Pity the Modern Mass goers who are clueless about Ash Wednesday being around the corner. SEXAGESIMA before lent is moral and should be mandated! Here is yours truly enjoying the SEXAGESIMA in moderation, of course. The photos posted in reversed order unfortunately. At my homily, we also prayed together the Hail Mary” for Pope Francis:
southern orders
The Liberation of Saint Peter…
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Monday, February 24, 2025
Saturday, February 22, 2025
POPE FRANCIS IN CRITICAL CONDITION…PLEASE PRAY FOR THE HOLY FATHER…
BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS GIVEN...
Pope Francis was in critical condition Saturday after he suffered a long asthmatic respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen, the Vatican said.
Prayer for a Happy Death
O God, great and omnipotent judge of the living and the dead, we are to appear before You after this short life to render an account of our works. Give us the grace to prepare for our last hour by a devout and holy life, and protect us against a sudden and unprovided death. Let us remember our frailty and mortality, that we may always live in the ways of Your commandments. Teach us to “watch and pray” (Luke 21, 36), that when Your summons comes for our departure from this world, we may go forth to meet You, experience a merciful judgment, and rejoice in everlasting happiness. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO DO? OH WHAT IS THE VATICAN TO DO?
At 88 years old, an old man with many comorbidities, now with bronchial and lung infections, Pope Francis is clearly in his dying days. We can’t assign the number of days, months or years, unless one favors euthanasia, clearly immoral, but everything is up for grabs in the synodal church.
At any rate, Catholics and people of good will should be praying for the pope and for God’s will be done on earth as in heaven.
But why can’t the Vatican simply tell it as it is. Pope Francis is dying. We don’t know when nor can we predict it, unless this pope changes Church teaching on active euthanasia.
Instead, they condemn those who are speculating that His Holiness is going to resign or that his death is near, as though everything will return to as it was in 2013.
Nothing will return to as it was even two weeks ago.
I know from personal experience in my pastoral ministry and with my own mother, who was 93 when she died, that things change from day to day. My mom was in a coma days prior to her death, only to wake up, be clear and immediately eat a full meal with dessert to boot. Can we say she improved? No! Two days before her death, she was very clear, joking with family members and having a good time. Two days later she was gone.
We are in an interregnum of some kind even if Pope Francis returns to Santa Marta, the Vatican Motel Six. Remember that Pope John Paul II returned to his Apostolic Palace at the Vatican in order to die and he did die on Divine Mercy Sunday.
God bless Pope Francis and long live the pope.
We come before You in prayer, lifting up Your servant, Pope Francis, in his time of need. You are the
Source of all healing, and we ask You to surround him with Your loving presence, granting him
strength and recovery. May Your divine grace rest upon him, restoring his health and filling him with
renewed vigor to continue leading Your Church with compassion and wisdom.
“But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord.”
(Jeremiah 30:17)
We place Pope Francis into Your hands, trusting in Your eternal care. May he be comforted by the
love of the Church and the prayers of all the faithful. We ask, through the intercession of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, that his recovery be swift, and his spirit be strengthened in Your peace.
May Your will be done in his life, O Lord, and may Your healing power be with him always.
We offer this prayer in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the unity
of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
AS WE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR POPE FRANCIS WE ALSO MUST BEGIN TO PRAY FOR THE NEXT POPE AND THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS WHO WILL ELECT HIM…
Many are wondering who the next pope will be. The Remnant has an article that is rather fascinating written by Gaetano Masciullo. He creates the chart below and explains it.
The white names in all the colors below, are who Masciullo thinks could be pope from the various categories he has created. My favorites, as you can imagine, are in the red section and all of the white names there would be great. My top three choices are 3. Sarah, 2. Eijk/Erdb and 1. Pizzaballa. #1 has a delicious Italian name, so what is there not to love and he would be the first pope in centuries to have facial hair!
After Francis: Who are the Papabili (next conclave's candidates)?
By: Gaetano Masciullo | Remnant Columnist
In red, I have highlighted the cardinals who are the most friends of Tradition. In purple, I have indicated the papabile cardinals who, while not explicitly or manifestly friends of Catholic Tradition (especially liturgical), can nevertheless be considered aligned with the Ratzingerian line and thus more conservative from a theological, moral, and pastoral point of view. As is evident, on the whole, traditionalists and conservatives form the majority, despite what one might think. This perhaps helps us understand better why Francis has decided to use the strategy previously explained.
On the left side, we find the more progressive wing of the papabile cardinals. In the cobalt-colored segment, we find three cardinals who could be defined as “moderates,” very discreet in their assertions, but who are very likely sympathetic to the Francis Party. Finally, we find the Francis Party in the blue section, those whom Bergoglio has repeatedly indicated as his favorites and proteges (actually, his proteges have seen moments of greater and lesser favor from the incumbent over the years).
Leading papabili names are in white bold characters.
A Prayer for the Election of a New Pope
O God, who in your wondrous love watches over your Church, fill the cardinal-electors with your Holy Spirit
to strengthen and inspire them as they choose a new Holy Father to lead us.
May they choose a shepherd for your Church
who will please you in his holiness and guide his flock
with love and watchful care, especially for the sick, the poor and the vulnerable.
We pray that your Holy Spirit will hover over the one who is chosen
to strengthen him to be a messenger of love, peace and unity in our world.
We offer our prayer through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Monday, February 17, 2025
SHOULD CLERGY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BE PARTISAN POLITICAL HACKS? NO, HELL NO!
We live in very polarized political times. Some clergy seem to be more a member of one or the other of the political parties in the USA, than of the Catholic priesthood.
That’s is tragic and a scandal since most Catholics are either Democrats or Republicans. Some are independents as I am.
Clergy should keep their political affiliation a secret. Like me they should declare themselves independent.
Clergy should not be political hacks for this, that or the other political party. It is a scandal. Did I say it is scandal.
Clergy should stick to what they were ordained to do. Be an image of the High Priest, Jesus Christ, in all liturgical liturgies especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
They should apply moral principals to all hot bottom political issues, such as abortion and how we treat those we have allowed to enter this country either legally or illegally. They should not be identified as a being of any political affiliation. Being a Catholic priest should be sufficient, holding up the faith and morals of the Catholic Church and being a prophetic voice to secular politics but not identied with any political parity!
We should critique all political parties especially when they go beyond the laws of God as it concerns life, social Justice and the right to life of the unborn.
Clergy should not be public hacks, especially on social media!.
IT MUST BE SAD FOR HIM TO SEE THE MAJESTY OF SAINT PETER’S PAPAL ALTAR STRIPPED DOWN
Perhaps the next pope will name Bishop Guido Marini as the Prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship…
POPE FRANCIS COMPLEX HEALTH SITUATION CONTINUES…
PRAYER FOR THE POPE
V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.
R. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the
earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. [Psalm 40:3]
Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary.
O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy
servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant
him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over
whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he
attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Pope's complex clinical picture requires longer hospitalization
By Vatican News
"The results of the medical tests carried out over the past few days and today have shown a polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract, which has led to a further change in therapy.
"All tests carried out to date are indicative of a complex clinical picture that will require appropriate hospitalization."
This was the communique of the Holy See Press on Monday updating journalists on the health of Pope Francis who was hospitalized with bronchitis on 14 February at Rome's Gemelli Hospital.
As a result of this, the Press Office has noted the Pope's General Audience, this week, is therefore cancelled.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2025, WHAT DO TLM PARISHES KNOW THAT MOST MODERN MASS PARISHES DON’T KNOW AND IN FACT ARE CLUELESS?
TLM MASS GOERS KNOW THAT ASH WEDNESDAY AND THE BEGINNING OF LENT IS ABOUT THREE WEEKS AWAY! MODERN MASS PARISHIONERS ARE CLUELESS. THE MODERNS WILL WAKE UP ON ASH WEDNESDAY AND REALIZE THEY AREN’T READY FOR LENT, ALMOST LIKE WAKING UP ON CHRISTMAS MORNING AND NOT REALIZING IT IS CHRISTMAS DAY ALREADY!—YIKES!!!!
Saturday, February 15, 2025
IS IT POSSIBLE TO CANCEL THE POST VATICAN II REVISED MASS AND GO BACK TO 1962 AND ITS STATUS QUO FOR ALL THE SACRAMENTAL RITES OF THE CHURCH? I DON’T THINK SO!
As we all know, Pope Benedict’s liberal/progressive allowance of the 1962 Roman Missal and other sacramental rites of that time, was meant to allow both forms of the Mass and Sacramental rites to exert influence on each other and eventually to lead to a third Roman Missal developed in an organic way in terms of any simplifications or revisions to the 1962 Roman Missal.
Some think that allowing more influence of the 1962 Missal on the modern missal is the way to go and what I advocate. This means restoring the reverence of the older forms, kneeling for Holy Communion and ad orientem but not imposed in such a way to exclude what has happened since the late 1960’s in terms of what is allowed.
There is no going backwards to the exclusive use of the 1962 Roman Missal and other rites. Why?
It would cause a schism in the Church either in a formal way or informal way. The vast majority of people who attend Mass and others who visit, will not tolerate an exclusively Latin Mass. They prefer the vernacular and they like a less rigidly celebrated Mass that has human aspects of warmth and fellowship.
In addition to this, what Pope Paul VI was able to do in suppressing the previous rites of the Church in favor of the new occurred when the papal magisterium and the Universal Magisterium of the Church had major clout and lower clergy, religious and laity obeyed in a respectful way even if they had their own preferences. Those days are gone with the wind of the spirit be it Holy or not.
Thus Pope Benedict's solution is the best way to go. He did not suppress the new Mass or even creativity associated with it, but he allowed the older to coexist with the newer.
Pope Francis canceled Pope Beneidict’s liturgical magisterium and so much more of his genius intellect in favor of a sloppy/banal/worldly 1970’s approach to all things ecclesial.
Once Pope Francis is gone and a new pope who favors Benedict’s approach is elected, things will improve but not until then. Going back to 1962 is not possible nor is it preferable. It’s a dumb idea no matter how logical it might be presented on paper or in a well researched book.
Friday, February 14, 2025
VATICAN NEWS SEEMS TO BE PREPARING THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD FOR THE INEVITABLE…
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
Vatican News Friday evening update (Rome time):
A statement released to journalists by the Holy See Press Office on Friday evening said "Following the worsening of his bronchitis in recent days," Pope Francis, who was admitted to Rome's Agostino Gemelli Hospital on Friday morning, "has undergone specialist examinations and has begun hospital pharmacological treatment."
It specified that "initial tests indicate a respiratory tract infection. His clinical condition is stable, with a slight fever."
In conversation with journalists, Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, said: "The Pope is calm, he is in good spirits, and has read some newspapers."
Vatican News has updated its statement about Pope Francis’ hospitalization. I think we can read between the lines!
Prayers for Pope Francis.
Vatican News update:
Jubilee Audience cancelled as Pope Francis is treated for bronchitis in hospital
By Vatican News
Following the hospitalization of Pope Francis who is being treated for bronchitis at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital in Rome, adjustments have been made to the upcoming Jubilee events.
A Holy See Press Office statement on Friday said "The Jubilee Audience scheduled for tomorrow, February 15, has been canceled. The Holy Mass for the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, set to take place on Sunday, February 16, will be presided over by His Eminence Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education”.
“Furthermore, the meeting with artists, originally planned for Monday at Cinecittà, will not take place due to the Pope’s inability to attend," the statement continued.
The Holy See Press Office announced on Friday morning that Pope Francis would be admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic hospital following his morning audiences, explaining that the Pope was scheduled to undergo several diagnostic tests and conti
BREAKING! POPE FRANCIS HOSPITALIZED DUE TO DECLINING HEALTH…PRAYERS REQUESTED!
As a priest, I have witnessed elderly people decline very quickly after falls they have suffered. As far as we know, Pope Francis has fallen twice within the last month, one time causing a bruise to his face and another time causing an injury to his arm. We can presume, too, that he landed on the floor. These kinds of traumas to an elderly person start processes that don’t end well.
Also, I have noticed puffiness or bloating in the pope, especially his face. Given his breathing problems there more than likely is low oxygen levels in his blood and perhaps even congestive heart failure when the heart can’t pump well enough to keep the body from bloating from fluids. This can be very noticeable in a person’s swollen or bloated legs.
More info, below this photo taken recently.
As reported by LaCroix: Those close to the pope have noted that his face appears “marked by fatigue” and that he has gained weight, which some attribute to treatment with corticosteroids—although officially, no information has been released, as the pope is reluctant to publish health bulletins. “He is not in good shape,” a Vatican source said with concern, noting that his stable condition in recent days is not necessarily “reassuring.”
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
CONSISTENCY AND INCONSISTENCY—THE POPE FRANCIS PROBLEM
Crux has a balanced commentary on Pope Francis rebukes of the non Catholic Trump and Catholic Vance.
Here’s the best part:
For a pope to challenge the President of the United States so openly – and so early after his inauguration – is not merely remarkable. In reality, it is a seismic shift – and it only took 22 days from Trump’s inauguration.
Francis is already being challenged on two levels.
First, significant voices are asking why Trump gets a rebuke while other world leaders get a free pass.
Catholic scholar Samuel Gregg said, “In itself the pope’s statement about America and immigration is unobjectionable,” but added Francis “has a serious consistency problem.”
“For example,” Gregg wrote on X, “[Francis] has said nothing about the persecution of Catholics and other believers in Communist China, and has done a shameful deal with a totalitarian regime that has yielded nothing. Yet there is no letter to the bishops of China talking about the evil they have to confront every single day.”
Gregg also said Francis “regularly soft pedals any criticism of leftist regimes in Latin America and instead talks endlessly about dialogue,” and “did not single out the Biden administration for aggressively pushing abortion and the trans madness on the world,” a reference to Trump’s predecessor in office.
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
AN EXCELLENT WELL, THOUGHT OUT APOLOGETIC FOR NOT USING CERTAIN HYMNS AT ANY CATHOLIC LITURGICAL EVENT…
It’s the theology stupid! This is well worth the catechesis:
IT WAS ON FEBRUARY 11, 2013, THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES, THAT POPE BENEDICT XVI ABDICATED THE PAPACY
But before he did that, His Holiness called out those leaders of countries where life is so miserable, so many have a need to escape:
Benedict XVI wrote in 2012: «In the current social and political context, however, even before the right to migrate, there is need to reaffirm the right not to emigrate, that is, to remain in one’s homeland; as John Paul II stated: “It is a basic human right to live in one’s own country. However this rights become effective only if the factors that urge people to emigrate are constantly kept under control”. Today in fact we can see that many migrations are the result of economic instability, the lack of essential goods, natural disasters, wars and social unrest. Instead of a pilgrimage filled with trust, faith and hope, migration then becomes an ordeal undertaken for the sake of survival, where men and women appear more as victims than as agents responsible for the decision to migrate. As a result, while some migrants attain a satisfactory social status and a dignified level of life through proper integration into their new social setting, many others are living at the margins, frequently exploited and deprived of their fundamental rights, or engaged in forms of behaviour harmful to their host society. The process of integration entails rights and duties, attention and concern for the dignified existence of migrants; it also calls for attention on the part of migrants to the values offered by the society to which they now belong»
EMPHASIZING THE CHURCH’S MORAL TEACHINGS ON MIGRATION…
Lettera del Santo Padre ai Vescovi degli Stati Uniti d’America, 11.02.2025
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
I am writing today to address a few words to you in these delicate moments that you are living as Pastors of the People of God who walk together in the United States of America.
1. The journey from slavery to freedom that the People of Israel traveled, as narrated in the Book of Exodus, invites us to look at the reality of our time, so clearly marked by the phenomenon of migration, as a decisive moment in history to reaffirm not only our faith in a God who is always close, incarnate, migrant and refugee, but also the infinite and transcendent dignity of every human person.[1]
2. These words with which I begin are not an artificial construct. Even a cursory examination of the Church’s social doctrine emphatically shows that Jesus Christ is the true Emmanuel (cf.Mt1:23); he did not live apart from the difficult experience of being expelled from his own land because of an imminent risk to his life, and from the experience of having to take refuge in a society and a culture foreign to his own. The Son of God, in becoming man, also chose to live the drama of immigration. I like to recall, among other things, the words with which Pope Pius XII began his Apostolic Constitution on the Care of Migrants, which is considered the “Magna Carta” of the Church’s thinking on migration:
“The family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of an ungodly king, are the model, the example and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition who, beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family and dear friends for foreign lands.”[2]
3. Likewise, Jesus Christ, loving everyone with a universal love, educates us in the permanent recognition of the dignity of every human being, without exception. In fact, when we speak of “infinite and transcendent dignity,” we wish to emphasize that the most decisive value possessed by the human person surpasses and sustains every other juridical consideration that can be made to regulate life in society. Thus, all the Christian faithful and people of good will are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa.
4. I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations. The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. At the same time, one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival. That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.
5. This is not a minor issue: an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized. The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all — as I have affirmed on numerous occasions — welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable. This does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration. However, this development cannot come about through the privilege of some and the sacrifice of others. What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.
6. Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity. Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings! The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation. The trueordo amoristhat must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan” (cf.Lk10:25-37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.[3]
7. But worrying about personal, community or national identity, apart from these considerations, easily introduces an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth.
8. I recognize your valuable efforts, dear brother bishops of the United States, as you work closely with migrants and refugees, proclaiming Jesus Christ and promoting fundamental human rights. God will richly reward all that you do for the protection and defense of those who are considered less valuable, less important or less human!
9. I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all.
10. Let us ask Our Lady of Guadalupe to protect individuals and families who live in fear or pain due to migration and/or deportation. May the “Virgen morena”, who knew how to reconcile peoples when they were at enmity, grant us all to meet again as brothers and sisters, within her embrace, and thus take a step forward in the construction of a society that is more fraternal, inclusive and respectful of the dignity of all.
Fraternally,
Francis
From the Vatican, 10 February 2025