What Went Wrong with Vatican II

This is an absolutely awful book - the title is quite misleading in that the author does not present anything relevant to his argument. The entire book is him just ranting about how Catholics MUST obey the Pope - that he is the supreme and universal teacher of the church. Because Broggolio is currently the Pope, I highly disagree with this.. .. Throwing this book in the trash where it belongs .

Many things were written about this life changing event for the Catholic Church but rarely has one included the spiritual dimension as well. Ralph McInerny captures the moment and brings us to an understanding which calls Catholics to unity and renewal.

In the decades following the second Vatican Council, Catholics remain confused about it. What was its purpose? Did it really change everything and try to strip away Catholic identity? Why did we even need it? The Catholic Church was in great shape in the years immediately preceding the council.... wasn't it? This book provides some valuable insight into what the council was about and why it was necessary. It also exposes how renegade theologians, not hierarchy as is commonly believed, ruined the council's implementation. Vatican II was never the problem. It didn't destroy Catholic identity or try to undermine the faith. In fact, it wasn't until 1968, years after the close of the council, that the real crisis in obedience began in the Church, and that had to do with Pope Paul VI's landmark encyclical, Humanae Vitae. Dissident theologians were publicly embarrassed when the pope did not come out in support of artificial contraception after they'd said he would. They told Catholic married couples that the encyclical could be ignored and fostered disobedience. This book explores the rebellion among the theologians and its bitter fruit of disobedience to lawful Church authority. It's a real eye-opener to anyone who's often wondered just what Vatican II taught and why this council is singularly blamed for everything wrong with the Church today. The best part is, like Dr. von Hildebrand before him, Mr. McInerney not only identifies the crisis, he identifies its cure. Above all else, his message is: Trust the Church and do not bail out on her. Christ gave her to Catholics to bring them to Heaven and promised that the gates of hell would never overcome her.... and He never breaks His promises.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I did not find the title misleading because what went wrong with Vatican II was not Vatican II itself. Unfortunately, the Council, its documents, and subsequent documents with Church authority have been deliberately misinterpreted or ignored by people acting without authority.

Dr.McInerny goes right to the root of the problem: AUTHORITY! As he shows, especially since Humanae Vitae, there are many in the Church who do not like to be told what to do. That is the problem, plain and simple! I got real big kick, when he explained how priests were advising couples to use birth control prior to the proclamtion of Humanae Vitae. What a surprise for those priests!!This book is a must read for those who are wondering what the heart of the problem in the Church today is. What is strange to me is how some adults have this kind of negative attitude toward the Church. They want things "their" way! I have one word for all the folks who have a problem with authority: servitude.

The book's central argument is that with the publication of Humanae Vitae in 1968, liberal, progressive and modernist Catholic theologians, who had anticipated that Pope Paul VI would change the church's teaching on contraception, were infuriated with the encyclical's teaching, which supported and reinforced the Church's traditional teaching on marriage, family and contraception. Angered, and emboldened by "the cultural revolution that has shaken the West: the radical liberal ideology with its individualistic, rationalistic, and hedonist cast," these theologians openly, aggressively and maliciously revolted against the Church's Magisterium. Progressive and modern theologians have maintained this position for thirty years, ridiculing and criticizing all letters, teachings and encyclicals of the Church and Magisterium. They espoused questioning all Magisterial authority while asserting their authority to dissent, and the lay Catholic right to "decide everything according to their own conscience." Additionally there have been shameful liturgical abuses that were never anticipated or promulgated by Vatican II, yet all done under the 'spirit of Vatican II.'Dr. McInerny asserts that Vatican II affirmed and restated the traditional teachings of the Church and all prior councils. What went wrong at Vatican II is "not with the documents that were promulgated, but the false interpretations of them in the post conciliar period." Concomitantly, the dissension of so many theologians has thoroughly confused the Catholic laity and the confusion and dissension infected every aspect of the Church's life and teachings during the past 30 years. Dissent became good, more dissent was better!What is the crisis in the Church? "The crisis consists in a conflict of authorities. And that crisis has become progressively more complicated. Catholics who took the word of the theologians that they could practice contraception, later had to take their word that they could defy the Magisterium and remain loyal Catholics. Soon they were at ease with their malformed consciences. Their ears grew evermore deaf to the Church's voice as expressed in Vatican II and in so many subsequent pronouncements." Finally, the intuitive professor states that the crisis can be resolved by referencing Pope John Paul II's encyclical Veritatis Splendor. Christ gave the Church as the means of salvation and the Holy Father the task of teaching to each person who desires salvation. McInerny affirms that we need a change of heart and "that it will be by following Mary's wishes as expressed to the children at Fatima that the promise of Vatican II will be fulfilled. She advised prayer and fasting ... that will drive out the demon of dissent and fill the Church once more with the great hope and optimism of Vatican II."