RORATE CÆLI

On the Legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae: A Legitimate Question? (Op-Ed)

By François Savy, for Le Salon Beige

In his article À quand la paix liturgique ? (When will there be liturgical peace?), in the July-August 2025 issue (no. 382) of La Nef, Christophe Geffroy raised a question to which the consecrations recently conferred within the Society of Saint Pius X give particular prominence. In it, he championed the equality in "value and holiness" of the two forms of the Roman rite, and reproached the "priests who refuse any celebration of the new ordo" for contesting this value and holiness "because they judge this liturgy to be 'deficient'." However, it turns out that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith specifically mentioned the "legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae" in the preamble to the procedure allowing clerics of the Society of Saint Pius X to return to full communion after the consecrations.

As far as I can judge, this notion of legitimacy applied to the liturgy is of relatively recent use. We were familiar with the classical notions of validity and liceity. It is Pope John Paul II who seems to have introduced it, through the voice of the Congregation for Divine Worship, with Quattuor abhinc annos (October 3, 1984), establishing as a condition for the faculty of using the indult:

Traditional Masses Celebrated or Attended by Archbishops this past Fortnight

This past fortnight, at least two additional diocesan bishops were involved in Traditional Mass activities.

In the new FSSP mission in San Jacinto church, in Guale, the local archbishop, Abp. Eduardo Castillo Pino, celebrated the Traditional Mass:

From Dante’s Inferno to Erasmus’s In Praise of Folly: Papal Magisterium in Support of Satire and Invective Against Popes

We thank Fr. Romano Tommasi, the pen name of a theologian, for this guest article.

Writers on this site often inveigh against hyper-papalism or ultramontanism, evaluated as vices. Pre- and post-Vatican II popes agree in principle and have even taught it magisterially in a way unfortunately overlooked.

Sermon for the 14th Sunday After Pentecost: Do Not Be Anxious

by Father Richard Cipolla

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body.”

New bishop of West Virginia increases TLM locations from two to four*

By Mark Lambert via Twitter

This is genuinely encouraging news from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. Bishop Evelio Menjívar has appointed Fr Timothy J. Grassi as Episcopal Delegate for Matters Concerning the Usus Antiquior explicitly “to foster greater unity among the Catholic faithful and provide for their various spiritual needs.”

The FBI, under the Biden Administration, spent unbelievable and unprecedented amounts of man-hours investigating and harassing Traditional Catholics from their office of Richmond, the capital of Virginia.

Bishop Mutsaerts: The Church Will Not Be Saved by Bureaucrats Who Think Everything Must Change

The Church Will Not Be Saved by Bureaucrats Who Think Everything Must Change

By Bishop Robert Mutsaerts

Auxiliary of 's-Hertogenbosch (The Netherlands)

August 27, 2026

There is a peculiar mistake common among modern people: when they discover that the Church is full of sinners, they conclude that Christianity has failed. This is rather like discovering that a hospital is full of sick people and concluding that medicine does not work.

For the Record - Cardinal Sarah Interview: Traditionis custodes and the Mass

Cardinal Sarah: "For Priests, the Ancient Mass Is the One That Helps Them Celebrate Better"

By Nico Spuntoni

Il Giornale
August 27, 2026

The denunciation of liturgical abuses is one of the signature themes of Cardinal Robert Sarah, former Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship. The cardinal has returned to the subject in his latest book, Il Cantico dell'Agnello: Musica sacra e liturgia celeste (The Song of the Lamb: Sacred Music and the Heavenly Liturgy), co-authored with Peter Cater and published by Cantagalli.

Your Eminence, in your view, does an aversion to Latin and Gregorian chant exist in certain sectors of the Church?

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.

An Interview with Don Pietro Leone in which he discusses his latest book: Vatican II and the Eclipse of God - A Critique of the Council

'In this final version I have been forced to level the charge of atheism against the Council'.

What’s wrong with our schools?

A guest article by Joseph Bevan, author of Two Families and Traddy Daddy.

School children in 1947 (source)

How it started

My own father, who had taught in schools for over 50 years, liked to explain: “there are three essential items needed for the education of children: Kennedy’s Latin Primer, a bible and a cane.” This notion, also favoured in the 19^th century by the likes of Doctor Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School and featured in Tom Brown’s School Days, was the main principle behind the foundation of the Protestant English public schools and lasted until the 1960s.

The Vice-President of the United States, J.D. Vance, became, to our knowledge, the first sitting Catholic holder of either the Presidency or the Vice-Presidency to publicly and openly attend a Traditional Latin Mass since the death of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, in November 1963.

NEW BOOK: Publication of 'Vatican II and The Eclipse of God. A Critique of the Council' by Don Pietro Leone

Rorate Caeli is delighted to report that “Vatican II and the Eclipse of God” ‘A Critique of the Council’ by Don Pietro Leone has finally been published. Readers will recall that Rorate had the honour of posting instalments of this very important work over a period of two years. (See note)* Since then, the author has added further analysis to the original texts. Below is the link to Loreto Publications and a short presentation of the book. Readers can look forward to an interview with Don Pietro Leone in which he discusses his new book and which will be posted in the following days.

(N.B. Please note this book is not to be confused by the release of a book with a similar title:’The Eclipse of God’ by Dr. Erwin Lutzer in 2024).

https://loretopubs.org/eclipse-of-god-paperback.html

It is long past the time when faithful Catholics must cease any pretense that anything good has come from Vatican II. The revolution has done its work and has failed to produce anything but chaos and destruction, and those of us still attentive to God’s will and not our own must begin to pick up the pieces of a shattered civilization and endeavour to rebuild. To that end, we at Loreto Publications offer this magnificent analysis of the Council and its moral, theological, and philosophical failings, so that Holy Mother Church and Our Lady’s faithful children may rise up with knowledge and courage to build up once again, under the banner of the Immaculata, the wounded Mystical Body of Christ in today’s world, where even the most rudimentary knowledge of the Truth seems to be in eclipse.

The Editor

The General Audience yesterday was dedicated by Pope Leo XIV to Sacred Music — as foreseen in Vatican II, that is, not like what usually takes place in the new Mass of Paul VI.

Let us listen to his words:

Dear brothers and sisters,

"Mother Earth" Pagan Worship by Vatican Representative: Doctrine of the Faith Official makes Offering of Coca Leaves at Pachamama Ceremony during Official Church Meeting

Rorate Note: Official Vatican News covering of the event here (in Spanish); Spanish page Infovaticana adds the grotesque context.

A Pontifical Commissioner and a Bishop Deposit Coca Leaves in an "Earth Offering": Jordi Bertomeu as Offerer at a Pachamama Ceremony

Infovaticana

August 18, 2026

The Southern Macroregional Encounter "Interweaving Voices for Dignity" — presented by Vatican News as part of the preparation for Pope Leo XIV's upcoming visit to Peru — opened without any Catholic prayer whatsoever. In its place, a ritual invoking Mother Earth was performed, with the distribution of coca leaves, guided breathing exercises, and food offerings placed on the ground.

Sermon for the 12th Sunday After Pentecost

Father Richard Cipolla

Today we celebrate what one could call a triple header. For it is not only the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost but also the feast of St. Roch, more popularly known in the Italian form as San Rocco, and also the second day in the octave of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In an interview granted yesterday to Raymond Arroyo of EWTN, the Archbishop of Oklahoma City and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Abp. Paul Coakley, had choice words on the Traditional Latin Mass and the Francis document that aimed to gradually annihilate it, Traditionis Custodes:

This is the specific part of the interview dedicated to it (our transcript):

Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV - by Bishop Robert Mutsaerts

We have often published the great texts of Bishop Rob Mutsaerts (Auxiliary of s-Hertogenbosch /Bois-le-Duc), Netherlands. He has just published (in English and Dutch) an open letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on the need for concern for the salvation of souls amidst the confusion of synodality and other trends.

Holy Father,

With reverence for the office entrusted to you as successor of Saint Peter, and in communion with the Church which Christ built upon the apostles, I address you with this open letter. I don't do so lightly. What leads me to speak these words publicly is a concern that ultimately transcends every other ecclesial consideration: the salvation of souls. Salus animarum suprema lex — the salvation of souls is the supreme law. My question is a simple and earnest one: does the synodal process actually help bring souls closer to Christ and to eternal salvation? That is the decisive question for me.

Take Heart, Traditional Latin Mass faithful -- a message from Cardinal Burke

Recorded for Father John Zuhlsdorf and his readers, it is a message of hope:

Ceuta and the Church

by Serre Verweij

for Rorate Cæli

The recent attempt of tens of thousands of migrants to illegally enter Spanish territory via the sea at Ceuta has caused both political upheaval and sensational commentary. It led to immense criticism of Spanish Socialist prime minister Sanchez, not just by the domestic right-wing opposition but across the EU as a whole. Even the Trump administration joined in on the attacks. Even the fact that over 50 people died while attempting this illegal mass crossing has not resulted in overly sympathetic portrayals or criticisms of strict border policy.

Over the years, I've noticed a happy development, and it seems to me to confirm the general trend pointed out by countless observers, namely, that where Catholicism still remains, it is becoming more traditional, or at least more "tradition-friendly." Thus, it used to be the case that it was nearly impossible to find a group pilgrimage to the famous religious sites, be it Lourdes or Fatima, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela, or what have you, that also featured the daily celebration of the traditional Roman Rite. But today, if you look at companies like St. Charles Catholic Pilgrimages or Syversen Touring, you will quickly find several options with chaplains who will offer only the old rite.

Two Thirds of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said Medjugorje was NOT Supernatural -- Francis waved it off anyway

Vjera i djela Catholic Portal (Croatia)

August 7, 2026

Italian journalist D. Murgia recently published results of the 2016 deliberations within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), that shed important new light on the Vatican’s handling of the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje.

Only Diocesan TLM in Diocese of Pittsburgh Abolished

The Diocese of Pittsburgh has canceled its only remaining diocesan indult Latin Mass, at St Titus in Aliquippa, about to enter its 20th consecutive year, because according to Bishop Eckman, it "was only ever meant to be temporary." (Information from the X account of the Mason-Dixon Latin Mass Society, which published the grotesque letter below):

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.

When the Princes of the Church No Longer Speak Latin

A guest article by David Berger. (Original in German here.)

More than two-thirds of the members of the College of Cardinals are said to possess little or no working knowledge of Latin. At first glance, this may appear to be little more than a curiosity for classical scholars. In reality, however, it may reveal one of the deepest crises confronting the Catholic Church today. For when the Church loses the language in which her faith, her liturgy, and her canon law have been articulated for centuries, she inevitably begins to lose direct access to her own tradition.

Video - Reliving History: Sydney’s Historic Glagolitic High Mass

A truly monumental chapter in Sydney's religious history unfolded recently at St Michael's Parish in Belfield. On Wednesday, July 1, 2026, hundreds of faithful gathered to witness and partake in Sydney’s first-ever Solemn High Mass in the Traditional Croatian Glagolitic Rite.* Held on the Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord, the atmosphere was charged with deep reverence as the community united to revive a centuries-old liturgical tradition on Australian soil. (Full video below:)

But What Is the "State of Necessity"? What about the Econe Consecrations? - by Roberto de Mattei

But What Is the "State of Necessity"?

By Roberto de Mattei

August 3, 2026

I wish to dwell on a concept that is frequently invoked in an ambiguous and contradictory manner — above all to justify the episcopal consecrations that took place at Écône on July 1, 2026: the "state of necessity."

Does the Society of Saint Pius X really espouse an Ecclesiology of Substitution?

[As always, guest pieces do not necessarily represent Rorate's position.]

Fr. Barré and the Roman policy towards the SSPX

by John Lamont

Fr. Clément Barré, of the Archdiocese of Toulouse, has criticized the ecclesiology of the SSPX in an article whose translation has been published by Rorate Caeli (The SSPX's Ecclesiology of Substitution: Part of the Whole, or a new Whole? — And the Problem with a Crisis that Never Ends).

The Progressives Have Already Lost.

And They Know It.

Wanderer (Argentina)

August 3, 2026

One of the most historically significant events of the last century was the fall of communism. In 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. And yet the ideology sustaining Soviet communism had already collapsed under Brezhnev in the 1970s and had consolidated that collapse under Andropov beginning in 1982. By those years, no one believed in the Soviet paradise any longer — not even the apparatchiks. The machinery nonetheless kept running until 1991, operated by a committee of gerontocrats who resisted the inevitable. There were twenty years of lag between the death of legitimacy and the death of the machinery. This is a historical regularity: systems survive fifteen to twenty years beyond their own legitimacy. They advance like the light of a dead star.

Book Review: "The Once and Future Roman Rite" Throws Down the Gauntlet to the Entire Liturgical Revolution

The following essay by Wolfram Schrems (M.A. in Theology, M.A. in Philosophy), a catechist and pro-life advocate in Vienna, takes issue with the suppression of the Old Mass and the discrimination against traditional believers by the Vatican and bishops, with reference to Peter Kwasniewski’s work The Once and Future Roman Rite: Returning to the Traditional Latin Liturgy after Seventy Years of Exile (TAN Books, 2022) of which he is reviewing the German edition, Der alte und künftige Römische Ritus—Die Rückkehr der traditionellen lateinischen Messe nach 70 Jahren des Exils (St. Stephani Verlags, 2023). The original German of the review may be found here.

Ecclesiology of the Sun and the Moon: the Church’s greatness comes from God, and it cannot be diminished

by Fr. Joannes Petrus

for Rorate Cæli

“At that time, when Jesus entered into the boat, His disciples followed Him: and behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves.” (Matt. 8:23-27)

To reach the eternal shores of Heaven we have to cross the sea of this world. His Majesty taught us that the world will be against us. That is why the Gospel indicates that the disciples followed Him into the barque of St. Peter, which symbolizes the Church, after which a storm arose. Our journey to Heaven is very much like a sea voyage, meaning there will be moments of up and down on the high seas… times of calm and times of storm… times of hot and times of cold… enemies lurking about (even inside the barque itself) trying to sink or corrupt the ship… sharks circling in the waters… and so on.

Spaghetti and Windmills: A Reply to Brother Linus on the Canonical Status of the SSPX

This guest article has been contributed by Kennedy Hall, replying to “The Canonical Status of the Society of Saint Pius X: A Theological and Canonical Assessment,” published here on July 28, 2026. As always, views are those of the author and do not represent the official stance of Rorate Caeli.

Introduction

On 29 July 2026, Rorate Cæli published a lengthy guest piece on the canonical status of the Society of Saint Pius X, written under the pen name “Brother Linus Pio” and presented as the fruit of several years of research. It is offered as a monograph. It concludes that the Society is schismatic, that its sacraments are criminal and sacrilegious, that its Masses do not satisfy the Sunday precept, and that Archbishop Lefebvre taught heresy.

New Fundamental Law of the Vatican City State, fully replacing Francis' 2023 version - Full English Translation

Fundamental Law of Vatican City State

31 July 2026

LEO XIV

The need to take into account new requirements of governance and certain important normative modifications that have occurred over the course of recent years prompts the issuance of a new Fundamental Law.

Archbishop Cordileone Celebrating the Traditional Mass

Good and proper American bishops are once again being recognized in Rome, and the nomination of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, of San Francisco, to the supreme tribunal of the Catholic Church, the Signatura Apostolica, by Pope Leo XIV last Saturday is just such an example.

The Avant-Garde Champion of Tradition:

In Honor of Martin Mosebach on His 75th Birthday

by Jan-Heiner Tück for Communio (original in German here)

The writer Martin Mosebach is a novelist of extraordinary worldly experience and descriptive skill, but also a Catholic intellectual who has made a name for himself through his public interventions. His most influential theological book, Häresie der Formlosigkeit (in English, The Heresy of Formlessness), is more than just a contribution to the liturgical debate. In it, Mosebach develops the thesis that form is not an external accessory, but rather the manifestation and vehicle of truth. The liturgy leads people into a reality greater than themselves: the mystery of the sacred. Where forms are experimented with recklessly, where sacred texts are replaced based on criteria of comprehensibility, Mosebach argues that not only the beauty of the liturgy but ultimately its theological substance is at risk of erosion.

Divine Worship Prefect Roche: “Leo will not change Traditionis or go back to Summorum.”

From his interview to British Catholic periodical “The Tablet,” the words of Cardinal Roche are peremptory:

“But no, Pope Leo is not going to change Traditionis Custodes, and he’s not going back to Summorum Pontificum.”

Meaning, the Traditional Latin Mass will remain in the Egypt of Captivity (Traditionis) and never return to the Promised Land of Liberty (Summorum).

The Last Communion of St. Jerome - a Book to be Reckoned With

by Fr. Richard Cipolla

for Rorate Cæli

Saint Jerome, El Greco (1590)
The Frick Collection

The Frick Museum in New York City is not too far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And yet the venues are radically different. The Met is a large art museum with many rooms and lofty corridors and grand staircases. But the Frick building was once a home, a large and lovely home indeed, one of the great mansions in New York City. The Frick mansion was built for the industrialist Henry Clay Frick in the mid 1920s in the Beaux Arts style. Frick built the home to house his art collection, mainly paintings, and planned for it to be an art museum after his death, which directive his wife and daughter fulfilled some years after his death. The collection is amazing, including paintings from the late medieval period through the nineteenth century. My favorite room is the Living Hall, which includes paintings by Holbein, Giovani Bellini and Titian. Above the fireplace in this room is the portrait of St. Jerome by El Greco. The artist paints St Jerome in full Cardinal’s robes. His face is somewhat gaunt, his hair and long beard are white, his cheek bones stick out, and his dark eyes gaze intently at someone or something just to his left. His face is a face of someone to be reckoned with.

The recently published book on St. Jerome, written by Dom Basil Nixen, OSB, of the monastery of San Benedetto in Monte in Norcia, Italy, certainly “reckons with” St. Jerome but in an unusual way. Its title is The Last Communion of St. Jerome.

The Canonical Status of the Society of Saint Pius X: A Theological and Canonical Assessment

[As usual, Rorate publishes different views and perspectives, in order to promote healthy debate. Publishing a guest piece does not mean editorial agreement, or disagreement, with it.]

The Canonical Status of the Society of Saint Pius X: A Theological and Canonical Assessment

by Brother Linus Pio (pen name of a Religious Brother)

Introduction

Justified, Schismatic, or Neither — The SSPX Consecrations and the Future

Justified, Schismatic, or Neither — The SSPX Consecrations and the Future

A guest article by James Baresel.

He did it. At last he did it. James Martin, the "LGBT"-obsessed Jesuit, has made a true encomium of "gay priests."

They are everywhere in his newest propaganda piece: they are good, they are generous, they are kind. And, he emphasizes, they are "celibate" (God only knows how he would know that...)