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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...

A Young Irishman Smiles at Traditionis CustodesI popped into my parish church today. I haven’t been there in quite some time; nearly a decade in fact.The church has a specific meaning to me; it’s where my family are buried, it’s where I was baptized and received the sacraments. Above the door stands a stone commemorating my great, great, great grandfather who, in 1818 paid for its construction; the first church where we could worship after the two centuries-long persecution of the Reformation.Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowFamily tradition says that he was awarded the honour of ringing the Angelus bell for...

What if the Pre-Vatican II Popes Were Actually Right? Whether we think of him as an anti-pope or merely one of the the worst popes in history, the fact remains that Francis has arrogated to himself a power that no pope can ever have: to reshape the Holy Catholic Church to fit the anti-Catholic objectives of the globalists. Even if we consider him to be far worse than his immediate predecessors, though, we have to look back to the pre-Vatican II popes if we want to find Successors of Peter who assiduously defended the Mystical Body of Christ. And...

First Week in Ordinary Time Mark 1:14-20 Friends, our Gospel today is Jesus’ inaugural address, setting the tone for the whole of his preaching. Mark tells us that he was proclaiming the Good News of God, and that this was “the time of fulfillment.” Something was being brought to completion. What was it? It was everything that the Old Testament had spoken of. Jesus gathered up in his person everything that Israel was about—and this is why his presence was so compelling and why following him was of paramount importance. This is why he says, “Repent, and believe in the...

“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...

Crusade: Our Response to Traditionis CustodesIn the history of the crusading movement we can observe certain factors which contributed to success or failure, whether in the early crusades of the so-called “Byzantine Empire,” or in the Reconquista, the Eastern Crusades and the Northern Crusades of Western Christendom.[1] One of these factors is rootedness about which I spoke last week.The other critical factor is freedom from earthly attachments. In the various crusading movements, those crusaders which were truly free from worldly attachments succeeded in their war against the enemies of Holy Church. But those that fell into fighting flesh and blood,...

Iowa diocese publishes deacon’s pro-LGBT story about gender-confused son ‘Lexi’ The deacon cited his formation in the diaconate as having provided him with some of the principles that led him to accept his son’s lifestyle. Mon Jan 3, 2022 - 1:27 pm ESTMon Jan 3, 2022 - 2:29 pm EST DAVENPORT, Iowa (LifeSiteNews) – A Catholic diocesan newspaper has been promoting transgenderism in the Church. The Catholic Messenger, the newspaper for the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, displayed the sexual transformation of a St. Petersburg, Florida deacon’s son in the second of a series of articles seeking to illustrate “A Pastoral...

Dear Cardinal Cupich: At least obey the rubrics of the Novus Ordo Mass Dear Cardinal Cupich:I write to you as a Catholic priest on the feast of St. Thomas Becket, who is commemorated in the Octave of Christmas. St. Thomas Becket was certainly a complex man, but in the end—and the end is ultimately important to us all-- how he died so violently in the Cathedral at Canterbury at the hands of assassins driven to that terrible deed by King Henry II, made him a saint, not by a proclamation from Rome, but rather because of the “common” Catholics...

Moscow Patriarchate Signs Death Certificate for Conciliar Ecumenism The number two of the Russian Orthodox Church reacted, on December 12, 2021, on the Rossiya-24 channel, to the remarks made, on December 6, by Pope Francis on the plane back from Greece to Rome.The Sovereign Pontiff then declared: “I am ready to go to Moscow… My meeting with Patriarch Kirill is on the horizon.”Without confirming or denying the prospect of a meeting at the highest level between the Successor of Peter and the head of the Russian Church - which would be the second in the current pontificate - Metropolitan...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Blase Cupich publishes policy implementing Traditionis custodesShortly after the Congregation for Divine Worship responded to questions regarding Pope Francis' Motu propio, Cardinal Cupich implements a policy that goes into effect 25 January -- an opportunity to express the unity of the Church and to offer a 'concrete manifestation of the acceptance of the Council's teaching'.by Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fspJust two days after Christmas, on the Feast of St John the Evangelist, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, has issued a policy governing the celebration of the pre-Vatican rites in that Archdiocese. This policy follows the 18 December...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Roche on ‘Traditionis Custodes’ and Its Guidelines: ‘The Liturgical Possibilities Are in Place’The prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments discussed the implementation of the guidelines regarding the July apostolic letter on the Traditional Latin Mass.VATICAN CITY — The promotion of the traditional liturgy has been “curtailed but does not characterize discrimination,” Archbishop Arthur Roche has said in Dec. 22 comments to the Register. “What is important to realize now is that the Holy Father has spoken,” the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments...

The Second Atomic Bomb Has Exploded: CDW Issues Directives Banning Traditional Confirmations and Ordinations, Decrees the End of Ecclesia Dei CommunitiesCFN will hold a LIVE Q&A Session on this topic tonight, December 18, at 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Join us with your questions!The predicted document of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW) extending the totalitarian measures against the Traditional Latin Mass has been published. It takes the form of a letter from Archbishop Arthur Roche, the Congregation’s Prefect, and a series of responses to dubia (questions) it says are a consolidation of questions submitted by...

Pope Francis’ new foundation appears to have more in common with French Revolution than with CatholicismReferences to God, the Holy Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Beloved Mother are totally absent from this catalogue of the new foundation's politically correct 'values,' among which environmentalist concerns and 'fraternity between believers and non-believers are, of course, paramount. VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — A “Fratelli tutti Foundation” attached to Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome was launched on Wednesday by Pope Francis who signed a decree that officially established the new entity. It aims at encouraging “fraternity and dialogue” among pilgrims and tourists visiting...