The Reign of Good Feelings

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        A short article in the Connecticut Post (September 27, 2002) is a perfect example of why "the springtime of Vatican II" is actually a long, dark winter for the Church. The article reports that "Christians and Jews gathered Thursday in Congregation Beth El to cement their friendship during the 28th annual Interfaith Sukkot Luncheon, where Bridgeport Bishop William Lori spoke as a ‘guest of significance.’"

        Lori did what was expected of the post-conciliar Churchman — he apologized for the Catholic Church’s insensitivity before Her great awakening at Vatican II: "Despite a troubled history, Christians and Jews have grown closer in the latter half of the 20th century, Lori said. ‘I believe that we can recognize that the progress that has been made has exercised a good and powerful influence on my faith, my Christian faith, and I hope a powerful influence on Judaism.’ Lori said a better relationship between Christians and Jews evolved from the Second Vatican Council in the early-to-mid 1960s."

        Lori’s reported explanation of what happened at Vatican II is typical of the way in which post-conciliar Churchmen disparage the entire history of their own Church before 1962: "At the council, the Catholic Church formally recognized the spiritual ties that bind Jews and Christians, and that many people in the Christian church's beginnings were Jewish, including Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the apostles." So, according to Lori, it somehow escaped the Church’s notice for nearly 2,000 years that Christ, the Virgin Mary and the twelve apostles are Jewish.

        Lori also declared that Vatican II "affirmed the influence of Hebrew literature on the church, and that Christ's death was not to be blamed on Jewish people." Of course, the Church never taught that Christ’s death was to be "blamed on the Jewish people" in the sense that every member of the Jewish people is personally culpable for His death. Rather, as Our Lord Himself said, the Jewish people would collectively suffer the consequences of their rejection of their own Messiah: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate." (Matt. 23:37-38) One of the "fruits" of Vatican II is that post-conciliar Churchmen hide the teaching of God Incarnate Himself about the state of the Jewish people after the crucifixion and the passing of the Old Covenant.

        Rabbi Waldman said that Bishop Lori "was held in high esteem" because "Christians, Jews and Protestants and even non-Christians recognize in you a man of extraordinary warmth, a man who has come to be with his flock, a man of honesty and decency."

       Yes, Lori is really a warm and decent chap. And this is what the "springtime" of Vatican II is all about: all the feelings of warmth and camaraderie that have arisen, now that the Church has abandoned Her perennial claim to the sole ark of salvation outside of which no one is saved. The Church’s mission to the Jews has come to a halt, and the bishops openly reject any effort to make converts among them in order to save their souls. Now, instead, the bishops promote good feelings and interfaith luncheons with those they are charged to make disciples. Vatican II has ushered in the reign of good feelings, while ushering out the divine commission to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." Our Lady foresaw it all. That is why She came to Fatima. And that is why Sister Lucy wrote of "a diabolical disorientation" among the leaders of the Catholic Church.