'American Catholic Council': Misguided Movement Must be Avoided and Exposed

Leaders of this movement claim to be acting "in the spirit of Vatican II." Given the passages from Vatican II documents listed in this article, one can only conclude that they are either ignorant of the true teachings of the Council or are trying to deceive others about them. In either event, the group calling itself the 'American Catholic Council' is a seriously misguided movement which Catholics must avoid and expose.

P>GRAND RAPIDS, MI (Catholic Online) - Too often a group claiming to act "in the spirit of Vatican II" advances an agenda opposed to the teachings of the council. Such is the case with the "American Catholic Council" (ACC), which plans a national convention in Detroit the weekend of Pentecost, 2011. "We respond to the spirit of Vatican II" they claim on their web site, "by summoning the Baptized together to demonstrate our re-commitment." Yet their objectives stand in direct opposition to Vatican II; passages from council documents easily discredit their claim of fidelity.

Let's start with the name: "American Catholic Council." The Vatican II Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People states: "In the Church are to be found, in fact, very many apostolic enterprises owing their origin to the free choice of the laity and run at their own discretion.. But no enterprise must lay claim to the name 'Catholic' if it has not the approval of legitimate ecclesiastical authority." (#24) The Archdiocese of Detroit has stated: "The American Catholic Council movement and its national gathering are not conducted under the auspices of the Detroit archdiocese, the universal Roman Catholic Church, or any entity or organization affiliated with the archdiocese or the universal Roman Catholic Church.. Priests, deacons, and ecclesial lay ministers will want to avoid lending support to such a misguided effort."

Their emphasis on a strictly "American" experience of Catholicism puts ACC at odds with the teachings of Vatican II. Their web site includes statements such as: "We seek to reform the governing structures in our Church so that they reflect the better aspects of the American experience.. One must not be told that one becomes a Catholic at the cost of being less an American." Eschewing a universal identity for a narrowly American vision of church flies in the face of Vatican II, whose Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World states: "By its nature and mission the Church is universal in that it is not committed to any one culture or to any political, economic or social system. Hence it can be a very close bond between the various communities of men and nations, provided they have trust in the Church and guarantee it true freedom to carry out its mission." (#42)

ACC proclaims: "We do not challenge the faith we were given or the essential beliefs of our creeds and councils. We do know that this faith is not tied to the governance structure of any one historical period or culture." The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church issued at Vatican II re-affirms the governance structure established by Jesus upon Peter and the apostles and their successors, and declares this structure to be in place for all time: "This teaching concerning the institution, the permanence, the nature and import of the sacred primacy of the Roman Pontiff and his infallible teaching office, the sacred synod proposes anew to be firmly believed by all the faithful, and, proceeding undeviatingly with this same undertaking, it proposes to proclaim publicly and enunciate clearly the doctrine concerning bishops, successors of the apostles, who together with Peter's successor, the Vicar of Christ and the visible head of the whole Church, direct the house of the living God." (#18)

ACC calls for democracy in Church governance, with statements such as: "Throughout the Church leaders shall be elected to office through appropriate structures, giving voice to all respective constituents..validated not by one person or office, but by the community at large." In the "spirit of Vatican II," let's read again from its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: "The apostles were careful to appoint successors in this hierarchically constituted society.. The Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, namely, and as pastor of the entire Church, has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered." (#20, 22) In his post conciliar document Ecclesiae Sanctae, Pope Paul VI declared "the right of the Roman Pontiff freely to nominate and institute bishops remains intact." (#10)

ACC claims that "distinctions between clergy and laity are functional and arbitrary. Their value is always subordinate to the baptismal equality which gives all Catholics the priesthood." Turning again to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church issued at Vatican II, it affirms that the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood "differ essentially and not only in degree," and that the "ministerial priest, by the sacred power that he has, forms and rules the priestly people." (#10)

ACC declares that "Since an ecumenical council is the highest deliberative body in the Church, these councils must be summoned at regular intervals automatically, and must accord adequate and proportionate voting rights to all substantial and divergent constituencies in the Church." Vatican II proclaimed:  "There never is an ecumenical council which is not confirmed or at least recognized as such by Peter's successor. And it is the prerogative of the Roman Pontiff to convoke such councils, to preside over them and to confirm them." (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, #22)

In their "Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities" ACC affirms the "rights of conscience." Here is what Vatican II had to say about conscience:  "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey.. For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. His dignity lies in observing this law, and by it he will be judged." (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, #16) Since the council also affirmed that "Bishops, in a resplendent and visible manner, take the place of Christ himself, teacher, shepherd and priest, and act as his representatives" (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, #21), it is the teaching of the bishops that must be discovered in conscience and obeyed. For as Vatican II further affirmed: "The sacred synod consequently teaches that the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ" (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, #20). ACC is clearly doing the latter.

Given all of this (which is just a small sampling of their opposition to the "spirit of Vatican II") one can only conclude that the leaders of the "American Catholic Council" are either ignorant of the true teachings of the council or are trying to deceive others about them. In either event it is a seriously misguided movement which Catholics must avoid.

*****

James Penrice is an author of nine books, a correspondent for Catholic Athletes for Christ, and a contributor to Catholic Online.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'