Lessons for the Year of Faith: Vortex

Michael Voris has given us 15 minutes of sound teaching on Vatican II this week. Ah, if only every parish in the US would make a presentation like this just once during the Year of Faith!

This is the kind of teaching I was hoping for when the Year of Faith was announced, and the Holy Father encouraged all to review the Vatican II documents and the Catechism. Maybe your parish or diocese engaged in such an endeavor…I haven’t seen much of it in my neck of the woods.

A link for the script is presented below each Vortex episode. I’m giving you the highlights here.

In the July 10 Vortex, entitled “You Don’t Say”, MV reviews some of the  “misconceptions” that abound concerning what Vatican II said and didn’t say, especially about the Mass. He references Sacrosanctum Concilium, the document on the sacred liturgy.

Here’s MV’s list of things that were NEVER SAID by Vatican II:

Latin should be thrown out.

Vestments should be changed.

The altar should be turned around.

The priest should face the people.

Communion rails should be ripped out.

Statues and paintings of saints should be tossed out.

Gregorian chant should be dumped.

Holy Communion should be given in the hand.

So-called Eucharistic ministers should be the usual and common distributors of Holy Communion.

People should hold hands at the Our Father.

Kneelers should be discarded and people just remain standing.

Appropriate dress for Mass should be abandoned.

Guitars and drums should become primary instruments.

The musicians should be applauded for their service.

Altar girls should become a norm.

The sign of peace become an opportunity for socializing.

Preaching and homilies should rarely if ever mention traditional Catholic teaching.

Certainly, I thought some of those things when I first came into the Church. Then I read the documents…

MV explains:

What happened is that when the door was cracked for change – a type of change that could be fairly characterized as tinkering around the edges – many people got it in their minds that they could bring the wrecking ball and re-invent the Mass as though nothing had ever existed before 1965.

There are a hundred reasons for this and loads of people were involved with many different intentions, and all of that is worthy of much discussion; and we have those discussions here in the Vortex frequently.

But one thing is certain: the Mass has suffered greatly in the wake of Vatican II and the proponents of change. The door was opened for abuses and misunderstandings and an entirely new attitude that was different from that which went before.

And we are seeing the consequences of all that now. In many cases, the Mass has more the look and feel of a protestant service than the representation of the sacrifice of Calvary.

Many things have entered into the Mass that Vatican II NEVER legislated or even imagined. And likewise, many things have been removed from the Mass or have fallen by the wayside that again, Vatican II NEVER legislated or imagined.

MV suggests you read Sacrosanctum Conciliumyourself; and if’ you’ve read it before, why not review it? He quotes specifically paragraph 116: “The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services”. Then he suggests we ask ourselves:

… is the situation in my parish every Sunday what was envisioned by the Second Vatican Council?

Does that square with what happens in your parish each Sunday? When is the last time you heard Gregorian Chant as a staple in your parish? Vatican II said it should have pride of place, so what happened?  

And that is just ONE topic. The question, “what happened?” can be asked A LOT.

If only, if only, if only our shepherds would address these questions! I wish I had seen a hundred notices online that a parish or diocese was holding a conference or a weekly “adult religious ed” meeting that addressed the implementation of the Vatican II documents!

Next: the July 11 Vortex addressed the question of whether Christians, Muslims, and Jews do in fact, worship the “same God”. MV answers the question in the context of remarks made recently by Cardinal Timothy Dolan in which he said that Muslims “worship the same God” as Christians, and that they should “hold on to their faith”.

Michael Voris answers the question this way:

First – when it comes to the question about worshiping the same God - there are two substantially different levels – because we as Catholics do adore God always as Trinity.

Adoring God as Trinity requires supernatural faith, says MV; to worship God as Creator only does not requires only natural faith, not the supernatural variety. He explains:

Every human person is able only by his reason, through NATURAL reason,   without the light of faith, to recognize the existence of one god as creator; and consequently to worship him according to his knowledge of natural reason.

This is the Muslims. They have no supernatural faith, and therefore they have no

supernatural act of worship. And even the Jews, who rejected Jesus as God as Trinity…have no faith. And therefore their worship also is natural, not supernatural.

… Jews and Muslims do NOT worship God the way God has commanded to be worshipped because they do not have supernatural faith; therefore their worship is not supernatural. The same applies to Hindus and every other religion.

There is only ONE TRUE FAITH – one true religion and those others are not it – The Catholic Church is it – no others – however, well-intentioned and sincere they may be – they are sincerely wrong.

…The whole issue here is the salvation of souls, not sugar-coating that reality in nice socially acceptable, non-offensive terms so that we will be liked by the crowd. All things being equal – those who are not faithful Catholics have a more difficult endeavor getting to Heaven than those who ARE.

I highly recommend you watch the entire Vortex, or read the script. He makes very good points about this question and about why it was harmful for Cardinal Dolan to make the comments he did recently in which he said that Muslims “worship the same God” as Christians, and that they should “hold on to their faith”.

This is the kind of “meat” we need in this “Year of Faith”!

Click for the script.



Click for the script.