Sacrosanctum Concilium: A Lawyer Examines the Loopholes

The following essay, a forensic look at SC written by an attorney, appeared in The Latin Mass magazine in 2005 and is republished here with permission of its author, Christopher Ferrara, Esq., of the American Catholic Lawyers Association. His conclusions were subsequently confirmed in Yves Chiron’s biography of Bugnini, where we learn that the latter, who was the chief compiler of SC, openly stated to his collaborators before the Council that he intended to push through a revolutionary agenda by describing it in harmless-sounding generalities. And with the recent publication of the first-ever biography of Michael Davies, Ferrara’s article also serves as a reminder of how much we owe that man. — PAK

For decades, traditionalists have listened to “conservatives” argue that the postconciliar devastation of the Roman Rite has nothing whatsoever to do with language of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council’s document on the sacred liturgy. (I shall refer to this document throughout as SC.)

Are Canonizations Infallible? — An important new book from Arouca Press

I am pleased to announce the publication of a new book: Are Canonizations Infallible? Revisiting a Disputed Question, from Arouca Press. 

It is a 276-page collection of fifteen essays written by twelve authors: Phillip Campbell, Fr Thomas Crean, Roberto de Mattei, William Matthew Diem, Christopher Ferrara, Msgr. Brunero Gherardini, Fr John Hunwicke, Peter Kwasniewski, John Lamont, Joseph Shaw, Fr. Jean-François Thomas, and José Antonio Ureta. I served as the volume’s editor. The book includes not only sources in English but also translations from French, Italian, and Portuguese. Several of the chapters are published in it for the first time.

All the arguments you’ve ever seen in favor of the infallibility of canonizations or against it—and some you probably haven’t seen—are found in the pages of this book. Authors line up behind both sides. It is a fair and full presentation, which does not shy away from toppling “certainties” that are sometimes mindlessly repeated. The book also serves as an introduction to the history of canonization (including changes made to the process over time) and to the nature and objects of papal infallibility, with Msgr. Gherardini’s mini-treatise especially impressive in that regard. The authors go into what the papal act of canonization means or entails, the conditions it may have for moral certainty on the part of the faithful, and what it concretely demands of members of the Church.