Archbishop Gregory bashes Knights of Columbus, President

Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, DC, has essentially been missing for about three months.  March 8 was the last Sunday of public Masses in the Archdiocese of Washington, with a ban announced by Gregory on March 12.  The government of Washington, DC, has limited church congregations to a whopping ten people -- even in the first COVID-19 phase of reopening.  Considering all of the other large public gatherings in Washington, an outrage.  Not a public word from Wilton Gregory.

No public Masses are being offered in the nation's capital -- not even at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest church in North America.  The DC government limit of ten people applies to that church, which seats thousands. Not a public word from Wilton Gregory.

Today, though, Wilton Gregory woke up and spoke up.  Not on public Masses, or confessions, or any sacraments.  He chose to make his most public statement of the year to condemn the Knights of Columbus and the U.S. president for a visit to the John Paul II shrine in DC for an event on international religious freedom. Today marks the anniversary of JPII's famous nine day pilgrimage that started with a liturgy in Warsaw on June 2, 1979. 

Wilton Gregory, doing who knows what

The JPII shrine, owned by the Knights of Columbus, issued a response to Gregory's attack.

Reminder: Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society

This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. Last month we added two new priests, including one from Africa praise God, and the Society now stands at 105 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls.

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

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

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

IMPORTANT: Donate and Help the Oldest Continuous Traditional Catholic group: the Traditional Catholics of Campos (New Non-Profit for Donations)

PRESS RELEASE:

New non-profit to support traditional Catholic community in Brazil

5/31/2020

Friends of Campos, Inc. is a new US-based not-for-profit providing grants to support the seminary and the social and educational projects of the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, located in Campos de Goytacazes, Brazil. The region, under the bold guidance of Dom Antônio Castro-Mayer, was a great preserve of traditional Catholic life during the tumultuous period following the Second Vatican Council. Thanks to his encouragement at that time, the region continues to be one in which traditional Catholic life and liturgy flourish.

The Personal Apostolic Administration was formally erected in 2002 by the Holy See by the decree Animarum Bonum to conserve the liturgical, doctrinal and cultural traditions of the Catholic Church, in full communion with the Magisterium. The community as a whole has thirteen parishes, six rectories, fifteen private Catholic schools, four homes for the aged, and eight associations of women religious. Some 35 priests serve in a community of over 30,000 active parishioners. The seminary takes up to 40 young men for formation, and is expanding to accept up to 80, as demand consistently exceeds the available space.

While the focus of Friends of Campos is on supporting the Seminary, which is the spiritual and cultural heart of the community, grants are also offered for projects at social and educational institutions run by the Personal Apostolic Administration around the diocese. Friends of Campos works with a local board of clergy to evaluate and select proposed projects and administer grants.

Although the area is rich in traditional Catholic culture, it is very poor materially, and even modest donations go a long way towards the needs of the community. The Coronavirus epidemic which has hit even developed countries hard, brings more difficulties to Campos which has few of the resources needed to fight the health problems and economic devastation. The unbroken Tradition of faith acts as a bulwark in troubled times, but material support - even the basics of food and hygiene - are always needed.

PENTECOST - Fontgombault Sermon: "Nine months are necessary for a child to be begotten in its mother’s womb. A whole life is necessary to earn Heaven."

WHITSUN

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Father Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

Fontgombault, May 31, 2020

Illumina cor hominum.

Illuminate the hearts of men.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

During this time of pandemic, the feast of Pentecost call for a new outpouring of the Spirit of God upon us, upon all the faithful, all men. May God renew our so desolate earth, may He illuminate and give peace to so many men ensnared by disease, poverty, rebellion, or murmuring against the virus, and the measures taken by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities to limit its spreading.

Our joy is great in these days when many Christians can at last go back to church and receive again, after long weeks of deprivation, the sacraments of the Eucharist and penance.

Yet, many questions are left unanswered. Why this disease, inexorably roaming through cities, countries and continents? Who is responsible? Is it Nature and its chances, or man’s imprudence or wickedness, is it God’s wrath? 

Whatever the answer may be, it is a harsh lesson for man, who has been for many decades now pushing back, apparently without any hindrance, the frontiers of what is considered possible in almost all known domains. Ever faster, ever farther, ever stronger... But many are left over, forgotten, wretchedly remaining on the roadside, and contenting themselves with watching through the media the world and its achievements. In this wild and crazy race, the sacred domain of life hasn’t been forgotten: human enhancement, children conceived in a test-tube, then available for self-service... we might draw a long list, witnessing to a freedom that was hoped to be limitless.

And, now, a tiny virus calls all this into question! No one is spared. The whistle signal has been blown in the world of the first creation, turned into a playground for re-creation. The return to reality is rough. “God always forgives, man seldom, Nature never.” Family and home become shelters when everything is crumbling away. Shall we be humble enough to keep remembering, when these days have gone away?

Leo XIII: "There are not a few who are imbued with evil principles and eager for revolutionary change."

Once again, in this tumultuous period started by the Communist Party of China and its actions, we have the opportunity of recalling the words of that wise Pontiff, Leo XIII, as relevant today as they were in his age.

Weeks ago, in the beginning of the perilous lockdowns, we quoted his words on the natural right that every man has to work, to provide for himself and for his family, an institution that precedes the State.

Now, we feel the need to remember more of his words from Rerum Novarum:

Rights must be religiously respected wherever they exist, and it is the duty of the public authority to prevent and to punish injury, and to protect every one in the possession of his own. Still, when there is question of defending the rights of individuals, the poor and badly off have a claim to especial consideration.

Adventures in the Lex Orandi: Comparing Traditional and Modern Orations for St Augustine of Canterbury

Icon by Aidan Hart

In the traditional Latin Mass, St. Augustine of Canterbury, missionary to the English (feastday: May 28th), has his own orations—and what magnificent orations they are!

Collect (TLM):

O God, Who by the preaching and miracles of blessed Augustine, Thy Confessor and Bishop, didst vouchsafe to illumine the English people with the light of the true faith: grant that, through his intercession, the hearts of those who have gone astray may return to the unity of Thy truth and that we may be of one mind in doing Thy will. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God for ever and ever. Amen.

“‘Don’t Call Me Hero’: The Catholic Attitude”: Guest Article by Fr. William Slattery

The following article illustrates historically what the recent Rorate Caeli article entitled “A theologian analyzes the morality of the cancellation of public Masses and the closure of churches by the State” documented theologically: the attitude priests must have in administering the sacraments. The author is Fr. William J. Slattery, Ph.D, S.T.L., author of The Logic of Truth (Leonardo da Vinci, 2016) and Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build – and can help Rebuild – Western Civilization (Ignatius Press, 2017).

St. Cajetan Strengthens a Dying Man

“Don’t Call Me Hero”: The Catholic Attitude

Fr William Slattery

The most recent well-documented account of the attitudes and actions of priests during an epidemic occurred during the most devastating famine to hit Europe since the fifteenth century: the “Great Famine” in Ireland between 1845–1850. According to Amartya Sen, the Harvard historian of famines, “[in] no other famine in the world [was] the proportion of people killed as large as in the Irish famines of the 1840s.”[i] The cause was a blight that destroyed the potato crop—the staple food for three million of the nation’s 8.5 million people—killing one million persons by starvation and related diseases of fever, diphtheria, cholera, smallpox, dysentery and influenza and forcing another million into exile.

Letter from a Catholic Medical Doctor to His Bishop: "I beg you, open wide the doors of our churches, and may they never be closed again"

Rorate was given a copy of this moving letter, written by a Catholic medical doctor to his bishop, who has continued to uphold severe restrictions on Mass attendance and sacramental reception.

The Ascension of Our Lord

May 21st, 2020

Your Excellency,

Last Monday, I received a copy of the diocese’s letter regarding the opening of our churches as we enter the “yellow phase.” After being denied access to the Sacraments for two months, I cannot begin to tell you how absolutely heartbreaking the letter was to read.

Fontgombault Sermon for the Ascension: "We feel a deep sorrow when we read that the experience of virtual Masses seems to satisfy a not inconsiderable number of Christians."

Ascension of the Lord

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

Fontgombault, May 21, 2020

Eritis mihi testes... usque ad ultimum terræ.

You shall be witnesses unto Me... even to the uttermost part of the earth.

(Acts 1:8)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

The event of the Ascension comes and closes the time when the Lord was present with His disciples. After His resurrection, Christ had appeared again many times to His friends. But contrary to the three years of His public life, already He was no longer with them in a way that could be felt and seen. Now, the Ascension deprives them even of this presence.

The time is now come for the last words, the ultimate sending on mission. Three of the evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke, will remember that. As to St. John, he doesn’t evoke the moment of the Ascension, since the others had already told it before him, but he concludes his Gospel with the episode of the miraculous catch of fish, near the shore of the Sea of Tiberias.

Whereas the night had already elapsed, and they still had caught nothing, the Apostles see a man on the shore. They don’t recognize him. He invites them to cast again their nets, which get full of fish. “It is the Lord!” (Jn 21:7) exclaims St. John. After a meal of bread and fish taken around a fire of coals, Jesus asks Peter three times this question, “Lovest thou me?” Then He adds, “Feed my lambs... Look after my sheep... Feed my sheep.” (Jn 21:15-18)

Traditional Catholics get French Highest Court for Administrative Matters to Act for the Liberty of the Church when Bishops didn't

Note: The following is an article published in the French daily Le Monde, not known for Catholic sympathy.  The remarkable fact referred to in this article is that a group of Traditional Catholic priests and laity brought a suit to what is the French equivalent to the Supreme Court on administrative and governmental matters to celebrate Mass within the situation of the Covid-19 crisis.  The French Bishops Conference protested against the situation but did not follow up with an appeal to the Court.  This shows where the power lies in the battle that will be engaged in the future between a secular state that is inimical to the Christian faith and its practice and those Catholics who believe and will fight for their rights against a secular and anti-religious State.  

The original decisions of the Conseil d'État are available here (the main one is number 440366)

 Conseil d’Etat lifts the "disproportionate" ban on religious celebrations in France

By Cécile Chambraud for Le Monde 

May 19, 2020

The government has eight days to relax the ban on public religious ceremonies in places of worship, in effect since March 15. The Conseil d’Etat ruled Monday, May 18, that the general and absolute ban on all gatherings in churches, temples, synagogues and mosques, if it could be admitted in the first phase of the fight against the epidemic Covid-19, is “disproportionate” during this period of post-confinement.

Aldo Maria Valli on the Church and the Pandemic: "The Masks have fallen! The Masks have fallen!"

by Aldo Maria Valli of Duc in Altum

Translated by Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

The pandemic of the coronavirus has brought us suffering and uneasiness, but has contributed to the ripping off of many masks.

One mask that has been ripped off is a consequence of how the government has acted in the pandemic, just as we have been accustomed to see how the government has acted in the last few years: the politics of superficial declarations, of disputes that are continual and meaningless. of continual electoral campaigns, of the quasi- theater only good for talk shows but in the end all fatuous and empty.

When confronted with an alarming situation, for each individual and for society as a whole, the apparatus of the government has shown it itself to be what it is: A debased theatrical event, or more to the point, a backdrop of papier-mâché, before which dull and dreary figures of actors recite the lines of the farce that is the struggle for power that totally ignores the authentic functions of government, that is, the management of the res publica.  

What should a government do if it does not operate to guarantee the safety of its citizens?  And what should it do to guarantee the safety of its citizens if it does not recognize that reality, to do what has to be done to give to the country a solid foundation and to confront in a timely fashion crises that arise?

Rao: "Follow-up on the Pandemic: Committing Suicide in the War of All Against All"

Committing Suicide in the War of All Against All:

Addendum to My Previous Remarks

John Rao

“Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served the Zeitgeist,

He would not in my age have left me naked to mine enemies.”

I. An Addendum

A commentator on my recent letter regarding the pandaemonium now diabolically disorienting almost every nook and cranny of our Global Fatherland wondered whether it might not be more accurate to categorize the planetary imprisonment as a Thomas Hobbes-down rather than a John Locke-down. He definitely has a point with respect to the roots and the historical chronology of the problem, but not in terms of marketing what is indeed at base a Hobbesian weapon of mass destruction. Here, Locke beats the author of Leviathan as an arms dealer hands-down. 

Still, the point is well taken, and serves the purpose of addressing something weighing heavily on my mind: the need for a brief, three-fold and admittedly somewhat disjointed addendum to my initial words on the Hospital of Earthly Delights that the Medico-Moonshine Complex has brought into being with a panache that Hieronymus Bosch could never have matched. This tripartite addendum concerns 1) the War of All Against All in and of itself; 2) the appropriateness of our chaplain, Fr. Richard Munkelt, baptizing that conflict in its current manifestation with Johnny Pluralist’s name; and, 3) the utterly astounding fact that the Church has decided to “do herself in” just when there is an elegant sufficiency of external warriors ready to administer the coup de grace more honorably.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider: "The devotion to Our Lady of Fatima in times of tribulation"

The devotion to Our Lady of Fatima in times of tribulation

The Right Rev. Athanasius Schneider

Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana

Humanity and especially the Catholic faithful are currently experiencing a time of tribulation. For Christians, is an atmosphere of catacombs and persecution of the faith. However, the facts show that, under the pretext of the Covid-19 epidemic, the inalienable rights of citizens were violated, disproportionately and unjustifiably limiting their fundamental freedoms, and in first place the exercise of freedom of worship.

De Mattei: The “confinement” of the Sanctuary of Fatima

Roberto de Mattei 

Corrispondenza Romana

May 13, 2020

On the eve of the 103^rd anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, we learnt that the Portuguese National Republican Guard (PNRG) since May 9^th has  been conducting operation “Fatima at Home” with the aim of impeding pilgrims from entering the Marian Sanctuary on May 13^th. The news was given by the Director of Operations, Vitor Rodrigues, who praised the ‘fantastic collaborative position’ of the members of the Catholic Church, which the PNRG had been working with ‘for many weeks’.* Following this operation of “confinement”, the Fatima Sanctuary was placed under surveillance by 3500 National Guard soldiers, with the duty of assuring that no member of the faithful might approach the place without reasonable justification.** And, for the authorities, prayer obviously doesn’t constitute a valid justification. Basically, all means of access to the Sanctuary have been cordoned off, but even other places of devotion as well, such as  Aljustrel, the village where Lucia, Francesco and Jacinta were born, Valinhos, the apparition site of August, and even the Via Crucis.  

It’s as if we are on the eve of the French Revolution again, when Jansenism, Gallicanism, the Enlightenment and enlightened Catholicism  - different and varied forces, but united in their hate for the Church of Rome – linked together and multiplied their forces, under the shadow of the Masonic Lodges, to destroy definitively the religious and social order founded by Christianity.

A theologian analyzes the morality of the cancellation of public Masses and the closure of churches by the State — superb Thomistic treatment

The author of this letter, a priest and an experienced teacher of moral theology, shared the following text with Rorate Caeli. It was originally prepared as a letter to the priest’s local ordinary. I find it the best treatment I have read so far of these questions.

Letter Reflecting on the Cancellation of Masses and Closure of Churches

+Pax+

8 May 2020

Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Graces and Queen of All Saints

Your Excellency,

For nearly two months now the Catholic faithful have been deprived of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, of Holy Communion, and for many, even of Confession, many priests refusing this ministry. This time has been one of great suffering for all. The unexpectedness of the situation found us all wondering what to do, and those in positions of leadership had to make some very tough and very quick decisions.

"A controllable pandemic has been transformed into a totally unnecessary pandaemonium": John Rao on the mass hysteria

Rorate appreciates John Rao's permission to post here part of a letter he recently addressed to friends of the Roman Forum. It is an excellent analysis of our situation. 

“The more the panic grows, the more uplifting the image of a man who refuses to bow to the terror”. (Ernst Jünger)

                                                                                                                   May, 2020

                                                                                                                   The Month of Mary

Dear Friends of the Roman Forum,

The purpose of the Roman Forum is educational, and it would be a dereliction of duty not to make some comment on what we are witnessing around us and what it means for us as Catholics, as citizens, and as civilized men and women. I do not feel competent to discuss the initial cause of a disease that has affected the entire globe, nor would I in any way wish to minimize the real suffering and loss that this malady has entailed for many people. But what I do believe an educator needs to stress is the way in which a controllable pandemic has been transformed into a totally unnecessary pandaemonium; a horrifying illustration of the diabolical disorientation accompanying all of the ravages of modernity, and one that has allowed a painfully hollow modern society to titillate itself with the “feel” of living through the Bubonic Plague without actually doing so.

Coronavirus Crisis - URGENT APPEAL OF PASTORS FOR THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD: to Catholics and all people of good will

APPEAL

FOR THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD

to Catholics and all people of good will

“Veritas liberabit vos.” (“The truth will set you free.”)

John 8:32

    In this time of great crisis, we Pastors of the Catholic Church, by virtue of our mandate, consider it our sacred duty to make an Appeal to our Brothers in the Episcopate, to the Clergy, to Religious, to the holy People of God and to all men and women of good will. This Appeal has also been undersigned by intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, journalists and professionals who agree with its content, and may be undersigned by those who wish to make it their own.

    The facts have shown that, under the pretext of the Covid-19 epidemic, the inalienable rights of citizens have in many cases been violated and their fundamental freedoms, including the exercise of freedom of worship, expression and movement, have been disproportionately and unjustifiably restricted. Public health must not, and cannot, become an alibi for infringing on the rights of millions of people around the world, let alone for depriving the civil authority of its duty to act wisely for the common good. This is particularly true as growing doubts emerge from several quarters about the actual contagiousness, danger and resistance of the virus. Many authoritative voices in the world of science and medicine confirm that the media’s alarmism about Covid-19 appears to be absolutely unjustified.

    We have reason to believe, on the basis of official data on the incidence of the epidemic as related to the number of deaths, that there are powers interested in creating panic among the world’s population with the sole aim of permanently imposing unacceptable forms of restriction on freedoms, of controlling people and of tracking their movements. The imposition of these illiberal measures is a disturbing prelude to the realization of a world government beyond all control.

May, Month of Mary: The Immaculata, the Exterminatrix of all heresies

[I]f it becomes children not to omit the imitation of any of the virtues of this most Blessed Mother, we yet wish that the faithful apply themselves by preference to the principal virtues which are, as it were, the nerves and joints of the Christian life - we mean faith, hope, and charity towards God and our neighbor. Of these virtues the life of Mary bears in all its phases the brilliant character; but they attained their highest degree of splendor at the time when she stood by her dying Son. Jesus is nailed to the cross, and the malediction is hurled against Him that "He made Himself the Son of God" (John xix., 7). But she unceasingly recognized and adored the divinity in Him. She bore His dead body to the tomb, but never for a moment doubted that He would rise again. Then the love of God with which she burned made her a partaker in the sufferings of Christ and the associate in His passion; with him moreover, as if forgetful of her own sorrow, she prayed for the pardon of the executioners although they in their hate cried out: "His blood be upon us and upon our children" (Matth. xxvii., 25).

BOMBSHELL: New historical evidence emerges in support of Bugnini’s association with Freemasonry — Names are named

The latest edition of the magazine of the Latin Mass Society of England & Wales, Mass of Ages, contains a review by Kevin Symonds of Taylor Marshall’s book Infiltration: The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within. (The review as published may be viewed in a PDF of the magazine, starting at page 40, as well as on the author’s personal website; it has been reproduced in full here.) 

Pursuing hints in the book, Symonds goes much beyond the conclusions of Marshall regarding Bugnini, having uncovered new material on Bugnini that decisively moves the question of his association with Freemasonry from the realm of shadowy speculation, where it remained even as recently as the scholarly biography by Yves Chiron, to the level of reasonable certainty. Instead of “unnamed sources,” where the matter was left by Michael Davies, we finally have named sources, with a plausible paper trail.

New Evidence on the Freemasonic Membership of Annibale Bugnini

Kevin Symonds

In this book, Taylor Marshall firmly maintains that the Catholic Church has been literally infiltrated by her enemies, thereby experiencing a massive campaign of disruption and distortion. A particular area in which Marshall advances this thesis pertains to the influence of the Vincentian priest, and later Archbishop, Annibale Bugnini (1912-1982) in the liturgical reforms of the mid-twentieth century. This review focuses on Marshall’s presentation of Bugnini’s influence upon these reforms and in particular of Marshall’s claim that Bugnini was involved with Freemasonry. It will be argued that, despite his eagerness to find evidence of ‘infiltration’ and his animus against Bugnini, Marshall actually misses some important evidence in favor of Bugnini’s membership of the Italian Freemasons.

“The Roman Canon: Pillar and Ground of the Roman Rite” — Full text of Dr. Kwasniewski’s lecture

Today, in honor of the feast of Pope St. Pius V, I am pleased to present to readers of Rorate Caeli the full text of my lecture on the Roman Canon, which in recent years has been delivered in a number of places in varying forms. The lecture had previously been translated into and published in Italian (“Pilastro e Fondamento del Rito Romano: il Canone Romano come Norma Dottrinale e Morale”) and German (“Im Herzen des katholischen Gottesdienstes: Zwölf Glaubenswahrheiten im römischen Kanon”).

The Roman Canon: Pillar and Ground of the Roman Rite

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

Of all the prayers with which the Roman Catholic Church offers the sacrifice of praise to Almighty God, the one that stands out the most as a touchstone of divine faith, a foundation of immovable rock, a treasure of ages, is the Roman Canon—the unique anaphora or Eucharistic prayer that the Catholic Church prayed in all Western rites and uses, from the misty centuries before the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great (d. 604) until the fateful end of the 1960s. Fr. Guy Nicholls writes of this remarkable Canon:

Rogationtide: Rediscovering Yet Another Treasure of Traditional Catholicism

Rogationtide

by Michael P. Foley

Immediately before the crescendo of Ascension Thursday, before that triumphant culmination of the Pasch (a time so glorious that it was forbidden to fast), we encounter three days of violet vestments and anxious pleading. For in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before the Feast of the Ascension are the Lesser Rogation Days.

Int'l Bereaved Mother's Day: Memorialize your lost unborn children on new website

Our Lady of Consolation,
Comforter of the Afflicted,
pray for us.

Rorate note: In honor of International Bereaved Mother’s Day, a reader and bereaved mother has sent us a new resource, hoping to help other mothers who may be suffering the loss of an unborn child. While losing children to miscarriage is always hard, it can be especially difficult for mothers during the coronavirus, as many will have to postpone or even cancel internment or memorial services for their babies due to current shutdowns.

From a reader:

A Mom’s Peace, A Lay Apostolate for Mothers Of Miscarried and Stillborn Souls, has recently announced a unique online Garden of Remembrance beautifully dedicated to Our Lady in hopes of bringing the peace of closure and healing to many moms in the wake of loss.  The Garden of Remembrance is a place to commemorate the lives of children lost after conception, regardless of how many days, weeks, or months their short lives blessed their families.

A Mom’s Peace created this online memorial to fill a need for the families they serve when interment is not possible or when going to see your baby in the cemetery is too difficult for various reasons.

The intent of the Garden of Remembrance is to honor these precious little lives and provide consolation and much-needed closure, especially to families who otherwise would not have obtained it. It also serves as a reminder for families, especially moms, that they are not alone in the complexity of celebrating life while grieving the loss of these cherished family members. The lives of these beloved souls are too precious to forget.

The apostolate welcomes all parents to commemorate their child in the Garden of Remembrance.

A Mom’s Peace does not charge for the memorial flowers dedicated in the online Garden of Remembrance. However, A Mom’s Peace is very grateful for any financial support.  If you do desire to donate to the apostolate, donations are humbly accepted on their Donate & Sponsor page. The apostolate “exists to fulfill the corporal and spiritual works of mercy ‘bury the dead’ and ‘comfort the sorrowful’” and they do not turn away families who are unable to afford interment costs.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE

Fr Serafino Lanzetta on the Resurrection

A catechesis by Fr Serafino M. Lanzetta on the Paschal Mystery - Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord as one single mystery. The Cross without the Resurrection would be a sacrifice that ends with the death of Jesus - a failure of His prophecies and of His mystery as the Son of God. On the contrary, the Resurrection without the Cross would be a glory without suffering, a reward with no sacrifice, something only human. However, the current danger is to take only the Resurrection without the Cross, with all harmful consequences that it may bring about. For example, a split between a pre-Conciliar and post-Conciliar Church. The first would be the one attached to the Cross, to penance and to the rigor of doctrine. The second would instead be born of the Resurrection, of the Pentecost, the one that easily puts aside the Cross and happily moves on singing the Alleluia! Holy Communion is therefore given only to people who rigidly stand and receive it in their hand. In this logic, if one is risen doesn't kneel anymore. He only stands, without embracing the suffering of the Cross. We are affected by a "Pentecostal renewal" that hasn't produced that renovation hoped for.

Reminder: Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society

This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. The Society now stands at 103 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls.

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

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

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

May, a Very Special Month: EGO FLOS CAMPI ET LILIUM CONVALLIUM

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.

Tired of Streaming Masses? An Alternative Option for How Families may worship in Spirit and in Truth in this time of Crisis.

One of the phenomena that has sprung up during the Covid-19 crisis is the “streamed” Mass.  Without going into technical details, all that is needed is a camera, even an iPhone will do, and software that allows the image and sound on the camera to be transmitted continuously for display on a computer or TV.  This is different from a “recorded” event that is stored as a whole and then can be watched at some time in the future.  In this way, a streamed Mass gives the impression that the viewer is in some sense “there” with the priest who is offering the Mass, because it is contemporaneous, or nearly so.  It is obvious why the practice of streaming Masses has become so widespread and popular during a time when the great majority of Catholic churches cannot celebrate public Masses because of the ban on groups of people congregating in the same place.  

The supreme literary vindication of Summorum Pontificum: Fiedrowicz’s comprehensive guide to the Traditional Mass — now in English

I am delighted to announce to Rorate readers the publication by Angelico Press of the long-awaited English edition of Michael Fiedrowicz’s masterful work, The Traditional Mass: History, Form, and Theology of the Classical Roman Rite (first published in 2011, and now in its fifth German edition).

I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to read this book twice and really absorb its content (and on that basis, I provided an endorsement for the back cover). I can confidently say there’s nothing comparable to it out there in the English language, in its comprehensive scope, depth of research, and insight into every aspect of the liturgy. It is a compelling apologia for the superiority of the old rite at every level and on every head. The author’s judgments are perfectly weighed, polished, sober, and clear; there is not a touch of exaggeration or unfairness. The result is both triumphant and devastating.

In these strange times, when we see the number of traditional Masses at an all-time high (thanks to a proliferation of private Masses), the CDF issuing decrees that acknowledge with perfect clarity that the old Mass is here to stay for the future of the Church, and an ominously-worded questionnaire sent out to all bishops about the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, we may have many questions and a few anxieties, but we also enjoy a towering certainty: interest in and adherence to the traditional Mass will not subside. On the contrary, it will continue to grow, seminarian by seminarian, priest by priest, and even quite possibly bishop by bishop as the champions of rupture retire and churchmen with less rigid ideas about the “success” of the liturgical reform and the “outdatedness” of our heritage take their place.

Fiedrowicz’s work arrives, therefore, at exactly the right moment. If you are going to read just one serious book on the TLM, this is the one. In addition, I recommend purchasing copies for every priest you know who already offers the usus antiquior — indeed, for every priest who is, or may be, interested in learning more about the very Roman rite for which he was ordained.

Table of Contents

Saint Catherine of Siena to the Pope: "Don't believe in the counsels of the devil!“

(In Festo S. Catharinae Senensis)

Alas, sweet my father, with this sweet hand I pray you, and tell you to come to discomfit our enemies.

On behalf of Christ crucified I tell it you: refuse to believe the counsels of the devil, who would hinder your holy and good resolution. Be manly in my sight, and not timorous. Answer God, who calls you to hold and possess the seat of the glorious Shepherd Saint Peter, whose vicar you have been. And raise the standard of the holy Cross; for as we were freed by the Cross--so Paul says--thus raising this standard, which seems to me the refreshment of Christians, we shall be freed -- we from our wars and divisions and many sins, the infidel people from their infidelity. In this way you will come and attain the reformation, giving good priests to Holy Church. Fill her heart with the ardent love that she has lost; for she has been so drained of blood by the iniquitous men who have devoured her that she is wholly wan. But comfort you, and come, father, and no longer make to wait the servants of God, who afflict themselves in desire.

And I, poor, miserable woman, can wait no more; living, I seem to die in my pain, seeing God thus reviled.

Saint Catherine of Siena

Letter to Pope Gregory XI

[Post for the Feast.]

De Mattei: The mystery of the Coronavirus amid hypotheses and certainties

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

April 29, 2020

An aura of mystery continues to surround the Coronavirus, or Covid-19, the infectious disease which has spread all over the world in a few short months, assuming the nature of a proper and authentic pandemic. There are many hypotheses and few certainties about the nature of this virus.

The hypotheses regard the origins of the disease. Did the virus have its origins in nature, as most of the virologists sustain, or was it produced in a laboratory, as others maintain?  And in the latter case was it fabricated for therapeutic purposes or for bacterial warfare? And was it made in a Chinese or Western laboratory? And was the seepage from this laboratory accidental or deliberate? It is evident that the hypothesis of deliberate seepage would foster the idea of a possible secret forces “conspiracy”, given that there have been many throughout history.

If, on the other hand, the virus had its origins in nature, or had seeped out of a laboratory by accident, we would have to think that these same forces were taken off guard by the event. One of the most likely hypotheses seems to be that presented by Steve Mosher, whereby the virus, made in China, had escaped by accident from a laboratory in Wuhan (LifeSiteNews, 22 April 2020). We are talking just about a hypothesis, but the responsibilities of Communist China which Mosher brings to light are crystal-clear. 

           

The Chinese Communist Party has in fact been silent about the diffusion of the virus and has manipulated the numbers of infections and deaths.  With good reason Chen Guangcheng ( the blind activist, a refugee in the U.S, after being imprisoned in China for his denunciations of forced abortions and sterilizations in Shandong) asserted that “The Chinese Communist Party is the greatest and the most dangerous virus in the world” (AsiaNews, 27 April 2020).

Guest Op-Ed: What a Pastor and his Curate have been doing during this pandemic: What else but offering the Traditional Mass?

To Readers of Rorate Caeli:

I am pleased to offer to you a guest piece by a young priest, Father Timothy Iannacone,  from the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut.  It is priests like Father Iannacone that are real evidence of the love of the Traditional Roman Mass among our young priests.  He is certainly is not alone in his diocese nor in the neighboring dioceses in New York and New Jersey in his understanding of and love for the Mass of the Ages.  This must give us hope and joy even as Rome issues questionnaires about the implementation of Summorum Pontificum. Please pray for young priests like Fr. Iannacone. They are an integral part of the future of the Catholic Church.

Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

***

What have the Pastor and his Curate been doing amidst the

Covid-19 pandemic? Why, the Traditional Latin Mass of course!

An Empty Apostolic Square: The Wolf Came, the Sheep Scattered

It was impossible for us not to think of the empty squares, churches, chapels today with the words of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on this Good Shepherd Sunday.

The governmental wolves ordered churches closed, as if they were not essential. The bishops (the "shepherds" in name only) fled, and the sheep scattered and left the field.

O tempora!...

At that time Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth: and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep. [From the Gospel for the Second Sunday After Easter.]

For the Church, it is the End of an Age:

In the Covid-19 crisis, Pope Francis has forgone the transcendental approach of his predecessors: for the Church, it is the End of an Age: it has de facto abandoned its relationship with the Divinity

Domenico Cacòpardo

ItaliaOggi

April 8, 2020

Among the many things archived by the Corona virus, there is one which is rather dramatic, but possibly temporary: it is the Catholic Church.  The resulting impression is that it will have difficulty in recovering from this shock. I write this as an unbeliever, though for family reasons, I have been a frequenter of  priests, friars and the Vatican.  

Letter of the Holy Father to the Faithful for the Month of May 2020 -- The Holy Rosary

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The month of May is approaching, a time when the People of God express with particular intensity their love and devotion for the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is traditional in this month to pray the Rosary at home within the family. The restrictions of the pandemic have made us come to appreciate all the more this “family” aspect, also from a spiritual point of view.

For this reason, I want to encourage everyone to rediscover the beauty of praying the Rosary at home in the month of May. This can be done either as a group or individually; you can decide according to your own situations, making the most of both opportunities. The key to doing this is always simplicity, and it is easy also on the internet to find good models of prayers to follow.

I am also providing two prayers to Our Lady that you can recite at the end of the Rosary, and that I myself will pray in the month of May, in spiritual union with all of you. I include them with this letter so that they are available to everyone.

Dear brothers and sisters, contemplating the face of Christ with the heart of Mary our Mother will make us even more united as a spiritual family and will help us overcome this time of trial. I keep all of you in my prayers, especially those suffering most greatly, and I ask you, please, to pray for me. I thank you, and with great affection I send you my blessing.

Rome, Saint John Lateran, 25 April 2020

Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist

Pope Francis

---

First Prayer

BREAKING: The Questionnaire on Summorum Pontificum: what’s going on behind the scenes

The Editor

Messa in Latino 

April 24, 2020

Dearest Friends,

After publishing the translations of the CDF’s letter to the Episcopal Conferences and the attached questionnaire on theapplication of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, we would like now to add some further updating on this complex and delicate matter.  MessainLatino.it, in fact was given some [background]information that we judge reliable.

Here it is:

BREAKING - IMPORTANT - Summorum Under Threat? - Holy See sends survey to Bishops on Summorum Pontificum (Exclusive)

[Update - See: "The Summorum Questionnaire, what is going on behind the scenes?"]

Could the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, that recognized the rights and continuity of the Traditional Latin Rite, be under threat?

When the motu proprio was first published, there was a period of consultations of three years. It was defined by Pope Benedict XVI in his accompanying letter to bishops: "Furthermore, I invite you, dear Brothers, to send to the Holy See an account of your experiences, three years after this Motu Proprio has taken effect. If truly serious difficulties come to light, ways to remedy them can be sought." This was done, and the result was the mostly positive 2011 Instruction.

***

Quite strangely, now, 13 years after Summorum, when it has become a permanent part of the life of the Church in many places throughout the world, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), now responsible for Summorum, has sent out a new survey for bishops on the application of Summorum Pontificum, because, "His Holiness Pope Francis wishes to be informed about the current application of the aforementioned document."

It could be ominous. The questions seem neutral, but, once one reads them carefully, they may indicate serious consequences.

Rorate has received copies of both documents that were sent, and that had been unknown to the faithful up to this moment: the March 7, 2020, letter of the Prefect of CDF  to the Presidents of the Episcopal Conferences, and the questions to bishops asked in the April 2020 survey itself -- the due date is July 31, 2020.

Both documents are below (click to open larger and more readable view for both documents):