The Second Vatican Council and Religious Liberty by Michael Davies

by Michael Treharne Davies

Michael Davies writes that St. Thomas Aquinas summed up the fundamental principle upon which the traditional Catholic teaching of the Church is based in this quotation from the Angelic “Now the end of human life and society is God.” From this fact our author draws the "The State, therefore, has no right to be ‘secular’. It must, as a State, recognize the Kingship of Jesus Christ and do Him homage; and, of course, so act that there is no contradiction between the laws it passes and the laws of God.” This book deals with the right and wrong conceptions of religious freedom. Special emphasis is placed on the weaknesses and confusions of the (non-infallible) Declaration on Religious Freedom of Vatican II, which contains a number of questionable assertions which have greatly added to the confusion of Catholics and others since it was approved by Vatican II in 1965. This makes "The Second Vatican Council and Religious Liberty" indispensable for any Catholic who is aware of the recent changes in the Catholic Church. Michael Davies is an author of amazing industry and power. Between the years 1976 and 1983, he published Cranmer’s Godly Order (coming this summer from Angelus Press); a two-volume Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre—about an Archbishop unpopular in his time but with views well worth pondering today; Pope John’s Council, Pope Paul’s New Mass, The Order of Melchisedech, Partisans of Error, and Newman Against the Liberals, besides nine pamphlets—all written when he was still quite young, teaching school in England, and supporting a growing family. Today these volumes are as readable and useful as they were then—and uncomfortably prophetic.

Genres: Catholic, Religion, Nonfiction

360 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

Michael Treharne Davies (1936-2004) was a convert from Anglicanism to the Catholic Church in the 1950s, and was a Catholic writer who authored various works following the Second Vatican Council, in addition to unifying Una Voce America, a conservative group. He went on to compose such works as The Liturgical Revolution, The Order of Melchisedech, Partisans of Error, For Altar and Throne,, and The Wisdom of Adrian Fortescue. Upon Davies' death in 2004, Pope Benedict XVI called him a man of deep faith who was ready to embrace suffering

Reviews

[Jan Górak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever analysis of one of the most important problems of the Catholic Church today

[Dan DalMonte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another Davies bombshell, raising questions about modernism in the church that must be addressed. Davies exposes what appears to be a contradiction between traditional Church teaching on religious liberty and that championed by American bishops and Jesuit John Courtney Murray. Whereas Dignitatis Humanity attributes religious liberty as a right based on the dignity of the person, Davies restores traditional teaching about the subordination of religious liberty to truth. Vatican II opened the way for the end of confessional states. Religion was seen as outside of the competence of secular governments. But governments are also creatures that owe their allegiance to Christ the King. Governments have the duty to protect the public good by protecting religious truth. A secular state leads to religious indifferentism, in which no religion is better than any other. But to place the church of Christ on a level with other faiths is a grave insult.