Nothing may be put on a level with Scripture. But Vatican II Rome puts itself there.

There is no question that the Roman Catholic Church thinks highly of itself. But lots of folks think that the Roman Catholic Church “softened up” itself and its image at Vatican II. That is not the case. Just to show a small example of why the Roman Catholic Church, post Vatican II, is a more ravenous wolf than its predecessor of just 100 years earlier, consider what Bavinck, writing about 1900, says:

The Catholic Church has not yet progressed to the point where it dares to equate ecclesiastical interpretation with divine truth. A twofold distinction still remains. In the first place, the church receives no new revelations. The pope possesses only interpretive power; he can and may proclaim as dogma only that which was, at all times, materially implicit in Scripture and tradition. And in the second place, in proclaiming the church’s dogmas the pope is not, like the prophets and apostles, the recipient of the inspiration but only the special assistance of the Holy Spirit (Vol 1, pgs 118-119).

On the other hand, as I’ve noted in the blog post below, Rome at Vatican II places its own “tradition” on the same level as Scripture. In “Dei Verbum”), it speaks of both “sources” “flowing from the same divine wellspring,” “merging into a unity” and “to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence”:

there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.

While Bavinck is clear, “Nothing may be put on a level with Scripture” (pg 86), and was fairly certain that the Roman Church of his day had not crossed that line, Vatican II Rome had the audacity to do just that.