Letters

Vatican II

John Schmid

Contents - Jul 2008 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Significance of World Youth Day 2008 - Michael Gilchrist Liturgy: Archbishop Coleridge calls for an end to liturgical experimentation - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Abortion: A false concept of moral equivalence - Babette Francis Selective tolerance: Queensland University Student Union censures Catholic student group - Allison Atkins WORLD YOUTH DAY 2008: Juventutem Australia: young people devoted to the traditional liturgy - Alice Woolven WORLD YOUTH DAY 2008: Authentic Catholicism: a fertile ground for vocations to flourish - Fr Anthony Denton FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH: Jesus: how do we know he was God? - Br Barry Coldrey CFC Religious faith and the power of music and song - Andrw Kania Liturgy: Why Paul VI saw liturgical abuses as the 'smoke of Satan' - Cardinal Virgilio Noe WORLD YOUTH DAY: Turin Shroud display in Melbourne to coincide with World Youth Day - Max Crockett Letters: Anne Lastman's Remarkable book 'Redeeming Grief' - Fr Raymond Wells Letters: Culture of life - Fr Bernard McGrath Letters: Vatican II - John Schmid Letters: Buddha in church in South Brisbane - Richard Stokes Letters: Climate concerns - Dr Brian E. Lloyd Books: Cardinal Pell's new Mass Book - This Is The Mass Books: TURMOIL AND TRUTH, by Philip Trower - Tim Cannon (reviewer) Books: SERMONS PREACHED ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS, by John Henry Newman - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) Books: Books available from AD2000 Books Reflection: The Real Presence: 'an essential element of the deposit of faith' - Bishop Arthur Serratelli

The recent debate in AD2000 on the Church's infallible teaching and Vatican II may well be confusing to some readers.

John Young, Peter Howard and Frank Mobbs have all made different contributions.

I believe that the Magisterium should be the reference point for this issue. It gave a clear answer to the Dubium on the teaching on the impossibility of the Church ordaining women as priests, so no-one can now be unsure as to whether Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is an infallible teaching.

If the Magisterium is unsure as to the status of teaching in Vatican II, then our three correspondents are unlikely to come up with authoritative answers either.

However, I am certain the Magisterium, as in the Dubium on Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, does know the answers, even if they are not always clearly stated. Perhaps another answer to a another Dubium is needed. The Magisterium should not have to rely on the laity to determine the status of its teachings.

Of course this does not rule out clarifications of teachings by doctors of the church and orthodox theologians which can prove helpful.

JOHN SCHMID
Boronia, Vic

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 21 No 6 (July 2008), p. 15