(Summary: Father Robert McTeigue (SJ)’s honest and brutal take on the “Forever-Council”)
I happened to chance upon a video yesterday by Fr. Robert McTeigue SJ, a Jesuit.
Yes, a few good men still exist within that now-battered, ‘woke’ pack of Ignatian intellectuals; Perhaps future Catholic history will now be built on the memory of Jesuits such as Fr. James Martin, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis), Cdl. Victor Manuel Fernandez, Cdl. Martini, Fr. John Courtney Murray, Karl Rahner, or even Teilhard de Chardin. But no amount of scrubbing & historicism make us erase or forget the toil and the labour of the faithful Jesuits such as St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and several others who through their fidelity to the faith & loyalty to the Pope built the Catholicism that we the remnant stand on; and it is this legacy which the modernists viciously & diabolically trample under their feet today. The rarity of the noble Jesuit is seen today in priests such as Fr. Malachi Martin – and perhaps Fr. McTeigue falls within this category, I can hope.
I must qualify this blog with the disclaimer that this is the first I have come across of Fr. McTeigue, and after a basic review, and to keep this blog brief, I conclude that he does appear to be a Hermeneutic of Continuity proponent (albeit with caveats). He is known to write for Crisis magazine, Aleteia, National Catholic Register (to name a few), and hosts & produces The Catholic Current (Podcast / Radio Show).
Coming back to the YouTube video, I found him to be satirically spot-on and would like readers to refer the transcript of said video, though I believe the full impact of his views are better appreciated through his YouTube video which I also embed below. Enjoy.
Transcript:
I got to ask, were you that kid during long family trips, the kid in the back saying, “Are we there yet?”
Now, granted, that was before we developed the technology to turn kids into hypnotized zombies locked into devices taking over their brains. That’s another story for another time. “Are we there yet?” There’s never really a good answer to that. And why would they even ask? I mean, If you have to ask, are we there yet? Then you’re not there. But the kid would ask, “Are we there yet?”
And why didn’t some dad just drive along and says, “yes, uh, we’ve been there for hours, we’re having a wonderful time. Where have you been?” I think that would have confused the kid into silence. But what if when the kid asks, “Are we there yet?” Dad says, “Yes, we’ve been there for 60 years. We’ve all been having a wonderful time. And it’s only going to get better, just you wait.” He would say, “Dad, what are you talking about?”
And maybe on this telling dad would say, I’m sorry, I thought you were talking about the new “Spring time” after the Second Vatican Council.
Stay with me, I’ve got a story to tell.
I’m Jesuit Father Robert McTeigue, your host every day at the Catholic Current, coming to you from the Station of the Cross Catholic Media Network.
Let’s take a closer look. Glad you’re here. Very recently, Pope Leo (XIV) hosted the Cardinals of the World at a consistory, and they were going to talk about lots of things. And then they talked about not as many things as the things they were supposed to talk about. And they did a lot of listening, but not very much talking. And maybe things will get accomplished. But what really stood out was Pope Leo saying: You know what we need?
You know what we really, really need?
You know what’s going to fix everything?
We’re going to have a new Catechesis on the Second Vatican Council.
Isn’t that exciting?
And that’s why I raised the image of of the merry-go-round.
We’re doing this again.
We’re doing this again.
We haven’t had the really, really real Vatican II.
We haven’t had the really, really real Vatican II.
We haven’t had the really, really real Vatican II.
And yet at the same time, the Second Vatican Council is the one council to rule them all, that than which there is no which-er, the absolute before and after of all of the everything. The new springtime, the second Pentecost, and we’ve been enjoying its fruits for 60 years already, which is why we must cling to it desperately. In which case, why would you ask, “Are we there yet?”
So we’re either living 60 years of just good-old times, post-conciliar victory, progressing from glory to glory, in which case we don’t need to double down because it sells itself, right? Or we haven’t yet, we’re told, been enjoying all the very great promises of the best council ever. And I’m starting to catch a whiff of desperation here. I’m wondering who they’re trying to convince. One of the reasons why I say that is that some folks are doing some cutting and pasting. They said, “hey, you know what? Leo Benedict, they’re really the same.”
No, listen, hear me out. Here’s the deal. Leo said that you need the really, real Vatican II, not false interpretations, but the real good stuff. And Benedict said back in 2005 that we needed the real council, not the council of the media. So get it? Leo, Benedict, the council, the same. And I want to say, oh, are we quoting Benedict again? Good. Now do liturgy.
But I digress. Here’s what puzzles me.
It’s either obviously working, or it’s obviously not. And on the one hand it must be obviously working, because it is our North Star. It is that by which we judge everything else and at the same time it hasn’t even got it started yet because we haven’t had the real, real thing and now we’re going to need this extra special, extra, extra, clear, really, really effective, lucid Catechesis of what Vatican II has really, really meant which we haven’t been living yet for some reason which makes me wonder what have we been doing all this time and at the same time Synodality is considered the inevitable consequence and the fullest flowering of Vatican II and its documents and its spirit.
So we seem to be going round and round again.
We need more of the same, more of the same, more of the same, because it’s succeeding, because it’s not succeeding.
But which is it? Which is it?
Before we rally people to the great cause,
Before we point to the horizon and say, follow me,
Shouldn’t we have a sense of where we’re really facing, and where we’ve really been?
And if we’ve not yet had all of the great and glorious promise(d) fruits of the post-conciliar church, maybe we should re-evaluate what our priorities might be. Maybe there’s some fires to put out. Maybe there’s some errors to correct. And I just find it surpassing strange that there are very many people utterly, utterly convinced that we, yes, we have been there for 60 years. We’re all having a wonderful time.
And that’s why the people we most have to worry about are pious lay folk who want to pray in Latin? Why must we worry about them and not about, say, hierarchs who are inclined to preach carelessly in German?
Think on these things today. Take him to prayer. And talk about it with those you love. Go in peace and please do pray for me. For I am a sinner. Thanks for watching today. <close of transcript>
Closing thoughts from me
I will try not to gush over the fact that Fr. McTeigue uses a analogy
“….the Second Vatican Council is the one council to rule them all”,
that was similar to the analogy in one of my recent blogs comparing Vatican II to the Lord of the Rings book/movie where one ring rules all the others. You can refer the same below.
My petty elation aside, as long as Catholics are speaking out about the Chernobyl-like impact that the Second Vatican Council has had on the state of Catholicism, and as long as more Catholics understand the issue for themselves in an objective and unbiased manner by shelving their emotionally driven pathos & having an unreserved determination for the truth no matter how bitter it is, only then, in my humble opinion, will we see a counter-revolution which can perhaps likened to ‘a spark’. Right now, sadly, most Catholics can’t even acknowledge that there is a crisis. How can we then even demand a solution? Our hope lies in more priests like McTeigue speaking out. Rome will come for them, and for this we must pray to our Lord through our Blessed Mother.
Queen of Priests and Queen of Virgins pray for the religious order to remain faithful to thee and thy Son Jesus.
Ave Maria
