The Smoke of Satan

"From some fissure, the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God." There seems to be quite a little confusion over this quote of Pope Paul VI, indeed, doubt is currently being cast as to whether he ever actually said anything of the kind. He did say exactly that on 29th June 1972. Here is a paragraph from his homily that day - SS Peter and Paul - as presented on the Vatican website [it seems itself to be a commentary on the homily and not the pure text itself] with a line by line translation:

Riferendosi alla situazione della Chiesa di oggi, il Santo Padre afferma di avere la sensazione che «da qualche fessura sia entrato il fumo di Satana nel tempio di Dio». Regarding the present day situation of the Church, the Holy Father affirms the feeling that, "from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God."
C’è il dubbio, l’incertezza, la problematica, l’inquietudine, l’insoddisfazione, il confronto. There is doubt, uncertainty, problems, uneasiness, dissatisfaction, confrontation.
Non ci si fida più della Chiesa; ci si fida del primo profeta profano che viene a parlarci da qualche giornale o da qualche moto sociale per rincorrerlo e chiedere a lui se ha la formula della vera vita. There is not trust in the Church any more; there is trust in the first profane prophet that speaks to us from some newspaper or from some social movement, to run after him and ask him if he has some formula of true life.
E non avvertiamo di esserne invece già noi padroni e maestri. And instead we are unaware that we are already masters and teachers of it.
È entrato il dubbio nelle nostre coscienze, ed è entrato per finestre che invece dovevano essere aperte alla luce. Doubt has entered our consciences, and it has entered via the windows which instead should have been open to the light.
Dalla scienza, che è fatta per darci delle verità che non distaccano da Dio ma ce lo fanno cercare ancora di più e celebrare con maggiore intensità, è venuta invece la critica, è venuto il dubbio. From science, pursued [literally, which is done] in order to give us truths which do not detach us from God but make us search for him even more and acknowledge him with greater intensity, [from this] has come, instead, criticism, [from this] has come doubt.
Gli scienziati sono coloro che più pensosamente e più dolorosamente curvano la fronte. Scientists are those who most thoughtfully and most sorrowfully frown...
E finiscono per insegnare: «Non so, non sappiamo, non possiamo sapere». ...and they end up teaching, “I don’t know, we don’t know, we cannot know.”
La scuola diventa palestra di confusione e di contraddizioni talvolta assurde. School becomes the training ground of confusion and often absurd contradictions.
Si celebra il progresso per poterlo poi demolire con le rivoluzioni più strane e più radicali, per negare tutto ciò che si è conquistato, per ritornare primitivi dopo aver tanto esaltato i progressi del mondo moderno. Progress is celebrated in order that it might then be demolished with ever more strange and radical revolutions, to negate everything that has been won, in order to return as primitives after having exalted the progresses of the modern world.

This certainly leaves some food for thought. Notable is the opening sentence in which Paul VI admits that this applies to the Church, not just the world. This was just seven years after the end of Vatican II. Paul VI was at the centre of the storm, he saw the "doubt, uncertainty, problems, uneasiness, dissatisfaction, confrontation" as they presented themselves. For me, this chimes very strongly with the present Holy Father's comments about two hermeneutics: one of rupture and one of continuity. Out of these doubts, problems, etc. emerged two interpretations of the last Council. Only one is valid: that which is in continuity with the past. The smoke of Satan obscures the past and confuses the present and makes for a hermeneutic of rupture. There can only ever be one response to this: to reject it.