As the Council Reconvenes

E. v. KUEHNELT-LEDDIHN

Is there a real, organic connection between the apparent, though not actual apertura a sinistra in the Catholic Church and the theological currents that made themselves felt at the Vatican Council? Outside the the Continent the labels “Liberal-progressive” and “conservative-autocratic,” applied to the contending parties at the Vatican Council, have led to grave distortions of fact, especially if attempts are made to establish a correlation between ecclesiastical, theological and political thinking. Political concepts in Catholic ecclesiastical thinking are, moreover, difficult to pigeonhole because Church-State relationships are not easily labeled Right or Left. In the German Catholic Church for instance, there lives on a Ghibelline (anti-Roman) as well as a Guelph (ultramontanist) tradition. Which is Right, which Left? And what about Gallicanism? Are the “democratic thinkers” among the Church’s political scientists in favor of or opposed to Roman centralism? When a number of Spanish and even South American bishops sided with the French-German group at the Council, were they Liberal in theological and ecclesiastical matters or simply anti-Roman, or both? Many high prelates and outstanding theologians on the Right strongly favor radical changes in ecclesiastical practices.

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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E. v. KUEHNELT-LEDDIHN

Is there a real, organic connection between the apparent, though not actual apertura a sinistra in the Catholic Church and the theological currents that made themselves felt at the Vatican Council? Outside the the Continent the labels “Liberal-progressive” and “conservative-autocratic,” applied to the contending parties at the Vatican Council, have led to grave distortions of fact, especially if attempts are made to establish a correlation between ecclesiastical, theological and political thinking. Political concepts in Catholic ecclesiastical thinking are, moreover, difficult to pigeonhole because Church-State relationships are not easily labeled Right or Left. In the German Catholic Church for instance, there lives on a Ghibelline (anti-Roman) as well as a Guelph (ultramontanist) tradition. Which is Right, which Left? And what about Gallicanism? Are the “democratic thinkers” among the Church’s political scientists in favor of or opposed to Roman centralism? When a number of Spanish and even South American bishops sided with the French-German group at the Council, were they Liberal in theological and ecclesiastical matters or simply anti-Roman, or both? Many high prelates and outstanding theologians on the Right strongly favor radical changes in ecclesiastical practices.