Blood transfusions were necessary and prognosis remains guarded.
The Holy See Press Office issued the following medical update on Pope Francis on Saturday evening:
Event: Spiritual Lenten Concerts in London, with Jeremy Summerly (March 2025)
Following the French tradition of “Le Concert Spirituel”, The Southwell Consort presents two Lentern recitals of sacred music in London, directed by Jeremy Summerly, the great early music specialist, conductor and lecturer.
The Jubilee Flop: the Flowering Nothingness of the Francis Pontificate
A letter sent to our friends in the Argentine blog Caminante Wanderer:
Dear Wanderer,
As I know you and your readers are interested, I am sending you a brief chronicle of my trip to Rome.
I expected, as did the [Italian] government and the merchants of the city, that by this time Rome would be full of pilgrims who had come for the Jubilee, and would join the usual crowds of tourists. Well, neither the one nor the other. Rome is empty and, above all, empty of pilgrims. Everyone agrees that last year at this time there were many, many more people lining up to enter St. Peter's Basilica or to visit the other churches.
RAI Vaticano Under News Alert for Eventuality
Our friends at Italian blog Messa in Latino have just learned that RAI Vaticano (the main and historic service covering the Vatican of Italian public radio and television broadcasting giant RAI) has been placed under news alert:
Sermon for Septuagesima 2025
by Fr. Richard Cipolla
This in the Traditional Roman Mass is Septuagesima Sunday, the first of three Sundays before Lent. These Sundays form a season of preparation for Lent. This season is one of the oldest elements of the Church calendar, which was omitted in the calendar changes after the Second Vatican Council with no explanation except they were omitted for pastoral reasons. What these reasons were was never explained, but my guess it was done to make things simpler for Catholics. That these arbitrary reformers thought that practicing Catholics needed simplicity at a time when Tradition and tradition were being attacked in the Western world shows both misunderstanding and contempt.
"The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae": A Publication to Assist in Pre-55 Services
Those who are blessed with access to Holy Week in the Tridentine Rite, that is, the rite celebrated for a thousand years and more prior to Pius XII's changes in the mid-1950s, may find helpful a resource published by Os Justi Press: The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae, which contains the liturgy (in Latin with English translation) for Palm Sunday, the Triduum Masses, and the Office of Tenebrae, including complete Gregorian chants. Summary rubrics are indicated. No page turning is required. The book features many medieval illustrations as well.
Cristina Campo -- and The World of Tradition, by Roberto de Mattei
Roberto de Mattei
for Voice of the Family
February, 2025
The profound crisis afflicting the Church is traced by many to the reign of Pope Francis, interpreted as a radical split with the pontificates before it. In reality, the very gravity of the crisis, which today pervades every ecclesiastical sphere, from the upper echelons to the smallest local realities, should make it clear to us that this process of self-demolition has remote origins. A reaction to it, however, manifested itself beginning in the 1960s, and knowing its protagonists is indispensable, out of a duty of justice towards those who, before us, fought the good fight.
A Sick Elderly Francis Hates America - Like Biden, Propped Up to Support Leftist Ideology
The current American administration took office three weeks ago. It has been a busy three weeks, but one thing that has surely not happened are "mass deportations"... Deportation procedures and flights have remained what they were under Biden, and still under much lower levels than they were under the previous Democrat administration (Obama).
Still, the fact that nothing in practice has changed so far, other than the pause of funds to NGOs (including those run by certain dioceses), has not prevented Francis from sending a highly unusual, undiplomatic, ideological (under the appearance of syrupy devoutness), and frankly embarrassing letter to "the bishops of the United States of America":
Birth Rate Collapse: Pets Instead of Children? -- Op-Ed by Archbishop Héctor Agüer
Children or Pets?
by Archbishop Héctor Agüer
Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina
Buenos Aires, February 11, 2025
Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes
 |
| [The collapse of birth rates in Argentina] |
I read in [the Argentine daily paper] “La Prensa” that, since 2016, births in the City of Buenos Aires have been decreasing. Between January and mid-December 2024, 37,864 births were registered, according to official figures from the Buenos Aires Civil Registry: a twelve percent drop compared to the previous year.
The true enemies of the Church are bad Catholics
On the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the anniversary of her first apparition to Saint Bernadette, I offer this reprise from our kind benefactor NC:
It is a well-known account. Sister Marie Bernarde (Bernadette) Soubirous is in the convent of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers, it is 1870, war is raging throughout northern France as the Prussian-led German armies march towards Paris. The first printed version of the account,* published while she was still living, is the following. A visitor came to Bernadette at that time and made her the following questions:
- Did you receive, in the grotto of Lourdes, or after then, any revelations related to the future and fate of France? Did not the Blessed Virgin deliver any warning for France, any threats?- No- The Prussians are at our gates; does that not cause you any fear?- No.- There is thus nothing to fear?- I only fear bad Catholics.- You do not fear anything else?- No, nothing else.
Catholic Church leaders are running scared
What would happen if the Holy Father restated some salient items of Catholic dogma?
First of all, I am thinking about this dogma: Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. This is defined as follows: “We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” (Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.) If Pope Francis repeated this, one can only guess at what might happen. At the very least he would utterly destroy 60 years of ecumenical dialogue and cause a massive internal rift within the Catholic Church. He may even have to go into hiding!
Catholic Family News Conference - March 1st-2nd, in Orlando, Florida
Catholic Family News will be holding a Conference near Orlando, Florida on March 1-2, 2025. The theme is the Global Conflict to Implement the Catholic Plan for Social Order, covering a wide array of topics including politics, education and the current challenges traditional Catholics face today.
A Vatican II Moment: Dancing in Front of the Relics of Saint Maria Goretti
The relics of Saint Maria Goretti are on a worldwide tour — and in one of those stops, her martyred body has been subjected to the horror and humiliation of a dance by some apparently “devout” “Catholic youth” that is nothing but mockery of her purity.
“TikTok evangelization,” we guess — video below:
The Role of Sisters in the Church: Truly Appreciating Nuns Consists in Helping Them Live Their Own Vocation - by Abp. Héctor Aguer
Sisters in the Church
Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina
Buenos Aires, February 4, 2025
Pope Francis has discovered that machismo and misogyny reign in his Vatican Curia. And that, therefore, the sisters who work there - numerous in all ranks - are not properly appreciated. He believes that, in order to elevate them, they must be turned into civil servants. In this bureaucratization of the nuns, he has set an example by appointing one as prefect and another as secretary of a dicastery. A belated and curious feminism!
"The Spectacle of a Double Collapse, of the Church and of the State"
We are grateful to David Critchley for providing us with a translation of the Foreword to a recently published collection of essays by the eminent French traditionalist Jean-Pierre Maugendre: Quand la mer se retire: La tragédie de l’Église au XXIe siècle (When the Sea Withdraws: the Tragedy of the Church in the 21st Century) (Contretemps, 2024). Hopefully this entire book will be translated soon. Meanwhile, the Foreword itself is worth sharing for its directness and plain speech.
Foreword by Michel de Jaeghere
PELL - PART 3: the Scapegoating and Witch-Hunt of a Hero of the Faith (The Royal Commission and the Cardinal in Court)
PELL : the Scapegoating and Witch-Hunt of a Hero of the Faith
By Serre Verweij
for Rorate Caeli
Part III of III
When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, Pell initially seemed to rise to new heights in the Vatican, serving as the clear conservative of Pope Francis’ Cardinal advisors and as the prefect for the new Secretariat for the Economy.
Pope Francis cautions nuns with “vinegar faces” but omits the real cause of decline in religious life
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| The pope with some of the sisters on January 4th |
In the Clementine Hall of the Papal Palace on January 4th, Pope Francis addressed a gathering of the general chapter of the union of ‘St Catherine of Sienna’ school missionaries.
The Disintegration of the Priesthood (Part II) – Sacerdotal Celibacy – by Vigilius
With this article, Vigilius continues the analysis begun in his first part. Today the theme is celibacy. PAK
The Celibacy of Christ
THE TRADITIONAL ONE-YEAR LECTIONARY: Strength in Simplicity
by Kevin Tierney
for Rorate Caeli
When it comes to talking about the Latin Mass, her devotees will find a lot of things to praise. When criticizing the Novus Ordo, they will find fertile ground for criticism.
“Angelic Sins” and the New Orthodoxy — Guest Article by Dr. Tomasz Dekert
Joe Biden, Devout Catholic: Freemason
One would think that a Catholic would never again need to hear or think about former president Joe Biden after the end of his term this past Monday.
Alas, one would be wrong. The first news we have from self-described “devout” Catholic Biden in his post-presidency is his newfound membership of the Freemasonry.
Two Farewells in the Austrian Church
In recent days the Church in Austria has bade farewell to two of its bishops. On January 13th, the Very Reverend Bishop Andreas Laun, O.S.F.S., formerly auxiliary bishop of Salzburg, was laid to rest in that city. On January 18th a Mass was celebrated in Vienna to bid farewell to His Eminence Christoph Cardinal Schönborn. Cardinal Schönborn is still among the living, and celebrated his farewell Mass himself. His resignation had not yet been accepted on January 18th, but it was expected that his resignation would be accepted today, January 22nd, his 80th birthday (as has now indeed come to pass). The two farewells contrasted in a number of ways.
PELL - PART 2: the Scapegoating and Witch-Hunt of a Hero of the Faith
PELL : the Scapegoating and Witch-Hunt of a Hero of the Faith
Part II of III
By Serre Verweij
for Rorate Caeli
After Pell was cleared of the nonsensical charges against him in 2002, he was made a cardinal and his star seemed to be shining. He would end up partaking in two conclaves. A decade later he was even appointed to Pope Francis’ council of cardinal advisers and put in charge of economic reforms. Yet, around the same time that Pope Benedict resigned and Pope Francis’ pontificate started to cause major controversy, new attacks would start on Pell that formed part of a broader anti-Catholic hysteria that would dominate Australian headlines for several years.
232 Years - Louis XVI, Saintly King, true Martyr: a Catholic going to death and His Last Will and Testament
Procession to eternity
On January 20, 1793, the National Convention condemned Louis XVI to death, his execution scheduled for the next day. Louis spent that evening saying goodbye to his wife and children. The pope following day, January 21, dawned cold and wet. Louis arose at five. At eight o'clock a guard of 1,200 horsemen arrived to escort the former king on a two-hour carriage ride to his place of execution. Accompanying Louis, at his invitation, was a priest, Henry Essex Edgeworth, an Englishman living in France. Edgeworth recorded the event and we join his narrative as he and the fated King enter the carriage to begin their journey:
Sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany: "At Cana, the first miracle deals with Creation, making things new."
*The Wedding Feast at Cana
Paolo Veronese (1563)
Musée du Louvre
Sermon by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla
“Jesus performed this first of his signs at Cana in Galilee. Thus did he reveal his glory, and his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11)
So given the gospel today, the question is this: have you ever been to an Italian-American wedding? Not an Italian wedding—something different yet similar but different—but an Italian-American wedding. Now I do not mean one of those toned-down, Americanized, rather staid affairs with pasta stations (imagine such a thing as a pasta station!), not these planned out affairs where the mother of the bride is out of place in her pastel lacey dress. The scene of today’s gospel is a Jewish wedding, and if the truth be known, and it is known, there are striking similarities between the ethnicity of Italians and Jews. Mothers and chicken soup. Matzoh balls and little meatballs. Need I say more.
Pope Francis’s Autobiography, or Why the Pope Shouldn’t Be a Psychoanalyst — Article by Dr. Tomasz Dekert
In recent reports about Pope Francis's newly released autobiography, two aspects particularly caught my attention. First, the book recounts episodes from Fr. Jorge Bergoglio SJ's life in which he sought help from a psychiatrist. Second, it includes his now-traditional (ironic, isn't it?) critique of what a German website calls the “arch-conservative church representatives who continue to cling to the so-called Tridentine Mass.”
Historical Clarification: Giuseppe Garibaldi: a "tender-hearted man", who loved animals and hated priests
Giuseppe
Garibaldi
Unknown aspects of the life of a hero of two worlds:
He loved animals, transported slaves and hated priests:
he would have happily sentenced them to hard labour.
Professor Angela Pellicciari
Il
Timone - n. 15
September/October 2001
A tender heart. Well yes; Giuseppe Garibaldi was tender-hearted. In the way that those who are unscrupulous with men often are (Adolf Hitler comes to mind!). The heart of the General beat with paternal tenderness - for animals. And to think that today hardly anyone remembers this.
“In Defense of the Hermit Vocation”: Guest Article for the Feast of St. Paul the First Hermit
When the word “hermit” or “anchorite” is heard, many think of a strange person, a kind of extinct spiritual being in the history of the Church. Actually, at the beginning of the fourth century, the eremitical life was one of the standard ways, especially in the East. [1]
Today it is less common to come across a hermit let alone hear about someone pursuing an anchoritic vocation. Why would someone even consider this ancient and mystical vocation known for living in the desert and eating bugs? The answer is simple: God calls and the soul answers.
Many people are too busy to be able to listen to God and to physically and spiritually hear his voice. It is important to slow down, seek solitude, and pray to hear His call. We must first hear His call to heed His call. If a person doesn’t actively listen and seek God’s will they will not hear his voice. And thus, is the calling of a hermit.
Francis' Autobiography "Hope" is Hopeless on the Traditional Latin Mass: Same old, same old, same old, same old
It is always hilarious to read another tirade of Francis against the Traditional Latin Mass, traditionalists in general, and especially young people who love Tradition -- because, as usual, it is HE who sounds old and out of tune.
Like those pre-demential elderly who keep saying the same things ("In my days, things were better," or, "you people are just lazy," or, "nobody understood what the priest said"), his arguments are the same, and he repeats them in his new autobiography "Hope", released today by Random House:
No, the Italian Bishops Did Not Change Admission Criteria for Homosexuals
PRUDENCE
The news made the rounds everywhere last week: the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI, for its name in Italian) expanded the possibility of the attendance of its seminaries by homosexuals. Basically, if they aren't practicing homosexuals, they could be admitted.
This was stirred by the Italian mainstream media -- for instance, by news agency ANSA (here). It was inevitably picked up by all kinds of media in English, and seemed to contradict the original sense of the 2005 instrution by the Congregation for Catholic Education, approved by Benedict XVI, that had a more restrictive position:
Francis' latest coup: Prefect Simona Brambilla - Guest Article by Michael Charlier
The real disaster of the appointment of Sister Simona Brambilla as “Prefect” of the Administrative Office for Institutions of Consecrated Life and Apostolic Institutes does not lie in the fact that this top position is now occupied by a woman – although the usual shallow minds are now once again talking about “breaking down patriarchal structures”, “ending discrimination against women” and, in particular, “empowerment”. And presumably this is exactly how Pope Francis wants it to appear, given his nature and objectives. But there is more – but one thing at a time.
Universal Ordo for the TLM available from the FIUV
Cross-posted from the FIUV blog.
The Federation's own Ordo, giving the Mass to be said every day of the year according to the Universal Calendar (1962), is now available as a pdf download here.
Hard copies are now available to buy in the New Year, from the LMS online shop.
The FIUV took up the publication of this Ordo when the PCED, which used to do it, ceased to exist. It is modelled on the old PCED Ordos.
Please direct corrections to
PELL: the Scapegoating and Witch-Hunt of a Hero of the Faith - On the Second Anniversary of His Death
Part I of III
By Serre Verweij
for Rorate Caeli
When Cardinal Pell died in early 2023, he received a Catholic funeral attended by 30 bishops, hundreds of priests, the Australian opposition leader and a former Australian prime minister. But he was denied a state funeral by the Labour authorities, even though that’s the norm for important public figures. Apparently, it would have been too distressing for victims according to the premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews.
Mary of the Angels, Hope Amidst the Fires
The devastating fires in Los Angeles, the City of Our Lady Queen of Angels of the Portiuncula, have caused untold damage to thousands upon thousands of families. At least one parish, Corpus Christi, in Pacific Palisades, has been destroyed. The parish dedicated to the Latin Mass, St. Vitus, has remained outside of harm's way.
But in one of the other fires, in Altadena, an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe remained intact:
 |
| (Source: Twitter) |
We pray for those deceased, and for those families, of all social classes, left without their homes, their memories, their livelihoods, their neighborhoods. We pray to Our Lady of the Angels, so that her city may one day be completely restored, and become a beacon of Christendom as intended by the missionaries who founded the pueblos of California:
Catholics Should Be Embarrassed Episcopalians Understand the Symbolism of Ritual Better: A Priest’s Thoughts on Carter’s Funeral
Thoughts on the service for Jimmy Carter at the National Cathedral
by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla
It might be said that that there is irony in calling the Episcopal cathedral in Washington, D.C, as the National Cathedral. For the Episcopal Church is certainly not a State church, which would counter the very foundation of the United States on the principle of an absolute separation of Church and State. In fact, the Episcopal Church, once known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, is a distinctly minority denomination in the Protestant faith world in the United States, but, at least in the relatively recent past, was seen as the church of the rich and powerful and the church of “Good Taste.”
Disloyal, Petty, Vindictive, and Ugly: Francis Forces Bp. Dominique Rey to Resign One Year After Asking Him to Stay -- Persecuted for Being Close to "Trads."
Bishop Dominique Rey, of Fréjus-Toulon, France, one of the best and most solid bishops in the world, and a beacon of liberty for the Traditional Mass, resigned his office today. He is 72.
Francis had first suspended the ordinations in his diocese. Then, he named a coadjutor for him, but encouraged him to stay until his regular retirement, at 75. In his letter of resignation today, Rey says,
“During a private audience on December 23, 2023, the Pope had encouraged me to receive this collaboration [the coadjutor bishop] in a fraternal spirit, and not to resign. At the end of a first year in which the suspension of ordinations was lifted for almost all the candidates, the nuncio informed me that the Holy Father was asking me to leave my position as diocesan bishop of Fréjus-Toulon, without my knowledge of any new elements than those that had motivated the designation of the coadjutor bishop.”
Shameless and disloyal? Yes, but par for the course for Francis.
***
Guillaume de Thieulloy had a great rundown of the whole disgusting story for our friends at French blog Le Salon Beige:
Bp. Rey has just resigned - at the express request of the Apostolic Nuncio. Officially, for two reasons. The first concerns the economic management of the diocese. This was already one of the main reasons put forward for the canonical visitation that led to his being sidelined. However, I would be curious to know how many French dioceses would be spared if Rome took an interest in their economic management. Before Covid, it was said that half of them were bankrupt. Since then, the abuse crisis and the collapse of revenues have taken their toll, and, at the very least, three quarters of France's bishops could suffer the same fate as their confrere from Toulon for reasons of economic management.
Recognize and Resist is Real: The First Anniversary of the Historic Backlash to Fiducia Supplicans
The Orthodox Resurgence
by Serre Verweij
for Rorate Caeli
A year ago, Victor Manuel Fernandez came out with a press release that was meant to clarify Fiducia Supplicans (or to placate its numerous critics). Fiducia Supplicans had managed to be the most controversial Vatican document since Humanae Vitae, 55 years earlier. In fact, it was more controversial. The alleged clarification ended up ‘de facto’ annulling many key parts of Fiducia Supplicans itself. Now, a year later, the document has become largely a dead letter. What exactly happened?
A clarification, in fact a retraction
The Wicked Witch of the West comes to Washington: McElroy is Francis's and McCarrick's Final Middle Finger to America
The Washington Post had confirmed it last night, and the Vatican Bollettino published it this morning: the bishop of San Diego, McCarrick alum and Cupich-named Cardinal, Robert McElroy will be the new Archbishop of Washington.
It seems quite appropriate that the news comes as the District of Columbia is covered by the largest winter storm in a decade. Snow and ice blow from the west, as chilly winds bring the ultimate McCarrick insider to the capital of the United States.
McElroy is almost 71, and already a Cardinal -- an unusually late appointment considering the canonical and usual retirement age of 75. When he was named Cardinal, in 2022, California Catholics couldn't believe their eyes, considering McElroy's history of obfuscation, or worse, regarding the sordid story of former Cardinal "Uncle Ted" McCarrick, whose great seat of power was... Washington itself:
The Prefectess: Simona Brambilla named Prefect of Religious
For the first time ever, a woman has been named Prefect of a Roman Dicastery: Sister Simona Brambilla, of the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata, who had been secretary of the Dicastery for Religious ("Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life") since 2023, has been elevated to the position of Prefect.
As such, she will be the ultimate power, after the pope himself, over hundreds of thousands of religious in the world, including thousands upon thousands of priests (and bishops who are members of religious orders). As for how that goes with the hierarchic constitution of the Church, we will leave it up to the thoughts of our readers.
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