His Eminence Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani…The Second Vatican Council’s Cassandra
His Eminence Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani…The Second Vatican Council’s Cassandra
(May 28, 2013)
The history of Western Civilization cannot be divorced from the Catholic Church, and the history of the Church cannot be divorced from Italian and Mediterranean history and culture. When historians look back on the Second Vatican Council (1963-65) and what it has brought forth, one seemingly obscure and forgotten Italian Cardinal will come to fore. Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani the Council’s Cassandra, who predicted that the profound and comprehensive rejection of Church traditions and the unqualified embrace of “Modernism” was not only inconsistent with Church Doctrine, but would be Church destructive. He was not only ignored and ridiculed but also, at age eighty and blind, the conclave of Bishops, under the influence of the future Pope Benedict XVI, in a stunning act of arrogance and hubris, had the unmitigated irreverent gall to laugh at and mock him. Fifty years later, as the Church is reaping the whirlwind of the Bishops' false (sinful?) pride; spinning as it is out of control and its very existence seeming in jeopardy, the Cassandra voice of the Roman baker’s son resonates from the Vatican’s mighty halls down to the smallest parish churches: “I had no eyes, but I could see what you could not with yours.”
A Pre-Vatican II Catholic’s Imagining…
Night of February 10, 2013
Pope Benedict XVI awakes from a tormenting dream in which the Devil came to him mocking and bragging:
“I have prevailed; your Church is dying and you and your Germany Mentors following your German predecessor Martin Luther have been instruments of its death.”
“I have prevailed; your Church is dying and you and your Germany Mentors following your German predecessor Martin Luther have been instruments of its death.”
“Oh how you cringe now at my presences! But, how you delighted in my thoughts at the Vatican Council. You loved me then. A young brilliant theologian, influential beyond your years…I whispered ideas about Modernity and you sang them in a glorious Siren's voice to the somnolent Council.
Now you know my wisdom and fear it. Now you know what you thought was an Eternal Church…you foolishly believed that nonsense…and now you know…Listen Benedict…listen to the chapel bell…it’s the death knell of your life’s work and the Church you thought you understood”
Benedict struggles from his bed and collapses on to his kneeler and prays as Jesus in Gethsemane: “Father… let this cup pass”.
Then another voice – soft, calming and friendly - calls to him by his Italian title “Papa”. Benedict looks up to see the smiling face of Cardinal Ottaviani.
“Surely”, Benedict thinks, “this is the Devil’s trick…taking the form of my arch rival at the Vatican Council, whom I contributed so much to his defeated and humiliation. The blind Cassandra Cardinal, who prophetically could see the destructive path I then Father Ratzinger and the others were taking the Church. Now… to late? I Pope Benedict see too.
“No”, Ottaviani who knows Benedict's thoughts says, “I am not Satan, I am your friend and messenger of good tidings. I come to assure you that we were both correct. Vatican II, as I said, would take the Church down a path of destruction. But, you were correct; because this was a Divine Path the Church had to travel.
Benedict speechless, just blankly stares at the vision. Ottaviani smiles, understanding that the Pope’s profound intellect and life’s devotion to Church teachings is failing him under the burden of physical and psychic pain. He explains:
“Papa, resurrection is the essence of our Belief, our Church, our Being. But, there can be no resurrection unless there is death. Jesus died to rise up and prove his eternity. And His Church has many times in the past been pronounced if not dead – morbid. And like its founder it keeps resurrecting itself. It keeps proving that, as the Founder is Eternal, then so too must be His Church. Mortals, like those who came for Jesus then and His Church now, delude themselves into thinking they can kill Him or His Church.”
“He sent you and the others to take His Church down the path of death and destruction, that he could demonstrate once again: He and His Church are indestructible…Eternal.”
“Papa you have served His purpose well. Now, as you rightfully pray for, is the time for the ‘Cup to Pass’. The might and glory of His Church is about to demonstrate once again the folly of His and Its enemies. The Resurrection is at hand. Go and be at peace.
February 11, 2013
Pope Benedict announces his resignation.
……….
The Second Vatican Council
The Clash of the Modernist Future Pope and the Traditionalist Cardinal
Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, the son of a Roman (Trastevere) baker, rose to the high Vatican office: “Pro-Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”. Only the Pope, who held the title of "Prefect", was higher. As Pro-Prefect, Ottaviani had described himself as “a policeman who guarded traditional doctrine and theology."
It was that sense of “guarding traditional doctrine” that proved to be his tragic flaw in sense of the tragedians (“Across my chest I throw my war like shield…lay on…I will not yield!” – Macbeth). His unyielding passionate belief that Catholic Truth was embodied in Church Tradition, clashed mightily with the Milieu of Modernist Change that swept the Church in the Second Vatican Council.
As E. Michael Jones, a prolific Catholic commentator on recent Church history, wrote:
“Ottaviani went on to be cast in the role of villain at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) by none other than Time magazine, with the help of the German contingent at the council under the leadership of Joseph Cardinal Frings of Cologne.
“A significant player in the German delegation was the man who would go on to become Ottaviani’s successor as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith Father Joseph Ratzinger [the future Pope Benedict XVI].
Frings often clashed with Ottaviani ... Frings was assisted by a progressive firebrand who was dissatisfied with…Church official authorities, a young theological advisor named Father Joseph Ratzinger. (Culture Jihad in Tehran, e-book location L. 983 emp.+)
One of the main clashes, perhaps the essence of all the various clashes, had to do with what was characterized as the “Modern Life”. Ottaviani posited:
“Modern life without doubt, multiplies invitations to evil by such distractions as - beauty contest, - spectacles, - billboards, - songs, - illustrated magazines, - beaches, - places of vacation, - promiscuity, and - certain forms of sport.
“[These invitations to evil] are the reasons why the Church never ceases to recall to each one the principles of prudence, conscience, and responsibility, the rights and duties of liberty, and the obligation of vigilance and precaution on the part of parents, educators, and civil authorities… (L. 1004 emp.+)
Diametrically opposed to Ottaviani’s concerns about Modernism was none other than the future Pope himself Father Joseph Ratzinger who held much sway in both the German and American delegations at the Council. Ratzinger wrote:
“The real question behind the discussion, could be put this way:
Was the intellectual position of ‘anti-Modernism’ – the old policy of exclusiveness, condemnation and defense leading to an almost neurotic denial of all that was new – to be continued? (L. 1020 emp.+)
Ottaviani responded:
“The moral order has the task, not only of leading man to his true end, but of defending him against all doctrines and practices that would enslave him to the minds, modes and passions that are contrary to the dignity of his intellect…
“We know the energies spent at the present time by the world of fashion, movies and the press in order to shake the foundations of Christian morality…as if the Commandments should be considered outmoded and free reign should be given to all passions, even those against nature.” (L. 1030 emp.+)
In short, Ottaviani was pointing out that there are many and very powerful forces in Modern Society that undermine and negate Catholic moral teaching; teachings which are based on nothing less that the Word of God (Revelations) and Natural Law (Theology). Are the teachers (Catholic Clerics) simply to ignore the immoralities bombarding and inundating the Catholic masses. Is it not the role of the Church to stand against immoralities and to teach morality in accordance with divine revelations and natural law theology?
If not the Church, then who is to be the teacher of the Word of God?
Who is to point out the contradictions between sinful ephemerial popular secular morality and the eternal moral truths of the Catholic Church?
Who is to point out the contradictions between sinful ephemerial popular secular morality and the eternal moral truths of the Catholic Church?
Turning Off Ottaviani’s Microphone … The Triumph of “Modernism”
Below is a dialogue between historian and Vatican journalist Robert Moynihan and Monsignor Brunero Gherardini, who attended the Council and lived at the Vatican. It describes a truly profound moment in the history of the Church.
Monyihan: “Whenever I think about the Council I always have one image in my mind: an aging Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, now blind, about age 80, limping, the head of the Holy Office and so the chief doctrinal officer of the Church, born in Trastevere to parents who had many children, so a Roman from Rome, from the people of Rome, takes the microphone to speak to the 2,000 assembled bishops.
And, as he speaks, pleading for the bishops to consider the texts that the curia has spent three years preparing, suddenly his microphone was shut off. He kept speaking, but no one could hear a word. Then, puzzled and flustered, he stopped speaking, in confusion. And the assembled fathers began to laugh, and then to cheer...
"Yes," Gherardini said. "And it was only the third day."
"What?" I said.
"Ottaviani's microphone was turned off on the third day of the Council."
"On the third day?" I said. "I didn't know that. I thought it was later, in November, after the progressive group became more organized..."
"No, it was the third day, October 13, 1962. The Council began on October 11."
"Do you know who turned off the microphone?"
"Yes," he said. "It was Cardinal Lienart of Lille, France."
"But then," I said, "it could almost be argued, perhaps, that such a breech of protocol, making it impossible for Ottaviani to make his arguments, somehow renders what came after, well, in a certain sense, improper..."
"Some people make that argument," Gherardini replied.
(http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/04/controlling-mic-at-vatican-ii.html)
"What came after...improper?"
Call me a conspiracy theorists if you will; but Monsignor Gherardini’s report implies that “Modernism” was a ‘done deal’ going into the Vatican Council. The decision to make the incredibly profound changes that the Church has undergone post Vatican II was not the result of rational dialogue and prayful decisions. How else can one explain the Council's refusal to hear Ottaviani's Curia report? Clearly, by the "third day" the Council had de facto arrived at its decision.
Consider: for three years, in preparation for the Council, the Roman Curia (the governing body of the Catholic Church) headed by Cardinal Ottaviani worked on proposals for the Council to consider! The product of three years work was not even heard; let alone discussed and debated by the Council.
Clearly, the purpose of Vatican Council was to create the illusion of democratic decision making, and in reality to Rubber Stamp pre-Council decisions to Modernize.
The fascinating question for Church historians: Who made the pre-Council Modernist decision and why? Indeed, who bears the moral responsibility for all that followed till this day? Seemingly, in the lead were the German Bishops, assisted by the American Bishops with American mass media support. These question are especially cogent because the past fifty years clearly demonstrates the Church has reaped the whirlwind for ignoring a brilliant and diligent Italian Cardinal. In succumbing to the temptation of Modernism promulgated by the national and theological heirs of Martin Luther: Have the enemies of the Church had their way?
In Sum
The Catholic Church, by definition is a universal Church that seeks to bring all humanity into its fold. However, its origin, its moral and theological teachings, and much of its history are the products of Mediterranean history and culture.
The Catholic Church, by definition is a universal Church that seeks to bring all humanity into its fold. However, its origin, its moral and theological teachings, and much of its history are the products of Mediterranean history and culture.
Interestingly, in this dark hour of Church history, the new Pope is an Italian-Argentinian Hispanic with deep historic cultural roots in the Mediterranean. Significantly, to my mind:
"Just a few days after his March 13 election, Pope Francis told Italian pilgrims during his Sunday Angelus address that choosing St. Francis as his papal name "reinforces my spiritual tie with this land, where -- as you know -- my family origins lie. St. Francis is the patron saint of Italy "
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