You Report: Card. Burke and the rise of tradition in Slovakia

Note: The following report is from a reader, however we can report ourselves that we hear tradition, and the Mass, are rising in Slovakia. Be sure to look at all of the amazing photos in the link and a video of the full Mass below. 

CLICK HERE for more wonderful photos.

From a reader:

Card. Burke visited Trnava, a city in Western Slovakia, between November 15 and 18, 2019 during the famous Trnava novena in honor of a miraculous image of Our Lady venerated in the Basilica of St. Nicholas. The picture wept blood in 1663 when Trnava was threatened by the Turks, and again in

1710 when Our Lady saved the city from the plague.

New edition of the FIUV magazine

Readers of Rorate Caeli may not even know that there is such a thing as Una Voce International, the FIUV (Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce), let alone that it has a magazine.

But a new edition is available as a pdf download, and is worth a look, with news and photographs from literally all over the world. It can be downloaded here.

Anyone can join the mailing list for receipt of Gregorius Magnus: sign up here  to receive mailings like this one.

With best wishes for Advent and Christmas!

Appeal! Please Help a Group of Traditional Monks in France acquire their permanent Home

Readers may know of the Monastère Saint-Benoît, a small Benedictine monastery in Provence in the South East of France in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon founded in 2011, of traditional, classic monastic observance which celebrates the older forms of the Roman and monastic rites – including, with permission, the pre-1955 Holy Week rites. Later this month Bishop Rey will confer the minor orders of Exorcist and Acolyte on one on the junior monks in formation.

The monastery is an international English-speaking community and with a good number of vocation enquiries from young men around the world and is the home of the Sacra Liturgia initiatives. In recent years its annual liturgical summer school has welcomed Cardinal Burke, Bishop Schnieder, Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, etc. As its latest newsletter details, Cardinal Sarah visited the monastery for a weekend last September and celebrated a beautiful pontifical Mass according to the traditional rites.

Pontifical High Mass with Cardinal Burke and Christkindlmarkt in La Crosse, December 14-15

We are very pleased to announce two very special things happening on this upcoming weekend at the magnificent Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin:

Back in Print: Cardinal Billot’s Liberalism: A Critique of Its Basic Principles and Its Various Forms in a Newly Revised Translation

Exciting news from our friends at Arouca Press!

This new edition of Billot's classic work on liberalism features an introduction and a newly revised translation by Thomas Storck. It also includes a foreword by Fr. Thomas Crean, OP.

You Suggest: Rorate Mass in Philadelphia

Fontgombault Sermon for the Immaculate Conception: "Rorate cæli desuper" in our Troubled Times!

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Antoine Forgeot

Abbot Emeritus of Our Lady of Fontgombault

(Fontgombault, December 8, 2019)

Deus caritas est.

God is love.

(1 Jn 4:8)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Dearly beloved Sons of the absent Abbot,

From the outset, wrote the pious and learned Cardinal Journet, God has loved the human race “with a mad love, to the point that He wanted to give Himself to us in the heavenly vision” (1). We know how this plan was thwarted, yet not fully destroyed, by the sin of our first parents, a sin the scars of which we are still bearing. The redeeming Incarnation of the Word of God, the second Person in the Holy Trinity, is the greatest manifestation of the love of God for us men:

For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son: […] that the world may be saved by Him. (Jn 3:16-17)

The whole history of the chosen people is marked by an expectation for the salvation that God had, in His mercy, foretold. He had even, in a mysterious way, involved in this salvation “the woman”, who was none other than She whose Immaculate Conception we are celebrating today, Mary, the All-Holy Mother of God.

Marco Tosatti: Does Pope Francis think that his Pontificate is about to come to an end?

December 8, 2019

The appointment of Tagle as Prefect for Propaganda Fide is an important signal for many reasons. But most of all because it gives grounds to suppose that Pope Bergoglio believes the end of his pontificate is nigh. An intuition, obviously; nonetheless, justifiable, if you consider another decision  taken - for no apparent reason - some weeks ago. 

We are referring here to  the end of Fabiàn Pedacchio’s service as special Secretary to the Pontiff over the last six years; a position commenced shortly after the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio on March 13, 2013. Fabián Pedacchio, all this time, has maintained his position in the Congregation for Bishops,  acting in support of his very close friend, Ilson de Jesùs Montanari, appointed by Pope Francis as Secretary of that same Congregation, resulting in an absolutely extraordinary leap in career; he divested de facto the Prefect, Marc Ouellet, by being, repeatedly, the leading voice in the choosing of bishops. 

The Immaculate Conception

“Some people are so foolish they think they can go through life without the help  of the Blessed Virgin. ” St. Padre Pio

Immaculate Conception, Sunday

The feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is this Sunday, 8 December 2019.  Of course, the feast is observed on the actual feast day using the 1962 missal, unlike the novus ordo (which transfers the day to Monday with no obligation to attend, even in the U.S. -- patronal feast day be darned).

When this feast last occurred on a Sunday -- in 2013 -- we wrote about it here.  The two important points to make are: 1) there is zero wiggle room to transfer the feast from Sunday to Monday using the 1962 missal; and 2) a commemoration must be made for the Second Sunday of Advent, even at High Masses.

On the first point, both the Immaculate Conception and the 2nd Sunday of Advent are first class feasts on the 1962 calendar.  As NLM has noted, this was not always the case.  The 2nd Sunday of Advent was second class until 1955 reforms promoted it to first class.  The rubrics of 1960, which govern the 1962 missal, explicitly broke the first class tie between the Immaculate Conception and the Second Sunday of Advent:  

Dominica I classis, in occurrentia, festis quibuslibet præfertur. Festum tamen Immaculatæ Conceptionis B. Mariæ Virg. præfertur occurrenti dominicæ Adventus.

Sunday I class takes precedence over all feasts in occurrence.  The feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, however, takes precedence over the Sunday of Advent on which it falls.

New SoundCloud Page for Audio of Dr Kwasniewski’s Lectures and Interviews

For a number of years, readers have been asking me to make available video and audio files of my lectures and interviews. This is indeed something I have wanted to do, but there are two limitations: one is my technological ineptitude, and the other is the need for planning in advance to have recordings made at events, which doesn’t always happen. 

Nevertheless, over the past couple of years a good many such recordings have in fact been made, and I finally created a dedicated SoundCloud page on to which most of them have now been uploaded (and more will be added). Below I have listed the content currently available. I encourage you to explore and to recommend the site to others who appreciate audio content. All files are freely downloadable.

Papa Stronsay Calendar for 2020 Now Available! - Support the Great Project of Papa Stronsay

The Papa Stronsay Calendar for 2020, produced by the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, can now be purchased from their website.HERE.

From their website:

As always, our Calendar is jam-packed full of all kinds of Liturgical, religious and secular information, that will leave you wondering how you ever managed without it! There is really no other Extraordinary Form liturgical wall-calendar like it.
It features a photo from the life of the Congregation for each month.

On Sheen Beatification, it's Good to Err on the Side of Caution

In 2018, following the tragic report of abuses by Catholic priests in Pennsylvania (our post on that report: "The Pennsylvania Truth: John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II were no saints"), the Office of the Attorney-General of the State of New York launched its own thorough investigation of what may have taken place in the state's dioceses. The Diocese of Rochester was subpoenaed in September 2018. Fulton Sheen was the local ordinary in the most critical period of the crisis in America, the second half of the 1960s. His beatification, planned for Peoria on December 21, was postponed sine die a couple of days ago.

Breaking News: Optional commemoration of seven new Saints addded to "Extraordinary Form" Calendar?

Our  usually well-informed friends at Messa in Latino have just posted the information that their highly placed sources in the Vatican have informed them that, "in early January," a document of the Congregation for Divine Worship will be published making known a list of seven saints whose optional commemoration would be added to the Universal Calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal (the "Extraordinary Form" of the Roman Rite).

De Mattei: Who was the worst Pope in the history of the Church?

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

December 4, 2019

Who was the worst Pope in the history of the Church? Many maintain that it was Alexander VI, a Pope excessively criticized. According to St. Robert Bellarmine it was John XII (937-964), whom he defines “omnium pontificum fere deterrimus”, “practically the worst of all pontiffs” (De Romano Pontifice, l. II, cap. XIX, in De controversiis christianae fidei, Apud Societatem Minimam, Venetii 1599, p. 689).

Alberic II of the Counts of Tusculum (the Roman princeps from 932 to 954) some days before dying, asked to be taken to St. Peter’s and on the Apostle’s tomb, in the presence of Pope Agapetus, had the Roman nobles swear, that at the death of the Pope in office, they would elect to the Papal Throne, his son, to whom he had given the auspicious name of Octavian. When the Pope died, in December 955, Octavian was elected under the name of John XII, even if he hadn’t reached the canonical age to become pope, being only eighteen years old. According to an unanimous description of the sources, the young Pope was a dissolute pontiff, who didn’t interrupt his life of reckless abandon in unbridled pleasures, even with his election to the Papal Throne.

Video of Ordinations at Clear Creek Abbey (a Fontgombault foundation)

Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey, in Oklahoma, is the only Fontgombault foundation outside of France. Fontgombault, as our readers know well, is a monastery at the heart of Rorate's love for the Church.

On Sunday, November 17, 2019, Bishop David Konderla, of the Diocese of Tulsa, ordained two monks of the Abbey, one into the diaconate and one into the priesthood, in a Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

The happy occasion was recorded in this video:

Reply to Rusty Reno Part 2: the TLM and Community

Conclusion of the Latin Mass Society's walking pilgrimage to Walsingham,
at the site of the Holy House in the ruins of Walsingham Priory.

As I have noted in the pair to this article, Rusty Reno, Editor of First Things, has declared, in a long editorial, his measured appreciation of the Traditional Latin Mass. In my other article on this I challenged his assertion, against the TLM, that it fails to convey the content of the Gospel to the Faithful. In this article I want to address another claim on his part. He writes:

Its more horizontal orientation encourages a sense of Christian community, as the liturgical reformers intended. The reduced emphasis on ritual precision shifts attention to the central gospel truths announced in the readings and reiterated in a liturgy readily heard in the language of the people. All these elements enrich the ­Catholic Church.

On the other hand, Reno also says this:

Reply to Rusty Reno: Part 1: the TLM and Catechesis

Latin Mass Society pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bedford, England

(Edit: part 2 of this two-part series is here.)

The Editor of the online journal First Things, has taken to attending the Traditional Latin Mass. In the final part of a long editorial, he explains what he sees as the pros and cons of the two forms of Mass. The article is interesting and perceptive, but I would like to take up a couple of his observations, with which I disagree—while agreeing with much else. These are the things he says about the capacity of each form to convey the message of the gospel, which I will deal with in this article, and their potential to act as centers of community, which deserves separate treatment.

On the first issue Reno says, of the older form:

Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent

From the Gospel:  “Men fainting for fear and for the expectations of the things that are coming on the world.  For the powers of heaven will be shaken.”  (Luke 21:26)

What do Catholic people think when they hear these words of our Lord on this first Sunday in Advent?  “Signs in the sun and moon and stars, distress of nations.”  Some might think about Black Friday, a day that looms large in our consciousness at this time of year, which may, if we think about it, may signal the end of our civilization and the ushering in the of the end times.  But perhaps there are those who are more pious and think about the frequent natural disasters like hurricanes and tornados and tsunamis that kill hundreds if not thousands of people.  But also violent human conflicts like the rioting in the streets of Hong Kong and Iraq.  Or the violent and seemingly unending mass murders in schools, in shopping malls, at concerts, and other public places where one assumes safety. All this gives pious folk some pause and wonder whether these words of Jesus may have some relevance to us at this time.  But just a small pause, for most of us were not brought up on the presence of the Dies Irae that was sung at every funeral for well over a thousand years. We have become unfamiliar with the very thought of the end of all things and the Second Coming.  And so we have become complacent and spiritually lazy, and if we have any slight queasiness about what is to come, it is only about our own death. But that queasiness is easily dispelled by a dose of the “everyone goes-to-heaven” pill dispensed by Father Feelgood.

Reminder: Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society

This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. Last month, we gained another wonderful priest for the ranks, and the Society now stands at 97 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls. Come on Fathers, let's get this to 100!

** Click here to download a "fillable" PDF Mass Card in English to give to the loved ones of the Souls you enroll (you send these to the family and/or friends of the dead, not to us). It's free for anyone to use. CLICK HERE to download in Latin and CLICK HERE to download in Spanish. 

Priests: The Souls still need more of you saying Mass for them! Please email me to offer your services. There's nothing special involved -- all you need to do is offer a weekly or monthly TLM with the intention: "For the repose of the Souls enrolled in the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society." And we will always keep you completely anonymous unless you request otherwise. 

How to enroll souls: please email me at athanasiuscatholic@yahoo.com and submit as follows: "Name, State, Country." If you want to enroll entire families, simply write in the email: "The Jones family, Ohio, USA". Individual names are preferred. Be greedy -- send in as many as you wish and forward this posting to friends as well.

NY Daily News Op-Ed -Pining for the Latin Mass: Reflecting on major changes to the Catholic liturgy, 50 years later

By our own contributor Kenneth Wolfe:

Pining for the Latin Mass: Reflecting on major changes to the Catholic liturgy, 50 years later

By KENNETH J. WOLFE

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

NOV 30, 2019 | 5:00 AM

Fifty years ago this weekend, the Catholic Church debuted a new version of Mass following reforms made by the 1960s’ Second Vatican Council. From the use of vernacular language instead of Latin, to the priest facing the people instead of the tabernacle, the changes became mandatory at all parishes on the First Sunday of Advent 1969.

On the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Novus Ordo: Dr. Kwasniewski’s Lecture “Beyond ‘Smells and Bells’: Why We Need the Objective Content of the Usus Antiquior”

In his Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum (April 3, 1969), Pope Paul VI specified that the Novus Ordo Missae would go into effect on the First Sunday of Advent that year — November 30, exactly fifty years ago. In my recent Minneapolis lecture, written with an eye to this important anniversary, I argue that the Novus Ordo Missae constitutes a rupture with fundamental elements of all liturgies of apostolic derivation, and that, as a consequence, it violates the Church’s solemn obligation to receive, cherish, guard, and pass on the fruits of liturgical development. Since this development is, in fact, a major way in which the Holy Spirit leads the Church “into the fullness of truth” over the ages, as Christ promised, so great a “sin against the Holy Spirit” cannot fail to have enormous negative consequences, as indeed the past five decades have verified. Nor is it possible to bridge the abyss between old and new by applying cosmetics or the drapery of elegant clothing, because the problem is on the order of a genetic mutation, or damage to internal organs. The profound and permanent solution is to maintain continuity with the living liturgical tradition found in the usus antiquior.

The full text of the lecture, with notes, is given below; the recording of the talk may be found either on YouTube or at SoundCloud.

Beyond “Smells and Bells”:  Why We Need the Objective Content of the Usus Antiquior

Peter A. Kwasniewski

Minneapolis, Minnesota

November 13, 2019

Vatican Publishing House releases Ordo for the Traditional Missal - 2020

The Ordo divini offici recitandi sacrique peragendi for the year 2020 (Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite), prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has been published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

This Ordo, composed entirely in Latin, includes, as all documents of this type, the indication of the Divine Office to be chanted or recited and of the Mass to be celebrated on each day of the year.

This Ordo starts on the First Sunday of Advent 2019.* The calendar of the feasts of the Temporal and of the Sanctoral rigorously follows the one in use in 1962.

[Image: Messa in latino blog]

De Mattei: Our Dead: a legion of souls sustaining us in the battle

Roberto de Mattei 

Corrispondenza Romana

November 27, 2019

As the years go by, the number of those we have known and who have left this earthly life before us increases. What will their eternal destiny be? Only God knows the ultimate destiny of souls, but it is sure that a great number of those who died in a state of grace suffer the pains of Purgatory, in anticipation of the definitive glory of Heaven. These souls are part of the Church Suffering which, together with the Church Militant and Triumphant, form the one Church of Christ. Indeed, as St. Augustine says, “Tota enim in Christo Ecclesia unum corpus est” (Enarr. In Ps,  148, PL, 51, 423): “the entire Church forms one body in Christ”.

The Mystical Body of Christ is the foundation of the Communion of Saints comprised of three churches: The Militant, The Suffering and The Triumphant, formed respectively by those fighting on earth, those being purified in Purgatory and those triumphant in Heaven. This Civitas Dei battles against the civitas diabuli, which has no purgatory, but is formed only of the damned and those militant on earth in the armies of  Satan against the armies of Christ.

Chilean Conference of Bishops Sides with Marxist Protesters

The situation in Chile is very dramatic and, once again, the Church is on the wrong side, as this article from The New American indicates.

Chile's Conference of Bishops have echoed the calls of protesters for a new Chilean constitution as protesters ransack, loot, burn, and desecrate Catholic churches throughout the country.

This past month Chileans have seen their country ravaged by a small minority of revolutionaries, supported by the media, United Nations, and foreign international powers. Their aim is to destroy the legal system of the country and establish a communist tyranny similar to that of Venezuela and Cuba.

The protesters have an apparent affinity for fire, as they have burned down subway stations; supermarkets; small town markets and shops; commercial malls; government offices, such as the civil register for births, marriages, divorces and deaths; and they have set a couple of female police officers on fire.

Even the Catholic Church has not been spared from these acts of arson. Protesters have ransacked churches, removing pews and other works of art only to burn them in a pile outside. They have even gone as far as setting fire to the once-beautiful Iglesia de la Vera Cruz (Church of the True Cross) in Santiago, where an actual splinter from the original cross on which Christ was crucified is venerated. Fortunately, the splinter was saved from the flames.

Miraculous Medal: Are You Wearing Yours? #RueduBac

November 27 - Day of the apparition of the Miraculous Medal to St. Catherine Labouré (Rue du Bac, Paris) pic.twitter.com/PcxLOCuKoR

— Rorate Caeli (@RorateCaeli) November 27, 2016

Along with the Brown Scapular, another significant item Catholics should wear is the Miraculous Medal. From the Catholic encyclopedia:

"The devotion commonly known as that of the Miraculous Medal owes its origin to Zoe Labouré, a member of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, known in religion as Sister Catherine [Note: She was subsequently canonized], to whom the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared three separate times in the year 1830, at the mother-house of the community at Paris. The first of these apparitions occurred 18 July, the second 27 November, and the third a short time later."

Op-ed: "Is the Married Permanent Diaconate a Trojan Horse to attack the sacred priesthood?"

Rev. Deacon Nick Donnelly

Rorate Contributor

The Pan-Amazonian synod has realised the fears of certain Fathers of the Second Vatican Council that the creation of the married permanent diaconate would undermine and eventually abolish the sacred Tradition of priestly celibacy in the Latin Church. The Final Document of the Amazonian synod proposes that permanent deacons are ordained priests:

“…we propose to establish criteria and dispositions on the part of the competent authority, in the framework of Lumen Gentium 26, to ordain as priests men who are apt for it and who are recognized by the community, who are fruitful permanent deacons and who receive an adequate formation for the priesthood, even if they have a legitimately constituted and stable family…With regard to this, some wished that the topic be addressed in a universal way.”(Final Document, 111.)

Angelico Press Launches Catholic Traditionalist Classics with Fr Bryan Houghton’s Mitre and Crook

Fr Bryan Houghton (1911-1992)

It is with great joy that I share an important development in the world of publishing: the launch of a new series by Angelico Press, Catholic Traditionalist Classics, that will bring back into print — for the benefit especially of younger readers born after the apocalypse — many fine works from the early years of the traditional movement that have become difficult or impossible to acquire. The series is inaugurated, appropriately enough, with a towering classic: Fr. Bryan Houghton’s deliciously witty novel Mitre and Crook of 1979.

When the publisher asked me for an endorsement, I wrote (without any back-cover hyperbole) that I had read Mitre and Crook on a lark years ago and instantly fell in love. Bryan Houghton was the Robert Hugh Benson of the postconciliar crisis. He brilliantly portrays a bishop, Edmund Forester, who with equal parts cleverness and courage orchestrates a complete restoration of Catholic tradition in his backwater diocese. The novel is written in the form of letters from Bishop Forester to his presbyterate and to various allies and enemies, local and abroad; the epistolary narration is suspenseful and gripping. Along the way we are treated to a scorching portrait of the souls of reformists, unbelievably narrow in mind and oblivious to spiritual realities. 

Event: Traditional Latin Mass Conferences This Weekend in Houston (November 23-24) [UPDATE]

For our readers in the greater Houston, Texas area: The schedule for the day-long liturgical conference this Saturday at Prince of Peace Catholic Community in Houston, Texas, has been modified. See below for more details.

The topic and schedule for Sunday's event at Regina Caeli remain the same.

The example of Madame Elisabeth of France: "Adorable Heart of Jesus, in recognition of Your infinite charity, I give you my heart."

Prayer of Madame Elisabeth of France at the Temple prison:

I do not know what will happen to me today, o my God. All I know is that nothing will happen to me but what You have foreseen from Eternity. That is sufficient, o my God, to keep me in peace. I adore Your infinite designs. I submit to them with all of my heart. I desire them all: I accept them all. I make the sacrifice to You of everything. I unite this sacrifice to that of your dear Son my Savior, begging You by His Sacred Heart and by His infinite merits for the patience in my troubles and the perfect submission which is due to You in all that You wish and permit. Amen.

Prayer of Madame Elisabeth of France to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, sent to Madame de Raigecourt:

Adorable Heart of Jesus, in recognition of Your infinite charity, I give you my heart, and, with it, all that I have in this world, all that I am, all that I will do, all that I will suffer. But, finally, my God, I pray you, may this heart not be unworthy of you; make it like unto yours, surround it with your thorns, closing it to all wrong affections; establish Your Cross within it; may it feel its price, may it savor its delights; fill it with Your Divine flames.

Approved prayer to ask for the intercession of the Servant of God Elisabeth of France:

Date, celebrant announced for next D.C. basilica shrine pontifical Mass

What better way to celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary than a pontifical high Mass in the great upper church of the basilica shrine in Washington, DC?

This will be the fourth (2010, 2018, 2019, 2020) traditional Latin pontifical Mass since Summorum Pontificum in the largest church in North America.

Mark your calendar now, tell your family and friends, and plan your summer vacation around this one.

Reviving Religious Life in Britain – and Across the West (Guest Article by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP)

Whitby Abbey

Article by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, first published in  Dowry Magazine No43: For the benefit of our readers outside Great-Britain, the assessment and remedies offered in this article apply outside of Britain; indeed throughout our formerly Christian Western countries.

Introduction

Better is one day in Thy courts above thousands. How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.’ This Introit (at the beginning of the Mass on the 14^th Sunday after Pentecost) expresses the desire of our souls to spend our lives closer to God, actually to dwell in God’s house, as an anticipation of the blessed dwelling promised to us in God’s celestial courts if we die in His grace.

This is why some Catholics will come to church every day. They do well. Even outside of Holy Mass, they will enter a Catholic church daily and pray to God truly present there. Other Catholics want more. They want more than simply observing God’s commandments. They choose to embrace God’s counsels as well. They want to spend their entire lives in close proximity to where God dwells. They withdraw from the secular world and organise their lives together as religious communities. Their lives focus on prayer, religious study, penance and works of charity.

They want to give God every possible space in their hearts, in their days and nights. To that end, they renounce earthly possessions through the vow of poverty. They give up the goods of marriage and family bonds through the vow of chastity. Lastly, through the vow of obedience, they offer up to God their own will as a beautiful sacrifice to follow the will of God in all things through the legitimate will of their superiors.

Such is the religious state. It is a blessing for those called to it. But it is also a blessing for those who witness it. Why is it so?

The religious state is a blessing for all, because it sets a higher standard of perfection. It encourages all in the world to aspire to a closer union with God while on earth, so as to enjoy it forever in heaven. Since our human nature is fallen we constantly lean towards the easier options, to the peril of our souls. This soon leads us to venial sins and ultimately to mortal sins. On the contrary, the presence of religious men and women near us demonstrates to us that one can be blessedly fulfilled in poverty, chastity and obedience. Religious life manifests spiritual freedom on our doorstep. And we all crave spiritual freedom. Contemplative religious also pray for their fellow-Catholics in the world and welcome visitors in their retreat centres, providing much-needed havens of silence and prayer. Apostolic religious contribute actively to evangelisation as mobile and flexible missionaries who can be deployed at short notice to serve the needs of a given parish or diocese.

Contra Recentia Sacrilegia: Protest against Pope Francis's sacrilegious acts

Protest against Pope Francis’s sacrilegious acts

We the undersigned Catholic clergy and lay scholars protest against and condemn the sacrilegious and superstitious acts committed by Pope Francis, the Successor of Peter, in connection with the recent Amazon Synod held in Rome.
These sacrilegious acts are the following:

 - On October 4, Pope Francis attended an act of idolatrous worship of the pagan goddess Pachamama.

   -  He allowed this worship to take place in the Vatican Gardens, thus desecrating the vicinity of the graves of the martyrs and of the church of the Apostle Peter.

    -   He participated in this act of idolatrous worship by blessing a wooden image of Pachamama.

   -  On October 7, the idol of Pachamama was placed in front of the main altar at St. Peter’s and then carried in procession to the Synod Hall. Pope Francis said prayers in a ceremony involving this image and then joined in this procession.

  - When wooden images of this pagan deity were removed from the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, where they had been sacrilegiously placed, and thrown into the Tiber by Catholics outraged by this profanation of the church, Pope Francis, on October 25, apologized for their removal and another wooden image of Pachamama was returned to the church.  Thus, a new profanation was initiated.

  - On October 27, in the closing Mass for the synod, he accepted a bowl used in the idolatrous worship of Pachamama and placed it on the altar.

Blessing of the First American Foundation of the Sisters Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus

At this time in the life of the Church, we can all use a strong dose of good news now and again.

Last week, on November 1, the bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin, His Excellency William P. Callahan, came to Wausau to bless the new Convent of the Nativity of Our Lady, the first foundation in the New World of the Sisters Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus, the female branch of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. The convent is located just a few blocks from St. Mary’s Oratory, the church operated by the Institute in the diocese. 

Present for the occasion were the Institute’s Prior General Msgr. Gilles Wach and the Provincial Superior of the USA, Canon Matthew Talarico, as well as the two canons assigned to the Oratory: Canon Aaron Huberfeld and Canon Heitor Matheus. 

On the next morning, November 1, Canon Tallarico offered the first Mass in their chapel. Later that day there was a Solemn High Mass with choir and chamber orchestra at St. Mary’s Oratory for the feast, followed by a gala reception for the sisters and parishioners. 

Many beautiful photos from these events may be found at St. Mary’s Facebook page or at their website; here we share a sample. Let us give thanks to God for all the great work being done by the Institute and ask His abundant blessings on this new foundation!

UPDATE: The Sisters Adorers need to raise funds for the clothing needs of their growing order in Europe: they have 8 new postulants and are expecting 10 more to arrive later this year. I’m sure many who rejoice in the news of this new foundation in America will be happy to assist the Sisters in this regard! Donations may be made directly to the Sisters (here).

Will “defrocked” priests now be able to remain in the Diocese and collaborate with it, as if nothing ever happened ?

By Luigi

Messa in Latino Blog

November 7, 2019

Pope Francis greets a defrocked Bergamo priest now married

On September 27, Aleteia  published an article* entitled “When nuns and priests ‘hang up their robes’: the reasons for some innovations to a ‘Rescript’”, announcing some new instructions by the Holy See, regarding priests and religious who leave the clerical state and are dispensed from their vows. The article is by Giovanni Marcotullio, unhappily known for having justified the pagan rites of the Pachamama (see here).**

For the time being, this is about a Pontifical Rescript ‘only’, mediated by the Congregation for the Clergy for one single case, but if true, it would be really insane:

“[…] If in the past the priest who left the ministry was not allowed even to continue being in contact with his parish, it is now being asked that he assist in the carrying out of “useful services” for the community. In particular, no. 5 of the Rescript reads as follows: “The ecclesiastical Authority will endeavor to make it possible for the dispensed cleric to carry out useful services for the Christian community, by placing his God-given gifts and talents at its service.” (no.5).

Furthermore, no.6 adds that “the dispensed cleric be welcomed by the ecclesial community in which he resides, to continue his journey, faithful to the duties of his baptismal vocation”. (no.6). Thus, the root of the previous reference to the priest’s “exile” is done away with. It reads as follows: “the priest dispensed from celibacy and even more so the priest who has married, must stay away from the place or territory where his previous status is known” (no.5f). The obligation prescribed by the previous Rescript of imposing a penance on the dispensed priest is also totally done away with, as it presupposed that he had committed a sin and violated his duties.  Regarding this the new Rescript established: “Some  act of charity or piety will be set for the person concerned”. Moreover, if the priest asking for the dispensation wanted to marry (something common in most of the cases), the previous Rescript prescribed that “the ordinary must lend the greatest care whereby the celebration is conducted with discretion, with no pomp or fanfare.” (no.4). That is to say, hiding the priest’s sacrament of marriage from the community. [To show that] receiving such a sacrament were, in this case and only this one, a disgrace, or worse still, a scandal to the faithful. Now, instead, it says that the marriage be celebrated “respecting the sensibility of the faithful of the place” (no.4). 

"Gay marriage" celebrated by priest in Catholic church in Austria

This is the priest: Michael Kopp, of the diocese of Gurk, that covers the entire state of Carinthia, Austria.

He is responsible for the "Family pastoral office" of the diocese, and recently celebrated a "marriage" or "blessing" of a union between two women, in the church of Saint Margaret, in Wolfsberg, in his diocese.

You Suggest: Solemn High Requiem Mass in San Francisco

Twenty-Eighth Annual Summer Symposium of the Roman Forum on Lake Garda

The annual Roman Forum on the shores of Lake Garda in Northern Italy is one of the most important institutions in Catholic traditionalism. The chairman, Dr. John Rao, has sent us the following information about this year's symposium. We urge our readers to consider attending the symposium and the lectures. We also urge our readers to consider giving a tax-deductible donation to support the attendance at the symposium of a speaker, a member of the clergy, a seminarian, or a student. Send all applications, deposit,  payments, and donations for the Summer Symposium either through the PayPal link on the Roman Forum Website or directly to: Dr. John C. Rao, The Roman Forum, 11 Carmine Street, # 2C, New York, NY 10014. 

The Roman Forum

www.romanforum.org

drjcrao@aol.com

                              

Twenty-Eighth Annual Summer Symposium

Gardone Riviera, Italy (July 6^th - July 17^th, 2020; 11 nights)

The Traditionalist Movement: Its Origins, Ramifications, Divisions, & Enemies

Several generations emerging from traditionalist backgrounds have come to maturity since the end of the Council and the introduction of the Novus ordo missae. At the same time, a growing number of believers from the “mainstream” Catholic world have also rediscovered the importance of the traditional liturgy. But many of those from both groups are unaware of the roots of the Traditionalist Movement and the sacrifices of its original leaders and shock troops in their heroic struggles to defend the Faith. Even some of those who are active participants in the Movement often fail to perceive its immense ramifications in the realms of theology, philosophy, political, social, and cultural life, the nature of the debates that divide its component parts, and the character and extent of the opposition it faces: all of which hinders its efficacy in recapturing the full heritage of the Mystical Body of Christ. This year’s Summer Symposium will seek to fill that gap, examining the history and current state of the Traditionalist Movement globally.

Media attention on FSSP's U.S. growth

The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter recently posted a summary of its impressive growth around the United States.

This weekend a D.C.-based media outlet, the Washington Examiner, published a news article amplifying these statistics.

The successes of the FSSP and its ability to work well with bishops and dioceses begs the question: Why aren't more archbishops inviting the FSSP and other traditional societies of priests into their archdioceses?  Washington, D.C. (where 29 of DC's 38 city parishes do not have a parochial vicar)?  New York?  Boston?  Perhaps after reading this they may!

Traditional Catholic parishes grow even as US Catholicism declines
by Jeffrey Cimmino


Traditional Catholic parishes run by one society of priests are growing in the United States, defying the trend of decline in the broader American church over previous decades.

Over the past year, parishes run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a society of priests dedicated to celebrating the traditional Latin form of the Catholic liturgy, have reported large increases in Sunday Mass attendance. The traditional liturgy that draws attendees is the form of the Mass celebrated before the reforms instituted at the Second Vatican Council, a meeting of the church’s bishops in the 1960s.

In Los Angeles, the fraternity did not have their own church until 2018, but Mass attendance over the past year doubled from 250 per Sunday to 500. The parish’s pastor, Fr. James Fryar, commented for the fraternity’s website that, after his parish added a fourth Mass on Sunday, “another 200 people came.”

The Naples, Florida, parish has been around for less than two years, but close to 400 people attend every Sunday, an increase of 20% from 2018. The pastor, Fr. James Romanoski, told the Washington Examiner the parish has been “averaging a new household — sometimes a family, sometimes an individual — every week” for over a year.

Upcoming Events with Dom Alcuin Reid and Peter Kwasniewski in Houston, TX

Prince of Peace Catholic Community in Houston, Texas, is hosting Dom Alcuin Reid, OSB, and Dr. Peter Kwasniewski for a Liturgical Conference on Saturday, November 23. Dr. Kwasniewski will also be speaking on Sunday, November 24, at the FSSP parish Regina Caeli.

The schedule for Saturday’s event, “An Encounter with the Latin Mass: Exploring Tradition,” is as follows:

9 am – Dom Alcuin Reid, “Praying the Sacred Liturgy”            

10:30 – Dom Alcuin Reid, “Treasures Old and New: Enriching Parish Liturgy Today” (with Q&A)

12 pm – Sung High Mass: Pope St. Clement I

1 pm – Lunch for participants

2 pm – Peter Kwasniewski, “Why the Return of the Latin Mass is Good News”

3 pm – Peter Kwasniewski, “What We Can Learn from Tradition about Active Participation” (with Q&A)

(4:45 – Break for dinner or parish Mass)

6 pm – Panel discussion with Dom Alcuin Reid and Peter Kwasniewski

7 pm – Blessing and Conclusion

The conference will take place at:

Prince of Peace Catholic Community

St Andrew Discipleship Center

19222 Tomball Pkwy

Houston, TX 77070