In our times, there exists a dispute among traditionalists and progressives inside the Church. We will look at who is right.

Reference to the documents saves us from extremes of anachronistic nostalgia and running too far ahead, and allows what is new to be welcomed in a context of continuity. (Benedict XVI, 2012 – Homily, opening of the Year of the Faith)

As can we see in the reference above, that the Vatican Council II did not come to break with the 2000 year history of the Church, but to be a continuation of the movement of the Spirit that leads through the centuries.

Therefore, we need to embrace this reality of this continuous hermeneutic present in the Vatican Council. The problem is each person or movement pushes the limit for his side. For example, the traditionalists remain in the nostalgic anachronistic extreme, while the revolutionaries plunge into excessive and degraded advances. Both extremes wound this continuous hermeneutic, they are true ruptures that cause enormous havoc in the Church.

“The hermeneutic of discontininuity runs the risk of ending in the rupture between the pre-conciliar Church and the Post-Conciliar Church” (Benedict XVI, 2006)

Perhaps here may be the question of all “giving the arm a twist”, wanting to say, to cede their ideologies that cause ruptures and together they can make a just reflection of that which the Holy Father teaches us, and not remain manipulating, at your own pleasure, the words of the Supreme Pontiff.

My brothers and sisters may we not be instruments of ruptures in the Church but of the union of Jesus Christ.

Amen

Ademir Costa

translated from Portuguese