Mons. Luigi Carlo Borromeo (1893 – 1975)
Theological Audacity and Confusion: On the Marian Document
The Bishops have so much love for neighbor that they applaud themselves -- but some of them don't seem to love their own Faithful
Love for Neighbor
by Fr. Richard Cipolla
The American bishops Special Message on immigration recently promulgated is certainly to be welcomed as an authentic and moderate Catholic response to and observation of the current state of attitude and response to the often callous and certainly unchristian behavior of those who are empowered to enforce immigration law. This way of enforcing immigration law may often be inhumane and contrary to the American ethos.
A Sign of the Times: Leo XIV undoes important Francis Motu Proprio about the City of Rome
The Pope -- Bishop of Rome. While his concerns are mainly with the Universal Church, the Pope remains of course the Bishop of Rome, which is the central reason of why he is the Pastor of the Universal Church in the first place.
But since for many centuries, they have been so busy with the Church outside the City, they have for many centuries kept a Cardinal-Vicar, who administer the diocese.
Also for many decades, especially since Rome became once again a bustling modern metropolis, the central area of the City (which includes most of what the ancient, the modern, and the pilgrims and tourists identify as Rome proper) has been administered as a whole: the map below, from the pontificate of Benedict XVI, identifies this area, the Settore Centro, in red (the Vatican itself appears in yellow). The exact limits at the time had been defined by John Paul II.
The Upcoming Curial Rearrangements of Leo XIV: Bergoglianists and Papal Ceremonies; New Regulations; Latin Language no longer standard for Curial documents
Main excerpts of the new piece by Vaticanist Andrea Gagliarducci -- including an important update on the major "Bergoglianist" Cardinal Czerny and also changes in the personnel of pontifical liturgical ceremonies:
Pope Leo XIV has initiated a major generational change in the Church’s central governing apparatus, the Roman Curia.
Apostolic Letter IN UNITATE FIDEI of Pope Leo XIV -- On the 1700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea
1. In the unity of faith, proclaimed since the beginning of the Church, Christians have been called to walk in harmony, guarding and transmitting the gift they have received with love and joy. This is expressed in the words of the Creed, “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God… for our salvation he came down from heaven,” that were formulated 1700 years ago by the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical gathering in the history of Christianity.
Leo and the American Bishops - the USCCB Election and Fake News Pushed by American Liberals
by Serre Verweij
The USCCB has elected its new leaders. A new president, vice-president, secretary and committee heads. There have been spins and interpretations on both sides, as usual, with the typical questions of what it says or does not say about President Trump and whether the elections reflect any influence of Pope Leo XIV.
It might be best to take inspiration from the Pope to reject fake news, search for the truth, and approach the recent developments through a mathematical lens.
Indicative numbers
Latin Mass Ordo 2026 available for download
The 2026 liturgical year starts next Sunday (November 29th, First Sunday in Advent), and there is an ordo available online for the Traditional Roman Rite.
No, there is no news about Leo XIV and Traditionis custodes
Some online sources have apparently inflated the leak first reported by the Catholic News Service of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (mentioned by us here last week), that is, that the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain had mentioned to local bishops that the Dicastery of Divine Worship, under the new pontificate, would grant 2-year-extensions of local diocesan Traditional Latin Masses, if requested by the local Ordinary.
Bishop Mutsaerts on DDF document on Marian Titles: "Cardinal Fernandez causes confusion once again."
A post by Bishop Rob Mutsaerts, Auxiliary Bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc), Netherlands. Translated from his blog in Dutch here.
Cardinal Fernandez causes confusion once again.
It never ceases to amaze me that in the modern world, people are primarily afraid of words. People no longer seem to fear sin or foolishness, but only misunderstandings. And as if it were not clear enough: there is no truth that cannot be misunderstood. Roman Catholic theology has always placed an extraordinary emphasis on Christ as the only Savior. That is precisely why I have never seen any threat in the way one speaks of Mary. Christ's position is so absolute that it would be absurd to think that anyone could truly overshadow Him. Cooperation does not mean rivalry. If God truly became man, then He not only humbled Himself, but also made Himself dependent on human obedience: first on Mary, later on the apostles, and ultimately on all of us. Cardinal Fernandez is seeing phantoms when he says that it is no longer advisable to use the title “Co-Redemptrix” for Mary.
Bishop Rifan of the Apostolic Administration of Campos, exclusively dedicated to the Traditional Latin Mass, describes his meeting with Pope Leo XIV
by Bishop Fernando Areas Rifan*
Apostolic Administrator
Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, Campos, Brazil
November 17, 2025
On November 15, 2025, I was received in private audience by Pope Leo XIV in the Library of the Apostolic Palace. The audience lasted 30 minutes. In addition to introducing myself as Bishop of the Personal Apostolic Administration of St. John Mary Vianney, which he certainly knew only from reports, I explained to him the origin and reason why it was created by Pope St. John Paul II in 2002. I told him our story and gave him our documents and those of the Holy See on the matter. I also gave him some of my books, articles, and clarifications. I spoke about our theological and spiritual journey, about how we left the state of separation from the Church and how we came to understand the need for communion, in which we now find ourselves, thanks to God and the Church.
Beauty is Half Salvation by Marcello Veneziani
Is there still room for beauty in this age of technology, finance, and woke precepts? Beauty seems obsolete, useless, discriminatory, overshadowed by an esthetical vision of the world. Twenty-five years ago, with Giorgio Albertazzi, I wrote and launched the manifesto of beauty.
Pope Leo XIV received in audience today…
“- Bishop Fernando Arêas Rifan, titular of Cedamusa, apostolic administrator of the personal apostolic administration of São João Maria Vianney, Brazil.” (Bollettino)
This is a most crucial meeting.
Is Mary Co-redemptrix? Guest article by theologian Antonio Francés
Priority of New Bishop of Austin, Texas: Kneeling for Communion discouraged -- Communion kneelers to be banned
Bishop Garcia has just arrived back at the capital of Texas, after a few mean years in Monterey (California) -- where his last measure before departing was to cancel the local Traditional Latin Mass.
What is his first main concern in Austin, a burgeoning diocese filled with young Catholics and newcomers? Vocations? Inspire the faithful? Instill love for orthodoxy, Christ, the Sacraments, the Blessed Virgin?
No: it's to discourage kneeling for Communion in the masses of Paul VI:
Pope does not intend to revoke Traditionis custodes, will keep granting dispensations — Nuncio to Britain
From CNS (the News Service of the United States Conference of Bishops) — the non-revocation news is not confirmed so far by the Vatican itself, which has just stated that the dispensations are nothing new:
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV does not intend to overturn Pope Francis' limits on celebrating the traditional Latin Mass but will grant two-year dispensations to bishops who ask, a nuncio said.
Reposted (Confirmed) Listening Kiosk Added to Saint Peter's Basilica
There have always been many confessionals in the Vatican Basilica. And in the old days, when there were tons of Masses there, they were used quite often.
Now that it feels more like a museum most of the time, they are used less often.
Communiqué from the General House of the Society of Saint Pius X regarding 'Mater Populi fidelis'
On 4 November, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a “Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles Regarding Mary’s Cooperation in the Work of Salvation”.
A Vatican II & Francis Moment: Homosexual TV Presenter is Confirmed in NYC Church in the presence of his "husband"
"Gio" Benitez, an openly homosexual television presenter with ABC News, was confirmed yesterday at the problematic Saint Paul the Apostle parish church in Manhattan -- there was a mass of Paul VI celebrated by homosexual-adjacent homosexuality-promoting Jesuit James Martin, and in the presence of the "husband" of Mr. Benitez, as it can be seen in the video below.
These are the fruits of the general looseness of spirits promoted by Vatican II and especially of Francis-approved document on blessings, Fiducia Supplicans.
And it is also a mark of the negligence of the local bishop. It is even more so the case, considering it is a confirmation, a sacrament strictly related to the figure of the bishop, even when done by a priest by authorization. Who is the archbishop of New York again?..
Confirmation mass of Gio Benitez, the openly gay ABC news anchor, at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church.
— Protestia (@Protestia) November 12, 2025
Benitez' was confirmed with his gay-married 'husband' at his side as his sponsor, as well as prominent LGBTQ-affirming priest James Martin. pic.twitter.com/H9tEAFjVlg
Open Letter to the Bishop of Charlotte: "Bishop Martin, it is men like you who strongly imply that the Protestants had it right."
Bishop Martin,
As a member of the Diocese of Charlotte, I have been amazed at the transformation of the character of our Diocese over the last year. What once felt vibrant and full of life now feels cowed, disjointed, and fearful. Entire congregations of faithful Catholics feel like they are losing their home, and they rightfully feel marginalized and ghettoized—reading the remarks you’ve made against the traditions of the faith, particularly behind closed doors where you’re unconcerned with public image, makes your disgust for the traditional evident and would make anyone feel as though they are intentionally being pushed aside for a more preferred populace to replace them.
Congratulations to Archbishop Paul Coakley, of Oklahoma City, new president of the USCCB -- and remembering the ruins of the 1960s
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| Paul S. Coakley, Archbishop of Oklahoma City |
All the usual suspects are upset, which means the election of Archbishop Coakley as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was a great result for Catholic orthodoxy.
75% of Charlotte Seminarians Come from Parishes with Altar Rails
This weekend the faithful of Charlotte have learned that as of the 1st Sunday of Advent November 30, 2025, Bishop Michael Martin has ordered that altar rails should no longer be used for the distribution of Novus Ordo communion in the Diocese of Charlotte.
Leo From Chicago - a Documentary by Vatican News
Watch the new documentary on the early life of the new pope, Leo XIV, in his native Illinois -- the documentary was produced by Vatican Media and is available below:
Leo and the Liturgy: in his own words, in the Sermon for the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Finally, I would like to mention an essential aspect of the Cathedral’s mission: liturgy. The liturgy is “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed... the source from which all its power flows” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10). In it, we find the same themes we have already mentioned: we are built up as God’s temple, as his dwelling place in the Spirit and we receive strength to preach Christ in the world (cf. ibid., 2).
Leo and the Liturgy: What now? (Dom Alcuin Reid)
Main excerpt of Dom Alcuin Reid's piece on Leo XIV on the Sacred Liturgy -- or, more correctly, the excerpt related to our main concern, the Traditional Roman Rite:
***
The second area in which the Holy Father will have to exercise leadership is in facilitating a return to the liturgical peace that was violently ended by the abrupt and, as we have recently learnt from new evidence, the carefully manipulated, persecution of those, particularly young people, who have discovered the older liturgical rites and who have “felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, particularly suited to them” (Benedict XVI, Letter to the Bishops, 7 July 2007).
LEO AND THE CHINESE: An Enigma - Part VI in the Series "The First Year of Leo XIV"
LEO AND THE CHINESE
by Serre Verweij
for Rorate Cæli
***
One of the biggest controversies during the recent conclave was the agreement between the Holy See and China approved by the late Pope Francis. The details of this agreement have never been made public, but it allows the Chinese communist government to nominate bishops. As a result, it legitimizes the schismatic state church with state-appointed bishops that has existed for decades, while seemingly throwing the underground Catholic Church faithful to Rome under the bus.
Good News from the Diocese of Brooklyn: new Saint Josaphat Oratory established, to be run by the Institute of Christ the King (ICKSP)
The parish of Saint Josaphat in Bayside, Queens has at last been transferred into the care of the ICKSP. Bishop Robert Brennan graciously invited the Institute to run the parish as a way to continue it being a home for the TLM in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
OP-ED: The Enemy's Three Enemies. The Real Reasons for the Trouble Triggered by the Mother of God
by Professor Massimo Viglione*
TOTA PULCHRA ES MARIA
Years ago, I wrote that the predictable outcome
of Conciliar Gnostic Ecumenism would be the progressive, steady, but definitive and unavoidable expurgation from the formerly Catholic (but now hyper-modernist)
religion, of the three essential elements forming the Church's Divine and human nature.
In ascending order:
A Miraculous Refuge from the Global Barbarians by Marcello Veneziani
"The only hope for a new beginning lies in the new scribes, the new monasteries, the heroic minds of Vichiana memory, the new academies, and the promising gardens, such as the one a stone's throw from barbaric, forgetful and rather dissolute Rome."
La Verità – 22 October 2025
The
School of Athens by Raphael
What would you say if one day you found yourself among gatherings of young people from all over the world speaking to each other in Latin and Ancient Greek, attending lessons on Plato in the original language, painting mythological scenes from the classical world, playing music on traditional instruments, discussing Homer and Virgil, reading books and taking notes, without cell phones or artificial intelligence? Probably that you were dreaming or suffering from an ex post facto hallucination, the effect of a cultural withdrawal from the classics.
Quis ut Virgo? - Who is like unto Mary? -- Reflections on the Document of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, by Roberto de Mattei
by Roberto de Mattei
November 5, 2025
On October 16, 1793, what was perhaps the most disgusting crime of the French Revolution took place: the execution of the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, after a sham trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal. Plinio Correa de Oliveira wrote of Marie Antoinette: "There are certain souls who are only great when the winds of misfortune blow upon them. Marie Antoinette, who was futile as a princess and unforgivably frivolous in her life as queen, was transformed in a surprising way when faced with the vortex of blood and misery that flooded France; and the historian verifies, with respect, that a martyr was born from the queen and a heroine from the doll."
Op-Ed: Mary, the Co-Redemptrix and Mater Populi Fidelis
The Co-Redemptrix and Mater Populi Fidelis
by Father Pierre LaLiberté*, JCD/PhD
for Rorate Cæli
The document Mater Populi Fidelis of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, specifically in numbers 17 and 18 gives a undeservedly over-simplified overview of this important doctrine of the Catholic Faith. The fact that Our Lady cooperated in the work of the Redemption, at least mediately, is a de fide teaching. To doubt it would incur theological censure.
DDF Document: Mater Populi Fidelis - Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles Regarding Mary’s Cooperation in the Work of Salvation
[Rorate note: The papal approval is at the end of the document, right before the endnotes. Interesting that Leo XIV approved the note, but not “in forma specifica” — which would make it an actual papal teaching demanding high assent of the faithful.]
DICASTERY FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH
Mater Populi Fidelis
Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles Regarding Mary’s Cooperation in the Work of Salvation
Presentation
The present Note responds to numerous requests and proposals that have reached the Holy See in recent decades, and particularly this Dicastery, regarding questions pertaining to Marian devotion and certain Marian titles. These are questions that have concerned recent Popes and have been repeatedly addressed in the last thirty years in various areas of study within the Dicastery, such as Congresses and Ordinary Assemblies. This has enabled the Dicastery to compile an abundant and rich body of material that nourishes the present reflection.
Death Penalty: Ultramontanism's Death Sentence
Even when it is a question of the execution of a condemned man, the State does not dispose of the individual's right to life. In this case it is reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned person of the enjoyment of life in expiation of his crime when, by his crime, he has already disposed himself of his right to live.
In 2017 Pope Francis spoke, in a not dissimilar context:
Fr. Nicola Bux on the Church in Italy and Homosexuality: "The Church cannot change Revelation."
Those pastors who argue for the need to change teaching on homosexuality and other moral issues should be reminded that “the Church does not have the authority to change ‘even one iota or one sign’ ” of Revelation, of which the Catechism is a faithful interpreter. The Catechism can “change,” or develop, only in the sense of advancing understanding of the doctrine, but without distorting it. La Bussola interviews Fr. Nicola Bux.
La Bussola Quotidiana
November 3, 2025
On Friday evening, October 24, in Rome, in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), presided over solemn Vespers in the ancient rite in the context of the 14th “Summorum Pontificum ad Petri Sedem” Pilgrimage, commonly referred to as “the Jubilee of the Traditionalists.”
Plenary Indulgence Reminders for the first full week in November (November 1st-8th) - Repost (Enchiridion Indulgentiarum)
There are several plenary indulgences available for the first week in November. They are the following:
29For the faithful departed
In Commemoratione Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum
If this be true, doubtless also the providing for the interment of bodies a place at the Memorials of Saints, is a mark of a good human affection towards the remains of one's friends. Yet it follows not that the bodies of the departed are to be despised and flung aside, and above all of just and faithful men, which bodies as organs and vessels to all good works their spirit has holily used. For if a father's garment and ring, and whatever such like, is the more dear to those whom they leave behind, the greater their affection is towards their parents, in no wise are the bodies themselves to be spurned, which truly we wear in more familiar and close conjunction than any of our putting on. For these pertain not to ornament or aid which is applied from without, but to the very nature of man. Whence also the funerals of the just men of old were with dutiful piety cared for, and their obsequies celebrated, and sepulture provided: and themselves while living did touching burial or even translation of their bodies give charge to their sons.
And when this affection is exhibited to the departed by faithful men who were most dear to them, there is no doubt that it profits them who while living in the body merited that such things should profit them after this life. But even if some necessity should through absence of all facility not allow bodies to be interred, or in such places interred, yet should there be no pretermitting of supplications for the spirits of the dead: which supplications, that they should be made for all in Christian and Catholic fellowship departed, even without mentioning of their names, under a general commemoration, the Church has charged herself withal; to the intent that they which lack, for these offices, parents or sons or whatever kindred or friends, may have the same afforded unto them by the one pious mother which is common to all. But if there were lack of these supplications, which are made with right faith and piety for the dead, I account that it should not a whit profit their spirits, howsoever in holy places the lifeless bodies should be deposited.
- From the book of St. Augustine, the Bishop, on the Care for the Deceased, Cap. 2 & 3
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