Marcel De Corte and the Vatican II Revolution | Translator's Introduction by Inez Fitzgerald Storck

n this volume, as in other works, Marcel De Corte issues a strong indictment against the post-Conciliar Catholic Church: “It is undeniable that a ‘new Christianity’ has insinuated itself within the bosom of the Church…” This secularized Christianity, centered on man, has adopted the attitudes of the modern world. A pivotal document of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (GS) “echoes the belief, today spread over the whole earth, that man is the culmination of the universe, and calls for the religion of man to be integrated into Catholicism.” De Corte even refers to this document in a footnote as “the compilation of all the modern forms of insanity.”

How are we to assess this bold condemnation? First, we must note that to devout Catholics of De Corte’s generation, the changes in the Church appeared to be a rupture. A wave of enthusiasm for change swept over many of the bishops, clergy, and laity. While the documents of Vatican II can all be read within a hermeneutic of continuity, there are emphases that advocate a new approach to confronting and engaging with contemporary society. To read in GS an injunction to enter into dialogue with mankind about such problems as “the meaning of individual and collective endeavor” and “the destiny of nature and of men” (no. 3) must have seemed lacking in relevance to those who held that the answer to current problems was simply to proclaim the Gospel with greater vigor and zeal. Granted, the Council aimed to address society’s needs in the light of the Gospel, but with a focus on solidarity and cooperation. This stance seemingly vitiated the traditional belief that the Church transmits to people what is necessary for their salvation and a correct understanding of suffering and death. To someone like De Corte, who believed in the hierarchical structure of the Church (as well as society), the new approach seemed off the mark.

While GS makes clear that there can be no understanding of human anthropology without an understanding of the Word made flesh (no. 22), it would have sounded odd to De Corte to hear an appeal for “fraternal dialogue” and a “deeper level of personal fellowship” (no. 23) with no reference to shared Christian beliefs as a basis for such interchanges. Similarly, the document asserts that when “individuals and groups practice moral and social virtues and foster them in social living,” then with the help of grace “there will arise a generation of new men, the molders of a new humanity" (no. 30). But if this “new humanity” is not founded on the Church, it will be a house built on sand and there will be no true renewal of man. It is not “an unquenchable thirst for human dignity” that the “ferment of the Gospel has aroused” (no. 26), but a thirst for the living God. Otherwise the Gospel is distorted and perverted, turned upside down, putting the glory of man before the glory of God.

De Corte would have approved of the call to respect the common good, but not subordinating it to the good of the person (no. 26). This, De Corte maintains, would be putting the cart before the horse. As he tirelessly repeats, when the ultimate end of personal and societal activities is the common good, the individual benefits from living in a healthy community.

Perhaps it is easier to understand De Corte’s visceral reaction to GS since we have now seen that an approach of dialogue and partnership has not advanced the spread of the Gospel. Au contraire. Actually, in some areas where Catholics are persecuted, where no dialogue is possible, such as large sections of Nigeria, the Church is flourishing and seminaries are full, even as future priests fully understand that they may be persecuted and martyred.

In addition, De Corte witnessed: misguided attempts on the part of bishops and priests to engage with the modern world, such as clerics enamored of socialism and communism; acceptance of the worldview of Teilhard de Chardin; and the blurring of the distinction between nature and grace by influential theologians. Paul VI did not always defend doctrinal clarity, as when he backed down when the Dutch bishops refused to accept the Holy See’s corrections to A New Catechism, an early and influential compendium which contained doctrinal errors. The French bishops’ Pierres Vivantes (Living Stones), a collection of catechetical texts for children issued in 1981, also contained doctrinal errors, such as presenting the Resurrection less as a historical fact than the product of the experience of the apostles. Vatican censors demanded corrections, which, when made, did not entirely meet with their approval. De Corte also disapproved of misplaced ecumenical activities, and would undoubtedly have opposed the interfaith prayer meeting convened by John Paul II in Assisi in 1986, which gave the appearance of supporting false religions. As De Corte observed all this, he could only characterize the council with its aftermath as a colossal failure, with its use of indecisive language, removed from traditional theological terminology and open to various interpretations, and its hesitancy in proclaiming the identity of the Church founded by Christ with the Catholic Church (see Lumen Gentium no. 8, which states that the Church of Christ “subsists in the Catholic Church.”).

Nor was De Corte less harsh in his condemnation of the Novus Ordo, subject to “all the whims of the ringmaster and entertainment producer,” as he characterizes it in Fortitude. Yet he faithfully attended a liturgy he regarded as Protestantized, sometimes sitting behind a pillar to distance himself from it. He refused to support Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, even though he and the priests of his community, the Society of St. Pius X, continued to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass. De Corte voiced his criticisms of the new Mass in the French journal Itinéraires, founded and edited by Jean Madiran, who also deplored it. In a letter to Madiran published in Itinéraires in February 1970, De Corte admitted that he was tempted more than once to leave the Church because the “demolition project” of the Novus Ordo retained so little of the traditional liturgy and downplayed the concept of the Mass as a sacrifice. Other major contributors to the journal expressed similar assessments.

Throughout his commentary on the decline in society, which runs throughout his volumes on the cardinal virtues, De Corte links the advent of a dis-society to the secularization of the Church. When the supernatural is not held in esteem, the natural becomes debased. The religion of humanity, incarnate in De Corte’s eyes in liberal democracy and communism, imitates Christianity with its “counterfeit of supernatural grace” (Prudence), human ties which supplant the mystical bonds uniting the members of the Body of Christ.

This desperate situation can only be reversed slowly, by building up society and the common good through the virtue of fortitude and the other cardinal virtues. The loss of these virtues has entailed the evisceration of their true meaning. Prudence comes to signify astuteness in dealing with others, a self-protecting caution. With regard to justice, “Never has general justice, wrongly called ‘social justice,’ been so thoroughly emptied of its meaning. What is called ‘social justice’ today is nothing other than its reverse. It is the process whereby an individual, isolated or aggregated with others, demands his due of others, instead of rendering to them what is due them.” And there is no particular justice (distributive or commutative) without general justice (see Justice for an elaboration of these concepts). On the distortion of fortitude, De Corte writes in this volume: “Fortitude no longer exists as a virtue ordered towards the common good. Reduced to a mere principle of action, it no longer plays a role in human conduct except under the guise of violence or apathy…” At its extreme, fortitude degenerates into “its caricature: revolutionary violence.” With regard to temperance, this virtue has disappeared in a world given over to the delights offered to the consumer, where modern “society” is evolving towards what would be called “the dis-society of pleasure” (Temperance, to appear).

De Corte makes an ardent appeal for the return to the practice of the cardinal virtues, which should be preached by the clergy and included in catechetical materials. They enable us to assess the means and the ends required to attain our own personal good in this world and the next and the common good of society. If these virtues continue to be downplayed in the Church and relegated to oblivion in society, there will be no hope of replacing the current dis-society with a just social order. Our civilization will disappear, with no legacy to hand on to whatever form of political and social life will come next. This is a terrifying prospect.