Nostrum Erratum

"That is all that Vatican II is really saying about Muslims: they’re monotheists, they say they belong to the religion of Abraham, and they revere Jesus, but not as the Son of God, and His Blessed Mother."

So saith Robert Spencer in a recent apologetic essay of his own faith.

Unfortunately, that's not entirely what Vatican II is saying. Robert Spencer is partially (and crucially) incorrect.

One of the two relevant promulgations from Vatican II, Lumen Gentium ("Light of the Nations"), promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1964, includes the following statement:

...the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Mohammedans, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind.

This doesn't say, as Spencer alleges, that Muslims "revere Jesus, but not as the Son of God" -- it simply asserts that Muslims "along with us [Catholics] adore... God..." -- and the statement further specifies God as the one "who on the last day will judge mankind". And guess Whom Catholics believe will judge Mankind on the Last Day? Yep. Jesus Christ as God. (Source)

Thus, the Catholic Church in its Vatican II Lumen Gentium promulgation is simply factually incorrect about Muslims. And Robert Spencer is incorrect in his explanation of what the Catholic Church promulgated in Vatican II.

In addition, a second promulgation from Vatican II, Nostra Aetate ("In Our Age"), promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1965, asserts that:

They [Muslims] adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth...

According to the doctrine of the Trinity, Muslims cannot adore God the Father (Creator of heaven and earth) as true God, without also adoring the Son as God. So once again, Vatican II is simply factually and logically incorrect.

And Muslims do not fall into that category of people who are "groping after" God in innocently vague ways out of ignorance of the Gospel: they directly, specifically, brazenly and knowingly reject the Son as God and reject God as Trinity. Indeed, the Koran, and Islamic theology based upon the Koran, is specifically and consciously anti-Christian (or, more accurately, anti-Judaeo-Christian). The Koran is an anti-Judaeo-Christian polemic, an anti-Judaeo-Christian screed, as much as it is a "religious text".

And not only that: Muslims add injury to insult, by translating this rejection, this polemic, this screed -- into intolerance, hatred, sociopolitical oppression, and horrible violence in various forms including mass-murder of Christians including Catholics. This is going on now as we type; and has been going on for 1400 years.

Catholics are being mass-murdered by Muslims -- in the name of their God! -- and yet these same Muslims "adore the same God" as Catholics!? WTF? (pardon my Arabic).

Conclusion:

The Catholic Church needs to convene a "Vatican III" to promulgate Nostrum Erratum (loose translation: "Our Bad").

Its first paragraph should begin solemnly with the words: "Oops--We got it grievously wrong the last time".

And they need to do it STAT (which, by the way, is a Latin word).