In the realm of commentary on secular matters, The Conservative Treehouse has arguably been one of the most consistently insightful and reliable sources in recent years. One recurring theme —widespread pretending — was recently highlighted in a social media post:
“For decades, ‘pretending’ has been a powerful shield. For some, also a weapon. For many others a comforting survival mechanism. Pretending relies upon a lot, including definitions of mis-dis, & mal-information. However, pretending is no match for the fact there is only truth and lies.”
As Sundance (the primary author at The Conservative Treehouse) routinely argues, the “pretending” relates to many of the most contentious issues facing those of us living in America. Of particular importance today is the war in Ukraine and the grotesquely wicked shenanigans of President Zelensky, which President Trump recently called out in his Truth Social post:
“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,' will never be able to settle. The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn’t Sleepy Joe Biden demand Equalization, in that this War is far more important to Europe than it is to us — We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation. On top of this, Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is ‘MISSING.’ He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the “gravy train” going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues…..”
The substantive points in President Trump’s post are assuredly true, as anyone who has paid attention to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine saga knows. And yet, it is also the case that almost the entire collection of political and media figures covering the topic have engaged in the “pretending” described by Sundance in his social media post above. They know they are spreading lies — just as they did with Covid, the the Russia collusion hoax, the 2020 election, January 6th, etc. — and they know it is a monstrous violation of the public trust to do so. Somehow, though, they have persuaded themselves that the world needs their lies more than it needs truth.
As Sundance mentioned in his recent commentary on President Trump’s refreshingly shocking honesty about Zelensky, this process of unwinding and renouncing the pretending is uncomfortable (for some), but necessary:
“It was inevitable. We have been together from the outset of the conversation where we admitted to ourselves that sooner or later the pretending was going to have to stop. Well, here we are. President Donald Trump begins a very uncomfortable process to peel back the mask that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy represents. This is needed . . .”
Where this will end, only God knows. But we have now entered a phase in which we can, and must, go on the offensive against the monstrous lies we have been fed for so long, and there seems to be no turning back. One side will prevail, and the other will lose.
To truly overcome the lies flowing from Rome today it is absolutely essential to stop pretending that the innovations of Vatican II are legitimate developments of Catholic teaching.
One interesting and vital aspect of this battle over truth and lies has been the involvement of Francis and his collaborators, who are openly taking the side of lies. When we are talking about “truth,” we know that the truths we have received from God through Divine Revelation are most important. As such, the greatest sign of diabolical disorientation in the world today is the reality that the purported head of the Church established by God to defend and promulgate truth is instead serving the father of lies. It necessarily follows that we can only overcome the lies threatening the world today if we address the lies flowing from Rome.
However, to truly overcome the lies flowing from Rome today it is absolutely essential to stop pretending that the innovations of Vatican II are legitimate developments of Catholic teaching. As uncomfortable as this process will be for those who have emotional, intellectual, and economic ties to perpetuating the Vatican II lies, there are three clear reasons (among many others) that should convince rational souls that now is the time to stop pretending: admissions from Vatican II’s architects; the Synod on Synodality, and the fruits of Vatican II.
Admissions from Vatican II’s Architects. It was clear from John XXIII’s opening address of Vatican II that he intended to break with the practice of defending Catholic truth from the errors threatening the Faith:
“The Church has always opposed these errors. Frequently she has condemned them with the greatest severity. Nowadays, however, the spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations. Not, certainly, that there is a lack of fallacious teaching, opinions and dangerous concepts to be guarded against and dissipated.”
John XXIII’s appointment of previously condemned theologians as experts at the Council further confirmed this new orientation away from protecting the immutable Catholic Faith.
We also have many admissions from other important figures that the Council sought to radically change the religion. Here, for instance, is the observation of Yves Congar, one of the most important theologians at Vatican II:
“By the frankness and openness of its debates, the Council has put an end to what may be described as the inflexibility of the system. We take ‘system’ to mean a coherent set of codified teachings, casuistically-specified rules of procedure, a detailed and very hierarchic organization, means of control and surveillance, rubrics regulating worship — all this is the legacy of scholasticism, the Counter-reformation and the Catholic Restoration of the nineteenth century, subjected to an effective Roman discipline. It will be recalled that Pius XII is supposed to have said: ‘I will be the last Pope to keep all this going.’” (Congar, Challenge to the Church: The Case of Archbishop Lefebvre, pp. 51-52)
The fact that Vatican II’s fruits are putrid and lethal constitutes a persuasive reason to stop pretending that the innovations of Vatican II are legitimate developments of Catholic teaching.
Conservatives and liberals alike reached similar conclusions about the Council, and in the years immediately following Vatican II, no serious observer would have honestly believed that the Council really was in continuity with what the Church had always taught. Pretending otherwise was only popularized long after the Council, most importantly through the later work of Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Benedict XVI). As Cardinal Ratzinger had stated closer to the end of the Council, though, he saw it as a true break from what the pre-Vatican II popes had taught, and a reconciliation with the principles of the French Revolution:
“If it is desirable to offer a diagnosis of the text [Gaudium et Spes] as a whole, we might say that (in conjunction with the texts on religious liberty [Dignitatis Humanae] and world religions [Nostra Aetate]) it is a revision of the Syllabus of Pius IX, a kind of countersyllabus. . . Let us be content to say that the text serves as a countersyllabus and, as such, represents, on the part of the Church, an attempt at an official reconciliation with the new era inaugurated in 1789.” (Principles of Catholic Theology, 1987, pp. 381-2)
Whatever he said in later years, we can clearly accept what he said here as a persuasive and credible assessment of the Council from one of the most prominent theologians at Vatican II. Thus, the admissions of Vatican II’s architects constitutes a persuasive reason to stop pretending that the innovations of Vatican II are legitimate developments of Catholic teaching.
The Synod on Synodality. As argued in a previous article, the new Synodal Church represents one of the most important signs in the world today, even though the vast majority of clerics pretend it does not really matter. Francis’s Synodal Church appears to be Satan’s Ape Church and it has been built entirely on ideas from Vatican II. Indeed, many of the most ambiguous passages from Vatican II are most comprehensible only in the light of the Synod on Synodality’s documents. As one example among others, the entire discussion of the “People of God” makes far more sense in the Synodal documents than it does in the lengthy discussion from Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium:
“At the heart of Synod 2021-2024, ‘For a Synodal Church. Communion, participation, mission’ is a call to joy and to the renewal of the People of God in following the Lord and in their commitment to serving His mission. The call to be missionary disciples is based on our common baptismal identity and is rooted in the diversity of the contexts in which the Church is present and finds its unity in the one Father, the one Lord, and the one Spirit. It is a call to all the baptised, without exception.” (Instrumentum Laboris for October 2024 session)
So, according to the Synodal documents, every baptized person (including Protestants and those who have completely renounced Christianity) is part of the People of God and the Synodal Church, whether he or she knows it or not. Obviously this is not true with respect to the Catholic Church; but the entire “theological” justification for this is the obscure concept of the People of God from Vatican II, which was deliberately included by men who knew exactly how it would be used in the future. Thus, the fact that the diabolical Synodal Church relies entirely on the Council constitutes a persuasive reason to stop pretending that the innovations of Vatican II are legitimate developments of Catholic teaching.
Because God entrusted the Catholic Church with the truths and graces necessary to spread true peace in the world, there can be no real progress in overcoming wickedness if lies prevail in Rome.
The Fruits of Vatican II. Our Lord told us to judge a tree by its fruits (Matthew 7:16-20), and the fruits of Vatican II have been overwhelmingly disastrous. We have known this for decades, but those who preferred to pretend have insisted that these fruits have had nothing to do with the Council. As discussed in a previous article, though, Paul VI’s statements in the years following Vatican II should resolve any doubt about the matter:
“The Church, today, is going through a moment of disquiet. Some indulge in self-criticism, one would say even self-destruction. It is like an acute and complex inner upheaval, which no one would have expected after the Council. One thought of a flourishing, a serene expansion of the concepts matured in the great conciliar assembly. There is also this aspect in the Church, there is the flourishing, but . . . for the most part one comes to notice the painful aspect. The Church is hit also by he who is part of it.” (December 7, 1968)
“Through some cracks the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God: there is doubt, uncertainty, problematic, anxiety, confrontation. One does not trust the Church anymore; one trusts the first prophet that comes to talk to us from some newspapers or some social movement, and then rush after him and ask him if he held the formula of real life. And we fail to perceive, instead, that we are the masters of life already. Doubt has entered our conscience, and it has entered through windows that were sup- posed to be opened to the light instead. . . Even in the Church this state of uncertainty rules. One thought that after the Council there would come a shiny day for the history of the Church. A cloudy day came instead, a day of tempest, gloom, quest, and uncertainty. We preach ecumenism and drift farther and farther from the others. We attempt to dig abysses instead of filling them.” (June 29, 1972)
One can find healthy and orthodox fruits in the Church only among those Catholics who have shunned the innovations of Vatican II and tried to preserve the immutable Faith. This is most evident among those who adhere to the Traditional Latin Mass, which is why Francis and his collaborators have targeted Traditional Catholics so viciously. Thus, the fact that Vatican II’s fruits are putrid and lethal constitutes a persuasive reason to stop pretending that the innovations of Vatican II are legitimate developments of Catholic teaching.
Many people, especially non-Catholics, may protest that the evils of Vatican II are merely a matter of concern for the Catholic Church. However, because God entrusted the Catholic Church with the truths and graces necessary to spread true peace in the world, there can be no real progress in overcoming wickedness if lies prevail in Rome. Tragically, for so long as Catholics are compelled to pretend that Vatican II’s innovations constitute a legitimate development of Catholic teaching, lies will prevail in Rome. For this reason, the most essential work in overcoming the lies spewed from politicians and other professional liars is to stop tolerating lies about the Catholic Faith. Once Catholics insist on Catholic Truth, we will have taken away (or at least crippled) the primary weapon that Satan and his minions have been able to wield against the world for over sixty years. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
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