Don’t blame Vatican II – The Catholic Thing

Gavin Ashenden, Catholic Herald

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

It is commonplace to distinguish between the Council itself and the “spirit of the Council”. But it is equally clear that there are people on both wings of the Church who are unwilling to compromise on the question of rupture or continuity. Pope Francis’s outright assault on the Latin Mass amounted to perhaps the most audacious and focused attempt to drive a wedge between the pre-conciliar and post-conciliar Church – by severing what is arguably its most vital arterial connection: the liturgy. But the Latin Mass was the Mass of the Fathers of the Council.