The Fast Election of Leo XIV: Now What? - by Fr. Claude Barthe

 Fr. Claude Barthe

May 8, 2025

In the French Academy, we'd call this an “election of a Marshal”: on the second day of the conclave, in the fourth vote, Robert Francis Prevost just won an absolute majority, faster than Cardinal Ratzinger in 2005 and Cardinal Bergoglio in 2013.

Born in Chicago in 1955, a religious of the Augustinian order, a highly competent jurist with long pastoral experience in Peru, where he became Bishop of Chiclayo, he was called by Pope Francis to become Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023.

All commentators will now ask whether he will be a faithful follower of Pope Francis. The answer is both yes and no. 

Defending the Traditional Mass with Just Arguments -- Theological and Legal - by Father Claude Barthe

Those who devote themselves to the defense of traditional things (liturgy, catechism, resistance to deleterious doctrines) often hesitate to say that we are currently faced with an atypical ecclesial situation. Especially when it comes to the liturgy. Even if they assert that it is not for reasons of sensitivity but of faith that they attend the old liturgy, they feel they can effectively defend their position against the proponents of the new liturgy as a legitimate free choice. It is true that arguments of this kind can work quite well with Catholic opinion in general, for whom liberalism has become an unsurpassable horizon; but the fact that it is permissible to take tactical advantage of this state of mind does not mean it is justifiable.

Paradoxically, they even sometimes twist traditional doctrine to defend it. One example is the extreme reduction of the doctrine of obedience to ecclesiastical authorities and their teachings. Since, in many respects, submission to the authorities is untenable in conscience today, they practically come to affirm that free examination was the common doctrine of the Church, with each person deciding what is Catholic in the name of the “tradition” of which each is ultimately the custodian. Or they proceed to disembowel the doctrine of Roman infallibility by asserting that the First See has frequently issued heterodox doctrines. In other words, the abnormality of what is happening now is transferred to the Church of old.[1] And the anti-modernists become modernists.

We will deal here only with arguments in defense of the traditional Mass. In particular, we would like to consider two that are often used to justify the free option in favor of the traditional missal:

(1) The invocation of the bull Quo primum of 1570, insofar as it states that the missal it promulgates may be used “in perpetuity”. And 

(2) the fact that the Church has always recognized the legitimacy of a diversity of rites.

Cardinal Parolin and the Upcoming Conclave - by Father Claude Barthe

Cardinal Parolin Lying in Ambush

Father Claude Barthe

Res Novae

December 2023

Is Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, the real candidate of the Bergoglian left[1]? It's worth remembering that in 2013, the self-appointed cardinals of the "St. Gallen Group", who brought Jorge Bergoglio to power, used the maneuver of putting forward the name of Cardinal Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo, to more effectively advance their real papabile, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Similarly today, behind the 66-year-old Filipino Cardinal Tagle, prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, but depressive and rather insignificant, or behind the 65-year-old Jesuit Cardinal Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg, rapporteur of the Synod of Bishops for a synodal Church, but too noisily heterodox, would actually be Cardinal Parolin.

Cardinal Silvestrini's heir

Op-Ed: "Traditionis Custodes: Vatican II at the Throes of Death"

Father Claude Barthe

Res Novae

September 2021

The non-reception of the Second Vatican Council has focused in a concrete way on the refusal of the liturgical reform, even if a certain number of practitioners of the old Mass affirm their adherence to the "well interpreted" conciliar intuitions. In any case, the existence of the traditional liturgy is a persistent and even growing phenomenon of non-reception. Marginal? Pope Bergoglio, who wants to be the pope of the full realization of Vatican II, has come to be convinced that the phenomenon is sufficiently important that he must work to eradicate it. With the consequence that the possibly marginal has certainly become central: the Tridentine Mass is elevated as the evil to be destroyed; the seminaries training priests to say it, as cankers to be eliminated. And this is business as usual.

A return to the original violence of the liturgical reform

Italian Bishops and Cardinals were the origin and moving force behind Traditionis Custodes (an Interview with Fr. Claude Barthe)

 Fr. Claude Barthe is a seasoned veteran of the pre-Summorum "liturgical wars", now rekindled by Francis in his edict "Traditionis custodes". Living in Paris, Fr. Barthe was also the main chaplain for the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimages that took thousands of Traditional Catholics to pray and attend the Holy Mass in the Traditional Roman Rite in Saint Peter's Basilica during the past decade.

Fr. Barthe knows, therefore, all involved with the decision that led to the papal edict against the Traditional Mass. As he reveals (corroborated by several sources), the Italian bishops, and a couple of Italian cardinals in the Curia, were at the origin and the moving force behind this document.

Let us pray.

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Interview with Fr. Claude Barthe

“Traditionis custodes: A New Liturgical War”

With the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes published on July 16, Pope Francis "unravels" his predecessor Benedict XVI’s motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 7, 2007 by drastically limiting the celebration of the traditional Mass.

Father, rumors about this motu proprio, which practically cancels Benedict XVI’s motu proprio of July 7, 2007, have been floating around for some time. Did you expect it to be published so soon, on July 16?

None of us were quite sure. There had been various rumors. In Rome there was talk of an August publication, while others warned of an imminent publication. The latter version turned out to be true. The Secretariat of State, which led all this, was extremely discreet, it must be admitted.

Recent events seemed to point towards the possibility of an appeasement - such as the words of Cardinal Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, who appealed to Summorum Pontificum in a recent interview on Vatican News. Were these hopes unfounded?

I don't know what Cardinal Gambetti did or said to the Pope, but it is certain that requests were made to postpone this document so as not to start a new liturgical war in the Church. Notably, some say that Cardinal Ladaria, president of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, held it back as long as he could, as did others. In the end, the decision was made by the Pope and by those who lobbied him to take it, especially the Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, the substitute, Cardinal Peña Parra, Cardinal Versaldi, and others who were involved, that is, who participated in these inter-dicastery meetings (meetings between the prefects of the congregations concerned: Divine Worship, Clergy, Bishops, and the Secretariat of State) and who have been working on this document for a long time.

Spaemann: "The Greatest Liturgical Problem is the Direction of Celebration of the Mass."

Robert Spaemann: “The biggest problem is the direction of the altar”

A native of Berlin and professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Munich, Robert Spaemann is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. A specialist in the thought of Fénelon and author of a well-known critique of political utopia, as well as numerous moral works (including Happiness and Benevolence, PUF, 1997), he is a great friend of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. He received recent attention on account of some very critical comments on Amoris Laetitia. We are taking advantage of the holidays to present you with the reflections on the liturgy which he gave to Fr. Claude Barthe for the work Reconstruire la liturgie, published by Éditions Francois-Xavier de Guibert in 1997, that is, 10 years before the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. Here, he explores the direction of the celebration, a question which has recently been the subject of a strong and clear intervention on the part of Cardinal Sarah, who was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship by Pope Francis, and to which we will return in subsequent letters.

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Fr. Claude Barthe – You have often echoed the profound dissatisfaction of Catholics who are unhappy with the new forms of worship. You have contributed to a certain number of them rediscovering the traditional liturgical practice in Germany today.

Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to Rome (Oct. 27-30, 2016) - Interview with Chaplain: “Just as there is a liturgical battle, there is also a doctrinal battle”

“Just as there is a liturgical battle, there is also a doctrinal battle”

Interview with Fr.  Claude Barthe, 

chaplain of the Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome.

1. Father, this fifth international pilgrimage of the Summorum Pontificum faithful will begin in Norcia: why such a choice?

First of all, because of St. Benedict, who was a native of Norcia and is a symbol of the Christian roots of Europe. While the Roman Empire was slowly but inexorably collapsing, St. Benedict chose to break away from the world, its corruption, its noise and its insignificance, in order to give himself completely to God. In an era which, in many respects, is like a new decline of Rome, St. Benedict calls us to a radical conversion.

Norcia is also a symbol of the Summorum Pontificum world, as the monks who operate there were commissioned by Cardinal Castrillon in 2009 to celebrate in utroque usu, in both forms of the Roman rite. Since then, Norcia has been packed with faithful and the town has seen a genuine economic revival thanks to the liturgical revival accomplished by the Benedictines.

Four Days After Synod Closes, CDF responds officially: NO COMMUNION FOR "REMARRIED" DIVORCEES WHO LIVE AS IF THEY WERE MARRIED, PERIOD. - Full text -

INDISSOLUBLE MEANS INDISSOLUBLE

Father Claude Barthe

[French Catholic periodical] L'Homme Nouveau

November 12, 2014

Understanding the Vatican Statement: "SSPX Already is in 'Full Communion', but in a State of 'Imperfect Reconciliation'."

One of the wisest clerics in the traditional Catholic world, Father Claude Barthe, wrote a short note for the highly regarded French Catholic periodical L'Homme Nouveau on the Holy See communiqué on the meeting between Cardinal Müller and Bishop Fellay yesterday. He paid attention to the key words, as well as to words that are missing, and how they represent a high point in the evolution of relations between the Apostolic See and the Society of Saint Pius X.

Father Barthe, by the way, is the main chaplain of the remarkable Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome, taking place a month from now -- if you can, please join it, there's still time.

The Society of Saint Pius X in a state of "Imperfect Reconciliation"

by Father Claude Barthe, on September 24, 2014