Can Vatican II be interpreted in the light of Tradition?
NeoCats argue that it can, but by its own internal logic, it shouldn’t. A central purpose of Vatican II was to replace Scholasticism with Phenomenology as the philosophy in the Mind of the Church. Phenomenology says that one must look at any object in a new way, “bracketing” or “suspending” everything previously thought to be true about the object. Ergo, the Church is not the Kingdom or the Mystical Body of Christ — the Church is “the People of God.” The Gospel is not a call to prepare for the afterlife; it is a Social Gospel of redistributing wealth from the haves to the have-nots, calling on lawmakers to protect Rawlsian “basic rights” (housing, health care, a living wage, etc.), and working for World Peace. The Mass is not a “vertical” Sacrifice to God, but a “horizontal” celebration of a Community joined by one Spirit. Lumen Gentium is a phenomenological description of what the Church is and who the Pope, bishops, priests, religious and laity are. Nowhere does LG say that the Pope
