The Catholic Church in history. The "right hermeneutics" of Vatican II Council

We present here below a collection of papers from a seminary on the book La Chiesa dell’anticoncilio. I tradizionalisti alla riconquista di Roma [The anti-conciliar Church. Traditionalism lays siege to Rome] by Giovanni Miccoli. In his preliminary lecture (Tra concilio e anticoncilio. Un nodo del presente non solo ecclesiale [Between Council and anti-Council. A present issue not solely ecclesial]), Miccoli underlines the total rejection of the Council by Lefebvre and followers on the one side, while on the other registering diverse readings of the Council and its turning point message in the words and deeds of the Holy Siege from Paul VI to Benedict XVII. A normalizing interpretation of the Council and a minimizing one of the Lefebvrian opposition prevailed with John Paul II and yet more clearly with Benedict XVI, up to the repeal of the excommunication of the four Lefebvrian bishops in January 2009, which raised wide protest. A report of this protest is drawn up by Bruna Bocchini Camaiani (Il Concilio, Roma, la Chiesa [The Council, Rome and the Church]), who emphasizes the deep crisis provoked by the Vatican talks with the Lefebvrians, an evident sign of the divergence between the Roman government, with its authoritarian acts, and a widespread ecclesial consciousness stimulated by the overtures and hopes aroused by the Council.

Benedetto XVI e i tradizionalisti cattolici. Giudizi sul tempo presente e sulla Chiesa - Benedict XVI and the Catholic traditionalists. Judgements on our times and the Church - examines convergences and contrasts in the respective positions of the Pope and the Lefebvrian groups about the role played by the Church in today’s society and in contemporary history. Maria Paiano inquires into the motivations of the polemic against the anti-conciliar reform of liturgy, together with the claim to a return to Pius V’s Missal (Liturgia e società nel tradizionalismo di matrice lefebvriana. Dal rapporto con Guéranger a quello con Benedetto XVI [Liturgy and society in Lefebvrian traditionalism. The Church’s approach from Guéranger to Benedict XVI]). The A. explains how the liturgic claims of the traditionalists imply a project of reconquest of society aimed at the restoration of a confessional state.

Keywords: The Catholic Church and society, Vatican II Council, Lefebvre, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, anti-Council

Giovanni Miccoli, Bruna Bocchini Camaiani, Giovanni Vian, Maria Paiano, Note e discussioni. La Chiesa cattolica nella storia. La "giusta ermeneutica" del concilio Vaticano II in "ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA" 270/2013, pp 77-136, DOI: 10.3280/IC2013-270004