Bishop Strickland about the fateful council
My Brothers and Sisters In Christ,
A watchman does not cry out every hour of the night. He speaks when something has shifted – when the air itself feels different, when the ground beneath familiar landmarks has begun to move.
What has unfolded in Rome this week is not something to panic over, nor something to ignore. It is something to notice.
There has been a gathering of cardinals occurring – an extraordinary consistory – called not to define doctrine, not to correct grave error, not to defend the altar or clarify confusion, but to reflect, to listen, to converse, and to continue a process.
And the way this gathering was framed tells us far more than any single sentence spoken within it.
From the very beginning, the emphasis was clear: The Church was asked once again to look at herself – and to do so through one particular lens. Not through the accumulated wisdom of councils stretching back to the Apostles. But through the Second Vatican Council, presented not as a chapter in the …More
Vatican II is no longer being treated as one council received by the Church. It is being treated as the interpretive tribunal before which all other councils must now appear. If something from the past fits the conciliar vocabulary, it may remain. If it resists that vocabulary, it must be “re-read,” “re-framed,” or quietly set aside. This is why the language matters so much.
But a Church that refuses to correct error does not remain neutral. She slowly teaches by silence. For years now, we have watched confusion spread without consequence. We have watched public dissent go unanswered. We have watched teachings that were once clear become “complex,” then “pastoral,” then quietly optional. -- Bishop Strickland