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The One Thread By Which the Council Hangs: a Response to Cavadini, Healy, and WeinandyAbove: photos of (left) Requiem Mass for Pope Benedict XVI at the Monastère Saint-Benoît, provided by the monastery, and (right) Mass in Mexico, by marianaarias of CathoPic.“Don’t touch that! If you do, everything will collapse!” The warning is clear enough. Any sensible person would rapidly desist, lest their one seemingly minor act bring everything crashing down, undoing the work of many days, weeks, years or even decades.I am not sure whether these were the exact words used by a number of bishops at the beginning of...

The differences between traditional baptism and the new rite matter: here’s whyAll of the new sacramental rites bear the mark of ecumenism, but one of the most striking is certainly the new rite of baptism.(LifeSiteNews) — Since Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum, released in 2007, many more Catholics and clergy have had the opportunity to discover the Traditional Latin Mass. Those who discover this rite are led, sooner or later, to compare it to the Novus Ordo Missae of Paul VI. The recent restrictions placed on the old rite by Pope Francis have perhaps intensified these comparisons. Any such comparative study...

Pope to appoint women as lectors, catechists at Vatican for second timeThe event is possible due to Pope Francis' 2021 motu proprio, which has been described as ‘a tectonic shift both in theology and in praxis.’Pope Francis receives the cruets from two women during MassVATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis will confer the ministries of lector and catechist to women for the second time, in a Mass to be held at the Vatican this Sunday. In a press release sent out by the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Holy See Press Office announced that the conferral of the two ministries would...

Mosque: Novus Ordo Church Falls ApartThe Margaret Mary Church in Ottawa, Canada, will soon be operating as a mosque, reports Cbc.ca (7 January).The new owner is the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, which owns 32 mosques across the country, including two former Christian churches.The sale will be completed in March. The church has not been used for three years.

[Catholic Caucus] Brazil, Pray the Rosary“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ~George SantayanaBrazilians are convulsing over the fraudulent election of Luis Inacio Lula da Silva “Lula”, the radical Communist convicted felon, who narrowly defeated the moderate, President Jair Bolsonaro. Cries of election fraud dominate the massive street protests.This isn’t the first time when Brazil faced the scourge of a tyrannical Communist takeover. In 1966, Brazilians faced a similar Marxist government that posed a radical political and social transformation of South America’s largest country. With nowhere to turn, the largely Catholic country turned to the Blessed...

Why is God, Our Loving Father, Permitting the Worsening Crisis in the Church and World?In his message to end 2022, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò invoked the image of God as a loving Father:“The Lord is our Father, and as Father He punishes us so that we understand our faults, repent of them, and change our lives. Deus, qui culpa offenderis, pœnitentia placaris, says a prayer of Lent: O God, who is offended by guilt and appeased by penance. Wherever there is guilt, wherever the Majesty of God is infinitely offended, there is the need of a punishment. Flagella tuæ iracundiæ,...

Cursed Cultus or Worthy Worship: The Choice That Faces UsEditor’s Note: The following is a transcript of prepared remarks delivered by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski at the official launch of Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s book, The Catholic Mass: Steps to Restoring the Centrality of God in the Liturgy (Sophia Institute Press, 2021), hosted by the publisher in Arlington, VA (Oct. 18, 2022). It is truly a great honor and joy to be here this evening, in the company of His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, my long-time friend Diane Montagna, my newer friend Charlie McKinney, and all the distinguished guests and faithful Catholics...

Identifying the Heart of the Post-Conciliar Crisis: Sixty Years of Mocking the Holy GhostThe First Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Pastor Aeternus, succinctly described the role of the Holy Ghost in safeguarding truth in the Church:“For the Holy Spirit was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by His revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by His assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith transmitted by the apostles.” (Vatican I, Pastor Aeturnus)This statement sets forth the limits of legitimate papal action but it also makes...

[Catholic Caucus] Mosebach on BenedictThe following appeared originally in German at Die Tagepost on January 3, 2023.According to the Frankfurt best-selling author Martin Mosebach, it will turn out that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday, "recognized and named with astuteness precisely the conflict" that will form the "necessary and most important theme" of the internal Church debate: "Is the Church forever committed to the tradition of the evangelists, the apostles, martyrs, and Church Fathers, or can it break that commitment and discover other ever-new sources of revelation? Does Vatican II mark the beginning of a break with tradition...

Pope Benedict: "Novus Ordo Does NOT Correspond To Vatican II"Below are some quotes of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI on Vatican II and the liturgy."I can say with certainty, based on my knowledge of the conciliar debates and my repeated reading of the speeches made by the Council Fathers, that [the new Missal] does not correspond to the intentions of the Second Vatican Council." - Father Joseph Ratzinger, 1976 (Letter to Wolfgang Waldstein)."In part it is simply a fact that the Council was pushed aside. It had said that the language of the Latin Rite was to remain Latin, although suitable scope...

IT’S THE MASS THAT MATTERS: A Study in Faithful ResistanceSOME YEARS AGO I heard an extraordinary story from a friend who lived for a time in the extreme northern end of the country, in a remote and beautiful valley of the Alps, the Val d'Ossola. In brief, three priests one day told their bishop that they would no longer celebrate the Mass in the new rite, and adopted the traditional Mass when Summorum Pontificum was published. And despite immense pressure and months of struggle, they never did again.The story has thus far had a happy ending; the priests continue celebrating...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis’s Christmas Message: We Must Convert to What the Church Has Always RejectedFrancis’s 2022 Christmas Greetings to the Roman Curia included several elements that are genuinely Catholic, and even edifying, when read out of context. One of the dominant themes, for example, is the need for conversion:“Conversion is a never-ending story. The worst thing that could happen to us is to think that we are no longer in need of conversion, either as individuals or as a community. To be converted is to learn ever anew how to take the Gospel message seriously and to put it into...

Protestantism: Francis Effect in Latin AmericaThe Vatican is losing the world's largest Catholic country, and Marxist-sexualist liberation theology is no more successful than Marxist-political liberation theology, writes CatholicHerald.co.uk (December 12)• At the current rate, Catholics will make up less than 50% of all Brazilians by July 2023.• Nearly one in five Latin Americans now describe themselves as Protestant Pentecostals.• Until the failed Vatican II, at least 90% of Latin America was Catholic.• One reason for this fiasco is "liberation theology", which put politics above religion.• Most Catholics left the secularised Council Church because they were looking for religion, not for...

Pope Francis claims it’s ‘heresy’ not to ‘translate’ Gospel into modern ‘ways of thinking’The Pontiff echoed some of his regular talking points during his Christmas address, including his praise for Vatican II and the process of synodality.In his annual Christmas address to the Roman Curia, Pope Francis claimed that “true heresy” involved not only “preaching another Gospel” but in neglecting to “translate it into today’s languages and ways of thinking.”The 86-year-old Pontiff made his comments to the assembled members of the Roman Curia – both clerical and lay – on Thursday morning in the Vatican. Some of his regular themes...

Showing Gratitude for Our Savior as the World Desperately Seeks in Vain for Another“And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people. For this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.” (Luke 2: 10-11)The angel announced “good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people,” and yet the angels ended their heavenly message with reference to a narrower subset of people to whom the blessings of peace would apply:“Glory to God...

[Catholic Caucus] Christmas Address: Francis Exorcises His Own ShadowIn his December 22 Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia, nostalgic Francis praised the outdated Vatican II as "a great opportunity for conversion [= secularisation] for the whole Church" and an attempt to make the Gospel "current, alive, operative in this historical moment [of the 1960s]."The disgraced Cardinal Angelo Becciu was present (video below). Francis pretended that the "current reflection on the Church's synodality [= Roman centralism] stems from the conviction that the path of understanding Christ's message is never-ending and continually challenges us." Synodalism, however, is an old heresy.He railed against...

Blessed Dom Marmion on Catholics, Protestants, and the Worsening Crisis in the Churchopes Benedict XV and Pius XII praised the works of Blessed Dom Columba Marmion (1858-1923) for their holiness and wisdom, and few other writers living in the past 100 years have offered anything as spiritually nourishing as the books of the Abbot of Maredsous Abbey. His Christ: The Ideal of the Monk (1922) is no exception — his great love for God and the Faith shines forth from every page — but it is the book’s description of the differences between Catholics and Protestants that deserves particular attention...

The Coetus: Trad Godfathers at Vatican IIAbove: Archbishop Lefebvre with Pius XII. Lefebvre and other members of the Coetus were respected by the popes before Paul VI, including by John XXIII. There will be factions. This is the first rule of all voting assemblies, from the Roman Senate to the US House of Representatives. To believe that this rule does not apply to the Ecumenical Councils of the Church is a naïveté that does not survive reading Church History.Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowThe second rule of voting assemblies is that the victorious faction is usually in a position to impose...

[Catholic Caucus] “The Current Crisis of Faith in the Church Has Its Ground in the New Mass”The following superb article by Austrian priest Fr. Michael Gurtner appeared in German at the site katholisches.info on November 27, 2022; the translation is published here with permission.—PAKAt present, the modern Church is working to change its internal constitution, transforming itself and by its own initiative from a hierarchical Church, as willed and instituted by God, to a “synodal” (and therefore humanly constructed) Church. In the one and only Church of Jesus Christ, which is the Catholic Church, a process of successive detachment from...

[Catholic Caucus] For Receiving CommunionFrom the church bulletin of SAINT KATERI TEKAKWITHA CATHOLIC COMMUNITY in Beaumont/Banning, California:We would like to remind you again that the recommended posture for receiving communion is standing and you can receive the host on your tongue or in the hand. " The Norm for receiving the Holy Communion in the Dioceses of the USA is Standing. This norm is repeated in the Diocese of San Bernardino. In the Diocese of San Bernardino, where it is the custom of the people to make the sign of the cross, this cus- tom is not abrogated and may...