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[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo meets with professors who found Latin Mass Catholics are more orthodox, notPope Leo XIV on Thursday met in a private audience with Professors Stephen Bullivant and Stephen Cranney, two prominent sociologists who notably published a study showing that the vast majority of faithful who attend the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) accept Catholic teaching and the Second Vatican Council.Pope Leo met with Bullivant, who is a Latin Mass attendee, and Cranney during a March 5 audience, per the Vatican’s daily bulletin, though it is not known what was discussed. The professors notably co-wrote the forthcoming book, Trads:...

Brazilian Archbishop Declares Excommunication for Attending Latin Mass Outside Approved SiteArchbishop Carlos Alberto Breis Pereira, 60, of Maceió, Brazil, has warned that celebrating or attending the Mass in the Roman rite outside of his one authorized location will result in excommunication.The diocesan note was issued on February 11 on FaceBook.com (below). It reads:“The Archdiocese of Maceió informs the faithful who reside within its jurisdiction that, if they wish to participate in the so-called ‘Tridentine Masses’ or in those celebrated according to the Roman Missal of Saint Pius V, promulgated by Pope Saint Pius V in 1570, in the Latin language,...

[Catholic Caucus] Worldwide Spiritual Bouquet for the Pope and the TLMWith the coming months set to prove pivotal for the Traditional Latin Mass and the cause of Catholic Tradition within the Church, Missae pro Missa hereby announces a new worldwide spiritual bouquet beginning Feb. 22, Feast of the Chair of St. Peter and First Sunday of Lent, to conclude on June 29, Solemnity of Saints Peter & Paul, which follows the next Consistory of Cardinals called by Pope Leo XIV. The intention of this latest campaign is straightforward: for the Pope to recognize the full freedom of the TLM.As with...

[Catholic Caucus] SSPX to Tucho: No Thanks! We’ll Stay CatholicPagliarani’s letter to Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández turns Rome’s “dialogue” offer inside out and exposes the real price of “full communion”A letter that smiles while it draws blood The first thing that hits you is how calm it is.Hiraeth In Exile is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.Upgrade to paidIt is a courtly, Roman-style thank you note with a blade hidden in the fold. Pagliarani opens by praising “perfect transparency,” then immediately reframes the entire encounter as something the Society proposed...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV To Schneider: "Young People Told Me They Converted Thanks to the Traditional Latin MassBishop Athanasius Schneider told Robert Moynihan on February 16 about the 30 minutes private audience with Pope Leo XIV on December 18.He described the tone as open and cordial: “The Pope was very kind, attentively listening to me, very, very fraternal and simple.”Two drafts for Leo XIVBishop Schneider handed Pope Leo XIV two drafts during the audience.1) A solemn Profession of FaithHe proposed a solemn Profession of Faith, modeled on Paul VI’s 1968 Credo of the People of God. Schneider emphasized that such...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘Embarrassing in the extreme’: Liturgy scholar demolishes Cardinal Roche’s document on Latin Mass'That this document bears the name of the Prefect of the Dicastery of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments renders it nothing less than a scandal,' Fr. Dom Alcuin Reid said.A Benedictine priest and liturgical scholar ripped as “embarrassing,” even “in the extreme,” points made by Cardinal Arthur Roche in his recent document on the liturgy distributed at the extraordinary consistory convened by Pope Leo XIV.Dom Alcuin Reid, a Benedictine monk, priest, and liturgical scholar, broke down Roche’s document defending Traditionis Custodes and the suppression...

[Catholic/Anglican Caucus] Pope Leo told Anglicans ‘we are already one.’ So what about Latin Mass Catholics?Is claiming 'unity' when embracing external differences while punishing internal fidelity true Catholic unity?Recently, Pope Leo XIV told Anglicans at an ecumenical prayer service at the Vatican that “we are already one.” This statement, if taken seriously, is not a mere courteous or diplomatic remark. It is a theological claim with concrete theological implications.Words spoken by a pope imply principles about the nature of Christian unity, the Church, and the relationship between truth, worship, and communion. If ecclesial unity is affirmed with Anglicans – who...

[Catholic Caucus] Latin Mass groups respond to SSPX consecration plans, appeal to Pope Leo, bishops for TLM accessUna Voce and the Latin Mass Society stressed to Pope Leo and the bishops that depriving the faithful of the traditional Mass can increase sympathy toward the SSPX’s arguments. Una Voce International (FIUV) and the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales issued a joint statement this week urging the Church hierarchy to end the restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass for the benefit of the faithful in light of the Society of St. Pius X’s (SSPX) plans to consecrate new bishops without...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Schneider Severely Criticizes Cardinal Roche's ReportInterviewed by Diane Montagna, Bishop Schneider challenges the historical assumptions and theological premises underlying Cardinal Arthur Roche's document. He maintains that the report does not reflect an impartial and thorough analysis, but rather an ideological approach marked by what he calls "rigid clericalism." Bishop Schneider argues that the Mass most faithful to the Council was the Ordo Missae of 1965, and that the form later promulgated by Pope Paul VI—the Novus Ordo Missae—was substantially rejected by the first Synod of Bishops after the Council in 1967. He disputes the interpretation of the...

[Catholic Caucus] The Question of the Traditional Mass in Pope Leo XIV’s PontificateWe find ourselves in the early days of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate, and there are reasons for cautious optimism. Several signs suggest that the Holy Father wishes to address some of the more pressing challenges inherited from his predecessor.Among these is the thorny question of access to the Traditional Latin Mass (what was once called the Extraordinary Form or Tridentine Mass) and the restrictions imposed by Traditiones Custodes.I approach this question with the disposition we ought to have toward any successor of Peter: giving the benefit of the...

[Catholic Caucus] Chicago Cardinal Escalates Against Roman Rite: "There Must Be Only One Rite"Ongoing reform is central to the liturgy because it has cultural elements that change over time and across places, pro-homosexual Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago - an ardent enemy of the Roman Rite and a good friend of Leo XIV - wrote on ChicagoCatholic.com (January 21).He repeated the historical misrepresentations which Cardinal Arthur Roche used at the January 7–8 consistory to polemise against the Mass of all ages.For Cupich, “with the passage of time and changes in the culture, there is always a need to reform the...

[Catholic Caucus] TLM Sunday 2026: "Introibo ad altare Dei"The author preparing to offer private Mass during the snow and ice storm of January 25, 2026.The priest when he is alone, with angels and saints surrounding and united with him, to pray the Mass will naturally choose that worship which he holds most dear in this age commonly described as one of options, if nothing else. And the option of the Tradition, as Pope Benedict made so clear in Summorum Pontificum, remains as sacred today for all of us it was for the Catholics of the two millennia that preceded our...

[Catholic Caucus] "Nostalgic" Proposals on Liturgy Not Helpful – Cardinal SpenglerAsked about the Mass in the Roman rite, Cardinal Jaime Spengler of Porto Alegre, Brazil, said that “the river doesn’t flow backwards.” He spoke with VidaNuevaDigital.com on January 16. The cardinal is president of the bishops’ conferences of Brazil and Latin America (CELAM). His main statement echoes the historically weak ideas promoted by Cardinal Roche at the consistory on January 7-8. Cardinal Spengler said, “Throughout history, the liturgy has undergone various reforms. The Second Vatican Council represents an enormous effort to recover fundamental elements of Catholic liturgical celebration. Nostalgic proposals...

[Catholic/Anglican] Why Today’s Men Are Repulsed By the Mainstream Catholic ChurchOne of the most devastating realities about the Catholic Church today is that men are generally repulsed by what they see, beginning in their local parishes and all the way up to the Vatican.Merely looking at some of the prominent aspects of the “mainstream church” today, we can understand why this is: flamboyant priests like Fr. James Martin are rewarded by the Vatican while good men like Bishop Joseph Strickland are banished; rather than finding the firm and immutable religion of the saints, we find an amorphous set of nice...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Schneider asks Pope Leo XIV for authoritative document to protect Latin MassBishop Athanasius Schneider suggested Pope Leo pen an apostolic constitution to ensure long-term legal stability for the Traditional Latin Mass and establish liturgical peace.Bishop Athanasius Schneider has said he proposed the promulgation of an apostolic constitution to regulate the coexistence of the traditional Latin Mass and the post-conciliar Roman rite to Pope Leo XIV.On January 14, Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan, stated in an interview published by the Cofraternity of Our Lady of Fatima that he personally suggested to Pope Leo the issuance of...

[Catholic Caucus] Roche’s Consistory Manifesto: The Liturgical Revolution Still Demands Its VictimsEvery few months the postconciliar machine produces another document that pretends to be calm, pastoral, historically informed, even reverent toward “Tradition.” Then the mask slips. The target is always the same. The old Mass must not merely be regulated, not merely “balanced,” not merely “integrated.” It must be starved, shamed, and finally buried.Cardinal Arthur Roche’s consistory report is that pattern distilled. It is written for cardinals, packaged as a neutral overview, and built around the same three moves the regime has used for decades. First, a selective timeline where...

[Catholic Caucus] Why has the Pope dismissed a senior Vatican official and keen defender of the TLM?Monsignor Marco Agostini has been dismissed from his post at the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff following the emergence of a recording in which he allegedly used an inappropriate term while referring to members of the Roman Curia.The decision was taken after an audio clip circulated online in which a voice identified as that of the senior Vatican cleric can be heard using the Italian slur “culattoni”, a term equivalent to the English word “faggot”, during a private exchange ahead...

[Catholic Caucus] Una Voce responds to Roche Consistory Report against the Traditional MassDuring the recent consistory, the meeting of cardinals in Rome, Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, handed out a two-sided piece of paper containing some reflections on the liturgy to those present: this has been made available by Diane Montagna here. The liturgy had been among the four topics originally proposed for discussion at the meeting, but the cardinals decided to focus on just two, leaving the liturgy out. Cardinal Roche’s document was accordingly handed out without being formally discussed.Versions were available in Italian...

[Catholic Caucus] Attack on the Traditional Mass and on Orthodoxy in the consistory - Roche and Tucho Fernandez Via Messa in Latino; the Roche report against the Mass at the end, made available by Diane Montagna:Nico Spuntoni for Il GiornaleJanuary 13, 2026Almost a week has passed since the extraordinary Consistory, and curiosity remains about what the Pope and the cardinals said behind closed doors in the new Synod hall. As Il Giornale had anticipated on December 16, the four topics brought to the twenty working tables were a re-reading of the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, the Synod and synodality, an...

Veteran Vaticanist Diane Montagna has just published an article and interview about a proposal for a “Traditionslist Ordinariate” submitted to the “extraordinary consistory” of cardinals.Father Louis-Marie de Blignières – the founder of the Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer – sent this proposal in a letter dated December 24. Published in French and English, was mailed in hard copy to fifteen cardinals known for their interest in the issue of the traditional Roman liturgy, and emailed to one hundred others.At the centre of Father de Blignières’ proposal is the creation of an “ecclesiastical jurisdiction” dedicated to the traditional rite, modelled in...