Ultramontanism Back: Francis Undermines Vatican II He Claims To Defend

With Traditionis Custodes, Francis and Archbishop Roche have discarded Vatican II and returned to a misconception of Vatican I, George Weigel writes on FirstThings.com (February 9).

After Vatican I an ultramontanism grew shaping the idea of the pope as CEO of a gigantic global corporation with bishops as local office managers. Ended prematurely due to the Franco-Prussian War, this council could not complement the teaching on papal authority with a parallel teaching on bishops’ authority.

Vatican II corrected this imbalance teaching that the local bishop has authority to teach, sanctify, and govern in his diocese and not merely execute instructions from the Roman headquarters - not no avail, because TC strips local bishops of all authority over the diocesan liturgical life to the point of descending into minutiae by defining which Mass schedules may be printed in parish bulletins.

Picture: © Joseph Shaw, CC BY-NC-SA, #newsOvmigneely