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[Catholic/Orthodox Caucus] In honor of Ukraine and of Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, at the 130th anniversary of his birth (1892-2022) — by Roberto de Mattei There are men who embody the deepest virtues and values of a people. Such was Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, major archbishop of Halych and Lviv of the Ukrainians, the 130th anniversary of whose birth is being celebrated just as his homeland is experiencing an enormous new tragedy. ​Born on February 17 1892 in Zazdrist, western Ukraine, at the age of nineteen Josyf Slipyj entered the seminary of Lviv, where he was ordained a priest on September...

[Catholic Caucus] The Synodal Path: Slowly Transforming Schism and Heresy into “Tradition” On this year’s feast of St. Blaise, Cardinal Cupich tweeted a picture of himself processing through the streets of Dubrovnik, Croatia with the saint’s relics, adding:“A great blessing to celebrate the 1050th anniversary of the feast of St. Blase in Dubrovnik, Croatia, today and preach on the importance of Tradition.”Perhaps someone who knew nothing of Cupich could find this edifying. However, those who have seen the man attack Catholic tradition so viciously in recent years are more likely to see it as malicious gaslighting. Quite possibly he...

[Catholic Caucus] The Mass That Was Never Forbidden: Key Dates in the Old Missal’s Rehabilitation The Mass Was Never ForbiddenPaix Liturgique NewsletterLetter 122 (9 February 2022)The following presentation follows Abbé Claude Barthe’s book, La messe de Vatican II. Dossier historique (Via Romana, 2018).1978: John Paul II receives Archbp. LefebvreThe election of John Paul II in 1978 marked a turning point in an attempt to regain control in the wake of the Council, even if it was extremely timid. On November 18, 1978, one month after his election, at the initiative of Cardinal Siri, John Paul II received Archbishop Lefebvre...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis Equates the Traditional Liturgy with “Abuse” While Continuing to Tolerate an Abusive Rite— Crucial article by French priest How Traditionis Custodies Relegates the Traditional Liturgy to an “Abuse”Abbé Jean-Marie PerrotFebruary 1, 2022Res NovaeOne of the many reasons for the annoyance provoked by the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes and the subsequent Responses to the Dubia is the symmetry they establish between the traditional liturgy on the one hand and liturgical abuses in the Novus Ordo on the other. This means, first of all, that the Vetus Ordo in itself is reduced to the very depreciated rank of...

The Synod on Synodality: Implementing the “Ecclesiology of Vatican II”The so-called Synod on Synodality — officially, the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the theme of which is, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission” (Oct. 2021–Oct. 2023) — opened in Rome the weekend of Oct. 9-10, 2021 and in dioceses around the world the following Sunday. Unlike previous synods, each of which has been devoted either to a specific doctrinal/pastoral subject[1] or to the situation of the Church in a particular region of the world,[2] the focus of the current synod is much broader and...

[Catholic Caucus] The Silence of Good Catholics Amplifies the Lies of Tyrants “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine but, according to their own desire, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4)Just as many people have willingly smothered themselves with useless masks for two years, much of the world’s population has smothered itself in...

[Catholic Caucus] Backs to the wall: Can bishops ban 'ad orientem'? a.image2.image-link.image2-540-728 { display: inline; padding-bottom: 74.17582417582418%; padding-bottom: min(74.17582417582418%, 540px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-540-728 img { max-width: 728px; max-height: 540px; } Bishop James Conley offers the Ordinary Form of the Mass ad orientem. Credit: Southern Nebraska Register.U.S. dioceses in recent weeks have seen new liturgical policies introduced in response to Pope Francis’ motu proprio Traditiones custodes. But while the pope’s new laws pertain to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, some dioceses have also announced new policies pertaining to the Ordinary Form, and especially to the ad orientem...

[Catholic Caucus] The war on Mass “ad orientem”And so it begins.This just in from a reader…My bishop (Venice in Florida) has just (via a letter to his priests) forbidden the use of ad orientem in any Novus Ordo Masses with a congregation. He asserts that the Novus Ordo mandates versus populum and that any other interpretation is false. It would be interesting to see that letter, wouldn’t it.

Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle Mark 16:15-18 Friends, today we reflect on the significance of the conversion of St. Paul. Paul’s encounter on the road to Damascus was an answer to this question: when would God gather the nations and through Israel bring his rule to the whole world? When Paul met Jesus he realized that the promises of God had been fulfilled, that the expectations of the prophets had been met—but in a most unexpected and extraordinary way. He knew from his tradition that God, through Israel, would deliver the world from sin, gather the...

The Homily from the Bishop today focuses on the First Reading from Nehemiah detailing Ezra bringing back the Word of God to Jerusalem. Drawing the parallel with our recent post- Concilar Church, explaining why both Walls AND bridges are necessary at this point.14 min. YouTube Video.Should We Build Walls Or Bridges?

Vatican II in Light of Tradition? Traditional Catholics are often told that we ought not to reject the Second Vatican Council, but merely reject the “Spirit of Vatican II,” which is showcased by clown masses, communion in the hand, Fr. James Martin, SJ, etc. In other words, reject the implementation of the council, but don’t reject the council itself. People will quote bits and pieces from the council that can sound more conservative, and try giving the impression that Vatican II isn’t so bad after all. This is known as reading Vatican II in light of tradition, or using...

It is Time to End the So-Called “Irreversible” Ecumenical Damage Common Ecumenical Prayer (Lund, Sweden, 2016) (Vatican Media)Among many other disturbing statements in the Roche/Francis Responsa ad Dubia, we find a reference to the so-called “irreversible” nature of liturgical reform:“When Pope Francis (Address to the participants in the 68th National Liturgical Week, Rome, 24 August 2017) reminds us that ‘after this magisterium, after this long journey, We can affirm with certainty and with magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible’ he wants to point us to the only direction in which we are joyfully called to turn our...

[Catholic Caucus] The Outrageous Propaganda of Archbishop Roche “Where do you get your stuff?” “Oh, in the wild blue yonder.”As I was reading the other day the page proofs of Fr. Bryan Houghton’s autobiography Unwanted Priest—long believed lost but recently rediscovered and forthcoming from Angelico Press—I was struck by the following passage (among many others). He is talking about anti-religious posters he came by on a trip to Russia:I had picked up the first group [of posters] in 1931 from an upper school in Moscow. They are forcefully designed but the content is rather naive. They are anti-clerical rather...

"The Battle for the Mass is Won" - Interview with Fr. Philippe Laguérie THE BATTLE FOR THE MASS IS WONFr. Philippe LaguérieInterview granted to Anne Le Pape for the daily Présent, on January 18, 2022. [Translation by Jerome Stridon.]Father Philippe Laguérie needs no introduction. He was ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre, named pastor of Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet (the SPPX’s flagship church in Paris) in 1984, where he served until 1998. He left the SSPX in 2004 and was one of the cofounders of the Institute of the Good Shepherd (Institut du Bon Pasteur, “IBP”) in 2006. He was its...

The Limits of DialogueWhy Francis has been so tough on traditionalistsIn December Rome’s Congregation for Divine Worship responded to queries from bishops about Pope Francis’s new restrictions on the pre-Vatican II liturgy. The fury and contempt that greeted this response were to be expected—more of the same that followed Traditionis custodes, the motu proprio in which those restrictions were announced last July. But this time the familiar objections from traditionalists found an echo of sorts among some more liberal-minded Catholics.The Thomas Merton scholar and Bellarmine University theologian Greg Hillis, for example, wrote in America about the apparent contradiction between the...

[Catholic Caucus] “He is damaging the entire series of his predecessors…and thus himself and the papacy”: The insoluble contradiction between Francis and Paul VI The following analysis was written by Michael Charlier, moderator of the German blog Summorum-Pontificum.de. Part of the brilliance of the piece is that it shows how massive a problem there is whether Paul VI or Francis is correct: “damned if you do, damned if you don’t...” Translated for Rorate Caeli.—PAKFrancis Against PaulMichael Charlier, Summorum-Pontificum.deJanuary 20, 2022At the center of the efforts pursued by Pope Francis and his supporters to expel the traditional liturgy from the Roman...

[Catholic Caucus] Msgr. Stefan Heid: “A sacred rite, in a sacred space, on a sacred table, and facing east: This is how the early Christians celebrated Mass” Translated from the blog Messeinlatino, which in turn credits Il Timone for excerpts from a recent and very interesting interview with Msgr. Stefan Heid, Rector of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, on how the early Christians celebrated. Note that all of our information now definitively undermines the assumptions of the liturgical reformers.—PAKHow the First Christians Celebrated the MassLuisella ScrosatiIl Timone, January 2022There are those who try to deny it, but the...

Dilecta Mea — About the Holy Apostolic Mass Rumble — You who permit yourselves to prohibit the Holy Apostolic Mass, have you ever celebrated it? You who from the height of your liturgical cathedrae are piqued about the “old Mass,” have you ever meditated on its prayers, its rites, and its ancient and sacred gestures? I have asked myself this many times in the past few years: because I myself, even though I knew this Mass since I was very young; even though I had learned to serve it and respond to the celebrant when I was so little that...

FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME MARK 1:40-45 Friends, our Gospel for today has to do with Jesus’ healing a leper. There aren’t that many lepers around today, but there are plenty of people that we treat as outsiders or pariahs. Like Jesus, we should be welcoming to them. Now, I have nothing particularly against that way of reading the situation, but I suspect that we’ve all heard it a thousand times. Let me propose a symbolic reading a little different from the customary one. I propose that the leper here stands not so much for the socially ostracized but for...

“What the Fathers and Saints valued and defended, we also feel called to value and defend”: Interview with Dr. Joseph Shaw The following interview first appeared in the pages of the latest issue (no. 15, Winter 2021) of Calx Mariae, a beautiful journal published by Voice of the Family. Rorate Caeli is grateful for VOTF's permission to republish it here for the benefit of our readers, whom I would encourage to subscribe to the print publication. Calx Mariae: Congratulations on your election as President of the Una Voce Federation. For people who don’t know about the Federation how would...