The Pope and Tradition - Op-Ed by Abp. Héctor Agüer

 Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

Buenos Aires, March 11, 2025

[Author's note:] This article was written before illness led the Supreme Pontiff to hospitalization. Like all the faithful, I too offer my prayers for the physical and spiritual health of Francis. What I write below is valid for the orientation of his pontificate, which is still true today, as can be seen in the recent suppression of the Miles Christi Religious Institute, announced on Thursday, the 6th of this month.

***

 The current Pontificate is distinguished by a true contradiction: the Pope is an enemy of Tradition, persecutor of those who follow it and identify with it. This persecution is accomplished in many ways: he displaces good bishops, appointing coadjutors for them; he elevates to the episcopate progressive characters; he takes care to elevate to the cardinalate those who second his projects of reforming the Church; he promotes progressive religious institutes and undermines or eliminates those attached to Tradition. It is significant that he has chosen the unusual name of Francis - alien to papal history - probably thinking of the saint of Assisi, considering him an ecclesial reformer.

Welcome to Washington, Cardinal McElroy!

 Cardinal McElroy will be installed as the new Archbishop of Washington tomorrow, in the Basilica of the National Shrine.

He is receiving some warm welcome:

For the story on the unbelievable events leading to this, read this from Crux in 2018:

Ordo Hebdomadae Maioris & Memoriale Rituum: Useful Books for the Pre-55 Holy Week

Saint Anthony Press, established with the mission of publishing rare or otherwise “lost” Catholic liturgical and devotional books, has reprinted the Ordo Hebdomadae Maioris (Order of Holy Week) containing the Holy Week liturgies and Order of Mass with seasonal Prefaces according to the 1920 typical edition of the Roman Missal (in use until 1955), restoring the ancient and venerable liturgies replaced by the 1956 Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae Instauratus (and later incorporated into the 1962 Roman Missal).

The Miracles of the Pre-Conclave: Cardinal Roche says he has no problem with the Latin Mass

Well, that is a "vibe shift" if ever there was one.

The great persecutor of the Traditional Latin Mass, Cardinal Roche, apparently has no problem with Latin or the Latin Mass! What miracles do the airs of a possible upcoming conclave bring forth...

Here is his answer on the matter in his interview to the Catholic Herald:

CH [Herald]: One of the phenomena that has become apparent in the modern Church is the devotion that young people have to the Traditional Latin Mass, the 1962 Roman Missal promulgated by Pope John XXIII. What advice would you give to those who want to remain faithful members of the Church and love the Latin Mass but find themselves restricted in attending?

Book review: Enchanted by Eternity: Recapturing the Wonder of the Catholic Worldview

Enchanted by Eternity: Recapturing the Wonder of the Catholic Worldview by Fr. William Slattery is a stunningly insightful read.

The author, whose name you might recognize from his earlier and also very fine book Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build—and Can Help Rebuild—Western Civilization, is an unusual combination: a fiery Irishman, a cold-blooded PhD in epistemology who specialized in alethic logic, a professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, a historian – and a priest who is passionately in love with the Traditional Latin Mass. Listen to these words in the Acknowledgments section of his book:

What Is the Path Forward for the Church? The Church Lives by Her Tradition -- by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

 

The Future Course of the Church

by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata

Buenos Aires, March 3, 2025

     When a Pontificate lasts for many years, it is natural to think about what will happen when it ends. Catholics look to the future of the Church. What, then, is appropriate for the time to come?

Francis Health Update: More episodes of respiratory insufficiency - ventilation

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/comunicazioni/2025/03/03/250303b.html

Today the Holy Father presented two episodes of acute respiratory insufficiency, caused by a major accumulation of endobronchial mucus, and consequent broncospasm.

Two bronchoscopies were therefore performed, with the need for aspiration of copious secretions.

In the afternoon, non-invasive mechanical ventilation was resumed.

The Holy Father remained alert, oriented and cooperative at all times.

The prognosis remains reserved.

Who Could Be the Next Pope? -- Parolin: Fake Moderate, Sincere Progressive

Paix Liturgique

February 26, 2025

Cardinal Parolin, the Secretary of State, is considered very hostile to the Traditional Mass (playing on the nickname, “the Mass of All Time,” he is quoted as saying, “We must put an end to this Mass for all time!” At this time, when Rome is more or less preparing for a conclave, his friends are doing everything to sell, as the communicators say, an image of Parolin as a “moderate”, “man of consensus.” Pietro Parolin, who is said to be considering the name of John XXIV, would be in perfect continuity with the latter, but in a less disorderly, more administrative style. 

Parolin would be a more efficient Francis

***

Rorate: Paix Liturgique, the French traditionalist newsletter, then makes reference to an article we also published in December 2023. We repost it here now to recall to our readers the main characters of the future conclave, whenever it may take place.

Cardinal Parolin Lying in Ambush

Father Claude Barthe

Res Novae

December 2023

Is Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, the real candidate of the Bergoglian left[1]? It's worth remembering that in 2013, the self-appointed cardinals of the "St. Gallen Group", who brought Jorge Bergoglio to power, used the maneuver of putting forward the name of Cardinal Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo, to more effectively advance their real papabile, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Similarly today, behind the 66-year-old Filipino Cardinal Tagle, prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, but depressive and rather insignificant, or behind the 65-year-old Jesuit Cardinal Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg, rapporteur of the Synod of Bishops for a synodal Church, but too noisily heterodox, would actually be Cardinal Parolin.

“Close the Workshop: Why the Old Mass Isn’t Broken and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed” — New Book by Peter Kwasniewski

hardcover on the left, paperback on the right

I'm delighted to announce to Rorate readers that my new book from Angelico Press, Close the Workshop: Why the Old Mass Isn’t Broken and the New Mass Can’t Be Fixed, has just been released!

COLLAPSE: 12 Years of the Bergoglio Age in Numbers

 by Paix Liturgique

February 26, 2025

The Bergoglian Age in numbers: in ancient Christian countries, but not only, the number of Catholics is declining. Of course, there are many reasons for this, such as secularization, urbanization, competition from competing ideologies and religions, and the unravelling of family units and traditional values in many places. But the statistics point to a worrying acceleration since the start of Pope Francis' pontificate, particularly in places where bishops and indeed the Church as a whole pride themselves on their progressivism and their entry into the marvellous synodality.

Germany, spearhead of Catholic progressivism, loses 500,000 Catholics a year

New Books Vindicate Pius X's Teaching on Sacred Music and Show that the Church in Africa Is Not a "Vatican II Success Story"

Os Justi Press is pleased to announce its latest pair of releases.

First, in the "Studies in Catholic Tradition" series, we have Dr. Patrick John Brill's The Great Sacred Music Reform of Pope St. Pius X: The Genesis, Interpretation, and Implementation of the Motu Proprio "Tra le Sollecitudini."

Professional singer and choir conductor Dr. Andrew Childs sums it up well: “Dr. Patrick Brill provides thorough and much-needed support for what many traditional-minded Catholics have long known or at least suspected: that St. Pius X’s 1903 motu proprio Tra le Sollectitudini still provides the surest guide for the restoration of Catholic sacred music. Part I of this book provides a detailed commentary on the motu proprio, enlightening for amateur and expert alike, while Part II examines the document’s fate from the time of Pius to today, looking at its canonical force and status, positive efforts of implementation, and the neglect it has suffered since Vatican II. As tradition continues to make crucial gains, it will be books like this that serve as practical guides for restoration.”

Francis in "critical condition"

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

by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

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

[Part I; Part II]

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.

RNW: R.I.P.

 

1940 - 2025

Pope Francis cautions nuns with “vinegar faces” but omits the real cause of decline in religious life

The pope with some of the sisters on January 4th

In the Clementine Hall of the Papal Palace on January 4^th, 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

In my previous article, "Pope Francis’s Autobiography, or Why the Pope Shouldn’t Be a Psychoanalyst," I outlined the problem that arises when someone wielding as much authority as the Holy Father bases his assessments of the faithful under his care on personal assumptions about their psychological issues, combined with a tendency to generalize individual observations (not to mention potential imaginations) to a segment of the Church community.

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

[Read PART I here]

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.