Sermon for Laetare Sunday: The Law cannot save us

From the Epistle to the Galations: "But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother."

It is rare that all the Propers on a particular Sunday resonate with the same theme.  The Introit sounds the theme for today: " Laetare Jerusalem: rejoice, O Jerusalem; and come together all  you who love her; rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow; that you may exult and rejoice in the breasts of your consolation." The flowers on the altar, the rose vestments, the playing of the merry organ and sweet singing in the choir: all mark this Sunday, Laetare Sunday, that is the mid-point of Lent. This is not just a matter of looking forward to Easter.  The Gospel is the feeding of the five-thousand, that miracle of Jesus that has always been understood as a foreshadowing, a symbol of the Eucharist, that sacramental gift that always is a source of strength and a cause of joy. This cause of joy is with us now; it is the greatest element of the Catholic sacramental life.  O taste and see the real presence of the Lord in our lives, in our bodies, in our souls.

The New Head of the New Ecclesia Dei: Msgr. Descourtieux

The new head of the former Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, transformed in a section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) by the recent motu proprio of the pope, is Monsignor Patrick Descourtieux, who already works at CDF and had for a long time contributed to the work of the Commission.

A priest of the Archdiocese of Paris, Msgr. Descourtieux was ordained in 1986, and has been in Rome since 1989, returning to Paris in certain periods. An excellent organist, he played at San Luigi dei Francesi for 5 years. He was also the rector of Trinità dei Monti, and has taught at the Augustinianum. He has a good knowledge of the Traditional Liturgy and was one of the priests delegated to celebrate the Traditional Mass in the Archdiocese of Paris.

Our friends in France tell us this is excellent news. Let's hope so!

(Tip and information from Le Salon Beige)

New re-print: the Parish Ritual

Preserving Christian Publications has brought out a beautiful reprint of a book once almost as  to the work of a priest as the Missal or Breviary: the Parish Ritual.

Published in the USA in 1962, it is the equivalent to the Small Ritual published in England in 1964. It is an extract from the Missal and the Roman Ritual, containing the texts needed by a priest for weddings, baptisms, and funerals, Extreme Unction, receptions of converts, and a large number of blessings (of Rosaries, the Miraculous Medal, Holy Water, etc. etc.), all in a handy format worthy of use in the liturgy itself.

Event: Institute of Christ the King Lenten day of recollection for young adults

Video: Francis, If you don't want to be the Vicar of Christ, then get out of there!

These people are not kissing Jorge Mario Bergoglio, it is not all about him, and his person, as he seems to think.

They want to kiss Peter, the Vicar of Christ. It's monstrous to deny them that.

Nulla in mundo pax sincera

Antonio Vivaldi - Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera, RV 630 - aria (1/3)

Aria

Nulla in mundo pax sincera

sine felle; pura et vera,

dulcis Jesu, est in te

Inter poenas et tormenta

vivit anima contenta

casti amoris sola spe,

 

Rorate interviews Professor Roberto de Mattei

Rorate interviews Professor Roberto de Mattei regarding Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s analysis on the subject of a heretic Pope.

Friday, March 22, 2019

 - Professor de Mattei, would you care to give us your opinion on the study His Excellency Monsignor Schneider made on a “heretic Pope”?

- I consider it an important document. Firstly, Monsignor Schneider is one of the most esteemed among contemporary bishops for his patristic culture and personal piety. Secondly, the subject is of very great interest and Monsignor Schneider had the courage to address it openly, unambiguously and uncompromisingly.

- Regarding this document, what points do you most agree with?

- First of all, I agree completely with Monsignor Schneider when he admits the possibility that a Pope can “promote doctrinal errors or heresies”, even if never ex cathedra. The hypothesis of a heretic pope is not only sustained by almost all theologians and canonists, but it is also a historical fact which occurred for example, with Pope Honorius, and which can tragically be repeated. Another point that Monsignor Schneider clarifies well, in the light of Church teaching, is the stance that is to be taken when faced with a heretical Pope. "In dealing with the tragic case of a heretical pope, all the members of the Church, beginning with the bishops, down to the simple faithful, have to use all legitimate means, such as private and public corrections of the erring pope, constant and ardent prayers and public professions of the truth in order that the Apostolic See may again profess with clarity the Divine truths, that the Lord entrusted to Peter and to all his successors."  It is not enough to pray in silence, as if nothing has happened. 

We need to resist and react. And the best way is that of fraternal correction, which is chiefly up to the bishops and cardinals, but which also ordinary lay-people can extend to the Pontiff, as happened with the Correctio filialis.  I quote: "In this issue the numerical factor is not decisive. It is sufficient to have even a couple of bishops proclaiming the integrity of Faith and correcting thereby the errors of a heretical pope. It is sufficient that bishops instruct and protect their flock from the errors of a heretical pope and their priests and the parents of Catholic families will do the same.” I agree completely with Monsignor Schneider when he states that: “even if a pope is spreading theological errors and heresies, the Faith of the Church as a whole will remain intact because of the promise of Christ concerning the special assistance and permanent presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the truth, in His Church (cf. John 14: 17; 1 John 2: 27)".  

A Modest Proposal to Cardinal Marx - by Groucho

Dear Cardinal Marx:

I write to you as someone who shares your name.  People would never associate me with you, those who remember me, but I know we share something important in our shared name.  I write to you not as someone who shares your faith but rather as someone who recognizes in you that we are share things in common. I never learned German, just Yiddish when I was a boy in New York, so forgive me if I do not write to you in German. Where I am the language is sketchy and communication is not the easiest thing.  But I know about your latest crusade to bring the moral teaching of the Catholic Church in line with that of the contemporary world.  This is a most admirable project, and I want to be of help in achieving your goal.  

Rorate interviews Evelyn Oliver, author of an imaginative and robustly Catholic novel

Can fiction serve faith? The Egyptian Guide: From Jihad to Joy

Rorate Caeli: Yours is a book in between two rivers, the Nile and the Thames. The plot takes us alternatively to contemporary Egypt and England. The literary pattern is transit, from one bank to the opposite one, and more generally from one river to the other. Behind the eventful itinerary of your main character, Clara, could the watermark (no pun intended) be the Book of Exodus, when the Chosen People leaves the Nile and the Red Sea behind, making their (tortuous) way towards the River Jordan? 

Evelyn Oliver: I wish London were the Promised Land! But yes, the book is about journeying from sin to grace. I didn’t intend the two rivers as a literary pattern though. I was born near one and raised near another: it must have influenced me. In retrospect however, I admit that the Nile and the Thames offer a variation on the theme of crossing. Each river is an axis along which the story takes Clara successively to a busy capital city (Cairo and London), a haven (Osly in Sudan, by a ford, and Henley-on-Thames, near a lock) and a martyr’s shrine (Alexandria and Marlow). 

Fontgombault Sermon for the Feast of SAINT BENEDICT: "May the Singing of the Earth keep ascending towards Heaven!"

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

(Fontgombault, March 21, 2019)

What will therefore our share be?

Matthew 19:27

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

The very human question St. Peter asks the Lord is quite welcome, and it should reassure us. Peter had not waited to put this question to himself, on the day when, egged on by his brother Andrew, he had followed a man on the shore of the Tiberias Sea who was presented to him as the Messiah.

Every day, either very early in the morning, or in the evening, Peter and his friends, on the shore of this lake, after a night or a day of work, asked themselves what share the housewives of Capernaum and the surrounding cities would take of the fresh fish they would be offering them. They also wondered how they would share out the profits of the fishing. What therefore would their share be?

Today, Peter sees the rich young man go away with sadness. This young man was not like the Galilee fishermen, he had great wealth. And he was a righteous man, who had kept God’s commandments from his youth. Jesus Himself loved him. Yet, when the Master invited him to relinquish his wealth to follow Him… No, he really could not. That was too much. The treasure promised to him in Heaven was not worth the treasure possessed on this earth. Or rather, possessed by his own treasure, the young man was no longer able to detach himself from it so as to possess another treasure.

At Long Last: After Many Years, a Permanent Diocesan Traditional Latin Mass in Portugal

São Nicolau, Baixa, Lisbon

In 2011, we made a special post, prompted by the desperation of many local readers, on the complete absence of a regular diocesan Traditional Latin Mass in Portugal:

"...o Dogma da Fé..."

Until when will Rome let Portuguese Bishops get away with ignoring the motu proprio?

Rome, Madrid, Paris, Bern, Vienna, Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, : what do all these cities have in common?

They are the capital cities of great and historic nations in Western Europe; and they all have at least one Diocesan Traditional Mass at least every Sunday.

[IMPORTANT] Guest Op-Ed - Bishop Schneider: On the question of a heretical pope

Note: We urge everyone to reprint, post and share this important Op-Ed -- published first here at Rorate Caeli -- far and wide. And we urge you to keep reading beyond the "Read more" link as His Excellency lays out a plausible case for future binding canonical norms to address a "heretical or a manifestly heterodox pope":

By Bishop Athanasius Schneider

Special to Rorate Caeli

March 20, 2019

On the question of a heretical pope

The issue of how to handle a heretical pope, in concrete terms, has not yet been treated in a manner which approaches anything like a true general consent in the entire Catholic tradition. So far, neither a pope nor an Ecumenical Council has made relevant doctrinal pronouncements nor have they issued binding canonical norms regarding the eventuality of how to handle a heretical pope during the term of his office.

There is no historical case of a pope losing the papacy during his term of office due to heresy or alleged heresy. Pope Honorius I (625 - 638) was posthumously excommunicated by three Ecumenical Councils (the Third Council of Constantinople in 681, the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, and the Fourth Council of Constantinople in 870) on the grounds that he supported the heretical doctrine of those who promoted Monotheletism, thereby helping to spread this heresy. In the letter with which Pope Saint Leo II (+ 682 - 683) confirmed the decrees of the Third Council of Constantinople, he declared the anathema on Pope Honorius (“anathematizamus Honorium”), stating that his predecessor “Honorius, instead of purifying this Apostolic Church, permitted the immaculate faith to be stained by a profane treason.” (Denzinger-Schönmetzer, n. 563)

The Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum, a miscellaneous collection of formularies used in the papal chancery until the eleventh century, contains the text for the papal oath, according to which every new pope, upon taking office, had to swear that he “recognized the sixth Ecumenical Council, which smote with eternal anathema the originators of the heresy (Monotheletism), Sergius, Pyrrhus, etc., together with Honorius." (PL 105, 40-44)

In some Breviaries until the 16^th or the 18^th centuries, Pope Honorius was mentioned as a heretic in the lessons of Matins for June 28th, the feast of Saint Leo II: “In synodo Constantinopolitano condemnati sunt Sergius, Cyrus, Honorius, Pyrrhus, Paulus et Petrus, nec non et Macarius, cum discipulo suo Stephano, sed et Polychronius et Simon, qui unam voluntatem et operationem in Domnino Jesu Christo dixerunt vel praedicaverunt.” The persistence of this Breviary reading through many centuries shows that it was not considered scandalous by many generations of Catholics, that a particular pope, and in a very rare case, was found guilty of heresy or of supporting heresy. In those times, the faithful and the hierarchy of the Church could clearly distinguish between the indestructibility of the Catholic Faith divinely guaranteed to the Magisterium of the See of Peter and the infidelity and treason of a concrete pope in the exercise of his teaching office.

Ite ad Ioseph (Prayer for the Pope Emeritus on his 'Name Day')

In festo Sancti Ioseph,
Eum deprecemur pro Beatissimo Papa Emerito Nostro Benedicto

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.

A Leone XIII scripta

Support the Rebuilding of the Norcia Monastery

Dear Friends of Rorate Caeli:

The support of the rebuilding of the Monastery of San Benedetto in Monte is vital to the Traditional Mass movement within the Church. Reform of the Church has in the past come form the monasteries. As a firm supporter and admirer of this Monastery since its founding, I have no doubt that San Benedetto in Monte will play such a role in the Church in the immediate future. Please read the communication from the Monastery below. I would suggest to you all that you make a generous gift to the Monastery as part of your Lenten sacrifice. I shall be visiting the monastery in the near future to perhaps give some talks to the monks and to take advantage spiritually of living with them in their daily life based on the worship of God.

Oremus pro invicem.

Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

***

Dear friends and family, Construction has started on the new monastery, but on the most unlikely of sections: the laundry room! While washing our monastic habits and linens is indeed important, the reason that the building work is starting here is nearly 500 years old. When the Capuchin monastery was first built, the laundry room was constructed in a retaining wall which also channeled fresh mountain water to the monastery. We are trying to rebuild the monastery as faithfully as possible according to the ancient plan. That means that we too are building the laundry room in conjunction with the retaining wall.

St. Michael's School: Get to Know and Support this Traditional Catholic School in England

Sent to Rorate:

We are St Michael's School, a Traditional Catholic School in the United Kingdom, the only of its kind in the country. We would like to reach out to families desperate to find a school that will help their children grow in the faith.

The school is located in Newbury, England (Google Maps); there is a boarding house for boys. The school prospectus is available here.

(Click for larger view)

Bp Egan of Portsmouth recently visited and said the rosary with the pupils.

Divinum Officium - Looking for help - Besoin d'aide

The Divinum Officium Project is seeking assistance with the following projects. An honorarium will be offered.

All of the following projects would require at least a working knowledge of GitHub and a basic knowledge of the structure of the traditional Missal and Breviary.

1. Development of an Android and iOS app. This would be a simple app, which would in itself display the entire website, including the Git-controlled raw texts themselves. Therefore, the app could then also function as a test suite and have a means for users to submit corrections via pull request.

Requiem for a Wicked Man

Godfried Danneels, Cardinal-Archbishop emeritus of Mechlin-Brussels, died today in Mechlin.

The Great Elector of Francis was a key figure of the abuse crisis (see here and here). As the towering figure of the St-Gallen Mafia, he was behind both the fall of Benedict XVI and the election of Francis.

Shall not the light of the wicked be extinguished, and the flame of his fire not shine?

Guest Article: Guelphs and Gibellines Revisited

GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES REVISITED

Charles A. Coulombe

"There is no Christian prince left. These other countries are even as Britain, or else sunk deeper still in the disease."

"Then we must go higher. We must go to him whose office it is to put down tyrants and give life to dying kingdoms. We must call on the Emperor."

"There is no Emperor."

---C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

     When I was young, “Guelphs and Ghibellines” was such a phrase as “Hatfields and McCoys,” “Cops and Robbers,” “Montagues and Capulets,” and “Cowboys and Indians” – a stock line indicating two irreconcilable groups. To-day I do not know if most college age people would recognise any of these folk. Nevertheless, the first-named are key to understanding a great deal of Medieval European history; on the other hand, the recent rift between the Orthodox Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow and the scandals in the Catholic Church bring the issues over which their long-ago battles were fought back into focus. 

Una Voce New Mexico - Lenten Concert in Santa Fe on March 23, 2019

As part of ongoing efforts to introduce people to the beauty and richness of the Catholic Faith, Una Voce New Mexico is hosting a concert for Lent: Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ. The event will take place in Santa Fe on Saturday, March 23, at 7 pm. See poster below for further details.

ARCHBISHOP LUIGI NEGRI – Our certainty is this: Christ is with us

a lenten meditation

The Lenten journey has to be made by men who have their hearts filled with one certainty. This certainty, which reconciles with everyday existence, is that Christ is with us: in a close embrace, an embrace that no human or supernatural power can ever loosen.

Life then is not an individual running around in search of reality; it is not a determination to express one’s needs and intentions the most adequate way possible. Life is a gift that is given every day by the grace of Christ present in His Church.

Therefore our prime Lenten approach is that of submission to this certainty: living this reality. The reality of life is not that of taking off by ourselves into the world in the effort to conquest goodness knows what;  life is a gift, bestowed on us, which we have to embrace with all the power of understanding and love we have in our hearts. This certainty – that if Christ is with us nobody can be against us – is the intellectual and moral foundation – but I’d like to say even the psychological and emotional foundation – of the Christian life.

Francis Besmirches and Humiliates our Spotless Mother, the Holy Catholic Church

The Church

The technique is old: the criminal accuses the innocent in order to create the impression that all are to blame. "In this they are accusing the Church of something for which their own conscience plainly reproaches them," as Saint Pius X warned about the Modernists in Pascendi.

In a meeting with the clergy of Rome in the Lateran Basilica yesterday, the Bishop of the City, Francis, had the temerity to say this while discussing the abuse crisis, of which he is surely a protagonist:

Events: Dr. Kwasniewski’s Australia Lecture Tour, March 27 – April 7, 2019

Today I am pleased to be able to published the full schedule of my upcoming lecture tour under the auspices of the Latin Mass Society of Australia. Nine public events will be spread over six locations from March 27 to April 7 (full details below). I cordially invite area readers of Rorate Caeli to attend.

Fontgombault Sermon for Ash Wednesday 2019: "Who Will Fight For Truth?"

The Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

(Fontgombault, March 6th, 2019)

"Ubi est thesaurus tuus, ibi est et cor tuum."

Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.

Mt 6:16-21

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
My dearly beloved Sons,

To those who come close to the time of Lent, already overwhelmed by the prospect of the traditional forms of penance they are going to have to carry out, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, today’s Gospel doesn’t seem to bring much comfort.

Through a two-fold teaching, the Church, as she repeats the Lord’s words, gives to the faithful at the beginning of the most important period in the liturgical year a precious and uncompromising line of conduct, which hunts down to its very tiniest recesses the slight compensations we would like to find to soften somewhat the austerities of penance.

Lent is coming (it's here!): Time to prepare -- start here!

Reposting this -- it's not too late!
---------------------
Original post:

Lent starts on Wednesday and we're running out of time to prepare. Here is a great place to start. Below are TWO fine resources to get you started and inspired to make this Lent fruitful. 

First, as we do every year, we bring to your attention this wonderful, traditional, five-part Lenten Mission by the holy and learned Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea. While it is not short, it does go by very quickly, and is easy to follow and understand. It's clear, concise and bold.

Click on each of the five themes of the mission: Prelude to the Mission * On Death * On Judgment * On Hell * On Heaven

Second, if you don't have a specific plan for Lent ahead of time, even better a written plan, you're really not prepared.

These links take you to to a one-page fillable plan for you to prepare for the season. You may consider praying on this over the weekend and filling in the sheets by Tuesday. Don't let Ash Wednesday sneak up on you without a plan in place.

CLICK HERE for English

CLICK HERE for French

CLICK HERE for German

CLICK HERE for Italian

CLICK HERE for Spanish

De Mattei interview in “La Verità”: Dear Church, quit being “gay friendly” and go back to being sovereign

On Monday March 4, the daily newspaper “La Verità” published an interview Professor Roberto de Mattei gave to Ignazio Mangrano.  It carried as its headline “Dear Church, quit being ‘gay-friendly’ and become sovereign.”  Below we report the full text of the interview. 

Dear Church, quit being ‘gay-friendly’ and become sovereign. 

Professor Roberto de Mattei, President of the Fondazione Lepanto and director of the journal Radici Cristiane, is one of the promoters of the Acies ordinate demonstration that lined up a hundred Catholics from all over the world in Piazza San Silvestro on February 19^th, for a silent protest against the Vatican summit on sexual abuse.  

Professor, was the Vatican summit a success or a failure?

I believe it was a failure. The major media outlets exposed it as such, by reporting that the message was weak and by underlining the dissatisfaction of the victims. I, however, believe the failure was due to something else.

What?

It focused on the symptoms, not the causes of the evil.

Please explain.

The central point, which was already revealed in the Viganò testimony was neglected: the diffusion of homosexuality in the Church as an organized phenomenon.   

Is there a “gay lobby” in the Church?

Yes, there is. It seems to me quite evident.

Evident?

Most of the abuses by the clergy concerned adolescent males, not children. So, if homosexuality wasn’t mentioned at the summit, the only explanation is that there is extremely strong pressure to ensure that the subject be avoided.

Lent Starts Tomorrow: It makes clear that "Christianity is as old as the world" (Lacordaire)

Ecce ascendimus Ierosolymam, et consummabuntur omnia quæ scripta sunt per prophetas de Filio hominis. (From the Gospel for the last Sunday before Lent, the Sunday in Quinquagesima, Luke xviii, 31: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man.)

Christianity is as old as the world; for it consists, essentially, in the idea of a God -- Creator, Legislator, and Savior -- and in a life conformable to that idea. Now, God manifested himself to the human race from the beginning under the threefold relation of Creator, Legislator, and Savior, and from the beginning, from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Jesus Christ, there have been men who lived conformably with this idea of God.

Three times before Jesus Christ, God manifested himself to men in this threefold character: by Adam, the first father of the human race; by Noah, the second father of the human race; and by Moses, the lawgiver of a People whose influence and existence have mixed them up with all the destinies of mankind.

There exists, however, a fact not less remarkable, namely, that Christianity only started its reign in the world eighteen hundred years ago, with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ appears to have been the first who brought light into the world. Before him, as Saint John said, "it shined in darkness". But what is the cause of this? How is it that Christianity, vanquished in the world before Jesus Christ, has been victorious in it since his coming? How is it that Christianity, before Jesus Christ, "did not hinder the nations from following their ways", and that Jesus Christ, on the contrary, was able to pronounce that sentence of eternal victory, "In mundo pressuram habebitits, sed confidite, ego vici mundum"?

Notice: Solemn High Mass for the Persecuted Church in China on Anniversary of Cardinal Kung's Death

Friday March 8, in commemoration of the Nineteenth Anniversary of the death of Ignatius Cardinal Kung, there will be a Solemn Latin High Mass offered for the Underground Church in China which has been persecuted for 70 years.

This persecution has reportedly intensified since the signing of the Provisional Vatican-China Agreement in October 2018.

Mass will be celebrated by the Rev. Cyprian P. La Pastina on Friday, March 8, 2019 at 7PM at the Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist, Stamford, Connecticut.

On the 80th Anniversary of the Election of Pius XII - His prophetic words about a "Church which weakens the Law of God."

The College of Cardinals assembled in conclave, elected Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli pope exactly 80 years ago, March 2, 1939.

He was the last Roman Pope. And, unlike many of his successors, a man of a truly saintly life.

In this time of new persecutions against Christians by Islamicists, secularists, and sexual anarchists, and of a pope who so openly emboldens and gives comfort to these and other enemies of Holy Mother Church, while shirking his duty to confirm his brethren in the faith, we publish in English translation (below) the prophetic words of the Venerable Pope Pius XII in his address Ancora una volta given on February 20, 1949 to the people of Rome, condemning the persecution of Christians in Eastern Europe by the socialist and communist dictatorships. 

Pius XII warns of "a Church which weakens the law of God, adapting it to the taste of human desires, when she should loudly proclaim and defend it" and which would give herself over to "the shifting sands of the opinions of the day."  He asks: "Would you recognize in such a Church the features of your Mother’s face? Can you imagine a Successor of the first Peter, who would bow to similar demands?" Can anyone now deny that we live in just such a time as this?

New, free Mass Cards for the RC Purgatorial Society (and more good news)!

Thanks to our kind and wonderful graphic artist M., and thanks to a reader who took it upon himself to provide some of the translation, we now have two new, "fillable" and free Mass Cards for our Purgatorial Society -- one with the prayer at the bottom in Latin and one with the prayer (and the entire card) in Spanish. The Mass Cards are for you to give to the family and friends of the deceased person(s) you enrolled and let them know you are praying for them and that our Society priests are saying Masses for them and the other enrolled Souls.You may consider enrolling Souls and giving their loved ones these cards as an act of charity this Lent. 

   CLICK HERE to download in Latin *** CLICK HERE to download in Spanish

And there's more good news: We added yet another fine priest to the Society's roster and now stand at 90 priests currently saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls. Come on Fathers, let's get this to 100!

Guest Article: A Paradigm of Unfolding: An Analogy between Christ’s Holy Shroud and Divine Revelation

Rorate is pleased to present this article by the author of Ego Eimi – It is I, Falling in Eucharistic Love, and the editor of the magazine Dowry.

A Paradigm of Unfolding: An Analogy between Christ’s Holy Shroud and Divine Revelation

by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP

All along Church history, new doctrinal statements are issued as part of the Magisterium, in fulfilment of the Church’s teaching mission. In what sense are they new? Never can such pronouncements contradict earlier ones. They can only make more explicit what has always been part of Divine Revelation, consisting of Scripture and Tradition. The Hierarchy of the Church and Her theologians gradually unfold Revealed Truth, after the parable of Our Lord: ‘Every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old’ (Matthew 13:52). The data is not to be invented or imported, even less construed, but merely expounded under the guidance of the Holy Ghost: ‘The Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you’ (John 14:26).