3.15. But the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit—how could Vatican II be wrong?

The Holy Spirit protects the Church from teaching error in matters of faith and morals when the Magisterium teaches infallibly (i.e., ex cathedra or universally held doctrines). However, not everything spoken by a pope or council is infallible. Vatican II itself declared that it was a pastoral council and did not define any doctrine infallibly.

Moreover, the fruits of Vatican II—massive loss of vocations, empty seminaries, doctrinal confusion, liturgical abuses—are not the fruits of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth and order. When a "council" contradicts dogmas previously defined infallibly (as Vatican II did on religious liberty, ecumenism, and collegiality), we must conclude, not that the Church erred, but that this council was not of the Church—just as the robber council of Ephesus in 449 was rejected.