The following petition was initially published on the Italian blogosphere last month (see Riscossa Cristiana, Una Fides and Messa in Latino), and is signed by the theologians Msgr. Brunero Gherardini (a Canon of St. Peter's Basilica) and Msgr. Antonio Livi (Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Pontifical Lateran University from 2002 to 2008) as well as by Professor Roberto De Mattei and 46 other clerics and laymen, mostly professors and leaders associated with Traditional Catholicism in Italy. Thankfully DICI has now translated this into English:
Petition to Pope Benedict XVI for a more in-depth examination of the Second Vatican CouncilTo the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, that he might be willing to promote a more in-depth examination of the pastoral council, Vatican II.Most Holy Father,Monsignor Brunero Gherardini, a priest of the Diocese of Prato and canon of Saint Peter’s Basilica, who is well known as a former professor of Ecclesiology at the Pontifical Lateran University and as dean of Italian theologians, wrote to Your Holiness in 2009 a very respectful and urgent petition calling for the commencement of a critical debate about the documents of Vatican II, a critical debate that would be conducted in a deliberate and public way. This step was seconded in 2010 by Roberto de Mattei, professor of Church History and the History of Christianity at the European University of Rome and vice president of the National Council of Research.In his petition, Msgr. Gherardini wrote:“For the good of the Church—and more especially to bring about the salvation of souls, which is her first and highest law (cf. the 1983 CIC, canon 1752)—after decades of liberal exegetical, theological, historiographical and “pastoral” creativity in the name of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, it seemed urgent to me that some clarity be created by answering authoritatively the question about the continuity of this council with the other councils (this time not simply by declaring it so but by proposing a genuine demonstration), the question about its fidelity to the Tradition of the Church.” …Continue reading HERE.
