Comments about ‘Catholics reflect on 50th anniversary of Vatican II’

Vatican II freed up the Church hierarchy in the U.S. to act as liberal reformers as many of them did. They in turn played a role in the elevation to the papacy of the first non-Italian in over four centuries. John Paul II in turn paradoxically became a populist Pope who selected conservative bishops. It was almost as though the Church was having second thoughts about Vatican II or at least certain aspects of it.

In trying to bring the Catholic Church into current times, Vatican II has come full circle opening up a breach between the hierarchy and the laity. Nowhere is that more evident than in the American Catholic Church.