Matthew 7:15

I am by no means one of those ultra-trads who go totally apeshit whenever they hear "Vatican II". Mindful of the excesses that accompanied the implementation of the changes and novelties, I am also aware of the fact, that a not a few of the original ideas of the council were correct.

This, however, is the pits.

A webpage that comes along with the not completely neutral but still somewhat innocent title "Vaticanum Secundum".

'Cool', I thought. 'Maybe they offer a bit more than the usual collection of documents...'

Indeed they do.

Excerpts from the starting page:

"This website celebrates the Second Vatican Council and its promise for the future of the Catholic Church. It is dedicated to the spirit of Pope John XXIII who dared open the doors and windows of the church he loved to the contemporary world. By this courageous act he allowed sunlight and rain to feed the foliage and roots of the increasingly petrified tree of the Fortress Church.

Can you hear the violins?

"But Vatican II was only a beginning! The tree must be carefully fed and watered. It must be protected against the saws and axes and poison of those who fear change and prefer brittle leaves in reliquaries and gilded dry branches to fragile new shoots. It must be keept safe from the torches of others who are motivated by misguided love for what they consider the one and only "True Church." It must be allowed to become what it is meant to be, a life-bearing, life-giving, growing tree that links earth and heaven and welcomes an endless variety of flocks of believers to build nests in its vast network of branches, a genuine Tree of Life that is first and foremost a Tree of Love.

Can you hear the birdies sing?

The Second Vatican Council shows the power of courageous individuals in tune with the signs of the times and open to the Spirit to make history. Pope John XXIII convoked this universal synod -- the largest and first ever truly global ecumenical council -- and became its beacon. It seems more than pure coincidence that the name chosen by Angelo Roncalli would link him clearly to Pope John XXII, who in the Bull Quia Quorundam (1324) had condemned the Franciscan teaching of papal infallibility as inspired by the pater mendacii (father of lies)..."

Can you hear me hurl?

It is impressive to see how people like these function. John XXII wrote "Quia Quorundam" against the Franciscan ideal of poverty, which he feared might undermine the Church's right for possessions. Normally this would have the VCII-commies frothing from the mouth. But in this case it is cool, because in the bull John XXII argues against the Franciscan opinion that...

"...that which the Roman Pontiffs had defined by [means of] the key of knowledge, in faith and morals, once for all, persists unchangeable to such an extent, that it is not lawful for a successor to call it again into doubt, nor to affirm the contrary.”

Apart from the fact that I don't see all the conditions for an ex cathedra teaching (as understood today) represented in this sentence, of course the VCII-leftists shot themselves in the foot. If they make John XXIII the law-giver supreme and thereby buy into the notion that a teaching of a Roman Pontiff can be called into doubt, they would have no justification in bad-mouthing Pius IX (which they do galore, but more on that later), who by defining Papal Infallibility called into doubt what John XXII said, and thereby would have acted according to program.

The starting page ends with a personal footnote of one Ingrid Shafer:

"In November, 1996, 91 year old Franz Cardinal König and I were among lecturers in Vienna at a two day conference on the future of faith in the next millennium. He invited me to attend his evening mass at Saint Stephen's Cathedral. I was delighted to see that he was assisted by two girl servers...

Driven by some weird fascination for terror, I still followed the invitation to "Click the image to enter the site".

Under a photo (which shall remain uncommented) you find two major link-sections. The left one is a collection of "Links to interpretations of Vatican II". The right one reads "Voices of opposition to the beatification of Pope Pius IX". Asking myself how exactly voicing opposition to the beatification of the great Pius IX does celebrate the Second Vatican Council, I curiously clicked on the first link...

Hello, womenpriests.com! Now there's a suprise...

Two more links lead to the "Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church".

Another one offered "Resources to help investigate the institutional sources of the pedophile crisis".

That was about as much as I was able to stomach.

Vaticanum Secundum. Shameless highjacking of the council for personal needs and subjective preferences to foster further dissent and division in the Holy Mother Church. Indeed:

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."