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

São Nicolau, Baixa, Lisbon

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

"...o Dogma da Fé..."

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

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

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

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

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

By Bishop Athanasius Schneider

Special to Rorate Caeli

March 20, 2019

On the question of a heretical pope

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ad te beate Ioseph,

in tribulatione nostra confugimus, atque, implorato Sponsæ tuæ sanctissimæ auxilio, patrocinium quoque tuum fidenter exposcimus. Per eam, quæsumus, quæ te cum immaculata Virgine Dei Genitrice coniunxit, caritatem, perque paternum, quo Puerum Iesum amplexus es, amorem, supplices deprecamur, ut ad hereditatem, quam Iesus Christus acquisivit Sanguine suo, benignus respicias, ac necessitatibus nostris tua virtute et ope succurras.

Tuere, o Custos providentissime divinæ Familiæ, Iesu Christi sobolem electam; prohibe a nobis, amantissime Pater, omnem errorum ac corruptelarum luem; propitius nobis, sospitator noster fortissime, in hoc cum potestate tenebrarum certamine e cælo adesto; et sicut olim Puerum Iesum e summo eripuisti vitæ discrimine, ita nunc Ecclesiam sanctam Dei ab hostilibus insidiis atque ab omni adversitate defende: nosque singulos perpetuo tege patrocinio, ut ad tui exemplar et ope tua suffulti, sancte vivere, pie emori, sempiternamque in cælis beatitudinem assequi possimus.

Amen.

A Leone XIII scripta

Support the Rebuilding of the Norcia Monastery

Dear Friends of Rorate Caeli:

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

Oremus pro invicem.

Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

***

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

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

Sent to Rorate:

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

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

(Click for larger view)

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

Divinum Officium - Looking for help - Besoin d'aide

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

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

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

Requiem for a Wicked Man

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

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

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

Guest Article: Guelphs and Gibellines Revisited

GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES REVISITED

Charles A. Coulombe

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

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

"There is no Emperor."

---C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

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

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

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

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

a lenten meditation

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

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

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

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

The Church

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

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

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

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

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

The Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

(Fontgombault, March 6th, 2019)

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

Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.

Mt 6:16-21

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
My dearly beloved Sons,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CLICK HERE for English

CLICK HERE for French

CLICK HERE for German

CLICK HERE for Italian

CLICK HERE for Spanish

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

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

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

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

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

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

What?

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

Please explain.

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

Is there a “gay lobby” in the Church?

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

Evident?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP

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

De Mattei: The Condemnation of Cardinal Pell, the Church and the World

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

February 27, 2019 

The condemnation of Cardinal Pell, arriving like a bolt of lightning in the wake of the Vatican summit, draws attention to a truth that there has been a desire to forget for the last fifty years: there is no possible compromise between the Church and the world, because the world hates the Church and wants its destruction. This sentence, furthermore, demonstrates the failure of the strategy of this papacy, which has renounced exercising the sovereignty of the Church, confiding instead in the comprehension of the world.     

The sovereignty of the Church is expressed primarily in Her Canon Law. The Catholic Church, inasmuch as it is a visible society, is endowed by a law, also penal, the law She possesses to sanction the faithful who have committed violations of Her law.  A crime is a violation outside the judicial order of the Church, distinct from sin, which is, instead, a violation of the moral order. Thus the Church, “by sole and exclusive right”, has the right to judge the violation of Church laws and the right to sanction the crimes with penalties according to Canon Law (can. 1402 §2). Among the many canonical crimes specified by the Code, are apostasy, heresy and schism (Can.1364), communicatio in sacris, the profanation of sacred things (can.1376), and also a series of grave violations against the sixth commandment (can. 1395). The distinction between sins and crimes does not appear clear to Pope Francis, who declares “zero tolerance” against civil crimes, such as pedophilia, but calls for “forgiveness” and mercy for the “sins of youth”, such as homosexuality, unmindful of the presence of this crime in the laws of the Church.

New Book: The Epistle of Christ - Short Sermons for the Sundays of the Year Based on the Epistles

Our friends at Arouca Press have released a new book, The Epistle of Christ, by Fr. Michael Andrew Chapman, with sermons for the Epistles of the Liturgical Year (the Traditional Latin Liturgical Year). The book will surely be of great value for both devotional purposes and for priests looking for new insights for their sermons.

The book has a foreword by the very esteemed Fr. John Hunwicke, which we are privileged to present below in its entirety:

***

Evelyn Waugh, in his biography of Mgr Ronald (“Ronnie”) Knox, records an anecdote “of doubtful authenticity” about one of the first occasions when that distinguished convert preached as a Catholic priest in the presence of a bishop. The prelate, according to this story, commented afterwards: “An interesting sermon, Father, it was a pity you had to read it”. At that time, Anglican clergy commonly wrote their sermons out, while Catholic clergy allowed the Spirit, er, to move them. (Personally, I find that preaching an unscripted homily generally means that I take three times as long to say half as much, and say it very much less well.)

Notice: New Traditional Latin Mass in Idaho

In response to a request from the Treasure Valley Latin Mass Society, St. Joseph Chapter of Una Voce America, Bishop Peter Christensen of the Diocese of Boise has responded by establishing a regular monthly Traditional Latin Mass. This will enable those devoted to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass to fulfill their Sunday obligation once a month at a Traditional Latin Mass. Fr. Caleb Vogel, pastor of St Paul in Nampa, Idaho, has been assigned this ministry.

The Traditional Latin Mass will be offered on the 2nd Sunday of the every month, starting March 10, at 2:30 pm at the St. Paul Catholic Church in Nampa, Idaho. Fr. Vogel will be offering the Low Mass.

Boise Idaho, which is one of the fastest growing urban areas in the United States, has had no regular Traditional Latin Mass since 1996 when the St Mathew parish Indult Mass ended.

St Paul Catholic Church
510 W. Roosevelt
Nampa, ID 83686

Interested parties are invited to check the TVLMS web site at https://unavoceidaho.blogspot.com, or contact TVLSM at:
Thomas Lester, Chairman
(208) 891-9980

Mrs. Pamela Gross O.P., Vice-Chairman
(208) 761-1188

You may reach us by email at LatinMassIdaho@gmail.com

Lex Orandi Lex Credendi - The Traditional Latin Mass Catholic Survey - what Traditional Catholics believe

by Fr. Donald Kloster

St. Mary's Catholic Church

Norwalk, Connecticut, USA

Contributors: 

Sha Balizet Fisher, PhD (Statistics consulting) -  Mr. Brian Williams liturgyguy.com (Consultant)  Mrs. Christine Boyle (Webmaster)

Introduction

Through more than twenty years of offering both the Novus Ordo Mass (NOM) and the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), this writer has observed variations between the people attending the two different Masses within the Roman Rite.  American Catholics attending the NOM have been surveyed repeatedly in terms of their beliefs and practices (Pew Research and Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate or Georgetown University's CARA).

Yet, the body of research does not appear to include a description of Catholics who attend the TLM.  These Catholics attend at least 489 Sunday Masses nationwide (latinmassdir.org 2019).  On any given Sunday, an estimated 100,000 Catholics (on average over 200 faithful per Mass and/or parish) in the United States of America worship according to the ancient Mass that, prior to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), was offered in Latin for more than 1900 years.

The quickly growing number of TLM only parishes permits survey research going beyond one individual's observations.  The objective of this pilot study was to measure the fruit of the two Masses, by directly comparing the TLM and NOM attendees' responses to the same questions. 

Sexagesima: The Most Beautiful Epistle of the Year, Explained by St Pius X - "The Lord will never abandon His heritage"

From the Epistle for the Sunday in Sexagesima: "For though I should have a mind to glory, I shall not be foolish: for I will say the truth: but I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth in me, or anything he heareth from me. And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, and angel of Satan, to buffet me. For which thing, thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And He said to me: my grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me." (II Cor. xii, 6-9)

When [St. Anselm] was torn from the solitude of the studious life of the cloister, to be raised to a lofty dignity in most difficult times, he found himself a prey to the most tormenting solicitude and anxiety, and chief of all the fear that he might not do enough for the salvation of his own soul and the souls of his people, for the honor of God and of His Church. But amid all these anxieties and in the grief he felt at seeing himself abandoned culpably by many, even including his brethren in the episcopate, his one great comfort was his trust in God and in the Apostolic See. Threatened with shipwreck, and while the storm raged round him, he took refuge in the bosom of the Church, his Mother, invoking from the Roman Pontiff pitiful and prompt aid and comfort; God, perhaps, permitted that this great man, full of wisdom and sanctity as he was, should suffer such heavy tribulation, in order that he might be a comfort and an example to us in the greatest difficulties and trials of the pastoral ministry, and that the sentence of Paul might be realized in each one of us: "Gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities . . . for when I am weak then am I powerful" (2 Cor. xii. 9, 10).

Such indeed are the sentiments which Anselm expressed to Urban II.: "Holy Father, I am grieved that I am not what I was, grieved to be a bishop, because by reason of my sins I do not perform the office of a bishop. While I was in a lowly position, I seemed to be doing something; set in a lofty place, burdened by an immense weight, I gain no fruit for myself, and am of no use to anybody. I give way beneath the burden because I am incredibly poor in the strength, virtue, zeal, and knowledge necessary for so great an office. I would fain flee from the insupportable anxiety and leave the burden behind me, but, on the other hand, I fear to offend God. The fear of God obliged me to accept it, the same fear of God constrains me to retain the same burden. Now, since God's will is hidden from me, and I know not what to do, I wander about in sighs, and know not how to put an end to it all".

Sermon for the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter 2019: "The person of the Pope apart from the Chair of St Peter becomes just another CEO"

^{Father Richard G. Cipolla}

 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of Hades shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)

To say that the interior of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is monumental and deeply impressive is an understatement.  I have described several times the role this church had in my own conversion to the Catholic Church.  But so many people who visit St Peter’s miss one of the greatest of the gems in this church: the Chair of St Peter as encased in a most remarkable Baroque confection by the genius architect and sculptor, Gianlorenzo Bernini.  The remarkable sculpture is at the liturgical East of the massive church. Gold is the fundamental color, a gold that contrasts with the bronze of the covering of the chair and the figures of Four Doctors of the Church. Above there is a stained glass window, the center of which is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the dove, that is surrounded by a super Baroque sunburst that seems to connect to heaven itself.  All this from a time when the Church and those artists who worked for the Church understood the power of beauty and symbolism in the Catholic faith.   

What is the chair that is the center of this triumphant artistic confection?  It is known as the Chair of St. Peter.   The wooden chair, with ivory arms, that is enclosed by Bernini’s splendid chair in bronze and gold, was venerated as a relic for centuries.  Whether this was the actual chair on which St Peter sat as Bishop of Rome, or whether it is dated from the third or sixth century is not ultimately important.  The chair that is venerated at St. Peter’s today is the symbol of the Christ-given role of St Peter and his successors within the Catholic Church. “You are Peter, and on this Rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” 

For the Record: Cardinals Burke and Brandmüller demand "A Decisive Act" to end the crisis of the Church

This letter was made public yesterday through many online sources.

We quote it in full below, calling your attention to the last paragraph: "a decisive act".

Open Letter to the Presidents of the Conferences of Bishops

Dear Brothers, Presidents of the Conferences of Bishops,

De Mattei: The Catholic Resistance has made itself heard

Roberto de Mattei 

Corrispondenza Romana

February 20, 2019

According to the traditional calendar, the first Tuesday after Septuagesima - this year falling on February 19 - is dedicated to the Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is perhaps the most painful [moment] of His Passion, of spiritual not physical suffering, culminating in the sweating of His blood. (Luke, 22, 43-44).

One of the principal reasons for His sufferings was His vision of unfaithfulness - not only in The Chosen People -  but  in all those during the centuries to come, who would guide the Church, founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Quae utilitas in sanguine meo? (Psalm,29,10). This agonizing question penetrated His Heart and needs to penetrate ours, like a sharp sword. God responded that every act of unfaithfulness, every apostasy, every sacrilege which passed through the centuries, was permitted so that the purity of doctrine and life would shine with even greater splendor in those, who, throughout the course of  the centuries had picked up and held high the blood-stained-banner of the Cross, opposing that of the followers of Lucifer. 

Protest in Rome, February 19, 2019 : Acies Ordinata

Acies Ordinata: a protest in silence to draw attention and destroy the wall of silence on the scandal of homosexuality, the root cause of the clerical sexual abuse crisis in the Church, subject of the summit to be held in the Vatican 21-24 February, 2019.  

The Benefits and Beauties of Liturgical Repetition

(Delivered at St. Mary’s parish, Norwalk, Connecticut, on Thursday, February 14, 2019, sponsored by the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny.)

Poets, Lovers, Children, Madmen—and Worshipers:

Why We Repeat Ourselves in the Liturgy

Peter A. Kwasniewski

Repetition in the liturgy is a profound topic, and I am under no illusions that I will be able to offer a comprehensive or definitive account of it. Rather, I would like to suggest some ways of thinking about repetition that may help us to appreciate its positive value, over against the assumptions that stood behind the far-reaching simplification of liturgical rites in the 20th century.

Op-Ed: "So, Uncle Ted has been defrocked: Will the Big Tent Abuse Summit Turn Out to be a Circus?"

Will the Big Tent Summit turn out to be a Circus?

Father Richard G. Cipolla

Georges Seurat, The Circus (1891), Musée d'Orsay

So Uncle Ted has been defrocked.  One wonders how many times he wore the clerical frock as a symbol of his priesthood.  Pray for him.   The question that must be asked about this declaration /move:  is McCarrick to be the sacrificial lamb of the upcoming meeting in Rome called by the Pope to discuss the crisis in sexual abuse by clergy, including bishops, which meeting will be led by mostly bishops?  Will burning McCarrick at an imaginary stake be enough to slake the thirst of the liberal press? Will it be enough to placate the minority of bishops who take the sexual abuse seriously? Will it be enough to stifle discussion about the factual data that the majority of this abuse was with young boys and young men?  Will it be enough for those  who have suffered at the hands of these men for so many years, not in that terrible physical way, but in being suppressed and kept down because of refusing to deny that one of the greatest problems in the Catholic Church since the end of the Second Vatican Council has been not only the terrible predatory behavior of priests and bishops with respect to boys and seminarians and prostitutes, but also the silent complicity of those in the hierarchy who have deliberately turned a blind eye to the egregious destruction of Catholic faith, worship and morality of the past fifty years.

That these people have no shame and are tone-deaf to reality is recently proven by the naming of Cardinal Kevin Farrell as the Camerlengo of the Papal Household, a most important position indeed.  That this man, who lived with McCarrick while the latter was Archbishop of Washington, D.C. and Farrell was an Auxiliary Bishop, and who claims that he did not know anything about the then Cardinal’s history on the Jersey Shore and beyond, would be named by the Pope to this sensitive and central office shows either the total insensitivity of this Pontiff to reality, or a terrible blindness, possibly deliberate,  to the cause of the deep corruption in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, beginning with its center in Rome.  The sexual corruption of the Curial clergy is a major cause of the parlous situation of the Church today.  But this does not get at the heart of the matter.  The heart of the matter is the deliberate attack on the doctrinal and liturgical Tradition (the two go hand in hand) of the Catholic Church.  There is no end to the silly statements of the German bishops who want to out-Zwingli Zwingli but without his moral fiber.  The fact is that without the church tax in Germany these poseurs would be figuring out how to pay for their next meal.  One wishes that the Lutherans in Germany would chastise the Catholic bishops for their deep misunderstanding of the Christian faith and their deep silliness in their statements about the faith. But classical Protestantism is moribund, and how could it not be, for it is the source of the grey secularism that has destroyed the Christian heart of Europe.

The irony of ironies is that Pope Francis just approved the canonization of John Henry Newman. We should take care that Pope Francis does not read any of Newman’s important writings, especially those on the Development of Doctrine.  Newman would not be a support of the footnotes in Amoris Laetitianor of the Pope’s attempt to change the Church’s clear teaching on the authority of the State to inflict capital punishment.  But one must keep the Pope above all from reading Newman’s Biglietto Speech that he gave upon the receiving of his Cardinal’s biretta in Rome.  For it is there, in clear terms, that Newman predicts the terrible debacle of the post-Vatican II Church.  I have quoted this before and will continue to do so, because its prescience is clear and relates directly to what has happened in the Catholic Church this past half century.

You Suggest, video: 24 Men take the Cassock at SSPX's St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Virginia

From our friends in the new photography department of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Dillwyn, Virginia:

Lepanto Conference: "I will not cease from Spiritual Fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, till we have restored the worship of God"

The Second annual Lepanto conference took place Saturday amid the Gothic splendor of St Vincent Ferrer church in New York. There were 700 people in the congregation for the Pontifical Mass; some 315 attended the conference itself. Thanks are due to Fr Walter C. Wagner OP, the pastor of St Vincent’s and to the Dominican order for hosting the conference.

The Most Reverend James Massa, auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn, celebrated Solemn Pontifical mass for St Pius V – the codifier of the Traditional Roman liturgy. Our dear contributor, Fr Richard Cipolla, of the Bridgeport diocese, was assistant priest. Rev. Mr Roger Kwan (Archdiocese of New York) served as deacon; Fr. Sean Connelly (Archdiocese of New York) was the subdeacon. William Riccio and Steve Quatela were the masters of ceremonies.

The following is the magnificent talk given by Father Cipolla during the Conference:

“Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurtling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds.”So begins, in the English translation by Robert Fagles, one of the seminal epic poems of Western civilization, The Iliad.  The first  book is called The Rage of Achilles, Achilles, the son of a goddess, fierce, the ultimate war hero and  yet, in Fagles’ words in his introduction to the Iliad, “imprisoned in a godlike, lonely, heroic fury from which all the rest of the world is excluded.”  Achilles sits out most of the Iliad in rage against Agamemnon for taking his concubine, Briseis. He returns to action, so to speak, only when his friend, Patroclus, whom he loves so deeply, is killed and despoiled by the Trojan Hector. And it is then that Achilles becomes the killing machine not so much for the cause of the Greeks against the Trojans but rather because of his rage against Hector, a hero in in his own right, for killing and despoiling Patroclus.  And in that terrible scene we know so well, he kills Hector and drags his body around the walls of Troy three times in uncontrollable fury.  He rises as a hero to avenge the death of his beloved Patroclus, and he is godlike in his single mindedness to punish at all costs the one and those who have taken away someone that he loved deeply.  Heroism as singlemindedness, as physical prowess in war, as exhibiting passionate emotion, and heroism as knowing as well that one is doomed to death by the botched attempt of a god to make him immortal.