The Bergoglian camp is in chaos over the Society of Saint Pius X and the episcopal consecrations it has announced for July 1st, with the consequent threat of excommunication from the Vatican.
On Monday, 18 May, 2026, the two heads of Churches held a private meeting where they addressed the following issues: the establishment of a common date for Easter, a day of commemoration for all martyrs, and the convening of a Third Vatican Council.
Full text:
for Rorate Caeli
Pope Leo XIII is a widely known but not widely grasped Pope. Pope Leo XIV took his name (in part) as a tribute to Leo XIII. This instantly resulted in a renewed focus on Pope Leo XIII as the Pope who started addressing so called social issues with Rerum Novarum in 1891 and who cared about dealing with new developments in the world. This basic picture is true, but much is missing or misinterpreted in how Leo XIII is often described nowadays.
The first International Fátima Gregorian Chant Workshop will take place form 17th to 20th September, 2026, with days filled with practical and theoretical lessons in chant for beginner and advanced participants, vocal coaching, daily sung Mass the participants rehearse for, plus a tour of the Shrine of Fatima’s organ - the largest organ in the Iberian Peninsula, with shrine’s principal organist Sílvio Carreira Vicente.
The SSPX Is Explicitly Developing an Ecclesiology of Substitution Foreign to Catholic Tradition
Interview granted to French website Le Salon Beige
It's here -- and, in order to view it in different languages, you may just switch the language icon on the top.
Catholic Social Teachings before Vatican II
by Serre Verweij
Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical is due to be released and almost certain to become a valuable addition to the collection of papal encyclicals dealing with social issues. This was to be expected, as he took the name Leo XIV as a reference to Pope Leo XIII, who became famous as the Pope who established Catholic Social Teaching (CST) through his encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891. Pope Leo's teachings, and the tradition based on it, have unfortunately been frequently misunderstood or misrepresented, especially since the Second Vatican Council.
[Cf. Vatican statement, May 13, 2026]
Declaration of Catholic Faith addressed to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV by Fr. Davide Pagliarani Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X
May 14, 2026
“You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.
Justice, for one. The then-Cardinal Ratzinger had written extensively on the mistakes of the Pauline liturgical reform. But also, and very importantly, the situation of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).
The SSPX had long defended the full freedom of the Traditional Mass as one of its conditions for a final settlement with the Apostolic See. Then, Benedict XVI accomplished the other condition: the lifting of the excommunications of the four SSPX bishops consecrated by Abp. Marcel Lefebvre in 1988; and the German response to the lifting of one of them (that of Bp. Richard Williamson) created one of the gravest storms of the Ratzinger Pontificate. The reaction gave rise to one of the most traumatic writings ever composed by a Pontiff in the modern age:
Statement of His Eminence Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
May 13, 2026
The bravely orthodox auxiliary of Den Bosch, Netherlands, Bp. Robert Mutsaerts, was injured in a car accident on Saturday evening.
The following letter was sent by a father to his local diocese. He has offered it for publication and I am only too happy to publish it, because I agree with every word. Having been forced to sit through such trainings myself, I have first-hand experience of what he is speaking about. —PAK
To Our Catholic Leadership and Fellow Catholics, Especially Parents:
The Roman Pontiff's oldest brother granted a special interview to Spanish daily ABC speaking about his brother and also his thoughts on the President of the United States.
One Year of Pope Leo XIV
It has been a year since our new Pope appeared on the balcony, after the election of Robert Francis Prevost as Pope Leo XIV was announced. Initially, he was largely unknown to most of the world. Not a progressive star like Tagle, nor the candidate many had pegged as the counterrevolutionary choice, Cardinal Peter Erdő. Many did not know what to expect, though two mainstream narratives soon emerged: that Pope Leo XIV represents a return to normalcy, and that he is a moderate. The idea was that Leo is more institutionalist and more reserved than Francis, but that he will preserve — even if he will not double down on — at least some of Francis's key reforms, especially the much-touted concept of synodality.
One Year of Leo XIV: Back to the Substance of Faith
This major interview was published in German by the official news website of the German Bishops, Katholisch.de, last week. It has essential content for Traditional Catholics, and we post the translation here for the record of current events.
Abbot Primate: The Old Mass Can No Longer Be Pushed Out Entirely
"I am very curious to see how Pope Leo will approach the problem"
Ludwig Ring-Eifel, for KNAApril 30, 2026
Amid the dying of monasteries and the challenges of digital transformation, Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröder sees opportunities for religious life. In this interview, he also speaks about the liturgy dispute and the Benedictine perspective on it.
Leo XIV: One Year of Pontificate
One year ago, on Monday, May 8, 2025, the pontificate of Leo XIV began — Robert Francis Prevost, the 267th pontiff of the Catholic Church, the first American Pope, and the first member of the Order of Saint Augustine.
Introduction
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith sent the following letter to the then-President of the German Conference of Bishops, Bishop Bätzing,* making clear the Vatican's position on the German proposal on blessings for same-sex "couples."
The letter, from November 2024, was made public today. It makes Cardinal Marx's move last month even more egregious. Our translation of the Italian original is below:
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DICASTERIUM PRO DOCTRINA FIDEI
00120 Città del Vaticano Palazzo del S. Uffizio
November 18, 2024
Prot. N. 731/2023 – 102543
Your Excellency,
The 13th Edition of the "Ars Celebrandi" traditional liturgy workshops will take place in Licheń, on July 2-9, 2026.
The Fifth Annual Catholic Choral Symposium will take place this July 2 - 5 at St. Peter's Church, New Hamburg, ON.
The Mass inside Saint Peter’s Basilica is assured this year once again.
Cardinal Dolan, of New York, was born in 1950. He was replaced by Leo XIV very shortly after turning 75, in 2025.
There is one American Cardinal who is older than both of them, and who is still in charge. And not just any cardinal: a horrible administrator, a lousy shepherd, and an ideological nightmare, who, though a native of Nebraska, has been the Archbishop of the pope's own birthplace: Chicago. A formerly exemplary American Catholic town, whose diocese is falling apart.
One would think this useless bishop of nefarious influence would have been retired immediately. But Francis knew his presence irked his imagined "enemies" in America, so he kept him. With Leo XIV, it's different. He knows he's lousy. He is aware. Why has he kept him?... Our contributor Serre Verweij tries to understand it.
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Why Is Cupich Still in Office?
by Serre Verweijfor Rorate Caeli
The report was released yesterday; it is a massive nearly 600-page document on just how targeted all believing Christians were by the Biden Administration, and Traditional Catholics are at the center of it:
Pope Leo XIV has a Church agitated by strong centrifugal forces throughout the world.
In Flanders, Bishop Johann Bonny included these words on the implementation of the synodal process (published exactly one month ago) in the diocese of Antwerp wherein he explicitly states that he intends to ordain married men:
Well, we do not know what to make of it, and our opinion matters very little. But we do have one opinion about timing. And it is this: that it is quite astonishing that they did not do this under Francis, and gave a completely new pope, Leo XIV, barely a year to know what to make of it.
SSPX Consecrations under Francis would have had two effects.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who has served as archbishop of Munich and Freising in Germany since 2008, has instructed the priests and full-time pastoral staff in the archdiocese to introduce the controversial handout "Blessing Gives Strength to Love" as the basis of pastoral care.
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| An Anglican Ordinariate Mass involving deacon and subdeacon |
Lebanon |
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) April 19, 2026
An Israeli soldier smashing the head of a Jesus Christ statue during operations in southern Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/Sj1m16tj9q
by Serre Verweij
The possibility of a new rupture with the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) hangs over Rome in the early days of the Leonine pontificate. The SSPX has argued it’s necessary for them to ordain new bishops. A request for permission for the consecrations was predictably denied. Attempts were made at establishing a dialogue with the SSPX, specifically over contentious interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, but these soon stranded, largely over the same traditional fault lines.
