Pope Benedict compares Vatican II aftermath to 'chaos' following Nicea

Sandro Magister, "All Against All: The Postconciliar Period Recounted by Ratzinger, Theologian and Pope" (www.chiesa, July 27, 2007), writes:

The period following Vatican II reminds Benedict XVI of the "total chaos" after the Council of Nicaea, the first in history. But from that stormy Council emerged the "Credo." And today? Here is the pope’s response to the priests of Belluno, Feltre, and Treviso.

"We had such great hopes, but things proved to be more difficult..."

"In his book on the Holy Spirit, saint Basil compares the Church’s situation after the Council of Nicaea to a nighttime naval battle, in which no one recognizes another, but everyone is pitted against everyone else. It really was a situation of total chaos: this is how saint Basil paints in vivid colors the drama of the period following the Council of Nicaea.

"50 years later, for the first Council of Constantinople, the emperor invited saint Gregory Nazianzen to participate in the council, and saint Gregory responded: No, I will not come, because I understand these things, I know that all of the Councils give rise to nothing but confusion and fighting, so I will not come. And he didn’t go....

"Thus it seems to me that we must learn the great humility of the Crucified One ... But we must also learn, together with this humility, the true triumphalism of the Catholicism that grows in all ages.... In this combination of the humility of the Cross and the joy of the risen Lord, who in the [Second Vatican] Council has given us a great road marker, we can go forward joyously and full of hope."