Pope Francis speaks during his weekly general audience on Ash Wednesday Feb. 22, 2023. (Image: Daniel Ibanez/CNA)
Two wonky stories out of the Vatican in the space of a week may give casual observers more than ample occasion for head scratching. They may also give more than a passing impression that Pope Francis and his chief lieutenants in the Roman curia don’t really have a plan and are mostly reacting to developments.
One was a strange Motu proprio – that’s Latin for “on his own initiative” and is used to express the legal fiction that the pope is doing something without prompting – that declared all assets owned by curial departments or entities they control to be the property of the Holy See. That law didn’t really change anything or say anything that wasn’t – on paper, at least – already true.
The thing is, there are dozens of outfits – from big local Roman operations such as the papal basilicas to charitable arms, cultural associations, and other similar operations – that nominally belong to the Holy See and are therefore subject to papal control, but mostly operate without any real oversight.
The question is: Why would Pope Francis feel the need just now to remind everyone who’s boss?
One wonders whether there hasn’t been some squirrelly behavior in some department or other, some pushback against Vatican attempts to exercise control after many years of “salutary neglect” that gave people the impression they actually owned the stuff they had to hand.
Earlier this month, Francis made his special commissioner for St. Mary Major, one of the papal basilicas, appointed in the wake of persistent rumor regarding shady financial management (among other things) into a permanent position, even though he left in place the fellow nominally in charge of the basilica.
There is something quintessentially Roman and imperial about the way Francis goes about such things. Octavian Caesar, better known as Caesar Augustus, famously left the trappings of Rome’s old constitutional republican government in place, while slowly but surely accruing all real power to himself and effecting a careful balance of institutional, personal, strategic, and psychological pressures and interests to assure that real power would stay with the person of the emperor.
(Augustus was moderate, temperate, and mostly reasonable in his management of affairs and in his exercise of both power and authority. His immediate successor, Tiberius, was less so. Tiberius’s successor was a fellow called Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known to history by his childhood nickname, Caligula.)
The other curious act of governance was a rescript Francis granted to his liturgy czar, Cardinal Arthur Roche, who has been having some trouble corralling bishops apparently reluctant or even unwilling to implement Francis’s 2021 restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass.
Now, if you didn’t know the Traditional Latin Mass was still a going concern, you’re not alone. The number of Catholics devoted to the older forms of worship is miniscule. The number of Catholics more than vaguely aware that the Latin Mass is still – or once again – a thing in the life of the Church is vanishingly small.
That’s only one of the reasons many Vatican watchers were surprised when Francis, in July of 2021, basically uprooted and threw out his predecessor, Benedict XVI’s signature 2007 liturgical reform, which gave broad permission for priests to celebrate sacraments and other rites according to the liturgical books promulgated in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.
Folks devoted to the older rites have not had an easy time of it since Pope Paul VI replaced the old books wholesale in 1969. Pope Benedict’s decision in 2007 to extend broad permission to priests who were willing to celebrate the sacraments according to the older disposition went a long way toward bringing “traditionalists” back into the life of the Church.
There have been a few trouble spots, where die-hard traditionalists have tried to do things their way, torpedoes be damned. And there are pockets of zealous devotees who don’t care much for the Second Vatican Council or the liturgical reform that followed it. Some of them make lots of mostly unpleasant noise on the internet.
For the most part, however, Catholics who prefer the older forms have gone about their lives quietly. Since 2007, when Pope Benedict gave broad permission for the celebration of Mass and other rites in the older ways, traditional Catholics have slowly integrated into the life of normal Catholic parishes, or set up permanent digs in specially designated churches.
When Francis walked back Benedict’s liberalizing reform, he cited “defense of the unity of the Body of Christ,” as his motive, and said he was “constrained to revoke the faculty granted by my Predecessors.”
He also said, “[I]t is up to the Bishop,” to regulate the liturgy and apply the new rules according to their best lights. “It is up to you,” Francis told the bishops, “to authorize in your Churches, as local Ordinaries, the use of the Missale Romanum of 1962, applying the norms of the present Motu proprio.”
Several bishops—especially, though not exclusively, in the United States—looked around their jurisdictions and saw relative peace. So, they granted permission for things to continue pretty much as they had been going. It seems Roche didn’t much like that, so he issued a series of clarifications around Christmas of 2021, ostensibly in response to queries he’d received from prelates regarding how they should behave.
Some bishops took Roche’s clarifications to heart. Others figured they were well within bounds in granting dispensations of their own accord—there was nothing in the pope’s 2021 law that said bishops had to ask permission and the pope had told the bishops it was up to them—and, in any case, the bishops had good reason to think they had Church law on their side.
In fact, more than a few legal eagles wondered whether Roche hadn’t overstepped his bounds when he told bishops to ask his office for permission before granting the kind of broad dispensations that left things largely as they had been. Roche really didn’t like that. It appears he liked people talking about it even less.
Roche took the extraordinary step of responding to some canonical speculation in that regard, telling the Where Peter Is blog, which had reached out to him for comment on a Feb. 10 analysis piece in The Pillar, “It is an absurdity to think that the prefect of a dicastery would do anything other than exercise the wishes of the Holy Father.”
“The article in The Pillar,” Roche said, “is not really an attack on me but on the pope’s authority.” He called the wonky analysis piece “an astonishing act full of hubris.”
A few days later, Roche was in to see the pope. A day after that, the Vatican press office released a new law, in the form of a papal rescript—a sort of ad hoc clarification quickly given—that confirmed Roche’s understanding of his powers and told the world’s bishops that they would have to come asking before granting broad permissions to traditional groups or the priests who care for them.
To be perfectly frank, this whole contretemps probably won’t make much difference on the ground. In nuts-and-bolts practical terms, it will take time for bishops to take stock of things and to draft the letters—if any write them at all—and more time for Roche’s small outfit to receive and consider them.
Then, there will be back-and-forth over plans to implement whatever orders come down from Roche’s office. It’s a safe bet that bishops who dispensed with alacrity will find it necessary to seek written permission from Rome for each minor detail and every miniscule adjustment of whatever plans eventually emerge.
Temporizing is another ancient Roman art, one that is mother’s milk to bishops everywhere.
“Reform on the go.” That is how veteran Vatican watcher Andrea Gagliarducci dubbed Pope Francis’s approach to reshaping the Vatican and the Church. That description is of a piece with what close papal advisor Antonio Spadaro SJ has called the pope’s “open and incomplete” leadership style, by which he means to say that Francis prefers to “start processes” rather than “occupy spaces” in his approach to things.
“If one has the answers to all the questions,” Pope Francis told Spadaro in a 2013 interview published in the Jesuit-run La Civiltà Cattolica, “that is the proof that God is not with him.”
Such an approach necessarily leads to processes of trial and error, which will sometimes seem, from the outside in, like taking two steps forward and three steps back. Willingness to walk that way may engender serious pastoral dynamism. When it comes to governance, on the other hand, it is frequently a recipe for paralyzing gridlock.
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Christopher R. Altieri is a journalist, editor and author of three books, including Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith (Catholic Truth Society, 2021). He is contributing editor to Catholic World Report.
Unconfirmed stories a couple of months ago indicated that the long-awaited “McCarrick Report” ran to 600 pages; as it turns out, the final count of the English text is 449. Some very thoughtful Vatican person […]
Vatican City, Jun 7, 2017 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- There are many things about Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta that could be called heroic – her tireless service to the world’s most rejected and her courageous witness to millions of what it is to live the Gospel, just to name a couple.
But the priest who oversaw her path to sainthood said that for him, one thing stands out above all the rest: her experience of spiritual darkness and what she described as feeling totally abandoned by God for the majority of her life.
“The single most heroic thing is exactly her darkness. That pure living, that pure, naked faith,” Fr. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the postulator for Mother Teresa’s canonization cause, told CNA in an interview. Fr. Kolodiejchuk is a priest of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, founded by Mother Teresa in 1989.
By undergoing the depth and duration of the desolation she experienced and doing everything that she did for others in spite of it, “that’s really very heroic,” he said.
Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu Aug. 26, 1910 in Skopje, in what is now Macedonia, Mother Teresa joined the Sisters of Loretto at the age of 17, but later left after she felt what she called “an order” from God to leave the convent and to live among the poor.
She went on to found several communities of both active and contemplative Missionaries of Charity, which include religious sisters, brothers, and priests.
The first community of active sisters was founded in 1950. An order of active brothers was founded nearly 20 years later in 1968. Then two contemplative orders came, one of women (in 1976) and one of men (in 1979).
In 1989 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers was established, and is a clerical religious institute of diocesan right whose members make promises of poverty, chastity, obedience, and wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor.
Additionally, an order of lay missionaries was also founded in 1984, and several movements who organize various works of charity have also been born as part of the Missionaries of Charity spiritual family.
One of the first steps in declaring someone a saint is to determine their heroic virtue. Fr. Kolodiejchuk said that Mother Teresa’s entire life was lived heroically, which was clear from what he had seen firsthand and heard from the testimonies of others, even though he himself has only been a part of the Missionaries of Charity family for 20 years.
He said the most heroic aspect of Mother Teresa’s life and vocation is the more than 50 years of darkness and abandonment she felt after receiving what she termed “a call within a call” to leave the Sisters of Loretto and found the Missionaries of Charity.
Although the Albanian nun is always seen beaming and smiling brightly in photos, she experienced a profound internal desolation during which she felt silence and rejection from God, who seemed distant.
In a letter to her spiritual director in 1957, Mother Teresa wrote that “I call, I cling, I want, and there is no one to answer. Where I try to raise my thoughts to heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.”
“Love – the word – it brings nothing. I am told God lives in me – and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul,” she said.
Mother Teresa had prayed fervently to share in Jesus’ suffering, and many, including her spiritual director, believed her feelings of rejection and abandonment to be a mirror of Christ’s own experience of loneliness and desolation during his Passion and death.
Because of the depth and duration of Mother Teresa’s spiritual desert, many have hailed her as a great mystic when it comes to topic of spiritual darkness.
Fr. Kolodiejchuk himself said Mother Teresa was “a great mystic, but also very concrete, very down to earth.”
The priest had met Mother Teresa in his early 20s while attending the vows of his sister, who had joined the active branch of the Missionaries of Charity sisters. He joined the order of priests a year later.
A lot of people “think that saints are somewhere in the mystical clouds,” he said, but cautioned that this wasn’t true of Mother Teresa, who was spiritual, but also observant and active in the lives of others.
From the first moment he met her, of Mother Teresa’s most distinguishing qualities was “this sense that she really was Mother,” he said, explaining that being a mother was something important to her, and was the only thing she was ever called.
When Mother Teresa was first elected superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, her immediate response after receiving congratulations, he noted, was to say “Oh that means nothing, the title. No, I want to be a mother.”
The nun also placed a heavy emphasis on God’s tenderness, Fr. Kolodiejchuk said, recalling that “tender” was one of her favorite words – even more so than mercy.
“She would talk more about Jesus’ tender love and mercy; his thoughtfulness, his presence, his compassion…So mercy was a word in her vocabulary, but with this quality especially of tenderness.”
“Even in the darkness she still had an intimate sense of God’s tender love for us,” he said, and recited a prayer that Mother Teresa would often teach and have others repeat: “Jesus in my heart, I believe in your tender love for me. I love you.”
The priest said that her canonization during the Jubilee of Mercy was providential since the core mission of the Missionaries of Charity is to respond to Chapter 25 in the Gospel of Matthew, which lists the works of mercy.
He noted how the day of Mother Teresa’s canonization also marked a special jubilee day for workers and volunteers of mercy.
Given the work the Missionaries of Charity do, “it’s appropriate” that the nun would become a patroness for all who carry out the same type of activities, he said.
Part of the reason Mother Teresa is such a strong example for the world today, Fr. Kolodiejchuk believes, is because “people like to see,” and the work the Missionaries do is something visible that others can easily touch and participate in, no matter what religion they profess.
“Mother was a great believer in that we receive in giving. So there’s something attractive about the work. And then you receive by sharing in it,” he said.
This article was originally published on CNA April 4, 2016.
Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Oct. 5, 2016. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
CNA Staff, Mar 13, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
March 13 marks the anniversary of the election of Pope Francis as the 266th successor of St. Peter. Here is a timeline of key events during his papacy:
2013
March 13 — About two weeks after Pope Benedict XVI steps down from the papacy, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is elected pope. He takes the papal name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi and proclaims from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica: “Let us begin this journey, the bishop and people, this journey of the Church of Rome, which presides in charity over all the Churches, a journey of brotherhood in love, of mutual trust. Let us always pray for one another.”
March 14 — The day after he begins his pontificate, Pope Francis returns to his hotel to personally pay his hotel bill and collect his luggage.
July 8 — Pope Francis visits Italy’s island of Lampedusa and meets with a group of 50 migrants, most of whom are young men from Somalia and Eritrea. The island, which is about 200 miles off the coast of Tunisia, is a common entry point for migrants who flee parts of Africa and the Middle East to enter Europe. This is the pope’s first pastoral visit outside of Rome and sets the stage for making reaching out to the peripheries a significant focus.
Pope Francis gives the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 2, 2013. Elise Harris/CNA.
July 23-28 — Pope Francis visits Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to participate in World Youth Day 2013. More than 3 million people from around the world attend the event.
July 29 — On the return flight from Brazil, Pope Francis gives his first papal news conference and sparks controversy by saying “if a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” The phrase is prompted by a reporter asking the pope a question about priests who have homosexual attraction.
Nov. 24 — Pope Francis publishes his first apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). The document illustrates the pope’s vision for how to approach evangelization in the modern world.
2014
Feb. 22 — Pope Francis holds his first papal consistory to appoint 19 new cardinals, including ones from countries in the developing world that have never previously been represented in the College of Cardinals, such as Haiti.
March 22 — Pope Francis creates the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The commission works to protect the dignity of minors and vulnerable adults, such as the victims of sexual abuse.
Pope Francis greets pilgrims during his general audience on Nov. 29, 2014. Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Oct. 5 — The Synod on the Family begins. The bishops discuss a variety of concerns, including single-parent homes, cohabitation, homosexual adoption of children, and interreligious marriages.
Dec. 6 — After facing some pushback for his efforts to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis discusses his opinion in an interview with La Nacion, an Argentine news outlet: “Resistance is now evident. And that is a good sign for me, getting the resistance out into the open, no stealthy mumbling when there is disagreement. It’s healthy to get things out into the open, it’s very healthy.”
2015
Jan. 18 — To conclude a trip to Asia, Pope Francis celebrates Mass in Manila, Philippines. Approximately 6 million to 7 million people attend the record-setting Mass, despite heavy rain.
March 23 — Pope Francis visits Naples, Italy, to show the Church’s commitment to helping the fight against corruption and organized crime in the city.
May 24 — To emphasize the Church’s mission to combat global warming and care for the environment, Pope Francis publishes the encyclical Laudato Si’, which urges people to take care of the environment and encourages political action to address climate problems.
Pope Francis at a Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 17, 2015. Bohumil Petrik.
Sept. 19-22 — Pope Francis visits Cuba and meets with Fidel Castro in the first papal visit to the country since Pope John Paul II in 1998. During his homily, Francis discusses the dignity of the human person: “Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it.”
Sept. 22-27 — After departing from Cuba, Pope Francis makes his first papal visit to the United States. In Washington, D.C., he speaks to a joint session of Congress, in which he urges lawmakers to work toward promoting the common good, and canonizes the Franciscan missionary St. Junípero Serra. He also attends the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, which focuses on celebrating the gift of the family.
Pope Francis speaks to the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 24, 2015. . L’Osservatore Romano.
Oct. 4 — Pope Francis begins the second Synod on the Family to address issues within the modern family, such as single-parent homes, cohabitation, poverty, and abuse.
Oct. 18 — The pope canonizes St. Louis Martin and St. Marie-Azélie “Zelie” Guérin. The married couple were parents to five nuns, including St. Therese of Lisieux. They are the first married couple to be canonized together.
Dec. 8 — Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy begins. The year focuses on God’s mercy and forgiveness and people’s redemption from sin. The pope delegates certain priests in each diocese to be Missionaries of Mercy who have the authority to forgive sins that are usually reserved for the Holy See.
2016
March 19 — Pope Francis publishes the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which discusses a wide variety of issues facing the modern family based on discussions from the two synods on the family. The pope garners significant controversy from within the Church for comments he makes in Chapter 8 about Communion for the divorced and remarried.
April 16 — After visiting refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, Pope Francis allows three Muslim refugee families to join him on his flight back to Rome. He says the move was not a political statement.
Pope Francis at the General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, Feb. 24, 2016. Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
July 26-31 — Pope Francis visits Krakow, Poland, as part of the World Youth Day festivities. About 3 million young Catholic pilgrims from around the world attend.
Sept. 4 — The pope canonizes St. Teresa of Calcutta, who is also known as Mother Teresa. The saint, a nun from Albania, dedicated her life to missionary and charity work, primarily in India.
Sept. 30-Oct. 2 — Pope Francis visits Georgia and Azerbaijan on his 16th trip outside of Rome since the start of his papacy. His trip focuses on Catholic relations with Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
Oct. 4 — Pope Francis makes a surprise visit to Amatrice, Italy, to pray for the victims of an earthquake in central Italy that killed nearly 300 people.
2017
May 12-13 — In another papal trip, Francis travels to Fatima, Portugal, to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. May 13 marks the 100th anniversary of the first Marian apparition to three children in the city.
July 11 — Pope Francis adds another category of Christian life suitable for the consideration of sainthood: “offering of life.” The category is distinct from martyrdom, which only applies to someone who is killed for his or her faith. The new category applies to those who died prematurely through an offering of their life to God and neighbor.
Pope Francis greets a participant in the World Day of the Poor in Rome, Nov. 16, 2017. L’Osservatore Romano.
Nov. 19 — On the first-ever World Day of the Poor, Pope Francis eats lunch with 4,000 poor and people in need in Rome.
Nov. 27-Dec. 2 — In another trip to Asia, Pope Francis travels to Myanmar and Bangladesh. He visits landmarks and meets with government officials, Catholic clergy, and Buddhist monks. He also preaches the Gospel and promotes peace in the region.
2018
Jan. 15-21 — The pope takes another trip to Latin America, this time visiting Chile and Peru. The pontiff meets with government officials and members of the clergy while urging the faithful to remain close to the clergy and reject secularism. The Chilean visit leads to controversy over Chilean clergy sex abuse scandals.
Aug. 2 — The Vatican formally revises No. 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which concerns the death penalty. The previous text suggested the death penalty could be permissible in certain circumstances, but the revision states that the death penalty is “inadmissible.”
Aug. 25 — Archbishop Carlo Viganò, former papal nuncio to the United States, publishes an 11-page letter calling for the resignation of Pope Francis and accusing him and other Vatican officials of covering up sexual abuse including allegations against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The pope initially does not directly respond to the letter, but nine months after its publication he denies having prior knowledge about McCarrick’s conduct.
Aug. 25-26 — Pope Francis visits Dublin, Ireland, to attend the World Meeting of Families. The theme is “the Gospel of family, joy for the world.”
Pope Francis at the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Ireland. Daniel Ibanez/CNA.
Oct. 3-28 — The Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment takes place. The synod focuses on best practices to teach the faith to young people and to help them discern God’s will.
2019
Jan. 22-27 — The third World Youth Day during Pope Francis’ pontificate takes place during these six days in Panama City, Panama. Young Catholics from around the world gather for the event, with approximately 3 million people in attendance.
Feb. 4 — Pope Francis signs a joint document in with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, titled the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.” The document focuses on people of different faiths uniting together to live peacefully and advance a culture of mutual respect.
Pope Francis and Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar, signed a joint declaration on human fraternity during an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Feb. 4, 2019. Vatican Media.
Feb. 21-24 — The Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, which is labeled the Vatican Sexual Abuse Summit, takes place. The meeting focuses on sexual abuse scandals in the Church and emphasizes responsibility, accountability, and transparency.
Oct. 6-27 — The Church holds the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which is also known as the Amazon Synod. The synod is meant to present ways in which the Church can better evangelize the Amazon region but leads to controversy when carved images of a pregnant Amazonian woman, referred to by the pope as Pachamama, are used in several events and displayed in a basilica near the Vatican.
Oct. 13 — St. John Henry Newman, an Anglican convert to Catholicism and a cardinal, is canonized by Pope Francis. Newman’s writings inspired Catholic student associations at nonreligious colleges and universities in the United States and other countries.
2020
March 15 — Pope Francis takes a walking pilgrimage in Rome to the chapel of the crucifix and prays for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. The crucifix was carried through Rome during the plague of 1522.
March 27 — Pope Francis gives an extraordinary “urbi et orbi” blessing in an empty and rain-covered St. Peter’s Square, praying for the world during the coronavirus pandemic.
Pope Francis venerates the miraculous crucifix of San Marcello al Corso in St. Peter’s Square during his Urbi et Orbi blessing, March 27, 2020. Vatican Media.
2021
March 5-8 — In his first papal trip since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis becomes the first pope to visit Iraq. On his trip, he signs a joint statement with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemning extremism and promoting peace.
July 3 — Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis, is indicted in a Vatican court for embezzlement, money laundering, and other crimes. The pope gives approval for the indictment.
July 4 — Pope Francis undergoes colon surgery for diverticulitis, a common condition in older people. The Vatican releases a statement that assures the pope “reacted well” to the surgery. Francis is released from the hospital after 10 days.
July 16 — Pope Francis issues a motu proprio titled Traditionis Custodes. The document imposes heavy restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.
Dec. 2-6 — The pope travels to Cyprus and Greece. The trip includes another visit to the Greek island of Lesbos to meet with migrants.
Pope Francis greets His Beatitude Ieronymos II in Athens, Greece on Dec. 5, 2021. Vatican Media
2022
Jan. 11 — Pope Francis makes a surprise visit to a record store in Rome called StereoSound. The pope, who has an affinity for classical music, blesses the newly renovated store.
March 19 — The pope promulgates Praedicate Evangelium, which reforms the Roman Curia. The reforms emphasize evangelization and establish more opportunities for the laity to be in leadership positions.
May 5 — Pope Francis is seen in a wheelchair for the first time in public and begins to use one more frequently. The pope has been suffering from knee problems for months.
Pope Francis greeted the crowd in a wheelchair at the end of his general audience on Aug. 3, 2022. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
July 24-30 — In his first papal visit to Canada, Pope Francis apologizes for the harsh treatment of the indigenous Canadians, saying many Christians and members of the Catholic Church were complicit.
2023
Jan. 31-Feb. 5 — Pope Francis travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. During his visit, the pope condemns political violence in the countries and promotes peace. He also participates in an ecumenical prayer service with Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Moderator of the Church of Scotland Iain Greenshields.
Pope Francis greets a young boy a Mass in Juba, South Sudan on Feb. 5, 2023. Vatican Media
March 29-April 1 — Pope Francis is hospitalized for a respiratory infection. During his stay at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, he visits the pediatric cancer ward and baptizes a newborn baby.
April 5 — The pope appears in the Disney documentary “The Pope: Answers,” which is in Spanish, answering six “hot-button” issues from members of Gen Z from various backgrounds. The group discusses immigration, depression, abortion, clergy sexual and psychological abuse, transgenderism, pornography, and loss of faith.
April 28-30 — Pope Francis visits Hungary to meet with government officials, civil society members, bishops, priests, seminarians, Jesuits, consecrated men and women, and pastoral workers. He celebrates Mass on the final day of the trip in Kossuth Lajos Square.
Pope Francis stands on an altar erected outside the Parliament Building in Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos’ Square during a public outdoor Mass on April 30, 2023. Vatican Media
June 7 — The Vatican announces that Pope Francis will undergo abdominal surgery that afternoon under general anesthesia due to a hernia that is causing painful, recurring, and worsening symptoms. In his general audience that morning before the surgery, Francis says he intends to publish an apostolic letter on St. Thérèse of Lisieux, “patroness of the missions,” to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth.
June 15 — After successful surgery and a week of recovery, Pope Francis is released from Gemelli Hospital.
Aug. 2-6 — Pope Francis travels to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day 2023, taking place from Aug. 1-6. He meets with Church and civil leaders ahead of presiding at the welcoming Mass and Stations of the Cross. He also hears the confessions of several pilgrims. On Aug. 5, he visits the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, where he prays the rosary with young people with disabilities. That evening he presides over the vigil and on Sunday, Aug. 6, he celebrates the closing Mass, where he urges the 1.5 million young people present to “be not afraid,” echoing the words of the founder of World Youth Days, St. John Paul II.
Pope Francis waves at the crowd of 1.5 million people who attended the closing Mass of World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal on Aug. 6, 2023. Vatican Media.
Aug. 31-Sept. 4 — Pope Francis travels to Mongolia, the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign country. The trip makes Francis the first pope to visit the Asian country that shares a 2,880-mile border with China, its most significant economic partner. Mongolia has a population of about 1,300 Catholics in a country of more than 3 million people.
Pope Francis meets with local priests and religious of Mongolia, which includes only 25 priests (19 religious and six diocesan), 33 women religious, and one bishop — Cardinal Giorgio Marengo — in Ulaanbaatar’s Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul on Sept. 2, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
Sept. 22-23 — On a two-day trip to Marseille, France, Pope Francis meets with local civil and religious leaders and participates in the Mediterranean Encounter, a gathering of some 120 young people of various creeds with bishops from 30 countries.
Pope Francis asks for a moment of silence at a memorial dedicated to sailors and migrants lost at sea on the first of a two-day visit to Marseille, France, Sept. 22, 2023. A Camargue cross, which comes from the Camargue area of France, represents the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. The three tridents represent faith, the anchor represents hope, and the heart represents charity. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Oct. 4-29 — The Vatican hosts the first of two monthlong global assemblies of the Synod on Synodality, initiated by Pope Francis in 2021 to enhance the communion, participation, and mission of the Church. Pope Francis celebrates the closing Mass of the synod at St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29. The second and final global assembly will take place at the Vatican in October 2024.
Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality’s closing Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 29, 2023. Vatican Media
Nov. 25 — Pope Francis visits the hospital briefly for precautionary testing after coming down with the flu earlier in the day. Although he still participates in scheduled activities, other officials read his prepared remarks. The Vatican on Nov. 28 cancels the pope’s planned Dec. 1–3 trip to Dubai for the COP28 climate conference, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech, due to his illness.
Dec. 18 — The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issues the declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which authorizes nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples and couples in “irregular situations.” Various bishops from around the world voice both support for and criticism of the document.
2024
Jan. 4 — Amid widespread backlash to Fiducia Supplicans, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, publishes a five-page press release that refers to Fiducia Supplicans as “perennial doctrine” and underlines that pastoral blessings of couples in irregular situations should not be “an endorsement of the life led by those who request them.”
Jan. 14 — Pope Francis for the first time responds publicly to questions about Fiducia Supplicans in an interview on an Italian television show. The pope underlines that “the Lord blesses everyone” and that a blessing is an invitation to enter into a conversation “to see what the road is that the Lord proposes to them.”
Feb. 11 — In a ceremony attended by Argentine president Javier Milei, Pope Francis canonizes María Antonia of St. Joseph — known affectionately in the pope’s home country as “Mama Antula” — in a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. The president and the former archbishop of Buenos Aires embrace after the ceremony. Pope Francis, who has not returned to his homeland since becoming pope in 2013, has said he wants to visit Argentina in the second half of this year.
Pope Francis meets with Argentina President Javier Milei in a private audience on Feb. 12, 2024, at the Vatican. Credit: Vatican Media
Feb. 28 — After canceling audiences the previous Saturday and having an aide read his prepared remarks at his Wednesday audience due to a “mild flu,” Pope Francis visits the hospital for diagnostic tests but returns to the Vatican afterward.
March 2 — Despite having an aide read his speech “because of bronchitis,” the pope presides over the inauguration of the 95th Judicial Year of the Vatican City State and maintains a full schedule.
March 13 — Pope Francis celebrates 11 years as Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
I have this to say about Francis’ suppression of the Mass prayed in Latin:
When I have traveled to Germany and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak German. I attended anyway.
When I have traveled to France and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak French. I attended anyway.
When I have traveled to Poland and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak Polish. I attended anyway.
When I have traveled to the Czech Republic and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak Czech. I attended anyway.
When I have traveled to Spain and Portugal and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak either Spanish or Portuguese. I attended anyway.
So, tell me Vicar of Christ, what’s the problem with Catholics attending Mass when it’s prayed in Latin?
Not only that, but I live in an area where there are Byzantine parishes, of two different “brands” in fact (Ukrainian and Ruthenian), Maronite parishes, and even Melkites. All of these exist and, barring further developments, will continue to exist without harming the “unity” of the one true church. (Or might Francis have a yet unspoken problem with them???) This whole vendetta does not fully make sense even if unity is the true goal.
If it were prayed in Latin everywhere, folks would pick it up–and if they did not, then really it is there own issue (at least if one is an English speaker.) There are numerous resources out there, very user friendly, to learn ecclesial Latin, and they are not badly priced even when new (I personally think the best ones are at http://www.memoriapress_com).
If funds are short, ask your local homeschooler (Catholic or Protestant) if there is a homeschool book sale coming up–they usually are in the Spring/Summer months. There are frequently books available.
Oh, my point being that then it would not matter what country one was in, everyone could understand–maybe not the homily or readings–but everything else.
.
(The readings one could follow along with the preferred Bible Ap. If a priest/parish secretary had time, they could type up a list of “bullet points” to the homily and offer that as a handout on the way in. This is not unusual in Protestant church. A person could put that through Google translate. Just a thought.)
.
When circumstances force my travel to a Catholic parish which celebrates the Mass according to the Novus Ordo rite, I take my 1962 Latin Missal and immerse myself in that rite so as not to take offense at the travesties of innovation, irreverence and transmogrification of the Mass being said in modern vernacular. One could also add ear buds and tune in to a Latin Mass channel. Ah, the wonder and beauty of new technology mingled with the sacred ‘dead’ language in an old, printed book.
We read: “Then, there will be back-and-forth over plans to implement whatever orders come down from Roche’s office. It’s a safe bet that bishops who dispensed with alacrity will find it necessary to seek written permission from Rome for each minor detail and every miniscule adjustment of whatever plans eventually emerge.”
Yours truly seems to remember that the disastrous Iran Hostage Crisis resulted from President Carter trying to manage every detail in the field from the central White House. That went well…the Archclericalist Roche ought to get out of the office more.
I look around the world and say, “Boy, the world needs the Church here, and here, and here, etc.” Yet, we get synods about this and that, contretemps about things that aren’t even on most Catholics’ radar, clergy and laity resisting ugly regimes who get no apparent support from the Vatican, confusing or obtuse communications from many Church leaders. How does all this advance evangelization in a world that desperately needs it?
Folks devoted to the older rites have not had an easy time of it since Pope Paul VI replaced the old books wholesale in 1969.
By “Folks devoted” I assume you mean the roughly two-thirds of the faithful who stopped assisting at Mass once Paul’s contrived missal was imposed on them. (I realize Mass attendance figures started to dip in the late fifties; they plunged with the introduction of the new liturgy.)
It should be apparent by now that the aim is to eliminate the TLM by attrition. Their reason is likely related to advancing a new, radical ecclesiology divested of tradition. As quoted, Card Roche says he’s simply carrying out orders. So, if there were to be a Nuremberg like counter reform council in which the anti tradition perpetrators are interrogated Card Roche would say he was only following orders. Card Farrell questioned on McCarrick would probably repeat, ‘I know nothing’. Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, Tobin will perhaps escape to Argentina. The TLM will be restored and there’ll be a lengthy period of peace.
I now understand discombobulating issues that had been a confusing irritation to me.
Like Deacon Edward, attending Holy Mass in a foreign country has never been a problem for me. Our beautiful Lord always ministers deeply, whatever the language.
How weird: that Rome is conducting what sounds like a vindictive campaign, closing the doors against a small number of fanatically faithful Catholics. Worse: doing that whilst simultaneously moving to fling open the doors to catholics who despise both God’s commands and 2,000 years of sound Catholic Christian moral instruction.
Saint Peter Damian and all you holy saints of Christ, please pray for us.
Always under the reign of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Now we can guess where the Peter’ Pence is going. The three “cube” temples in Abu Dhabi are completely finished. The unity of the “three world religions” as the unity of the Abrahamic religions, a brotherhood of humanity, was celebrated last week; the temple of Islam and the Jewish temple were dedicated while Cardinal Michael L. Fitzgerald held a word and prayer hour in the “His holiness Francis church”. Consecration to follow but there is no tabernacle, no cross or picture of the patron Saint Francis. The media is silent about it except Josef Seifert in Austria who called it the “heresy of heresies”. Yes, a gridlock! A gridlock of faith and the truth of Christ that should be proclaimed and witnessed by the Vicar of Christ. God have MERCY!
Many thanks, dear Edith. That IS shocking news. (I’m getting quite an education!)
Dear James – you seem to have the right intent set in the wrong location!
Since when have we had to be syncretistic so as to get to know & love others?
In a long life, a Catholic gets to know & pray caringly for souls who are on the wrong track – some very immoral, some outright evil, many in false religions, and vast numbers who couldn’t care less about the one King & Savior: Jesus Christ.
Catholics don’t share churches because that would blasphemously proclaim: “There’s no difference!”
Of course, if you are a freemason, that deception is your chosen way of life.
Always in the saving love of King Jesus Christ; blessings from marty
This is the second time I’ve read about the blog, Where Peter Is. I checked it out. The National Catholic Reporter on steroids. Then it was mentioned in Katherine Bennett’s podcast, Choose Agape, in her interview with Dr. Edward Feser. Seems an odd source for Cdl. Roche’s “insights”.
Latin is indeed the official language of the Holy See. French is the official language of the diplomacy of the Holy See (Secretary of State). Italian is the common working language in the Vatican State and in Rome, as well as in Italy. English is probably the official language of the Vatican Astronomical institute (The Specola Vaticana) but also in meetings (between bishops, cardinals…)
As a convert from Anglicanism some 35 years ago,I eventually came to feel comfortable with the NO; but fully understand those who like the traditional mass. I believe the Trads will be alright if they stay quiet(like the Eastern Rightest brethren) and below the radar. This Pope is nearing the end of his pontificate and will be replaced with a new pope with his own ways. If the very vocal, caustic Trads would shut their mouths and do more praying everyone would be better off. Just my opinion.
thank you for your honest reply. The TLM trads were taught there is only the NO-crowd, the VatII-lovers, the boomers and the supreme liberals. In truth the one holy Catholic Church is the CHURCH, the Body of Christ, whether there are problems, heresies or a pope that does not act like a vicar of Christ but doing his own reform will. The trads need to come to grips that the NO-Church around the globe is the true Church of 1.3 billion souls and Christ being celebrated, adored, loved, and His blessed Sacraments received in even many different holy rites. The TLM lovers, God bless them, many would want a Latin mass on feast day maybe, but they condemn the Holy Church that is Christ Himself and they are lacking in charity. But where there is no love all is naught!
Thanks, dear James & dear Edith, for your sensible, logical, & Godly advice to the TLM faction. I also pray that they will be allowed to continue to worship King Jesus Christ in ways that they find most helpful, without being heavied by our current crop of hierarchs. Ever in the love of The Lamb; blessings from marty
Can you please elaborate on what is meant by the sentence, “The TLM trads were taught there is only….”
What parameters define a “TLM trad”?
I would categorize some of my friends as ‘TLM lovers’ but I would not characterize any of them as those who ‘condemn the Holy Church that is Christ Himself.’ How do they condemn the Holy Church? And how is that known? Evidentiary proof, IOW, is wanted.
These same TLM lovers are accused as ‘lacking in charity.’ With what measure has charity been measured? And what generally or specifically is it about TLM lovers that leads one to equate their love for the TLM with condemnation of Holy Mother Church? These are hard charges for which an explanation is wanting.
Finally, who specifically has taught that “The TLM trads… there is ‘only the NO-crowd, the VatII lovers, the boomers and the supreme liberals’? The meaning of that sentence is totally unclear to me.
Dear Meiron, I always appreciate all your comments, you sound sincere. You “immerse yourself into the 1962 missal in order not to take offense” at your brothers at the new mass because they have to be 2nd class (?), they have to be irreverent, superficial and not as holy and sincere as the Trads. Do you not see how judgmental and uncharitable most of the Trads have become towards their brothers. How do you know that the NO lovers are not pious, reverent, good, holy, and loving the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart and some of them are saints also. I love the NO as enactment of the last supper, I enjoy our hymns of praise and all the tremendously good works my parish people are doing day in and out. The meaning of my last sentence is that you stereotype the outside like a pharisee but the Lord Jesus Christ looks at the heart. God bless
Let’s get logical, edith. You judge me as uncharitable because I read a different book in a different language at Mass? Would you judge the person using a cell phone to follow the Mass? Would you judge the person who uses no book?
You accuse me of stereotype. I do not consider offense against God as a stereotype.
What words of mine leads to the conclusion that ‘brothers’ are second class? Taking offense at ‘brothers’ is not in my comment, so how is the inference drawn?
The little straw men throughout your comment would benefit from a dose of charity, but I don’t consider little straw men able to understand virtue.
The article quotes the pope as saying:
“If one has the answers to all the questions, that is the proof that God is not with him.”
Funny, but that seems like the perfect description of Bergoglio.
The essential implication to such a frivolous strawman characterization phrase like “all the answers” is that there is no such thing as immutable truth, which is at the core of his belief system, and he is too stubbornly narcissistic to even understand that the implication of a denial of immutable truth is atheism.
Does this fellow realize how inanely absurd his comment is? Did his henchmen follow Hitler’s commands? Is the will of God perfectly known and followed? When did man perfectly follow man? And why should this be so?
“It is an absurdity to think that the prefect of a dicastery would do anything other than exercise the wishes of the Holy Father.”
It’s really not that hard to figure out where this is coming from and where it’s heading. I think the FBI memo corroborates that this whole crusade against the 1962 missal is political, not spiritual. Francis aims to rid the church of all political conservatives so that it can be fully converted into an army of woke social justice warriors. While not all conservatives are found at the 1962 masses, nonetheless the TLM’s primary appeal is to persons of a conservative mindset in general, which makes it a prime target for elimination. The aim is to make TLM fans want to desert for the SSPX or SSPV in order to prune the Roman Church of all non-leftist elements. It couldn’t be simpler.
The Maronite liturgy of the Mass is blessed with reverent and penitent prayerfulness. So is the 1963 Roman rite missal. Then one attends a MO Mass and it all seems quite Disney-esque in a vapid sort of way. A straight translation into the vernacular of the ‘old’ Mass would have been intelligent but Bugnini had a Masonic agenda to strip the Mass of its Catholicism. If one weak and blubbering pope (PVI) could succumb to a ruination of the Mass then why in hell did JPIi and BXVI not restore it? We can easily have a restored ‘old’ Mass in the vernacular and include precious Latin prayers to echo down the ages in communion with the saints:Confiteor, Sanctus, Pater Noster, Agnus Dei.
Little plastic trots in every pew could give a line by line translation. There really is no problem except for those determined to extinguish the reverence and historicity of the Latin rite Mass. I yearn to hear the dramatic words “Ecce Homo” myself. I can see Pontius Pilate and the savagely beaten Christ our King.
Didn’t the pope just remind bishops and the like who owns the roofs over their heads? They’ll do exactly what he tells them to *or else*.
Regarding Roche’s “considering” applications submitted by bishops to allow Catholics to receive from the Catholic Church the actual Mass — seriously, don’t you think the rubber stamps were ordered late last year?
I have this to say about Francis’ suppression of the Mass prayed in Latin:
When I have traveled to Germany and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak German. I attended anyway.
When I have traveled to France and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak French. I attended anyway.
When I have traveled to Poland and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak Polish. I attended anyway.
When I have traveled to the Czech Republic and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak Czech. I attended anyway.
When I have traveled to Spain and Portugal and attended Mass, I could not understand one word of the Mass since I don’t speak either Spanish or Portuguese. I attended anyway.
So, tell me Vicar of Christ, what’s the problem with Catholics attending Mass when it’s prayed in Latin?
Not only that, but I live in an area where there are Byzantine parishes, of two different “brands” in fact (Ukrainian and Ruthenian), Maronite parishes, and even Melkites. All of these exist and, barring further developments, will continue to exist without harming the “unity” of the one true church. (Or might Francis have a yet unspoken problem with them???) This whole vendetta does not fully make sense even if unity is the true goal.
If it were prayed in Latin everywhere, folks would pick it up–and if they did not, then really it is there own issue (at least if one is an English speaker.) There are numerous resources out there, very user friendly, to learn ecclesial Latin, and they are not badly priced even when new (I personally think the best ones are at http://www.memoriapress_com).
If funds are short, ask your local homeschooler (Catholic or Protestant) if there is a homeschool book sale coming up–they usually are in the Spring/Summer months. There are frequently books available.
Oh, my point being that then it would not matter what country one was in, everyone could understand–maybe not the homily or readings–but everything else.
.
(The readings one could follow along with the preferred Bible Ap. If a priest/parish secretary had time, they could type up a list of “bullet points” to the homily and offer that as a handout on the way in. This is not unusual in Protestant church. A person could put that through Google translate. Just a thought.)
.
When circumstances force my travel to a Catholic parish which celebrates the Mass according to the Novus Ordo rite, I take my 1962 Latin Missal and immerse myself in that rite so as not to take offense at the travesties of innovation, irreverence and transmogrification of the Mass being said in modern vernacular. One could also add ear buds and tune in to a Latin Mass channel. Ah, the wonder and beauty of new technology mingled with the sacred ‘dead’ language in an old, printed book.
We read: “Then, there will be back-and-forth over plans to implement whatever orders come down from Roche’s office. It’s a safe bet that bishops who dispensed with alacrity will find it necessary to seek written permission from Rome for each minor detail and every miniscule adjustment of whatever plans eventually emerge.”
Yours truly seems to remember that the disastrous Iran Hostage Crisis resulted from President Carter trying to manage every detail in the field from the central White House. That went well…the Archclericalist Roche ought to get out of the office more.
Bergoglio is the culmination of Vat I.
No, he’s the culmination of his own vanity, as we all are.
I look around the world and say, “Boy, the world needs the Church here, and here, and here, etc.” Yet, we get synods about this and that, contretemps about things that aren’t even on most Catholics’ radar, clergy and laity resisting ugly regimes who get no apparent support from the Vatican, confusing or obtuse communications from many Church leaders. How does all this advance evangelization in a world that desperately needs it?
Folks devoted to the older rites have not had an easy time of it since Pope Paul VI replaced the old books wholesale in 1969.
By “Folks devoted” I assume you mean the roughly two-thirds of the faithful who stopped assisting at Mass once Paul’s contrived missal was imposed on them. (I realize Mass attendance figures started to dip in the late fifties; they plunged with the introduction of the new liturgy.)
It should be apparent by now that the aim is to eliminate the TLM by attrition. Their reason is likely related to advancing a new, radical ecclesiology divested of tradition. As quoted, Card Roche says he’s simply carrying out orders. So, if there were to be a Nuremberg like counter reform council in which the anti tradition perpetrators are interrogated Card Roche would say he was only following orders. Card Farrell questioned on McCarrick would probably repeat, ‘I know nothing’. Cardinals Cupich, McElroy, Tobin will perhaps escape to Argentina. The TLM will be restored and there’ll be a lengthy period of peace.
Thank you very much, dear Christopher.
I now understand discombobulating issues that had been a confusing irritation to me.
Like Deacon Edward, attending Holy Mass in a foreign country has never been a problem for me. Our beautiful Lord always ministers deeply, whatever the language.
How weird: that Rome is conducting what sounds like a vindictive campaign, closing the doors against a small number of fanatically faithful Catholics. Worse: doing that whilst simultaneously moving to fling open the doors to catholics who despise both God’s commands and 2,000 years of sound Catholic Christian moral instruction.
Saint Peter Damian and all you holy saints of Christ, please pray for us.
Always under the reign of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Now we can guess where the Peter’ Pence is going. The three “cube” temples in Abu Dhabi are completely finished. The unity of the “three world religions” as the unity of the Abrahamic religions, a brotherhood of humanity, was celebrated last week; the temple of Islam and the Jewish temple were dedicated while Cardinal Michael L. Fitzgerald held a word and prayer hour in the “His holiness Francis church”. Consecration to follow but there is no tabernacle, no cross or picture of the patron Saint Francis. The media is silent about it except Josef Seifert in Austria who called it the “heresy of heresies”. Yes, a gridlock! A gridlock of faith and the truth of Christ that should be proclaimed and witnessed by the Vicar of Christ. God have MERCY!
It doesn’t hurt to talk. If we get to know those who are different than we are, perhaps, just perhaps we can learn to love them where they are.
Many thanks, dear Edith. That IS shocking news. (I’m getting quite an education!)
Dear James – you seem to have the right intent set in the wrong location!
Since when have we had to be syncretistic so as to get to know & love others?
In a long life, a Catholic gets to know & pray caringly for souls who are on the wrong track – some very immoral, some outright evil, many in false religions, and vast numbers who couldn’t care less about the one King & Savior: Jesus Christ.
Catholics don’t share churches because that would blasphemously proclaim: “There’s no difference!”
Of course, if you are a freemason, that deception is your chosen way of life.
Always in the saving love of King Jesus Christ; blessings from marty
This is the second time I’ve read about the blog, Where Peter Is. I checked it out. The National Catholic Reporter on steroids. Then it was mentioned in Katherine Bennett’s podcast, Choose Agape, in her interview with Dr. Edward Feser. Seems an odd source for Cdl. Roche’s “insights”.
“Reform on the go.”
The spirit of Vatican II generation spent decades accumulating power in order to effect change, and now they have it.
And they are using all that power to try to stop change, to make things like they were “way back when in the good old days.”
Latin is not the language of any country… perhaps only the Vatican?
Latin is indeed the official language of the Holy See. French is the official language of the diplomacy of the Holy See (Secretary of State). Italian is the common working language in the Vatican State and in Rome, as well as in Italy. English is probably the official language of the Vatican Astronomical institute (The Specola Vaticana) but also in meetings (between bishops, cardinals…)
As a convert from Anglicanism some 35 years ago,I eventually came to feel comfortable with the NO; but fully understand those who like the traditional mass. I believe the Trads will be alright if they stay quiet(like the Eastern Rightest brethren) and below the radar. This Pope is nearing the end of his pontificate and will be replaced with a new pope with his own ways. If the very vocal, caustic Trads would shut their mouths and do more praying everyone would be better off. Just my opinion.
thank you for your honest reply. The TLM trads were taught there is only the NO-crowd, the VatII-lovers, the boomers and the supreme liberals. In truth the one holy Catholic Church is the CHURCH, the Body of Christ, whether there are problems, heresies or a pope that does not act like a vicar of Christ but doing his own reform will. The trads need to come to grips that the NO-Church around the globe is the true Church of 1.3 billion souls and Christ being celebrated, adored, loved, and His blessed Sacraments received in even many different holy rites. The TLM lovers, God bless them, many would want a Latin mass on feast day maybe, but they condemn the Holy Church that is Christ Himself and they are lacking in charity. But where there is no love all is naught!
Thanks, dear James & dear Edith, for your sensible, logical, & Godly advice to the TLM faction. I also pray that they will be allowed to continue to worship King Jesus Christ in ways that they find most helpful, without being heavied by our current crop of hierarchs. Ever in the love of The Lamb; blessings from marty
Can you please elaborate on what is meant by the sentence, “The TLM trads were taught there is only….”
What parameters define a “TLM trad”?
I would categorize some of my friends as ‘TLM lovers’ but I would not characterize any of them as those who ‘condemn the Holy Church that is Christ Himself.’ How do they condemn the Holy Church? And how is that known? Evidentiary proof, IOW, is wanted.
These same TLM lovers are accused as ‘lacking in charity.’ With what measure has charity been measured? And what generally or specifically is it about TLM lovers that leads one to equate their love for the TLM with condemnation of Holy Mother Church? These are hard charges for which an explanation is wanting.
Finally, who specifically has taught that “The TLM trads… there is ‘only the NO-crowd, the VatII lovers, the boomers and the supreme liberals’? The meaning of that sentence is totally unclear to me.
Dear Meiron, I always appreciate all your comments, you sound sincere. You “immerse yourself into the 1962 missal in order not to take offense” at your brothers at the new mass because they have to be 2nd class (?), they have to be irreverent, superficial and not as holy and sincere as the Trads. Do you not see how judgmental and uncharitable most of the Trads have become towards their brothers. How do you know that the NO lovers are not pious, reverent, good, holy, and loving the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart and some of them are saints also. I love the NO as enactment of the last supper, I enjoy our hymns of praise and all the tremendously good works my parish people are doing day in and out. The meaning of my last sentence is that you stereotype the outside like a pharisee but the Lord Jesus Christ looks at the heart. God bless
Let’s get logical, edith. You judge me as uncharitable because I read a different book in a different language at Mass? Would you judge the person using a cell phone to follow the Mass? Would you judge the person who uses no book?
You accuse me of stereotype. I do not consider offense against God as a stereotype.
What words of mine leads to the conclusion that ‘brothers’ are second class? Taking offense at ‘brothers’ is not in my comment, so how is the inference drawn?
The little straw men throughout your comment would benefit from a dose of charity, but I don’t consider little straw men able to understand virtue.
The article quotes the pope as saying:
“If one has the answers to all the questions, that is the proof that God is not with him.”
Funny, but that seems like the perfect description of Bergoglio.
The essential implication to such a frivolous strawman characterization phrase like “all the answers” is that there is no such thing as immutable truth, which is at the core of his belief system, and he is too stubbornly narcissistic to even understand that the implication of a denial of immutable truth is atheism.
Does this fellow realize how inanely absurd his comment is? Did his henchmen follow Hitler’s commands? Is the will of God perfectly known and followed? When did man perfectly follow man? And why should this be so?
“It is an absurdity to think that the prefect of a dicastery would do anything other than exercise the wishes of the Holy Father.”
It’s really not that hard to figure out where this is coming from and where it’s heading. I think the FBI memo corroborates that this whole crusade against the 1962 missal is political, not spiritual. Francis aims to rid the church of all political conservatives so that it can be fully converted into an army of woke social justice warriors. While not all conservatives are found at the 1962 masses, nonetheless the TLM’s primary appeal is to persons of a conservative mindset in general, which makes it a prime target for elimination. The aim is to make TLM fans want to desert for the SSPX or SSPV in order to prune the Roman Church of all non-leftist elements. It couldn’t be simpler.
The Maronite liturgy of the Mass is blessed with reverent and penitent prayerfulness. So is the 1963 Roman rite missal. Then one attends a MO Mass and it all seems quite Disney-esque in a vapid sort of way. A straight translation into the vernacular of the ‘old’ Mass would have been intelligent but Bugnini had a Masonic agenda to strip the Mass of its Catholicism. If one weak and blubbering pope (PVI) could succumb to a ruination of the Mass then why in hell did JPIi and BXVI not restore it? We can easily have a restored ‘old’ Mass in the vernacular and include precious Latin prayers to echo down the ages in communion with the saints:Confiteor, Sanctus, Pater Noster, Agnus Dei.
Little plastic trots in every pew could give a line by line translation. There really is no problem except for those determined to extinguish the reverence and historicity of the Latin rite Mass. I yearn to hear the dramatic words “Ecce Homo” myself. I can see Pontius Pilate and the savagely beaten Christ our King.
I could be mistaken, but the REPLY seems not to be working. A new left-adjusted memo is created.
Didn’t the pope just remind bishops and the like who owns the roofs over their heads? They’ll do exactly what he tells them to *or else*.
Regarding Roche’s “considering” applications submitted by bishops to allow Catholics to receive from the Catholic Church the actual Mass — seriously, don’t you think the rubber stamps were ordered late last year?