Council: Cardinal Christoph Schönborn Rejects Extreme Interpretations

Edit: the kinds of hermeneutics and developments that would allow you to give a funeral to a Communist pornographer?

Vienna (kath.net/KAP)  Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has turned against extreme positions in the estimation of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). In an interview with "Kathpress" and the media of the Archdiocese of Vienna the Cardinal has rejected all previous interpretations, where in the Council radically breaks with Tradition.

This determination is directed at those are only more fixed on novelties and reject Tradition, while the others demand a return to Tradition and reject the reforms of the Council.

Pope Benedict XVI. has warned against both versions and proposed a "hermeneutic of continuity". It is an organic development, says Schönborn. The Council has not been a break, actually it has been a "true doctrinal development" in the Catholic Church, for instance in relation to religious freedom, the Episcopal office or relations to non-Christian religions.

That in the wake of a Council that there are tensions and discussions about its correct interpretation, is nothing new in any case, says Schönborn. So it took about 300 years for example till the Church could prevail the doctrine of the Council of Nicea (325). From the earliest Councils till the Second Vatican Council, there have always been divisions or tendencies in the wake of Episcopal gatherings.

It is a very urgent task, says the Cardinal, that at least the central texts of the Vatican Council would have been reread, where for many it would probably be the first reading.

Admittedly there are still urgent tasks, which Pope Benedict XVI. also portends with the three volumes of his Jesus books. "It is completely decided on the question of the discipleship of Christ," stressed the Cardinal also with a view on the "Year of Faith".

A Christendom, "in which a vague love of God is somewhere on the horizon of lit and not the concrete visible living form of Jesus Christ with his invitation to follow" will sooner or later lose its ability to attract. A vague general religiosity is not able, "to gather people and imprint a society."

From kath.net...