An additional point I would like to make is that Vatican II itself is out of date—not those points of perennial teaching that are never out of date, but its pastoral outlook and approach (its predominate concern) which was geared to certain circumstances which are now radically different (“pastoral” ultimately means applying the faith to concrete circumstances).
St. John XXIII in his opening speech orients the Council’s approach in light of certain circumstances. For example, he says “the fundamental doctrine of the Church which has repeatedly been taught by the Fathers and by ancient and modern theologians…is presumed to be well known and familiar to all.” This presumption is no longer valid.
Likewise, with regard to the errors in the world, he says
But all such error is so manifestly contrary to rightness and goodness, and produces such fatal results, that our contemporaries show every inclination to condemn it of their own accord—especially that way of life which repudiates God and His law, and which places excessive confidence in technical progress and an exclusively material prosperity. It is more and more widely understood that personal dignity and true self-realization are of vital importance and worth every effort to achieve. More important still, experience has at long last taught men that physical violence, armed might, and political domination are no help at all in providing a happy solution to the serious problems which affect them.
Again, this is no longer the case at all.
This contingent nature of the Council’s decisions are noted by the Council itself in its acts, and in the explanations of the relators to the bishops. For example, Gaudium et spes, in its first footnote, says:
Some elements have a permanent value; others, only a transitory one…Interpreters must bear in mind—especially in part two—the changeable circumstances which the subject matter, by its very nature, involves.
Things have changed radically in the modern world since 1965.
In the context of explaining Dignitatis Humanae to the voting Fathers, the relator, Bishop de Smedt, said the following:
Our decree, since it is pastoral, tries to treat the present matter especially from the practical point of view and, after the manner of John XXIII…The question is put therefore regarding real man in his real dealings with other men, in contemporary human and civil societies.
…
But I beseech you, Venerable Fathers, not to force the text to speak outside of its historical and doctrinal context, not, in other words, to make the fish swim out of water.
Let our document be studied as it stands. It is not a dogmatic treatise, but a pastoral decree directed to men of our time.
My point is simply that much of what was decided at Vatican II has become outdated and irrelevant (often only a few years after). What is needed is not therefore a faithful implementation of it—that time has passed (except for those points of immutable truth it teaches), but its whole pastoral approach and analysis of the circumstances of the world needs to be re-evaluated (also considering its failure, as I noted document by document earlier in the thread).
