The Decadence of the Church and the Francis Pontificate - by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

 Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

Buenos Aires, March 25, 2025

Twelve years of Francis' pontificate have just been celebrated. The Vatican reports are always self-congratulatory. 

It is very difficult to cover, in a single appraisal, the reality of the Church, which is vast and with differences between countries -- but from a certain point it is possible to contemplate the surroundings; I can do it, then, from this corner of the far south that is Argentina, a nation that is (or was?) mostly Catholic. As the saying goes, “one button is example enough."

The Role of Sisters in the Church: Truly Appreciating Nuns Consists in Helping Them Live Their Own Vocation - by Abp. Héctor Aguer

Sisters in the Church

by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

Buenos Aires, February 4, 2025

        Pope Francis has discovered that machismo and misogyny reign in his Vatican Curia. And that, therefore, the sisters who work there - numerous in all ranks - are not properly appreciated. He believes that, in order to elevate them, they must be turned into civil servants. In this bureaucratization of the nuns, he has set an example by appointing one as prefect and another as secretary of a dicastery. A belated and curious feminism!

The "Mayan Rite" and Papal Progressivism - by Abp. Héctor Agüer

 Abp. Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata

Buenos Aires, November 27, 2024

        The Liturgy represents the intimate life of the Church, its essence: the worship of the Triune God, in which the First Commandment is fulfilled; the reproduction of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ; the communication of the Grace of the Holy Spirit in the celebration of the Sacraments. 

        The Liturgy is carried out according to various Eastern and Western rites. The Roman Rite includes the Ordo of the Latin Mass, which originated around the 6th century and has never been abrogated. In 1970, Pope Paul VI sanctioned a new Ordo Missae, which is exercised with alterations here and there, and which lacks solemnity and beauty. For this reason, many young people adhere to the Tradition of the “Traditional Mass,” where it is not arbitrarily forbidden. The letter of that Traditional Mass has the accuracy of ecclesiastical Latin.

Synodal Cancellations - by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

by Héctor Agüer

Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata

Buenos Aires, Wednesday, May 8th, 2024
Solemnity of Our Lady of Luján,
Patroness of the Argentine Republic

The progressive official party installed in Rome for just over a decade goes on in its policy of “cancellation” of those who, with freedom of spirit, seek to serve Jesus Christ in orthodoxy and Tradition. By “cancellation” one means all forms of ignoring, conspiracy of silence, marginalization, prohibition of publishing in media and social media, and even the cessation of functions of those who do not adhere “synodally” to the current Vatican ideologies and discretions.

"Francis' Mongolian Trip: The Abolition of Christianity" - by Abp. Héctor Agüer

Abp. Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata (Argentina)

Sep. 12, 2023

The Catholic community in Mongolia is minuscule, numbering 1,500 faithful, which suggests that the country has not really been deeply evangelized. The presence there of the Successor of Peter presented an excellent opportunity: was it not possible, perhaps, to announce the name of Jesus Christ, with respect and cordiality towards the Buddhist listeners, and to present himself not as the bearer of a humanistic message but as what he is, the Vicar of Christ? Unfortunately, the Pope's trips are not evangelizing gestures but vaguely religious ones; the proclamation of the kerygma, as befits the apostolic office, is not primarily to be found in them. This time it was a sermon against fundamentalism: "Close-mindedness, unilateral imposition, fundamentalism and ideological coercion ruin fraternity, feed tensions and endanger peace."

St. Paul's discourse in the Areopagus of Athens (Acts 17:22-31) is a model that can be analogically applied today to the relationship of Catholic Truth with the religiosity of "the nations". The Apostle did not prepare an inter-religious salad, like the one served in Mongolia. Incidentally, we can ask ourselves what a pastoral attitude consists of, in a Christian sense.

“Episcopal Conference? Freedom for the Bishops!” — Article by Archbishop Aguer — strong words on Bishop Daniel Fernandez Torres

On other occasions I have criticized the current centralized ecclesiastical organization, whose key piece is the local protagonism of the Episcopal Conferences. These have assumed a political role, imitating secular parliaments. There is, in general, a Presidency and two Vice-Presidencies, elected by a majority vote of the members of the Conference. There are no formally constituted episcopal parties, but there is no lack of groups that bring together those who share a certain ecclesiology, and the same opinion on intra-ecclesial issues as well as on social and political issues of the country; undoubtedly linked to Catholic morality and the Social Doctrine of the Church.

"In black and white": Archbishop Aguer on tradition versus relativism

"In black and white": Archbishop Aguer on tradition versus relativism

Published at InfoCatólica on March 30, 2022. Translated for Rorate.

The title that heads this note does not refer to the cinema before the invention of technicolor, but to the astonishing criticism of current ecclesiastical officialdom that is directed against the members of the Church who love the great Catholic Tradition, and who recognize that homogeneity is what should characterize the development of ecclesial realities: dogma, liturgy, law, institutions. I have often quoted St. Vincent of Lerins and the formulas he coined in his Commonitory. Those realities can be expressed nove (in a new way), according to the cultural contexts of certain times and places; but in the deposit to be transmitted one cannot include nova, new things, novelties, which imply a heterogeneity with respect to the origins.

 

“A permanent parliament in which Jesus Christ is no longer preached, conversion to Truth and Grace no longer called for”: Bishop Aguer on the Synod on Synodality

The Synodality of the Church

by Most Rev. Héctor Aguer

Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

January 21, 2022

(original Spanish)

The [preparatory phase of the] XVI session of the Synod of Bishops was recently inaugurated with a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica [October 10, 2021].