The Heresies Taught by Vatican II

It is time for us now to rise from sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when first we believed. The night is past, the day is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.

The abiding problem of the age is subjectivism, the mentality that holds that truth is determined by opinion not by reality. That the Second Vatican Council was not an ecumenical or general council of the Catholic Church is demonstrable from its causes, manifest in its effects. Yet the belief that it binds the faithful, the Catholic Church and her ministers, dominates the minds of Pope, Bishops and clergy, if it has not managed to convince all of the Catholic faithful. It is impossible that an ecumenical council could depart from the constant teaching of the Church; Vatican II did. It is impossible that an ecumenical council could utter heresies; Vatican II did. In this paper we set forth the more egregious of the errors in six of the Council’s documents and contrast with them the Church’s teachings they contradict.

At Vatican II the bishops attempted to translate into doctrine (i.e., what is objective) their subjective inclinations that an all-merciful God would never suffer souls outside His Church to be lost. What Almighty God may do in His absolute power is unknown. We know only what He has revealed, what His Church teaches, that anyone who dies outside her fold cannot be saved. The errors propounded by the bishops of Vatican II are “cockle sown by an enemy” amidst the wheat of the sound teaching of the Catholic Church. The amalgam of cockle and wheat constitutes the teaching of the Church’s counterfeit, The church of Vatican II.

Dz = Denzinger, Sources of Catholic Dogma; DS = Denzinger-Schonmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum etc.

Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (December 4^th, 1963). Propositions which breach the Catholic Church’s constant teaching are found in the paragraphs following:

1. This sacred Council… desires to impart an ever increasing vigour to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those observances (institutiones) which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help to call all mankind into the Church’s fold. Therefore it sees particularly cogent reasons for undertaking reform… of the liturgy.

4. … [T]he sacred Council declares that holy Mother Church holds all lawfully acknowledged rites to be of equal right and dignity; that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way. The Council also desires that, where necessary, the rites be revised carefully in the light of sound tradition, and that they be given new vigour to meet the circumstances and needs of modern times.

14. … In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, [the] full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else…

21. In order that the Christian people may more certainly derive an abundance of graces from the sacred liturgy, holy Mother Church desires to undertake with great care a general restoration of the liturgy itself. For the liturgy is made up of immutable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change. These not only may but ought to be changed with the passage of time if they have suffered from the intrusion of anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy or have become unsuited to it…

2. That the Church’s sacred liturgy needs to be reformed because unsuitable to the needs of the present time.

3. That the Church must change her sacred liturgy to facilitate the admittance to the Church of those outside her fold who believe in Christ.

4. That the efficacy of the sacred liturgy is dependent on full and active participation of the people attending.

5. That, absent a general restoration to remove what is out of harmony with it or unsuited to it, the effectiveness ex opere operato of the sacred liturgy is lacking.

The propositions are either heretical, proximate to heresy, savouring of heresy, erroneous, false, temerarious, offensive to religious feeling (piarum aurium offensiva), badly expressed (male sonans), intentionally ambiguous, or excite scandal. Proof of these charges is contained in the extracts from the Church’s teachings set out in Appendix A.

Pius VI, Auctorem Fidei (August 28^th, 1794), condemning the errors of the Synod of Pistoia

33. The proposition of the synod whereby [it seeks to recall] the liturgy to a greater simplicity of rites… as if the present order of the liturgy, received and approved by the Church, had emanated in some part by the forgetfulness of the principles by which it should be regulated—[condemned as] rash, offensive to pious ears, insulting to the Church, and aiding the charges of heretics against it. Dz. 1533; DS. 2633

7. … [I]t seems opportune to expound and to refute a certain false opinion, on which… that complex movement by which non-Catholics seek to bring about the union of the Christian churches depends… For they are of the opinion that the unity of faith and government, which is a note of the one true Church of Christ, has hardly up to the present time existed, and does not to-day exist.

9. … Everyone knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new commandment "Love one another", altogether forbade any intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and corrupted version of Christ's teaching…

10. … [I]t is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it…

[T]he liturgy is an undoubtedly sacred thing; for through it we are brought to God and joined with Him; we bear witness to our faith, and are obligated to it by a most serious duty because of the benefits and helps received, of which we are always in need. Hence, there is a kind of intimate relationship between dogma and sacred liturgy, and likewise between Christian worship and the sanctification of the people. Therefore, Celestine I proposed and expressed a canon of faith in the venerated formulas of the Liturgy: ‘Let the law of prayer establish the law of belief…’ Dz. 2200

Argument

In reciting the Creed the faithful proclaim Una, Sancta, Catolica et Apostolica Ecclesia—One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Church is always in union with herself, a unity established by the Holy Spirit. It is impossible that it be deficient.

It is as false to allege that Christ’s Church must adapt to the needs of the time as it is to allege that she must adapt her liturgy to the needs of the time. The Church’s liturgy reflects her own reality, something outside time which exists in time. It is something sacred, as Pius XI affirms, something of God, enjoying the perfection that attends God’s handiwork. It is for those who live in time to adapt to her and to her liturgy.

It is false to allege that the Church must change her liturgy to facilitate union with her by anyone outside her. There can be no union “between all who believe in Christ” save on the terms that Christ laid down, belief in everything He taught. This can only occur in the Church He founded. This is exemplified in the lex orandi contained in the Church’s liturgy which reflects the immutability of her teaching. It was betrayed by Paul VI’s invention of a new order of Mass (novus ordo missae) in contravention of the explicit terms of the Bull Quo primum of Pius V (1570) which, dealing with a matter of faith (not discipline) bound his successors forever.

The second sentence of the paragraph extracted in n. 4 contradicts the first; that is, the paragraph as a whole breaches the first principle of Logic, the Principle of Non-contradiction, a characteristic found frequently in the Council’s documents.

If anyone says that it is not lawful for a priest celebrating to communicate himself: let him be anathema. Dz. 892; DS. 1660

Argument

The proposition detracts from the integrity of the Holy Sacrifice and its intrinsic efficaciousness by asserting that the presence of the faithful is primary. It is not heretical per se but is conducive to an heretical understanding of the Mass which is the action of the priest in persona Christi. The faithful assist at Mass; they do not ‘celebrate the liturgy’. The suggestion that their actions are causative is a false, and Protestant, idea. The proposition is mala sonans and offensive to pious ears.

Pius VI, Auctorem Fidei (August 28^th, 1794), condemning the errors of the Synod of Pistoia,

If anyone shall say that by the sacraments of the New Law grace is not conferred from the work which has been effected (ex opere operato), but that faith alone in the divine promise suffices to obtain grace: let him be anathema. Dz. 851; DS. 1608

Argument

The assertions—1. that the liturgy of the Church is comprised of elements subject to change; 2. that the liturgy of the Church has suffered intrusion of something out of harmony with its inner nature; 3. that the liturgy of the Church has suffered intrusion of something which has become unsuited to it—each insults the Church and lends aid to the charges of heretics against her.

Insofar as they reflect on the sacraments effected by the liturgical actions so criticised—as if a liturgical action was ineffective in conveying the grace of the sacrament so effected, because “out of harmony with it” or “unsuited to it”—the assertions are heretical.

Unitatis Redintegratio, the Decree on Ecumenism (November 21^st, 1964). Propositions which breach the Catholic Church’s constant teaching are found in the paragraphs following:

3. At the beginning of [the]… Church of God there arose certain rifts… [I]n subsequent centuries… more serious dissensions made their appearance and quite large communities came to be separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame…

… [M]en who believe in Christ and have been truly baptised are in communion with the Catholic Church even though this communion is imperfect…

… [I]t remains true that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ's body, and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church…

… [S]ome and even very many of the significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church… the life of grace; faith, hope and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, and visible elements too. All of these, which come from Christ and lead back to Christ, belong by right to the one Church of Christ.

The brethren divided from us also use many liturgical actions of the Christian religion. These most certainly can truly engender a life of grace in ways that vary according to the condition of each Church or Community. These liturgical actions must be regarded as capable of giving access to the community of salvation.

It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have by no means been deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church…

6. … Christ summons the Church to continual reformation as she sojourns here on earth. The Church is always in need of this, in so far as she is an institution of men here on earth. Thus if, in various times and circumstances, there have been deficiencies in moral conduct or in church discipline, or even in the way that church teaching has been formulated… these can and should be set right at the opportune moment.

6. The Catholic Church is blamable for dissensions that led to some becoming separated from her.

8. Those who believe in Christ and have been baptised are, though their communion be imperfect, in communion with the Catholic Church; they have a right to be called Christian, and are correctly accepted as brothers by Catholics.

9. Many of the significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Catholic Church can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Church.

10. Many outside the Church use liturgical actions that truly engender a life of grace and must be regarded as giving access to the community of salvation.

11. Those separated from the Catholic Church are by no means deprived of salvation.

12. The Spirit of Christ has used [liturgical actions of separated churches and communities] as means of salvation.

13. These means derive their efficacy from the fulness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church.

These propositions are either heretical, proximate to heresy, savouring of heresy, are erroneous, false, temerarious, offensive to religious feeling (piarum aurium offensiva), badly expressed (male sonans), intentionally ambiguous, or excite scandal. Proof of these charges is contained in the extracts from the Church’s teachings set out in Appendix B. The number of the relevant erroneous proposition which contradicts the indicated passage is marked in bold. Items numbered 1, 2, 9 and 10 deny, by implication, the unity and sanctity of the Church and Christ’s promise that He would never abandon her. Item 9 demonstrates the Council’s blindness to the truth that the Church is Christ’s action in the world—a divine thing amidst the mundane—a perfect entity; Christ’s mystical body, reflected in the saying of St Joan of Arc when she identified Christ with His Church.

There is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved. Dz. 430; DS. 802 [7, 8]

We declare, say, define and proclaim to every human creature that they by necessity for salvation are entirely subject to the Roman Pontiff. Dz. 469; DS. 875 [7, 8]

It (This Council) firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart “into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels” [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward; and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practised, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church. Dz. 714; DS. 1351 [7, 8]

Pope Gregory XVI, encyclical Mirari Vos, On liberalism and Religious Indifferentism, August 15^th, 1832

13. … [I]ndifferentism… [is the] perverse opinion… spread on all sides by the fraud of the wicked who claim that it is possible to obtain the eternal salvation of the soul by the profession of any kind of religion, as long as morality is maintained. [3, 6] Surely, in so clear a matter, you will drive this deadly error far from the people committed to your care. With the admonition of the Apostle that “there is one God, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4: 5) may those fear who contrive the notion that the safe harbour of salvation is open to persons of any religion whatever. [3, 6] … A schismatic flatters himself falsely if he asserts that he, too, has been washed in the waters of regeneration. Indeed Augustine would reply to such a man: “The branch has the same form when it has been cut off from the vine; but of what profit for it is the form, if it does not live from the root?” (In psalm., contra part. Donat.) Dz. 1613; DS. 2730 [3]

Pope Leo XIII, encyclical Satis Cognitum, On the Unity of the Church, June 29^th, 1896

5. … [As] the Son of God… took to Himself a mortal body, which He submitted to suffering and death to pay the price of man's redemption, so also He has one mystical body in which, and through which, He renders men partakers of holiness and eternal salvation. God "hath made Him (Christ) head over all the Church, which is His body" (Eph. i., 22-23). Scattered and separated members cannot possibly cohere with the head so as to make one body… Accordingly, dispersed members, those separated one from the other, cannot be in union with one and the same head. [6] "There is one God, and one Christ; and His Church is one, and the faith is one; and one is the people, joined together in the solid unity of the body, in the bond of concord. This unity cannot be broken, nor the one body divided by the separation of its constituent parts" (S. Cyprian, De Cath. Eccl. Unitate, n. 23)… [4, 6]

[The] Apostolic mission was not destined to die with the Apostles themselves, or to come to an end in the course of time, since it was intended for the people at large and instituted for the salvation of the human race. For Christ commanded His Apostles to preach the "Gospel to every creature, to carry His name to nations and kings, and to be witnesses to him to the ends of the earth." He further promised to assist them in the fulfilment of their high mission, and that, not for a few years or centuries only, but for all time - "even to the end of the world". Upon which St. Jerome says: "He who promises to remain with His Disciples to the end of the world declares that they will be forever victorious, and that He will never depart from those who believe in Him" (In Matt., lib. iv, cap. 28, v. 20)… [1, 2]

9. [The] pan-Christians who turn their minds to uniting the churches seem, indeed, to pursue the noblest of ideas in promoting charity among all Christians: nevertheless how does it happen that this charity tends to the injury of faith? Everyone knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new commandment "Love one another", altogether forbade any intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and corrupted version of Christ's teaching: "If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed you." [II John 10] [4, 5, 6] For which reason, since charity is based on a complete and sincere faith, the disciples of Christ must be united principally by the bond of one faith. [3, 4, 6]

Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on The Church (November 21^st, 1964). Propositions which breach the Catholic Church’s constant teaching are found in the paragraphs following:

1. … For since the Church, in Christ, is, in a way, the sacrament or secret sign and instrument of union in oneness with God for all men, the Council here proposes etc…

8. … [The] one Church of Christ… constituted and organised as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the bishops etc...

15. The Church knows she is joined in many ways to the baptised who are honoured by the name of Christian, but who do not, however, profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter… [T]hese Christians are indeed in some real way joined to us in the Holy Spirit for, by his gifts and graces, his sanctifying power is also active in them and he has strengthened some of them even to the shedding of their blood…

16. … Those who have not yet accepted the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways… first, that people to which the covenants and promises were made…

… The Muslims, together with us, adore the one merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day...

1. The Catholic Church is in the nature of a sacrament or instrument of union with God of all men.

6. Jews who have not forsaken their Jewish faith are related to the faithful of the Church.

Argument

The Church is not a sacrament, nor even analogous to a sacrament, which is a visible sign instituted by Christ to give sanctifying grace, but only to His faithful people. A sacrament effects what it signifies. One who is not baptised or who is baptised but not a believer with divine faith, the faith given by God, obtains no profit from a sacrament.

“And the Lord spoke these words: I am the Lord thy God… Thou shalt not have strange gods before me…”

We believe in one God, Father omnipotent, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, and became man… And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son] who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified… Dz. 86; DS. 150

“[This Council] firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart “into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels” [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward; and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practised, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.” Dz. 714; DS. 1351

Pope Pius IX, Encyclical Quanta cura (December 8^th, 1864), Syllabus of Errors propositions to be held as condemned and proscribed:

n. 19. The Church is not a perfect society absolutely free… Dz. 1719; DS. 2919

Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei (November 1^st, 1885) On the Constitution of States

“The Church, according to her nature, and her rights, is a perfect society as she possesses in herself and by herself, by the will and the goodness of her Founder, everything that is necessary for her existence and her efficacy. As the aim which the Church pursues is the most sublime, so also her power is the most eminent and it cannot be considered as being less than the civil power or in any way subject to the civil power.” (n. 10) cf. Dz. 1869; DS. 3171

“Only those are to be numbered among the members of the Church who have received the laver of regeneration and profess the true faith, and have not… separated themselves from the structure of the Body, or for very serious sins have not been excluded by lawful authority. For in one spirit, says the Apostle, were we all baptised into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free [I Cor. 12: 13]. So, just as in the true community of the faithful of Christ there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith [cf. Eph. 4: 5]; and so he who refuses to hear the Church, as the Lord bids, let him be as the heathen and publican [cf. Matt. 18: 17]. Therefore, those who are divided from one another in faith or in government cannot live in the unity of such a body, and in its one divine spirit.” Dz. 2286; DS. 3802

Argument

The one Church of Christ is the Catholic Church. The Latin word subsistit does not have the limited meaning conveyed by the English verb ‘subsists’. Its roots are the prefix sub-, meaning ‘under’, and sistere, a verb meaning ‘to stand’. Hence the Latin subsistit signifies ‘stands under’, or ‘underlies’, as the ground underlies the feet of believer and non-believer alike. The Catholic Church does not underlie the Church of Christ; she is the Church of Christ, the Mystical Body of Christ.

The erroneous provision is drafted, cleverly, in an endeavour to include under the umbrella of the Catholic Church, Protestant and other schismatic churches. That this is impossible, and heretical, appears from the Church’s constant teaching cited above. The evil of this provision is that it engenders the view that it is not necessary to belong to the Catholic Church for salvation.

Muslims not only reject the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, they misconceive it fundamentally.

“Those who say Allah is one in a trinity have certainly fallen into disbelief… Qu’ran, Sura 5: 73-75

“And when Allah said, “O ‘Īsā, son of Maryam (Jesus, son of Mary), did you say to the people: ‘Take me and my mother as gods beside Allah?’” Qu’ran, Sura 5: 116

Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (November 18^th, 1965). Propositions which breach the Catholic Church’s constant teaching are found in the paragraphs following:

8. … "The Tradition that comes from the apostles progresses in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. There is a growth in insight into the realities and words that are being passed on. This comes about in various ways. It comes through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts. It comes from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which they experience. And it comes from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth. Thus, as the centuries go by, the Church is always advancing towards the plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in her."

This passage misstates the doctrine of the Church on apostolic tradition comprehensively. It savours of the errors of Modernism, and is heretical. Proof of this is contained in the Church documents extracted in Appendix D.

Pius IX, Vatican Council (April 24^th, 1870) Dei Filius, Dogmatic Constitution concerning the Catholic Faith

[S]upernatural revelation , according to the faith of the universal Church, as declared by the holy synod of Trent, is contained “in the written books and in the unwritten traditions which have been received by the apostles from the mouth of Christ Himself or through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit have been handed down by the Apostles themselves and have thus come to us”. Dz. 1787; DS. 3006

[T]he doctrine of faith which God revealed has not been handed down as a philosophic invention to the human mind to be perfected, but has been entrusted as a divine deposit… to be faithfully guarded and infallibly interpreted. Hence, also, that understanding of its sacred dogmas must be perpetually retained which Holy Mother Church has once declared; and there must never be recession from that meaning under the specious name of a deeper understanding ‘Therefore… let the understanding, the knowledge, and wisdom of individuals as of all, of one as of the whole Church, grow and progress strongly with the passage of the ages and the centuries; but in its own genus alone, namely in the same teaching, with the same sense and same understanding (eodem sensu, eademque sententia) [St Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium, 23, 3]. Dz. 1800: DS. 3020

Pius X, Decree Lamentabili (July 3^rd, 1907), Errors of the Modernists; propositions to be held as condemned, and proscribed:

n. 21. ‘Revelation, constituting the object of Catholic faith, was not completed with the apostles.’ Dz. 2021: DS. 3421

n. 31. ‘The doctrine about Christ, which Paul, John and the Councils of Nicea, Ephesus and Chalcedon hand down, is not that which Jesus taught, but which the Christian conscience conceived about Jesus.’ Dz. 2031; DS. 3431

n. 53. ‘The organic constitution of the Church is not immutable; but Christian society, just as human society, is subject to perpetual evolution.’ Dz. 2053; DS. 3453

n. 58. ‘Truth is no more immutable than man himself, inasmuch as it is evolved with him, in him, and through him.’ Dz. 2058; DS. 3458

n. 59. ‘Christ did not teach a defined body of doctrine applicable to all times and to all men, but rather began a religious movement adapted, or to be adapted to different times and places.’ Dz. 2059; DS. 3459

n. 62. ‘The principal articles of the Apostles’ Creed did not have the same meaning for the Christians of the earliest times as they have for the Christians of our time.’ Dz. 2062; DS. 3462

Pius X, Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (September 8^th, 1907), Doctrine of the Modernists

… [For Modernists] consciousness and revelation have interchangeable meanings. From this [comes their] law according to which religious consciousness is handed down as a universal rule, to be equated completely with revelation, to which all must submit, even the supreme power in the Church, whether this teaches or legislates on sacred matters or discipline. Dz. 2075; DS. 3478

… [For Modernists] the reality of the divine… exists in itself, and does not depend on the believer. But if you ask on what… the assertion of the believer rests, they will reply: in the personal experience of every man… [T]hey explain… that in the religious sense a kind of intuition of the heart is to be recognised by which man directly attains the reality of God… Dz. 2081; DS. 3484

… There is something [here] absolutely inimical to Catholic truth. For [their] precept regarding experience is applied also to tradition as the Church has hitherto asserted it, and utterly destroys it. For Modernists understand tradition as a kind of communication with others of an original experience… Thus… religious experience is spread widely among the people, and not only among those now in existence, but also those to come… [T]hey hold truth and life to be the same. Therefore [it is open for them to assert]… that all religions, as many as exist, are true, for otherwise they would not be living. Dz. 2083

Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, December 7^th, 1965). Propositions which breach the Catholic Church’s constant teaching are found in the paragraphs following.

12. Believers and unbelievers agree almost unanimously that all things on earth should be ordained to man as to their centre and summit…

22. Christ the Lord… in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling… Human nature, by the very fact that it was assumed, not absorbed, in him has been raised in us also to a dignity beyond compare. For by his incarnation, he, the son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man…

1. Those who believe with a divine and Catholic faith (inter alios) are among those who hold almost unanimously that the things of earth should be ordained solely to man, that is, to the exclusion of God and His glory.

6. Christ by His incarnation intended to awaken man to his own talents and his vocation.

Let the reader remember that it is the Catholic Church that is supposedly speaking in Gaudium et Spes!

It will be argued that the offending propositions do not deny the Church’s teaching; they are simply silent about it. In his encyclical to the Italian bishops on Freemasonry, Inimica Vis (December 8^th, 1892), Pope Leo XIII cited the authority of Pope Felix III (483-482) to the point:

"An error which is not resisted is approved; a truth which is not defended is suppressed... He who does not oppose an evident crime is open to the suspicion of secret complicity."

Pope Pius XI, Vatican Council, Decree Dei Filius, Dogmatic Constitution concerning the Catholic Faith, Session III, April 24^th 1870.

God… fashioned each creature out of nothing… to manifest His perfection by the blessings which He bestowed… Dz. 1783; DS. 3002 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Since man is wholly dependent on God as his Creator and Lord, and since created reason is completely subject to uncreated truth, we are bound by faith to give full obedience of intellect and will to God who reveals. But the Catholic Church professes that this faith, which “is the beginning of human salvation” is a supernatural virtue by which we, with the aid and inspiration of the grace of God, believe that the things revealed by Him are true, not because the intrinsic truth of the revealed things has been perceived by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God Himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. For, “faith is”, as the Apostle testifies, “the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not” [Hebrews 11: 1]. Dz. 1789; DS. 3008 [1]

Moreover… faith itself in itself, even if it does not work by charity [Galatians 5: 6], is a gift of God, and its act is a work pertaining to salvation by which man offers free obedience to God Himself by agreeing to, and cooperating with, His grace, which he could resist. Dz. 1791; DS. 3010 [1]

Further, by divine and Catholic faith, all those things must be believed which are contained in the written word of God and in tradition, and those which are proposed by the Church, either in a solemn pronouncement or in her ordinary and universal teaching power, are to be believed as divinely revealed. Dz. 1792; DS. 3011 [1]

1. If anyone shall deny the one true God, Creator and Lord of all things visible and invisible: let him be anathema. Dz. 1801; DS. 3021 [1]

5. If anyone… shall deny that the world was created to the glory of God: let him be anathema. Dz. 1805; DS. 3025 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The sacrosanct Roman Church… believes, professes and proclaims that one person of the Trinity, true God, Son of God born from the Father, consubstantial and coeternal with the Father, in the plenitude of time which the inscrutable depth of divine counsel has disposed, assumed a true and complete human nature for the salvation of the human race… Dz. 708; DS. 1337 [6]

Pope Pius X, Decree Lamentabili (July 3^rd, 1907) on the Errors of the Modernists

Proposition condemned and proscribed n. 29: “It may be conceded that the Christ whom history presents, is far inferior to the Christ who is the object of faith”. Dz. 2029; DS. 3429 [6, 7, 8]

Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (September 8^th, 1907), the Doctrine of the Modernists, n.8

… Modernists… affirm that… consciousness and revelation have interchangeable meanings… [such that] religious consciousness is… to be equated completely with revelation, to which all must submit, even the supreme power in the Church… Dz. 2075; DS. 3478 [6, 7, 8]

In 2009 and 2010 there were published on this website extensive criticisms of this Declaration of the Second Vatican Council under the titles The Trouble with Dignitatis Humanae—Error Masquerading as Right[1] and Religious Liberty & the Development of Doctrine.[2] It will repay the reader to study those papers before reading these comments.

Dignitatis Humanae, the Declaration on Religious Liberty, (December 7^th, 1965). Propositions which breach the Catholic Church’s constant teaching are found in the paragraphs following:

1. Contemporary man is increasingly conscious of the dignity of the human person… The sacred council… profess[es] that God himself has made known to the human race… how men … can be saved… [T]hese obligations bind man’s conscience… [yet]… the religious liberty which men demand… leaves intact traditional Catholic teaching…

2. This Vatican Synod declares that the human person has a right to religious liberty… [T]he right to religious liberty is based on the very dignity of the human person…

11. God calls all men to serve him in spirit and truth, hence they are bound in conscience but stand under no compulsion…

13. …A harmony exists… between the freedom of the Church and… religious freedom…

2. Man’s liberty to choose any religion, or no religion, is a supreme principle of his worth.

3. There is no conflict between the liberty to choose any religion, or no religion, and the command of Christ to follow His teaching exclusively.

4. There is no conflict between the liberty to choose any religion, or no religion, and the obligations binding in conscience to follow the command of Christ to follow His teaching exclusively.

Gregory XVI, Encyclical Mirari Vos (August 15^th, 1832), on Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism

14. From the poisonous source of indifferentism flows that absurd and erroneous—or rather, extravagant—proposition that liberty of conscience should be established and guaranteed to each man. It is a most contagious error which leads to absolute and unbridled liberty of opinion which for the ruin of Church and state spreads over the whole world, and which some, with unbridled impudence, fear not to represent as advantageous to the Church. “But what more certain death for souls is there,” says St Augustine, “than the liberty of error” (Epistle 166). When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Dz. 1614; DS. 2731

The truly remarkable dignity of man as the son of the heavenly Father, in Whose image he is formed, and with Whom he is destined to live in eternal happiness, is… revealed only by the doctrine of Jesus Christ.

Pius IX, Encyclical Quanta cura (December 8^th, 1864), Syllabus of Errors—Each of the following propositions is condemned:

15. Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true. Dz. 1715; DS. 2915

16. Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation. Dz. 1716; DS. 2916

17. Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ. Dz. 1717; DS. 2917

18. Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church. Dz. 1718; DS. 2918

20. The ecclesiastical power ought not to exercise its authority without the permission and assent of the civil government. Dz. 1720; DS. 2920

21. The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion. Dz. 1721.; DS. 2921

22. The obligation by which Catholic teachers and authors are strictly bound is confined to those things only which are proposed to universal belief as dogmas of faith by the infallible judgment of the Church. Dz. 1722; DS. 2922

77. In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship. Dz. 1777; DS. 2977

78. Hence it has been wisely decided by law, in some Catholic countries, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship. Dz. 1778; DS. 2978

79. Moreover, it is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduces more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people and to propagate the pest of indifferentism. Dz. 1779.; DS. 2979

80. The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilisation. Dz. 1780; DS. 2980

Argument

The propositions that man’s dignity is inherent in his humanity alone and is the supreme principle of his worth, involve the implications—

* that there is nothing known which could detract from this dignity, such as the taint the Church teaches results from Original Sin;

* that there is nothing known which could serve to elevate man’s dignity above his natural state, such as baptism and the exercise of the one true faith on earth.

These implications are heretical. The claim that man’s dignity is inherent in his humanity is contradicted explicitly by the teaching of Pope Pius X in Acerbo nimis.

The claims of Dignitatis Humanae are in breach of the Church’s teachings against liberty of conscience, the liberty to embrace error, and her condemnations generally about the asserted right of religious liberty.

The contention in n. 1, repeated in n. 13, is self-contradictory—i.e., it entails a breach of the supreme principle of Logic, the Principle of Non-contradiction. The contention in n. 11 is, likewise, self-contradictory and logically offensive.

THE HERESIES TAUGHT BY VATICAN II