Rorate Caeli

Conservative Fragility: Integralism on Review

I had been hoping to find time to write a detailed review of the excellent new book Integralism: A Manual of Political Philosophy by Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P., and Alan Fimister, published by Editiones Scholasticae. It is a compact, well-written, deftly argued, and remarkably comprehensive manual presenting, without embarrassment or attenuation, the traditional political philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church, with the social kingship of Jesus Christ, Lord of heaven and earth, at its core, and Christendom as its natural flowering and exemplar. Twelve chapters discuss: 1. Societies and the perfect society; 2. The common good and authority; 3. The family; 4. Servitude; 5. Temporal authority (1): its origin; 6. Temporal authority (2): its scope; 7. Law; 8. Forms of policy; 9. Political economy; 10. International relations; 11. The two swords; 12. The two cities.

Three New Martyrs for the Catholic Faith -- killed by Islamic terrorist inside a Basilica in Nice, France


No one wants to die a violent death. But, since Antiquity, Christians have received some comfort from the knowledge that those killed "in odium Fidei", even if not baptized, are Martyrs for Christ that enjoy the full presence of the Lord in Heaven immediately after death.


So, it is with great sadness that we received the news about a couple of hours ago of the most recent Islamist attack in France. This time, right before Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady (Notre-Dame) in Nice, two ladies and a gentleman who was helping at the sacristy were killed in hatred for our Holy Faith. One of the ladies, in her seventies, was beheaded. The police shot and caught the terrorist.


In such matters, we Catholics do not pray for their souls: No! We KNOW they are Martyrs, we KNOW they are in Heaven with Jesus Christ Our Lord, and we KNOW we can beg them for their intercession to Christ the King for the Church on earth -- in France, in Rome (where the Islamist threat is downplayed, and completely ignored by a negligent Bishop of Rome, who has abandoned the sheep), and throughout the world.


Dear Martyrs of October 2020: Pray for us!


*


France is at war. As in the 16th century, it is a religious war, and there are only two possible conclusions: either France becomes a completely Islamic state, or a Free Christian nation. It will be a long and bloody war. 


UPDATES:



Correction: the younger mother was a Brazilian 44-year-old.

Requiem Mass for All Souls Day in Baltimore


 

De Mattei: An appeal to the true elites against mediocrity

 Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

October 28, 2020


“The forming of an aristocracy of the soul, the mind and education, holding high the banner of the Catholic Counter-Revolution.”


Is there a correlation between the virus that has been assailing two billion people over the past ten months and the pandemic of errors that have infected the world for many decades?  In both cases we find ourselves faced with pathogenic agents attacking the social organism. In the first case the aggressor is a virus that attacks bodies and which only the microscope can identify; in the second case we have a germ that is infecting and corrupting souls but whose identity was revealed by Heaven in 1917, when Our Lady of Fatima declared that if mankind did not amend its ways, Russia would spread its errors and wars, revolutions and the annihilation of entire nations would have followed.

           

The Most Blessed Virgin Mary had before her eyes not only two terrifying world wars and hundreds of millions dead, victims of the Communist and National Socialist totalitarianisms, but also the present health crisis the world is experiencing, with all its political and social ramifications clearly emerging.  A perspective  - not of social control by a health dictatorship as many think – but on the contrary, of social collapse and even prior to that, of the psychological [collapse] of modern society, which by straying from God, has chosen the path of its own self- dissolution.

Is the Feast of Christ the King irrelevant today?



Once again we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King on the last Sunday in October in the calendar of the Traditional Roman Mass.  This addition of this feast to the Catholic Kalendar is quite recent.  It was instituted by Pope Pius XI after the physical and moral devastation of World War I, the war from which Europe never recovered.  The feast was promulgated by Pius XI on December 11, 1925.  It was preceded by his encyclical Ubi arcano Dei consilio in 1922 in which he attributed the tragic state of Europe to “the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to  submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations…In Matthew 28:18 Jesus himself says, ‘all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’  In Revelation 19:16 Christ is recognized as ‘King of kings and Lord of lords.'  Pius XI goes on to exhort the Catholic faithful to put the Kingship of Christ into practice by making Him the center of their lives. 

 

When we hear these words of the encyclical today, we must admit that there is a real reality gap that yawns between 1925 and 2020.  The gap does not deny the truth of the Pope’s words.  But he could not have dreamed of the deep secularization of the Western world that occurred especially after World War II.  The world in which we live is not only militantly secular: it is becoming openly anti-Christian.  And it is not merely those who are in positions of political and intellectual power who are in opposition to the Christian faith. The opposition also comes from leaders of the Catholic Church that have bought into that liberalism against which St. John Henry Newman fought against his whole life. He said in his Biglietto Speech upon being made a Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII these words that ring out to us today in their clarity and admonition:

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

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


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


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


***



Canon Alonso Lobo
Libera me, Domine (Resp. Off. Def.)
__________________


There are several plenary indulgences available for the first week in November [this year, any 8 days throughout the month], beginning on November 1st, All Saints Day. They are the following:
29
For the faithful departed 
§ 1. A plenary indulgence, applied exclusively to the souls in Purgatory, is granted to the Christian faithful who:

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

Roberto de Mattei

RadioLiberaRoma

October 20,2020




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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

In Poland, a Roadside Billboard: "Stop Communion in the Hand!"

 


That's it. We have nothing to add.


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

A Collect Worthy of Royalty

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

Hedwig, of royal birth, and still more illustrious by the innocence of her life, was the daughter of Berthold, Prince of Carinthia, and aunt, on the mother's side, of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Having married Henry, Duke of Poland, she fulfilled her duties as wife in so holy a fashion that the Church compares her to the strong woman, whose portrait is drawn for us by the Holy Ghost in today's Epistle. She had three sons and three daughters. She macerated her body, both by fasting and watching and by the roughness of her clothes; she was very charitable to the poor, whom she herself served at table. She washed and kissed the ulcers of lepers.

          To devote herself more to the service of God, she induced her husband to bind himself, by vow, with her, to observe continence. The Duke having died, Hedwig, like the merchant mentioned in the Gospel, gave away all her riches to acquire the precious pearl of eternal life. After praying earnestly, and under divine inspiration, she generously exchanged worldly pomp for the life of the Cross (Collect), entering the Cistercian monastery of Trebnitz, where her daughter was abbess. She died on 15 October 1243, and Poland honours her with special veneration as her patroness.


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

COLUMBUS IS OURS -- Let us rejoice!

A Happy Columbus Day for All our Readers! 
¡Feliz Día de la Hispanidad!


 
Monastery of Sant Jeroni de la Murtra, near Barcelona,
where the Catholic Monarchs welcomed Columbus back from the Indies in 1493
Now that four centuries have sped since a Ligurian first, under God's guidance, touched shores unknown beyond the Atlantic, the whole world is eager to celebrate the memory of the event, and glorify its author. Nor could a worthier reason be found where through zeal should be kindled. For the exploit is in itself the highest and grandest which any age has ever seen accomplished by man; and he who achieved it, for the greatness of his mind and heart, can be compared to but few in the history of humanity.

EXPOSÉ: New Interview with Fr. Charles Murr on Mother Pascalina, Bugnini, Paul VI, and Other Major Figures


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

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

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

 Fr. Richard Cipolla


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

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

Guest op-ed: Lockdowns, months later

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


***


Social Justice of Lockdowns, Continued

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


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

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


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

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

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

China & the Vatican -- Cardinal Zen: "Parolin knows he is lying. He knows that I know he is a liar. He knows that I will tell everyone that he is a liar."

For Love of Truth I Will Not Remain Silent

Cardinal Joseph Zen

Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong

 

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

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

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

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

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

The History

Let’s see how Parolin summarized the history.

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

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


Why Charismatic Catholics Should Love the Traditional Latin Mass

Peter Kwasniewski


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


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


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

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

Roberto de Mattei

Lepanto Foundation

October 7, 2020




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

 

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

 

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


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

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


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

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


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


This is the voice of Genocide:


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

Chiesa e Post Concilio
October 5, 2020
[Translated Op-ed]


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

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

Sermon for the Solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary


Fr. Richard G. Cipolla 

 


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



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


The new encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" is basically an ode to Fraternity, in the French revolutionary concept of the word (Updated: Full text of the Encyclical)

 

Liberté - Égalité - Fraternité : Hall of the Grand Lodge of France (GODF), Paris

The Spanish text of the newest papal encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, which will be released in a couple of hours, was leaked by Spanish website Infovaticana.

The main point of the text, a long text, 123-pages long, we can now reveal, is its inspiration by the Abu Dhabi document (the "Statement on Human Fraternity"), which itself established an institution of flabbergasting name: The Higher Committee for Human Fraternity.

It's all based on the notion of "Fraternity" inspired by the French Revolution. Whether this is good or bad, we'll let you decide for yourself.

10th Anniversary of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society

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


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


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


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


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


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


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

** Click here to download a "fillable" PDF Mass Card in English to give to the loved ones of the Souls you enroll (you send these to the family and/or friends of the dead, not to us). It's free for anyone to use. CLICK HERE to download in Latin and CLICK HERE to download in Spanish

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

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

The Month of October, Month of the Most Holy Rosary

Encyclical Letter

OCTOBRI MENSE 

(The month of October)

of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII



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


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