Today is the Feast of Pope Saint John XXIII (1881 – 1963), the Roman Pontiff who convened the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 65). Father Pieter VanRooyen, pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in Ypsilanti and professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, now explains why the documents of Vatican II sit in continuity with Church Tradition and should always be interpreted, celebrated, and lived in the light of that same Tradition. Father VanRooyen writes:
Often vilified by pundits and podcasters, the Second Vatican Council stirs up controversy. “The Council,” its foes contend, “abandoned the traditional faith and worship of the Church.” Furthermore, they point to bad theology, irreverence in worship, and steady decline in Mass attendance as negative fruits of Vatican II. But is the Council to blame?
Mass attendance has declined since Vatican II, but we must avoid the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy (e.g., the dog barked before the power went out; therefore, the dog caused the power outage!). Since Vatican II we have faced a sexual revolution, secularization, sex abuse scandals, and more recently, social media’s “normalization” of atheism. Many factors contribute to the modern decline of faith.
But most importantly regarding faith and worship: although the “spirit of Vatican II” has often been invoked to support heterodox theology or irreverence at Mass, the Second Vatican Council taught the opposite. Consider the words of Pope Saint John XXIII in his opening address at Vatican II: “[The Council] wishes to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion.” Far from abandoning traditional faith and worship, Vatican II sought to share the riches of our faith with the contemporary world because, as the Pope noted, “the substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another.”
What does this mean for us today? We can believe in the Holy Spirit who guided the Church at Vatican II and guides us still today! We can believe the faith that Jesus gave to us through the apostles and handed down in the Church across the centuries under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And we can believe that the Mass we celebrate is the same Mass the Church has celebrated since its institution at the Last Supper; its rites, language, and prayers have developed over the centuries, but its substance remains always, unchanged, the sacrament of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Thanks be to God for the gift of our Catholic faith!
Pope Saint John XXIII, pray for us!