Readers of this space are by now familiar with the 10,000 word treatment on Nostra Aetate that was published last month by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
As I wrote in a previous post on the matter, this document has exposed the hypocrisy of the neo-conservative “hermeneutic-of-continuity” crowd.
While many of them cannot help (one hopes) but bristle at the document’s insistence that “it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God,” they simply can’t bring themselves to openly criticize it.
Why not?
Because doing so would come dangerously close to slaughtering one of their most sacred of cows – the Second Vatican Council.
As I wrote at the time, it’s one thing to acknowledge that the Church in our day is in crisis thanks to an abundance of faithless prelates; it’s quite another to admit that the Almighty Council lies at the very heart of the problem. Such an admission as this, as I and others know all too well, comes at considerable cost.
That said, steadfast adherence to the fundamental neo-conservative precept that one must always and everywhere hold the Council harmless comes at an even greater cost – a loss of Catholic faith.
Consider:
Following the Pontifical Commission’s denial of Jesus Christ, any number of Jewish groups applauded the gesture as an important contribution to Catholic-Jewish interreligious dialogue.
This was to be expected, but one such response stood out in the form of a so-called Orthodox Rabbinic Statement on Christianity.
Here are some of the highlights from that statement followed by the kind of Catholic commentary you won’t get from the EWTNs or the National Catholic Registers of the world:
– The Shoah ended 70 years ago. It was the warped climax to centuries of disrespect, oppression and rejection of Jews and the consequent enmity that developed between Jews and Christians. In retrospect, it is clear that the failure to break through this contempt and engage in constructive dialogue for the good of humankind weakened resistance to evil forces of anti-Semitism that engulfed the world in murder and genocide.
The Shoah had nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity, but don’t blame these starry eyed rabbis for embracing the lie that it did. Karol Wojtyla and Josef Ratzinger are as much or more to blame than anyone for lending credence to this preposterous notion.
For example, in a reflection on Vatican Council II written in October of 2012 and published in L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI stated in reference to Nostra Aetate:
At the outset, the intention was to draft a declaration on relations between the Church and Judaism, a text that had become intrinsically necessary after the horrors of the Shoah.
The Shoah made Nostra Aetate intrinsically necessary?
Nonsense!
The rabbis continue:
– We recognize that since the Second Vatican Council the official teachings of the Catholic Church about Judaism have changed fundamentally and irrevocably.
More nonsense.
Vatican II was a non-binding and eminently fallible gathering, the novelties of which carry as much doctrinal weight as the minutes of a local PTA meeting.
Again, however, let it be said that these Jews are simply parroting what the Holy See has been saying.
– The promulgation of Nostra Aetate fifty years ago started the process of reconciliation between our two communities … Nostra Aetate and the later official Church documents it inspired unequivocally reject any form of anti-Semitism…
Nostra Aetate didn’t facilitate any meaningful reconciliation at all; that can only happen in Christ whom the Jews reject. But hey, at least the Jews do so openly. The champions of the conciliar text at the Pontifical Commission, by contrast, do so by stealthy decrees cloaked in Catholic language.
In any case, the Church has long rejected authentic anti-Semitism. The politically correct version so often alleged today for such high crimes as accepting the historicity of the Gospels and affirming the necessity of the Church for salvation is another matter altogether.
– On this basis, Catholics and other Christian officials started an honest dialogue with Jews that has grown during the last five decades.
There hasn’t been five minutes of honest dialogue between the Church and the Jews for over 50 years.
Want some honesty, rabbis?
Here you go:
In rejecting Jesus Christ, you rejected God, and the only way to return to Him and in turn secure your salvation is to do precisely what St. Peter exhorted on the day of Pentecost; “Repent and be baptized every one of you for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Christ Jesus.”
– We appreciate the Church’s affirmation of Israel’s unique place in sacred history and the ultimate world redemption. Today Jews have experienced sincere love and respect from many Christians that have been expressed in many dialogue initiatives, meetings, and conferences around the world.
St. Peter’s exhortation (above) is the epitome of love, anything else is hatred; in other words, the apostates running the show in Rome are “loving” the Jews all the way to Hell.
Finally, not to be outdone, the rabbis attempt to match Rome’s repudiation of the Catholic faith by repudiating Judaism (such as it is today), stating:
– We acknowledge that Christianity is neither an accident nor an error, but the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations… Both Jews and Christians have a common covenantal mission to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty, so that all humanity will call on His name and abominations will be removed from the earth.
Bear in mind that these rabbis are talking about a religion that was founded, in their view, by a mere man who was not only a “false messiah,” but who also even dared to claim to be God (“Before Abraham was, I am”), and then by that authority took it upon Himself to establish a “new” covenant!
Any Jew worth a wooden shekel, misguided though he may be, should denounce Jesus of Nazareth and the religion He established as grave offenses against the Almighty, but alas…
So impressed were these rabbis by the emasculated pansies at the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews that they apparently decided to place their own testicles in a lock box as well. L’chaim!
Oh well… enough about what I think.
What do the neo-conservative, “hermeneutic of continuity” types think of the rabbis’ statement?
Get a load of this (load being the operative word):
Such solidarity is unprecedented. Vatican II laid groundwork with Nostra Aetate. Pope Saint John Paul II pleaded for forgiveness at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Now, we have a further fulfillment of a partnership in prayer and action in the mission of doing God’s will.
So, from where does this flaccid, cringe-worthy garbage come?
America Magazine? Commonweal? National Catholic Reporter?
Nope, it comes from Richard J. Clark at the CC Watershed blog – you know, those champions of traditional liturgy.
The lesson here should be plain; one can champion all the “traditional” thoughts and ideas they want – even liturgical ones – but at the end of the day, if one remains in denial about the poison that is Vatican Council II long enough, it will eventually lead to a loss of Catholic faith.
Speaking of a loss of Catholic Faith how about the latest from our judaized pontiff :
http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/149756bf3d1376e80e98549b040210f5-524.html
Louie,
I wish you could provide, or help organize and provide (as if you don’t have enough to do), the Catholic counterpart to the “Response to the State of the Union” we Americans have set up – as a rebuttal to each new major media screed produced by our ruling demagogue huckster, better known as Pope Francis. Like this one: http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/01/those-who-resist-change-are-obstinate.html
(I imagine he was reacting to The Remnant’s petition for him to step down.)
While the political response is generally worthless, a Traditionalist response could and would be forceful (not to mention “obstinate, hard-hearted and rebellious”). I wish there was some way for the major Catholic media to allow you and our other core Traditionalist apologists to provide such a rebuttal, on a regular basis, no less.
This gives us crystal clarity as to what Sister Lucia was describing as: “Diabolical Disorientation”.
http://en.denzingerbergoglio.com/queries-and-doubts/
This Pope is a human wrecking ball. He has totally alienated me from church management; I now instinctively view church management with distrust and contempt. Good work Jorge. The fact that he even wastes time talking to Imams, as if Islam is even worthy of being considered a religion instead of a political movement tells me enough. He is ignorant or diabolical or both. I have no respect and I no longer keep it a secret.
” The Shoah ended 70 years ago. It was the warped climax to centuries of disrespect, oppression and rejection of Jews and the consequent enmity that developed between Jews and Christians.”
Stupid me; and I thought National Socialist Germany learned their enlightened “scientific” racial eugenics theories via “The Descent of Man” by the Darwin/Galton cousins. I’m glad I have the retards in the Vatican to correct me.
Perhaps some really intelligent Vatican official can tell me why the Nazis exterminated millions of non-Jewish victims also: Communists, Czechs, Greeks, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the mentally and physically handicapped, Poles, Russians, Serbs, POW’s, etc, etc…
I have seen estimates of up to 2.4 million Christian Poles slaughtered, (including Saint Maximilian Kolbe), so is that the Catholic Church’s fault???
Maybe large meeting of prelates should be banned altogether. It seems when you get a bunch of bureaucrats together in one room, an overwhelming urge comes over them to produce documents with lots of fluffy words to satisfy their self-importance, and justify their travel expenses.
One document from Vatican II, NOSTRA AETATE, for example, had about 1700 words, and Vatican II published at least 16 official documents! The 30 canons of the entire Council of Chalcedon, for example as a contrast, took about 3000 words.
In addition, individuals in large groups tend to give in to an innate human desire to conform, so that a person with legitimate objections tend to censor themselves.
If Nostra Aetate is not binding then why is it accepted as the official stance of the Catholic Church? Is it heretical or not, and if it is then how can anyone who promotes it continue to be a member of the Catholic Church?
Louie, you do an incredible job of making people crack up at the no nonsense, common sense way you look at all this rediculousity. It sure relieves the stress and makes things clear. Thanks.
I do wonder how side tracked even we are by them. I mean The Blessed Mother just recently came down from heaven and made the sun dance, and cast it down from the sky and instantly dried the earth-yet we stupids don’t even contemplate that EVERY second. Instead our pope- what- forgets or pretends it didn’t happen, and instead talks to false religions as if they have credence. This can’t be ignorance, but planned and pure evil. We are all in so much trouble.
We all know Montini used binding language, and the Wojtyla profession of Novus Ordo religion is equally explicit as to its demand for obeisance – if these men are popes it is binding. God is good, however, these wicked ‘fake-peters’ stick out like the devil’s own warlocks that they are. Their foul fruits reek across the Novus Ordo wasteland and the world. They are anathema to any true Catholic.
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http://www.novusordowatch.org/vatican-ii-infallible.htm
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Please, folks, take a few minutes to watch the following Catholic reality check. Truth is not about personalities, it is about real Catholic teaching, and authentic Catholic authority.
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https://youtu.be/hp9vQJhJE8o
Taking a bit of poetic license to wit:
“Look mom, the Pope has no clothes on”
The Passion of the Church continues and like Our Lady at Fatima said…”It will be late…” but the dedication of Russia will happen and the nonsense will end.
Till then, prayer, fasting, resistance and action.
Aim for the patient acceptance of the crosses of life which like a thread must be woven into the fabric of our spiritual lives
Lawrence Scupoli
Spiritual Combat
Published 1589
Hitler was a sociopath who got to run a country. Meanwhile the US and the UK and Co. had had a longterm plan which required the displacement of millions of peoples, in order to reorganise things left and right of the Bosphorus. Hitler – a useful idiot, like the muslims – help the men who have no creed but unholy amounts of influence and finance to bring about the New Order, the One World. A Christless mish-mash where the True Christ and True Church given only through the vehicle of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in union with the Chair of St Peter is mocked, refashioned, given a Novus Ordo Advent, that all true Catholics know to be false.
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“At the very heart of this crisis lies a Christological heresy … the adherents ultimately preach a false Christ; a “diminished and
distorted Christ” (cf Pope St. Pius X,Notre Charge Apostolique) aka-belial.
EM your comment is a good one – however you may be confusing ‘patient acceptance of the crosses of life’ with silence in the face of error. These two ideas are not mutually exclusive.
Of course Our Loving Father in Heaven has send this specific cross to all of us. – He is allowing evil doers to do their evil – so this is our cross.
Where is it written in the whole of Church history that we are to remain silent in the face of this evil?
We are to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. This means that we love ourselves first (and work very hard to please God and keep the Faith) and then we are to want those same things for our neighbour – for his body and his soul.
If there is no critique of the evil in the world, and in the Church, we are not helping our neighbour to repent of sin and join us in Heaven – we are not pointing out error, and pointing out the truth.
What we do and say, and how we do and say it, is another thing. Many times we allow our anger and frustration to overcome our charity. We call Francis names, and attribute evil intention to what he says and does. This is sinful and we must stop this. That said, it is not sinful – in fact it is true charity – to point out evil and lead others to keep the Faith.
EM, you have a good heart and from your comments I know you want to practice that love of neighbour Jesus commands. But please separate two things: love of neighbour and love of truth. There is a place for both.
Our Lord’s Church (the aka Catholic Church) is being scourged by the one who is supposed to be the Vicar of Christ on earth. Who will hold back the hand holding the whip? Where are the so-called orthodox, conservative, traditional-sounding Princes of the Church? The silence is deafening!!!! Where are the Shepherds?? Don’t they know they are accountable to Our Lord? Have they no fear??
EM–Must we “patiently accept” the cross of this dreadful papacy? Have you accepted it? Was Hitler, Stalin and others like them “patiently accepted”? What were the consequences??
If anyone would like some more ecumenical nauseation, here you go:
http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/725a1223f62b125442bce4e989e196ba-525.html
The Jews should be an object of our pity and a cause of our fear, for what has happened to them can happen to any one of us.
I submit, with no authority and subject to correction by my betters, that as holders of the keys, the Popes as Popes have the spiritual power in the spiritual realm to bind and to loosen the Jews in the world. Since VII, however, they have chosen to loosen the Jews upon us and, to our spiritual bankruptcy, we are ordered neither to pity nor fear them.
Thank you,Barbara…point well made, and taken.
Thank you again, Mr. V. Great research and article.
My favorite 2 lines:
“The Shoah made Nostra Aetate intrinsically necessary?
Nonsense!”
I had overlooked that nonsense before you pointed it out.
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Today (Jan 20) is the feast of Our Lady of the Miracle. In 1842, a 28-year-old French Jew named Alphonse Ratisbonne was converted by an apparition of Our Lady. He was the youngest son of an important banking family in Strasbourg, a close relation of the Rothschilds.
He (along with his brother Theodore) subsequently founded a religious congregation – the Congregation of Sion – for the conversion of the Jews.
The order has since been infiltrated, of course.
http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j112sdOLMiracles_1-20.htm
General response to the novusordowatch clowns:
http://trueorfalsepope.com/articles/Feature%20-%20Mario%20Derksen%27s%20Elementary%20Error%20on%20Fact%20vs%20Law.pdf
As far as I’m concerned, the Vatican should not release any document, make any declaration or official pronouncement without declaring it infallible. Anything released that does not have the infallible stamp is therefore fallible, should not have been put forth in the first place and is a waste of time. Maybe that way we will get less garbage from Rome because they would only then present things that are in conformity with tradition (if they have anything of the sort). The post-conciliar Church has learned it can say all sorts of mumbo jumbo and defend itself by having its neo-conservative useful id**ts say “calm down everyone, the pope doesn’t always pronounce infallible statements so no need to get wound up.”