Like many Catholics, I have experienced the shuttering or reduction of a church which I considered my spiritual home due to declining attendance and practice among Catholics in our diocese. Such decline has led to widespread parish closures and consolidation across the world. As many before have wondered, I too asked myself: What is the cause of this decline of Catholic faith and practice?
One talking point common among radical traditionalists, often found online, is the notion that Vatican II was the cause of the crisis. True, some of the blame arguably lies in some pastoral strategies of the era, along with a one-sided emphasis on certain teachings of the Council at the expense and virtual absence of catechesis of traditional teachings present in the same documents. Further, there was the distorted presentation and framing of the Council by the news media during its closely watched sessions. Still, the Council’s teachings themselves were not the origin of the crises that assail the Catholic Church in the western world, and Pope St. Paul VI’s encyclical Mysterium Fidei is a strong indication.
Mysterium Fidei was promulgated on September 3, 1965, several months before Vatican II ended in December of that year. Refreshingly short and clear, the encyclical was written to counter growing confusion and error being promoted about the Eucharist and to foster piety and love for our Eucharistic Lord. Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium and Lumen Gentium, cited in this encyclical by the pope alongside and in continuity with Trent, are clear about the Real Presence and the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. Logically then, the fact that Mysterium Fidei was necessary suggests that the roots of the crises lie farther back than the Council. One must ask: Why was it that fully formed and educated Catholic adults, many with theological training, were promoting novel ideas that ultimately minimized and obscured the Real Presence before Vatican II was even finished?
For examples of this, we need only look at the infamous, best-selling Dutch Catechism of 1966, produced by prominent theologians and approved by the Bishops of the Netherlands. In 1967, Time Magazine reported:
The Dutch catechism has become one of the year’s religious bestsellers. Herder & Herder, publisher of the American edition, reports that its first printing of 75,000 copies was sold out in three weeks…In The Netherlands, where the catechism has sold more than 400,000 copies so far, its publishers report that ten new translations will go to press in 1968.
Among many grievous errors and ambiguities in the text, found by the commission formed by the Vatican to review this work, were those which touch not only on the Real Presence and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but also on Original Sin, the Virgin Birth, the atonement of Christ, the nature of moral conscience, the existence of angels, the ministerial priesthood, and the authority and infallibility of the Church. Vatican II softened none of these! Therefore, it is worth asking again: Why did Catholics start calling into doubt foundational dogmas during and immediately after Vatican II in such a manner that a book, a catechism no less, with so many basic, fundamental errors and obscurations about the Catholic Faith could become a best-seller?
A notable American analogue to the Dutch Catechism is the attempt at a catechetical work called Christ Among Us by Anthony Wilhelm, which finally had its imprimatur removed by the Vatican after 17 years due to its repeated violation and obscuring of basic Catholic teachings. Unfortunately, by that time it had already sold many copies among adults largely formed in the pre-conciliar era. What happened to the Faith of so many prior to the 1960s which led to this? Any serious look at the lingering problems in the Catholic Church today must grapple with the roots of this phenomenon, without seeking overly simplistic silver-bullet answers.
Inspired by this great but often overlooked encyclical Mysterium Fidei, what are some spiritual lessons we laity can implement?
First, we must be rooted in daily prayer. We should recognize that matters are far more improved than they were in the 1960s and 70s, at the peak of rebellion against the Church from within, and then deal with remaining abuses, negligences, and laxity insofar as they are in our power and competence. We should commend the rest that we cannot control to prayer. The energy that we spend preaching to the choir on the internet is better used praying to the Living and True God for deliverance from everything that offends piety, particularly against His Eucharistic Body and Blood.
The Lord hears the cries of His faithful sons and daughters and will raise up those necessary, even converting weeds into wheat with the aid of our prayers for deacons and priests to be inflamed with love for Christ in the Eucharist, not to mention for courageous bishops who exercise discipline readily and with prudence. He will not respond to rash judgment and slander against our bishops or our fellow Catholics in the pews, nor will He appease a schismatic heart. God “resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas. 4:6).
As we see from Christ’s example of those who pray that others may see them, even good things such as solemn Liturgy, doctrinal clarity, and piety can be used for subtle self-glorification and a lording of ourselves over others whom we were put on this earth to serve. “Instructing the ignorant” is a spiritual work of mercy; recoiling from them in superiority is not.
Finally, we can put into action a growing faith and love for the Eucharistic Lord, share this with our fellow Catholics, and bring our prayers before Him that others, especially priests and deacons, come to share this faith and love ever more. As Pope St. Paul VI writes in Mysterium Fidei:
For He [Christ in the Eucharist] is in the midst of us day and night; He dwells in us with the fullness of grace and of truth. He raises the level of morals, fosters virtue, comforts the sorrowful, strengthens the weak and stirs up all those who draw near to Him to imitate Him, so that they may learn from his example to be meek and humble of heart, and to seek not their own interests but those of God. Anyone who has a special devotion to the sacred Eucharist and who tries to repay Christ’s infinite love for us with an eager and unselfish love of his own, will experience and fully understand—and this will bring great delight and benefit to his soul—just how precious is a life hidden with Christ in God and just how worthwhile it is to carry on a conversation with Christ, for there is nothing more consoling here on earth, nothing more efficacious for progress along the paths of holiness.
Photo by Unknown via Wikimedia Commons
