Ah yes, the nebulous "spirit of the council". Dogma does not "evolve" because Truth, by its very nature, does not change {see dogmatic constitution DEI FILIUS}. And you have the temerity to blame "shrinkage in the number of the faithful" because of some prelates' pre Vatican II "strictness"? Talk about putting your head in the sand; it is because of the post Conciliar laxity, modernism, and heresy that we have shrinkage. See '"A Statistical Analysis of the Catholic Church Since Vatican II".