At Praytell, Rita Ferrone extols a speech by Pope St. Paul VI in 1966 on the implementation of VII. She basically states that Pope Francis has returned the Church to this 1966 moment in continuity with Paul VI’s vision of implementing VII in contrast with the now canceled papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
But this comment overthrows Rita and Anthony’s ideological reading of Vatican II and using a poor google translation of what Paul VI wrote in 1966 to make their ideological points:
Fr. Anthony Forte says:
This address in indeed helpful in understanding Vatican II. I bring your attention the the following remark:
“It is the knowledge, the study, the application of the inheritance of the Council, which must engage theological study on the one hand, and pastoral governance on the other, so that this new patrimony is inserted in the “deposit”, in the broad framework of truths already acquired by the Church.“
Vatican II can only be properly understood as a part of the broader deposit of faith that existed up to the Council. While deepening our understanding of the faith, it does not change the content of the faith. What was true before the Council is true after it. Later St. Paul VI continues (in Italian):
“Esso non autorizza certamente, anzi contiene e corregge gli arbitri dottrinali e disciplinari, che qualche spirito inquieto ne vorrebbe derivare; ma ci esorta ad approfondire la nostra meditazione sul mistero di verità, che la Chiesa porta con sé, e ad osare con fiducia lo sforzo apostolico nuovo perché tale mistero diventi sempre più la luce del mondo.”
I would suggest that a better translation would be:
“It certainly does not give license, indeed it contains and corrects the doctrinal and disciplinary authorities, which some restless spirits would like to differentiate from it; but it exhorts us to deepen our meditation on the mystery of truth, which the Church carries with her, and to dare with confidence the new apostolic effort so that this mystery may become more and more the light of the world.”
Thus, like Pope Benedict, Paul VI warns against trying to oppose the Council to what the Church taught and believed before the Council; reform in continuity, not rupture.