.....
this missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of
conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment or censure, and may
freely and lawfully be used ..... Nor
are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or
religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise
than as enjoined by Us. ..... Accordingly,
no one whatsoever is permitted to infringe or rashly contravene this notice of
Our permission, statute, ordinance, command, precept, grant, direction, will,
decree and prohibition. Should any person venture to do so, let him
understand he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles
Peter and Paul.
Pope
St. Pius V, Papal Bull, QUO PRIMUM,
Tridentine
Codification of the “received and approved” traditional Roman Rite of the Mass.
Quinquagesima Sunday
Ss. Faustinus & Jovita,
Martyrs
February 15, 2026
In the same way that the first three
prophecies of Holy Saturday, with their accompanying prayers, are concerned
with Adam, Noah and Abraham, so during the Septuagesima season, our attention
is called in Missal and Breviary to these same patriarchs, known respectively
by the Church, as the father of the human race, the father of future
generations and the father of those who believe.
Adam, Noah and Abraham were types of Christ
in the paschal mystery, a fact which we have already shown to be true in the
case of the first two, in our notes on Septuagesima and Sexagesima Sunday. That is true of Abraham also, we shall see
today.
In
the Ambrosian Liturgy, Passion Sunday was called “Abraham’s Sunday” and the
“Response of Abraham” was read in the Office for that day; in the Roman Liturgy
also, he is still the subject of the Gospel for Passion Sunday. “Abraham your father,” says our Lord,
“rejoiced that he might see my day, he saw it and was glad….Amen, amen, I say
to you, before Abraham was made, I am.”
God had indeed promised Abraham that the Messias should descend from
him, and he was overwhelmed with great joy, when by faith he contemplated
beforehand the day of the Redeemer’s coming.
Again, when this was fulfilled, he still contemplated it with a fresh
joy in Limbo, where he was waiting with the just men of the Old Law for Jesus
to come and deliver them after His Passion.
When the three weeks of the Septuagesima Season were added to Lent,
Quinquagesima became the Sunday on which the liturgy is devoted to Abraham, so
that in the lessons and responses for today the whole history of the Patriarch
is described.
With the desire of forming a people who
should be specially His own in the midst of the idolatrous nations of the world
(Gradual and Tract), almighty God chose Abraham as its head and gave him his
name which means Father of many nations, “And He took him from Ur in Chaldee,
and kept him from harm in all his wanderings.”
By faith, St. Paul tells the Hebrews, Abraham, when the call came,
“obeyed and went into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing whither he
went.” It was by faith, that he obtained
the Land of Canaan, where he lived more than twenty-five years as a stranger;
that in his old age he became the father of Isaac and did not hesitate to offer
him in sacrifice at God’s command. Although he was his only son in whom lay all
his hope that the divine promises concerning numerous posterity for himself
would be fulfilled. “Accounting that God
is able to raise up even from the dead.
Whereupon also he received him for a parable.” Indeed, it was as a type of Christ that Isaac
was chosen “to be the most glorious victim of his father,” that he carried the
bundle of wood on which he was about to be sacrificed, just as our Lord carried
the Cross on which he merited glory by His Passion; that his place was taken by
a ram caught by its horns in a thicket of brambles, just as, according to the
Fathers, Jesus the Lamb of God had His sacred head entangled in the thorns of
His Crown; and above all that, being miraculously delivered from death he was
in some sense restored to life to proclaim that Christ having been put to death
should rise again.
Thus, by his faith, Abraham, who without
hesitation believed in what was to come to pass, contemplated from afar our
Lord’s triumph on the Cross and rejoiced in it.
It was then that God confirmed the promises to him: “Because thou hast
not spared the only-begotten son for my sake, I will bless thee, and I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea
shore.” It was Christ who fulfilled
these promises by His Passion. As St.
Paul says: “Christ hath redeemed us…(for it is written, cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree), that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Christ Jesus; that we may receive the promises of the Spirit
by faith, that is the Spirit of adoption which has been promised to us. It is for this reason that in the prayer
which follows the lesson about Abraham on Holy Saturday, almighty God is
addressed as “the supreme Father of all the faithful, who all over the world
multipliest the children of Thy promise by diffusing the grace of Thy adoption:
and by this Paschal Sacrament makest Thy servant Abraham, according to Thy
oath, the father of all nations.”
In reality it is by baptism with water,
which was formerly administered at Easter, and of the Holy Ghost suggesting
Pentecost, that having been made children of Abraham we enter upon the
inheritance promised to us, that is the Church, the Heavenly Jerusalem, of
which the Holy Land was a type. The
Church prays on Holy Saturday: “Grant that all the nations of the world may
become the children of Abraham, and by holy adoption, multiply the sons of the
promise.” We can see from this why
today’s station is made at St. Peter’s, since the prince of the apostles was
chosen by Christ to be the Head of the Church in a still more excellent sense
than Abraham, “the father of all them that believe.”
Faith in Christ, dead and risen again, is
the subject of the Gospel, that faith by which Abraham merited to become the
Father of all nations and which enables us to become his children. We read how Christ foretold His Passion and
His victory and how He restored the sight of a blind man, and told him: “Thy
faith hath saved thee.” And this St.
Gregory comments: “This blind man recovered his sight under the very eyes of
the apostles so that to have seen deeds wrought by the divine power might
strengthen the faith of those who could not yet grasp the message that a
heavenly mystery was revealed to the world.
Indeed it was necessary that when later they should see our Lord die in
the very way foretold by Him, they should have no doubt at all that He must
also rise from the dead.”
In the epistle, in its turn, Abraham’s
faith is set forth in all its merit and we are told what our own faith should
be like. “So faith also,” writes St.
James, “if it hath not works, is dead in itself. Wilt thou know that faith without works is
dead? Was not Abraham our father
justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou, that faith did cooperate with his
works; and by works faith was made perfect?
And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God and it was
reputed to him to justice, and he was called the friend of God. Do you see that by works a man is justified,
and not be faith only?”
A man is not saved by being a son of
Abraham according to the flesh but by being Abraham’s son by means of a faith
like his. So St. Paul writes: “In Christ
Jesus neither circumcision (to be a Jew) availeth anything, nor uncircumcision
(to be a Gentile), but a new creature.”
“Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself
for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness.”
If the custom of allowing ourselves a
little relaxation of spirit, before undertaking the Lenten penance which binds
us all, is of liturgical origin, let us not forget that the Church condemns all
excess. To atone therefore, for those
sins, that are committed, let us make a solemn adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament, beside saying this prayer of reconciliation known as the Forty
Hours’ prayer, which was instituted either by St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria
(+1539), or by the Capuchin Father Joseph a Ferno (about 1636), a prayer richly
indulgenced by Pope Clement XIII in 1765.
INTROIT:
Ps.
30. Be
Thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, to save me: for Thou
art my strength and my refuge: and for Thy name’s sake Thou wilt lead me, and
nourish me.
Ps. In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be
confounded: deliver me in Thy justice, and set me free. Glory be, etc. Be Thou unto me a God, etc.
COLLECT:
O Lord, we beseech Thee,
graciously hear our prayers, that we, being loosed from all chains of our sins,
may by Thee be defended against all adversity. Through our Lord, etc.
O God, who dost gladden us by the
yearly festival of Thy holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita, show us Thy favor,
and grant that we who rejoice in their merits may be inspired by their example.
Through our Lord, etc.
From all perils of soul and body
defend us, O Lord, we beseech Thee, and by the intercession of the blessed and
glorious ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of blessed Joseph, of Thy blessed
Apostles Peter and Paul, and all the Saints, graciously grant us safety and
peace, that all adversities and errors being overcome, Thy Church may serve
Thee in security and freedom. Through
our Lord, etc.
EPISTLE: 1 Cor. 13, 1-13
Brethren,
If I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels, and have not charity, I am
become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy,
and should know all mysteries and all knowledge: and if I should have all faith
so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I
should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my
body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity is
patient, is kind: Charity envieth not, dealing not perversely, is not puffed
up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh
no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth: beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity
never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall
cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. For we know in part, and we prophesy in
part. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be
done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.
We see now through a glass in a dark manner: but then face to face. Now I know
in part: but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith,
hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
EXPLANATION In this epistle St. Paul speaks of the necessity, the excellence and the nature of true charity. He says that all natural and supernatural gifts, all good works, even martyrdom, cannot save us if we have not charity; because love alone can render our works pleasing to God. Without charity, therefore, though ever so many prayers be recited, fasts observed, and good deeds performed, nothing will be acceptable to God, or merit eternal life. Strive then, O Christian soul, to lead a pious life in love, and to remain always in the state of grace.
Can faith alone, as the
so-called Reformers assert, render man just and save him?
Faith alone, however strong, though it could move mountains, without love, that is, without good works performed for love of God and our neighbor, can never justify or save us. For, when St. Paul says, that man is justified by faith without works (Rom. 3, 28; 11, 6; Eph. 2, 8-9), he means to refer to those works which were performed by command of the law of Moses, and which, as they were external and without true charity, were of no avail; he did not refer to those works which are performed in a state of grace with a lively, love-inspired faith. Therefore the same Apostle writes to the Galatians (Gal. 5, 6): Faith only availeth which worketh by charity; to Titus (Tit. 3, 8): It is a faithful saying: and these things I will have thee affirm constantly: that they who believe in God, may be careful to excel in good works. These things are good and profitable unto men; and he exhorts the Colossians (Col. 1, 10) to be fruitful in every good work. St. James confirms the same by saying (James 2, 17-24): So faith if it have not works, is dead in itself; by works man is justified and not by faith only. That this is the true doctrine of Christ is evident from His own words, when He says: "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and shall be cast into the fire" (Matt. 7, 19). At the day of judgment Christ will demand good works from all men (Matt. 25, 35), and will not judge them only according to their faith, but by their good works, which true faith must always produce (Apoc. 20, 12). Would Christ and His apostles demand good works, if faith alone be sufficient? "The devils also believe and tremble" (James 2, 19), they believe, but they are not saved, and their faith but increases their torments. Therefore, the assertion that faith without good works is sufficient for justification and salvation, is plainly against the doctrine of Christ and His Church, and must of necessity lead man to vice and misery, as shown by the history of the unhappy separation of the sixteenth century
Are good works available
which are performed in the state of mortal sin?
Good works performed while in a state of mortal sin
avail nothing in regard to eternal life, writes St. Lawrence Justinian, but aid
in moderating the punishment imposed for disobedience and the transgression of
God's commandments. They bring temporal goods, such as honor, long life,
health, earthly happiness, etc.; they prevent us from falling deeper into sin,
and prepare the heart for the reception of grace; so the pious Person writes:
"Do as much good as you can, even though in the state of mortal sin, that
God may give light to your heart."
ASPIRATION
O God of love, pour the spirit of true charity into my heart that, according to
the spirit of St. Paul, I may endeavor to be always in a state of grace; that
all my works may be pleasing to Thee, and meritorious for me.
GRADUAL:
Ps.
76. Thou
art the God that alone dost wonders: Thou hast made Thy power known among the
nations. With Thy arm Thou hast
delivered Thy people, the children of Israel and of Joseph.
TRACT:
Ps.
99. Sing
joyfully to God, all the earth: serve ye the Lord with gladness. Come in before His presence with exceeding
great joy: know ye that the Lord He is God.
He made us, and not we ourselves: but we are His people, and the sheep
of His pasture.
GOSPEL: Luke
18,31-43
At that time Jesus took unto Him
the twelve men and said to them: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things
shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of
Man. For He shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and
scourged and spit upon: and after they have scourged Him, they will put Him to
death, and the third day He shall rise again. And they understood none of those
things, and this word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that
were said. Now it came to pass, when He drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain
blind man sat by the wayside, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing
by, he asked what this meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was
passing by. And he cried out, saying: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
And they that went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he
cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus standing,
commanded him to be brought unto Him. And when he was come near, He asked him,
saying: What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord, that I may see.
And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight, they faith hath made thee whole. And
immediately he saw and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when
they saw it, gave praise to God.
Why did Christ so often
foretell His passion to His disciples?
Because He wanted to show how great was His desire
to suffer for us, for we speak often of that which we crave; and because He
wished His disciples when they should see Him treated as a criminal and
martyred, not to think evil of Him, or imagine themselves deceived, but
remember that He had foretold all minutely that all happened of His own will.
Did not the
disciples understand anything of what He predicted in regard to His future
sufferings?
They
may, certainly, have well understood He was to suffer, for which reason Peter
tried to dissuade Him from it (Matt. 16, 22); but they did not comprehend why
or for what He would suffer, or how He would rise again. All this the Holy
Ghost gave them to understand, after it had come to pass (John 14, 26). The
light of the Holy Ghost is of so much value, that without it even the clearest
doctrines of faith are not understood.
Why does Christ so often call
Himself the Son of Man?
He wished to show, in the Jewish way of speaking, He was also man, a descendant of Adam, and that we should be humble, and not seek or desire high titles.
Why did the blind man call
Christ the Son of David?
Because, like all the Jews, he believed that the Messiah, according to humanity, would be of the house of David, as was promised (Ps. 131, 11).
Why did Christ ask the blind
man: What wilt thou that I do to thee?
This He asked, not because He was unaware of the blind man's wish, but to enable him the better to prove his faith and hope that through Christ he would receive his sight; and to teach us how willing He is to help us, and how it pleases Him if we confidingly place our wants before Him. We should learn from this blind man, who would not be restrained by the passing crowd in his ardent and reiterated request, not to pay attention, in the work we have commenced, to human respect, or human judgment, but to persevere, and not allow ourselves to be led astray by the world's mockery or contempt. We should also learn to be grateful to God, and faithfully cling to Him, if He has once opened the eyes of our mind, and healed our spiritual blindness, which is far more deplorable than physical blindness, for nothing can be more miserable than not to see and understand God, not to know what is necessary for our salvation, and what is pernicious.
Why is this gospel read on
this Sunday?
The Church wishes to remind us of the painful passion and death of Jesus, and to move us by the contemplation of those mysteries to avoid and despise the wicked, heathenish amusements of carnival, sinful pleasures which she has always condemned, because they come from dark paganism, and, to avert the people from them, commands that during the three days of carnival the Blessed Sacrament shall be exposed for public adoration, sermons given, and the faithful exhorted to have recourse at this time to the Sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, with the reception of which Pope Clement XIII (Breve. June 23, 1765) connected a plenary indulgence. A true Catholic will conform to the desire of his holy Church, considering the words which St. Augustine spoke, at this time, to the faithful, "The heathens (as also the worldly people of our days) shout songs of love and merriment, but you should delight in the preaching of the word of God; they rush to the dramatic plays, but you should hasten to Church; they are intoxicated, but you should fast and be sober."
PRAYER O most
benign Jesus! who didst so desire to suffer for us, grant, that we may
willingly suffer for love of Thee; that we may hate and flee from the
detestable pleasures of the world and the flesh, and practice penance and
mortification, that by so doing we may merit to be released from our spiritual
blindness to love Thee more and more ardently, and finally possess Thee
forever.
OFFERTORY:
Ps. 118. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach
me Thy justifications; with my lips I have pronounced all the judgments of Thy
mouth.
SECRET:
May
this victim, O Lord, we beseech Thee, cleanse our offenses, and sanctify the
bodies and souls of Thy subjects to celebrate this sacrifice. Through our Lord, etc.
Be
nigh, O Lord, unto our prayers, which we offer Thee in memory of Thy Saints;
that we who trust not in our own righteousness, may be helped by the merits of
those who have been pleasing unto Thee.
Through our Lord, etc.
Hear
us, O God, our salvation, that through the power of this sacrament Thou mayest
defend us from all enemies of soul and body and bestow upon us grace here and
glory hereafter. Through our Lord, etc.
COMMUNION:
Ps.
77. They
did eat and were filled exceedingly, and the Lord gave them their desire: they
were not defrauded of that which they craved.
POSTCOMMUNION:
We beseech Thee, almighty God,
that we who have received heavenly nourishment may thereby be fortified against
all adversity. Through our Lord, etc.
Plentifully nourished by the
saving mysteries, we ask, O Lord, that we may find help in the prayers of those
whose festival we keep. Through our
Lord, etc.
May the offering of this divine
sacrament cleanse and protect us, O Lord, we beseech Thee; and by the
intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of blessed Joseph, of
the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and all the Saints, may it purify us from
all sin and free us from all adversity.
Through our Lord, etc.
But he cried out much
more: Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus standing, commanded him to be
brought unto Him…. What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord, that I
may see. And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight, they faith hath made thee
whole.
I...fill up
those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, for His
Body, which is the Church. St. Paul
(Col. 1, 24)
When the fullness of time came, the Son of God, who was also Son of
Abraham, declared His eternal Father’s power, by saying that He was about to
raise up a new progeny of Abraham’s children from the very stones, that is,
from the Gentiles. We Christians are
this new generation. But are we worthy
children of our father? Let us listen to
the apostle of the Gentiles: ‘By faith, Abraham, when called (by God), obeyed
to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance: and he went
out not knowing whither he went. By
faith, he abode in the land, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the
co-heirs of the same promise; for he looked for a city that hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God.’ If,
therefore, we be children of Abraham, we must look upon ourselves as exiles on
the earth, and dwell by hope and desire in that true country of ours, from
which we are now banished, but towards which we are each day drawing nigher,
if, like Abraham, we are faithful in the various stations allotted us by our
Lord.
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical
Year, Quinquagesima Sunday
PROPER OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 15th:
Date
Day Feast
Rank Color F/A Time
|
15 |
Sun |
Quinquagesima
Sunday Ss. Faustina & Jovita,
Mm |
sd |
V |
|
Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions
8:00 AM; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 |
|
16 |
Mon |
Ferial Day |
|
V |
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation Before Mass |
|
17 |
Tue |
Ferial Day |
|
V |
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation Before Mass |
|
18 |
Wed |
Ash Wednesday |
|
V |
F/A |
Mass 8:30 AM & 6:00
PM; Rosary of Reparation Before Mass; Confessions 5:30 PM |
|
19 |
Thu |
Ferial Day |
|
V |
F |
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation Before Mass |
|
20 |
Fri |
Ferial Day Crown of Thorns of DNJC |
|
V |
F/A |
Mass 8:30 AM and 6:00 PM;
Rosary of Reparation Before Mass; Stations of the Cross 5:30 PM |
|
21 |
Sat |
Ferial Day |
|
V |
F |
Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions
8:00 AM; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 |
|
22 |
Sun |
1st
Sunday of Lent St. Peter's Chair at Antioch St. Paul, Ap |
sd |
V |
|
Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions
8:00 AM; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 |
FOOTNOTE
for LENT: This Sunday is the last in the season
of Septuagesima whose purpose is to prepare us for Lent. We have covered during the last weeks the Sin
of Adam and our consequent fallen nature with Original Sin, the general
corruption of mankind and its destruction in the flood sparing only Noah and
his family where the Ark is a type of the Church, and, beginning this week of
Quinquagesima, the promise made to our patriarch Abraham for the Redeemer to
come after his willing sacrifice of his “only-begotten son” Isaac. The Novus
Ordo has thrown out this entire season ultimately because the deny Original Sin
and the consequences of a fallen human nature. It follows quite reasonable that
the Novus Ordo prescribes no penance for Lent outside of the meaningless
abstinence from meat on Fridays, and fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Jesus Christ said, “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise
perish.…. No, I say to you; but except
you do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13: 3, 5). The Church has
always and everywhere in every rite prescribed the necessary penance for “all”
the faithful so that we may not “all likewise perish.” Penance is not
prescribed in the Novus Ordo Church because Dogma is not their rule of faith.
The faithful must keep a holy Lent not only so that they may not “perish,” but
also because prayer and penance are needed as reparation for those Catholics
who do not.
[......]The events succeed
one another more quickly. The Latin motus
in fine velocior is commonly used to indicate the faster passing of the
time at the end of an historical period. The multiplication of events, in fact,
shortens the course of time, which in itself does not exist outside of the
things that flow. Time, says Aristotle, is the measure of movement (Physics,
IV, 219 b). More precisely we define it as the duration of changeable things.
God is eternal precisely because He is immutable: every moment has its cause in
Him, but nothing in Him changes. The more one distances himself from God the
more chaos, produced by the change, increases.
February 11 (the announcement
by Benedict XVI to resign) marked the start of an acceleration of time, which
is the consequence of a movement which is becoming vertiginous. We are living
through an historical hour which is not necessarily the end of times, but
certainly the end of a civilization and the termination of an epoch in the life
of the Church. If at the end of this epoch, the clergy and lay Catholics do not
take their responsibility very seriously, there will inevitably be realized
that fate which the visionary of Fatima saw unveiled before her own eyes:
And we saw in an immense
light that is God: “something similar to how people appear in a mirror when
they pass in front of it” a Bishop dressed in White “we had the impression that
it was the Holy Father.” Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious were
going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of
rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the
Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with
halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the
corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees
at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired
bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the
other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of
different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two
Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up
the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their
way to God.
The dramatic vision of May 13
should be more than sufficient to urge us to meditate, pray and act. The city
is already in ruins and the enemy soldiers are at the gates. He who loves the
Church let him defend Her, to hasten the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary.
Roberto de Mattei, Motus In Fine
Velocior, Catholic Historian, February 12, 2014
The gravity of sin is
determined by the interval which it places between man and God; now sin against
faith, divides man from God as far as possible, since it deprives him of the
true knowledge of God; it therefore follows that sin against faith is the
greatest of all sins.
St. Thomas Aquinas
The saying of St Gregory has
ever been impressed on my mind : that no small portion of mankind are more
moved to the desire of heavenly things by example than by argument. The reason
is a simple one: by the way of authority and argument we come to know the truth
confusedly, and in the abstract only; but by the light of example we see it
clearly and in action: reason and authority prove that virtue ought to be
practiced; but facts show that it is really practiced : and this is why
examples have more power to move our souls. One thing, at least, is certain,
that the one and the other combined, are more efficacious than either singly,
to excite our will to the performance of good works.
Fr. John Baptist Scaramelli, S.
J. (1687-1752), Guide to the Spiritual Life
Liberalism is a heresy
in the doctrinal order, because heresy is the formal and obstinate denial of
all Christian dogmas in general. It repudiates dogma altogether and substitutes
opinion, whether that opinion be doctrinal or the negation of doctrine.
Consequently it denies every doctrine in particular. If we were to examine in
detail all the doctrines or dogmas which, within the range of Liberalism, have
been denied, we would find every Christian dogma in one way or the other
rejected-----from
the dogma of the Incarnation to that of Infallibility…. We may then say of
Liberalism: in the order of ideas it is absolute error; in the order of
facts it is absolute disorder. It is therefore, in both cases a very
grievous and deadly sin, for sin is rebellion against God in thought or in deed,
the enthronement of the creature in the place of the Creator.
Don Felix Sarda Y Salvany, Liberalism Is a Sin
The Church of Christ, animated by the same
Divine Spirit of truth which inspired the holy Apostle Paul, has at all times
regulated her conduct according to the model set before her in his words and
example,". . . contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the
Saints." (Jude 1, 3); her continual care is ". . . to keep that which
is committed to thy trust" pure and undefiled, "avoiding all profane
novelties of words . . ." (1 Tim. 6, 20); that the sacred words of God,
". . . I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth . . .
from henceforth and for ever" (Isa. 59, 21). She therefore knows not what
it is to temporize in religion, in order to please men, not to adulterate the
Gospel of Christ to humor them; she declares the sacred truths revealed by
Jesus Christ in their original simplicity, without seeking to adorn them with
the persuasive words of human wisdom, much less to disguise them in a garb not
their own… If ever there was a time when this conduct of the Church was
necessary, the present age seems particularly to demand it. At present the
gates of Hell seem opened, and infidelity of every kind stalks lawless on the
earth; the sacred truths of religion are reviled and denied, the Gospel
adulterated by countless contradictory interpretations; its original simplicity
disfigured by loftiness of speech and the persuasive words of human wisdom. A
thousand condescensions and compliances are permitted in the unchangeable
doctrines of Faith and the pure maxims of morality and "the narrow way
that leads to life" converted into "the broad road that leads to
destruction."
Bishop George Hay of Scotland [1729-1811], The Sincere Christian
Space
does not allow of lengthy quotations from papal documents to show that, on the
one hand, the sovereign pontiffs insist that Catholics must stand unflinchingly
for the integral rights of Christ the King as contained in the papal encyclicals,
while, on the other hand, keeping their minds and hearts free from hatred of
Our Lord’s own nation according to the flesh. On the one hand, they must battle
for the rights of Christ the King and the supernatural organization of society
as laid down in the encyclical Quas Primas, unequivocally proclaiming
that the rejection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the True Messias, by His own
nation, and the unyielding opposition of that nation to Him, are a fundamental
source of disorder and conflict in the world. On the other hand, as members of
Our Lord Jesus Christ, Catholics should neither hate the members of that nation
in which, through our Blessed Mother, the Lily of Israel, the Second Person of
the Blessed Trinity assumed human nature, nor deny them their legitimate rights
as persons.
The
supernatural elevation of mind and heart and the unshrinking fortitude that are
required from members of Christ in our day can be maintained only with the aid
of Him who wept over Jerusalem’s rejection of order. It will inevitably mean
suffering for Christ’s faithful members as the power of the anti-supernatural
forces in the world increases. Even in the midst of their suffering, however,
Christ’s members must bear in mind that there will be a glorious triumph for
Christ the King.
Father Denis Fahey,
C.S.Sp., B.A., D. Ph.D, D.D., On Anti-Semitism
What shall the Catholic do
... if some new contagion attempts to poison, no longer a small part of the
Church, but the whole Church at once,
then his great concern will be to attach himself to antiquity which can no
longer be led astray by any lying novelty.
St. Vincent of Lerins,
Church Father of the 5th century
Near the end
of his life (St. Pio of Pietrelcina) he didn’t talk much. We told him our thoughts, we asked him for
help, but all he did was to show us the Rosary, always the Rosary. The day before he died he said, “Love the
Blessed Mother and make her loved.
Always say the Rosary.
A witness to
the last days of St. Pio of Pietrelcina
INSTRUCTION ON LENT
Who instituted Lent?
According to the fathers of the Church, Justin and Irenaeus, the fast before Easter was instituted and sanctified by Christ Himself; according to the saints Leo and Jerome, the holy apostles ordained it given by Jesus.
Why has the Church
instituted this fast forty days before Easter?
To imitate Christ who fasted forty days; to participate in His merits and sufferings; to subject our flesh by voluntary mortification to the spirit, and to mortify our evil desires as did St. Paul (Col. 1, 24); to enable us to lead a pure life, and thus prepare for the holy festival of Easter, and the reception of the divine Lamb, Jesus: and, finally, to render God satisfaction for our sins, and do penance, as Pope Gregory says, for the sins of one whole year by one short fast, lasting only the tenth part of a year.
Was the fast of Lent
observed in early times as in the present?
Yes, but more strictly; for the people of the early ages not only abstained from meat, but also from all that which is connected with it, such as eggs, butter, cheese, etc., even from wine and fish, although this was not the general command of the Church; they fasted all day, and only ate in the evening after vespers, in remembrance of which, vespers are now said before dinner-time, because the Church, as a kind mother, now permits the supper to be changed into a dinner, and also allows something to be taken in the evening, that the body may not be too much weakened, and become unfit for labor.
How much does this ancient custom put to shame the Christians of today who think the fast in our times too severe! "But," asks St. Ambrose, "What sort of Christians are they? Christ, who never sinned fasted for our sins, and we will not fast for our own great and numerous offences?"
How should the holy season
of Lent be spent?
As according to the teaching of St. Leo, the main thing in fasting is not that the body be deprived of food, but that the mind at the same time be withdrawn from wickedness, we should endeavor during Lent, not only to be temperate in eating and drinking, but especially to lead a modest life, sanctifying the days by persevering prayer and devoutly attending church.
PRAYER AT THE BEGINNING OF LENT
Almighty God! I unite myself at the beginning of this holy season of penance with the Church militant, endeavoring to make these days of real sorrow for my sins and crucifixion of the sensual man. O Lord Jesus! in union with Thy fasting and passion, I offer Thee my fasting in obedience to the Church, for Thy honor, and in thanksgiving for the many favors I have received, in satisfaction for my sins and the sins of others, and that I may receive the grace to avoid such and such a sin, N. N. and to practice such and such a virtue, N. N.
ASH WEDNESDAY
Why is this day thus named?
Because on this day the Church blesses ashes, and places them on the heads of her faithful children, saying: "Remember man, thou art dust, and unto dust thou shaft return."
Why is this done?
St. Charles Borromeo gives us the following reasons for this practice: that the faithful may be moved to sincere humility of heart; that the heavenly blessing may descend upon them, by which they, being really penitent, will weep with their whole soul for their sins, remembering how earth was cursed because of sin, and that we have all to return to dust; that strength to do true penance may be given the body, and that our soul may be endowed with divine grace to persevere in penance.
With such thoughts let the ashes
be put upon your head, while you ask in all humility and with a contrite heart,
for God’s mercy and grace.
Is the practice of putting ashes upon our heads pleasing to God?
It is, for God Himself commanded
the Israelites to put ashes on their heads for a sign of repentance (Jer. 25,
34). Thus did David (Ps. 101, 10) who even strewed ashes on his bread; the
Ninivites (Jonas 3, 5), Judith (Jud. 9, 1), Mardochai (Esth. 4, 1), Job (Job
42, 6) etc. The Christians of the earliest times followed this practice as
often as they did public penance for their sins.
Why from this day until the end
of Lent are the altars draped in violet?
Because, as has been already said, the holy season of Lent is a time of sorrow and penance for sin, and the Church desires externally to demonstrate by the violet with which she drapes the altar, by the violet vestments worn by the priests, and by the cessation of the organ and festive singing, that we in quiet mourning are bewailing our sins; and to still further impress the spirit of penance upon us, there is usually only a simple crucifix or a picture of Christ's passion, left visible upon the altar, and devoutly meditating upon it, the heart is mostly prepared for contrition.
I cannot for a moment approve
the conduct of one who, whilst he is bound by one course of duty, or by one
line of vocation, occupies himself with desires of some other kind of life
which lies outside his sphere of action, or who adopts practices incompatible
with his present state ; for this kind of behaviour only wastes the affections
of the heart, making it feeble in the performance of the duties that are of
obligation.
St. Francis de Sales
The tenth characteristic (of
Satanic influence) is the alienation from Jesus Christ and His imitation. As a proof of this, it is enough to recall
the great aversion towards the Person of the Redeemer, on the part of the false
contemplatives and heretics in whom the diabolical spirit triumphs: the former
forbidding meditation on Him and cancelling His memory from the mind; the
latter impeding His worship and veneration.
Fr. John Baptist Scaramelli, S.
J. (1687-1752), The Discernment of
Spirits for the Right Ruling of Our Own and Others' Actions, quoted by Don
Pietro Leone Monselice, The Destruction
of the Roman Rite, and applied to the Novus Ordo
I am out of heart seeing my own inability, but am made stronger
by my very weakness. I am buoyed up with confidence in that God, Who gives
speech to the dumb, Who makes eloquent the tongues of little ones, and has even
moved to utterance the tongue of a brute. And why have not I sufficient grounds
for hope that God will infuse into my dull mind the gift of understanding, if
when His glory require it, He knows how to put words of truth into the mouth of
even irrational creatures? Encouraged by this consideration, I am no longer in
alarm concerning the success of my work, much as I stand in dread of myself;
and now I boldly put my hand to the work.
St. Gregory the Great, preface
to his commentary on the Book of Job
My children, I am going the way
my fathers have gone before me; God is calling me to Him, and I myself yearn to
be amid the heavenly choirs. My heart’s love (for thus was he wont to call his
spiritual offspring), waste not in a moment the labours you have undergone
during so many years ; and, lest you may, imagine to yourselves that each day
of your religious life is the first in which you enter upon the career of
perfection, so that by this renewed purpose your wills may be strengthened ever
to go forward and to make progress in virtue.
St. Anthony of the Desert, on
his death bed as recorded by St. Athanasius
"Whosoever,
then, would be a perfect Christian, let him utterly forget all the good he has
done in time past, and let him keep the eyes of his mind, and the desire of his
soul, ever fixed on the good which yet remains to be done in the time to
come."
St Bernard
No one presumes to teach an art
unless he have first learned it by intent application. It is a great temerity, for Pastors who are
unskilled, to assume the pastoral office, for the government of souls is the
Art of Arts.
St. Gregory the Great
We must remember that
if all the manifestly good men were on one side and all the manifestly bad
men on the other, there would be no danger of anyone, least of all
the elect, being deceived by lying wonders. It is the good men, good
once, we must hope good still, who are to do the work of Anti-Christ and
so sadly to crucify the Lord afresh…. Bear in mind this feature of
the last days, that this deceitfulness arises from good men being on the
wrong side.
Fr. Frederick Faber, Sermon for Pentecost Sunday, 1861; quoted
in Fr. Denis Fahey
PREDICTION
OF THE PASSION QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY
PRESENCE OF GOD
‑ O Jesus, give me light to understand the mystery and the value of
Christian suffering.
MEDITATION:
I. Lent
is approaching and our thoughts turn spontaneously to the sorrows of Jesus. Today's
Gospel (Lk 18,31‑43) brings us an announcement of the Passion.
The prediction is clear: "The Son of
Man. . . shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and scourged
and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will put Him to death;
and the third day He shall rise again." However, as on other occasions,
the Apostles "understood none of these things, and this word was hid from them."
They did not understand because they imagined that Jesus' mission was like an
earthly conqueror's and that He would re‑establish the kingdom of Israel.
Since they dreamed only of triumphs and of occupying the first places in the
kingdom, any allusion to the Passion upset and scandalized them.
To those who dream only of prosperity and earthly
glory, the language of the Cross is incomprehensible. Those who have a purely
material ideal of life find it very difficult to understand any spiritual
significance, and especially that of suffering. St. Paul said that Christ
Crucified was "unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles
foolishness" (1 Cor 1,23). Rebuking St. Peter, who at the first
mention of the Passion had exclaimed, "Lord, be it far from Thee this
shall not be unto Thee," Jesus had said, "Go behind Me, Satan . . .
because thou savorest not the things that are of God, but the things that are
of men" (Mt 16,22-23). To human wisdom, suffering is
incomprehensible; it is disconcerting; it can lead one to murmur against divine
Providence and even to lose all trust in God. However, according to the wisdom
of God, suffering is a means of salvation and redemption. And as it was
necessary "for Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into
His glory" (cf. Lk 24,26), it is also necessary for the Christian
to be refined in the crucible of sorrow in order to attain to sanctity, to
eternal life.
2.
It was not until after the descent of the
Holy Spirit that the Apostles fully understood the meaning of the Passion; then,
instead of being scandalized, they considered it the greatest honor to follow
and to preach Christ Crucified.
The human eye has not sufficient light to comprehend
the value of the Cross; it needs a new light, the light of the Holy Spirit. It
is not by chance that in today's Gospel, immediately after the prediction of
the Passion, we find the healing of the blind man of Jericho. We are always
somewhat blind when faced with the mystery of suffering; when it strikes us in
what we hold most near and dear, it is easy to get lost and to grope our way
like blind men through uncertainty and darkness. The Church invites us to repeat
today the blind man's prayer of faith: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on
me!"
The world is often astonished at the sufferings
of the good, and instead of encouraging them in their reliance on God, seeks to
turn them from Him by urging them to defiance and false fear. Our passions
themselves, our innate tendencies toward pleasure, often cry out to us and try,
by a thousand pretexts, to prevent us from following Jesus Crucified. Let us
remain steadfast in our faith, like the poor blind man. He was not disturbed by
the crowd that tried to keep him from approaching Jesus, and he did not give up
when the disciples remonstrated with him and wanted him to be quiet; he only
shouted his prayer "even more loudly."
Let us cry to the Lord from the bottom of our
hearts: "De profundis clamo ad te, Domine; Domine audi vocem meam!" (Ps
129). Let us ask, not to be exempt from suffering, but to be enlightened as to
its value. "Lord, that I may see!" As soon as the blind man recovered
his sight, he immediately followed Jesus, "glorifying God!" The
supernatural light which we seek from the Lord will give us the strength to
follow Him and to carry our cross as He did.
COLLOQUY:
“O Jesus Christ, Son of the eternal Father, our
Lord, true King of all things! What didst Thou leave in the world for Thy descendants
to inherit from Thee? What didst Thou ever have, my Lord, save trials, pains,
and insults? Indeed Thou hadst only a beam of wood to rest upon while drinking
the bitter draught of death. Those of us, then, my God, who desire to be Thy
true children and not to renounce their inheritance, must never flee from
suffering. Thy crest is five wounds!... So that too must be our device if we
would inherit His kingdom! Not by ease, nor by comfort, nor by honor, nor by
wealth can we gain that which He purchased for us by so much Blood. O you who
come of illustrious lineage, for the love of God open your eyes. Behold those
true knights of Jesus Christ, the princes of His Church, St. Peter and St.
Paul: never did they travel by the road you are taking. Can you be imagining
that a new road is to be built for you? Do not think that for a moment'' (T.J.
F, 10).
Prayer
for the Grace to Embrace the Cross
O my
Jesus, the Cross is Your standard I should be ashamed to ask to be delivered
from it. From one evil only ardently beg You to preserve me: from any
deliberate sin, however slight. O Lord, I beg You by the merits of Your sacred
Passion to keep all sin far from me. But as for other evils‑ bodily or
spiritual sufferings, physical pain or mental anguish‑ I beg Your light
and strength : light to understand the hidden meaning which they have in the
plans of Your divine Providence, light to believe firmly that every sorrow or
trial, every pain or disappointment, is planned by You for my greater good;
strength not to let myself be influenced by the false maxims of the world or
led astray by the vain mirage of earthly happiness, strength to accept
suffering of any kind with courage and love.
On
The Mystical Life
The spiritual life in general
is considered to have three principal divisions, through which in some degree
all those who save their souls must pass. They are indicated by the Psalmist:
Turn away from evil and do good:
seek after peace and pursue it. Psalm 33:15,
and repeated by St. Peter:
Let him decline from evil, and
do good: let him seek after peace and pursue it. 1 Peter 3:11
"Turn away from
evil." The purification of the soul from all sin, mortal and venial, and
from all affections and desires that are not for God, is the first stage of the
spiritual life, and is called the "purgative state," or the state of
purification.
"Do good." These two
words indicate the second stage of the soul's life, which is called the
"illuminative state," and consists in meditating on and practically
imitating the life and virtues of Jesus Christ, the light of the world. The
third stage is called the "unitive way," because the purified soul,
formed after the model of Christ, does all that is possible to unite itself to
God in perfect love.
In these three ways, the ways
of the Lord, all must walk continually. The beginner, though still unpurified,
must try to follow our Lord and to be united to God by love, and the soul most
advanced in perfection will always find defects to be amended and virtue to be
practiced more generously. But at first the chief work will be to purify the
soul, while after a time the main object will be to form virtuous habits by
imitating the life of Christ, and at last the union of love will be the one
absorbing thought and desire. This union can be always made more and more
perfect; it can increase without measure.
[……..]
The spiritual life is essentially the same in every soul. Every
baptized person receives sanctifying grace, as the principle of all holy life,
and with it the supernatural virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. All have
to be purified from sin, to practise virtue, and to be united to God by
charity. But some do this much more perfectly than others. Many pass through
their whole lives without much progress. Constantly falling away from God by
sin they come to the end of their probation very little purified, with very
weak virtue and slight union with God, leaving the work of their purification
to be accomplished in the next world. Others make holiness the one object of
their lives, and attain, by God's grace, to very intimate union with Him even
in this mortal state. Of these the Holy Ghost says: "The path of the just
as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even unto perfect day."
Proverbs 4:18
Fr. Bertrand Wilberforce, O.P., (1839-1904), On The Mystical Life
The
Punishment Is Well Under Way
Father, the Most Holy
Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to Her message,
neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on their way but without giving
any importance to Her message. The bad, not seeing the punishment of God
actually falling upon them, continue their life of sin without even caring
about the message. But believe me, Father, God will chastise the world and this
will be in a terrible manner. The punishment from Heaven is imminent. Father,
how much time is there before 1960 arrives? It will be very sad for
everyone, not one person will rejoice at all if beforehand the world does not
pray and do penance. I am not able to give any other details because it is
still a secret. ... Tell them, Father, that many times the most Holy Virgin
told my cousins Francisco and Jacinta, as well as myself, that many nations
will disappear from the face of the earth. She said that Russia will be the
instrument of chastisement chosen by Heaven to punish the whole world if we do
not beforehand obtain the conversion of that poor nation. Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging
in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. And the devil knows what it is
that most offends God and which in a short space of time will gain for him the
greatest number of souls. Thus, the devil does everything to overcome souls
consecrated to God, because in this way, the devil will succeed in leaving the
souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will
he seize them.
Sister Lucy of Fatima,
to Father Augustine Fuentes at her convent in Coimbra, Portugal, December 26,
1957
Let us arise, I pray you, my
children, from this melancholy state; let us put to rights our poor soul,
disordered in all her acts, laid waste in all her powers; let us take courage
anew; let us drive far from us this tepidity, that is working our ruin.
St. Bernard
For ever since the
precepts and practices of Christian wisdom ceased to be observed in the ruling of
states, it followed that, as they contained the peace and stability of
institutions, the very foundations of states necessarily began to be shaken.
Such, moreover, has been the change in the ideas and the morals of men, that
unless God comes soon to our help, the end of civilization would seem to be
at hand.
Pope Benedict XV, Ad
Beatissimi Apostolorum (1914)
And behold an
angel of the Lord from heaven called to him, saying: Abraham, Abraham. And he
answered: Here I am. And he said to him: Lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither
do thou any thing to him: now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared
thy only begotten son for my sake.
Gen. 22:11-12
“Could You Not Watch One
Hour With Me?” (Matt.26, 40)
Holy Hour of Adoration
and Reparation
"He is The Bread sown in the virgin, leavened in the Flesh, molded
in His Passion, baked in the furnace of the Sepulcher, placed in the Churches,
and set upon the Altars, which daily supplies Heavenly Food to the
faithful." St.
Peter Chrysologus (400-450)
For
he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for
my sake, shall find it. Matt 16:25
It would seem that
nothing should be easier or more common for Christians than to look upon God as
their Father, and act towards Him with simplicity, confidence and
abandonment. It is the very spirit of
the New Law, and is what distinguishes it from the Old. One of the fundamental dogmas of our faith is
that God the Father has adopted us in His Son Jesus Christ, and raised us up to
the supernatural state of His children, whereby we are made heirs, indeed, of
God and joint heirs with Christ; an inheritance which gives us a right to
heaven as our home and to the eternal possession of God. This title, child of God, presupposes and
recalls to our minds the chief objects of our faith, is the foundation of our
hope, and the paramount motive of our love.
Yet nothing is rarer among Christians than this filial disposition
towards God; almost all are more inclined to fear than to love Him. They find it exceedingly difficult to have a
complete trust in Him, to the extent of abandoning themselves totally to His
divine Providence. What is so little
known, and even less practiced in the spiritual life and most difficult to human
nature, is the casting of all our care upon Him, in the firm faith that nothing
can be ordained by His Providence that will not work for our good, unless we
ourselves place some obstacle in the way.
This all comes from self-love which would persuade us that our interests
are only safe so long as we have the control of them in our own hands.... St.
Paul lays it down as an axiom of the spiritual life that all things -without exception- work
together unto good to them that love God.
Fr. John Nicholas Grou,
S.J., Spititual Maxims
The 14
promises revealed to Brother Estanislao by Our Lord for those who pray the Way
of the Cross
·
I promise
Eternal Life to those who pray from time to time, The Way of the Cross.
·
I will
grant everything that is asked of Me with faith, when making The Way of the
Cross.
·
I will
follow them everywhere in life and help them, especially at the hour of death.
·
Even if
they have more sins than blades of grass in the fields, and grains of sand in
the sea, all of them will be erased by praying The Way of the Cross.
·
Those who
pray The Way of The Cross often, will have a special glory in Heaven.
·
I will
deliver them from Purgatory, indeed if they go there at all, the first Tuesday
or Friday after their death.
·
At the
hour of death I will not permit the devil to tempt them; I will lift all power
from him in order that they shall repose tranquilly in My Arms.
·
If they
pray it with true love, I will make of each one of them a living Ciborium in
which it will please Me to pour My grace.
·
I will
fix My Eyes on those who pray The Way of The Cross often; My hands will always
be open to protect them.
·
I will
bless them at each Way of The Cross, and My blessing will follow them
everywhere on earth and after their death, in Heaven for all Eternity.
·
As I am
nailed to the Cross, so also will I always be with those who honor Me in making
The Way of The Cross frequently.
·
They will
never be able to separate themselves from Me, for I will give them the grace
never again to commit a Mortal sin.
·
At the
hour of death I will console them with My Presence and we will go together to
Heaven. Death will be sweet to all those who have honored Me during their lives
by praying The Way of the Cross.
·
My Soul
will be a protective shield for them, and will always help them, whenever they
have recourse.
In the Third Secret it is
foretold, among other things, that the Great Apostasy in the Church will begin
at the top.
Cardinal Luigi Ciappi
"But
it did not last long."
I saw many pastors cherishing dangerous ideas against the Church. . . .
They built a large, singular, extravagant church which was to embrace all
creeds with equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics, and all denominations, a
true communion of the unholy with one shepherd and one flock. There was to be a
Pope, a salaried Pope, without possessions. All was made ready, many things
finished; but, in place of an altar, were only abomination and desolation. Such
was the new church to be, and it was for it that he had set fire to the old
one; but God designed
otherwise.
Blessed Anna Katherine Emmerich
I saw also the relationship between the two popes.... I saw how baleful would
be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size; heretics
of every kind came into the city of Rome. The local clergy grew lukewarm, and I
saw a great darkness... Then, the vision seemed to extend on every side. Whole
Catholic communities were being oppressed, harassed, confined, and deprived of
their freedom. I saw many churches close down, great miseries everywhere, wars
and bloodshed. A wild and ignorant mob took to violent action. But it did not
last long.
Blessed Anna Katherine Emmerich, May 13, 1820
Why are those responsible for
this disaster on the fast-track to canonization?
Certainly the results
(of Vatican II) seem cruelly opposed to the expectations of everyone, beginning
with those of Pope John XXIII and then of Pope Paul VI: expected was a new
Catholic unity and instead we have been exposed to dissension which, to use the
words of Pope Paul VI, seems to have gone from self-criticism to
self-destruction. Expected was a new enthusiasm and many wound up discouraged
and bored. Expected was a great step forward, instead we find ourselves faced
with a progressive process of decadence which has developed for the most part
under the sign of a calling back to the Council, and has therefore contributed
to discrediting it for many. The net result therefore seems negative. I am
repeating here what I said ten years after the conclusion of the work: it is
incontrovertible that this period has definitely been unfavorable for the
Catholic Church.
Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, 1984
“From this definition it can be easily
gathered what men belong to the Church and what men do not. For there are three
parts of this definition: the
profession of the true Faith, the communion of the Sacraments, and the
subjection to the legitimate Pastor, the Roman Pontiff. By reason of the
first part are excluded all infidels, as much those who have never been in the
Church, like the Jews, Turks and Pagans; as those who have been and have fallen
away, like heretics and apostates. By reason of the second, are excluded
catechumens and excommunicates, because the former are not to be admitted to
the communion of the sacraments, the latter have been cut off from it. By
reason of the third, are excluded schismatics, who have faith and the
sacraments, but are not subject to the lawful pastor, and therefore they
profess the Faith outside, and receive the Sacraments outside. However, all
others are included, even if they be reprobate, sinful and wicked.”
St. Robert Bellarmine
“. . . we have to admit . . .
that the testimony of the Fathers, with regard to the possibility of salvation
for someone outside the Church, is very weak. Certainly even the ancient Church
knew that the grace of God can be found also outside the Church and even before
Faith. But the view that such divine grace can lead man to his final salvation
without leading him first into the visible Church, is something, at any rate,
which met with very little approval in the ancient Church. For, with reference
to the optimistic views on the salvation of catechumens as found in many of the
Fathers, it must be noted that such a candidate for baptism was regarded in
some sense or other as already ‘Christianus,’ and also that certain Fathers,
such as Gregory Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa deny altogether the justifying
power of love or of the desire for baptism. Hence it will be impossible to
speak of a consensus dogmaticus in the early Church regarding the possibility
of salvation for the non-baptized, and especially for someone who is not even a
catechumen. In fact, even St. Augustine, in his last (anti-pelagian) period, no
longer maintained the possibility of a baptism by desire.”
Rev. Rahner, Karl, Theological
Investigations, Volume II, Man in the Church, translated by Karl H. Kruger,
pp.40, 41, 57
Their articles to
delude men's minds are of two kinds, the first to remove obstacles from their path,
the second to devise and apply actively and patiently every instrument that can
serve their purpose. [Modernists] recognize that the three chief difficulties
for them are scholastic philosophy, the authority of the fathers and tradition,
and the magisterium of the Church, and on these they wage unrelenting war.
Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis
Only those who wish to be trampled upon, ridiculed, humbled, who bear
their cross daily after Jesus, who walk in his footsteps after his example, who
imitate him will be saved.
St. Charles of Mt. Argus, C. P. (John Andrew Houben)
Mary, sweet refuge of miserable sinners, when my soul is on the
point of leaving this world, oh my most sweet Mother, by the
sorrow you endured when assisting at the death of your Son on the Cross,
assist me with your mercy. Drive
the infernal enemy far from me, and you yourself come to take my soul to
yourself and present it to the eternal Judge. My Queen,
abandon me not. You, after Jesus,
have to be my comfort in that
terrible moment. Entreat your beloved Son
in His Goodness, to grant me the
grace to die clinging to your feet,
and to breathe forth my soul in his
wounds, saying, "Jesus and Mary, I give you my heart and my soul." Amen.
St. Charles of Mt. Argus, C. P. (John Andrew Houben), His prayer for a
holy death
.... God has placed us in this
world not to live according to our own will, nor to follow our bad
inclinations; our body and soul and all our faculties must be employed to
please God. The early Christians could
indeed flatter themselves that by keeping themselves in such a rigorous way of
living, in praying, fasting, in performing other austerities, they avoided sin
with so great a care. Alas, that happy
time is no more. Now sin is committed
everywhere; in all places, in all states of life, they commit sin like they
swallow water. What hatred you should
have against sin! You should consider
that sin is rebelling against God and a black ingratitude to the diving
Majesty. Now a creature most noble,
created to the image of God, created to serve and to love, revolts against his
Creator. But, my dear brethren, consider
well that sin ought to be feared more than anything in this world because the
sinner who commits a mortal sin becomes the enemy of God. He does all in his power to destroy his God
and causes a black ingratitude, after having received so many benefits from
God.... especially in this country
(Ireland) in comparison with other countries.
God who is your Father, your Master, your Benefactor is despise, mocked
and derided; his is made to suffer, having favored you so kindly. If you would ever see a person taking his
crucifix in his hands and trampling it under his feet, you should say, ‘What a
wicked person this is.’ Now, a person
who commits a mortal sin does far worse.
St. Charles of Mt. Argus, C. P., (John Andrew Houben) (1821-93),
Missionary to Ireland, Sermon
This Gospel (of St. John) refutes all heresies.
St. Thomas, Prologue of his Commentary on the Gospel of St. John
Heretics
& Schimatics Always Attack the Sacrament of Matrimony - Because It is the Metaphor used by God to
Describe His Union with His Church and with each of His Faithful.
Cardinal Burke:
I cannot accept that Communion can be given to a person in an irregular union
because it is adultery. On the question of people of the same sex, this has
nothing to do with marriage. This is an affliction suffered by some people
whereby they are attracted against nature sexually to people of the same sex.
Question: If
perchance the pope will persist in this direction, what will you do?
Cardinal
Burke: I shall resist, I can do nothing else. There is no doubt that it is a
difficult time; this is clear, this is clear.
The
First Day’s Work of the Consistory: The Vatican EPA
“(A) new sector that
is to be developed: the environment and protection of creation, seen from the
angle of human and environmental ecology, not only from a social angle,” Fr.
Lombardi added.” “We see that there is an increasing awareness and growing
importance of the study of these subjects and we will be given more pointers in
the encyclical the Pope is working on,” the Vatican spokesman told journalists.
This congregation would be the reference point for the Pontifical Academy of
Social Sciences and Caritas Internationalis.
Vatican Insider,
2-12-15
Many of the actions of worldlings, which at
first sight may appear innocent, have a natural and fatal tendency to pervert
the morals of the just; and therefore, we must keep as much as possible at a
distance from their society. --- Ismael was a figure of the synagogue, which
persecuted the Church of Christ in her birth.
Fr. George Leo Haydock, scriptural
commentary, Genesis 21, upon Abraham sending away Ismael with his mother, Agar.
“Mary, sweet refuge of miserable sinners, when my soul is on the
point of leaving this world, oh my most sweet Mother, by the
sorrow you endured when assisting at the death of your Son on the Cross, assist
me with your mercy. Drive the
infernal enemy far from me, and you yourself come to take my soul to yourself
and present it to the eternal Judge. My Queen,
abandon me not. You, after Jesus,
have to be my comfort in that
terrible moment. Entreat your beloved Son
in His Goodness, to grant me the
grace to die clinging to your feet,
and to breathe forth my soul in his
wounds, saying, ‘Jesus and Mary, I give you my heart and my soul.’” Amen.
St. Charles of Mt. Argus, C. P. (John Andrew Houben), His prayer for a
holy death
We should all be dead to sin and live only to serve and love God. God has placed us in this world not to live
according to our own will, nor to follow our bad inclinations;our body and soul
and all our faculties must be employed to please God. The early Christians could indeed flatter
themselves that by keeping themselves in such a rigorous way of living, in
praying, fasting, in performing other austerities, they avoided sin with so
great a care. Alas, that happy time is
no more. Now sin is committed
everywhere; in all places, in all states of life, they commit sin like they
swallow water. What hatred you should
have against sin! You should consider
that sin is rebelling against God and a black ingratitude to the diving
Majesty. Now a creature most noble,
created to the image of God, created to serve and to love, revolts against his
Creator. But, my dear brethren, consider
well that sin ought to be feared more than anything in this world because the
sinner who commits a mortal sin becomes the enemy of God. He does all in his power to destroy his God
and causes a black ingratitude, after having received so many benefits from
God.... especially in this country
(Ireland) in comparison with other countries.
God who is your Father, your Master, your Benefactor is despise, mocked
and derided; his is made to suffer, having favored you so kindly. If you would ever see a person taking his
crucifix in his hands and trampling it under his feet, you should say, ‘What a
wicked person this is.’ Now, a person
who commits a mortal sin does far worse.
St. Charles of Mt. Argus, C. P., (John Andrew Houben) (1821-93),
Missionary to Ireland, Sermon
Gee,
what do you suppose happened in the 1960s that started this “erosion of the
Catholic Faith in Germany”?
One notes in particular in
traditionally Catholic regions a very strong decline in participation at Sunday
Mass, not to mention the sacramental life. Where in the 1960s everywhere
just about all the faithful still participated at Holy Mass every Sunday, today
there are often less than 10 percent. Ever fewer people seek the
sacraments. The
Sacrament of Penance has almost disappeared. Ever fewer Catholics
receive Confirmation or contract Catholic Matrimony. The number of
vocations to priestly ministry and the consecrated life has sharply diminished.
In consideration of these facts, one can speak truly of an erosion
of the Catholic Faith in Germany. Pope
Francis, addressing the German bishops, Nov. 2015
Medieval Government before the
Reformation: The division of Power & Authority; the Power of the king
subject to the Authority of God
“Thou shalt be King if thou workest justice and if
thou dost not do so, thou shalt not be king.”
Warning read to the kings of Castile by the Cortes
upon the occasion of their coronation
Sorrow for Sins and Love of God
But I do not mean to say that the perfect
love of God, by which we love Him above all things, always precedes this repentance,
or that this repentance always precedes this love. For though it so often
happens, still, at other times, as soon as divine love is born in our hearts,
penitence is born within the love, and oftentimes penitence entering into our
hearts, love enters in penitence. And as when Esau was born, Jacob, his twin
brother, held him by the foot, that their births might not only follow the one
the other, but also might cleave together and be intermingled; so repentance,
rude and rough in regard of its pain, is born first, as another Esau; and love,
gentle and gracious as Jacob, holds him by the foot and cleaves unto him so
closely that their birth is but one, since the end of the birth of repentance
is the beginning of that of perfect love. Now as Esau first appeared, so
repentance ordinarily rakes itself to be seen before love, but love, as another
Jacob, although the younger, afterwards subdues penitence, converting it into
consolation….
Although now our human nature be not endowed
with that original soundness and righteousness which the first man had in his
creation, but on the contrary be greatly depraved by sin, yet still the holy
inclination to love God above all things stays with us, as also the natural
light by which we see His sovereign goodness to be more worthy of love than all
things; and it is impossible that one thinking attentively upon God, yea even
by natural reason only, should not feel a certain movement of love which the
secret inclination of our nature excites in the bottom of our hearts by which
at the first apprehension of this chief and sovereign object, the will is
captured, and perceives itself stirred up to a complacency in it.
St. Francis de Sales, The Love of God
Outside the Catholic Church
there is neither the forgiveness of sins nor the hope of salvation. This Dogma,
so often mitigated from its literal meaning by theologians is always and
everywhere affirmed without the shadow of qualification by Catholic Saints!
Earth has no privilege equal to that of being
a member of His Church; and they dishonor both it and Him who extenuate the
dismal horrors of that outer darkness in which souls lie that are aliens from
the Church. The greatness of our privilege, and, therefore, of the glory of the
Sacraments, is necessarily diminished by anything that makes less of the
unutterable miseries, and most appalling difficulties of salvation outside the
Church. This is the reason why the Saints have ever been so strong in the
instincts of their sanctity, as to the wide, weltering, almost hopeless deluge
which covers the ruined earth outside the ark. Harsh, to unintelligent,
uncharitable kindness, intolerably harsh, as are the judgments of stern
theology, the saints have ever felt and spoken more strongly and more
peremptorily than the theologians.
Fr. Fredrick William Faber, The Blessed Sacrament
“When we pray
we talk to God; when we read God talks to us… All spiritual growth comes from
reading and reflection.”
St. Thomas
Aquinas
This commandment, that I command thee this day,
is not above thee, nor far off from thee; nor is it in heaven, that thou
shouldest say: Which of us can go up to heaven to bring it unto us, and we may
hear and fulfill it in work? Nor is it beyond the sea, that thou mayest excuse
thyself and say: Which of us can cross the sea, and bring it unto us, that we
may hear and do that which is commanded? But the word is very nigh unto thee,
in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. . . . That thou mayest
love the Lord thy God.
Deuteronomy 30:11-16
Thus you have spoken, saying: Our iniquities
and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them: how, then, can we live I
say to them: As I live saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the
wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from
your evil ways; and why will you die, O house of Israel?
Ezechiel 33:10-11
“It is a contrivance of God’s
goodness that the more we advance, the less we think ourselves advancing.”
St. Bernard
“Faith lays
the foundation of the house
of God; hope builds
up the walls;
charity covers and
completes it.”
St. Augustine
“That I may be torn to pieces rather than
willingly transgress the smallest rule.” St. John Berchmans
What I mean is this, that to sorrow over
the sins of others is no far-fetched
devotion, or subtle refinement of religious feeling; but that it follows
inevitably upon the love of God. Where there is no such sorrow for sin, either
in ourselves or others, there is no love of God; and in proportion to the
amount of love will the degree of sorrow be.
Fr. Fredrick William Faber, All for Jesus
"I believe in the forgiveness of
sins."
It is a matter of theological opinion regarding
whether perfect contrition is a rare or common thing.
The Catechism of the Council of Trent says:
Contrition, it is true, blots out sin; but who is
ignorant that to effect this it must be so intense, so ardent, so vehement, as
to bear a proportion to the magnitude of the crimes which it effaces? This is a
degree of contrition which few reach, and hence through perfect contrition
alone very few indeed could hope to obtain the pardon of their sins.
Catechism of the Council of Trent
Be that as it may, for Catholics, it is a matter of
“divine and Catholic faith” (i.e.: Dogma) that the sacrament of Penance
instituted by our Savior, Jesus Christ, confers absolution for sins with
imperfect contrition. It is an amazing display of merciful kindness that Jesus
has instituted a means by which anyone can obtain forgiveness from Him and restoration
of grace and friendship while proceeding only from a rational motive fear of
divine punishment. Catholics never have to wonder or doubt about the sincerity
of their love of God regarding the sorrow they have for their sins to be
forgiven. This is a great motive for a sincere love of God.
“Every other
enterprise, however attractive and helpful, must yield before the vital need of
protecting the very foundation of the Faith and of Christian
civilization.”
Pope Pius IX, 1937,
speaking about the Catholic family
“Only those
who wish to be trampled upon, ridiculed, humbled, who bear their cross daily
after Jesus, who walk in his footsteps after his example, who imitate him will
be saved.”
St. Charles of
Mt. Argus, C. P. (John Andrew Houben)
Hermeneutics of
Continuity/Discontinuity
Explains why Novus Ordo Catholics have dumped the
season of Septuagesima and do not do penance for Lent – they have ‘dialogued’
themselves out of Original Sin!
Original Sin:
Benedict/Ratzinger teaches:
The account (of Genesis 3) tells us that sin begets sin, and that
therefore all the sins of history are interlinked. Theology refers to this
state of affairs by the certainly misleading and imprecise term ‘original sin’. What does this mean?
Nothing seems to us today to be stranger or, indeed, more absurd than to insist
upon original sin, since, according to our way of thinking, guilt can
only be something very personal, and since God does not run a concentration
camp, in which one’s relatives are imprisoned because he is a liberating God of
love, who calls each one by name. What
does original sin mean, then, when we interpret it correctly?
Finding an answer to this
requires nothing less than trying to understand the human person better. It must once again be stressed that no human being is closed in upon
himself or herself and that no one can live of or for himself or herself alone.
We receive our life not only at the moment of birth but every day from without
– from others who are not ourselves but who nonetheless somehow pertain to us.
Human beings have their selves not only in themselves but also outside of
themselves: they live in those whom they love and in those who love them and to
whom they are ‘present.’ Human beings are relational, and they possess their lives – themselves – only by way of relationship. I alone am not myself, but only in and with you am I myself. To be
truly a human being means to be related in love, to be of and for. But sin means the damaging or the
destruction of relationality. Sin is a rejection of relationality because it wants to make the human being a god. Sin is loss of relationship, disturbance of relationship, and therefore it is not
restricted to the individual. When I destroy a relationship, then this event – sin – touches the other person involved in the relationship. Consequently sin is always an offense that touches others, that
alters the world and damages it. To the extent that this is true, when the
network of human relationships is damaged from the very beginning, then every human being enters into
a world that is marked by relational damage. At the very moment that
a person begins human existence, which is a good, he or she is confronted by a
sin- damaged world. Each of us enters into a situation in which relationality has been hurt. Consequently each person is, from the very start,
damaged in relationships and does not engage in them as he or she ought. Sin pursues the human
being, and he or she capitulates to it.”
Benedict XVI/Ratzinger, Catholic
Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall
(1995)
Catholic
Church teaches divine Truth with precision and clarity:
“For that which the Apostle has said, ‘By one man, sin entered into this world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned.’ (Rom 5:12), is not to be understood otherwise than as the Catholic Church spread everywhere hath always understood it. For, by reason of this rule of faith, from a tradition of the Apostles, even infants who could not as yet commit any sin of themselves, are for this cause truly baptized for the remission of sins, that in them that may be cleansed away by regeneration which they have contracted by generation. For, ‘unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:5).
Council of Trent, Decree on Original Sin
“I was
under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for
the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).
COMMENT:
Benedict/Ratzinger’s (B/R) heretical theology presupposes modern
doctrine of scientism that material reality consists of atoms and the void in
constant evolutionary progress. He therefore denies the existence of substantial reality in the place of substance, he offers the accident of relationship as the fundamental essence
of all reality beginning with the reality of God. Being is rejected for becoming.
The pursuit of Truth is favored over its possession. This theology of B/R is
applied to man and sin including Original Sin. For the Catholic, sin is a
transgression of the will of God in a more or less serious degree. A serious
violation of God’s will is a mortal sin ending the life of grace in the substantial soul of an individual man.
The relationship of friendship with God is ended but God remains in a
relationship with all creatures including sinners because without a
relationship with God they would not exist. But while sin ends the life of
grace in the soul, the sin itself does not touch God.
And where does “relationality” lead? B/R’s “essential” Christianity? It
is a religion of fantasy that has no real doctrinal or moral impediments and
offers ‘dialogue’ as a nostrum for healing all problems of “relationality.”
But who in their right mind would want to join the ‘Church of
Relationality’, which explains why the Novus Ordo Church has massive defections
and few conversions. It also explains why for Francis/Bergoglio “proselytism is
solemn nonsense.” How can you “proselytize”
for a religion that does not know what it believes or for what end it was
established?
As for “relations,” if we want to “essentialize our faith,” Jesus
Christ makes perfectly clear just what is really “essential”: “If any man come to me, and hate
not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,
yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). The
“essential… relation” is with Jesus Christ, not man, and this “relation” is
only possible by believing what Jesus Christ has revealed and doing what Jesus
Christ commands.
Seewald: “The Church prays for Christians to be reunited. But who ought
to join up with whom?”
Benedict/Ratzinger:
“The formula that the
great ecumenists have invented is that we go forward together. It’s not a
matter of our wanting to achieve certain processes of integration, but we hope
that the Lord will awaken people’s faith everywhere in such a way that it
overflows from one to the other, and the one Church is there. As Catholics, we
are persuaded that the basic shape of this one Church is given us in the
Catholic Church, but that she is moving toward the future and will allow
herself to be educated and led by the Lord. In that sense we do not picture for
ourselves any particular modes of integration, but simply look to march on in
faith under the leadership of the Lord – who knows the way.”
“We can only humbly seek to essentialize our faith, that is, to
recognize what are the really essential elements in it – the things we have not
made but have received from the Lord – and in this attitude of turning to the
Lord and to the center, to open ourselves in this essentializing so that he may
lead us onward, he alone.”
Benedict/Ratzinger, God and the
World, interviewed by Peter Seewald, pp 452-453
Lastly,
if there is no Original Sin and the Church of Jesus Christ lies somewhere in
the unknown future, the sacrament of Baptism becomes meaningless! What the
Church has taught always and everywhere is now regarded as “unenlightened” and
“problematic” for him.
Mr.
Seewald: “In canon 849 of
Church canon law it says: ‘Baptism… [is] necessary to salvation in fact or at
least in intention.’ But what happens, when a man dies unbaptized? And what
happens to the millions of children who are killed in their mothers’ wombs?”
Benedict/Ratzinger:
“The question of what
it means to say that baptism is necessary for salvation has become ever more
hotly debated in modern times. The Second Vatican Council said on this point
that men who are seeking for God and who are inwardly striving toward that which
constitutes baptism will also receive salvation. That is to say that a seeking
after God already represents an inward participation in baptism, in the Church,
in Christ.
To that extent, the
question concerning the necessity of baptism for salvation seems to have been
answered, but the question about children who could not be baptized because
they were aborted then presses upon us that much more urgently.
Earlier ages had devised a teaching that seems to me
rather unenlightened. They said that baptism endows us, by means of sanctifying
grace, with the capacity to gaze upon God. Now, certainly, the state of
original sin, from which we are freed by baptism, consists in a lack of
sanctifying grace. Children who die in this way are indeed without any personal
sin, so they cannot be sent to hell, but, on the other hand, they lack
sanctifying grace and thus the potential for beholding God that this bestows.
They will simply enjoy a state of natural blessedness, in which they will be
happy. This state people called limbo.
In the course of our century, that has gradually come to
seem problematic to us. This was one way in which people
sought to justify the necessity of baptizing infants as early as possible, but
the solution is itself questionable. Finally, the Pope made a decisive turn in the encyclical Evangelium Vitae, a change already
anticipated by the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Note: Not so, even the
compromised CCC teaches the necessity of Baptism for salvation), when he
expressed the simple hope that God is powerful enough to draw to himself all
those who were unable to receive the sacrament.”
Benedict/Ratzinger, God and the World, interviewed by Peter Seewald, pp
401-402
Catholic
Church teaches divine Truth with precision and clarity:
Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God….. Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water
and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Jesus Christ,
(John 3:3, 5)
If any one saith, that true and natural water is not of necessity for
baptism, and, on that account, wrests, to some sort of metaphor, those words of
our Lord Jesus Christ; Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost;
let him be anathema.
Council of Trent, Canon II on the sacrament of Baptism
If anyone saith, that Baptism is optional, that is, not necessary for
salvation, let him be anathema.
Council of Trent, Canon V on the sacrament of Baptism
Why Blessed
Urban V is not known as “St. Urban V”
“Urban would have
been reckoned amongst the most glorious of men, if he had caused his dying bed
to be laid before the Altar of St. Peter and had there fallen asleep with a
good conscience, calling God and the world to witness that if ever the Pope had
left this spot it was not his fault but that of the originators of so shameful
a flight.”
Petrarch,
commenting on Pope Urban V who died December 19, 1370 directly after taking the
papal court from Rome back to Avignon, France (“Babylonian Captivity of the
Church” 1309-1376) after having been told directly by St. Bridget of Sweden
before witnesses that, as a consequence of this act, he would die when he left
Italy. He was beatified by Pope Pius IX
Limits
of Papal Authority imposed by the Faith itself!
“The gravity of sin is
determined by the interval which it places between man and God; now sin against
faith, divides man from God as far as possible, since it deprives him of the
true knowledge of God; it therefore follows that sin against faith is the greatest
of all sins.”
St. Thomas Aquinas
“If the Faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate
even publicly.”
St. Thomas Aquinas
“Were the pope to command
anything against Holy Scripture, or the articles of faith, or the truth of the
Sacraments, or the commands of the natural or divine law, he ought not to be
obeyed, but in such commands is to be ignored.”
Juan Cardinal de Torquemada (1388–1468)
“You must resist, to his face, a pope who is openly tearing the Church
apart—for example, by refusing to confer ecclesiastical benefices except for
money, or in exchange for services… A
case of simony, even committed by a pope, must be denounced.”
Thomist Cardinal Cajetan (1469–1534)
“If the Pope lays down an order contrary to right customs one does not have to
obey him; if he tries to do something manifestly opposed to justice and to the
common good, it would be licit to resist him; if he attacks by force, he could
be repelled by force, with the moderation characteristic of a good defense.”
Francisco Suárez, S.J. (1548–1617)
“In answer to the question, ‘What should be done in cases where the Pope
destroys the Church by his evil actions?’ [I reply]: ‘He would certainly sin;
he should neither be permitted to act in such fashion, nor should he be obeyed
in what was evil; but he should be resisted with a courteous reprehension.… He
does not have the power to destroy; therefore, if there is evidence that he is
doing it, it is licit to resist him. The result of all this is that if the Pope
destroys the Church by his orders and acts, he can be resisted and the
execution of his mandate prevented. The right of open resistance to prelates’
abuse of authority stems also from natural law.’”
Sylvester Prieras, O.P. (1456–1523), Dominican theologian, appointed
master of the Sacred Palace by Pope Leo X who wrote the rebuttal to Luther’s 95
Theses
“As it is lawful to resist the pope, if he assaulted a man’s person, so it is
lawful to resist him, if he assaulted souls, or troubled the state, and much
more if he strove to destroy the Church. It is lawful, I say, to resist him, by
not doing what he commands, and hindering the execution of his will; still, it
is not lawful to judge or punish or even depose him, because he is nothing
other than a superior.”
St. Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621), Doctor of the Church
And then, pure papalolatry!
“There is in the world … one man in whom the greatness of God is reflected in
the most outstanding way of all. He participates in the authority and in a
certain sense in the personality of Christ. This man is the Vicar of Jesus
Christ, the Pope. … His power extends to the ends of the world and is under the
protection of God, Who has promised to confirm in Heaven whatever he will
decree upon earth. His dignity and authority, then, are almost divine. Let us
bow humbly before such greatness. Let us promise to obey the Pope as we would
Christ. … We cannot dispute or murmur against anything which he teaches or
decrees. To disobey the Pope is to disobey God. To argue or murmur against the
Pope is to argue or murmur against Jesus Himself. When we are confronted with
His commands, we have only one choice—absolute obedience and complete
surrender.”
Cardinal Antonio Bacci (1885-1971), the Vatican’s chief Latinist under
four successive popes (Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, and Paul VI) and the
co-author of the Ottaviani Intervention with Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, the
head CDF.
"Pride is the beginning of sin and
humility is the mother of salvation."
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Steps of
Humility and Pride
"A proud monk has no need of a devil; he
has turned into one, an enemy to himself."
St. John Cassian, Conferences
BAPTISM,
through which we become "beloved sons of God"
In those who are born
again, God hates nothing, because ‘there is no condemnation, to those who are
truly buried together with Christ by baptism unto death’ (Romans 8:1), who do
not ‘walk according to the flesh’ (Romans 8:1), but putting off ‘the old man’
and putting on the ‘new, who is created according to God’ (Ephesians 4:22 ff.;
Colossians 3:9 ff.), are made innocent, immaculate, pure, guiltless and beloved
sons of God, ‘heirs indeed of God, but co-heirs with Christ’ (Romans 8:17), so
that there is nothing whatever to retard their entrance into heaven. Council of Trent
SSPX bid farewell to Bishop Richard Williamson as only
they could do!
His defiance of the Society's authorities ultimately made a separation
inevitable. God forgive him for the errors and confusion he caused in the years
that followed with his Kyrie eleison
comments, and even more so for his episcopal
consecrations, which lacked and still lack any objective necessity and any sensus
ecclesiae.
Fr. Franz Schmidberger, former superior general of the SSPX, published
in his weekly newsletter, on the death of Bishop Richard Williamson on January
29, 2025
COMMENT: The good bishop Williamson has only been dead for a little over
one year. At the time of his death the SSPX judged him to be in need of God's
forgiveness for the sin of consecrating bishops
"which lacked and still lack any objective necessity and any sensus ecclesiae." They now threaten
Rome with doing their own episcopal consecrations because their own "sensus ecclesiae" has now discovered
that there is in fact an existing "objective necessity"! Nothing has changed with regard to the Church
but something has changed with regard to the SSPX. They are concerned only with
their "objective necessity"!
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issues statement
following today’s meeting at the Vatican between SSPX Superior General Fr.
Davide Pagliarani & DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández on
2-12-2026
STATEMENT OF THE DICASTERY FOR THE DOCTRINE
OF THE FAITH Regarding the Meeting between the Prefect of the Dicastery for the
Doctrine of the Faith and the Superior General of the FSSPX On 12 February
2026, a cordial and sincere meeting took place at the Dicastery for the
Doctrine of the Faith between the Prefect, His Eminence Cardinal Victor Manuel
FERNANDEZ, and the Superior General of the FSSPX, Reverend Don Davide
PAGLIARANI, with the approval of the Holy Father Leo XIV. After clarifying
certain points presented by the FSSPX in various letters, particularly those
sent between 2017 and 2019 — including, among other topics, the question of the
divine will concerning the plurality of religions — the Prefect proposed a
pathway of specifically theological dialogue, following a precise methodology,
on issues that have not yet received sufficient clarification. These include:
the distinction between an act of faith and the “religious submission of mind
and will,” as well as the differing degrees of adherence required by various
texts of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and their interpretation. At the
same time, he proposed addressing a series of topics listed by the FSSPX in its
letter of 17 January 2019. The aim of this dialogue is to highlight, in the
topics under discussion, the minimum requirements for full communion with the Catholic
Church, and consequently to outline a canonical statute for the Fraternity,
along with other aspects requiring further study. The Holy See reaffirmed that
the ordination of bishops without the mandate of the Supreme Pontiff, who
possesses ordinary, supreme, universal, immediate, and direct power (cf. CIC,
can. 331; Dogmatic Constitution Pastor aeternus, chs. I and III), would
constitute a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism), with serious
consequences for the Fraternity as a whole (John Paul II, Apostolic Letter
Ecclesia Dei, 2 July 1988, nn. 3 and ff.; Pontifical Council for Legislative
Texts, Explanatory Note, 24 August 1996, n. 1). Therefore, the possibility of
undertaking this dialogue presupposes that the Fraternity suspend the announced
episcopal ordinations. The Superior General of the FSSPX will present the
proposal to his Council and will provide his response to the Dicastery for the
Doctrine of the Faith. In the event of a positive response, the steps, stages,
and procedures to be followed will be established by mutual agreement. The
Church is asked to accompany this process, especially in the coming times, with
prayer to the Holy Spirit, who is the principal agent of true ecclesial
communion willed by Christ.
Viganò
Urges SSPX To Cut Off 'Dialogue' With Fernandez, Proceed With Consecrations
'True ecclesial communion is not
measured by canonical recognition granted by a Hierarchy that has lost the
Faith, but by integral fidelity to divine Revelation.'
I cannot but note with sorrow and
indignation the Statement released today by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of
the Faith, signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, at the end of his
meeting with Father Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the Priestly Society
of Saint Pius X. After decades of humiliation, inconclusive dialogues, partial
concessions revoked by “Traditionis Custodes,” deafening silences regarding
doctrinal and liturgical deviations widespread throughout the Church, and even
more serious doctrinal and moral errors promoted by the Supreme Throne, Rome
now claims to make the suspension of the episcopal consecrations announced by
the SSPX for next July 1st a preliminary condition for dialogue. These
consecrations are not acts of rebellion, but a supreme act of fidelity to the
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church, which has been deprived for
almost sixty years of Bishops who preach integral Doctrine and administer the
Sacraments without any compromise with error. The Dicastery’s Statement subtly
repeats the same modernist scheme seen in 1988: it offers a “theological
dialogue” on issues the Holy See has always refused to seriously
address—religious freedom, destructive episcopal “collegiality,” pan-heretical
ecumenism, the Nostra Ætate declaration that equates false religions with the
one true Faith, and the Abu Dhabi Document—while threatening “schism” for the
only gesture that is able to guarantee the certainty of Apostolic Succession.
But who wields “schism” as a weapon today? Who excommunicated the Bishops
consecrated in 1988 for defending Tradition and its beating heart, the Catholic
Mass? Who excommunicated me and silenced me, while promoting declared heretics
and covering up abuses of every kind? Who forced the faithful to submit to an
authority that has renounced immutable Catholic doctrine in the name of a “new
humanism” and a “synodality” that is nothing other than the cancer of democracy
applied to the Catholic Church in order to destroy from within its divine
hierarchical Constitution and Petrine Primacy? The true schism is not that of those who consecrate
Bishops to guard and transmit the Catholic Faith in its entirety, but rather
the schism of the conciliar and synodal Hierarchy, which has denied Apostolic
Tradition, replacing sound Doctrine with heretical ambiguities, true Catholic
Worship with a Protestantized liturgy, and legitimate Authority with a
totalitarian power exercised against the faithful who refuse to apostatize.
The Society of Saint Pius X does not need the permission of those who have
renounced the Faith to do what Providence asks of it: namely, to perpetuate the
episcopal line faithful to Tradition. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre acted not out
of schism, but out of necessity – same state of necessity that persists today,
aggravated by the systematic persecution of the Traditional Mass and the
imposition of false doctrines that contradict the perennial Magisterium.
GENERAL
COMMENT: The SSPX is buried in the Neo-modernist
heresy that believes that the dogmas of our faith contain both divine and human
elements and must necessarily continually evolve by a distillation process
where the divine elements are progressively purified by removing the
historically dated human encrustations. This Neo-modernist heresy is the unstated
pre-supposition for the Vatican II pastoral council. For the Neo-modernist, the
proximate rule of faith is no longer Dogma, but however the current pope
interprets the dogma to mean. That being the case, the SSPX, having abandoned
dogma as their proximate rule of faith must turn to the present pope to tell
him the current version of the Catholic faith. Neo-modernism is just a
variation of the heresy of Modernism which St. Pius X called "the
synthesis of all heresies." It is the "synthesis of all
heresies" because it denies all dogmas as dogmas. It attacks the very
nature of what dogmas are. Dogma contains no human elements. They are divine
revelation that is formally defined by the infallible Magisterium of the
Church. They are the infallible word of
God in both the truth expressed and the words used to express that truth. The
pope is only the necessary but wholly insufficient material and instrumental
cause of dogma. It is God who is the formal and final cause of dogma.
Therefore, the pope is just as much a subject to dogma as any of the faithful.
Truth is the only weapon possessed against an abusive authority and the SSPX
has entered into a "dialogue" with an opponent that claims for itself
personally the divine attribute of infallibility and the right to dictate their
personal conceptions of truth even against the divine infallible revelation of
God. Archbishop Viganò is politely telling the SSPX that it is the FAITH
itself that is being attacked and they need to wake up. The SSPX has been in
constant interminable doctrinal discussions with Rome since 1997. The reason
Rome dialogues with the SSPX is because the SSPX is defenseless having
abandoned the infallible truth of Catholic dogma as their weapon. This dialogue
between Rome and the SSPX never raises above the level of exchanging opinions.
Because our Mission of Ss. Peter & Paul stands on the truth of Catholic
dogma, the local ordinaries will never enter into open discussions. Always
remember: A heretic is a baptized Catholic who rejects one or more Catholic
dogmas AND all heretics are schismatics! If the SSPX can learn this simple but
essential truth, then they will stop seeking a place at the table of apostates
and start defending the faith.
Remember in your charity:
Remember the welfare of our expectant mother: Vanessa LoStrocco, Elizabeth Allen, and
Maria Castillo Gonzalez,
Mary Lou Loftus' aunt, Susan Hendricks, who is gravely ill after emergency surgery,
Fred Holder,
for his
spiritual and physical welfare,
Thomas Soul,
a
nursing home patient who has suffered a stroke,
Donna Kallal, a dear friend of the
Schiltz family who is dying,
Philip Thees requests our prayers for the heath of Mary Glatz and Lenny and Agnus Messineo,
For the welfare of Aaron, a York resident in need of conversion,
For the spiritual welfare of Margaret Connelly is the petition of Camilla Meiser,
Linda Boyd, for her health,
Pete
Schiffbauer, a cousin of Monic Bandlow who is gravely ill,
Joan R.
Barr,
the widow of F. Donald Barr who died March 7, they were married 70 years
Cole
Schneider, prayers for his welfare are requested by Camilla Meiser,
JoAnn
Niekrewicz,
for her recovery from a recent fall and shoulder injury,
The Drews ask prayers for the spiritual and physical
welfare of Robert Carballo,
Conversion of Jack
Gentry, the nephew of Camilla Meiser,
For Sr.
Maria Junipera, who took her final vows as a nun with the Slaves of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, New Hampshire April 8,
Stephen
Bryan,
the brother of a devout Catholic religious, for his spiritual welfare,
Marie
Kolinsky,
for her health and spiritual welfare is the petition of her family,
Gene Peters requests our prayers for the conversion
of Shirley Young and Carl Loy who are dying, the
conversion of Dawn Keithley
and Nate Schaeffer,
Rev. Leo
Carley, an
eighty-nine year old priest faithful to Catholic tradition, who is seriously
ill,
For the recovery of Hayden Yanchek, the grandson of Francis Yanchek, injured in
a farming accident,
Maureen
Nies, for
the recovery of her health is the petition of Camilla Meiser,
Daniel
Vargs, for
his health is the petition of his parents,
Art Noel, for the restoration of his
health,
For the welfare of Peg Berry and her husband, Bill,
Marianne Connelly asks prayers for Chris Foley, who is gravely ill,
and the welfare of his wife, Mary
Beth,
The spiritual welfare of the Sal & Maria Messineo family is the petition of the
Drew’s,
Liz Agosta, who is seriously ill, for her
spiritual and temporal welfare,
Warren
Hoffman, a
long time member of our Mission who is in failing health,
Patrick
Boyle,
for the recovery of his health and his spiritual welfare,
For the spiritual welfare of the Drew children,
Monica Bandlow request our prayers for the welfare of
Ray who is recovering from a
MVA, and his daughter, Sonya,
and Tera Jean Kopczynski, who
is in failing health, and for a good death for Mr. Howald, Kathy
Simons, Regina Quinn, James Mulgrew, Ruth Beaucheane, John Kopczynski, Roger
& Mandy Owen
Peg Berry requests our prayers for her brother, William Habekost,
For the recently widowed, Maike Hickson, and her children,
For the spiritual welfare of the Carmelite nuns in Fairfield, PA,
Geralyn
Zagorski, recovery of her health and spiritual welfare and
the conversion of Randal Pace is the petition of Philip Thees,
For the grandson of
Joe & Liz Agusta,
Fr. Waters requests our
prayers for the health and spiritual welfare of Elvira Donaghy,
For the health and
conversion of Stephen Henderson,
Fr. Paul DaDamio requests
our prayers for the welfare of Rob Ward, and his sister, Debra
Wagaman,
Kaitlyn McDonald, for the recovery of her health and spiritual
welfare,
Roco
Sbardella,
for his health and spiritual welfare,
The Vargas’ request our prayers for the spiritual
welfare of their son, Nicholas,
Family, for the welfare of Lazarus Handley, his mother, Julia, and his brother, Raphael, with Down’s Syndrome,
Fr. Waters requests prayers for the spiritual and
physical welfare of Frank McKee,
Nancy
Bennett, for the recovery of her
health,
For the spiritual welfare of Mark Roberts, a Catholic faithful to tradition,
Michael Brigg requests our prayers for the health of John Romeo,
The health and welfare of Gene Peters and his sons,
Conversion of Anton
Schwartzmueller, is the prayer request of his children,
Christine
Kozin, for
her health and spiritual welfare,
Teresa
Gonyea,
for her conversion and health, is the petition of her grandmother, Patricia
McLaughlin,
For the health of Sonya Kolinsky,
Jackie Dougherty asks our prayers for her brother, John Lee, who is gravely ill,
For the health and spiritual welfare, Meg Bradley, the granddaughter
of Rose Bradley,
Timothy
& Crisara, a couple from Maryland have requested our prayers for their spiritual
welfare,
Celine
Pilegaard, the seven year old daughter of Cynthia Pilegaard, for her recovery from
burn injuries,
Rafaela de
Saravia, for
her health and welfare,
Abbe Damien
Dutertre,
traditional Catholic priest arrested by Montreal police while offering Mass,
Francis
(Frank) X. McLaughlin, for the recovery of his
health,
Nicholas
Pell,
for his health and spiritual welfare is the petition of Camilla Meizer,
Mary Kaye
Petr,
her health and welfare is petitioned by Camilla Meizer,
The welfare of Excellency Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò,
The welfare of Rev.
Fr. Martin Skierka, who produces the traditional Ordo in the U.S.,
For the health and welfare of Katie Wess, John Gentry, Vincent Bands, Todd Chairs, Susan Healy and
James O’Gentry is the petition of Camilia,
Marieann
Reuter, recovery of her health, Kathy Kepner, for her health, Shane Cox, for his health,
requests of Philip Thees,
The Joseph
Cox Family, their spiritual welfare,
For the health of Kim Cochran, the daughter-in-law of Joseph and Brenda
Cochran, the wife of their son Joshua,
Louie
Verrecchio,
Catholic apologist, who has a health problem,
John
Minidis, Jr. family, for help in their spiritual
trial,
Joann
DeMarco, for her health and spiritual
welfare,
Regina
(Manidis) Miller, her spiritual welfare and health,
Melissa
Elena Levitt, her conversion, and welfare of her children,
For the grace of a holy death, Nancy Marie Claycomb,
Conversion of Annette
Murowski, and her son Jimmy,
Brent Keith from Indiana has petitioned our prayers
for the Keith Family,
The welfare of the Schmedes Family, and the Mike and Mariana Donohue Family,
The spiritual welfare Robert Holmes Family,
For the spiritual and temporal welfare of Irwin Kwiat,
Fr. Waters asks our prayers for Elvira Donaghy,
Kimberly Ann, the daughter of John and Joann
DeMarco, for her health and spiritual welfare,
Rende and
Mary Mufide, a traditional Catholics from India ask our prayers for her welfare and
he family members, living and deceased,
Mary Glatz, her health and the welfare
of her family,
Barbara
Harmon,
who is ill,
Jason Green, a father of ten children,
his health,
For the health and welfare of Sorace family,
Fr. Waters asks our prayers for the health and
spiritual welfare of Brian Abramowitz,
Thomas
Schiltz family, in grateful appreciation for their contribution to the beauty of our
chapel,
John Rhoad, for his health and
spiritual welfare,
Kathy Boyle, requests our prayers for
her welfare,
Joyce
Laughman and Robert Twist, for their conversions,
Michael J.
Brigg & his family, who have helped with the needs of the Mission,
Nancy Deegan, her welfare and conversion
to the Catholic Church,
Francis Paul
Diaz,
who was baptized at Ss. Peter & Paul, asks our prayers for his spiritual
welfare,
The conversion of Rene McFarland, Lori Kerr, Cary Shipman and
family, David Bash, Crystal and family, Larry Reinhart, Costanzo Family, Kathy
Scullen, Marilyn Bryant, Vicki Trahern and Time Roe are the
petitions of Gene Peters,
For the conversion of Ben & Tina Boettcher family, Karin Fraessdorf, Eckhard Ebert,
and Fahnauer family,
Fr. Waters requests our prayers for Br. Rene, SSPX, and for Fr. Thomas Blute,
For the welfare of Fr. Paul DaDamio and Fr. William T. Welsh,
The Drew’s ask our prayers for the welfare of Joe & Tracey Sentmanat family, Keith
& Robert Drew, Christy Koziol & her children, Fred Nesbit and Michael
Nesbit families, and Gene Peters Family,
the John Manidis Family, the Sal Messinio Family, Michael Proctor Family,
Ryan Boyle grandmother, Jane Boyle, who is failing health,
Mel Gibson
and his family, please remember in our prayers,
Rev. Timothy A. Hopkins requested our prayers for the
welfare of his friend, Fr Jean-Luc Lafitte,
Ebert’s request our prayers for the Andreas & Jenna Ortner Family,
Joyce Paglia has asked prayers for George Richard Moore Sr. & his
children, and her brother, George
Panell,
Philip Thees asks our prayers for his family, for McLaughlin Family, the welfare
of Dan & Polly Weand, the
conversion of Sophia Herman,
Tony Rosky, the welfare Nancy Erdeck, the wife of
the late Deacon Erdeck, John Calasanctis, Tony Rosky, James Parvenski, Kathleen Gorry, health of mind and body of Cathy Farrar.
Pray for the
Repose of the Souls:
Katherine
Veronica Wedel, the mother of Mary Baer, died February 6,
James
Condit, Jr., traditional Catholic activist, died December 27,
Beverly
Harmon, died
December 16, requested by the Sentmanat family,
Rev.
Nicholas DeProspero, a faithful Ruthenian Eastern rite Catholic priest, died December 10,
Monica Bandlow petitions our prayers for her friend, Patricia Messineo, died November
28,
Guy
Berthault,
died November 23, a great Catholic scientist whose work in sedimentology
destrooyed Lyellian geology and the theory of evolution,
Thomas Soul,
died
November 8 after receiving the last rites of the Church,
Etta Van Der
Werken, a
dear friend of Barbara Taffe, died 10-21-2025,
Gary Potter, Catholic writer and
apologist and great long time defender of Catholic doctrine and tradition, died
9-9-2025,
Elizabeth
Gorska,
who died September 9, a relative of Lidia Gjec,
Camilia Meiser request our prayers for the souls of Peggy Cummings and Elizabeth Genter,
Thomas A.
Nelson, founder of TAN Books and
Publishers, died August 16,
Juan D.
Gonzalez,
our former sacristan, choir director, and dear friend, died July 23,
Sal Messineo, a faithful traditional
Catholic, died Augsut 14,
Patricia
Askew, a
friend of Camilla Meiser, died July 3,
Joseph
Kerney, a
young man whose family provided the statues of the Sacred Heart, Mary and
Joseph in our sanctuary, died May 30,
Louis
Richard Ajlouny, the father of Randa Sharpe, died May 15,
Rene Guidicessi, died April 25, an old
friend of the Drews,
F. Donald
Barr, died
March 7 at 94 years of age, co-founder of Robert Francis Religious Goods, in
Philadelphia,
Dr. David
Allen White, a well known defender of the Catholic faith, died February 11,
Bishop
Richard Williamson, a renowned defender of the Catholic faith and most charitable gentleman,
died January 29,
Rodolfo
Alberto Lacayo, a cousin of Claudia Drew, died January 4,
Genieve Wallace,
died
Christmas day,
Ruth Marion
Beaucheane, died December 8, is the
petition of Monica Bandlow,
Ana Maria Salcedo, the sister of Mario Fiol, died November 26,
Fr. Johin Cardaro, a
traditional Catholic priest who was found dead in his home November 2,
Robert Carballo asks that we
remember his parents, Roberto & Aida Carballo, and his friend, David
Duclos, who died April 15,
Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais who may have been responsible for preventing the SSPX's public reconciliation with Rome in 2012, died October 8,
Lorna
Edwards, our
dear friend and loyal supporter of this Mission, died August 10,
Lois Petti, died July 28 two hours after
receiving the Last Sacraments from Fr. Waters,
Wolfgang
Smith, a
renowned Catholic scholar, mathematician, scientist, philosopher, who helped
the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, died July 19,
Willaim
Glatz, a
good and faithful Catholic, died July 17,
Alicio
Gonzalez, a
Catholic who asked for the sacrament of Extreme Unction, unfortunately did not
receive, died July 9,
John
Zavodny, a faithful Catholic who died wearing the
scapular of Mt Carmel on the first Saturday of May, requested by Phyllis Virgil,
Catherine
Martel, a lapsed Catholic, received
the last sacraments in a good disposition from Fr. Waters on March 25 and died
on April 4,
Father
Basilio Méramo, a faithful priest, died March 5, removed from the SSPX for opposing
their accommodation with Rome,
Julia
McDonald,
the mother of Kyle McDonald, died March 1,
Agnus
Melnick,
died February 28, a long time faithful Catholic and mother of eight children,
including a traditional priest,
Kathryn
(Drew) Lederhos, of Wellesley, MA, died
February 3, 2024,
Chris Foley, the
brother of Mary Lou Loftus, died February 1,
Louis Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew,
died January 30,
Fr. James
Louis Albert Campbell, a faithful priest who died December 18 at 91 years of age, and her
mother and father, Teresa and Thomas
Maher,
Charles
Harmon,
the father of Tracey Sentmanet, died October 1, after receiving the rites of
the Church,
Fr. Waters requests prayers for Elvira Donaghy, his friend and former secretary a for Bishop
Gerado Zendejas, died September 9,
Robert
Hickson,
a faithful Catholic apologist who died Septembber 2,
Monica Bandlow requests prayers for her parents, Thomas & Teresa Maher, her
husband, William Bandlow, her
brother-in-law, Richard Bandlow,
her sister, Mary Maher, Fr. Christopher Darby, SSPX, who died March 17, Robert Byrne, Michelle Donofrio McDowell, her cousin, Patricia Fabyanic, the Prefect
of Our Lady’s Sodality, March 8, for
John Pfeiffer who died August 20, Theresa
Hanley, died July 23, Fr.
Juan-Carlos Iscara, SSPX, who died December 20, John Kinney, died December 21, Willaim Price, Jr., and Robert Arch Ward, died January 10,
and Myra, killed in a MVA
June 6,
John Sharpe,
Sr.,
died July 20,
Maria
Paulette Salazar, died June 6,
Dale Kinsey requests prayers for his wife, Katherine Kinsey, died May 17,
Richard
Giles,
who died April 29, the father of Traci Sentmanat who converted to the Catholic
faith last All Saints' Day,
Joseph
Sparks,
a devout and faithful Catholic to tradition died February 25,
Joyce Paglia, died
January 21, and Anthony Paglia,
died January 28, who were responsible for the beautiful statuary in our chapel,
Joe Sentmanet request prayers for Richard Giles and Claude Harmon who converted to
the Catholic faith shortly before their deaths,
Rodolfo
Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew,
died January 9,
Elizabeth Agosta petitions our prayers for Joseph Napolitano, her brother,
who died January 2,
Michael
Dulisse,
died on December 26,
Michael
Proctor, a close friend of the Drews,
died November 9,
Richard
Anthony Giles, the father-in-law of Joe Sentmanat converted to the Catholic faith on
All Saints Day, died November 5,
Robert
Kolinsky,
the husband of Sonja, died September 18,
Gabriel
Schiltz,
the daughter of Thomas & Gay Schiltz, died August 21,
Mary Dimmel, the
mother –in-law of Victoria Drew Dimmel, died July 18,
Michael
Nesbit,
the brother-in-law and dear friend of the Drew's, died July 14,
Thomas
Thees, the brother of Philip, died
June 19,
Carmen Ragonese,
died June 22,
Juanita
Mohler, a friend of Camella Meiser,
died June 14,
Kathleen
Elias, died February 14,
Hernan Ortiz, the
brother of Fr. Juan Carlos Ortiz, died February 3,
Mary Ann
Boyle,
the mother of a second order Dominican nun, a first order Dominican priest, and
a SSPX priest, died January 24,
John DeMarco, who
attended this Mission in the past, died January23,
Charles
O’Brien, the father of Marlene Cox,
died December 30,
Mufide Rende requests our prayers for the repose of
the souls of her parents, Mehmet
& Nedime,
Kathleen
Donelly,
died December 29 at 91 years of age, ran the CorMariae website,
Matthew
O'Hare, most
faithful Catholic, died at age 40 on November 30,
Rev. Patrick
J. Perez, a Catholic priest faithful to
tradition, pastor Our Lady Help of Christians, Garden Grove, CA, November 19,
Elizabeth
Benedek,
died December 14, requested by her niece, Agnes Vollkommer,
Dolores
Smith and Richard Costello, faithful Catholics, died
November,
Frank
D’Agustino,
a friend of Philp Thees, died November 8,
Fr.
Dominique Bourmaud, of the SSPX, Prior of St.
Vincent in Kansas City, died September 4,
Pablo Daniel
Silva, the brother of Elizabeth
Vargas, died August 18,
Rose Bradley, a
member of Ss. Peter & Paul, died July 14,
Patricia
Ellias, died June 1, recently
returned to the Church died with the sacraments and wearing the brown scapular,
Joan Devlin, the sister-in-law of Rose
Bradley, died May 18,
William
Muligan, died April 29, two days after
receiving the last sacraments,
Robert Petti, died
March 19, the day after receiving the last sacraments,
Mark
McDonald, the father of Kyle, who died
December 26,
Perla Otero, died December 2020, Leyla Otero, January 2021,
cousins of Claudia Drew,
Mehmet Rende, died
December 12, who was the father of Mary Mufide,
Joseph
Gravish, died November 26, 100 year
old WWII veteran and daily communicant,
Jerome
McAdams,
the father of, died November 30,
Rev. James
O’Hara, died November 8, requested by
Alex Estrada,
Elizabeth
Batko, the sacristan at St. John the
Baptist in Pottstown for over 40 years, died on First Saturday November 7
wearing the brown scapular,
William Cox, the
father of Joseph Cox, who died September 3,
James Larson, Catholic
apologists, author of War Against Being
publication, died July 6, 2020,
Hutton
Gibson, died May 12,
Sr. Regina
Cordis,
Immaculate Heart of Mary religious for sixty-five years, died May 12,
Leslie Joan
Matatics, devoted Catholic wife and
mother of nine children, died March 24,
Victoria
Zelaya, the sister-in-law of Claudia
Drew, died March 20,
Ricardo
DeSilva,
died November 16, our prayers requested by his brother, Henry DeSilva,
Rev. Fr.
Joseph F. Collins, died April 27, 2019 to whom we are indebted for establishing our
traditional pre-Bugnini Holy Week in all
its beauty,
Roland H.
Allard,
a friend of the Drew’s, died September 28,
Stephen
Cagorski
and John Bogda, who
both died wearing the brown
scapular,
Cecilia
LeBow, a most faithful Catholic,
Rose Cuono, died Oct 23,
Patrick
Rowen,
died March 25, and his brother, Daniel
Rowen, died May 15,
Sandra
Peters, the
wife of Gene Peters, who died June 10 receiving the sacraments and wearing our
Lady’s scapular,
Rev. Francis
Slupski, a
priest who kept the Catholic faith and its immemorial traditions, died May 14,
Martha
Mochan, the
sister of Philip Thees, died April 8,
George
Kirsch,
our good friend and supporter of this Mission, died February 15,
For Fr.
Paul J. Theisz, died October 17, is the petition of Fr. Waters,
Fr. Mecurio
Fregapane,
died Jan 12, was not a traditional priest but always charitable,
Fr. Casimir
Peterson,
a priest who often offered the Mass in our chapel and provided us with sound
advice, died December 4,
Fr.
Constantine Bellasarius, a faithful and always
charitable Eastern Rite Catholic Melkite priest, who left the Roman rite, died
November 27,
Christian
Villegas,
a motor vehicle accident, his brother, Michael, requests our prayers,
John Vennari, the former editor of
Catholic Family News, and for his family’s welfare, April 4,
Mary Butler, the aunt of Fr. Samuel
Waters, died October 17,
Joseph
DeMarco,
the nephew of John DeMarco, died October 3,
John Fergale, died September 25 after
receiving the traditional sacramental rites of the Church wearing the brown
scapular,
John Gabor, the brother of Donna
Marbach, died September 9,
Fr. Eugene
Dougherty,
a faithful priest, fittingly died on the Nativity of the BVM after receiving
the traditional Catholic sacraments,
Phyllis
Schlafly,
died September 5,
Helen
Mackewicz,
died August 14,
Mark A.
Wonderlin,
who died August 2,
Fr. Carl
Cebollero,
a faithful priest to tradition who was a friend of Fr. Waters and Fr. DeMaio,
Jessica
Cortes,
a young mother of ten who died June 12,
Frances
Toriello, a
life-long Catholic faithful to tradition, died June3, the feast of the Sacred
Heart, and her husband Dan,
died in 1985,
John
McLaughlin, a friend of the Drew’s, died May 22,
Angela
Montesano,
who died April 30, and her husband, Salvatore,
who died in July 3, 2013,
Charles Schultz, died
April 5, left behind nine children and many grandchildren, all traditional
Catholics,
Esperanza Lopez de Callejas,
the aunt of Claudia Drew, died March 15,
Fr. Edgardo Suelo, a
faithful priest defending our traditions who was working with Fr. Francois
Chazal in the Philippines, died February 19,
Conde McGinley, a long time
laborer for the traditional faith, died February 12, at 96 years,
The Drew family requests
your prayers for Ida Fernandez and Rita Kelley,
parishioners at St. Jude,
Fr. Stephen
Somerville,
a traditional priest who repented from his work with the Novus Ordo English
translation, died December 12,
Fr. Arturo
DeMaio,
a priest that helped this Mission with the sacraments and his invaluable
advice, died December 2,
J. Paul
Carswell,
died October 15, 2015,
Solange
Hertz, a
great defender of our Catholic faith, died October 3, the First Saturday of the
month,
Paula P.
Haigh, died
October 22, a great defender of our Catholic faith in philosophy and natural
science,
Gabriella
Whalin,
the mother of Gabriella Schiltz, who died August 25,
Mary
Catherine Sick, 14 year old from a large traditional Catholic family, died August 25,
Fr. Paul
Trinchard,
a traditional Catholic priest, died August 25,
Stephen J.
Melnick, Jr., died on August 21, a long-time faithful traditional Catholic husband
and father, from Philadelphia,
Patricia
Estrada,
died July 29, her son Alex petitions our prayers for her soul,
Fr. Nicholas
Gruner,
a devoted priest & faithful defender of Blessed Virgin Mary and her Fatima
message, died April 29,
Sarah E.
Shindle,
the grandmother of Richard Shindle, died April 26,
Madeline
Vennari,
the mother of John Vennari, died December 19,
Salvador
Baca Callejas, the uncle of Claudia Drew, died December 13,
Robert Gomez, who died in a motor vehicle
accident November 29,
Catherine
Dunn,
died September 15,
Anthony
Fraser,
the son of Hamish Fraser, died August 28,
Jeannette
Rhoad,
the grandmother of Devin Rhoad, who died August 24,
John Thees, the uncle of Philip Thees,
died August 9,
Sarah
Harkins, 32 year-old mother of four
children, died July 28,
Msgr. Donald
Adams, who
offered the Indult Mass, died April 1996,
Anita Lopez, the aunt of Claudia Drew,
Fr. Kenneth
Walker,
a young traditional priest of the FSSP who was murdered in Phoenix June 11,
Fr. Waters petitions our prayers for Gilberte Violette, the mother of
Fr. Violette, who died May 6,
Pete Hays petitions our prayers for his brothers, Michael, died May 9, and James, died October 20, his
sister, Rebecca, died March17, and his mother, Lorraine Hayes who died May 4,
Philip
Marbach,
the father of Paul Marbach who was the coordinator at St. Jude in Philadelphia,
died April 21,
Richard
Slaughtery,
the elderly sacristan for the SSPX chapel in Kansas City, died April 13,
Bernedette
Marie Evans nee Toriello, the daughter of Daniel Toriello , died March 31, a
faithful Catholic who suffered many years with MS,
Natalie
Cagorski,
died march 23,
Anita Lopez
de Lacayo,
the aunt of Claudia Drew, who died March 21,
Mario
Palmaro,
Catholic lawyer, bioethicist and professor, apologist, died March 9, welfare of
his widow and children,
Daniel Boyle, the
uncle of Ryan Boyle, died March 4,
Jeanne
DeRuyscher,
who died on January 25,
Arthur
Harmon,
died January 18,
Fr. Waters petitions our prayers for the soul of Jeanne DeRuyscher, who died
January 17,
Joseph
Proctor,
died January 10,
Susan Scott, a devote traditional
Catholic who made the vestments for our Infant of Prague statue, died January
8,
Brother
Leonard Mary, M.I.C.M., (Fred Farrell), an early supporter and friend of Fr. Leonard
Feeney, died November 23,
John Fergale, requests our prayers for
his sister Connie, who died December 19,
Jim Capaldi, died December 15,
Brinton
Creager,
the son of Elizabeth Carpenter, died December 10,
Christopher
Lussos,
age 27, the father of one child with an expecting wife, died November 15,
Jarett
Ebeyer,
16 year old who died in his sleep, November 17, at the request of the
Kolinsky’s,
Catherine
Nienaber,
the mother of nine children, the youngest three years of age, killed in MVA
after Mass, 10-29,
Nancy Aldera, the sister of Frances
Toriello, died October 11, 2013 at 105 years of age,
Mary Rita
Schiltz,
the mother of Thomas Schiltz, who died August 27,
William H.
(Teddy) Kennedy, Catholic author of Lucifer’s Lodge, died August 14, age 49, cause of
death unknown,
Alfred
Mercier,
the father of David Mercier, who died August 12,
The Robert Kolinsky asks our prayers for his friend, George Curilla, who died August
23,
John Cuono, who had attended Mass at
our Mission in the past, died August 11,
Raymond
Peterson,
died July 28, and Paul Peterson,
died February 19, the brothers of Fr. Casimir Peterson,
Margaret
Brillhart,
who died July 20,
Msgr. Joseph
J. McDonnell, a priest from the diocese of Des Moines, who died June 8,
Patrick
Henry Omlor, who wrote Questioning The Validity of the Masses using
the New, All English Canon, and for a series of newsletters which were
published as The Robber Church, died May 2, the feast of St Athanasius,
Bishop
Joseph McFadden, died unexpectedly May 2,
Timothy
Foley,
the brother-in-law of Michelle Marbach Folley, who died in April,
William
Sanders,
the uncle of Don Rhoad, who died April 2,
Gene Peters ask our prayers for the repose of the
soul of Mark Polaschek, who
died March 22,
Eduardo
Gomez Lopez, the uncle of Claudia Drew, February 28,
Cecelia
Thees,
died February 24,
Elizabeth
Marie
Gerads, a
nineteen year old, the oldest of twelve children, who died February 6,
Michael
Schwartz,
the co-author with Fr. Enrique Rueda of “Gays, Aids, and You,” died February 3,
Stanley W.
Moore,
passed away in December 16, and Gerard (Jerry) R. Pitman, who died January 19,
who attended this Mission in the past,
Louis
Fragale,
who died December 25,
Fr. Luigi
Villa, Th.D. author of Vatican II About
Face! detailing the heresies of Vatican II, died November 18 at the age of 95,
Rev. Michael
Jarecki,
a faithful traditional Catholic priest who died October 22,
Jennie Salaneck, died September 19 at 95
years of age, a devout and faithful Catholic all her life,
Dorothy Sabo, who died September 26,
Cynthia
(Cindy) Montesano Reinhert, the mother of nine children, four who are still at
home, died August 19,
Stanley
Spahalski, who died October 20, and his wife, Regina
Spahalski, who died June 24, and for the soul of Francis Lester, her son,
Julia
Atkinson,
who died April 30,
Antonio P.
Garcia,
who died January 6, 2012 and the welfare of his teenage children, Andriana and
Quentin,
Helen Crane, the aunt of David Drew who
died February 27,
Fr. Timothy
A. Hopkins,
of the National Shrine of St. Philomena, in Miami, November 2,
Frank Smith, who died February 7, and
the welfare of his wife, Delores,
Eduardo
Cepeda,
who died January 26,
Larry Young, the 47 year old father of
twelve who died December 10 and the welfare of his wife Katherine and their
family,
Sister Mary
Bernadette, M.I.C.M., a founding member of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died
December 16,
Joeseph
Elias,
who died on September 28,
William, the brother of Fr. Waters,
who died September 7,
Donald
Tonelli,
died August 1,
Rev. Fr.
Gregory Hesse, of Austria, a great defender of Catholic Truth, died January 25, 2006,
Emma
Colasanti, who died May 29,
Mary
Dullesse,
who died April 12, a Catholic convert who died wearing our Lady’s scapular,
Ruth Jantsch, the grandmother of Andre
Ebert, who died April 7, Derrick and Denise Palengat, his godparents,
Philip D.
Barr,
died March 5, and the welfare of his family,
Judith Irene
Kenealy,
the mother of Joyce Paglia, who died February 23, and her son, George Richard
Moore, who died May 14,
For Joe
Sobran who died September 30,
Fr. Hector
Bolduc,
a great and faithful priest, died, September 10, 2012,
James &
Jean Rowan
and their sons, Patrick & Daniel,
John Vennari asks our prayers for Dr. Raphael Waters who died
August 26,
Stanley
Bodalsky,
the father of Mary Ann Boyle who died June 25,
Mary Isabel
Kilfoyle Humphreys, a former York resident and friend of the Drew’s, who died June 6,
Rev. John
Campion,
who offered the traditional Mass for us every first Friday until forbidden to
do so by Bishop Dattilo, died May 1,
Joseph
Montagne, who
died May 5,
For Margaret
Vagedes, the aunt of Charles Zepeda, who died January 6,
Fr. Michael
Shear, a
Byzantine rite Catholic priest, died August 17, 2006,
Fr. James
Francis Wathen, died November 7, 2006, author of The
Great Sacrilege and Who Shall
Ascend?, a great defender of dogma and liturgical purity,
Fr. Enrique
Rueda,
who died December 14, 2009, to whom our Mission is indebted,
Fr. Peterson asks to remember, Leonard Edward Peterson, his cousin, Wanda, Angelica Franquelli, and the six
priests ordained with him.
Philip Thees petitions our prayers for Beverly Romanick, Deacon Michael Erdeck,
Henry J. Phillips, Grace Prestano, Connie DiMaggio, Elizabeth Thorhas,
Elizabeth Thees, Theresa Feraker, Hellen Pestrock, and James & Rose Gomata,
and Kathleen Heinbach,
Fr. Didier
Bonneterre,
the author of The Liturgical Movement, and Fr. John Peek, both were traditional
priests,
Brother
Francis, MICM, the superior of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in
Richmond, NH, who died September 5,
Rodolfo
Zelaya Montealegre, the father of Claudia Drew, who died May 24,
Rev. Francis
Clifford,
a devout and humble traditional priest, who died on March 7,
Benjamin
Sorace,
the uncle of Sonja Kolinsky.
Is church
unity worth a Latin Mass?
Religion News
Service |Thomas Reese | February 6, 2026
"Paris is well worth a Mass" was
reportedly the attitude of King Henry IV when he was trying to secure the French
throne. As a result, he converted from Protestantism to Catholicism in
1593.
Today, the Eucharist, which is supposed to be the sacrament of unity,
is too often a battlefield between Catholics who support the Traditional Latin
Mass and those who want to see it disappear. Both sides need to ask themselves
whether the fight is worth something more important than Paris: the unity of
the church.
You must be my age to remember before the Second Vatican Council, when
the liturgy was entirely in Latin in Catholic churches, except in those using
Eastern Rite liturgies, where it was often in Greek. In Rome, it had been
changed from Greek into Latin in the third and fourth centuries so the common
people could understand it — a pragmatic decision, not a theological one.
When I was young, we took it for granted that the Mass was in Latin. It
was something that made us different from Protestants. We could go to the same
Mass anywhere in the world. The Scripture readings were in Latin, although on
Sunday the priest would reread the Gospel in English before giving his sermon.
Otherwise, unless you had a translation, you had no idea what the readings
were.
The Eucharistic prayer was the priest' s prayer, which he said with his
back to us. The altar boy would ring the bells to notify us when the priest
raised the host and chalice for us to adore. The bell also rang to call us to
Communion.
Other than that, the priest did his thing and the congregation
passively watched or prayed in silence.
In high school from 1958 to 1962, I had a St. Joseph's Missal with
Latin on one side of the page and English on the other so that I could follow
what the priest was praying when I went to daily Mass, but that was not the
norm. My parents had prayerbooks they read during Mass that had no connection
to what the priest was doing. Others in the church silently said their rosaries
during Mass.
And prior to the 20th century, Communion was infrequent. My parents
were among the first children allowed to go to Communion. Those who want to bring back the
Tridentine liturgy, if they want to be truly traditional, should go to
Communion less frequently and not allow their children to go to Communion.
Otherwise they are accepting early 20th-century innovations.
Although I entered the Jesuits prior to the Second Vatican Council and
went through a very traditional novitiate, I did not find the liturgical
changes difficult to accept. Our
conservative novice master taught us a course on the history of the Mass using
Josef A. Jungmannn's "Mass of the Roman Rite," which was published in
English in 1951. It taught us that the Mass was always changing throughout
history.
The transition was
also made easier by our traditional novitiate's emphasis on obedience. If the
church decided to change the liturgy, we were to accept it without question. To
do otherwise would be disobedient.
The Jesuits in
charge of formation were no help during the transition. They were clueless
about what was happening. The classics professors argued about how we
should pronounce "Amen" in English. The first time our superior said
the Eucharistic prayer in English, he got as far as the institutional narrative
and switched to "Hoc est enim corpus meum." The next day, he was able
to do it all in English.
Some of my
classmates had problems with the transition. Before ordination in 1973, one
confessed that it just wasn't the same because in the old church, after
ordination, he would be allowed to touch the consecrated bread for the first
time. Now anyone could receive Communion in the hand. It was as if part of his
priesthood had been taken away.
But for the most
part, the liturgical changes were accepted and implemented with excitement and
joy. They were the most visible reforms of Vatican II. And after a bit of
confusion, they were accepted overwhelmingly by Catholics in the pews.
But there were two
groups of holdouts.
First, there were
those who found the change difficult because they were used to the old ways and
the reforms were not well explained. Popes Paul VI and John Paul II wanted to
deal with these people with pastoral sensitivity and patience, but the popes
made clear that eventually, the old Mass was to fade away.
The other group of
holdouts was more problematic. They objected to the new liturgy in principle
and felt it was blasphemous. In truth, these ideologues objected to all the
reforms of the council, not just liturgy. They were divisive and contentious.
Some of these
dissenters were led into schism by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, despite all
the Vatican's efforts to appease him. To undermine Lefebvre and win back
schismatics to the church, the Vatican permitted more frequent celebration of
the Traditional Latin Mass. This strategy was partially successful, as
exemplified by Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, which celebrates the old Mass
but is in unity with the pope.
But there was an
unanticipated side effect: Some who grew up after Vatican II began to attend
these Latin Masses. Most were not ideologues, but pious, theologically
unsophisticated Catholics who were attracted by the ritual and mysterious
ceremony that allowed them to focus on adoration and private prayer without the
distraction of communal participation.
It is a mistake for liturgical reformers to lump this third group in
with the ideologues who reject Vatican II. These are good, devout people who
want to come closer to Jesus and find spiritual nourishment in the old liturgy.
Their existence is a
result of our failure to better explain the reforms and to make the new liturgy
more appealing to them. We should have encouraged them to go to Benediction and
explained how it is different form Mass.
Pope Benedict XVI
erred in taking away the local bishop's control over the Latin Mass and
allowing any priest to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass anywhere, any time.
Pope Francis erred in seeing only the ideologues and not the pious Catholics
who liked the old Mass.
Now, poor Pope Leo
XIV must figure out how to deal with this mess in a pastoral way that does not
empower the ideologues and affirms that the Traditional Latin Mass must
eventually fade away. This is why he gets the big bucks.
Leo should keep in
place the Francis mandate that seminarians are to be trained and ordained for
the reformed liturgy. If they prefer the old Mass, they should not be ordained.
On the other hand, Francis' ban on the Latin Mass in parishes could
have more flexibility. It might make sense to return the authority over this to
diocesan bishops, although some may prefer to blame the Vatican for not
allowing it. And yet, this is exactly the kind of issue that should be handled
in a synodal fashion at the local level. And diocesan bishops can more easily
determine whether those asking for the Latin Mass are pious Catholics or
ideologues, and respond accordingly.
In any case, I
would keep some limits on the availability of the Latin Mass. It should be
banned on major feasts like Christmas, Holy Week, Easter and holy days, so that
the entire community can gather for and take part in these feasts. And, the
Latin Mass should not be available every Sunday. Everyone should experience the
new liturgy on a regular basis, at least once a month, especially families with
children. If one totally rejects the reformed liturgy, then one is out of step
with the church.
Meanwhile, Leo
should relaunch liturgical reform. The 1998 English translation of the Roman
missal by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy should be
permitted. Individual prefaces should be written for each Sunday in the A, B
and C cycles of Scripture readings. New Eucharistic prayers that are more
scriptural should be written.
Henry IV compromised his faith to win Paris. Catholics of all stripes
should be able to compromise on the liturgy to maintain the unity of the church.
We must respect and love one another, despite our liturgical differences. And
everyone should know that we are Christians by our love, not know that we are
Catholics by our fights.
COMMENT: Thomas Reese, S.J., the author of this editorial,
is a progressive liberal Jesuit who is about 81 years of age. His entire
religions life directly tied to liberal causes. Such as, he is involved with
the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the Jesuit Santa Clara University
which holds as a first principle the Vatican II humanistic philosophy of the
dignity of the human person which ends up in defending abortion rights. He is
also the former editor-in-chief from 1998 to 2005 of the Jesuit magazine
America. The Jesuit order he is a member of during his religions life has
become largely a homosexual collective.
His recounting of his liturgical formation is interesting. He was
formed by his Jesuit novice master at the beginning of Vatican II. His novice
master, using Josef Jungmann, S.J. as his authority, is responsible for his
liturgical views. Jungmann was a professor of pastoral theology in Austria who
wrote the two-volume The Mass of the Roman Rite, Its Origin and Development. He
held that the primary purpose of the liturgy was pastoral. He was active in the
liturgical reform with Annibale Bugnini from the beginning of the liturgical
commission in 1948. He envisioned a Novus Ordo Mass with a primary pastoral
purpose. He was largely a self instructed liturgical "expert" who
functioned as a peritus at Vatican II and
was a major contributor to its
Constitution on the Liturgy. Jungmann's idea of a pastoral liturgy was
to return to the liturgical practices of the Roman rite around the 4th to the
6th century. Over the last 40 years there has been a tremendous amount of
liturgical academic publications. The upshot of this is that Jungmann was
exposed as a fraud selective picking and choosing anecdotal historical elements
that served his ideology and not the Catholic faith or true liturgical
development. One example, he wrote that
the ancient Roman rite was offered versus
populum and not ad orientem. When
real liturgical scholars demonstrated his error he argued that versus populum is what should be done
now for pastoral reasons. Msgr. Klaus Gamber made it clear in his work on the
Roman rite that this practice can be traced to Luther and the Protestant
reformation and nowhere before. Jungmann was an ecumenical ideologue.
An ideology is a man conceived intellectual system pertaining to some
specific form of thought and/or action based upon human presuppositions that
are held be faith alone, that is, they cannot be demonstrated or proved. A
Catholic is not an ideologue because his presuppositions are divine. Reese,
like the former Jesuit pope, holds traditional Catholics as ideologues while it
is Reese himself, like Francis/Begoglio, who is tied to a hopeless, loosing,
antiquated, boring ideology. Francis/Bergoglio is the only one who ever tried
to identify the "traditional" ideology as a Pelagian heresy. That was
so stupid it merited no intellectual exposition by anyone. Liberals like Reese
effectively deny original sin. They are faced with the reality of a fallen
human nature and thus constantly spend themselves on its causes and proposing
remedies. Since their diagnosis excludes the need for redemption and salvation,
it is always wrong and their remedies always fail. Yet the liberal never
repents. The failures are always attributed to others who did not implement his
plan with sufficient rigor, for sufficient time, and with sufficient
purity. They never take responsibility
for the ruin they cause.
Reese is a shining example of this. He has been a Catholic religious
with the Jesuits from the beginning of Vatican II Council and standing in the
worst collapse in Catholic faith and morals in the shortest period of time
recommends a "relaunch" (of the) liturgical reform." This idiot
will soon follow Francis/Bergoglio to his eternal judgment. At that judgment
the fruits of Vatican II and the Novus Ordo service will condemn him because it
is be these fruits that he is known. He
will plead to the just Judge that he was
only being "obedient" and isn't, as Francis/Bergoglio said,
"time greater than space"? He will be told, 'No, it is not', for you,
"time" is over and your "space" is awaiting prepared for
you and it is not with the blessed.
Feast of the Holy
Face of Jesus
Jesus covered with blood and with much sadness said to Mother Pierina:
“See how much I suffer. I am understood
by so few: what ingratitude on the part of those who say they love Me! I have given My Heart as a sensible object of
My great love for man and I have given My Face as a sensible object of My
sorrow for the sins of man. I desire
that It be honored by a special feast on Shrove Tuesday. The feast will be preceded by a novena during
which the faithful will make reparation to Me, uniting themselves with My
sorrow.”
[This year, the feast occurs on FEBRUARY 17 (Shrove Tuesday). The Alpha-Omega novena beings today,
Sexagesima Sunday]
"I firmly wish that My face reflecting the intimate pains of my
soul, the suffering and love of My heart, be more honored! Whoever gazes upon
Me already consoles Me."
Our Lord to Sister Pierina
"All those who, attracted by My love, and venerating My
countenance, shall receive, by virtue of My humanity, a brilliant and vivid
impression of My divinity. This splendor shall enlighten the depths of their
souls, so that in eternal glory the celestial court shall marvel at the marked
likeness of their features with My Divine countenance."
Our Lord to St. Gertrude
OFFERING OF THE HOLY FACE TO APPEASE GOD'S JUSTICE
AND DRAW DOWN MERCY UPON US
ETERNAL Father, turn away Thine angry gaze from all guilty people whose
faces have become unsightly in Thine eyes. Look instead upon the face of Thy
Beloved Son, for this is the Face of Him in Whom Thou art well pleased. We now
offer Thee this Holy face of Jesus Christ, covered with shame and disfigured by
bloody bruises, in reparation for the crimes of our age, in order to appease
Thine anger, justly provoked against us. Because Thy Divine Son, our Redeemer,
has taken upon His head all the sins of His people that they might be spared,
we now beg of Thee, Eternal Father, to grant us mercy. Amen.
O Jesus, who in Thy bitter Passion didst become "the most abject
of men, a man of sorrows", I venerate Thy Sacred Face whereon there once
did shine the beauty and sweetness of the Godhead; but now it has become for me
as if it were the face of a leper! Nevertheless, under those disfigured
features, I recognize Thy infinite Love and I am consumed with the desire to
love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears which well up abundantly in
Thy sacred eyes appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather
up, in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite
value. O Jesus, whose adorable face ravishes my heart, I implore Thee to fix
deep within me Thy divine image and to set me on fire with Thy Love, that I may
be found worthy to come to the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in Heaven.
Amen
Promises of
Our Lord Jesus Christ to Those Devoted to His Holy Face
1. I will give them contrition so perfect,
that their very sins shall be changed in My sight into jewels of precious gold
.
2. None of these persons shall ever be
separated from Me.
3. In offering My Face to My Father, they will
appease His anger, and they will purchase as with celestial coin, pardon for
poor sinners.
4. I will open My Mouth to plead with My
Father to grant all the petitions that they will present to Me.
5. I will illuminate them with My light. I will
consume them with My love. I will render them fruitful of good works.
6. They will, as the pious Veronica, wipe My
adorable Face outraged by sin, and I will imprint My divine Features in their
souls.
7. At their death, I will renew in them the
image of God effaced by sin.
8. By resemblance to My Face, they will shine
more than many others in eternal life, and the brilliancy of My Face will fill
them with joy.
These inestimable promises are drawn from
the works of St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde and from the writings of Sister Marie
de Saint Pierre, a Carmelite who died at Tours, in the odor of sanctity.
Modernism
vs. Neo-modernism: A difference in method, an agreement in ends
The heresy of Modernism denies
dogma directly. Neo-modernism is a more subtle heresy. The end remains the denial of dogma but the
method of denial is indirect. Dogma, the
revelation of God that forms the formal objects of divine and Catholic faith,
is formulated in categorical propositions that are always and everywhere true
or false. There are two methods the
Neo-modernist employs to destroy dogma. The first method is to change the
category of dogma from truth-falsehood to the category of
authority-obedience. They treat dogma as
if it were laws, commands, precepts, injunctions, etc., etc., etc., and then
limit the universal truth with all the moral restrictions that apply to laws,
etc. For example, the dogma that the
sacrament of baptism is necessary for salvation is treated as a law and therefore
as a law, it does not bind in cases of impossibility, necessity, unreasonable
burden, psychological impediment, etc., etc.
The second method is to corrupt
the dogmatic proposition be changing the meaning of the terms OR altering the
universality of the copula. An excellent example of this corruption of
terminology can be seen in Benedict/Ratzinger’s treatment of the word, substance.
“…the medieval concept of
substance has long since become inaccessible to us. In so far as we use the
concept of substance at all today we understand thereby the ultimate particles
of matter, and the chemically complex mixture that is bread certainly does not
fall into that category.”
Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and
the Future, p. 14
It is impossible to affirm the
Catholic dogma that “Lord Jesus Christ... is consubstantial with the Father” or
the Catholic dogma of Transubstantiation if the concept of “substance” is
rejected in the sense as used by scholastic theologians found in the perennial
realist philosophical tradition. And so
we have Benedict/Ratzinger writing:
“Eucharistic devotion such as
is noted in the silent visit by the devout in church must not be thought of as
a conversation with God. This would assume that God was present there locally
and in a confined way. To justify such an assertion shows a lack of
understanding of the Christological mysteries of the very concept of God. This
is repugnant to the serious thinking of the man who knows about the
omnipresence of God. To go to church on the ground that one can visit God who
is present there is a senseless act which modern man rightfully rejects.”
Joseph Ratzinger, Die Sacramentale
Begrundung Christliche Existenz
The
Catholic Church infallibly teaches:
“By the consecration of the
bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord
and of the whole substance of the
wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has
fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.”
Council of Trent, Session XIII,
chapter IV
“If anyone denies that in the
sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really and substantially the body and blood
together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
consequently the whole Christ, but says that He is in it only as in a
sign, or figure or force, let him be anathema.”
Council of Trent, Session XII,
Canon I
Benedict/Ratzinger’s
affirmation of these dogmas is done within the corrupted context of mutilating the
meaning of the terms. The entire hermeneutic of discontinuity/rupture vs. the
hermeneutic of reform proposed by Benedict/Ratzinger is predicated upon
accepting or rejecting his false philosophy which ultimately elevates the
accident of relationship to overthrow
the concept of substance. Reciting
the Credo is no longer evidence of the Catholic faith without clearly defining
every term.
Cardinal
Henry Edward Manning – The true Revelation of God is both a Definite and
Certain participation in God’s own knowledge.
IT is this fundamental truth of revelation that our Neo-Modernist
hierarchy reject!
What, then, is the knowledge which God has restored to man through
revelation but a definite knowledge, a participation of His own? The
truth which has been revealed, what is it in the mind of God who reveals it,
but one, harmonious and distinct? What was that knowledge as revealed by the
Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, but one, harmonious and distinct? What was
the conception of that knowledge in inspired men, but one, harmonious and
distinct also? And what was that knowledge when communicated by those who were
inspired to those who believed, but one, harmonious and distinct as before? And what is this unity and
harmony and distinctness of knowledge, which God revealed of Himself through
Jesus Christ, but the faith we confess in our creed? Our baptismal faith, its
substance and its letter, the explicit and the implicit meaning, article by
article, is as definite, severe, and precise, as any problem in science. It is
of the nature of truth to be so; and where definiteness ends, knowledge ceases.
Observe, then, the distinction between finite knowledge and definite knowledge.
Is not science definite? And yet it is also finite. The theory of gravitation,
definite as it is, it is finite too. [……] Go through the whole range of
physical sciences, what is it but an example of the same condition of
knowledge, definiteness in conception with finiteness of reach? [….] If we have not a definite
knowledge of what we believe, we may be sure we have no true knowledge of it.
But, further, it is evident that knowledge must also be certain.
When we speak of certainty, we mean one of two things. Sometimes we say, that a
thing is certain; at other times, that we are certain. When we say a truth is
certain, we mean, that the proofs of that truth are either self-evident, or so
clear as to exclude all doubt. This is certainty on the part of the object
proposed to our intelligence. But when we say we are certain, we mean that we
are inwardly convinced, by the application of our reason to the matter before
us, of the sufficiency of the evidence to prove the truth of it. In us,
certainty is rather a moral feeling, a complex state of mind. As light manifests itself by its
own nature, but sight is the illumination of the eye; so certainty means truth
with its evidences illuminating the intelligence, or, in other words, the
intelligence possessed by truth with its evidences.
This we call certainty. I ask, then, is there not this twofold certainty
in the revelation which God has given? Was not the revelation which God
gave of Himself through Jesus Christ made certain on His part by direct
evidence of the divine act which revealed it? Is it not also certain on our
part by the apprehension and faith of the Church? Was not God manifest in the
flesh that He might reveal Himself? Did not God dwell on earth that He might
teach His truth? Has not God spoken to man that man might know Him? Did not God
work miracles that man might believe that He was present? What evidence on the
part of God was wanting that men might know that Jesus Christ was indeed the
Son of God? And if there
was certainty on the part of God who revealed, was there not certainty also on
the part of those that heard? Look back into the sacred history. Had not
Prophets and Seers certainty of that which they beheld and heard? […..] What, then, is the first
condition of faith but certainty? He that has not certain faith has no faith.
We are told that to crave for certainty implies a morbid disposition. Did not
Abraham, and Moses, and Daniel, the Apostles and Evangelists desire certainty
in faith, and crave to know beyond doubt that God spake to them, and know with
definite clearness what God said? Was this a morbid craving? Surely this is not
to be reproved. But rather
the contrary disposition worthy of rebuke. How can we venture to content
ourselves with uncertainty in matters where the truth and honour of God and the
salvation of our own souls are at stake? This truly is not without sin.
[…..] And yet, what is the very idea of Revelation but a Divine assurance of
Truth? Where faith begins uncertainty ends. Because faith terminates upon the
veracity of God; and what God has spoken and authenticated to us by Divine
authority cannot be uncertain.
Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, Grounds of Faith
"The
group holding power in the SSPX have decided to stage a drama, unfortunately
not a good Shakespearean play, but a poor play by Fernandez. They will follow
two narratives: one for liberals, the other for hardliners. Unfortunately,
nothing has changed for many years – secret meetings with the Roman hierarchy
and the search for a practical agreement without doctrinal agreement. This
makes no sense. As Bishop Richard Williamson said, it is a betrayal of
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's struggle, a betrayal of Our Lord Jesus Christ and
His Church." -
Bishop
Michal Stobnicki. Comment on the SSPX threat to consecrate new bishops
Pope Leo XIV
is continuing ‘irreversible trajectory’ of Pope Francis: SSPX statement
In addition to
spelling out the Francis/Leo crisis, the statement addresses the silence of
conservative bishops in the Church, the Traditional Latin Mass and the Novus
Ordo, and more.
LifeSiteNews
| John-Henry Westen | Feb
5, 2026 — Today the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) released a major
statement explaining the reasons behind their announcement of upcoming
episcopal consecrations. This comes from Superior General Davide Pagliarani,
and it directly addresses the current pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, describing
it as continuing the “irreversible trajectory” set by Pope Francis. The
document outlines why the SSPX believes these consecrations are necessary,
while still expressing some hope for dialogue with Rome.
In addition to spelling out the Francis/Leo crisis, the statement
addresses the silence of conservative bishops in the Church, the possibility of
sanctions, their hopes, the ultimate reason for their action and their
perspective on the Traditional Latin Mass. Let me read the key portions
directly from the statement, but I encourage you to read the full statement.
They spell out the
Francis and Leo crisis
Furthermore, the major orientations already taking shape in this new pontificate
– particularly through the most recent consistory – only confirm this. An explicit determination to
preserve the line of Pope Francis as an irreversible trajectory for the entire
Church is discernible.
It is sad to
acknowledge, but it is a fact that, in an ordinary parish, the faithful no
longer find the means necessary to ensure their eternal salvation. Missing, in
particular, are both the integral preaching of Catholic truth and morality, and
the worthy administration of the sacraments as the Church has always done. This
deprivation is what constitutes the state of necessity. In this critical
context, our bishops are growing older, and, as the apostolate continues to
expand, they are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of the faithful worldwide.
In what way do you
believe that last month’s consistory confirms the direction taken by Pope
Francis?
DP: Cardinal Fernández, speaking in the name of Pope Leo, invited the
Church to return to Pope Francis’s fundamental intuition expressed in his key
encyclical, Evangelii gaudium.
Put simply, he believes that the Gospel should be proclaimed by reducing it to
a primitive and essential expression, a series of concise and striking formulas
– the “kerygma” – with a view to eliciting an “experience,” an immediate
encounter with Christ. Everything else should be set aside, however precious it
may be.
In concrete terms, all that is Tradition is considered as accessory and
secondary. It is this method of the new evangelization that has produced the
doctrinal emptiness characteristic of Pope Francis’s pontificate, and is keenly
felt by many in the Church.
In a similar vein, one must provide new and relevant answers to the
emerging questions of our time, but, according to Cardinal Fernández, this is
to be done through synodal reform, rather than by rediscovering the classical
and ever-valid answers provided by the Tradition of the Church. It is by these
means, in the “breath of the Spirit” of this synodal reform, that Pope Francis
has been able to impose catastrophic decisions upon the whole Church, such as
authorizing Holy Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, or the
blessing of same-sex couples.
In summary, through the “kerygma,” the proclamation of the Gospel is
isolated from the whole corpus of traditional doctrine and morality. And
through synodality, traditional answers are replaced by arbitrary decisions,
with a high risk of being absurd and doctrinally unjustifiable. Cardinal Zen
himself considers this method manipulative and considers attributing it to the
Holy Ghost blasphemous. Unfortunately, I fear that he is right.[…]
[…] the Church is in danger of busying herself with both everything and
nothing. Ecological concerns, for example, or the preoccupation with the rights
of minorities, of women, or of migrants, risk causing the essential mission of
the Church to be lost from view. If the Society of Saint Pius X strives to
preserve Tradition, with all that this entails, it is solely because these
treasures are vital for the salvation of souls, and because it aims at nothing
else but the good of souls, and that of the priesthood—ordered to their
sanctification.[…]
[…] 2019, when Pope Francis, on the occasion of his visit to the
Arabian Peninsula, signed, together with an imam, the well-known Abu Dhabi
declaration. Together with the Muslim leader, he affirmed that the plurality of
religions had been willed as such by divine Wisdom.
It is evident that a communion founded upon the acceptance of such a
statement, or which would include it, would simply not be Catholic, since it
would constitute a sin against the First Commandment and the denial of the
first article of the Creed.
I consider such a statement to be more than a simple error. It is
simply inconceivable. It cannot be the foundation of Catholic communion, but
rather the cause of its dissolution. I believe that a Catholic should prefer
martyrdom rather than accept such an affirmation.
They address the
silence of conservative bishops in the church to the crisis of Pope Francis and
Leo
[…] the fear of breaking a fragile stability by behavior deemed
“disturbing” reduces many pastors to a constrained silence, when they should be raising
their voices against scandalous teaching which corrupts faith or morals.
The necessary denunciation of errors that undermine the Church – required by
the very good of souls who are threatened by this poisoned nourishment – is
thereby left undone. One may enlighten another in private, if able to discern
the harmfulness of a given error, but it may be only a timid whisper, in which
truth struggles to express itself with the required freedom – especially in the
shadow of tacitly accepted, contradictory principles. Once again, souls are no
longer enlightened and are deprived of the bread of doctrine for which they
remain hungry. Over time, this progressively alters mentalities and gradually
leads to a general and unconscious acceptance of the various reforms affecting
the life of the Church. Towards these souls, too, the Society feels a
responsibility to enlighten and not to abandon.
Realistically sees
possibility of sanctions
[…] Cardinal Fernández’s response does not address the possibility of
an audience with the Pope. It also evokes the possibility of new sanctions.
What will the Society
do if the Holy See decides to condemn it?
DP: First of all, let us recall that in such circumstances any
canonical penalties would have no real effect.
Nevertheless, should they be pronounced, the Society would certainly
accept this new suffering without bitterness, as it has accepted past sufferings,
and would sincerely offer it for the good of the Church. It is for the Church that the
Society works. And there is no doubt that, should such a situation
arise, it could only be temporary, for the Church is divine and Our Lord will
not abandon her. […]
We are sure that one day the Roman authorities will acknowledge, with
gratitude, that these episcopal consecrations providentially contributed to
preserving the faith, for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.
They make the
comparison to the China Communist Party naming bishops without the Pope’s
approval
Let us take the current case of relations with the Chinese government.
Despite a genuine schism of the Chinese Patriotic Church, despite the
uninterrupted persecution of the underground Church faithful to Rome, despite
agreements regularly renewed and then broken by the Chinese authorities, in
2023, Pope Francis approved, a posteriori, the appointment of the Bishop of
Shanghai by those authorities.
More recently, Pope Leo XIV himself ultimately accepted, a posteriori, the appointment of the
Bishop of Xinxiang, designated in the same manner during the vacancy of the
Apostolic See, while the bishop, faithful to Rome—who had been imprisoned
several times—was still in office.
In both cases, these were clearly pro-government prelates, imposed
unilaterally by Beijing to control the Catholic Church in China. It should be
clearly noted that these were not merely auxiliary bishops, but residential
bishops, that is, ordinary pastors of their respective dioceses (or
prefectures), possessing jurisdiction over the local clergy and faithful. In
Rome, it is perfectly well known for what purpose these pastors were chosen and
unilaterally imposed.
The Society’s case is entirely different. For us, it is obviously not a
matter of favoring a communist or anti-Christian power, but solely of
safeguarding the rights of Christ the King and of the Tradition of the Church,
at a time of general crisis and confusion in which these are gravely
compromised. The intentions and the ends are clearly not the same.
They lay out the
request ignored by the Pope since last summer
Last summer, I wrote to the Holy Father to request an audience. Having
received no reply, I wrote to him again a few months later, in a filial
and straightforward manner, without concealing any of our needs. I
mentioned our doctrinal divergences, but also our sincere desire to serve the
Catholic Church without respite, for we are servants of the Church despite
our irregular canonical status.
To this second letter, a reply from Rome reached us a few days ago,
from Cardinal Fernández. Unfortunately, it took no account whatsoever of the
proposal we put forward, and offers nothing that responds to our requests.
Still retains hope
Pope Leo will acquiesce
A Pope is first and foremost a father. As such, he is capable of
discerning a right intention, a sincere will to serve the Church, and above
all, a genuine case of conscience in an exceptional situation. […]
In fact, the superior
general suggests that the consecration of new bishops will be a grace for the
whole church when they happen
I would like to emphasize that this is a time for prayer and
preparation of hearts, souls, and minds. We must prepare ourselves to receive
the grace that these consecrations will occasion for the whole Church. This
should be done with recollection, peace, and trust in Providence, which has
never abandoned the Society and will not abandon it now.
The ultimate reason:
for the salvation of souls
[…] it is for the Pope himself, as such, that we preserve this treasure
until the day when its value will once again be understood and when a Pope will
wish to make use of it for the good of the whole Church. […]
[…] The very law of the Church provides for it. In the spirit of
ecclesiastical law, which is the juridical expression of this charity, the good
of souls comes before everything else. It truly represents the law of laws, to
which all others are subordinate and against which no ecclesiastical law can
prevail.
The axiom “suprema lex, salus animarum” —”the supreme law is the
salvation of souls”—is a classic maxim of canonical tradition which is
explicitly taken up by the final canon of the 1983 Code. In the present state
of necessity, it is upon this highest principle that the entire legitimacy of
our apostolate and of our mission towards the souls who turn to us depends. For
us, we fulfil a role of supplying for a deficiency, in the name of that same
charity.
About the Traditional
Latin Mass
As far as I am aware, Pope Leo XIV has maintained a certain
discretion on this subject, which arouses great expectation in the conservative
world. Very recently, however, a text by Cardinal Roche on the liturgy—intended
initially for the cardinals participating in last month’s consistory—was made public.
There is no reason to
doubt that it corresponds, in its broad lines, to the orientation desired by
the Pope. It is an unambiguous text, and above all, logical and coherent.
Unfortunately, it is based on a false premise.
Concretely, this
text, in perfect continuity with Traditionis custodes, condemns the
liturgical project of Pope Benedict XVI, according to whom, the ancient rite
and the new rite are two more or less equivalent forms, expressing the same
faith and the same ecclesiology, and therefore capable of mutually enriching
one another. Concerned for the unity of the Church, Benedict XVI sought to
promote the coexistence of the two rites and, in 2007, published Summorum
Pontificum. For many, this occasioned a providential rediscovery of the
Mass of all time; but over time, it also gave rise to a movement calling the
new rite into question—a movement deemed problematic and which Traditionis
custodes, in 2021, sought to stem.
Faithful to Pope Francis, Cardinal Roche is now attempting to promote
an elusive unity of the Church according to an idea contradictory to that of
Benedict XVI. While maintaining the assertion of a continuity from one rite to
the other through reform, Cardinal Roche firmly opposes their coexistence. He
sees in it a source of division, a threat to unity, which must be overcome by
returning to an authentic liturgical communion. “The primary good of the unity
of the Church is not achieved by freezing division, but by finding ourselves in
the sharing of what cannot but be shared.” In the Church, “there ought to be
only one rite”, in full syntony with the true meaning of Tradition.
This is a just and coherent principle, since the Church, having one
faith and one ecclesiology, can have only one liturgy capable of expressing
them adequately. But it is a principle applied to a wrong conception of
Tradition. Consistent with the new post-conciliar ecclesiology, Cardinal Roche
conceives Tradition as something evolving, and the new rite as its sole living
expression for our time. The value of the Tridentine rite can therefore only be
regarded as obsolete, and its use, at most, a “concession”, and “in no way a
promotion.”
That there is a present “division” and incompatibility between the two
rites now appears more apparent than ever. But let there be no mistake, the
only liturgy that adequately expresses, in an immutable and non-evolving
manner, the traditional conception of the Church, of Christian life, and of the
Catholic priesthood—that is, Tradition—is the liturgy of all time. On this
point, the opposition of the Holy See appears more irrevocable than ever.
Direct calling into
question of the Novus Ordo
[…] instead of sincerely questioning the intrinsic deficiencies of the
new Mass, and therefore the overall failure of the reform, instead of facing
the reality that churches are emptying and vocations are declining, instead of
asking why the Tridentine rite continues to attract so many souls, Cardinal
Roche sees no other solution than an urgent preliminary formation of the
faithful and seminarians.
[…] For almost two thousand years, souls—often illiterate—were edified
and sanctified by the liturgy, without the need for any prior formation.
Failing to recognise the intrinsic incapacity of the Novus Ordo to
form and edify souls and continuing to demand ever better prior formation seems
to me to be the sign of an irremediable blindness. One arrives at shocking
paradoxes: the reform was intended to foster a greater participation of the
faithful; yet the faithful abandoned the Church en masse, because this insipid
liturgy failed to nourish them—and this would supposedly have nothing to do
with the reform? […]
[…] how can it then be understood that this Mass of all time stands in
irreducible opposition to the new Mass, remains the sole true liturgy of the
whole Church, and that no one may be prevented from celebrating it? How can it
be known that the Mass of Paul VI cannot be recognized, because it constitutes
a considerable departure from the Catholic theology of the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass, and that no one may be compelled to celebrate it? And how are souls
to be effectively turned away from this poisoned liturgy, to drink from the
pure sources of Catholic liturgy?
COMMENT:
Complaining about conservative bishops being mute dogs is rank hypocrisy
coming from the SSPX who have been dancing the two-step with Neo-modernist Rome
since 1997, nearly thirty years of "doctrinal discussions"! Dogma is
the proximate rule of faith for all the faithful. It is immutable in both the
truth it expresses and the manner in which it is expressed. It forms the formal
object of divine and Catholic faith. The very definition of heresy is the
denial of dogma. The heresy of Neo-modernism denies this truth. They believe
that dogma evolves and changes its meaning over time as the Church develops a
deeper and richer understanding of God's revealed truth. Consequently, a
Catholic must always turn to the pope to know what any particular dogma means
today. Thus, the pope becomes the proximate rule of faith for Neo-modernists. The
SSPX, just like Rome, are Neo-modernists. The SSPX cannot call the
Neo-modernist heretics because the SSPX does not hold dogma as their proximate
rule of faith. They can only offer opinions and thus, for thirty years they
have been exchanging opinions with Neo-modernist Rome. The SSPX during the
entire pontificate of Francis/Bergoglio did and said nothing to oppose his
gross heresy and immorality. Why is it suddenly an issue now? Because at that
time it was not in the interest of the SSPX to stir the pot. Their pretense of
being at the service of the Church has never been true. From the beginning they
have worked to consolidate control of Catholic tradition imposing upon it their
own distorted conceptions of doctrine and liturgy while denying any help to those
who do not conform in every detail. Bishop Richard Williamson, since being
expelled from the SSPX, helped our little Mission. He did not agree with us
entirely but his charity was not thereby stifled. Supplied jurisdiction is
entirely generated by the needs of each individual Catholic faithful and Bishop
Williamson exercised that supplied jurisdiction in helping us at Ss. Peter
& Paul Roman Catholic Mission. Bishop Williamson's charity extended to the
needs of the faithful over the world and he provided six bishops, at least some
of which are continuing as he did. That is really the reason the SSPX got rid
of him. For the SSPX, there is no state of necessity. They have denied it
certainly over the last 15 years and they cannot reclaim it now. If they want
to get their house in order they should ask Bishop Michael Stobnicki,
consecrated by Bishop Williamson for the eastern Slavs, and who the SSPX
expelled from their seminary, to help them.
"A Dark
Cloud of Fog Instead of a Head"
I saw a strange church being built against every rule.... No angels
were supervising the building operations.
In that church, nothing came from high above... There was only division
and chaos. It is probably a church of
human creation, following the latest fashion, as well as the new heterodox
church of Rome, which seems of the same kind...
I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions. There was something proud, presumptuous, and
violent about it, and they seemed to be very successful. I did not see a single Angel nor a single
saint helping in the work. But far away in the background, I saw a
laughing figure which said: 'Do build it as solid as you can; we will pull it
to the ground'.... Among the strangest things that I saw, were long processions
of bishops. Their thoughts and utterances were made known to me through images
issuing from their mouths. Their faults towards religion were shown by external
deformities. A few had only a body, with a dark cloud of fog instead of a head.
Others had only a head, their bodies and hearts were like thick vapors. Some
were lame; others were paralytics; others were asleep or staggering.
Blessed Anna-Katarina Emmerick, Yves Dupont, Catholic Prophecy
Purgation Now
with Merit, or Purgatory Later Without
When I look to God, I see no gate to Paradise, and yet he who wishes to
enter there does so, because God is all mercy.
God stands before us with open arms to receive us into His glory. But well I see the divine essence to be of
such purity, far greater than can be imagined, that the soul in which there is
even the least note of imperfection would rather cast itself into a thousand
Hells than find itself thus stained in the presence of the Divine Majesty. Therefore the soul, understanding that Purgatory
had been ordained to take away those stains, casts itself therein, and seems to
itself to have found great mercy in that it can rid itself there of the
impediment that is the stain of sin. No
tongue can tell nor explain, no mind understand, the grievousness of
Purgatory. But although I see that there
is in Purgatory as much pain as in Hell, I yet see the soul that has the least
stain of imperfection accepting Purgatory as though it were a mercy, as I have
said, and holding its pains of no account as compared with the least stain that
hinders a soul in its love. I seem to
see that the pain that souls in Purgatory endure because of that in them which
displeases God (that is, what they have willfully done against His great
goodness) is greater than any other pain they feel in Purgatory. And this is because they see the truth and
the grievousness of the hindrance that prevents them from drawing near to God,
since they are in grace.
St. Catherine of Genoa, Purgation
and Purgatory
All
Are Called to be Co-Redeemers with Christ
God has entrusted to each one
of us a share in the great redemptive work of Jesus. As consecrated souls, we are especially
called to cooperate in Christ’s work.
First of all, we must cooperate with grace, so that the fruits of the
redemption can be fully applied to our souls.
This is the work of our own personal sanctification. It is not limited to this one aspect,
however. We are called to sanctify
ourselves in order to be able to bring others to sanctity. Each one of us has a mission to fulfill for
the good of others and for their sanctification. We must collaborate with Christ in extending
the fruits of the Redemption to as many souls as possible. This work is entrusted to us by the heavenly
Father, and we must apply ourselves to it with the interior disposition of
Christ: a total, generous, exclusive dedication, a dedication capable of making
even the greatest sacrifices. All
actions are of value only insofar as they help toward the accomplishment of
this work. Anything that does not
contribute to our own sanctification or to the sanctification of other is
useless, a waste of time, and should be courageously eliminated.
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary
Magdalen, O.C.D., Divine Intimacy
“Only take heed to yourself and guard your soul diligently.” Deut 4:9
"It is a sin to believe there is salvation outside the Catholic
Church!"
Blessed Pope Pius IX
And
yet, the fathers of Vatican II professed to worship the same god as the Mohammedans!
He [Muhammad] seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to
which the concupiscence of the flesh goads us. His teaching also contained
precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to
carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal
men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such
as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom.
Indeed, the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with
doctrines of the greatest falsity. He did not bring forth any signs produced in
a supernatural way, which alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration;
for a visible action that can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher
of truth. On the contrary, Mohammed said that he was sent in the power of his
arms—which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants. What is more, no
wise men, men trained in things divine and human, believed in him from the
beginning. Those who believed in him were brutal men and desert wanderers,
utterly ignorant of all divine teaching, through whose numbers Mohammed forced
others to become his followers by the violence of his arms. Nor do divine
pronouncements on the part of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the
contrary, he perverts almost all the testimonies of the Old and New Testaments
by making them into fabrications of his own, as can be seen by anyone who
examines his law. It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid
his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him
of falsity. It is thus clear that those who place any faith in his words
believe foolishly.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles
The
Principle Muslim objections to the Catholic Faith – Utterly carnal!
“We
preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the
Gentiles foolishness” 1 Cor 1:23.
These, then, are the points, which, as you affirm, are attacked and
ridiculed by the unbelievers. For the Muslims (Saraceni), as you say, ridicule
our claim that Christ is the Son of God, since God does not have a wife; and
they think us mad, assuming we profess there are three gods. They also mock our
belief that Christ, the Son of God, was crucified for the salvation of the
human race, because if God is omnipotent, He could have saved the human race
without the suffering of His Son; He could also have so constructed man that he
could not have sinned. They rebuke Christians because daily at the altar they
eat their God and because the body of Christ, were it even as big as a
mountain, should long since have been consumed.
St. Thomas, De Rationibus Fidei (The Reasons for Our Faith)
Behold, then the whole
of Christian perfection: love and sacrifice. Who cannot with
God's grace, fulfil this twofold condition? Is it, indeed, so difficult to love
Him Who is infinitely lovable and infinitely loving? The love that He asks of
us is nothing extraordinary; it is the devotedness of love - the gift of
oneself - consisting chiefly in conformity to the divine will. To want to love
is to love. To keep the commandments for God's sake is to love. To pray is to
love. To fulfil our duties of state in view of pleasing God, this is likewise
to love. Nay more, to recreate ourselves, to take our meals with the like
intention is to love. To serve our neighbor for God's sake is to love. Nothing
then is easier, God's grace helping, than the constant exercise of divine love
and through this, steady advance toward perfection.
Rev. Adolphe
Tanquewrey, S.S., D.D., The Spiritual Life
Vatican II and
the Leap of Faith for the Hermeneutics of Continuity
ON CATHOLIC UNITY
Vatican II pastoral
opinion:
And
we now ask: What does it mean to restore the unity of all Christians?... This
unity, we are convinced, indeed subsists in the Catholic Church, without
the possibility of ever being lost (Unitatis Redintegratio) the Church
in fact has not totally disappeared from the world. On the other hand, this
unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is,
to deny and to reject one’s own faith history. Absolutely
not! Pope Benedict XVI, to Protestants
at World Youth Day, August 19, 2005
Catholic Doctrine:
… the union of Christians can only be
promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of
those who are separated from it… Pope
Pius XI, Mortalium Animos
ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Vatican II pastoral
opinion:
The
Council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation
in the very dignity of the human person... This right to religious freedom is
to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is governed. Thus it
is to become a civil right. Declaration on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis
Humanae
Catholic Doctrine:
And from this wholly false idea of social organization they do not fear to
foster that erroneous opinion, especially fatal to the Catholic Church
and the salvation of souls, called by our predecessor, Gregory XVI, insanity,
namely that the liberty of conscience and worship is the proper right of every
man, and should be proclaimed by law in every correctly established society...
Each and every doctrine individually mentioned in this letter, by Our Apostolic
authority We reject, proscribe and condemn; and We wish and command that
they be considered as absolutely rejected by all the sons of the Church.
Pope Pius IX, Quanta Cura
ON
SALVATION
Vatican II pastoral
opinion:
The separated churches and communities
as such, though we believe they suffer from the defects already mentioned, have
been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of
salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as
means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of
grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church. Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis
Redintegratio
Catholic Doctrine:
The most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of
those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and
heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will
go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the Devil and his angels, unless
before death they are joined with her... Pope Eugene IV, Council
of Florence
ON ACCOMODATION OF
CATHOLIC TRUTH TO THE WORLD
Vatican II pastoral
opinion:
May the faithful,
therefore, live in very close union with the men of their time. Let them strive
to understand perfectly their way of thinking and feeling as expressed in their
culture. Let them blend modern science and its theories and the understanding
of the most recent discoveries with Christian morality and doctrine.... Thus
their religious practice and morality can keep pace with their scientific
knowledge and with an ever - advancing technology... Decree on the Church in the
Modern World, Gaudium
et Spes
Catholic Doctrine:
The Roman pontiff can and must reconcile himself
with human progress, with liberalism and with modern and human culture. – condemned.
Blessed Pope Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors
ON RELATIONS WITH FALSE
RELIGIONS
Vatican II pastoral
opinion:
Upon the Moslems, too, the Church looks with esteem...They adore
the one God...though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God they revere Him as a
prophet.... In addition they await the day of judgment when God will give each
man his due.... and give worship to God especially through prayer, almsgiving
and fasting. Decree
on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate
Catholic Doctrine:
...that
false opinion which considers all religions more or less good and
praiseworthy... Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived,
but also in distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by
little, turn aside to naturalism and atheism...from which it clearly follows
that one who supports those who hold on these theories and attempt to realize
them, is altogether abandoning the divinely revealed religion. Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos
Why
is John Henry Cardinal Newman regarded by Modernists as their Spiritual Father?
– Because he was! So why do
“Conservative Catholics” admire Newman?
Because he explained how dogma can be discarded.
“Dr. Newman is the most
dangerous man in England. And you will see that he will make use of the laity
against your Grace. You must not be afraid of him. It will require much
prudence, but you must be firm, as the Holy father sill places his confidence
in you; but if you yield and do not fight the battle of the Holy See against
the detestable spirit growing up in England, he will begin to regret Cardinal
Wiseman, who knew how to keep the laity in order.”
Msgr. George Talbot, Papal
Chamberlain, Letter to Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, after Pope Pius IX
suppressed a plan for Dr. John Henry Newman going to Oxford to establish an
inter-faith oratory.
An English Catholicism, of
which Newman is the highest type, is the old Anglican, patristic, literary,
Oxford tone transplanted into the Church... In one word, it is a worldly
Catholicism, and it will have the worldly on its side, and will deceive many.
Cardinal Henry Edward Manning,
on Dr. John Henry Cardinal Newman
Another influential writer during the last century was Lord Acton (Sir
John Dalberg), who was famous for his critical historicism and also renowned
for his friendship with (Rev. Johann von) Dollinger (a Munich priest and
professor at the University, excommunicated for rejecting the dogma of papal
infallibility). Acton was almost excommunicated, as Dollinger was, but managed
to maintain the appearance of orthodoxy and remain in the Church. As liberal as
Lord Acton was, and although he sided with Newman in fighting the dogma of
Infallibility, he came to the same conclusion as (Cardianl Henry Edward)
Manning regarding Newman’s heterodox position. In a letter written by Acton a
few weeks before Manning’s death, after mentioning the ‘personal aversion to
Manning’ displayed by Newman he said, “Many will wonder how anybody who saw
much of him (Newman) could remain a Catholic — assuming that Newman really was
one.” Acton, although an ally of Newman in editing the liberal journal The
Rambler, was not baffled by Newman’s prosaic tact. Acton went much further than
Manning in his strictures on his old ally. He described Newman as “a sophist,
the manipulator and not the servant of truth.” When men of diametrically
opposed beliefs, as Acton and Manning, agree in their judgment of another man
whom they so well knew, the assumption that they are not both in error is not
unreasonable.
John Edward Courtenay Bodley, On Cardinal John Henry Newman
DOGMA IS THE PROXIMATE RULE OF FAITH; DOGMA is revealed
doctrine formally defined by the Church. The pope is the necessary but
insufficient means by which DOGMA is declared.
Hence, the distinction is made betewen
the Remote and the Proximate Rule of Faith.
The remote Rule of Faith is the Objective Deposit, [Scripture and Tradition],
It contains revealed truths which - for some reason or other - were forgotten,
obscure, or not sufficiently understood.
Hence, they were broght into discussion, or denied without injury to the
Faith until they became clear or werer defined by the Church. The Proximate Rule of Faith is the teaching
of the Church sufficiently proposed and manifestly promulgated to the Faithful,
[DOGMA]. If this Proximate Rule of Faith
proclaims anything as belonging to the Remote Rule of Faith, it can no longer be challenged without
shipwreck of the Faith. For unity of
faith is whole and entire only while there is no dissent with the Proximate
Rule of Faith. On this point Gregory of
Valentia declares: "The Church has from darkness brought to light wth her
infallible authority some doctrines which, through human negligence or malice
or perversity of mind, remained concealed.
And mayhap there are some still hidden in the Church."
Msgr. George Agius, D.D., J.C.D.,
Tradition and the Church
Worth
Repeating: The SCHISM is HERE and Leo is just a dull echo of Francis/Bergoglio!
COMMENT: This
book in the article below provides an interpretation of Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia. It is addressed to
bishops with a “merciful heart” and offers an interpretation that is consistent
with the interpretation approved in the private letter sent by Pope Francis to
the bishops of Argentina as well as with the interpretation of Cardinal
Schornborn who Pope Francis publically identified as its ‘official
interpretor.’ These bishops say that the proper understanding and application
is that any Catholic living in public adultery based upon their own private
judgment in the internal forum can declare themselves worthy to receive Holy
Communion and absolution in the sacrament of Penance and therefore cannot be
denied these sacraments. It is given
semi-official approval by its publication in L’Osservatore Romano.
Pope
Leo XIV in a message to to the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life holding
a seminar entitled, “Evangelizing
with Families Today and Tomorrow,” endorsed Amoris Laetitia by directly quoting his predecessor from Amoris
Laetitia §76, writing the “Gospel of the family also nourishes seeds that
are still waiting to grow,” praising its “basis for caring for those plants
that are wilting and must not be neglected.”
Now the Novus Ordo, which may
be nothing more than a memorial meal as it was initially and officially defined
by Pope Paul VI, perhaps giving the Novus Ordo communion wafer to a person in
objective mortal sin is not a real problem. But what is certainly a grave sin
is that these persons can expect to be absolved by a confessor in the sacrament
of Penance without confessing or repentance of mortal sin. This does not
represent a change in the Church’s teaching.
It represents the active effort of a Francis (and now Leo) and his
minions to destroy Catholic doctrine and morality. As St. Thomas said, “All
heretics are schismatics,” the schism has long been present with every
post-conciliar pope who have repeatedly denied Catholic dogma. It is more
evident each passing day and every Catholic will have to pick sides. God cannot
let an open attack upon the sacrament of marriage go unpunished. Their
hypocrisy is oozing from every pore. Imagine if a Catholic with “humility,
discretion and love for the Church and her teaching, in a sincere search for
God’s will and a desire to make a more perfect response to it” arrives at
traditional Catholicism, what kind of response can be expect from the local
bishop and Rome? If you want to know
read our OPEN LETTERS! After all, a “merciful heart” has its limits!
“If, as a result of the process
of discernment, undertaken with “humility, discretion and love for the Church
and her teaching, in a sincere search for God’s will and a desire to make a
more perfect response to it” (Amoris
Laetitia 300), a separated or divorced person who is living in a new
relationship manages, with an informed and enlightened conscience, to
acknowledge and believe that he or she are at peace with God, he or she cannot
be precluded from participating in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the
Eucharist (see AL, notes 336 and 351).”
Bishops Charles J Scicluna and
Mario Grech, Guide for the Interpretation
of Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia: An Invitatiion to the Bishops of Merciful
Hearts. This received semi-official
approbation by being featured in the publication, L’Osservatore Romano, 1-2017
"You know Gaza is interesting. It's a phenomenal location on the
sea, the best weather—you know, everything's good. It's like some beautiful
things could be done with it. It's very interesting. Some fantastic things
could be done with Gaza."
President Donald Trump, On the rebuilding of Gaza for Israel
COMMENT:
According to the latest figures released by the Gaza Ministry of Health
on December 23, 2025, Israel had killed at least 70,937 Palestinians and
wounded 171,192; of those identified fatalities, 53% were women, children or
elderly. But the estimate is difficult to make. This estimate from the Ministry
of Health is collected from hospital records and in May of 2025 the United
Nations reported that 94% of the hospitals in Gaze had been destroyed. It is
not possible 
to know how many Palestinians are buried under the rubble, nor how many
will die from starvation and disease. There were 2.23 million Palestinians in
Gaza before the conflict and relief workers estimate the current population
requiring aid at 1.87 million. The difference is 360,000.
The picture on the right is six bags containing the remains of children
killed in the bombing of a school. The picture on the left is northern area of
Gaze with no structure left standing. This killing and destruction was
accomplished by American made planes dropping 2,000 pound American made bombs.
The specific bomb used by Israelis on the school building was a Boeing GBU-39
designed to penetrate warships and hardened targets. It splinters into small
fast moving shrapnel segments that can penetrate three feet of reinforced
concrete. In an interview Jonathan
Pollard, the Jewish spy while working as a clerk for Naval Intelligence
delivered to Israel what Scott Ritter called the "Crown Jewels" of
U.S. Intelligence Singles and was sentenced to life in prison in 1987, said
that Israel has promised President Trump tax free concessions on anything he
builds in Gaza. The picture below is the visionary Trump plan, directed by his
Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner, for turning Gaza everything in life Trump
thinks is important. The Blessed Virgin Mary said at Fatima, "Only the
Lady of the Rosary can help you" through devotion to her Immaculate Heart,
the Rosary, and the First Saturdays of Reparation. Whatever good President
Trump may occasionally do, in the end he cannot fix anything.
Pope Leo appoints pro-LGBT archbishop as secretary for Dicastery for
Clergy
Archbishop Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli's pro-LGBT views were recounted
in a description of his response to the same-sex 'marriage' of a Catholic scout
leader.
LifeSiteNews | Jan 22, 2026 — Pope
Leo XIV has appointed a controversial and homosexualist archbishop to a
prominent role in the Vatican.
Archbishop
Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli of Gorizia was named today as the new Secretary for
the Dicastery for Clergy.
Raedelli and his pro-LGBT views were
mentioned in a 2020 book by Luciano Moia, a senior journalist for the Italian
Bishops’ Conference’s daily newspaper Avvenire. In his book, Moia argues that
the Church should look at “chastity” within a same-sex relationship the same
way in which it looks at chastity within marriage.
As an example of how the Church should
begin to do this, the author cited Raedelli’s response to the same-sex
‘marriage’ in 2017 of a homosexual Catholic scout leader.
In Moia’s words, Raedelli “threw everyone off. He refused the role of
the judge, he didn’t absolve, but neither did he condemn. He invited the
community to reflect together to understand if, even from such a divisive
occurrence, one can receive aspects of grace. An intervention in search of
moderation and of that invitation to welcome, discern and integrate that
impregnates the magisterium of Pope Francis.”
Contrary to the attitudes of Moia and
Archbishop Redaelli, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is very clear on
homosexuality:
Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which
presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always
declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary
to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not
proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no
circumstances can they be approved.
Only after stating that homosexual acts
cannot be approved does the catechism move on to a discussion of chastity. In
other words, chastity for people with homosexual inclinations plainly means
absolute continence.
Redaelli has served as auxiliary bishop of
Milan from 2004 to 2012, and as Archbishop of Gorizia, in northeastern Italy,
since 2012. A canon lawyer by training, he has been at the center of several
controversies over the years. For example, the archbishop has previously
attracted attention for his positions on the Traditional Latin Mass.
During the Italian Bishops’ Conference General Assembly in Rome in
November 2018, Redaelli had questioned the legal basis of Pope Benedict XVI’s
2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.
The Pope stated that the 1962 Roman Missal had never been abrogated and
could be freely used. However, according to the Italian blog Messainlatino.it,
Redaelli stated that the Missal promulgated by Pope John XXIII had in fact been
abrogated by Pope Paul VI, rendering Summorum Pontificum juridically
ineffective. On this basis, the motu proprio was described as a “juridical
non-sense,” and the Traditional Latin Mass as not legitimately liberalized.
However, Redaelli’s claim is juridically
wrong because it rests on a false premise. No explicit act ever abrogated the
1962 Roman Missal. Under canon law (see canon 21), “in a case of doubt, the
revocation of a pre-existing law is not presumed.” Furthermore, Pope Benedict
XVI did not grant a derogation or indult but formally recognized a right that
had never been suppressed.
As Secretary of the Dicastery for Clergy,
Archbishop Redaelli will hold a key administrative role within one of the most
influential departments of the Roman Curia. Under articles 113–120 of
Praedicate Evangelium, the dicastery oversees matters relating to diocesan
clergy, including their pastoral ministry, discipline, ongoing formation, and
material support. [.....]
COMMENT: Pope Leo's appointment meets two
important criteria: He is accepting of homosexuals, and therefore, will not be
a problem for homosexuals in the clergy that he will oversee; and, he is intent
in doing away with the Indult. It is Bishop Redaelli that understands the legal
standing Summorum Pontificum while the Indult conservative Catholics cannot
figure it out. Summorum Pontificum was abrogated by Pope Francis' Traditionis
Custodes so the argument is really moot. Be that as it may, there was never a
Roman Missal published in 1962. There were several changes in the Missal in
1962 just as there were changes before 1962 and there would be in the years
that followed 1962. Each change in the Missal abrogated the previous usage. The
Missal that was in usage at the end of 1962, the last change being addition of
St. Joseph's name to the canon in December, was changed in 1965, 1967, and
1969. Redaelli's claim that the 1962 Missal usage was juridically suppressed by
Paul VI is correct. It was Benedict/Ratzinger who was dealing from the bottom
of the deck when he said that the 1962 usage had not been abrogated or legally
suppressed. Shortly after the publication of Summorum Pontificum
Benedict/Ratzinger tried to clean up the historical record by abrogating the
two documents of Paul VI that did so. What should be recognized is that
Benedict/Ratzinger implied that the 1962 usage could be suppressed but lied in
claiming that that did not happen. What is certain is that Benedict/Ratzinger
said that those who used the 1962 Missale were exercising the privilege of a
"legal right" granted by the legislator and not a moral and doctrinal
right from God. He changed the 1962 usage from the Indult of JPII into a grant
of legal privilege. It was Francis/Bergoglio who returned it to an Indult in
Traditionis Custodes where it exists today. Those who have accepted the use of
the 1962 Bugnini transitional Missal by grant of Indult and/or legal privilege
have no legal grounds to complain when the grant is taken away. Ss. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Mission
refused the offer to become an Indult community for this very reason. We offer
the pre-Bugnini "received and approved" immemorial Roman rite not by
grant of legal privilege or Indult but by our rights as baptized Catholics
derived from of our duty to worship God as God Himself has determined that He
wants to be worshiped.
St. Raymond of
Pennafort: Dominican Friar, Priest, Master of the Order
A renowned doctor of canon law and notable writer, Raymond of Pennafort
(1175 – 1275) joined the Dominican Order in 1222, after a distinguished
academic career in Barcelona and Bologna. His two principal works are his Summa
Casuum on penitential discipline and his compilation of the
decretals of canon law, commissioned by Pope Gregory IX. This collection of
conciliar and papal decrees became a standard work for canon lawyers for nearly
seven hundred years. St. Raymond later became the third master of the Order.
According to Dominican tradition, he once rebuked the king of Aragon for his
immoral behavior. When St. Raymond attempted to leave the island of Majorca and
return to Spain, he could not because the kind had forbidden all sailors to
give him passage. St. Raymond placed his cappa, the black mantle of the
Dominican habit, on the water, stepped on it, and sailed to the mainland.
CANON LAW and the Judgment of a
heretical pope
Comment:
The Decretals of Gratian is a collection of canonical
texts compiled in the 12th century. Pope Gregory IX in 1230 directed St.
Raymond of Pennafort, the distinguished Dominican, to organize an addendum
to the code to include legal codes adopted since the time of Gratian but the
work became a much more extensive revision. Working from the Decretals of
Gratian, St. Raymond wrote a five volume edition of
the Decretals that became
the Corpus iuris canonici which served as the legal code
for the Latin Church’s canon law from that time until the promulgation of the
Code of Canon Law in 1917.
Decretum Gratiani, which was included in the
old Corpus Iuris Canonici, affirmed that a Pope who deviates
from right doctrine (i.e.: a notorious public heretic) can be
judged. The canon states that the "pope judges all and is judged by
no-one, unless he is found to have departed from the faith":
‘Hujus culpas redarguere præsumit mortalium nullus, quia cunctos ipse judicaturus a nemine est judicandus,
nisi
deprehendatur a fide devius (dist. XL, C. 6)’.
When the revised Code of Canon Law
(Codex Iuris Canonici 1917) came into force, the Church
eliminated from the new legislation the phrase "unless he is found to have departed from the
faith." This deletion was continued in the 1983 code. Although the
phrase, "unless he is found to have departed from the
faith," was not included in the 1917 and the 1983 codes, the
canonical commentary still regards the phrase as legally binding:
‘Canon 1404 – The
First See is judged by no one.‘
COMMENTARY: "Canon 1404 is not a
statement about the personal impeccability or inerrancy of the Holy Father.
Should, indeed, the pope fall into heresy, it is understood that he would lose
his office. To fall from Peter’s faith is to fall from his chair."
New Commentary on
the Code of Canon Law, John P. Beal, James A. Coriden, and Thomas J. Green
eds. (New York: Paulist, 2000), p. 1,618.
The code is the compilation of laws governing the Church as social
institution. Most of the laws in the code are of ecclesiastical positive human
laws grounded upon human authority, however, many of the legal codes are divine
positive laws grounded upon divine authority or upon natural law. If a human
law is deleted from the code, the law ceases to bind. If a law of divine
authority is deleted from the code, the law continue in force for the human
authority of the Church cannot overturn the law of God. This self-evident
principle is stated in the code itself. Consequently, the commentary cited above is a recognition
that the pope cannot be judged "unless he is found to have departed from
the faith" is of divine origin. It is necessarily a divine law
because the papacy is a divine institution established directly by Jesus Christ
and therefore governed in its essence only by divine laws. In other words,
if it were not a divine law, the Church could not propose a human law to judge
what was established by God.
Therefore, it is of divine law that permits a heretical pope to be
judged. Importantly, although the law permits a heretical pope to be judged, it
says nothing about who and how a pope is to be judged regarding heresy and it does
not address penalties. It says nothing about removal from office. If the law
intended the removal from office the law itself would have to state the penalty
and provide a mechanism for its determination and enforcement.
So now it falls to opinions regarding the judgment of a heretical pope.
Most theologians believe that it is "understood" that the removal
from office necessarily follows from a judgment of heresy often citing the
scriptural and traditional admonition to avoid heretics:
"A man that
is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid: Knowing that he,
that is such a one, is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own
judgment" (Titus 3:10-11).
They argue that since the faithful cannot avoid a pope as head of the
Church therefore the heretical pope must lose his office. A serious problem
with this argument follows, that is, if the faithful cannot "avoid" a
pope, then there must necessarily be a pope who in fact cannot be
avoided. Therefore, those who would make the papacy vacant must also be
able to fill the office with a true pope.
But can a heretical pope be avoided? It really becomes a problem for
those who hold the pope as their proximate rule of faith and not, as they
should, dogma. For if dogma is not the proximate rule of faith then the pope
must be and he then can never be a heretic for whatever the pope holds the
dogma or doctrine to mean is what it then means and only those who disagree
with the pope are heretics. For a Catholic, dogma is the proximate rule of
faith and although a heretical pope can do immeasurable damage to the Church he
cannot touch individual souls of the faithful.
If we adhere to what the law says and nothing more we can say this: The
definition of heresy is the denial of dogma. The heretic denies dogma and the
faithful keep dogma. Those who can judge a heretical pope are the faithful. The
law does not distinguish or discriminate among the faithful as to the judgment.
Dogma is articulated for all the faithful. Its understanding does not require
any theological competence. It requires proper definition and correct grammar.
Any of the faithful, that is those who hold dogma as their proximate rule of
faith, can judge a manifestly heretical pope such as Pope Francis was. Any of
the faithful can know when a dogma is directly contradicted for the first
principles of the understanding, such as the principle of non-contradiction,
are innate in human nature. Thus all the faithful can judge, in fact must
judge, a heretical pope and so that they may not follow him in his heresy for
God has said that 'it
is not possible to deceive His elect' (Matt. 24:24). The law does
not specify the judge because the judgment rests with all the faithful, it is
universal. The law does not specify a penalty because none of the faithful have
the competency to impose a penalty and remove a heretical pope from office. It
is God who is the formal and final cause of the pope and the office of the
papacy. It is God who 'marries' the designated candidate to the papal office
and only God can remove him from it just as God removed the High Priest and
destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and the Levitical priesthood which
can never be reconstituted.
Those who hold dogma as their proximate rule of faith recognize Pope
Francis as a heretic because he denies dogmatic truth. He preaches a different
gospel so we "receive him not into the house nor say to him, God speed
you" (2 John 10). Since he preaches a different gospel, "Let him be
anathema" because we are first "servants of Christ" (Gal 1: 8).
For in dogma, the Church has spoken and the heretic Pope Francis "will not
hear the church, (therefore) let him be to thee as the heathen and publican
(Matt 18:17).
The job of the faithful is to keep the faith.
Dogmas
“are to give light, not to receive light from human reason”!
I answer: The obligation to
believe what God says is a natural duty, it is a natural law, dictated by the
common sense of reason which the Creator has deposited in every human soul. The
Church only enforces this law, which existed before she herself existed,
because from all eternity it was a truth that the creature is bound to believe
the word of the Creator. If the Church allows no denial, no doubt, no
alteration or misconstruction of any of her dogmas, it is because the veracity
of the Son of God, who has revealed these truths, is attacked when any of His
doctrines are denied or doubted. These dogmas are so many fixed stars in the
firmament of holy Church. They cannot be reached by the perversity and
frivolity of man. He may close his eyes against them and deny their existence;
he may misrepresent them and look at them through glasses stained the color of
every prejudice; but he cannot do away with them altogether, nor change in any
way their natural brightness and brilliancy. Like the stars that deck the vault
of heaven, they are to give light, not to receive light from human reason. They
are the word of God, and what God says is truth, that cannot be made untruth.
The mind that receives truth is enlightened thereby; the mind that denies or
misrepresents it is darkened and corrupted.
Besides, every dogma of faith is
to the Catholic cultivated mind not only a new increase of knowledge, but also
an incontrovertible principle from which it is able to draw conclusions and
derive other truths. They present an endless field for investigation so that
the beloved Apostle St. John could write at the end of his Gospel, without fear
of exaggeration: “But there are also many other things which Jesus did: which
if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, world not be able to
contain the books that should be written.”
The Catholic Church, by
enforcing firm belief in her dogmas—which are not her inventions, but were
given by Jesus Christ—places them as a bar before the human mind to prevent it
from going astray and to attach it to the truth; but it does not prevent the
mind from exercising its functions when it has secured the treasure of divine
truth, and a “scribe thus instructed in the kingdom of heaven is truly like a
man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things
and old.” …. They are new because newly enacted, declared, defined; they are
old because they contain no new revelation or any assumption of power never
granted by Christ, but simply old truths under new forms, the old power
exercised under new circumstances.
Rev. Joseph Prachensky, S.J., The
Church of the Parables and True Spouse of the Suffering Savior
When Pope Leo XIV met with cardinals and bishops residing in Rome at
Christmas, his Master of Ceremonies, Monsignor Marco Agostini, outed them by
identifying them on an open microphone as “culattoni tutti insieme” (all the
faggots together).
Anyone who questions Agostini’s statement is encouraged to read In
the Closet of the Vatican
by Frédéric Martel who estimated that around 80% of the
clergy working in the Vatican are homosexuals. The 555-page work is the
result of over 1,500 interviews with people in the Vatican and in 30 countries:
among them, 41 cardinals, 52 bishops and monsignors, 45 apostolic nuncios and
foreign ambassadors.
Some of Martel’s conclusions include:
·
The
Vatican has one of the biggest gay communities in the world….it is one huge
closet.
·
The
Church has become sociologically homosexual. It is responsible for countless
instances of sexual abuse that are undermining it from within.
·
The
priesthood is (now) the ideal escape route for young homosexuals. Homosexuality
is one of the keys to their vocation.
·
There are
more and more homosexuals as one rises through the Catholic hierarchy. In the
College of Cardinals and at the Vatican, the preferential process is said to be
perfected; homosexuality becomes the rule, heterosexuality the exception.
Gene Thomas Gomulka, is a sexual abuse victims’ advocate,
investigative reporter, author, and screenwriter. A former Navy Captain
Chaplain Corps, seminary instructor, and diocesan Respect Life Director.
Gomulka was ordained a priest for the Altoona-Johnstown diocese and later made
a Prelate of Honor (Monsignor) by JPII.
COMMENT: Apparently Msgr. Agostini did not realize that the microphone
was on when he said, "All the faggots together." For his indiscretion
he has been dismissed from his position. While not knowing anything about
Martel's book that is recommended by Rev. Gomulka, it is just another addition
to the a long list, and growing longer, of documentation of the Homosexual
Lobby's infiltration and control of the Novus Ordo Church. Traditional
Catholics have been exposing this crime for a long time. One of the priests
that help in the establishment of Saints Peter & Paul Roman Catholic
Mission was the late Rev. Enrique Rueda authored The Homosexual Network
published in 1982. Rev. Rueda inspired the work of Randy Engel who continued
his work with her book, Rite of Sodomy published in 2006. The late Rev. John
O'Connor, O.P., a traditional Dominican, exposed in detail the homosexual takeover
of the Dominican Order in the United States and the failure of Rome to do
anything about it. The Polish priest, Rev. Dariusz Oko, a theology professor at the Pontifical
University of John Paul II in Krakow, was fined in Germany in 2022 along with
his published, for "hate speech" in an article that referred to
homosexual priests as "a colony of parasites", "a cancerous
growth" and "a homosexual plague" in the Church. He also called
the "gay-affirming movement" a "homo-heresy." The book
Goodbye, Good Men by Michael S. Rose is another work that documents the
homosexual infiltration of the Church. Should we be surprised? Remember Bella Dodd, under sworn testimony before
Congress in the 1950s, claimed that she had helped place 1,500 committed
communists into Catholic seminaries. None of these homosexuals will ever give
up their sinecures in the Novus Ordo church network. Jesus Christ began and
ended His public life with the 'cleansing of the Temple' driving the profane
from the house of God. Call to mind what God did to Rome in 1527 when the
mercenary Protestant army of Charles V sacked Rome. The destruction and death
lasted about nine months. This cleansing of Rome made possible the rebuilding and
reformation accomplished by the Council of Trent. The punishment that is at the
door today will be a pitiless destruction of the entire Novus Ordo structure
and make possible the great restoration that will follow.
"All ceremonies are professions of
faith, in which the interior worship of God consists. Now man can make
profession of his inward faith, by deeds as well as by words: and in either
profession, if
he makes a false declaration, he sins mortally."
St. Thomas Aquinas, (ST, I-II, Q. 103,
Art. 4)
Queers Always
Hang Together
“Sodomy Is a Gift from God….
Those who oppose sodomy should be debarred from church seminaries.”
Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., an Oxford
scholar and international celebrity appointed by Pope Francis to the Pontifical
Council of Justice and Peace in 2015. On 6 October 2024, Pope Francis announced
that Radcliffe would be created a cardinal on December 8 but was the date was
later changed to 7 December. Pope Francis, granting him a dispensation from the
current requirement that all cardinals must be bishops, made him a cardinal
deacon and assigned him to the Chiesa dei
Santi Nomi di Gesu e Maria. He participated as a cardinal elector in the
2025 conclave that elected Pope Leo as the sole elector that was not a bishop.
Pro-LGBT Cdl. Radcliffe urges ‘openness to novelty’ in address to
extraordinary consistory
Reports from inside the Vatican suggest growing unease among the
cardinals after Pope Leo’s two-day gathering opened with tightly controlled
group sessions led by liberal voices.
LifeSiteNews | Gaetano Masciullo | Thu
Jan 8, 2026
VATICAN CITY— Pro-LGBT Cardinal Timothy
Radcliffe delivered the opening meditation at the consistory in Rome by urging 
cardinals to remain “in the boat of Peter” amid global crises and
Church divisions while suggesting “memory and openness to novelty must coexist
in the life of the Church.”
On the afternoon of January 7, Pope Leo XIV
opened a two-day extraordinary consistory at the Vatican, convening cardinals
from around the world to reflect on four major themes – the mission of the
Church in today’s world, synodality, the relationship between the Holy See and
the particular Churches, and the liturgy – though only the former two were
selected for detailed discussion, a decision that, according to off-the-record
accounts reported by the Italian blog Messainlatino, prompted discouragement
and concern among several participants.
“I
am here to listen,” Pope Leo XIV told the cardinals in his opening address,
stressing that the meeting was intended not to produce documents but “to
continue a conversation that will help me in serving the mission of the entire
Church.”
According to the blog Messainlatino, multiple
unnamed cardinals described the first session as poorly prepared and
structurally restrictive, noting in particular that there were no free
interventions scheduled for the opening day. Discussions were conducted in
small, pre-assigned working groups based on language and curial affiliation, a
format some participants reportedly said did not resemble the traditional
consistory model of the past.
The same source reported that, for reasons
of time, the theme of the liturgy was effectively excluded from substantive
group discussion, despite being listed among the four initial topics. Several
cardinals allegedly lamented what they perceived as a lack of interest in the
Church understood as “mystery,” and said that the overall approach appeared to
be in continuity with the synodal processes of recent years.
The opening meditation was delivered by
Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., a leftist prelate who has praised “gay
sexuality” in blasphemous remarks, celebrated “LGBT Masses,” supported
admitting homosexuals to the priesthood, and encouraged Catholics to watch
homosexual movies and read homosexual novels.
In his reflection on the Gospel of Mark
(6:45–52), Radcliffe urged the cardinals to “remain in the boat of Peter” amid
contemporary storms facing both the world and the Church, including war,
inequality, sexual abuse scandals, and ideological divisions.
Radcliffe warned against remaining “on the
shore” out of fear or disagreement, arguing that unity and mutual charity among
the cardinals were essential to supporting the Pope. He stated that “memory and
openness to novelty must coexist in the life of the Church,” citing Evangelii
Gaudium and Saint Augustine to argue that Tradition and renewal are
inseparable.
Messainlatino also reports that upcoming
sessions of the consistory are expected to open with reflections by pro-LGBT
Cardinal José Tolentino de
Mendonça and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, both widely regarded as
prominent liberal voices within the College of Cardinals.
COMMENT: Cardinal Radcliffe
is a notorious homosexual. Pope Leo in selecting him as the spiritual director
of the consistory is making an open declaration that the spirit of the
consistory is NOT the Holy Spirit. The Mission of the Church was established by
its founder, Jesus Christ. It was established with a specific commission to
"make disciples of all nations." Synodality is a denial of the dogma
of the universal jurisdiction of the pope. The Church's relationship with
non-Catholic churches is established by God: "There is no salvation outside
the Catholic Church." It is the relationship is between those who can be
saved and those who are not. Finally, the liturgy is the work of God Who
dogmatically established at the Council of Trent: "Those that say that the
received and approved rites customarily used in the solemn administration of
the sacraments may be changed into other new rites... by any pastor of the
churches whomsoever: anathema sit.
Pope Leo begins a new catechism series dedicated to Vatican II
Pope Leo on Wednesday praised the ‘liturgical reform’ launched by Vatican
II that laid the groundwork for the revolutionary Novus Ordo Missae, the new
Mass.
LifeSiteNews | Emily Mangiaracina | Jan
8, 2026
VATICAN CITY— Pope Leo XIV announced
Wednesday that he is beginning a catechesis series to “closely” study the Second
Vatican Council, which many priests and scholars have affirmed to be in need of
correction.
“We are beginning a new catechesis series dedicated to the Second
Vatican Council and to a fresh reading of its Documents,” Leo wrote in an X
post on January 7. “The Council’s Magisterium remains even today the North Star
guiding the Church’s journey.”
“Closely studying the Council documents
will help us to be attentive interpreters of the signs of the times, and to
proclaim the Gospel to all,” Leo said Wednesday during his general audience.
In Leo’s strong support for Vatican II, he aligns himself with Pope
Francis, who described the Council as “a visit of God to His Church,” and as
“irreversible.”
The pope has not given further details thus far on the forthcoming
“catechesis” of Vatican II. However, during his general audience on Wednesday,
he highlighted aspects of the Council that he highly esteems.
For example, Leo praised the “liturgical reform” launched by Vatican
II, which laid the groundwork for the revolutionary Novus Ordo Missae,
the new Mass. The Council “set in motion an important liturgical reform by
placing at the center the mystery of salvation and the active and conscious
participation of the entire People of God,” Leo said in his general audience.
Liturgist and author Dr. Peter Kwasniewski
has pointed out that the idea articulated in the Second Vatican Council’s Sacrosanctum Concilium that “In the
restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, this full and active
participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else” is
backward.
“It cannot escape our notice that this text
turns things on their head,” Kwasniewski remarked in 2019. “Where Pius X had
said that what should be ‘provided for before everything else’ is the ‘sanctity
and dignity of the temple,’ Vatican II says that ‘the aim to be considered
before all else’ is ‘full and active participation by all the people.’ In doing
so, it inverts the hierarchy of goods. Now the worship of God and its right
condition becomes secondary to the people’s involvement.”
Pope Leo also on Wednesday lauded Vatican II for being responsible for
a Church committed to “seeking the truth through the way of ecumenism,
interreligious dialogue and dialogue with people of good will,” as if the
Church needs to seek truth outside of Herself. The idea that the fullness of
the truth is not found within the Catholic Church is heretical.
Leo’s description of the Second Vatican
Council during his general audience and in his social media post as the
“guiding star” of the Church’s path suggests he sees this council as surpassing
in importance every other council of the Church, which is especially
significant given that Vatican II appeared to contradict previous magisterial
councils in certain respects.
Prelates such as Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Archbishop Carlo Maria
Viganò have pointed to errors in the Second Vatican Council regarding religious
freedom and other religions, and in doing so have been supported by many
priests and scholars.
For example, Bishop Schneider has said Lumen Gentium is “wrong” and errs by suggesting that Christians and
Muslims participate together in the same act of adoration when it states that
“Muslims, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the
one and merciful God.”
It errs because Muslims worship on a
natural level, at the same level of anyone who adores God with the “natural
light of reason,” whereas Christians adore God on a supernatural level as His adopted
children “in the truth of Christ and in the Holy Spirit.”
“This is a substantial difference,”
Schneider observed. He explained that the use of the phrase “with us”
represents a relativization of the act of adoration of God and also of
Christians’ “sonship.”
In addition, Muslims reject the Trinity,
which they consider to be an idolatrous idea. Christ made clear that “whoever
rejects me rejects the one who sent me” (Luke 10:16) and “no one comes to the
Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Schneider criticized texts suggesting that
Buddhists and Hindus can attain illumination on their own, without “the grace
of Christ,” as a heresy. Nostra Aetate
claims that “in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery,” and that
Buddhism “teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be
able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own
efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination.”
The German prelate has also criticized Dignitatis Humanae for putting forth “a
theory never before taught by the constant Magisterium of the Church, i.e.,
that man has the right founded in his own nature, ‘not to be prevented from
acting in religious matters according to his own conscience, whether privately
or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due
limits.’”
Archbishop Viganò agreed with Bishop
Schneider in his criticism of the Second Vatican Council, noting that Vatican
II’s formulation of religious freedom “contradict[s] the testimony of Sacred
Scripture and the voice of Tradition, as well as the Catholic Magisterium which
is the faithful guardian of both.”
It is also noteworthy that Vatican II’s
Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis
Redintegratio, condones “prayers in common” with our “separated brethren” in
“certain special circumstances, such as the prescribed prayers “for unity,” and
during ecumenical gatherings.”
However, the Councils of the Church have
repeatedly made clear that Catholics cannot pray with heretics or schismatics,
let alone those of other religious practices:
· “One must neither pray nor sing psalms with heretics, and whoever shall
communicate with those who are cut off from the communion of the Church,
whether clergy or layman: let him be excommunicated.” — Council of Carthage
· “No one shall pray in common with heretics and schismatics.” — Council
of Laodicea
· If any ecclesiastic or layman shall go into the synagogue of the Jews
or to the meeting houses of the heretics to join in prayer with them, let them
be deposed and deprived of communion. If any bishop or priest or deacon shall
join in prayer with heretics, let him be suspended from communion. — II Council
of Constantinople
COMMENT: Pope
Leo is just another heretic embracing the heresies of Vatican II, a pastoral
council that has by every statistical analysis has proven to be an utter
pastoral failure. A pastoral approach to pastoral problem is comparable to a
business plan to the operation of the business. Now is a business plan leads to
financial ruin of a business the board of directors will immediately fire the
CEO, his staff and advisors, and seek another with a different business plan.
What can be said about the Novus Ordo popes is that the "pastoral
plan" they have adopted from Vatican II is not a failure but rather a resounding
success because the purpose of the plan is to destroy the Church of Jesus
Christ. What they are doing is what they have always intended to do. The Church
was established in Truth by Truth Itself and does not "seek" truth
from those who deny it.
In 2005 the Dover, PA electorate removed the School Board
members that permitted Intelligent Design to be considered in as a possible
explanation for the natural order found in the material universe. Scientists,
while affirming that the natural order in the universe must necessarily be the
result of mechanical chance, “listened with a vast radio telescopic network for
signals (from outer space) that resembled coded intelligence and were not
merely random” for evidence of intelligent life in the universe. If these scientists affirm that the DNA code
of biological life, which is clearly goal directed, is “merely random” and not
a sign of “intelligence” how can they be open to recognize any sign of
intelligible communication!? Is this WSJ article evidence that there is no
intelligence design in the Dover, PA electorate or in modern science?
Science
Increasingly Makes the Case for God
The odds of life existing on
another planet grow ever longer. Intelligent design, anyone?
Eric Metaxas: Dec. 25, 2014
In 1966 Time magazine ran a cover story asking: Is God Dead? Many have accepted the cultural narrative that he’s obsolete—that as science progresses, there is less need for a “God” to explain the universe. Yet it turns out that the rumors of God’s death were premature. More amazing is that the relatively recent case for his existence comes from a surprising place—science itself.
Here’s the story: The same year Time featured the now-famous headline, the astronomer Carl Sagan announced that there were two important criteria for a planet to support life: The right kind of star, and a planet the right distance from that star. Given the roughly octillion—1 followed by 27 zeros—planets in the universe, there should have been about septillion—1 followed by 24 zeros—planets capable of supporting life.
With such spectacular odds, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a large, expensive collection of private and publicly funded projects launched in the 1960s, was sure to turn up something soon. Scientists listened with a vast radio telescopic network for signals that resembled coded intelligence and were not merely random. But as years passed, the silence from the rest of the universe was deafening. Congress defunded SETI in 1993, but the search continues with private funds. As of 2014, researches have discovered precisely bubkis—0 followed by nothing.
What happened? As our knowledge of the universe increased, it became clear that there were far more factors necessary for life than Sagan supposed. His two parameters grew to 10 and then 20 and then 50, and so the number of potentially life-supporting planets decreased accordingly. The number dropped to a few thousand planets and kept on plummeting.
Even SETI proponents acknowledged the problem. Peter Schenkel wrote in a 2006 piece for Skeptical Inquirer magazine: “In light of new findings and insights, it seems appropriate to put excessive euphoria to rest . . . . We should quietly admit that the early estimates . . . may no longer be tenable.”
As factors continued to be discovered, the number of possible planets hit zero, and kept going. In other words, the odds turned against any planet in the universe supporting life, including this one. Probability said that even we shouldn’t be here.
Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life—every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. Without a massive planet like Jupiter nearby, whose gravity will draw away asteroids, a thousand times as many would hit Earth’s surface. The odds against life in the universe are simply astonishing.
Yet here we are, not only existing, but talking about existing. What can account for it? Can every one of those many parameters have been perfect by accident? At what point is it fair to admit that science suggests that we cannot be the result of random forces? Doesn’t assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining Earth just happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?
There’s more. The fine-tuning necessary for life to exist on a planet is nothing compared with the fine-tuning required for the universe to exist at all. For example, astrophysicists now know that the values of the four fundamental forces—gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the “strong” and “weak” nuclear forces—were determined less than one millionth of a second after the big bang. Alter any one value and the universe could not exist. For instance, if the ratio between the nuclear strong force and the electromagnetic force had been off by the tiniest fraction of the tiniest fraction—by even one part in 100,000,000,000,000,000—then no stars could have ever formed at all. Feel free to gulp.
Multiply that single parameter by all the other necessary conditions, and the odds against the universe existing are so heart-stoppingly astronomical that the notion that it all “just happened” defies common sense. It would be like tossing a coin and having it come up heads 10 quintillion times in a row. Really?
Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who coined the term “big bang,” said that his atheism was “greatly shaken” at these developments. He later wrote that “a common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology…. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”
Theoretical physicist Paul Davies has said that “the appearance of design is overwhelming” and Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox has said “the more we get to know about our universe, the more the hypothesis that there is a Creator . . . gains in credibility as the best explanation of why we are here.”
The greatest miracle of all time, without any close seconds, is the universe. It is the miracle of all miracles, one that ineluctably points with the combined brightness of every star to something—or Someone—beyond itself.
Mr. Metaxas is the author, most recently, of “Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life” (Dutton Adult, 2014).
JP II the
'Grate' - if somehow he made it to Purgatory -
ask him to turn out the lights and lock the place up when he is the last
to leave.
John
Paul II was a pope under whose reign we had the most horrific scandal in the
Church's 2000-year history. Thousands of
children were molested by priests and bishops he ordained. By the end of his pontificate, lawsuits were
bankrupting Catholic Churches all over the world; and between one third and one
half of the clergy (sources available upon request) were admittedly homosexual,
with a significant percentage being pederasts whom the pope didn't even admit
existed when he was told of their crimes, much less did anything to stop them,
even when stark evidence was brought before him, as in the case of Legionnaires
leader Marciel Maciel. At the same time
he hid other clerics from prosecution, as in the case of Cardinal Bernard Law
of Boston.
This
was the pope who allowed the Vatican Bank's corruption that started under Paul
VI to continue with little or no reform; and who protected its chief
perpetrator, Bishop Paul Marcinkus, from prosecution. He did nothing to investigate the suspected
murder of John Paul I, the very pope who made it known in the first days of his
reign that he was going to clean up the financial misdealings of his
curia. This was the pope who took 250
million dollars of the Vatican's money and gave it to Solidarity in Poland,
thereby making the Church a political institution instead of a spiritual
one. By the same token he condemned
Liberation theology because if its tendency to get involved in politics.
This
was the pope who went to the hut of an African witch doctor in 1985 and
afterward wrote, "the prayer meeting in the sanctuary at Lake Togo was
particularly striking. There I prayed
for the first time with animists."
In December 1984 he sent a
Vatican representative to the laying of the
foundation of the largest mosque in Europe.
In September 1989 he wrote to Muslim leaders and said: "In the name
of the same God we adore," without any qualifications whatsoever. In May 1999 he kissed the Koran in a public
ceremony; and in 2000 asked John the Baptist "to protect Islam." In February 1986 he received the red dust of
the Hindu religion on his forehead in honor of the goddess Shiva. In March 1986 in New Delhi he stated that
"collaboration between all religions is necessary for the good of
mankind... as Hindus, Buddhists, Jainists, and Christians, we unite to proclaim
the truth about man."
This
was the pope who invited all the world's non-Christian and pagan religions to
pray for world peace at Assisi in 1986 and Assisi in 2002 (with five additional
Assisi-like gatherings in the 1990s in various countries) and never once in
those 16 years did he preach the Gospel to them about conversion to Christ for
salvation. Instead he sent them all back
to their countries encouraging them to continue to pray to their false gods,
the very opposite that St. Paul did in Acts 17.
He paid no attention to any of his high-placed clerical advisors who
told him these acts were abominations.
This
was the pope who, against two millennia of Catholic tradition, told husbands to
be mutually submissive to women; dispensed with head coverings for women; and allowed
women and girls to be communion ministers, altar girls, and directors of
chanceries, thereby increasing the feminization of the Church amidst an already
feminized clergy who were by this time at least a third homosexual, while
another significant portion were receiving paternity suits.
This
was the pope who profusely apologized for the ecclesiastical policies of
previous popes; who had his Vatican envoy sign the 1998 Lutheran/Catholic Joint
declaration which, in direct contradiction to the Council of Trent, said
"man is justified by faith alone."
This was the pope who told the Lutherans they had a "profound
religiousness and spiritual heritage" and that Martin Luther was driven by
a "burning passion of the question of eternal salvation," and who told
the Lutheran bishops that Rome's excommunication of Luther had expired, and
that "There is a need for a new evaluation of the questions raised by
Luther and his teaching." This was
the pope who implied or taught universal salvation and that hell may not be
applicable to any human being. This was
the pope who at the very beginning of his pontificate in the 1979 encyclical Redemptor Hominis used the word
"church" 150 times but never once mentioned the word
"Catholic." This was the pope
who continually sided with liberals like Karl Rahner, Urs von Balthasar and
Raymond Brown but who would hardly give an ear to those, such as Archbishop
Lefebvre, who wanted to preserve the tradition and who decried the
anti-Catholic innovations being foisted on the Catholic populace. (Fortunately, Pope Benedict XVI saw John Paul
II's mistake and reversed the decision against Lefebvre). This was the pope who was criticized by his
own admirers for failing to discipline wayward clerics, both in their doctrinal
aberrations and moral laxity (Charles Curran, Edward Schillebeeckx, Hans Kung,
et al). Ironically, the only cleric that
was excommunicated was Lefebvre, yet he was one of the most doctrinally sound
and morally upright clerics the Church had ever known.
This
was the pope who in 1981, contrary to tradition, implied or taught that the
Jewish Old Covenant is not revoked and that Jews have a special relationship
with God, as does Paragraph 121 of his papally-signed 1994 Catechism. He continued to propagate confusing and doctrinally
fallacious teaching about the Jews and Judaism through his cardinals who taught
that the Jews did not need to convert to Christianity to be saved since they
have their own covenant with God (Kasper, Keeler, Willebrands, George,
Ratzinger, et al). This was the first
pope in history to visit Israel and who then placed himself under Judaism by
praying at the Jerusalem's Wailing Wall.
This was the pope who, for the first time in the history of the papacy,
visited and prayed in Jewish synagogues - the religion that denies more than
any other that Jesus Christ is God.
Last
but not least, this was the pope who changed the Church's criterion for
sainthood, which now allows him and all his fellow 20th century popes to be
easily canonized in the face of the fact that there have been only three popes
canonized since 1294 (Pius X, d. 1914; Pius V, d. 1572; Celestine V, d.
1294). As such, the very popes who lived
and reigned during the Church's worst corruptions and scandals are now being
exonerated and place in heaven.
Robert Sungenis, Ph.D., Letter to Editor, Culture Wars Magazine
In pastoral letter, Charlotte's Bishop Martin ends altar rails for holy
Communion
National Catholic Reporter | Patricia L.
Guilfoyle | Charlotte, N.C. — December 23, 2025
Bishop
Michael Martin has established guidelines for the reception of holy Communion in the Diocese
of Charlotte to strengthen unity in worship, uphold the church's
liturgical norms and encourage active participation by the faithful.
Martin announced the new norms in a pastoral letter that affirms
the common posture of standing to receive holy Communion, encourages
priests to offer Communion under both bread and wine more often, and calls
for the broader use of trained laypeople to serve as Eucharistic ministers.
"The liturgy of the Church is the work
of God and the work on behalf of God in the life of the Church," Martin
wrote in the Dec. 17 letter. "These norms for our diocese move us together toward the
Church's vision for the fuller and more active participation of the
faithful."
In his pastoral letter, the bishop
emphasized that the celebration of the Eucharist is a communal act of worship,
not only an individual act of piety.
"Throughout the ages and within the context of our rich liturgical
traditions from the East to the West, our unity as believers in
Holy Communion is expressed through our postures and gestures that reflect
our mystical communion and unity as fellow believers," he said.
The new guidance does not replace the
diocese's general liturgical norms established in 2005, but builds upon
them and aligns closely with the Catholic Church's universal norms
(what is called the "General Instruction of the Roman Missal") and
directives set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The pastoral letter follows months of
consultation with the diocese's Office for Divine Worship and the Presbyteral
Council of priests, which represents all priests of the diocese in
administrative and policy discussions.
In his pastoral letter, Martin affirmed the "normative
posture" for receiving holy Communion in the United States is
standing, after bowing the head as a sign of reverence.
The directive instructs any parishes that currently use altar rails for
distributing Communion to discontinue the practice and remove any portable
kneelers or prie-dieus by Jan. 16, noting that such practices are "a
visible contradiction" to the prescribed posture of standing.
"Instead," his pastoral letter states, the church
"emphasizes that receiving Holy Communion is to be done as the
members of the faithful go in procession, witnessing that the Church journeys
forward and receives Holy Communion as a pilgrim people on their
way."
In many churches, altar rails are architectural elements that
differentiate the sanctuary from the nave and once were used for Communion
distribution.
Over the past decade or so, a small number
of churches in the diocese reintroduced the use of rails or kneelers to
distribute Holy Communion, but most diocesan churches already follow the
practice of receiving Communion while standing, consistent with
U.S. norms.
In his pastoral letter, the bishop
reiterated that individuals may not be denied holy Communion if they
choose to kneel, yet he encouraged the faithful to "prayerfully consider
the blessing of communal witness that is realized when we share a common
posture."
Clergy and catechists, he added, "are
to instruct communicants according to the normative posture in the United
States" and "are not to teach that some other manner is better,
preferred, more efficacious, etc."
In guidance to pastors that accompanied the
bishop's pastoral letter, the diocese's Office for Divine Worship noted
that if a communicant wishes to kneel but is physically unable, the pastor
should address the situation privately.
"He is to catechize and remind the person that standing to receive
is no less reverent or worthy a way to receive Our Lord," advised Fr. Noah
Carter, diocesan liturgy director. "In both ways, the communicant
who is properly disposed to receive holy Communion gains the same graces
and gifts contained in the Eucharist, regardless of standing or kneeling."
In his letter, Martin also encouraged pastors, where and when
possible, to distribute holy Communion under the forms of both bread and
wine more often.
While affirming church teaching that Christ
is fully present — body, blood, soul and divinity — under either bread or wine,
he encouraged priests to consider the "fuller sign" of distributing
holy Communion under both kinds to foster "a deeper participation in
the Eucharistic mystery," consistent with prevailing church practice.
The bishop specifically noted that "a
significant number of parishes" did not resume distribution of the
Precious Blood in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. "To foster unity, it
is helpful that we all practice a similar way of distributing
Holy Communion," he said.
"Parishioners who travel from parish
to parish because of their own needs may otherwise rightly question why the Precious
Blood is always available in one church and never available in another."
The pastoral letter specifically
recommends distributing the Precious Blood for at least one Mass every Sunday
and for major solemnities, including: Christmas, the Easter Vigil, Divine Mercy
Sunday, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, Christ the King Sunday, and
Holy Thursday. It also encourages distributing holy Communion under both
kinds for first holy Communion Masses, wedding Masses, parish patronal
feast days and church anniversaries.
It reaffirms that the consecrated host may be received either on the tongue or
in the hand, at the discretion of the communicant.
It explicitly prohibits the practice of
intinction — dipping the host into the Precious Blood before placing it on the
communicant's tongue — at public liturgies.
In his pastoral letter, the bishop also encouraged parishes to enlist more
laypeople to help clergy with distributing holy Communion.
Priests and deacons are the "ordinary
ministers of holy Communion," while laypeople may serve as
"extraordinary ministers of holy Communion" when needed, such as
when there are too many communicants for the clergy to
distribute Communion efficiently.
In many parishes, extraordinary ministers
also take Communion to the sick and homebound.
The diocese's existing
liturgical norms already call for extraordinary ministers in such
situations and provide for people to serve in three-year terms. The new
guidelines formalize practices that are already commonplace in the diocese and
across the U.S.
They set eligibility and formation
requirements, and direct parishes to have enough eucharistic ministers
"for roughly 75 communicants" at each Mass. Parishes are also
directed to invite people to serve as extraordinary ministers and offer
training at least once a year.
To be appointed as such, a layperson must:
be a practicing Catholic who has received the sacraments of initiation; be
at least 16 years old; "demonstrate a deep reverence for and devotion to
the holy Eucharist"; be "distinguished in their Christian life, faith
and morals"; and take part in the diocese's safe environment training.
COMMENT: The immemorial rule
of receiving Holy Communion in the Catholic Church is kneeling and on the
tongue from the hands of a Catholic priest or deacon. In the Latin Rite
communion is distributed only under the appearance of bread. The current
practice of the Novus Ordo Church is by Indult granted by the Vatican at the
petition from the Novus Ordo National Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United
States. An Indult is a permission to NOT obey the law. Bishop Martin's Letter
begins with a lie. It ends with imposing the norms of the Lutheran church on
the Novus Ordites and his determination to prevent anyone from building a
Catholic sanctuary. The Lutherans do not believe in the True Presence in their
services and neither does Bishop Martin. The Novus Ordo Mass was initially
defined as a memorial meal, and if that is all it is, then the Lutheran norms
are perfectly reasonable and there is no problem with Bishop Martin's
arguments. But Bishop Martin is liar and therefore we cannot expect him to
acknowledge this truth. A PEW poll in 2019 found that only 26% for all
Catholics under 40 years of age (and only 63% of all Novus Ordites who go to
Mass at least once each week) believe in the Catholic dogma of the True
Presence. These Catholics under 40 years of age were raised on the current
Indult and have lost the Catholic faith. What an established practice does in its signification is
what it was intended to do. The intention of Bishop Martin is to destroy
the belief in any remaining Catholics of the True Presence. The argument that
standing better symbolizes that we are a "pilgrim people" has been
used for more than fifty years. It was a stupid argument in the beginning and
remains a more stupid argument today because the result of the practice are
evident. The Novus Ordo church has yet to publically acknowledge that their
church is on a pilgrimage to hell!
"ALL
HERETICS ARE SCHISMATICS." St. Thomas Aquinas quoting St. Augustine
“It is not to
be excluded that I will enter history as the one who split the Catholic
Church.”
Pope Francis,
concluding remarks attributed to him in the Der Spiegel article on the Crisis
in the Catholic Church.
COMMENT: As if that was not Pope Francis' intention
and what in fact he had long been doing throughout his pontificate? The
question remains as to what name in history will Francis be known? But let's
leave that for later. The truth is that Conservative Catholics have never
gotten anything in its right hierarchical order. They stupidly thought the
“split” in the Church began when traditional Catholics were disobedient to
legitimate exercise of authority by resisting the overthrow of our
Ecclesiastical Traditions by which alone the Faith can be known and
communicated to others. Conservative Catholics are only now turning to face the
front of this conflict but they are unarmed for the fight. Pope Francis, who
professed the same doctrine as his conciliar predecessors, only drovethe wedge
far deeper into the Bark of Peter to “split” the Church. The Conservative
Catholics are at last alarmed because the Ship is taking on massive amounts of
water. Unfortunately, the poor Conservative Catholics who are raising their
voices against the corruption of Francis and his successor Leo will surely
fail. Let's call them the Dubiaists. The Dubiaists have doubts but no real
convictions. They will fail because they turned their backs against the literal
meaning of DOGMA long ago and cannot recognize heresy. They now have nothing
from which to mount their defense for DOGMA is the one and only weapon against
an abusive authority. Authority is subject only to Truth. and DOGMA is the most
perfect expression of Truth available to all men.
Greetings from Pope Leo to
Father Franz Schmidberger, SSPX
Pope
Leo extends his heartfelt congratulations to venerable Father Franz
Schmidberger, SSPX on the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary of his priestly
ordination and extends his apostolic blessing.
Friedrichshafen,
Germany, December 14, 2025
COMMENT: We have publically
affirmed that the SSPX was formally regularized with modernist Rome no later
than 2015 and most likely in 2012 although this is not commonly shared with its
member priests or those faithful who attend their chaples for Mass. Fr.
Schmidberger was the general superior of the SSPX after the retirement of
Archbishop Lefebvre, and after his death when Bishop Fellay became the general
superior, Fr. Schmidberger was his direct assistant. It was under the guidance
of Fr. Schmidberger that the secret negotiations with modernist Rome began in
the 1990s that would eventually lead to their regularization. This
"heartfelt" greetings and congratulations from Pope Leo is in
acknowledgment of Fr. Schmidberger's untiring commitment to betray Catholic
tradition.
"There will be two worm-ridden popes".
Blessed Virgin
Mary, Our Lady of La Salette to Melanie
The idea that there would be two worm-ridden popes is an unofficial,
unpublished prophecy of Melanie, one of two children at the apparition of La
Salette in France. It pops up in one of her letters to Fr. Roubaud back on
September 30, 1884, and it was brought to light by author Michel Corteville in
his book, Découverte du secret de La Salette. Some say
that the phrase actually translates to: “two shaky, servile, doubtful popes.”
The original French reads:
Mais avant ce temps
(des tribulations) il y aura deux fois une paix de peu de durée, deux Papes
vermoulus, plats, douteux.*
TRANSLATION: “But
before this time (of tribulations) there will be twice a peace of short
duration, two worm-eaten, flat, and doubtful Popes.”
“Living Tradition,” synonym for Immanentism of
the Modernist
The term, “living tradition,” a novelty of modernist construction
given official standing at Vatican II, conflates the subjective understanding
with the objective truth, is part of the theological justification to replace
our received traditions with novelties grounded in fantasy.
“The root of this schismatic act can be discerned in an incomplete and
contradictory notion of Tradition. Incomplete, because it does not take
sufficiently into account the living character of Tradition, which, as
the Second Vatican Council clearly taught, “comes from the apostles and
progresses in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. There is a growth in
insight into the realities and words that are being passed on. This comes about
in various ways. It comes through the contemplation and study of believers
who ponder these things in their hearts. It comes from the intimate sense of
spiritual realities which they experience. And it comes from the preaching
of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the
episcopate, the sure charism of truth”.
John Paul II, explaining the
problems with Archbishop Lefebvre’s consecration of four bishops from his
failure to understand the novel Vatican II definition of tradition
Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity
– Even JPII did not deny this dogma!
Pope Francis Teaches:
We hold the Jewish people in special regard
because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the
call of God are irrevocable” (Rom.11:29). The Church, which shares with Jews an
important part of the Sacred Scriptures, looks upon the people of the covenant
and their faith as one of the sacred roots of her own Christian identity (cf.
Rom. 11:16-18). As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign
religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and
to serve the true God (cf. 1 Thes. 1:9). With them, we believe in the one God
who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium
The Church officially recognizes that the
People of Israel continue to be the Chosen People. Nowhere does it say: “You
lost the game, now it is our turn.” It is a recognition of the People of
Israel.
Pope Francis, On Heaven and Earth
The Catholic Church Teaches:
Hebrews 7:18: “On the one hand, a former commandment is annulled because of its weakness and uselessness…”;
Hebrews 10:9: “Then he says, ‘Behold, I come to do your will.’ He takes away the first [covenant] to establish the second [covenant]…”;
2 Corinthians 3:14: “For to this day when they [the Jews] read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away”;
Hebrews 8:7: “For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another”;
Colossians 2:14: “Having canceled the written code, with its decrees, that was against us and stood opposed to us; He took it away nailing it to the cross”;
Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, para. 29: “…the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished…but on the gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross”;
The Catechism of the Council of Trent: “…the people, aware of the abrogation of the Mosaic Law…”;
Council of Florence: [This council] firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosiac law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Cantate Domino
Council of Trent: “but not even the Jews by the very letter of the law of Moses were able to be liberated or to rise therefrom”;
Cardinal Ratzinger: “Thus the Sinai [Mosaic] Covenant is indeed superseded” (Many Religions – One Covenant, p. 70).
St. John Chrysostom: “Yet surely Paul’s object everywhere is to annul this Law….And with much reason; for it was through a fear and a horror of this that the Jews obstinately opposed grace” (Homily on Romans, 6:12); “And so while no one annuls a man’s covenant, the covenant of God after four hundred and thirty years is annulled; for if not that covenant but another instead of it bestows what is promised, then is it set aside, which is most unreasonable” (Homily on Galatians, Ch 3);
St. Augustine: “Instead of the grace of the law which has passed away, we have received the grace of the gospel which is abiding; and instead of the shadows and types of the old dispensation, the truth has come by Jesus Christ. Jeremiah also prophesied thus in God’s name: ‘Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah…’ Observe what the prophet says, not to Gentiles, who had not been partakers in any former covenant, but to the Jewish nation. He who has given them the law by Moses, promises in place of it the New Covenant of the gospel, that they might no longer live in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit” (Letters, 74, 4);
Justin Martyr: “Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law – namely, Christ – has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy…Have you not read…by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: ‘Behold, the days come,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…’” (Dialogue with Trypho, Ch 11).
John Paul II: “Christ fulfills the divine promise and supersedes the old law.” (Redemptoris Mater)
Taken from Robert Sungenis, The
Old Covenent: Revoked or Not Revoked?
Pope Leo: Don’t let tension between tradition, novelty become ‘harmful
polarizations’
EWTN | Victoria Cardiel | October 27, 2025
Pope Leo XIV said at a Mass on Sunday that
no one in the Church “should impose his or her own ideas” and asked that
tensions between tradition and novelty not become “ideological contrapositions
and harmful polarizations.”
“The supreme rule in the Church is love. No
one is called to dominate; all are called to serve,” Leo said in St. Peter’s
Basilica on Oct. 26.
“No one should impose his or her own
ideas; we must all listen to one another,” he continued. “No one is excluded;
we are all called to participate. No one possesses the whole truth; we must all
humbly seek it and seek it together.” [.....]
COMMENT: The problem
is this: the love of novelty is an ideology, Tradition along with sacred
Scripture is divine revelation. The Church always and everywhere has condemned
novelty until Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Church of Novelty embraced it. The
conflict between novelty and tradition is the conflict between God's revelation
and demonic lies; the conflict between the Church and the World. Those who are
faithful to tradition do not "impose their own ideas" but defend
God's revealed truth against the novelty of the world. The Novus Ordo Novelty
Church is "seeking truth"; the Church of Jesus Christ possesses it.
Pope Leo like his predecessor likes to characterize tradition as rigid and dead
and the novelty of modernism as mature and hopeful. This was once an intensely
debated matter but, at this time, after all the wreckage of the last 50 years
all tradition has to do is to point at the fruit of Vatican II novelty. Both
Leo and his predecessor Francis worked in South America. The total population
of South and Central America is about 600 million. Since Vatican II about 300
million have apostatized from the Catholic Church. These last two popes have
personally presided over the greatest apostasy over the shortest period of time
in the history of the Catholic Church. Anything Leo has to say, as long as he
is not sitting in the Chair of Peter, must be examined in light of this record.
Fruit of
Vatican II - Apostasy
In Honduras, the
country of the once most powerful man in the Roman Curia under
Francis/Bergoglio, Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, a personally corrupt and
immoral man who had been a bishop in the capital since 1978, first as auxiliary then as Archbishop for 30 years,
the hierarchy led by him managed the
amazing feat of transforming that country in the first Catholic-minority nation
in Central America, a vertiginous fall from 94% to 46% in the same period -
and the same happened in Uruguay, across the Rio de la Plata from (Bergoglio's
home) Buenos Aires.
Rorate Caeli
Data Collapse of Catholic Faith in Latin America from 2014 presided
over by Pope Leo/Provost and his predecessor Francis/Begoglio
The “received and approved rites of the Catholic Church,
accustomed to be used in the solemn administration of the sacraments”:
…..Because, as we will see, Catholics must
celebrate only the “received and
approved rites” of the Church as a matter of Divine Law.
God revealed this truth in Scripture
through St. Paul. Before St. Paul teaches the Corinthians liturgical and
theological details concerning the Holy Mass (consecration formula, Real
Presence), he prefaces his teaching by affirming: “For I have received of the Lord that
which I also delivered unto you…”
(I Cor 11:23). St. Paul says again: “For I delivered unto you first of all,
which I also received” (1Cor 15:3). In these and other verses, St. Paul
emphasizes that we must believe and practice only what we have “received” from
Christ and the apostles which has been “delivered” unto us, and which includes
the liturgical rites of the Church. This is a divinely revealed truth and a
matter of Faith.
The Church has taught this divine truth
throughout her history. For example, in the Papal Oath of Coronation, which
originates at least as far back as Pope St. Agatho in 678 A.D. (and which was
set aside by Paul VI), every Pope swore to change nothing of the “received
tradition.” Pope Pius IV’s Tridentine Profession of Faith,
which is binding on the souls of all Catholics, likewise expresses this
principle by requiring adherence to the
“received and approved rites of the Catholic Church used in the solemn
administration of the sacraments.” The “received
and approved rites of the Church” originate from the Spirit of Christ and
the traditions of the apostles which have been handed down to us through the
ages.
Because the “received and approved rites” are part of the Church’s infallible
expression of the unchanging Deposit of Faith, as inspired and nurtured by the
Holy Ghost, they cannot be set aside or changed into new rites. This is why the
Ecumenical Council of Trent (1545-1563) infallibly declared:
“If anyone says
that the received and approved
rites of the Catholic Church, accustomed to be used in the
administration of the sacraments, may be despised or omitted by the ministers
without sin and at their pleasure, or
may be changed by any pastor of the churches to other new ones, let him be
anathema.”
Because the Council declares anathema (that
is, condemned, or severed from the Body of Christ) anyone who would set aside
or change into new rites the already “received
and approved rites” of the Church, proves that adherence to the “received and approved rites” is a
matter of Divine Law. The absolute necessity to preserve the substance of the
Church’s ancient liturgical rites is a requirement of the Faith because the
rites preserve and express that Faith. To hold that the Church’s rites can
change implies a belief that the Church’s doctrines can change, because the
rites preserve and express the doctrines. Hence, those who do not preserve the
Church’s rites (by omitting or changing them) are objectively anathema because they sin
against the Faith itself.
In light of the foregoing
condemnation, the Holy Council of Trent directed that the Roman Missal be
restored so that the faithful would know once and for all what is the “received and approved rite” of Mass.
To that end, Pope St. Pius V issued his papal bull Quo Primum Tempore to legally codify “the decrees of the Holy Council of Trent”
and render a definitive application of the Divine Law dogmatized by the
Council. This judgment mandated a single usage of the Roman rite for the Latin
Church, with some minor exceptions for usages greater than 200 years old, “in order that what has been handed down by
the most holy Roman Church, the Mother and Teacher of the rest of the churches
may be accepted and observed by all everywhere.” Hence, the sainted Pope
declared the oft-called “Tridentine
Mass” to be the “received and
approved rite” of the Church, and which precluded the creation of any “new
rite” of Mass in the future. Further, because Quo Primum is an infallible application of
Divine Law (that is, we must use only the “received
and approved rites”), St. Pius V rightly declared the decree to be
irreformable and valid forever.
This brings us to the inevitable and
troubling question: Is the
Novus Ordo a “new rite” of Mass that comes under the anathema of the Council of
Trent, as definitively interpreted by St. Pius V in Quo Primum? The name of the
rite itself (Novus Ordo
which means “new order” or “new ordinary” of the Mass) certainly suggests the
same. More importantly, so do the words of Pope Paul VI. In his November 19,
1969 General Audience address, Paul VI refers to the Novus Ordo as a “new rite” of
Mass several times, for example: “We wish to draw your attention to an event
about to occur in the Latin Catholic Church: the introduction of the liturgy of
the new rite of the Mass.”
He also says, “In the new rite you will find the relationship between the
Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist...”
We also consider the statements of the
members of Paul VI’s liturgical commission that created the New Mass, such as
the secretary and head of the commission, Fr. Annibale Bugnini, who said: “It
is not simply a question of restoring a valuable masterpiece, in some cases it
will be necessary to provide new
structures for entire rites…it will truly be a new creation.” Bugnini’s
assistant, Fr. Carlos Braga, also stated that the New Mass has “an entirely new foundation of
Eucharistic theology” and whose “ecumenical requirements” are “in harmony with
the Church’s new positions.”
Fr. Joseph Gelineau, one of the most influential members of the commission,
also said: “To tell you the truth, it is a different liturgy of the Mass. This
needs to be said without ambiguity: the
Roman rite as we knew it no
longer exists.” Therefore, both Paul VI and his appointed
authors of the Novus Ordo admitted that the New Mass is not the rite “received”
from tradition, but rather a rite created by innovation – an entirely
unprecedented act in the history of the Church.
But we should not rely on these
statements alone. While they may reveal the intent of the innovators, it is
still necessary to look at the substance of the Novus Ordo rite itself. As we have seen, the
Council of Trent and St. Pius V intended to preserve the substantial identity
of the Roman rite forever. If the New Mass does not preserve this identity,
then it cannot be considered the “received
and approved rite” of the Catholic Church no matter what anyone says. Even
the Second Vatican Council, which did not (and could not) mandate the creation
of a new rite of Mass, recognized this truth by directing that the rites “be revised carefully in the light of sound
tradition” with “due care being
taken to preserve their
substance.”
The Council of Trent’s condemnation
of omitting or changing the “received
and approved rites” into “new rites”
is best understood by referring to one of the oldest maxims of the Church’s
sacred theology: “legem credendi statuit lex orandi.”
This is a Latin phrase which means “the rule of prayer determines the rule of
faith” (often referred to as “lex
orandi, lex credendi”). In other words, the way we pray determines
what we believe. If a liturgical tradition which expresses a doctrine of the
Faith is altered or removed altogether, the underlying doctrine will
necessarily be compromised. This is why the “received and approved rites” must be faithfully preserved and
never transformed into “other new ones”
as declared by Trent.
…… However, the Novus Ordo Missae deviates from the Roman Missal
of St. Pius V to such an extent that it no longer retains the substantial
identity of the Roman rite. Even before the introduction of such abuses as
audible canons, vernacular and versus
populum (toward the people) celebrations, lay ministers, Communion
under both species, Communion in the hand to standing communicants and the
like, Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci advised Paul VI that “the Novus Ordo
represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the
Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session XXII of the
Council of Trent.” Consequently, Cardinal Ottaviani (who, as head of the
Holy Office, was responsible for safeguarding the doctrine of the Faith), in
his famous intervention, concluded that the Novus Ordo was indeed a different
rite of Mass.
For example, Ottaviani says: “To abandon a liturgical tradition which
for four centuries stood as a sign and pledge of unity in worship, and to replace
it with another liturgy which, due to the countless liberties it
implicitly authorizes, cannot but be a sign of division – a liturgy which
teems with insinuations or manifest errors against the integrity of the
Catholic Faith – is, we feel bound in conscience to proclaim, an
incalculable error.” He also says,
“It is obvious that the New
Order of Mass has no intention of presenting the Faith taught by the
Council of Trent. But it is to this Faith that the Catholic
conscience is bound forever.” Accordingly, Ottaviani appealed to Paul VI “not to deprive us of the possibility of
continuing to have recourse to the integral
and fruitful Missal of St. Pius V, so highly praised by Your
Holiness, and so deeply venerated by the whole Catholic world.” Therefore,
both the critics and the
creators of the New Mass, including Paul VI himself, agree that the
Novus Ordo differs
in substance from
the Tridentine Missal and, hence, constitutes a “new rite” of Mass.
John Salza, J.D., The Novus Ordo Mass and Divine Law, excerpt from Catholic Family
News
He failed on two
occasions, 1942 & 1952, to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary as our Lady requested! He
contributed his share in liturgical destruction by establishing the liturgical
commission under Bugnini in 1948 and having Bea, his personal confessor,
undertake a new Latin translation of the Psalms.
“I am concerned
about the messages of the Virgin to the little Lucia of Fatima. This
persistence of the Good Lady in face of the danger that threatens the Church is
a divine warning against the suicide that the alteration of the Faith, in its
liturgy, its theology, and its soul, would represent. I hear around me
innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame
of the Church, reject her ornaments, and make her remorseful for her
historical past.”
Pope Pius XII,
1933
And now, addressing the “false prophets that exploit fear
and hopelessness to sell magical formulas of hate and cruelty,” Pope Francis again
insults the Catholic Faith as known and practiced by all our forefathers!
COMMENT: Pope Francis often
referenced St. Vincent of Lérins as if his understanding of Tradition is in
accord with that of the great Church Father.
It most certainly was not which is evident to anyone familiar with his
writings. This corruption can only be attributed to malice. Francis the Lutheran and St. Vincent the
Catholic did not profess the same Faith and only one of them is the Faith
without which it is impossible to please God.
Francis characterized faithfulness to the revelation of God as
“rigidity” which was itself attributed to deeper psychological and moral
failings of traditional Catholics. “Love is not rigid,” claimed Francis while
he counseled the overthrow of God’s commandments, but St. John the Apostle of
Love and devotee of the Sacred Heart reports a very different Gospel of Jesus
Christ:
· If you love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15
· If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have
kept my Father’ s commandments, and do abide in his love. John 15:10
· He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth
me. And he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him,
and will manifest myself to him. John 14:21
· Jesus answered, and said to him: If any one love me, he will keep my
word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our
abode with him. John 14:23
· In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God, and
keep his commandments. 1 John 5:2
· And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his
commandments. 1 John 2:3
Love is never lax or slothful in its pious
attention to duty. The laxism and sloth
of Pope Francis was because without Faith, he had no true love of God.
Leo the Homosexual following in the way of Francis the
Homosexual.
Pictured below is Leo and Francis both greeting
homosexual "married" couples for public photo-ops. The other pictures
are Francis and Leo both slumming around with the pervert James Martin.
The Vatican is in the hands of the Homosexual Lobby. We
must pray to God to purge His Church of this gross perversion.
Preaching to the DEAF!
You gather here today, present-day
apostles, as the Church and, therefore, the world stand perched on the edge of
a cliff. And yet you who are entrusted with the keeping of souls choose to
speak not a word of the spiritual danger which abounds. Today we stand on the cusp of all
that has been prophesied about the Church and the abominations which would come
forth in these times, a time when all of hell attacks the Church of Jesus
Christ, and a time when the fallen angels of hell no longer seek entry into her
sacred halls but instead stand inside, peeking out of her windows and unlocking
doors to welcome in more diabolical destruction.
Do you not know that Our Lord will
send forth His avenging angels to heap coals of fire upon the heads of those
who were called to be His apostles and who have not guarded what He has given
unto them?
And yet almost all of you, my
brothers, stood by silently watching as the Synod on Synodality took
place, an abomination constructed not to guard the Deposit of Faith, but to
dismantle it, and yet few were the cries heard from you – men who should be
willing to die for Christ and His Church.
The Synod’s final document has
been released, yet with the sleight of hand which is so characteristic
of the Francis-controlled Vatican. By drawing attention to the issues which
worried many, they have slipped in what was always their real goal without
anyone even noticing. What they were after in the first place was the
dismantling of Christ’s Church by replacing the structure of the Church as
Our Lord instituted it with a diabolically-inspired new structure of
“synodality” which in actuality is a new church that is in no way Catholic.
Bishop Joseph Strickland, former bishop of
Tyler, TX who was removed from his office by Pope Francis the Diabolical for
preaching Catholic truth, addressing the U.S. bishops gathered at their annual
meeting
Latae sententiae crimes in the external forum require a determination of guilt!
“A
sentence declaratory of the offence is always necessary in the forum externum,
since in this tribunal no one is presumed to be excommunicated unless convicted
of a crime that entail such a penalty.”
Pope
Benedict XIV, De syndod, X, I, 5
COMMENT: Recently
a group of young men and women missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (Mormons) were doing their required missionary work in central
city York. A friendly theological discussion took place on the steps of our
Mission chapel. The friendly exchanged ended and the climate cooled when the
question about the exact number of Joseph Smith's and Brigham Young's wives was
brought up. Mormons believe that Jesus Christ founded one Church. They believe
that that Church became corrupted and God abandoned it. God then, centuries
later, reconstituted His Church when the angel Moroni lead the illiterate
Joseph Smith to a hidden book and provided him with mystical spectacles
permitting him to read it. When you ask a Mormon how is it that Jesus Christ
promised to be with His Church until the end of time and taught that marriage
is between one man and one woman until death, why is it that they believe
Joseph Smith or Brigham Young and not believe Jesus Christ? They answer by
walking away. Jesus Christ uses the metaphor of marriage to describe His
relationship with His Church and with each of the faithful individually. Every
man-made heretical and schismatic sect eventually repudiates marriage because
they cannot abide the metaphor. Luther permitted bigamy. The Orthodox permit
divorce and remarriage three times. Joseph Smith had "up to forty
wives" and Brigham Young had "fifty-six wives, twenty-one had
never been married before; seventeen were widows; six were divorced; six had
living husbands; and the marital status of six others is unknown. Nine of his
wives had previously been plural wives of Joseph Smith, and Young was sealed to
them as a proxy for Smith" (WIKI). The first clue to the Mormons that they were being lead into a spiritual desert was
polygamy but some like the desert. Mormons claim that Brigham Young saw the
light and abandoned the practice for the Latter Day Saints but this occurred
only after the U.S. government told they to give it up or get out. Although
Mormons are no longer polygamists, they permit divorce and "temple"
remarriage which is just serial polygamy. These "missionaries" now
know that Jesus Christ did not abandon His Church and will not do so no matter
how corrupt churchmen become. The Catholic Church alone offers the possibility
of salvation.
It’s Official: Mormon Founder Had Up
to 40 Wives...
Mormon leaders have acknowledged for the first time that the church’s
founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, portrayed in church materials as a loyal
partner to his loving spouse Emma, took as many as 40 wives, some already
married and one only 14 years old.... The biggest bombshell for some in the essays is that Smith married women
who were already married, some to men who were Smith’s friends and followers.
Religious Liberty from Vatican II has its root in the
Americanist Heresy
On
every side the dread phantom of war holds sway: there is scarce room for another
thought in the minds of men. The combatants are the greatest and wealthiest
nations of the earth; what wonder, then, if, well provided with the most awful
weapons modern military science has devised, they strive to destroy one another
with refinements of horror. There is no limit to the measure of ruin and of
slaughter; day by day the earth is drenched with newly-shed blood, and is
covered with the bodies of the wounded and of the slain. Who would imagine as
we see them thus filled with hatred of one another, that they are all of one
common stock, all of the same nature, all members of the same human society?
....We implore those in whose hands are placed the fortunes of nations to
hearken to Our voice. Surely there are other ways and means whereby violated
rights can be rectified. Let them be tried honestly and with good will, and let
arms meanwhile be laid aside.
Benedict
XV, Ad beatissimi apostolorum,
November 1, 1914
“We
consider the establishment of our country’s independence, the shaping of its
liberties and laws, as a work of special Providence, its framers ‘building
better than they knew,’ the Almighty’s hand guiding them. We believe that our
country’s heroes were the instruments of the God of nations in establishing
this home of freedom; to both the Almighty and to His instruments in the work
we look with grateful reverence. And to maintain the inheritance of freedom
which they have left us, should it ever–which God forbid—be imperiled, our
Catholic citizens will be found to stand forward as one man, ready to pledge
anew ‘their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.’”
Archbishop
(soon to be Cardinal) James Gibbons, addressing the American bishops at the
Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 1884 attended by 14 archbishops and 61
bishops.
Moved
to the very depths of our hearts by the stirring appeal of the President of the
United States, and by the action of our national Congress, we accept
whole-heartedly and unreservedly the decree of that legislative authority
proclaiming this country to be in a state of war. Inspired neither by hate nor
fear, but by the holy sentiments of truest patriotic fervor and zeal, we stand
ready, we and all the flock committed to our keeping, to cooperate in every way
possible with our President and our national government, to the end that the
great and holy cause of liberty may triumph and that our beloved country may
emerge from this hour of test stronger and nobler than ever. Our people, as
ever, will rise as one man to serve the nation.
Pledge
of U.S. Catholic Archbishops, April 18, 1917; sent to President Woodrow Wilson
by Cardinal James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, the leading Catholic
prelate in the United States.
“The
primary duty of a citizen is loyalty to country. It is exhibited by an absolute
and unreserved obedience to his country’s call.”
Cardinal
James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore (1877-1921), April 1917 in support of
the U.S. declaration of war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Balfour
Declaration agreement committed the British to deliver Palestine into Jewish
hands in return for the Jews bringing the United States into WWI in support of
the British. Cardinal James Gibbons was the chief propagator of the heresy of
Americanism which became settled Novus Ordo doctrine after Vatican II
(religious liberty) primarily by the work of Fr. John Courtney Murray who
greatly admired Cardinal Gibbons. Gibbons did his best to align American
Catholics with Jewish interests to bring the United States into the Great War.
In doing so Gibbons worked directly to undermine the peace plans of Pope
Benedict XV. Pope Benedict devised a generous peace plan and contacted Cardinal
Gibbons to do what he could to influence the United States government to back
his offer of a negotiated peace. Gibbons did nothing of the sort. While giving
lip service to the Pope's peace plan six months too late, he in fact never
contacted President Wilson or any official of the government to even mention
Pope Benedict's peace plan. Gibbons was too busy building the National Catholic
War Council (NCWC) and supporting the call of universal military service. The
purpose of the NCWC as Gibbons said in a letter to all American bishops was to
form “the mental and moral preparation of our people for the war.”
To Congar's
credit, he at least told the truth about what he helped destroy!
“It cannot be denied that the Declaration on
Religious Liberty does say materially something else than the Syllabus of 1864;
it even says just about the opposite of Propositions
15 and 77 to 79 of this document..... I collaborated on the final paragraphs
which left me less satisfied. It
involved demonstrating that the theme of religious liberty was already
contained in Scripture. Now, it isn't there.”
Cardinal
Yves Marie Joseph Congar, O.P., forbidden to teach by the Church and
whose books were suppressed in the early 1950s, made a peritus at Vatican II by
Novus Ordo St. John XXIII, and is considered by many to have been the most
influential of all the periti. He was raised to the cardinalate by Novus Ordo
St. John Paul II. He rejected the dogmatic teaching of Trent which his teacher
and mentor, Fr. Marie-Dominique
Chenu, O.P., derisively called “Baroque
theology”.
Excerpts from the Diary of Msgr. Joseph Fenton:
·
“He
[Cardinal Ottaviani] remarked that we were on the eve of the Council, and that
no one knew who the Council’s theologians were to be.” (Sept. 28, 1962)
·
“It is a
crime that we did not take the Anti-Modernist Oath. Poor O[ttaviani] must have failed
to have our own profession passed by the central commission. It contained
his condemnation of [Fr. John Courtney] Murray [the Americanist heretic who
structured the Council teaching on Religious Liberty].” (Oct. 9, 1962)
·
“I had
always thought that this council was dangerous. It was started for no
sufficient reason. There was too much talk about what it was supposed to
accomplish. Now I am afraid that real trouble is on the way.” (Oct. 13,
1962)
·
“I
started to read the material on the Liturgy, and I was shocked at the bad
theology. They actually have been stupid enough [to say] that the Church
is ‘simul humanam et divininam, visibilem et invisibilem’ [at the same
time human and divine, visible and invisible]. And they speak of the Church
working ‘quousque unum ovile fiat et unus pastor’ [until there be one fold
and one shepherd], as if that condition were not already achieved.” (Oct. 19,
1962)
·
“I do not
think that any little work on our part is going to bring good to the Church. We
should, I believe, face the facts. Since the death of [Pope] St. Pius X the
Church has been directed by weak and liberal popes, who have flooded the
hierarchy with unworthy and stupid men. This present conciliar set-up makes
this all the more apparent. [Fr.] Ed Hanahoe, the only intelligent and
faithful member of [Cardinal] Bea’s secretariat has been left off the list of
the periti. Such idiots as [Mgr. John
S.] Quinn and the sneak [Fr. Frederick] McManus have been put on. [Fr. George]
Tavard is there as an American, God help us. From surface appearance it
would seem that the Lord Christ is abandoning His Church. The thoughts of many
are being revealed. As one priest used to say, to excuse his own
liberalism, which, in the bottom of his heart he knew was wrong, ‘for the
last few decades the tendency in Rome has been to favor the
liberals.’ That is the policy now. We can only do what we can to
overt an ever more complete disloyalty to Christ.” (Oct. 19, 1962)
·
“[Fr.] Ed
Hanahoe gave me two books on Modernism. In one of them I found evidence that
the teaching in the first chapter of the new schema on the Church [that became
the Vatican II dogmatic constitution Lumen
Gentium] and the language are those of [the excommunicated Modernist Fr.
George Tyrrell [who died outside the Catholic Church and was denied
ecclesiastical burial]. May God preserve His Church from that chapter. If it
passes, it will be a great evil. I must pray and act.” (Sept. 24, 1963)
Paul VI
declared Novus Ordo Saint. So just what is a “Novus Ordo Saint”?
A Novus Ordo
Saint is a man-made saint. Contrasted with Catholic saints who are God-made
saints. In virtue of their union with God they are sanctified, and therefore,
Catholic Saints exhibit heroic virtue in their lives. God confirms their
sanctity by working miracles through their intercession and thus, a cult of
veneration (dulia) develops and spreads throughout the Church. The Church
recognizes God's evidence that they are saints and declares this fact to the
universal Church. Contrary to this, Novus Ordo Saints are man-made saints and
their elevation to the title of sainthood is for the purpose of promoting the
human ideology exemplified in their lives. There is no real cult of veneration
(dulia) among the faithful to Novus Ordo Saints. Since God does not work true
miracles through the intercession of man-made saints, only man-made miracles
are required for the beatification of man-made Novus Ordo Saints. Finally, the
Novus Ordo beatification process does have a promotor fidei, the
so-called “devil’s advocate,” although his role has been change as the promotor ideologiae. The greatest
difference between Catholic Saints and Novus Ordo Saints is that the former are
in heaven and the latter, very well may not be.
COMMENT ON THE
MODERN MIND DEVOID OF GOD’S GRACE
“But instead of a mind, universal literacy has given [the common
man] a rubber stamp, a rubber stamp inked with advertising slogans, with
editorials, with published scientific data, with the trivialities of tabloids
and the profundities of history, but quite innocent of original thought. Each
man's rubber stamp is the twin of millions of others, so that when these
millions are exposed to the same stimuli, all receive identical imprints. [...]
The amazing readiness with which large masses accept this process is probably
accounted for by the fact that no attempt is made to convince them that black
is white. Instead, their preconceived hazy ideas that a certain gray is almost
black or almost white are brought into sharper focus. Their prejudices,
notions, and convictions are used as a starting point, with the result that
they are drawn by a thread into passionate adherence to a given mental
picture.”
Edward Bernays, from his book, The Minority Rules, 1927. Bernays was a Jewish double nephew of
Sigmund Freud and a pioneer in public relations and propaganda. He was called
"the father of public relations" in his obituary. Bernays was named
one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life Magazine.
He was the subject of a full-length biography called The Father of Spin
(1999) and later an award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC called The Century of the Self. (Wiki)
"Pray for the
conversion of Russia." Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima
Your must
understand. The leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They
hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured
and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse. The
October Revolution was not what you call in America the "Russian Revolution."
It was an invasion and conquest over the Russian people. More of my countrymen
suffered horrific crimes at their bloodstained hands than any people or nation
ever suffered in the entirety of human history. It cannot be understated.
Bolshevism was the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of
the world is ignorant of this reality is proof that the global media itself is
in the hands of the perpetrators. We cannot state that all Jews are Bolsheviks.
But: without Jews there would have been no Bolshevism. For a Jew nothing is
more insulting than the truth. The blood maddened Jewish terrorists murdered
sixty-six million in Russia from 1918 to 1957.
Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), Noble Prize winning novelist, historian and victim of
Jewish Bolshevism
American Catholic Apostasy: PEW POLE 2025
29% of U.S. Catholics say they attend
Mass weekly.
59% of Catholics say abortion should be
legal.
76% U.S. Catholics say society should be
accepting of homosexuality.
61% U.S. Catholics support legal
homosexual "marriage."
80% of Catholics view Pope Francis
favorably.
84% of U.S. Catholics say they have a favorable view of Leo although 67% say they know little about Leo, and 25% know nothing at all.
Pope Leo XIV commemorates Nostra Aetate anniversary with interfaith
celebrations
Catholic NewsAgency | Vatican City |Kridina
Millare | Oct 29, 2025
Pope Leo XIV joined faith leaders on
Tuesday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Church’s
declaration on building relationships with non-Christian religions.
Approximately 300 representatives of world
religions and cultures joined the Holy Father for an evening ecumenical prayer
service for peace organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio and held at the
Colosseum in Rome.
“Peace is a constant journey of
reconciliation,” the Holy Father said at the Oct. 28 event.
Thanking religious leaders for coming
together in Rome, he said their interfaith meeting expressed their shared
“conviction that prayer is a powerful force for reconciliation.”
“This is our witness: offering the immense treasures of ancient
spiritualities to contemporary humanity,” he said.
“We need a true and sound era of
reconciliation that puts an end to the abuse of power, displays of force, and
indifference to the rule of law,” he added. “Enough of war, with all the pain
it causes through death, destruction, and exile!”
In his remarks, the pope urged people not to be indifferent to the “cry
of the poor and the cry of the earth” in their pursuits for peace in countries
scarred by ongoing conflict and injustice.
“In the power of prayer, with hands raised
to heaven and open to others, we must ensure that this period of history,
marked by war and the arrogance of power, soon comes to an end, giving rise to
a new era,” he said.
“We
cannot allow this period to continue. It shapes the minds of people who grow
accustomed to war as a normal part of human history,” he continued.
Pope Leo and other religious leaders lit
candles to symbolize their shared prayer and renewed commitment to engage in
interfaith dialogue.
Several people waved small blue banners
with the word “peace” in different languages while Pope Leo and the other
religious leaders lit candles to symbolize their shared prayer and renewed
commitment to engage in interfaith dialogue.
After the prayer gathering at Rome’s iconic landmark, the Holy Father
returned to the Vatican to join colorful celebrations jointly organized by the
Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Dicastery for Promoting Christian
Unity.
To mark the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, several multicultural music
and dance performances were held inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall as well
as a presentation highlighting papal initiatives to promote the Church’s
dialogue with other religions since the pontificate of Pope Paul VI.
Pope Leo’s appearance and special address
toward the end of the two-hour gathering highlighted the Church’s reverence for
all people and its desire to collaborate with others for the common good.
“We belong to one human family, one in origin, and one also in our
final goal,” he said. “Religions everywhere try to respond to the restlessness
of the human heart.”
“Each in its own way offers teachings, ways of life, and sacred rites
that help guide their followers to peace and meaning,” he said.
Emphasizing the common mission shared among people of different
religions to “reawaken” the sense of the sacred in the world today, the Holy
Father encouraged people to “keep love alive.”
“We have come together in this place
bearing the great responsibility as religious leaders to bring hope to a
humanity that is often tempted by despair,” Leo said.
“Let us remember that prayer has the power
to transform our hearts, our words, our actions, and our world,” he said.
COMMENT: Now for the third
time in his short pontificate Leo/Provost quotes Leonard Boff's Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. Boff
is a former Franciscan priest who was censored by the liberal Cardinal
Ratzinger when he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under
the liberal JPII for his extreme Marxist liberation theology. Boff is famous
for his development of an integrated theology of Marxism, Gaia cult earth
worship and "social justice." He was admired by Francis/Bergoglio and
he is admired thrice as much by Leo/Provost. The picture with its Satanic
imagery was reportedly published by the Vatican. Leo/Provost, like
Francis/Bergoglio, wants to restore native American culture and religious
traditions. It should be remembered that Christopher Columbus encountered
cannibalism on his second voyage of exploration and ritual murder was
widespread not only among the Aztecs and Incas but in smaller tribes across
both North and South America as reported by Jesuit missionaries. In the
interfaith celebrations at the Vatican a young native American boy half dressed
paraded an image of a snake into the assembly before Leo/Provost. Is this the
native American tradition that the Vatican wants to recover?
Doctrinal Note on Marian titles: Mother of the faithful, not
Co-redemptrix
The document of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved
by Pope Leo XIV, offers clarifications on titles applied to the Blessed Virgin
Mary, and calls for special attention to the use of the expression, “Mediatrix
of all graces.”
Vatican News
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
on Tuesday, 4 November 2025, published Mater populi fidelis (“The Mother of the
Faithful People”), a Doctrinal Note “On Some Marian Titles Regarding Mary’s
Cooperation in the Work of Salvation.” Signed by the Prefect, Cardinal Víctor
Manuel Fernández, and the Secretary for the Dicastery’s Doctrinal Section,
Monsignor Armando Matteo, the Note was approved by the Pope on 7 October.
Mater populi fidelis (MPF) is the fruit of
a long and complex collegial effort. It is a doctrinal document on Marian
devotion, centred on the figure of Mary, who is associated with the work of
Christ as Mother of believers. The Note provides a significant biblical
foundation for devotion to Mary, as well as marshalling various contributions
from the Fathers, the Doctors of the Church, elements of Eastern tradition, and
the thought of recent Popes.
In this positive framework, the doctrinal
text analyses a number of Marian titles, encouraging the adoption of some of
those appellations and warning against the use of others. Titles such as
“Mother of Believers,” “Spiritual Mother,” “Mother of the Faithful” are noticed
with approval in the Note. Conversely,
the title of “Co-redemptrix” is deemed inappropriate and problematic. The title
of “Mediatrix” is considered unacceptable when it takes on a meaning that
excludes Jesus Christ; however, it can used appropriately so long as it
expresses an inclusive and participatory mediation that glorifies the power of
Christ. The titles “Mother of Grace” and “Mediatrix of All Graces” are
considered acceptable when used in a very precise sense, but the document also
warns of particularly broad explanations of the meaning of the terms.
Essentially, the Note reaffirms Catholic
doctrine, which has always emphasised that everything in Mary is directed
towards the centrality of Christ and His salvific work. For this reason, even
if some Marian titles admit of an orthodox interpretation through correct
exegesis, Mater populi fidelis says it is preferable to avoid them.
In his presentation of the Doctrinal Note,
Cardinal Fernández expresses appreciation for popular devotion but warns against
groups and publications that propose a certain dogmatic development and raise
doubts among the faithful, including through social media. The main problem in
interpreting these titles applied to Our Lady, he says concerns the way of
understanding Mary's association with Christ's work of redemption (paragraph
3).
Co-redemptrix
Regarding the title “Co-redemptrix,” the
Note recalls that “some Popes have used the title “without elaborating much on
its meaning.” Generally, it continues, “they have presented the title in two
specific ways: in reference to Mary’s divine motherhood (insofar as she, as
Mother, made possible the Redemption that Christ accomplished) or in reference
to her union with Christ at the redemptive Cross. The Second Vatican Council
refrained from using the title for dogmatic, pastoral, and ecumenical reasons.
Saint John Paul II referred to Mary as ‘Co-redemptrix’ on at least seven
occasions, particularly relating this title to the salvific value of our
sufferings when they are offered together with the sufferings of Christ, to
whom Mary is united especially at the Cross” (18).
The document cites an internal discussion
within the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which in February
1996 had discussed the request to proclaim a new dogma on Mary as
“Co-redemptrix or Mediatrix of all graces.” Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was
opposed to such a definition, arguing, “the precise meaning of these titles is
not clear, and the doctrine contained in them is not mature. […] It is not
clear how the doctrine expressed in these titles is present in Scripture and
the apostolic tradition.”
Later, in 2002, the future Benedict XVI
expressed himself publicly in the same way: “The formula ‘Co-redemptrix’
departs to too great an extent from the language of Scripture and of the
Fathers and therefore gives rise to misunderstandings… Everything comes from
Him [Christ], as the Letter to the Ephesians and the Letter to the Colossians,
in particular, tell us; Mary, too, is everything that she is through Him. The
word ‘Co-redemptrix’ would obscure this origin.”
The note clarifies that Cardinal Ratzinger
did not deny the good intentions behind the proposal, nor the valuable aspects
reflected in it, but nonetheless maintained that they were “being expressed in
the wrong way” (19).
Pope Francis also expressed his clear
opposition to the use of the title Co-Redemptrix on at least three occasions.
Tuesday’s Doctrinal Note concludes: “It is
always inappropriate to use the title ‘Co-redemptrix’ to define Mary’s cooperation.
This title risks obscuring Christ’s unique salvific mediation and can therefore
create confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of the truths of the Christian
faith. […] When an expression requires many, repeated explanations to prevent
it from straying from a correct meaning, it does not serve the faith of the
People of God and becomes unhelpful” (22).
Mediatrix
The Note emphasises that “the biblical
statement about Christ’s exclusive mediation is conclusive. Christ is the only
Mediator” (24).
At the same time, MPF recognises “the fact
that the word ‘mediation’ is commonly used in many areas of everyday life,
where it is understood simply as cooperation, assistance, or intercession. As a
result, it is inevitable that the term would be applied to Mary in a
subordinate sense. Used in this way, it does not intend to add any efficacy or
power to the unique mediation of Jesus Christ, true God and true man” (25).
Further, “it is clear that Mary has a real
mediatory role in enabling the Incarnation of the Son of God in our humanity”
(26).
Mother of believers and Mediatrix of all graces
Mary’s maternal role “in no way obscures or
diminishes” the unique mediation of Christ, “but rather shows its power […] Understood
in this way, Mary’s motherhood does not seek to weaken the unique adoration due
to Christ alone but, rather, seeks to enkindle it.”
Therefore, the Note states, “one must avoid titles and expressions that
present Mary as a kind of ‘lightning rod’ before the Lord’s justice, as if she
were a necessary alternative before the insufficiency of God’s mercy” (37b).
Thus, the title “Mother of Believers”
“enables us to speak of Mary’s role in our relation to our life of grace”.
However, MPF goes on to urge caution concerning the use of expressions that may
convey “less acceptable notions” (45).
“Cardinal Ratzinger already affirmed” for example, “that the title
‘Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces’ was not clearly grounded in Revelation.” So,
the Note continues, “in line with this conviction, we can recognize the
difficulties this title poses, both in terms of theological reflection and
spirituality” (45). In fact, “no human person — not even the Apostles or the
Blessed Virgin — can act as a universal dispenser of grace. Only God can bestow
grace, and he does so through the humanity of Christ” (53).
“Some titles, such as ‘Mediatrix of All Graces,’ have limits that do
not favour a correct understanding of Mary’s unique place,” MPF explains,
adding, “In fact, she, the first redeemed, could not have been the mediatrix of
the grace that she herself received” (67).
Nonetheless, the Doctrinal Note
acknowledges that “the term ‘graces,’ when seen in reference to Mary’s maternal
help at various moments in our lives, can have an acceptable meaning. The
plural form expresses all the aids — even material — that the Lord may grant us
when He heeds His Mother’s intercession” (68).
COMMENT: Amazing to hear these apostates chirping
about the lack of "precise meaning" of theological terms while
obscurity in definition is, and has been since Vatican II, the calling card of
the Novus Ordo theologian and prelates. They like to muddle what is clear.
Let's start with the title, "Mother of Believers" and "Mother of
the Faithful." These are, in fact, worthy titles of the Mother of God and
frequently occur in St. Mary of Agreda's City of God, yet the Novus Ordo
clerics would never be found offering a precise definition and meaning for the
term "faithful" and then identify exactly who the "faithful"
are.
The term "faithful" has a precise
Catholic definition. It refers to those who have been baptized into the
Catholic Church and profess the one, holy, catholic and apostolic faith. By
virtue of this incorporation by baptism they have become "children of
God." They faithfully believe all the truths that God has revealed on the
authority of God the Revealer. Only those who have become thus members of the
Mystical Body of Christ share by participation in His divine nature and become
brothers and sister of Jesus Christ and therefore, sons of His Mother. This
definition excludes all heretics, schismatics, Jews, pagans, and any other form
of idolaters. Novus Ordo clerics heretically teach that everyone is a child of
God by virtue of the Incarnation. Everyone by nature is a creature of God
created in His image and likeness with the spiritual soul with the powers of
reason and free will, but every creature is born in original sin and cut off
from the friendship of God. He is only a "child of God" in potentia. Without the sacrament of
Baptism and the Catholic faith they can never become "children of
God." This obscurity of definition as to who is a child of God and thus a
child of the Blessed Virgin Mary ultimately obscures what is necessary as a necessity
of means to obtain salvation.
The title Mediatrix of all grace is long
established and of sound and precise theological understanding. Those that
pretend otherwise are ignorant, proud, and deceitful. They have no excuse. 'The
law of prayer determines the law of belief' is, as affirmed by St. Pius X in Pascendi, a canon of faith from the time
of Celestine I, that is, a dogma of the Catholic Church. The immemorial Roman
rite has a Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of all grace
celebrated on May 31 established by Pope Benedict XV. Regarding this feast, Dom
Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B. of the Abby of St. Andrew teaches:
"The will of God is that we should
have everything through Mary," says St. Bernard. The Father has sent us
His Son, but His will was to make His coming depend upon the Fiat of the
Virgin, which He commanded to the angel Gabriel to solicit on the day of the
Annunciation.
The Father and the Son send us the Holy
Ghost, but it is through Mary that He comes down to men. On the day of Pentecost,
according to an ancient Tradition, the heavenly fire which descended on the
Cenacle first rested on Mary, and then on the apostles. This is a figure of
what happens every day in the Church where the Holy Ghost is sent invisibly
into our souls. "All the gifts of the Holy Ghost are distributed by Mary
to those whom she chooses, whenever she wishes and as much as she wishes,"
says St. Bernardine of Siena.
The graces which the Holy Ghost pours down
on us are due to the merits of Christ on Calvary; but in order that God may
bestow them on the world, it is necessary that Mary should intervene. Having
cooperated by her divine maternity and by her sufferings at the foot of the
Cross in the Incarnation and Redemption, she has deserved to co-operate when
they are continually applied to creatures by the most High. "By the
communion of sorrows and of will between Christ and Mary," says St. Pius
X, "she has deserved to become the dispenser of all the blessings which
Jesus acquired for us by His blood" (Encyclical 2-2-1904). Such is His
will, but it is essential that she should constantly intercede for each one of
us. This she does, relying on the blood of Christ by whom she was herself
saved, and who alone saves us. This actual intervention of Mary plays a
preponderating part in the salvation of the world. It is important that we
should realize this, and it is the object of the feast of Mary Mediatrix of all
Graces. A clear idea of the fact may be obtained by simple reading the texts of
the Mass and Vespers.
"Through the Virgin," says St.
Bernardine of Siena, "life-giving graces flow from Christ, who is the
head, into His mystical body." "Through her," adds St.
Antoninus, "come from heaven all the graces granted to the world."
"What all the saints united to thee may obtain for us by their
intercession," writes St. Anselm, "thy pleading alone may obtain
without the help of their prayers." The maternal solicitude of Mary for
the whole human race is therefore continual, and it is because of this that
unceasingly, through the Mass, the sacraments, the hierarchy and other channels
of grace, the merits of Calvary are applied to our souls. "We may
affirm," declared Pope Leo XIII, "that by the will of God, nothing is
given to us without Mary's mediation, in such a way that just as no one can approach the almighty
Father but through His Son, so no one, so to speak, can approach Christ but
through His Mother" (Encyclical, 9-22-1891).
Let us therefore not consider as of small
importance the efforts made to establish this point of doctrine of Mary's
mediation, since this doctrine enables us to understand the divine plan, and
clearly manifests the mediation of the Son of God of which it is a corollary.
St.
Mary of Agreda at the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven,
writes that Jesus Christ addressed the entire heavenly assembly of angels and
saints saying:
"My
Father and eternal God, this is the Woman, that gave Me my human form in her
virginal womb, that nourished Me at her breast and sustained labors for Me,
that shared in my hardships and co-operated with Me in the works of Redemption.
This is She, who was always most faithful and fulfilled our will according to
our entire pleasure; She, pure and immaculate as my Mother, through her own
works, has reached the summit of sanctity according to the measure of the gifts
We have communicated to Her; and when She had merited her reward and could have
enjoyed it forever, She deprived Herself of it for Our glory and returned to
attend to the establishment, the government, and instruction of the Church
militant; and We, in order that She might live in it for the succor of the
faithful, deferred her eternal rest, which She has merited over and over again.
In the highest bounty and equity of our Providence it is just, that my Mother
should be remunerated for her works of love beyond all other creatures; and
toward Her the common law of the other mortals should not apply. If I have
merited for all infinite merits and boundless graces, it is proper that my
Mother should partake of them above all the others who are so inferior; for She in her conduct
corresponds to our liberality and puts no hindrance or obstacle to our infinite
power of communicating our treasures and participating them as the Queen and
Mistress of all that is created."
Sanctifying
grace is the created participation in the divine nature. The Blessed Virgin is
the "Queen and Mistress of all that is created." In this Mass the
Church prays:
"
O Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator with the Father, who hast appointed the most
blessed Virgin, Thy mother, to be our mother also and our mediatrix before
Thee: Grant that whosoever draweth nigh to Thee to beseech any benefit, may
receive all things through her and rejoice.
Rev.
Gregory Alastruey's theological work titled, The Blessed Virgin Mary, says that, "There are five principle titles and offices due
Mary, the Mother of God, by reason of her cooperation in redemption: Mediatrix,
Co-redemptrix, Mother of Christians, Patroness or Advocate, and Queen and
Mistress of the universe. I would recommend those who deny this proper
honor to the Mother of God obtain a copy of the book and have their stupidity
erased. I do not say, ignorance erased because willful ignorance is stupidity. Fr. Alastruey affirms that
"Mary is truly mediatrix of the human race and this doctrine pertains to
the deposit of faith." He then draws from Scripture, the Fathers,
and theologians in support of this truth. He proves from the Church Fathers
that the word "mediatrix" was explicitly used by St. Ephrem, St. Epiphanius,
St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil of Seleucia, St. Andrew of Crete, St Germanus of
Constantinople, St. John Damascene, St Theodore, St. Antoninus and Denis the
Carthusian. He draws richly from the divine liturgy from both Eastern and Roman
traditions. The errors of the Protestant heretics are addressed and exposed
which are curiously the same as expressed by the Novus Ordo popes.
Lastly,
it is worth asking Why do the Novus Ordo popes hate these proper titles of the Mother
of God? The answer is simple. The Blessed Virgin asked the three children at
Fatima on June 13, 1917, "Are
you willing to offer yourselves to God to bear all the sufferings He wills to
send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of
supplication for the conversion of sinners?" To which question all
answered, "Yes, we are willing." The Mother of God said on July 13
after the children had seen a vision of Hell, "Sacrifice yourselves for
sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O
Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation
for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary." On August 19
(the apparition did not occur on the August 13 because the children were in
prison) the Mother of God continued saying, "Pray, pray very much, and
make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none
to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them." The Blessed Virgin is
asking the children to be co-redemptors and co-mediators of grace with her in
union with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the conversion and salvation of
sinners. If the title of Co-Redemtrix and Mediatrix of all Grace can be taken
away from the Mother of God then no one is responsible to do penance for their
own sins or the sins of others. This falls back to the Protestant heresy on the
dogma of justification and the very nature of our incorporation into the divine
nature in the Mystical Body of Christ. Leo/Provost, like his predecessor
Francis/Bergoglio, believes that proselytism is "solemn nonsense."
They attack the titles to excuse their own faithless sloth. They are working to
obscure the very means of salvation. As Jesus Christ said: "But woe to you
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of heaven
against men, for you yourselves do not enter in; and those that are going in,
you suffer not to enter" (Matt 23:13).
Pope
Leo is just another heretic who denies the Blessed Virgin Mary her just titles
of Mediatrix of all Grace and Co-Redemtrix. Only a few days ago, he celebrated
with heretics, schismatics, Jews, Moslems, and a variety of idolaters a shared
communion praying to their common god a united petition for peace in the world.
He continues to ignore the peace plan offered by the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mediatrix of all Grace, at Fatima. Pope Leo will soon learn that those who
insult the Mother have made an enemy of the Son.
It was the opening of the three-day
“Raising Hope for Climate Justice” conference organised by the Laudato si’
Movement in collaboration with ecclesial and institutional partners. 
If
the ice block is 20,000 years old then the Genesis creation account and the
global flood of Noe is reduced to mythology and not divine revelation. The fact
is, ancient mythology ended with the Christian revelation of Jesus Christ but
the modern scientific world is doing its best to resurrect the cult of
mythology. The world likes to talk about the scientific fables of Big Bang,
primordial soups with lightening bubbling forth proteins that congeal into
cellular life with the teleological purpose of producing the DNA of Darwinian
man. These fables are believed and shamelessly pandered by our neo-modernists
popes. The absurdity is that the neo-modernists popes have embraced the myths
of scientology when science itself has discredited their claims. Scientists
have been predicting global flooding of coastal areas for the last fifty years
with no evidence of rising sea levels. Global warming is not science. It is
liberal ideology applied to climatology that always calls for a one-world
governance to enforce its dictatorial and anti-Catholic mandates. The alleged
global warming is always without exception a man made assault on Mother Earth
that requires the ritual murder of 6.5 billion people for a world
"sustainable" population of 500 million for expiation. Never is it
considered in their calculus that the
Here's
a particularly forlorn historical date: More than 100 years ago, between the
19th and 20th of December 1917, in the midst of the Bolshevik revolution and
civil war, Lenin signed a decree calling for the establishment of The All-Russian
Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, also
known as Cheka. 
“My
reaction was a silent cry of horror, indignation, and sorrow,” the auxiliary of
Astana, Kazakhstan, said regarding the Vatican’s approval of an LGBT-themed
“pilgrimage” on its Jubilee website, in an interview with Diane Montagna, a
journalist in Rome.
He pointed out that in doing so, Pope Leo
XIV broke with the precedent of all popes before Francis, who “neither received
officially nor posed for photographs with those who, by word or deed, openly
rejected the doctrinal and moral teaching of the Church.”
The 'Western Wall' (Wailing Wall) in
Jerusalem is held by Jews as a remnant of Herod's Temple destroyed by the Romans
in 72 A.D. Yet, Jesus prophesized not only that the Temple would be destroyed
but also that there would not remain a "stone upon a stone." So how
is it that there remains a large wall on the western side at the south end of
the 'Temple Mount'? Some Catholics claim the prophecy of Jesus was referring
only to the edifice itself and not the entire foundation for the Temple. Jesus
words must be taken in literally unless there it is clearly manifest that the
metaphorical sense is intended exclusively. Therefore, the 'Wailing Wall' where
the Jews worship is not a remnant of the ancient Temple, and the 'Temple
Mount', on which is currently situated the Al-Aqsa mosque and the "Dome of
the Rock", is not the location of the Temple destroyed in 72 A.D. The 36
acre 'Temple Mount' is actually the location of the Roman fortress Antonia
built by Herod.
Carlo Alberto Capella was
Vatican diplomat who was convicted by a Vatican tribunal of possessing and
sharing child pornography. Capella admitted guilt to the charges. He is the
only one who has served a prison sentence in the Vatican jail for this crime or
for any sexually related crime against minors.