RORATE CÆLI

Video: SSPX seminary journey from Winona to Virgina

MAKE THE CHURCH GREAT AGAIN

Ecclesia Dei 2017 Ordo now available

The Secretariat of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei informs the following:

The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei wishes to inform that at the main bookshops is available the "ORDO DIVINI OFFICII RECITANDI SACRIQUE PERAGENDI SECUNDUM ANTIQUAM VEL EXTRAORDINARIAM RITUS ROMANI FORMAM PRO ANNO DOMINI 2017", edited by this Pontifical Commission and published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Copies of this publication can be bought directly from Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Thoughts on "Who am I to judge?" from Neil McCaffrey (December 1977)

(Of course, the title of this post is deliberately anachronistic, but it is remarkable how similar the problems of today are to those of 1977. This memorandum by noted conservative publisher Neil McCaffrey strikes right at a central issue of our own day. He sent it to a number of his closest friends.)

December 12, 1977

Memo to: All Concerned

From: Neil McCaffrey

I am trying to work out some ideas about charity. If you have any comments on what follows, whether agreeing or disagreeing, I’d be grateful for them.

False charity, it seems to me, is pandemic, and encouraged in the highest places. But if current excesses are travesties of travesties, the travesties were always there. Which is why modern Catholics, even the orthodox fragment, are helpless when confronted with this solvent of all

standards.

"When Cephas was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed." (Saint Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians)

The powers of the Pope are not absolute -- quite the contrary: the most important and most recent dogmatic modern Ecumenical Council, Vatican I, makes clear that, "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 Aeternus).

The 4 Cardinals who made their names public in the dubia (questions) on the apparent errors on Marriage and cohabitation present in the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia are following stardard procedure. If the Pope (out of some personal sentiment) refuses to respond, he fails to live up to his obligation to confirm his brethren in the Faith handed down by the Apostles. This has consequences. The interview granted by Cardinal Burke (one of the signatories of the dubia, along with Cardinals Caffarra, Brandmuller, and Meisner) to the National Catholic Register makes clear what these consequences might be.

The most important passage is the following:

Guest Op-Ed: Thoughts on Pope Francis’s recent interview and traditional Catholics

By Veronica A. Arntz

For the Kingdom of God:

Some Thoughts on Pope Francis’s Recent Interview and Traditional Catholics

With Pope Francis’s most recent interview with Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SI, there has been much discontent, especially among traditional Catholics. In just a few sentences, Pope Francis seemingly denied the validity and importance of everything they hold dear: traditional liturgy, adhering to the traditions of the Church, and even the essential role of Summorum Pontificum. He has even alluded to the belief that young people who are interested in traditional liturgy are too “rigid” (more on that later).

Displeasure at these remarks is a natural response, yet they should not really surprise us. Pope Francis has already disregarded Cardinal Sarah’s remarks on the importance of ad orientem worship (which he reiterates in this interview), and he has swept clean the Office of Divine Worship of its more traditional cardinals, who supported movements such as ad orientem worship. We should not be surprised that this pope, who has already disregarded liturgical tradition in many instances, should say these things about those who are interested in traditional liturgy.

The more difficult part about these statements, however, is that they could not be further from the truth. Whether he is simply ignorant, has little regard for traditional Catholics, or truly means these things, it is difficult to reconcile them with the reality of traditional Catholicism.

You will not believe the ridiculousness of it all, but Bergoglioland has finally reached full Banana Republic status. Pope Francis, the Anastasio Somoza of Adultery, the Papa Doc of Sinful Cohabitation, has under him now a Secret "Police", the Osservatorio per l'Attuazione della Riforma della Chiesa di Papa Francesco (OARCPF - Observatory for the Implementation of the Church Reform of Pope Francis) sending our e-mail letters of official tone to professors in Roman institutions demanding them to teach Amoris Laetitia according to the mind of the Pope (that is, Holy Communion to public adulterers and fornicators) -- or (the threat is obviously implied) to face expulsion.

The Jefferson Bible, from which the arch-rationalist clipped what he disliked

(This article is being republished by popular demand, in revised form.)

PART OF THE WORK of reassessing the liturgical reform and correcting or rejecting its mistakes consists in making known, as widely as possible, the damage and destruction that was visited upon the unbroken liturgical tradition of the Catholic Church. It has been my experience that far too many Catholics today have simply no idea how much violence was done to the liturgy in the 1960s and 1970s — and that, when they do find out about it, they are rightly and properly scandalized, stirred up with a righteous indignation, and conscious of a new desire to know how they can reconnect with the great tradition that was and is ours as Catholics.

EXPLOSIVE! 4 Cardinals OFFICIALLY ask Pope Francis to Clarify Amoris Laetitia - Updated

A Pope has never been publicly questioned for clarification on a most sensitive matter (his own teaching office) of a more sensitive content (his own major document) by his own Cardinals at any moment since the Counter-Reformation. It is astounding: certainly unheard-of in modern times.

The letter containing 5 clarification questions ("dubia") was signed by four Cardinals on September 18 -- Italian Carlo Caffarra, emeritus of Bologna, American Raymond Burke, emeritus of St Louis and former president of the tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and Germans Walter Brandmüller, eminent historian and emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, and Joachim Meisner, emeritus of Cologne. They were sent with an accompanying letter.

[Update - Our Roman Correspondent Fr. Pio Pace sends us the following: "Following Amoris Laetitia, the reaction of the Cardinals who had spoken against the new made-up moral doctrine at the time of the Synods had been expected. Here it is: four among them have chosen to make public the dubia that they had presented, formally, to the Pope a couple of months ago. It's a true earthquake -- of a moral nature. Four members of the Pope's own Senate (I've been told indeed that those who presented, but did not wish to go public, were more numerous) present him questions on Faith and Morals, according to the procedure of the dubia, which must be answered: either positive (yes) or negative (no) -- with modulations, if necessary, but must be answered. And the Pope made known to the Cardinals that HE WOULD NOT ANSWER THEM. In all truth, it's this silence that makes the earth tremble."]

[Second Update (Nov. 16): A formal correction of the Pope may have to be issued.]

***

The full text is provided below (several sources, including Edward Pentin and Sandro Magister).

Seeking Clarity: A Plea to Untie the Knots in "Amoris Laetitia"

1. A Necessary Foreword

The sending of the letter to His Holiness Pope Francis by four cardinals derives from a deep pastoral concern.

Sermon for the 26th Sunday after Pentecost: "An Earthquake has destroyed the American Post-Modern Liberal Order"

Sermon of the 26th Sunday after Pentecost, 2016

Fr. Richard G. Cipolla

Parish of St. Mary

Norwalk, Connecticut

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians: “For freedom Christ has set us free.” (5:1)

An earthquake hit this country with a magnitude at least as strong as the one that destroyed the Basilica and Monastery of St. Benedict a few weeks ago. It was not a natural earthquake. It did not bring down buildings. But it severely damaged the structure of what we can call post-modern American civilization, a civilization based on the self and money and the denial of objective morality. And the irony of it all—natural earthquakes are never ironical, they just are—and the irony of it all is that the prime mover of the earthquake is a product of that selfish amoral society.

After Trump’s victory, has Pope Francis become the leader of the international left?

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

November 11, 2016

The Cardinal Secretary of State, Parolin sent the Holy See’s congratulations to Donald Trump, expressing its hopes that the new president would work in service to his country and for peace in the world. Also Joseph Kurtz, Archbishop of Louisville and President of the U.S. Bishop’s Conference, congratulated the newly-elected President, urging him to govern for the common good of all citizens. The position of the Vatican diplomacy appears to be correcting, or tempering, that of Pope Francis, who has never concealed his intolerance with the candidate for the American presidency.

The excerpt is translated by Rorate from the interview published in the past few days in Italy -- the interview was conducted by the editor of the official journal of the Holy See (Civiltà Cattolica), Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SI, as part of a book containing homilies of the Pope when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires:

***

The simplicity of children makes me also think of adults, with a rite that is direct, participated intensely [translator's note: reference to notion of 'actuosa participatio'], of parish masses experienced with so much piety. What comes to mind are proposals that encourage priests to turn their backs to the faithful, to rethink Vatican II, to use Latin. I ask the Pope what he thinks of this. The Pope answers:

[Pope:] "Pope Benedict accomplished a just and magnanimous gesture [translator's note: the motu proprio 'Summorum Pontificum'] to reach out to a certain mindset of some groups and persons who felt nostalgia and were distancing themselves. But it is an exception. That is why one speaks of an 'extraordinary' rite. The ordinary in the Church is not this. It is necessary to approach with magnanimity those attached to a certain form of prayer. But the ordinary is not this. Vatican II and Sacrosanctum Concilium must go on as they are. To speak of a 'reform of the reform' is an error."

Last weekend the Latin Mass Society held its annual Requiem in Westminster Cathedral. Solemn Mass was followed by Pontifical absolutions at the catafalque led by Bishop Mark Jabale, the retired bishop of Menevia in Wales. Photos were taken by John Aron.

[Rorate thanks Roger McCaffrey for sharing with us these letters from his father's archives from January 1977 and for providing the following introduction.]

The letters below are part of an epistolary exchange between Neil McCaffrey, Jr. and one of his oldest friends from minor-seminary days in New York, Msgr. Eugene Clark, both protégés of Msgr. Florence Cohalan, noted New York archdiocesan historian and pastor. Both men rather quickly succeeded in their chosen paths, Neil as an executive at Doubleday and Macmillan publishers before founding his own companies; Gene Clark as secretary to Cardinal Spellman and then communications director and aide de camp for Cardinal Cooke. Vatican II liturgical changes were embraced by neither man at first, but Clark eventually took up the party line, and the two old friends quarreled, eventually committing their thoughts to a letter exchange that had several back-and-forths, of which we publish below a pair. The reference to The Wanderer was to the way that newspaper leveled criticism at traditional Mass partisans like Michael Davies while not, McCaffrey complained, giving equal time for responses. The full exchange between Neil and Msgr. Clark will be published in the next print edition of The Traditionalist magazine, in Spring 2017. For the current edition of The Traditionalist, visit BooksForCatholics.com. -- Roger McCaffrey

January 19, 1977

Dear Neil:

Back to the question of Pope Pius V and the Tridentine Mass.

For the Record: Donald Trump wins presidency: defeats pro-abort Clinton - Plus: Pro-Life campaign promises

From LifeSiteNews, on the most expected political news of the year, for the record of current events:

By Claire Chretien

In a stunning victory, Donald Trump has won over 270 electoral votes, beating pro-abortion Hillary Clinton and becoming the 45th president of the United States. Trump's victory became obvious as he won the key states of Ohio, Florida, and Iowa, and now Pennsylvania. He continues to lead in Michigan and Arizona.

Yes, Natural Disasters can be Divine Punishment for Human Iniquity - Roberto de Mattei

Earthquakes and Divine Chastisement

A view of the facade of the Basilica of St. Benedict, in his birthplace of Norcia (Nursia), central Italy, after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 struck the region Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016.

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

November 5, 2016

Since August 24th this year, Italy has been struck by a series of violent earthquakes, and after two months they show no signs of diminishing. According to the seismologists, there have been thousands of aftershocks, different in their intensity and magnitude. Up until now, there have been a limited number of victims, but there has been severe damage to the churches and public and private buildings, depriving tens of thousands of Italians of their material goods and homes.

A Conversation with Bishop Fellay

By Father Kevin M. Cusick*

Rorate correspondent for the

opening of the SSPX Seminary

in Virginia

The faithful gather from far and wide

Dozens of cars from many states and Canada lined the gravel drive that connects the blacktop country road in the small town of Dillwyn, Virginia, with the new seminary of the Society of Saint Pius X on a knoll in the heart of the property. I found an unclaimed spot along a side trail and began to walk myself, joining the faithful young and old on their way to the holy Mass at the head of the day’s events planned to inaugurate the new US headquarters for the mission of forming the priests of the apostolate.

Fr. Rutler: In this presidential election, we cannot be indifferent - one side is flawed, but the other is EVIL

The following column was published via email by Father George W. Rutler, pastor of the Church of St. Michael in New York City. To subscribe to Father Rutler’s weekly column, click here.

FROM THE PASTOR

October 30, 2016

by Fr. George W. Rutler

On the Election

Exactly eight years ago I wrote a column titled “The One We Were Waiting For” in which I referred to a book by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, The Lord of the World. That dystopian novel has been cited by Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis said he has read it several times. The protagonist, if one can apply that term to an Anti-Christ, imposed a new world religion with Man himself as god. His one foe was Christianity, which he thwarted in part by using “compromised Catholics” and compliant priests to persuade timid Catholics.

Since then, that program has been realized in our time, to an extent beyond the warnings of the most dire pessimists. Our federal government has intimidated religious orders and churches, challenging religious freedom. The institution of the family has been re-defined, and sexual identity has been Gnosticized to the point of mocking biology. Assisted suicide is spreading, abortions since 1973 have reached a total equal to the population of Italy, and sexually transmitted diseases are at a record high. Objective journalism has died, justice has been corrupted, racial bitterness ruins cities, entertainment is degraded, knowledge of the liberal arts spirals downwards, and authentically Catholic universities have all but vanished. A weak and confused foreign policy has encouraged aggressor nations and terrorism, while metastasized immigration is destroying remnant western cultures, and genocide is slaughtering Christian populations. The cynical promise of economic prosperity is mocked by the lowest rate of labor participation in forty years, an unprecedented number of people on food stamps and welfare assistance, and the largest disparity in wealth in over a century.

In his own grim days, Saint Augustine warned against nostalgia: “The past times that you think were good, are good because they are not yours here and now.” The present time, however, might try even his confidence. Sands blow over the ruins of churches he knew in North Africa where the Cross is virtually forbidden. By a blessed irony, a new church is opened every day in formerly Communist Russia, while churches in our own formerly Christian nation are being closed daily. For those who bought into the seductions of politicians’ false hopes, there is the counsel of Walt Kelly’s character Pogo: “It’s always darkest before it goes pitch black.”

It is incorrect to say that the coming election poses a choice between two evils. For ethical and aesthetic reasons, there may be some bad in certain candidates, but badness consists in doing bad things. Evil is different: it is the deliberate destruction of truth, virtue and holiness.

While one may pragmatically vote for a flawed candidate, one may not vote for anyone who advocates and enables unmitigatedly evil acts, and that includes abortion. “In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to ‘take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it'” (Evangelium Vitae, 73).

At one party’s convention, the name of God was excluded from its platform and a woman who boasted of having aborted her child was applauded. It is a grave sin, requiring sacramental confession and penance, to become an accomplice in objective evil by voting for anyone who encourages it, for that imperils the nation and destroys the soul.

It is also the duty of the clergy to make this clear and not to shrink, under the pretense of charity, from explaining the Church’s censures. Wolves in sheep’s clothing are dangerous, but worse are wolves in shepherd’s clothing. While the evils foreseen eight years ago were realized, worse would come if those affronts to human dignity were endorsed again. In the most adverse prospect, God forbid, there might not be another free election, and soon Catholics would arrive at shuttered churches and vacant altars. The illusion of indifference cannot long be perpetuated by lame jokes and synthetic laughter at banquets, for there is handwriting on the wall.

Op-Ed: "Kneeling Before Luther", by Roberto de Mattei

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

November 2nd 2016

It is with deep sorrow we say this.

From the 15th to 22nd of November 2016, the Founder of the Fraternity Saint-Vincent-Ferrier, father Louis-Marie de Blignières (Ph.D.), accompanied by two fathers of his Community, father Réginald-Marie Rivoire (J.C.D.) and Ambroise-Marie Pellaumail (Sc.D.), will be in New York.

Thursday 17th: Holy Innocents Church (128 W 37th St). 18:00 : Solemn Mass in the Dominican Rite, followed by a conference.

Sunday 20th : Pequannock, New Jersey, Our Lady of Fatima Chapel (32, W. Franklin Ave.) Masses and Homily: 9:00 ; 11:00 (Solemn Mass followed by a refreshment in the parish and a conference ; 17:00.

Monday 21st : Saint Vincent Ferrer Parish, run by the Dominican Fathers, (869 Lexington Avenue). 19:00 : Solemn Mass in the Dominican Rite, followed by a conference

.More information on the Fraternity available at www.chemere.org

Event: First TLM in St. Patrick's Cathedral (NYC) since the 1990's

The Traditional Catholicism blog announced a few days ago that a Solemn Mass (1962 Missal) will be celebrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral on November 14, the first since Summorum Pontificum took effect and the first in nearly 20 years:

The (traditional) Councils of the Knights of Columbus – the Regina Coeli Council that meets at Holy Innocents & the Agnus Dei Council – received a generous permission from Cardinal Dolan to have a pilgrimage and a (traditional) Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral before the end of the Year of Mercy.

This will be the first time since Summorum Pontificum that a traditional Mass will be publicly celebrated at the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of New York!

AEMAET, an international journal for philosophy and theology, has published a notable article by Claudio Pierantoni on parallels between the Arian crisis, and the current controversies over Amoris Laetitia. The parallels that he draws are chilling. Here is one example:

The Third Mass for All Souls' Day

As the white vestment feast of All Saints draws to a close, we now prepare for the black vestment All Souls' Day. We are pleased to publish a guest post by a priest of the Diocese of Rochester, New York, Father Peter Mottola, on a little-known fact concerning the third of the three Masses offered on 2 November:

by Rev. Peter Mottola, J.C.L.

Both the traditional Latin Mass missal and the novus ordo missal make mention of the ability of any priest to celebrate three Masses on All Souls' Day, citing an apostolic constitution by Pope Benedict XV, Incruentum Altaris sacrificium.

In this 1915 constitution, the pope extended a privilege previously granted to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal to the entire Church. However, the specific intentions for which these three Masses are to be celebrated are often described incompletely or inaccurately. According to the constitution, the first Mass can be applied for whomever the priest wishes, the second is to be applied for all the faithful departed, and the third “ad mentem Summi Pontificis, quam satis superque declaravimus.” One popular Ordo reports that the third Mass is to be celebrated “for the intention of the Pope.” But the constitution states that the third Mass is to be applied, not for the intention of the reigning pontiff, but “according to the mind” or “according to the thinking” of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XV, “which we have sufficiently declared above,” i.e., which he outlined in the text of his constitution.

Please, we beg you, don't forget the poor Souls on All Souls Day tomorrow (Wednesday). Besides getting Masses said for them, as we do here, the best way you can help them tomorrow is this: Plenary Indulgence for each day of the First Full Week in November.

But remember:

* Make a sacramental confession within a week of All Souls Day

* For a plenary indulgence be free from all attachment to sin, even venial sin (otherwise, the indulgence is partial, not plenary, “full”).

Priests: The Souls still need more of you saying Mass for them! Please email me to offer your services. There's nothing special involved -- all you need to do is offer a weekly or monthly TLM with the intention: "For the Souls enrolled in the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society."

The overwhelming majority of our priests are diocesan with all the time crunches that parish life brings. So we are making a special plea today for you traditional order priests -- join the Society! Our traditional Mass-only priests must lead by example. This is a great way to do just that. We are only asking for one TLM a week or a month. Nothing more.

How to enroll souls: please email me at athanasiuscatholic@yahoo.com and submit as follows: "Name, State, Country." If you want to enroll entire families, simply write in the email: "The Jones family, Ohio, USA". Individual names are preferred. Be greedy -- send in as many as you wish and forward this posting to friends as well.

The Church of Christ: A Collection of Essays by Monsignor Joseph C. Fenton. Ed. with an introduction by Christian D. Washburn. Tacoma, WA: Cluny Media, 2016. 362 pp. Paperback. $24.95. Publisher's page / at Amazon.

This collection of essays from one of the greatest American theologians, Msgr. Joseph C. Fenton, makes an urgent and marvelous contribution to the renewal of Catholic theology today. The hermeneutic of rupture has been utterly disastrous. The needed renewal urged by the Second Vatican Council must be pursued once again. The thoughtful, balanced, orthodox, and acute analysis of Msgr. Fenton serves as a prime example of the kind of renewal that was and remains desirable, one in organic continuity with the great tradition, committed to the unchanging dogmas of the Church but open to new insights and corrections in matters purely speculative or hypothetical. Fenton is also clearly a man of prayer, a theologian on his knees yet one who truly practices the rigorous scientific discipline of dogmatic theology. This collection of essays is absolutely essential reading for any serious student of ecclesiology. It will serve as a corrective to the misbegotten attempts at renewal which suffer from an unwillingness to embrace all the unchanging dogmas of faith. It will also invite a return to that thoughtfulness and nuance which in fact informed pre-conciliar theology, a thoughtfulness open to legitimate development.

Sermon for the Feast of Christ the King 2016: We are being purified

Father Richard G. Cipolla

Parish of Saint Mary

Norwalk, Connecticut

From the gospel of John: “Jesus responded to Pilate: ‘My kingdom is not of this world’”

Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage - Final Day

A short report, by Philipp Rogall:

The final day of the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome was the feast of Christ the King. To celebrate this feast, His Grace The Archbishop of Portland, Oregon, the Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample, offered Pontifical High Mass at the church of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, which is the church entrusted to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter in Rome.

The Collapse of the Basilica of St. Benedict

After several earthquakes this year, and the strongest in almost forty years this morning, the Basilica of Saint Benedict in his birthtown of Nursia (Norcia) collapsed today. The monks are thankfully safe.

There was damage in several places throughout central Italy, and even in the Basilica of St. Paul, in Rome (used in recent decades for "ecumenical" happenings.)

God is sending messages, repeatedly, to the faithless people of Europe. To the adulterous people of Italy. To the Holy Church of Rome. He also uses nature, of which He is King and Master, to warn his children. Will they listen?

For thus saith the LORD of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land, And I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. ... The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Haggai, 2

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; Men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved.

St. Luke, 21

Ad Principis Apostolorum Sedem...
- Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage - Day 3 (Mass in St. Peter's - and images)

A short report by Philipp Rogall:

Saturday marked the climax of the 2016 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage to Rome.

Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage - Day 2

A short report by Philipp Rogall:

IMPORTANT: Congregation for Divine Worship membership overhauled. Cardinals Burke, Pell, Ranjith out, Piero Marini in. (Updated)

Today's Vatican Bollettino announced the appointment of 27 prelates as members of the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW), a major overhaul that obviously has a direct impact on the policies and overall directions of the CDW. In the CDW, as with all other Roman dicasteries, all "matters of major importance" and all "questions involving general principles" are reserved to the "extraordinary plenary" meeting (usually held once a year) to which all members are summoned (see Pastor Bonus). Furthermore, all members who happen to reside in Rome also take part in the more frequent "ordinary plenary" meetings. Membership in a Curial dicastery is retained until a member is removed from such membership, or turns 80. As such, Archbishop Piero Marini, who is now 74, will remain a member of the CDW either until he is removed / replaced or until he reaches his 80th birthday on January 13, 2022.

The PrayTell blog has helpfully provided a list of the new members:

Cardinals:

Rainer Maria Woelki, Cologne, Germany;

John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, Abuja, Nigeria;

Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State;

Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, Québec, Canada;

Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso;

John Atcherley Dew, Wellington, New Zealand;

Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, Valladolid, Spain;

Arlindo Gomes Furtado, Santiago de Cabo Verde, Capo Verde;

Gianfranco Ravasi, Pontifical Council for Culture;

Beniamino Stella, Congregation for Clergy;

Archbishops:

Dominic Jala, Shillong, India;

Domenico Sorrentino, Assisi‑Nocera Umbra‑Gualdo Tadino, Italy;

Denis James Hart, Melbourne, Australia;

Piero Marini, President of pontifical committee for Eucharistic congresses;

Bernard‑Nicolas Aubertin, Tours, France;

Romulo G. Valles, Davao, Philippines;

Lorenzo Voltolini Esti, Portoviejo, Ecuador;

Bishops:

Arthur Joseph Serratelli, Paterson, NJ, USA;

Alan Stephen Hopes, East Anglia, Great Britain;

Claudio Maniago, Castellaneta, Italy;

Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, Oslo, Norway;

Miguel Ángel D’Annibale, Rio Gallegos, Argentina;

José Manuel Garcia Cordeiro, Bragança‑Miranda, Portugal;

Charles Morerod, Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, Switzerland;

Jean‑Pierre Kwambamba Masi, auxiliary of Kinshasa, Congo;

Benny Mario Travas, Multan, Pakistan;

John Bosco Chang Shin‑Ho, auxiliary of Daegu, Korea.

PrayTell reports that up to now, Cardinals Burke and Pell had remained members of CDW. With the new wave of appointments they have lost their membership. [UPDATE Oct. 29, 2016: According to Catholic Culture, other conservative Cardinals who had been members of the CDW up to now, but are now removed, are Bagnasco, Ouellet, Scola and Ranjith. Cardinal Piacenza was also removed according to PrayTell.]

Guest Op-Ed - The Language of the Church: On the Perennial Importance of Latin

By Veronica A. Arntz

Pope Francis has repeatedly called the Church to become a “culture of encounter.” What this has come to mean is that we engage other people and cultures, meeting them where they are at, in order to bring them the Gospel message.

While we are always called to evangelize others, this understanding of “culture of encounter” can lead toward watered down catechesis, and a watered down understanding of the Church. Central to discovering the legitimacy of this “encounter” movement is the question of language.

Fundamentally, we may ask the following question: Does the Church have one language or many languages? The premise for the culture of encounter is that the Church has many languages, and we need to speak the particular language of the culture to pass on the faith. While it is obvious that the Church is made up of many cultures that speak many languages, does this necessarily mean that the Church herself has many languages, particularly many languages for the celebration of the Roman rite liturgy? Language can be taken in two senses: internal and external. I would like to argue that the Church has one internal language, which is the essence of her beliefs, and one primary external language, the language of Latin, to express that internal reality, especially in the liturgy.

Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage - Day 1

A short report by Philipp Rogall:

A few pilgrims gathered for Low Mass at Ss Trinità dei Pelligrini this evening, during which a few opening words for the pilgrimage were said.

Event: Cardinal blesses first building of Traditional Personal Parish in Houston, Texas

We are pleased to announce the upcoming Blessing in the Extraordinary Form of St. Athanasius Chapel Hall by His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo. St. Athanasius is the first building on the site of Regina Caeli Parish, which is the Apostolate of Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) in Houston, Texas. The blessing will be followed by a Solemn Mass.

The photo is of the Altar area which was built largely with the labor of the faithful and the crucifix was completely restored by a parishioner (photo courtesy of Regina Caeli Parish).

Time and date information below:

Merely a preference.

The new CDF instruction on burial and cremation, which was released yesterday, is being hailed in the Catholic media as a reaffirmation of the Church's "strong preference" for burial. One finds headlines that speak of the document as putting "restrictions" on cremation, or as instituting "strict conditions" upon it. Unfortunately, after a careful reading of the document and considering the pervasive culture of permissions and exceptions in the Church, we are compelled to come to different conclusions.

To put the new instruction in context, we need to revisit the first document by which the Holy See relaxed the traditional ban on cremation on a global scale: the instruction Piam et constantem, issued by the Holy Office in 1963 and published in L' Osservatore Romano and Acta Apostolicae Sedis the following year. (An English translation of this document can be found here.) Written with the customary brevity and clarity of the old Holy Office, it speaks of the various temporal reasons that compelled the Holy Office to "relax somewhat the prescriptions of canon law touching on cremation". Henceforth, cremation was permitted, as long as it was not chosen due to "anti-Christian motives". However, it remained officially discouraged (even if no longer forbidden). This was made abundantly clear in the first and fourth articles of the instruction:

All necessary measures must be taken to preserve the practice of reverently burying the faithful departed. Accordingly, through proper instruction and persuasion Ordinaries are to ensure that the faithful refrain from cremation and not discontinue the practice of burial except when forced to do so by necessity. For the Church has always maintained the practice of burial and consecrated it through liturgical rites.

***

The devout attitude of the faithful toward the ecclesiastical tradition must be kept from being harmed and the Church's adverse attitude toward cremation must be clearly evident. Therefore the rites of ecclesiastical burial and the ensuing suffrages may never be carried out at the place of cremation itself, not even simply to accompany the body as it is being brought there.

Dom Josef Vollberg, O.C.S.O.

In a letter to friends of the Abbey of Mariawald, O.C.S.O. published by Gloria.tv, Abbot Josef Vollberg has announced that he is resigning as abbot. As his reason Dom Vollberg states that he takes this step in order to avoid "the risk... that the abbey could be closed against the will of the community." The abbey will now be ruled by its pater immediatus, Abbot Bernardus Peeters of the Abbey of Koningshoeven in the Netherlands. Abbot Bernardus has appointed Dom Josef to serve as prior of the community after his resignation as abbot comes into effect on the first Sunday of Advent.

In the evening of Friday, October 14, 2016, the official launch of the Czech translation of my book Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis: Sacred Liturgy, the Traditional Latin Mass, and Renewal in the Church was held at historic Strahov Abbey in Prague. His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke gave an introduction in which he spoke of the importance of the sacred liturgy in his own life, his experience of the painful years of liturgical reform and experimentation, and his joy that Catholic tradition is being rediscovered today by young people. He then spoke about the book, recommending it to the audience of about 130 people, including journalists and a national Catholic TV station, gathered in the winter refectory of the abbey. Sitting at the same table were the book's Czech translator, Fr. Štěpán Smolen, and one of the members of the publishing team, Mr. Andrej Kutarna, who also translated the lecture below into Czech.

The text of the lecture is reproduced in full.

Instruction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Burial and Cremation

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

Instruction
Ad resurgendum cum Christo
regarding the burial of the deceased
and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation

1. To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must “be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:8). With the Instruction Piam et Constantem of 5 July 1963, the then Holy Office established that “all necessary measures must be taken to preserve the practice of reverently burying the faithful departed”, adding however that cremation is not “opposed per se to the Christian religion” and that no longer should the sacraments and funeral rites be denied to those who have asked that they be cremated, under the condition that this choice has not been made through “a denial of Christian dogmas, the animosity of a secret society, or hatred of the Catholic religion and the Church”.[1] Later this change in ecclesiastical discipline was incorporated into the Code of Canon Law (1983) and the Code of Canons of Oriental Churches (1990).

Bishop Schneider's pontifical solemn Mass for the feast of Blessed Karl

His Excellency Athanasius Schneider is in the United States for a nine-day visit to several churches that invited him for traditional Latin Masses and lectures. His public schedule includes four pontifical solemn Masses and three pontifical low Masses, in Washington, D.C., New York City, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio, in addition to lectures and conferences around those regions.

Photos courtesy Joseph Vitacco

Event: Mary and the spirit of the liturgy in Vancouver

De Mattei: To which Church does Pope Bergoglio belong?

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

October 19, 2016

Two anniversaries overlap each other in 2017: the 100 years of the Fatima apparitions, occurring between May 13^th and October 13^th1917, and the 500 years of Luther’s revolt, beginning in Wittenberg, Germany, October 31st 1517. However, there are two other much less discussed anniversaries which also fall next year: the 300 years of the official foundation of Freemasonry (London, June 24^th 1717) and the 100 years of the Russian Revolution of October 26^th 1917 (the Julian calendar in use in the Russian Empire: November 8^th according to the Gregorian calendar). Yet, between the Protestant Revolution and the Communist Revolution through to the French Revolution, the daughter of Freemasonry, there runs an indissoluble red thread which Pius XII, in his famous discourse Nel contemplare of October 12^th 1952, summed up in three historic phrases, corresponding to Protestantism, the Age of Enlightenment and Marxist atheism: Christ – yes, Church – no. God – yes, Christ – no. Finally the impious cry: God is dead; in fact: God has never been”.

Dear Fathers: An Advent challenge for you

A note and call to action for our priestly readers (and for our lay readers, send this post to your local parish priests):

We often hear from diocesan priests who either pray a private traditional Latin Mass but whose public Masses are Novus Ordo, or priests who say one TLM a week, with the rest of their Masses being the Novus Ordo. What they tell us is that they either have no room in their schedule to add the TLM, or that one TLM a week is all they can do, due to the ignorance of their Novus Ordo parishioners which would not support any or additional traditional Masses.

Looking at this situation dispassionately (and without the blue hairs complaining vociferously in our ears, as we know you dear Fathers deal with), it all seems to boil down to fear of the unknown: Your parishioners don't know what they're missing, your schedule is already full even if the pews aren't and you don't know how to introduce them to the traditional Mass.

Bold idea and challenge for priests: Whether you have a weekly TLM already or not, choose your highest attended Novus Ordo Sunday Mass and, the first week of Advent, make it a TLM.

This would preferably be a Sung Mass. If you can't pull together polyphony or chant, your typical choir will work. And if they can't pull off a full Missa Cantata, a "four-hymn sandwich" Low Mass will do. If you don't have servers trained in the TLM, just ask the nearest parish that offers it. They will surely part with two servers for one Sunday to spread tradition. And don't worry about the fine details. If you're missing certain things, most won't notice anyway.

EXCLUSIVE - The Marxist Revolutionary: New Jesuit Superior-General revealed by those who knew him in Venezuela

Hours after Cardinal Bergoglio was elected Pope, Rorate was the first to bring you inside information from Argentina on what to expect (The Horror: A Buenos Aires Journalist describes Bergoglio).

Now, Rorate, surrounded by friends around the globe, has been contacted by a Venezuelan source, eager to tell the world what exactly to expect of the new Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (the Pope's own religious society), Fr. Arturo Sosa Abascal, based on his experience in his native land, now wrecked by the Socialism brought on, in great measure, by Marxist "Catholics".

In reality, the current situation in Venezuela, of widespread hunger and desperation, is exactly what Liberation Theology looks in practice. And Sosa was a big part of this.

Now to our guest-piece.

A brief note on Father Arturo Sosa

Antonio Francés (nom-de-plume)

Dear friend,

I have known Father Arturo Sosa Abascal for a long time. Unfortunately, what I have seen in him is not in line with the teaching of Christ.

The great Father Chad Ripperger has delivered a powerful talk on the demonic, how demons attack certain generations, how they are passed from parent to child and generation to generation, and what we can do to prevent this. It's well worth a listen.

Click here to listen to this powerful conference.

We would even recommend sending it to lukewarm Catholics who you know are history buffs as it could prove interesting to them from a historical perspective and wake them up to their faith -- and the dangers that lie ahead.

Also: Click here to visit the main website of Sensus Traditionis. It's a stock pile of wonderful sermons, conferences, audio and video. And the written text documents mentioned in the above conference on generations is housed on the site as well.

Last, please pray for Fr. Ripperger and his work.

THE NEW RELIGION - | free online booklet by Don Pietro Leone | SECOND PART

[First part here]

II - GNOSIS IN THE PERVERTED CABALA

We said that Gnosis was seen amongst men for the first time in Original Sin.

Before continuing however, we wish to observe that it was manifest even before, in the Fall of the Angels. For since the essence of a thing is determined by its ultimate end, we may identify the essence of Gnosis as the attempt on the part of the creature to deify himself. This, however, had already occurred with the rebellion of the angels. Lucifer and the other angels wanted to make themselves God, that is to say without God: by their own unaided and natural efforts. The consequence was their fall and their transformation from angels into devils.

King Kigeli V, RIP

The last king of Rwanda has died, Kigeli V Ndahindurwa. As the BBC reported today: "Born Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa, King Kigeli V came to power in 1959 but was only king of Rwanda until 1961, when the monarchy was abolished and he was forced into exile."

He moved to the Washington, D.C., area after leaving Africa. Several of our readers in the eastern United States have likely encountered him over the last several decades, as he was a regular at traditional Latin Masses, lectures and events.