Why 9/11 Is Special To Christians September 9, 2021 Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on what 9/11 means to him: The 20th anniversary of 9/11 carries great significance to all Americans (at least those who are patriotic), but it has a special meaning for Christians. First some thoughts on the fateful day. On September 11, 2001, I was in my Manhattan office typing away when I heard a male staffer scream. It was around 8:50 a.m. He said something about the World Trade Center (the Twin Towers could easily be seen by looking south from our 34th floor office). A big hole, with smoke coming out, could be seen in one of the high floors of the two buildings. I thought that some errant pilot had crashed into it, so I told everyone to go back to work. Minutes later there was another scream, and this time I saw the immediate aftermath of the crash. I also knew we were at war. This was no accident—this was Islamists at war with America. We witnessed the towers go down, one floor after another, collapsing like pancakes. No one could leave New York. The police had cordoned off the Penn Station area where our office is. I surveyed the staff and noticed that some were freaking out. So I said we are leaving. I told them we were going for pizza and beer—just sitting around staring out the window was not healthy. At the pizza joint we could not escape what happened. TVs were on in every corner. I said a prayer, and some Jewish men sitting nearby joined in with us. We later departed and made our way home. So why is 9/11 special to Christians? For weeks on end, all we saw on TV in New York were ceremonies and funerals for the first responders. We lost 343 firefighters, including the department chief of the FDNY, first deputy commissioner, one of the marshals, and a Catholic chaplain, Father Mychal Judge. We also lost 60 police officers from various units. A year later I asked staff members to call various New York fire departments, and the NYPD, to see if they had any official statistics, based on religion, of who died. No official data were available, but the most common estimates were that 85-90 percent were Catholic. This was not surprising. After all, TV coverage of the funerals were almost all at Catholic churches. New York City, being heavily Catholic and Jewish, was always known for its high concentration of Catholics in the FDNY and NYPD. Today, roughly 70 percent of the armed forces is comprised of Christians; non-Christians are underrepresented. Among veterans, religious Americans, most of whom are Christian, are overrepresented. Indeed, one-in-five religious Americans are veterans. This is about twice the proportion found among those who have no religious affiliation. Indeed, those with no religion are 50-60 percent less likely to have served in the armed forces. Religious Americans are also more generous in contributing to charities, and this includes those who gave to a 9/11 organization or event. According to Arthur C. Brooks, one of the nation’s premier chroniclers of charitable giving, “People who never attended church were 11 percentage points less likely than regular churchgoers to give to a 9/11 cause (56 to 67 percent).” If people of faith, especially Christians, have given so much to our nation, why are they treated with such derision by left-wing activists and pundits? Why are they maliciously compared to the vicious barbarians known as the Taliban? Just last month, MSNBC host Joy Reid warned of the “religious right,” saying the nation was threatened by those “dreaming of a theocracy that would impose a particular brand of Christianity on American society.” Actor Tim Russ of “Star Trek” fame fumed that “The Taliban are as fanatical about their beliefs and culture as the millions of people right here in the U.S. who believe in religion, conspiracy theories, and alternate reality.” He previously said that the U.S. “already has Sharia law,” which he identified as “Christian Sharia Law.” Michael Moore said that upon the evacuation of Americans from Afghanistan, it was time to defend our nation “against our own domestic Taliban.” The left-wing activist previously identified them as Christians.  We at the Catholic League have also been called the Taliban, even though, to my knowledge, no one who has worked here has ever walked the streets with a machete or thrown a homosexual off a building. No matter, in 2010, because I merely objected to a publicly funded artistic attack on Catholics, a professor of “Queer Studies” labeled the Catholic League the “American Taliban.” As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, I am proud of my country. I am also proud to be a Catholic. It means a lot to me that Christians have had such a big role in defending us. But I have nothing but contempt for those who besmirch their efforts. It is sickening to note that among those who have benefited the most from the sacrifices of the military are those who never served a day in their life but are quick to trash conservative Christians. The Michael Moores of this world are the real disgrace, not faithful Americans who continue to protect them.

CATHOLIC BISHOPS AND AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

NEWS:COMMENTARY

   by Un Fils de Notre–Dame  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  September 8, 2021    

The United States needs the Church

A recent Vortex about the “blundering bishops” and our national government featured the following statements:

• “The Catholic empire has fallen just as surely as the American empire has; in fact, the American empire has fallen because the Catholic empire fell first”
• “The U.S. hierarchy led the way, all the way back to the 1960s, publicly and in private”

But, it was not always that way. The contrapositive of these statements is also true:

• The United States experienced its historic success because the American Catholic Church hierarchy was successful first
• The U.S. Catholic hierarchy led the way for the American republic for the first century and a half of U.S. national existence

The Catholic hierarchy of the United States was the original foundation of “American exceptionalism” — that unique excellence of our government and our people that makes the United States stand out from the rest of the world’s nations. Indeed, the Catholic hierarchy played a key role in the emergence of our republic from the throes of the Revolutionary War.

Our Founding Bishops

At the outset, we can say that the United States would not have persisted and defeated the British Empire without a papal intervention initiated by John Carroll, our first bishop. In 1781, Bp. Carroll persuaded Pope Pius VI to prevail upon the Catholic French King Louis XVI to order the French naval fleet to confront the British fleet at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, thus isolating the British Army at Yorktown, Virginia and forcing the surrender by Gen. Charles Cornwallis to Gen. George Washington.

We know of this because the British king, George III, actually acknowledged — in a conversation with the British prime minister William Pitt (the Younger) — the key role Pope Pius VI played in influencing the King of France. So the United States would likely not exist without the Catholic hierarchy’s inducement of the King of France to aid the Continental Army of Gen. Washington in its definitive defeat of the British at Yorktown.Vortex: Blundering Bishops and Biden

Of course, Bp. Carroll was quick to latch on to the Blessed Virgin Mary — honoring both the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Our Lady before any pope declared these doctrines infallibly. Bishop Carroll consecrated the United States to the Immaculate Conception and named our first cathedral at Baltimore for the Assumption.

In fact, after Bp. Carroll’s example, other U.S. bishops continued the trend of Marian piety by consecrating the nation to the Immaculata and by instigating the dogmatic declaration of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX on Dec. 8, 1854.

Consider just some of the first generation of bishops who unanimously endorsed this dogma in the 1846 Provincial Council of Baltimore — including John Baptist Purcell and Richard Pius Miles. Note well that the bishops of the nascent republic helped advance the dogma of the Immaculate Conception over the course of the decade following the council.

Bishop Purcell of Cincinnati, years before the dogma was proclaimed, bought the land where he ultimately erected the Church of the Immaculata, a famous landmark on Mount Adams in Cincinnati and a virtual “lighthouse” for the Ohio River. This parish church became a widely recognized shrine to the Immaculate Conception, venerated long before the U.S. bishops built the shrine church by that name at our national capital.

Bishop Purcell also successfully nudged the local secular authorities to declare an official holiday on Dec. 8, 1854 closing businesses in Cincinnati, in order to honor the papal declaration of the dogma on that day.

Richard Pius Miles (the first bishop of Nashville and a native of Maryland who grew up in Kentucky) participated in advancing recognition of the Immaculate Conception dogma, both at the Sixth and Seventh Provincial Councils of Baltimore (held in 1846 and 1849, respectively). When the diocese of Nashville, in 1972, sought to move his tomb from under the main altar at the former cathedral, the Church of St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows — after 112 years — his body was found incorrupt.

While John Nepomucene Neumann was not named a bishop until 1852 and thus did not participate in the Provincial Councils, he did play a prominent role in the actual papal proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. He was personally selected by Pope Pius IX (alone among all of the bishops and cardinals present that day) to hold the original document while the Pope read aloud the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus in the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter on Dec. 8, 1854.

Subsequent Prelates

America continued to produce distinguished Catholic bishops even after the founding generation. Before World War I, the U.S. bishops — through the effort of Msgr. Thomas J. Shahan, rector of the Catholic University of America — obtained papal approval for a national shrine church at Washington, D.C. honoring the Immaculate Conception. There had been discussion about such a monumental church as early as 1846 (when the Sixth Provincial Council dedicated the nation to the Immaculata). Monsignor Shahan proposed the shrine church in 1910 and obtained the personal approval of Pope Pius X in 1913.

The pope named Shahan a titular bishop in 1914, and the monsignor continued as head of Catholic University until 1928. Along with many other bishops (such as John Francis Noll of Fort Wayne, Indiana), this early-20th-century episcopal generation advanced the construction of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. With its cornerstone laid in 1920, by 1931, a crypt level was opened and a distinct chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes was built.

Despite being impeded by the Great Depression and World War II, the bishops persevered, and under the leadership of Bp. John Francis Noll, construction of the national Marian shrine church began by 1954. The completed structure was dedicated in 1959. In the interim, the U.S. Catholic bishops formed a vanguard of prominent leadership throughout the nation. In 1934, another Cincinnati archbishop, John T. McNicholas, founded the National Legion of Decency to combat pornography, especially in motion pictures.

In November 1947, the U.S. bishops, in their National Catholic Welfare Conference annual meeting at Washington, issued a valiant statement: “Secularism — Root of World’s Travail.”  Consider these brief excerpts from that landmark document:

• “No man can disregard God — and play a man’s part in God’s world. Unfortunately, however, there are many men — and their number is daily increasing — who in practice live their lives without recognizing that this is God’s world.”
• “This, in essence, is what we mean by secularism. It is a view of life that limits itself not to the material in exclusion of the spiritual, but to the human here and now in exclusion of man’s relation to God here and hereafter. Secularism, or the practical exclusion of God from human thinking and living, is at the root of the world’s travail today.”
• “Secularism, in its impact on the individual, blinds him to his responsibility to God. All the rights, all the freedoms of man derive originally from the fact that he is a human person, created by God after His own image and likeness. In this sense, he is ‘endowed by his Creator with certain unalienable rights.'”
• “Secularism has wrought havoc in the family. Even the pagans saw something sacred in marriage.”
• “In no field of social activity has secularism done more harm than in education.”
• “In the international community, there can be only one real bond of sane common action — the natural law, which calls to God, its Author, and derives from Him its sanctions. There is objective right and objective wrong in international life.”
• “Secularism, which exiles God from human life, clears the way for the acceptance of godless subversive ideologies — just as religion, which keeps God in human life, has been the one outstanding opponent of totalitarian tyranny. Religion has been its first victim; for tyrants persecute what they fear.”
• “In the dark days ahead, we dare not follow the secularist philosophy. We must be true to our historic Christian culture.”

(The famous Peter John “Fulton” Sheen, ordained a bishop in the spring of 1951, was a junior member of this generation.)

Imagine, 20 years later, the two clerics named “Theodore” — Theodore McCarrick and Theodore Hesburgh — engineered the Land O’ Lakes Statement, a contradiction of this solid 1947 bishops’ statement against secularism.

Private Revelation and Spiritual Putrefaction

Beginning in 1956, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a Catholic religious sister in Indiana and in Ohio, revealing her title and mission as “Our Lady of America.” These private revelations were approved by Cincinnati’s archbishop Paul Francis Leibold. In these revelations, Our Lady asked in her first spoken words (on Sept. 26, 1956), that the American bishops honor her in a specific way. “I am Our Lady of America,” she said. “I desire that my children honor me, especially by the purity of their lives.”

The sister wrote on Nov. 15, 1956:

Our Lady taught me this little prayer: “By the Holy and Immaculate Conception, O Mary, deliver us from evil.” Our Lady then asked me to draw a picture of her first appearance. She also requested a statue made according to this likeness and placed, after being solemnly carried in procession, in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. She wishes to be honored there in a special way as Our Lady of America, the Immaculate Virgin.

On Oct. 7, 1957, the religious sister recorded that Our Lady confided to her:

Making the Rosary a family prayer is very pleasing to me. I ask that all families strive to do so. But be careful to say it with great devotion, meditating on each mystery and striving to imitate in your daily lives the virtues depicted therein. Live the mysteries of the Rosary as I lived them, and it will become a chain binding you to me forever. They who are found in the circle of my Rosary will never be lost. I myself will lead them at death to the throne of My Son, to be eternally united to Him.

On Feb. 23, 1959, the sister recorded:

Our Lady came to me and admonished me to work on the “message” as soon as possible so that it might be placed in the hands of the bishops who would be responsible for its fulfillment. In a very serious manner, Our Lady warned me that I must not delay any longer to do this, as the time is now.

What happened to this pointed request directed at the U.S. bishops by “Our Lady of America,” made in a private revelation approved by Abp. Leibold? Her request, the advice of the Blessed Virgin Mary herself, intended to foster purity, was apparently ignored while the bishops allowed or entertained such anomalies as a widespread sodomitic subculture among the hierarchy; Holy Communion chaos (e.g., permitting adulterers to receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord); the rejection of Humanae Vitae; cashing in on immigration crimes; bad liturgical music with heretical or Protestant lyrics; dancing Masses, clown Masses and accordion Masses; etc.  

Perhaps the years of inaction by U.S. bishops in addressing the singular request of Our Lady of America regarding her statue and the recent decree of the bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend abnegating the supernatural origins of the Our Lady of America apparition have brought the United States to a definitive fork in the road.The Blessed Virgin Mary intended to foster purity but was apparently ignored.GabTweet

Why wouldn’t Our Lady of America reasonably expect the Catholic bishops of this new nation to hold that solemn procession and grant the permanent emplacement of her likeness (one in which she displays her sorrowful and immaculate heart and holds out the Lily of Purity)?

Undoubtedly Our Heavenly Mother had some knowledge from her divine Son about the onslaught of temptations, mental blindness, immorality and impurity that was just over the horizon. She knew that purity as the gateway to the realization of the indwelling Trinity in U.S. citizens would mark a great turnaround — beginning in the American republic and spreading like wildfire throughout the face of the earth. Free clip from CHURCH MILITANT PremiumWATCH MORE LIKE THIS

Time is short. Led by the bishop who is supposedly the USCCB leader on doctrine, a small group of bishops has stymied this devotion to Our Lady of America with a tendentious “singular decree” and related statements. This bishop, Kevin Rhoades of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese, is the same local bishop who abides the University of Notre Dame — a fountainhead of intellectual blindness, moral filth and spiritual putrefaction that continuously spreads daft ideas about Catholic theology and sacred liturgy. He is apparently now in charge of the USCCB doctrinal inquiry into “Eucharistic coherence,” which is slated to discuss the issue of whether and how pro-abortion “Catholic” politicians may receive the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Let us pray that the seeming handful of remaining good Catholic bishops get this whole mess straightened out. Perhaps they could start by advancing that solemn procession and permanent emplacement of an Our Lady of America statue in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception!

Communique of the Superiors-General of the “Ecclesia Dei” Communities

Superior General Andrzej Komorowski, FSSP and the other heads of various “Ecclesia Dei” communities met this past week in Courtalain in France and wrote a communique directed to the Bishops of France–not to the Holy See or the Church at large. The statement is now widely circulating online, but we wished to republish it here with that slight clarification about its intended audience. –ed.

Communique of the Superiors-General of the “Ecclesia Dei” Communities

“The mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh.”

(Sirach 18, 13)

The signatory Institutes want, above all, to reiterate their love for the Church and their fidelity to the Holy Father. This filial love is tinged with great suffering today. We feel suspected, marginalized, banished. However, we do not recognize ourselves in the description given in the accompanying letter of the Motu Proprio Traditionis custodes, of July 16, 2021.

“If we say we have no sin …” (I John 1, 8)

We do not see ourselves as the “true Church” in any way. On the contrary, we see in the Catholic Church our Mother in whom we find salvation and faith. We are loyally subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Pontiff and that of the diocesan bishops, as demonstrated by the good relations in the dioceses (and the functions of Presbyteral Councillor, Archivist, Chancellor, or Official which have been entrusted to our members), and the result of canonical or apostolic visits of recent years. We reaffirm our adherence to the magisterium (including that of Vatican II and what follows), according to the Catholic doctrine of the assent due to it (cf. in particular Lumen Gentium, no. 25, and Catechism of the Catholic Church , no. 891 and 892), as evidenced by the numerous studies and doctoral theses carried out by several of us over the past 33 years.

Have any mistakes been made? We are ready, as every Christian is, to ask forgiveness if some excess of language or mistrust of authority may have crept into any of our members. We are ready to convert if party spirit or pride has polluted our hearts.

“Fulfill your vows unto the Most High” (Psalm 49:14)

We beg for a humane, personal, trusting dialogue, far from ideologies or the coldness of administrative decrees. We would like to be able to meet a person who will be for us the face of the Motherhood of the Church. We would like to be able to tell him about the suffering, the tragedies, the sadness of so many lay faithful around the world, but also of priests, men and women religious who gave their lives trusting on the word of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

They were promised that “all measures would be taken to guarantee the identity of their Institutes in the full communion of the Catholic Church”[1]. The first Institutes accepted with gratitude the canonical recognition offered by the Holy See in full attachment to the traditional pedagogies of the faith, particularly in the liturgical field (based on the Memorandum of Understanding of May 5, 1988, between Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Lefebvre). This solemn commitment was expressed in the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei of July 2, 1988; then in a diversified manner for each Institute, in their decrees of erection and in their constitutions definitively approved. The men and women religious and priests involved in our Institutes have made vows or made commitments according to this specification.

It is in this way that, trusting in the word of the Supreme Pontiff, they gave their lives to Christ to serve the Church. These priests and men and women religious served the Church with dedication and abnegation. Can we deprive them today of what they are committed to? Can we deprive them of what the Church had promised them through the mouth of the Popes?

“Have patience with me!” (Mt 18:29)

Pope Francis, “encourage[s] the Church’s pastors to listen to them with sensitivity and serenity, with a sincere desire to understand their plight and their point of view, in order to help them live better lives and to recognize their proper place in the Church.”(Amoris Laetitia, 312). We are eager to entrust the tragedies we are living to a father’s heart. We need listening and goodwill, not condemnation without prior dialogue.

The harsh judgment creates a feeling of injustice and produces resentment. Patience softens hearts. We need time.

Today we hear of disciplinary apostolic visits to our Institutes. We ask for fraternal meetings where we can explain who we are and the reasons for our attachment to certain liturgical forms. Above all, we want a truly human and merciful dialogue: “Have patience with me!”

“Circumdata varietate” (Ps 44:10).

On August 13, the Holy Father affirmed that in liturgical matters, “unity is not uniformity but the multifaceted harmony created by the Holy Spirit”[2]. We are eager to make our modest contribution to this harmonious and diverse unity, aware that, as Sacrosanctum Concilium teaches, “the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows” (SC, n ° 10).

With confidence, we turn first to the bishops of France so that a true dialogue be opened and that a mediator be appointed who will be for us the human face of this dialogue. We must, “avoid judgements which do not take into account the complexity of various situations … It is a matter of reaching out to everyone, of needing to help each person find his or her proper way of participating in the ecclesial community and thus to experience being touched by an ‘unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous’ mercy.” (Amoris Laetitia, no. 296-297).

Done at Courtalain (France), August 31, 2021.

Fr. Andrzej Komorowski, Superior-General of the Fraternity of Saint Peter

Msgr. Gilles Wach, Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

Fr. Luis Gabriel Barrero Zabaleta, Superior-General of the Institute of the Good Shepherd

Fr. Louis-Marie de Blignières, Superior-General of the Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer

Fr. Gerald Goesche, General Provost of the Institute of Saint Philip Neri

Fr. Antonius Maria Mamsery, Superior-General of the Missionaries of the Holy Cross

Dom Louis-Marie de Geyer d’Orth, Father Abbot of the Abbey of Saint Magdalen of Le Barroux

Fr.  Emmanuel-Marie Le Fébure du Bus,  Father Abbot of the Canons of the Abbey of Lagrasse

Dom Marc Guillot, Father Abbot of the Abbey of Saint Mary of  la Garde

Mother Placide Devillers, Mother Abbess of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Le Barroux

Mother Faustine Bouchard, Prioress of the Canonesses of Azille

Mother Madeleine-Marie, Superior of the Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus Sovereign Priest

_____________

[1] Informative Note of June 16, 1988, in Documentation Catholique, no. 1966, p. 739. 

[2] Video Message of Pope Francis to the participants of the Congress on Religious Life.

Translation from Rorate Caeli. Original French document: Notre-Dame de Chrétienté/ Paris-Chartres Pilgrimage.

September 3, 2021

		In light of so much bad news, some good news. An international group of laymen (journalists, professors, writers, activists) has signed an open letter to Catholics of the world, demanding retraction of Francis’ cataclysmic motu proprio, Traditionis Custodes, attempting to abrogate the Traditional Latin Mass. Join this august body as one of the signatories of this letter, which includes the following as its penultimate paragraph: “Before God and before all men, we solemnly affirm that we will not allow anyone to deprive the faithful of this treasure which is first and foremost that of the Church. We will not remain inactive in the face of the spiritual suffocation of vocations that the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes will bring about. We will not deprive our children of the unique means of transmitting the faith that is faithfulness to the traditional liturgy.” Rumors out of the Vatican just now are not good, as they suggest Francis is about to make yet another move against the Traditional Latin Mass. Whether these rumors are true or not, the time to strike back is right now. For the sake of your children as well as the future of our Church, please share this letter with everyone you know. We will not back down. We must not back down, not this time, not again! The line in the sand is drawn, and Francis drew it. If he wants a war, he’ll get one. Traditional Catholic laymen are united in one purpose, and we will not let them take the Mass from us again. Thanks for helping me get the world out.  It’s this Mass that matters. In Christo Rege, Michael J. Matt

September 8th, 2021| 

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Wednesday, September 8, 2021

WE WILL NOT DEPRIVE OUR CHILDREN: International Group of Catholic Lay Leaders Call for Revocation of Traditionis Custodes

Letter from the Faithful Attached to the Traditional Latin Mass, to Catholics of the Whole World

“What man is there among you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone?” (Mt 7:9)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We have been deeply saddened to learn of Pope Francis’ decision to revoke the main provisions of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum promulgated by Pope Benedict XVI on July 7, 2007. After decades of division and quarrels, Summorum Pontificum was a source of peace and reconciliation for all Catholics.

Rome has violated Pope Benedict XVI’s solemn word in a brutal and rigid manner that is a far cry from the fraternal welcome that is nowadays so widely proclaimed.

Pope Francis’ explicit intent, as expressed in the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes of July 16, 2021, is to see an end of the celebration of the Holy Mass handed down by the Tradition of the Church. We are deeply shocked by this decision. How can we comprehend this radical break with the traditional Missal, which is the “venerable and ancient” enactment of the “law of the faith”, and has borne fruit in so many peoples, saints and missionaries? And what harm is being done by those faithful who simply want to pray as their fathers have prayed for so many centuries? Who can ignore the fact that the Tridentine Mass converts many souls, attracts young and fervent congregations, and inspires many vocations; that it has been the wellspring of seminaries, religious communities, and monasteries; that it is the mainstay of many schools, youth ministries, catechetical work, spiritual retreats and pilgrimages?

Many of you – our Catholic brothers, priests and bishops – have expressed to us your incomprehension and deep sorrow: we thank you for your numerous testimonies of support.

Summorum Pontificum’s stated purpose was to promote peace within the Church in order to build unity in charity, but it was also designed to lead Catholics to renew their ties with their own inheritance, by helping as many people as possible to discover the rich liturgical tradition that is the treasure of the Church. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is witnessing the destruction of his work of reconciliation in his own lifetime.

In this age of materialism and of harrowing social and cultural division, liturgical peace is an absolute necessity for the faith and spiritual life of Catholics, in a world that is dying of thirst. The drastic curtailment of the authorization to celebrate Mass in its traditional form will rekindle mistrust and doubt, and heralds the resurgence of a devastating liturgical quarrel that will rip apart the Christian people.

Before God and before all men, we solemnly affirm that we will not allow anyone to deprive the faithful of this treasure which is first and foremost that of the Church. We will not remain inactive in the face of the spiritual suffocation of vocations that the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes will bring about. We will not deprive our children of the unique means of transmitting the faith that is faithfulness to the traditional liturgy.

As loyal sons of their father, we ask of Pope Francis that he reverse his decision, repealing Traditionis Custodes and restoring full freedom to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, for the glory of God and the good of the faithful. Bread rather than stones.

September 8, 2021
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Signatories Below:

Jeanne Smits, Journalist – Director of the Jeanne Smits Blog 
Jean-Pierre Maugendre, Renaissance Catholique 
Philippe Maxence, Rédacteur en Chef de L’Homme Nouveau journaliste et écrivain 
Jean de Tauriers, Président de ND de Chrétienté 
Guillaume de Thieulloy, Editeur de presse Editeur de presse 
Charles de Meyer, Président de SOS Chrétiens d’Orient 
Benjamin Blanchard, DG de SOS Chrétiens d’Orient 
Christian Marquant, Président de Paix Liturgique 
Michel De Jaeghere, Journaliste et essayiste 
Hervé Rolland, Vice-Président de ND de Chrétienté 
Maike Hickson, LifeSiteNews Ecrivain 
Robert Hickson, Ecrivain 
Roberto de Mattei, Professeur 
Michael Matt, The Remnant Editor in chief 
Professeur Marie-Pauline Deswarte
Jean-Baptiste Pierchon, Docteur en Droit Mtre de conférences 
Hugues Petit, Docteur en Droit Professeur 
Jean Sévillia, Journaliste, Historien, Ecrivain 
Xavier Arnaud, Forum catholique Directeur 
Laurent Dandrieu, Journaliste 
Henri Sire, Ecrivain 
Jacques Charles-Gaffiot, Historien d’art 
Victor Aubert, Academia Christiana Président 
Bernard Antony, AGRIF Président 
Reynald Seycher, Professeur d’université 
François Billot de Lochner, Fondation de Service politique Président 
Anne Brassié, journaliste et écrivain 
Jérôme Triomphe, Avocat 
Cyrille Dounot, Professeur avocat eccl. 
Thibaud Collin, Philosophe et professeur 
Alvino-Mario Fantini, The European Conservative Editor in chief 
Paweł Milcarek, Christianitas Dir. Rédaction 
Marek Jurek, Ancien pdt de la Diète de Pologne 
Philippe Pichot-Bravard, Maître de conférence 
Philippe Lauvaux, ULB Paris Assas Professeur 
Claude Goyard, Paris Assas Professeur 
Philippe de Villiers, Ancien ministre, écrivain 
Max Guazzini
Pierre de Lauzun, Haut fonctionnaire Ecrivain 
Yves Daoudal, Journaliste – Directeur de Blog 
Jean-Marie Molitor, Journaliste 
Michael Hageböck, Summorum Pontificum Freiburg Président Published inRemnant Articles

THE CATHOLIC MONITOR

University Scholar: Francis’s Book “Dialogos” shows Francis “Favors Socialism… Cuban Dictatorship… Authoritarian Role for the State… [&] not… the People” 

September 08, 2021

“Dialogos Entre Juan Pablo Ii Y Fidel Castro: Bergoglio, Jorge Mario (Coord.): 9789875073722: Amazon” [https://www.amazon.com/Di%C3%A1logos-entre-Pablo-Fidel-Castro/dp/9875073725]

Jose Azel, a senior scholar at the University of Miami, in the respected international relations quarterly journal World Affairs wrote a review of a book by Francis, which he wrote in 1998 while he was still the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, which apparently the Vatican doesn’t want publicized or read.

Last time I looked, there were only a few expensive copies of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s book “Dialogos Entre Juan Pablo y Fidel Castro [Dialogue between John Paul II and Fidel Castro]” available on Amazon which don’t seem to get any promotion.

The Spanish speaking Azel in his review of the book reported “[i]n my reading of the pope’s complex Spanish prose…”:

– “he favors socialism over capitalism provided it incorporates theism…”

– “He does not take issue with Fidel Castro’s claim that ‘Karl Marx’s doctrine is very close to the Sermon on the Mount’… “

– “… and views the Cuban polity [form of government] as in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine…”

– “… Francis leaves no doubt that he sympathizes with the Cuban dictatorship…”

– “… and that he is not a fan of liberal democracy or markets…”

– “… He clearly believes in a very large, authoritarian role for the state in social and economic affairs…”

– “… his language in the prologue is reminiscent of the ‘liberation theology’… very intertwined [with] Marxist ideology. Fathered by Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez, the movement provided the intellectual foundations that, with Cuban support, served to orchestrate’ wars of national liberation’ throughout the continent. It’s iconography portrayed Jesus as a guerrilla an AK-47 slung over his shoulder…”

– “… Francis speaks of a ‘shared solidarity’… that solidarity appears to be with the undemocratic, illegitimate authority in Cuba and not with the people…”

– “… Cubans will remember that this pope had a choice between freedom and authoritarianism.”
( World Affairs, “Whose Pope? Francis and Cuba,” Fall 2015)

The University of Miami senior scholar Azel in the article in his own translation of Francis’s book quotes the Francis saying:

“[N]eoliberal capitalism is a model that subordinates human beings and conditions development to pure market forces… thus humanity attends a cruel spectacle that crystallizes the enrichment of the few at the expense of the impoverishment of the many.”

Moreover, Francis’s book “Dialogos entre Juan Pablo II Y Fidel Castro” presents evidence that he is pro-Fidel Castro, anti-Capitalism and by inference Anti-American because the United States is the driving force behind the global free market system.

He wrote on page 23 that there apparently could be a “convergence” of “premises” between Communism and Catholicism:

“Fidel Castro offered a… convergence or points of connection between Catholicism and the premises (los postulados) of the [Cuban Communist] Revolution.”

However, later in the his book he states there cannot be a convergence of premises between Capitalism and Catholicism:

You cannot hold the premises (los postulados) of “neoliberalismo” (Capitalism) and be considered a Christian. The failures of Marxism and Collectivism don’t authorize the Capitalist system (al sistema capitalista)… we find in “neoliberalismo” (Capitalism) the opposite of the Gospel… because it empties man of the economic progressivism or economic progress (los progresos economicos).”
(Dialogos entre Juan Pablo II Y Fidel Castro, By Jorge Bergoglio, Copyright – Ciudad Argentina, Pages 48-49, Translation by Fred Martinez with the help of a Spanish to English dictionary) 

Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia. 

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.

Francis Notes:

– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:

“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)

Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]

– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html

– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html

 –  LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:

The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”

–  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:

“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”

– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:

“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.

Election Notes: 

– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]

– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1 – A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020: 
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1 What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”: 
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1] 
Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it. SHARE

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The Priest Praying for Himself at Mass

 Peter Kwasniewski, PhDSeptember 8, 20210 Comments

What might have been “self-evident truths” once upon a time are no longer evident to many clergy, to their superiors, and to their flocks. One of these truths is staggeringly obvious, yet its implications seem to be not only ignored, but suppressed: the priest, too, has a soul to sanctify and save.

Stated baldly, this truth is obvious. One might as well say that water is wet, or fire is hot. But one may genuinely wonder if it’s taken as seriously as it ought to be. Especially since the Second Vatican Council, pastoral activism has threatened to turn the priest into a glorified social worker, a man so much oriented to others that he ceases to be oriented to God. The versus populum stance at Mass, so far from being just a groundless bit of false antiquarianism, becomes emblematic of a way of life: the celebrant is not so much offering a sacrifice to God on behalf of the people and of himself as a member of the Church, but rather offering a service to the people, with himself in the role of teacher (at best) or showman (at worst). This dynamic has been analyzed so many times (see, e.g., this article and this one) that it hardly needs elaboration.https://95c1dc3598c49dbfdb43d0cc3a18d24b.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

In this article, however, I wish to focus on the extent to which the Order of Mass in the classical Roman Rite makes the priest pray for himself in a deliberate and earnest way. Not for someone else; not for the people; not for a vague set of intentions; but specifically for himself.

After the sign of the Cross, the first words: “I will go in to the altar of God.” The whole of Psalm 42 is recited, alternately with the ministers, as a personal preparation. Here are the priest’s own verses:

Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy; deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man…. Send forth Thy light and Thy truth: they have conducted me and brought me unto Thy holy hill, and into Thy tabernacles…. To Thee, O God, my God, I will give praise upon the harp: why art thou sad, O my soul, and why dost thou disquiet me?… Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost…. I will go in to the altar of God.

Then comes the priest’s own Confiteor—not a shared and therefore comfortably untargeted confession, but a personal one to which the rest of the Church bears witness:

I confess to almighty God, to blessed Mary ever virgin, to blessed Michael the archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, to all the saints, and to you, brethren, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed: [the priest strikes his breast three times saying:] through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore I beseech the blessed Mary ever virgin, blessed Michael the archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, all the saints, and you, brethren, to pray to the Lord our God for me.

As the priest mounts the altar steps, he prays in the plural, but surely with himself most of all in mind: “Take away from us our iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord; that, being made pure in heart we may be worthy to enter into the Holy of Holies. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.” Then bowing to kiss the altar, he prays in the singular: “We beseech Thee, O Lord, by the merits of those of Thy saints whose relics are here, and of all the saints, that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to pardon me all my sins. Amen.”

Before the Gospel, the priest recites these prayers at the center of the altar:

Cleanse my heart and my lips, O almighty God, Who didst cleanse with a burning coal the lips of the prophet Isaias; and vouchsafe in Thy loving kindness so to purify me that I may be enabled worthily to announce Thy holy Gospel. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to bless me. The Lord be in my heart and on my lips, that I may worthily and becomingly announce His gospel. Amen.

Perhaps the most striking example of a priest’s prayer for himself is to be found in the traditional Offertory of the Mass, which emerged in the early Middle Ages and is to be found, with similar texts, in all Western liturgical rites.

Receive, O Holy Father, almighty and eternal God, this spotless host, which I, Thine unworthy servant, offer unto Thee, my living and true God, for my countless sins, trespasses, and omissions; likewise for all here present, and for all faithful Christians, whether living or dead, that it may avail both me and them to salvation, unto life everlasting. Amen….

The Lavabo is found in its full form:

I will wash my hands among the innocent, and will cleanse compass Thine altar, O Lord. That I may hear the voice of praise, and tell of all Thy wondrous works. I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth. Take not away my soul, O God, with the wicked; nor my life with men of blood. In whose hands are iniquities: their right hand is filled with gifts. But as for me, I have walked in my innocence; redeem me, and have mercy on me. My foot hath stood in the right way; in the churches I will bless Thee, O Lord. Glory be to the Father…

Of course, many other prayers in the Order of Mass would include the celebrant, but I am keeping my gaze on those that tie in more personally with the priest’s own role, his sinfulness and sanctification. The next obvious candidate, then, would be the “Nobis quoque peccatoribus” of the Roman Canon, when he strikes his breast and gently lifts his voice in humble confession:

To us sinners, also, Thy servants, who put our trust in the multitude of Thy mercies, vouchsafe to grant some part and fellowship with Thy holy apostles and martyrs; with John, Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicitas, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia, and with all Thy saints. Into their company do Thou, we beseech Thee, admit us, not weighing our merits, but freely pardoning our offenses: through Christ our Lord.

The embolism after the Lord’s Prayer:

Deliver us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, from all evils, past, present, and to come: and by the intercession of the blessed and glorious Mary, ever a virgin, Mother of God, and of Thy holy apostles Peter and Paul, of Andrew, and of all the saints, graciously grant peace in our days, that through the help of Thy bountiful mercy we may always be free from sin and secure from all disturbance.

The three prayers of preparation, all of which must be said:

O Lord Jesus Christ Who didst say to Thine apostles: Peace I leave you, My peace I give you: look not upon my sins, but upon the faith of Thy Church, and vouchsafe to grant her peace and unity according to Thy will: Who livest and reignest God, world without end. Amen.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Who, according to the will of the Father, through the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, hast by Thy death given life to the world: deliver me by this Thy most Sacred Body and Blood from all my iniquities, and from every evil; make me always cleave to Thy commandments, and never suffer me to be separated from Thee, Who with the same God, the Father and the Holy Ghost, livest and reignest God, world without end. Amen.

Let not the partaking of Thy Body, O Lord Jesus Christ, which I, all unworthy, presume to receive, turn to my judgement and condemnation; but through Thy loving kindness may it be to me a safeguard and remedy for soul and body; Who, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, livest and reignest, God, world without end. Amen.

At the moment of communion, the priest prays privately, still facing east, head bowed to the Lord—and crucially, in the midst of a communion rite of his own that completes the offering of the sacrifice, before he turns to hold aloft the Lamb of God for the congregation:

I will take the bread of heaven, and will call upon the name of the Lord. Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed [thrice]. May the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ keep my soul unto life everlasting. Amen.

What shall I render unto the Lord for all the things that He hath rendered unto me? I will take the chalice of salvation and will call upon the name of the Lord. With high praises will I call upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from all mine enemies. May the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ keep my soul unto life everlasting. Amen.

Having distributed the Body of Christ, he recites two prayers after communion:

Into a pure heart, O Lord, may we receive the heavenly food which has passed our lips; bestowed upon us in time, may it be the healing of our souls for eternity.

May Thy Body, O Lord, which I have received, and Thy Blood which I have drunk cleave to mine inmost parts: and do Thou grant that no stain of sin remain in me, whom pure and holy mysteries have refreshed: Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

Of greatest importance in grasping the theology and spirituality of the Roman Mass is the last prayer said by the priest prior to his giving the final blessing:

May the lowly homage of my service be pleasing to Thee, O most holy Trinity: and do Thou grant that the sacrifice which I, all unworthy, have offered up in the sight of Thy majesty, may be acceptable to Thee, and, because of Thy loving kindness, may avail to make atonement to Thee for myself and for all those for whom I have offered it up. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Mass does not suddenly end but merges into the Last Gospel, a gentle moment of meditation, gratitude, and farewell, when the Beloved Disciple proclaims the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth, whom we have just offered and received.

Nearly all of these prayers were simply struck from Paul VI’s Order of Mass, which is denuded and exiguous by comparison, and which, practically speaking, is almost totally extroverted and procedural in nature. It barely addresses the subjective disposition of the one offering or his need for preparation. It hardly touches on his unworthiness and need for purification and mercy. It includes remarkably few signs by which an observer unfamiliar with the Catholic Faith could detect that something wondrous, astonishing, and awesome is taking place, before which angels veil their faces and men beat their breasts.

What were the reformers thinking? For them, the prayers of the priest for himself must have looked like exaggerated medieval piety and devotionalism, too introspective and clericocentric; the liturgy is “for the people,” after all. But this is manifestly a false view both of what liturgy is and of what these specific prayers are meant to accomplish.

The liturgy is above all God’s work on behalf of the people, with the priest at their head, serving in persona Christi capitis—and, as a consequence, he must be especially solicitous for himself, that he may offer the oblation in holiness, in atonement for his own sins and for the sins of the people, and for the strengthening of the inward man, the new Adam, in everyone. To remove or downplay this dimension is to gut the liturgy of that quest for righteousness that makes it serve the foremost need of every Christian, regardless of his place or role in the Mystical Body of Christ.

Looking over the Order of Mass, we cannot help noticing that the Novus Ordo has largely purged this element of the priest praying for himself. While we can readily admit that moral and doctrinal problems existed among clergy before the Council, we have nevertheless seen an exponential rise, a tidal wave, of clerical dereliction and corruption since the Council, and particularly since the introduction of the modern rite of Paul VI. If we actually believe in the power of prayer, can we not attribute much of our current crisis to the fact that priests (with the exception of the 1% or so that are celebrating the traditional liturgy) are not habitually praying for themselves and making confession and reparation for their sins in the context of the Church’s highest and most powerful prayer—that very sacrifice of the High Priest to whom their ordination configured them and for the offering of which they have been separated and empowered? Such sacerdotal prayers are meant to guide and inspire the priest to offer the liturgy “in spirit and in truth,” imbuing him with the gravity and grandeur of what he is daring to do. When God says to St. Catherine of Siena: “I am He who is, you are she who is not,” He is stating a basic truth of the spiritual life—one that must be forgotten neither in one’s private rooms nor in the Church’s public worship.

In his book Cor Jesu Sacratissimum, Roger Buck quotes a priest who sent him the following description:

Unlike the Mass of Vatican II in which a dialogue between celebrant and congregation carries most of the ritual, the prayers and rituals of the Tridentine form demand that the celebrant be continually attentive to the rites he is enacting. His voice varies from being audible to a quiet whisper; his eyes regularly turn to the crucifix; the movements of his hands are conscious and deliberate. Even when he turns to the congregation the greetings are brief, his glance downward, his gestures precise. The Priest is servant of the ritual, and the rubrics foster a mindfulness and self-awareness which not only focus his own attention, but also that of the faithful, as they kneel once more at the foot of the cross of Calvary. Each time before he turns to the congregation the Priest kisses the altar. Priest, altar and sacrifice are at the core of Catholic worship. When he is at the altar offering the sacrifice a Priest’s ministry finds its most sublime expression. His kiss of the altar is not only a sign of honor and respect for the source of his identity, but also an expression of his own affective attachment to his vocation. (303–4)

It is no form of clericalism but simply Catholic truth to say that the priest is indeed given to the people as a model and a guide. All Christians in their baptism—and priests in a new way in their ordination—are ontologically configured to the priestly office of Christ (1 Pet 2:5; Rom 12:1). The priest above all should be setting the example of pursuing the holiness of a priestly people, that we, in turn, might catch fire from that example. The liturgy ought to be the image of the Christian life, not a mere “filling station” where the tank is filled (as a popular Catholic online personality actually had the cluelessness to say!), or a meeting place where we exchange greetings and announcements. Thus, in keeping with what I argued last week, the priest’s offering the sacrifice devoutly and earnestly for himself models to the entire congregation how they, too, must offer the sacrifice of themselves with Christ upon the altar. What he does and says in the liturgy is exemplary for all of us. Lay Catholics who follow along in their missals learn how to apply these “priestly” prayers analogously to themselves, too.

In short, as prays the priest, so pray the people. If the liturgy is reduced to a priest’s engagement with the people, the people’s liturgy will be reduced to their engagement with the priest. If the liturgy is oriented to God, with the priest offering intense pleas for his own forgiveness and purification and earnest appeals for sanctification and salvation, the people, too, will ask for the same—often with the same words and even with the same or similar bodily attitudes; they will be habituated to seeing liturgy as the locus of God’s work of salvation among us.

I am reminded here of a statement attributed to Pope Pius X: “If the priest is an angel, the people will be saints; if the priest is a saint, the people will be good; if the priest is good, the people will be lukewarm; if the priest is lukewarm, the people will be bad; if the priest is bad, the people will be beasts.” Some might roll their eyes at the “clericalism” of this sentiment, but to me, and I imagine to many others, it expresses a fact about our communal life as Christians that we would be hard-pressed to deny or refute. There will never be an orthodox Christianity in which the priest does not have the primary role in liturgy, as the mediator and the model of our approach to God. This cannot but have ripple effects in every aspect of the Christian life.

What I have described in this article is simply another illustration of the general principle enunciated by so many over the years: catechesis is more or less worthless if the signs of the liturgy contradict it. To put it positively, the first and most elementary catechesis is how we act in the liturgy. How we act, in turn, shapes and is shaped by what we say we are doing in the liturgy—and I mean, not what we say about  the liturgy outside of it, but what is said within it and by it. Of Jesus Christ, we read: “He began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1). The doing precedes the teaching.

In its acta et dicta, the traditional form of the Mass more fully expresses and more intentionally inculcates the virtues at the heart of the Christian life than does its 1969 replacement. If we want to take Christianity seriously—if we believe in truth, virtue, prayer, holiness, and eternal life—we will return, as swiftly as we can, to a liturgical rite that takes these things seriously and, in its texts and rubrics, imposes them on the celebrant, as a sweet yoke and light burden uniting Him with Christ. The traditional Latin Mass is the ideal form of liturgical prayer not only for the laity but also, in a very special way, for the priest.

May more and more priests discover this truth and embrace it wholeheartedly, for their benefit, as well as for the benefit of the faithful, living and dead. A holy and zealous priest, plunged into the mysteries of Christ, united with the Savior’s own prayer before the throne of grace, will always benefit the people of God far more than the people-centered or outward-oriented priest that the postconciliar era sought and still seeks to produce.

Photo credit: Corpus Christi Watershed.

Peter Kwasniewski, PhD

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College and The Catholic University of America who taught at the International Theological Institute in Austria, the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Austria Program, and Wyoming Catholic College, which he helped establish in 2006. Today he is a full-time writer and speaker on traditional Catholicism whose work appears online at, among others, OnePeterFive, New Liturgical Movement, LifeSiteNews, The Remnant, and Catholic Family News. He has published thirteen books, including Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright: The Genius and Timeliness of the Traditional Latin Mass (Angelico, 2020), The Ecstasy of Love in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas (Emmaus, 2021), and Are Canonizations Infallible? Revisiting a Disputed Question (Arouca, 2021). His work has been translated into at least eighteen languages. Visit his website at www.peterkwasniewski.com.www.peterkwasniewski.com

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Two Shocking Resignations Just Exposed Something Terrifying About The Biden Administration

September 7, 2021

The Biden administration has plunged America into chaos.

It didn’t take long for things to go completely off the rails.

And two shocking resignations just exposed something terrifying about the Biden administration.https://lockerdome.com/lad/13678839645549670?pubid=ld-1716-3522&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Frightnewswire.com&rid=&width=640

Joe Biden and the Democrats have used the COVID-19 pandemic to exert tyrannical control.

But the authoritarian actions of the Biden administration just triggered two top officials at the FDA to resign.

The Daily Mail reported that two of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulators plan to jump ship over COVID-19 booster shots. 

“Dr. Marion Gruber, director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, plans to step down on October 31 and her top deputy Dr. Philip Krause also plans to leave the FDA in November, according to a department memo seen by EndPoints News,” The Daily Mail reported.https://lockerdome.com/lad/13678841155499110?pubid=ld-8976-4742&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Frightnewswire.com&rid=&width=640

Biden and public health officials have been doing everything in their power to force vaccinations on the American people irrespective of their individual health profile.

Former Planned Parenthood director and frequent CNN contributor Dr. Leana Wen has argued that life should be as difficult as possible for people who are unvaccinated, and that’s what the Biden administration is attempting to do.

The Democrats are moving full speed ahead with mandatory vaccinations as well as booster shots.https://lockerdome.com/lad/14230595806901350?pubid=ld-7945-558&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Frightnewswire.com&rid=&width=640

More from The Daily Mail:

“Gruber played a key role in approving COVID-19 vaccines for the public, but her departure comes amid reports that FDA officials are frustrated with the White House for announcing booster shots before regulators formally approve them. President Joe Biden has vowed to begin offering booster shots to the general public on September 20, a move that many health experts view as politicized and premature in coming before the FDA issues a formal recommendation.”

When top officials at the FDA are resigning, that should be a red flag.

Senior officials don’t up and leave cushy government jobs unless something truly shocks their conscience.https://lockerdome.com/lad/14230597383959654?pubid=ld-667-5472&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Frightnewswire.com&rid=&width=640

Perhaps they don’t like where the politicization of COVID-19 is going.

There could be consequences once all of the truth about COVID eventually comes out.

In the meantime, the corporate press and big tech have acted as gatekeepers to box in all conversations about the virus and the vaccines.

But at some point, frank conversations about COVID – and the reaction to COVID – will take place.

When Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing show up to the ceremony, you know the latest Cooperstown inductee is kind of a big deal.

The Captain Is ImmortalizedFrank Becerra Jr-The Journal News Derek Jeter is officially where he belongs — in Cooperstown. Now only one question remains: Is he the greatest shortstop of all time?The legendary Yankee captain headlined the 2020 Hall of Fame inductee class Wednesday — not that there was ever any doubt. Still, his practically unanimous selection added one final eye-popping stat in a career full of them.Following a celebrated 20-year career, all with the Yankees, Jeter was chosen by 396 of 397 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, or 99.7% of ballots — the highest ever for any position player and second overall only to teammate Mariano Rivera.He has five World Series titles, 14 All-Star selections, and five Gold Gloves.His 3,465 hits are the most by a shortstop in MLB history and the sixth-most all-time.His career 71.3 WAR ranks 10th all-time among MLB shortstops. His 96.3 offensive WAR is third behind Honus Wagner and Alex Rodriguez.If Jeter is the best shortstop ever, his postseason track record will have sealed the deal.He’s the playoff leader — among all positions — in games played, hits, singles, doubles, triples, and runs, and he’s third in home runs and fourth in RBI.Jeter has found success in his post-playing days, as well. Aided by the $266.2 million he earned on the field, he led an investment group that purchased the Marlins for $1.2 billionin 2017, reportedly contributing $25 million for a 4% stake in the franchise.Still, the Captain will forever be linked to the pinstripes.

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Biden’s “Chief Liars regarding Ivermectin,” “Information Flooding” for the Lazy CNN-Fox Crowd & Chinese Communist-like Total “Control of our Life”

September 08, 2021

In 2014, a Harvard educational manuscript showed how “information flooding” which a method of censorship for the lazy low information CNN-Fox crowd apparently allowed the Biden Steal, the COVID hysteria unconstitutional lockdowns and now the Joe Biden China-like media propaganda regarding Ivermectin.

The purpose appears to be for a Chinese Communist-like total control of our life as seems to be happening full scale in Australia and inch-by-inch in the United States because the lazy 
CNN-Fox crowd won’t go after true information that is “slightly more difficult to access”:  

“Many scholars have speculated that censorship efforts will be ineffective in the information age,
where the possibility of accessing incriminating information about almost any political entity will
benefit the masses at the expense of the powerful. Others have speculated that while information
can now move instantly across borders, autocrats can still use fear and intimidation to encourage
citizens to keep quiet. This manuscript demonstrates that the deluge of information in fact still
benefits those in power by observing that the degree of accessibility of information is still deter-
mined by organized groups and governments. Even though most information is possible to access,
as normal citizens get lost in the cacophony of information available to them, their consumption
of information is highly influenced by the costs of obtaining it. Much information is either dis-
aggregated online or somewhat inaccessible, and organized groups, with resources and incentives
to control this information, use information flooding and information friction as methods of con-
trolling the cost of information for consumers. I demonstrate in China that fear is not the primary
deterrent for the spread of information; instead, there are massively different political implications of having certain information completely free and easy to obtain as compared to being available, but slightly more difficult to access.”[https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/12274299/Roberts_gsas.harvard_0084L_11469.pdf?sequence=4 and 
https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/12274299/Roberts_gsas.harvard_0084L_11469.pdf?sequence=1]

This is called “information flooding.”

The Epoch Times editor Roger Simon explains how it works:

The medical establishment—as do a great many, close to most, of our major corporations—lives in fear of the state, consciously or unconsciously.

“Dr. Hope” begins as follows:

“’In a normal year, the Kentucky Poison Control Center might receive one call from someone who has taken ivermectin, a drug commonly used to treat parasites in livestock. But amid increasing misinformation about the drug’s ability to both treat and prevent COVID-19, that number has increased to six this year.’

“This alarming news was published in Spectrum News—formerly known as Time Warner Cable—on Aug. 24, 2021, and should be a lesson to every American.

The lesson is not about Ivermectin being poisonous because it isn’t, but about the pervasiveness of a type of new internet propaganda termed ‘informational flooding.’”

The doctor goes on to cite other institutions high (NPR, of course) and low that promoted or “flooded” the scabrous prevarication about Ivermectin. It’s so easy to do now. Churchill’s line about a lie going around the world before the truth gets its pants on has been reduced to a microsecond by the internet.

To give you an idea of how this works, “Dr. Hope,” who has done considerable research, writes: “For example, google the news on Ivermectin poisoning articles, and you will find almost all of them were published within the last few weeks. Nothing before then.”

This is when interest in the drug began to pick up steam.

Notable among the chief liars regarding Ivermectin—with an absurd on its face story out of Oklahoma, which they have now walked back—is unsurprisingly Rolling Stone, famous for their nine thousand word article on a University of Virginia frat house rape that never occurred. Anyone would be foolish to trust “The Stone” as a legitimate news source about their health, or anything for that matter, but apparently many do. After all, the former rebels always adhere to the party line.

More importantly, “Dr. Hope” notes the degree that Ivermectin’s use has made parts of India, including Uttar Pradesh (population approximately two-thirds ours), nearly COVID-free. This victory, he adds, has been subject to a near blackout by our mainstream media—again, no surprise, since they act consistently as an adjunct of government when Democrat.

Only this time it’s about something that affects everyone’s life and death, including their own and their children’s. Go figure. (By the way, the doctor cites statistics showing how Ivermectin is vastly, I mean vastly, safer than Tylenol.) [https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/america-lives-under-healthcare-communism_3985961.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-09-08&mktids=b765bd2cb70dab5a9f7a17f41a7b71e0&est=gaYy%2FI4CcAC83ajX1pyBn9TEKcLqqoWQknMcCXR8KInxpNX2uEsy8zZLcSsB]

Roger also explains in the article that we are beginning to live in a Chinese Communist-like totalitarian state:

“And, to be clear, when I assert we live under healthcare communism, I don’t mean communism the way ye olde Karl Marx dreamed it up. I mean something even worse, more insidious—total state control of our lives, who wins and loses, who profits and who fails, who becomes a billionaire and who a pauper, even who survives… in other words communism as practiced in today’s People’s Republic of China and, increasingly, the United States.”

Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia. 

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.

Francis Notes:

– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:

“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)

Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]

– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html

– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html

 –  LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:

The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”

–  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:

“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”

– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:

“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.

Election Notes:  

– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]

– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1 – A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020: 
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1 What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”: 
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1] 
Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it.