LEO AND THE LATIN AMERICANS - Part IV in the Series "The First Year of Leo XIV"

This is the fourth of several analyses written for Rorate by our contributor Serre Verweij on Leo XIV's first year.

Series: The First Year of Leo XIV

IV  - LEO AND THE LATIN AMERICANS

[Part I - Leo and the Germans.]

[Part II - Leo and Synodality.]

[Part III - Leo and the Radicals.]

I warmly greet all the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, joined in a collegial spirit to discern together the current challenges to the church in Latin America and to seek, in affective and effective communion, pastoral initiatives that lead to solutions in accordance with the criteria of the Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium.

With these words, Pope Leo XIV began his message to the bishops of the Conference of the Latin American Episcopate (CELAM), on the 70th anniversary of their foundation, at the Rio de Janeiro Conference of 1955. 

For the Record: extracts from a recent interview with Cardinal Robert Sarah: Fiducia supplicans, a document to be forgotten; it is not possible to prohibit a rite that is over a thousand years old.

 

Synodality, the Mass in the ancient rite, the blessing of homosexual couples, Africa: a conversation with the Prefect Emeritus of Divine Worship. Reprinted from Secretum meum mihi, since reproduction from Avvenire is forbidden. *

by Giacomo Gambassi, Rome,

 September 12th, 2025

Your Eminence, Leo XIV frequently refers to the unity of the Church. Would this be an urgent matter ?

Pope Leo XIV Talks About the Traditional Latin Mass (updated with full excerpt)

 

From an excerpt of the new book-interview with Elise Ann Allen, of Crux, released today -- a direct quote from the Pope's response:

[Elise Ann Allen]: Regarding the study group on liturgy, what is being studied? How much of the reason for establishing this was related to divisions surrounding the Traditional Latin Mass, for example, or issues such as the new Amazonian rite?

 

[Leo XIV]: My understanding of what the group came out of is primarily from issues that have to do with the inculturation of the liturgy. How to continue the process of making the liturgy more meaningful within a different culture, within a specific culture, in a specific place at any given time. I think that was the primary issue.

Cardinal Gambetti, Administrator of Saint Peter’s, on the Latin Mass: “I have been told that we will wait for the Holy Father to decide.”

 

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti has been the main administrator of the Vatican Basilica since 2021, after being named by Francis for the triple position of Archpriest for Saint Peter's Basilica, Vicar General for the Vatican City State, and President of the Fabric of Saint Peter.

A Wonderful Event: the Impression of the Holy Stigmata on Saint Francis

Giotto, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata
Musée du Louvre (1295)

On September 17, we celebrate the memory of the awesome impression of the Holy Stigmata of Our Lord Jesus Christ on Saint Francis on the Tuscan hill known as Mount Alvernia (La Verna), in 1224.

Brother Ugolino tells the story in detail in his Fioretti (Little Flowers), and we encourage reading it for the feel of the place, the times, the people -- and how it is all connected with the feasts and flows of the Traditional Liturgical Year and the Breviary, including the period that goes from the Feast of the Holy Cross to the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel:

As the Feast of the Holy Cross then drew nigh, in the month of September, Brother Leo went one night at his accustomed hour to say Matins with St Francis.

The Death of Europe | Will Leo XIV visit Lampedusa? A Grave Mistake -- and the Lampedusans themselves would not be happy

 Very few things made European Catholics more unhappy with Francis than his tone-deaf approach to the criminal enterprise bringing millions of illegal migrants to Europe, and deeply changing the demographics, religion, and criminality of vast areas of the Continent.

And the main early symbol of that attitude was Francis' visit to one of the most popular destinations used by the people-smuggling gangs: the small island of Lampedusa, in Sicily. Lampedusa was, for instance, the first spot in Europe visited by the terrorist responsible for the Nice attacks (our post regarding it here). As we said at the time:

Idiocracy in the Hierarchy

 

"Dei" is the genitive for God (Deus) in Latin. That is, "of God."

It is also, coincidentally, the English abbreviation for the movement/ideology known as "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" (DEI), an affront to both God and the equality before the law that is the basis of modern Western Law. It is a complete corruption of all that is good and noble in both Christianity and the Law, and it should be abhorred by all good Catholics. And, of course, it is simply pronounced D, E, I -- not "day-ee" (as Dei is, in Latin).

Anyway, this mere coincidence of letters was enough to prompt what must be one of the most astonishing texts ever published on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), by one Bishop Roy Campbell, Auxiliary of the Nation's capital, Washington.

Main excerpt below:

The Murder of Charlie Kirk: The End of an Illusion

 

Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika, raises a rosary to wellwishers

Main excerpts from the latest piece from the Harvard Salient:

[Kirk] could also be unexpectedly, almost annoyingly, moderate: a man who prized argument over obliteration, outreach over insularity, whose modus operandi was to cross campus thresholds and address anyone curious enough to ask a question. He exhorted a generation, plainly and insistently, to love God, love their family, and love their country. That was enough to get him killed.

Leo XIV names Cristiana Perrella new head of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts: "A Choice that Borders on the Scandalous"

Perrella, an ambiguous appointment bordering on scandal

Tommaso Scandroglio

La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana

September 11, 2025

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Cristiana Perrella as the new president of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts. This appointment raises some critical issues, as demonstrated by some of her past work in the LGBT field. Are rainbow lobbies forcing the Pope's hand? At what price must the truth be silenced for the sake of unity? 

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Cristiana Perrella as the new president of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts. This appointment raises some critical issues. In 2019, Perella curated the exhibition Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960–Today, which, among other things, supported LGBT claims, particularly those of the queer community. In an interview with Sleek, Perrella explained that clubs “were places where people could be themselves and publicly affirm their identity,” including the so-called queer identity.

St. Birinus Festival 2025 - Thursday 16 October to Sunday 19 October, 2025

Once again this year we will hold a full weekend of sung liturgy in the ancient Roman Rite, in the beautiful medieval Dorchester Abbey in Oxfordshire.

Video: Duc in Altum, the Monks go out Fishing for their Supply

The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer of Papa Stronsay Island in Scotland (the "Transalpine Redemptorists") have just made available a beautiful video of their fishing season for the year.

"The last few weeks have seen us put out into the open sea around Papa Stronsay for our winter supply of fish. We thought to share this beautiful video which our Rector, Fr Martin Mary, has so painstakingly put together and narrated of such a day-in-our lives." 

Watch and enjoy the video below:

The Architect of the Restrictions to the Latin Mass really - REALLY - hates the newly canonized Carlo Acutis

Andrea Grillo is such a detestable character. But, unfortunately, we are forced to return often to covering him because of the outsized influence he was given by the late Francis. As Rorate mentioned in the earlier words about this matter,

The detestable Italian professor was introduced by some malevolent Vatican spirit to Francis and created the document that would later be signed by the late pope as "Traditionis custodes", whose aim is explicitly to destroy the Traditional Latin Mass in the long term.

Last month, we covered the first consequences of his tirades against the (now newly canonized) Carlo Acutis, when his own university disowned him. 

There are criticisms to be made of the Acutis canonization, but mostly regarding (as often in recent decades) an accelerated procedure, not the person himself. By all accounts, Acutis was really a fine boy who, despite growing up in a secularized, barely nominally Catholic, family, was saved by a supernatural love for the Blessed Sacrament.

Roberto de Mattei - The Fr. Pompei Affair: Another Painful Episode of the Consequences of Boisterous Proclamations

Rorate note: Traditionalism did not start in 2025, or even during the Francis years. It is necessary to be truthful, but also prudent. Wise as serpents, gentle as doves, in the words of Our Lord and God Jesus Christ (Mt 10:16).

***

A new painful episode: Father Pompei's choice

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

September 10, 2025

After the “cases” of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Father Alessandro Minutella, and Father Giorgio Faré, now comes, in Italy, the no less serious and painful case of Father Leonardo Pompei, a priest who had been appreciated until now for his orthodoxy and moral conduct.

Leo XIV: the Mine-Clearing Pope

 by Vaticanist Luis Badilla (former editor of Il Sismografo)

published by Messa in Latino

By now, Pope Leo XIV's style of government seems quite clear. Above all, it seems clear that this style is his method. Nothing revolutionary. Every pontiff has had his own style, his own method, and this has been the basis on which their pontificates have been characterized. Francis's method, in the perception of public opinion, immediately distanced him from the papacy of Benedict XVI, and now the difference that is gradually taking shape, without conflict or emphasized contrasts, between the Argentine pontiff and the American one is clear.

More Bishop-Imposed Illegal Liturgical Abuse: Bergoglio-Protégé Argentine Archbishop Decrees First Communion must be received Standing and in the Hand (full text of decree)

The Argentine archdiocese of San Juan de Cuyo has sent a protocol to parish priests, parish vicars, Catholic school administrators, and catechists in which, in view of First Communions and Confirmations, it decrees that “catechumens (of any age) will receive Holy Communion only standing and in the hand.”

Report from Spanish website InfoCatólica:

Lumen Christi: Defending the Use of the Pre-1955 Roman Rite

The time has come for a serious conversation about the pre-1955 Roman Rite. Not as something eccentric, marginal, quixotic, but as the normative baseline for the sane “reset” of liturgical praxis so necessary after a century of wild experimentation.

Confirmation of Anti-Liturgical actions of the bishop of Charlotte, North Carolina

On Thursday, we reported on the new liturgical directives which Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte has imposed for the Masses celebrated in the Catholic high schools of his diocese. These directives are very much in keeping with the absurd “liturgical norms” which he proposed in order to radically de-catholicize the Mass in his entire diocese, as we reported in May. For obvious reasons, we are not able to disclose our sources, and because of that, some people questioned the veracity or authenticity of the report. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it has now been confirmed in every detail in an official announcement made by the chaplain of one of the schools. 

(Click for larger view below)

Important Sign: Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage Once Again Will Have a Mass in the Vatican Basilica -- Celebrated by Card. Burke

(Mass in the Altar of the Cathedra, in St. Peter's Basilica, in 2021)

 In 2024, the Traditional pilgrims of the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage (Last Sunday in October - Christ the King) were not allowed to celebrate the Traditional Mass on an altar of the main nave on Saturday of the last weekend in October: they just entered as pilgrims, with scheduled prayers, but the main masses were all in Churches that already have the Traditional Latin Mass regularly in Rome. The same had happened in 2022 and 2023.

Leo XIV: Member of New Polish President's Entourage Presented the Problem of Traditionis Custodes in Meeting with Roman Curia

 

The new Polish president, the conservative and devout Catholic historian Karol Nawrocki, visited the Vatican for the first time as President this week.

With him was one his advisors, also a historian, National Security Advisor Dr. Sławomir Cenckiewicz, who pleaded with the Curia  regarding "Traditionis custodes":

I paid filial homage to the Vicar of Christ.

The Pontificate of Leo XIV, a Transitional Stage? - by Fr. Claude Barthe

“Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.” (Lk 22:31-32).

We have stated, on a previous occasion, that the Bergoglian pontificate, with all its inflatedness, could well constitute, if not the terminal phase of the post-Vatican II era, at least the approach of its end. Provided, of course, that there are Churchmen with the determination necessary for making a clean break. Failing that, and in the meantime, we can hope for the adoption of a kind of realistically transitional stage, by virtue of which whatever remains of vital forces within the Church would be allowed to thrive. Ultimately, however, there must needs be a return to the magisterial order to which the Church of Christ aspires, and for which its pastors must prepare.

Cardinal Cupich, an Expert on "Dead Faith"

 Who would you want writing about "Dead Faith" more than an expert on dead faith, dying parishes, and general societal decay?

That is why we know we can fully trust the Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Cupich (once referred to by a friend as 'Ugly on the outside, uglier on the inside'), to speak about the "dead faith" of Traditionalism. It's hilarious that he starts his piece by quoting Pelikan, a known revert to devout Eastern Orthodoxy, who would have no good words for the destruction of the ancient rites of the Church. Latin Traditionalism, whatever one wishes to call it, was always quite alive and vibrant in its prayers and arts and music and practices because it was never separate from Western culture (so in a sense quite different from the Byzantine options).

It is also hilarious that Blase "Dead Faith" Cupich would quote Newman of all people, whose faith was nourished by the Traditional Latin Mass and Divine Office more than by any other thing.

Let these be Cupich's parting words.

Tradition vs. traditionalism

News from Charlotte: Bishop Comes for the Catholic Schools' Masses

We have received a report of the new liturgical directives which Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte wishes to impose on the masses of Paul VI celebrated in the three Catholic high schools under his jurisdiction. The goal is apparently the decatholicization of the new liturgy in the schools under his authority.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, they are exactly what we would expect, given what we have previously seen of his ideas about “liturgical norms.”

Appreciation of Pope St. Pius X by Marcel de Corte in 1964 — “The threat posed to man by the modern world is aimed above all at the priest”

Very Topical Considerations on the Life, Character and Thought of Saint Pius X

 

Marcel De Corte

Itinéraires, No. 87 | November 1964 

 

I HAVE JUST READ a few biographies of Saint Pius X. The marvellous ascent! From the humble seed of vocation planted by the Spirit in the soul of this little peasant to his constant concern for the priests entrusted to his care as bishop and pope, his whole life was organized around the defense and illustration of the sacred, indelible character of the priesthood, without which the called could never continue the work of redemption. More than any other successor of Peter, Saint Pius X saw, felt and understood that the threat posed to man by the modern world is aimed above all at the priest.

To Hand on What Has Been Received? The Mission and Challenges of the SSPX in Our Times

A guest article by Charles Bradshaw.

The SSPX’s recent pilgrimage to Rome has been the cause of some media attention not least because of mounting expectations regarding future Episcopal Consecrations. The inevitable skeletons have come out of the cupboard again alongside those who claim to have insight into just about everything Archbishop Lefebvre did or didn’t do. However, whilst the future consecrations remain a vitally important and pressing issue, what has been overlooked is how the Society of St Pius X is meeting its own future and how she is handing down her “management” to a new generation.

The Past of Leo XIV - Mere Catholicity: the Prosper Grech-Prevost-Müller Connection

by Serre Verweij

for Rorate Cæli

The year 2012 seems to be a century ago. It was not the year the world ended, instead it was the last year where Pope Benedict XVI led the Catholic Church. He was no Pope Pius XIII, no traditionalist. But he was clear on ethical matters, opposed the radical modernists, tried to respect traditionalists, was supportive of more pro-traditional cardinals, tried to makes the Novus Ordo more reverent. 

Dom Guéranger’s "Liturgical Institutions" Published for the First Time in English

The ongoing devastation inflicted upon the sacred liturgy is by no means unique to our time. Since the earliest days of the Church, the liturgy has suffered from the attacks of heresy, schism, and human caprice. Through the ages—whether from the blasphemous Vigilantius, the radical Waldensians of the Middle Ages, the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century, or the rationalist infiltrators of the Enlightenment—there has always been a persistent, corrosive impulse to undermine, distort, or dilute the sacred rites entrusted to the Church.

In the nineteenth century, Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805–1875), the abbot of Solesmes and founding father of the modern liturgical movement, stood resolutely against a virulent strain of this anti-liturgical spirit.

NEWMAN AS DOCTOR - by Fr. Richard Cipolla

When the blogmaster (I suppose there is such a word) of Rorate Caeli, who is a personal friend of some years now, wrote to me recently to ask, with some astonishment on his part, why I had not written an article for publication immediately after the announcement by Pope Leo XIV that St. John Henry Newman was declared a Doctor of the Church, I replied that despite my love for Newman, I could not respond at once, for I needed time to think about not merely the declaration itself but also what this means for the Church today, as she (not it) seems to be emerging, Deo gratias, from the dark years after the Second Vatican Council that were marked by iconoclasm, denial of the Catholic Tradition and worst of all--sentimentality, the acid of religion.

"The Holy Father Received This Morning in Audience... Fr. James Martin, SJ"

 From today's Bollettino:

Il Santo Padre ha ricevuto questa mattina in Udienza: