Special Rosary Rally for Bishop Strickland at the Apostolic Nunciature Tomorrow!

 

For those in the Washington, D.C. area, please consider coming to a special Rosary Rally this Saturday (tomorrow) outside the Apostolic Nunciature at 9 AM to pray for Bishop Strickland in the wake of his unjust removal from the Diocese of Tyler. Cardinal Pierre, the American Nuncio, has played a big role in pressuring bishops to cancel Latin Masses across the U.S. He also reportedly told Bishop Strickland that he was being removed in part for not implementing Latin Mass restrictions. Thus, it is fitting that we pray for Cardinal Pierre, Bishop Strickland, and the entire Church during this time of crisis and confusion.

Edward Pentin Exposes the Synod on Synodality

 

Edward Pentin is one of the most important Vatican journalists of the Francis era. He is the author of the book The Rigging of a (2014) Vatican Synod?: An Investigation of Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. That book exposed the underhanded efforts to sideline traditionalists and conservatives at the 2014 Synod on the Family. 

For the Feast of All Benedictine Saints (November 13)

Pietro Annigoni, La Gloria di S.Benedetto

The following reflection was written by Fr Peter Miller, OSB, prior of the Monks of Mary, Mother of the Word, in Sprague, Washington. To read more about this community and its future Our Lady of Whitestone Monastery, go here; to receive their newsletter, go here.

Feast of All Holy Monks of the Order of Saint Benedict

November 13, 2023

The Francis Effect: Old St. Mary Before and After Traditionis Custodes

 

Old St. Mary in Chinatown is a beautiful historic Church in Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown neighborhood. Built by German immigrants, it fell on hard times in the 1980s. But when it obtained an indult Latin Mass in the mid 1980s, it sprang back to life. 

Cardinal Müller on Strickland's Sacking: "It's an abuse of the Divine Right of the Episcopate."

In remarks given to French periodical 

L'Homme Nouveau (September edition)

What is being done to Bishop Strickland is terrible, an abuse of the divine right of the episcopate.

STRICKLAND REMOVED - Francis Peron attacks again: to my enemies not even Justice

Removal of bishop of Tyler, U.S.A., and appointment of apostolic administrator

The Holy Father has removed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland from the pastoral care of the diocese of Tyler, United States of America, and has appointed Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin as apostolic administrator of the same diocese, rendering it sede vacante. [source]

 

 If only Bishop Strickland had been a member of Uncle Ted McCarrick's clique of abusers of minors, or used bodily fluids in chalices (Rupnik) after raping sisters, he might have been named a Cardinal by Francis…

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski's Lecture: Liturgical Obedience & The Seductions of Autonomy- Now Available on YouTube

As part of its monthly Speakers Series, the Arlington Latin Mass Society recently hosted liturgical scholar Dr. Peter Kwasniewski for a lecture entitled, "Liturgical Obedience & The Seductions of Autonomy." In it, Dr. Kwasniewski makes the important argument that the Traditional Latin Mass best fosters the virtues of  humility and obedience in priests by requiring strict conformance to its rubrics. It is available for viewing at this link. 

Support the Transalpine Redemptorists - Buy their 2024 Traditional Catholic Calendar

We highly recommend their beautiful publications, including their yearly calendar.

The Papa Stronsay Liturgical Calendar is back for its 2024 edition.  [Order here]

 

As for the previous years, this calendar provides the Liturgical feast and colour for each day of the year, following the Traditional 1962 Calendar of the Roman Rite. But we include also other particular feasts, points of interests, the liturgical zodiac, days of abstinence, holidays, and many other things. The Martyrology page also enables you to celebrate the Saints’ anniversary for the year. 

The Catholic Cash Cow

by Fr. Donald Kloster (Guest op-ed)

Nowhere is the modern upside down world more observable than with our Bishops and their misappropriation of the lay pecuniary donations in their coffers.

The Last Latin Mass at Mary Queen of Peace

 

Last Sunday was the last Latin Mass (for now) at Mary Queen of Peace in Cleveland, OH. The faithful parishioners are now ejected from their parish-- simply because they loved the Church and its highest and holiest possession, its traditional liturgy. Note the tears of the faithful, who must suffer such misery because of the wicked shepherds in charge of the Church. What kind of cruel shepherd would force people to suffer like this for their faith? “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?"

The Holy Gospels as a Means of Grace for the Interior Life: Counsels from Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange

By Salvatore J. Ciresi

Introduction

The apostolic writings from Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the most important records for our knowledge of the words and deeds of the Lord Jesus Christ.  No doubt, there are other means to read, study, and meditate upon the Savior’s life.  Such ways may be drawn from Tradition (and traditions), the venerable liturgical and sacramental rites of the Catholic Church, Magisterial statements, approved private revelations, classic devotional practices and customs, and the writings from the celebrated patrimonies of East and West.  Whichever means one employs, the inspired and inerrant chronicles from the Four Evangelists will always hold their unique status.  

Wisdom from a Dominican Master

Dr Kwasniewski Lecture in Minneapolis, November 11, 2023

The hearty welcome of All Saints' Parish (FSSP) in Minneapolis is always something to look forward to. I will be visiting next week for a lecture (my third time there). The event will be held at a nearby church. All details in the poster below. Hope to see some Rorate readers from the area!

Please use the QR code to RSVP so the planners can prepare enough food.

In memoriam: Wolfgang Waldstein (1928-2023) - by Roberto de Mattei

Roberto de Mattei

November 2, 2023

The funeral of Wolfgang Waldstein, an eminent legal philosopher and exemplary Catholic, who passed away on Oct. 17, 2023, at the age of 95, was held at St. Sebastian Church in Salzburg on Oct. 31, 2023. 

National Geographic on Traditional Catholicism: Young People and the Latin Mass

These devout young Catholics are embracing the old ways

The movement embraces some Old World traditions that even the Church has referred to as backwards.

National Geographic

Matthew Teague 

(Photographs by Ryan Brady)

October 26, 2023

[Excerpts:]

...

[Photographer Ryan] Brady had occasionally attended a Catholic church, and he had recently heard about a new movement among some Catholics who were rebelling against modernity by worshipping in old ways, ways that centuries ago defined the faith but had almost faded from existence. So he took up his camera and headed toward a nearby church that offered the ancient Latin Mass, or what traditionalists call the Extraordinary Form.

"Is Pope Francis Schizophrenic?" - Paix Liturgique Letter 971

Golias [the far-left French Catholic magazine] is fulminating. This week's issue (n° 787) (October 12 to 18, 2023) inveighs against "Vatican schizophrenia" in the Rupnik affair—you know, that Jesuit who dabbles in the arts, and who claims poetic license shamelessly to abuse. "What's the Pope playing at?" continues the organ of those who keep us from believing straight [Golias’s motto], when he restrains the arm of canon law even as it readies to punish the unmasked, goat-footed Satyr? And so rage clouds the minds of those imprecators over at Golias. Schizophrenia, in the clinical sense of the term, stifles freedom of play as well as of the mind. The authority of Greek etymology is at the service of rhetoric to be sure, but it is not given to everyone to be a Demosthenes. If the reigning Pope is mentally ill, he's better pitied than blamed. But then he can no longer govern the Church.

"Approaches to Ecclesial Radiography" - Archbishop Héctor Aguer

What do we see when we apply an x-ray to the body of the Church on earth? The emeritus Archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, tells us in this latest column from October 31, 2023. Translated for Rorate Caeli.

"The Death of a Pontificate" - by Aldo Maria Valli

Empty square and exhausted rituals: The Death of a pontificate

Aldo Maria Valli

October 26, 2023

The image speaks for itself. A Wednesday general audience. An empty square. Only a few dozen people. All right, it's raining. But once upon a time, when it rained, the square became a sea of umbrellas.

The image is bleak, and the Vatican media, starting with the TV center, no longer know how to hide the fact: no one goes to listen to Francis. They try to make up for it with close-ups, indeed very closed-up images, somewhat like the Polish TV did with John Paul II on his visit to his homeland. But if, in the case of Polish television, the problem was hiding the crowds flocking to Wojtyła, in the Vatican the problem is the opposite: hiding the embarrassing gaps.

All Souls at Church of the Most Holy Redeemer (Manhattan) - Mozart’s Requiem

 

“What does the Pope really want?” - Bishop Rob Mutsaerts

A post by Bishop Rob Mutsaerts, Auxiliary Bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc), Netherlands. Translated from his blog in Dutch here. 

What is the synod underway in Rome actually about? Over and again, official Vatican sources are telling us many things. That it is not about theology, nor about doctrinal matters, nor about LGBTQ+, the ordination of women and the issue of celibacy. Neither is it, they add, about seeking to undermine or replace the hierarchical nature of the church or democratize the decision-making process. No, it would seem to be dealing with the question of what synodality is. After all, this is a synod on synodality.

Contemporary Double Standards and the Church's Historic Preference for Sacred Languages in the Liturgy

By James Baresel

Some months ago, a generally excellent priest—an outspoken friend of the Traditional Latin Mass though not a traditionalist—mentioned two things in a conversation which demonstrate of how even Catholics whose orthodoxy and friendliness to the ancient Roman Rite are unimpeachable can unconsciously accept assumptions foreign to historical Catholicism and hold traditionalists to a double standard.

Wanda Półtawska (1921-2023), a Pro-Life Leader - By Roberto de Mattei

Wanda Półtawska. one of the leading pro-life figures of the 20th century and a close collaborator of John Paul II, died in Krakow at the age of 102 on October 25, 2023.

Wanda Półtawska was born in Lublin on November 2, 1921. After the German invasion of Poland, because of her involvement in the resistance, she was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Lublin Castle. After being interrogated and tortured, she was deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp on November 21, 1941, where she was subjected to surgical experiments carried out by Karl Gebhardt, Himmler's personal physician later sentenced to death as a war criminal. She miraculously survived and, after liberation, participated in the work of the Commission of Inquiry into Nazi crimes in Poland. The nightmare of those days lives again in his book And I'm Afraid of My Dreams. My Days in the Ravensbrück Lager published in several languages (Edizioni San Paolo, Rome 2010).

How consoling that Francis is so concerned for women!

Pope Francis wrapped up this phase of the so-called “synod” with an address that handed out some mild praises and a bunch of bitter complaints, as usual (link). 

Eclipse of the Synod: New Catechism to Launch in Rome

Like the Latrocinium (“Robber Council”) of Ephesus in 449, the 2023 Rome phase of the Synod on Synodality is nearly over, and may already be safely consigned to the pages of Church history as the Vanitatum, “The Moot Synod.”

With His Scandalous Rehabilitation of Marko Rupnik, Francis Underscores the Linkage Between Discipline and Doctrine

 

Pope Francis is known for reversing the initiatives of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI: on the Latin Mass, on doctrine, and on the 'hermeneutic of continuity.' Now, we can add another major reversal: Pope Francis has undone Pope Benedict XVI's crackdown on sexual abuse among priests. 

Why We Have Not Covered the Synod on Synodality

 

A reader e-mails us to ask why we have not covered the proceedings of this first session of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality (the second session will be in the autumn of 2024).

1,000 Catholic Faithful Answer the Dubia Sent to Pope Francis

Missae pro Missa issued the following press release.

In a worldwide witness to the Catholic Faith, more than 1,000 Catholic faithful from 50 countries have taken it upon themselves to answer the recent dubia sent by five Cardinals to Pope Francis on key areas of doctrine currently being undermined at the highest levels of the Church. Organized by the campaign Missae pro Missa, this grassroots initiative has called upon all Catholics to provide the correct responses to the dubia, thereby reaffirming the unchanging Catholic Faith "regardless of the Supreme Pontiff's willingness to do so."

As of Oct. 20, the Missae pro Missa website reports 1,003 correct responses to the dubia accompanied by the following message: "Dear Pope Francis: Here are the answers to the dubia! If you won't respond, we will!" Of special additional note:

The dubia were correctly answered by over 90% of participants. That so many simple Catholic faithful had no problem providing the correct responses while the highest prelates in Rome are either unable or unwilling to do the same demonstrates both the magnitude of the current crisis of faith among the hierarchy and the role of the sensus fidelium in maintaining authentic Catholic doctrine (not unlike during the Arian crisis).

In addition to correctly answering the dubia, hundreds of faithful have contributed to a spiritual bouquet for the good of the Church, pledging their prayers and sacrifices for Pope Francis and the triumph of the Catholic Faith over the present darkness manifested especially at the "Synod on Synodality."

By responding to the dubia, these Catholic faithful in no way wish to deny or usurp the duty of the pope and bishops to confirm the brethren in the faith, but rather to serve as a witness to the unchanging Catholic Faith in light of the command of Christ: "Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one" (Matt 5:37). To anyone who would tell the simple faithful to be silent while their Holy Mother Church is derided by errors and confusion, we would recall the reply of Our Lord to the Pharisees before His own Passion: "I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!" (Luke 19:40)

To respond to the dubia, please visit: https://www.missaepromissa.com/dubia

Congratulations to the FSSP on their 35th Anniversary!

What started as just a handful of priests and was recognized by the Holy See through the personal effort of Cardinal Ratzinger, is now a mighty Fraternity of almost 400 priests and almost 200 seminarians.

Congratulations to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter!

Ad multos annos!

Artistic Glory in Churches is Still Perfectly Possible today: the New Altarpiece of Chéméré-le-Roi (Video)

 The Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer, the traditional Catholic community of Dominican heritage and liturgy in Northwest France, officially consecrated this past weekend the new altar and altarpiece of their new conventual church, in Chéméré-le-Roi.

The consecration was celebrated by Bp. Alain Castet, Emeritus of Luçon.

See the video below as this glorious majestic contemporary masterpiece, the Altar of the Rosary, is opened to public view for the first time:

Marie Antoinette of Austria, Queen of France - Martyr: 230 years of Martyrdom

The Royal Abbey and Basilica of Saint-Denis was filled with faithful today for the Traditional Mass of Requiem for the soul of Queen Marie Antoinette, martyr, murdered by the French Republic on this day exactly 230 years ago:

A faithful wife.

A loving mother.

A devout and pious Catholic.

SSPX Bishop Celebrates Mass and Confirmations in Diocesan Church in Florida (Update: Video added)

 In the Diocesan Parish Church of All Souls, in Sanford (Orlando Diocese, Florida), by Bp. Tissier de Mallerais. The local diocese gave permission to the use of the parish church.

Update - Full video below:

 

Fryderyk Chopin: "His Edifying Death" by Don Pietro Leone

Chopin’s conversion  

October 13^th  1849   

The Feast of St. Edward the Confessor

Portrait of Frydeyrk Chopin

by

Eugène Delacroix. 

Angelus Press does it again: the beautiful 2024 Calendar and Planners

 They did it again: gorgeous images printed on neigh quality paper, and all the basic information a Traditional Catholic may need for each day of the year.

This year, the Angelus Press 2024 Calendar (starting in October 2023) is illustrated with gorgeous Stations of the Cross painted by Martin Feuerstein for the Church of Saint Ann, in Munich. A devout Catholic, Feuerstein was one of the greatest representatives of the Nazarene Movement, and his work at Saint Ann's is also filled with some of the brightest aspects of the then-burgeoning Beuronese style.

The Calendar has all the dates a Traditional Catholic may need, and, as usual, Angelus Press took great care with the printing itself, which is gorgeous. Available here.

***

Many of us still use and need daily a physical reminder for our activities -- online-based calendars can be both not very trustworthy, and not appropriate to be used at all times. 

We highly recommend these two additionalAngelus Press's 2024 seasonal items:

Dr Kwasniewski's Lectures in Virginia, October 16 & 18, 2023

Next week I'll be visiting the lovely state of Virginia for two events that are free and open to the public: 

“Liturgical Obedience, the Imitation of Christ, and the Seductions of Autonomy”

Monday, October 16, 2023, at 6:30pm

Holy Family Academy

10580 Pineview Rd,

Manassas, VA 20111

“Our Response to God’s Greatest Gift: Eucharistic Reverence and Reparation”

Wednesday, October 18, 2023, at 7:00pm

St Joseph’s Catholic Church (FSSP)

828 Buford Rd.

Richmond, VA 23235

(preceded by Low Mass at 6pm)

Each talk will be followed by a Q&A and a booksale.

Hope to see some Rorate readers at one or the other event!

“Thou Shalt Not Kneel”: Guest Article by Leo Darroch

Background to this guest article: As LifeSiteNews reported on October 7, 2023: “A Catholic family of eight was recently denied Holy Communion while kneeling while attending Mass at a church in the Diocese of Boise. Both the local priest and bishop refused to acknowledge that the denial of the sacrament was a grave violation of canon law. Scott Smith, a Catholic attorney, author, theologian, and father of six, was on vacation with his family in Idaho in August and went to Sunday Mass at St. Charles Borromeo in Hailey. ‘After driving two hours out of the mountains to attend Holy Mass, the parish priest denied all of us, my children and my in-laws, Holy Communion because we knelt to receive the Eucharist,’ Smith recounted… ‘It was so sad to see my little children, kneeling reverently to receive the Eucharist, and then to see the priest wagging his finger at them. Irony of ironies: before denying my whole family Holy Communion, father had just preached a homily on inclusion, warning about exclusivity.’”—PAK

In 2003, the Vatican ruled that the USCCB could publish an adaptation of the General Instruction on the Roman Missal stating that standing is the norm for Holy Communion in its region on condition that the same document also stated that no one is to be refused Communion if he chooses to kneel. Apparently, this important condition has been forgotten by many US bishops and pastors, who continue to psychologically abuse the faithful. But let’s not forget, they have been at this for a long time.

The "Unique Expression of the Roman Rite" in the Wild: New Zealand Priest Ad-libbing Eucharistic Prayer

Recently a priest in New Zealand offered a NOM where he completely ad-libbed the Eucharistic Prayer at the funeral Mass for a religious Sister of Mercy. This happened in the Palmerston North diocese, which, in a moment of supreme irony, recently had its only diocesan TLM (apart from the SSPX) suppressed by the modernist Cardinal John Dew and retired bishop Peter Cullinane. The Roman Rite was canceled, and in its place, the "unique..." something or other is allowed to express itself.

Laudate Deum and the Eclipse of the Church

What to make of Pope Francis's latest apostolic exhortation, Laudate Deum? Like other Francis encyclicals, it is hardly recognizable as a Catholic document. The central portion of the letter addresses the "progress and failures" of various "climate conferences" held in the last decades. It features an entire section vaguely prognosticating on a upcoming conference in Dubai. 

Traditional Liturgy: How many Faithful in France? And in the World? "Many of today's Catholics are 'Hidden Traditionalists,' waiting for a Mass worthy of the name."-- An Interview

By Paix Liturgique

October 4, 2023

Although we haven't published a review of traditional liturgy in France and around the world since 2019... we felt it necessary to return to the question of the number of Catholic faithful who wish to live their faith to the rhythm of traditional liturgy. We asked Christian Marquant, who has been interested in this subject for many years, to return to this theme which, as we shall see, remains a burning issue.

***

Louis Renaudin - Dear Christian, why is it important to ask the question of the size and therefore the number of the Catholic faithful who are attached to the traditional Roman liturgy?

Christian Marquant - In theory, it doesn't matter... no one, apart from learned researchers, is going to be interested in the number of Syro-Malabar or Syro-Malankar faithful... nor in the number of priests and faithful who still participate in the Ambrosian (reformed) rite in Milan, or the Mozarabic (cobbled-together) rite in Toledo and Salamanca, because in all these cases there is no controversy or underlying problem. However, when we consider the number, and therefore implicitly the importance, of those who wish to remain attached to the usus antiquior, i.e., to the Mass that has been the Mass of all Latin Christendom for over 1,000 years, we immediately find ourselves in a polemical field whose stakes are quite considerable for a large number of pastors and for members of the "modern" lobby. We are touching on the great division that has afflicted the Church since Vatican II, and to which the Holy Father indirectly alluded at the last consistory in his appeal for unity. A pathetic appeal to an almost empty St. Peter's Square...

Louis Renaudin - What division are you referring to?

Full Letter by Cardinal Zen to Cardinals and Bishops on the Synod - How can Synodality be a "constitutive element of the Church" when it is clearly a novelty?

 The following letter was sent by His Eminence Cardinal Zen, Emeritus of Hong Kong, to Cardinals and Bishops all over the world. A recipient was kind enough to share this historic document with us.

(Click on each image of the six pages for larger view.)

When Doubt Becomes Certainty

When Doubt Becomes Certainty

Michael Charlier

Summorum-Pontificum.de

4 October 2023

(source)

Image: Titian, National Gallery London. Christ instructs Peter: "Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men." Mt 16,23

The question we asked on the occasion of the "Dubia" by five cardinals, "But where is Peter?" requires an update. In the meantime, the first answer of Francis (of July 11) is available. The text bristles with woolly "on the one hand, on the other hand" statements that avoid any clear orientation and seemingly open up unlimited scope. In this perception, literally all directions within the Church agree.

"The Synod, the Dubia, and the Pope to come" - by Roberto de Mattei

 Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

October 4, 2023

On Oct. 4, the solemnity of St. Francis of Assisi, the 16th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on "synodality" opened. Many opposing statements and controversies have preceded and are accompanying the event.  On October 2, in the face of "various statements by some senior prelates (... ) blatantly contrary to the constant doctrine and discipline of the Church, and which have generated and continue to generate among the faithful and other people of good will great confusion and the fall into error," five cardinals made it known that they had expressed their "deepest concern to the Roman Pontiff." submitting to Pope Francis five dubia on certain issues concerning the interpretation of Divine Revelation, the blessing of same-sex unions, synodality as a constitutive dimension of the Church, the priestly ordination of women and repentance as a necessary condition for sacramental absolution.