My first reaction was exactly the same as Mr Lawlers, NO! But, after realising that Dr Pakaluk thinks we 'need' one, just not right now, I, too, changed my opinion.
From Catholic Culture
By Phil Lawler
Michael Pakaluk has an interesting piece in The Catholic Thing today, raising a provocative question: “Is Vatican II ‘Spent’?”Pakaluk does not deny the validity or the importance of the Council—far from it. But he suggests that the force of the Council’s teaching has been “spent,” for reasons both good and bad.
The good reason: Vatican II was a pastoral council, and Pope John Paul II—who was uniquely qualified as an interpreter of the Council—devoted his very long and very productive pontificate to implementing the Council’s pastoral suggestions. The bad reasons: … Well, anyone acquainted with the long-running battle between “the spirit of Vatican II” and the actual teachings of the Council knows the bad reasons. Pakaluk tells the old story well, then concludes:
Honesty might seem to require us to say that the Council is now a dead letter: Or better to say, not that it is dead, but that it has achieved whatever it could achieve.
But the final paragraph of Pakaluk’s essay brought me up short, when I read my friend’s conclusion that “we need a new Council.” My first reaction was sheer horror. A new Council now—in an era of unprecedented confusion? At a time when leading prelates openly question the perennial teachings of the Church? During a pontificate when any gathering of the world’s bishops is flagrantly manipulated to further the liberal cause?
“No, no, no!” I thought. But just two sentences later, my opposition softened, as I realized that Pakaluk must be thinking of a Council that we need, but probably cannot have, until some measure of clarity is restored. Or, better, a Council that we could have, if a critical mass of the world’s bishops agreed with the premise that clarity must be restored. In Pakaluk’s challenging words: “We need another Council that diagnoses, indeed, but also anathematizes, brings to an end an implicit schism by drawing lines as to who belongs and who does not.”
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