RORATE CÆLI: November 2015

For the record: Vatican CDW head corrects Pope Francis on Communion for non-Catholics

Although we didn't even report on the matter of Pope Francis recently telling a Protestant she should ask Jesus whether she should receive Holy Communion with no intention of converting (forgive us, there's just too much of this nonsense to cover on a daily basis), Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has now corrected Francis, and forcefully.

N.B.: While positive, please don't think that this has repercussions beyond setting the public record straight, and stopping the further (daily?) confusion and scandal of the Faithful. Communion for adulterers may just as well move forward, but God willing, Cardinal Sarah will only make his voice louder in opposition to the sacrilege of placing Christ on the tongues of the divorced and remarried.

From LifeSiteNews:

The Vatican’s cardinal in charge of liturgy and the sacraments has strongly defended the Church’s tradition on reception of Communion in the wake of Pope Francis’ comments to a Lutheran woman suggesting she could choose in conscience to receive.

"A person cannot decide if he is able to receive Communion. He has to have the rule of the Church."

Speaking with Aleteia reporter Diane Montagna, Cardinal Robert Sarah said, “Intercommunion is not permitted between Catholics and non-Catholics. You must confess the Catholic Faith. A non-Catholic cannot receive Communion. That is very, very clear. It’s not a matter of following your conscience.”

Saint-Denis

Anyone who has followed the news in France recently has surely heard of Saint-Denis, the Paris suburb called "gritty" by even mainstream media. Located a few miles north of Paris, it is a predominantly Moslem neighborhood that houses terrorists, raided by French police on 18 November following this month's terrorist attacks there.

What people may not know is the rich history in the town, anchored by the magnificent Basilique royale de Saint-Denis. It was such a prominent place that the anti-Catholic leaders of the French Revolution renamed it Franciade (reversed by Napoléon Bonaparte).

The church was completed in 1144, which makes it the first Gothic church in the world. The other distinction for the church is that it houses the remains of nearly every monarch in the history of France, including all but three kings. It is named for the first bishop of Paris, who, having been martyred, is said to have carried his head to the site where the church was built.

When this writer visited Paris in April of this year, my wife and I asked our hotel concierge for advice on visiting Saint-Denis. His stern response was not to go there. When pressed, knowing we really wanted to visit the church, he advised us to go in the morning, exit the Paris Métro Line 13 stop near (and named for) the church and to get into the sacred space as quickly as possible.

The Basilique royale de Saint-Denis is a stunning place to visit (even if it is practically a museum in post-Christian France). The Republic (which owns all of the churches) is currently in the midst of a major restoration there.

It was quite the intimidating site, to be honest, in the short distance between the Basilique de Saint-Denis stop and the church itself, but well worth it. Here are some photos we took:

Interview - SSPX Superior-General Bp. Bernard Fellay: "As a result of the Pope’s act, during the Holy Year, we will have ordinary jurisdiction."

The Superior-General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Bp. Bernard Fellay, granted an interview with many important answers (and signs...), which was released this Monday. The interview is an official one, that is, made by the Society's own news agency DICI, and was released as part of the latest "Letter to Friends and Benefactors".

***

On September 1^st, Pope Francis, on his own initiative, decided to allow all the faithful to make confessions to priests of the Society of St. Pius X during the Holy Year. How do you interpret this gesture? What does it mean for the Society?

We were in fact surprised by this action of the Holy Father on the occasion of the Holy Year because we, like everyone else, learned about it through the press. How do we understand this gesture? Allow me to make use of an image. When a fire is raging, everyone understands that those who have the means to do so must endeavor to put it out, especially if there is a shortage of firefighters. So it is that through all fifty years of this terrible crisis that has shaken the Church, particularly the tragic lack of confessors, our priests have devoted themselves to the souls of penitents, invoking the case of emergency foreseen by the Code of Canon Law.

As a result of the Pope’s act, during the Holy Year, we will have ordinary jurisdiction.

Marble bas relief by Joseph Kiselewski, 1950

On November 30, 1215, this day 800 years ago, the Fourth Lateran Council was formally closed by Pope Innocent III, who had opened it on November 11, and stood strongly behind its provisions. On this day seventy decrees were approved for the restoration of sound doctrine, the strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline, and peace in the civil order. It is a fascinating exercise to return to the decrees of this ecumenical council, therefore a council of the highest order of authority, and see what it has to say to us today.

The Confession of Faith with which the acts of the Council begin is one of the most exquisite documents of the Church’s Magisterium:

The First Sunday of Advent: "God alone can be our ideal, our goal"

On this First Sunday of Advent, let us join our prayers to those of all our forefathers in the Latin rites of the Church who have gone before us, praying in the Introit of the Mass: "To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul."

Sermon for the End of the Church's Year: "Jesus left the Temple" (Mt. 24:1)

Rorate is pleased to offer to our readers a marvelous homily preached by a traditional Catholic priest last Sunday.

Destruction of the Temple by Francesco Hayez

Last Sunday after Pentecost

22 November 2015

This Sunday, indeed throughout the season of Advent (which begins next Sunday), the Church would have us ponder the Coming of the Lord Jesus in Judgment. In the past couple of weeks, the liturgy has already touched upon this Coming of Christ. Recall the parable of the wheat and the tares from two weeks ago: these will grow together, but only “until the harvest”. At that time, the reapers will be told to “gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned”, and then to gather the wheat into the barn of their master. When the disciples of the Lord ask Him the meaning of this parable, He tells them: “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

How many wall calendars does a Traditional Catholic family need? I would say, at least four...

The splendid Fraternity of St Peter Wall Calendar has already been advertised on this blog here; allow me to draw to readers attention three others.

The Latin Mass Society Wall Calendar.

Unique in having pictures down the left of an A3-format page, and the days in a long vertical list down the right, with plenty of room to write in your appointments. Indispensible in England and Wales, of course, because it includes our local feasts. The photographs are liturgical in focus, of Mass and other devotions. There are multiple photographs on each page, another unique feature.

Lamont on Catholicism, Islam and the Neomodernist betrayal of Christians suffering at the hands of the Mohammedans.

Catholics and Islam

John R. T. Lamont

A special essay for Rorate Caeli

The recent terrorist attacks by ISIS have increased the urgency of understanding the ideology that drives the attackers. Catholics naturally look to the leadership of the Church for guidance on the nature of Islam, its relation to the ideology of ISIS, and the approach that Catholics should take to the threat of ISIS terrorism and to Islam itself. Unfortunately, the episcopal leadership of the Church has not provided such guidance. If anything it has done the opposite, in Europe and North America at least; it has misled the faithful on the nature of Islam and the relationship between terrorist extremism and the main tenets of the Muslim religion. A good example of this deception can be found in a pamphlet recently issued by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, entitled 'Catholics and Muslims in Canada: Believers and Citizens in Society'. It is worth examining this pamphlet in some detail, to better understand both the character of this deception and the real content and implications of Muslim belief.

Pink-Rhonheimer Debate

Prof. Thomas Pink, who has contributed to Rorate Caeli in the past, recently held a public debate on the important problem of the interpretation of Dignitatis Humanae with Fr. Martin Rhonheimer of the Opus Dei. The full debate is embedded above. Pink argues for the continuity of Dignitatis Humanae with the teachings of the 19th century popes, while Fr. Rhonheimer argues for discontinuity.

Fraternity of St Peter installed in St Mary's Warrington, England

Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP kneels next to Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool,
in St Mary's, Warrington, before the start of Mass, at which the Archbishop presided.
Photo by Martin Gardner.

On Saturday, in Warrington, in England's North West, the Fraternity of St Peter took formal charge of the impressive Pugin church of St Mary's, in the presence of the Archbishop, Malcolm McMahon, and the Abbot of Ampleforth, Cuthbert Madden. It was the Benedictines of Ampleforth who had served the Catholics of the town since 1770, and had built the present, Pugin, church. Abbot Madden has given the church (and the large presbytery) to the FSSP. (There are more photos and comments about the church on my own blog here.)

Repost: Dante and the Last Sunday of the Liturgical Year

For over a thousand years the Holy Roman Church marked the continuity of her liturgical seasons by similar readings of the Holy Gospel in the Last Sunday after Pentecost and the First Sunday in Advent. The upcoming Sunday will once again bring to an end the yearly Sunday liturgical cycle, and Fr. Richard G. Cipolla, DPhil, brings us his words for the day:

__________________________________

Last Sunday After Pentecost

Saint Mary’s Norwalk (Conn.), Repost from 2013

From today’s Gospel: For as the lightning comes forth from the east and shines even to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man… And he will send forth his angels with a trumpet and a great sound, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

W.-A. Bouguereau
Dante and Virgil (detail)
Musée d'Orsay

Pope Francis orders no conversions in Catholic schools

A note: Some of these quotes are clunky, not due to our translation -- we translated literally. It's that Francis' thoughts, not only as they are in his head, but as they come out of his mouth, are all over the place and incomplete. But you get his drift.

Also, and this should go without saying, but we'll say it anyway: We hate reporting this stuff. But, either way, it must be kept and preserved, a record for the future so that, we pray, our children's children will never make the mistakes our recent relatives did, welcoming their own version of a "springtime" which quickly became a living Hell.

The Pope: “No to proselytism in Catholic schools”

Then an accusation: teachers are badly paid.

La Repubblica

November 21, 2015

Rorate Review: FSSP 2016 Liturgical Ordo

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) sent us a copy of their 2016 Liturgical Ordo and FSSP Directory for our review. We'll keep it brief, and cut to the chase: It's well worth the nominal cost. And, if you want a traditional ordo, it only makes sense to order it from a fully traditional society.

In his homily for today at Santa Marta, Pope Francis came up with a sweeping denunciation of all war, a condemnation apparently without any qualifications or exemptions even for just war.

Our emphases:

“Today Jesus weeps as well: because we have chosen the way of war, the way of hatred, the way of enmities. We are close to Christmas: there will be lights, there will be parties, bright trees, even Nativity scenes – all decked out – while the world continues to wage war. The world has not understood the way of peace.”

Pope Francis went on to recall the recent commemorations of the Second World War, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, his visit to Redipuglia last year on the anniversary of the Great War: “Useless slaughters,” he called them, repeating the words of Pope Benedict XV. “Everywhere there is war today, there is hatred,” he said. Then he asked, “What shall remain in the wake of this war, in the midst of which we are living now?”:

Sermon: "The rational response to the slaughter in Paris: Holy Mass"

On this next to last Sunday after Pentecost, my text is from the first chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah, verse 18: “Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make you white as snow.”

Come, let us reason together. Those are the words of God to the people of Israel. Those are remarkable words coming from the mouth of God. Those words are astounding if you really think about them. God, all powerful, all knowing, above creation, pure Spirit, says to his chosen people, his people that he chose for himself, his people who betrayed him so many times,: I shall be your God and you shall be my people. This God says to his people: let’s sit down and discuss the situation in a reasonable way. And the situation is precisely the unfaithfulness of Israel, their constant yielding to the pressures to be assimilate, to be like those surrounding them, declaring their openness to other gods but telling themselves they are doing so while remaining faithful to the one true God. A God who is totally other, who has no relationship with his people except to be inscrutable and to demand obedience would never say: Come, let us reason together. This is a God with whom one can have a conversation, a God who will listen to me no matter how stupid my conversation is, no matter how shallow my presuppositions. This God does not hide himself behind some some impenetrable curtain and merely deigns to communicate to mankind by means of a quasi-angelic intermediary. And this is because this God’s essence, his definition of his being, his essence, is love. Let us reason together. God can say this because he loves the people he has chosen to be his people. His appeal to reason is founded in love.

We have received the following announcement from the Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian. (We have slightly edited it for this posting).

Last year, at the initiative of Bp. Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon, the the Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian hosted an English-language Summer School (Pro Civitate Dei, aimed at the renewal of Catholic culture) for young Catholics in the south of France.

The Summer School consisted of lectures, discussions, informal conversations, times of conviviality and acts of piety. Every day we had sung Lauds, Vespers and Compline, as well as a High Mass, all in the Extraordinary Form. In the course of the Summer School, one of the participants, a former Protestant, was received into the Catholic Church.

In 2016 we will repeat this same programme, from May 30 until June 5. You can read more on the Pro Civitate Dei blog.

More pictures of this year's Summer School can be found in an album at the Fraternity's Facebook page: Pro Civitate Dei Summer School.

The Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian (Fraternidad de San José Custodio - FSJC) is a Public Association of the Faithful that was founded in 2010 by Bishop Dominique Rey of Frejus-Toulon. It got its own seminary last year, with the mandate to form priests from North and South America in order to serve as missionaries in Europe. While it is theoretically "bi-formal" with the seminarians being taught both forms of the Roman Rite, it has a clear predilection for the Vetus Ordo. We have previously posted about the work of this seminary (see The New World Steps Forth to the Rescue and Liberation of the Old: A Seminary in Europe and for Europe with Vocations from the Americas and Report and Events of the Fraternity of St. Joseph the Guardian: - the New World evangelizing the Old.)

Event: Ancient Biblelands pilgrimage with Canon J.M. Moreau, I.C.R.S.S.

A reader suggested we make you aware of this pilgrimage:

March 28-April 7, 2016

Beginning on Mount Carmel and the Sea of Galilee and culminating in Jerusalem, where the greatest mysteries of our faith unfolded; travel to Old and New Testament sites, from the Land of the Patriarchs to the Promised Land shown to Moses before his death.

Travel to Jordan to visit Mt. Nebo (resting place of Moses) and the fabled lost city of Petra. Holy Mass at the sacred places connected with the Life of Our Lord will be offered each day.

Cost is $4295 from Newark. Additional airfare from other cities is available.

For more information, click here.

Questions should be directed to St. Anthony’s Oratory in W. Orange, NJ at (973) 325-2233 or click here to send an email.

Radicati EDITORIAL: What God wants not what the Pope would allow

Editorial: Radicati nella fede, October 2015

Newsletter of the Catholic community of

Vocogno, Diocese of Novara, Italy

We wrote last month that the new post-Conciliar Mass, the cradle of agnosticism and continuing uncertainty about the Faith, since it entertains an extenuating dialogue between the priest and the assembly, is no longer focused solely on God. Absurdly, in the new Mass, so human and community-minded, also those who believe in hardly anything [at all] can be there and continue in their doubts.

For the second time in 2015, now much more violently, due to the betrayal of France and Europe by their own elites, due to decades of neglect by these same elites, the ancient enemy, the always aggressive and diabolical and bloodthirsty Islam, introduced in the very arteries of the ancient lands of Christendom, exploded in the streets of Paris.

France is under a state of urgency. Its borders are shut down. The body count is still not finished.

Pray for France. At the end of this century it will be either Catholic or Muslim, there is no third option; but whatever the end result, the process will be painful and awful. God help the Eldest Daughter!

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Antonio Socci: So Bergoglio even manipulates Don Camillo ...

Antonio Socci

‘Libero’

November 12^th 2015

So Bergoglio even manipulates Don Camillo (but he is a Catholic priest, not like Don Francesco-Chichi)

“You see, I cannot absolutely bear deception. I have many defects Lord, but not the one of cheating and lying to my neighbor.”

Don Camillo, Rare priest, still Catholic!

It’s not surprising that Bergoglio while he was in Florence, manipulated and exploited even Guareschi’s Don Camillo, since he does the same thing with the Gospel, making it say the opposite of what’s written (for example on Jesus, the Pharisees and moral themes).

Nonetheless it’s comical that Bergoglio, while instructing the Italian Church to stay out of politics (which means, instructing it to bend to the Powers and not disturb the manoeuvrer), he uses as an example Don Camillo, who did the exact opposite.

UPDATE: Priest denied traditional Latin Requiem Mass: Maybe his Church tax was delinquent?

After a thunderous response from our readers, including priests (and most likely bishops), the ultra-leftist Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, Germany, has reversed his decision and will now allow Fr. Andre Hahn of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) to say a traditional Latin Requiem Mass for Father Adolf Mohr tomorrow.

The intrepid Catholic journalist Barbara Wenz (read her here) asked the Diocese of Trier on Twitter to confirm he banned the Latin Requiem Mass for the late Fr. Mohr. The diocese tweeted this back:

"Requiem and funeral will be celebrated in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite."

Traditional Catholics have a voice and it's more powerful than we often believe.

------------------------------------------------------------
Original post 11/11/15 12:47p.m. GMT:

We joke in the headline, but it's really not humorous. In fact, it's a grave scandal to rob anyone, especially a priest, of his last wishes and the sacraments owed to him. Please weigh in and spread the word:

From Gloria.TV:

Please Protest: German Bishop Prohibits an Old Latin Requiem for a Dead Priest

Bishop Ackermann is blessed in 2012 by a protestant Priestess

Last Friday, Father Adolf Mohr (86) of Rheinböllen, Germany, died from cancer. After his retirement he returned to the Old Latin Rite of his youth. In his will he expressed the wish to be buried in this rite. His parish priest guaranteed him in writ that his wish would be respected.

De Mattei: The Pharisees and Sadducees of our time

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

November 11, 2015

Criticizing the “Pharisees” is recurrent in Pope Francis’ words. In numerous discourses, between 2013 and 2015, he has spoken of “the sickness of the Pharisees” (7th November 2013), “who rebuke Jesus for not respecting the Sabbath” (1st April 2014), of “the temptation of self-sufficiency and of clericalism, that codification of the faith in rules and regulations, as the scribes, the Pharisees, the doctors of the law did at the time of Jesus” (September 19th 2014). In the Angelus of August 30th 2015 he said that just as it was for the Pharisees it is “dangerous too for us to consider ourselves acceptable, or even worse, better than others simply for observing the rules, customs, even though we do not love our neighbor, we are hard of heart, we are arrogant and proud.” On November 8th 2015, he contrasted the behavior of the Scribes and Pharisees based on “exclusion” and Jesus’ behavior based on “inclusion”.

From FSSP Mexico:

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) in Mexico announces the opening of the St. Junipero Serra Spanish Institute for priests and seminarians in June, 2016.

The St. Junipero Serra Institute offers 6 or 8 weeks of Spanish immersion during the summer in beautiful Guadalajara, Mexico. Participants will live and study in the new Casa Cristo Rey of the FSSP and will be immersed, not only in the language, but also in the religious and cultural traditions of Latin America.

Highlights:

Help finish SSPX School Building in Nairobi, Kenya

We have received the following newsletter reference from friends who help the educational mission of the Society of St. Pius X in Kenya:

We have an important project to build a catholic school for the poor children of the slums of Nairobi. We made a nice newsletter about and I would like to know if you could put a link to it.

Sure we can: let us help these children of Nairobi have access to Catholic education for the greater glory of God -- the link includes many pictures of the project, a video, and information on how to help.

The 2015 Newman Lecture in Melbourne: - Newman's Conversion of Conscience and the Resolution of the Crisis of Modernity

As last year, when we provided the text of "The Inaugural Blessed John Henry Newman Lecture" delivered by Dr Stephen McInerney on Newman and the Roman Rite, this year we bring you the text of the second lecture, delivered by Fr Scot Armstrong*, a founding member of the Brisbane Oratory in Formation.

***

“Newman's Conversion of Conscience

and the Resolution of the Crisis of Modernity"

Delivered at the Parish of Blessed John Henry Newman, Melbourne

17th October, 2015

Today would have been the 80th birthday of one of the great conservative cardinals of the era of John Paul II, Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo (Nov. 8, 1935 -- April 19, 2008). He was appointed President of the Pontifical Council for the Family (PCF) exactly 25 years ago (November 8, 1990, his 55th birthday); he remained at this post until his death from cancer in 2008, at the age of 72. It can be argued that it was López Trujillo, even more than Ratzinger, who provided much of the steel behind John Paul II's war on the "culture of death" -- no surprise given the unusual militancy he showed against the Catholic Left and Liberation Theology when he was Secretary General of CELAM from 1972 to 1979 and Archbishop of Medellin from 1979 to 1990. (He was made Cardinal in 1983 at the age of 47.) The international media (particularly the BBC) and EU famously vilified him in 2004 over his remarks against condoms.

His two successors as head of the PCF, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli (2008 - 2012) and Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia (since 2012), have been virtually mute in comparison. In addition, Paglia has expressed or openly condoned positions on homosexuality and the divorced-and-remarried that would have absolutely horrified López Trujillo.

Request: Event notices

Dear Readers,

Once again, we ask you that, if you send event notices to any of our contributors, please include in the subject in very large characters and in capital letters the words "EVENTS" or "EVENTS FOR RORATE" in order to warn us to the contents.

Thank you!

The Latin Mass Society launches a new 'missalette'

Members of the Latin Mass Society are this weekend receiving their copies of the quarterly magazine, Mass of Ages: with this edition is enclosed a brand new booklet missal or missalette, with Ordinary Prayers of the Mass, Benediction, and other prayers and devotions.

This new book has a clear, accurate, and readable new translation of all the Ordinary of the Mass, taking account of the improved ICEL translation of the Novus Ordo where applicable, but using traditional language ('thee' and 'thou' etc.).

It has new illustrations showing the postures of the priest at different points during the Mass.

A new book on the Prayer to St Michael

Pope Leo XIII & the Prayer to Saint Michael, by Kevin Symonds

Available here.

The Prayer to St Michael, which forms part of the traditional Prayers After Low Mass, is one of the most widely known and popular Catholic prayers of modern composition. Its author was Pope Leo XIII, and its composition is associated with a story, told in a number of versions, of Pope Leo having a vision in which Satan asked for, and was granted, power over the Church for a certain time, as he was given over Job, in Job 1:12:

Then the Lord said to Satan: Behold, all that he hath is in thy hand.

Dixit ergo Dominus ad Satan: Ecce universa quae habet in manu tua sunt.

It is easy to dismiss such stories, but the composition of the prayer does need explanation. Pope Leo inherited the idea of the Prayers After Low Mass, which had been ordered to be said in the Papal States for their protection against attack, by Pope Pius IX, but it was Leo who made them universal, and added the Prayer to St Michael. Why did he want Catholics all over the world to recite this heartfelt plea for the protection of the Church from satanic attack?

"FRANCIS, THE WRECKING BALL"

1. Just a couple of weeks ago, still before the end of the Synod, our special guest-writer and expert of Roman ways Don Pio Pace warned: "are we going towards the failure of the 'opening' pontificate of Francis? The Postconciliar Church seems intrinsically ungovernable."

2. This Thursday, Nov. 5, Damian Thompson in the cover article for the Spectator details what he calls "the Catholic civil war". But the guilty party is clear from Thompson's conclusion: "It’s beginning to look as if Jorge Bergoglio is the man who inherited the papacy and then broke it." (The Spectator cover illustrates the point well.)

3. Also this Thursday, Italian religious analyst Antonio Socci published a text that goes in the same direction as Thompson's: the collapse of the pontificate amidst the civil war begun by the Pope himself. And Socci goes further: he identifies the Bergoglio Party (the same that caused the resignation of Benedict XVI and the election of Cardinal Bergoglio) as the center of the current crisis. It is indeed very important to remember that it was the CURIA that caused the vexations that led to the complete weakening of Pope Ratzinger, and the Sodano Curia and (what we now know as the Mafia Club of) the St-Gallen Group, led by ultra-progressive Cardinals such as Danneels and the heirs of Martini, who congealed around Bergoglio in the momentous 2013 conclave.

***

The Crisis of the Bergoglio Party (which will leave the Church devastated) has begun…

Antonio Socci,

“Libero”

November 5, 2015

Belgian news sources (such as La Libre) are reporting that the appointment to the See of Brussels of Jozef De Kesel, the current Bishop of Bruges (left), will be formally announced tomorrow shortly before noon, Rome time.

Bishop De Kesel is 68 years old, and was ordained bishop in 2002. After serving for 8 years as an auxiliary bishop in Mechlin-Brussels (mostly under Cardinal Danneels) he was appointed to the See of Bruges in 2010, as successor to the disgraced Roger Vangeheluwe. Despite being less outspoken than Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp (who had been considered the front-runner for Brussels), he is by all accounts scarcely less liberal.

Within a few months of his appointment to Bruges, De Kesel publicly questioned clerical celibacy in the Latin Rite and declared that women's ordination to the priesthood is "negotiable", as Rorate reported at that time. As auxiliary bishop of Brussels he had supported the celebration of a Mass organized by several parishes in that city specifically for participants in its annual "Lesbian and Gay Pride" march.

Despite reportedly making more orthodox-sounding noises afterwards (specifically when Benedict XVI still reigned), De Kesel continues to be identified with the liberal wing of the Belgian Church. In October last year he tried to assign to active parish duty a priest who had been convicted of molesting a teenage boy, declaring that he (the priest) deserved "a second chance"; only media outrage and the priest's own request prompted the bishop to cancel the appointment.

We refer our readers to our June post on the significance of the succession to Brussels, and why this whole matter has been exceedingly unfair to Archbishop André-Joseph Leonard (whose brief reign was spent under Danneels' shadow) and to the more conservative Francophone Belgian prelates. With this appointment the extremely toxic legacy of Danneels for Belgian (and particularly Flemish) Catholicism and indeed for European Catholicism as a whole has been given a significant boost -- not that it ever really disappeared. One has to wonder what will be left of Catholicism in Flanders and Brussels 7 or 8 years from now.

For the record: Latest FSSP statistics

FSSP Diaconal ordinations, Denton, NE. March 15, 2014.

Source.

As of October 24, 2015, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter has a total of 421 members (257 incardinated), of whom 262 are priests, 14 are deacons and 145 are seminarians (including postulants but not including the deacons). All the deacons are incardinated in the FSSP. Of the 262 priest-members, 243 are incardinated, 11 are incorporated "ad annum", 4 are associated and 4 are postulants. Fifteen priests have been ordained this year -- the highest since 2004, when the FSSP had seventeen sacerdotal ordinations. (FSSP has averaged at 11 ordinations per year since 2004). The average age of the membership of FSSP is 37.

His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, one of the most visible prelates working on the restoration of the traditional Latin Mass and faith, has penned a nearly 5,000-word response to the Synod exclusively for our readers. Anyone may reproduce or link to this article, but all must reference Rorate Caeli as the source.

We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to His Excellency for taking the time to analyze and express his views on one of the most critical events in Church history -- one that he too sees as a "back door" to Holy Communion for adulterers, a rejection of Christ's teaching and a Final Report full of "time bombs."

In the coming days, we will also publish an interview with His Excellency, on a wide range of topics. For now, we bring you this important work, exclusively for our readers.

A back door to a Neo-Mosaic practice in the Final Report of the Synod

The XIV General Assembly of the Synod of the Bishops (October 4 – 25, 2015), which was dedicated to the theme of “The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World”, issued a Final Report with some pastoral proposals submitted to the discernment of the Pope. The document itself is only of an advisory nature and does not possess a formal magisterial value.

Yet during the Synod, there appeared those real new disciples of Moses and the new Pharisees, who in the numbers 84-86 of the Final Report opened a back door or looming time bombs for the admittance of divorced and remarried to Holy Communion. At the same time those bishops who intrepidly defended “the Church’s own fidelity to Christ and to His truth” (Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, 84) were in some media reports unjustly labeled as Pharisees.

Sermon for All Saints Day

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

It was his first time in Rome, and he was impressed, even overwhelmed by this place, where the ancient and the contemporary stand together, a mixture of chaos and faith, a sense of decay amidst the feeling of eternity.

Fabio Colagrande

VINO NUOVO

October 29th, 2015

“Mercy, Tenderness, Forgiveness and Openness are the signs of the New Church. However, let it be clear: we won…”

The Synod is over and if there is still anyone around that doesn’t realize it, mercy won the day. Actually it won hands down. Finally the Church will have a, super- sugary sweet, welcoming face, to console the many afflicted from failed marriages and the like, with the warm balm of cuddly tenderness. Amid fanfare & fireworks, what triumphed was “accompanying ” “integration”, “let’s just love each other” and “it could happen to anyone”.

Procession to St Peter's, from San Lorenzo in Damaso

For the first time, the FIUV General Assembly and the Latin Mass Society pilgrimage to Rome were coordinated with the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to Rome, which meant that the LMS and the FIUV sponsored some of the music for the SP Pilgrimage, and offered additional liturgies for the SP Pilgrims.

Yes, he said it over the phone to his favorite journalist, Italian editor Eugenio Scalfari of La Repubblica (the Pope's favorite newspaper), in a conversation on October 28, revealed by the latter in an editorial published this Sunday.

Must-read article on Post-Synod Mess and Holy Mother Church:
"Global Warming? It's souls burning in Hell."

GLOBAL WARMING?

SOULS IN HELL BURNING

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi

La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana

October 30,2015

A letter to my granddaughter Olivia, born a month ago, for her to read in twenty years time so she may understand the world she finds.

FEAST OF ALL SAINTS

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

(Fontgombault, November 1st, 2015)

Gaudeamus omnes in Domino.

(Introit of the Mass)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
My dearly beloved Sons,

Let us all rejoice in the Lord. On this day, the Church gives us a priceless teaching, a rule for our lives: joy.

Plenary Indulgence Reminders for the first full week in November (November 1st-8th) - Repost (Enchiridion Indulgentiarum)

Canon Alonso Lobo

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

__________________

There are several plenary indulgences available for the first week in November, beginning today, November 1st, All Saints Day. They are the following:

Please, we beg you, don't forget the poor Souls on All Souls Day Monday. Besides getting Masses said for them, as we do here, the best way you can help them tomorrow is this (Plenary Indulgence for each day of the First Full Week in November):

But remember:

Make a sacramental confession within a week of All Souls Day

For a plenary indulgence be free from all attachment to sin, even venial sin (otherwise, the indulgence is partial, not plenary, “full”).

It's time for war - time to be clear about everything, and every person involved in communion question, even the Pope

In what is arguably still the most influential mainstream publication in the world, The New York Times, Catholic columnist Ross Douthat -- who days ago had had his very ability to speak and to have his views merely published questioned by the ubiquitous Liberal Catholic establishment -- not only does not back down, but he doubles down this Sunday. He welcomes the war brought to him, he identifies the main players (and the main player above all, Pope Francis), and he welcomes all contenders to the battlefield.