How can you "discuss" an "Infallible" Council? Maybe It's not

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An interesting article from “the Gregorian Rite” website: Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Next Motu Proprio

By Brian Kopp

First, from Inside the Vatican:

[emphasis added]

Where Is the Ecclesia Dei Document?

Inside the Vatican’s Newsflash
By Robert Moynihan, reporting from Rome

[snip]

A very important document was supposed to come out last Friday, June 19.

It didn’t come out Friday. Or Saturday. Or Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or today.

And behind this delay, there is a story.

=======================

What document am I talking about?

Not the long-awaited social encyclical!

[snip]

The Ecclesia Dei Constitution

No, I am talking about another document entirely: the one regulating the future of the Ecclesia Dei commission (the commission founded in 1988 to focus on questions related to the old Mass and to provide pastoral care for those Catholics attached to the old liturgy).

It’s a very brief document, perhaps just three pages long. It is rumored to have been ready for some time. And I was told today that it was definitely scheduled last week for release on Friday, June 19.

But it hasn’t come out. Why?

[snip]

But what about the Ecclesia Dei document?

According to one friend here, “Behind the pretext of changing Ecclesia Dei, and merging it into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope wants to reopen a theological dialogue concerning Vatican II.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The Second Vatican Council provoked an earthquake in the Church,” my friend said. “The clergy, the laity, and the Vatican itself — everything was shaken. And now, 45 years later, there is only one group which wants a thorough debate on the meaning of the conciliar documents: the Society of St. Pius X. And the purpose of moving Ecclesia Dei under the CDF is to prepare the way for a thorough debate on the conciliar documents.”

“So what is the problem with that?” I asked.

“Look,” my friend said. “The document regulating the role of Ecclesia Dei is all written. It has three parts: 1) some technical points concerning how it will function; 2) some measures about its relationship to the CDF, within the CDF; and 3) an outline of a program for discussing Vatican II and how the Council should be interpreted in keeping with the perennial tradition of the Church.”

“And?” I asked.

“That’s the problem.”

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

“Some people don’t want these questions opened up again.”

============================

What is really happening here?

Benedict, knowing that the Second Vatican Council was a watershed in the history of the Church, and knowing also that the interpretation of the Council has led in some unexpected and erroneous directions, has decided to face the basic problem — the problem of the interpretation of Vatican II — by placing the Ecclesia Dei commission in the heart of the most important doctrinal office in the Church, in the CDF.

And yet, for some reason, the implementation of that decision is being delayed.

===========================

Another friend today told me he thinks the visit of the Austrian bishops to Rome last week has not been understood.

“The Austrian bishops, who are they?” my friend said. “They are Schoenborn…”

He was referring to Christoph Schoenborn, the 64-year-old cardinal archbishop of Vienna, Austria, and a former student of Joseph Ratzinger.

“It is significant that the Pope agreed to spend two days speaking with Schoenborn,” my friend said. “I think there could be further developments. For example, Cardinal Levada just turned 73 on June 15. The Pope could be thinking of bringing Schoeborn back to Rome, to take Levada’s place when he turns 75…”

[snip]

Combine the highlighted areas above with this post from the Catholic Church Conservation blog, a translation of an article from the French magazine Golias, and Dr. Moynihan’s statements above seem more than mere conjecture:
 
As far as I am aware an Ecumenical Council is, of itself ,not infallible. Any pronouncements which are defined infallibly are infallible; there were no infallible pronouncements at Vatican II.
 
Yinekka,

You are correct! Nothing was declared “infallible”. Therefore there are lots of things to discuss. Which is why the Holy Father is doing so. End of discussion.
 
I think these paragraphs from Vatican II will be very useful for getting the “spirit of vatican II”-ers on the straight and narrow:
Second Vatican Council’s CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH: LUMEN GENTIUM which was SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI ON NOVEMBER 21, 1964
Says in number 25 in chapter 3:
"Although the individual bishops do not enjoy the prerogative of infallibility, they nevertheless proclaim Christ’s doctrine infallibly whenever, even though dispersed through the world, but still maintaining the bond of communion among themselves and with the successor of Peter, and authentically teaching matters of faith and morals, they are in agreement on one position as definitively to be held.(40*) This is even more clearly verified when, gathered together in an ecumenical council, they are teachers and judges of faith and morals for the universal Church, whose definitions must be adhered to with the submission of faith.(41*)
And this infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine of faith and morals, extends as far as the deposit of Revelation extends, which must be religiously guarded and faithfully expounded. And this is the infallibility which the Roman Pontiff, the head of the college of bishops, enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms his brethren in their faith,(166) by a definitive act he proclaims a doctrine of faith or morals.(42*) And therefore his definitions, of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, are justly styled irreformable, since they are pronounced with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, promised to him in blessed Peter, and therefore they need no approval of others, nor do they allow an appeal to any other judgment. For then the Roman Pontiff is not pronouncing judgment as a private person, but as the supreme teacher of the universal Church, in whom the charism of infallibility of the Church itself is individually present, he is expounding or defending a doctrine of Catholic faith.(43*) The infallibility promised to the Church resides also in the body of Bishops, when that body exercises the supreme magisterium with the successor of Peter.""
This was written by Vatican II. 🙂 Can’t say it makes a new church if you know it’s constitution! Plus the ecumentical council of trent declared in detail the Catholic doctrines on the sacraments and justification infallible so when they are for the councils here there for our traditional doctrines!
 
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