Church] condemns, rejects, anathematizes and declares to be outside the Body of Christ, which is the Church, whoever holds opposing or contrary views.”
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Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Cantate Domino,” 1441: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that
all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Church before the end of their lives …”
This is just one of many examples of the changes implemented by Vatican II. Some say that Vatican II was just misinterpreted and that the true meaning or “spirit of Vatican II” have not been properly implemented, but other claim that there are many things in Vatican II which are a direct contradiction of the doctrines and dogmas handed down by Holy Mother Church through the ages.
Thomas
