What Went Wrong With Vatican II: The Catholic Crisis Explained

Vatican II was supposed to herald a Golden Age in the Catholic Church–yet in the thirty years since it ended, chaos & dissension have rocked the pulpits and emptied the pews. Today, theologians rise against the Pope, laymen turn away in dismay and confusion.

McInerney cuts through conventional wisdom to reveal the council's true message–a message which, if widely known, would send shock waves through both the conservative and liberal wings on the Church…and would bring many Catholics back to the practice of the Faith.

After Vatican II, instead of enjoying the expected renaissance, the Church seemed to fall apart: priests and bishops rejected Church teachings, convents and seminaries emptied, and laypeople were thrown into confusion. I vividly remember my own dismay when I discovered that although I had entered the Catholic Church because I had come to see (with Cardinal Newman's help) the necessity for a teaching authority, large numbers of Catholics were chafing under that authority and yearning for an illusory freedom. This strange rebellion in the post-Vatican II Church is examined and blisteringly rebuked in Ralph McInerny's What Went Wrong with Vatican II. McInerny contends that the problem wasn't Vatican II itself, which, as an ecumenical council, enjoyed the protection of the Holy Spirit. The problem, he argues, came afterward: with Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI's restatement of the Church's constant teaching that artificial contraception is immoral. Instead of greeting it with respect and obedience, a large group of clergy dissented publicly from Humanae Vitae and touched off a civil war in the Church as they competed with the Vatican for the obedience of the faithful.