Arthur Brooks: Looksmaxxing Is Repulsive

If there was ever a bigger disjunction between technology and evolutionary biology than this, I haven’t seen it.

“BY LOOKSMAXXING, MEN DO NOT SEND TRADITIONAL MALE MATING CUES,” WRITES ARTHUR BROOKS. (ILLUSTRATION BY THE FREE PRESS)

By Arthur Brooks

07.27.26— 

Everyone knows there is a gender double standard when it comes to physical appearance. And to this, I say, “Thank God.”

When my wife and I got married, 35 years ago, she said that embracing me—I was 6′2″ and 142 pounds at the time—was like hugging a coatrack. (Today, she says that cuddling up to my 60-something gym-rat body is more like spooning with a leather sack of ropes.)

But, of course, she still married me. And sure enough, while women’s physical attractiveness plays a significant role in men’s mate preferences—particularly at the beginning—behavioral science shows that for men it confers only a modest advantage in permanent pair-bond mating (what you civilians call “marriage”). Other factors, such as dependability, hard work, and character, are much more predictive of mating success.

In other words, at least I am a leather sack of ropes with good character.

Some observers claim this double standard is changing. If you’re following new trends on social media, you can’t avoid hearing the word “looksmaxxing,” a practice based on the idea that, because fleeting first impressions are everything, a man’s physical attractiveness is his most important attribute if he ever wants to get a mate. The trend has “soft” variants that involve skin and hair care, teeth whitening, and muscle building, and an alarming “hard” type that encourages cosmetic surgery, fillers, steroids, and even “bonesmashing” to get... 

 More (paywall): https://www.thefp.com/p/arthur-brooks-looksmaxxing-is-repulsive

S. Joachim Confessoris, Patris B. M. V. ~ Duplex II. classis

Share this with all your Opus Dei friends

“But keep the missals and the ornaments, because the Mass of all time will return!

- St. Josemaría Escrivá

Popes and the Modernist sin

 « The modernist system, more precisely the modernist apparatus and procedures, offer the pope an entirely new occasion to sin, a possibility of evading his mission that has never before been proposed to him. […] There followed this destructive consequence: the apostolic Tradition in matters of doctrine, morals, and worship has been neutralized, although not killed, without the pope, officially and openly, having needed to renounce the whole Tradition and thus proclaim apostasy. […]

“The pope has never said, has never needed to say: ‘everything that was taught, everything that was done up to Vatican II, all the doctrine and all the worship prior to Vatican II, I strike with anathema.’ Yet the result is before our eyes… To reach where we are, it sufficed that the pope, without taking measures that would strike the Church’s prior tradition, allowed modernism to proceed. »

- Father Roger-Thomas Calmel, O.P. (1914-1975)

Why performative Catholics don’t show up at the TLM.

Richard Rich wants all the silver cups life has to offer. But you have to know the right people first.

It’s like the conversation between More and Richard Rich, who doesn’t want to be a teacher, in “A Man for All Seasons”, “because nobody will know.”

He’s performative. He wants a job, a vocation, a life that will draw attention and acclaim. Not a life pursuing truth or beauty or goodness for its own sake.

He’s superficial.

He wants to be the Lord Chancellor of England. Like More. Then people will know who he is. The right kind of people. Lots of people. That’s where the action is. It’s monetizable. People will read the blogs, buy the books, open their wallets for you, if you’re known. You’ll be invited to all the right parties. 

More’s answer: “God will know. Your students will know. You will know.”

That’s what separates the men from the boys. When, as More counseled, it’s enough that God knows. When the public gaze, monetization and the obsession with the externals and the superficial take a distant last place in spiritual priorities.

For the worldly, for the performative, the excuse for talking a good game without following through, it’s  always, “but nobody will know.”

For those who seek out the TLM, who turn away from the world together with the priest at Mass,“God will know.”

Horizontal vs vertical. Choose.

A “moderately grave” reason suffices to excuse from the obligation to attend holy Mass on Sundays

Friendly reminder, since I've seen it trending around Catholic X that "if you don't go to Mass on Sunday without a good reason you'll go straight to hell if you die", that pre-Vatican 2 moral theologians were quite generous in their interpretation of what a "good reason" actually is.

For example, Fr. Heribert Jone in his "Moral Theology" (which went through multiple editions in the mid-20th century) counsels confessors that "any moderately grave reason suffices to excuse one from assistance at Holy Mass, such as considerable hardship or corporal or spiritual harm either to oneself or another." He then lists several examples including:

-- women who are pregnant out of wedlock who would bring shame upon themselves and their families by attending Mass

-- those who cannot "abide the air in church" for physical or mental health reasons

-- servants whose duties require them to work on Sundays and/or whose masters forbid them to assist at Mass under threat of loss of employment

--those who lack clothing appropriate to their social standing

--those who would suffer the loss of "extraordinary gain" by attending Mass

He even excuses those who would miss Mass for the sake of a "pleasure trip", provided it happens only once or twice and one has no other opportunity throughout the year.

So maybe we should stop making scrupulous people feel even worse when they have to miss Mass through no fault of their own.

Source: @LB236 on Twitter/X.

Vatican II vs. the popes

“Either we agree with the Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom and thus oppose the teachings of the popes, or we agree with the teachings of the popes and thus disagree with Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Freedom. It is impossible to subscribe to both.”

 -Abp. Lefebvre

The Vocation of SSPX Priests: A Response to Kevin Wells

 I caution anyone to consider carefully the claim that the active priesthood of the Novus Ordo is more important than the more targeted work of the SSPX.

• 
  Janet E. Smith

  Author Note: If it is objectively wrong for the priests of the SSPX to stay with an order whose bishops are in schism and who have been excommunicated, this essay is null—although I hope the discussion on what should be the primary focus of priests remains of value. For the purposes of the following piece, we need only allow that some priests may be subjectively non-culpable for remaining with the SSPX.

  My good friend Kevin Wells recently implored a priest of the SSPX to consider leaving the order not so much because the bishops of the SSPX have been declared to be in schism and thus excommunicated but because Kevin believes the work of the priests of the SSPX to be a less effective form of caring for souls than serving those who attend the Novus Ordo. Kevin seems to think the salvation of souls attended to by the SSPX is comparatively secure, and thus the work of NO priests directed toward the spiritually starved is more urgent.
  Kevin loves priests and is a great advocate for the priesthood. He has written beautifully about priests in The Priests We Need to Save the Church (where he tells the story of his uncle, Fr. Tommy), Priest and Beggar: The Heroic Life of Venerable Aloysius Schwartz,and Coached by the Curé: Lessons in Shepherding with St. John Vianney. These books tell the stories of priests whose work changed the lives of thousands. Kevin is, by temperament, an activist—a man driven by a flurry of wonderful ideas who is working zealously to reinvigorate the priesthood in a Church in crisis.
  But I caution him and those advised by him to consider carefully the claim that the active priesthood of the NO is more important than the more targeted work of the SSPX or that serving the poor is more important than learning Latin to celebrate the liturgy—or to be dedicated to the intellectual life. In the end, both are directed toward the same goal and should not be pitted against each other.
  Wells makes this plea:
  Father—and any other SSPX priest who has made it to this point—rather than mocking me for what I propose, would you at least consider looking into the ringed eyes of millions of spiritually-starved postconciliar Mass-goers? Would you dare cross the Rubicon and face West—versus populum—to look more deeply into the harrowed faces of faithful parents and grandparents who realize they are losing the souls of their children and grandchildren to the world?
  Although the care of souls is of foremost importance, saving as many souls as possible is not the goal of the Christian life; it is saving the souls that God has put under one’s care. Parents need to attend to the children entrusted to them and not abandon them to care for others more in need of attentive parental care. We must all do our best to discern what God wants us to do.
  I also find Kevin’s plea curious: SSPX priests believe that the suppression of the TLM and the problems with Vatican II are key sources of the desperation in “the ringed eyes of millions of spiritually-starved postconciliar Mass-goers.” Were they to join the NO priesthood, they would be abandoning the strategy they believe best for feeding souls—the very souls entrusted to them. Who would advise a homeschooling parent to abandon homeschooling to become a teacher in the public school system since the children there are more needy. Moreover, few diocesan bishops will accept SSPX priests, and they would not last long in the dioceses of today. Let me remind my friend Kevin that all too many faithful, good, zealous NO priests have been cancelled because they have been caught teaching the true Faith. 
  Kevin seems to think the sacrifices of more activist priests are greater than those of more traditional priests. He states:
  You see there lies a temptation within the SSPX—what I might call a “Pilate out-clause”—whereby the priests of your Society have found a way to wash their hands of the world’s moral pus and retreat into their palace of comfort—while Christ is left to die and the souls He came to save live in a world covered over by unseen, flapping black wings.
  Undoubtedly, there are SSPX priests who have some less than admirable reasons for being SSPX priests; but so, too, of course, do NO priests and many bishops as well. Certainly, some vocations are more “comfortable” than others, but it is wrong to think we should “select” vocations that are less comfortable. Rather, we should discern what God wants of us—if He wants us to be prosperous parents of a large family, we should embrace that; if He wants us to be a hermit in the wilderness, we should embrace that. If the principle that Kevin seems to advance here is true, there would be no place for contemplative orders or even the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), for instance.  
  Kevin presents a bleak—and I suspect uncharitable—reading of most SSPX priests:
  Father, where is the sacrifice in shepherding to heaven the soul of a woman who wears a chapel veil and prays the Rosary every day? Where is the immolation and hard work in leading to Heaven a serious-minded man who delights in discussing Thomistic philosophy with you? Does the well-ordered, homeschooled child require your pastoral care as much as the blank-faced, porn-addicted teenager shuttled between divorced parents?
  Does Kevin know how many very wounded souls land on the doorstep of the SSPX or other TLM groups? I know a woman who used to be in a gang and engaged in prostitution who found the TLM and had her life reformed. SSPX priests are doing their best to help teenagers never become porn-addicted and helping spouses not divorce. Does he know that those women wearing chapel veils and praying the Rosary every day need to have their souls fed so they can more effectively serve members of their family and community who have gone astray? And would that more priests had parishioners who could discuss Thomism with them—the priesthood would become more and more powerful.
  
  More: https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-vocation-of-sspx-priests-a-response-to-kevin-wells

Maura Healey removes all remaining doubt about the existence of hell

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey Signs Bill for Abortions Up to Birth

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has signed H.5595, which would legalize abortions up to birth.

The radical bill that allows abortions up until birth even on healthy unborn babies. Democrats fast tracked the measure to bypass the full committee process so the full body could pass the bill before the legislature adjourned.

The bill passed the overwhelmingly Democrat House on July 22 by a vote of 119-33. Under current state law, abortions are allowed up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, although weak exceptions essentially allow it up to birth.

More at LifeSite: https://www.lifenews.com/2026/08/10/massachusetts-governor-maura-healey-signs-bill-for-abortions-up-to-birth/

While destroyers in Rome break the Church up into smaller pieces a light of Catholic unity burns bright in Oslo

NEWS: Bishop Fredrik Hansen of Oslo has drawn a clear line on synodality. He recently extended permission for the Latin Mass.

As Bishop Hansen announced the convocation of the first diocesan synod of the Catholic Church in Oslo His Grace  stated:

“A diocesan synod is not a democratic assembly"

“As bishop, I am also obliged to exclude from the synod anything that contradicts or calls into question the doctrine of the Church. It is not for us to decide on matters of faith and morals.”

Full report to come @RealAdVaticanum

N.B. By means of what miracle did this man become a bishop in the Catholic Church?

 

Cardinal Sarah: Pachamama was proof that ‘paganism has entered the Church’

JULY 17, 2026 10:00 PM 

Michael Haynes

Two key moments from Pope Francis’ pontificate are proof that “sheer paganism has entered the Church”, according to Robert Cardinal Sarah.  

“They brought an Inca idol, and this idol entered the Basilica of Saint Peter,” lamented Cdl. Sarah when reflecting upon the Amazon Synod of 2019. 

“We carried it in procession from the Basilica to the Paul VI Hall, and it remained in front of us the whole time during the Synod,” he recalled, during a lengthy interview with Vaticanist Diane Montagna. “The Pachamama remained there like that throughout the whole synod.” (Source: Catholic Herald - paywall.)

St Louis de Montfort on the sinfulness of complaining.

 

Excommunication is not an exercise in mind reading

 

Open Letter to Bishop Michael Burbidge with Cover Letter to Apostolic Nuncio: We are are not excommunicated schismatics!

OPEN LETTER TO MOST REVEREND MICHAEL BURBIDGE, 

BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

July 13, 2026

Your Excellency,

How grateful I am for your vocation to the priesthood and the privilege of calling you my spiritual Father. We met only once several years ago after Fr. Clarence Trinkle's funeral at St. John the Baptist. I left by the front door thinking to slip away quietly, but you were standing alone next to the hearse only a few feet away. I stopped, genuflected and kissed your ring, introduced myself, and thanked you. I considered our brief exchange providential and was delighted to receive a personal blessing. I recall that meeting today as I write in grief over the recent decree of excommunication of the SSPX bishops. Since my purpose is not to defend the Society consecrations, I will not address that topic.

What I want to address today is the decree and explanatory note with regard to the laity which imposed canonically invalid punishments on those of us who continue to attend SSPX services. Locally, a priest announced at Mass that those who stop going to the SSPX immediately need take no further action. Those of us who continue to attend are excommunicated and have two levels of action required to be readmitted to the Church depending on our status. His statements and instructions were erroneous and conflict with canon law which illustrates how a problem grows when it begins from error.

  
Fr. Gerald Murray, a highly respected canon lawyer, called the decree and explanatory note a "canonical mess." The Dicastery failed to follow the requirements of canon law:

“In the decree, there’s a warning. We call that a canonical warning not to adhere to the schism. That’s (just) a warning.”...“Now, the next question is, what specifically are you supposed to do so that you don’t adhere to a schism? That level of specificity is not given. It has to be an act. It can’t be a mental attitude because you don’t judge the mind of people unless it’s been expressed in words.”...

In other words, the decree did not excommunicate anyone except the six bishops involved. You can't declare an entire class of people excommunicated and schismatic in an explanatory note. You must judge their personal actions, not try to read their minds. Fr. Murray continues:

“The confessions of the priests of St. Pius X during the reign of Francis, they got faculties to hear confessions given by Pope Francis, and it was formalized in a decree or a document from the Pope. An act of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in an explanatory note cannot undo what Pope Francis did.”...

So the confessions and marriages conducted by the SSPX continue to be valid. Pope Francis' permissions must be expressly revoked and they have not been. Again, Fr. Murray continues:

“The document about the laity, it basically assumes that lay people who attend Mass at the St. Pius X society on a regular basis or belong to one of their organizations are out of full communion with the Church and need to be reconciled and brought back into full communion with the Church. But wait a minute. They haven’t been excommunicated. Therefore, they’re not under a canonical penalty that affects their full communion, and the idea that you lose full communion because you agree with some of the things that the society says, that’s not good enough.”

Fr. Murray is not the only canonist pointing out the errors and inconsistencies in the documents promulgated by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). An anonymous canonist explained it clearly on the Rorate Caeli website which Fr. John Zuhlsdorf summarized on his popular blog read by many Catholic laity. Most of those attending SSPX chapels are well catechized and informed Catholics aware that the documents created a "canonical mess." The actions also seem in bad faith intended to expel all those associated with the SSPX as too troublesome to care about. I hope that's untrue.

In 1991, Bishop Joseph Anthony Ferrario of Honolulu excommunicated and declared schismatic six lay persons who arranged for the SSPX to celebrate the sacrament of confirmation for their children. They appealed to Rome and the bishop's abuse of his authority was overturned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith whose head was Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. The letter to the bishop stated:

"From the examination of the case, conducted on the basis of the Law of the Church, it did not result that the facts referred to in the above-mentioned decree are formal schismatic acts in the strict sense, as they do not constitute the offense of schism; and therefore the Congregation holds that the Decree of May 1, 1991 lacks foundation and hence validity."

How can the laity possibly be excommunicated today for essentially doing the same thing the Hawaii six did in 1991? Attending the Masses and receiving the sacraments from the SSPX is not a schismatic act justifying a class action excommunication of the lay faithful.

  
What is happening at present in the Diocese of Arlington (and other places in the country) with respect to faithful sons and daughters of the Church is unjust, and uncharitable. Announcing that we are excommunicated and in schism is also untrue according to canon law. The decree and explanatory note remind me of Roe v. Wade, one of the most unjust court decisions in history. The justices found the right to murder the unborn in the "penumbra" of the Constitution. Apparently, Pope Leo and Cardinal Fernandez have found the right to abort the lay faithful in the penumbra of canon law.

  
Your Excellency, I beg you to reconsider the sledgehammer approach to the faithful. I have seen no reduction of the laity attending the chapel in the weeks since the release of the decree. The only result of promulgating this error-filled abuse of canon law can be further mistrust of our shepherds. Most of those who attend the Traditional Latin Mass are already evicted from churches we've supported with our time, talent, and treasure. Now, not only are we evicted physically, but we are spiritual outcasts whose canon law rights are ignored. And to whom can we appeal since the DDF is the perpetrator of the injustice?

We turn to you, Your Excellency, hoping and praying that you will be a voice of truth loving your sons and daughters enough to defend us against this unjust and cruel treatment. I pray for you every day when I say the rosary and when I go to the chapel holy hour for priests on Fridays. Our chapel prays for you and Pope Leo at every Mass. To whom else shall we turn for justice and mercy if not to our spiritual fathers? Please correct the errors and instruct all the priests of the diocese not to mislead the flock about the current situation. The laity have the right to be told the truth. We are neither excommunicated nor in schism and we may still receive the sacraments of Confession and Matrimony from SSPX priests. The situation is tragic enough without spreading error. Please correct the situation for the good of the souls for whom you are responsible.

Sincerely in Christ Jesus,

Mary Ann Kreitzer

More: https://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/2026/07/open-letter-to-bishop-michael-burbidge.html

NEW: Expanded access to TLM in Texas, “Motivated by the salvation of souls”

“Motivated by the salvation of souls”, Texas bishop expands Traditional Latin Mass provision

Bishop Michael Sis of the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas, has announced that he will expand the provision of the Traditional Latin Mass in his diocese.The announcement was shared by Father Ryan Rojo, Vocations Director and Director of Seminarians for the diocese. In a post on X, Father Rojo wrote: “Motivated by the salvation […] Bishop Michael Sis of the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas, has announced that he will expand the provision of the Traditional Latin Mass in his diocese. The announcement was shared by Father Ryan Rojo, Vocations Director and Director of Seminarians for the diocese. In a post on X, Father Rojo wrote: “Motivated by the salvation of souls, Bishop Sis announced that the Traditional Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal will be offered beginning Sunday, 30 August, and thereafter on the last Sunday of each month.” The Mass will be celebrated at St Ann’s Catholic Church, a large parish in Midland served by three priests and five deacons. The parish already offers 19 Masses each week, five scheduled confession times and perpetual adoration. The Mass will be offered at 3 p.m., with, as Father Rojo explained, “the hope that this time will enable people from West Texas (Lubbock, Amarillo and El Paso) and southeastern New Mexico (Diocese of Las Cruces) to join us for this celebration.”  

Father Rojo also said: “This is just a beginning as the diocese discerns a path forward to provide for our people. Other priests of the diocese will be learning the Mass in the weeks and months ahead.”

More: https://x.com/realadvaticanum/status/2085713360876646642?s=46&t=IydJ-X8H6c0NM044nYKQ0w

August 6, 2026: The Wanderer Catholic Newspaper

 

Subscribe: https://thewandererpress.com/subscribe-to-the-wanderer-2/

St. Paul VI against religious indifferentism

“Obviously we cannot agree with these various forms of [non-Christian] religion, nor can we adopt an indifferent or uncritical attitude toward them on the assumption that they are all to be regarded as on an equal footing… Indeed, honesty compels us to declare openly our conviction that the Christian religion is the one and only true religion, and it is our hope that it will be acknowledged as such by all who look for God and worship Him.” - Ecclesiam suam 107

Virtue remains

"If you commit a sin and take pleasure in it, the pleasure passes but the sin remains. But if you do something virtuous even though you are tired, the tiredness passes but the virtue remains." - St. Camillus de Lellis

Make the Sign of the Cross

“He who, when tempted, makes the Sign of the Cross with devotion, makes Hell tremble and Heaven rejoice."

St. Jean Vianney

Breaking: Vatican officials state that Pope Leo plans to to relax enforcement of restrictions on the Latin Mass.

"Several senior Vatican officials in Leo’s closest group of advisors told The Pillar that Leo’s informal and progressive relaxation of the application of Traditionis custodes will not stop

“‘It’s not a liturgical issue, but an issue of communion. If you’re in communion with the Church, we should allow for reasonable accommodation for different charismas and styles, including those who are more traditional, and I think that’s the trend now,’ one official told The Pillar."

Source: https://x.com/sitsio/status/2084595863377019377?s=46&t=IydJ-X8H6c0NM044nYKQ0w

“Leo’s informal and progressive relaxation of the application of Traditionis custodes will not stop.”9

“Several senior Vatican officials in Leo’s closest group of advisors told The Pillar that Leo’s informal and progressive relaxation of the application of Traditionis custodes will not stop.

“‘It’s not a liturgical issue, but an issue of communion. If you’re in communion with the Church, we should allow for reasonable accommodation for different charismas and styles, including those who are more traditional, and I think that’s the trend now,’ one official told The Pillar.”

More in:

Is Pope Leo maintaining a TLM ‘gray area’?

EDGAR BELTRÁN

AUG 03, 2026

Last month’s illicit SSPX consecrations and subsequent excommunications raised expectations that Pope Leo might soon act to expand the celebration of the TLM in communities that are in union with Rome.

But more than a month later, that expected papal action has not come.

Link: https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/is-pope-leo-maintaining-a-tlm-gray?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web