CathNews - a Service of Church Resources

Have Your Say 

Recent Comments

1. 'He is quoted in this issue, from a talk he gave in September 2008, as blaming the problems of Vatican II on a misguided "hermeneutic" or interpretation, which he calls "a hermeneutic of rupture and discontinuity." That is a rather elaborate way of saying that one believes nothing really happened at the council.'
   This is just plain wrong. The hermeneutic of discontinuity, which has been explained by Pope Benedict multiple times, refers to the tendency of some people to interpret Vatican II as the birth of a new church, where the dogmas of other councils no longer have any importance and the moral teachings of the Church are all suspicion. People talk about the 'spirit of change' as a justification for many non-Catholic beliefs. While Vatican II did many great things, it should not be interpreted in this way. This journalist is just sloppy.

   Posted By: Kyle

2. Trust CathNews to quote the National (Un)Catholic Reporter.
   everyone should read this post about this article:
   http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/11/ncrs-editors-have-a-nutty-attack-card-rode-benedict-xvi/

   Posted By: Matthew A

3. The article's author shows his/her ignorance. The US women religious brought the investigation upon themselves, by making/practising their own erroneous interpretations of Vatican II.

   Posted By: Ray

4. Kyle: You are extremely charitable to call it merely “sloppy”. The entire article is a work of pure fiction, and a vicious and totally unfounded character-assassination of Cardinal Rode, apparently to “punish” him for having the temerity to order a visitation of US women's religious orders (with the approval of the Holy Father). Apparently this is enough to earn him “notoriety” in the author’s eyes.
   The Second Vatican Council itself stated that it upholds all of the dogmas previously taught by the Church and is to be understood in continuity with them. It is the anonymous author of this piece of garbage, not Cardinal Rode nor any imaginary “powerful forces in the church’s leadership”, who is opposing the teachings of Vatican II.
   There is no evidence whatsoever that Cardinal Rode believes any of the absurd heresies which the author ascribes to him. Most absurdly of all is the charge that “he regrets the fact that laypeople have wide access these days not only to the scriptures but also to the documents of Vatican II”.
   The author himself urgently needs to actually read the documents of Vatican II and find out what they really say. It is his article which is “couched in Orwellian churchspeak, which lavishes praise on the council even as its intentions are reversed.”

   Posted By: Peter G

5. No, what we would like to return to is our faith, including that Christ is the Son of God, that homosexual relationships are sinful, that abortion is evil, that Purgatory does exist.... etc,etc.
   Good old National Catholic Reporter, the voice of dissenters. When is this website going to realise that the only thing Catholic about this source is the middle word of its name.

   Posted By: Joe

6. NCR id famous for it's whining about the Vatican, and for misreading Vat II documents, trying to make then say more than they really do. For example, no one ever suggested moving the Tabernacle from the center of a typical Church. In larger Churches IF It were moved it had to be to a beautifully decorated Chapel - not dumped in a dark corner, or tucked out of sight behind an Altar Screen. The same goes for religious; It was never suggested that Religious disguise themselves as Laity. Nor has the Cassock been done away with for Priests. And so it goes.....

   Posted By: Stanley J. Harris

7. "To roll back what has been accomplished..." Besides autodemolition, what has been accomplished?

   Posted By: Michael Bernard

8. Bring back tradition! Vatican II made the way we say the mass more Protestant.

   Posted By: mum

9. I seriously don't understand how the return to ancient and traditional forms of liturgy stifles us from going forward. The Orthodox, especially the Church of Antioch, grew in great numbers ever since the mass exodus of Evangelicals in 1987. It has never stopped ever since. It is not the traditional liturgy that puts people off. It is a lack of desire to embrace the fire of the Holy Spirit given to us. The traditional forms of liturgy have so much of spiritual depth and theology to it - it is not just a form of worship, it forms you. It is your spirituality and your doctrine.

   Posted By: Collin Michael Nunis

10. Well said, Peter G.,Joe and Stanley.

    Posted By: M.M.

11. Me, I'm for Cardinal Rode. The author of this editorial refers to the priest at the Tridentine Mass thus:- "all the while speaking in a dead language, facing a wall, his back to the people?"
    I say thank God for such a universal language that can't be tampered with and for the fact that the Priest faces the Real Presence/the Creator in the Tabernacle, rather than His creatures and this author refers to this as facing a wall. Hmmmmmmm: says a lot about this writer.
    The author writes "Perhaps he would want us to return to the days of open hostility toward Jews in our prayers", no but I'm sure he'd like a return to the days of orders like the Sisters of Sion whose raison d'etre was to pray for the Jewish people to accept Christ as Messiah "and so share in the precious fruits of our redemption" (Theodore Ratisbonne)

    Posted By: A female Catholic convert

12. All great Church councils, including Vatican II, should build on the deposit of faith, and not try to reinvent our religion. Many people in the post Vatican II era seem to think it is a license to throw out everthing that existed before this council. My 49 earthly years in the Church in Australia has sometimes been marked by the shock of what the bad taste brigade will do to remove any cultural barriers that separate us from Protestants.
    At the risk of sounding arrogant, what these zealots still have not understood after all these years is that any intelligent young or old person seeking the Truth of Catholicism connects spiritually with all of the aesthetic qualities that feed our senses as well as our mind. Hillsong type chapels, complete with their rock instruments and other sterile components somehow manage to inspire their Protestant congregations. Catholicism has a much broader appeal to the senses as well as the mind. This generation is eagerly learning about all those things like Latin, and relics and incense and when appropriate, using our culture to assist their faith development much to the shock of the Vatican II bad taste brigade who thought they had jettisoned any remnant of traditional Catholicism. Hopefully, this Y generation will oversee the complete restoration of unashamed Catholic worship in all forms and demand "the beauty of holiness" which since the 60's has largely been absent from our churches.

    Posted By: eulalia

13. Didn't Jesus say that those who put their hand to the plough and look back are not fit for the Kingdom. Thank God for the Holy Spirit rescuing Roman Catholicism from dead tradition. Thank God for rescuing us from Trent etc.

    Posted By: Francis

14. Judge a tree by its fruits.

    Posted By: Noel

• » Advertise in CathNews

Email to Friend Please fill out the following details (fields marked with a * are mandatory):
Send To Email Address*:
Send To Name *:
Sent By Email Address*:
Sent By Name *:
Text to include in email:
Captcha validation:	please enter the code above:

^ Page Top

Comment on this article

More from this section

1. Feature - Time for colleges to address sexist culture

   Men initiate men into a world of disrespecting women and bad behaviour from the moment they arrive at college, revelling in the "boys will be boys" and "tradition" nonsense which has been used for far too long to justify a hideous culture. - Carina Garland, The Punch

2. Feature - House Healthcare vote win for Catholics

   It is difficult to over estimate the degree to which the vote in the House, passing a comprehensive health care reform bill, was a huge victory for the Catholic Church. Yes, for the USCCB, but also for a view of the world that the Church, at times alone, has sustained in the face of the radical individualism of American culture. The belief that health care is a right, not a privilege, took a giant step towards legislative enactment. - Michael Sean Winters, America

3. Feature - Prison a place of life and growth

   Jails now house not only serious offenders, but all those people whom society does not know what to do with. These include the homeless, the mentally ill, the unemployable. It seems to me we are becoming more and more intolerant as a society of people who are not earning money, not fitting in and being good consumers, who are in some way handicapped or "different". - St Columban's Mission Society E-News

4. Feature - New Benedict for a new age

   In an age which has witnessed a decline in Christianity on the European continent, Pope Benedict XVI boldly calls for a rebirth of Christianity in Europe. In an age which has been beset by disunity in the ranks of those who bear the name Christian, he has undertaken an extraordinary mission of Church Unity. His prophetic and pastoral response to Anglicans seeking full communion in the safe harbour of the Catholic Church is one among several courageous and prophetic actions taken by this quiet, diminutive, and humble "servant of the servants of God." - Deacon Keith Fournier, Catholic Online

5. Feature - Papal disability a "serious vacuum" in Canon law

   Over nine years ago one of the Catholic Church's finest canon lawyers, Father James Provost, a professor at The Catholic University of America, published an exceedingly important article in America magazine, "What If the Pope Became Disabled?" Father Provost died a month later at the age of 60. Unfortunately, his urgent words of advice in that article have still not been acted upon. - Fr Richard P. McBrien, Tidings