Blueprint for Vatican II by Atila Guimaraes

NEWS: June 05, 2002

Bird’s Eye View of the News

Atila Sinke Guimarães

BLUEPRINT FOR VATICAN III – While following the pedophile scandal that is being covered up by so many members of the American Catholic Hierarchy, I asked myself where this deluge of ink and words in the media was heading. This is not an unreasonable concern, since I know that almost all of the secular media walk hand-in-hand with the progressivist current seeking the same revolutionary goals. It seemed strange to me that this media would so roughly open fire on its beloved Mahony, Law, and Weakland with a sudden intolerance and hatred for impurity similar to what a Joan of Arc or a Godfrey of Bouillon might have shown had they been directing today’s media empire. There is a rabbit in this bush, I thought. Let me wait, watch, and it will come out. Thus my natural tendency to scrutinize the progressivist scenario to see what would emerge anew from it. And something really did come out.

First, there is the talk of changing the requirement of celibacy for priesthood, which seems a bad remedy for a different sickness (see my comments in this column April 15, 2002).

Second came the call for a “purified Church,” which on progressivist lips means the ordination of married men, the ordination of women, the election of Bishops by the people, and other such “novelties.” A curiosity: the same people who promote the homosexual in the Church – the retired Archbishop of São Paulo Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, Bishops who support Liberation Theology and movements like Call to Action, We Are Church, etc. – are the very ones calling for a purified Church.

Finally, third, came a whole project, a very important one, which I plan to analyze in more detail at another opportunity. But let me give the reader at least a brief summary now.

National Catholic Reporter (May 3, 2002, pp. 11-18) featured a cover story titled Blueprint for Vatican III. With the sex-abuse crisis, it stated, “the clergy and Hierarchy are in disarray.” Given that Catholics are without leadership, it argued, there is a “compelling need to gather the people of God around their shared views.” With the pretext of making an enquiry among Catholics all over the world, the newspaper presents what seems to be the progressivist plan for the near future. In each part of the world – Asia, Oceania, Africa, Latin America, Europe and United States – people should gather in regional “councils.” The various attendees should bring their suggestions to resolve the principal problems the Catholic Church is facing in their respective areas.

Who would meet? Lay people, members of religious orders, clergy, and Bishops, all co-responsible and treated as equals, all having the same rights and duties. The editors of NCR suggest as agenda for these “councils” the following general items: Governance in the Church, Monarchy and style; Authority; Management: People of God; Priesthood; Theology; Human sexuality; Liturgy; Women; The Church in the world; Globalization; Peacemaking; Inter-religious dialogue; Teaching and acting. One can see that even the most wise and learned Catholic man would have difficulty coming up with answers to all the many problems related to these topics without a lengthy preparation time for research and study. Nonetheless, in the progressivist saga, at these so-called councils, the “people-seat-of-wisdom” would have the correct answer to give in every matter. The various conclusions of the regional councils would then be brought to Rome. This would provide the blueprint for the Ecumenical Council Vatican III.

The newspaper warns its readers that preparation for this council should begin right now, but the final stage of the process in Rome would not be realized in this pontificate but “possibly in the first decade of the next one.”

If the reader wants to know the probable revolutionary methods and goals of these “councils” and the announced Vatican III, he may analyze some precedents that took place in History. In a good history book the reader can observe the preparation phase of the French Revolution. He will find that a huge financial crisis afflicted France, a tragedy similar in many ways to the moral crisis that is shaking the United States at this moment. Almost everyone was concerned about his own individual future and lacked sound guidance. To find solutions for the problems raised by the crisis and to propose reforms, the people of the provinces of France gathered together. The conclusions of those meetings were recorded in the famous “Cahiers des États” [Notebooks of the Social Classes]. Almost all of them concluded that the cause of the crisis was the monarchical structure of France, considered evil, and the primary reform was to get rid of “feudal privileges” and the aristocratic regime. These Cahiers provided the agenda for the meeting of Les États Généraux [the Estates General] that began on May 5, 1789. In a short time the Estates General had been transformed into the National Assembly, which initiated the open confrontation with the King. Soon that confrontation would generate all the abuses and reforms known as the French Revolution.

The plan outlined by the National Catholic Reporter seems analogous, moving toward a likewise analogous aim: the destruction of the monarchy in the Catholic Church and the end of the hierarchical regime still in force today. Of course, the methods to be applied in this new revolution would be duly adapted to our times and to the ecclesiastical ambit. À bon entendeur, salut! [To you who understand, my compliments!]

IS SAUL ALSO AMONG THE PROPHETS? – The Old Testament tells how after Saul was chosen to be the first king of the Jews, he received an order from Samuel to meet with “a company of prophets” and join them in their prophesying. When the people, who knew Saul well and were far from considering him a prophet, saw him sitting with the prophets and singing psalms in their midst, they asked with surprise: “Is Saul also among the Prophets?” (1 Kings 10:11-12) It became the custom to use the expression whenever someone did something that went against his normal habits.

Actually, it could have been applied to something that happened last month. Cardinal Walter Kasper, a known progressivist and radical ecumenist, was asked by the press to state what he thought about the recent hostilities of the Russian Schismatic Church against the Holy See, and he spoke out. He said: “The Orthodox Church resents its own weakness in its capacity to govern the people and to attract them, and for this reason it fears a much more efficient Catholic presence, even if numerical small… The Orthodox Church is not prepared to face the future” (Actualité des Religions, June 2002, p. 37).

I have read many books and articles by Kasper and have followed his activities for quite a while. This is the first time in my life that I agree one hundred percent with him. He is right. The picture he sketched of the situation in Russia is brief and precise. The Schismatic Church has been putrid for quite some time. It lives exclusively by the favor of the Communist State. If either this support would cease or the Vatican would order a real missionary effort, like the Ukrainians began to make, then all of “Orthodoxy” would peter out in a short time. The Vatican knows this perfectly, and the proof lies in the Kasper statement. Here, at least for one moment, the truth was spoken. Bravo Saul!

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