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Pope Francis issued a motu proprio on Friday restricting Masses celebrated in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. In the motu proprio, issued July 16, the pope made sweeping changes to his predecessor Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum, which acknowledged the right of all priests to say Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962. In an accompanying letter to bishops explaining his decision, Pope Francis wrote: “In defense of the unity of the Body of Christ, I am constrained to revoke the faculty granted by my Predecessors. The distorted use that has been made of this faculty...

[Catholic Caucus] Attacks on the Traditional Mass point to a rupture in understanding of the faith, and of the Mass itselfIf there is a 'rupture' between what some theologian thinks the Catholic faith is about, and what the Traditional Mass is about, that theologian has put himself on the wrong side of the dividing line.July 5, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – On Sunday July 3, the FIUV — the International Una Voce Federation — took out an advert in the Rome edition of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, to make a statement about the Traditional Latin Mass. It points out:“The growth of...

For a period of about three years in my late teens and early 20’s, I was deeply involved in a charismatic house church. It was a deeply committed group of people (some of us lived in a commune together). Our services could run for hours with very intensive Bible teaching. A feature of that time and the charismatic movement was a concern for the “latest word.” By that was meant new insights, new emphases, and a very heightened sense that we were hearing moment-by-moment what God wanted to say to His people. It was exciting. It was also exhausting. It...

After a decade of marriage and three children, they look as happy as ever. To mark their tenth anniversary today, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have released two stunning new portraits taken this week at Kensington Palace. Surprisingly, the couple – who tend to play it safe when it comes to official pictures – have turned to celebrity snapper Chris Floyd, best known for his Britpop portraits of the 1990s. His subjects have included Oasis, Supergrass and The Verve, as well as Sir Paul McCartney, David Bowie and artist David Hockney.

As I’ve grown into adulthood, my appreciation for tradition has increased and I realized that there is something beautiful about paying respect to the people that came before you. Tradition shows itself in a variety of ways within a particular culture. For example, you can practice certain religious traditions, culinary traditions and celebratory traditions, all of which help to continue the legacy of those that came before you with a level of respect even though times have clearly changed. That respect that people used to have, in my opinion, is slowly eroding the more technology that we create and the...

[Catholic Caucus] Mourning the End of a 1500-year-old Tradition: Private Masses in Saint Peter's Basilica There's nothing to add to this:Nothing, except this: this order was by FRANCIS (Jorge Mario Bergoglio). He ordered it. He may have used an irrelevant machine cog in the wrong dicastery to initial the document, but it all came from him. Seeing those throngs of young priests celebrating Mass after Mass in the many altars of the Vatican Basilica, a tradition that dated from the very first ages of side altars in the Old Basilica built by Constantine, was obviously something that rattled him.Fine:...

When I was in grad school, I had a term paper graded and returned to me. In it, was a phrase, circled in red, with an explanation and an exclamation mark. It read: “Double modal!” The offending phrase was “might could.” I looked at the phrase, which seemed perfectly acceptable to my ear, and puzzled over it. I consulted my wife, the English major. She politely explained to me that my very common Southern dialect expression was considered “bad grammar.” Interestingly, it is acceptable German grammar (and was once, undoubtedly, good English grammar, somewhere). One of the things that puzzled...

A Tribute to Father Yves Normandin (1925 – 2020), Hero of the Traditional Mass in Canada: “We ought to obey God, rather than men.” A Tribute to Father Normandin (1925 – 2020) by Jean-Claude Dupuis, PhD Father Yves Normandin died on December 30, 2020. He left his mark on the history of the Church in Quebec. In 1975, the humble parish priest of Sainte-Yvette in Montreal became famous for continuing to celebrate the traditional Mass in Latin. Archbishop Paul Grégoire relieved him of his duties for “disobedience.” Fr. Normandin and his traditionalist supporters occupied the church of Sainte-Yvette illegally...

GREENVILLE, SC (WSPA) – After Tommy’s Country Ham House owner Tommy Stevenson, Sr. announced the popular Greenville eatery would be closing its doors for good in May, many people in the Upstate community have come forward saying they hate to hear that the restaurant is closing. But maybe not as much as Circuit Court Judge Charles Simmons and South Carolina Supreme Court Justice John Kittredge, who, in good humor, teamed up to issue a “permanent injunction” denying Stevenson’s request to retire and close the restaurant. South Carolina Highway Patrol Commanders Don Dickerson and Joe Hovis served Stevenson with the injunction....

Some people believe that the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights is as important to the world as America’s famous foundational documents are to America. But true concern for what humans need and are entitled to goes back way past WW2 and the Declaration Of Independence and the Bill Of Rights. e.g. The New Testament I would argue that human rights are the heart of conservatism (defined by Ron Paul as “preserving what’s good”). Progressives who want to change everything for changes’ virtue-signalling sake are not the champions of human rights they tout themselves to be.

Seeking a deeper bond in a new marriage? Maybe tossing the groom into deep snow can help. Such a unique Lunar New Year tradition was held on Friday at Matsunoyama Onsen in Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture. The custom is said to have started as vengeance against a stranger who took a girl from the village, and has a history of more than 300 years. Last year, the event was held at a different location due to shortage of snow, but returned to its usual setting this time after the area received over 2 meters of snow. A 31 year-old man and...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump left a note for successor Joe Biden in the Oval Office on Wednesday, following one tradition while skipping the traditional Inauguration Day transfer of power ceremonies. Trump did not enter the Oval Office but instead left the message with an aide before departing the executive residence around 8 a.m. Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told The Post.

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Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the president pro tempore of the Senate and the longest-serving Republican in that body, sent out a tweet last week lamenting the imminent demise of an ancient and admirable Senate tradition. "US Senate has NEVER convened a Congress on Sunday out of respect," said Grassley. "Not once in 231 yrs," he said. Grassley went on to note that the Constitution calls for Congress to convene its new sessions on Jan. 3 each year but also allows Congress to enact a law changing that date. Historically, in those years when Jan. 3 fell on a Sunday,...

Nobody has ever loved Christmas as much as my Jewish dad did.I have known few people in my life who loved Christmas as much as my Jewish father did. I would never suggest that he married my Catholic mother just to get Christmas — she was very beautiful and they loved each other very much — but look, it was certainly a bonus. Once this Bar Mitzvah boy got his hooks into the yule log, he went wild. Nowhere was this more pronounced than in our small family’s Christmas tree. His thing was to buy the tree the morning of...

President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Americans not to gather with extended families for Thanksgiving, saying it was a “patriotic duty” to limit the spread of COVID-19. “This year we are asking Americans to forgo so many of the traditions that we’ve long made this holiday,” Biden said.

In the wake of President Donald Trump sounding the alarm on potential voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) on Friday accused Democrats of stealing elections for a long time. Blagojevich told Newsmax TV’s “John Bachman Now” that Democratic stronghold cities changing vote counts overnight, and controlling polling places is a “time-honored tradition.” He went on to say that Democrats “stealing the presidency” is “incredibly dangerous to our democracy.”

Extending the designated hitter to the National League and controversial extra-inning rules threaten to complicate an already bizarre 60-game MLB season.At a moment when much of the nation remains in turmoil, so too is America’s National Pastime. After a long hiatus brought on by the coronavirus, baseball is finally returning, but with some significant changes.Major League Baseball is set to implement a shortened, 60-game season scheduled to begin the week of July 20. The move comes after months of negotiations between MLB owners and the players association, during which each side attempted to wrangle more financial concessions from the other...

[Catholic Caucus] The Importance of Kneeling and Prostrations (Read Reverence for the Most Blessed Sacrament)There are four postures for prayers: prostration, kneeling, standing, and sitting. While God will of course hear our prayers no matter our posture, the Church rightfully prescribes in Her rubrics for the public liturgy the postures for Her sacred ministers. Therefore, the priest’s actions are regulated at Mass, and this is also why the rubrics during the Divine Office prescribe certain postures.  Prostrations Prostrations – the full placement of our entire body on the ground – is the most humbling of prayer positions. Prostrations, sometimes involving...

Maybe you’ve seen the eyebrow-raising claims on the Internet or elsewhere in the media: rather than celebrating Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and triumph over crucifixion, Easter is really derived from a pagan holiday. Proponents of this theory point to symbols of rebirth and fertility, like eggs and bunnies, that we see at Easter as proof. But the foundation of the claim that Easter is a pagan tradition is the similarity in names: Easter, they say, is the English translation of Eostre, a Germanic goddess of fertility. (Others claim Easter got its name from the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, or the...