Dicastery for Divine Worship Undersecretary warns against turning liturgy into ‘permanent laboratory’ Thomas Edwards

Thomas Edwards.               Sep. 9, 2026

The Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship has warned 49 newly appointed bishops against unnecessary liturgical innovation, syncretism and turning the liturgy into a “permanent laboratory”

The Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship has warned 49 newly appointed bishops against turning liturgical inculturation into either a rejection of tradition or a constant search for novelty.

Bishop Aurelio García Macías, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, told the bishops last week that they must avoid both extremes as they seek to bring the liturgy into the cultures of the peoples they serve.

“We must not be afraid of cultures, neither must we idealize them,” Bishop García said. “We must not be afraid of diversity, neither must we sacrifice communion. We must not stifle the authentic creativity of the Spirit, neither must we confuse it with arbitrariness. We must not turn the liturgy into a museum of immutable forms, neither must we turn it into a permanent laboratory.”

The Spanish prelate was speaking during the formation course for new bishops organised by the Dicastery for Evangelization’s Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches. This year’s course is dedicated to the theme “Servants of Communion in the Church” and brought together 49 newly appointed bishops at the Pontifical Missionary College St Peter the Apostle.

Bishop García, Titular Bishop of Rotdon, gave a presentation entitled “The Liturgy in the Episcopal Ministry. Continuity and Newness in the Liturgy in the Context of First Evangelization”, addressing the bishops on the place of worship within their episcopal ministry.

He recalled the opening words of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, which says that the Council sought “to impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful” and “to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change”.

He also recalled the Council’s teaching that “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”.

“The liturgy does not belong to the priest who celebrates it, to the group that prepares it, or to the particular community that takes part in it,” Bishop García said. “The liturgy belongs to Christ and to the Church.”

The question of inculturation formed the centre of his presentation, with Bishop García noting that for many of the Churches entrusted to the new bishops it is “not a theoretical problem, but a daily pastoral concern”. The Bishop cautioned against reducing inculturation to the visible addition of cultural practices to Catholic worship. It “does not simply mean introducing elements of local culture into the liturgy”, he said. It is not sufficient merely to “add a traditional song, introduce a dance, use a local musical instrument or translate a text”.

“No culture is the Gospel,” Bishop García said.

“Every culture needs to be evangelized…Every culture contains the semina Verbi, but every culture also bears the wounds of sin,” the Prelate said.

The Gospel therefore “welcomes and purifies, embraces and transforms, confirms and corrects, elevates and, when necessary, calls for a break”.

Bishop García warned the new bishops particularly against three dangers: unnecessary innovation, syncretism and folklore. On innovation, he referred to Sacrosanctum Concilium, which states that no changes should be introduced “unless a genuine and proven benefit to the Church requires it”.

Syncretism, meanwhile, was identified as a “particularly sensitive issue in areas where traditional religions remain culturally very much alive”. The warning is especially relevant to missionary territories where Christian worship exists alongside longstanding religious traditions.

The Bishop also cautioned against folklore, insisting that “the liturgy is not a cultural performance”. A cultural practice should enter the liturgy not because it is visually striking or distinctive, but because “it can serve the mystery being celebrated”.

Bishop García also referred to the 1994 instruction Varietates legitimae, which states that “the first significant measure of inculturation is the translation of liturgical books into the language of the people”. At the same time, he stressed that every translation “must be faithful to the original text”. Such developments, Bishop García told the bishops, cannot be rushed. Inculturation “cannot be improvised; it cannot be decided on the basis of a single successful celebration, nor can it depend on the enthusiasm of a bishop/priest or a group”.

More: https://x.com/realadvaticanum/status/2097608144755335586?s=46&t=IydJ-X8H6c0NM044nYKQ0w

Bishop Schneider disputes Pope Leo’s claim of less active participation at Latin Mass

 Bishop Athanasius Schneider noted that Pope Leo's remarks did not grasp the 'true reality' of how most Novus Ordo Masses are celebrated and said the Council Fathers did not intend for Mass to be totally in the vernacular.

Bishop Athanasius SchneiderLifeSiteNews

---

Antonino Cambria

(LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Athanasius Schneider, in an interview published Wednesday, responded to Pope Leo XIV’s remarks during a general audience last week about the faithful participating in the Mass less “consciously” before the post-conciliar liturgical reforms by noting that the Novus Ordo Missae deviates significantly from the council’s intended reforms.

During an interview with AdVaticanum published September 2 that mainly focused on the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), Bishop Schneider was asked about Pope Leo’s remarks during an August 26 general audience in which the pontiff suggested that those who attended Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) before the post-conciliar reforms participated as “strangers and silent spectators,” seemingly implying this was because the liturgy was in Latin and was marked by silent parts.

Schneider said the pontiff’s remarks did not grasp the “true reality” of how the overwhelming majority of Novus Ordo Masses are celebrated today. Citing the 1965 Roman Missal, the first missal published after the Council, the bishop emphasized that the Council Fathers had never intended for the Mass to be entirely in the vernacular, as is the case for most Masses celebrated according to the Novus Ordo Missae today.

Schneider further noted that the Council Fathers also would not have envisioned the loss of sacred silence during Mass that he stressed makes it more difficult for the faithful to enter into deep interior prayer and contemplation.

“(T)oday, more than 90 percent of Novus Ordo Masses are in the vernacular. And there are even dioceses where, when priests want to celebrate the Novus Ordo in Latin, they are punished and forbidden. This is an absurdity,” Schneider said.

More: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-schneider-disputes-pope-leos-claim-of-less-active-participation-at-latin-mass/?utm_source=SOCIAL&fbclid=IwZnRzaAUH1PdwZG9mBWZkaWQWUNxaIZ5oOb5uBr3SemeibFkjU7_duWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR7hbji16mxZZL14Zqe3njeS4FGXioyTHLYZzKcibFzTvc-Z_QeeQAGF9XKKjA_aem_V6idnVKkncs9S0bo3tKkZw

Minnesota priest leaves diocese for SSPX, bishop begins canonical process

Archbishop Bernard Hebda said he has opened a canonical process against Father Philip Conklin to 'clarify the situation and his status.'

Sergio Foto/Shutterstock

---

LifeSiteNews staff

(LifeSiteNews) — Father Philip Conklin, formerly a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, has left the diocese to join the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Archbishop Bernard Hebda announced this week.

Archbishop Hebda explained that the priest had decided to affiliate with the SSPX following a sabbatical to discern his vocation in March, per an article in the Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the archdiocese.

The announcement came in a letter to the parishioners of St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater, where Conklin had served as a priest since his ordination in 2024 until earlier this year.

The archbishop further stressed that, because of Conklin’s affiliation with the Society and his refusal to end it, he decided to open a canonical process to “clarify the situation and his status.”

“At the same time, I have also informed Father Conklin that he is not to exercise any public priestly ministry,” Hebda wrote.

As of this writing, Conklin has not released a public statement on the matter.

The priest’s decision to affiliate with the SSPX is notable since the order has faced significant obstacles since its July consecration of four new bishops without a papal mandate and subsequent Vatican excommunication. Indeed, the order has been barred from using several prominent Catholic churches to celebrate Mass or pray as a group.

In August, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes banned the SSPX from celebrating Masses, sacraments, and public prayers within the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.

More: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/minnesota-priest-leaves-diocese-for-sspx-bishop-begins-canonical-process/?utm_source=SOCIAL&fbclid=IwdGRjcAUsmUxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBWZkaWQWUPjc15vmE-EVxx2ZmaBLgrcXBbsBKnNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR6UCpzVq-pl_DSMnrnEJaOalrP9-vdz-nmIS9iY8SAvBeWZJAOXtNgOkqMMxg_aem_-ZdfoasYSjvMFWBaKZLgRA

AI Child Porn and the Libertarian Lie

JONATHON VAN MAREN

On August 25, Judge John Z. Lee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that the First Amendment protects the right of Americans to possess AI-generated child pornography. In a concurring opinion, Lee noted that “given the significant advances in computer-generated image technology, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence, we would benefit from additional guidance from the Supreme Court regarding the intersection between the First Amendment and virtual CSAM [child sexual abuse material] if an appropriate case should arise.”

The case centers around Wisconsinite Steven Anderegg, who was charged by the Justice Department in 2024 “with producing, distributing, and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and transferring such material to a minor under the age of sixteen.” Anderegg had created thousands of images using Stable Diffusion, a “generative artificial intelligence software”; many images were “hyper-realistic . . . of prepubescent children engaging in sexually explicit acts.” Child pornography, but without real children.

In 2025, a Western District of Wisconsin judge dismissed Anderegg’s possession charge. (He still faces charges for producing and distributing the images.) Federal prosecutors appealed the dismissal, but Lee upheld the lower court ruling, albeit with explicit reluctance, citing the Supreme Court rulings Stanley v. Georgia(1969)—which states that “individuals have a First Amendment right to possess obscenity in the privacy of their home”—and Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002). 

“We now live in an age where GenAI models can render images depicting the abuse of virtual children that are virtually indistinguishable from those depicting the abuse of actual children,” he wrote. “This case illuminates how this evolving technology complicates the lines drawn by the Supreme Court. . . . Given the relentless advancement in artificial intelligence models, we have some concerns about the lines these cases draw, but we are not free to redraw them ourselves.”

Contrary to the implication of some headlines, Lee’s ruling was narrow, stating that the Justice Department cannot use possession statute 18 U.S.C. § 1466A(b)(1) against the in-home possession of obscene images that do not depict a real child. The ruling does not deny that the images are obscene, nor does it protect the creation or distribution of AI-generated child porn. But it does highlight the emerging front in the porn wars, adding child porn to the growing concern about deepfakes and “nudify apps.” As one dystopian CBS headline put it: “AI ‘nudify’ apps that can digitally undress any photo pose back-to-school risk.”

Decades of libertarian propaganda about porn have left us ill-prepared to deal with this moment. In some quarters, the specter of AI-generated CSAM has prompted the same arguments we have heard applied to pornography more generally: that porn use serves the social function of “safety valve” or “outlet” for sexually violent impulses and thus decreases the incidence of actual sexual violence. In a 2023 essay for Wired, Danielle Bernstein argued that AI-generated CSAM “could actually benefit society in the long run by providing a less harmful alternative to the already-massive market for images of child sexual abuse.”

More: https://firstthings.com/ai-child-porn-and-the-libertarian-lie/

Pope Leo XIV appoints Ferenc Palánki as archbishop, a defender of the family and member of the episcopate that set limits on Fiducia supplicans

 

by INFOVATICANA  | September 3, 2026

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Monsignor Ferenc Palánki as the new metropolitan archbishop of Kalocsa-Kecskemét, in Hungary. The former bishop of Debrecen-Nyíregyháza, aged 62, has publicly defended marriage between a man and a woman, the family, and the transmission of life, and was part of the Hungarian episcopate that, following the publication of Fiducia supplicans, called for avoiding joint blessings of same-sex couples and couples in irregular situations.

The Holy See announced the appointment on Thursday, September 3, while also communicating that Leo XIV had accepted the resignation submitted by Monsignor Balázs Bábel from the pastoral governance of the archdiocese.

Palánki thus arrives at one of the metropolitan sees of the Church in Hungary after nearly eleven years leading Debrecen-Nyíregyháza, a diocese to which he was appointed by Francis on September 21, 2015. His episcopal career shows a special focus on the family and marriage, along with a long-standing dedication to priestly formation and Canon Law.

Marriage and the transmission of life

Palánki has defended on various occasions a conception of marriage founded on the union between a man and a woman and oriented toward the family and the transmission of life.

During the Week of Marriage held in 2022 in Nyíregyháza, in eastern Hungary, he maintained that marriage is of fundamental importance for “the future of humanity” and referred directly to Genesis: “A man leaves his father and mother, joins with his wife, and the two become one.”

The prelate then stated that marital love “is not simply a feeling,” but involves a decision and a commitment. He also explicitly linked marriage to the transmission of life and the continuity of generations.

This vision also appears in his interventions on the Holy Family. In December 2023, Palánki noted that the mission of spouses consists in helping each other to reach God and to love the children entrusted to them.

In an extensive interview given in 2021 to the media of his diocese, he also recalled the Catholic education he received during his childhood in Csesztve, a small town in northern Hungary. Palánki highlighted that he grew up in an environment where there were “clear and unequivocal” concepts about what marriage meant, what the place of children was, and what it meant to sacrifice oneself for others.

The Hungarian episcopate set limits on Fiducia supplicans

The new archbishop was also a member of the Hungarian Episcopal Conference when it responded in December 2023 to Fiducia supplicans, the declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that opened the possibility of imparting non-liturgical pastoral blessings to couples in irregular situations and of the same sex.

The response of the Hungarian bishops came on December 27, just nine days after the publication of the Vatican declaration. The Episcopal Conference began by recalling that Fiducia supplicans “does not change the faith and perennial teaching of the Catholic Church on marriage and sexual morality.”

The bishops noted that priests could individually bless any person who requested a blessing, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

However, they set a limit on the application of the document in Hungary: they called for “always avoiding the joint blessing” of couples living together without having contracted a valid marriage before the Church, of those in a marriage the Church considered invalid, and of same-sex couples.

In this way, the Hungarian episcopate ruled out that the possibility contemplated by Fiducia supplicanswould translate in the country into blessings imparted jointly to these couples.

More: https://x.com/infovaticana/status/2095468490907885841?s=46&t=IydJ-X8H6c0NM044nYKQ0w

Father Martin at NYC LGBT “Mass”: Young Catholics Pray and Protest Sacrilege

Posted by “Cool Catholics” via Facebook:

Young Catholics with TFP Student Action gathered outside the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City to pray the Rosary and protest what they described as a sacrilegious and pro-LGBT Mass involving Jesuit Father James Martin.

The demonstrators said their presence was intended to defend Catholic teaching on marriage, sexuality and human dignity. TFP has repeatedly organized Rosary rallies in response to Father Martin’s public ministry and LGBT-related events.

The Church of St. Ignatius Loyola has an “LGBT Catholics & Friends” parish ministry, which describes itself as a ministry for LGBT parishioners, family members and friends.

Whatever disagreements Catholics may have over how pastoral ministry should be conducted, the Church cannot change the truths entrusted to her. Catholic charity must never mean abandoning Catholic truth—and defending Catholic truth must never mean abandoning charity.

The Rosary remains one of the most powerful ways Catholics can respond: pray, remain faithful, and ask God for conversion and holiness.

Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

#CatholicNews #CatholicChurch #CatholicFaith #TFPStudentAction #JamesMartin

Young Catholics Pray and Protest Heresy and Sacrilege Outside NY Church  

BREAKING: Catholic diocese hid Vatican decree reinstating suspended traditional priest

A Vatican decree declared Cardinal Anders Arborelius’ 2024 suspension of a traditionalist priest invalid, but the diocese reportedly withheld it from clergy and faithful for months.

Swedish Cardinal Anders ArboreliusPhoto by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

---

Gaetano Masciullo. 

September 24. 2026

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The Diocese of Stockholm kept silent for nearly four months about a Vatican decree declaring “invalid” Cardinal Anders Arborelius’ 2024 suspension of a traditionalist priest while failing to provide the financial support required by the decree, according to investigative reporting by Diane Montagna.

“When no response or reaction came from the Cardinal, I was compelled to bring the matter to the attention of the Holy See … with a copy to the Cardinal and the Nuncio. I later also sent the original to Rome. The (Dicastery for) Clergy has confirmed that they received it,” Father Tobias Unnerstål said in a September 3 letter addressed to his benefactors.

Unnerstål had led Christ the King Parish in Gothenburg, Sweden, since 2007. The parish flourished under his traditionalist leadership.

However, his traditional Catholic spirituality subsequently became a point of contention within the local curia. After being accused of “emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse” and suspended, the priest appealed to Rome. Although the Dicastery for Clergy ultimately found the suspension invalid, the decree imposed separate three-year restrictions on Unnerstål’s ministry. This decree was reportedly withheld by the Stockholm chancery.

A separate appeal is currently pending before the Apostolic Signatura, seeking the removal of a series of pastoral restrictions imposed by the diocese and subsequently upheld by the Dicastery for the Clergy.

Montagna brought international attention to the case, independently reconstructing and verifying allegations detailed in a dossier produced by a group of lay Catholics from Unnerstål’s diocese to show the “serious irregularities” of the Church in Sweden. The “Thomas More Report,” compiled over the course of two years, is now available in both Swedish and English.

Problems with diocesan authorities began in October 2020 when Cardinal Arborelius and Vicar General Father Pascal-René Lung formally approved, in writing, Unnerstål’s proposal to establish an Oratory modeled on that of St. Philip Neri. The following year, on February 15, a seminarian, Joseph Rizk, filed a complaint against Unnerstål, alleging “emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse.” On April 22, the Swedish priest was summoned and questioned by the vicar general but was not allowed to see the text of the complaint against him.

On August 7, 2021, however, Unnerstål was contacted by a parishioner who showed him a letter circulated by the then-assistant parish administrator, Birgitta Gelotte. In the letter, Gelotte explained that every effort had to be made to block the traditional Oratory project and that she found in Rizk a useful ally.

“Rumours had begun to spread that Fr. Tobias … wanted to start a (Traditional) Oratory. I knew I had to do everything I could to stop it,” Gelotte wrote.

According to the Thomas More Report, as early as 2019, Gelotte had been telling other clergy members that Unnerstål was an alcoholic and homosexual in an apparent effort to discredit him. Although the search reportedly produced no compromising material concerning Unnerstål, the former parish assistant apparently obtained permission from the diocese to search the parish’s computer servers for compromising photographs. The search yielded only a single photograph of Rizk wearing a T-shirt and swim shorts during a parish trip to Malta.

In mid-August 2021, Unnerstål reportedly showed the letter to the vicar general. Although the latter promised that he would take steps to address Gelotte’s conduct, he ultimately did no more than call her to warn that Unnerstål was in possession of the letter.

More: https://www.lifesitenews.com/analysis/catholic-diocese-hid-vatican-decree-reinstating-suspended-traditional-priest/