The Fenton Diaries
By Robert J. Siscoe
One of the many contributions John Vennari made to the world of Tradition was bringing to light the writings of Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton, which he discovered and published extensively in Catholic Family News.
Msgr. Fenton was well known prior to Vatican II. He received his doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Angelicum in Rome and wrote his dissertation under Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., who is recognized as one of the 20th century’s greatest Thomists. He served as the editor of the American Ecclesiastical Review from 1944 to 1963, and was chosen to serve as a peritus (expert) for Cardinal Ottaviani (then Secretary of the Holy Office) during the Second Vatican Council.
Msgr. Fenton also served on the Pontifical Theological Commission in preparation for the Council.
Msgr. Fenton was known as a fierce opponent to Modernism and Liberalism during the reign of Pius XII. He publicly defended the traditional papal teaching on the Catholic Confessional State, and engaged in a lengthy debate with John Courtney Murray, in the pages of the American Ecclesiastical Review, over the issue of religious liberty. He battled the Modernist alongside Cardinal Ottaviani during the Second Vatican Council, and endured the turbulent years that followed. He suffered two serious heart attacks during the Council, and died of a third on July 7, 1969, just before the publication of the Novus Ordo Missae.
Monsignor Fenton’s personal diaries, which have been stored at The Catholic University of America, were recently made public. The diary entries during the time he spent on the Theological Commission (1960-1962), and during the Council (1962–1965), provide a unique perspective and reveal what it was like for a traditional Catholic theologian in the face of the liberal onslaught that was unleashed during the Council. Msgr. Fenton was in the very heart of the battle, and his diaries provide some interesting behind the scenes information. What follows are some of the more relevant entries, which were recorded between the years 1960 and 1965. To assist the reader, we have included full names (when known) of the individuals to whom some abbreviated entries refer.
On November 5, 1960, during the time he was serving on the Theological Commission, he wrote: "To me the condition here in Rome is an evidence of the existence of the Church as a miracle of the social order. In general it is being run by men who have no concern whatsoever for the purity or the integrity
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