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[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop of Paris Admits: Modern, Minimalist Church Decor Is the Fruit of Vatican IIThroughout history, many souls have been attracted to the Catholic faith by the beauty of her magnificent churches. As the Pontifical Council for Culture stated in 2006: "The via pulchritudinis [‘way of beauty’] can open the pathway for the search for God." The document goes on to ask: "Do not the cathedrals and churches of the West and East reach a summit of splendor when a liturgy streaming with beauty is celebrated by a gathered crowd?" The document bemoans "the ugliness of some churches and...

[Catholic Caucus] Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s Vision of the Great Mystery of the Church’s PassionIn his Letter to Friends and Benefactors from the Feast of St. Joseph in 1978, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre wrote of the “great mystery” of the Church’s crisis, which he called the passion of the Church:“Providence has allowed this painful crisis in the Church for our sanctification and in order to give more brightness to the pure gold of its doctrine and its means of redemption. This passion of the Church is a great mystery, for it reaches chiefly its hierarchy, its scholars, who seem to no longer...

Catholicism in France Could Soon Become a Minority but a More Traditional One, Experts ClaimToday’s announcement of the resignations of two French bishops suffering from episcopal burnout, and the impending release of a potentially devastating report about sexual abuse allegations at France’s Community of St. John, have directed renewed attention towards the fragile state of the Church in France. Is Catholicism now on the verge of extinction in France, “Eldest Daughter of the Church” and homeland of St. Louis and St. Joan of Arc? Studies of the evolution of the country’s religious landscape have already suggested so over the past...

Synodal working document is deeply rooted in Vatican IIHelena Jeppesen Spuhler, center, talks with Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, right, and Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops Cardinal Mario Grech at the end of a presentation of the new guidelines for the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican June 20.The first two things that jump out when reading the working document, or instrumentum laboris, for the forthcoming synod, which was released June 20, are how much the document charts a new approach to a working document for an ecclesial synod and how deeply the document is in continuity with the teachings...

[Catholic Caucus] The Synod of the Anti-Church The "Instrumentum laboris" (that is, the working draft document) of Francis' "Synod on Synodality" was released today.It is the blueprint of the Anti-Church.All you need to see this is to see this point -- and the Apostolic Counterpoint."What steps can a synodal Church take to imitate ever more closely its Master and Lord, who walks with all in unconditional love and proclaims the fullness of the Gospel truth? ...6) How can we create spaces where those who feel hurt by the Church and unwelcomed by the community feel recognised, received, free to ask...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Tagle traces synods to Vatican IIMakes recording to liberal priests meeting in San DiegoPope Francis with Cardinal Tagle at the Spanish Steps in Rome Dec. 8, 2022.Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle suggested that pockets of resistance to Pope Francis’ invitation to synodality within the global Catholic Church is rooted in fear of change and insecurity about Catholic identity.“Maybe we need to individually and as communities really confront the forces of resistance,” the Filipino prelate said in a recorded discussion with Holy Cross Fr. Stephen Newton, executive director of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests.The recording was played June...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis talked the talk but never walked the walk on sexual abuse. Declining years of a failed Pontificate.Francis came to the pontificate with an unspoken mandate to cleanse the Augean stables of sexual abuse in the Church, and he soon trumpeted his 'zero tolerance' policy. Ten years on and the cases of McCarrick, Barros, Zanchetta and now Rupnik seem to indicate that the policy in question was little more than a rhetorical slogan."In the face of Marko Rupnik's repeated refusal to obey this mandate, we are unfortunately left with only one solution: resignation from the Society of Jesus,"...

It seems that, after Vatican II, nothing really changed. But now? Now’s our chance! For the last couple months I was too happy to have had the desire for self-harming. However, now that I am not in Rome anymore I ventured over to the Fishwrap and revisited the darkness of self-inflicted irritation.Sr. Joan Chittister, incredibly still writing (in more than one sense), has finally unlocked the secret to what’s been going on since Vatican II.Fishwrap shares with us her razor sharp observations and the polished steel traps of her reasoning. Who better than she, with her vast experience of the...

Exploring the Theological Heritage of Francis’s Most Recent Attack on Proselytism“[I]n spreading religious faith and in introducing religious practices everyone ought at all times to refrain from any manner of action which might seem to carry a hint of coercion or of a kind of persuasion that would be dishonorable or unworthy, especially when dealing with poor or uneducated people.” (Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae) In a May 29, 2023 audience, Francis recounted one of his characteristically hostile attacks on Catholics who engage in proselytism:“I had a bad experience in this, in a youth meeting, some years...

Vatican II laid the groundwork for the Francis-approved ‘Abrahamic Family House’ in Abu DhabiThe Abrahamic Family House was inspired by the Document on Human Fraternity, and according to Pope Francis, is in perfect continuity with the Second Vatican Council.(Catholic Family News) — Four years after Pope Francis signed the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together (Feb. 4, 2019) with Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the so-called “Abrahamic Family House” campus opened in Abu Dhabi (Feb. 16, 2023), the capital of the United Arab Emirates and the city in which the text was signed. The Document, which falsely...

[Catholic Caucus] New Preface by Cardinal Burke to French Reissue of the "Ottaviani Intervention" The Short Critical Study [or Brief Critical Examination] of the New Order of Mass—better known as the "Ottaviani Intervention"—is well known to traditionalists around the world (if you'd like to read more about it, see here and here). Every few years, a new edition appears in some major language. It strikes me as particularly significant that a new French edition has appeared with a Foreword by none other than His Eminence Cardinal Burke. The full French text may be found here; what follows is an automated...

The So-Called “New Pentecost” vs. True Renewalhis article first appeared in the May 2021 Print Edition of Catholic Family News (click HERE to subscribe; current subscribers can access the E-Edition HERE).Pentecost: The Coming of the Holy Ghost“And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all...

[Catholic Caucus] Why the Church’s deposit of faith cannot change or ‘evolve’ In a previous article, I examined what is meant by the phrase “the deposit of faith” and what truths are included in this sacred deposit. Now I will consider the immutability of the deposit of faith, that is, the unchanging and constant nature of the truths of divine revelation or the permanence of the meaning of these truths. In so doing, we will see that the contrary opinion, namely, that the deposit of faith can change, is a condemned proposition of the heresy of Modernism. The meaning of...

[Catholic Caucus] New Zealand: The Content of the Novus Ordo? Snickers...The Presiding Bishop of New Zealand, Steve Lowe of Auckland, wore a pallium-like lei made of Snickers bars (sic) during a May 19 Novus Ordo Eucharist in his cathedral. Leis are traditional garlands made from flowers or shells. The occasion was a Eucharist for Liston College, a Catholic school for boys aged 12 to 18. Some of them were baptised and confirmed during the Snickers show. If nothing else, Lowe was very effective in conveying to the boys that the Novus Ordo is a bad joke.

How Have Vatican II’s Ecumenical Wagers Against the Blessed Virgin Mary Panned Out?“I am campaigning, AS MUCH AS I CAN, against a consecration of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, because I can see the danger that a move in this direction would constitute.” (Yves Congar, My Journal of the Council, entry for September 17, 1964) What, in Yves Congar’s eyes, was so dangerous about consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? As we can discern from the devastation he expressed following Paul VI’s declaration of the Blessed Virgin Mary as “Mater Ecclesiae” (Mother of the...

[Catholic Caucus] Why bishops are to blame for empty Catholic churches across AustraliaChildren are no longer taught the basic beliefs of the faith, such as the existence of mortal sin and hell, and consequently they see no reason to continue to go to church as adults.(LifeSiteNews) — A group of orthodox Catholics in Australia called “New Perspectives for Catholic Education” has discovered how the Australian bishops managed to convert a Catholic population in the 1960s, a large proportion of whom were practicing the faith, into a population of mainly non-practicing Catholics. In doing so, it has exposed one of the...

Examining the Most Profoundly Absurd Contradictions of Liberal Catholicism “Yes, truly, Vatican Council II is the ratification of liberal Catholicism. And when it is remembered that Pope Pius IX, eighty-five years earlier, said and repeated to those who were visiting him in Rome, ‘Be careful! There are no worse enemies of the Church than the liberal Catholics!’ — then can be measured the catastrophe that such liberal Popes and such a council represent for the Church and for the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, They Have Uncrowned Him, p. 222) All around us today we see...

Custom and the Force of LawSomething missed by Catholics enamored of the post-Conciliar mentality—that dangerous blend of modernism and ultramontanism—is that, in the past, custom was as good as law. St. Augustine could not have been clearer on this:The customs of God’s people and the institutions of our ancestors are to be considered as laws. And those who throw contempt on the customs of the Church ought to be punished as those who disobey the law of God (Ep. ad Casulan. xxxvi).St. Thomas Aquinas concurred: “When a law is changed, the binding power of the law is diminished, in so...

VINDICATED: Pioneer Traditional Catholics Were Right! Editor's Note: This article is reproduced from The Remnant Newspaper, March 15, 1973. The following is a summary of an address given on August 7, 1972, by Archbishop Lefebvre to a conference of French priests, his discourse being recorded on tape and then translated and transcribed. Of the following article from The Remnant archive, I’m tempted to say: Drop whatever you’re doing and read this article!Here are the words of a wise man, an outstanding Catholic and something of a prophet. And, let’s not forget: Archbishop Lefebvre was a Council Father at Vatican II....

Diocesan ‘Earth Day Mass’ gives ‘thanks to the trees’ in pagan-inspired ceremony'We send our voices to give thanks to the trees,' said a laywoman in an apparent homage to pagan animism during a ceremony before the 'Earth Day Mass.'"Earth Day Mass" at St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Diocese of San Bernardino, CABEAUMONT, California (LifeSiteNews) — A Catholic church in California recently held an “Earth Day Mass” in which homage was given to inanimate objects and a prayer of pagan Native American origins was recited.California’s Diocese of San Bernardino shared in its diocesan news outlet Inland Catholic Byte that its “first-ever diocesan Earth...