SUNLIT UPLANDS: The Holy Father Has Just Fervently Declared His Support for Benedict XVI’s Vision of the Church, and Has Issued a Clear Rejection of the So-Called ‘Spirit of Vatican II’

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Holy Father Has Just Fervently Declared His Support for Benedict XVI’s Vision of the Church, and Has Issued a Clear Rejection of the So-Called ‘Spirit of Vatican II’

As attendance at Mass and the confessional ‘soars’, his pastoral strategy is looking clearer; who knows? The ‘Francis effect’ may even prove durable

An important letter, from Pope Francis to Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, has just been published. It includes the following: “With these lines I wish to be close to you and join myself to the act of presentation of the book ‘Primato pontificio ed episcopato. Dal primo millennio al Concilio ecumenico Vaticano II’ ['Pontifical primacy and epicopate: from the first millennium to the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.' The book is a collection of essays, some by Archbishop Marchetto, in his honour]. I beg you to consider myself spiritually present [there]…

“You have made [your love for the Church] manifest in many ways… above all it is manifest in all your purity in the studies made on the Second Vatican Council. I once told you, dear Abp. Marchetto, and I wish to repeat it today, that I consider you to be the best interpreter [ermeneuta] of the Second Vatican Council.”