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Pope Francis Urges Sicily’s Catholic Priests to be Moral Guides — But to Drop the LaceVATICAN CITY — Pope Francis told priests and bishops from the Italian island of Sicily on Thursday to be strong moral guides, and to update their art and vestments in conformity with Church reforms.“In Sicily, people still look to priests as spiritual and moral guides, people who can also help to improve the civil and social life of the island, to support the family, and to be a reference for growing young people. High and demanding is the Sicilian people’s expectation of priests,” the...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican tells traditional French bishop to suspend ordinations of priests, deaconsThe reason for the sudden brutal – and indefinite – suspension of the ordination of four priests and six deacons in the Diocese of Toulon-Fréjus has not been given by Rome. (LifeSiteNews) – In two separate events regarding bishops in France – one open to tradition, the other decidedly against it – the increase of a spirit of persecution of clerics attached to the ancient rite of the Mass or even traditional clerical dress has been harshly underscored. The most serious decision involves the Diocese of Toulon-Fréjus in...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican Asks for Suspension of Ordinations in French DioceseThe prostration of the ordinands takes place during the Litany of the Saints at the Fraternity of St. Peter's Roman parish, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, June 22, 2013.The Vatican has asked a diocese in southern France to suspend its ordinations of priests and deacons scheduled for this month after a “fraternal visit” of the diocese.Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon announced June 2 that the suspension was requested due to “questions that certain Roman dicasteries were asking about the restructuring of the seminary and the policy of welcoming people to the...

I’ve always been fascinated by the imagery of the phoenix as it is found in various ancient mythologies. Though most typically associated with Greek mythology, the phoenix, under various names, could be found in mythological systems ranging from the Egyptian to the Chinese to the Arabian to the Armenian and beyond. The phoenix represents an older, Traditional way of looking at time, and therefore the world around us. This more Traditional view of time, as expressed across many different cultures for thousands of years, also found expression in conceptually related mythologies such as that of the ouroborus, the self-devouring worm...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis: Guarding ‘dead traditions’ is dangerous for the Church’s lifePope Francis on Wednesday criticized people who “call themselves guardians of traditions, but of dead traditions,” saying that failing to move forward is dangerous for the Church today. Speaking to the organizers of a conference on education on June 1, the pope said that it was vital to make progress by “drawing from the roots.” He said that “there is the fashion — in every age, but in this age in the Church’s life I consider it dangerous — that instead of drawing from the roots in order...

When reading the Ecclesiastical History of Hermias Sozomen—a work written immediately before the Council of Chalcedon when the universal Church was roiled by a variety of heresies—one picks up the venerable author’s animus for innovation. Indeed, Book IV, Chapter 27 begins with the following passage: When the spirit of innovation becomes regarded with popular favor, it is scarcely possible to arrest its progress. Inflated as it always is with arrogance, it contemns the institutions of the Fathers, and enacts laws of its own. It even despises the theological doctrines of antiquity, and seeks out zealously a new form of religion...

We must maintain Tradition and pass it on IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO WANT, AT THE SAME TIME, THE GOOD OF SOULS THROUGH TRADITION AND A NEW CHURCH WITHOUT TRADITION.This is a full transcript of the conference given in Paris by Don Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X, at the conclusion of the XVI Theological Congress of Courrier de Rome, in partnership with DICI, on January 15th, 2022.It is certain that we are at a crucial moment, a moment that is both sad and logical. We have reached a point that was foreseeable. It is...

Una Voce International: Guide to taking part in the Synod Votive Mass of Our Lady, Oxford Oratory, EnglandCross-posted from the FIUV blog.Pope Francis has called on all members of the Church to contribute to a Synod to take place in Rome in 2023. Contributions are sought on where the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church.At the same time testimonials have been requested by the 'Mothers of Traditional Priests' who are walking from Paris to Rome to present their concerns to the Holy Father.Catholics attached to the Traditional liturgy should not allow their voices to be forgotten. Una Voce International...

A small group of Alaskan middle-schoolers get a hands-on lesson in hunting and processing food from the land. NIKISKI, Alaska — Before the sun rose on Nov. 11, 10 students from Nikiski Middle & High School had gathered with their teacher, Jesse Bjorkman, at a gas-station parking lot here in this small community on the Kenai Peninsula — to gear up for a moose hunt.Dispersed among five vehicles, the group drove about 10 miles to the Nikiski Escape Route, a gravel road connecting Nikiski to the city of Kenai. Inching slowly down the snowy road, the students peered out each...

[Catholic Caucus] Hundreds Flock to Bishop’s Latin MassFor the fifth year in a row, Catholic tradition made a quiet but profound appearance in an unsuspecting setting: before dawn, early on a Saturday morning on the campus of a public university.However, for the first year, it was led by a successor of the apostles.As was previously posted here on OnePeterFive, before dawn on December 11th, Bishop Conley, ordinary of Lincoln, Nebraska offered a Pontifical Solemn Rorate Mass at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Newman Center.Many woke early that Saturday morning to worship in so sublime a way — totaling four hundred faithful,...

[Catholic Caucus] An Interview with His Excellency Bishop Vitus Huonder This interview was conducted by Fr. Lukas Weber on August 26, 2021 in Wangs, Switzerland. While the text had to be revised and translated, we have nevertheless tried to keep the spoken style as much as possible.Msgr. Huonder this year you will celebrate the 50th anniversary of your priesthood. Congratulations and thank you for agreeing to give us an interview so that we can get to know you a little better. Such an anniversary is, of course, an occasion to take a first look back at your childhood, at...

The Landlady's Tale By SWORDMAKER copyright 2000Preface The following story was told to me by the woman who rented my parents their first home in California when they moved to Sacramento in 1939. A devout Catholic (so much so that although she had been divorced by her husband, she did not consider the divorce valid and did not remarry until her husband died many years later) the landlady swore on her Bible, in front of my sister and me after she told us the story, that it was absolutely true. She was quite serious about it.In the 1970s, I personally...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican on the verge of closing down traditional Carmelite monastery in PhiladelphiaThe order has a long history in the archdiocese, but all indications point to Rome uprooting traditional orders. Mass at the Carmelite Monastery of PhiladelphiaAccording to several sources, the Vatican is attempting to shut down the Carmelite monastery in Philadelphia that had been the cradle of devotion to St. Therese of Lisieux in the early 20th century. Collaborating with Archdiocese of Philadelphia Auxiliary Michael Fitzgerald, Rome has now discouraged younger traditional nuns who had moved into the monastery from staying to help some of the elderly nuns,...

Pope Francis: All Religious Traditions Must Resist ‘Temptation to Fundamentalism’Speaking on a stage together with Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu representatives, Pope Francis appealed for peace amid the world’s current conflicts.VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis asked leaders of world religions to resist “the temptation to fundamentalism” for the sake of peace at an interreligious gathering Thursday in front of the Colosseum.Peace “summons us to serve the truth and declare what is evil when it is evil, without fear or pretense, even and especially when it is committed by those who profess to follow the same creed as us,” the...

[Catholic Caucus] An Interview with His Excellency Bishop Vitus Huonder This interview was conducted by Fr. Lukas Weber on August 26, 2021 in Wangs, Switzerland. While the text had to be revised and translated, we have nevertheless tried to keep the spoken style as much as possible.Msgr. Huonder this year you will celebrate the 50th anniversary of your priesthood. Congratulations and thank you for agreeing to give us an interview so that we can get to know you a little better. Such an anniversary is, of course, an occasion to take a first look back at your childhood, at...

Catholic Publishers Freely Passing on the Traditions of the Church in One Sale Rorate has received this news of a major buy-one-get-one-free sale at a number of Catholic publishers for October 4th, in honor of St. Francis.When the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes was released on July 16 of this year, many Catholics were perplexed and dismayed. After all, Pope Benedict XVI had officially opened up the celebration of the Mass according to the 1962 Missal in his 2007 motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum. He even stated then that this “form of the Roman rite” was “never juridically abrogated,” indicating that...

“Tradition Devoured by the Magisterium” This essay appeared at the Spanish site Caminante Wanderer on August 14, under the title “La Tradición devorada por el Magisterio.” This translation has been prepared for Rorate Caeli.—PAKTradition Devoured by the Magisterium(from the Spanish blog Caminante Wanderer)I would like to propose a thesis: in the course of the centuries, and especially after the Council of Trent, there has been a shift from an objective notion of Tradition as a revealed deposit to a subjective notion, which insists above all on the organ that proposes the truth—that is, the Magisterium. In scholastic terms, there...

[Catholic Caucus] Tradition and Traitors: How to tell the differenceBrethren, I make known unto you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast after what manner I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen by...

When the sovereign power of the regime—which includes but is not limited to the government—changes from one ruling principle to another (say, from consent and political equality to antiracism and equity) the regime has transformed into something else. The new ruling authority is a new regime. Never mind election fraud; the question people on the Right must now consider is whether a completely fair election, or even several elections, could reasonably be expected to change the ruling element, the “preponderant part” which defines justice. What would it take to replace the true sovereign power that is the regime? Such a...

As I was listening to Ben's opening remarks, I heard a battlecry from a serious patriot echoing all of our 80 million patriots who sought Trump as our savior to drain the swamp and get rid of wokeism, liberalism, progressivism, and everything else anti-American and get back to strengthening our communities against the tyranny of the federal government.