Was the 2d Vatican "Council" dogmatic, pastoral?

Objection: The 2d Vatican "Council" was a pastoral council, not dogmatic...

 

Reply: The name "council" comes from the Latin "concilium", meaning "assembly". Thus a council is an assembly of bishops which discusses the affairs of the Religion and of the Church (Mgr de Ségur,"Le Concile", 1869, pg. 125). A council doesn't deal only with questions regarding faith and morals, such as defining dogmas or condemning heretics, but analyses also affairs related to the discipline and the general government of the Church. There is no such "dogmatic" or "pastoral" Council, but there are three types of councils in the Catholic Church: the "Provincial Council", composed of bishops of one ecclesiastical province and presided by the archbishop or the metropolitan, the "National Council", composed of all the archbishops and bishops of the same country and presided by the primate or the papal legate, and the "Ecumenical Council", convoked and presided by the Pope or at least one of his legates, composed of all the bishops of the world and whose decrees, regarding faith, morals, discipline or Church's government, are approved and confirmed infallibly by the Pope or the Apostolic See. Before being approved by the Pope the council's decisions are mere bills or draft laws but after they have been approved and confirmed by the Pope, they become real laws which bind the faithful's conscience. ("Idem", pg. 126-128).

 

"By divine and Catholic faith, all those things must be believed which are contained in the written word of God and in Tradition, and those which are proposed by the Church, either in a solemn pronouncement or in her ordinary and universal teaching power, to be believed as divinely revealed." (Ecumenical Vatican Council, "Dogmatic Constitution concerning the Catholic Faith", Chapter 3. "Faith", Session 3, April 24, 1870; Heinrich Denzinger, "The Sources of Catholic Dogma", 30th edition, n. 1792).

We know that Holy Bible and Tradition are the two sources of divine Revelation (Catechism of saint Pius X; Catechism of Trent).

 

"19 Q. Where are the truths which God has revealed contained?

"A. The truths which God has revealed are contained in Holy Scripture and in Tradition.

 

"34 Q. What is meant by Tradition?

"A. Tradition is the non-written word of God, which has been transmitted by word of mouth by Jesus Christ and by the apostles, and which has come down to us through the centuries by the means of the Church, without being altered.

 

"35 Q. Where are the teachings of Tradition kept?

"A. The teachings of Tradition are kept chiefly in the Councils' decrees, the writings of the Holy Fathers, the Acts of the Holy See and the words and practices of the sacred Liturgy."

 

"36 Q. What importance must we attach to Tradition?

"A. We must attach to Tradition the same importance as the revealed word of God which Holy Scripture contains." (Catechism of saint Pius X). 

 

As part of Tradition, the Councils' decrees, after the Pope's approval, are free of any error whatsoever, because Tradition is one source of divine Revelation. Vatican II "Council" has been always recognised and propagated by the Vatican authorities, since the times of John XXIII, as an Ecumenical "Council" convoked by the Catholic Church and whose decrees have been approved by the Apostolic See or the Pope. But if we analyse some of his decrees, we realise that they contain grave errors against the Catholic Faith, particularly religious freedom. 

 

"The Church of Christ is part of ("subsistit in") the Catholic Church." (“Lumen gentium”, 21 November 1964).

 

"The Church of CHRIST is ("est") the Catholic Church." (Pope Pius XII, "Mystici Corporis Christi", 29 June 1943). 

 

"The Catholic Church has sinned against unity." (2d pseudo-Vatican Council, "Unitatis redintegratio", session 5, 21 November 1964). 

 

"All the teachings of the Catholic Church's Magisterium are impeccable and unchangeable." (Pope Pius IX, Denzinger 1839).

 

"The conversion of non-Catholics is an obstacle towards the Church's unification." (2d pseudo-Vatican Council, "Unitatis redintegratio" : 24, session 5, 21 November 1964). 

 

"Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." (saint Matthew 28:19-20).

 

"And He said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned." (saint Mark 16:15-16). 

 

"Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the Traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle." (2 Thessal. 2:14)

 

"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties of words, and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called. Which some promising, have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen." (1 Tim. 6:20-21).

 

The Early Church Fathers had an infallible method by which to recognise the Church of CHRIST among other sects. In the light of this technique, only the Church of CHRIST or the Roman Catholic Church has the four positive marks of recognition (One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic), which were proclaimed in the Council of Nicea (325 AD) and later in the 2d Council of Constantinople (381 AD), and are recited since by all the faithful as part of the Credo. Some other non-Catholic sect may possess one or more of these marks but never all four of them, as it does only the Church of CHRIST, the Roman Catholic Church. (Abbé Berthier, "Abrégé de théologie dogmatique et morale", 1928, pg. 36). 

 

Vatican II "Council"'s decrees by denying the conversion of non-catholics, among other grave errors, deny the apostolicity of the Church of CHRIST, one of her four marks of recognition, therefore they could have not come from the Catholic Church, but from a counter-church, as Mgr Lefebvre said it himself: 

 

"Yet, I sincerely believe that we are dealing with a counterfeit of the Church and not with the Catholic Church. Why? Because they do not teach anymore the Catholic Faith. They do not defend any more the Catholic Faith. Not only do they no longer teach nor defend the Catholic Faith, but they teach something else...

 

"I think we can and we must even believe that the Church is occupied, the Church is occupied. She is occupied by this Counter-Church, by this Counter-Church that we know well and that the Popes know perfectly well and that the Popes have condemned throughout the centuries. For nearly four centuries now, the Church continues to condemn this Counter-Church which was born especially with the Protestantism, which was developed with the Protestantism and which is at the origin of all the modern errors; it has destroyed all philosophy and have led us into all these errors that we know and that Popes have condemned: Liberalism, socialism, communism, modernism, sillonism and what else... And we are dying from it, dying from it. The Popes have done everything to condemn it, and look now, those who sit on the seats of those who have condemned these things now they practically agree with this liberalism and this ecumenism. Hence we cannot accept that.

"And more things become clear, more do we find out that this program which was elaborated in the masonic lodges - this whole program, all these errors which have been elaborated in the masonic lodges - well, we realize little by little and with increasing clarity that, simply there is a masonic lodge in the Vatican." (Mgr Marcel Lefebvre, 8 June 1978).