URGENT - URGENT - Growing Rumors of a “Final Solution” for the Traditional Latin Mass - TLM

("Unconditional Tradition": parade against restrictions to the TLM,
in Quimper, Brittany, France, on Sunday, June 16, 2024)

Dear readers,

Once again, as at least twice in the past (before the crackdown on the Franciscans of the Immaculate, and in the twelve months leading up to Traditionis Custodes), Rorate Caeli is sad to be the first bearer of grave, heavy, and persistent rumors coming from the circles close to Cardinal Roche and to the liturgical warriors close to Casa Santa Marta in Rome.

The “Whore Funeral” in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral: The Inevitable End Game of Vatican II and the Ideological Novus Ordo Rite

Mr. Gentili, born in Argentina (where else?) in 1972,
was celebrated as a "puta"(whore) and "travesti" (transvestite),
and also as a haloed "blessed" "mother" in a
funeral novus ordo service held this week
in Saint Patrick's Cathedral, New York

 Perhaps no accusation against the rite of the Latin Church for over 17 centuries (the naturally developing Traditional Latin Mass), in its various local and order-specific rites and uses, is more ridiculous than that it is “ideological”, or that the people who attend it are “ideologically motivated”.

No, they are just people who want to worship Almighty God as He had been worshiped in the West basically since Mass started being celebrated in Latin. They are the very opposite of ideological: they are humble enough to want to be part of a very long line of Catholics.

The committee-created pseudo-liturgical concoction known as the “New Order of the Mass”: now THAT is something else, something clearly motivated by a man-centered ideology, falsified history, and a myriad of modernist causes. 

And it reached its inevitable end game in the most symbolic Catholic building in what still is the most powerful country in the world, the city that is the headquarters of the very United Nations whose existence filled with a false hope for a “better future” the conciliar fathers of Vatican II.

In the Cathedral of this “capital city of the modern world”, the venerable Saint Patrick’s on Fifth Avenue, the epitome of Vatican II and the Novus Ordo: the Whore Service ("Funeral de las Putas"). The New York Times had a good summary of the event:

Roberto de Mattei: “Quo usque tandem?” For How Much Longer, Francis, Will You Abuse Our Patience? - The Dicastery for the Faith Blesses Sin Against Nature

Quo usque tandem? Doctrine of Faith dicastery "blesses" sin against nature

Roberto de Mattei

December 20, 2023​

The Declaration Fiducia supplicans on the pastoral meaning of blessings issued on December 18, 2023 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith marks one of the lowest points of Pope Francis' pontificate. Indeed, this document, contradicting Church doctrine, approves and in fact promotes the "blessing" of "couples" living in an intrinsically immoral situation, with a special focus on homosexual couples. 

To understand the origins of what happened, one must go back to the early 1970s, when, on the wave of the 1968 Revolution, but also of the post-conciliar "new morality," forms of "openness" to homosexual relationships began to spread in the Church. According to traditional doctrine, the sexual act is in itself, by its very nature, ordered to procreation and is good only if it takes place within marriage, without being diverted from its purpose. Instead, for the new theologians, the sexual act is always good because it constitutes the most intimate and intense moment of human love, regardless of whether or not it is ordered to procreation, whether or not it takes place within marriage, and whether or not it involves men and women of different or of the same sex.

"Where Does the [Synod] Road Lead?" - Francis and the Church's Alignment with the UN Agenda 2030 -- by Abp. Héctor Agüer

 Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

Buenos Aires, September 21, 2023

Synod is the exact translation of the Greek noun synodos. It is interesting to collect the elements from which the word is formed: syn, as an adverb means "whole, all together, at the same time", and as a preposition it can be translated "with, by means of". The noun synodos, indicates gathering, assembly, and also fellow traveler. The syn is composed with hodos, "way, route, guide" (it is feminine in Greek); from there it is also formed méthodos, method. Historically, in Christian antiquity the synod was called the convocation, and the meeting of the bishops, according to the ecclesiastical provinces, each presided over by the Metropolitan; which meet in assembly to deal with matters of utmost importance, define doctrines, and condemn and refute heresies, warning of the heterogeneity of those errors, in contradiction with respect to the didache, whose foundation is found in the apostolic beginnings. Two main features to keep in mind: the protagonists are always bishops, successors of the Apostles of Jesus, and the duration is determined in time, it does not extend excessively.

The name synod has remained to signify only those designated meetings, that is, an exclusively theological, ecclesiastical use. The history of the Church offers numerous testimonies of the interchange between synod and council, a name that comes from Latin, as we shall see below.

Francis names pro-abortion atheist as member of Pontifical Academy for Life

 A nightmare that has no end: that is the sick pontificate through which we are suffering. 

The Pontifical Academy for Life was one of the very few positive post-conciliar creations. Unsurprisingly, it was born of the mind of Dr. Jerôme Lejeune, one of the greatest pro-life heroes, who suggested it to John Paul II and was named its first president.

Since the advent of Francis, the new Pontifical Academy for Life has become a hotbed of dissent from Catholic moral teaching: from contraception to homosexuality to abortion, and other doctrinal issues, there is no matter on which it has not caused scandal under the leadership of Abp. Vincenzo Paglia.

Its newest members were named by Francis yesterday, among them a radical leftist economist, an Italian living in the U.S. named Mariana Mazzucato. Mazzucato is an avowed atheist:

A RORATE CÆLI Editorial: The Attack of Hatred and Vengeance Against the Latin Mass Should be Ignored

As confident as we were in our sources forecasting today as the day of reckoning for Summorum Pontificum and the traditional Latin Mass as we know it, in the back of our minds we had hoped it was merely an unfounded rumor.  After all, Pope Benedict XVI is not only alive, but fully cognizant, dressed in a white cassock while living in the Vatican gardens.  To that end, would a sitting pope be so arrogant as to publicly humiliate the 94 year old pope emeritus?

Alas, the answer is yes.  Jorge Mario Bergoglio is without a doubt the most arrogant pope in the history of the Catholic Church.  From day one, if not before, it has always been about him -- whatever the subject.  Labeled "humble" by the mainstream media due to token stunts such as carrying a bag and wearing polyester vestments, Bergoglio is in reality a man of vengeance.  A pope of vengeance.  An angry bitter Jesuit settling scores through vengeance.

What ought traditional Catholics to do in response to the latest attack on the Mass and all those who love tradition?  Simply put:  ignore it.  Ignore its message.  Ignore its motivation caused by pure hatred and vengeance. Keep calm and keep on going as if it does not even exist.

URGENT: Pope tells Italian Bishops he plans to abolish the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (Updated)

Update (May 26): Rorate's additional sources in Rome have confirmed this Wednesday that Francis has indeed a text on Summorum Pontificum lined up, which has been developed for months, but what is not known at this point is if the text is just about a more limited take on the Summorum application questionnaire (first revealed by us in the spring of 2020) or about an overhaul of Summorum Pontificum in general: drafts could be dealing with both matters. It is also not impossible for a text to come out of calculated ambiguity, in the general denial/non-denial terms favored by this pontificate.

 ***

An urgent news item by our friends at Messa in Latino, the Pope spoke on the matter yesterday to the Italian bishops during the portion of the Italian Conference of Bishops' meeting in which the assembly was closed to the media:

It is, for the moment, still fragmentary news, coming from our multiple sources within the CEI [Italian Conference of Bishops] and bishops, but it seems that yesterday (May 24, 2021) the Pope, addressing the Italian bishops at the opening of the annual assembly of the CEI ( and in a subsequent meeting with a group of them), announced the imminent reform for the worse of the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.

 

...

From what is known, it would be a return to the indult -- with a prior authorization of the bishop [as under the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei], or of the Vatican -- with all that it entails, that is, a reintroduction of the prohibition of the celebration according to the Missal of St John XXIII, so many denials of authorizations, and the ghettoization, in practice, of the priests and faithful attached to the old rite. After Moses, the Liberator, Pharaoh returns. [Source]

Francis' motu proprio "Antiquum Ministerium", instituting the "ministry of Catechist"

APOSTOLIC LETTER

ISSUED "MOTU PROPRIO"
BY THE SUPREME PONTIFF

FRANCIS

"ANTIQUUM MINISTERIUM"

INSTITUTING
THE MINISTRY OF CATECHIST

 

1. The ministry of Catechist in the Church is an ancient one. Theologians commonly hold that the first examples are already present in the writings of the New Testament. The service of catechesis may be traced back to those “teachers” mentioned by the Apostle in writing to the community of Corinth: “Some people God has designated in the Church to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then, mighty deeds; then, gifts of healing, assistance, administration, and varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way” (1 Cor 12:28-31).

Earthquake: Francis decrees women can occupy the former Minor Orders of Lector and Acolyte | Update: Full Text of Motu Proprio

Swedish Lutheran female "bishops"

[UPDATE: Full English text of the motu proprio at the end of the post.] 

Of course, for us Traditional Catholics, the Minor Orders never ceased to exist. And for good reason: the  last major dogmatic Council, Trent, mentions all seven orders explicitly in the Canons and decrees related to Session XXIII 

But after Vatican II, the new elites severed the minor orders (Acolyte, Exorcist, Lector, and Porter) and one of the Major Orders (the Subdiaconate) from the Diaconate and Presbyterate. They became mere functions that could be performed by laymen, though demanded (the functions of Acolyte and Lector) from those who aspired to the Diaconate.

The limitation of these venerable positions, that have always been held by men since Apostolic times (since they are intimately joined to the cursus honorum of the Priesthood), to men was broken today by a motu proprio of Francis opening them to "lay people"-- that is, including women.

The Motu Proprio is available here (in Italian and Spanish); Francis' letter explaining it is available here (in Italian). A summary of the motu proprio and the letter sent by Francis to the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith provided by Vatican News:

With a Motu proprio released on Monday, Pope Francis established that from now on the ministries of Lector and Acolyte are to be open to women, in a stable and institutionalized form through a specific mandate.

The new encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" is basically an ode to Fraternity, in the French revolutionary concept of the word (Updated: Full text of the Encyclical)

 

Liberté - Égalité - Fraternité : Hall of the Grand Lodge of France (GODF), Paris

The Spanish text of the newest papal encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, which will be released in a couple of hours, was leaked by Spanish website Infovaticana.

The main point of the text, a long text, 123-pages long, we can now reveal, is its inspiration by the Abu Dhabi document (the "Statement on Human Fraternity"), which itself established an institution of flabbergasting name: The Higher Committee for Human Fraternity.

It's all based on the notion of "Fraternity" inspired by the French Revolution. Whether this is good or bad, we'll let you decide for yourself.

UPDATE: Sunday, Oct. 4 - Full text of Fratelli Tutti in English.

An Empty Apostolic Square: The Wolf Came, the Sheep Scattered

It was impossible for us not to think of the empty squares, churches, chapels today with the words of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on this Good Shepherd Sunday.

The governmental wolves ordered churches closed, as if they were not essential. The bishops (the "shepherds" in name only) fled, and the sheep scattered and left the field.

O tempora!...

At that time Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth: and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep. [From the Gospel for the Second Sunday After Easter.]

For the Church, it is the End of an Age:

In the Covid-19 crisis, Pope Francis has forgone the transcendental approach of his predecessors: for the Church, it is the End of an Age: it has de facto abandoned its relationship with the Divinity

Domenico Cacòpardo

ItaliaOggi

April 8, 2020

Among the many things archived by the Corona virus, there is one which is rather dramatic, but possibly temporary: it is the Catholic Church.  The resulting impression is that it will have difficulty in recovering from this shock. I write this as an unbeliever, though for family reasons, I have been a frequenter of  priests, friars and the Vatican.  

Apostolic Exhortation “Querida Amazonia” — full text Full Text of the papal document following the Amazon Synod

Notes: Regarding the priesthood and the Eucharist, we call your attention in particular to Paragraphs 82-98.

No opening whatsoever was made for the ordination of married men/viri probati to the Priesthood. On the contrary, in the spirit of making clear clericalism is not central, there is an emphasis on the lay ministry as "distinctively lay" (cf. paragraph 94).

The paragraphs on women (99-103) also do not have any revolutionary content.

Paragraphs 104-105 make clear that the path forward should not be an either/or, but solutions beyond conflicts of the past.

One particular good point is the one of Paragraph 18, with extensive historical references in footnote 17,  making clear the permanent solicitude of the Church, through various pontificates, and since the earliest days of Christian presence in the New World, for the welfare of the indigenous peoples. Specific reference is made even to the Laws of the Indies (Leyes de las Indias), promulgated by the Spanish Crown with specific protections for the indigenous populations. The 1909 text of one of the first bishops of Amazonas (Manaus), Brazil, Frederico Benicio, named by Saint Pius X to that extensive territory, is expressly quoted.

Despite all problems (the downsides are numerous), we can rightly say that this is the best possible document we could have hoped for in the current pontificate and in the current age. It is not the best document (that would be impossible in the current moment in time), but it is, in a Leibnizian way, the best possible text...

Full text below:

The Papal slap

A lot of people have weighed in on Pope Francis repeatedly slapping the hand of a pilgrim in St Peter’s Square. Reactions have not divided simply along ideological lines. Austin Ruse suggested, on Twitter, that Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II would have reacted even more fiercely to a pilgrim grabbing their hands and not letting go. I was undecided myself at first. The pilgrim’s action did seem a little aggressive. On the other hand, there she is, in the video, a rather small Chinese lady, making a sign of the cross to steel herself to take the hand of the much larger Pope, surrounded by body guards. From what one can see of the timing of the incident, the Pope reacts as he does not to the surprise of the physical aspect of the gesture, but to what she is saying. She is saying something about Hong Kong…

De Mattei: But does the Pope believe in Jesus Christ the Man-God?

Roberto de Mattei 

Radio Roma Libera.org

October 13, 2019

We cannot remain silent about this unbelievable episode, which many of you are certainly aware of. The following: 

Eugenio Scalfari, former director of La Repubblica published an article last Tuesday in which he writes: “Those who have had the fortune of meeting and conversing with him in utmost cultural confidence, the way I have several times, know that Pope Francis conceives the Christ as Jesus of Nazareth,  man, not God incarnate. Once incarnated, Jesus ceases to be God and becomes man until His death on the cross.” 

So a very well-known journalist asserts in one of the most widely-read Italian newspapers that Pope Francis does not believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ. If this was true, Pope Francis would be a formal heretic, like the Arians, the Ebionites and the Socinians. 

Feast of the Divine Maternity — or of Papa Roncalli?

Today, October 11, is a perfect illustration of the basic problem of the Catholic Church in the 20th century.

In 1931, Pope Pius XI instituted on October 11 the feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the Council of Ephesus, which had bestowed on her the glorious title Theotokos or God-bearing-One. This feast was placed on October 11. Thus, it’s not an ancient feastday (as neither was Christ the King, instituted by the same Pius), but fits into that slow and loving process of amplification by which the traditional liturgy has been enriched over twenty centuries with ever-new facets of devotion.

Pope John XXIII comes along and decides to open the Second Vatican Council on October 11, precisely because it was the feast of the Divine Motherhood of Our Lady.

Fast-forward to after the Council: Bugnini’s Consilium decides to abolish the feast and to conflate it with January 1st, which had been the Octave of Christmas and the Circumcision of Christ, but which would now be styled “the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God.” Lots of busy scissors and paste...

And then along comes Pope Francis, who canonizes John XXIII and declares that October 11 will be HIS feastday.

So, hey presto!, October 11 has shifted from honoring the deepest mystery of the Virgin Mary — her being the Theotokos — to honoring Vatican II’s architect as elevated by the Council’s mutant progeny, Jorge Bergoglio. As Ratzinger said in a different context, we now celebrate ourselves and our achievements rather than the mightiest works of God.

This is the kind of thing I had in mind when I maintained that the modern Church is characterized by a Nietzschean “transvaluation of all values.”

It also seems a haunting coincidence (but there are no coincidences under Divine Providence) that Pope Francis has been reported this week by Scalfari to have denied the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, making Bergoglio a sort of Nestorian (at best), with Our Lady being demoted to Christotokos, Christ-bearer, as she is for Protestants who refuse her the august title “Mother of God.” Neither the Pope nor the Vatican is willing to confront Scalfari for egregious lies or misrepresentations or amnesia; instead, the the usual non-denial denial has been issued.  Unlike his predecessor Pius XI, who cared enough about the dogmatic formulation of Ephesus to institute a feast in commemoration of its principal definition, the current Pope said two days ago, in a homily painfully reminiscent of the anti-theological mentality of the 1970s: “Do I love God or dogmatic formulations?”

The silver lining on this otherwise dark cloud is that, in spite of everything that has transpired, despite all the wickedness in high places, October 11 continues to this day to be celebrated as the feast of the Divine Maternity, in all communities and parishes that avail themselves of the traditional Missale Romanum. The feast has not perished; it has merely been eclipsed, and it will return in splendor to illuminate the Church after this night of self-celebration has passed.

Amazonic Notes # 1 - Francis Reaches a New Ridiculous Low: Pagan Rituals on Vatican Hill

Pagan fertility ritual in the Vatican gardens

Nearly two thousand years ago, Saint Peter,the first bishop of Rome, was martyred on Vatican Hill, across the Tiber from the historical center of the City. The great shrine and Basilica dedicated to the Prince of the Apostles rose on top of it as Catholics were freed from oppression, and gradually, over the course of the centuries, as the main papal places of worship and administration faded away, in the Lateran and the Quirinal, the buildings surrounding the Vatican basilica became more and more prominent, until, with the unification of Italy and the Lateran treaties, the Vatican became the absolute center of the administrative and spiritual power of the Catholic Church.

It seems absolutely providential and appropriate, because it was not at all obvious that the blood of Saint Peter, first Vicar of Christ, would end up at the very center of Catholicity.

The blood of Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and uncounted Catholic martyrs of Rome, many of whom we remember daily in the Canon of the Mass, was spilled by pagans and in defense of paganism. Nothing could be further from the lesson of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles than the worship of idols. Quite the opposite: from Germany to the Baltic, from Canada to the Amazon, from Africa to the Philippines, Catholic missionaries worked, suffered, and died to end the worship of pagan idols: "the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God."

2-Ton "Woke" Addition to Saint Peter's Square: Saint Migrants and Saint Virtue-Signalling

Piazza San Pietro -- Saint Peter's Square: one of the architectural jewels of mankind, the centerpiece of baroque Rome, and one of the masterpieces of the long and productive life of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

While there have been significant changes outside and leading to the square (done by the Italian state after the Lateran agreements), the magnificent square itself has been left virtually unchanged since Bernini added the second fountain in 1675 to make the whole space perfectly symmetrical. Not even the upheavals that followed the unfortunate Second Vatican Council were enough for the post-conciliar popes to feel entitled to make changes to this central spot of Catholicism and Romanitas. On the square itself, many temporary structures are often added for events or security, but only two images were to be found on the ground, in the space in front of the basilica: the patron saints of the City, Saints Peter and Paul.

That is, until today:

The significance of Cardinal Brandmüller's latest condemnation of the Amazon Synod: "A situation never before seen in the Church's history"

By now (6th September 2019), many media outlets (among them Catholic Herald and Catholic News Agency) have reported on the latest broadside against the upcoming Amazon Synod (and its Instrumentum Laboris) by Cardinals Raymond Burke and Walter 

This is not the first time that either Cardinal has denounced this horrid document. What is new is Brandmüller's declaration that the current crisis surpasses even the Arian Crisis in severity: 

"'We must face serious challenges to the integrity of the Deposit of the Faith, the sacramental and hierarchical structure of the Church and its Apostolic Tradition. With all this has been created a situation never before seen in the Church’s history, not even during the Arian crisis of the fourth and fifth century,' Brandmüller added.

Francis in his own words: There was no 'multiplication' of loaves: it was just 'sharing'.

In his own words:

Surprisingly, the account of the multiplication of the loaves does not mention the multiplication itself. On the contrary, the words that stand out are: “break”, “give” and “distribute” (cf. Lk 9:16). In effect, the emphasis is not on the multiplication but the act of sharing. This is important. Jesus does not perform a magic trick; he does not change five loaves into five thousand and then to announce: “There! Distribute them!” No. Jesus first prays, then blesses the five loaves and begins to break them, trusting in the Father. And those five loaves never run out. This is no magic trick; it is an act of trust in God and his providence.

Francis

Homily on Corpus Christi

Rome, June 23, 2019

On the other hand: