The Definitive Failure of Vatican II

In 1966 Father Joseph Ratzinger gave the four goals of the Council as expressed by Pope Saint John XXIII's opening address of Session II of the Council on September 29th 1963.

1. A widening of the horizon of the Church to include the communion of saints in heaven.

2. The renewal of the Church.

3. The reestablishment of unity among Christians.

4. The Church's dialogue with contemporary man.

Cf. Ratzinger, Theological Highlights of Vatican II, New York: Paulist Press, 1966, 42.

In light of the Papacy of Pope Francis we can now say that on those four objectives the Council was a complete failure.

1. The Church is in no way more focused on the Church triumphant than she was before the 1960's. Her supernatural focus, in fact, is ever decreasing.

2. Regarding renewal of the Church the parochial transmission of the faith is almost completely bankrupt, except where tradition is preserved and promoted. The morale and moral life of the clergy seems abysmal, and the missionary outreach of the Church is progressively worse.

3. Unity among Christians has not been achieved, except in a very limited way with the establishment of the Anglican Ordinariate. The reconciliation and zeal for the faith achieved by Summorum Pontificum is presently denied and opposed, despite the great success among young Catholics for traditional doctrine and worship throughout the world.

4. The Church's attempt to dialogue with contemporary man has resulted in a deaf ear on the part of contemporary man to the Catholic faith of the ages and a distortion of that faith which is evident in the persistent confusion of the Pope Francis papacy.

Pope Francis is a direct fruit of Vatican II: a rupture from the past and unending confusion in a false appeal to the world.

The Church now needs a Pope who will declare the failure of the modern Pastoral Council, admitting the plain and obvious fact that the pastoral moment to which the Council attempted to appeal has come and gone without any palpable success. It is time to move on with the faith of the ages, with supernatural boldness.