Church-Tradition-Magisterium by Brunero Gheradini

Written late last year.

The grand semicentennial celebration has begun. No tam-tam as yet, but one can feel it in the air. The semicentennial anniversary of Vatican II will uncork whatever it will be possible to dream up by way of laudatory judgements. Not the faintest shadow of the sobriety that had been requested both as an attitude of mind and as a moment of reflexion and analysis to evaluate the conciliar event at a greater critical depth. Free-wheeling assertions and repetitions of what has been said and repeated for the past fifty years are already underway: Vatican II is the pinnacle and the quintessence of Tradition. International congresses on the greatest and most significant among all ecumenical councils have already been planned, while other gatherings of greater or lesser impact will follow along the way. Literature on the topic is swelling by the day.

Opuscula: Msgr. Gherardini on Vatican II, Continuity and Rupture

Sandro Magister, The Defenders of Tradition Want the Infallible Church Back

The Defenders of Tradition Want the Infallible Church Back (h/t to the Pertinacious Papist)

But it was Amerio's conviction – and Radaelli explains this well in his extensive afterword to "Zibaldone" – that this protection guaranteed to the Church by Christ applies only to "ex cathedra" dogmatic definitions of the magisterium, not to the uncertain, fleeting, debatable "pastoral" teachings of Vatican Council II and of the following decades.

I suspect Amerio does not think infallibility is limited to ex cathedra definitions.

The result, according to Amerio and Radaelli, is that Vatican Council II is full of vague, equivocal assertions that can be interpreted in different ways, some of them even in definite contrast with the previous magisterium of the Church.

And this ambiguous pastoral language is believed to have paved the way for a Church that today is "overrun by thousands of doctrines and hundreds of thousands of nefarious customs." Including in art, music, liturgy.

What should be done to remedy this disaster? Radaelli's proposal goes beyond the one made recently – on the basis of equally harsh critical judgments – by another respected scholar of the Catholic tradition, Thomist theologian Brunero Gherardini, 85, canon of the basilica of Saint Peter, professor emeritus of the Pontifical Lateran University, and director of the magazine "Divinitas."

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Monsignor Gherardini advanced his proposal in a book released in Rome last year, entitled: "Concilio Ecumenico Vaticano II. Un discorso da fare."

The book concludes with a "Plea to the Holy Father." He is asked to have the documents of the Council reexamined, in order to clarify once and for all "if, in what sense, and to what extent" Vatican II is or is not in continuity with the previous magisterium of the Church.

Gherardini's book is introduced by two prefaces: one by Albert Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo and former secretary of the Vatican congregation for divine worship, and the other by Mario Olivieri, bishop of Savona. The latter writes that he joins "toto corde" in the plea to the Holy Father.

So then, in his afterword to "Zibaldone" by Romano Amerio, Professor Radaelli welcomes Monsignor Gherardini's proposal, but "only as a helpful first step in purifying the air from many, too many misunderstandings."

Clarifying the meaning of the conciliar documents, in fact, is not enough in Radaelli's judgment, if such a clarification is then offered to the Church with the same ineffective style of pastoral "teaching" that entered into use with the council, suggestive rather than imperative.

If the abandoning of the principle of authority and "discussionism" are the illness of the conciliar and postconciliar Church, getting out of it – Radaelli writes – requires doing the opposite. The upper hierarchy of the Church must close the discussion with a dogmatic proclamation "ex cathedra," infallible and obligatory. It must strike with anathema those who do not obey, and bless those who obey.

And what does Radaelli expect the supreme cathedra of the Church to decree? Just like Amerio, he is convinced that in at least three cases there has been "an abysmal rupture of continuity" between Vatican II and the previous magisterium: where the council affirms that the Church of Christ "subsists in" the Catholic Church instead of saying that it "is" the Catholic Church; where it asserts that "Christians worship the same God worshiped by the Jews and Muslims"; and in the declaration on religious freedom "Dignitatis Humanae."

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In Benedict XVI, both Gherardini and Amerio-Radaelli see a friendly pope. But there is no chance that he will grant their requests.

On the contrary, both on the whole and on some controversial points pope Joseph Ratzinger has already made it known that he does not at all share their positions.

For example, in the summer of 2007 the congregation for the doctrine of the faith made a statement on the continuity of meaning between the formulas "is" and "subsists in," affirming that "the Second Vatican Council neither changed nor intended to change [the previous doctrine on the Church], rather it developed, deepened and more fully explained it."

As for the declaration on religious freedom "Dignitatis Humanae," Benedict XVI himself has explained that, if it departed from previous "contingent" indications of the magisterium, it did so precisely to "recover the deepest patrimony of the Church."

The article reminds me something over at Rorate Caeli, a comment by Bishop Williamson on the current discussions between the SSPX and Rome: How the talks are going.

Rorate Caeli: An Interview with Monsignor Gherardini

It is said that you are the last representative of the school of “Roman theology”, which was made famous by Cardinal Palazzini or by the dear and regretted Monsignor Piolanti. Is your voice as a theologian an isolated voice in Italy, or do you see in some university, some magazines, theologians who share your preoccupations and your analysis of the situation?

I do not know how far I may be considered as an epigone of the glorious Roman School. Even the illustrious names which you refer to belong to a descending stage of this school. After the Second Vatican Council, the voice of this school, increasingly weak, could still be heard through two Roman academies (the Pontificia Accademia di Teologia and the Pontificia Accademia San Tommaso d’Aquino), the reviews Divinitas and Doctor Communis, and the Thomistic Congresses. Today, if risking oneself still to be aware of it, it is just an isolated voice, admired by some, but more often despised and scorned. This is how I perceive the situation. However, listened to or not, it still resounds, and if you recognize the timbre of the Roman school in my voice, I am pleased.

Woody writes in the comments:

From Fr. H's blog it appears that "The Ecumenical Council Vatican II: A Much Needed Discussion" is available in English and someone had already sent a copy to Fr. Hunwicke, whose posts on it show its evident great value.

Another reader of that blog and I have corresponded and it will be of interest to Rorate readers to know that the book is being published by the publishing arm of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. My correspondent told me that he had contacted the US bookshop of the FI and was told that they had sold out of it here in the US. I am planning to call first thing tomorrow to put in my order for one copy from the next shipment to hit our shores.

One can also email the FI in Italy, but I have yet to hear back from them in response to mine.

From Fr Hunwicke's Liturgical Notes: Canon of S Peter's calls for review of Vatican II

Perhaps, amid all the press and hubbub of Easter, you might have noticed, with the Sovereign Pontiff at S Peter's, the 85-year old but sprightly figure of Mgr Canon Brunero Gherardini ... whose many distinctions include that of being a consultor of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and a professorship in the Pontifical Lateran University. Monsignore published last year Concilio Ecumenico Vaticano II: Un discorso da fare. This has now appeared in an English Translation as The Ecumenical Vatican Council II A MUCH NEEDED DISCUSSION. It is published by the Casa Mariana Editrice, who offer not an ISBN number but an email address: cm.editrice@immacolata.ws

Franciscans of the Immaculate
Franciscans of the Immaculate
Academy of the Immaculate Bookstore
Mount Saint Francis Hermitage
Marian Friary of Our Lady of Guadalupe
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wiki

NLM: Holy Week with the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, Castello

Reflections from Normandy:

Vatican Council II: A much needed Discussion
Monsignor Brunero Gherardini, a renowned 85-year-old theologian of the Roman school, has written a book under the title Vatican Council II: A much needed Discussion. The Italian version is published by Casa Mariana Editrice, a publishing house connected to the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, and it boasts a forward by Bishop Mario Oliveri (Diocese of Albenga and Imperia in northern Italy on the coast between Genoa and Nice) and an introduction by Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, the former secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, who is now the Archbishop of Colombo and Metropolitan of the Church in Sri Lanka.

(via Stephen Hand)