The Pneumatological Revolution

Consequences of Vatican II

The Pneumatological Revolution

Lyle J. Arnold, Jr.

In 1963, Harvey Ball of Massachusets devised "Smiley," the yellow button happy face, for an insurance company. Although his creation was for the private sector (1), its saccharine countenance appealed to the public, because it mirrored their happy and good life and all the happy and good things around them.

The optimism of the world represented by Smiley entered the Church with Vatican II

By this time Vatican II was underway. When John XXIII "opened the windows," faithful Catholics were stunned, realizing that he, too, embraced all the happy and good things in the "enlightened 20th century." How this came to be is an occult mystery.

The counter culture had begun, and the West was entering "an unparalleled period of hedonistic ideals."

During the 20th century 40 million had died in wars, up to a 100 million from epidemics, among them from the Spanish flu, which began in Kansas (2), 100 million from Communism (3). Artificial birth control and abortion would cost so many lives in the near future that a book the size of From Here to Eternity would be needed for all the zeroes.

With all this, the Pope was optimistic, and invited Smiley into the Church. Since that time we can expect in any given parish, hands in the air, hugging, smiling, witty sermons and happy noise. A pneumatological revolution (4) is upon us, summed up by the belief that the Holy Ghost wings around and inspires everyone who is bubbly and fluffy.

A Progressivist may well ask: What is wrong with all this? For openers let us cite some very edifying words by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard on the subject of feeling good:

"Good actions conceal within themselves delights, honors, glory, and a certain indefinable something which human nature finds extremely tasty, and which it often likes far more than sinful pleasure. And the soul is not on guard against this gnawing worm, this refined egoism which kills actual grace. The Lord, out of kindness towards us as well as out of jealousy for His glory, declares Himself to be, as far as He is concerned, indifferent to all particular goods. And He has decided that one thing alone shall be pleasing to Him, namely His own Will. In such a way that a mere nothing, performed in conformity with His Will, can merit Heaven, while wonders worked without it remain unrewarded. And consequently what we have to do is to aim, in all things, not only at what is simply good, but at the good that is willed by God, that is, His Will” (5).

balloons and smiles of the feel good Church

The feel-good Church - balloons, smile, noise...

"Hey! (the Progressivist will object): What makes you think that it isn't God's Will for us to feel good, and pari pasu the Holy Spirit informing us of this?"

The answer is simple. There is a crucial test for whether or not the voice of command is His: Does it correspond to the object at hand echoing the voice of the Church? Does the voice in question muddle or even contradict the voices of persons who represent valid Catholic teaching?

The voice the Catholic Church taught us for centuries the great difficulties we have to overcome and awful sufferings we have to bear in order to walk the narrow path of the will of God. It show us that the feel-good attitude is not hers. Also the life of the Saints, models for us, depict every kind of elevated relations with God, but never the feel-good way of being.

Cardinal Suenens, the darling of Vatican II, was once heard bawling out the words, at gallom huc, which a bystander translated as, "Jesus loves us all" (6). When the theological virtue of Faith grows dim, the pneumatological revolution finds fertile ground for recruitment. Contradicting St. Paul's warning (1 Cor. 1: 22) about wanting "signs," the agents of the pneumatological revolution advise us that we can produce our own a priori evidence of God's communication. But this is pure Protestantism, or better said, it is the same Modernism condemned by St. Pius X.

In one of the biggest shell games in History, the progressivist Hierarchy and clergy have caused the Holy Ghost to eclipse the Divine Savior. This is a direct contradiction to Catholic teaching, whereby "Predominantly in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is conceived as communicated, not to the individual soul, but to the Body which He energizes and organizes, the Church of Christ." (7) St. Teresa of Avila once said that "it is the greatest cruelty to use ointment where it is necessary to cut deep with steel and cauterize with fire" (8).

The optimism that entered the Church with Vatican II has made her almost useless to cure the same sickness spread all over today's world. Nowadays the Vatican only encourages such a mentality.

Who will perform surgery, and cut Smiley out of the Church? Who will seal the wound? May St. Teresa of Avila pray that it happens soon.

1."Smiley", Wikipedia.
2. John M. Barry, The Great Influenza, NY: Peguin, 2004.
3. Various Authors, The Black Book of Communism, London/Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999, p. 4.
4. Pneuma in Greek means Spirit. Hence, Pneumatology is the study of the presence and action of Holy Ghost. Despite a good interpretation, today it reffers principally to the Charismatic or Pentencostal currents which pretend to be inspired by the Holy Ghost. These movements are based upon an exageration of the mystic phenomenons in the Church's life to the detriment of the ordinary means of spiritual progress. They also exagerate the role of love to the detriment of knowledge and Faith. So, the Pneumatological Revolution seeks to put away the doctrine of the Church and her spiritual traditions.
5. The Soul of the Apostolate, Kentucky: Gethsemani, 1946, p. 264.
6. Malachi Martin, Catholicism Overturned, Toronto: Triumph Communications, 2003, p. 40.
7. R.A. Knox, The Belief of Catholics, NY: Sheed & Ward, 1927, p. 153.
8. Tito Casini, The Last Mass of Paul VI," N. Devon: Britons, 1971, p. 90.

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Posted April 16 , 2007

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