Understanding Where the Issue Really Lies

I think that any serious Catholic takes the Council seriously. I think that any serious Catholic understands the gravity of the Council and what came from it. That being said, I think that is why it has come under such scrutiny from the right.

When those of us who are traditional look at the Council, we don't see a Hydra, but rather we see an attempt to do something that was never attempted. We see an attempt at the leadership of the Church to steer the direction of the Church in an overt way and in a way that had never been done before.

Ecumenical Councils were previously called to define dogma or to fight heresy or to clarify doctrine. This Council didn't attempt any of that. It didn't try, that wasn't the point, that wasn't an aim. To be totally honest, I think that John XXIII really didn't understand the purpose of an Ecumenical Council. Essentially what he did was to hold a consistory and call it a Council. If there was an idea floating around about calling a Council during Pius XII's time, I think that it wasn't to do what John XXIII did.

Now, we have had the Council. We can't change that. But what we can do is to properly understand it. And the liberals don't like that. They don't like the fact that we are trying to understand the Council. The liberals are still trying to couch the Council as something socially radical. To a degree it was, but not nearly to the degree they took it to following the Council. Paul VI lost control of the leadership of the Church following the Council. Many pass off Humanae Vitae as the reason he was ultimately dismissed. I disagree. There is nothing earth shattering in HV. It simply defines what the Church always taught. No big deal. What was truly defining for Paul VI is that he allowed his cardinals and his bishops to run wild with social change and he did NOTHING to stop it. He actually embraced part of it.

This is most evident in the most visible aspect of the Church, the Mass. The Mass went from being a solemn and High event, to being a shell of it's former glory. AND THE LIBERALS WANTED IT THAT WAY!! There is no disguising it. There is no justifying it. The liberals wanted the Mass to become exactly what it has become. A closed circle wherein the priesthood is redefined as a "priesthood of believers." When that took over, the whole theology of the Mass shifted and we now have what we have.

Taking back the Mass and "reforming the reform" cannot start with the Mass. Shocking to hear from me, I know...but it must start with a fundamental return to understanding the priesthood. When we realize that the ministerial priest has a different function than the faithful with regard to Mass and that he doesn't preside, but rather he is the one doing to celebrating, then and only then can we start discussing the Mass.