He will return with his immense heart, with his heart of fire, his poor man's soul
and his smile. He will return! And the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph!

OUR LADY OF FATIMA CAMP 2007

THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

PASTORAL CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH
IN THE MODERN WORLD (1)

(GAUDIUM ET SPES
7 DECEMBER 1965)

BY THE ABBÉ DE NANTES 

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT

THE SITUATION OF MEN IN THE MODERN WORLD. HOPE AND ANXIETY.

« For the human person deserves to be preserved, we have just been told; and human society deserves to be renewed. » It was a peremptory and grandiose assertion, but quite vague. Now, the « total presentation » that follows this Preface continues with more precision:

4. § 1. « To carry out such a task, the Church has always had the duty of scrutinising the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to the other (?). »

Good heavens, this is all so complicated! From the “pastoral” work of Jesus Himself to yesterday, all the saints cared little about enquiries, polls, action plans and all the panoply announced to us here.

There is something more alarming. At the Council, the words « signs of the times » were extremely popular. They constituted a particularly biblical theme. We knew the events foretold by the prophets that were to mark the advent of the Saviour of Israel: the « Messianic times », therefore, would be sensed and then recognised by holy, attentive, upright souls. Jesus criticised those who asked Him for signs in the heavens, for knowing very well how to interpret the… signs of the weather that would occur tomorrow… and, on the other hand, for being unable to remark the « signs of the Messianic times » that were patently obvious to simple folk: « You know how to judge the appearance of the sky, but you cannot judge the signs of the times! » (Mt 16.3) In the same way, Jesus announces His “Parousia” and the end of time, taking this expression from the lips of the Apostles: « Tell us, when will this happen, and what sign will there be when all these things are about to come to an end? » (Mk 13.4) For there will be signs, and even « mighty signs in the sky » (Lk 21.11).

Thus, we see through what abuse, what sheer brainwashing, our generation applied itself to discerning and reporting “the signs of the times” that should precede and accompany the extraordinary events of our times – times that are not ordinary! – in order to end up swearing that we are living in the Messianic times, and that we had to find on the radio, the television, and in the morning newspaper, the signs in order to be able to respond very rapidly and well! Thus, this enigmatic passage of our text, beginning a broad study on « the situation of men in the modern world »:

« We must therefore recognise and understand the world in which we live, its explanations, its longings, and its often dramatic characteristics. » There follow ten pages of sociology that are totally useless from a pastoral viewpoint and totally mediocre in its analysis.

On the other hand, if there are undisputable and genuine “signs of the times” – you will agree with us! – it must be the discovery of the absolute authenticity of the Holy Shroud in 1898, which was confirmed in 1988, to revive the faith of the multitudes at the approach of the great convulsions of the end of times. It must also be the miracles of Fatima, signs in the sky, mainly the “fall of the sun” on 13 October 1917 and also the light in the night of 25 January 1938, wrongly called “aurora borealis”, but all the more significant! Yet, you can look for these religious events; they are scientifically inexplicable, but the interpretations of them are known and believed by all good Catholics for their salvation. The Council is unaware of these “signs of the times”. Furthermore, given how far it went in its investigation, there was no risk that it might encounter a significant event.

To tell the truth, the apocalyptical and eschatological “signs of the times” are abundant, but, to be more specific, they lie in a direction where one does not want to see them, exactly like the Pharisees and the Sadducees in accordance with Our Lord’s reproach. (cf. Lk 12.56; Mt 16.2).

« Some of the main features of the modern world can be sketched as follows », the Council announces. Since it cannot talk about everything, it has to have a working hypothesis that organises the matter. The consequence of this is to allow us to have a grasp, an understanding of it, owing to which we would be able to voice value judgements that could make our study profitable. Yet, after reading this mass of information over and over again, we are obliged to conclude that there is nothing, absolutely nothing to draw from it; we would think that we were stupid, dominated by the loftiness of the discourse and the scientific dimension of the synthesis of the data to which it leads. But a thorough examination freed me from this anxiety that seizes a man of thought when he understands all the words and sentences, and when he he adds everything up, it amounts to zero! The synthesis is non-existent. What is the point? Nothing, or nearly nothing. Nearly nothing? Well, what? I have got it:

Let us go back to the Council’s interpretative keys in order to decipher this huge chapter. On behalf of her own faithful or affiliated people, it is the Church who addresses the world. She will make herself known afterwards to help it and save it. Thus, this “world” that she is going to describe will not be “clerical”, but “secular”. Therefore, the Catholic religion and its “Christian society” will be absent, remote. As in new ultra-secular administrations, schools, university campuses, or as with industrial complexes, hotel-keepers, etc., religion is absent. The first key is atheism as absence of religion. This present world will also be emptied of all ancient things that remain in it; they are already known and scheduled for demolition or oblivion in favour of something new. The Council is not “square”, neither in its insight nor in its projects. Unconsciously accepted, the principle stifles minds: the world we live in is modern and secular.

Another key of the Council is its strong will to get on well with this modernity and secularity that seem to be the heady conquests of our young generations. These are hostility to religion, morals, traditional convictions, while on the contrary everything that is transgression, revolt, even anarchy, must encounter an attentive welcome in the conciliar Church. Thus, we come to another key: « Let us make a clean sweep of the past »; let us bank on revolutionary radicalism, and boldly jump aboard this new ship that calls us onto an adventure. How long and why? would we stay alongside the quay, if all the “fighters” of our time and the “youth” choose adventure?

Here, there is absolutely no sociological datum for either the present moment, the future, or the past to relate its fall. This brings us to our last, weighty key: one will be positive, constructive; he will admire, or say things simply, but without ever criticising, condemning, denouncing! Sociology must not be prescriptive, any more than any another science. Here, the Council must not be so, on any account! As an extra precaution: no proper name, not a single denomination of movements or parties, or of ideologically marked systems. The Council is always flattering… that is to say, charitable towards people, since it is aware of the close identification of persons with the great words out of which they make their programme and their glory. The Council’s charity thus goes so far as to go easy on these systems.

Finally, you have to see it to believe it! The Council speaks about an abstract world, but really it is a world that exists nowhere, is inhabited by no one, and holds nothing. It is like a huge piece of machinery, but we only know its components and the series of immense workshops in full production. We know that there are billions of men working in them; we know that they build and assemble the elements of the future City. But we do not know anything about the intervening steps. My comparison has shortcomings that we will see better at the end of the visit. Until then we will follow the guide, the senior executive, who in my opinion is completely nuts in all his explanations, which explain nothing… I multiply the humoristic titles and incisive parentheses, as do guides who hope to earn a good tip!

In the 1960s there opened « a new age in human history »:

§ 2. « Today, the human race is involved in a new stage of history. Profound and rapid changes are spreading by degrees around the whole world (are we going to be told which ones? I do not know, let us be patient!). Triggered by the intelligence and creative energies (oh! oh!) of man (in general), these changes recoil upon him, upon his decisions and desires, both individual and collective, and upon his manner of thinking and acting with respect to things and to people (a lot of good that does us, but what are you speaking about?). Hence we can already speak of a true cultural and social transformation, one which has repercussions on man’s religious life as well. »

Man is somewhat lost in all this novelty… So are we!

§ 3. « As happens in any crisis of growth, this transformation has brought serious difficulties (which ones? Let us be patient!) in its wake. Thus while man extends his power in every direction, he does not always succeed in subjecting it to his own welfare. Striving to probe more profoundly into the deeper recesses of his own mind (what, for example?), he frequently appears (!) more unsure of himself. Gradually and more precisely he lays bare the laws of society (I would really like to know which ones!), only to be paralysed by uncertainty about the direction to give it. »

This mumbo jumbo of unemployed administration students does not seem very serious to me.

Things are going somewhat better, but also so-so!

§ 4. « Never has the human race enjoyed such an abundance of wealth, resources and economic power, and yet a huge proportion of the world’s citizens are still tormented by hunger and poverty, while countless numbers suffer from total illiteracy.

« Never before has man had so keen an understanding of freedom (that remains to be seen…), yet at the same time new forms of social and psychological slavery make their appearance (what are these horrors? Where do those who practice them come from?).

« Although the world of today has a very vivid awareness of its unity (it is pure brainwashing from the sixties, but we know who pays for people to be taken in by it; so, tell us, who are they?) and of how one man depends on another in needful solidarity (the bishops here abandon their impartiality in favour of the secret powers that lead this movement), it (the world) is most grievously turned into opposing camps by conflicting forces. For political, social, economic, racial and ideological disputes (this string of trivial words replace others that are highly significant; for example, the names of the ideologies, of the political powers that are evoked here! Not that! never...) still continue bitterly (but not for long, with the Council’s help!), and with them the peril of a war which would reduce everything to ashes.

« True, there is a growing exchange of ideas, but the very words by which key concepts (are we going to know which ones? Let us be patient!) are expressed take on quite different meanings in diverse ideological systems (with so much mystery, we are not much further on!).

« Finally, man (who?) painstakingly searches for a better world (well, well! which one?), without a corresponding spiritual advancement. » This is enigmatic; but be patient! Here, the Council lets it be assumed that it prefers a great idea of global organisation, but, since the Church, or “Christians” are kept out of things, there is a “spiritual” gap that the Council precisely proposes to fill.

All these problems are enough to give decent souls a headache. Read how ridiculous it is:

§ 5. « Influenced by such a variety of complexities, many of our contemporaries are kept from accurately identifying permanent values (Let us be patient! Perhaps we will be told by the bishops of the Council themselves what these values are) and adjusting them properly to fresh discoveries (which ones? We are getting nowhere with this grandiloquence). As a result, buffeted between hope and anxiety (Let us pay attention to this! the Council deals here with the modern, human, secular world: there is no question of the virtue of hope, but only of human hope) and pressing one another with questions (when everyone is ignorant, it is futile to press one another with questions… But the Council is going to answer them, let us be patient!) about the present course of events, they are burdened down with uneasiness... »

The conclusion is resounding:

« This same course of events challenges man (what man? Who? For Pete’s sake, about whom, about what are you talking?); indeed, it forces him to answer. »

It is dull rhetoric! A development in the course of events, an evolution, does not challenge anyone, still less force him to do anything. But the people hidden behind these grand words and this intermingling of problems exist. What is the Council waiting for to name and denounce them?

A PROFOUND MUTATION.

Bombast, more bombast, for the sake of talking.

What angelic patience is needed to be able to enter into these long sentences that evoke generalities on the various aspects of human life, without shedding light on the causes and those who are responsible for them, on the effects and their victims…

5. § 1. « Today’s spiritual agitation and the changing conditions of life are part of a broader and deeper revolution (in order to reach a deeper revolution thanks to which we are going to find our way through, let us be patient). As a result of the latter, intellectual formation is ever increasingly based on the mathematical and natural sciences and on those dealing with man himself, while in the practical order the technology that stems from these sciences takes on mounting importance. This scientific spirit has a new kind of impact (What kind of impact, tell us! We lose our heads in all these recondite passages!) on the cultural sphere and on modes of thought (which modes do you mean?). Technology is now transforming the face of the earth (an allusion to the work of God’s spirit, in the Bible! and in Christian prayer, Ps 103.30), and is already trying to master outer space (what is the relevance of that?). »

Yet another uninteresting, secular paragraph of limited insight. How many more will there be?

The same rhetoric concerning the passage of time that modern man dominates.

§ 2. « To a certain extent (!), the human intellect is also broadening its dominion... » Ah! What majestic eloquence! Let us see a small sample: « over the past by means of historical knowledge; over the future, by the art of projecting and by planning ». Since then, “futurology” has been added. It is yet one more thing whose purpose is to have more opinions!

Here is another of these grand, solemn sentences that will tell us nothing new, whose purpose is apparently “to take stock”. I give it to you as an example of what is not to be done (I would mark it: « zero, do over! »), but the Council has made this into a method, the object of which is not to fail in its resolutions to say nothing that surprises, disturbs, disheartens, or gives rise to protest… Read on:

« Advances in biology, psychology, and the social sciences not only bring men hope of improved self-knowledge; in conjunction with technical methods (no time to tell you which ones, undoubtedly?), they are helping men exert direct influence on the life of social groups. »

« At the same time, the human race is giving steadily-increasing thought (the human race, that’s saying quite a lot!) to forecasting and regulating its own population growth. »

For once, the words bring to mind precise realities; but here it is horrible: the human race « regulates » its development. This is grandiose in the eyes of the conciliar Fathers. But who establishes the « regulation »? On what conditions? What is the source of this money whose purpose is to organise this regulation, pay its propaganda, to cause millions of children to be assassinated in their mothers’ wombs! Yes, I know, my Fathers, you are going to answer me: But wait, be patient, the Council will speak about it in its own time! Yeah, GS 27: the word « abortion » appears in a list, and let us pass on to the following; and GS 51: it is « unspeakable crime », and that is all. There is nothing more in the index. But for the term « democracy » there are twenty-seven lines in the index, while the word does not appear in any other Act. I see, I see! This Council systematically does not name what it speaks about, but manages in this way to speak without displeasing or worrying anyone.

The speeding-up of the historical process creates an immense « new problem ».

There is also a speeding-up of the paranoia of our authors.

§ 3. « History itself speeds along on so rapid (!) a course that an individual person can scarcely keep abreast of it (for example, this morning, the night has flown so quickly that I put on my winter slippers, it is harrowing!). » They take advantage of it for globalist, unanimist propaganda: « The destiny of the human community has become all of a piece, where once the various groups of men had a kind of private history of their own (what monumental stupidity!). Thus (thus!), the human race has passed from a rather static concept of reality (judging from this « thus », I could see that an enormous stupidity would superbly sum up to us this new general theory of the place of man in the world...) to a more dynamic, evolutionary one. In consequence there has arisen a new series of problems, a series as numerous as can be, calling for efforts of analysis and synthesis (we can see that they are good at the logic of science. But which analysis and which synthesis? Let us be patient; they will say it further on!) ».

CHANGES IN SOCIAL ORDER.

things that change, there are loads of them!

6. § 1. « By this very circumstance (?), the traditional local communities… (banalities, I pass on) experience more thorough changes (you see, it is not the work of men, dictators, capitalists, real beings, no; that came about because of the speeding-up of the historical process) every day. »

§ 2. « The industrial type of society is gradually being spread, leading some nations to economic affluence, and radically transforming ideas and social conditions established for centuries. »

You see the complete evacuation of the principles and wills of religious, civilised human beings that our very human communities had in past centuries, and the equally radical concealment of the modern builders of our immense profit-making companies… No, it is industry that spread on its own, and it is our old cities or parishes that were engulfed by the speeding-up of the historical process. Moreover, it is well-summed up as follows:

« Likewise, the cult and pursuit of city living (Who is this lady?) has grown, either because of a multiplication of cities and their inhabitants, or by a transplantation of city life to rural settings. »

Have you at last understood, in the Council’s view, why there are only things, forces in spontaneous movement, principles and grand words? All this material rules “men” in the “world”, since all the intermediary realities have systematically been banished from existence, as they will in fact soon be if we heed the Council.

Here comes still another bundle of anonymous, uncontrollable forces:

§ 3. « New and more efficient media of social communication are contributing (contraptions that have benefits to contribute!) to the knowledge of events; by setting off chain reactions (that the Council leaves you to imagine) they are giving the swiftest and widest possible circulation to styles of thought and feeling (whose?). »

§ 4. « It is also noteworthy how many men are being induced to migrate on various counts (which ones?), and are thereby changing their manner of life. »

This is what concerns changes in social order. The Council is going to conclude with two very important remarks expressed in the form of a double synthesis, which we approve here without discussion. But the Council will put them in reserve in order to give its advice, inspired by the Spirit of the Gospel and human sciences, as we have just seen, with a view to blowing up the place so that under their sponsorship the new City of universal love may be born.

§ 5. « Thus a man’s ties with his fellows are constantly being multiplied, and at the same time “socialisation” brings further ties, without however always promoting appropriate personal development (whose?) and truly personal relationships », i.e. “personalisation”, as we will see below.

It is a global satisfecit that the Church grants to our appalling present-day society. She does so on condition that she be able to contribute her leaven of the Gospel; the aim is to put the finishing touches to this marvellous socialism. By means of a “personalism”, socialism will maintain a great inspiration of generosity, charity, and, thus, of individual freedom and brotherhood, amidst its steely materialism.

There follows another reflection that is fraught with hopes and fears for the future if the Church does not deal with it: the developing countries in the sixties.

§ 6. « This kind of evolution can be seen more clearly in those nations that already enjoy the conveniences of economic and technological progress (admire the thick materialism in which the Council is getting bogged down! Only economic and technical differences distinguish us from the Congolese and the Australian aborigines.), though it (this evolution) is also astir among peoples still striving for such progress and eager (they only have to ask; we will give it to them!) to secure for themselves (the Council thinks that they are capable of doing as we do, without us and soon much better than we do) the advantages of an industrialised and urbanised society. These peoples, especially those among them who are attached to older traditions, are simultaneously undergoing a movement toward more mature and personal exercise of liberty. »

Thus, the Council will have much to teach to the rich as regards charity, and to the poor as regards economic progress and also freedom with respect to their ancestral religions or superstitions. It is, in fact, the technocratic elite in the “West” that is of interest, and it is the new elite of intellectuals and politicians in the new democratic States that constitutes the hope of the modern Church.

PSYCHOLOGICAL, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CHANGES.

Listen yet again to this as proof of the extraordinary intellectual deficiency of the author of this report. He speaks about a state of affairs that is mentioned but not explained in the preceding paragraph, and he attributes to this state (the emphasis is mine) of affairs an action (!) on throngs of individuals and particularly on certain categories. Why? How? He does not attempt to find out or specify that there are crooks who take control and, by means of this authority and these instruments that are put at their disposal, implement the « changes » that surprise the Council!

This is how everything is: the wicked do not exist, nor does evil. It is only the effect of the state of affairs that one can only remark upon. Here it is:

7. § 1. « A change in attitudes and in human structures (this is a totally vague state of affairs) frequently (?) calls (!) accepted values (once again, this is a completely indeterminate pairing, while both of these words hide a power, an idea, an organisation... a deliberate plan) into question, especially among young people. »

There is no allusion to the passions peculiar to this age, which is unspecified here. Nor is there any allusion to the masters or media powers that replace them, as the causes of the « changes » that surprise the bishops without them knowing the reason for them! As for the thing itself, here is a cause that is given at this point as a consequence in order to cover the sordid and bloody tracks that would quickly lead from the effect produced to those responsible, the well-identified corruptors of youth. But stop! The prohibition key blocks the denunciation. Read on:

« They have grown impatient on more than one occasion, and indeed become (innocent) rebels in their distress. Aware of their own influence in the life of society (here, the bishops’ sycophancy is closely akin – while lending even greater weight – to the demagogy of all democratic and secular powers towards their future electors!), they want a part in it sooner »... by breaking everything three years after the Council. Flattery bore its shameful and odious fruits. But, Reverend Fathers, between the Council and May 1968 in Paris, there was the preaching of this new Savonarola, the Dominican Cardonnel. There are the facts, the events, and the men, the ideas and groups… everything that your Council covers with its large “pastoral” mantle!

« This frequently causes (ah! what false consequence are you going to invent to serve your friends and crush your enemies?) parents and educators (it is vast!) to experience greater difficulties (ah, and how!) day by day in discharging their tasks. »

But, I indeed foresaw this abominable lie! For this evil, this plague, the revolt of the young against their parents – yeah! but inoculated and nursed by their so-called educators – is « frequent », even as general, as universal as a venereal disease. Ah! How this coordinating conjunction reveals the author’s treachery! The persons who are mainly to blame are Freemasons who are lodged in the good places of our “National Education”, and the bishops who work hand in hand with them to establish everywhere secularism, coeducation, anarchy in schools. It is a foul-smelling collusion against which scared parents’ associations are powerless.

This scholarly interpretation is going to serve at all levels of social life. I recap: today, everything has started to change. Thus novelties arise. It is an unclassifiable, indefinable, but unquestionable fact. It is ambiguous: what will emerge from it? It must be accepted, against the squares, the conservatives and the Catholics. The Pope wants it. Paul VI declared in Bethlehem on 6 January 1964 wanted « to assure to the life of the Church a new manner of feeling, desiring, behaving ». The Council transformed the message into a revolutionary leaven:

§ 2. « The institutions, laws and modes of thinking and feeling as handed down from previous generations (all that is thrown away any old how on the rubbish heap, in the sewer) do not always (what moderation!) seem (how benign they become!) to be well adapted to the contemporary state of affairs (we see at once that affairs are what we know them to be and their present state what we are suffering… well, not always!): hence arises an upheaval in the manner and even the norms of behaviours. »

There it is, completely explained: things are changing. Some people are for; others are against. This is the reason for the revolt of the ones against the feelings of helplessness of the others. All this is extremely clear, when we ascend above the clouds. It is quite simply Hegelo-Marxist dialectical materialism that has received a very superficial Christian baptism.

« Finally », everything having been clarified in all other fields, the religious phenomenon remained to be materialised and made dialectical. Until now, it has not appeared in any sector, neither in its essence and proper activity, nor in any impact that it could have had on « the world » or on « man ». These two fundamental notions of conciliar sociology are Hegelo-Marxist concepts; hence, religion is excluded from the “thesis”, from the “antithesis” and thus from the “synthesis”. This is what the Council is going to explain to us concerning itself; it claims to reinsert the concept of religion, the eminently saving « message » that the assembly is made responsible for announcing to the new Man, to the modern World.

§ 3. « Finally, these new conditions (that everyone is now supposed to know; re-read the previous pages!) have their impact on religion. »

« On the one hand a more critical ability to distinguish religion from a magical view of the world and from the superstitions that still circulate purifies it and exacts day by day a more personal and explicit adherence to faith. As a result many persons are achieving a more vivid sense of God. »

I do not think that anyone can crush his adversaries, the Catholic traditionalists, and flatter his enemies of all tendencies by flattering himself in fewer lines as the Author does. There are as many snares as there are words to cause the reader to fall.

1° Here the cause of the present crisis is once again impersonal, unassailable: it is the « critical ability to distinguish » that is innocently linked to the development of the sciences. It is supposed that the “researchers” and their silent partners (cnrs [National Centre for Scientific Research] unesco, etc.) are honest scientists, that their reason yields to discoveries that are favourable to Christianity, such as demonstrations that conclude that a miracle has taken place, or that it shows respect before the mysteries of our holy religion, that it does not reject them a priori because they go beyond the field of observation and speculation of modern sciences. In fact, the pretext of scientific criticism is invoked by all the enemies of the Catholic religion alone. It is a fact that escaped the knowledge of the Council.

2° To the statement affirming that the development of sciences purifies religions of magical conceptions and the lingering superstitions that encumber them, I am going to reply with a nasty remark because so much concealed hatred makes me scoff bitterly at these depraved minds. For this remark does not bear against any other religion than the lone, divine, true one, ours. In fact: in no line of its thousand pages does the Council enumerate the sorcery and superstitions that abound, however, in so many religions. Moreover, I add: historical or other forms of criticism are careful, in any context whatever, not to make the least unpleasant allusion to all this… On the contrary, they believe – yes, the scientists! – in all the follies of religions other than ours. And yet again: the sciences destroy, without realising it, thousands of legends of the great religions without them losing a single adept. Thus, the nasty criticism only falls on our religion. The author of such remarks and his co-signatories have a hatred for a certain ancient Catholicism that they reject as magic and superstition.

I prove what I tell them to their face: science, such as we exercise it in our “school of thought”, on ten, on twenty new objects of study, comes to corroborate in a stupefying manner the alleged “legends” that the Church held to be true, against a world of rationalists, anti-clericals and Modernists. For example, the authenticity of the Holy Shroud… Now, the men of the Church are set against this very science.

3° Why? These cunning people occasionally forget themselves and let fall their masks of serious magistrates and enemies of all imposture. They are neither for nor against anyone, on the contrary! Now, pleading against the Church of the past, by means of base imputations, they show where their passions lie. Fortunately, they say, science got the better of the idiotic beliefs of the past, which we did not need to believe.

We see with satisfaction men and women who acquire an « adherence to faith » of rare quality, « day by day more personal and explicit », which was unheard of before the Council. Better still, « many (how many is many?) persons are achieving a more vivid sense of God » than who? than what? Well, more than before the Council! This is overweening pride and a propagandistic lie for which we will pay dearly, for from one line to the next the sad truth of the apostasy within the Church is going to pass through the holy Council’s hopper. Who will be declared responsible? Why, no one, obviously! It was caused by the « changes », or « the new conditions »! As though two centuries of anticlericalism, of anti-Christianity must not be paid for dearly today, because the Church slowly gave way to the persecutions of the world, in order to seek an understanding with it. Let us see:

« On the other hand… » you spurn the thought that this fine, this excellent work of modern science (this science is devastating for the religion of the past, but so advantageous for the conciliar religion) might have some cause and effect relationship with what follows. Here it is: « On the other hand (then), growing numbers of people (oh dear..!) are abandoning religion in practice. »

Always obliged to lie! This is true for the Roman Catholic religion in the West; the same, alas! cannot be said about Islam… about which the Council was speaking very highly in the years from 1962 to 1965 when it experienced a formidable rise in Algeria and elsewhere. This sentence still cuts me to the heart forty years later, because it is still the same: « growing numbers of people are abandoning [the Catholic] religion in practice. » I think of St. Ignatius in his Exercises: « these masses of men who march into Hell »! Whose fault is it? I know whose, but they will not tell you. They seek some inert, anonymous, irresponsible thing to which this apostasy can be attributed without anyone being wounded. So, here it is:

« Unlike former days, the denial of God or of religion, or the abandonment of them, are no longer unusual and individual occurrences (do you see tears forming in beads in the eyes of the Author because of this spiritual disaster?). For today it is not rare (whom does this impersonal structure conceal?) for such things to be presented as requirements of scientific progress or of a certain new humanism... »

But you, my Fathers, do you judge severely, sorrowfully this mass abandon? I have only two questions:

1o Do you still think, as the Church does, that in whatever circumstance, it is a mortal sin to « lose » the Catholic Faith?

2o Do you think that this is a « social fact » that must not be imputed as a crime to persons or associations, when these very persons or associations are under the command of infernal powers and wage a struggle against God and His Christ, according to the teaching of the eschatological discourses of Christ and the revelations of the Apocalypse?

« In numerous places (still this evasive speech in order to hurt no one?) these views are voiced not only in the teachings of philosophers, but on every side they influence literature, the arts, the interpretation of the humanities and of history and civil laws themselves. As a consequence, many people are shaken. »

I catch you once again in the act of creating entities that have no personality, or reason, or action: art, legislation! These are institutions, which in themselves are neither for nor against religion. But you do not want to implicate the powers to which the hirelings of these great things are answerable, and these powers are men, castes, societies that are more or less secret. Why not denounce them? You, the shepherds, barkless dogs, you notice that the flock is ravaged, decimated, that the sheep are « shaken » and you have your heads in the clouds in order not to know where the mercenaries, the ferocious beasts are, for fear of doing them harm! When one has no faith or courage, he does not open a Council to help save the world! And when he himself is flagging, a friend of the world and already in some respect in its pay, he does not set himself to betraying Christ in the sacred work of the Catholic Magisterium. It would be better for such a traitor if he had never been born…

THE IMBALANCES OF THE MODERN WORLD.

Do you know why I am quoting these texts in full? It is in order that I, too, not be accused of deleting, when it bothers me, passages that contradict me. So, read this paragraph to see where, for my part, I find a new example, after so many others, of talking for the sake of talking:

8. § 1. « This development coming so rapidly and often in a disorderly fashion, combined with keener awareness itself of the inequalities in the world beget or intensify contradictions and imbalances. »

Do you understand? No, I do not. Nevertheless, after this tiring admiration, in all directions and fields, for change and so many novelties, works of man’s « creative energies » (4 § 2 ; cf. 3 § 1), the Council must soft-pedal, under pain of not being able to get its « message » across to a world that must have need of it. So, without taking the whip, without anathematising, it must reveal to this all too sound world, to this man that he is somewhat unwell; I will not say anything more! I will have you read it, like at a show, Jouvet interpreting Doctor Knock!

Forward march, to see disquieting « imbalances ».

I feel like laughing, and I fall on the Latin title: « De inæquilibriis... », where we see, of course, a tightrope walker ride a bicycle from one skyscraper to another. If it is “an image that expresses that…” then the right word has been found! What is it? To explain that disorder, inconsistency, contradiction are everywhere, but without never ever naming people, religions, sects, political parties, and this and that, which appear among the unlisted numbers. Never.

We are going to see how the method is religiously observed. Its obvious consequence will be that the list of all the fissures in the building will lead to nothing other than – and this is what the Council hopes – seeing, as Pascal tragically writes, « man stretch out his arms to his liberator ». And his liberator, well! It is the Council.

§ 2. « Within the individual person (just who is this person about whom you are always talking? – But he is “no one”… see, it is the game that Ulysses plays on the Cyclops!) there develops rather frequently an imbalance between an intellect which is modern in practical matters and a theoretical system of thought which can neither master the sum total of its ideas, nor arrange them adequately into a synthesis. »

There is a well-targeted imbalance! Are you joking? I have my explanation: how is it that education programmes are imposed by a mafia on an entire people? These people submit to these atheist, republican, democratic minds, who are enemies to everything that they should have the duty to pass on to the younger generations, the treasures of wisdom of the Ancients. But to denounce republican, Protestant secularism was beyond the strength of such a Council, and contrary to orders!

« Likewise an imbalance arises between a concern for practicality and efficiency (sic!), and the demands of moral conscience; also very often between the conditions of collective existence and the requisites of personal thought, and even of contemplation (what is this pure virgin doing among such cheap jewellery?!). »

Not knowing how to extricate himself, the Author calls off the hounds:

« At length (at length?) there develops an imbalance between specialised human activity and a comprehensive view of reality. » It is clever, eh! this brainwave « a comprehensive view of reality », poetic even. Because the remainder, try to figure out what it is all about. For my part, I observe that for the Council “man” who is a “person” is in confrontation with no one in these various activities other than to vague, oppressive notions. Reread it: « a concern for efficiency… conditions of collective existence… specialised human activity… » What a drag, these inhuman things are! Talk to me about the rural policeman, the parish priest, the teacher or even better about the “school master”, the colonel, the employer, the judge, the minister, real live people with whom we can discuss matters. There are many people dreadfully alive behind these grand modern, secular, stifling and sinister things… But we never encounter them; they communicate by official documents and march!

After imbalances, here are discords…

§ 3. « As for the family, discord results from population, economic and social pressures... » Ah! How suggestive these charming words are of the children, grandmother and the cousins… don’t you think so? the stuff of demographics, etc., that is it? Yes, and then more discords due to « difficulties which arise between succeeding generations (it is a charming way to evoke dad, mum, and the children, without forgetting grandfather, grandmother, uncles and aunts), « or from new social relationships between men and women ».

I take advantage of these last three words to criticise once again the Council’s detestable compulsory key that makes abstractions shoulder the responsibility and crime of certain duress suffered by citizens reduced to slavery in the name of republican freedom. Is it « social relationships » that produce discord and divorce between spouses, even Christians, or the Masonic work of vile legislators? Smash their heads in, or shut up!

Thereupon, I have the pleasure of announcing births, brought by the stork perhaps: these births without father or mother, without Baptism and sugared almonds are very mysterious. Read on:

§ 4. « Differences crop up (sic!) too between races and between various kinds of social orders; between wealthy nations and those which are less influential or are needy; finally (phew!), between international institutions (here, we know the father and mother!)… born of the popular desire for peace, and the ambition to propagate one’s own ideology, as well as collective greeds existing in nations or other groups. »

I am snowed under! But all that is true ! The Council dares say it for two reasons. If you are able to guess them when you are going to read them in the following line, it is either because I have not written in vain… or that you already knew it better than I, who am discovering it while writing. The two reasons are: first because, to present all these horrors of hatred, slavery, partisan struggles, and contempt with grand words without risking any enmity towards the major criminals who are responsible for them is already, for the Council, something of which to be proud. Then, because the cumulative presentation of all these discords, inequalities, and imbalances is an audacious gesture on the part of the Council. It dares do this with serenity because it has a remedy, multiple remedies for each and every one of these enormous problems.

Do I dare to joke in order to make myself understood? It is like Doctor Knock. Before he established himself at St. Maurice, people were never sick, and his predecessor was dying of boredom and want. Knock revealed to each and every one of them the serious illnesses with which they were or would be affected. So, the village came back to life! People treated themselves, gargled, the doctor’s waiting room was never empty, and the pharmacist increased his sales tenfold.

The Church fretted over speaking to men about God. She drew up an inventory of the internal dysfunctions of individuals, and of the great global imbalances. She saw herself invited to all the large international assemblies in order to teach the world to take care of itself. She has the knowledge, and now, very recently! she possesses the pharmacopoeia that is essential to the progress of humanity.

Thus it is in a casual fashion that the author concludes, as Knock does, by not giving a life expectancy of forty-eight hours to the countess and the rural policeman… unless they take treatment:

§ 5. « What results is mutual distrust, enmities, conflicts and hardships (how much this resonates with the tone of a practitioner who is sure of his diagnostic and modern therapy), of such is man at once the cause and the victim. » It is the last word, the last lie. There are masses of victims, for example, the seventy million unfortunate citizens of the USSR, and there was one who was the cause and not the victim, with all the demons that were associated with his great work: Stalin and his Marxist-Leninism… The Council ignores his very name! Nevertheless, by proclaiming man the cause of all his woes, it insults him, but by taking him for the victim, it sympathises with him, it loves him. It loves him so much that it proposes to treat him. Gaudium et Spes is beginning to take on an alluring aspect in assistance to people in danger, and in the great work of saving the world.

THE INCREASINGLY UNIVERSAL ASPIRATIONS OF THE HUMAN RACE.

It is only to laugh a little that I suddenly thought about Doctor Knock’s patients. It was irreverent towards the Author, but gradually it gave me a very illuminating allegory of this Council’s plan, which was already very much in action in this « Introductory Statement ». Doctor Knock’s story explains – in advance! – the passage from § 8 above to § 9, which we have to read now. As for Knock, the village was in good health before him; the first effect of his propaganda (already excellent marketing!) was to create a certain anxiety among all the villagers, who had iron constitutions, for their health. The Council has just engendered anxiety within us with its catalogue of discords, imbalances, giddiness, and nightmares. Good!

The next phase of propaganda is to create the desire to regain health, to return to good health. Yesterday’s state of health was uneducated, unnoticed, not fun at all. They did not benefit from it! After having passed through the hands of Doctor Knock, however, it will be a completely different state of health. I cannot wait to be sick, in order to regain my health but with the very sensual feeling that it was a sort of resurrection: I am no longer the same.

Well! That improves matters for the doctor – oh pardon me! – for the Council. Here are the dreams for a better life that the Council suggests to and even imposes on the world and each man in particular, in whatever state of health he is:

9. § 1. « Meanwhile the doctor explains from the rooftops, the conviction grows not only that humanity can and should (!) increasingly consolidate its control over creation, but even more, that it devolves (take note of this incantatory style) on humanity to establish a political, social and economic order which will growingly serve man (this “man” is rightly called “no one” because it is neither you, or he, or I… but the man who is unknown!) and help individuals as well as groups to affirm and develop the dignity proper to them »

The Author rouses the paranoia that we have already noted, the paranoia that is the illness of modern man. It is the envy characteristic of an infinite ambition. We will come back to it a hundred times with the Council, which will no longer cease to repeat its incantation. But what I notice here is the total absence of religion, not in the paranoiac desire that demons whisper to the men of today, but on the fact, seen in this paragraph, that the Council becomes another Doctor Knock in order to kindle these absolutely atheist desires. This does not seem to bother them in the least. Is it a Council of « godless men »? That is going a bit far, all the same!

From there to taking action, one only has to take the short step of making claims. The Council explains this step forward, which is called « consciousness-raising » in Marxist language. The Christian Democrats work at it with their fighting instrument, the Gospel, and the Marxists with the Manifesto of Marx and Engels. The fight is identical, the ideas as well:

§ 2. « As a result many persons are quite aggressively demanding those benefits of which with vivid awareness they judge themselves to be deprived (conciliar consciousness-raising) either through injustice or unequal distribution (I can understand injustices; but inequalities!). Nations on the road to progress, like those recently made (sic) independent (under the communist yoke, our Indo-China in 1954, our Algeria in 1962), desire to participate in the goods of modern civilisation, not only in the political field but also economically, and to play their part freely on the world scene. Still they continually fall behind while very often their economic and other dependence on wealthier nations advances more rapidly. » The present tendency is the reversal of the situation: a spectacular development of yesterday’s underdeveloped countries, an irremediable crisis in rich countries. It matters little.

« People hounded by hunger call upon those better off. » From the viewpoint of subversive marketing, it is an excellent formula. The Church no longer makes saints, converts, or children… but agents of world subversion, well done! A record! And the Council is dying of vanity.

Consciousness-raising attacks the entire community whose multiple relationships must be transcribed in the master-slave dialectic. There are no longer parents or children, bosses or servants. There are no longer husbands or wives; the Council follows Marx and Engels from start to finish.

« Where they have not yet won it, women claim (!) for themselves an equity with men before the law and in fact (!).

« Labourers and farmers seek not only to provide for the necessities of life, but to develop the gifts of their personality by their labours and indeed to take part in regulating economic, social, political and cultural life. »

Only worship is neglected by the Council because it undoubtedly is no longer a big success, and they themselves are no longer really interested in it.

« Now, for the first time in human history (paranoia turns to hysteria) all people (!) are convinced that the benefits of culture ought to be and actually can be (this expression is dear to the Council; but it is also the typical expression of a whim: this and that ought and can be given to me…) extended to everyone. » How it stands today is another story.

When on the road to glory, why stop? All these claims one after another leave a bitter taste of hateful and base passion. It is socialism. The Christian Democrats waxed poetic over it as they transferred the claims from having to being, and from Justice to respect. The Council is mainly formed – at least for those who live it out with passion, with their ideas and projects – of Christian Democrats. They are the ones who raise these claims to the skies:

§ 3. « Still, beneath all these demands lies (it is well hidden!) a deeper and more widespread longing (we are entering a dream; it is useless to argue with a person who suffers from hallucinations): persons and societies thirst for a full and free life worthy of man (it is the first time that we come across this word in our reading; it is a significant notion, and we will have to discuss it further on); one in which they can subject to their own welfare (oh! oh!) all that the modern world can offer them so abundantly (« give all places to us and at once », the militants of a prominent left-wing party shamelessly proclaimed when it had come to power!).

« In addition, nations try harder every day to bring about a kind of universal community. » The praise is meagre, given the fact that for the Council, this present reality of nations already seems outdated. All of that will disappear when we will have finished treating the world! « It is the final struggle, let us band together and tomorrow the Internationa-a-le will be the human race! »; this refrain remains in all the left-wing minds of our episcopate of the time.

Whew! The claims of Doctor Knock’s patients are finished. The result of the check-up is given in the last paragraph, which announces what will follow. It is signed by the doctor himself: he makes a report on the present state of his practice to press them to abandon themselves to his medical attention, but making all reserve on the ability of each of them to be able to bear it. One must nonetheless protect himself against the regrettable uncertainty of failure:

§ 4. « Since all these things are so, the modern world shows itself at once powerful and weak, capable of the noblest deeds or the foulest; before it lies the path to freedom or to slavery, to progress or retreat, to brotherhood or hatred. Moreover, man is becoming aware that it is his responsibility to guide aright the forces which he has unleashed and which can enslave him or minister to him. That is why he is putting questions to himself. »

Remember: man is « no one »!

THE PROFOUND QUESTIONS OF THE HUMAN RACE.

Fortunately the doctor… well, I mean: the Council takes it upon itself to reply to this question that man asks himself and to which… no one replies. This time it is imminent: the Council is going to assume control of the work of Creation. It begins by saying to man what the oracle of Delphes said to Socrates: « Know yourself »:

10. § 1. « The truth... », the expression comes from Jesus Christ. The audacity is not slight for a Council to appropriate it… and for what questionable truth! for a set of abstractions, to which the author is accustomed, but he surpasses himself: « (the truth) is that the imbalances under which the modern world labours (!) are linked with that more basic imbalance which is rooted in the heart of man. For in man himself many elements (?) wrestle with one another. » Thereupon come a set of antinomies: « Thus, on the one hand, as a creature he experiences his limitations in a multitude of ways; on the other he feels himself to be boundless in his desires and summoned to a higher life. »

It is quite flattering and grandiose for man, who is « no one », that is to say, « anyone » and everyone! I contest these boundless desires – in loftiness it is limited! – and this call – where does it come from? – to a higher life – God grant that it be real!

« Pulled by manifold attractions he is constantly forced to choose among them and renounce some. Indeed, as a weak and sinful being (it is the first time that I find this obsolete word here), he often does what he would not, and fails to do what he would. »

It is the well-known, extraordinary exclamation of St. Paul (cf. Rm 7.14 sq.). I correct the translation of the French text that tones down the cry of a Jew torn between his ardent fervour for the law of God that he wants to practice to the letter, and the law that he suffers in his flesh, which is stronger and which he suffers by groaning: « Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? » (ibid., 7.24) This has nothing to do with the delectation without remorse that is the common lot of non-Christian humanity, plunged in its vices whose gravity is doubled by his total unconcern for divine Law. So, « the truth is » that the Council could have chosen a quotation that was more on target, for example, words of Christ Himself: « If you do not repent, you will all perish. » (Lk 13.5) Yes, all men! He even insisted: « I assure you! »

On the other hand, you, Fathers of the Council, you add to the other imbalances one that is not common. Your translation softens it, and thus you have already settled this affair of sin and grace to the advantage of « man » who, like St. Paul, is « a weak and sinful being, he often does what he would not, and fails to do what he would (sic) ».

« Hence (all is paid, here is the bill) he suffers from internal divisions, and from these flow so many and such great discords in society. » Here is a great and decisive discovery! For ten pages we have been groaning to remark with the Council that so many evils devour humanity and catastrophically are accelerating doing so unless we can remedy it, and we see the Council attribute the responsibility to ideas, systems anonymous forces, that is, to no one. Here, the cause has been found. They are going to remedy it. The criminal will certainly be prevented from causing harm; he will be arrested! Who? The Council found him: he is « man »…

No one will be arrested. No one will feel that the accusation is directed at him. The Council succeeded.

Furthermore, astonished by its boldness, « the truth is » that it hastens to exonerate everyone, and enjoys listing one after another all the systems that turns the throngs and the elites away, those in high places and the small people, city dwellers and people living in the country, from repenting and mending their ways:

« No doubt many whose lives are infected with a practical materialism (like St. Paul; no one can blame them for it) are blinded by it (this “it” is a stroke of inspiration: is “it” the one who dissuaded them from doing better? “it” should be sent to prison!) against any sharp insight into this kind of dramatic situation (so, “many”… Acquitted!) or else, weighed down by unhappiness they are prevented from giving the matter any thought (it is comical! These poor people « are prevented » from “giving the matter any thought”! Acquitted!). Thinking they have found serenity in an interpretation of reality everywhere proposed these days (by whom? the Council does not know, nor do they! It was proposed to them… Acquitted!), many (oh! oh! millions, or billions? of “men”!) look forward (sic) to a genuine and total emancipation of humanity wrought solely by human effort; they are convinced that the future rule of man over the earth will satisfy every desire of his heart (they are mistaken, they miss out on the real problems, but they should at least receive a long-service medal). Nor are there lacking men who despair of any meaning to life and praise the boldness of those who think that human existence is devoid of any inherent significance and strive to confer a total meaning on it by their own ingenuity alone (?). »

It is the last category of misfits; we do not see who it concerns. Probably all the « men » who are not recognised in the other sections. Perhaps, under the pious euphemisms, the phrase names the suicide ward. Also acquitted.

This procession is surrealistic, like a Last Judgement, in which the Council seeks, or pretends to seek the persons, associations, peoples, nations, religions, revolutionary organisations, anarchists, laymen, atheists who must be incriminated if the illness of the world is to be remedied. Then it found it, the culprit is “man”, but not this one or that one. It releases them all, and continue, children, your racket! You are all of « good will »!

I read too quickly… other than all those with a cushy job, there still remain people on earth, many people, ever more people. Read on: it is the Council’s consolation, for the numerous clients, in ever greater numbers, of this dear Doctor Knock. They are the future of the human family:

« Nevertheless (it is the life-saving word), in the face of the modern development of the world (imagine this grandiose face-to-face encounter), the number constantly swells (it is the optimistic word) of the people who raise the most basic (I like these really terrific superfluous superlatives!) questions or recognise them with a new sharpness: what is man? What is this sense of sorrow, of evil, of death, which continues to exist despite so much progress? What purpose have these victories purchased at so high a cost? What can man offer to society, what can he expect from it? What follows this earthly life? »

Ah! Here, you are brilliant! Ah! This series of totally, superlatively superbasic questions, which come after ten, twenty dense pages of very deep considerations on the situation of men in the modern world, yes! This series of questions is similar to this sentence of Jesus that you perhaps do not know: « What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his own soul » (Mt 16.26) Yet, before despairing totally of earthly life and the future of man because thirty-six solutions have proved themselves insufficient, or in any case failed to make global unanimity, and this is what the human race demands today, the new Church, who wants to be a leaven of union without borders of any sort, announces her message in the conclusion of this first part.

SOLUTION OF THE MAJOR PROBLEMS OF OUR TIMES.

§ 2. « The Church firmly believes that Christ, who died and was raised up for all, can through His Spirit offer man the light and the strength to measure up to his supreme destiny (absolute superlative). »

This declaration is redundant; it expresses the same thought as another that also made a resonant conclusion to the preface. It is to the extent that I imagine the rivalry of two writers who stubbornly insist on their own paper that the presidency decided to keep both of them one after the other. It is very precious for us. Both of them, although with different expressions, expound the Council’s grandiose project. The one wrote: « For the human person deserves to be saved; human society deserves to be renewed. » It was exactly the style of Doctor Knock; undoubtedly, it was not a question of « saving » souls for eternal life, but of saving poor human beings from their multiple, inextricable difficulties in the present world here below (GS 3 § 1).

The other writer uses more refined words: « Christ offers man the light and the strength to measure up to his supreme destiny. » If there were only this text, all Christians would believe that the Council thinks of nothing other, of course, than the vocation of the sons of Adam who are doomed to Hell and are called to become « sons of God » for Heaven! But when we return to the first writer, our eyes are opened when he states that « human society deserves to be renewed ». Because from the Christian viewpoint, the promised renewal took place two thousand years ago, and no other project could logically have any field of application other than political…

It indeed took Christian Democrats united in a Council to change the hearts of men in order to build the civilisation of love about which they dreamt. It is not even a « gnosis »; it is a romantic fable, a utopia.

« The Church (for this is the name that such an international Christian Congress assumes) firmly believes that no other name under the heaven has been given to man by which it is fitting for him to be saved... » The reference given is, of course, to the Acts of the Apostles (cf. Ac 4.12), but indicating that it is not a literal quotation; in the sense that, in St. Peter’s speech, salvation is obviously not « Christian Democrat »… while here, it is an abuse to set such a text in such a context. Because the goldmine has been worked: « She likewise holds that in her Lord and Master can be found the key, the focal point and the goal of man, as well as of all human history... » The ambiguity becomes sublime because Christian Democrats secretly say that they are convinced that the political salvation that Christian Democracy has brought into the world is nothing other than the final flowering of the religion of the salvation wrought by Christ. In each sentence the links tighten between the Christ of the Gospel and the new society that they are planning:

« The Church also maintains that beneath all changes there are many realities which do not change and which have their ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever. »

This is something to reassure everyone: in the incendiary programmes of Robespierre, de Lamennais, and Karl Marx, there was a Christian basis. Reciprocally, the Gospel and the writings of the saints are full of calls for a radical renewal of society. Thus, Christ is our leader, our Doctor, our Saviour – forward march!

« Hence under the light of Christ, the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of every creature, (what fine, edifying and reassuring quotations from the most sublime Sacred Texts of our holy religion! in order to conceal a less sound novelty!) the Council wishes to speak to all men in order to shed light on the mystery of man and to cooperate in finding the solution to the outstanding problems of our time. »

Here is the meeting point of the texts that are two of a kind: it is no longer a question of preaching Christ, the Saviour of the world, and eternal Life by our Baptism and incorporation into the Church. It is a question of something quite different, something that St. Pius X summed up with a scathing remark to give Catholics a loathing for this plot:

« The Sillon » he used to say, and I will say today based on the texts, the Second Vatican Council! « brings Socialism in its train its eyes fixed on a chimera ».

There would be a question to ask to Doctor Knock: How are you going to make your fortune in this country that is in perfect heath, when your predecessor, this honest man, earned nothing? The Council’s answer is obviously: because the Church of the past had ideas and methods that are not our own.¸