No One for Vatican II? | Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Does the name Harry Houdini mean anything to you? He was a a famous illusionist magician uh in the early part of the 20th century and he was an escape artist. You know, they they put a straight jack on him. They they would wrap him up in chains. They'd nail him into a barrel then, you know, put him over a waterfall and somehow he would escape. And you'd wonder how's he going to do it? How's he going to do it? I want to relate that to a question of the church and about full communion with Rome and full communion with Rome as measured by full acceptance of the second Vatican council. That seems to solve a lot of problems. You know who's on what side and who's not.

[00:00:43]Actually, it's not that easy. Stay with me. I've got a story to tell. I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTag, your host here every day at the Catholic Current, [music] coming to you from the Station of the Cross Catholic Media Network.

[00:00:56]Let's take a closer look. Glad [music] you're here. Recently, I had a little presentation on the confusing issue of what it means [music] to be in full communion with Rome. And is it all the way in, all the way out? And some people reputed to be in full communion with Rome are celebrating people who are not manifestly at all in communion with Rome. and proud of it. And yet, uh, the SSPX described as an imperfect communion with Rome is viewed with suspicion, disapproval, etc. I'm not an apologist for the SSPX. I'm just trying to understand and maybe we can work this out together. So, let's take the litmus test for full communion with Rome. It's the second Vatican council. you've got to accept all of the documents. Now, St. Pope John the 23d who convoked the council said that the second Vatican council was a pastoral council and not a dogmatic council.

[00:02:04]And St. Pope Paul V 6th who concluded the council agreed this was a pastoral council and not a dogmatic council. And Cardinal Fernandez, the current as of this recording, prefect of the diccastri of the doctrine of the faith, he said the documents of the second Vatican council cannot be corrected. Now, how something cannot be corrected and also be not dogmatic but pastoral.

[00:02:39]Let's put parenthesis around that for a moment. So, shall we? Let's uh let's continue. Now, my claim is that I think that almost no one almost no one fully accepts the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Not all of them. And uh that's a problem for defining who's in full communion with Rome or not. Well, what do I mean by that? Well, let's jump away from the council for a few years and go right to 1968.

[00:03:10]1968 that's when St. Pope Paul V 6th assisted by uh a Polish bishop named Carl Wiwa produced the document Human Vite which reaffirmed the church's traditional teaching regarding artificial contraception and abortion.

[00:03:31]You know a hard no on both. Now what happened immediately afterwards? Well, you had famous theologians like Father Charles Curran uh outright reject it. He had hundreds of theologians uh sign denunciations of this and even some bishop's conferences um said that it was a probable opinion.

[00:03:54]Humanity was and you can just kind of make up your own mind about teachings uh of the church. You're on your own. And I think one of the most famous was from the Canadian Bishop's Conference was called the Winnipeg Statement, which by the way, the Canadian bishops have never withdrawn or repudiated. So you've got a clear dogmatic church teaching, but you do you seem to be the consensus of a lot of Episcopal conferences and it seemed to be the consensus of very many theologians and academics. Now why is that a problem for full communion with Rome? Because human vite promulgated in 1968 simply reiterated and confirmed what was said in the 2 Vatican council regarding abortion and contraception. Oh yes, the document Gary Metsz paragraph 51 which refers to abortion as an unspeakable crime also takes artificial contraception off the table. It's not morally listen. Now here is the question.

[00:05:05]If full communion of Rome requires full acceptance of all the documents of the second Vatican council and Cardinal Fernandez as those documents cannot be corrected, we've got a problem. Because between 1965 and 1968, it was clear that very many clergy of a variety of ranks and very many lay people in rejecting human vite and choosing contraception and God save us abortion de facto rejected the second Vatican council because remember full acceptance of every document which cannot be corrected is a litmus test for full communion with Rome. But father, no, father did some research uh population uh research institute and some others and survey data suggest strongly that American Catholics contracept and abort as the same rate of their secular counterparts. In other words, they reject human vite. They reject Gaudy Mbpz paragraph 51 from the second Vatican council.

[00:06:23]Does that mean they're not in full communion with Rome? Well, you know, father, statistics, surveys. Yes. Yes, I know.

[00:06:33]But look around.

[00:06:35]Look around. Talk to your pastors. Talk to your bishops, brother priest. Let me know if I got this wrong. But there has been a dir of infant baptisms in the United States and the western world in general since the 1960s. So for people who are getting married and remaining Catholic, going to mass, they're not having kids.

[00:07:06]Are they all infertile?

[00:07:09]Are they all practicing NFP?

[00:07:14]Data shows very very small percentage of married couples practice NFP which is a topic in itself for another time. So the fact that there has been a steep and steady decline in infant baptisms and parishes in America and the west is strongly indicative and correlates with the other data that many Catholics outright reject human vite the contraception abort and de facto reject the second Vatican council which means so we're told they are not in full communion with Rome.

[00:07:57]Imperfect or in communion, I I don't know. That hasn't been decided. But notice that when folks want to pray in Latin in the manner of the saints and the martyrs, they're shunted, they're shamed, they're investigated, they're banished, and their bishops receive documents from Rome, urging and demanding that these people be led, these recusants, these reprobates be led to the full acceptance of the documents of Vatican 2. Now, if full communion with Rome requires full acceptance of all the documents of Vatican 2, including Gaudy Mitzpez, paragraph 51, and survey data and baptismal data indicate that they're not, that they're contraceptive and abortant like everybody else, then they are not in full communion with Rome either. And as far as I know, there haven't been encyclicals and urgent mandates to lead the contracepting and aborting Catholics to the full acceptance of the Second Vatican Council, which is the litmus test for full communion with Rome.

[00:09:23]So, we're back to Harry Houdini. It looks like we're in a straight jacket with chains and a barrel nailed shut going over Niagara Falls.

[00:09:34]What do you think? Now, I'm nobody special. I'm just some guy from New Jersey that God's been good to. I am, as Walker Percy might say, just a simple country pastor preaching a little gospel, teaching a little philosophy.

[00:09:47]Maybe I got this all wrong.

[00:09:52]In which case, uh, leave a note in the comments. You can contact me at [music] the station ofthecross.com/askfather.

[00:09:59]And if you think I'm right, let me know that, too, cuz we're going to have to come back [music] to this a lot.

[00:10:05]Meanwhile, think on these things today.

[00:10:07]Take them to prayer and talk about it with those you love. Go in peace, and please [music] do pray for me, for I am a sinner.

[00:10:17]Thanks for watching today. I release new videos on Mondays and Wednesdays. Check out the archives for more videos. You can listen to my podcast at stationofthecross.com and you can find my written work at heraldof oftheosspel.org.