It all started to go wrong before the Council
In January 1943, Conrad Grober, then archbishop of Freiburg, issued a letter of twenty-one pages addressed to the German (and Austrian) episcopate. In this letter, the archbishop complains bitterly of innovations "in the field of Catholic theology and liturgy", which he sums up in seventeen points:
1.
The division within the clergy between old and young (among the reckless young were included also the "liturgical agitators", the supporters of a "kerygmatic theology", the "Viennese activists", who "rush to adopt the new schemes and in the light of these to reorganize their parishes").
2.
The decline of interest in natural theology.
3.
A new definition of faith (the conception of faith as "becoming conscious of unity with Christ" and other similar ideas).
4.
The increasing depreciation of scholastic philosophy and theology.
5.
The bold and reckless reversion in practice to early and primitive times, norms and forms.
6.
The one-sided preference for the Eastern Fathers, "with their peculiar ideas and forms of expression".
7.
The increasing influence of Protestant dogmatic theology on the Catholic presentation of the faith.
8.
Throwing open the frontiers in relation to otherChurches in order to fulfil the aims of the Una Sancta movement (earlier precurser of the ecumenical movement, founded after the First World War)
9.
The modern concept of the Church, "according to which it is no longer the societas perfecta, founded by Christ, but a kind of 'biological organism'."
10.
The excessive supernaturalism and the new mystical attitude in our theology.
11.
The Christ-mysticism, "now flourishing, which I do not know whether to describe as astonishing or shocking".
12.
The conclusions drawn from the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ ("people really seem to be forgetting that metaphors such as St Paul uses must not be overworked, but must be explained ... in the light of the fact—which certainly holds also for St Paul—that all comparisons limp").
13.
Over-emphasis on the universal priesthood.
14.
The thesis of the meal-sacrifice and the sacrificial meal ("the communion of the faithful is supposed to belong to the integrity, if not to the essence, of the Mass, the practice of primitive Christianity being invoked to support this; it is forgotten that in fact,even then, on special occasions and in special conditions, Holy Communion was also received outside Mass").
15.
Over-emphasis on the liturgy ("I hold, and many share my opinion, that pastoral work went on quite efficiently before an appreciation of the liturgy spread to wider circles").
16.
The attempt to make dialogue Mass compulsory ("I shall always regard dialogue Mass merely as a peripheral and temporary phenomenon").
17.
The attempt to conciliate the people by introducing the German language even in the Mass (the archbishop considers the adoption of the mother-tonque for the Mass “a loosening of the spiritual bonds within the Church and with Rome itself”)
1.
The division within the clergy between old and young (among the reckless young were included also the "liturgical agitators", the supporters of a "kerygmatic theology", the "Viennese activists", who "rush to adopt the new schemes and in the light of these to reorganize their parishes").
2.
The decline of interest in natural theology.
3.
A new definition of faith (the conception of faith as "becoming conscious of unity with Christ" and other similar ideas).
4.
The increasing depreciation of scholastic philosophy and theology.
5.
The bold and reckless reversion in practice to early and primitive times, norms and forms.
6.
The one-sided preference for the Eastern Fathers, "with their peculiar ideas and forms of expression".
7.
The increasing influence of Protestant dogmatic theology on the Catholic presentation of the faith.
8.
Throwing open the frontiers in relation to otherChurches in order to fulfil the aims of the Una Sancta movement (earlier precurser of the ecumenical movement, founded after the First World War)
9.
The modern concept of the Church, "according to which it is no longer the societas perfecta, founded by Christ, but a kind of 'biological organism'."
10.
The excessive supernaturalism and the new mystical attitude in our theology.
11.
The Christ-mysticism, "now flourishing, which I do not know whether to describe as astonishing or shocking".
12.
The conclusions drawn from the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ ("people really seem to be forgetting that metaphors such as St Paul uses must not be overworked, but must be explained ... in the light of the fact—which certainly holds also for St Paul—that all comparisons limp").
13.
Over-emphasis on the universal priesthood.
14.
The thesis of the meal-sacrifice and the sacrificial meal ("the communion of the faithful is supposed to belong to the integrity, if not to the essence, of the Mass, the practice of primitive Christianity being invoked to support this; it is forgotten that in fact,even then, on special occasions and in special conditions, Holy Communion was also received outside Mass").
15.
Over-emphasis on the liturgy ("I hold, and many share my opinion, that pastoral work went on quite efficiently before an appreciation of the liturgy spread to wider circles").
16.
The attempt to make dialogue Mass compulsory ("I shall always regard dialogue Mass merely as a peripheral and temporary phenomenon").
17.
The attempt to conciliate the people by introducing the German language even in the Mass (the archbishop considers the adoption of the mother-tonque for the Mass “a loosening of the spiritual bonds within the Church and with Rome itself”)
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