I began my book by taking note that many Catholics after Vatican II were told by pastors,
curates, religious or theologians that the sacred council had changed certain
aspects of Catholic theology or practice, and consequently had never read the documents
of Vatican II for themselves. So it is good to see the popular Catholic press publishing recent orthodox works on the council, but I still am of a mind that Catholics so as not to be hoodwinked, should read the documents for themselves! The manuscript is currently receiving a copy edit, and so I anxiously await the completion of the process, and...publication!
P ope Paul VI will be beatified Sunday at the Vatican. While he is perhaps best known for his decisive 1968 encyclical on the regulation of birth, Humanae Vitae , he will also be remembered as a man of extraordinary gifts who was burdened by the tumult the Church faced during his 15-year papacy. His election as Pope Paul VI in 1963 required of him to bring the Second Vatican Council to a conclusion and oversee its implementation. Having taken the name Paul to signify the Church’s mission to evangelize the whole world, he made nine overseas journeys, beginning with the Holy Land. Unhappily his pontificate was marked by a series of crises. Both heterodox and traditionalist Catholics considered him feeble and vacillating, though for differing reasons, and he was tormented to the point of once saying that “the smoke of Satan” had entered the Church. It was this phrase which caught my attention to the point of research for a book on the Church in the U.S. si...

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