After having firmly established Vatican II as ambiguous in its documents, Atila Guimarães now starts to investigate the spirit of the Council, according to which those ambiguities should be understood. For this purpose, nothing could be better than to search the actual debates of the Council, the speeches of Prelates and the proposals of theologians as they wrote the documents. This is what Volume II does. In addition to key papal pronouncements, leading post-conciliar personalities are studied as well.

What is the result of this scholarly search? It is not a comforting picture!

The Author shows that many of those Prelates and theologians expressed surprisingly bitter resentments against the Catholic Church. They insult her militant past, monarchical structure, stable dogmas, coherent moral, solemn liturgy, etc. Even outrageous theories like the apologia for betrayal and the Church as a chaste prostitute are proposed by those who should defend her.

It is this shocking ensemble of offenses that is offered to the Reader under the title Animus Injuriandi I as one component of the spirit of the Council.

Guimarães also offer readers two Appendices:

Appendix I is a 77-page study showing the role of Hans Urs Von Balthasar's book Casta Meretrix (The Church as a Chaste Prostitute) in the multi-century onslaught of miserablism in the Church. This study itself is worth the price of the book!

Appendix II presents a macabre 'litany' of offenses, a listing, chapter by chapter, of the outrages being made against the Holy Church. It is entitled Improperia because it calls to mind the lamentations of the Passion.

An indispensable work for anyone who wants to understand Vatican II.

Click on the links to find the Table of Contents to Animus Injuriandi I and the Introduction to Appendix I