How the New Lectionary Came to Be — First-ever Translation of Internal Documents of a "Consilium" Committee

The Lectionary for Mass—drawn up by Group XI of the Consilium, the “super-committee” charged with carrying out Sacrosanctum Concilium—is often held up as one of the greatest achievements of the post-Vatican II liturgical reform. Yet until recently, the full details of their discussions and labors have remained unpublished, accessible only to archival researchers and specialist scholars.

Newly published, The Post-Vatican II Reform of the Lectionary: The Schemata of Group XI offers an English translation by Matthew Hazell of the Latin and French schemata of Group XI in their entirety—the first time, in fact, that the complete documentation for any of the Consilium study groups has been made available in translation. The process of the reform of the lectionary can thus be traced through the various draft orders of readings as well as the debates among the members and consultors.

Hazell's detailed and masterly introduction contextualises the reforms within the history of the 20th-century Liturgical Movement and the Second Vatican Council. The introduction alone is a major addition to the scholarly literature, followed by a comprehensive bibliography of secondary sources ranging over many languages.

Latest Book by Fr. Claude Barthe Compares & Contrasts the Traditional & New Sacramental Rites

In 1969, A Short Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae was published with the signatures of two powerful cardinals, Bacci and Ottaviani. Nicknamed The Ottaviani Intervention, it quickly become a classic, and has never gone out of print. But... where was its companion volume? You know, the one about the other six sacraments?

 

For, indeed, the reform of the Mass was accompanied by a profound overhaul of all the other sacraments—baptism, confirmation, marriage, holy orders, penance, and extreme unction (the last two renamed reconciliation and the anointing of the sick). And the changes to these were no less profound, no less meaningful, no less consequential.

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Song of Songs Through the Heart of Jesus Christ

If you’ve ever read the Song of Songs (also called the Canticle of Canticles) in the Old Testament, you probably had more than a few questions about it! What is this very sensuous book about a lover and a beloved doing in the canon of Scripture? 

Newly Published Study of Vatican II Implementation Breaks New Ground in Historical Research, Answers Crucial Questions

People today often ask questions like: “What in the world happened at the time of Vatican II, that the Church seemed in such an unholy hurry to change? Why were the changes so drastic and so sudden? What were the causes, the motives, the expectations, the assumptions about reform and its expected fruits? Who were the main actors? Was it planned out or random? Who benefited (cui bono)? How responsible were the bishops for it, versus the middle managers, versus the laity?” and so forth. It can be very hard to disentangle so many threads. 

Three New Publications — The Best Liturgical Catechism, the Best Book on Dressing, and the Best Book on Religious Vocation

Worshiping; dressing; discerning religious life. What do these three topics have in common?

All of them concern our vocation to give glory to God and bring benefit to our neighbors with the powers of our minds and our bodies—whether in the radical form of a total gift of self in the religious life of evangelical poverty, chastity, and obedience, or in the social form of dressing modestly and beautifully, or in the highest act of the highest moral virtue, religion: executing divine worship with all due reverence, honor, and splendor, taking seriously man's sensible condition and the rich tradition that sustains him.

St Thomas Aquinas on Salvation and the Epistle to the Hebrews

In honor of the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas (his dies natalis, March 7, as observed in the traditional calendar), Os Justi Press has released two major Thomistic publications.

The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae — A Publication to Assist in Pre-55 Services

Those who are blessed with access to Holy Week in the Tridentine Rite, that is, the rite celebrated for a thousand years and more prior to Pius XII's changes in the mid-1950s, may find helpful a resource published by Os Justi Press: The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae, which contains the liturgy (in Latin with English translation) for Palm Sunday, the Triduum Masses, and the Office of Tenebrae, including complete Gregorian chants. Summary rubrics are indicated. No page turning is required. The book features many medieval illustrations as well.

This second edition features a new cover and, for the first time, full-color printing throughout, which dramatically enhances the beauty of the illuminations found within. Additionally, some typographical errors discovered in the first printing have been corrected.

New novel tells of a pair of priests exiled by their bishop to an ugly, dying parish in the hinterlands — and their unexpected success

Bishop J. Donald Doherty was chuckling at the large map of his diocese that covered most of his desk, its parish churches marked by bright blue crosses, the parish boundaries by dotted blue lines, their schools and the diocesan high school by (of course) little red schoolhouses, the cemeteries by bright green crosses. Near the northern edge of his fief lay a lonely blue cross, circled by him, a moment ago, in heavy black ink. He pressed the intercom button on his phone.

Dominic J. Grigio, “Why I Wrote The Disastrous Pontificate”—Exclusive for Rorate

Prefatory note: On January 7, 2026, a major new book, The Disastrous Pontificate: Pope Francis' Rupture from the Magisterium, was released by Os Justi Press. Endorsed by a constellation of luminaries including Rev. Gerald E. Murray, Edward Feser, Eduardo Echeverria, Philip F. Lawler, John Rist, Michael Sirilla, Claudio Pierantoni, and Josef Seifert, the work has already attracted international attention for its comprehensive research and bold claims. Today, in an exclusive for Rorate Caeli, the author, Dominic Grigio, tells us why he wrote it. If you'd like to hear it being read aloud, go here, or scroll to the bottom.—PAK

During his last general audience before his abdication Pope Benedict XVI declared his confidence in the barque of the Church weathering the storms of history, ‘Nor does the Lord let it sink; it is He who guides it, surely also through those whom He has chosen.’^[1] Yet amid the escalating crises of his successor's pontificate, it seemed to me that the barque was being deliberately steered onto the rocks. Good and faithful Catholics—those who simply cherished the Traditional Latin Mass and the Church's perennial doctrines and moral teachings—were being cast overboard, incurring scornful ire and punitive measures merely for their fidelity.

¡Viva Cristo Rey! — Two New Books in Honor of Christ the King: “The Cristero Counterrevolution” and “His Reign Shall Never End”

The centenary of Pius XI's great 1925 encyclical Quas Primas on the divine-human, individual-social Kingship of Jesus Christ has seen the release of two new books of considerable interest to tradition-loving Catholics.

Rosary in Chant, Second and Expanded Edition

Back in November 2023, I announced a wonderful new resource from Os Justi Press: a booklet, Sanctissimum Rosarium in Cantu, that sets the Latin prayers of the Rosary to Gregorian chant psalm tones, in order to make the chanting of it very easy to do.

Dom Guéranger’s "Liturgical Institutions" Published for the First Time in English

The ongoing devastation inflicted upon the sacred liturgy is by no means unique to our time. Since the earliest days of the Church, the liturgy has suffered from the attacks of heresy, schism, and human caprice. Through the ages—whether from the blasphemous Vigilantius, the radical Waldensians of the Middle Ages, the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century, or the rationalist infiltrators of the Enlightenment—there has always been a persistent, corrosive impulse to undermine, distort, or dilute the sacred rites entrusted to the Church.

In the nineteenth century, Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805–1875), the abbot of Solesmes and founding father of the modern liturgical movement, stood resolutely against a virulent strain of this anti-liturgical spirit.

Prayers in Honor of Saint Thomas Aquinas, gathered in one book for the first time

We’ve hit some huge Thomistic anniversaries in recent years:

• in 2023, the 700th of Aquinas’s canonization;

• in 2024, the 750th of his death;

• and in 2025, the 800th of his birth.

The Broad Ocean of the Latin Rite: What True Liturgical Diversity Looks Like

Recent years have seen a surge in curiosity about the classic Rome rite, its forms, symbols, and history. Everywhere neophytes can be heard asking cautiously about “the Latin Mass,” while those who are more versed in the traditional Catholic world may be found disputing the merits and shortcomings of the ’62 missal and the Office of St. Pius X, or extolling the glories of the pre-’55 Holy Week.

Launching "Theological Classics": Newman on the Virgin Mary, St Vincent on Novelty and Heresy, Guardini on Sacred Signs

At a time of turmoil, nothing could be better or more important than rooting ourselves deeply in the Catholic tradition. One of my favorite quotations is by St. Prosper of Aquitaine (390-455), writing in his own age of chaos: “Even if the wounds of this shattered world enmesh you, and the sea in turmoil bears you along in but one surviving ship, it would still befit you to maintain your enthusiasm for studies unimpaired. Why should lasting values tremble if transient things fall?”

New Books Vindicate Pius X's Teaching on Sacred Music and Show that the Church in Africa Is Not a "Vatican II Success Story"

Os Justi Press is pleased to announce its latest pair of releases.

First, in the "Studies in Catholic Tradition" series, we have Dr. Patrick John Brill's The Great Sacred Music Reform of Pope St. Pius X: The Genesis, Interpretation, and Implementation of the Motu Proprio "Tra le Sollecitudini."

Professional singer and choir conductor Dr. Andrew Childs sums it up well: “Dr. Patrick Brill provides thorough and much-needed support for what many traditional-minded Catholics have long known or at least suspected: that St. Pius X’s 1903 motu proprio Tra le Sollectitudini still provides the surest guide for the restoration of Catholic sacred music. Part I of this book provides a detailed commentary on the motu proprio, enlightening for amateur and expert alike, while Part II examines the document’s fate from the time of Pius to today, looking at its canonical force and status, positive efforts of implementation, and the neglect it has suffered since Vatican II. As tradition continues to make crucial gains, it will be books like this that serve as practical guides for restoration.”

"The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae": A Publication to Assist in Pre-55 Services

Those who are blessed with access to Holy Week in the Tridentine Rite, that is, the rite celebrated for a thousand years and more prior to Pius XII's changes in the mid-1950s, may find helpful a resource published by Os Justi Press: The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae, which contains the liturgy (in Latin with English translation) for Palm Sunday, the Triduum Masses, and the Office of Tenebrae, including complete Gregorian chants. Summary rubrics are indicated. No page turning is required. The book features many medieval illustrations as well.

New Memoir Recalls Conciliar Turmoil in Parishes and Families

Downside Abbey, where many events narrated in Two Families took place

Those who move in traditional circles in the UK tell me that “everyone has heard of the Bevans.” They are a large and highly musical clan whose members have been singing for decades in liturgies and concerts. Os Justi Press is proud to have just released Joseph Bevan’s book Two Families: A Memoir of English Life During and After the Council.

In running through his eventful life, Bevan vividly describes what the practice of Catholicism was like before, during, and after the Council: he shows the strengths and weaknesses of the preconciliar routine, the confusion unleashed in the 1960s, the collapse of the liturgy and especially of sacred music “in real time,” as it was unfolding.

Fortescue’s Classic Work on Eastern Orthodoxy Republished in a New Edition

As booklovers know from oft-repeated experience, acquiring a long out-of-print classic can be a chore. Old copies, if they are not prohibitively costly, are beaten up and even malodorous; and newer "reprint" companies seem to take no pains either with their facsimiles or with their OCR'd products.

"Unresolved Tensions in Papal-Episcopal Relations": New Anthology Maps Out the Terrain

Os Justi Press has just released a new book that will be of interest to many readers of this weblog: Unresolved Tensions in Papal-Episcopal Relations: Essays Occasioned by the Deposition of Bishop Joseph Strickland.

This book brings together essays and articles by 14 authors who wrestle with ecclesiological and canonical questions prompted by some of the tyrannical acts of Pope Francis, using this as a springboard for a broader consideration of the rights and duties of a bishop according to traditional theological sources.

The centerpiece of the book is the respectful but intense debate between José Ureta and John Lamont concerning whether a bishop unjustly deposed should accept his deposition as a valid act of papal jurisdictional primacy (even if it be an illicit or sinful one), or should rather refuse to acknowledge it and remain in his see. Ureta argues for the former position, Lamont for the latter. Each marshals quotes from classic authors on behalf of his side. It’s one of the best high-level debates I’ve seen in years. Several of these pieces by Ureta and Lamont appeared first at Rorate Caeli. They are given definitive form in the book.