ELEVATING PASTORAL THEOLOGY TO THE LEVEL OF DOCTRINE OR DOGMA, MEANING THAT IT MUST BE EMBRACED AS AN ARTICLE OF FAITH IS JUST PLAIN STUPID! NO ONE HAS TO EMBRACE ANY THEOLOGY THAT ISN'T CLEARLY DEFINED AS A DOCTRINE OR DOGMA AS AN ELEMENT OF FAITH, NO MATTER HOW AUTHORITATIVE!

The old forked tongue canard that a Catholic has to accept everything that Vatican II teaches continues to raise its ugly head. The same with any pope's pastoral theology, especially with the most recent exhortation, as if a pastoral outreach could be dogmatic. It isn't.

Thus at that progressive liturgical blog the following is written:
 
...The liturgical reform is part and parcel of the larger reform and renewal of all aspects of the church called for by the Second Vatican Council. It’s all a package deal. (My comment: I don't disagree with this, and I do agree that Vatican II set an agenda for the Church that is pastoral)

[It has been pointed] out, for Marcel Lefebvre the issue was not just that he liked the unreformed Tridentine liturgy. His rejection of the liturgical reform was part of a larger (and internally consistent and coherent) rejection of ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, a recalibrated relationship between the church and Jews, and one should especially emphasize, religious liberty. They all go together. (My comment: as true as this is and it is true, none of it is doctrine or dogma required for Catholics to embrace as an article of faith. Thus when Archbishop Pozzo say what Pope Benedict basically said and what it appears that Pope Francis is ready to say:)

Abp. Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, spoke to the semi-official daily of the French episcopate, La Croix, on the relations between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X, and among other relevant things said the following:

"The difficulties raised by the SSPX regarding Church-State relations and religious freedom,the practice of ecumenism, and the dialogue with non-Christian religions, of certain aspects of the liturgical reform, and of its concrete application, remain the object of discussion and clarification, Abp. Pozzo [of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei] added, but they are not an obstacle for the canonical and legal recognition of the SSPX."

 My comments: Of course this codicil doesn't mean that the general Ordinary Form of the Church will forsake any of what Vatican II's pastoral agenda is, but it is being made clear that it isn't an article of faith because it isn't a dogma or doctrine and it appears that Catholics in good conscience can dissent from it and prefer the Mass as it was prior to Vatican II and be Catholics in Good standing.

In fact Bishop Fellay, Superior of the SSPX says as much in terms of what Pope Francis indicates to him:

Bishop Fellay has offered the following information in regard to his meeting last week with His Holiness Pope Francis:

-- Pope Francis will never condemn the SSPX.

-- Pope Francis insisted that the Society is Catholic.

-- Pope Francis will extend beyond the Holy Year his recognition of the SSPX's administration of the Holy Sacrament of Penance.

-- Bishop Fellay has been encouraged to establish a seminary in Italy. 

My final comment: But with that said, for anyone in full communion with the Church to denigrate outright what Vatican II has taught and developed would be off base too. It isn't either/or, in other words, but both/and!