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Who Are the Guardians of Tradition?The third and final episode in the “Mass of the Ages” documentary trilogy traces the renewed interest in—and renewed attacks against—the traditional Latin Mass.March saw the YouTube release of Guardians of Tradition, the third and final episode in the Mass of the Ages trilogywhich chronicles the liturgical changes since Vatican II and shows the appeal of the traditional Latin Mass (TLM). I have two slight criticisms of this episode, but it concludes a valuable mission and should be seen by anyone interested in the state of the Church. The first episode in the series, Discover...

Bishop Chaput Resists Francis Ahead of New Document On March 8 of this year it was revealed that Cardinal Fernández and Pope Francis are working on a new document to be published in early April, just in time for your Easter meditation. This morning Diane Montagna confirmed that His Holiness had a meeting with His Eminence, which was probably about this document.At the same time as this was happening, His Excellency Bishop Charles Chaput, the archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia, published his own comments against this pontificate in First Things. They were published online and in the April print edition.Bishop Chaput...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis slams Archbishop Gänswein for ‘lack of nobility and humanity’ over Benedict XVI bookIn his latest book-length interview, Pope Francis claimed that Gänswein, Pope Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, ‘did some very difficult things to me.’VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has criticized Archbishop Georg Gänswein for publishing his book Nothing but the Truth shortly after Pope Benedict XVI’s death, saying Gänswein lacked “nobility and humanity.”In a book-length interview titled The Successor, which is set to be published in Spanish on April 3, Francis addressed his relationship with his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. During his interview with Spanish...

Priest: Traditionis custodes will disappear after Pope Francis, but the Latin Mass will remain forever‘I never came into contact with the traditional Mass – at least not until Traditiones custodes,’ Fr. Joachim Heimerl writes. ‘I began to study it intensively, learned the rites and the Latin prayers, and discovered a huge treasure.’This essay by Fr. Joachim Heimerl was originally written in German. It has been translated and published with the permission of Fr. Heimerl.(LifeSiteNews) — This coming Holy Thursday, we commemorate the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. However, since the motu proprio Traditiones custodes (2021), a “civil war”...

[Catholic Caucus] The Red Guard of TraditionWho controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.—George Orwell, 1984.Tucker Carlson recently interviewed a Chinese woman named Xi Van Fleet. After Mao’s culture revolution, Xi sought and received asylum in the United States in the 1970s. She soon came to love and defend America. This became especially evident when, in 2020, she realized the United States was undergoing a communist revolution, fabricated not upon a conflict of class, but rather that of race. (Fabricated is the operative word in the last sentence.) Although Xi never wanted to be...

[Catholic Caucus] Traditionis Custodes Comes to England and WalesAbove: Triduum liturgy organised by the Latin Mass Society at St Mary Moorfields in London in 2023. Photo by Joseph Shaw.At the time of the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes in the Summer of 2021, I wrote that the bishops of England and Wales had seemingly decided to “slow walk” the implementation of the motu proprio—if not neglect it entirely. It seemed as if they wanted to wait and see how firmly Rome would insist on the suppression of the Apostolic Roman Rite and, implicitly, how long Pope Francis would continue to live...

Pope Francis denounces ‘anti-vaxxers,’ calls COVID jab refusal an ‘almost suicidal act of denial’Pope Francis has once again touted the abortion-tainted COVID vaccines, reissuing his condemnation of those who refused to take the shot.U.S. citizens: Demand Congress investigate soaring excess death ratesVATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has issued fresh condemnation of critics of the abortion-tainted COVID-19 injections, saying that opposition to the shots “distressed” him since “being against the antidote is an almost suicidal act of denial.”Speaking as part of his newly released memoirs, in a series of interviews conducted by journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona, Pope Francis highlighted his...

[Catholic Caucus] Puerto Rico bishop removed by Pope Francis: Bishops must reject Fiducia Supplicans or risk God’s wrathBishop Daniel Fernández Torres denounced Pope Francis’ Fiducia Supplicans for causing ‘scandal and great suffering’ to many Catholics and violating Church teaching, and stressed that bishops ‘must’ rebuke the document.ARECIBO, Puerto Rico (LifeSiteNews) — A Puerto Rican bishop deposed from his diocese by Pope Francis after opposing COVID “vaccine” mandates strongly denounced Fiducia Supplicans and warned that bishops who fail to speak out against it risk incurring God’s wrath.Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres, who led the Diocese of Arecibo from 2010 until his sudden...

[Catholic Caucus] French Canonist Questions the Legality of Mandating Priests to Concelebrate the MassIs mandatory concelebration coherent with the Second Vatican Council and canon law?Traditional Latin Mass inside St Peter's Basilica on Oct. 30, 2021.Reports have circulated for several years now of Catholic priests being told to cease saying private Masses by themselves and celebrate with other priests instead, a practice called concelebration.In 2021, for example, the Vatican banned priests from saying private Masses at the above-ground altars in St. Peter’s Basilica. The edict was later eased after a public outcry, but concelebration in the basilica is now “the norm.”...

[Catholic Caucus] Francis’s Work of Destruction Continues: Traditional Latin Easter Triduum Services in the Archdiocese of Westminster cancelledTraditional Latin Easter Triduum Services in the Archdiocese of Westminster cancelledThe Latin Mass Society is grieved to announce that the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, will not give permission for the celebration of the major services of the Sacred Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) according to the liturgical books in use before the Second Vatican Council: the Traditional Latin liturgy or Vetus Ordo.There has been a celebration of the Traditional Triduum in the Archdiocese, with the permission of successive Archbishops,...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis Talks Nonsense Pope Francis has spoken openly about the agenda he has brought to the papacy. He credits it as the game plan of certain cardinals, claiming he’s only doing what they wanted. But he certainly cannot be speaking about all the cardinals who were present at the 2013 conclave. He is a foresworn agent of the Sankt Gallen mafia. The evidence is overwhelming. Simply read the eponymous book by Julia Meloni where all the connections are demonstrated by what is, mostly, publicly available evidence. The cardinals who have for years worked to undermine Christ have...

[Catholic Caucus] Traditionis InimicosTraditionis InimicosTHE EDITORCan we not see here the utter breakdown of the hyper-papalism that makes the pope a mortal god, a divine oracle, who gets to rewrite liturgy, theology, morals, and even the record of history in pursuit of ideology? - Peter Kwasniewski Only twice before have I contrived an editorial title in my dilettantish Latin, both of which concerned the liturgy. The first was the October 2010 sub-title: "Weapon of Mass Destruction: Missa bugniniensis delenda est"(Buginini’s Mass must be destroyed). Those were the days when the Novus Ordo had a monopoly on the WMD moniker —...

[Catholic Caucus] Mass of the Ages Episode III PremierEditor’s note: OnePeterFive contributing editors and writers Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Dr. Mike Sirilla, Mark Nowakowski and myself will be present at the Chicago premier in a few weeks. We look forward to meeting OnePeterFive readers in person! -TSFWe are excited to announce that the third and final installment of the Latin Mass trilogy Mass of the Ages: Guardians of Tradition will premiere on March 9th at the historic Pickwick Theater in Park Ridge, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.It will also screen in a few other cities and be available for free on...

German priest: Pope Francis’ fight against the Latin Mass is ‘a fight against the Church’‘Francis is concerned with the rejection of Church tradition as a whole’ with his rejection of the Latin Mass and his approach to the liturgy, Fr. Joachim Heimerl said.Cardinal Burke offering a Latin Mass at the Guadalupe shrine December 11, 2021, La Crosse Wisconsin, 2021.This essay by Fr. Joachim Heimerl was originally published in German on the blog of Italian journalist Marco Tosatti. It has been translated and reprinted by LifeSiteNews with the permission of Marco Tosatti.(LifeSiteNews) — Anyone who has wondered why Francis not only...

[Catholic Caucus] Texas diocese reportedly directed by the Vatican to end Traditional Latin Masses at its cathedralDr. Peter Kwasniewski encouraged Austin Catholics to ‘stay with the rite that nourished our greatest saints and has nourished you until now.’St. Mary Cathedral in Austin, TexasAUSTIN, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — The cathedral in the Diocese of Austin, Texas will discontinue its Traditional Latin Mass as of March 19, reportedly due to a decision “directly from the Vatican.”Theologian Dr. Peter Kwasniewski shared Sunday evening on social media that, according to an “eyewitness,” it was announced at the end of Mass at the St. Mary Cathedral...

[Catholic Caucus] Rome, We Have a ProblemIf ever there were an emergency message to Rome, this is it. It might have been the SOS a year ago as some bishops witnessed large numbers of other bishops using their pastoral canonical privilege to bypass the iron-fisted prescriptions of Traditionis Custodes. But it is certainly the frightened alert in light of the Extraordinary Form Mass held at the U.S. Capitol last Tuesday. It was a Jericho-Walls-crumbling moment. This time it was not Jewish priests and Israelites circling the city and blowing their horns but Catholics worldwide storming Heaven. Or, a parallel more...

[Catholic Caucus] Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: Clandestine Ordinations in a Time of Ecclesial ConfusionAustralian-born Dom Alcuin Reid is the founding Prior of the Monastère Saint-Benoît in the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, in Provence in Southern France. The Monastère Saint-Benoît is an international English-speaking community which lives a classical monastic observance of prayer and work according to the Benedictine tradition and which celebrates the traditional Roman and monastic liturgy exclusively. In April 2022, Dom Alcuin, along with another monk, were ordained to the priesthood and to the diaconate respectively by an anonymous senior prelate, after the Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon was unable to...

[Catholic Caucus] EXCLUSIVE: Pope Francis defends restrictions on Latin Mass – ‘Read the motu proprio’In new comments to LifeSiteNews, Pope Francis said that his reasons for suppressing the Traditional Latin Mass are all contained within his 2021 document 'Traditionis Custodes.'In new comments to LifeSiteNews, Pope Francis said that his reasons for suppressing the Traditional Latin Mass are all contained within his 2021 document 'Traditionis Custodes.' The motu proprio in question is the July 2021 text Traditionis Custodes, by which Francis ushered in sweeping restrictions on the traditional liturgy – also known as the Latin Mass, or the Extraordinary Form –...

[Catholic Caucus] Fighting for the TLM: From Paris to D.C.118TH WEEK: THE SENTINELS CONTINUE THEIR PRAYERS FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE TRADITIONAL MASSIN FRONT OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF PARISDear friends,How much it would have pleased me to rejoice with you this Christmas at the establishment of a sort of truce through the good will of our pastors. Unfortunately, the tightening of screws following Traditionis Custodes continues everywhere in France. In Paris, no mass at Notre-Dame du Tavail, where it would be so easy to re-establish it, neither is there any perspective of masses elsewhere in the south of the capital...

[Catholic Caucus] “Francis wants to erase Benedict XVI’s legacy”—Explosive interview with Peter SeewaldThe following interview was conducted by Nico Spuntoni for The Daily Compass (here). NS: Is it fair to say that the relationship between Benedict XVI and Francis was “very close”, as Francis recently declared? PS: Good question. We all remember the warm words that Cardinal Ratzinger spoke at the requiem for John Paul II. Words that touched the heart, that spoke of Christian love, of respect. But no one remembers Bergoglio’s words at the requiem for Benedict XVI. They were as cold as the whole ceremony, which had...