Benedict XVI on Polish television : John Paul II authentic interpreter of Vatican II
The pope evoked the figure of John Paul II in an interview broadcast on October 16 on the Polish television channel TVP, on the day of the 27th anniversary of the election of his predecessor. Thus Benedict XVI made known how he considered his mission following in the footsteps of John Paul II:
“Speaking of the heritage of John Paul II just now, I forgot to talk about the many documents which he left us – 14 encyclicals, many pastoral letters and much more – and all this represents a wonderfully rich patrimony which has not yet been fully assimilated by the Church. I think my essential and personal mission, is not to promulgate many of new documents, but to ensure that these documents are assimilated, because they constitute a very rich treasure, they are the authentic interpretation of Vatican II. We know that the Pope was the man of the Council, that he deeply assimilated the spirit and the letter of the Council and through these texts, he truly helps us to understand what the Council wanted and didn’t want”.
It is known that cardinal Ratzinger’s concern was always to propose the “authentic Council” Thus, in his Interview on the faith with Vittorio Messori, in 1985 : “I am convinced that the damage we have suffered these past twenty years is not due to the ‘true’ Council, but to the unleashing of latent aggressive and centrifugal forces within the Church; and outside the Church it is due to the impact of a cultural revolution in the West: the affirmation of a superior middle class, the new ‘bourgeoisie of the white collars’, with its liberal –radical ideology of the individualist, rationalist and hedonistic sort”. “So his watchword, adds Messori, his exhortation to all Catholics who wish to remain so, is certainly not ‘to go back’ but rather ‘go back to the authentic texts of the real Vatican II’”. Fayard, pp.31-32)
And likewise, in Le Sel de la Terre in 1997 : “I would place the emphasis on this : the genuine heritage of the Council resides in its texts” (Flammarion/Cerf, p.75). It is undoubtedly for this reason, that the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Mgr. William Levada, who considers the translations of the Council “inaccurate”, stated during a conference at the pontifical College St. Anselm, that he hoped that “for the 50th Anniversary of the Council (in ten years), we will be able to present an official translation in all the principal languages”.
For his part, Bishop Fellay said in an interview published in the Italian September edition of 30 Giorni : “The simple fact that they are saying that Vatican II should be read in the light of Tradition shows only too well that the Conciliar texts are not clear in themselves and that they need an interpretation. This profound ambiguity cannot not be considered as one of the causes of the current crisis in the Church”.
