On May 24 pray for the Church in Hong Kong and Cardinal Zen
2022 Statement by Cardinal Bo concerning His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Zen
As President of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, and following the arrest on 11 May of my brother Cardinal and fellow Salesian, Cardinal Joseph Zen, I wish to express my profound concern about the situation for human rights and threats to religious freedom in Hong Kong. I call on Catholics and the wider Christian community around the world to pray for Hong Kong, and I urge the international community to continue to monitor the situation and speak out for freedom and justice.
Event: First Rogation Procession and Mass in Ann Arbor, MI, since the reform - May 25
This will be the first publicly observed Rogation Day in Ann Arbor, Michigan and surrounding area since the Rogations were eliminated from the new calendar in 1969. We pray it is the first of many more, and that this ancient and rich liturgy may become more widely celebrated throughout the Church.
For the special occasion, the choir will sing Bruckner's Locus Iste and Allegri's Miserere Mei for the Offertory and Communion motets, respectively.
Event: Mass for the Queenship of Mary (Brooklyn, May 31, 2022 - 7pm)
All are welcome!
Parking available.
Liturgy Unites, Gaslighting Divides
Guns don't kill people, people do. People are the source of division, not the things they use to bring about violence. The voice is one of the most beautiful gifts given to men, and yet men use their voices all too frequently in sinful ways to divide and to hate. This is not the fault of the voice but of the man or woman who uses it for unholy purposes.
So, intentions are key in uncovering in any situation what is the cause of division, if indeed there subsists such a lack of true charity.
Just as with any weapon, intended for self defense, the things of God can be misused in a sinful way to exclude the truth or to deceive. This is the lack of charity which offends God.
Liturgy is not merely a defense against evil. Through the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the prayer of the Lord Himself and the highest form of prayer, is brought about the greatest source of grace through our Lord Himself truly present in the Eucharist. There can be no greater means of unity nor of charity than reception of the Lord in the Eucharist and cooperation in the graces He thus confers to love God and others through word and work.
In recent weeks the pope digressed on matters liturgical in an address at Rome to the pontifical liturgical institute Saint Anselm on its sixtieth anniversary. He spoke of the new liturgy promulgated after Vatican II and also of the traditional liturgy. He compared the two to the denigration and rejection of the latter.
The pope continued his line first launched with Traditionis Custodes (TC) that there is only one possible liturgy and it is the new one. He repeated the slander, begun in TC, that sinfully impugns the motives of those Catholics who love the rich patrimony of the Church's tradition of prayer:
"When liturgical life becomes something of a banner of division there is the odor of the devil being inside there, the deceiver. “ That's quite a put-down there, Holy Father. Even in a fair fight, baseless insults wouldn't win. But when the attacker has an unfair advantage, using his unrivaled power to silence any who question him, there is indeed at least the smoke of division present.
The motives of those who attend and promote the traditional Liturgy are of the very highest. They live with love for God and others through complete submission of intellect and will to all that the Church teaches in matters of faith and morals. This is the one necessary task of the Church for the salvation of souls. I know this is true because I have served them as pastor for nearly twelve years. Our parish has grown and flourished with new parishioners joining us nearly every week as well as frequent baptisms among our large and growing families.
To his credit the pope in his address acknowledges "legitimate differences", which I would say nearly perfectly describes the situation of those who find that the incarnation of the liturgy in the vast majority of cases looks nothing like what was described in the documents of Vatican II which called for the use of Latin, the music of the organ and the rich tradition of Gregorian chant. The Liturgy in many places today has devolved into a sordid affair more akin to a badly disorganized Masonic meeting.
This is to say nothing of the open heretical promotion of sodomy by the leading German cardinal in the context of the new liturgy with no comment from the pope in response.
A frank family discussion on how Vatican II went wrong in the matter of the Mass is all that the people are asking for. Parrhesia, such an honest airing of differences, has been hailed by this pope as a necessary element of ecclesial life. Alas, the track record is instead a dysfunctional silence in response to any who question even the most bizarre aberrations contrary to Catholic faith and morals advanced by the individuals promoted by this pontificate.
The love of and belief in the Eucharist, which the pope rightly highlights as the source and summit of our lives as Christians, precisely encapsulates the reason for the ceaseless unease among the people of God over many years in regard to the deplorable state of liturgical affairs in many parishes. This reality is the basis of the pastoral solicitude on the part of every pope since Vatican II to concede some basis in ecclesial life for those who find the traditional liturgy a continued source of spiritual strength and fruitful spiritual sustenance. Only now, with Francis, is the door shut to the cries of his spiritual children.
Charity is not "above all openness and attention to others" as the pope said in his recent address to the liturgical institute. No, charity is above all love of God for His own sake and others in Him for the sake of their salvation. Liturgy must reflect these essentials, not become a mundane horizontal celebration of man as is the case with an increasing frequency in liturgical life today. The classical liturgy clearly points to God, directing our love and attention to Him so that, with this as a basis going forward, we have what we need to give to others for their own sake: the supernatural love of God which saves.
The Pope ascribed motives to Catholics who love the traditional liturgy: "It is not possible to worship God and at the same time turn liturgy into a battlefield for issues that are not essential, or indeed for outdated questions and to take sides, starting from the liturgy, on ideologies that divide the Church." The liturgy handed down in the Holy Spirit leading up to the 1960's is either legitimate worship which accomplishes all the pope here describes or we're all in trouble. The highly preposterous canard that the Holy Spirit started the Church in 1968 is more than tiresome at this point. Catholics who indeed love the faith and the Church aren't tolerating these worn-out red herrings from the 70's any more. Move on.
It is simple gaslighting to pick a completely unnecessary fight over the liturgy with the faithful in the wake of the mutual peace which Benedict wrought in this area through the balm of Summorum Pontificum.
If the liturgy is not essential than what is? Liturgy is our only link to Christ Himself through which grace pours out so richly and infinitely as to bring about the presence of the Lord Himself.
I applaud Catholics who love the liturgy so much as to insist on a serious and exhaustive conversation about it. Would that the pope would see the same logic and respond accordingly. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain, including the many souls who are currently on the margins and hanging for dear life as growing numbers the pope's appointees in Germany and elsewhere misuse their office to promote every form of perversion and unnatural activity known to man.
Holy Father, please do not gaslight your children in Christ. In charity please hear our cries for the Mass that the Fathers celebrated daily during the Council of Vatican II, which liturgy the council did not, and could not, abrogate. Our legitimate differences with you in some matters do not mean we are no longer Catholic, or in league with the devil. In fact, they indicate that we place the charity you yourself call for in highest place where it belongs in our lives.
It is for the glory of God and the salvation of souls that we cling to the Mass of our forefathers in faith. We know that with prayer and grace your heart can be moved in that same charity to recognize that we have nothing to lose and everything to gain if we find that unity in Christ is never harmed by more than one way of praying.
It will be obvious today for any who observe with any degree of seriousness that the "odor of Satan", the true cause of division, is not with those who love and celebrate the immemorial liturgy rightly described by Benedict XVI as sacred and beautiful once and always. No, true division, the work of the evil one, is found with those who promote sodomy, transgender ideology and grooming of minors and who use the new liturgy of Vatican II to do so. The traditional Latin Mass can never be twisted to the evil purposes of those promoted by this pope and that indeed is the reason why they have decided it must go.
The pope is ordering bishops to kick the traditional liturgy out of their churches. This immemorial rule of faith which protects and saves our souls is the last line of defense against the latest in a series of heretical juggernauts being launched from Rome, the "Synod on Synodality". So it must go.
We are capable of defending ourselves and the Lord Himself authorizes us to do so. We truly would be in league with Satan if we refused to follow our consciences on so great a matter as touching upon our eternal salvation. We know our intentions are upright as we parry against the daily blows being delivered by proxies for the pope from Rome and right here in America at the eponymously-titled magazine.
(In photo above: members of Father Cusick’s parish after 11 am traditional Latin Mass on Sunday, May 22. The parish also offers Mass in English every Sunday so as to not exclude or marginalize anyone. An abbreviated version of this contribution appeared this month in The Wanderer Catholic Newspaper.)
“Progressive Manias”: Powerful article by Archbishop Aguer
What is progressivism? I am referring to ecclesiastical progressivism, which, like secular progressivism, looks to the future as if the world and the Church were on the move, always evolving towards the best.
We could consider evolutionism as a sort of eponym of religious progressivism. This constitutes a system of “advanced” ideas and attitudes, which proudly detaches itself from any adherence to Tradition. The so-called modernism of the early twentieth century was described and condemned by St. Pius X in the Encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis and the Decree Lamentabili sane exitu. It brought together a Kantian (rationalist) philosophy, which repudiated Aristotelian-Thomistic thought; the “positive” studies of Sacred Scripture of a Protestant-liberal origin; and the desire to equate Christian culture with that which reigned in a Europe shaped by the revolutions of the 19th century, which had their roots in the French Revolution of 1789 and its Enlightenment. Modernists suffered from a kind of discomfort, as if they were alien or had been left out of what the Modern Age was proposing. Moreover, confusion reigned in modernism between the doctrine, its contents, and the modes of expression. In this regard, post-conciliar progressivism surpasses it by far.
Announcing a Major New Work on the Nature of the Papacy and the Reign of Francis
In my work (especially over the past decade), I have devoted a great deal of attention to the nature and role of the papacy, looking to understand both the office in itself, from historical, theological, canonical, and liturgical points of view, and the South American Jesuit neo-modernist who currently occupies it.
As the fruition and culmination of that work, I have just published a two-volume set with Arouca Press: The Road from Hyperpapalism to Catholicism: Rethinking the Papacy in a Time of Ecclesial Distintegration.
“Questioned, deaf to criticism...” -- A Tense "End of Reign" Climate in Francis' Vatican
“Questioned, deaf to criticism...” The end of a lonely reign for Pope Francis
Le Figaro
Jean-Marie Guénois
May 13, 2022
Francis listens but likes to decide alone at the risk of isolation.
ROME - Never before has Pope Francis faced such adversity. In this year 2022, the tenth of his pontificate, everything seems to be conspiring against him. Rome, always quick to burn what it adores, is in turmoil. Some discern a mature phase of the pontificate. Others see an "end of reign", according to an expression common in the Eternal City. Many are already thinking about what comes next. But Francis, 85 years old and very combative, is far from having said his last word. A great worldwide Christian jubilee is in sight for 2025. Above all, he is preparing his major reform: that of "synodality" for 2024.
Obedience in Crisis: A Review by Michael Charlier of “True Obedience in the Church”
The Council and the Eclipse of God – by Don Pietro Leone : Part 2 of CHAPTER VII –Man’s Cult of God - Sacrosanctum Concilium : a veritable modernist minefield
Don Pietro Leone continues to guide us through the modernist minefield of Sacrosanctum Concilium – The Council’s document on the Reform of the Liturgy.
This section, which is an excellent read, is incontrovertible in its refutations of conciliar conceits and not without humour.
F.R.
The Council and the Eclipse of God
by
Don Pietro Leone
CHAPTER VII
PART 2: MAN’S CULT OF GOD
Help a Traditional Catholic School in Colorado! Sweepstakes for Our Lady Help of Christians Academy
by Fr. Paul Robinson
Our Lady Help of Christians Academy is a school located east of Denver and is run by the Society of St. Pius X. When SSPX priests came to this area in the early 90s, they found traditional Catholics here who had already started schools. Because Abp. Lefebvre asked his priests to start schools and these Catholics had a great love for the Mass and for Catholic education, it was only natural for those schools to become a single SSPX school. Now, in 2022, we are celebrating the 27th anniversary of Our Lady Help of Christians Academy.
“Francis, Kirill, and the Russian war in Ukraine” - by Roberto de Mattei
Among the many successes attributed by the mass media to Pope Francis has been the “historic meeting” that took place on February 12 2016 in Havana with Moscow patriarch Kirill. An event, it was written at the time, that saw the collapse of the religious wall that for a thousand years divided the Church of Rome from that of the East (la Repubblica, February 5 2016).
“Onion liturgy: Francis and nervousness about form” — Scorching article by Luisella Scrosati
“Liturgical Survival in Gray Areas”: Michael Charlier on Room for Maneuvering without Schism
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| Rocca di San Leo |
A thoroughly friendly discussion is currently taking place between the blogs Caminante Wanderer (Argentina) and MessaInLatino (Italy) about Pope Francis’s part in the activities against the traditional liturgy. Caminante Wanderer is of the opinion that Francis is, in principle, uninterested in liturgy, that he devotes himself exclusively to the things his neo-Jesuitical thinking considers important and otherwise follows the voices that fit best into his current power calculations. We do not intend to disagree with this, especially since the Wanderer can certainly cite serious arguments in support of his view.
A Communist Regime Arrests a Cardinal Again -- Please, Pray for Cardinal Zen! (Updated: released from custody for now)
The news shocked the whole Catholic world today -- decades after the arrests of Cardinals by Communist regimes, a situation all thought would remain in the past, the 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong and a huge friend of the Traditional Mass, was arrested today by the Communists currently yielding power in the former British colony. We tweeted it as soon as it became public, about 4 hours ago:
A Reply to Gavin Ashenden: the evangelising power of the Traditional Mass
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| Evangelising by doing something recognisably sacred: Easter Vigil in London |
Cross-posted on LMSChairman.org
I have an
article in the current issue of Inside the Vatican, and by coincidence
it is preceded by one by Dr Gavin Ashenden, the former Anglican cleric received
into the Catholic Church just before Christmas. Ashenden has become an
important commentator on Catholic affairs, so I was dismayed to read his
treatment of the movement for the Traditional Mass, which is the subject of his
article. I think, however, that Dr Ashenden’s analysis may appeal to many, in
trying to put together the kinds of things Pope Francis has said along with a perhaps
superficial knowledge of the movement itself. For this reason, as well as
because of the respect I have for him as an intellectual, I would like to make
a response.
‘The Mother and the Virgin and the Bride’ - A Review of "A Symphony of Truth", a new book by Father Serafino Lanzetta
The theological essays united in The Symphony of Truth by Father Serafino M. Lanzetta are like various musical instruments interpreting together a unique musical score. One melodic phrase which contributes to the harmony of this symphony recalls to my mind a poem by G. K. Chesterton, entitled An Agreement, in which he opposes the life-giving love of “our human trinity, The Mother and the Virgin and the Bride” to the death-dealing hatred of ‘unmotherly Medea’, the Greek sorceress who murdered her own offspring. Similarly, Fr Lanzetta wields his theological scholarship to defend the vivifying truths of the Catholic faith against the deathly blows of false teachings, particularly those aimed at attacking the fecundity and the indissolubility of the marital bond.
Pope Francis insults liturgical tradition and living from it: On the May 7 address
The following article by Clemens Victor Oldendorf is translated from the German original, published at kathnews.de (here).—PAK
On May 7, 2022, Pope Francis received in audience the faculty and students of liturgical studies from the Roman Benedictine Institute of Sant’Anselmo. In his address, he warned against “liturgical formalism” that consists in “returning to forms and formalities.” The Holy Father then attributed this attitude to those “who try to return [to the past]” and whom he repeatedly accuses of a blanket denial of the Second Vatican Council. Literally, the Pope said: “There [in such communities] the celebration of the liturgy becomes a performance, a thing without life, without joy.” According to him they reduce the liturgy to a utilitarian instrument for “preserving tradition.”
Happy Mother’s Day — Perpetual Love and Concern: The Glory of Motherhood
Sandro Botticelli’s Madonna della Melagrana (The Pomegranate Madonna), the 1490 masterpiece housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, depicts Our Blessed Mother in a particular pensive and concerned way.
The pomegranate represents, in almost complete certainty, the hearts of Mother and Son, the Most Sacred and the Immaculate Hearts, united in contemplation of the solemn fate of the Divine Child.
It is in our view a very appropriate depiction of Motherhood. In our current age of ever more vapid portrayals of fake happiness, all one sees in social media are smiles… and smiles are wonderful, especially when they are truthful. But parents know parenthood is more often than not also marked by loving care and the grave concerns that come with it.
To all Mothers who pray, and hope, and love, and weep for their children, in the most difficult job in the world, we wish a Happy, Healthy, and Blessed Mother’s Day!
Pope to Students and Faculty of Sant’Anselmo, May 7, 2022: “Every reform creates resistance… All of these things scandalized closed-minded people”
Today, the pope addressed the teachers and students of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute Sant’Anselmo (Italian original here), the think-tank of Traditionis Custodes and like-minded initiatives. He compares those who lamented Pius XII’s massacre of Holy Week to the Pharisees who rent their garments, and accuses lovers of the “sacred and great” Catholic tradition of weaponizing it against Church unity.
His attacks on tradition are, as always, superficial, hypocritical, and judgmental, and his undying optimism for a failed reform bears all the marks of boilerplate stereotypes, ignoring all realities on the ground. It’s really rather pathetic: he has no experience at all of the joy and energy of the traditional movement, and seemingly no awareness of how deathly dull is the Novus Ordo in most parishes—aging, shrinking, few children, few or no vocations... representing the “active participation” of a few percent of a once-Catholic population, driven away from the “Church of Vatican II” by its sheer banality, irreverence, irrelevance, and lack of anything meaningful to say to anyone hungry for encounter with the mystery of God. That’s what’s “senza vita, senza gioia.”
His attacks on tradition are, as always, superficial, hypocritical, and judgmental, and his undying optimism for a failed reform bears all the marks of boilerplate stereotypes, ignoring all realities on the ground. It’s really rather pathetic: he has no experience at all of the joy and energy of the traditional movement, and seemingly no awareness of how deathly dull is the Novus Ordo in most parishes—aging, shrinking, few children, few or no vocations... representing the “active participation” of a few percent of a once-Catholic population, driven away from the “Church of Vatican II” by its sheer banality, irreverence, irrelevance, and lack of anything meaningful to say to anyone hungry for encounter with the mystery of God. That’s what’s “senza vita, senza gioia.”
Meanwhile, my crowded FSSP parish this morning rejoiced in the Lord with a solemn High Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, at which many first Communions took place, as our parish continues to grow: people who love the Lord and each other and are relieved to have found truly Catholic worship that nourishes and inspires us in our pilgrimage to heaven, a foretaste of which we experience on earth.
The end of this papacy cannot come soon enough.
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS TO THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF THE PONTIFICAL LITURGICAL INSTITUTE
Consistory Hall
Saturday, 7 May 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!
Thank you, Father Abbot Primate, for your introduction. The Italian has improved! All right. I greet the Father Rector, the Father Dean, the Professors, and all of you, dear students and former students of the Pontifical Liturgical Institute.
I am happy to receive you on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its foundation. It came about as a response to the growing need of the People of God to live and participate more intensely in the liturgical life of the Church; a need which found enlightening verification in the Second Vatican Council with the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. By now, your institution’s dedication to the study of the liturgy is well recognized. Experts trained in your classrooms promote the liturgical life of many dioceses, in very different cultural contexts.
Three dimensions emerge clearly from the Council’s drive for the renewal of liturgical life. The first is active and fruitful participation in the liturgy; the second is ecclesial communion enlivened by the celebration of the Eucharist and the Sacraments of the Church; and the third is the impetus to the evangelizing mission from the liturgical life that involves all the baptized. The Pontifical Liturgical Institute is at the service of this threefold need.
First of all, the formation to live and promote active participation in liturgical life. The in-depth and scientific study of the liturgy should encourage you to foster, as the Council wished, this fundamental dimension of Christian life. The key here is to educate people to enter into the spirit of the liturgy. And to know how to do this, it is necessary to be imbued with this spirit. At Sant’Anselmo, I would like to say, this should happen: to be imbued with the spirit of the liturgy, to feel its mystery, with an ever new amazement.
Liturgy is not possessed [by us], no, it is not a profession: liturgy is learned, liturgy is celebrated. To arrive at this attitude of celebrating the liturgy. And one participates actively only to the extent that one enters into this spirit of celebration. It is not a matter of rites, it is the mystery of Christ, who once and for all revealed and fulfilled the sacred, the sacrifice and the priesthood. Worship in spirit and in truth. All this, in your Institute, must be meditated upon, assimilated, I would say “breathed in”. In the school of the Scriptures, of the Fathers, of Tradition, of the Saints. Only in this way can participation be translated into a greater sense of the Church, one that makes us live evangelically in every time and in every circumstance. And even this attitude of celebrating suffers temptations. On this point I would like to emphasize the danger, the temptation of liturgical formalism: to go after forms, formalities rather than reality, as we see today in those movements that try to go backwards and deny the Second Vatican Council. Then the celebration is recitation, it is something without life, without joy.
Your dedication to liturgical study, on the part of both professors and students, also makes you grow in ecclesial communion. For the liturgical life opens us to each other, to those closest and furthest from the Church, in our common belonging to Christ. Giving glory to God in the liturgy finds its counterpart in love of neighbor, in the commitment to live as brothers and sisters in daily situations, in the community in which I find myself, with its merits and its limitations. This is the path to true sanctification. Therefore, the formation of the People of God is a fundamental task for living a fully ecclesial liturgical life.
And the third aspect. Every liturgical celebration always ends with mission. What we live and celebrate leads us to go out to meet others, to meet the world around us, to meet the joys and needs of so many who perhaps live without knowing the gift of God. Genuine liturgical life, especially the Eucharist, always impels us to charity, which is above all openness and attention to others. This attitude always begins and is grounded in prayer, especially liturgical prayer. And this dimension also opens us to dialogue, to encounter, to the ecumenical spirit, to welcome.
I have dwelt briefly on these three fundamental dimensions. I stress again that liturgical life, and the study of it, must lead to greater ecclesial unity, not division. When the liturgical life is a bit of a banner of division, there is the odor of the devil in there, the deceiver. It is not possible to worship God and at the same time make the liturgy a battleground for issues that are not essential, indeed, for outdated issues and to take sides, starting with the liturgy, with ideologies that divide the Church. The Gospel and the Tradition of the Church call us to be firmly united on the essentials, and to share legitimate differences in the harmony of the Spirit. That is why the Council wished to prepare abundantly the table of the Word of God and the Eucharist, to make possible the presence of God in the midst of his People. Thus the Church, through liturgical prayer, prolongs the work of Christ in the midst of the men and women of every age, and also in the midst of creation, dispensing the grace of his sacramental presence. Liturgy must be studied while remaining faithful to this mystery of the Church.
It is true that every reform creates resistance. I remember, I was a boy, when Pius XII began with the first liturgical reform, the first: you can drink water before communion, fasting for an hour... “But this is against the sanctity of the Eucharist!”, they tore their clothes. Then, the Vespers Mass: “But, how come, the Mass is in the morning!” Then, the reform of the Easter Triduum: “But how, on Saturday the Lord must rise, now they postpone it to Sunday, to Saturday evening, on Sunday they don’t ring the bells... And where do the twelve prophecies go?” All of these things scandalized closed-minded people. It happens even today. Indeed, these closed mindsets use liturgical patterns to defend their own point of view. Using the liturgy: this is the drama we are experiencing in ecclesial groups that are distancing themselves from the Church, questioning the Council, the authority of the bishops, in order to preserve tradition. And the liturgy is used for this.
The challenges of our world and the present moment are very strong. The Church needs today, as always, to live by the liturgy. The Council Fathers achieved a great work to ensure that this would be so. We must continue this task of being formed to the liturgy in order to be formed by the liturgy. The Blessed Virgin Mary together with the Apostles prayed, broke the Bread and lived charity with all. Through their intercession, may the liturgy of the Church make present today and always this model of Christian life.
I thank you for the service you render to the Church and I encourage you to continue it in the joy of the Spirit. I bless you from my heart. And I ask you to please pray for me. Thank you.
At New Liturgical Movement, Gregory DiPippo wrote a response (indirectly) to this address, all of which is worth reading. I quote just two paragraphs:
Read the rest there.
* * *
[ADDENDUM]
At New Liturgical Movement, Gregory DiPippo wrote a response (indirectly) to this address, all of which is worth reading. I quote just two paragraphs:
There is probably no area of the Church’s life today that is unaffected by ideologies . . . but there is certainly none in which this is more the case than in the field of the liturgy. Many people insist on looking at the post-Conciliar reform only through certain ideological lenses. Through these lenses, it is declared to be the product and fulfillment of the original Liturgical Movement inspired by men like Dom Guéranger and Fr Romano Guardini, whose ideals it betrayed, whose principles it largely rejected, and whose goals it did not fulfill. It is declared to be the product and fulfillment of the will of Vatican II as expressed in Sacrosanctum Concilium, whose ideals it also betrayed, whose principles it also largely rejected, and whose goals it also did not fulfill. Concerns that the scholarly premises of the reform were erroneous at best, and its methods fraudulent, are ignored or dismissed. It is declared to be a spectacular pastoral success, as churches and religious houses and schools empty and close, and membership in the Church collapses precipitously. And because it is in the very nature of an ideology to blind those who believe in it to its failures, those who point out its failures are either insulted or silenced, but never answered.. . . [T]here will come a day when the ideological conviction that the post-Conciliar reforms have been a spectacular success no longer holds the unreasonable fascination that it does on so many minds, especially among those who lived through them, and remain unduly attached to the naïve optimism of their youth. Then the insults and forced resignations and suppressions will come to an end, and there will begin the difficult process of honestly assessing what went wrong, and why it went wrong, and determining what needs to be done to put it right.
Read the rest there.
Upcoming Lectures by Dr. Kwasniewski in Washington DC (May 23), Buffalo (June 3-4), and Cleveland (June 4)
I will be visiting Washington, DC at the end of May and then Buffalo, NY, and Cleveland, OH, the first weekend of June (Pentecost). The following lectures are free and open to the public. Each will be followed by a Q&A and booksale. Posters will be found at the end, for sharing on social media, etc.
Washington, DC
Monday, May 23, at 7:00 pm
“Understanding Organic Development in the Catholic Liturgy: Distinguishing Improvements from Corruptions”
(Sponsored by the Paulus Institute)
Holy Comforter / St. Cyprian Catholic Church
1357 E Capitol St SE
Washington, DC 20003
“True Obedience in the Church” Now Available in Spanish and German Editions
Rorate readers will recall the earlier announcement of the release of my book True Obedience in the Church: A Guide for Discernment in Difficult Times (Sophia Institute Press, 2021). Now the same work is available in Spanish and German from Os Justi Press, which publishes through KDP/Amazon. (Editions in Italian, French, and Portuguese are under way.) ***Just a reminder: seminarians and clergy in the USA may request free English copies via the website TrueObedience.com.
La verdadera obediencia en la Iglesia: Guía de discernimiento para tiempos recios
Wahrer Gehorsam in der Kirche: Ein Leitfaden in schwerer Zeit
Below are the book descriptions for the new publications.
La verdadera obediencia explicada
La verdadera obediencia explicada
Catholic News Service Fires 21 Staff, Ends U.S. Operations
In a stunning announcement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) today, 21 employees of the USCCB / Catholic News Service will be laid off and Catholic News Service's U.S. offices will close.
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Catholic News Service, founded in 1920, is the journalist arm of the USCCB, which employs a team of reporters for articles that appear in diocesan papers and websites. Only the Rome bureau of Catholic News Service will remain open.
This will likely be devastating to diocesan papers and websites, which rely heavily on Catholic News Service articles for national Church news. Many diocesan newspapers have already downgraded their frequency, from weekly to biweekly or even monthly, if not closing up altogether. And many papers are barely publishing, including the Catholic Standard of the Archdiocese of Washington, which is down to a sporadic monthly edition, but does not have a print edition listed since its March 17 issue. Without Catholic News Service articles to fill pages, already-skeletal local diocesan newsrooms will have to produce more copy.
Why Ecclesia Dei Communities Should Avoid Concelebrating the Chrism Mass: A Response to Michael Charlier
The following article was first published at OnePeterFive and is reprinted here with permission.—PAK
In the news cycle recently there has been much coverage of Pope Francis’s statement to a group of French bishops that all priests in a diocese, regardless of affiliation, should be present to concelebrate the Chrism Mass with their bishop each year (see this article). As a result, the ever-simmering question of concelebration has once more come to a boil.
Respected German traditionalist Michael Charlier wrote an article (translated at Rorate Caeli) explaining why he thinks that, even if normally concelebration may and should be refused by traditional clergy, the Chrism Mass is a special case where a refusal in principle would be unreasonable, and where it may be prudent to go ahead in a spirit of compromise and as a minimal sign of unity with the local bishop, at whose sufferance these traditionalist communities function in the diocese.
The Council and the Eclipse of God – by Don Pietro Leone : CHAPTER VII –Man’s Cult of God - Sacrosanctum Concilium : a veritable modernist minefield
Many people praise Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Council’s document on the Liturgy as being something orthodox, but Don Pietro shows how, in reality, it is but another modernist minefield. In this section, he quotes from Don Gueranger’s prophetic book on anti-liturgical heresy ‘Liturgical Institutions.’
For a fuller analysis of how the Mass was changed as a result of the
Council, readers may consult Don Pietro’s book, 'The Destruction of the Roman Rite' found here: https://loretopubs.org/the-destruction-of-the-roman-rite.html and which was first published on Rorate Caeli some
years ago: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2011/10/roman-rite-old-and-new-i-introduction.html .
The
Council and the Eclipse of God
by
Don
Pietro Leone
(Part I)
A veritable modernist minefield
“Secure in the faith, despite Rome”—Archbishop Hector Aguer
The persistence of the maximum exponent of today's ecclesial magisterium in criticizing—sometimes mockingly—those who are sure of the identity of the faith and joyfully affirm themselves in it, grateful to God for being rooted in the great Tradition of the Church, is a cause of astonishment, bewilderment, and concern for many of the faithful. These faithful Christians are reviled as rigorous Pharisees. The unusual position of the Holy See at this time contradicts the teaching of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who so loved and glorified the splendor of truth (veritatis splendor). The relativistic moralism currently professed by Rome sinks the reality of faith and its ethical and spiritual consequences into the Kantian realm of practical Reason.
Worse still: the "new paradigms" proposed by the current pontificate submit to the dictates of a New World Order, managed by Freemasonry and financed by the international imperialism of money. It has long been known that the Vatican is a hive of Freemasons, who help each other to climb to the most influential positions, according to the secret pacts that have characterized the sect from its origins, pacts that have been repeatedly denounced by the pontiffs who warned about the danger this long-time enemy of Holy Church implies for the social order based on natural law, and for the support and development of the faith in the life of the peoples. I am aware of the truth and accuracy of what I have just written, so I do not fear that my freedom will be curtailed by measures that no one will dare to take.
Errors and heresies can be initiated and widely propagated in the face of the complicit silence of those who should, as has been done since apostolic times, condemn them. The testimony of the New Testament is eloquent: "It is fitting that there should be heresies, so that it may be made manifest who are faithful" (1 Cor 11:19: hina kai hoi dokimoi phaneroi genōntai). The German synod, in the face of Rome's silence, plainly distinguishes within that Germanic people the true believers from those trapped by errors, which should make Martin Luther smile (wherever he is). In the same letter we quoted, the Apostle Paul reminds the faithful of the Gospel he preached to them, the one they received, in which we stand firm (estēkate: 1 Cor 15:1), by which they are saved, if they stand firm (ei katechete: 1 Cor 15:2), because otherwise they have believed in vain (ektos ei mē eikē episteusate). The fundamental thing, Paul reminds them, is what he has delivered to them. It is scandalous that Rome disqualifies tradition. St. Peter, in his Second Letter, notes to his readers—and to us!—that his purpose is to secure them, to make them more steadfast (estērigmenous, 2 Pet 1:12); he warns them against the lying teachers (pseudodididáskaloi) who are introduced into the Church, as were the false prophets among the people of Israel; by them the way of truth is blasphemed (2 Pet 2:2).
The pastoral epistles of the Apostle Paul describe a situation that has occurred periodically in the history of the Church: "perilous times" (kairoi chalepoi, 2 Tim. 3:1) are precipitated by the introduction of errors that weaken the faith and the security of the faithful with respect to the tradition on which they rely. That is why he encourages his disciples and co-workers to resist. Many times I have quoted the passage of 2 Tim. 4, 1ff.: the pastors of the Church must tirelessly preach the truth, they must argue and rebuke (epitimēson: 2 Tim. 4, 2). The problem was, and is, false teachers who flatter ears, seeking "relevance," seeking to relocate themselves in the wider world, indulging in myths, abandoning the truth (apo men tēs alētheias...epi de tous mythous, ib 4, 4). Similar to these texts are many other biblical passages in which the exact opposite of the orientation of the present pontificate is expressed. The contrast appears in the simple comparison.
I have pointed out one cause in the predominance of moralism, which strips the doctrine of faith of the dynamism that directs it toward its mystical dimension. Faith is contemplative; its application to action depends on that fecund and sure repose in truth which is its object: it is theoria rather than praxis; and the latter knows what to do, in every circumstance, because it is illuminated by that higher light which allows us to discern with wisdom. Moralism is necessarily pragmatic and relativistic. The criticism I direct at the current that is nowadays official includes the observation that the doctrine of the faith is no longer preached in its entirety. St. John Paul II has left us in the Catechism of the Catholic Church an updated synthesis of what we must believe and spread today. In this corpus that embraces dogma, morals, and spirituality is found the identity of Catholicism, in which we Christians in this "dangerous time" can assure ourselves, directing the gaze of our spirit to the Lord who is with us "every day" (pasas tas hēmeras, Mt. 28:20).
It seems unbelievable—but it is a painful reality—that, after more than half a century, those words of Paul VI are still true: "Through some crack, the smoke of Satan has entered the House of God." The seductive "spirit of the Council," against which Jacques Maritain reacted so wisely in The Peasant of Garonne, appears again, this time from the Vatican Hill itself! The pontifical speeches expressly elude the truths that should be remembered with clarity, magnanimity, and patience, and dwell exclusively on those "new paradigms" that strike in vain those who are truly faithful, who try to live faithfully what they have received. The Christian is someone who has received what he believes and who, thanks to the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist, tries to order his life as a new man according to the example of Christ.
It should not surprise us that the sacraments have no place in the pastoral programs encouraged by "synodality." Sacramentum translates the Greek mysterion; relativistic pragmatic moralism is incapable of perceiving the mysteries of faith, and spontaneously tends to discard the supernatural dimension in the pastoral care of the sacraments, which assures the gift of grace offered to all: liberation from sin and expansion of the new life of participation in the divine nature. We are partakers of the divine nature, theias koinōnoi physeōs (2 Pet. 1:4). What constitutes the life of a Christian is to remain in what he has received, in the "old commandment," which St. John says in his First Letter, the entolēn palaiàn (1 Jn 2:7), i.e., the reception of the light that drives away the darkness: hē skotia paragetai (1 Jn 2:8).
A historical fact that allows us to appreciate how far the "danger" of this dark time extends has been the silence, or perhaps the repudiation, that has greeted the respectful presentation of dubia about the scope of the semi-disguised innovation in the Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the work namely of four eminent cardinals, Burke, Cafarra, Brandmüller, and Meisner. The question of the possibility of admitting to the sacraments divorced persons who have entered into a new union was a trial balloon of a relativist moralism for which there are no longer any intrinsically evil acts. It is a swindle against the same possible beneficiaries of that permission, with the purpose of tracing an alternative path to the one indicated by Tradition; it is an equivocation that cannot be considered a gesture of mercy.
Justice—justification by grace—is true mercy. The objectivity with which Eucharistic praxis is inscribed in the Christian life is no less important than the mere subjective desire to receive communion; in this order, Catholic Tradition, with the recognition of sound theology, is faithful to the origins that appear unequivocally in the New Testament. The security provided by embracing the truth known and loved in no way implies contempt for those who hesitate or have already been won over by relativism; on the contrary, it expresses the fraternal concern to make them participate in the joy offered by the integrity of the faith, humbly received as an undeserved gift.
The uneasiness provoked by the current position of the magisterium is aggravated when considering the system of promotions to the episcopate and to the cardinalatial dignity, because of their quantity and orientation. Indeed, what sense does it make for a diocese that lacks vocations and has an insufficient number of priests to meet pastoral needs to have two auxiliary bishops? I am referring to what is happening in Argentina, although the same attitude can be verified in other countries. It is not a sin of suspicion to think that there is an express purpose here to re-form the Church, and to spread the moralistic and relativistic criterion that, as I have already said, has become an official policy.
I would like to free myself from such concern and to be mistaken in the judgment I make of the orientation imposed from Rome. Like many others throughout the world who share this concern of mine, I can only rely on the trust and love of Christ, Lord and Spouse of the Church, and on the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, whom I invoke from my heart. I do not wish to fall into a pretentiousness of "being right" in my criticisms, even though the statements and the facts outlined above are a source of bitter pain for me, which prompt me to ponder and to judge.
May the Lord have mercy on us, and alleviate the duration of this "dangerous time" in which we live! I insist on what I observed at the beginning: astonishment, bewilderment, concern: what other feelings could be aroused by the strange spectacle of true Catholics being beat up while heretics are caressed? Our simple country people would say: "cosa 'e mandinga" ("devil's work"); the "smoke of Satan that has entered through a crack into the House of God," as a disenchanted Paul VI confessed.
Archbishop Hector Aguer
Buenos Aires
May 3, 2022
“Concelebration as compromise?” — Article by Michael Charlier
 |
| Holy Thursday 2022 in Rome. Does such a giant concelebration with clergy from many dioceses correspond to the essence of the episcopal Chrism Mass? |
Rorate presents this translation of an essay by Michael Charlier, posted on April 30, 2022 (source). It does not represent Rorate's view. It is offered in the spirit of fostering conversation. A response from Peter Kwasniewski will be published in the next days.
Moloch Loses One Round: Roe
 |
| Memorial of Unborn Children, Madison, Wisconsin (Martin Hudáček) |
Or so it seems, if the final decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health resembles the February draft leaked most likely by a liberal clerk to the website Politico late last night, a draft in which the monstrous 1973 Roe v. Wade and 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions are explicitly overturned.
If so, and if confirmed, may God be praised in his Angels and in his Saints!
The Ouellet Question - Who’s the real man behind the appointments of bishops?
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The review Golias has just published, under the signature of Gino Hoel, a vitriolic portrait of Cardinal Marc Ouellet (Golias-Hebdo 718 [April 28-May 4, 2022]: 16-17). The article, though it very much reflects the style and concerns of this far-left Catholic magazine, nevertheless motivated us to find out more about this Canadian prelate. This is why we asked our friend Paul Grondin, correspondent of Paix Liturgique in Quebec, to give us his opinion on the elements given in this entirely incriminating article published by Golias-Hebdo. (Translation by Jerome Stridon.)
2: Montfort: “God wishes Mary to be the Mother of His children” - #MayMonthOfMary
God the Father wishes Mary to be the mother of his children until the end of time and so he says to her, "Dwell in Jacob", that is to say, take up your abode permanently in my children, in my holy ones represented by Jacob, and not in the children of the devil and sinners represented by Esau.
Just as in natural and bodily generation there is a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there is a father who is God and a mother who is Mary. All true children of God have God for their father and Mary for their mother; anyone who does not have Mary for his mother, does not have God for his father. This is why the reprobate, such as heretics and schismatics, who hate, despise or ignore the Blessed Virgin,
May, a Very Special Month:
EGO FLOS CAMPI
ET LILIUM CONVALLIUM - #MonthOfMary
IESUS - MARIA - IOSEPH
Jesus, Lily of the Valleys
Mary, Queen of May
Joseph, Patron of Laborers
Orate pro nobis!
***
Chalice - Lily. The chalice is the lily, stylized and adapted to our use, and which, born from water, is proper for us to take to our lips.The lily, and especially the water-lily, also called lotus or nenuphar, has always had a peculiar place in the symbolism of all religions. It projects its roots to substantial and deep regions, separated from our sight by these fluid, contemplative, mirror-like layers which are the domain of that which is contingent, unstable, of illusion and of this "time", of this reflection which relates to several circumstances.
“New archbishop of Paris: enemy of Catholic heritage”
By Didier Rykner
La Tribune de l’art (source)
Are you worried about Notre-Dame, and about the liturgical arrangement that the diocese of Paris wants to install there? You are right to be worried; and it will not get any better with the Pope’s appointment of Laurent Ulrich as the new Archbishop of Paris, who until now was Archbishop of Lille.
Lille… this will undoubtedly awaken some memories among our readers. For Mgr Ulrich is none other than one of those who—with the active complicity of the Ministry of Culture, notably the minister Roselyne Bachelot and the former director of Heritage Philippe Barbat—are responsible for the demolition of the Saint Joseph’s chapel, which the bulldozers have brought down, definitively mutilating the college of which it was an inseparable part (see here). We had forgotten to mention the archbishop of Lille when we listed the culprits. This has been rectified.
Announcing the Release of Mass of the Ages Episode II —plus Screenings at Theatres in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Front Royal, Washington DC
Following the tremendously positive reception of Episode I with over 1 million views to date, the creators of the Mass of the Ages trilogy are pleased to announce the release of Episode II slated for the Feast of the Ascension, Thursday, May 26, at 8pm ET. In contrast to the storytelling approach of Episode I, which offered a beautiful and compelling overview of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), Episode II takes an investigative posture, diving deeper into the origin of the New Mass, the key players in Rome, and its decades-long impact on the Catholic Church.
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