.....
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.
Second Sunday after the
Epiphany
St. Peter's Chair at Rome
St. Paul, Apostle
St. Prisca, Virgin &
Martyr
January 18, 2026
Almighty God, faithful to His promise to
Abraham and his children, sent His Son to save His people; while in His mercy
He willed to redeem the heathen as well.
Therefore Christ is the King whom, as its Redeemer, the whole world must
hail and adore (Introit and Gradual). It
was through His death on the Cross that He became our King and it is through
the Eucharist, the memorial of Calvary, that by applying the merits of His
Redemption to our souls, He exercises His kingship over us. In this miracle at Cana, a type of the Holy
Eucharist, did our Lord formally manifest His divinity, i.e. His character as
divine and therefore royal, and “His disciples believed in Him.” The turning of water into wine is a type of
transubstantiation, called by St. Thomas the greatest of all miracles, by which
the wine of the Eucharist becomes the blood of the covenant of peace which God
has made with His Church. Since also the
divine King wishes to espouse our souls and since, as Bossuet says, it is
through the Eucharist that this mystical marriage is consummated. The marriage
feast at Cana also signifies the union of the Word with His spouse the
Church. “Having been invited to the
wedding feast at Cana in Galilee,” says St. Augustine, “our Lord attended, that
being alone the author of the sacrament of Matrimony, He might confirm conjugal
chastity.” He also meant to make known
to us the mystery of which these nuptials were the sign, that is the union of
Christ with His Church. For even those
who, by a vow, have bound themselves to almighty God in the virginal state are
not without nuptials since, with the whole Church, they have a part in the
nuptials in which Christ Himself is the Spouse, and in this case, our Lord is
typified by the bridegroom who kept to the end the good wine, that is, the
Gospel.
INTROIT:
Ps.
65. Let
all the earth adore Thee, O God, and sing to Thee: let it sing a psalm to Thy
name, O Thou most high. Shout with joy
to God, all the earth, sing ye a psalm to His name: give glory to His praise. Glory be, etc. Let all the earth adore, etc.
COLLECT:
Almighty and eternal God, who
rulest all things in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the prayers of Thy
people, and grant us Thy peace in our days.
Through our Lord, etc.
O God, who together with the keys of the kingdom of heaven didst bestow on Thy blessed Apostle Peter the pontifical power of binding and loosing, grant that by the aid of his intercession we may be released from the bonds of our sins. Who liveth and reigneth, etc.
O God, who by the preaching of the blessed Apostle Paul hast taught the multitude of the Gentiles, grant that we, who celebrate his memory, may also enjoy his patronage with Thee. Through our Lord, etc.
Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we who celebrate the birthday of blessed Prisca, Thy Virgin and Martyr, may both rejoice in her yearly festival, and also profit by the example of so great a faith. Through our Lord, etc.
EPISTLE: Rom. 12, 6-16.
Brethren,
Having different gifts, according to the grace that is given us: either
prophecy, to be used according to the rule of faith; or ministry, in
ministering; or he that teacheth, in doctrine; he that exhorteth, in exhorting;
he that giveth, with simplicity; he that ruleth, with carefulness; he that
showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Hating
that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good: loving one another with the
charity of brotherhood: with honor preventing one another: in carefulness not
slothful; in spirit fervent: serving the Lord: rejoicing in hope: patient in
tribulation: instant in prayer: communicating to the necessities of the Saints:
pursuing hospitality. Bless them that persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep: being of one mind one
towards another: not minding high things, but consenting to the humble
EXPLANATION. St. Paul in this epistle exhorts every Christian to make good use of the gifts of God; if one receives an office, he must see well to it, so that he can give an account to God of the faithful performance of his duties. He exhorts especially to brotherly love which we should practice by charitable works; such as, receiving strangers hospitably, giving alms to those who are in need, and to those who by misfortune or injustice have lost their property; he commands us, at the same time, to rejoice in the welfare of our neighbor, as we rejoice at our own good fortune, and to grieve at his misfortunes as we would over those which befall us.
How is brotherly love best
preserved?
By the virtue of humility which
makes us esteem our neighbor above ourselves, consider his good qualities only,
bear patiently his defects, and always meet him in a friendly, respectful, and
indulgent manner. Humility causes us to live always in peace with our
fellowmen, while among the proud, where each wishes to be the first, there is
continual strife and dissatisfaction (Prov. 13:10).
What lesson does the Apostle give us in this
epistle?
That we should hate that which is evil, and love that which is good; that we
should love one another, and practice works of mercy; that we should be
solicitous and fervent, as in the service of God. We should cooperate with the
grace of God, and pray instantly.
Aspiration
O God,
give us Thy grace to follow faithfully what St. Paul teaches us of humility and
charity, that we may have compassion on
all who
are in need, and not exalt ourselves above our neighbors, but, humbling
ourselves with the humble, may merit, with them, to be exalted. Amen.
GRADUAL:
Ps.
106. The
Lord sent His Word, and healed them: and
delivered them out of their destruction.
Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to Him: and His wonderful works to the children of
men.
Alleluia,
alleluia. Ps. 148. Praise ye the Lord, all His angels,
praise ye Him all his hosts. Alleluia.
GOSPEL: John 2, 1-11.
At that
time there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee: and the Mother of Jesus was
there. And Jesus also was invited, and His disciples, to the marriage. And the
wine failing, the Mother of Jesus saith to Him: They have no wine. And Jesus
saith to her: Woman, what is that to Me and to thee? My hour is not yet come.
His Mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye. Now
there were set there six water-pots of stone, according to the manner of the
purifying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece. Jesus saith to
them: Fill the water-pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And
Jesus said to them: Draw out now, and carry to the chief steward of the feast.
And they carried it. And when the chief steward had tasted the water made wine,
and knew not whence it was, but the waiters knew who had drawn the water: the
chief steward calleth the bridegroom, and saith to him: Every man at first
setteth forth good wine: and when men have well drunk, then that which is
worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles
did Jesus in Cana of Galilee; and manifested His glory, and His disciples
believed in Him.
Why was Jesus present at the wedding with His Mother
and disciples?
1. In order there to reveal His majesty, and by that
means to establish and confirm the belief in His divinity. 2. To show that marriage is pleasing to God. 3. To let us understand how pious the bridegroom and
bride were. 4. To teach us that those pleasures are permitted which
are in accordance with reason and Christianity, and neither sinful nor leading
to sin.
Why did Mary intercede for the bride and bridegroom
when the wine was failing?
She was sorry for them, for she is the tenderhearted mediatrix of the afflicted
and destitute. Besides, the number of the guests had been considerably
increased by the presence of Jesus and His disciples, so that the wine was not
sufficient for all.
What is the meaning of the words, "Woman, what
is that to Me and to thee”?
According to the idiom of the Hebrew language, they mean as much as,
"Mother, be not anxious; I will provide the wine as soon as the hour
appointed by My Father is come." Jesus did not mean to rebuke His Mother,
but He thus gave her, and all who were present, to understand that He had not
received the power of working miracles as the son of woman, but that He
possessed it as the Son of God, and should use it according to the will of His
Father.
What are we taught by the words:
“My hour is not yet come”?
These words teach us that we should in all things await God's appointed time, and in things belonging to God and His honor, act only by divine direction, without any human motives.
What
does the scarcity of wine signify?
In a spiritual sense the want of wine may be understood to signify the lack of love between married people, which is principally the case with those who enter this state through worldly motives, for the sake of riches, beauty of person, or who have before marriage kept up sinful intercourse. These should ask God for the forgiveness of their sins, bear the hardships of married life in the spirit of penance, and change the wrong motives they had before marriage; by doing so God will supply the scarcity of wine, that is the lack of true love, and change the waters of misery into the wine of patient affection.
Why did Christ command them to
take the wine to the steward?
That the steward, whose office required him to be attentive to the conduct of the guests, and to know the quality of the wine, should give his judgment in regard to the excellence of this, and be able to testify to the miracle before all the guests.
ASPIRATION O my most
merciful Jesus! I would rather drink in this world the sour wine of misery than
the sweet wine of pleasure, that in heaven I may taste the perfect wine of
eternal joy.
Aspiration
I thank
Thee, O Jesus, for the grace of knowing Thy divinity; grant that I may
persevere in this knowledge till death, in order to enjoy the contemplation of
Thy Godhead in eternity.
OFFERTORY:
Ps. 65. Shout with joy to God, all the earth, sing you a
psalm to His name; come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell you
what great things He hath done for my soul.
Alleluia.
SECRET:
Sanctify, O Lord, the gifts which we offer, and
cleanse us from the stains of our sins.
Through our Lord, etc.
May the prayers and offerings of Thy Church, we ask,
O Lord, find favor with Thee through the intercession of the blessed Apostle
Peter, that what we do to celebrate his glory may avail for our pardon. Through our Lord, etc.
Hallow, O Lord, the gifts of Thy people through the
prayers of Paul Thine Apostle: that as they are pleasing to Thee as Thine own
institution, so they may become yet more pleasing through his patronage and
intercession. Through our Lord, etc.
May this sacrifice, we pray, O Lord, which we offer
in remembrance of the festivals of Thy saints, loosen the bonds of our
wickedness and obtain for us the gifts of Thy mercy. Through our Lord, etc.
COMMUNION:
John 2. The Lord saith, Fill the water-pots with water, and
carry to the chief steward of the feast.
When the chief steward had tasted the water made wine, he saith to the
bridegroom: Thou hast kept the good wine
until now. This first miracle did Jesus
before his disciples.
POSTCOMMUNION:
Be there increases in us, we beseech Thee, O Lord,
the workings of Thy power, that thriving on these divine sacraments, we may be
prepared by Thy bounty to receive what they promise. Through our Lord, etc.
May sacrificial offering gladden us, O Lord, that as
we proclaim Thee wonderful in Thine Apostle Peter, we may receive through him
the fullness of Thy pardon. Through our
Lord, etc.
Sanctified by this saving mystery, we ask, O Lord,
that we may never lack the prayers of him whom Thou hast given us to be our
patron and guide. Through our Lord, etc.
We who have been replenished with the sacrament of
salvation ask, O Lord, that we may be aided by her prayers whose festival we
celebrate. Through our Lord, etc.
His Mother saith to the
waiters: Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye.
Protestantism
strove to throw doubts on St. Peter’s having lived and died in Rome… It was in
order to nullify, by the authority of the Liturgy, this strange pretension of
the Protestants, that Pope Paul IV, in 1558, restored the ancient Feast of St.
Peter’s Chair at Rome, and fixed it on the 18th of January. For many centuries the Church had not
solemnized the mystery of the Pontificate of the Prince of the Apostles on any
distinct feast, but had made the single Feast of February 22nd serve
for both the Chair at Antioch and the Chair at Rome. From that time forward, the 22nd
of February has been kept for the Chair at Antioch, which was the first
occupied by the Apostle. Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St.
Peter’s Chair at Rome
The love of God be your motivation, the will of God your guiding
principle, the glory of God your goal.
St. Clement Mary Hofbauer
PROPER OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 18th:
Date Day Feast
Rank Color F/A
Mass Time
|
18 |
Sun |
2nd
Sunday after Epiphany St. Peter’s Chair at Rome St. Paul, Ap St. Prisca, VM |
sd |
G |
|
Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions
8:00 AM; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM |
|
19 |
Mon |
St. Marius & Comp., Mm St. Canute, King, M |
sp |
R |
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation before Mass |
|
20 |
Tue |
Ss. Fabian, P &
Sebastian, Mm |
d |
R |
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation before Mass |
|
21 |
Wed |
St. Agnes, VM |
d |
R |
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation before Mass |
|
22 |
Thu |
Ss. Vincent &
Anastasius, Mm |
sd |
R |
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation before Mass |
|
23 |
Fri |
St. Raymund of Pennafort,
C St. Emerentiana, VM |
sd |
W |
A |
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation before Mass |
|
24 |
Sat |
St. Timothy, BpM |
d |
R |
|
Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions
8:00 AM; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM |
|
25 |
Sun |
3rd
Sunday after Epiphany The Conversion of St. Paul,
Ap St.
Peter, Ap |
sd |
G |
|
Mass 9:00 AM; Confessions
8:00AM; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 |
We must picture to
ourselves a young soldier, who tears himself away from all the ties of his home
at Milan, because the persecution there was too tame, with anxiety at the
thought that perhaps some of the Christians in the Capital may be losing
courage. He has been told that at times
some of the Emperor’s soldiers, who were soldiers also of Christ, have gained
admission into the prisons, and have roused up the sinking courage of the
confessors. He is resolved to go on the
like mission, and hopes that he may also receive the blessing of martyrdom. He reaches Rome, he is admitted into the
prisons, and encourages to martyrdom such as had been shaken by the tears of
those who were dear to them. Some of the
gaolers, converted by witnessing his faith and his miracles, become martyrs
themselves; and one of the Roman Magistrates asks to be instructed in a religion
which can produce such men as this Sebastian.
He has won the esteem of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian Hercules
for his fidelity and courage as a soldier; they have loaded him with favours;
and this gives him an influence in Rome which he so zealously turns to the
advantage of the Christian religion, that the holy Pope Caius calls him, the
Defender of the Church.
Dom Gueranger, The
Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Sebastian
Having resolved to write
a book on virginity, I think myself happy in being able to begin it on the
feast we are keeping of the Virgin Agnes.
It is the feast of a virgin; let us walk in the path of purity. It is the feast of a martyr; let us offer up
our Sacrifice. It is the feast of St.
Agnes; let men admire and children not despair; let the married wonder, and the
unmarried imitate. But what can we speak
worthy of this Saint, whose very name is not void of praise? As her devotedness is beyond her years, and
her virtue superhuman so, as it seems to me, her name is not an appellation,
but a prophecy, presaging that she was to be a martyr.
St. Ambrose on St.
Agnes
All mischief, every scandal, comes from the clergy. We black robes are to blame for
everything.... A priest without the spirit of penitence is Satan's toy.
St. Clement Mary Hofbauer
The eleventh century
gave to the Church and various States of Europe a great number of saintly
Kings. Among them St. Canute IV of
Denmark stands pre-eminent by reason of the aureole of his martyrdom. He had every quality which forms a Christian
prince: he was a zealous propagator of the faith of Christ, he was a brave
warrior, he was pious, and he was charitable to the poor. His zeal for the Church (and in those days
her rights were counted as the rights of the people) was made the pretext for
putting him to death: he died in the midst of a sedition as a victim sacrificed
for his people’s sake. His offering to
the new-born King was that of his blood; and in exchange for the perishable
crown he lost, he received that which the Church gives to her Martyrs, and
which can never be taken away.
Dom Gueranger, The
Liturgical Year, St. Canute of Denmark
Letters for every Bishop, for every Time
St. Paul is writing to Timothy, a faithful
and well-tried servant of God and a Bishop now getting on in years. Yet he addresses him as a child, and seems
most anxious about his perseverance in faith and piety. The letters abound in minute personal instructions
for this end. It is therefore remarkable
what great stress the Apostle lays on the avoiding of idle talk, and on the
application to holy reading. These are
his chief topics. Over and over again he
exhorts his son Timothy to ‘avoid tattlers and busybodies, to give no heed to
novelties, to shun profane and vain babblings; but to hold the form of sound
words, to be an example in word and conversation, to attend to reading, to
exhortation, and to doctrine.’
Rev. Henry Sebastian Bowden, Lives of Saints
INSTRUCTION FOR SUPERIORS
Those
have to expect a severe sentence from God, who merely for temporal gain, seek
profitable offices, and thrust themselves therein whether capable or not, and
if capable care very little whether they fulfill the duties required, or
perhaps make the fulfillment of them depend upon bribes. Of such God makes
terrible complaint: Thy princes (judges) are faithless, companions of thieves:
they all love bribes, they run after rewards. They judge not for the
fatherless; and the widow's cause comes not into them (Is. 1:23). A most severe
judgment shall be for them that bear rule (Wisd. 6:6).
ASPIRATION Grant us, O Lord, Thy grace, that according to Thy will, we may follow the instructions of St. Paul in regard to humility and love, have compassion upon all suffering and needy, think little of ourselves, and descend to the lowest, that we may, one day, be elevated with them in heaven.
O my soul, be humble
and forget not that the more thou art exalted in thy own esteem the more wilt thou
be shamed and confounded at the judgment day. For then, as says the prophet,
"Man shall be humbled" (Isa. 5, 15), and only the humble will be able
to glory "in his exultation" (Jas 1, 9). Remember that according to
the saying of Isaias, the day of judgment has been appointed especially to
humble the proud: "Because the day of the Lord of hosts shall be on every
one that is proud and high-minded, and he shall be humbled" (Isa. 2, 12),
and thou shouldest regard as though specially directed to thyself that
prophetic voice from God which says: "Behold I come against thee, O proud
one, saith the Lord, for thy day is come, the time of thy visitation. And the
proud one shall fall, he shall fall down, and there shall be none to lift him
up" (Isa. 1, 31).
Fr. Cajetan Mary da
Bergamo, Humility of Heart
INSTRUCTION ON THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF
MATRIMONY
What is Matrimony?
Matrimony is the perfect, indissoluble
union of two free persons of different sex, for the purpose of propagating the human
race, mutually to bear the burdens of life and to prevent sin (I Cor. 7:2).
Who instituted Matrimony?
God Himself, the Creator of all things (Gen. 1:27-28). He brought to man the helpmate, whom He formed from one of the ribs of Adam, that she who came from his heart, might never depart therefrom, but cling to him in the indissoluble bond of love (Gen. 2:18, 24). To this original, divine institution Christ refers (Mt. 19:4-6), and the Church declares the bond of marriage perpetual and indissoluble.
Is Matrimony a Sacrament?
Yes; according to the testimony of the Fathers, the Church has held it such from the times of the apostles, which she could not do, had Christ not raised it to the dignity of a Sacrament. St. Paul even calls it a great Sacrament, because it is symbolical of the perpetual union of Christ with His Church; and the Council of Trent declares: "If any one says that Matrimony is not really and truly one of the seven Sacraments of the Church instituted by Christ, but an invention of men that imparts no grace, let him be anathema" (Conc. Trid., Sess. XXIV, can. 1).
What graces does this Sacrament
impart?
The grace of preserving matrimonial fidelity inviolate: the grace of educating children as Christians; of patiently enduring the unavoidable difficulties of married life, and of living peaceably with each other. Married people are indeed greatly in need of these graces, in order to fulfill their mutual obligations.
What is the external sign in the
Sacrament of Matrimony?
The union of two single persons in Matrimony, which according to the regulations of the Council of Trent (Conc. Trid., Sess. XXIV, can. 1), must be formed publicly in the presence of the pastor, or with his permission before another priest, and two witnesses.
What preparations are to be made
to receive the grace of this Sacrament?
1. The first and best preparation is a pure and pious life. 2. The light of the Holy Ghost should be invoked to know whether one is called to this state of life. 3. The parents and the father-confessor should be asked for advice. 4. The choice should be made in regard to a Christian heart, and a gentle disposition rather than to beauty and wealth. 5. The immediate preparation is, to purify the conscience, if it has not already been done, by a good general confession, and by the reception of the most holy Sacrament of the Altar. Before their marriage the young couple should ask their parents' blessing, should hear the nuptial Mass with devotion, with the intention of obtaining God's grace to begin their new state of life well, and finally they should commend themselves with confidence to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her spouse St. Joseph.
Why are there so many unhappy
marriages?
Because so many people prepare the way by sins and vices, and continue to sin without interruption, and without true amendment until marriage, therefore always make sacrilegious confessions, even perhaps immediately before marriage. Besides this many enter the married life on account of carnal intentions, or other earthly motives; in many cases they do not even ask God for His grace; without any proper preparation for such an important, sacred act, on their marriage day they go to church with levity and afterwards celebrate their wedding with but little modesty. Is it any wonder that such married people receive no blessing, no grace, when they render themselves so unworthy?
Why did God institute married
life?
That children might be brought up honestly and as Christians, and that they should be instructed especially in matters of faith; that married people should sustain each other in the difficulties of life, and mutually exhort one another to a pious life; and lastly, that the sin of impurity might be avoided. For they who in such manner receive matrimony as to shut out God from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power (Tob. 6:17).
With what intentions should the
married state be entered?
With such intentions as the young Tobias and his bride had, who before the marriage ceremony, ardently prayed God for His grace, and took their wedding breakfast in the fear of the Lord (Tob. 14:15). Hence God's blessing was with them until death. If all young people would enter the married state thus, it would certainly be holy, God-pleasing and blessed, and the words of St. Paul, spoken to wives, would come true unto them: Yet she shall be saved by bearing children, if she continue in faith, and love, and sanctification with sobriety (I Tim. 2:15).
Why are the bans of marriage
published three times in Church?
That all impediments which would render the marriage unlawful may be made known. Such impediments are: consanguinity, clandestine marriages, etc. Therefore, any one who is aware of such impediments is bound to make them known to the pastor.
Why is the marriage performed in
the presence of the parish priest?
Because the Catholic Church expressly declares that those marriages which are not performed in presence of the pastor, or with his permission before another priest, and two witnesses, are null and void (Conc. Trid., Sess. XXIV can. 1); and because the blessing of the priest, which he imparts in the name of the Church, gives the couple, if they are in a state of grace, strength, fortitude and grace to be faithful to each other, to endure all trials patiently, and to be safe from all the influences of the evil enemy."
Why do they join hands before
the priest, and two witnesses?
By this they bind themselves before God and His Church to remain true to each other, and to be ready to assist each other in all adversities. The bridegroom puts a ring on the bride's finger which should remind her of her duty of inviolable fidelity; to this end the priest signs and seals this holy union with the unbloody Sacrifice of the New Law.
Can the bond of marriage be
dissolved in the Catholic Church?
A valid marriage, contracted with the free consent of each of the parties, can according to the plain doctrine of the Scriptures, the constant teaching and practice of the Church, be dissolved only by the death of one of the parties. If the pope or a bishop, for important reasons, gives a divorce, this is only partial, and neither can marry again while the other lives. Such a marriage would not be valid. How pure and holy are the doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church in this the most important and sacred of all human relations, preserving its inviolability and sanctity; while, on the contrary, by means of the wanton doctrine of the heretics, which for trivial reasons entirely dissolves the marriage contract, this sacred union is made the deepest ignominy of mankind, and the play-ball of human passions and caprice!
What is thought of mixed
marriages, or marriages between Catholics and Protestants?
The Catholic Church has always condemned such marriages, because of the great dangers to which the Catholic party is unavoidably exposed as well as the offspring. Such marriages promote indifference in matters of religion, by which the spiritual life of the soul is destroyed; they are a hindrance to domestic peace, cause mutual aversion, quarrels, and confusion; they give scandal to servants; they interfere with the Christian education of the children, even render it impossible, and they frequently lead to apostasy and despair. But the Catholic Church condemns especially those mixed marriages, in which either all or a number of the children are brought up in heresy, and she can never bless and look upon those as her children who do not fear to withdraw themselves and their own children from the only saving faith, and expose them to the danger of eternal ruin. Therefore, those Catholics who enter the matrimonial union with Protestants, although the marriage if lawfully contracted is valid, commit a mortal sin if they permit their children to be brought up in heresy, and should it not be their full intention to bring up their children in the Catholic faith at the time of their marriage, they would commit a sacrilege.
What should the newly married
couple do immediately after the ceremony is performed?
They
should kneel and thank God for the graces received in this holy Sacrament, in
such or similar words: "Ratify, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that which by Thy
grace Thou hast wrought in us, that we may keep that which in Thy presence we
have promised unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." That they may keep
their promise made at the altar, they should always remember the duties laid
down to them by the priest at the time of their marriage, and the exhortations
which are taken from the epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians (Eph. 5: 29, 31),
wherein he instructs married people how they should comport themselves towards
each other, and recalls to them as an example the union of Christ with His
Church, and His love for her. To the husbands he says, they should love their
wives as Christ loved His Church, for which He even gave Himself up to death;
from this is seen, that men should assist their wives even unto death, in all
need, and not treat them as servants. To the wives St. Paul says, that they as
the weaker should be in all reasonable things obedient to their husbands, as
the Church is obedient to Christ; for as Christ is the head of the Church, so
is the husband the head of the wife. Experience proves there is no better way
for women to win the hearts of their husbands than by amiable obedience and
ready love, while, on the contrary, a querulous, imperative deportment robs
them of their husbands' affections, and even causes them to be regarded with
aversion. St. Paul says further; that husbands should love their wives (and
consequently wives their husbands) as their own bodies, because married people
are, as it were, one. They shall be two in one flesh; no man ever hated his own
flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the Church (Eph.
5:29, 31). How unjustly and barbarously do those act, who, instead of loving
one another, rather hate and outrage each other, and cause the loss of their
property, and by detraction steal their honor! These do not consider that he
who hates and disgraces his partner in life, hates and disgraces himself; while
according to the words of St. Paul he who loves her, loves himself. If married
people would remain in constant love and unity, it is most necessary that they
should patiently bear with each other's infirmities, wrongs, and defects,
exhort one another with mildness and affection, keep their adversities, trials,
and sufferings as much as possible to themselves, and complain in prayer only to
God, who alone can aid them. By impatience, quarrels, and complaints the cross
becomes only heavier and the evil worse. Finally, not only on their wedding
day, but often through life, they should earnestly consider that they have not
entered the married state that they may inordinately serve the pleasures of the
body, but to have children who will one day inhabit heaven according to the
will of God; as the angel said to Tobias: "For they who in such manner
receive matrimony, as to shut out God from themselves and from their mind, and
to give themselves to their lust as the horse and mule, which have not
understanding, over them the devil hath power" (Tob. 6:17).
PRAYER Most merciful Jesus! who didst work Thy first miracle at the wedding in Cana by changing water into wine, thereby revealing Thy divine power and majesty, and honoring matrimony: grant we beseech Thee, that Thy faithful may ever keep sacred and inviolate the holy sacrament of Matrimony, and that they may so live in it truthfully, in the fear of the Lord, that they may not put an obstacle in the way of obtaining heaven for themselves, and their children.
“He
that hath the Son hath life. He that
hath not the Son, hath not life” (1 Jn. 5,12).
The grace which
sanctifies our souls is, in its essence, identically the same as that which
adorns the sacred soul of Jesus (St. Thomas, IIIa, q.8, a.5). Of course, they differ immensely in measure
and perfection, but the nature of the grace is the very same. Hence grace in us has the same sanctifying
power, the same tendencies as it has in the soul of Jesus. Thus it can sanctify us, making us live in
union with God and for His glory. By
giving us grace, Jesus has truly communicated His life to us; He has planted in
us the seed of His sanctity, so that we can live a life similar to His
own.
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary
Magdalen, O.C.D., Divine Intimacy
THE FIRST MIRACLE OF JESUS SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
PRESENCE
OF GOD ‑
O Jesus, transform my soul as You once transformed the water for the bride and bridegroom
at Cana.
MEDITATION:
I. Now that the cycle of Jesus'
childhood has ended, the liturgy begins to speak of His public life. During the
days following the Epiphany, it recalled Our Lord's baptism in the Jordan, the
event which marked the beginning of His apostolate. Today it tells us about His
first miracle, destined, like the Epiphany and His baptism, to manifest to the
world His glory as the Son of God.
"And the third day, there was a marriage in
Cana of Galilee; and the Mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus also was invited
. . . to the marriage" (Gosp: Jn 2, 1‑11). For the first time, we see the Blessed Virgin in
her maternal function as mediatrix of all graces. The Cana miracle, Jesus' first,
was worked precisely because of her intercession which was so powerful that it
made Jesus anticipate His hour. "My hour is not yet come," the Savior
had answered His Mother, and Mary was neither dismayed by this apparent refusal
nor did she insist on her request. Secure in the knowledge of her Son and full
of loving confidence in Him, she says to the servants, "Whatsoever He
shall say to you, do ye." Her humility, consideration for others, faith,
and trustful abandonment with Jesus, and to show us the greatness of her power
over His divine heart, He grants her wish; the miracle takes place.
Mary's
faith is admirable; and also worthy of admiration is the faith and prompt
obedience of the servants who, following Mary's advice, immediately carry out
the orders of Jesus; they fill the water pots with water and then pour from
them. Not a moment of doubt, not a protest‑ they simply obey. May we not
learn from them how to believe, how to obey? Shall we not have recourse to
Mary's powerful intercession?
2.
"The water was made wine." A miracle much more wonderful than the one
which Jesus performed at Cana is repeated daily on our altars; a little bread
and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, and given to us as the
Food of our souls. The Communion antiphon of today's Mass repeats the passage
in the Gospel which speaks of the water made wine. Yes, for us preeminently,
Jesus has "kept the good wine until now." It is the precious wine of
the Holy Eucharist, inebriating our souls with His Body and Blood.
There
is another wonderful transformation which Jesus accomplishes in our souls by
means of grace; the water of our poor human nature becomes a sharer in God's
divine nature; it is transformed into the sacred wine of the life of Christ
Himself. Man becomes a member of Christ, the adopted child of God, the temple
of the Holy Spirit. Today our Lady tells us how we can and should foster this
precious transformation; she says to us as she once did to the servants at the
Cana feast, "Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye." In these words,
Mary invites us to that complete transformation in Christ which is effected by
the generous practice of all that He teaches and commands. Let us, then, with
humble, docile hearts, with lively faith and perfect abandonment, entrust
ourselves to Jesus through Mary's hands.
COLLOQUY:
How
encouraging it is, O Lord, for me to find Your sweet Mother beside You today!
Everything becomes simple and easy near Mary, beneath her maternal eye, under
the protection of her powerful intercession. How good You were, O Jesus, to
give us Your dear Mother to be the Mother of our spiritual life! I will follow
Mary's precious advice and do everything You tell me, everything You wish me to
do.
I
want to imitate the blind, prompt obedience of the servants at the wedding
feast: to obey You as they did, always and in everything, Your instructions,
counsels, and precepts‑ to obey You likewise in the person of my
superiors, even when I do not see the reason for their orders and arrangements,
even when they expect difficult things of me or something which seems to me
absurd. Furthermore, I want to imitate Your Mother's complete abandonment when,
in her great thoughtfulness, she confided to You her wish to help the bride and
bridegroom in their difficulty. Your apparent refusal did not trouble her; she
did not persist in her request, but she was sure, absolutely sure, that Your
infinitely good and tender heart would provide, and provide abundantly.
O
Lord, with a like confidence and trust, I lay my needs before You today. Do You
see them? My soul is like the water pots at the feast: full of water, the cold,
insipid water of my frailty and weakness, which I never seem to overcome
completely. I can say with the Psalmist: "The waters have come even unto
my soul" (Ps 60, 1), and they submerge me and I am as one drowned in
incompetence and weakness. O Lord, I believe that, if You will, You can change
all this water into the precious wine of Your love, Your grace, and Your life.
You are so powerful, so merciful, that my wretchedness, great as it is, does
not astonish You, because in comparison with You, who are infinite, it is
always very small. Just as in the Mass the few drops of water which are poured
into the chalice are changed with the wine into Your Blood, O Lord, take my
wretchedness, plunge it into Your heart, make it disappear in You.
God wills only our
good; God loves us more than anybody else can or does love us. His will is that
no one should lose his soul, that everyone should save and sanctify his soul: “Not
willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance."
"This is the will of God, your sanctification." God has made
the attainment of our happiness, His glory. Since He is by His nature infinite
goodness, and since as St. Leo says goodness is diffusive of itself, God has a
supreme desire to make us sharers of His goods and of His happiness. If then He
sends us suffering in this life, it is for our own good: "All things
work together unto good." Even chastisements come to us, not to crush
us, but to make us mend our ways and save our souls: "Let us believe
that these scourges of the Lord have happened for our amendment and not for our
destruction." Saint Alphonsus
de Ligouri, Uniformity with
God's Will
The Church of Ss. Vincent
& Anastasius :
First, “put off the light” and, “then commit
crimes.”
The
first church and monastery dedicated to Ss. Vincent and Anastasius was built by
Pope Honorius I in 626 and given to the Benedictines. The present church facing the Trevia fountain
was completed in 1650 by architect Martino Longhi the Younger and located in
close proximity to the Quirinal Palace, for which it served as parish church. It
is notable as the place where the precordia and embalmed hearts of 25 popes
from Sixtus V to Leo XIII are preserved.
Originally
Roman Catholic, since 2002 the church has been used by the Saints Cyril and
Methodius Bulgarian Orthodox parish in Rome. The façade features 18
columns so that it earns the nickname of Reed Bed. At
the corner between Via del Lavatore and the fountain's square there is an 18th
century icon of the Virgin Mary. Below, there is a street lamp. Often the icons of Mary were placed above street lamps to
deter thieves or wrongdoers who would first put off the light, and then commit
crimes.
True Charity
is Always Allied with Truth
When the apostate Marcion met St. Polycarp at Rome, he asked the aged
Saint if he knew him. “Yes,” St. Polycarp
answered, “I know you for the firstborn of Satan.” These were the words of a Saint most loving
and most charitable, and specially noted for his compassion to sinners. He had drunk deep of the spirit of St. John,
that beloved master whose words were ever in his mouth. “Who dissolveth Jesus is not of God” (1 John
4:3). He hated heresy because he loved
God and man so much.
Rev. Henry Bowden
The decadence which exists in the world is without any doubt the
consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed
Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence, and since the
Rosary is, after the Eucharistic liturgy, the prayer most apt for preserving
faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggle against it… The Rosary is
the most powerful weapon for defending ourselves on the field of battle. Sr. Lucy of Fatima on the Rosary
He who does not contemplate My littleness upon earth will not behold My
greatness in heaven.
Our Lord to St. Angela of Foligno
For the doctrine of the
faith which God has revealed is put forward not as some philosophical discovery
capable of being perfected by human intelligence, but as a divine deposit
committed to the spouse of Christ to be faithfully protected and infallibly
promulgated. Hence, too, that meaning of
the sacred dogmas is ever to be maintained which has once been declared by holy
mother church, and there must never be any abandonment of this sense under the pretext
or in the name of a more profound understanding. For the holy Spirit was promised to the
successors of Peter not so that they might, by his revelation, make known some
new doctrine, but that, by his assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully
expound the revelation or deposit of faith transmitted by the apostles.
Vatican Council I
The union of your will with the divine will is more pleasing to God
than fasting and other mortifications of the flesh.
St. Clement Mary Hofbauer
“Taking this excellent
cup [….] rendering thanks also unto thee…”
You cannot be silent when stung by pain? I would not have you silent! I wish you to give thanks. It is this which
will repel the devil and bring you help from God. St. John Chrysostom
His “Bad Dream”,
Our Nightmare
I see the spirit and
principles of the Revolution working their way into Christian clergy and
people, just as the principles entered medieval society and produced the
pseudo-Reformation. Many among the
clergy have yet to see the errors of the Revolution and are still not resisting
it. Others among the clergy love the
Revolution as an idealistic cause, as it were, propagating it and collaborating
with it. They persecute the Revolution’s
adversaries, calumniating and impeding their apostolate. Most pastors say nothing. Others espouse the errors and spirit of the
Revolution and support it either in public or in secret, like the pastors in
the days of Jansenism… We must take note of the deadly battle being waged
against the Church in every field, identify the enemy, decipher his strategy
and battle tactics and observe his logic, psychology and dynamism, in order to
be able to interpret every stage of this war correctly and organize a properly
directed counter-offensive. For six
centuries our implacable enemy... has been waging war to the death, slowly and
systematically overturning and destroying nearly the whole Catholic order,
actually the City of God,.. in
order to construct the city of man in its place, with a whole new order
of human life, a society and humanity without God, without the Church, without
Revelation, based on sensuality, greed, and pride… Yet many Catholic leaders
dismiss what I am saying as a bad dream.
Archbishop Gerald de
Proenca Sigaud, Bishop of Jacarezinho in Brazil, Excerpt from his letter
expressing his concerns to the Preparatory Commission for Vatican II, August
22, 1959
"Where
is the New Theology leading us to? It is taking us in a straight line right
back to modernism by way of whims, errors and heresy."
Fr. Reginald
Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P
Hence the Fathers of
the Church never hesitated to pronounce all those forever lost who die out of
the Roman Catholic Church: "He who has not the Church for his
mother," says St. Cyprian, "cannot have God for his Father;" and
with him the Fathers in general say that, "as all who were not in the ark
of Noe perished in the waters of the Deluge, so shall all perish who are out of
the true Church." St. Augustine and the other bishops of Africa, at the
Council of Zirta, A. D. 410, say: "Whosoever is separated from the
Catholic Church, however commendable in his own opinion his life may be, he
shall, for the very reason that he is separated from the union of Christ, not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Therefore, says St.
Augustine, "a Christian ought to fear nothing so much as to be separated
from the body of Christ (the Church). For, if he be separated from the body of
Christ, he is not a member of Christ; if not a member of Christ, he is not
quickened by his Spirit." (Tract. xxvii. in Joan., n. 6, col. 1992, tom.
iii.)
Rev. Michael Müller,
C.SS.R, The Catholic Dogma
It is
"Unthinkable" to Question Vatican II only for those who do not Think
Those who deny
Jesus Christ are not the “elder brothers” of those who worship Jesus Christ
JEWS-CATHOLICS: CARD. KOCH (HOLY SEE), “UNTHINKABLE” TO QUESTION THE
COUNCIL
“Absolutely not”: the Catholic Church cannot change her position on the
Second Vatican Council and the Nostra Aetate Declaration “because she cannot
question the Council. That is unthinkable. And the Holy Father cannot deny his
Magisterium.” Card. Kurt Koch, President of the Vatican Commission for
Religious Relations with the Jews, commented in an interview with SIR on the
“concerns” raised by the process of dialogue between the Holy See and the
Priestly Society of St. Pius X (Lefebvrians). “The Jews - the cardinal said -
are our elder brothers: particularly in Benedict XVI’s vision of the unity of
the two Testaments, we are inextricably linked with the Jews. This point is
clear even in the light of the Council Declaration ‘Nostra Aetate’. There is no
doubt in the Catholic Church that this Declaration is still valid today. It is
rejected only by a small group, the Lefebvrians, who are opposed to ecumenical dialogue,
relations with the Jews and religious freedom. The latter are actually key
points in the Magisterium of the Holy Father, and if a group does not accept
the Council or the Magisterium, it should ask itself whether it is Catholic.
This is the fundamental question”. The cardinal then recalled what Fr. Lombardi
said about bishop Fellay’s statements: “anti-Semitism in all its forms is a
non-Christian act and the Catholic Church must fight this phenomenon with all
her strength.”
N.B.: The "Magisterium," that is, the
attribute of the Church founded by Jesus Christ to teach without the
possibility of error, was not engaged during Vatican II. The "magisterium of the Holy
Father," to which Cardinal Koch is referring, is the teaching authority of
the Pope grounded upon his grace of state.
This teaching authority is most worthy of respect but by no means is it
infallible and when it in any way contradicts the infallible dogmas of the
Catholic faith, we must obey God rather than any man.
The resolute soul fights more courageously. She knows that, come what may, she will never
turn back. She is like a soldier in
battle who knows that he may expect no mercy if he is conquered and that if he
does not die in battle, he will surely die if captured. It seems to me certain that he will
accordingly fight much more obstinately with the intention of selling his life
dearly, as they say, and will have less fear of blows, for he will always be
thinking of what victory will mean to him and that only by winning can he save
his life.
St. Teresa of Jesus, Way of Perfection
I have always something to repent for after having talked, but have
never been sorry for having been silent.
St. Arsenius, a Desert Father, d. 445 at 95 years of age
Mother Teresa, A Saint?
Yet documents obtained by SF
Weekly suggest that Mother Teresa knew one of her favorite priests was removed
from ministry for sexually abusing a Bay Area boy in 1993, and that she
nevertheless urged his bosses to return him to work as soon as possible. The priest
resumed active ministry, as well as his predatory habits. Eight additional
complaints were lodged against him in the coming years by various families,
leading to his eventual arrest on sex-abuse charges in 2005.
The priest was Donald McGuire,
a former Jesuit who has been convicted of molesting boys in federal and state
courts and is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence. McGuire, now 81 years
old, taught at the University of San Francisco in the late 1970s, and held
frequent spiritual retreats for families in San Francisco and Walnut Creek
throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He also ministered extensively to the
Missionaries of Charity during that time.
Peter Jamison, Tainted Saint:
Mother Teresa Defended Pedophile Priest, 1-11-12
I consider it as being,
without possible comparison, the best book ever written on St. Thomas…
Everybody will no doubt admit that it is a “clever ” book, but the few readers
who have spent twenty or thirty years in studying St. Thomas Aquinas, and how,
perhaps, have themselves published two or three volumes on the subject, cannot
fail to perceive that the so-called “wit” of Chesterton has put their
scholarship to shame… He has said all that which they were more or less
clumsily attempting to express in academic formulas.
Etienne Gilson, comment
on G. K Chesterton’s book, St. Thomas
Aquinas
As the clean and
purified spirit can find rest only in God, having been created for this end, so
there is no place save Hell for the soul in sin, for whose end Hell was
ordained by God. When the soul is in
mortal sin as it leaves the body, then in the instant in which spirit and body
are separated, the soul goes to the place ordained for it, guided by nothing
save the nature of its sin. And if at that
moment the soul were bound by no ordinance proceeding from God's justice, it
would go to a yet greater Hell than that in which it abides, for it would be
outside His ordinance, in which divine mercy so disposes that God gives the
soul less pain than it deserves. The
soul, finding no other place at hand nor any holding less evil for it, casts
itself by God's ordinance into Hell as into its proper place. [.....] After death free will can never return, for
the will is fixed as it was at the moment of death. Because the souls in Hell were found at the
moment of death to have in them the will to sin, they bear the guilt throughout
eternity, suffering not indeed the pains they deserve but such pains as they
endure, and these without end. [.....] Oh, how dangerous is sin committed in
malice! Rarely does a man repent of it,
and without repentance he will bear its guilt for as long as he perseveres -
that is, for as long as he wills a sin committed or wills to sin again.
St. Catherine of Genoa,
On Purgation and Purgatory, revealed
to her by God
We now come to another very fertile cause of the evils by which, we are
sorry to see, the contemporary Church being afflicted. This is indifferentism,
or that wicked opinion which has grown up on all sides through the deceit of
evil men. According to this opinion, the eternal salvation of the soul can be
attained by any kind of profession of faith, as long as a man’s morals are in
line with the standard of justice and honesty. You must drive out from the
people entrusted to your care this most deplorable error on a matter so
obviously important and so completely clear. For, since the Apostle has warned
that there is one God, one faith, one baptism, those who pretend that the way
to [eternal] beatitude starts from any religion at all should be afraid and should
seriously think over the fact that, according to the testimony of the Savior
Himself, they are against Christ because they are not for Christ; and that they
are miserably scattering because they are not gathering with Him; and that
consequently, they are most certainly going to perish forever, unless they hold
the Catholic faith and keep it whole and inviolate.
Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, Against
Religious Indifferentism
Fight, therefore, with
great determination. Do not let the weakness of your nature be an excuse. If
your strength fails you, ask more from God. He will not refuse your request.
Consider this------if the
fury of your enemies is great, and their numbers overwhelming, the love which
God holds for you is infinitely greater. The Angel who protects you and the
Saints who intercede for you are more numerous… All He asks of you is that you
defend yourself courageously, and that, despite any wounds you may receive, you
never lay down your arms or leave the battleground.
You must not shirk your
duty. This war is unavoidable, and you must either fight or die. The obstinacy
of your enemies is so fierce that peace and arbitration with them is utterly
impossible.
Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat
How can one be free who is separated from the
Most High? What harder or more miserable
captivity is there than for the soul to have escaped from the hand of its
Creator? Happy are they who find
themselves laden with the strong fetters and chains of the gifts of God's
mercy, so that they are unable to gain the power to set themselves free... O
free will, thou art the slave of thine own freedom, unless thou be pierced
through with fear and love for Him who created thee!
St. Teresa of Jesus, Conceptions of the Love of God, Exclamations of the Soul to God
"The Most Holy Virgin in these last
times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the
Rosary, to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is,
whether temporal, or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of
us, of our families, of the families of the world or of religious communities,
or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary.
There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot
resolve by the prayer of the Rosary! With the Holy Rosary we will save
ourselves. We will sanctify ourselves. We will console our Lord and obtain the
salvation of many souls."
Sr. Lucy of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes
"The decadence which exists in the
world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer.
Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of
the Rosary with such insistence, and since the Rosary is, after the Eucharistic
liturgy, the prayer most apt for preserving faith in souls, the devil has
unchained his struggle against it . . . The Rosary is the most powerful
weapon for defending ourselves on the field of battle."
Sr. Lucy of Fatima to Dom Umberto Pasqual
It
is the FAITH itself they hate, and every one of its perfect images!
Novusordoism is the cult of Man. This is what the New Religion is made
of; this is its constituent stuff: religiously indifferentist,
specifically anti-creedal, humanistic, secular,
horizontalist, man-centered with a few little Scriptural references tacked on
as a fig leaf. It’s easy for a person caught up in it, like a half-boiled frog,
not to know he’s no longer a creedal Catholic, but objectively it just isn’t
the same business. This bishop’s (Rev. Derio Olivero, Appointed as bishop of
Pinerolo, Italy by Bergoglio) public refusal to confess the Creed of the
Catholic religion at an ostensibly Catholic Mass on one of the highest feast
days of the year just shows that it’s finally coming out of the
closet.
Hilary White, No Creed? No surprises in the NuChurch!
"Remember how the Lord Christ
admonishes His disciples in the Gospel. Remember
how the King of Martyrs arms His hosts and points out the foe, and ministers
help, and promises them their reward. He
had told His disciples they would have tribulation in this world. Then He adds, to console them in their terror,
'Have confidence, I have overcome the world.'"
St. Augustine
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
How can one be free who is separated from the
Most High? What harder or more miserable
captivity is there than for the soul to have escaped from the hand of its
Creator? Happy are they who find
themselves laden with the strong fetters and chains of the gifts of God’s
mercy, so that they are unable to gain the power to set themselves free... O
free will, thou art the slave of thine own freedom, unless thou be pierced
through with fear and love for Him who created thee!
St. Teresa of Jesus, Conceptions of the Love of God, Exclamations of the Soul to God
“Through the deceit of evil men….. (who are)
most certainly going to perish forever…”
Now we come
to another very fertile cause of the evils by which, we are sorry to see, the
contemporary Church being afflicted. This is indifferentism, or that wicked opinion which has grown up
on all sides through the deceit of evil men. According to this opinion, the eternal salvation of the soul can
be attained by any kind of profession of faith, as long as a man’s morals are
in line with 
the standard of justice and honesty. You must drive out from the people
entrusted to your care this most deplorable error on a matter so obviously
important and so completely clear. For, since the Apostle has warned that there is
one God, one faith, one baptism, those who pretend that the way to [eternal]
beatitude starts from any religion at all should be afraid and should seriously
think over the fact that, according to the testimony of the Savior Himself,
they are against Christ because they are not for Christ; and that they are
miserably scattering because they are not gathering with Him; and that
consequently, they are most certainly going to perish forever, unless they hold
the Catholic faith and keep it whole and inviolate.
Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos
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.
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, and the
conversion of Dawn Keithley,
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
The health and spiritual welfare of Nate Schaeffer is the petition
of Gene Peters,
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,
For the health and
spiritual welfare of Peggy Cummings, the neice of Camila Meiser,
who is gravely ill,
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,
Joe Sentmanet request prayers for Scott Nettles (who is in need of
conversion), who is gravely ill,
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 paryer 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,
Mary Mufide,
requests our prayers for her family,
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,
Luis Rafael
Zelaya,
the brother of Claudia Drew, 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,
Mufide Rende, a traditional Catholic from
India has asked 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, and still cares for her
ailing parents,
Jason Green, a father of ten children,
recovery of 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,
Welfare of Bishop
Richard Williamson, for strength and courage in the greater battles to
come,
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 who has been ill,
and for Fr. Thomas Blute,
For the health and conversion of Kathryn Lederhos, the aunt of David Drew,
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 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:
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.
Novena to SS.
Peter and Paul
(begins
January 16th)
O glorious SS. Peter and Paul, filled with
compassion for those who invoke you, with love for those who suffer, heavily
laden with the weight of my troubles, I kneel at your feet and humbly beg you
to take my present need under your special protection (mention intention). As disciples of Christ and the first pastors of
the early Church you both knew disappointment and suffering. Lead me out of my troubles as you have so
many to Christ our Lord. Cease not to
intercede for me until my request is granted.
Above all, obtain for me the grace to one day meet God face to face, and
with you and Mary and all the angels and saints praise Him through all
eternity.
O most powerful SS. Peter and
Paul, do not let me lose my soul, but obtain for me the grace of winning my way
to heaven.
O holy Apostles, Peter and
Paul, I choose you this day and forever to be my special patrons and advocates;
thee, Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles, because thou art the Rock, upon
which Almighty God hath built His Church; thee, Saint Paul, because thou wast
fore-chosen by God as the Vessel of election and the Preacher of truth in the
whole world. Obtain for me, I pray you,
lively faith, firm hope and burning love; unshakable confidence in the merciful
providence of God, complete detachment from myself, contempt of the world,
patience in adversity, humility in prosperity, attention in prayer, purity of
heart, a right intention in all my works, diligence in fulfilling the duties of
my state of life, constancy in my resolutions, resignation to the will of God
and perseverance in the grace of God even unto death; that so, by means of your
intercession and your glorious merits, I may be able to overcome the
temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil, and may be made worthy to
appear before the chief and eternal Shepherd of souls, Jesus Christ, who with
the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and
reigneth for endless ages, to enjoy His presence and love Him forever. AMEN
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be
§ V. Thou shalt make them princes over all the
earth,
§ R. They shall be mindful of Thy name, O Lord.
Let
us pray
O God, whose right hand raised up blessed
Peter, when he walked upon the water and began to sink, and thrice delivered
his fellow-Apostle Paul from the depths of the sea, when he suffered shipwreck:
graciously hear us and grant, by the merits of them both, that we also may
attain unto everlasting glory: Who livest and reignest world without end.
AMEN
"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).
A
fair question! - WAS Pope Francis a life-time member of the homosexual
lobby?
“I remember the case of a very sad little girl who finally confided to
her teacher the reason for her state of mind: ‘my mother’s (female) fiancé doesn’t
like me.’ The percentage of children studying in schools who have separated
parents is very high. The situation in which we live now provides us with new
challenges which sometimes are difficult for us to understand. How can we
proclaim Christ to these boys and girls? How can we proclaim Christ to a
generation that is changing? We must be careful not to administer a vaccine
against faith to them.”
Pope Francis, address to Superiors-General of Religious Orders, Civiltà Cattolica
N.B.: The English translation says "mother's fiancé" leaving
out the of word the gender which is incorrect. The original Italian text
quoting the words of the Pope said that the “little girl” is “sad” because her
mother’s “fidanzata” did not like her — fidanzata, that is, her “fiancée” (a
woman engaged to be married), not “fiancé” (a man engaged to be married), as
translated.
For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils; but the Lord made the
heavens. Ps. 44
Pope
Francis denigrated traditional Catholics as schismatics and regarded those who
keep the immemorial ecclesiastical customs of our Faith as
"neo-Pelegians." If the
members of Ss. Peter & Paul were really "schismatics" or
"Pelegian heretics," we would then have their "respect" for
us, and "respect (for our) religion, its teachings, its symbols, its
values.... (for our) religious leaders and (our) places of worship." The immemorial ecclesiastical traditions they
mock are the work of God. Those that they "respect" are not.
....Turning to mutual respect in
interreligious relations, especially between Christians and Muslims, we are
called to respect the religion of the other, its teachings, its symbols, its
values. Particular respect is due to religious leaders and to places of
worship. How painful are attacks on one or other of these!
It is clear that, when we show respect
for the religion of our neighbours or when we offer them our good wishes on the
occasion of a religious celebration, we simply seek to share their joy, without
making reference to the content of their religious convictions.
Regarding the education of Muslim and
Christian youth, we have to bring up our young people to think and speak
respectfully of other religions and their followers, and to avoid ridiculing or
denigrating their convictions and practices.
We all know that mutual respect is
fundamental in any human relationship, especially among people who profess
religious belief. In this way, sincere and lasting friendship can grow.....
Pope Francis, greeting to
Mohammedans at the end of Ramadan
Instead of returning home with his family, he stayed in Jerusalem, in
the Temple, causing great distress to Mary and Joseph who were unable to find
him. For this little “escapade”, Jesus probably had to beg forgiveness of his
parents. The Gospel doesn’t say this, but I believe that we can presume
it.
Pope Francis, babbling another stupid “presumption” on which his faith
is established
Just
what is this comment intended to mean?
Francis:
Same-sex couples pose new educational challenges
The Pope
mentioned this in his speech to Superiors-General of religious orders. We must
be careful not to “administer a vaccine against faith” to children of same-sex
couples. Vatican Insider staff : Rome
01/ 4/2014
From an educational point of
view, same-sex unions “provide us with new challenges which sometimes are
difficult for us to understand,” (Pope) Francis said in the speech he gave to
superiors general 29 November, published by Italian Jesuit journal, La Civiltà Cattolica. We must be careful
not to administer a vaccine against faith to the children of same-sax couples.
Readers
Digest Version of an Encyclopedic Discourse
Pope
Francis confessed grave doubts about his own "Hypocritical" religious
formation. He admited to getting the
"Creeps." Directed Religious Superiors to end the “Novice Business”
and "Caress Conflicts" with "Tenderness." Confessed that religious orders have been
producing "Heartless... Little Monsters" over last fifty years that
have been "Forming the People of God" into "Little
Monsters" populating an "Unfeeling World" largely overseen by
his great predecessors, Benedict XVI-Ratzinger and John Paul II. Identifies "Fundamentalism" with
anti-neomodernism. And so on, and so on,
and so on, and so on.....
Pope Francis said, “You have to form the heart, or we will make little
monsters. And then, these little monsters form the people of God. That gives me
the creeps.” Among other topics covered, the Jesuit magazine Civiltà Cattolica writes: “the
complexity of life between grace and sin, the Prophetic being in our world; the
brotherhood, the indictment of the novice trade; hypocrisy and fundamentalism;
praise for Pope Benedict XVI's fight against (sic) child sexual abuse by clergy
and the importance of charisms and the pressing challenges; the relationship
between the religious and the bishops, the need of tenderness 'to caress conflicts,' and a 'jolt to awaken
our unfeeling world.'”
Pope Francis, Address to Superiors-General of Religious Orders, Civiltà Cattolica, November 29, 2013
"As Time
Goes By":
"John Paul II for Dummies," by Dummies: And where is the picture of the Moslem
kissing the “commemorative coin”?
Or,
what would JP II have done if they handed him a toilet plunger?
Question for the Dummies: Why
did JP II, who kisses the Sacred Scripture, kiss the Koran that contains
blasphemies against Jesus Christ and His blessed Mother?
“The answer is simple: Same
lips, different reason. The pope had
been advised that in the Near Eastern culture, when a gift is received, it is
normally kissed as a sign of respect to the gift’s giver. The pope would have kissed whatever gift was
given to him, whether it was the Koran or commemorative coins which is actually
what the pope gives to visiting guests.”
Rev. John Trigilio, Phd, ThD,
Rev. Kenneth Brighenti, PhD, & Rev. Jonathan Toborowsky, MA, John Paul II for Dummies
After
all, even Clerical Pedophiles need a patron saint!
JP II , who the Dummies call, “the
people’s pope,” know very well that his duty is to be the “vicar of Christ,”
and not a popular cult figure, presided over the greatest decline over the
shortest period of time in the history of the Catholic Church. Now there is mounting evidence that he may
have actively participated in the cover-up of homosexual predator priests and
the homosexual bishops he appointed, yet these Dummies “firmly believe and
trust [that JP II] will one day be proclaimed John Paul the Great and Doctor of
the Church, the Luminous Doctor, just as St. Thomas Aquinas was known as the
Angelic Doctor and St. Bonaventure as the Seraphic Doctor.”
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
Remedial
Catechism 101: Pope Francis identified a "Pagan" as a Christian
"who doesn't want to serve."
It is an ugly thing when you see a Christian who doesn’t want to humble
himself, who doesn’t want to serve, a Christian who struts about everywhere:
it’s ugly, eh? That is not a Christian: that’s a pagan!
Pope Francis, General Audience, Vatican Radio, 12-18-13
Was
Pope Francis a member of the Church that he governed?
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
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.”
“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
“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.