Vatican II - 40 years after!

Pictured, the incorrupt body of Bl. John the XXIII

Shortly before he died, John Paul the Great stated that an event was coming that would rid the world of evil, at least that is how his statement resonates in my mind. However, here is the exact quote that I just happen to have in my Bible: "Satan, the original adversary, who accused our brothers in the heavenly court, has now been cast down from heaven and no longer has great power. He knows he has not much time left because history is about to see a radical turning point in freedom from evil and therefore he is reacting full of great fury." ("for history is nearing the radical turning point of liberation from evil and he consequently reacts with 'great wrath'". - literal from Vatican archives.) -John Paul II, Allocution Wednesday General Audience, 1/12/05. This amazing statement is from the Fatima Pope, the "Pope of the third secret'. The great Pope who traversed the globe catechizing the masses, seeking to set straight the misinterpretations of Vatican II.

Are we now emerging from the desert we've wandered in for 40 years after Vatican II? Is the new springtime of the Church really dawning? Have all of the scandal and abuse fomenting lately been Satan striking out before his ultimate defeat? I read an article from Cardinal George regarding the 40 year anniversary of the close of Vatican II. Below is a snippet and if you find it of interest, go to the entire text at The Catholic New World, Newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese.

>>The Second Vatican Council (1962-1966), 40 years after its conclusion, remains for many Catholics a source of both joy and tension. What was the Holy Spirit calling us to think and to do? For some, the Council itself was the work of the Spirit, but its implementation has been hijacked by left-wing or right-wing ideologues, depending upon one’s choice of enemies. For others, the Council itself was flawed because its documents are ambiguous or even inconsistent with apostolic tradition. The extremists in this line made tradition another word for museum and lose the sense of a living Body of Christ. Some even believe that Pope John XXIII and all his successors are anti-Popes and that the Church has been without a Bishop of Rome since the death of Pius XII in 1958.

A few months ago, the current Bishop of Rome and successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI, offered an interpretation of the Second Vatican Council that merits close attention. The Council was called in order to give genuinely new impetus to the Church’s mission in the world. In order to overcome within the Church anything that might impede or obscure the Church’s mission, the Council called for an updating or renewal in the Church’s life. “Aggiornamento,” which is Italian for updating, was not, however, intended to mean that the Church should simply accommodate herself to the world. Ecclesiastical renewal is not a form of self-secularization. Pope Benedict says of those who took this path: “They have underestimated the inner tensions as well as the contradictions of the modern epoch.”<<