You Suggest: ICR summer camps in Wisconsin

All of the information below and more can be found by clicking here. 

Sermon for Good Shepherd Sunday, by Saint Vincent Ferrer - "Nowadays the dogs provided by Christ to keep the sheep make peace with the wolves of hell."

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday

Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P.

"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: And the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling: and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know mine, and mine know me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." (St. John, 10:12-16)

Our sermon shall be from the holy gospel of this Sunday. And we shall have many good teachings for the illumination of the mind and reformation of life. But first let the Blessed Virgin be saluted.

The proposed word for a theme and the basis of our sermon is the world of our Lord Jesus Christ speaking of himself saying: "I am the good shepherd". The goodness of this Blessed shepherd toward his sheep, namely of the Christian faithful, is shown in today's holy Gospel in four ways:

-First reason, because he buys the sheep dearly;

-Second, because he keeps them carefully;

-Third, because he feeds them abundantly; and

-Fourth, because he guards them safely.

First Reason: Christ buys his sheep dearly 

May, Mary's Month- I- Mary, the foundation, the noblest after Christ

Giovanni Gabrieli
Sancta et Immaculata Virginitas
quibus te laudibus efferam, nescio:
quia, quem caeli capere non poterant,
tuo gremio contulisti.
Genuisti qui te fecit,
et in aeternum permanes Virgo.

_______________________

[C]an anyone fail to see that there is no surer or more direct road than by Mary for uniting all mankind in Christ and obtaining through Him the perfect adoption of sons, that we may be holy and immaculate in the sight of God? For if to Mary it was truly said: "Blessed art thou who hast believed because in thee shall be fulfilled the things that have been told thee by the Lord" (Luke i., 45); or in other words, that she would conceive and bring forth the Son of God and if she did receive in her breast Him who is by nature Truth itself in order that "He, generated in a new order and with a new nativity, though invisible in Himself, might become visible in our flesh" (St. Leo the Great, Ser. 2, De Nativ. Dom.): the Son of God made man, being the "author and consummator of our faith"; it surely follows that His Mother most holy should be recognized as participating in the divine mysteries and as being in a manner the guardian of them, and that upon her as upon a foundation, the noblest after Christ, rises the edifice of the faith of all centuries.

Vatican walls

A congressional hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives this week featured El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz discussing illegal immigration and border security.

A keen ear by a reporter at the Washington Examiner highlighted an exchange between the bishop and the ranking minority (Republican) member of the border security subcommittee: 

"Regarding the sovereignty of the church and as it relates and compares with the sovereignty of our nation, the church has been a light for the world for 2,000 years — a place of refuge, a place where a child of God could seek spiritual prosperity," said [Congressman Clay] Higgins, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations.

"But the sovereignty of the church has been protected by the security of the church. One of the most famous walls in history is the wall around the Vatican. I would ask you, bishop, in the area that you serve, do your churches lock their doors after hours?" he asked.

"Many of them do," replied Bishop Mark Seitz, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops representative for the Catholic Diocese in El Paso, Texas. "I would point out that that wall you refer to at the Vatican also has arms embracing and opening to the world, if you've been to the ... "

De Mattei: “The most terrible schism the world has ever seen”

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispomdenza Romana

May 1, 2019

On February 4, 2019, at Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmad Al- Tayyeb, signed the document on “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together”. The declaration opens in the name of a God, who, if he has to be a God common to all, cannot be anything other than the Allah of Muslims.  The God of Christians, in fact, is one in nature, but Triune in persons, equal and distinct, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Since the time of Arius and thereafter, the Church has been battling the anti-Trinitarians and the Deists who deny, or set aside this mystery, which is Christianity’s greatest.  Islam, on the contrary, rejects it in horror, as the Sura “of authentic worship” proclaims: “He, God, is one! God, the Eternal One! He will not generate, nor was he generated, and none is equal to him!” (Koran, 112, 2,4).  

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 90 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls. Come on Fathers, let's get this to 100!

** Click here to download a "fillable" PDF Mass Card in English to give to the loved ones of the Souls you enroll. 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 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.

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

"The Beatification of Satanelli" - Patron of Communist Terrorists and Road Accidents

Angelelli next to a symbol of  extreme Marxist violence

Something unbelievable happened today in Argentina: along with three other locals, Enrique Angelelli, Bishop of La Rioja, who died in a car crash in 1976, was "beatified as a martyr"...

Well-known Spanish Catholic pundit Luis Fernando Pérez Bustamante, made the following comment:

An infamous day in the history of the Church. A bishop close to the terrorist 'Montonero' movement will be 'beatified' as a martyr.

Such an insult to the memory of true Martyrs cannot and must not remain unpunished.

It is hard for a Pope to fall this low.

In fact, this Pontificate is summed up perfectly with this beatification. It is the absolute opposite of true holiness, true Tradition, to the Catholic ethos, to moral, doctrinal, and spiritual decency.

Last year, when the incredible news first surfaced, we posted the following text and editorial, which we repeat on this day of infamy.

***

There were many radical bishops in the wild years following the Second Vatican Council. But Enrique Angelelli, bishop of La Rioja, Argentina, was probably the most radical. He was a Communist in all but name and stridently supported the terrorist organization "Montoneros", the leftist terrorist branch of the Peronist movement. It can be undoubtedly said that the horrid military dictatorship that governed Argentina from 1976 until the Falklands War was brought about as a brutal overreaction to the terrorist attacks coordinated by Montoneros in favor of a Socialist-Peronist revolution.

Angelelli was so leftist, so radically leftist and so political, that the shocked practicing faithful of his own diocese used to call him in life "Satanelli". He died in a car accident in 1976. Yet Francis has decided to beatify Satanelli as a "martyr"! (It is all very ironic because, even though it is claimed, now, that Fr. Bergoglio opposed the dictatorship, at the time he was considered an ally of the military, and even close to the most brutal of the Junta's members, Admiral Emilio Massera.)

La Nación, the oldest and most respected daily in Argentina (the only major newspaper that supported the pro-life position in their recent victory against abortion in the national Senate), ran the following editorial on this startling piece of news. La Nación is also, by the way, an ally of Francis, and its Rome correspondent, Elisabetta Piqué, is the journalist who is probably closest to Francis -- so this is obviously not moved by any animus against the Bishop of Rome.

LA NACIÓN - EDITORIAL

A Political-Ideological Beatification 

Bishop Angelelli does not, in any way, represent the model of Christian exemplariness that the Church demands to start a canonization procedure

July 30, 2018

On August 4, 1976, Bishop Enrique Angelelli died, after the rollover of the vehicle in which he was travelling in National Route 38, in La Rioja, along with Father Arturo Pinto, who survived. In the report made immediately after, following comprehensive search for evidence -- autopsy, accident expert summary, photos of the place of the accident, and the testimony of Pinto, who alleged memory loss and being in a state of shock -- the procedure was archived under the name "Angelelli, bishop Enrique A. rep./death."

Albertus Magnus Center Summer Program in Norcia

The St. Albert the Great Center for Scholastic Studies will be holding its 8th annual summer theology session June 16th – 28th in Norcia, Italy, in partnership with the Monastero San Benedetto in Monte.

This summer’s program will be focused on St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the first eight chapters of the Gospel of John. Faculty include the Rev. Dr. Thomas Crean, O.P., Dr. Alan Fimister, and the Rev. Dr. Yosyp Veresh.

Summer Study Program on Galatians with Daily Traditional Mass

Overview: Each summer brings with it a number of opportunities for further education in congenial Catholic settings. This August 12-16, the Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine and the Albert the Great Center for Scholastic Studies are partnering with the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest to offer a five-day theology program studying the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians with the aid of St. Thomas Aquinas's superb commentary.

Fontgombault Easter Day Sermon -The Lessons of the Benedict XVI text: Atheistic Globalism enslaves, but Christ Lives!

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

(Fontgombault, April 21st, 2019)

Do not be afraid.

Mk 16:6

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

Fontgombault Easter Vigil Sermon: The Resurrection and what is the meaning of the Notre-Dame de Paris Fire

Notre-Dame de Fontgombault

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

(Fontgombault, April 21st, 2019)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

Sri Lanka Easter Martyrs: Sine sanguinis effusione non fit remissio.

When Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood there is no remission. (Hebrews, 9)

The image above is the powerful witness of an age: our own time, in which God wished us to live. It is a statue of the Risen Lord, sprinkled with the blood of Martyrs killed on this Easter Sunday by terrorist explosions against Catholic churches in Sri Lanka. Over 150 dead so far, and scores of injured, in these churches filled with Catholics joyfully celebrating the greatest of Feasts, and in other targets in the country.

EX ORIENTE LUX - Dominica Paschæ in Resurrectione Domini - A Meditation of Saint Alphonsus on Paradise

Osanna, Sanctus Deus Sabaoth,
superillustrans claritate tua
felices ignes horum malacoth!

L'anima d'ogne bruto e delle piante
di complession potenziata tira
lo raggio e il moto delle luci sante;

ma vostra vita sanza mezzo spira
la Somma Beninanza, e la innamora
di sé sì che poi sempre la disira.

E quinci puoi argomentare ancora
vostra resurrezion, se tu ripensi
come l'umana carne fessi allora

che li primi parenti intrambo fensi.*

Commedia, Paradiso (c. VII)

A VERY HAPPY AND HOLY EASTER TO ALL OUR READERS! 
Salve, Festa Dies: Hail, O Festive Day!

Fr. Cipolla's Sermon for Good Friday 2019: The Death of God destroys the Absoluteness of Death

Ecce lignum Crucis!

***

My son sent me a text: Notre Dame is on fire. I was doing something else and did not immediately check on the news. Then I did. I watched what was happening in Paris, the flames, the silent observers, the media, commentators who had no idea of what Notre Dame means or what is its deep significance and who tried to fudge things with platitudes. I sat there mesmerized. And then an image I will never forget. The fleche, the spire of the cathedral, aflame, collapsed and fell out of sight. And the flames continued to roar. Suddenly the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, is seen arriving with an entourage. Next to him is a cleric in a grey shirt and plastic tab collar. They both look serious. Notre Dame is burning. But they do not join the hundreds of Catholics standing there singing hymns, most of them young people, singing, above all, the Salve Regina.

Fontgombault Sermon for Maundy Thursday 2019: “You could not keep watch with me for one hour!”

Giotto, The Kiss of Judas, Scrovegni Chapel

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

(Fontgombault, April 18th, 2019)

You could not keep watch with me for one hour.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

Today, the Church does not spare liturgical splendors, as she commemorates the institution of the sacraments of the Eucharist and the holy Orders. Today, the celebration uniting all the members of the presbyterium manifests very opportunely the communion of all priests with Christ, the one Priest of the New Covenant.

We have just heard St. John’s narrative of the washing of the feet, as a prelude to the institution of the two sacraments, and to the long discourse after the Last Supper. Jesus knows His hour has now come, when He must pass from this world to His Father. It is the hour when He must say His last words, and give His last examples.

Among the latter, the washing of the feet holds a special place. It takes place during the supper, and it is unexpected, for it disrupts the supper’s order. Whereas this act is normally reserved for servants, Jesus makes a point of carrying it out Himself, in favor of disciples who do not understand its meaning. Peter protests. The Lord’s answer is irrevocable: “If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with Me.” (Jn 13:8)

Jesus will begin to unveil this part in a few moments, when He gives His disciples His flesh to eat and His blood to drink. In the humble sharing of His life, the Lord makes Himself the servant of His own life within His disciple. Let us remember that the true disciple of the Lord is he who allows himself to be served by the Lord, he who receives His merciful visit. The true disciple is not first and foremost he who proclaims the Gospel, but rather he who, conscious of his deep own destitution, begins, in an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus, by receiving Him in truth into his own life, and allows himself to be guided by Him.

Ierusalem, Ierusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum: The Lord hath delivered me into my enemies' hands.

How doth the City sit solitary, that was full of people how is she become as a widow she that was was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary

She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.

The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.

The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

Holy Thursday

Matins

(Lam., i, 1-14)

De Mattei: HOLY WEEK 2019: THE CHURCH IS BURNING

“Thou didst hear his words out of the midst of the fire” (Deuteronomy 4, 36)

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

April 17, 2019

Why did the fire of Notre Dame Cathedral generate such enormous shock all over the world? Because apart from the intrinsic value of the monument, Notre Dame is a symbol. It was written everywhere: a symbol of Christianity, a symbol of Western conscience, a symbol of a collective cultural patrimony, a symbol of European identity, a symbol of French national history.

We live in a world that has lost the value of logic, but the power of symbols is still extraordinary, given that symbols are used by the mass-media system to create emotional-reactions, often replacing the role of reason. There are in fact two ways of arriving at the truth: one through reason, the other through symbols. But the two ways are complementary, not alternative. Jesus, for example, uses the language of symbols, but also convincing logic. Rational language is founded on the principal of non-contradiction, whereas symbolic language is based on images and visible signs referring to an invisible reality. A symbol renders immediately comprehensible that which is veiled to the eyes of reason. Logic helps to decipher the language of symbols. Everything our senses experience has a significance and leads to the invisible, of which it is a reflex and imitation.

 

In the case of the Notre Dame fire, everyone perceived the symbolic value of the wounded cathedral, but few have sought to understand the symbolic significance of what happened. Notre Dame, like all cathedrals, represents the Catholic Church in its architectural impetus towards Heaven. How not to see in the smoke and flames that enveloped it on April 15^th, the image of the smoke and flames enveloping the Church of Christ? As far back as 1972, Paul VI spoke of the “smoke of Satan” penetrating the Temple of God. This smoke today is the result of a fire that ravaged  the Church, until it carbonized the very top.  Might it not be possible to see in the collapse of the fleche - Notre Dame’s tall spire - the fall of the pinnacle of the Church?

Notre-Dame de Paris: A Supernatural Intervention of the Mother of God for France?

Night of Fire

This night was not made for sleeping. At the sight of Notre-Dame in flames, emotion was too strong, sadness too intense, prayer too needed. And to think that just on the previous day I was still preaching under these millenary vaults where I had been ordained almost thirty years ago! I cannot express the sorrow that fills me when thinking of this archive of so many of our joyful memories disappearing in smoke...

Would you believe, however, that my consternation gave way quickly within me to a kind of enthralled gratefulness? Words that I have always wanted to hear seemed to spring miraculously from this deadly event. During these anguished hours, I seemed, in fact, to feel the old Gaul rooster wake up from his torpor.

Stat Crux dum volvitur orbis

Notre-Dame de Paris
Lundi Saint - Holy Monday, 2019

Crux fidelis, inter omnes

Arbor una nobilis!

Nulla silva talem profert,

Fronde, flore, germine,

Dulce lignum, dulces clavos,

Dulce pondus sustinet!

Notre Dame de Paris up in flames!

Live feed

Works of restoration were ongoing under the "flèche" (spire) above the transept of one of the greatest churches in Christendom, Notre Dame de Paris, where the great Relic of the Crown of Thorns is kept. All signs seem to point to something gone wrong in the restoration that led to this tragic event.

Update: the spire has collapsed and the roof has been already completely consumed by the flames.

***

Our note:

Notre-Dame de Paris will rise again! That is a certainty! The Revolution desecrated it, and yet Viollet-le-Duc made it more beautiful than ever in the 19th century.

It will rise again, through the intercession of Our Lady of Paris!

Events: Traditional Catholic Retreats Offered by Dom Pius Mary Noonan, OSB

Recently I was blessed with an opportunity to meet Dom Pius Mary Noonan, OSB, founder of the Notre Dame Priory in Tasmanian, Australia, and to spend some days with his burgeoning community of Benedictine monks. Like Norcia and Silverstream, this monastery follows the traditional monastic Office and Holy Mass.

Fontgombault Sermon for Palm Sunday 2019: The Meaning of the Passover of Flowers

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

(Fontgombault, April 14th, 2019)

Pascha Floridum

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My dearly beloved Sons,

It is with a suggestive name that our forefathers called this day: “Palm Sunday,” or also “Hosanna Sunday,” and “Pascha Floridum”, that is to say “Flowery Passover.” There are now only eight days left separating us from the solemnity of solemnities, the Lord’s Passover. 

Don Bosco’s most ferocious enemy

From the writings of Don Giuseppe Tomaselli

H/T Cordialiter Blog

The Devil gets furious with those striving for their own spiritual perfection and so everyday he engages in a fight with them, tempting them towards evil; if he doesn’t manage today, he hopes to do so tomorrow; he knows the weaknesses of everyone and also how to exploit them, by driving people to impurity, hate or the abuse of God’s mercy.   

But if he behaves like this with devout people, imagine how his furor is roused against those who bring souls to God. Don Bosco was a fisher of souls; the Demon, as a consequence, enraged against him, in the foolish hope of hampering his apostolate. The diabolical vexations began with loud, nocturnal noises on the roof of his home; sudden and terrifying shaking at the door and windows occurred; while he was resting, the covers on his bed were pulled back by an invisible hand…

Petition in support of Fr Nicholas Rynne

Fr Nicholas Rynne, a young priest newly installed in a parish in Tasmania, Australia, was spat on and villified for wearing clerical dress and introducing the Traditional Mass.

Inevitably, he has now been removed from his post. You can read more about it here; he has a Facebook support page here. Sign the petition in his support here.

Leave the Valley of Death -- with the help of the Mater Dolorosa

Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto,

là dove terminava quella valle

che m’avea di paura il cor compunto,

guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle

vestite già de’ raggi del pianeta

che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.

(Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto I)

***

Right in the beginning of the greatest poem ever written by a Christian, Dante's "Commedia", the reader is faced with a terrifying scene: a blighted valley, a wild and suffocating jungle so deep and impenetrable that the very rays of the Sun cannot reach within. We are, "nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" ("halfway through the journey of our life"), so deep in sin we cannot even see our own selves, Light being nowhere.

Events: Dr Kwasniewski Lecturing in Detroit area on May 10–12, 2019

On the weekend of May 10–12, 2019, I will be giving four lectures in the larger Detroit area: one in Detroit proper at Old St. Mary's Church; two in Jackson at St. Mary Star of the Sea; and one in Windsor at St. Alphonsus. Each lecture will be followed by a Q&A period. Happily, all three events start off with traditional Latin High Masses: a new springtime, indeed! 

"The Church and the Scandal of Sexual Abuse" - by Pope Benedict XVI (Full Text)

THE CHURCH AND THE SCANDAL OF SEXUAL ABUSE

by Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus

On February 21 to 24, at the invitation of Pope Francis, the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences gathered at the Vatican to discuss the current crisis of the faith and of the Church; a crisis experienced throughout the world after shocking revelations of clerical abuse perpetrated against minors.

The extent and gravity of the reported incidents has deeply distressed priests as well as laity, and has caused more than a few to call into question the very Faith of the Church. It was necessary to send out a strong message, and seek out a new beginning, so to make the Church again truly credible as a light among peoples and as a force in service against the powers of destruction.

Since I myself had served in a position of responsibility as shepherd of the Church at the time of the public outbreak of the crisis, and during the run-up to it, I had to ask myself - even though, as emeritus, I am no longer directly responsible - what I could contribute to a new beginning.

Thus, after the meeting of the presidents of the bishops’ conferences was announced, I compiled some notes by which I might contribute one or two remarks to assist in this difficult hour.

Having contacted the Secretary of State, Cardinal [Pietro] Parolin and the Holy Father [Pope Francis] himself, it seemed appropriate to publish this text in the Klerusblatt [a monthly periodical for clergy in mostly Bavarian dioceses].

My work is divided into three parts.

In the first part, I aim to present briefly the wider social context of the question, without which the problem cannot be understood. I try to show that in the 1960s an egregious event occurred, on a scale unprecedented in history. It could be said that in the 20 years from 1960 to 1980, the previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely, and a new normalcy arose that has by now been the subject of laborious attempts at disruption.

In the second part, I aim to point out the effects of this situation on the formation of priests and on the lives of priests.

Finally, in the third part, I would like to develop some perspectives for a proper response on the part of the Church.

I.

(1) The matter begins with the state-prescribed and supported introduction of children and youths into the nature of sexuality. In Germany, the then-Minister of Health, Ms. [Käte] Strobel, had a film made in which everything that had previously not been allowed to be shown publicly, including sexual intercourse, was now shown for the purpose of education. What at first was only intended for the sexual education of young people consequently was widely accepted as a feasible option.

Peter Kwasniewski compositions to have world premiere in London this Triduum

PRESS RELEASE from the Latin Mass Society

New Papal Utterance: "Being Angry with Christ is a Kind of Prayer!"

No, no, we are not making this up. It is what the reigning Bishop of Rome really said this past Sunday in a visit to the Roman parish of St. Julius:

"Even getting angry at Jesus can be a kind of prayer. Jesus likes seeing the truth of our heart. Don't make pretense in front of Jesus."

#PapaFrancesco alla parrocchia romana di San Giulio: “Anche arrabbiarsi con Gesù può essere un modo di pregare. A Gesù piace vedere la verità del nostro cuore. Non fare finta davanti a Gesù".

Guarda il video integrale: https://t.co/XWUKDLdZT4 @Avvenire_Nei @CEI_news pic.twitter.com/KFuYXsntBa

— Tv2000.it (@TV2000it) April 8, 2019

Washington, D.C. (officially) gets a liberal archbishop

4/4 UPDATE: It's now official. The problems that have plagued the Archdiocese of Washington will most likely pale in comparison to what is coming next. And with this See being the political capital of the world, with an enormous pulpit and microphone, the effects of this disastrous appointment will be felt well beyond the Beltway. Wilton Gregory will make Donald Wuerl sound like Raymond Burke.
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Original post [3/28/19]

The good news is the next archbishop of Washington, D.C., is not Cardinal Cupich, Cardinal Tobin or Bishop McElroy.  The bad news is, according to Catholic News Agency, the new archbishop will be Wilton Gregory.

A disciple of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Gregory is not just liberal on some things; rather, he is liberal on everything.

On abortion.

On natural law and the traditional family.

On dissident priests.

On the translations of the novus ordo.

Even on dressing for the beach at Mass.

“That which thou dost, do quickly” for the Masquerade is over

Francesco Lamendola

H/T Riscossa Cristiana

April 2, 2019

That which thou dost, do quickly. Jesus addresses these words to Judas Iscariot, in the cenacle, after washing the feet of his disciples and after telling them He would be betrayed by one of them. And Judas, after these words, leaves the room and goes to the Elders of the people to arrange the arrest of Jesus and be their guide in the garden of olives – Gethsemane - where he knows Jesus is going to pray, after the Supper. And the Evangelist John adds: and it was night - while showing us Judas leaving the house to go and sell his Divine Master. It was night as the stars were already shining high in the Jerusalem skies; and it was the night of the soul, the night of the supreme sin: the betrayal of Jesus Christ by one of His own.

By one of those who had followed him, listened to Him, heard Him pronounce sublime truths and seen Him do extraordinary things: calm the waters of a tempest-tossed lake; heal the crippled; liberate the demonically possessed; feed a crowd of thousands of people with a little bread and a few fish; and even call forth His friend Lazarus from the tomb.  

It was the great night of mankind: the Son of God had come into the world to bring the light, but men had preferred the darkness to the light. Men, Jesus says, prefer the darkness because their actions are not good, and the night conceals them. Those who walk according to the will of God love the light, because God is light and He illuminates the way; but those who have something to conceal, prefer the dark of night, because, if there was light, everyone would see their ignominy; and perhaps they would see also their hypocrisy, seeing that many, who have their hearts full of darkness, love, however, to make an exhibition of great virtue, to be admired and praised by men.

The historical time we are living in, demonstrates, more than any other, a striking analogy to the Gospel extract which describes Judas Iscariot leaving the house of the Last Supper.  That which you must do, do it quickly, would mean: enough of this farce, let’s put all our cards on the table: let the betrayal of Christ be done openly, in the light of day; it is too comfortabe to continue doing it under cover of darkness, all the while staying in the grey area of ambiguity.

Exactly 50 Years Ago, Paul VI tried to destroy the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

7. Cena dominica sive Missa est sacra synaxis seu congregatio populi Dei in unum convenientis, sacerdote praeside, ad memoriale Domini celebrandum. Quare de sanctae Ecclesiae locali congregatione eminenter valet promissio Christi: "Ubi sunt duo vel tres congregati in nomine meo, ibi sum in medio eorum" (Mt. 18, 20).

"7. The Lord's Supper, or Mass, is the sacred meeting or congregation of the people of God assembled, the priest presiding, to celebrate the memorial of the Lord. For this reason, Christ's promise applies eminently to such a local gathering of holy Church: 'Where two or three come together in my name, there am I in their midst' (Mt. 18:20)."

This is the original complete definition of the Mass according to the 1969 Novus Ordo Missae, the New Order of the Mass promulgated by the "Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum", to the horror of many believing Catholics, exactly 50 years ago today: they were arguably the most influential liturgical words written in the 20th century and signaled a watershed moment -- in a sense, closing the book written since late antiquity and the chapter begun in Sessions XIII and XXII of the Council of Trent.

“A Half-Century of Novelty: Revisiting Paul VI’s Apologia for the New Mass”

This lecture was given in Wagga Wagga on March 28, in Melbourne on March 30, and in Hobart on April 3, during Dr Kwasniewski's visit sponsored by the Latin Mass Society of Australia. The full text is presented below, in a Rorate exclusive. UPDATE: The video of the lecture as given in Melbourne may be found here.

A Half-Century of Novelty: Revisiting Paul VI’s Apologia for the New Mass

Peter A. Kwasniewski

April 3 of this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the promulgation of the Novus Ordo Missae by Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum, the provisions of which were to go into effect on November 30, the first Sunday of Advent.

Video: Vatican City under Pius XII

A traditional seminarian shared with us this historic footage from 1941, starring Fulton Sheen. Take a look when you have time. And, if you can, this seminarian is from Malaysia where it's not exactly easy to get benefactors to help offset seminary training costs. CLICK HERE to check out his fundraising page.

On the 80th Anniversary of Victory Day in Spain

RADIOMESSAGE
«CON INMENSO GOZO»
OF HIS HOLINESS

PIUS XII

TO THE SPANISH FAITHFUL

(April 14, 1939)

With great joy We address you, most dear children of Catholic Spain, to express to you our fatherly congratulations for the gift of peace and of victory, with which God has deemed worthy to crown the Christian heroism of your faith and charity, tried in so many and so generous sufferings. Our Predecessor, of venerable memory, expected, with longing and trust, this Providential peace, which is undoubtedly the fruit of that copious blessing which he sent, in the very beginning of the struggle, "to all those who had devoted themselves to the difficult and dangerous task of defending and restoring the rights and the honor of God and Religion" [1]; and We do not doubt that this peace shall be the one that he himself foretold since then, "the sign of a future of tranquility in order, and of honor in prosperity" [2].

Reminder: Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society

This is our monthly reminder to please enroll Souls of the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society. We added another priest to the Society last month and now stand at 90 priests saying weekly or monthly traditional Latin Masses for the Souls. Come on Fathers, let's get this to 100!

** Click here to download a "fillable" PDF Mass Card in English to give to the loved ones of the Souls you enroll. 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 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.

De Mattei: The Red Terrorist Cesare Battisti and his protectors

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

March 27, 2019

The “red” terrorist, Cesare Battisti, interrogated in Oristano prison by the Public Minister of Milan, Alberto Nobili, has “admitted all the charges, namely, the four murders, two of which he was the perpetrator.” This was announced by the Public Prosecutor of Milan, Francesco Greco at a press conference. Four of these crimes were materially committed by Battisti: the murder of the Penitentiary Police Marshall, Antonio Santoro, on June 6 1978 because “he persecuted the political prisoners”; the murders of the jeweler Pierluigi Torregiani and a shop-owner, Lino Sabbadin, who was militant in the Italian Social Movement, both killed on February 16, 1979, the former in Milan and the latter in Mestre “because they had armed themselves against robbers, so they were militia on the side of the State and consequently had to be punished.”

                                                                

Finally, the murder of DIGOS (Special Branch of the Police) agent Andrea Campagna, whom Battisti shot on April 19, 1978 in Milan. The exponent of the Armed Proletariat for Communism (PAC) also admitted to wounding three. Those  “knee-capped”, were Giorgio Rossanigo, a doctor in the Novara prison, who was “too harsh with political prisoners”, Diego Fava, a doctor with Alfa Romeo who, “didn’t readily issue certificates to politicized workers”, and Antonio Nigro, a guard in the Verona prison. To the Public Minister’s question about who had helped him to abscond, Battisti replied that abroad there had been: “parties, intellectuals and editorials worldwide” which gave him “ideological and logistical support. They did it for ideological reasons and out of solidarity.  I don’t know if these people have ever questioned whether I was responsible for what I was being condemned,.” “Many didn’t pose the question” but “I was supported also because I declared myself innocent, since in many countries guilt declared in absentia is unthinkable and since I gave the idea of one fighting for freedom.”