Vatican II at the Crossroads of Leo XIV’s Pontificate

What has unfolded during Pope Leo XIV’s first extraordinary consistory has already revealed more than any formal communiqué could hope to convey. As I have already mentioned in my last post on this, the agenda is framed in the familiar post-Francis lexicon of synodality, reform, and Vatican II. The Pope’s general audience catechesis, choosing Vatican II as its subject and highlighting liturgical reform and active participation, was a disappointment I have to admit. One can surmise that, on paper at least, this is aimed to speak to a hermeneutic of continuity. In substance, however, it risks reopening precisely the fault lines that many Catholics hoped this pontificate might finally begin to heal. The risk is not that Vatican II will be mentioned, still less that its legitimate teaching will be reaffirmed. Let us hope that is the case! The danger lies in the way the Council is being positioned once again as the primary interpretive horizon for the Church’s present and future. For a …