Question 111 – Did Vatican II Have Any Errors? If So, Do We Have To Follow Them?

Transcript:

Those clear affirmations in the documents of Vatican II are wrong, we cannot. But in general, we can state the following: Vatican II was not a dogmatic council, and it did not have the intention to be a dogmatic council. Vatican II wanted only to be a pastoral council – to give a concrete pastoral application of the Catholic doctrine of the current circumstances of our time. And these can change so, they are, by definition, pastoral decisions where you can change them, you can improve them, and they can be wrong. 

So, this is the first important principle that you have to take into account. Well, of course, we have to also obey the church in things that are not strictly dogmatic, like in Canon Law or pastoral norms. But in cases, where the Vatican Council has some expressions (thanks be to God that are not much) which are wrong or highly ambiguous, we cannot follow them. We have to follow the truer, clearer, analogous statements of the previous Magisterium and they are. 

So, we mentioned once the adoration together with the Muslims, we cannot follow these. Or the highly ambiguous affirmation about religious liberty – that everyone has a natural right, not to be impeded, and to exercise and to even spread a wrong religion, and the wrong religion can be idolatry and even Satanism, a wrong religion. So no one has a natural right. Natural right means that God wants these positively, it is a natural right. So no one has the natural right not to be impeded to spread a wrong religion that offends God, a wrong religion. 

There is partly a truth: only the Catholics have a natural right not to be impeded to lift the Catholic faith and to spread the Catholic faith. Only this affirmation is true of Vatican II, but only applied to the Catholic faith and not to idolatry and other faiths. And also that no one can be forced to believe, this is true. This is traditional teaching; it's nothing new in the Vatican Council. Because even God is not forcing you to love Him and to believe in Him. 

I think, there are (thanks be to God, not that many) problematic affirmations in Vatican II, only some. These are the most important, the two that I have mentioned. And we have to clarify these because these statements were not meant by the council to be definitive teaching. So there is no big problem that can be improved, changed, and corrected. And there are many good affirmations of Vatican II that we are accepting of course, and we are following. 

I also think that we do not have to pay too much attention to Vatican II because it is only a pastoral council, and there were before Vatican II, 20 councils. Therefore, we do not have to overstate Vatican II and speak continuously about Vatican II. We have to simply look at the Catechism, to read the statements of the previous Popes, the saints, the doctors of the Church, and the Church Fathers. There are plenty of short texts in the Catholic tradition and today we will stick to them and follow them.