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Bishop Strickland asks whether Vatican II surrendered to modernism

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Bishop Joseph Strickland pointed out that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger once described Gaudium et Spes as a kind of ‘counter syllabus’ in opposition to Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors.

(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Joseph Strickland questioned in a recent video address whether the Second Vatican Council compromised with the modern world.

Strickland highlighted the dangers of modernism as well as Pope St. Pius X’s warnings against this “synthesis of all heresies.” The bishop pointed out that in 1910 the saintly pope required priests, bishops, and others “entrusted with teaching the Catholic faith” to take the Oath Against Modernism in which they swore that they “rejected the principles of modernism and would faithfully preserve the doctrine handed down from the apostles.”

Strickland pointed out that this oath “reflected the conviction that modernism posed an ongoing danger to the life of the church,” and that all priests ordained between 1910 and 1967 were required to take this oath. This included almost everyone involved in the Second Vatican Council with “very few exceptions.”

“How were those bishops to understand the oath they had sworn while participating in a council that sought a new relationship between the church and the modern world? How were they to reconcile St. Pius X’s uncompromising warnings against modernism with the council’s desire for greater engagement with contemporary society?” Strickland asked.

“These are not questions that can simply be dismissed. They deserve careful, honest, and prayerful consideration,” he added.

“There’s an enormous difference between proclaiming the Gospel to the world and permitting the world to become the standard by which the Gospel is interpreted.”

“That distinction, I believe, lies at the heart of the crisis we are witnessing today,” Strickland continued.

The prelate went on to directly address the Second Vatican Council, which he said deserves honest reflection. He pointed out that, unlike all other previous ecumenical councils, Vatican II “did not define new dogmas or issue new anathemas against heresy.” It was described rather as a “pastoral” council, both by Pope John XXIII, who opened it, and Pope Paul VI, who closed the council. Pope Paul VI himself said during a January 12, 1966, general audience that given this pastoral character of Vatican II the council avoided infallible dogmatic definitions.

The stated purpose of Vatican II, Strickland noted, was to “present the perennial truths of the Catholic faith in a manner more accessible to the modern world.”

“Can the church engage the modern world without absorbing the assumptions of the modern world? That question is more urgent today than ever before,” the bishop said.

He went on to take aim at one of the council’s main documents, Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, that “set forth a vision of engagement between the church and contemporary society that has profoundly influenced Catholic life during the past six decades.” 

“Many have seen this as a positive development. Others have raised serious questions that some of its language has been interpreted in ways that move beyond authentic engagement and toward accommodation with the spirit of the age,” Strickland noted.

Such concerns “deserve careful consideration,” he said, “precisely because St. Pius X warned us that modernism often enters the Church gradually, clothed in language that appears entirely reasonable.” 

He pointed out that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, once said that Gaudium et Spes functioned as a kind of “counter syllabus” in opposition to the Syllabus of Errors, which was issued by Pope Pius IX as an accompaniment to his encyclical Quanta Cura.

Ratzinger saw Gaudium et Spes as “an attempt at reconciliation between the church and the modern age,” Strickland said. This raises the question: “If the Church had previously warned so forcefully about the dangers posed by liberalism, rationalism and the spirit of the age, warnings found especially in the teachings of blessed Pius IX and St. Pius X — what exactly was being reconciled?”

“Were the concerns that prompted those solemn warnings no longer valid? Had the danger somehow disappeared? Or had the Church simply adopted a different pastoral approach while leaving those earlier warnings entirely intact?” 

“These are questions that deserve thoughtful answers,” Strickland said.

Critics of the Second Vatican Council have pointed out that in addition to containing errors Vatican II has resulted in weak, tepid catechesis from the pulpit and in Catholic parishes and schools. This has been attributed in part to the council’s promotion of more engagement with contemporary society in the sense of “listening” to the modern world.