“He is as welcome to the first word as he is to the last,” Mazzare replied with a thin smile.
Wadding rose. “Even the sparse documentation available here reveals that the convener of Vatican II, Pope John XXIII, did not want the results of the ecumenical council to be perceived as having the impress of either consular or papal infallibility. Specifically, he expressly enjoined the council not to promulgate any dogma, but instead, to merely reaffirm the truths of the church in the idiom of that time, the mid-twentieth century.”
Larry Mazzare smiled. “Yes-probably because he figured it was the best way to skin that particular canonical cat.”
Wadding blinked. “I’m sorry; what do you mean?”
“I mean if the Council had been free to promulgate dogma, it would never have ended. As it was, Vatican II went on for over three years, and its resolutions took eighteen years to emerge as a series of Apostolic Constitutions. John averted the possibility of a complete impasse by-technically-constraining the scope of the deliberations.”
Wadding shook his head. “I take it that you are implying that even though John XXIII restricted the council to simply rewording Church doctrine, he was nonetheless hoping that this would produce de facto changes in how the doctrine was applied and practiced.”
“Something like that,” said Larry with a smile.
Wadding made a dismissive gesture. “Even if true, that still does not change the significance of his exhortation: that Vatican II was to refrain from promulgating new, or revising old, doctrine. And insofar as that the council might believe itself infallible since it was convened by a papal injunction, John XXIII famously said of himself ‘I am only infallible if I speak infallibly but I shall never do that, so I am not infallible.’ How much more explicit could we ask him to be in indicating that the pronouncements arising from Vatican II were not to be deemed infallible?”
Mazzare nodded. “John XXIII did say that about himself. However, although the infallibility of a papal council originally derives from that of the summoning pontiff, it does not continue to depend upon or defer to that imprimatur. More significantly, the pope who ultimately issued the numerous Apostolic Constitutions arising from Vatican II-John Paul II-did not declare the same limitations upon his own exercise of the Extraordinary Sacred Magisterium of papal infallibility. Rather, he decreed new canon law and a new catechism from out of the corpus of Vatican II. More significantly, in the bulls whereby he announced the Apostolic Constitutions, John Paul II repeatedly emphasized that the authority of the documents was also traceable to their origins in a papal council. Lastly, the language he used when issuing the relevant decrees leaves no doubt as to his intent.”
Mazzare picked up a sheet from the small table in front of him. “In the In Sacrae Disciplinae Lege, he lists himself as ‘The Supreme Pontiff Pope John Paul II’ and writes: ‘I order today, January 25, 1983, the promulgation of the revised Code of Canon Law.’ And he clearly tells us by what authority he orders this. ‘Trusting therefore in the help of divine grace, sustained by the authority of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul,…and…with the supreme authority with which I am vested, by means of this Constitution, to be valid forever in the future, I promulgate the present Code as it has been set in order and revised. I command that for the future it is to have the force of law for the whole Latin Church, and I entrust it to the watchful care of all those concerned, in order that it may be observed.’”
Mazzare put the document down. “In every particular, this wording fulfills the expectation of an ex cathedra statement of papal infallibility. It is absolute in its instruction, invokes the key terms of authority, and commands that it be retained as perpetually valid, along with an enjoinder for the Church to protect it against being either changed or disregarded.”
Wadding held up a hand. “I will point out that the American cardinal Avery Dulles authoritatively argued that, although Vatican II produced over eight hundred pages of commentary, there is not one new statement for which infallibility is claimed.”
“He did write that,” agreed Mazzare with a smile, “but he was, after all, only a cardinal like us. He was not the pope who inititiated Vatican II, nor the pope who issued the Apostolic Constitutions-who was the final authority on the matter of his own intents or exercise of his Sacred Magisterium.”
Sharon held on to Ruy’s arm and whispered to him. “It’s getting mighty deep, here.”
“The theological implications of papal infallibility are indeed as profound as the greatest trenches of the ocean, my heart.”
“Sorry, Ruy, but when I said ‘deep,’ I wasn’t talking about water.”
“Dear heart! Can you truly be so scatologically flippant about matters so holy? Perhaps you are a demon after all; an infernal temptress, at least…”
“Ruy, you remove that hand right now. Yes, the one with your knuckle brushing against my-Ruy! There’s a pope in the room!”
Wadding was nodding at Mazzare’s last point. “As you say, neither we, nor your Cardinal Dulles, can know if a pope had unspoken intents. So it seems that there is insufficient reason for me to continue to question the infallibility of Vatican II in your time.”
Ruy’s hand dropped away suddenly. Sharon looked at his face; his eyes, playful a moment ago, were deadly serious now. “Ruy-” she began.
“My dear,” he interrupted in a tense whisper, “Wadding’s concession means he is springing a trap.”
Wadding stood poised, as if he had not completed his sentence. Then: “But I reemphasize: I constrain that concession of infallibility to your time. It is quite a different matter to assert that Vatican II is an infallible teaching or dogma for this time,” He picked up a paper from the small table on which he had his materials arrayed. “Paradoxically, my assertion-that infallibility cannot survive such a temporal and spatial discontinuity as that which brought Grantville to our world-arises from the text of one of the Apostolic Constitutions engendered by Vatican II itself. Specifically, in going through the end notes to the Gaudium et Spes, there is a directive as to how it should be read and understood. Speaking of its first part- De Ecclesia in Mundo Huius Temporis, or, “The Role of the Church in the Modern World”-the note explains that “Some elements have a permanent value; others, only a transitory one. Consequently…interpreters must bear in mind…the changeable circumstances which the subject matter, by its very nature, involves.”
Wadding laid down the paper. “I have no argument with papal infallibility. And I am satisfied with Cardinal Mazzare’s proofs that the Apostolic Constitutions arising from Vatican II do, in fact, possess that infallibility. However, we must also pay heed to this passage, which is equally infallible when it explains that ‘some elements have a permanent value; others, only a transitory one.’”
Wadding leaned forward over his table. “This, I assert, is the voice of the Holy Spirit, speaking across the vast gulfs of space and time, to caution us about what we might call the ‘epochal provisionality’ of canonical church doctrine. In short, it compels us to ask: does Vatican II reflect God’s intents across all eternity? Or was it specifically, and only, infallibly valid in relation to the up-time world, of that particular epoch, and at that particular moment?”
Vitelleschi made a cutting gesture in the air with his hand. “That intrudes upon the topic of our next session, Cardinal Wadding: whether the infallible doctrines and decrees of the up-time Church must be recognized as such in this one, as well. And so we are adjourned-and may rightly give thanks for the shortness of today’s proceedings, for I note there is still light in the garden.” Without further comment, Vitelleschi headed for the stairs that would lead him outside.