Rorate Caeli

Priest needed in New Hampshire


Our friends at the St. Benedict Center in southern New Hampshire are in immediate need of a full-time priest. You can read more about it here.

If you are interested, or know of a priest whom they should reach out to, please contact Brother André Marie at: 

Email: bam [at] catholicism [dot] org
Office: 603-239-6485

Guest Op-Ed: Fighting for the soul of Europe

The following guest Op-Ed was penned for us by a newly ordained diocesan priest, writing under the name Monsieur l'Abbé:


A Conversion

In 2008 I was in my last year of college. My spring break happened to coincide with Holy Week that year providing me with the perfect opportunity to spend my vacation in Rome. At that point, I had been seriously considering and discerning a vocation to the priesthood for three years, and it was my hope that this visit to Rome would serve to deepen my conviction that God was calling me to serve Him as a priest.

I had the good fortune that week to attend all of the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum and I was in Saint Peter’s Basilica on the evening of the Easter Vigil when Pope Benedict XVI baptized Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born Italian journalist. Allam was raised a Muslim but from an early age was educated in Catholic schools. At the age of twenty he moved to Italy and became increasingly critical of Islam.

The baptism of Allam was a reminder of the expectations that Europe should have for those who are privileged to call Europe their home. Living in Europe means an acceptance and respect for her Christian origins and history. Living in Europe means throwing off the backward cultural thinking of a religious sect forged in a seventh-century desert. To be European is to accept that which is ever ancient and ever new. All of these considerations were implicit that Easter when Allam publically rejected his former beliefs and recognized Christ and His Church as the true and only vehicle for salvation.

The New Mandatum

Contrast the Triduum in 2008 with the one that took place just last week. This year, the Holy Thursday foot washing ceremony (known also as the Mandatum) consisted of Pope Francis washing the feet of a group of Catholic and non-Catholic refugees. In fact, with impeccable timing, the pope washed the feet of three Muslim refugees only two days after more than thirty people were killed and three hundred were injured in suicide bombings in Brussels, a municipal region whose most popular name for newborn boys is Mohammed.[1]

"Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past!"

Christ, our Beloved, Gardener of the New Eden
(Abraham Janssens, Noli me tangere,  c. 1620 - Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dunkerque)

Fontgombault Sermons for Easter 2016 - Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday - Easter has a Heart, the Heart of God



EASTER VIGIL

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau
Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault
(Fontgombault, March 27, 2016)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
My dearly beloved Sons,

Christ is risen, He is truly risen. He Who was dead, is now living. Darkness was unable to detain its prey. The Prince of life has triumphed. This is the Passover of the Lord, His passing from death unto life.

During this holy Year of Mercy, when we are invited to discover anew God’s mercy towards us and to put mercy in practice among our neighbours, let us ponder on the unique gift that the Lord has granted to mankind on this day: out of sheer mercy, His Passover becomes our Passover.

EX ORIENTE LUX
- Dominica Paschæ in Resurrectione Domini
- A Meditation of Saint Alphonsus on Paradise

Osanna, Sanctus Deus Sabaoth,
superillustrans claritate tua
felices ignes horum malacoth!


L'anima d'ogne bruto e delle piante
di complession potenziata tira
lo raggio e il moto delle luci sante;

ma vostra vita sanza mezzo spira

la Somma Beninanza, e la innamora
di sé sì che poi sempre la disira.

E quinci puoi argomentare ancora

vostra resurrezion, se tu ripensi
come l'umana carne fessi allora

che li primi parenti intrambo fensi.*


Commedia, Paradiso (c. VII)

A VERY HAPPY AND HOLY EASTER TO ALL OUR READERS! 
Salve, Festa Dies: Hail, O Festive Day!

Now this is how it's done

The good Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) priests know how to treat our Lord. See below for the altar of repose at Immaculate Conception Church in Omaha, NE. If only all churches took the care of Christ so seriously. 


Holy Saturday: ...descendit ad inferos...


By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.
Saint John Chrysostom
Catechetical Sermon for Easter [Sermo catecheticus in Pascha / Κατηχητικὸς εἰς τὸ Ἅγιον Πάσχα]

March 25, date of the Incarnation and Passion: Annunciation and Good Friday: Popule Meus, quid feci tibi?



O holy God! O holy Strong One! O holy Immortal One! Have mercy on us.


As is well known, many early Fathers and much of the faithful believed that the first Good Friday fell in the solar Roman Calendar of its time (the Julian calendar, later slightly refined at the order of the Council of Trent to take account of the actual seasonal changes) on March 25, the same day of the Annunciation. This has taken place this year, and it is a rare event: it will only happen again in the year 2157, when we will be long gone from this earth:

The apprehension of Catholics on the eve of the Post-Synod Exhortation - Roberto de Mattei

The apprehension of Catholics on the eve of the Post-Synod Exhortation

Roberto de Mattei
Corrispondenza Romana
March 23, 2016

In this Holy Week of 2016, the sentiments and pain of Christ’s Passion being renewed is mingled with deep apprehension about the distressing situation the Church is in. The greatest worries regard the impending Apostolic Post-Synod Exhortation Pope Francis signed on March 19th and which will be published just after Easter. According to the Vatican journalist Luigi Accattoli “rumors foresee a text of no striking doctrinal or juridical affirmations, but rather will include many innovative practical choices regarding marriage preparation and couples in irregular situations: not only for the divorced and remarried but also for cohabiters, marriages with a believer and non-believer and for those only civilly-married.” (Corriere della Sera, March 20th 2016)

Bishop Schneider on Holy Communion

On this Maundy Thursday we are happy to share a talk given by Bishop Athanasius Schneider on the Eucharist.

The address, delivered in Italian last year in Rome, was translated by Donna F. Bethell, chairman of the board of directors of Christendom College, in Front Royal, Virginia.  Her translation was approved by the bishop, and given to Rorate for the benefit of readers as the universal Church celebrates the institution of the Eucharist at Mass today. We ask that you share the content as a meditation on Holy Communion, but with credit to the translator and source.

Socci: The Pope Who Wants to Put Himself in God's Place

Antonio Socci
                                                                                                                              Libero
                                                                                                                              March 20th 2016

Will the post-synodal apostolic exhortation just signed by Pope Bergoglio - but not yet made public - represent a revolution for the Church? Will a “new church” be founded on the word of progressive Catholics like Pope Bergoglio and Walter Kasper instead of on the Good News of Christ?

Indeed, Cardinal Kasper, Joseph Ratzinger’s great opponent, has announced a genuine “revolution”.

Bergoglio used Kasper in February 2014 at the consistory to launch the sensational news of communion for the divorced and remarried. It’s not that Bergoglio cares about the divorced who want to receive communion but they have been used as a battering ram to shake Catholic doctrine on the sacraments.

Last Monday in a meeting in Lucca and on the eve of the Pope’s signature of the exhortation, Kasper couldn’t contain himself. “It will be the first step in a reform that will turn the page in Church history after 1700 years.”

The exhortation will be made public in the middle of April but Kasper – who knows the content – is already claiming victory. “The document will make its mark,” he said, “as the biggest revolution in the Church for 1500 years.”

The Passion of Europe in Holy Week - Pray for Brussels

Rogier van der Weyden
Crucifixion Triptych (in the background, Brussels in the 15th cent.)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

They have got what they wanted -- "they" being the Socialist politicians in Belgium who, for decades, in many cases making clear they were trying to influence demography for political reasons, allowed Islam to grow, become native, and grow once more, and radicalize, while at the same time alienating the Catholic culture that was the only thing which had made Belgium (that is, the unity of Dutch-speaking and French-speaking Catholics of the Low Countries) possible.

The Passion of Europe now goes on before our eyes, day after day. Let us pray for the dead today in the Brussels airport and in the Brussels subway system. But let us remember that war has come, and that it has not yet been won by Islam, as strong as it may seem today.

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

(Personal recess for several weeks)

Guest Op-Ed: The Selfie Pope

The following short guest Op-Ed was penned for us by a newly ordained diocesan priest, writing under the name Monsieur l'Abbé:


Writing in 1966, the English poet W.H. Auden warned about the dangers of the Church’s use of mass media: “I am convinced that the Church cannot make use of them without falsifying what She stands for” (“The Worship of God in a Secular Age: Some Reflexions”). For Auden, the mid-century Church’s use of television, radio, and advertisements made it banal, not current. Unfortunately, the slow acceptance of these various media has proven that they have done little to win people to the Faith. Will the Pope’s launching of an official Instagram account today make any difference?

Ite ad Ioseph

____________________________

In festo Sancti Ioseph,
Eum deprecemur pro Beatissimo Papa nostro Francisco
Ad te beate Ioseph, 

in tribulatione nostra confugimus, atque, implorato Sponsæ tuæ sanctissimæ auxilio, patrocinium quoque tuum fidenter exposcimus. Per eam, quæsumus, quæ te cum immaculata Virgine Dei Genitrice coniunxit, caritatem, perque paternum, quo Puerum Iesum amplexus es, amorem, supplices deprecamur, ut ad hereditatem, quam Iesus Christus acquisivit Sanguine suo, benignus respicias, ac necessitatibus nostris tua virtute et ope succurras.


Tuere, o Custos providentissime divinæ Familiæ, Iesu Christi sobolem electam; prohibe a nobis, amantissime Pater, omnem errorum ac corruptelarum luem; propitius nobis, sospitator noster fortissime, in hoc cum potestate tenebrarum certamine e cælo adesto; et sicut olim Puerum Iesum e summo eripuisti vitæ discrimine, ita nunc Ecclesiam sanctam Dei ab hostilibus insidiis atque ab omni adversitate defende: nosque singulos perpetuo tege patrocinio, ut ad tui exemplar et ope tua suffulti, sancte vivere, pie emori, sempiternamque in cælis beatitudinem assequi possimus.
Amen.
(Personal recess for several weeks - Scheduled post)

Mater Dolorosa, Ora pro Nobis!

Sassoferrato
Mater Dolorosa



(On the Friday of Our Lady of Sorrows - Personal recess for several weeks)

ANOTHER UPDATE: Help keep The Roman Forum going

THURSDAY UPDATE: Rorate readers raised nearly $7,000! Dr. Rao still needs $3,000 to save the Forum. Please consider giving! This will be our last appeal. Please consider giving today.
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Please see an urgent message below from Dr. John Rao. If you can, please click here and donate now:

Dear Friends,

We have nearly fifty people registered for the 24th Annual Summer Symposium at Gardone, with application still open until March 31st. Unfortunately, we also have some very serious hurdles to overcome in order to offer our normal program, which is needed this year more than ever.

As you know, the Roman Forum no longer has any endowment whatsoever, and now relies solely on donations for all of its activities. We are still $10,000 short of the $30,000 required to run the Summer Symposium. The money is used to pay for our twelve speakers' participation (airfare, room and board), as well as scholarships for priests, seminarians, and students. We have nine more speakers to support, and a backlog of fifteen scholarship applicants. This year's Summer Symposium lectures on Half a Millennium of Total Depravity (1517-2017): A Critique of Luther’s Impact on the Eve of His 'Catholic' Apotheosis" will be going into a book to be published by Angelico Press. We very much intend it to  serve as a means of fighting the campaign to glorify Luther which will indeed characterize 2017. 

Fundraising is a very, very unpleasant work, and I promise that this, my second general request for help, will be my last appeal for help for this project. Quite frankly, I have a great fear that without your immediate assistance we may no longer be able to keep the Roman Forum going past this summer at all.

See our original post on this urgent matter below from December 29.


Events: Holy Week Schedules (UPDATED)

Originally posted: 3/14/16 8:07 AM:

NOTE: One way to better ensure yours will be listed is to send us a JPEG of the schedule. If you send us just text that we have to format, it most likely will not be posted.

Thank you!

The Canonization of Elizabeth Hesselblad, an Admirable Woman


Mitigating our way to Perdition

As Holy Week is fast approaching, there is still time to double down on our Lenten penance and sacrifices, making the most of this beneficial time. 

Below is a short, powerful sermon, which we hope will both help you understand what the Church has lost since her downward spiral began in the 20th Century, and yet motivate you to strive even harder to become great saints.

Op-Ed: "Italy Already Deeply Infiltrated by Islamic Terrorism" - Let us pray!

During this Passiontide, let us pray for the slow-motion Passion of Europe.


Italy is deeply infiltrated by Islamic terrorism. The government must immediately declare a state of maximum alert.

MAGDI CRISTIANO ALLAM
Il Giornale, 13 March 2016

Good Friday Prayer for the Jews: a new Position Paper from the FIUV


Last November the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales announced that they had petitioned the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei to replace the Prayer 'Pro conversione Iudaiorum' in the Good Friday Liturgy, with the one used in the Ordinary Form. Readers will know, of course, that the prayer officially approved for use in the Extraordinary Form was composed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, replacing a prayer which had been used in the Church since, probably, the third century.

The Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce (FIUV) and the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales (LMS) had, of course, to react, both immediately, and in a more considered and scholarly fashion. Our initial (coordinated) reaction, also published on this blog, can be seen here; below is the fruits of more detailed research and consultations.

We have been obliged to broach a topic which we had not intended to make the subject of such a Position Paper. Although very interesting, the Prayer for the Jews can hardly be considered central to the lives of the Faithful attached to the Extraordinary Form, compared with issues like the use of Latin, or the ancient Lectionary. It is said once a year, on the least-well attended, and least-often celebrated, of the three major services of the Sacred Triduum. Its history is complicated by the successive attempts to defuse complaints by Jews and others about it, which resulted in official decrees about in 1948, 1956, 1959, and 1965, as well as changes in 1970 and 2008. A topic at once complicated, neuralgic, and arguably trivial: let's just leave it alone.

Since the Bishops of England and Wales have chosen not to leave it alone, however, here is our Position Paper. And the issue is, after all, important. It raises profound issues concerning the Old and New Covenants, about the nature of salvation, about the Church's mission, and about the proper attitude to the language of the Church Fathers and the liturgy. It also forces us to confront some of the most shameful episodes in the history of the Church.

The paper's conclusion is simple: that while the actions of many Catholics have been gravely sinful, the voice of the Church in the ancient liturgy, a voice from the age of the Fathers of the Church, cannot be tarred with the brush of anti-Semitism. Let us repudiate violence and hatred: to do so does not require us to repudiate the Church's traditional liturgy.

"Light the Beacon" - Is Christianity Over? - A Sermon

Homily pronounced by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP at the First Solemn High Mass in England of Fr Ian Verrier, FSSP at St James’ Church in London on 20th June 2015.

Dear newly ordained Fr Verrier,

Just give up! It is all lost. Go and hide. We are vanquished. Christianity is over. Our time is gone. Anyone with eyes to see will agree. Greater than waves, tsunamis rather surge against life, against common sense, against freedom and against innocence! See the crimson tide of abortion; the green tide of Islam; the pink tide of inversion; the black tide of pornography; and as a deadly mix of all others, the fluorescent tide of political correctness.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider in Hungary

"Our friends at the John Henry Newman Center of Higher Education in Hungary asked us to post this, along with a few photos, of their recent event with Bishop Athanasius Schneider:


It was the first time that MONS. Dr. ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER O.R.C., titular bishop of Celerina and auxiliary bishop of the archbishopric of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan, had visited Hungary as a guest professor of John Henry Newman Center of Higher Education

The teaching of the bishop, who is world-famous for his books Dominus est and Corpus Christi on the Eucharist and the worthy reception of Holy Communion, published by Szent István Társulat and Stella Maris Alapítvány, was well received by the Hungarian public, too. From 4 to 6 March 2016 the Central-Asian bishop held lectures and celebrated traditional (usus antiquior) Pontifical High Mass with the participation of the faithful in Hungary.

The Bishop was awaited with great interest. In Budapest he held two lectures in a packed university hall full of – several hundred – people on 4 and 5 March. The first one entitled Unchangeable Truth was about the sacrament of marriage, the second about Faith and Martyrdom. On 5 March the Bishop visited the headquarters of the Newman Center in the town of Sümeg and held a third lecture on The Holy Communion and the Renewal of the Church. In Sümeg Bishop Athanasius received a guest professor certificate from the Newman Center, which was delivered by Prof. Ferenc Kertész-Bakos and the mayor of the town, László Végh.


Crowning his visit on Laetare Sunday, Bishop Schneider celebrated Pontifical High Mass in the Franciscan Shrine Church of Sümeg on 6 March according to the usus antiquior. There was a huge attendance, with many from Romania, Slovakia, Italy and Austria, too. The Holy Mass was organized by the Newman Center alone. It was the first time in over 45 years, i.e. since the introduction of Novus Ordo, that a bishop had celebrated the Sunday Mass in Hungary according to the traditional form of the Roman Rite (usus antiquior).

Sümeg is one of the largest and oldest spiritual centres of the archdiocese of Veszprém and of Catholic Tradition, which is enriched by the presence and activity of the Newman Center. Thanks to the radiation of the Franciscan shrine as well as the personal example, spiritual impact and prophetic teaching of the famous Hungarian preacher, P. Dr. Balázs Barsi OFM, most priests and parishes committed to the old rite are found in this region of the country. Hence, the assistance of Bishop Schneider consisted almost only of the local clergy and the altar servers of their Tridentine rite groups. The Presbyter Assistant was Zsolt Grujber, the parish priest of Böhönye, with Gábor Simon, the parish priest of Városlőd, as the Deacon and Gergő Cséry, the parish priest of Nemesgulács, as the Subdeacon. All the altar servers came from the religion classes of these fathers. The Master of Ceremonies and the First Assistant was Dániel Fülep, Director of the Newman Center, initiator and main organiser of Bishop Schneider’s visit. Musica Sacra was provided by one of the best Gregorian choir of Hungary, Schola Sancti Pauli from Pécs, headed by Gabriella Fodor DLA. The organist was Domonkos Farkas.


After the Holy Mass, the Bishop, accompanied by the Ministri Sacri, the assistance, the clergy and the faithful, paid a visit to John Henry Newman Center and blessed the newly completed building of the library and the full figure bronze statue of Blessed John Henry Newman, the very first Newman statue in Hungary ever. Finally, we went to the Franciscan cloister garth, where he blessed the bronze statue of St. Francis of Assisi, a gift of the Newman Center and the town of Sümeg to the cloister.

To close his program in Hungary, on 7 March Athanasius Schneider, accompanied by Prof. Ferenc Kertész-Bakos and Dániel Fülep, visited the Hungarian Parliament, too, where he was received as a guest by secretary of state Miklós Soltész responsible for church relations. At their meeting they talked about the past and presence of Catholic Christianity in Hungary, as well as the efforts of the Hungarian Government to protect Christian values both in Hungary and abroad. Bishop Schneider outlined the position of the Catholic community in Kazakhstan. Taking a tour in the building, he visited the Chamber of the Parliament and bowed before the Holy Crown of Hungary in the vaulted hall. Both the secretary of state and the bishop expressed their hopes for expanding their relationship. Finally, Bishop Schneider went to see St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest, where he prayed for Mary’s Land before the Holy Right Hand of St. Stephen. 

The faithful in Hungary will always remember Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s authentic Catholic teaching and deeply touching Holy Mass. The Newman Center hopes to see him again.

"The Pope Himself Says: Your Criticism is Good for Me" - And What will the Post-Synod Document Say?

Socci: The criticism that is good for the Pope

Roberto de Mattei
Corrispondenza Romana
March 9, 2016


The letter Pope Francis sent to Antonio Socci on February 7th warrants the same attention as the book Socci dedicated to “The Last Prophecy. An Open Letter to Pope Francis in Times of War (Rizzoli, 2016).

Socci’s book is divided into two parts: the first contains a set of prophecies, both recent and old, which point to grave catastrophes for the world should it refuse to convert and do penance. The material destructions predicted in many prophecies seem to be a result of the present spiritual devastation which the Church finds itself immersed in today. Among the many heavenly messages, there are those of the Virgin of La Salette and Don Bosco’s dream about the future of Rome which outline a scenario of tragedy and hope similar to the one Our Lady announced at Fatima in 1917. Other private revelations cited by Socci, could be considered questionable, but even so, the writer’s merit is nonetheless that of reminding us of the existence of the prophetic, apocalyptic dimension which is inseparable from historical Catholic theology.

An Authoritative and Binding Magisterial Document Cannot Overthrow the Teaching of a Previous Document of the Same or Higher Authority

Participants at the Dignitatis Humanae Colloquium in Norcia (Photo Source

At the blog of the Dialogos Institute, Prof. Alan Fimister gives an interesting account of a colloquium held last summer on Dignitatis Humanae in relation to previous magisterial teachings (about which we reported at the time). He notes that all participants held as a basic principle that no authoritative and binding document of the teaching office of the Church can overthrow the teaching of a previous document of the same or higher authority. There were, however, two approaches to showing how Dignitatis Humanae did not overthrow previous teaching on religious liberty. One was to argue that Dignitatis Humanae was of a lower grade of authority than the previous established teaching, and that its own teaching is therefore not binding and must rejected on the basis of the previous teaching. The other approach was to argue that Dignitatis Humanae, if interpreted properly does not in fact contradict previous magisterial teachings. Various ways of giving such a reading were proposed. Fimister himself seems to agree most with Thomas Pink’s proposal: “the Declaration refers only to the abstract competence of the state qua state and so does not touch upon the powers of the state as instrument of the Church.” But Fimister then somewhat modifies Pink’s thesis with the help of St. Augustine’s argument that a state is only really just (and therefore only really a state) when it worships the true God:

Mexican Bishops Livid at Pope: "Who has advised the Pope so Badly?" - an increasingly isolated Francis

Mexico 3 Argentina 0 -- under Captain Bergoglio

Sandro Magister
Settimo Cielo Blog
March 8, 2016
That the Mexican Bishops were not pleased with Pope Francis’ discourse of February 13th, had been understood immediately.

Even so, three weeks later the discontent has now exploded in “Desde la Fe”, the Archdiocese of Mexico City’s magazine, and simultaneously on the Archdiocese’s official site, in an unsigned editorial [in Spanish here], thus traceable to the Archbishop himself, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera.

It was one passage in particular that humiliated the bishops in the Pope’s discourse, when Francis stopped reading the written text and said:

Coincidence or the real Francis effect? The collapse of vocations in Buenos Aires and all Argentina from the 1990's to the present.

A scene from the annual "Mass for Education" celebrated by then-Cardinal Bergoglio in his cathedral in 2010. (Source)



Update: The website of the Organizacion de los Seminarios de la Argentina has comprehensive statistics for major and minor seminarians in the country from 1997 to the present (ESTADÍSTICAS COMPARADAS). The rapid and unrelenting collapse of vocations is unmistakable: from 1,501 major seminarians in 1999 to 916 in 2012, 875 in 2013 and 827 in 2014; and from 624 minor seminarians in 1997 to only 59 in 2012 (the last year for which there are statistics for minor seminarians).

*

The following statistics come from the article SACERDOCIO: LA CRISIS DE VOCACIONES IMPACTA EN LA IGLESIA published by the Argentinian news website Tres Lineas on Sunday:


Seminarians studying in Argentina:

1999: 1,501
2014: 827

Seminarians in the Metropolitan Seminary of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires:

1980's (no precise year given): 200
2016: 80

The seminary received 15 new entrants this year. 

In 2016, Buenos Aires -- which has more than 3 million inhabitants -- will see only three of its seminarians ordained to the priesthood. 

The article reports that in Greater Buenos Aires. many parishes now either have no resident priest, or are served by priests from countries such as Poland and South Korea. The religious congregations are faring no better. 


**
Argentina's population stood at 43.1 million in 2015; the Pew Research Center reported in 2014 that 71% of Argentinians identify as Catholics. In short there were only 827 major seminarians for around 30 million Argentinian Catholics in 2014.

***

Before his ascension to the papacy as Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J. was Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires from 1992 until 1997, when he became Coadjutor Archbishop of the same Archdiocese. He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina in February 1998 and remained in that post until his election. As his successor he picked one of his former Auxiliary Bishops, Mario Aurelio Poli. 

A cathedral gets a sanctuary back

For many years the traditional Latin Mass was offered at Holy Trinity parish in Boston, Massachusetts, a beautiful church that was closed by Sean Cardinal O'Malley in 2008. Some good, however, has come out of that sad decision, with the cathedral in Manchester, New Hampshire, using several pieces from Holy Trinity's sanctuary, and its stations of the cross, to fill in holes from a 1969 wreckovation.  This was Saint Joseph's cathedral following Vatican II:


SSPX Superior says Reconciliation "not for tomorrow" - Swiss Bishops' website distorts information, for some reason

The head of the Society of Saint Pius X, Superior-General Bishop Bernard Fellay, keeping his general cautious tune on the matters related to the talks between his fraternity and the Holy See, said recently that any reconciliation between Rome and the the SSPX is "not for tomorrow". But the official news website of the Bishops of Switzerland took this to mean that he "denied any rapprochement", which is not true at all, and which we know is not even objectively true, and is not what the bishop himself has been saying repeatedly in the past few months under Pope Francis. No imminent reconciliation had been announced recently: in this case, some in the Swiss Bishops' Conference news department just wished to cause diversion.

The contrast between the headline and the content is evident, see below:

Saint Teresa of Jesus - Laetare: Nada te turbe / Let naught disturb thee

Just sayin'

When a rogue bishop starts consecrating new bishops carelessly, as (the bishop expelled from the Society of Saint Pius X Richard) Williamson is doing now, Thuc-style, one can start doubting validity. Carelessly, awake, but as in a dream...

Event: Solemn High Mass on Passion Sunday - Brooklyn, NYC

Holy Name of Jesus Church in Brooklyn, NY will be hosting a Solemn High Mass on Passion Sunday, March 13th at 5:00pm

Same-Sex Civil Unions in Italy: Historical Betrayal by Catholics


The Historical Betrayal by Catholics

Roberto de Mattei
Corrispondenza Romana
March 2nd 2016


The approval of homosexual pseudo-marriage in the Senate on February 25th 2016, with 173 in favor, 71 against and 76 abstentions is the last stage in the process of dissolution of Italian society which began with the introduction of divorce (1970), then the legalization of abortion (1978) and has as its next, imminent step, the legalization of euthanasia. With that in mind, we understand the exaltation of the secular press: “In the long and tortuous history of sexual liberation in Italy – writes Francesco Merlo in “La Repubblica”, February 26th – this law has the same epochal importance as the law on divorce and the law that regulates abortion”.

Pope: "Yes, we can speak today of an Arab invasion [of Europe]"


In his interview with French religious periodical La Vie, Pope Francis was asked about the current situation in Europe, and this was his response:

Catholic Bible Online: The Douay-Rheims, Knox and Clementine Vulgate in one website

(Originally posted on March 1, 12:04 PM)


Baronius Press has just launched a new website: www.CatholicBible.Online, with the full texts of the Clementina Vulgata, the Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision, 1899 printing) and the Knox Bible

Each of these three Bibles can be viewed separately under their respective tabs, or side by side:

"Spotlight"? Filled with Malice and Hiding the Deep Causes of the Abuse Crisis

Opinions and Customs
Juan Manuel de Prada
ABC (Madrid)
February 28, 2016 (excerpts)

American cinema has stopped being memorable for a long while; yet, as it happens with dead stars that once shone greatly, it produces once in a while sparks that keep alive the illusion of its power. Many of the films that were nominated for the Oscars this year were but subproducts created to smooth the way for the social engineering designed by Globalism, according to the formula established by Rousseau: "Correct the opinions of men, and their customs will be purified by themselves."

For the record: The Supreme Pontiff visits drug rehabilitation center

Hugging time: Pope Francis visits drug rehabilitation center outside of Rome (CNS/L'Osservatore Romano)
Full story here.

Reminder: Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society


This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. We now stand at 71 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the souls. 

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 Souls enrolled in the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society."

The overwhelming majority of our priests are diocesan with all the time crunches that parish life brings. So we are making a special plea today for you traditional order priests -- join the Society! Our traditional Mass only priests must lead by example. This is a great way to do just that. We are only asking for one TLM a week or a month. Nothing more. 

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.

For the record: Bishop Schneider in England, New President of Juventutem

Items sent to us in the past few days:


Breaking News: Cardinal Gerhard Müller Corrects Idea of Allowing Holy Communion for “Remarried” Divorcees

[A guest article courtesy of Maike Hickson.]

On 27 October, shortly after the end of the controversial Synod of Bishops on the Family, I reported on the important role which the German-speaking language group had played in finding a supposed compromise between the Kasper and the Mueller camp, Cardinal Walter Kasper being in favor of the admittance of the “remarried” divorcees to Holy Communion, Cardinal Gerhard Müller – head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – being a defender of the traditional teaching of the Church. The compromise had found its way into the final report of the Synod, namely into paragraph 84-85 which Cardinal Raymond Burke afterwards criticized for its ambiguity. According to Edward Pentin: