FOLKS, THIS IS QUITE IMPORTANT AND I PREDICT IT IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE: VATICAN II, REDUX

French cuffs and cuff links and no cuff links, take your pick! The hermeneutic of continuity

Cardinal Kasper: Pope Francis has launched 'new phase' on Vatican II--From: L'Osservatore Romano, April 12, 2013 and you can read a tortured English translation of the Italian full text HERE.

The Following is from the Blog of John Thavis which you can see HERE.

MY COMMENTS AT THE END OF THIS:

Cardinal Walter Kasper has an important piece in today’s Osservatore Romano, saying that Pope Francis, with his focus on poverty and social justice issues, has launched a new phase of implementation of the Second Vatican Council.

Cardinal Kasper makes a strong argument that the council’s journey of renewal is not over and that the decades of discussion over its teachings should lead to new “practical consequences.”

Pope Francis, he said, has pointed the way with his emphasis on a church that becomes poor and serves the poor.

“In this sense, Pope Francis from the first day of his pontificate has given what I would call his prophetic interpretation of the council, and has inaugurated a new phase of its reception. He has changed the agenda: at the top are the problems of the Southern hemisphere,” Cardinal Kasper wrote.

It’s useful to remember that it was Pope John XXIII who presented the image of “the church of all, and in particular the church of the poor” shortly before opening Vatican II in 1962.

Cardinal Kasper said Pope Francis’ election had also underlined a related point: that the church's make-up has changed greatly since the time of the council.

“At the beginning of the last century, only a quarter of Catholics lived outside Europe; today only a quarter live in Europe and more than two-thirds of Catholics live in the Southern hemisphere, where the church is growing,” he said.

Cardinal Kasper also noted that Pope Francis appears to be open to a more collegial exercise of papal authority. The role of the pope as a unifying figure in the church should not lead to an “exaggerated centralism,” Kasper said.

“Therefore it was very significant that Pope Francis made reference to the bishop of Rome who presides in charity, echoing the famous statement of Ignatius of Antioch. This is of fundamental importance, not only for the continuation of ecumenical dialogue, above all with Orthodox churches, but also for the Catholic Church itself,” he said.

Cardinal Kasper made several other interesting points in the lengthy article, which so far is available only in Italian:

-- The spirit of optimism toward progress in the world and the sense of journeying toward new frontiers, which marked the beginning of Vatican II, are long gone, the cardinal said.

“For most Catholics, the developments put in motion by the council are part of the church’s daily life. But what they are experiencing is not the great new beginning nor the springtime of the church, which were expected at that time, but rather a church that has a wintery look, and shows clear signs of crisis,” he said.

That doesn't mean Vatican II is no longer relevant, he said, but that “the church needs to take seriously the legitimate requests of the modern age. It needs to defend the faith against pluralism and postmodern relativism, as well as the fundamentalist tendencies that run from reason.”

-- Kasper credited Pope Benedict XVI with promoting a balanced approach to Vatican II, and said the retired pope had a goal of “renewal in continuity.”

At the same time, the cardinal seemed to respond to a talk given by Pope Benedict two weeks before his resignation, in which Benedict said a dominant misinterpretation of the council had “created so many disasters, so many problems, so much suffering: seminaries closed, convents closed, banal liturgy.”

Kasper said some critics still consider Vatican II as “a disaster and the greatest calamity in recent times.” But the cardinal said it was wrong to presume that “everything that happened after the council also happened because of the council,” and that the critics need to look more closely at more general social trends of that era.

-- One reason Vatican II documents have “an enormous potential for conflict” is that compromise language was adopted on many crucial issues, opening the door to selective interpretation in one direction or another, Kasper said.

-- Overall, Vatican II teachings have given new impetus to life in dioceses, parishes and religious communities, especially through liturgical renewal, new spiritual movements, better knowledge of Scripture and dialogue with non-Catholics, he said.

MY COMMENTS: Cardinal Kasper has the ear of Pope Francis and Cardinal Kasper is writing this in the Vatican newspaper for this weekend. The BOMBSHELL as I read it is that Cardinal Kasper is applauding Pope Benedict's redirection of the interpretation of the council and thus compliments him and he does so twice!

The first time, quoted in the actual Italian article: "Another important clue gave Pope Benedict XVI, in a speech to the cardinals and collaborators of the Roman Curia, held December 22, 2005, on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the closing of the council. So he introduced the most recent phase of the debate on the interpretation of the council. He clarified that the consent must not only be synchronic (present on the Church) but also diachronic (on the Church in every age). He contrasted two hermeneutics: that of discontinuity and rupture, which rejected, and that "the reform and renewal." The Pope's words were often interpreted in a unilateral way, omitting to consider that has not opposed, as many claim, the hermeneutic of discontinuity hermeneutic of continuity. The Pope spoke of a hermeneutic of reform and "renewal in continuity" of the Church.
That the reform is, on the whole of the medieval tradition, a fundamental term and a challenge that recurs again and again. Reform is not only necessary practical adaptation of individual paragraphs to new circumstances. Those who talk about reform, presupposes that there is deficiency and dysfunction that make it necessary to refer to the most ancient traditions, forgotten, particularly at the beginning apostolic renewing creatively.

The Pope's speech on reform and renewal in continuity, reflects a conception of Tradition alive, that if the arguments following fundamental practical consequences, could reignite again the focus of the council, that could, in continuity, bring back the impulse innovator the council.

Then Cardinal Kasper quotes Pope Benedict again and this time it appears that he is disagreeing with the Holy Father Emeritus, but in fact he is not. This is what Cardinal Kasper recalls of Pope Benedict two weeks before his renouncement of the chair of Peter:

"Benedict said a dominant misinterpretation of the council had “created so many disasters, so many problems, so much suffering: seminaries closed, convents closed, banal liturgy.”

Kasper said some critics still consider Vatican II as “a disaster and the greatest calamity in recent times.” But the cardinal said it was wrong to presume that “everything that happened after the council also happened because of the council,” and that the critics need to look more closely at more general social trends of that era."

My final comment: The last thing I quote Cardinal Kasper is true and Pope Benedict would agree with him. It isn't the Council that is the disaster for the Church but its wrong interpretation and done so in a climate of social upheaval in society as well as the Church. "Not everything that happened [in the Church] after the Council also happened because of the Council."

This is critical for people to understand who did not live through the 1960's in the country and in Europe. I did and I remember it very well! There was a cultural upheaval that would have taken place whether or not the Council had been called. This secular revolution was anti-authority and naive about peace and justice and relied on drugs and flower power. That cultural upheaval that manipulated the Council and its misinterpretation produced the calamity that Pope Benedict refers when he says two week prior to leaving the Vatican, "the misinterpretation of the Council created so many disaster, so many problems, so much suffering: seminaries closed, convents closed, banal liturgy."

I think this was for Pope Francis to read and may have been directed to the new Holy Father. I don't believe the new Holy Father will create a 1960's misinterpretation of the Council but he will continue renewal within continuity and will focus on the exercise of authority, especially papal and magisterial authority. He will be more collegial but he is going to be no nonsense! Read what he said to the Pontifical Biblical Commission. The Holy Father isn't going to sell the farm. Trust me! I am clairvoyant am I not, or maybe not?