Rorate Caeli

The Lost War of Vatican II

No, it is not a joke appropriate for the date: French public television has indeed released the first minutes of its documentary on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, that will be broadcast tomorrow by the France 3 channel.

The words are in French, but the content is clear enough: the video begins with menacing sounds, here come the dangerous Traditionalists (images of the Chartres Pilgrimage of 2011, an extremely dangerous Mass with a Psycho soundtrack). The Superior of the Institut du Bon Pasteur says what is pretty obvious ("May 1968 is over. Vatican II is over, it's in the past"). The narrator then describes what the Church was like in the late 1950s before the Council was called ("science has made extraordinary progress, traditional morality is questioned", "the Church refused to evolve, more and more Christians reject it and leave it in droves", "the Catholic Church is dying"), but Pope Roncalli arrived in shining armor and opened the gates of the Church.

The battle between "Reformists" and "Traditionalists" ensued, with "the Popes in the middle" (?...). Benedict XVI "seems to favor the Council", but actually counts on the support of the "obscurantist forces" [sic] - the Traditionalists, of course.

The tone is clear, for the producers of "The Lost War of the Vatican", the great battle for "reform" has been lost to "the dark side". Honestly, if the current unending crisis is what the "Progressives", Modernists and heretics have achieved after they have lost, we cannot even begin to imagine how apocalyptic their "victory" would have looked like...

[Tip: Le Forum Catholique]