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“Then they approached and spoke before the king about the king’s injunction, ‘Did you not sign an injunction that any man who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, is to be cast into the lions’ den?’ The king answered and said, ‘The statement is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked.’ Then they answered and spoke before the king, ‘Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the injunction which you signed, but...

[Catholic Caucus] Banning the TLM (Again): Latest DevelopmentsCredible rumors shared by Rorate Caeli about a renewed crackdown on the Roman Rite, coinciding with the third anniversary of Traditionis Custodes, have prompted an interesting debate on what sort of trick the Vatican may have up its sleeve and how, in turn, individual dioceses and Traditional Latin Mass communities will play their hand. In its letter published last week, Rorate cautioned readers that the ideologues responsible for Traditionis Custodes are “frustrated with its apparently slow results” and are now seeking a new ban that would be as “wide, final, and irreversible as...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican Document Further Restricting TLM said to Exist, Backed by Cardinal Parolin A Remnant Exclusive VATICAN CITY, June 25, 2024 — Having made several inquiries regarding recent reports, I have been informed by reliable sources that a new Vatican document more restrictive than Traditionis Custodes does indeed exist, is backed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and has been presented to Pope Francis. Well-informed sources have confirmed that the new document, if published, would prohibit all priests other than those belonging to approved ex-Ecclesia Dei institutes from offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the...

[Catholic Caucus] A University Student Reflects on His Discovery of and Love for the TLMSubmitted to Rorate by a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville who has just completed his Masters degree.Over the past week there has been abundant speculation and commentary on the possibility of yet another Vatican ban on the Traditional Latin Mass, or the Mass of the Ages. This should come as no surprise. The fides qua of these faithful devotees to the TLM are primarily at odds with what has come from the Vatican in recent years.[1] Rumors of another act against the TLM, while not...

[Catholic Caucus] Defending Catholic Tradition with Vatican journalist, Aldo Maria Valli"Most bishops are increasingly doubtful about this papacy and there are criticisms. However, these are expressed in hushed tones, never openly." -Aldo Maria Valli Journalist, writer, and television personality, Aldo Maria Valli (born in Rho, Milan, on February 3, 1958) is one of the most esteemed Italian Vaticanists. What initially drew my attention to him is the path he took from a Catholic perspective influenced by the currents animated by the "spirit of the Second Vatican Council" to the discovery of the perennial Catholic Tradition. Today, he is part of...

“Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God” (Daniel 6:10-11). There is a direct link between prayer and integrity. It is no coincidence that those whom God uses most effectively are those who are most fervent in prayer. David, for example, called upon the...

The pope’s right-hand man is reshaping the church, becoming a targetMost Catholics have little sense of the liberal archbishop behind the Vatican’s pronouncements. But critics of the pope see Víctor Manuel Fernández as Enemy No. 2.“Fernández’s appointment was the most consequential of [Francis’s] pontificate,” said Massimo Faggioli, a Catholic theologian at Villanova University. “After one year of Fernández, we’ve witnessed a series … of frequent, specific, out-of-the-ordinary actions the likes of which have never been observed. And this from a prefect who knows full well that he’s Francis’s own alter ego and enjoys the pope’s complete trust.” ... Senior church...

“Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows: ‘King Darius, live forever! All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it may not be changed, according to the law of the...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop of Quimper: "It's My Head or Yours"In December 2023, Monsignor Laurent Dognin, Bishop of Quimper, France, announced that the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) would have to leave the diocese and close its parish.Priest of the FSSP were present in Quimper since 2016, where their parish had between 250 and 500 members (during the summer), one of the largest parishes in the diocese, if not the largest.While the FSSP offered a full pastoral program, Dognin's plan is only to replace some of the Holy Masses with twelve diocesan priests who, for the purpose, were trained to...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis: Better No Priest than a Priest of the Roman RiteFrancis, the Pope of "mercy", is still blocking priestly ordinations for the Missionnaires de la Miséricorde Divine in the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France.One Missionaries of Divine Mercy has been awaiting for more than two years to be ordained a deacon and four deacons have been awaiting their priestly ordination for one year.According to Father Jean-Raphaël Dubrule, the superior, this waiting is no longer linked to the situation in the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, where ordinations have resumed, but to the fact that the community celebrates the Roman rite, as...

Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho over 1,000 years before Jesus was born, and somehow this Gentile sex worker ended up in the genealogy of Jesus himself as recorded in Matthew 1:5: “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab.” Joshua 2 reports that a couple of Israelite men (Israel = God’s chosen people) showed up to scope out the city of Jericho, which God told them to overtake in an upcoming battle. They go to a prostitute’s house (ummm…) near the entrance to the city and meet Rahab. She helps the men who come to...

[Catholic Caucus] A new offensive in the war on traditional liturgyRome’s rumor mills are buzzing. According to multiple sources, a new Vatican document is being prepared, which would impose still tighter restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). If approved in its current form, our informants tell us, the document would bar diocesan priests from celebrating the TLM; only the communities specially formed around the old liturgy (the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, etc.) would be allowed to use the ancient rite. Whether these reports are entirely accurate, and whether the...

Do We Really Need a “New Ecumenism”?If we could, in a phrase, sum up Western man’s chief flaw, we might say: he never knew when to stop innovating.Innovation and striving towards new ways of developing culture is, of course, a strength of the West. But if one is always discontent with the greatness he achieves, he risks tinkering too much, innovating himself into ruin. Is this not what was done with the Second Vatican Council and its ecumenism? Our elites grew tired of the bastion of the Church of the Pius popes, for there was the allure that the breakaway...

[Catholic Caucus] The Faithful React to Dark Rumors about the TLMFred Simon was born before Vatican II. He still remembers the ornate gothic paintings in the German parish where he attended Mass with his father and grandfather. Then, one day, the entire interior was whitewashed and a new altar was placed in the middle of the sanctuary. It was the beginning of Simon’s exile from the TLM. Years later, after a priest invited him to see a TLM, Simon found his way back to the Mass of the Ages. He was “awed by the reverence and holiness” he witnessed on...

“Then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs; but they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption, inasmuch as he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him. Then these men said, ‘We shall not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God’” (Daniel 6:4-5). Live so as to silence your critics. Whenever God exalts a righteous person, there will be those who are jealous and...

[Catholic Caucus] “Before the Egghead Fell Off the High Wall and Shattered into a Thousand Pieces”: Charlier on GrilloThe devotional map of the late 19th century depicts the Holy Mass as the center of the unity of the triumphant, struggling and suffering Church. As in heaven, so also on earth.If Andrea Grillo were a professor at a German theological faculty, we could confidently put his interview to one side—irrelevant drivel, like most of what is produced by theology professors. But although he would fit very well into the German environment, his position as a liturgy teacher at a papal university...

I’ve always had a bit of apprehension swimming in large bodies for water, like lakes or oceans. Especially if the water is dark and cold. I grew up in Hawaii, where there are many almost crystal-clear bays and the water is generally around eighty degrees, but even there, especially in the winter, the surf could rise and be extremely threatening. Finding out I spent half my life in the Aloha state, people ask me why I never surfed, but the reason is it is flat-out dangerous. A person can get seriously hurt surfing, and those who lived there knew it...

The book of Daniel mentions several benefits for those who have a repentant heart. Indeed, for all who acknowledge their sin, God does the miraculous. One such benefit is a new and clearer image of Jesus. Read what happened after Daniel’s repentance prayer in Daniel 10. “I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz! His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his...

“It seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom, that they should be in charge of the whole kingdom, and over them three commissioners (of whom Daniel was one), that these satraps might be accountable to them, and that the king might not suffer loss. Then this Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom” (Daniel 6:1-3). Nations come and go, but God’s plans continue through people of biblical integrity. As we come to Daniel 6, King Nebuchadnezzar is...

Pope Francis to Lutherans: ‘Jesus Christ is the heart of ecumenism’Pope Francis this morning received a delegation from the Lutheran World Federation at the Vatican and stressed that “Jesus Christ is the heart of ecumenism.”In his talk given during the audience held in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, the Holy Father called this encounter “an important gesture of ecumenical fraternity.”The pontiff recalled the visit of this delegation to Rome three years ago, an occasion in which they reflected on the upcoming 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea in 2025 as an ecumenical event.In this context, he noted...