Event: Archbishop Chaput to visit FSSP parish in Conshohocken, Pa.

Sermon for St. Ann’s Day 2019

In July of 1931, the New York World-Telegram reported about the miraculous cure of the young son of Hugh F. Gaffney.  The boy, who lived at 348 East 18th Street, was stricken with paralysis.  A relic of St. Ann, namely the bone of a finger, was brought to his hospital bed, where, according to the newspaper, after being touched by the bone, the invalid was cured.  The thought that a New York newspaper today would print such a story boggles the mind.  Militant secularism under the guise of liberalism, a liberalism that barely tolerates the Catholic Church, would see this as fake news and perhaps harmful to its world picture.

St. Ann’s church was located just a couple of blocks from this church, on East 12th Street, here in Manhattan. The building had an interesting history:  Baptist church, Episcopal Church, Jewish Synagogue, and then Catholic church.  When the church became too small for the size of the parish, the decision was made to rebuild the entire church in the French gothic style but to keep the original façade.  The new church was dedicated in 1871, and the New York Times called it “among the most beautiful and costly churches in this City”.  They compared it to the elegant and fashionable Grace Episcopal church in the same area of the City, which, by the way is still standing as we speak. Alas, St. Ann’s fell victim to a decision of the Archdiocese of New York to close the parish and to sell the property.  The property was bought by a developer in 2005.  The church was demolished, despite outcries from preservationist and local residents, and on that site New York University built a 26 story dormitory.  As a sop to the preservationists, NYU kept part of the façade of St. Ann’s, and it stands there today, as someone in a guide to New York City said, like a “majestic elk, shot and stuffed”.

Second Traditional Family Congress in Spain

The second Traditional Liturgy Congress 'Vayamos Jubilosos' for families took place in Avila, Spain, from the 11th of July until the 14th of July.

The Jesuits officially embrace Communism

When your once-great religious order is dying, and the face of your magazine is James Martin, LGBTSJ, you may as well jump off the cliff.

America magazine, the journal of the U.S. Jesuits, has just published an essay by its Toronto correspondent entitled "The Catholic Case for Communism."

Its Jesuit editor has an accompanying piece attempting to say America magazine does not necessarily endorse communism just because it has published a lengthy essay in favor of communism.  This is a laughable argument, considering the magazine or website does not publish pieces favoring, for instance, the traditional Latin Mass.  In fact, even when it publishes an article favoring something traditional, such as the Latin language, it must contain socially leftist remarks in the piece.  This is the only way an essay gets published in America magazine.

Finding one’s predominant fault

By Fr Konrad Loewenstein, FSSP

Dowry, FSSP Periodical

N. 41, Spring 2019

1. Its Nature

Each of us has a particular temperament which encompasses our whole manner of feeling, judging, sympathizing, willing, and acting. This temperament is to be perfected in each one of us by the practice of the Christian virtues. What can impede this work of perfection, and even bring each of us to our eternal ruin, is what is known as "the Predominant Fault".

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange OP describes it as "our domestic enemy dwelling in our interior... at times it is like a crack in a wall that seems to be solid but is not so: like a crevice, imperceptible at times but deep, in the beautiful facade of a building, which a vigorous jolt may shake to the foundations." Like a crack, we may notice our predominant fault, but think that it is just on the surface, and does not go deep; or we may have seen it in the past but just painted it over and now we do not see it any more. Prudence dictates that, if we see a crack in a wall, we examine it and see whether it does in fact go deeper: perhaps there is a structural problem which threatens the whole edifice.

Some examples of the predominant fault are moral weakness, sloth, gluttony, sensuality, irascibility, and pride. Our predominant fault can inform and colour our entire temperament, and compromise our predominant virtue which is, to quote Fr Garrigou-Lagrange again, "a happy inclination of our nature" which should develop and increase by Grace. This predominant virtue should itself determine our temperament.

You Report: New chapter of Una Voce in the Washington, D.C. region

We are pleased to pass along this note from the new Northern Virginia chapter of Una Voce:

We would be delighted if Rorate could let its readership know about the newly-formed Chapter of Una Voce of NoVA. One of our Chapter’s objectives is to build a strong membership base in the Virginia-DC-Maryland-WV region, with the formation of local subchapters throughout the area. 

Saint Joseph Una Voce has been gathering with other like-minded Catholics at St. Peter Catholic Church in Washington, VA, on First Saturday mornings after hearing the 8:30 am Tridentine Mass, generously offered by the pastor, Fr. Kevin Beres. With Father's kind permission, a Meet and Greet pot-luck brunch follows, where old, new, and prospective members can meet and socialize. During brunch, an informal conversation ensues in which new goals and advancements are discussed.

Also, we are launching our speaker program, in which well-respected Catholic speakers are being invited to speak on topics of interest to our membership and friends. At present, we are finalizing plans for a popular speaker and hope to have the details published soon. Please check back to our website, under the News and Events tab, for the most current information. 

https://www.unavocevirginia.com

Do visit our website. We invite you to see the endorsements of some of the faithful prelates, clergy, and laity who have enthusiastically encouraged our efforts.

MISSION STATEMENT

Video: What happens when Radical Leftists meet Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament? They flee

This scene is quite remarkable:

Campus Marxists vs Catholic Procession💪✝️ pic.twitter.com/UHhCphNfgh

— Wojciech Pawelczyk 🇵🇱🇺🇸 (@PolishPatriotTM) July 21, 2019

"Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble."
(James 2:19)

FIUV Position Papers now a book: 'The Case for Liturgical Restoration'

Long-standing readers of Rorate Caeli will remember the series of 'Position Papers' published by me on this blog on behalf of the FIUV: Una Voce International (Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce). These were short but well-referenced discussions of rather specific issues connected with the Traditional Mass: why the priest celebrates ad orientem, what the Mass can do for the evangelisation of Africa, or why we should reconsider the Eucharistic Fast. The series concluded with number 33, on the 1955 Holy Week reform, in two parts.

With the help of Angelico Press and its editors, these have now been thoroughly revised, corrected, and made more consistent and readable, and published as a book:

The Case for Liturgical Restoration: Una Voce Studies on the Traditional Latin Mass; with a Preface by Cardinal Burke.

Buy the book here (in the UK), or at Amazon (in the USA); here is the publisher's page.

See a review by Charles Coulombe on NLM.

"You know, as Catholics we've been awfully quiet all these years. I am so tired of you, liberal church in America!"

Has the largest Catholic television network in the United States, EWTN, "gone rogue"? 

You would think so, judging from the increasingly vocal attacks of the extreme liberals, the Modernists and heretics who support every Francis move, against this great work of evangelization created almost ex nihilo by Mother Angelica. We know so many Traditional Catholics who began their journey to, or back to, the Church with EWTN. Unfortunately, it has very rarely featured the Traditional Mass (probably due to pressures and circumstances beyond its control), but the work it promotes is mostly solid.

In its news programs, EWTN has retained an informed and measured view of the insanity promoted by and under the current Pontiff. Many good people have been pushed over the edge by the bizarre behavior, words, and documents produced by Francis or under his name. It is good that EWTN retains enough independence to portray things as they are: after all, the Catholic Church is not a cult under a capricious figure, but a bulwark of Truth, reason, and reasonableness. 

Musings on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - by Father Richard Cipolla

Last year I made the double pilgrimage for the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel:  first to the parish dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Newark, New Jersey, once a strong Italian parish with roots that extended to the Old Country and the devotion to Nostra Signora di Monte Carmelo, and then over the George Washington Bridge to Manhattan to the Midnight Mass for her feast at her parish on East 115th Street in Manhattan.  This year I was not able to make this pilgrimage, and I regretted it.  For making this pilgrimage resonated with where I grew up, in an Italian ghetto in Providence, Rhode Island, a section called (ironically) Federal Hill, a Wasp name for a place where everyone spoke some dialect from southern Italy, where there were four Catholic churches in a row in less than a mile, three of which no longer exist.   I remember walking on Atwells Avenue on a hot summer night when it was impossible to sleep in a small bedroom on the third floor of our tenement house.  I remember passing each church, each church with its doors wide open, and peering in and seeing the flickering of the hundreds of votive lights.  I was at that time an Italian-American boy of ten years old, with the distinction of being Protestant in a local world that was so very Catholic that surrounded me. How my family became Protestant is still a mystery, whether in Italy after the Risorgimento or when my grandfathers came to this country.  We were deeply Italian, despite our virulent anti-Catholic Protestantism.  Our ministers were all ex-Catholic priests, who would give half hour sermons, half of which would be rants against the Catholic Church.  We never ate meat on Friday.  The fish truck would come to our neighborhood, the pescivendolo would get out of his truck and blow his horn, and all the housewives in their housedresses would come down the stairs and buy fish, usually cod, for seventy-nine cents a pound.  We had home-made zeppole on St. Joseph’s Day.  We had a feast of seven fishes on Christmas Eve.  But after the meal we did not go to Midnight Mass.

But I remember the devotion to our Lady of Mount Carmel in our neighborhood, with the procession with the statue, Mary holding her Child.   I remember the fireworks when her statue came out of the church to begin the procession.  So how could I not be moved when as a Catholic priest (mirabile dictu!)  in Newark last year when the image of our Lady of Mount Carmel was carried outside of the church and was greeted with a riotous (albeit smaller than in the old days) display of fireworks, honoring her with light and sound.  And how wonderful to see the procession stop at people’s houses and have the family come out and give an offering in her honor—yes, pinning money onto her statue, something so un-American, so un-American because so un-Protestant.  And the Solemn Mass in the church, with a number of young priests who were discovering the Tradition of the Catholic Church. And then over the bridge to the Midnight Mass on 115th street in Harlem, to a parish so intimately involved with the Italian immigration of the early twentieth century and that played such an important role in the survival of the Italian immigrants in New York City, the home of the Papal Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.   There were not many Italians in the congregation at the Solemn Mass (of course Traditional Mass) in Harlem.  There were mostly Haitians.  But they sang the Missa de Angelis with a fervor and resonance that I will never forget.  Again there were young priests and seminarians from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who were discovering for themselves the stuff of Catholicism, the smell of Catholicism, the uniqueness of Catholicism, the real ethnicity of Catholicism that transcends language and culture and time and space.

Compiègne: "To the poorest daughter of Carmel,honor speaks louder than fear."

Mother Marie: Sister Blanche...

First Commissary: I forbid you to continue...

Mother Marie: You have the power to force me to silence, but none to command me to it. I represent here the Reverend Mother Prioress and I shall take no orders from you.

A Commissary: Confounded old hag! She cannot be made to hold her tongue, fellow Citizen, but remind her that the Republic has a machine at its disposal that will leave her somewhat short of breath!

First Commissary: Enough! I repeat that you must behave as a true representative of the people! [He turns to Sister Blanche:] Young citizen, you have nothing to fear from us, who are your liberators! Say but one word, and you will find yourself beyond the sway of those who, to better put you in their power, have not feared to offend nature in usurping even the sacred name of "mother". Henceforth, you are under the protection of the Law.

Mother Marie: But she is first under my protection. Do you think I shall permit you to take any further advantage of the terror of a child? I shall take great care to avoid a language that you cannot understand. You know nothing of that which holds us here and keeps us united unto death - or, if once you knew it, it is now certainly forgotten. But there are still perhaps words which are common to us, and which can touch your conscience. Well, sir, you must know that to the poorest daughter of Carmel, honor speaks louder than fear.

Georges Bernanos
Dialogues des Carmélites

On the day following her feast, the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel would receive her dear French daughters, martyred for their faith in her Son and for their loyalty to His Church.

O glorious Martyrs of Compiègne, pray for us!

[Our regular July 17 homage.]
[Personal recess for several days]

Raising the Cross on the Summit of Grand Garde

The following is the translation of the original article by the FSSPX by a dear reader. Click here to read the full article in French and to see more pictures. 

Just over 10 years ago, on February 11, 2009, God called three seminarians of Ecône back to Him. In memory of these three young men, a cross was raised on the summit of Grand Garde in the Swiss Alps, which is directly across the valley from the seminary. The cross was blessed on June 18, 2019, in presence of the whole seminary, the families of the deceased and friends from the canton of Valais.

Preparation

The idea was first proposed in 2013, but remained in the planning stage until spring of 2018. It took a whole year to bring the project to fruition. The cross was made by a carpenter in Valais, another craftsman applied copper plating, a solid foundation had to be designed and prepared… this took a month.

The 70 kg metal base was flown up to the summit by helicopter, together with an air compressor and a drill. The base was sunk 1.6 metres deep into the rock. Another 105 kg had to be carried up by the seminarians.

Our Lady and the Scapular: In 1251, the most extraordinary event in English history

The Mother of God and her Divine Son appear to Saint Simon Stock in Cambridge -- 768 years ago today, in 1251: has there been any other moment in English history whose consequences have aided so many souls throughout the world achieve and keep holiness, reaching final perseverance? Men and women, made of flesh, need material reminders of the presence of God in their lives -- and what could be more profitable than the blessed physical sign that Our Lady's Mantle covers us at all times, that Her Divine Son keeps watch over us day and night?

Armatura
fortis pugnantium
furunt bella
tende praesidium
Scapularis.

Saint Elias, pray for us!
Saint Simon Stock, pray for us!
Queen of Mount Carmel, pray for us!
Et fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace. Amen.

(Our regular feature for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel)

The Jesuit Pimpernel: A book review by Fr Konrad Loewenstein, FSSP

Dowry

FSSP Quarterly

 Summer 2019, Issue N˚42

Fr John Gerard: The Jesuit Pimpernel Fr Gerard S.J. (1564 –1637) could have been the inspiration for Baroness Orczy’s celebrated novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) where in 1793 a chivalrous baronet masquerades as a fop to better delude French revolutionaries and save aristocrats from the guillotine. It was English Catholics though, whom Fr Gerard rescued from Elizabethan gaols, and many Anglicans whom he saved from the spiritual dungeon of schism and heresy, reconciling them with the Church of Christ at his life’s peril. Fr Konrad Loewenstein, FSSP reviews a too little-known classic autobiography of this heroic and humorous Englishman.

The book is a memorandum of the exploits of the Jesuit priest, Fr. John Gerard, on the English Mission in 1588, translated from the Latin by Fr. Caraman and first published by him with the title ‘John Gerard, portrait of an Elizabethan’ (perhaps a more felicitous title).

He arrives at night by boat, accompanied by three other priests, all destined for martyrdom. Posing as a falconer in search of a lost falcon, he is soon directed by Divine Providence into the arms of the most outspoken opponent of Anglicanism and the Elizabethan Reform in the county. The latter, an influential member of the local gentry, welcomes him into his home and helps him initiate an apostolate amongst friends and their servants in the other great houses in the area.

Ars Celebrandi, World's largest Traditional Liturgy conference, starts in Poland (with pictures)

The “Ars Celebrandi” liturgical workshops have started at the Marian shrine in Licheń, Poland

The “Ars Celebrandi” liturgical workshops started yesterday, on 11 July, at the Marian shrine in Licheń, Poland, with a solemn votive Mass and a procession with the litany of the saints for the intention of the workshops. This is the sixth edition of the world’s largest workshops of the traditional Roman Catholic liturgy.

VIDEO: Largest ever SSPX church to be built and the history of St. Mary's, Kansas

This video isn't short, but it's well worth your time. See a beautiful computer rendering of what will be the largest church the Society has ever built, as well as a wonderful history of St. Mary's, Kansas. If you're inspired, you may CLICK HERE to donate to the church fund. 

“Hyperpapalism and Liturgical Mutation: The Case Against the Novus Ordo” — Full Text of Dr. Kwasniewski’s Lepanto Lecture

Rorate is pleased to present the full text of the lecture given by Dr. Kwasniewski at the Lepanto Conference held in New York City on February 16, 2019. A video of this lecture may be found at this link. The text has been edited for publication.

Hyperpapalism and Liturgical Mutation: The Case Against the Novus Ordo

De Mattei: Is the principle of legality being extinguished in the Church?

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

July 10, 201

If Pope Francis should be accused of a crime by any judge, in any part of the world, he should divest himself of his office as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and submit himself to the judgment of a court. This is the logical and necessary conclusion to the stunning decision by which the Holy See denied diplomatic immunity to the French Apostolic Nuncio, Monsignor Luigi Ventura, accused of sexual molestations.

The Holy See could have discharged the Nuncio from his office, and, pending the outcome of the French justice system, initiate a canonical investigation on him, also for his own guaranty. The decision to dispatch the papal representative into the hands of a secular court, violates the institution of diplomatic immunity, the expression par excellence of the sovereignty, freedom and independence of the Church. That same diplomatic immunity, by the way, was invoked to protect the crimes committed in Italy by Pope Francis’s Almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski.

Saint Thomas More: "This indictment is grounded upon an Act of Parliament, directly oppugnant to the laws of God and his holy Church..."

All which notwithstanding the jury found him guilty, and incontinent upon the verdict the Lord Chancellor [for that matter chief commissioner] beginning in judgment against him, Sir Thomas More said to him,

"My Lord, when I was towards the law, the manner in such case was to ask the prisoner before judgment, why judgment should not be given against him."

Whereupon the Lord Chancellor staying his judgment, wherein he had partly proceeded, demanded of him what he was able to say to the contrary. Who then in this sort mildly made answer:

"Forasmuch as, my Lord, this indictment is grounded upon an Act of Parliament, directly oppugnant to the laws of God and his holy Church, the supreme government of which, or of any part thereof, may no temporal prince presume by any law to take upon him as rightfully belonging to the See of Rome, a spiritual preeminence by the mouth of our Saviour himself, personally present upon the earth, to St. Peter and his successors, bishops of the same see, by special prerogative, granted, it is therefore in law amongst Christian men insufficient to charge any Christian."...

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost: "Do not be afraid."

Fr. Richard Cipolla

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."  (Luke5:8)

This gospel seems straightforward.  Jesus wants to teach the crowd from a boat, sees that Simon’s boat is empty, asks him to pull out a little from the shore and starts speaking to the crowd.  When he is done, he tells Simon Peter to bring the boat into deeper water to get a good catch.  Simon explains that they have been trying all night long with no success. They are tired and discouraged.  But Simon does as Jesus tells him and they not only catch a lot of fish, but there are so many fish the  boats almost capsize.  The allegorical level so far would also seem obvious.  Peter’s boat is the Church, and to increase the number of followers of Jesus Christ, the Church cannot stay in the shallows but has to go out into the deep and trust in the Lord and there will be a huge increase in the members of Christ’s body that is the Church.

On the 12th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum: Benedict XVI once again placed the Church on the path of eternity and immortality.

For several decades now, we have lived in the "Tyranny of the Present". Tradition is forgotten and, precisely because it is forgotten, our responsibilities for the future are also dismissed. The liturgical experimentation that led to the Novus Ordo was the epitome of Vatican II: it has given the Catholic hierarchy the liturgical-theological basis for their current promotion of the "here and now" as the supreme aim of the Church.

With Summorum Pontificum, the most consequential pontifical legislative act since 1969, Benedict XVI upended this new materialistic logic: by opening the gates of the past, he once again placed the Church on the path of eternity and immortality.

There was a Church before the present reality, there will be a Church forever: and the Sacred Liturgy she celebrates here, with true Traditional and Apostolic imprint, has always been and should always be, not a reflection of the banality of the moment, but a prefiguration of her immortality as Bride of Christ and her Paschal Feast with the Lord for all Eternity, outside the limitations of our present existence.

Twelve years ago, we published the following text: we do not have reason to alter one iota of it. Priests, enjoy your freedom.

***

Summorum Pontificum: Axes of Interpretation

Peronism in the Church: "To the friend, everything. To the enemy, not even justice!" (Video)

In 2014, we said the following on the Francis Pontificate:

The current situation of ecclesiastical politics might perhaps be better understood by those who have a grasp of three important concepts in Hispanic (Spanish and Spanish-American) political tradition: Caudillismo, an ancient and powerful political concept, system, and idea that is deeply ingrained in the Hispanic mind and experience, regardless of the theoretical political system in place; Caciquismo, a very peculiar and mostly Latin American version of Caudillismo; and the Argentine hazy political sub-concept of Caudillismo and Caciquismo known as Peronismo, which transformed the highly successful Argentine Republic of the early 20th century into what it is today.

This week, we were sent a link to a video of Argentine tyrant Juan Domingo Perón in an interview conducted in July 1973, 46 years ago. This is what Perón says in the video:

Charles Carroll, Catholic Patriot: "My greatest satisfaction is that I have practiced the duties of my religion."

While the whole nation was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, on the 4th of July, 1826, "the year of Jubilee," there remained but three surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence — Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton. These three names were mingled with the songs of national joy, and saluted with peals of artillery. But two of the illustrious trio saw not another sun. Adams and Jefferson passed from the scenes of the earth that same day. Charles Carroll alone remained— the sole survivor of the fifty-six patriots of 1776!

The undivided homage of the United States was now reserved for the last of that glorious band. In the words of Lossing, "the good and the great made pilgrimages to his dwelling, to behold with their own eyes the venerable political patriarch of America; and from the rich storehouse of his intellect he freely contributed to the deficiencies of others." Six years more rolled by, and the great and good Charles Carroll of Carrollton went to receive the reward of the faithful servant. "Death softly touched him and he passed away," on the 14th of November, 1832.

A New and True Springtime is Coming: A Young Priest Explains his Love for the Traditional Mass

The following letter is written by a young priest who is a curate at a Novus Ordo parish in Fairfield, Connecticut.  Father Tim Iannacone, ordained in 2017, was a parishioner at Saint Mary's Church in Norwalk, CT, where he served at the altar at the Solemn Mass in the Extraordinary Form.  It was there that he discovered the Traditional Roman Mass, a discovery, as his letter explains, that changed his life. His pastor asked him to write this letter to the parishioners not only as an explanation of the Extraordinary Form but also as a personal witness to the power and beauty of the Traditional Roman Mass and its effect on his life and priesthood. Fr. Tim is but one example of young priests who are discovering the Traditional Roman Mass, who have learned how to celebrate that Mass, and are brining the Mass to the people in their parishes.  The Second Spring is real and alive within the Church.  Thanks be to God.

Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Fr. Sam is away with our youth group this week for the annual mission trip, and he’s asked me to take on the weekly bulletin column. I’d like to share with you a bit about the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the Traditional Latin Mass. Typically, the Latin Mass is offered here on Holy Days of Obligation and certain feast days throughout the year. As this form of the Mass is not commonly celebrated, I want to explain some of the reasons behind its use in our parish.

Reminder: Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society

This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. We added two new priests to the ranks in the last 30 days -- five total in the last two months -- and the Society now stands at 95 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls. Come on Fathers, let's get this to 100!

** Click here to download a "fillable" PDF Mass Card in English to give to the loved ones of the Souls you enroll. It's free for anyone to use. CLICK HERE to download in Latin and CLICK HERE to download in Spanish. 

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

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