Alejandro Rojas wrote:Vatican II will go down in history as one the grandest historical blunders by any institution ever. Whenever the Church tries to be like the world, the world always wins.
I have to respectfully disagree on VATII.
I was born and raised in the post-VATII Catholic Church, it was a major influence in my upbringing, and I can tell you by my very nature that I would not have adhered to a faith where the leader of the services had his back turned to me and was speaking in an ancient dead language.
And VATII was vitally important in erasing the hard-line of absolutist intolerance that had been at the very foundation of the Catholic Church for hundreds of years, with the critical addition to the
Lumen Gentium: "Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its (The Church’s) visible confines."
Basically that little sentence made all the difference in the world when it comes to a basic acceptance of those who live and practice a different truth then members of the unified Church. Without that slightest level of tolerance for other faiths, even Gandhi would have been condemned to hell by Church doctrine, again something that would have certainly driven me directly out of the faith.
Today I have noticed a creep back into some pre-VATII practices reemerging in the modern Church and I see it as my duty to resist and oppose such a slide back into the dark ages. For instance, when the Priest greets us with “Peace be with you,” I still respond with “And also with you” instead of the now proper“And with your spirit.”
The former is a greeting, person to person, as I believe that Jesus would intend his Liturgy to be celebrated. The now correct and formal response elevates the Priest and puts him on a “higher” spiritual plane then us peons filling the pews.
To me, the Priest's only “special” role during the Mass is being the Minister of the Sacramental Eucharist, and that occurs through him
as one of us, ordained by the Grace, Mystery, and Power of our Lord and Savior, not from man, but from God. So I refuse to acknowledge the Priest, Bishop, or, even the Pope himself, as existing on some special, higher, and parallel plane than anybody else.
That is what being a Catholic means to me anyhow.
I hope and pray that the next Pope is from either Latin America or Sub-Saharan Africa. The Church can use a breath of fresh air outside the reigns of old, Euro-centric, and "safe" handling.