Rome, Italy, Jun 21, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Vatican analyst Sandro Magister of the Italian online magazine L’Espresso published an article Wednesday on a recent speech given by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar of the Diocese of Rome, in which he called for a re-writing of the history of Vatican II “according to the truth.”
Magister reveals in his column that on June 17 Cardinal Ruini spoke forcefully against the manipulation of Vatican II while presenting a new book on the Council written by historian and Italian bishop Agostino Marchetto.
“Cardinal Ruini,” writes Magister, explained that “Marchetto’s book acts as a counterpoint, or indeed as the polar opposite, to the interpretation of Vatican II that until now has monopolized Catholic historiography throughout the world. It is the interpretation advanced by the five-volume ‘History of Vatican Council II’ directed by Giuseppe Alberigo and published in six languages between 1965 and 2001.
According to Magister, the new book presented by Ruini openly opposes the interpretation of the Council promoted in Italy—and later throughout the world—by Fr. Giuseppe Dossetti, which said that the “real council is the ‘spirit’ of the council,” represented by John XXIII.