SELECTIONS BY PAULY FONGEMIE
From Mopping Up
Despite the overwhelming success of its initial blitzkrieg, the Rhine group still had a great deal of mopping up to do. There were isolated pockets of resistance to be disposed of, areas of the conciliar administration which needed to be brought under its total control. [Emphasis in bold added by the Web Master.] With these objectives in mind, the Rhine bishops and their periti were busy between the first and second sessions of the Council. During this period, there had, of course, been a change of Pontiff, Pope John having died on 3 June 1963, after an agonizing illness. This was a merciful relief, according to Cardinal Heenan, for "Pope John was spared the agony of seeing the Catholic Church in decline. At the time of John's death there was no hint of impending disintegration. The neo-modernists and Catholic anarchists who changed his successor into a man of sorrows were yet to appear ... Jesus wept over Jerusalem and John would have wept over Rome if he had foreseen what would be done in the name of his council."
The Rhine group planned its strategy for the Second Session at a meeting in Munich and at the widely publicized Fulda Conference in Germany from 26 to 29 August 1963. This conference has also been referred to as the "Fulda Conspiracy." Four cardinals and seventy archbishops and bishops from ten countries took part - the Scandinavian bishops had joined the alliance by then. As a result of this meeting, every member of the Rhine group arrived at the Second Session with a 480 page plan of campaign!
The influence of the periti will be examined in the next chapter, but even at this point it is important to note once again that, in general, policies were formulated by the "experts" and then proposed and voted for by the Fathers who acted as their mouthpieces. Fr. Wiltgen remarks:
Since the position of the German-language bishops was regularly adopted by the European alliance (the Rhine group), and since the alliance position was regularly adopted by the Council, a single theologian might have his views accepted by the whole Council if they had been accepted by the German-speaking bishops. [The Catholic Standard, Dublin, Oct. 17, 1973]
In order to win total control of the Council, the Rhine group needed to ensure that the procedural rules were altered. These were described, in what Xavier Rynne praised as a "highly interesting and authoritative critique," as "demonstrably contrived to assure domination of the proceedings at all stages by the Curial party. ..."
Pope Paul decided to revise the procedural rules on "the advice of certain venerable Council Fathers." The Rhine group demands were largely met, particularly useful to them being the transfer of a great deal of power to four Cardinal Moderators who would be responsible for "directing the activities of the Council and determining the sequence in which topics would be discussed at the business meetings."
Pope Paul's own sympathies were made clear when he selected well known liberals to fill three of the four posts - Cardinals Dopfner, Lercaro, and Suenens. They were, as Henri Fesquet remarks, "universally known for their reformist ardour"; and Fr. Wiltgen points out that as the fourth Cardinal, Agagianian, "was not a very forceful person, the three liberal Cardinal Moderators often had 100 per cent control." ...
The election for the additional commission members took place on 28 November and all the candidates elected to office came from the list prepared by the world alliance! "After these elections," comments Fr. Wiltgen, "there was no need for anyone to doubt the direction in which the Council was headed." [The Rhine Flows into the Tiber, p. 210] The commissions were controlled, according to Archbishop Lefebvre, by a "majority of members imbued with an ecumenism which, according to their own admission, was no longer Catholic but bore an extraordinary resemblance to the Modernism condemned by St. Pius X." [A Crown of Thorns, Card. Heenan, p. 367]
Mgr. Lefebvre adds that it is his sincere belief that the troubles in the Church today originated in the Council:
Because a large number of the bishops, especially those who were chosen as members of the commissions, were men who had been formed in an existentialist philosophy, men who knew nothing of Thomist philosophy, men who, as a result, did not even know what a definition was. For them, there is no such thing as essence: nothing must be defined. One may discuss, one may describe, but under no circumstances must one define. Definitions are no longer needed.
Moreover, this rejection of all philosophical thought could be felt throughout the Council and, in my opinion, it was for this very reason that the Council became enmeshed in equivocation, in vague utterances, and in opinions swayed by feelings rather than by reason. And thus it was that the flood gates were opened to each and every interpretation. [The Rhine Flows into the Tiber, p. 287-288]
There is little point in devoting more space to documenting the manner in which the progressive stranglehold on the Council was extended and tightened. The story is told in great detail in Fr. Wiltgen's book. What now needs to be done is to examine the manner in which the liberals used their power - and in order to do this it is necessary to take a closer look at the periti, for it was on behalf of these "experts" that the Rhine group had won its victories.
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