"Over the last several years I’ve given many talks about Vatican II, in the US, Canada, and Australia. On almost every one of those occasions, the audience was by substantial majority over (and often well over) fifty years old.Take a look at the videos posted at the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests from its Inaugural Assembly, "Vatican II Lives".
"A small group of concerned Catholic lay people in Westchester Co., NY, organized in the shock of the scandals, is composed largely of people over sixty. ..."
"During the Bishop Gaillet affair several years ago in France, polls showed that it was mostly Vatican II – aged Catholics who were publicly protesting. ..."
The same demographic but better-dressed, I expect, will be attending "Vatican II at 50: The Vision and Dreams Yet to be Realized" featuring Richard Gaillardetz, Ph.D., at Cardinal Stritch University in August, this year's Symposium on Lay Ministries.
Appropriately for a Vatican II retrospective, the link on the flyer for Mr. Gaillardetz's recent America article is to the magazine's archived issues, rather than to the available direct link to the article.
Why am I not surprised that the "Vision & Dreaming" circle smirk is being held at Stritch, that joke of an excuse for an institution of "higher learning" and even bigger guffaw as a "Catholic" institution. Rumor had it that if you can fog a mirror and come up with the cash, they'll give you a PhD. A number of archdiocesan parish staffers use the place to persue ongoing "education" which explains an awful lot.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Alverno wasn't available.
The sad goings on at the recent inaugural meeting of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests, the theme of which was "Vatican II Lives!" are depressing enough.
ReplyDelete[http://www.uscatholicpriests.org/assembly/]
Digging a little deeper through the offal that is the AUSCP's website, one discovers this flatulent meandering from His Excellency, Tom Gumbleton, retired auxiliary from the diocese of Detroit, as he muses (fruitlessly, apparently) regarding the Gospel mandate and the vocation of bishops:
Bishop Tom Gumbleton spoke about how Vatican II changed his ministry from focusing on "saving souls" to answering the call to promote social justice."
When a bishop's "own wisdom tradition" trumps two thousand years of the Spirit's, perhaps it's time to start worrying about whether it's the salvation of our souls that's important to these men, or how we line up with Nancy Pelosi on, say, "health care."
Perhaps a little less "table fellowship" (seriously, who talks like this???) and a little more serious time on one's knees is in order, if for no other reason than to escape the judgement of St. John Chrysostom, who once asserted that "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops!"
[http://www.uscatholicpriests.org/events/]
A quick P.S.:
ReplyDeleteWhile the AUSCP's website summary of a February meeting cautions against "letting nostalgia distract us"—a clear dig at those who would promote some of the valuable things left behind in the wake of the "spirit" of Vatican II, it's revealing how much nostalgia is evident in the posting of Fr. Norm Langenbrunner in his "excellent" review of the Oho Regional Gathering last January. Check it out:
http://fathernormsnotebook.blogspot.com/2012/01/auscp-voice-for-priests.html
Apparently, only certain kinds of nostalgia are acceptable in the new orthodoxy...
Aquinas, I've rarely seen such a thick collection of false dichotomies in such a brief essay.
ReplyDeleteMust have taken a good deal of effort on Fr Norm's part.