AND THE 11TH AND 12TH GRADE BOYS SAID IN UNISON: "AWESOME!"

Have "spirit of Vatican II" Catholics made ecclesiology into a false god to further their agenda to make the Church a sociological institution only and thus a victim of changing political and secular thought on how institutions should run and make decisions? In this model, do these neo-progressives subjugate God to ecclesiology to satisfy their political agenda for the Church?

Before you read my comments you must read this bombshell article by pressing this sentence: The Ecclesiology Of The Constitution On The Church, Vatican II, 'Lumen Gentium'

By Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

MY COMMENTS AFTER YOU HAVE READ THE ABOVE ARTICLE: We celebrated the Extraordinary Form High Mass last night for the Vigil of the Immaculate conception. About 300 were there. There were many many young people there and high schoolers too.

I asked several of the 11th and 12th grade boys after Mass if they had attended one of these "types" of Masses before. They all said no. Then I asked, what did you think about it? And in unison they responded, "awesome!" And so it is! The focus of the Extraordinary Form Mass is entirely on God and salvation and not on the particular community that happens to be celebrating the eternal events of God's love and salvation at that particular time. It is not about the horizontal aspect of the Church, but the vertical aspect of the ordained priest bringing to God our prayers and the ordained priest bringing to us God's love and salvation. The horizontal is in that great vertical exchange which is a two way street.

Pope Benedict somewhere along his long career has said that the Catholic Church in modern society may become smaller (in number, prestige and institutions)but in becoming smaller, she will be more faithful! That goes against the American mentality that bigger is better, but when it comes to the Church, if bigger means embracing each and every thought of each and every Catholic as valid and okay (like, I'm okay; you're okay) then no, bigger is far from better, bigger is a corruption in this case.

We all know the power of secular politics and the mass media to derail many Catholics and seduce them into worldly thinking about moral issues. That is why we have so many Catholics who are pro-choice, pro-same sex marriage and pro-government interference in the life of the Church in the areas of morals. Being "pro" anything sounds like a good thing when in reality it can be a very powerful evil thing, leading to the killing of innocents, the corruption of youth and the manipulation of the Church by the state.

I use to wonder how Catholics in Italy and Germany could become fascists and Nazis, how they could allow politics, corrupt politics, manipulate them and take on faith-like status. Now I know, seeing it first hand in our country as political secularism is becoming like a religion replacing the true religion for even many Catholics.

Ecclesiology is a theological word that describes the nature of the Church. Its pitfall is that it can become a false God and in fact one could discuss the Church and place its organization and human decision making processes above God and dogmatic truths.

But when Pope Benedict was the Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he wrote an article that I just discovered (linked at the beginning of this post) that really sets the so-called emphasis of Vatican II on ecclesiology on its head! He says that the Council, first and foremost is God-centered and that those who cherry pick the Second Vatican Council have corrupted its true meaning.

I'd say this corruption is in Catholic academic circles primarily. The concern of academics and neo-progressives is radically to change the nature of the Church to reflect a democracy with open discussion that leads to majority rule and a parallel magisterium of academics who are not bishops. God is left out of the picture altogether and the liturgy they desire also pushes God and His great sacrifice to a side show where a happy meal of hand-holding Catholics gather to be nourished as a community to celebrate who they are. A caricature? Possibly, but with a great deal of truth!