Council in Question

The lifting of the excommunication of four bishops of the Society of St Pius X by Pope Benedict XVI in January 2000 attracted widespread media attention at the time, and the continuing conversations between the Holy See and the Society remain a controversial issue among many Catholics.

It is easy to dismiss the position of the Society of St Pius X as being merely a question of Latin, birettas and a cultural attachment to a particular form of liturgical expression. But the arguments of the Society are essentially doctrinal in nature, as Pope Benedict XVI has himself acknowledged, hence the doctrinal discussions currently under way in Rome. This book, drawing its inspiration from Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's famous Open Letter to Confused Catholics, shadows these discussions, exploring the key issues of this dialogue in a series of letters and responses. The journalist Moyra Doorly, writing as 'a confused Catholic', presents the position of the Society of St Pius X, while the Dominican theologian Aidan Nichols responds on behalf of the post-Conciliar Church.

The Society of St Pius X maintains that the Second Vatican Council has brought about a radical reorientation in the Church of which the liturgical reform is one result. Not only do the Council's Decrees on Religious Liberty and Ecumenism contain ideas condemned by the popes of the pre-Conciliar period, but with the explicitly stated aim of opening the Church to modern thought, Vatican II proposed in its documents a new, Liberal and Modernist inspired theology which is contrary to the Traditional teachings of the Church.

Traditional teaching, although not in its entirety, is certainly also present in the Council documents, but has the presence of a new theology severely diminished the ability of the Conciliar Church to fulfill her divinely appointed mission? Or can fundamental changes in the Church be ascribed to the Council's Decrees being misinterpreted and wrongly implemented? Is a 'reform of the reform' possible or sufficient? In this book Aidan Nichols works to demonstrate that the Society of St Pius X can be reconciled with the Church.


When the reforms of Vatican II were imposed, unexpected consequences followed, especially when leaders were naïve and optimistic, underestimating the virulence of hostile forces and overestimating Catholic vitality and influence. The crux of the discussion is whether this self harm came from illegitimate appeals to "the spirit of Vatican II" or can be sheeted home to doctrinal errors in the Council teachings.
This fascinating exchange is a significant contribution to the official dialogue between Rome and Ecône but is of wider significance in searching out the nature of genuine continuity and development across the millennia in doctrine, liturgy, and church law; and in devising pastoral strategies for handing on the faith and for re-evangelization.
It is a lively reminder that none of us can take refuge in fundamentalisms and deserves to be read widely.  George Cardinal Pell
Archbishop of Sydney


Moyra Doorly is a Catholic journalist, based in London, and the author of No Place for God: The Denial of the Transcendent in Modern Church Architecture.

Aidan Nichols OP is an English Dominican who has written on a variety of theological topics, including the theology of the present Pope and the current Catechism of the Catholic Church.