Just think of how impossible it is to write on Vatican II from Father Gordon MacRae’s (about) perspective on the world, a view from behind bars of These Stone Walls. Imagine being thrown in prison over eighteen years ago, when we were only beginning to see the bare beginnings of a hermeneutic of continuity kick in amidst ongoing dissent and much horror. Would one’s point of view be a bit jaded, frozen in time, lack all development and nuance that we, who are not in prison, take for granted? Hah! Not at all. In fact, we are guided by Father Gordon to a faithfulness that only priests who are truly priests’ priests can provide. Just click on the picture above to go to the joy-to-read article. You won’t regret it. It will prepare you for Part II next week. Yikes!
P.S. Just to say, as you see from some of the comments over yonder, there are those who just cannot, cannot, cannot make a distinction between the Council documents and some serving knuckleheads who persecuted anyone who would implement the Council faithfully, that is, with a hermeneutic of continuity, that is, with a view to all of Catholic Tradition. This proves Father Gordon’s point, that even amidst uncertainty and chaos, we are to remain humble sons and daughters of the Church, not running off and starting our own thing. Father Gordon’s got it right.
P.S. again! Don’t you dare read that article without watching the second video of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Yikes! and Yikes! again!
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
I’ve come to love the sign of contradiction and challenge the second Vatican presents for our Church. Truly many hearts are revealed.
It does, however, make me tremble when I see those who think they know better than, reject and deny, or willfully distort the true presence of the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Ghost when it comes to our Church and the Council. Please God, that the Year of Faith will free us from this blindness.
Very much looking forward to Fr. Gordon’s future installments!
I guess I’m one of those Catholics who, while not outright “rejecting” Vatican II remain skeptical of it. We can talk about how no Council was ever well received right away or how every Council had kinks to wear out but Vatican II takes the cake as helping to usher in probably the biggest crisis of Faith in the history of the Church. What happened at Vatican II, including the ambiguous langauge in the documents themselves, are absolutely unprecedented in Church history as far as Councils go.
Can Vatican II actually be implemented correctly? Yes, but it will probably take an ex cathedra decision by the Holy Father himself followed by an encyclical written in clear unambiguous langauge about just how it is to be interpreted and implemented. We also need to make sure Vatican II is interpreted in the light of the almost 2000 years of dogmatic teachings that preceded it; not to have the perennial teachings of the Church re-interpreted in the light of Vatican II which is what has basically been what has been done in many circles.
As a faithful Catholic I realize that, contrary to some of my fellow “traditionalists” Vatican II cannot just be thrown out but must be brought in line with Tradition. The sooner that is done the better but after 50 years of “Vatican II this, Vatican II that” it seems like little has been done to make folks like many anything but skeptical.
In closing I will say I hope and pray that this “Year of Faith” will finally be the time when the whole Church comes together to authentically interpret Vatican II in the light of Tradition and faithfully but forcefully implement it.
Justin, I think I see what you mean. You’re just a bit ambiguous about bringing Vatican II to be in line with Tradition. Please forgive me for that!
It is already in line with Tradition, but how that is must be studied well.
For instance, a great benedictine in France did a multi-volume thesis running into the thousands of pages showing how Dignitatis humanae was perfectly in line with Tradition, not that one needs thousands of pages for this document of few pages, except when anything less will not satisfy those throwing out straw men a million times just to do it. He answered everything. Response: silence and then emotional tantrums, but no reasoned response.
Sure, there are horrific, epic, even purposed ambiguities, which, if on a doctrinal level, can be read in line with Tradition. The point is that the Holy Spirit gets what He wants despite the efforts of individuals to bring down the Church. And I do think there were those who had that in mind. Yet, God wins. And this is a point of apologetics about the Lord remaining with us till the end of time.
It is in this that we rejoice, that if we, as God’s little children, approach the documents with an openness to finding Tradition there, we will find just that, even in the midst of a hell of controversy. In other words, does not our Lord, lifted up on the Cross, draw us through hell to Himself. Yes, that’s what He said He would do. If you have noticed that all hell was as active in Vatican II as it was at the first Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as it was on Calvary, then you will also note that our Lord is inviting you to be on the cross with Him while He draws us through the hell of men’s power plays and attempted worldly compromises. Judas was at the first Mass. He betrayed our Lord. That is a hell we would rather not face. We would rather die first than see hell in the face. We, in our weakness, including me, want things to be nice. Blech! Instead, we MUST look to Jesus, following Hims with the cross. It is not our strength, but His that would have us march on in this year of faith. The Holy Father leads the way. We follow Jesus with the Successor of Peter.