Confused...

At the end of our discussion, I still had one question: “All that being said Father, and granting the necessity, beauty, and orthodoxy of the Council’s teachings—how did their implementation go so disastrously wrong in the immediate years that followed?”

“The Council called us to find fulfillment in Christ,” he said gently, “but many Catholics confused that with their own self-fulfillment.” Stunned, I finally murmured, “That’s a pretty big mistake.” “Yes,” he replied, with tremendous understatement.

William Doino, Jr.'s excellent article from the First Things blog (available here) is focused on the upheaval in Roman Catholicism resulting from Vatican II. But Father Molinari's comments could easily be made about the upheaval resulting from the 16th century Protestant reformation. Luther and his companions intended that a transformed yet still united Roman church would more clearly focus on finding its fulfillment in Christ, sweeping away the accretions and impediments that the medieval church had accumulated. How is it, then, that so many splits, arguments, dissensions and differences have resulted? Because, like our Catholic sisters and brothers, we Protestants have confused our own fulfillment with the promise of the true and abundant life which is our promise in Christ.


Whenever we are convinced we are right beyond all doubt, it would be helpful for us to humbly recall: When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent!" he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. (Martin Luther, "The 95 Theses" Thesis 1)