Bishop William Medley of Owensboro, Kentucky, admitted that his diocesan "listening sessions" for the October ex-synod revealed "frustration" with Francis' Vatican (CruxNow.com, 18 April).
Mgr. Medley summarised that this frustration was generally related to Francis' homosexual propaganda piece 'Fiducia Supplicans' and the confusion and consternation it caused among the faithful regarding what was perceived as an endorsement of the blessing of sin, Bishop Medley wrote in a summary report. It was released earlier this month.
Also priests expressed frustration at a lack of clarity from Francis, particularly regarding the text 'Fiducia Supplicans'. Francis was described as "ambiguous" in his teaching, while people want him to be direct: "Tell us what you really mean".
Each US diocese was to send a summary report to the bishops' conference by 8 April.
Lutetiae parisiorum, die XXI mensis aprilis, dominica III post Pascha
International Campaign for the Total Freedom of the Traditional Liturgy
Photo: EP
Being a Catholic in 2024 is no easy endeavour. The West is undergoing a massive de-Christianization, so much so that Catholicism appears to be vanishing from the public sphere. Elsewhere, the number of Christians being persecuted for their faith is on the rise. What’s more, the Church has been struck by an internal crisis that manifests itself in a decline in religious practice, a downswing in priestly and religious vocations, a decrease in sacramental practice, and even a growing dissension between priests, bishops and cardinals which, until very recently, was utterly unthinkable. Yet, among all the things that can contribute to the internal revival of the Church and to the renewal of her missionary zeal, there is, above all, the worthy and reverent celebration of her liturgy, which can be greatly fostered thanks to the example and the presence of the traditional Roman liturgy.
Despite all the attempts that have been made to suppress it, especially during the present pontificate, it lives on, continuing to spread and to sanctify the Christian people who are blessed to be able to benefit from it. It bears abundant fruits of piety, as well as an increase of vocations and of conversions. It attracts young people and is the fount of many flourishing works, especially in schools, and is accompanied by a solid catechesis. No one can deny that it is a vector for the preservation and transmission of the faith and religious practice in the midst of a waning of religious belief and a dwindling number of believers. This Mass, due to its venerable antiquity, can boast of having sanctified countless souls over the centuries. Among other vital forces still active in the Church, this form of liturgical life stands out because of the stability given to it by an uninterrupted lex orandi.
Certainly, some places of worship have been granted, or rather tolerated, where this liturgy can be celebrated, but too often what has been given by one hand is taken back by the other, without, however, ever managing to make it vanish.
Since the massive decline during the period immediately following the Second Vatican Council, every attempt has been made on numerous occasions to revive religious practice, to increase the number of priestly and religious vocations, and to preserve the faith of the Christian people. Everything, except letting the people experience the traditional liturgy, by giving the Tridentine liturgy a fair chance. Today, however, common sense urgently demands that all the vital forces in the Church be allowed to live and prosper, and in particular the one which enjoys a right dating back to over a millennium.
Let there be no mistake: the present appeal is not a petition to obtain a new tolerance as in 1984 and 1988, nor even a restoration of the status granted in 2007 by the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which, recognizing in principle a right, has in fact been reduced to a regime of meagerly granted permissions.
As lay people, it is not for us to pass judgment on the Second Vatican Council, its continuity or discontinuity with the previous teaching of the Church, the merits, or not, of the reforms that resulted from it, and so on. On the other hand, it is necessary to defend and transmit the means that Providence has employed to enable a growing number of Catholics to preserve the faith, to grow in it, or to discover it. The traditional liturgy plays an essential role in this process, thanks to its transcendence, its beauty, its timelessness and its doctrinal certainty.
For this reason, we simply ask, for the sake of the true freedom of the children of God in the Church, that the full freedom of the traditional liturgy, with the free use of all its liturgical books, be granted, so that, without hindrance, in the Latin rite, all the faithful may benefit from it and all clerics may celebrate it.
Jean-Pierre Maugendre, Managing Director of Renaissance Catholique, Paris, France
April 22, 2024
This appeal is not a petition to be signed, but a message to be disseminated, possibly to be taken up again in any form that may seem appropriate, and to be brought and explained to the cardinals, bishops and prelates of the universal Church.
Si Renaissance catholique a l’initiative de cette campagne, c’est uniquement pour se faire l’interprète d’un large désir en ce sens qui se manifeste dans l’ensemble du monde catholique. Cette campagne n’est pas la sienne, mais celle de tous ceux qui y participeront, la relayeront, l’amplifieront, chacun à leur manière.
Renaissance Catholiqueis a Paris-based movement of lay people working to reestablish the social reign of Christ.
Responding to the new rule on Friday, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, said in a statement that ‘no employer should be forced to participate in an employee’s decision to end the life of their child.’
Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, was tabbed as the next chair of the Committee for Religious Liberty on Nov. 16, 2022, in Baltimore. (photo: Credit: Shannon Mullen/CNA / CNA)
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Friday criticized a new rule from the Biden administration that will force employers to offer leave for employees seeking abortion.
The Biden administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) this week issued a change to federal regulations regarding pregnant workers’ fairness, one that mandates employers make “reasonable accommodations,” including granting leave, for workers to obtain abortions.
My two cents on Swift. Unsaved in college, I loved Taylor Swift. I knew every word to Red and all the other albums too. Her music is intoxicating bc she’s done a very good job capturing worldly relationships and hookup culture.
Now, as a believer– I stay far away from it. Why? Because I will like some of it. It will take my mind places that it shouldn’t go. There will be new lyrics in my head with tunes I can’t shut off with unedifying words on my lips.
It’s a net negative all the way around. In no way would it strengthen my walk with the Lord, and that’s the lens in which we should view all things.
”Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.“
Philippians 4:8-9
In this current age of mass mediaand constant Internet access, the process of theological reception can oftentimes be rushed and clumsy. The race is on, as it were, to forge and brandish one’s latest “hot take” on any given Church topic, document, or papal interview. Merely minutes after the introduction of Dignitas Infinita by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Catholic social media circles were ablaze with knee-jerk reactions, especially given the document’s opening line: “Every human person possesses an infinite dignity…”
I believe there is an important conversation to be had regarding the concept of human dignity and to what degree we can say humans possess “infinite” dignity, even if in a very limited, analogous way. There have already been solid analyses of the document and its possible limitations. But by fixating almost exclusively on the meaning of the word “dignity,” we may lose sight of something far more important—namely, that with Dignitas Infinita we see the crown jewel of a fully-entrenched anthropocentrism, one that stains the window panes of the post-conciliar Church.
In the universal Church it is as if Peter were still saying every day: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. For every tongue which confesseth the Lord is taught that confession by the teaching of Peter. This is the Faith that overcometh the devil and looseth the bonds of his prisoners. This is the Faith which maketh men free of the world and bringeth them to heaven, and the gates of hell are impotent to prevail against it. This is the rock which God hath fortified with such ramparts of salvation, that the contagion of heresy will never be able to infect it, nor idolatry and unbelief to overcome it. And therefore, dearly beloved, we celebrate today’s festival with reasonable obedience, that in my humble person he may be acknowledged and honoured who doth continue to care for all the shepherds as well as sheep entrusted unto him, and who doth lose none of his dignity even in an unworthy successor.
When, therefore, we address our exhortations to your godly ears, believe ye that ye are hearing him speak whose office we are discharging. Yea, it is with his love for you that we warn you. And we preach unto you no other thing than that which he taught, entreating you as did he: Gird up the loins of your mind; be sober; be ye holy in all manner of living; pass the time of your sojourning here in the fear of God. My disciples, dearly beloved, ye are to me as the disciples of the Apostle Paul were to him, namely: My crown and joy; if so be that your faith, abide, still in all lowliness and holiness, like unto the first times of the Gospel. For although the whole Church, which is in all the world, should indeed abound in all the virtues, it becometh especially you among all others to excel in acts of piety, founded as ye be on the very citadel of the Apostolic Rock ye who have not only been redeemed with the rest of men by our Lord Jesus Christ, but who have been instructed by the blessed Apostle Peter far beyond all others.
- St Leo the Pope
Orémus. Gregem tuum, Pastor ætérne, placátus inténde: et per beátos Cletum et Marcellínum Mártyres tuos atque Summos Pontífices perpétua protectióne custódi; quos totíus Ecclésiæ præstitísti esse pastóres. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.
“By sin, man loses a twofold dignity, one in respect of God, the other in respect of the Church. In respect of God, he again loses a twofold dignity. one is his principal dignity, whereby he was counted among the children of God, and this he recovers by Penance, which is signified (Luke 15) in the prodigal son, for when he repented, his father commanded that the first garment should be restored to him, together with a ring and shoes. The other is his secondary dignity, viz. innocence, of which, as we read in the same chapter, the elder son boasted saying (Luke 15:29): “Behold, for so many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandments”: and this dignity the penitent cannot recover” (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II, Q.89, A3).
… I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them that are evil, and thou hast tried them, who say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
3 And thou hast patience, and hast endured for my name, and hast not fainted. 4 But I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first charity. 5 Be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen: and do penance, and do the first works. Or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou do penance. 6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaites, which I also hate. 7 He, that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him, that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God.
… These things saith the First and the Last, who was dead, and is alive: 9 I know thy tribulation and thy poverty, but thou art rich: and thou art blasphemed by them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. 10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil will cast some of you into prison that you may be tried: and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful until death: and I will give thee the crown of life. 11 He, that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: He that shall overcome, shall not be hurt by the second death.
