They Call the Sacred Profane and the Profane Sacred

Just before leaving office Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the heritage of Vatican Council II in which he mentioned the banalization of the liturgy following the theory that "sacrality is a pagan thing, perhaps also a thing of the Old Testament. In the New Testament it matters only that Christ died outside: that is, outside the gates, in the profane world. Sacrality must therefore be abolished, and profanity now spreads to worship: worship is no longer worship, but a community act, with communal participation: participation understood as activity."

This divorce of faith from the Council was also applied to Ecclesiology and to Sacred Scripture: that the Church is simply a matter of politics, a power struggle, and that Sacred Scripture is just a book to been seen only from the historical perspective. The "Council of the media" was a very influential conspiracy in this distortion of the Council of the Fathers. "...[T]he virtual Council was stronger than the real Council...[T]his was the dominant one, the more effective one, and it created so many disasters, so many problems, so much suffering: seminaries closed, convents, banal liturgy...and the real Council had difficulty establishing itself and taking shape

"...But the real force of the Council was present and, slowly but surely, established itself more and more and became the true force which is also the true reform, the true renewal of the Church. It seems to me that, 50 years after the Council, we see that this virtual Council is broken, is lost, and there now appears the true Council with all its spiritual force...[I]t is our task...to work so that the true Council, with its power of the Holy Spirit, be accomplished and the Church be truly renewed. I myself, secluded in prayer, will always be with you and together let us go forward with the Lord in the certainty that the Lord will conquer."

Meeting with the Parish Priests and the Clergy of Rome, Address of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Paul VI Audience Hall, Thursday, 14 February 2013