Despite all the hoopla about Pope John Paul II, some believe he has been an unparalleled disaster in the history of the papacy and of the Church. In Crossing the Threshold of Confusion, author Andrew J. McCauley examines the record of this pope and discusses the harm he has done or has allowed to have happened not only to the Church but to Western civilization. McCauley uncovers countless faults many Catholic leaders have overlooked, including: • Pope John Paul II's failure to enforce discipline in the Church, especially against widespread sexual abuse by priests; • his statements alleging and implying universal salvation; • the destabilization of marriage caused by his theology of the body ; • the conflicting messages that confuse the Church's position on capital punishment; • his stance on the nature of the Church as a result of Vatican II. This exploration of recent Catholic history studies the ideas, writings, and policies of Pope John Paul II, from his life a young priest to his final days as pope, and examines their compatibility with traditional Catholic doctrine and practice. Crossing the Threshold of Confusion presents a case against the canonization of Pope John Paul II and demonstrates how his record warrants condemnation.

Crossing the Threshold of Confusion

By Andrew J. McCauley

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Andrew J. McCauley
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-5315-4

Contents

Preface.....................................................................................................xiiiChapter I Vatican II, Pope John Paul II, and the Decline and Fall of the Christian West.....................1Chapter II Vatican II and the Will of God...................................................................4Chapter III Vatican II - The Grand Illusion.................................................................10Chapter IV Teilhard de Chardin - Apostle of Death...........................................................15Chapter V Vatican II and the New Eschatology................................................................31Chapter VI Crossing the Threshold of Confusion..............................................................48Chapter VII Youth...........................................................................................65Chapter VIII Apologies to Jews and Others...................................................................68Chapter IX Vatican II and the Great Collapse................................................................75Chapter X Ecumenism.........................................................................................92Chapter XI Phenomenology and Morality.......................................................................108Chapter XII Theology of the Body - Or Culture of Death? (A Summary).........................................139Chapter XIII Tracking the Mind of the Pope..................................................................146Chapter XIV Capital Punishment..............................................................................156Chapter XV The Reign of Satan and Vatican II................................................................169Chapter XVI The Antichrist..................................................................................204Chapter XVII The Pernicious Inversion.......................................................................262Chapter XVIII Pope John Paul II - The Positive Legacy.......................................................286Chapter XIX Pope John Paul II - The Pseudopositive Legacy...................................................294Chapter XX Criticisms of the Restorationists................................................................310Chapter XXI The Homosexual Plague...........................................................................319Chapter XXII The Collapse of the Faith......................................................................332Chapter XXIII Fatima........................................................................................335Chapter XXIV The New Church.................................................................................338Chapter XXV John Paul II - The Great - or The Great Eclipse?................................................347Chapter XXVI The Legacy of John Paul II.....................................................................362Chapter XXVII The Cosmic Pope...............................................................................367Citations...................................................................................................391Selected Bibliography.......................................................................................411Index.......................................................................................................419

Chapter One

Vatican II, Pope John Paul II, and the Decline and Fall of the Christian West

We who were born during the first half of the Twentieth Century have lived through probably the most radical transitory period in human history. Of course, it has also seen the most dramatic scientific advances - developments prior generations couldn't even imagine. My father, who was born in horse-and-buggy days, lived to see men on the moon live on TV. But I am not referring to technological progress when I talk of sweeping change. Rather, I am referring to the manners and mores of the nation, the culture. In this area there has been an almost 180-degree turnaround. It is the very soul of the people that has undergone this profound and deep-seated change.

We talk much today about the fall of communism, but we seem to have not taken due notice of another great fall - the fall of Christianity in the Western world. In the words of St. Peter, we, a once-Christian people, have returned to our pagan ways "like a dog returning to its vomit." (2 Peter 2, 22)

The benchmarks of our decline are all about us. And the Church since Vatican II has in most cases given little more than symbolic opposition to the new paganism. For instance, in the United States the Church has given little more than pro-forma lip service against the legalization of abortion and has actually helped to ensure the continuation of this holocaust in America. Initially, the Helms bill in the Senate would have given the unborn the same legal protection as the born, but the National Conference of Catholic Bishops did not support it, and this may have been decisive in its defeat. Then the bishops generally supported a policy that Cardinal Bernardin allegedly labeled "the seamless garment," which in reality was a wet blanket thrown on the anti-abortion movement. As William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal noted, "What pro-choice Catholic pols understand is that bishops will not go to the mat...."

The Church's record on sodomy is perhaps even worse. As the country turned a moral wrong into a legal right, the Church often went out of its way to make sodomy culturally acceptable. In about two-thirds of Catholic dioceses in America Masses, in effect glorifying sodomy, regularly took place. Unless they were held in non-Catholic churches or forums, they would seem to have had at least unofficial sanction of the dioceses. These Masses were sponsored by Dignity, an organization that made no bones about rejecting the teachings of the Church regarding homosexual acts. Did those bishops feel that sodomy was just a glorified handshake?

The descent into depravity by our once-Christian society, and the tacit acceptance of it by the Church, continued at a quickening pace in the post-Vatican II period. Our culture became what could only be described as pornographic, often unnaturally so. Lewdness and sexual license became its dominant theme. Within the Church there was a massive revolt against the ban on contraceptives. In the 1970s, the American Catholic Theological Society published a work called Human Sexuality, justifying premarital sex between committed people, as well as artificial birth control, and homosexuality. This was too much for even slumbering Rome, as well as our feeble bishops, who disassociated themselves from it.

This period also saw the rise of the most diabolical form of evil - blasphemy and sacrilege, mainly in the media, arts and entertainment world. There was practically no response at all by the Church to these outrages. The Church appeared to be all but dead.

Legal marriage between members of the same sex, massive city parades celebrating sexual perversion, legal abortion in the millions, and open public blasphemy, sacrilege, and mockery of what was most sacred and holy to Christians - things that were unimaginable only a few years before - were now commonplace.

At this point it is not necessary to go further into all of the other signs of social and ecclesiastical decay, such as a rejection of Church teaching on contraception and other moral teachings, the death of God movement, a religious relativism and indifference, and a homosexual infestation within the clergy. Rather, the role that Vatican II played in all this will be examined. Did it erect a dam against the floodwaters of the new paganism, or did it break down a pre-existing dam? Or did it to some extent do both? And did it actually justify any of these diabolical developments? If not, did it nevertheless help to create the milieu in which these social and moral mutations flourished?

During this period we saw the collapse of communism. Pope John Paul II has been credited with having played a major role in this historical event, although no one has been able to point to anything of significance that he did to bring this about that this writer is aware of. However, for most of the post-Vatican II period Pope John Paul II was at the helm of the Church, during which time we saw the collapse of the Church, and the end of Christian civilization in the West. He was making the policy and directing the Church during this period. He was appointing scores of worthless bishops, especially in the West. His was the duty to rally the Catholic faithful against the new paganism. His was the duty to protect the Church against the homosexual infestation. His was the duty to insure the integrity of Catholic moral and dogmatic teachings in schools, seminaries, parishes, etc. His was the duty to demand respect from the pagan world for what was sacred and holy to Catholics, etc., etc. In all of these areas, he was a dismal failure. The Pope who condemned The Culture of Death presided over the death of Christian civilization in the West, and the near-death of the Church in the West during those times. And ironically he received no criticism or blame, but instead was credited with the fall of communism, with which he played no apparent role.

And what was the reaction to his catastrophic record? He earned the title of Pope John Paul II, The Great, and steps have already been taken to canonize him.

John Paul II refused to face the reality of the decline and collapse of the Church. He called this period a time of qualitative renewal. And Catholics in general apparently have the same trouble facing reality. This is apparent by their desire to canonize this man who has left the Church in a shambles after more than a quarter century of rule - or rather misrule.

Chapter Two

Vatican II and the Will of God

John Paul II was not the source of most of these destructive trends within the Church. He merely facilitated their spread by his actions and inactions. In fact, he resisted and fought some of them. His record on the life issues would be hard to improve upon. But it is doubtful that we ever had a pope before who was so influenced by worldly thinking and trends. In fact, he was so conditioned by the culture of the world that, in this writer's opinion, he was probably the first pope who did not think like a Catholic. Phenomenology, existentialism, ecumenism, and perhaps the influence of modernist theologians were just some of the worldly trends that seemed to shape his thinking.

But probably the most influential event in his life was Vatican II. It set his course for life, and so the future course of the Church. Although its documents had a great influence on him, especially Gaudium et Spes, Lumen Gentium, and Dignitatus Humanae, the tendentious interpretations of Vatican II, especially those of the modernist theologians, may have had an even greater influence. His work with liberal theologians at the Council, such as Yves Conger and Henri De Lubac, also may have had an important role in his orientation.

So no critique of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II would be complete without an analysis of Vatican II, and its after-effects, not only on his pontificate, but also on the pontificate of Paul VI and the whole Church as well. However, there is a problem concerning Vatican II that has been little addressed, and never resolved as far as I know. It is not only a problem, but a scandal - an enormous one. It is the elephant in the living room that the Catholic world has been trying to ignore. But it is too big to be shut completely from our consciousness. I refer to the problem of how an Ecumenical council, ostensibly under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, could have engendered so much chaos and have done so much harm to the Church. I think that this unanswered question has shaken the faith of many, and contributed to the quiet but mass exodus from the Church.

At this point, it is necessary to explain how this could have happened, and why the Council may still have fulfilled the will of God despite spawning certain evils.

1. I believe that the Council was called at an inopportune time for the modernists and heretics. It was Fr. Charles Davis, if memory serves me, who said that if the Council had been called five years later, they (the modernists) would have gained greater control of the Church. And so, the Council probably had the effect of minimizing the damage - damage that was inevitable because of the infiltration of the Church by modernists and crypto-heretics. The Council made them surface too soon to accomplish their grand design. And the fact that it was declared to be the first and only pastoral Ecumenical council in Church history indicates that the Holy Spirit was still protecting the Church from dogmatic error. As it was, the modernists almost did deal a fatal blow to the Church at Vatican II. They drew up a schema which would have made the authority of the Pope to decide matters of faith and morals contingent upon being made in conjunction with the bishops. It actually was informally approved by Pope Paul VI, and was being printed as a Vatican II document, although not yet proclaimed. According to one account, an Australian monsignor, I believed named McGee, while walking across a Vatican plaza, accidentally kicked a piece of paper. He picked it up and read it. It was a plan to enact the above limitation on the powers of the Pope. It was worded somewhat ambiguously, apparently in the hope that Paul VI would not become aware of its effect. Monsignor McGee brought it to the attention of the Pope. Allegedly, Paul VI wept when he read it, saying that the signers were among his closest friends. Fr. Davis had good reason, then, to believe that given five more years to plan and prepare, they could have been in an even stronger position to take over the Church. And so this book suggests that because Vatican II was declared to be a non-dogmatic council, and because it was called when it was, it saved the Church from far greater harm. This was the great but hidden good of Vatican II in this author's view. God sometimes writes straight with invisible ink. 2. The Council also may have been the beginning of the fulfillment of the Scriptural prophecy about the final days, when "even the elect, if possible, will be led astray," and when there will be little faith left on earth. The Church, then, would be made up only of "remnants" of the faithful, even if there were many more that were nominal but non-believing Catholics. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (section 675) refers to those times as the "mystery of iniquity in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth." This may explain what is happening, but it does not explain why it is happening, or how it could be happening as the outgrowth of a Church Council, even a pastoral one. But the why and how may also be explained by Scripture. St. Paul says that the time will come when the people will no longer have "the love of truth that they might be saved." "Therefore," he says, "God sends them (allows) a misleading influence ... that all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have preferred wickedness" (2 Thessalonians 10-12). Or, as is said in Revelation 3: 15, 16: "Because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth." And so what has been unleashed since and possibly indirectly because of, Vatican II may be God's pruning operation of what were already dead and lifeless branches. If so, it would appear that it is a bringing to fruition of something that we should all fear - the beginning of God's final justice.

St. Paul also tells us how to avoid the judgment of those who have lost "the love of truth," and have allowed themselves to be misled. He says, "... stand firm. Hold fast to the traditions you received from us...." (2 Thessalonians 2, 15) That implies, of course, never deserting the Church. It is still the Ark of Salvation, no matter how much bilge water it has taken on in these times. And no matter what the failings or confusion of any individual pope may be, where the pope is, there is the Church.

3. The Council may have been called unnecessarily, and for frivolous reasons. As the late Cardinal Manning said, quoting the words of the late Cardinal Pallavicini: "... to convoke a General Council, except when absolutely demanded by necessity, is to tempt God." All prior nineteen Councils were convened to extinguish heresy or to check or correct the evils of the time - except Vatican II. It is uncontroverted that there was no crisis in the pre-Vatican II Church, at least no apparent one. Pope John XXIII recognized this in his paeans of praise to the pre-Vatican II Church in the Apostolic Constitution, Humanae Salutis, of December 1961. Yes, the Church needed some fine-tuning, as it always does, but a Council was not obviously necessary, except for the hidden crisis mentioned in paragraph (1) above. So could it be that the calling of Vatican II tempted the anger of God?

4. Another explanation of the disasters that followed Vatican II is that Pope John's Council was kidnapped by dissenters and modernists. It is true that Pope John's original agenda (which was more modest in its goals) was killed by an improper and illegal rebellion on the floor by modernists, resulting in a substitute agenda eventually being put in its place. Pope John, probably fearing for the fate of the Council itself, gave in under pressure to this coup d'etat and approved the new agenda. What this meant for the validity of the Council is anyone's guess, but the Pope did approve of the new agenda, even though illicitly and unfittingly pressured.

5. And finally, there is a fifth explanation of the mystery of iniquity arising since, if not from, Vatican II. It is that Vatican II itself was not to blame, but rather the cause was the faulty and tendentious interpretations of Vatican II by others. Perhaps, but the vague and ambiguous language of some Vatican II documents seemed to provide the cracks through which at least some of these "tendentious interpretations" may have infiltrated the Church.

Personally, I believe explanations "1" and "2" explain "the mystery of iniquity" arising after Vatican II. Vatican II opened the windows of the Church in an attempt to assimilate the world. Ancient Rome did the same thing. It tried to assimilate the world it had conquered. It became "cosmopolitan." In trying to assimilate the world, the world assimilated it, and it died. It died because it was no longer loved, as Chesterton remarked. And it was no longer loved because it had lost its identity. It was too big and too alien to love.

(Continues...)

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