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Pope Francis: ‘Without Liturgical Reform There is No Reform of the Church’Pope Francis met with members of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on Thursday morning to discuss the importance of liturgical reform as a core feature of the broader “renewal of the Church.” The address comes as the dicastery is meeting for its annual plenary assembly, which is addressing the “liturgical formation from Sacrosanctum Concilium to Desiderio Desideravi” for ordained ministers as well as “liturgical training courses for the people of God.”The meeting will also seek to “provide bishops with practical suggestions for...

[Catholic/Orthodox Caucus] The Interdiction on "Communicatio in Sacris" Before the Second Vatican CouncilIn practice, we can hardly say that we recognize the same church, the same religion. Inspired by Saint Augustine, the erudite classicist Aram Frenkian (1898–1964) formulated an extremely important question in one of his studies: “Is perfection at the beginning or at the end?” A rhetorical question, of course, as the answer from the African Doctor indicates the perfection of knowledge at the origins, before Adam and Eve committed the “original sin.” Similarly, for classical Catholic thinkers, things have always been the same: the apostolic Church was that...

[Catholic Caucus] Abp. Viganò: Fernández’s blasphemous sex book is yet another fruit of the Vatican II revolution'If we think of the spousal model that Saint Paul offers us in the most chaste relationship between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:22), Tucho’s unmentionable obscenities reveal to us a soul totally corrupted by vice, and by a vice that with all evidence seems to have been amply experimented.'f, before Vatican II, an official of the Holy Office had been tasked with examining the text of La Pasión Mística to draw up a report on it in view of making a judgment about...

[Catholic Caucus] Sister Wilhelmina’s Strong Determination to Do God’s Will As Evil Tries to Destroy the ChurchIn God’s Will: The Life and Works of Sr. Mary Wilhelmina, Foundress of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, Sister Wilhelmina’s religious community wrote of her “marching song”:“She developed a deep and trusting abandonment to Divine Providence. As an old nun, she would walk the halls of the convent, beating time with her cane and chanting her ‘Marching Song’: God’s will, God’s will, God’s will be done! Praise be the Father! Praise be the Son! Praise be Divine Love, Lord Holy Ghost! Praised...

[Catholic Caucus] Modern US Religious Vocations PlummetingTraditional liturgy flourishingReligious vocations across the United States are plummeting, a new report shows, with 87% of religious communities reporting nobody taking perpetual (lifelong) vows in 2023. Fewer individuals are entering the age range typically associated with discerning a religious vocation.Compounding the issue, aging religious communities are increasingly faced with the challenge of sustaining their ministries while also providing care for their older members. The dwindling number of younger members entering these communities exacerbates the difficulty of providing this care.Tradition on the RiseStill, some traditional organizations dedicated to the priesthood are demonstrating greater success...

“Anglican Eucharist” in Roman Basilica: False Ecumenism on DisplayToday in Rome, Justin Welby, the Anglican “Archbishop” of Canterbury (more accurately, arch-layman, since Anglican Orders are null and void) was allowed to celebrate what Vatican News called “a sung Anglican Eucharist” in the Basilica of St. Bartholomew (the titular church of none other than Cardinal Blase Cupich). Michael Haynes, senior Rome correspondent for LifeSiteNews, reported that Welby thanked “Pope Francis especially for having granted permission for the service.”This “Anglican Eucharist,” reminiscent of the one which took place last April in the Basilica of St. John Lateran (the Pope’s cathedral church), was...

"Vatican II and the new liturgy have invented a new magisterial mode: dogmatic regression": Interview with Claude BartheOn the occasion of the revised and expanded reissue of his book "Trouver-t-il encore la foi sur terre [Will He still find faith on earth?]," we interviewed Abbé Claude Barthe.Michel Janva: The title of your book is a quotation from the Gospel. In view of the current evolution of the Catholic religion (growth in Africa and Asia, decline in Europe...), is it possible that it could disappear in Western Europe, and therefore in Rome, just as it was practically eliminated from North Africa...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis institutes female ‘lectors’ again at Vatican continuing ‘rupture from Catholic tradition’Liturgist Dr. Kwasniewski wrote that Pope Francis' altering of Canon Law to allow female lectors 'commits a double categorical error by conflating the dignity of the baptized with the dignity of active liturgical ministry.'Pope Francis instituted men and women in the ministries of lector and catechist in the Vatican Sunday, continuing the practice he began following his 2021 changes to Canon Law which has been described as continuing “the pattern of rupture from Catholic tradition.”On January 21, Pope Francis instituted two women as lectors, along with...

[Catholic Caucus] The Term “Pastoral” as a Talisman WordOne of the expressions we hear most in recent years is “pastoral.” “Pastoral reasons” are used to justify some initiatives in the ecclesial sphere, as we have seen in Fiducia supplicans. “Pastoral motifs” are also behind many changes in liturgy and sacred music. It almost seems that pastoral care has become a sort of passepartout to be able to let anything pass. Moreover, one of the most important centers for liturgical renewal, the French Centre de Pastorale Liturgique, founded in 1943, included this word in its name, thus indicating a theme for...

The Growing Need to Condemn Vatican II’s Errors So We Can Combat Francis’s Heresies“To promote ecumenism means signing a treaty of non-aggression, granting all religions citizenship in the great pantheon of creeds. The only commandment is the exclusion of exclusivity: freedom for all in all things, except for those who believe in the truth.” (Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, One Hundred Years of Modernism Francis is obviously a non-Catholic man who seeks to do as much damage as possible to the Catholic Church. Understandably, this reality leads many sincere Catholics to insist that he cannot possibly be a true pope. As Archbishop...

[Catholic Caucus] A Sacrificial and Royal Liturgy A Sacrificial and Royal LiturgyPaix LiturgiqueLetter 986December 15, 2023From December 1 to 3, 2023, 600 seminarians from all French dioceses gathered in Paris. On the occasion of this gathering, Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort answered the questions they freely put to him. One of them asked: "Does the Church in France have a problem with traditionalists?" Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort replied: "Yes, no doubt because of our turbulent history since the Revolution. If there's a central question, it's one of political theology and our relationship with the world. Vatican II's decree on religious freedom is very...

Divine Providence and the “Poisonous Soups” of Vatican II, Paul VI, and FrancisIn his 2016 conference dealing with the relations between the Society of St. Pius X and Rome, Bishop Bernard Fellay used the analogy of a poisoned soup to explain the SSPX’s objections to Vatican II:“But the problem is not the good things that you can find in it, which actually exist. The problem is the bad things! If you put a drop of cyanide in the soup, what difference does it make if you add good vegetables, good stock, the best water that you can find; the soup...

[Catholic Caucus] Clash of the Catechisms: Part IAuthor’s Note: This series endeavors to correct the historical record and encourage Catholic parents and educators with a sure sign of hope for the future. Part I demonstrates the public rupture in the catechetical manuscript tradition over the past sixty years, while Part II offers a critical review of the new catechism Credo within this same manuscript tradition.In light of the Vatican’s summons to “new categories and new languages” in catechesis[1] and its formal adoption of the terms “transgender person” and “homosexual person,” one may reasonably expect another update to the Catechism of...

Communion on the Hand and Catholic TotalityThe Institution of the EucharistJoos van Wassenhove (1473-75)We place our brief treatment of “Communion on the Hand” between an Introduction on Adoration and an Epilogue in the form of a witness. Introduction: Adoration Now honour is the attitude which a subject manifests to another in virtue of the other’s superior excellence, in order to express his submission to that other; whereas adoration is that honour which a subject manifests to God in virtue of God’s superior, or more precisely, infinite excellence, which requires of the subject total submission to Him. The obligation to adore...

[Catholic Caucus] “The Principle of Tradition in the Liturgical Life of the Church”: Lecture by Bishop Athanasius SchneiderSt Clement & St BasilLecture given at the Pax Liturgica Meeting at the Augustinianum in Rome, October 27, 2023, by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Mary in Astana. The lecture was given in English; Rorate is grateful to His Excellency for sharing the transcript. The video may be found here. - PAKThe Roman Church is the mother and teachers of all other particular churches because of the primacy of St. Peter and his successors, the Roman Pontiffs. From...

[Catholic Caucus] Lost in a battle of interpretations: Claude Barthe on a council that did not dogmatize and a liturgy that lacks the form of lawAbbé Claude Barthe has just published a partially revised and expanded fourth edition of his book Trouvera t-Il encore la foi sur la terre (Will he still find faith on earth?), published by Via Romana. We are publishing this passage from the introduction, which concerns the new liturgical law, which in fact is no longer a law. (Paix Liturgique Letter 984)* * *This teaching [on ecumenism], which was intended to be neither black nor white,...

[Catholic Caucus] The Sedemenefreghismo Thesis: a Prudential Allocation of Our Cares to What We Can Control As reported by Vatican Journalist Marco Tosatti, a group of nine Italian theologians recently published their so-called “Sedemenefreghismo Thesis,” named for the Italian term they invented:“‘Sedemenefreghismo’ is an invented Italian word based on the word ‘sedevacantism’ which means ‘holding that the (Holy) See (sede) is vacant’ and ‘me ne frega,’ meaning, ‘I don’t care’, so that this invented word could be translated as ‘I don’t care at all whether the (Holy) See (is vacant or not).’” Although a superficial reading of this definition —...

[Catholic Caucus] What Are Francis’s Most Dangerous Heresies?Most faithful Catholics can now name at least a few heretical ideas from Francis’s ten-year occupation of the papacy, including those related to Communion for Catholics who are not in the state of grace and blessings of intrinsically evil relationships. Among these multifarious heresies, though, one category of heretical ideas stands apart because one cannot accept it without simultaneously undermining the entire basis for the Catholic Faith. Each of the following statements contributes to an idea of universal salvation — meaning all men are saved regardless of their religious professions — which would...

[Catholic Caucus] Sacrosanctum Concilium Turns 60IntroductionTurning 60 can be traumatic: all of a sudden retirement looms on the horizon, less than optimal physical fitness or even the prospect of bad heath beckons—if it has not already caught up with us in one way or another. Our busy lives may still be filled with activity, but turning sixty raises the inevitable question: for how much longer?But what of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium—the much-vaunted first-born child of the Council, as it were, and certainly the one which has had the greatest impact on the lives...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo XIII and the Church’s Visibility as Satan Reveals His Throne in the Holy Place“In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most blessed Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.” (Exorcism of Leo XIII against Satan and the Fallen Angels)In his They Have Uncrowned Him, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre commented on these words from Pope Leo XIII’s exorcism prayer against Satan...