Mother Miriam: “Why I changed my stance on the SSPX”

“God has established His Church, his universe, everything on obedience, everything on obedience.

“Children are to obey their parents, not if their parents are holy and right, in everything but sin. Wives are to submit to their husbands, not because they're holy, not because they're right, but because God has given them that position — again, in everything but sin. Religious are to obey their superiors, whether their superior is right or holier than them, or no matter what it is, they are to obey in everything.

“And Christ's sheep, which is us, every one of us is to obey the successor of Peter, whether we know for sure he is, whether we agree with him, whether we can point out definite heresy. If he's the Pope, then we obey in everything but sin. We don't come against him. So that's where I left it yesterday, and my heart was completely converted."

Video: https://youtu.be/jDmxkXCbMok

Leo XIV: Toward a necessary restructuring

 

by ANDREA GAGLIARDUCCI on 3 AGOSTO 2026 · LEAVE A COMMENT · in VATICAN

Leo XIV has returned to the Vatican after a month-long vacation in Castel Gandolfo, and a series of important decisions await him. They aren’t all urgent matters, but what he decides in each of them will tell us a lot about how the pope intends to shape his pontificate.

These decisions will be subjected to the severe scrutiny of many, starting with those in the Vatican who championed Pope Francis’s decisions and refuse to backtrack.

The risk is that the pope will find himself, in the near future, facing a crossfire over the nominations and organization of the Roman Curia. You may even hear some chatter – some of it from persons highly placed – about abandonment or betrayal of Pope Francis’s curial reform project as expressed in his 2022 Apostolic Constitution, Praedicate Evangelium.

So, what are these decisions?

First of all, several dicastery heads have already reached retirement age and will need to be replaced.

They are: the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro; the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, Cardinal Arthur Roche; the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch; and the prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

In November, Cardinal Lazzaro You, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, will also turn 75.

So far, Leo XIV has operated consistently in all the dicasteries where he has been called to carry out generational replacements. The only exception is the Dicastery for Communication, where he has chosen Montse Alvarado, olim COO of EWTN, who, starting in November, will be called upon to oversee the complex machinery of Vatican communications.

For the rest, there were no major surprises, nor even any disruptive decisions. Leo XIV kept a fairly low profile, and this works for all major issues.

Voices have whispered about another possible change, this one to the Secretary of State.

It bears mention in this regard that the current Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has thus far enjoyed the Pope’s absolute trust and is a little more than three years away from 75. The pope, however, may indeed want someone of his very own choice to lead the Secretariat of State.

There’s already considerable speculation about who the new Secretary of State will be, but little is being said about what Cardinal Parolin might do. At 72, any new assignment would be incomplete, even with an extension until he turns 77, because there wouldn’t be time for reforms and action.

There is, however, the possibility that Cardinal Parolin could replace Cardinal Fernando Filoni, now in his eighties, as Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher. The position would have an international and diplomatic profile and would be an ideal transition to retirement.

Furthermore, it would avoid appointing Cardinal Parolin to a position where he would be unable to complete his five-year term.

The Holy See, in fact, always prefers that prelates who can complete their first five-year term be appointed to senior positions, so that they can work with peace of mind.

Some say that Cardinal Parolin could be replaced by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s current Secretary for Relations with States. But this is unlikely, given that Gallagher is already 73 and would therefore serve only two years before retiring.

This is a time for speculation.

There is growing talk of Bishop Erik Varden as the new prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. There is talk of Cardinal Mauro Gambetti being transferred from his position as Archpriest of St. Peter’s to that of Bishop of Chieti. There is also talk of Bishop Guido Marini being appointed as the new Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica.

More: https://x.com/andygag/status/2084155268829417500?s=46&t=IydJ-X8H6c0NM044nYKQ0w

Holiness is a duty

 « My dear brothers, you know it, we must all go to Heaven. It is our goal, here below. Our entire being, our soul, our body, everything calls us to Heaven. We are made for Heaven. It is a duty. It is a duty for each one of us to work every day on our sanctification, on our holiness. It is a duty!

But if we have this duty, we also have rights: the right to receive the adequate means to be able to reach our end. These means are faith, the sacraments and discipline, the law of the Church. They are ordinary means, sufficient, through which we can sanctify ourselves, become saints.

And these means have been used by two thousand years of Tradition, by the Apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, the virgins. Well, we want to keep them. We want to keep this faith of the apostles. We want to keep these same sacraments. We want to keep this same discipline. »

Mgr Michel de Sivry.

Bishop Paprocki: Eucharistic revival calls Catholics to worthy reception of Communion

Four years after the National Eucharistic Revival began, Bishop Thomas Paprocki says Catholics must unite belief in Christ’s real presence with moral life and worthy Communion.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Diocese of Springfield, Illinois

By Katherine Matt

Four years after U.S. bishops launched the National Eucharistic Revival, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, said Catholics must recover “Eucharistic coherence,” saying belief in Christʼs real presence must be reflected in both moral life and the worthy reception of Communion.

The National Eucharistic Revival, a three‑year U.S. bishops’ initiative aimed at renewing Catholic belief in and devotion to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist through teaching, parish outreach, and national events, was launched in 2022 in response to declining belief among Catholics in the Real Presence. The revival culminated in the National Eucharistic Congress in 2024.

Speaking at the Institute for Catholic Culture on the topic “The Table of the Lord and the Table of Demons: Eucharistic Coherence and the Age of Moral Relativism,” Paprocki said July 14 that the revival’s mission extends beyond renewing devotion to the Eucharist to fostering lives that correspond to what Catholics profess to believe.

Communion with Christ

Paprocki emphasized that the Eucharist is both the sacrifice of Christ made present and the sacrament of communion with God and the Church.

“The core belief of Catholics about the mystery of the Eucharist is our faith in the real presence of Christ,” he said. “The sacrament of the Eucharist is called holy Communion precisely because, by placing us in intimate communion with the sacrifice of Christ, we are placed in intimate communion with him, and through him, with each other.”

Worthy reception of Communion

Because of that reality, Paprocki said, Catholics conscious of mortal sin should first seek reconciliation before approaching the altar.

“As the Church has consistently taught, a person who receives holy Communion while in the state of mortal sin not only does not receive the grace that the sacrament conveys, he or she commits the sin of sacrilege,” Paprocki said.

Quoting St. Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians, the bishop added that “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.”

Paprocki said this understanding forms the basis for what the Church calls “Eucharistic coherence,” which he defined as consistency between belief and conduct.

“A person who, by his or her own action, has broken communion with Christ in his Church but receives the Blessed Sacrament acts incoherently, both claiming and rejecting communion at the same time. It is thus a countersign, a lie,” he said.

Canon law and public witness

Referring to Canon 915, Paprocki said ministers of holy Communion must sometimes withhold Communion from those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin.

Canon 915 says: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy Communion.”

The bishop also cited a 2004 memorandum by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger interpreting Canon 915, which addresses the denial of holy Communion to those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin. Paprocki said those who publicly and obstinately support grave moral evils such as abortion or euthanasia fall under Canon 915ʼs provisions.

Paprocki quoted the memo: When “the person in question with obstinate persistence still presents himself to receive the whole Eucharist … the minister of holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.”

Paprocki clarified that this denial is not meant as a punishment but to encourage a change of heart.

Paprocki said behaviors that would warrant denial of Communion include heterosexuals cohabiting without marriage, homosexuals engaging in sexual activity, and divorced people remarrying without having received an annulment.

Paprocki referred to his 2018 denial of the Eucharist to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, for supporting abortion access laws. Paprocki said: “The denial of Communion is a medicinal remedy that seeks to foster a change of heart” and is meant to encourage politicians “to repent and return to being pro-life.”

Paprocki concluded: “In seeking Eucharistic coherence in an age of moral relativism, it is important to remember that the ultimate goal is conversion and readmission to Communion. Even when a difficult decision must be made, not to admit someone to holy Communion until there has been repentance and reconciliation, such discipline does not contradict the law by which it is motivated.”

The repaganisation of the West

 

The return of Greco-Roman values

ED WEST

OCT 20, 2023

In the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, a group of seven people – and their dog – hide in a cave to avoid persecution at the hands of the Roman emperor Decius around the year 250 AD, only to awake during the reign of Theodosius II two centuries later.

They had been told to worship the Roman idols and recant their faith, but chose instead to give away all their worldly goods and retire to a mountain cave to pray, where they fell asleep. Decius then had the entrance to the cave sealed up.

They slept for 196 or perhaps 373 years – the sources vary – but at any rate, it was a very long sleep.

According to the story, in the reign of Theodosius, around the year 456, a landowner opened the cave and found the sleepers inside. They imagined that they had been asleep for only a day and sent one of their number off to the town to buy food.

Here they found that their faith, once persecuted and despised, was now the official state religion of the empire and almost everyone was a believer, or at least pretended to be. A huge amount can change in the world when you’re asleep.

The story makes me wonder what a modern-day sleeper who had gone into a cave in 1960 would find on awakening in 2023.

In London, Vienna, Berlin and capital cities across western Europe, he’d see a strange selection of colourful flags displayed on buildings, including government buildings, and even on the embassies of the United States and other countries.

If he visited in June, he’d see far more of these ubiquitous colours, and notice that there was a religious procession throughout major cities bedecked in them, although it wouldn’t look like the Corpus Christi celebrations he remembered, and certainly featured fewer clothes.

He might read about dozens of cases of vandalism and arson against churches in Canada, which followed mass hysteria about the Catholic Church burying the victims of its abuse, a hysteria fuelled by politicians and which turned out to be untrue.

He’d see that country’s prime minister tweeting(never mind having to explain what that meant) stuff like: ‘Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people are valued – and deserve better. As we mark #SistersInSpirit Day, we remember those who have been murdered or are missing, and we stand with their families and their communities.’ In fact, he’d find that country strange in every way.

He would also hear about increasing numbers of churches being burned down in France and demolished in England. He’d read about a 170-year-old Christian house of worship in Oldham, Lancashire, pulled down by the council over fears it would attract vandals and become an ‘eyesore blighting the local area’ – although this rather invites the question who the real vandals are. Indeed, this is the third church in the town to be recently knocked down.

He would notice popular musicians using satanic imagery in a way that doesn’t even shock but just raises a yawn. He might see that Canterbury Cathedral, the seat of the English Church since the days of St Augustine, was hosting ‘school disco’ nights playing the music of the Spice Girls, Britney Spears and S Club 7.

He would note that blasphemy laws are no longer in use, and that artists are even given state funding to produce work which mocks Christ or the Virgin Mary. But he might, after a while, note that they have been replaced by newer, and far stricter, forms of blasphemy law.He might also have heard about the hysteria that followed the death of the man it was now a crime to mock, a convicted criminal put to death in the West’s most powerful empire.

He might read how in Finland two people have essentially been put on trial for their Christian beliefs, accused of ‘hate speech’ and interviewed by the police after questioning the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s official partnership with a Helsinki Pride festival. Päivi Räsänen faces up to two years in jail for publicly voicing her opinion on marriage and sexuality in a 2004 pamphlet and for debating the subject in a 2019 radio talk show.

Our traveller would also note that infanticide had become widespread and legal, and in some countries suicide too, paid for by the state even for the young and physically healthy.

What our sleeper would conclude, correctly, is that the West had undergone repaganisation, and that society had returned to the norms that had once been universal but were upended by the Christian revolution.

More: https://x.com/crean_fr/status/2078392077025489263?s=46&t=IydJ-X8H6c0NM044nYKQ0w

“Unstoppable”: Abp Cordileone on traditional Latin Mass

Abp. Salvatore Cordileone on whether Pope Francis' restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass can be sustained in the long run: "To be honest, I don't think it's realistic...this is unstoppable. It's what's drawing young people in..." @worldoverlive @EWTN

Video: https://x.com/WorldOverLive/status/2083187600907547103/video/1?s=46

N.B. The Archbishop stops and corrects himself, making the distinction that the Mass was changed “after” the Council and not “by” the Council Fathers.

There is a very wide chasm between the “on the spot product” produced by a closed committee meeting under the leadership of the very questionable Annibale Bugnini long after after the fathers of the council returned to their home dioceses and what the fathers of the council themselves envisioned with regard to the reform of the Mass.

Victor Davis Hanson: Why Mamdani Wants to Erase Europeans From New York’s Immigration HistoryM

 

Video: https://youtu.be/161T4Zfuwf4?is=uYQVzI_z5XpMK975