Changes in 2020 - Plenary Indulgence Reminders for the first full week in November (November 1st-8th) now available throughout the month - (Enchiridion Indulgentiarum)

Below, you will find our usual post about the plenary indulgences available for the first week in November.

This year, however, the Major Penitentiary has decreed an important change, due to the ongoing pandemic: instead of being limited to November 1st-8th, the faithful can transfer the possibility of achieving indulgences for the faithful departed to any particular day during the whole month of November, for the same total of eight days, but not necessarily contiguous days.

May you have a blessed November praying for your departed kin and friends.

***

Canon Alonso Lobo

Libera me, Domine (Resp. Off. Def.)

__________________

There are several plenary indulgences available for the first week in November [this year, any 8 days throughout the month], beginning on November 1st, All Saints Day. They are the following:

29

For the faithful departed

§ 1. A plenary indulgence, applied exclusively to the souls in Purgatory, is granted to the Christian faithful who:

1° on each single day, from the first to the eighth day in November, devoutly visit a cemetery and, even if only mentally, pray for the faithful departed; [Note: one plenary indulgence for each day, if the usual conditions are met]

2° on the day of Commemoration of All Faithful Departed [November 2] (or, according to the Ordinary, on the preceding or subsequent Sunday, or on the day of the solemnity of All Saints) piously visit a church or oratory and there recite the Pater and the Credo.

(Reference: Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th edition, al. concessiones.)

Cardinal Burke: Statement on the Declarations of Pope Francis Regarding Civil Unions

The worldwide communications media have reported with strong emphasis, as a change of course, the news that Pope Francis has declared that persons in the homosexual condition, as children of God, “have a right to have a family” and that “no one should be thrown out or be made unhappy because of it.” Moreover, they write that he has declared: “What we have to create is a civil union. In this way they will be legally covered. I have defended this.” The declarations were made in an interview with Evgeny Afineevsky, director of a documentary, “Francesco,” premiered on October 21, 2020, on the occasion of the Rome Film Festival (Festa del Film di Roma).

Such declarations generate great bewilderment and cause confusion and error among Catholic faithful, inasmuch as they are contrary to the teaching of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and of the recent Magisterium by which the Church guards, protects and interprets the whole deposit of faith contained in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. They cause wonderment and error regarding the Church’s teaching among people of good will, who sincerely wish to know what the Catholic Church teaches. They impose upon pastors of souls the duty of conscience to make fitting and necessary clarifications.

First of all, the context and the occasion of such declarations make them devoid of any magisterial weight. They are rightly interpreted as simple private opinions of the person who made them. These declarations do not bind, in any manner, the consciences of the faithful who are rather obliged to adhere with religious submission to what Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and the ordinary Magisterium of the Church teach on the matter in question. In particular, the following are to be noted.

Here are Francis' own words on homosexual unions:pic.twitter.com/FNjnPSazpN
— Rorate Caeli (@RorateCaeli) October 21, 2020

In a documentary released this week in Rome, Francis defended in an interview contained therein the legalization of civil unions for same-sex couples.

From the Catholic News Agency:

In a documentary that premiered Wednesday in Rome, Pope Francis called for the passage of civil union laws for same-sex couples, departing from the position of the Vatican’s doctrinal office and the pope’s predecessors on the issue.
The remarks came amid a portion of the documentary that reflected on pastoral care for those who identify as LGBT.
“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it,” Pope Francis said in the film, of his approach to pastoral care.
After those remarks, and in comments likely to spark controversy among Catholics, Pope Francis weighed in directly on the issue of civil unions for same-sex couples.
“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” the pope said. “I stood up for that.”The remarks came amid a portion of the documentary that reflected on pastoral care for those who identify as LGBT. [Source]

For the traditional Catholic view, of constant Apostolic teaching, please read the 2003 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith document on this very matter.

De Mattei: Speak to us of eternal life: a plea to priests

Roberto de Mattei

RadioLiberaRoma

October 20,2020

In a television talk show (Stasera Italia, October 14^th 2020), the progressive sociologist Marco Revelli, alarmed, denounced the climate of collective anxiety sweeping across Italy and the West as a result of the macabre dance of the Coronavirus. “Death is circulating the West”, he said, evoking this specter.

Death, however, has never stopped circulating. People die and continue to die every day in a thousand different ways. Death is one of the few certainties, perhaps the very first one, of our lives. We live, but the life of our body has an inescapable limit.

Modern society has tried to remove the thought of death, which infringes the law of pleasure and the wellbeing of the masses.

Death is the consequence of original sin and modern society denies original sin, it denies every sin, presuming that it’s possible to defeat illness and death.

This presumption is a diabolical dream, since it is inspired by the One who inspired the first sin: the Prince of Darkness: he who continues repeating to men: “You will be like gods” and proposes that they arrive at this objective through science, and in particular, through genetic manipulation.

That's it. We have nothing to add.

Just our most heartfelt congratulations to the Polish Association of Christian Culture for their beautiful campaign (click here) in promotion of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

A Collect Worthy of Royalty

Today, October 16, is the traditional feastday of St. Hedwig, or St. Jadwiga, patroness of Poland. (She died on October 15, 1243, but in the general calendar that day was given to St. Teresa of Jesus.) And what an exemplary Catholic she was, whether as royal consort, wife, mother, widow, or nun! Here is the entry in my old St. Andrew's Daily Missal, showing how beautifully suited to her are the readings of the Common of Holy Women.

Hedwig, of royal birth, and still more illustrious by the innocence of her life, was the daughter of Berthold, Prince of Carinthia, and aunt, on the mother's side, of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Having married Henry, Duke of Poland, she fulfilled her duties as wife in so holy a fashion that the Church compares her to the strong woman, whose portrait is drawn for us by the Holy Ghost in today's Epistle. She had three sons and three daughters. She macerated her body, both by fasting and watching and by the roughness of her clothes; she was very charitable to the poor, whom she herself served at table. She washed and kissed the ulcers of lepers.
To devote herself more to the service of God, she induced her husband to bind himself, by vow, with her, to observe continence. The Duke having died, Hedwig, like the merchant mentioned in the Gospel, gave away all her riches to acquire the precious pearl of eternal life. After praying earnestly, and under divine inspiration, she generously exchanged worldly pomp for the life of the Cross (Collect), entering the Cistercian monastery of Trebnitz, where her daughter was abbess. She died on 15 October 1243, and Poland honours her with special veneration as her patroness.

The Collect for her feast is one more gem from the treasure chest of the traditional Roman rite:

Visit the Garden of Remembrance, click here

***

The 15^th day of October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. What began as an American initiative is now internationally recognized as a day to remember children lost in miscarriage, stillbirth and in infancy.

National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day occurs within Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month which began with a proclamation issued by President Reagan in 1988.

“On October 25, 1988, President Reagan designated the entire month of October 1988 as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. On that day he said:

‘When a child loses his parent, they are called an orphan. When a spouse loses her or his partner, they are called a widow or widower. When parents lose their child, there isn’t a word to describe them. This month recognizes the loss so many parents experience across the United States and around the world. It is also meant to inform and provide resources for parents who have lost children due to miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, stillbirths, birth defects, SIDS, and other causes.

Now, therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of October as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

COLUMBUS IS OURS -- Let us rejoice!

A Happy Columbus Day for All our Readers!

¡Feliz Día de la Hispanidad!

Monastery of Sant Jeroni de la Murtra, near Barcelona,
where the Catholic Monarchs welcomed Columbus back from the Indies in 1493

Now that four centuries have sped since a Ligurian first, under God's guidance, touched shores unknown beyond the Atlantic, the whole world is eager to celebrate the memory of the event, and glorify its author. Nor could a worthier reason be found where through zeal should be kindled. For the exploit is in itself the highest and grandest which any age has ever seen accomplished by man; and he who achieved it, for the greatness of his mind and heart, can be compared to but few in the history of humanity.

Preliminary Note: For decades, traditionalists have suspected or accused Annibale Bugnini of being a Freemason, based essentially on hearsay and circumstantial evidence. The matter remained doubtful to such an extent that the eminent French historian Yves Chiron, himself a traditionalist, was unable to credit the rumor, judging the evidence inadequate and inconclusive. The situation began to change last May when Kevin Symonds presented credible details, courtesy of Fr. Brian Harrison, naming Cardinal Dino Staffa as the one who brought Paul VI the "smoking gun" information on Bugnini, which precipitated the latter's sudden fall from grace.

It is therefore of major significance that more and better evidence — in the form of an interview conducted by Kevin Symonds with Fr. Charles Theodore Murr, author of The Godmother: Mother Pascalina: A Feminine Tour de Force (2017) — has now appeared that independently confirms the same sequence of events. With such confirmatory proofs, it is fair to say that there is no longer any reasonable doubt that the moving force in the Consilium was, indeed, a Freemason.

Op-Ed: All Genuine Roads must lead to the Tradition of the Church

Fr. Richard Cipolla

The New York Times had a lengthy article recently on the “People of Praise”, that immediate post-Vatican II phenomenon that involved mainly lay Catholics, like the parents of Amy Coney Barrett, the nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States, and her family, but which also included priests who became the clerical leaders of this movement (Mrs. Barrett's father was eventually ordained a deacon). This movement was part of what became known as the “charismatic renewal” of the Catholic Church. It was a reaction to both the “pay, pray and obey” mentality of the 1950s, a time when the Mass had become so objectified that it was difficult for the laity to understand the mysterium tremendum that Catholic Tradition insisted was at the heart of the worship of the Catholic Church in the Mass.

In the terrible confusion and void that marked the immediate post-Vatican II period in the Church, it is understandable that families who not only still believed in Christ and the Catholic faith sought out kindred spirits and formed deep bonds of faith within families and small groups. The excesses of these groups, which sometimes contravened the very Catholicity of the Church, should not make us forget their goal of preserving at a familial level a faith that was at once objective and yet subjective, open to personal manifestations of the Spirit to lead them into goodness and truth. And theirs was not only a reaction to the confusion after the Second Vatican Council but also a recognition that the Catholic faith in the United States was being crushed under the American steamroller of individualism and conformism.

Guest op-ed: Lockdowns, months later

During the first few weeks of the COVID lockdowns in the U.S. you may recall an excellent guest op-ed by a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A half year later, with lockdowns -- or at least partial lockdowns -- still in place in many locations, we bring to you a follow-up piece by Father Naugle:

***

Social Justice of Lockdowns, Continued

By the Rev. Fr. John F. Naugle, M.A., S.T.B.

On April 20, my op-ed “The Ends Never Justify the Means: The Immorality of Indefinite Lockdowns" appeared on this web log as an attempt to trigger a much needed discussion about what the Church’s social doctrine has to say regarding the rights of laborers and how the indefinite lockdowns imposed by civil rulers represented an intrinsically evil course of action that could never be justified. It had been my hope that, as a result of this discussion, the Church’s sacred pastors would be roused from hiding in their residences to boldly defend the God-given right to earn bread for one’s family.

The basilica shrine in Washington, DC -- the largest church in North America --
still has a maximum legal capacity of 100 people.

Days and weeks went by. In the meantime, our malefactors in government and the media have implicitly admitted that they have no intention of returning our rights to us. Instead they have instructed us to completely forget our former lives and instead embrace the Orwellian “new normal.” My own governor, Tom Wolf, shockingly denied in federal court the existence of “any fundamental right to earn a living.” As I was beginning to despair that perhaps nobody else was willing to address the sinful economic damage being done to the working class, I came across these words in an interview published in an online magazine: “Yes, I think the lockdown is the worst assault on the working class in half a century, and especially on the urban working class.”

There was only one problem. I was not reading these words in a pastoral letter from a bishop. I was not reading these words in a Catholic journal. I was reading these words from a socialist magazine named in honor of the French Revolution political movement responsible for the Reign of Terror. The thought of socialists being bold enough to oppose what we have become accomplices in through silence and consent immediately turned my mind to God’s terrible judgement.

The Church, in her repeated condemnation of all forms of socialism, has always put forth that it is the Bride of Christ who is actually the lover and defender of the worker and not the socialist revolutionary. Her importance in the simultaneous fight against the evils of the Industrial Revolution on one side and the evils of socialist revolution on the other was cemented by the fact that her shepherds and her sheep were on the picket lines and also exerting their political will to bring worldly power into obedience to social doctrine. Indeed, beginning with Leo XIII, the assertion of a social doctrine was rightly understood to be a reclaiming of a “cross over crown” understanding of the relationship between the Church and the state. The Church has the right and obligation to pronounce moral judgement over nations in defense of the fundamental rights of man as contained in Divine Law. This claim can in no way be written off as belonging a pre-modern set of circumstances. We find it even in Gaudium et Spes: “It is only right, however, that at all times and in all places, the Church should have true freedom to preach the faith, to teach her social doctrine, to exercise her role freely among men, and also to pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public order when the fundamental rights of a person or the salvation of souls require it” (GS 76). As we now are over 200 days into “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” where are the ecclesial condemnations of the lies we have been told? Where are the reproaches of the so-called “experts” whose predictions of doom have made the false prophets of Israel look reliable by comparison? Where are the decrees that our leaders have wickedly imposed restrictions forbidden by Natural Law and therefore the faithful are not obliged to obey them.

For Love of Truth I Will Not Remain Silent

Cardinal Joseph Zen

Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong

I read the speech given by Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State of His Holiness, in Milan on October 3. [Rorate: in that speech, Cardinal Parolin defended the Vatican's attitude and deal, and the confirmation of the deal, with Communist China.] It was sickening! He is in no way stupid or ignorant, he told a series of lies with open eyes.

The most repugnant thing was the insult to the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI by saying that he approved then the agreement signed by the Holy See two years ago, knowing that our sweetest, most gentle Benedict certainly will not come out to deny it. It was also very ridiculous and humiliating for the innocent Cardinal Re being “used” once more to support the falsehoods of the Most Eminent Secretary.

Parolin knows he himself is lying. He knows that I know he is a liar. He knows that I will tell everyone that he is a liar. He is not just shameless but also daring. What will he not dare to do now? I think he is not even afraid of his conscience.

I am afraid he does not even have faith. I had this impression when Parolin, the Secretary of State, in a commemorative speech in honor of Cardinal Casaroli praised his success in establishing the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the Communist countries of Europe, saying that “when you look for bishops, you don’t look for ‘gladiators,’ who systematically oppose the government and who like to show themselves off on the political stage.”

I wrote to him, asking if he intended to describe Cardinal Wyszynski, Cardinal Mindszenty and Cardinal Beran. He replied without denying. He only said that if I was displeased with his speech, he apologized. But one who despises the heroes of faith has no faith!

The History

Let’s see how Parolin summarized the history.

“Why Charismatic Catholics Should Love the Traditional Latin Mass”: Full Text of Dr. Kwasniewski’s Steubenville Lecture

The following lecture was given on September 23, 2020 to members of the student body, faculty, and staff of the Franciscan University of Steubenville at the tent outside the J.C. Williams Center. The visit was co-sponsored by the local Juventutem and Una Voce chapters. The text is reproduced here in full. A video of the talk has been posted at YouTube.

Why Charismatic Catholics Should Love the Traditional Latin Mass

Peter Kwasniewski

My talk today focuses on the traditional Latin Mass; but it goes beyond it. I will also be talking about the hiddenness of the Holy Spirit; the old rite of baptism; the role of the Spirit in our personal devotional life; and more besides. The case I hope to make to you—at least, in the form of a quick sketch—is that the best expression and support of a life lived in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit is traditional Catholic liturgy and all that goes with it.

I would like to begin with a puzzling fact of Church history. Throughout the 2,000 years of Christianity, the Holy Spirit has never been as thematized in theology, spirituality, and liturgy as the Father and the Son have been. Why is that the case?

Fr. John Hunwicke of the Anglican Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham explains that the Christian tradition was first “binitarian” in character prior to being explicitly trinitarian—that is, it focused on the relationship of the Father and the Son, with the Holy Spirit “implied” or “understood” as their common bond, and as the atmosphere, so to speak, within which Christians breathed the life of Christ. He quotes the eminent liturgist Dom Gregory Dix, who says:

De Mattei: Lepanto: October 7th 1571-2020: The Opening of the Jubilee Year

Roberto de Mattei

Lepanto Foundation

October 7, 2020

Heaven and Earth are not as distant as we might think, since everything that happens on Earth is in the continuous sight of Heaven.

In Heaven, which is the place of perfect divine liturgy, some anniversaries are commemorated and among them is the 7^th October 1571, a special day, celebrating the victory of the Christian fleet against Islam at Lepanto.

That victory was a result of the courage of the Christian combatants who braved a ferocious and powerful enemy with the firm determination to win or die. Many died, but the Christian armada attained the victory.

More than in the courage of men, the reason for the victory, however, was in the spiritual strength of the man who created The Christian Holy League and aided it day by day with his prayer: St. Pius V.

As a reward for his faith and trust, the Pope obtained knowledge from Heaven, in Rome, about the victorious outcome of the battle at the precise moment it ended, more than a thousand kilometers away.

Catholics, remember: A Vote for Joe Biden, or enabling the election of Joe Biden, is a Vote for Genocide

Over 62 million babies killed in America since Roe v. Wade.

And what does Fake-Catholic Joe Biden offer as a solution? A complete consolidation of the Roe regime -- and we know his platform also includes the abolition of the Hyde Amendment, allowing for fully public funding of abortions on demand up to birth.

This is the voice of Genocide:

Roe v. Wade must remain the law of the land. pic.twitter.com/1Gq6Ncc2IK
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 6, 2020

Op-Ed: "A Marx-inspired Pope who is setting the Church adrift: Now even the secular press cannot deny the obvious"

Chiesa e Post Concilio

October 5, 2020

[Translated Op-ed]

There is a joke going around: the Chinese are a bit embarrassed about being received in the Vatican because Bergoglio is too much of a Communist. A cliché, indeed, but every cliché reveals a bit of truth and more than a bit here we have a load of it: there must be a reason: if the Argentine Pope has been adopted by the left as the last hope of repainted Marxism; if he refuses to meet Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State; if he shows a disgusted face with Donald Trump, like he did with the former President of hìs own country, Macri; if he sends the Bishop of Hong Kong to the doghouse; if he doesn’t want to see even a painted picture of Matteo Salvini and blatantly humiliates him while having no problem with South American dictators giving him gifts of surreal Crucifixes on hammers and sickles.

Sermon for Our Lady of the Rosary - "The forgetting of history is a dangerous thing."

Sermon for the Solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary

Fr. Richard G. Cipolla

Today we celebrate the external solemnity of the feast of our Lady of the Rosary, whose actual feast day is October 7. We celebrate this feast with joy in honor of that prayer that lies at the very heart of Catholic piety. But this feast has a history, and for Catholics history is very important because of the Incarnation, that God entered human history at a certain time in the person of Jesus Christ. The original title of this feast was Our Lady of Victory. This feast commemorated the victory of the Catholic fleet over the Ottoman Empire at the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571. The goal of the Ottoman Empire, the powerful Muslim Empire, was to conquer Europe and destroy Christianity.

The Pope at that time was the severe and deeply faithful Dominican Pope Pius V. It was he who organized the Catholic opposition to the Ottoman attack. Remember that the Protestant Reformation had already occurred, and the nations which had become Protestant were not interested in supporting an offensive against the Muslim aggression. So the Pope cobbled up a naval fleet made up of Catholic countries and cities who had remained faithful to the Catholic Church.

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.

10th Anniversary of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society

Special Note: Today we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. When I officially launched this new Society back on September 27, 2010, I did so out of sadness and frustration.

I had recently attended the funeral of yet another family member who was robbed of prayers by being canonized a Saint from the pulpit by a terrible priest. And this time I was actually prepared. As a family member and pallbearer I spoke to the priest beforehand, appealed to his desire to help my family member, and asked him not to say she's a saint and to instead beg those attending for prayers. His answer was to eulogize her during Mass and say she's "looking down from Heaven on us" and to rejoice and not be sad. No mention of praying for her soul.

A lot has changed in 10 years for the Society. Ten years ago, I asked our readers to submit names, then we could all just pray for them. Behind the scenes, I was trying to find a priest that I could personally pay every week to say Masses for the list. But before I ever had to do that, priests began emailing me volunteering their time, and their traditional Latin Masses, for the enrolled Souls.

Now today, 10 years later, we have 109 priests saying weekly or at least monthly TLMs for the enrolled Souls -- which now number in the millions!

I want to thank all of you for submitting names. Some of you do it every day, with hundreds or thousands of names on your lists. And I want to urge all of you to take up this spiritual work of mercy. And don't forget you can enroll anyone who died, including non-Catholics, if they were the age of reason when they passed.

And please pray for another 10 years for the Society. So much has changed, and so much will change moving forward. What will not change until our Savior's return is the need to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory. They are called poor because they have no way of getting out of Purgatory on their own. It's up to us. Let's not let them down.

This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. The Society now stands at 109 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls.

** 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.

The Month of October, Month of the Most Holy Rosary

Encyclical Letter

OCTOBRI MENSE

(The month of October)

of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII

At the coming of the month of October, dedicated and consecrated as it is to the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary, we recall with satisfaction the instant exhortations which in preceding years We addressed to you, venerable brethren, desiring, as We did, that the faithful, urged by your authority and by your zeal, should redouble their piety towards the august Mother of God, the mighty helper of Christians, and should pray to her throughout the month, invoking her by that most holy rite of the Rosary which the Church, especially in the passage of difficult times, has ever used for the accomplishment of all desires. This year once again do We publish Our wishes, once again do We encourage you by the same exhortations. We are persuaded to this in love for the Church, whose sufferings, far from mitigating, increase daily in number and in gravity. Universal and well-known are the evils we deplore: war made upon the sacred dogmas which the Church holds and transmits; derision cast upon the integrity of that Christian morality which she has in keeping; enmity declared, with the impudence of audacity and with criminal malice, against the very Christ, as though the Divine work of Redemption itself were to be destroyed from its foundation-that work which, indeed, no adverse power shall ever utterly abolish or destroy.

2. No new events are these in the career of the Church militant. Jesus foretold them to His disciples. That she may teach men the truth and may guide them to eternal salvation, she must enter upon a daily war; and throughout the course of ages she has fought, even to martyrdom, rejoicing and glorifying herself in nothing more than in the occasion of signing her cause with her Founder's blood, the sure and certain pledge of the victory whereof she holds the promise. Nevertheless we must not conceal the profound sadness with which this necessity of constant war afflicts the righteous. It is indeed a cause of great sorrow that so many should be deterred and led astray by error and enmity to God; that so many should be indifferent to all forms of religion, and should finally become estranged from faith; that so many Catholics should be such in name only, and should pay to religion no honour or worship. And still sadder and more beset with anxieties grows the soul at the thought of the fruitful source of most manifold evils existing in the organisation of States that allow no place to the Church, and that oppose her championship of holy virtue. This is truly a terrible manifestation of the just vengeance of God, Who allows blindness of soul to darken upon the nations that forsake Him. These are evils that cry aloud, that cry of themselves with a daily increasing voice. It is absolutely necessary that the Catholic voice should also call to God with unwearied instance, "without ceasing;"(1) that the Faithful should pray not only in their own homes, but in public, gathered together under the sacred roof; that they should beseech urgently the all-foreseeing God to deliver the Church from evil men(2) and to bring back the troubled nations to good sense and reason, by the light and love of Christ.

APOSTOLIC LETTER

SCRIPTURAE SACRAE AFFECTUS

OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS
ON THE SIXTEEN HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE DEATH OF SAINT JEROME

Devotion to sacred Scripture, a “living and tender love” for the written word of God: this is the legacy that Saint Jerome bequeathed to the Church by his life and labours. Now, on the sixteen hundredth anniversary of his death, those words taken from the opening prayer of his liturgical Memorial[1] give us an essential insight into this outstanding figure in the Church’s history and his immense love for Christ. That “living and tender love” flowed, like a great river feeding countless streams, into his tireless activity as a scholar, translator and exegete. Jerome’s profound knowledge of the Scriptures, his zeal for making their teaching known, his skill as an interpreter of texts, his ardent and at times impetuous defence of Christian truth, his asceticism and harsh eremitical discipline, his expertise as a generous and sensitive spiritual guide – all these make him, sixteen centuries after his death, a figure of enduring relevance for us, the Christians of the twenty-first century.

Introduction

On 30 September 420, Saint Jerome died in Bethlehem, in the community that he had founded near the grotto of the Nativity. He thus entrusted himself to the Lord whom he had always sought and known in the Scriptures, the same Lord whom, as a Judge, he had already encountered in a feverish dream, possibly during the Lenten season of 375. That dream proved to be a decisive turning point in his life, an occasion of conversion and change in outlook. He saw himself dragged before the Judge. As he himself recalled: “Questioned about my state, I responded that I was a Christian. But the Judge retorted: ‘You lie! You are a Ciceronian, not a Christian’”.[2] Jerome had loved from his youth the limpid beauty of the Latin classics, whereas the writings of the Bible had initially struck him as uncouth and ungrammatical, too harsh for his refined literary taste.

Lady and Child - Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Lady Chapel)
University of Notre Dame, Indiana

The next Supreme Court Justice -- or so we hope, once the U.S. Senate approves her name, which was known since yesterday, but that was officially announced by President Trump minutes ago.

Believing Catholics and other conservative Christians are rightly joyful with the prospect of a Judge who not only has expressed conservative feelings about how the Constitution and the laws should be interpreted, but also seems to live a life of Catholicity, without the shame secularists wish to impose on believers.

The fact that the Democratic candidate for President is a nominal Catholic -- whose platform includes all things that are antithetical to how our Holy Faith sees men, women, children, family, life, and death --makes clear the great chasm that exists in contemporary Catholicism: some authentic Catholics and many phony Catholics who promote lies and death.

Join us in prayer for the health and safety of Judge Barrett and her family, and may the Immaculate Conception protect the United States of America.

Op-Ed: Science not a Threat to Faith

by Fr. Paul Robinson

In the first months of 2015, I started what turned out to be the most difficult thing I had ever done, namely write a book (The Realist Guide to Religion and Science, Gracewing, 2018). Anyone who starts such a project knows that they have to have a strong motivation to do so. In my case, I wanted to set the record straight on the Church’s teaching on science in relation to the Bible. I could see that what I was taught as a seminarian and what I was teaching as a seminary professor somehow was not being passed on to the faithful. The book ended up having a much broader scope than originally intended, but it still very much included the originally intended corrective.

Why is the corrective needed? Because many faithful, on the one hand, make a strictly literal interpretation of Genesis 1 into a matter of faith and so, on the other hand, hold that the Big Bang Theory and Darwinian evolution are, of themselves, against the faith. For them, the authentic Catholic reading of Genesis 1 is that the universe was created in a full formed state 6000 years ago.

But this is simply not the case, and making that interpretation into a dogma creates theological, philosophical, and scientific difficulties, as I have explained elsewhere. What I would like to consider in this article is, firstly, the authentic teaching of the Church; secondly, why some Catholics are little inclined to accept that teaching; and finally, why their fear to accept it is groundless.

The authentic teaching of the Church

Event: "Pro Deo et Patria" Public Procession & Rosary Rally, Missouri State Capitol, Saturday, October 10

The Extraordinary Form Mass Community in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, USA, invites Catholics to come together for a procession and Rosary on Saturday, October 10th, at 10:00am at the Missouri State Capitol. Details in the poster.

SCANDAL - Giovanni Angelo Becciu, 70 years old -- sacked from the Congregation of Causes of Saints and expelled from Cardinalate ("resigned from the rights attached to the Cardinalate “)

It was January 6, 2014, and in the boiling waters of the "gay lobby crisis" at the beginning of the Francis pontificate, one of his strongmen, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said, "Basta!" (Enough!) -- as we reported at the time (The Vatican "Gay Lobby" - former Swiss Guard chief confirms existence of secret homosexual network in the Vatican - Vatican stonewalls)

Years later, increasing financial scandals involving the name of Becciu came out.

***

Here we are, almost 7 years later, and an extraordinary edition of the Bollettino of the Holy See comes out with the explosive news: Becciù has "resigned" from his position as prefect, and, more than that, has resigned to "all the rights attached to the Cardinalate."*

It's astonishing, and no explanation has been given so far.

Now, it's our time as faithful to say, "Enough! What's going on???"

***

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has been at the forefront of accusations regarding the financial scandals in the Vatican. We await what he has to say.

*Rinunce e nomine (continuazione), 24.09.2020

[B0482]

Oggi, giovedì 24 settembre, il Santo Padre ha accettato la rinuncia dalla carica di Prefetto della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi e dai diritti connessi al Cardinalato, presentata da Sua Eminenza il Cardinale Giovanni Angelo Becciu.

2020 Has Been a Tough Year Worldwide -- Time for Worldwide Sacrifice: Ember Week in September

The equinox is come and gone: in the Northern Hemisphere, the colors of fall are arriving, as the signs of reborn life in the Southern Hemisphere spring.

The Roman Church will once again remind us of the cycle of the seasons in this Ember Week in September.

Since 2020 has been a particularly difficult year for all of us worldwide, we re-post, for those who are not aware of it, this article first posted by us in 2008, and reposted often since.

May you all have a fruitful week of sacrifice!

___________________________________________________________

THE GLOW
OF THE EMBER DAYS

By Michael P. Foley

A potential danger of traditionalism is the stubborn defense of something about which one knows little. I once asked a priest who had just finished beautifully celebrating an Ember Saturday Mass about the meaning of the Ember days. He replied (with an impish twinkle in his eye) that he hadn’t a clue, but he was furious they had been suppressed.

Traditionalists, however, are not entirely to blame for their unfamiliarity with this important part of their patrimony. Most only have the privilege of assisting at a Sunday Tridentine Mass, and hence the Ember days—which occur on a weekday or Saturday—slip by unnoticed. And long before the opening session of the Second Vatican Council, the popularity of these observances had atrophied.

So why care about them now? To answer this question, we must first determine what they are.

The Four Seasons

The Ember days, which fall on a Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the same week, occur in conjunction with the four natural seasons of the year. Autumn brings the September Embertide, also called the Michaelmas Embertide because of their proximity to the Feast of St. Michael on September 29.¹ Winter, on the other hand, brings the December Embertide during the third week of Advent, and spring brings the Lenten Embertide after the first Sunday of Lent. Finally, summer heralds the Whitsun Embertide, which takes place within the Octave of Pentecost.

In the 1962 Missal the Ember days are ranked as ferias of the second class, weekdays of special importance that even supersede certain saints’ feasts. Each day has its own proper Mass, all of which are quite old. One proof of their antiquity is that they are one of the few days in the Gregorian rite (as the ’62 Missal is now being called) which has as many as five lessons from the Old Testament in addition to the Epistle reading, an ancient arrangement indeed.

Fasting and partial abstinence during the Ember days were also enjoined on the faithful from time immemorial until the 1960s. It is the association of fasting and penance with the Embertides that led some to think that their peculiar name has something to do with smoldering ash, or embers. But the English name is probably derived from their Latin title, the Quatuor Tempora or “Four Seasons.”²

Support the FSSP in Mexico City

An appeal from the quite new apostolate of the Fraternity of St Peter in Mexico City. They have been given the use of an historic church, but they need help purchasing a Presbytery.

If you want to contribute to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) in the acquisition of this House so that they can continue their work in favor of the Catholic Church and the souls, you can make your donation:

Please, direct your donations though the FSSP own website at Mission Tradition.

Thank you and may God bless you!

"A pope would be schismatic... 'if he if he were to change all the liturgical rites of the Church that have been upheld by apostolic tradition'." (Francisco Suárez / Klaus Gamber)

Only four years had passed since the publication of the new Missal when Pope Paul VI surprised the Catholic world with a new Ordo Missæ, dated April 6, 1969. The revision made in 1965 did not touch the traditional liturgical rite. In accordance with the mandate of Article 50 of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, it had been primarily concerned with removing some later additions to the Order of the Mass. The publication of the Ordo Missæ of 1969, however, created a new liturgical rite. In other words, the traditional liturgical rite had not simply been revised as the Council had intended. Rather, it had been completely abolished, and a couple of years later, the traditional liturgical rite was, in fact, forbidden. All this leads to the question: Does such a radical reform follow the tradition of the Church?

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

Letter

SAMARITANUS BONUS

on the care of persons in the critical and terminal phases of life

Introduction

The Good Samaritan who goes out of his way to aid an injured man (cf. Lk 10:30-37) signifies Jesus Christ who encounters man in need of salvation and cares for his wounds and suffering with “the oil of consolation and the wine of hope”.^[1] He is the physician of souls and bodies, “the faithful witness” (Rev 3:14) of the divine salvific presence in the world. How to make this message concrete today? How to translate it into a readiness to accompany a suffering person in the terminal stages of life in this world, and to offer this assistance in a way that respects and promotes the intrinsic human dignity of persons who are ill, their vocation to holiness, and thus the highest worth of their existence?

The remarkable progressive development of biomedical technologies has exponentially enlarged the clinical proficiency of diagnostic medicine in patient care and treatment. The Church regards scientific research and technology with hope, seeing in them promising opportunities to serve the integral good of life and the dignity of every human being.^[2] Nonetheless, advances in medical technology, though precious, cannot in themselves define the proper meaning and value of human life. In fact, every technical advance in healthcare calls for growth in moral discernment^[3] to avoid an unbalanced and dehumanizing use of the technologies especially in the critical or terminal stages of human life.

Moreover, the organizational management and sophistication, as well as the complexity of contemporary healthcare delivery, can reduce to a purely technical and impersonal relationship the bond of trust between physician and patient. This danger arises particularly where governments have enacted legislation to legalize forms of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia among the most vulnerable of the sick and infirm. The ethical and legal boundaries that protect the self-determination of the sick person are transgressed by such legislation, and, to a worrying degree, the value of human life during times of illness, the meaning of suffering, and the significance of the interval preceding death are eclipsed. Pain and death do not constitute the ultimate measures of the human dignity that is proper to every person by the very fact that they are “human beings”.

In the face of challenges that affect the very way we think about medicine, the significance of the care of the sick, and our social responsibility toward the most vulnerable, the present letter seeks to enlighten pastors and the faithful regarding their questions and uncertainties about medical care, and their spiritual and pastoral obligations to the sick in the critical and terminal stages of life. All are called to give witness at the side of the sick person and to become a “healing community” in order to actualize concretely the desire of Jesus that, beginning with the most weak and vulnerable, all may be one flesh.^[4] It is widely recognized that a moral and practical clarification regarding care of these persons is needed. In this sensitive area comprising the most delicate and decisive stages of a person’s life, a “unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary.”^[5]

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Paragon of Justice -- Catholic Bishop

From the Bishop of Lexington, Kentucky:

I join the nation in mourning the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg on this Rosh Hashanah. Let us carry on her passionate commitment to the words of Deuteronomy: "Justice, justice you shall pursue." https://t.co/8tpNyxYmAP
— Bishop John Stowe (@BpStowe) September 19, 2020

The late Justice Ginsburg's own words:

Q: If you were a lawyer again, what would you want to accomplish as a future feminist legal agenda?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that had changed their abortion laws before Roe [to make abortion legal] are not going to change back. So we have a policy that affects only poor women, and it can never be otherwise, and I don’t know why this hasn’t been said more often.

Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?