Issue: March 2023
Letter from the District Superior
At the beginning of his pontificate, during the World Youth Day on Copacabana Beach in 2013, Pope Francis exhorted the youth to “¡Hagan lio!” or “Make a mess!”
¡Hagan lío!: The messy relationship between the SSPX and Pope Francis
Even as Pope Francis’s “Traditiones custodies” has cast doubt on the normalization of traditional, authentic Catholicism, some of the Pope’s other actions—such as granting sacramental faculties to SSPX priests—have been more positive. The Pope’s relationship with the Society has been altogether ambiguous, not easy to interpret or explain.
Pope Francis & Amoris Laetitia
In “Amoris Laetitia,” Pope Francis advocates for a kind of “situation ethics,” in which rules of morality are changeable according to personal needs in particular cases. This moral view is opposed to the sure, traditional moral teaching of the Church, whose purpose is charity—to help men see what separates them from God—and not a false mercy.
Fratelli Tutti: The Pope of Universal Brotherhood
What follows merely develops a thesis in regard to the 287-paragraph, 43,000-word third Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis I. That thesis is that, following Abu Dhabi, Fratelli Tutti presents a universal human brotherhood built on a mistake that misrepresents St. Francis.
Pope Francis and Islam: Deception or Illusion?
At the initiative of Cardinal Bea, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue was created during the second-to-last session of Vatican Council II, in 1964. This was anything but an isolated event; in fact, it was one of a whole array of creations, all of which held the promise of a bright future. The Protestant World Council of Churches created an Office for Interreligious Relations. The World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP) was born of a UN initiative and held its first sessions in 1970 in Kyoto, in 1974 in Louvain, and in 1979 in New York.
The Idolatrous Veneration of the Pachamama Statuettes
Whether the Vatican accepts it or not, the “Amazon rite” affair that took place in the Vatican Gardens on October 4 in the presence of Pope Francis, and that of the Pachamama “statuettes” that followed, are far from closed. They require at least some clarification and a mea culpa.
Four Principles—One Foreordained Conclusion
“Wilson has his Fourteen Points,” Georges Clemenceau is reputed to have grumbled; “God only had ten.” Pope Francis is more humble than the irritatingly pedantic American President. In his writings he publicly offers us a less extensive diagram for achieving the peace that passes all understanding based upon four principles alone.
Review of “Two Timely Issues” by Arnaldo Xavier da Silveira
Legend has it that, in a conversation with a seminarian in 1977, Archbishop Lefebvre remarked that the best book on the New Mass was the one written by Da Silveira. Given the excellence of the work, the story is quite believable. The author’s research is deep, his arguments are compelling, and his judgments are reasoned and measured.
Review of “The Seven Last Words of Our Lord Upon the Cross”
When your country is on the verge of civil war and militant atheists with no tolerance for dissent are trying to take over, starting a convent in the nation’s capitol might not be the first thing on most people’s agenda. Fortunately, Mother Catherine Abrikosova, author of “The Seven Last Words of Our Lord Upon the Cross,” was not most people. Mother Catherine, as editor and co-translator Brendan King writes in his introduction, started a Byzantine Catholic convent in her apartment in Moscow in 1917, just as the Bolshevik revolution was erupting.
Review of “To Change the Church” by Ross Douthat
Ross Douthat is not a traditionalist. For a Catholic reading the official magazine of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, that is an important—nay, essential prerequisite to understand. It is also an important element in considering his “To Change the Church,” published in March 2018.
The Conspiracy of the “Alta Vendita” of the Carbonari
So now we have arrived, in our brief historical outline of Catholic Liberalism, at the eve of Vatican II. Before analyzing the victory won at the Council by Liberalism, I would like to go back a little to show you how the penetration of Liberalism into all the hierarchy and even into the papacy itself, unthinkable two centuries ago, was nonetheless conceived, foretold, and organized as early as the beginning of the last century by Freemasonry. It will be sufficient to produce the documents that prove the existence of this plot against the Church, of this “supreme attempt” against the papacy.
Lexicon of the Crisis: “Tradition”
In his landmark encyclical on Modernism, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Pope St. Pius X identifies several traditional terms that are used by Modernists, but in a completely different sense from that of Catholic teaching. After the publication of the encyclical, Modernism went underground for some time, but then resurfaced in a subtler and more dangerous form, that of Neo-Modernism. Like its grandfather in anti-faith, Neo-Modernism employs traditional terms with different meanings.
Interview: My Path to Tradition
1. Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up, and what was your level of exposure to Catholicism as a child and as a young adult? I grew up in a small city in Iowa and was educated at the area Catholic school. I never heard anything about the Latin Mass growing up. For me, nothing existed before the 1960s except for Fatima.
Anastasis: The Icon of the Resurrection of Christ
The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Our Lord is the most important event in human history and the confirmation of our faith. As St. Paul says, “If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” It has released us from the power of death and restored our relationship with God and with one another. In Greek the Resurrection is called the Anastasis, “raising,” because the victory of Christ is a re-creation, a new beginning.
Meditations on St. John’s Gospel—Chapter Seventeen
The present chapter is now the 5th in St. John’s gospel recording for us Our Lord’s words at the Last Supper. Christ, though, has given His disciples all they can bear for the moment (16:12), and now addresses His Father—but still out loud, that by this prayer of His they might yet believe the more (11:42). He will pray for Himself (vs. 1-5), for His disciples (vs. 6-19; 24-26), and for those who will believe, thanks to the preaching of these disciples (vs. 20-26).
Questions and Answers
1. What must a penitent do to obtain absolution for his sins?
2. What is “contrition”?
3. What is the purpose of amendment?
The Last Word
Have you ever noticed that when someone accuses another intemperately, it’s often an accusation of what he is himself but doesn’t admit? It’s certainly a giveaway of a Pharisee. “Now we know that thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil” means in Pharisee-speak “we are not true followers of God and are sons of the father of lies, you are not like us.” “We found this man plotting against Caesar” translates as “We would love to plot against Caesar, but this Man wasn’t.”
Current Issue
