I THINK THAT IT IS EXTREMELY GOOD NEWS THAT POPE LEO XIV ASKED BISHOP VARDEN TO PRESENT TO THE POPE AND HIS CURIA THEIR LENTEN RETREAT

 Papabile? Yes, of course, but certainly the red hat too, before that.

From Vatican News, with my emphasis in red:

Lenten Retreat: Bishop Varden reflects on the splendour of truth

Bishop Erik Varden delivers his fifth reflection at the Spiritual Exercises in the Vatican for Pope Leo XIV, Cardinals residing in Rome, and heads of Dicasteries, focusing on the theme: “ The Splendour of Truth”. The following is a summary of his reflection.

By Bishop Erik Varden, OCSO*

Saint Bernard (of Clairvoux) keeps us on our toes. He states: ‘I would have you warned: no one lives on earth without temptation; if one is relieved of one, let him surely expect another’. We must nurture the correct balance between assurance in God’s help and distrust of our frailty, dreading temptations while we accept their inevitability, remembering that God submits us to them because they are useful.

Useful in what sense?

As we resist arrows launched by the Father of Lies, our commitment to the truth will be strengthened. We shall be fit, having turned away from weakening falsehood, to strengthen our brethren.

Ambition represents a particular form of capitulation to untruth. Ambition is a not very subtly sublimated form of cupidity. Describing it Bernard, always eloquent, surpasses himself. Ambition, he says, is ‘a subtle ill, a secret virus, an occult pest, an artisan of deceit; it is the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the origin of vices; it is kindling for crimes, causing virtues to rust, holiness to rot, hearts to be blinded. Remedies it turns into illnesses. From medicine it extracts apathy’. Ambition springs from an ‘alienation of the mind’. It is a madness that comes about when truth is forgotten. The fact that ambition is a form of insanity makes it ridiculous in any instantiation, but especially so when it occurs in persons given to a state of selfless service. Not for nothing does the figure of the ambitious clergyman haunt literature and cinema as a comic, but not very funny, trope — from the fawning parsons in Jane Austen to the tart courtier priest in Patrice Leconte’s notable film Ridicule.

‘What is truth?’

People of our time ask this question earnestly, often with remarkable good will, notwithstanding their confusion, fear, and the rush they are always in. We cannot let it go unanswered. We have no energy to waste on the silly temptations of fear, vainglory, and ambition. We need our best resources to uphold substantial, essential, freeing truth against more or less plausibly shining, more or less fiendish substitutes.

In our predicament, rich in opportunity, it is imperative to see and articulate the world in Christ’s light. Christ, who is truth, not only shields us; he renews us, impatient to reveal himself through us to a creation increasingly aware of being subject to futility.

It is tempting to think we must keep up with the world’s fashions. It is, I’d say, a dubious procedure. The Church, a slow-moving body, will always run the risk of looking and sounding last-season. But if she speaks her own language well, that of the Scriptures and liturgy, of her past and present fathers, mothers, poets, and saints, she will be original and fresh, ready to express ancient truths in new ways, standing a chance, as she has done before, of orienting culture. 

This work has an important intellectual dimension. It also has an existential dimension. As Cardinal Schuster said on his deathbed: ‘It seems that people no longer let themselves be convinced by our preaching, but in the presence of holiness, they still believe, they still kneel and pray.’

Was not the universal call to holiness, the call, that is, to embody truth, the strongest note struck by the Second Vatican Council? It resounded splendidly like a gong throughout its deliberations. The Christian claim to truth becomes compelling when its splendour is made personally evident with sacrificial love in sanctity, cleansed of temptations to temporise.

* Bishop Erik Varden, Bishop of Trondheim, Norway, was asked to preach the 2026 Spiritual Exercises for Pope Leo XIV, Cardinals residing in Rome, and the heads of Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, which runs from Sunday, February 22, to Friday, February 27. Here is the link to his website.

Here is artificial intelligence summary of the future Pope Varden (you read that here first!):

Bishop Erik Varden, O.C.S.O., Bishop of Trondheim, Norway, presents a liturgical perspective deeply rooted in his background as a Trappist monk, characterized by 

a commitment to contemplative prayer, tradition, bodily engagement, and the "via pulchritudinis" (the way of beauty). His approach is generally seen as orthodox and traditional, yet it avoids rigid factionalism, focusing instead on the liturgy as a means of personal and communal transformation, rather than a political tool. 

Key aspects of Bishop Varden's liturgical perspective include:

• The "Physical and Ascetic" Dimension: Varden views the liturgy as a "yogic" experience, meaning it should fully engage the body, not just the mind. He emphasizes the importance of posture—bending, standing, kneeling—and fasting as ways to help the body "inhabit" its own meaning and resist a "formless" existence.
• Objectivity of the Mystery: Varden has expressed that a "sheer objectivity" in the liturgy is necessary to draw people out of their own subjective, often chaotic, experiences and into the "twofold mystery" of Christ.
• "Traditional" without "Reactionary": While he shows understanding for the younger generation's desire for pre-conciliar forms as a relief from "formlessness," Varden does not advocate for nostalgia for the 1950s. Instead, he sees the desire for tradition as a search for a, "deeply felt hunch that their physical self is a reliable bearer of meaning".
• Liturgical Time as Synchronicity: Varden sees the liturgical year as a way to live within the "whole story" of salvation, moving beyond a linear, historical, or "experimental" view of time.
• The "Way of Beauty": He frequently employs art, poetry, and music in his preaching, viewing beauty as a vital conduit for divine truth.
• Critical of "Formlessness": He notes that the post-conciliar church often fell into "minimalist utilitarian schemes" and argues that the liturgy should provide structure, dignity, and a counter-cultural space. 

In essence, Varden advocates for a liturgy that is both ancient and deeply, physically, and spiritually lived in the present moment, treating it as the "source and summit" of Christian life rather than a subject for constant innovation

IT APPEARS THAT BISHOPS SUFFERING FROM ENFORCED TLMPHOBIA ARE NOW RECOVERING UNDER POPE LEO XIV AND REGAINING THEIR MANHOOD!

 Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, like me, was able to contemplate the First Sunday in Lent, 1,000 year tradition of the 15 minute Gregorian Chanted Tractus. (Poor Pope Leo XIV, though, didn’t get to contemplate it at his Bugnini Folk Mass, with kitschy Italian guitar plucking so-called liturgical music.)

Bishops galore, are once again regaining their manhood and celebrating public TLMs. God is Good!

LET ME CONFIRM WHAT POPE LEO TOLD BISHOP SCHNEIDER , THE YOUNG ARE DRAWN TO THE BEAUTY OF THE TLM AND MANY ARE BEING EVANGELIZED BY IT AND CONVERTING TO CATHOLICISM—IT IS THE REALLY NEW EVANGELIZATION!

Unlike Pope Leo, though, I was able, by Pope Francis’ special permission after his godawful Traditionis Custodis, to celebrate the TLM at Savannah’s Sacred Heart Church. I was able to hear and internally participate (actual participation) in the 15 minute chanting by Sacred Heart’s fantastic schola, the more that 1000 year tradition of the Tractus. 

The first photo is of some John Paul II High School students from Saint Gregory Church in Bluffton, SC, who attended the TLM for the very first time. They were absolutely blown away.

And the second photo is of a young man who had grown up in a large non-denominational church in Savannah, who, by experiencing the TLM, is now preparing to become a Roman Catholic. 

Truly the TLM is a powerful tool in the Church’s really new evangelization!  Other pictures of Sunday’s TLM with yours truly follow:

What the beretta doesn’t do to my hair, the high winds on Sunday completed. I can understand why the beretta fell into disuse once it became optional in the Bugnini Mass:

My actual participation in the 15 minute chanting of the First Sunday of Lent Tractus, that has more than a 1,000 year tradition in the Mass, but Bugnini Mass goers never have heard!:

DID YOU HEAR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT’S LONG TRACT CHANTED IN IMPECCABLE GREGORIAN CHANT? I DID!

I was blessed to celebrate the TLM’s First Sunday in Lent at Sacred Heart Church in Savannah, Georgia, I felt like Pope Leo who also on the First Sunday of Lent celebrated Mass at the Basilica of the Most Sacred Heart in Rome, near the Termini train station. 

However, poor old Pope Leo was not as fortunate as I was as I was able to celebrate the TLM with a grand, magnificent schola who chanted the Mass in a most marvelous way to include the Ancient Tract that has been heard and chanted for over 1,000 years!

But poor old Pope Leo had to put up with kitschy Italian folk music with guitar in a magnificent church edifice built not for that musical crap but for Gregorian Chant. 

And poor old Pope Leo did not get to hear the long Tract from the Roman Gradual that is even present in the revised, modern Roman Gradual but 99.9% of practicing Catholics who attend the Bugnini Mass have never, ever, heard! What a scandal!

To add insult to injury to our poor old Pope Leo, or salt to the wound, the Pope’s Lenten retreat Master reminded the pope later in the evening, on the very same day, the following:

For more than a thousand years the Roman liturgy of the First Sunday of Lent has retained, as a fixed element, a tractus of exquisite beauty (press tractus for the audio of it) that prepares for the Gospel -always the same one: Christ’s temptation in the desert,” said  Bishop Erik Varden, O.C.S.O., Prelate of Trondheim, Apostolic Administrator of Tromsø, and President of the Scandinavian Bishops’ Conference,  who is this year’s papal retreat master leading the meditations. Pope Leo XIV personally invited him to do so. 

You can tell that Pope Leo is saddened that he was not able to hear the Tractus at his modern Mass in Rome with guitar and kitschy Italian folk music, if one wants to call it music:

I, on the other hand, got to hear the ancient Tractus and it lasted 15 minutes to boot! I have a smile on my face after reading what Bishop Varden said to Pope Leo! 

HOW DO YOU SPELL CATHOLIC LITURGICAL CONFUSION?

 A picture is worth a thousand words:

Saint Katherine Drexel Church, Buffalo, New York 

POPE LEO’S SECOND PARISH VISIT IN ROME: THE BASILICA OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS PARISH—AND THIS TIME NO ALTAR GIRLS, HMM….

 Pope Leo’s homily at Mass from the Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Castro Pretorio)

Dear brothers and sisters,

A few days ago, with the rite of Ash Wednesday, we began our Lenten journey. Lent is an intense liturgical season, offering us the opportunity to rediscover the richness of our Baptism, to live as fully renewed creatures thanks to the Incarnation, death, and Resurrection of Jesus.

The First Reading and the Gospel we have just heard, in dialogue, help us rediscover the gift of Baptism as a grace that embraces our freedom. The Genesis narrative brings us back to our condition as creatures, tested not so much by a prohibition, as is often believed, as by a possibility: the possibility of a relationship. Human beings are thus free to recognize and embrace the otherness of the Creator, who recognizes and embraces the otherness of creatures. To prevent this possibility, the serpent insinuates the presumption that he can erase all differences between creatures and the Creator, seducing man and woman with the illusion of becoming like God. Satan pushes them to possess something that—so he says—God wishes to deny them, thus perpetually keeping them in a state of inferiority. This fresco from Genesis is an unsurpassed masterpiece that represents the drama of freedom.

The Gospel seems to answer the age-old dilemma: can I realize my life fully by saying "yes" to God? Or, to be free and happy, must I free myself from Him?

The scene of Christ's temptations ultimately addresses this dramatic question. It leads us to discover the true humanity of Jesus who, as the conciliar Constitution Gaudium et Spes teaches, reveals man to himself: "In the mystery of the Incarnate Word, the mystery of man truly becomes clear" (GS, 22). Indeed, we see the Son of God who, opposing the wiles of the ancient Adversary, shows us the new man, the free man, the epiphany of freedom that comes to fruition by saying "yes" to God.

This new humanity is born from the baptismal font. And so—especially in this Lenten season—we are called to rediscover the grace of Baptism, as the source of life that dwells within us and dynamically accompanies us with the utmost respect for our freedom.

First of all, the Sacrament itself is dynamic, because what it offers is not limited to the space and time of the rite, but is a grace that constantly accompanies our entire life, sustaining our following of Christ. But Baptism is also dynamic because it constantly sets us on a new journey, since grace is an interior voice that urges us to conform to Jesus, liberating our freedom so that it may find fulfillment in the love of God and neighbor.

We thus understand the relational nature of Baptism, which calls us to live in friendship with Jesus and, thus, to enter into his communion with the Father. This grace-filled relationship also enables us to experience authentic closeness with others, a freedom that—unlike what the devil proposes to Jesus—is not a pursuit of one's own power, but a self-giving love that makes us all brothers and sisters. Indeed, Saint Paul states: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).

Brothers and sisters, Pope Leo XIII asked Saint John Bosco to build the church where we stand today. He had understood the centrality of this place, next to Termini Station and at a unique crossroads of the city, destined to become even more important over time.

For this reason, dear friends, in meeting you today I see in you a special expression of proximity, of closeness to the challenges of this area. Indeed, there are many young university students, commuters who come and go for work, immigrants seeking employment, young refugees who have found in the building next door, thanks to the Salesians' initiative, the opportunity to meet Italian peers and carry out integration projects; and then there are our brothers and sisters who are homeless and find welcome in the Caritas spaces on Via Marsala. In just a few meters, one can touch the contradictions of this time: the carefree attitude of those who leave and arrive with all the comforts and those who have no roof over their heads; the many potentials for good and the rampant violence; the desire to work honestly and the illicit trade in drugs and prostitution.

Your parish is called to address these realities, to be a leaven of the Gospel in the local community, to be a sign of closeness and charity. I thank the Salesians for the tireless work they carry out every day, and I encourage everyone to continue to be a small flame of light and hope right here.

May Mary Help of Christians always support us on our journey, making us strong in times of temptation and trial, to fully experience the freedom and brotherhood of God's children.

FROM A SENIOR, RESPECTED 95 YEAR OLD CARDINAL—NO PAPAL IDOLATRY OR ULTRA MONTANISM HERE! AND HIS EMINENCE DOES IT WITH APLOMB!

 

Press title for The Pillar’s full report:

Candid talk from senior cardinal on Pope Francis, Benedict XVI—

And All I HAVE TO SAY IS DUH!

MONEY-BYTES FROM THE REPORT:

Cardinal Camillo Ruini thinks Benedict XVI’s resignation was a mistake. Ruini also found himself flummoxed by the Francis pontificate and unsure whether the reign of the late Argentinian pontiff will prove to have done more harm or good.

“I found myself in difficulty with Pope Francis,” Ruini said in response to a question asking whether the late pontiff had disappointed him. “The change was too great and sudden,” Ruini said.

“More than disappointed,” Ruini said he was “surprised.”

Asked for his measure of the Francis pontificate, whether it did “more good or more harm to the Church,” Ruini said his would be “a complex assessment, with very positive aspects and others much less so.”

“It’s too early to judge which of them prevail,” he said.

He acknowledged things red hats and curial officers – along with the rank and file in the Church’s central governing apparatus and bishops around the world have whispered privately for years: that Benedict’s resignation was a mistake and Francis’s reign was not easy for the Church.

MY COMMENTS:  I am glad that Cardinal Ruini confirms my own feelings about Benedict and Francis. I too felt that Pope Benedict XVI made a mistake in resigning and should have persevered in his papacy. Would he have lasted ten more years? I doubt it but things would have worked out differently for the Church.

But, the Holy Spirit always repairs mistakes in the Church but not on our timeline. 

I feel the same way as Cardinal Ruini feels about Pope Francis’ papacy. I think it was a disaster and now I know I am not alone and that many felt it was a disaster, including Cardinal Pell. 

But of course there were good things but the bad seem to overwhelm me because some of the bad things were so mean-spirited:

1. How he berated those who desired the way the Church was going under Pope Benedict—renewal in continuity, respect for Tradition and traditions. Those who like liturgical and clerical refinery. The worst thing he did was to call into question their mental health and sincerity—a horrible judgment for someone who others touted as non-judgmental. In reality Pope Francis was the most judgmental pope ever and mean in his judgements. 

2. Canceling, for the most part, the papacies of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI especially the liturgical magisterium of Pope Benedict XVI and doing so while His Holiness was the Emeritus Pope, still living and not even giving Pope Benedict a courtesy call concerning Traditionis Custodis. 

3. Beginning processes that might have led to heterodox and heretical changes in Doctrine, Morals and the Faith of the Church. Francis’ synodal way was laying the foundation for this and Fiducia Supplicans is a virus, too, to regularize as virtue sexual sins of whatever degree and type. Both Francis’ synodal way and FS were processes to lead to the collapse of the doctrines of the Sacraments along with their anthropology and substitute an inversion of these.

4. Chipping away at the foundation of the Church as being the True Church and necessary for salvation and that Christ and His Church are the exclusive ways of salvation. It seem to me , in my most humble opinion, that Pope Francis was more interested in a Church that makes this world a utopian experience where all are embraced and nothing is sinful but exclusion. Heaven and hell as a just reward were relegated to obscurity.

What is good about Pope Francis papacy? He showed two or more new generations of Catholics, who have no living memory of Vatican II and its aftermath in the 1960’s well into the 80’s, what that period was like, with its confusion, experiments, ambiguity and that everything about traditional Catholic identities was up for grabs and open to change, even doctrines and morals. These new generations got to see how ugly it was because it was still ugly under Pope Francis’ direction. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHAT DOES IT MEAN? OH! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

I have no reason not to believe the veracity of this artificial intelligence’s summary. Do you?

Here it is:

In a recent interview shared by 

Matt Fradd, Bishop Athanasius Schneider recounted a conversation with Pope Leo XIV regarding the Traditional Latin Mass. 

According to Bishop Schneider, the Pope shared that numerous young people have approached him to testify that their conversion to the Catholic faith occurred through the Latin Mass. 

Key Details from the Interview

• The Pope's Observation: Pope Leo XIV reportedly acknowledged that the ancient liturgy is a significant driving force for modern conversions among the youth.
• Proposed Resolution: During their meeting, Bishop Schneider proposed that the Pope issue an Apostolic Constitution to "free" the Latin Mass and establish "pacific co-existence" between the traditional and modern forms of the Roman Rite.
• Context of Restrictions: This dialogue occurs as many traditionalists hope for a reversal of restrictions placed on the Latin Mass by the previous papacy. 

Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born Pope (elected May 8, 2025), has shown some early signs of openness to traditionalists, such as permitting a Latin Mass celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Burke in St. Peter's Basilica.