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Moving Beyond Vatican IIHow do you solve a problem like Vatican II? While perhaps not as catchy as the classic Sound of Music tune, this question is far more complex than trying to marry off the future Baroness von Trapp. Catholics have been arguing over the council since before it even ended in 1965. While it was intended to usher the Church into the modern world, there’s no question that Vatican II and how to properly interpret it has been the most divisive issue in today’s Church—and the raging debate shows no signs of subsiding. Perhaps, though, it’s time to...

Don Pietro Leone: The Council and The Eclipse of God - PART VII : The Four Notes of the ChurchIn this installment, Don Pietro addresses the Council’s attack on the Four Notes of the Church. Here he looks at the Church’s Oneness or Unity and explains how the Council attacked this Dogma in four ways. F.R.ByDON PIETRO LEONEPART VIIA. The Four Notes of the Church The Four Notes, or defining characteristics, of the Church are Her Oneness, Holiness, Catholicity and Apostolicity, infallibly professed in the Creed as follows: ‘I believe in one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.’ We shall show...

Bishop Barron’s guide to rediscovering Vatican IIThe Church is changing the world, not the other way around — that is the message of the Second Vatican Council.Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire apostolate has just published the Vatican II Collection. It presents the council’s four key documents with commentary by popes and by Bishop Barron. Reading through the documents made me think that what G.K. Chesterton said about Christianity could be said about Vatican II: The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.As Barron puts it: I believe that the...

Apostolic nuncio to Mexican bishops: ‘Look reality in the eye’MEXICO CITY (CNS) — The apostolic nuncio to Mexico urged the country’s bishops to “look reality in the eye” as the country’s non-Catholic population increases and Mexicans increasingly identify as nonreligious.Speaking April 12 at the opening of the Mexican bishops’ conference biannual gathering, Archbishop Franco Coppola also told the virtual audience to rethink their pastoral approaches as fewer people participate in parish life and don’t get married in the Church.“The decline in the Catholic population in this land of Guadalupe is extremely worrying,” Archbishop Coppola said. “We’re seeing now with ever...

“The Two Forms Cannot Coexist”; or, Why the Latin Mass Must Be Destroyed There is an interminable animus between the enemies of God and the Roman Mass.The study of any number of episodes in Church history will bear this out. Two manifest lessons stand forth: 1. The true Faith has a true Worship. 2. Neither are acceptable to those opposed to truth. The persecutors of the Church in every age have saved their subtlest arts and cruelest devices for the prohibition, alteration, or annihilation of the Catholic Mass – not merely the confection of the Sacrament of the Eucharist,...

Prominent Jesuit calls for young people to be banned from traditional Mass ‘Children and young people should not be allowed to attend such Masses,’ the dissident priest demanded.April 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The dissident former editor of Jesuit-run America Magazine, Fr. Thomas J. Reese, S.J., has launched a scathing attack on traditional Catholics and the traditional Mass, declaring that the form of the Mass which was the norm before the Second Vatican Council should “disappear,” and that children should be banned from attending it.Fr. Reese’s April 13 piece appeared at Religion News Service, and was entitled “The future of Catholic...

The future of Catholic liturgical reform(RNS) — Other than sex, nothing is more heatedly debated by Catholics than the liturgy. Everyone has strong opinions based on years of personal experience.In the 1960s and ’70s, Pope Paul VI implemented revolutionary liturgical reforms laid out by the Second Vatican Council, but after his death in 1978, the Vatican put a stop to the changes. It is now time for a second phase.In a previous column, I recommended that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome update the process by which it considers liturgical questions. I argued...

The Body of ChristThe Holy Eucharist denied and misunderstoodThe doctrine of the Holy Eucharist — central to Catholic Church teaching — is either not known or outright denied by most Catholics today.According to a 2019 Pew Research poll, seven out of 10 U.S. Catholics don't believe that the Holy Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is despite the constant teaching of the Church going back to the times of the Apostles.And the Apostles heard it directly from the mouth of Our Lord Himself, Who in John 6:54–57 told His followers:Amen, amen I...

Abp. Viganò weighs in on ‘scandalous’ prohibition of private Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica‘For sixty years the doctrinal deviations introduced by Vatican II have insinuated that Mass offered without the people has no value, or that it has less value than a concelebration or a Mass at which the faithful assist.’Inside St. Peter’s Basilica April 1, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — On March 12, by means of an ordinance issued without signature, protocol number, or addressee, the First Section of the Secretariat of State forbade the celebration of private Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, beginning on the First Sunday...

Did the Holy Ghost Abandon the Church at Vatican II?In a 1976 interview published under the title of Vatican Encounter, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre made several striking statements about the role of the Holy Ghost during Vatican II:“I should have battled more vigorously, perhaps, for an improvement of the texts, or refused to sign them, as I subsequently did with others. In reality, I was hoping against hope that the Holy Spirit would prevent certain projects from coming to pass or that the Pope would intervene at the last moment.”“Only God knows what really went on during Vatican II, and what...

From the Desk of Fr. Mike: This is a good place to bring you up to date briefly on a recent change inp> the Catholic Church that you might not learn about from the secular media. A new instruction from the Vatican has banned the practice of individual Masses inside St. Peter’s Basilica, placing strict limits on the use of the Latin rite. One of the groundbreaking reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was to adapt the liturgy “...more suitably to the needs of our own times.” Now, the place where those words were penned and approved can become...

Archbishop Viganò: Church of Council Realises Masonic Plan, Prepares Advent of AntichristArchbishop Carlo Maria Viganò doesn't believe that the Vatican published the third secret of Fatima completely in 2000.Viganò told DiesIrae that those who saw the secret before its publication, said that it is about the Church’s apostasy which doesn't appear in the official version.He blames the Cardinals Sodano and Bertone for this, and strangely passes over the fact that Cardinal Ratzinger participated in the publication and even wrote the secret’s official interpretation.Viganò warns of attacks on the priesthood like the introduction of deaconesses, abolishing celibacy, and blurring the difference...

SSPX superior general: Bastions of the Church ‘have now been demolished forever’The Pope ‘knows perfectly well where he is going,’ said Fr. Davide Pagliarani.March 15, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Is Pope Francis an ideologist who can be tidily categorized as the proponent of a known school of thought? Is he, on the contrary, a pragmatist who lets usefulness, things, and events direct his words and actions? In Fr. Davide Pagliarani’s view, the present Pope is a much too complex “man of government” to fit in that sort of classification. As the Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X...

Ireland’s bishops plan synod to hear from people who have left the churchDUBLIN (CNS) — Ireland’s Catholic bishops plan to hold a synod within the next five years to — among other things — hear from people who were raised Catholic but have walked away from the church.A March 10 statement released after the bishops’ conference virtual general assembly explained that the prelates believe “a synodal pathway leading to a national synod is inviting us to journey together in discernment of what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church in Ireland at this time.”The bishops said they are “acutely...

Don Pietro Leone: The Council and the Eclipse of God – PART V THE CHURCH I THE CHURCH CONSIDERED IN HERSELFEcclesiae tuae, quaesumus, Domine, preces placatus admitte: ut destructis adversitatibus et erroribus universis, secura tibi serviat libertate 1The Church, Militant, Suffering and Triumphant by Andrea Buonaiuto (1365)After a brief introduction to expound Catholic teaching concerning the Church in Herself, we shall see how the Council opposes this teaching.IntroductionIn this introduction we shall briefly expound the Church’s:a) Nature; b) End, and Means for Attaining the End; c) Constitution; d) Properties; e) Necessity. a) The Nature of the Church The Church is...

Pope admits charges of ‘heresy’ are ‘risk’ he’s willing to take to ‘move forward with other religions’Francis believes 'human fraternity' with people of other faiths is important while acknowledging the criticisms made against him.ABOARD PAPAL PLANE, March 10, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis said charges that he acts against “Catholic doctrine” and is even on the verge of committing “heresy” are a “risk” he’s willing to take to move forward on the path toward “human fraternity” with believers of other religions.“This is important, human fraternity, that as men we are all brothers, and we must move forward with other religions,”...

Don Pietro Leone: THE COUNCIL AND THE ECLIPSE OF GOD - PART IV In Part IV of ‘The Council and the Eclipse of God’, Don Pietro explains how the Council attacks the very notion of Truth, how this is the basis of all its false teachings and how Decartes’s Philosophy of Doubt permeates the Council’s documents. F.R. The Council and the Eclipse of God Beatissimae Vergini Mariae humillime dedicatum,Quae cunctas haereses sola interemisti in universo mundoPART IV TRUTH – part 2Rene Descartes (1596-1650): Father of Modernist Thought - his philosophy begins with Doubta) The Fullness of Truth The Council...

The Beiging of Bishop BarronBishop Robert Barron first came to fame in the Catholic world for his fight against what he called “beige Catholicism.” The founder of Word on Fire rightly saw that a milquetoast, flaccid expression of Catholicism—so common in parishes across the country and embraced by the liberal elements of the Church—is a death knell for the Church. Barron wrote eloquent articles and produced polished videos reminding Catholics that the Faith is more than the insipid liturgies and watered-down teachings they were being fed each week. Justifiably, his influence grew and eventually he was named the Auxiliary Bishop...

Priest weeps at irreverence for Eucharist, tells people to receive on the tongue. Wherein Fr. Z rants.From ChurchPop comes a video and article about a priest who, clearly reacting to some act(s) of irreverence in regard to the Blessed Sacrament, had enough of the sacrilege. There is a video of him literally weeping and then explaining in Spanish that from now on Communion would be distributed on the tongue, while kneeling.I have little doubt that this priest was immediately attacked by some parishioners who then probably complained to the chancery. I have little doubt that great pressure and even threats...

Don Pietro Leone: The Council and the Eclipse of God Part IIIChange of titleThe author, Don Pietro Leone, who is still in the process of finishing this book, has decided to change the title ‘ The Enemy within. A critique of Vatican II ‘, to what he has come to believe expresses the true significance of the Council: ‘The Council and the Eclipse of God’ . F.R. PART IIIThe Council and the Eclipse of GodBeatissimae Vergini Mariae humillime dedicatumQuae cunctas haereses sola interemisti in universo mundo Christ before Pilate by Duccio di Buonasegna, 1311 [What is Truth?]Introduction Truth In...