THE CHURCH OF THE EAST AND THE CHURCH OF THE WEST IN UNION WITH THE SUCCESSOR OF SAINT PETER, THE POPE, BREATHES WITH TWO LUNGS WHEREAS THE EASTERN ORTHODOX ONLY BREATH WITH ONE LUNG—THAT EXPLAINS THEIR BEING OUT OF FULL BREATH…

For the Church of the East and West in full communion with the Pope, it's never either/or but rather, both/and!

The fullness of the Church of the East and West resides in the Catholic Church headed by the Supreme Pontiff, the Pope. While the west describes certain dogmas in a more linear way, the east, in union with the pope, uses more mystical terms, less rigid or juridical than the west. But as with most things within true Catholicism, it isn’t either/or but, rather, both/and.

When it comes to purgatory, this is all the more important!

Below in blue is from a schismatic priest of the Eastern Church in Schism with Rome, commonly known as Eastern Orthodox and thus more rigid about the either/or rather than the both/and. For them it’s either the east or the highway. But not so for the Church of the East in union with the Successor of Saint Peter:

 Why the East Never Defined Purgatory

In the medieval West, theology increasingly described salvation in legal categories: guilt, satisfaction, punishment, merit. Think of the influence of Anselm of Canterbury and the scholastic tradition. Within that framework, Purgatory became dogmatically defined, a necessary post-mortem satisfaction of remaining penalties.

But the Orthodox East began somewhere else.

The Fathers, like Gregory of Nyssa and Isaac the Syrian, speak of salvation not as legal balancing, but as healing. Illumination. Deification, theosis, which means participation in the divine life (cf. 2 Peter 1:4).

The question was never:

“How much punishment remains?”

The question was:

“How healed is the soul?”

Orthodoxy absolutely affirms purification after death. We pray for the departed at every Divine Liturgy. Love does not cease at the grave.

But the East resisted defining the mechanics. At councils like Council of Florence and Council of Trent, the Latin Church articulated Purgatory in precise terms. The Orthodox Church responded with reverent restraint.

Why?

Because Scripture gives us images: fire, judgment, glory, but not diagrams.

And in our tradition, the “fire” is not a created torture chamber. It is the unmediated presence of God Himself. The same divine love is joy to the purified and torment to the hardened.

The difference is not location.

It is disposition.

This matters pastorally.

Many Christians today live with anxiety-driven spirituality. We imagine salvation as a transaction. A ledger. A cosmic courtroom.

But Orthodoxy proclaims something deeper: salvation is synergy, our cooperation with grace, and lifelong transformation into Christ. The focus is not mapping the afterlife. It is healing the heart now.

So the East never defined Purgatory, not because it denied purification, but because it refused to reduce salvation to penalty satisfaction.

The Church invites us to repentance, Eucharistic life, prayer for the departed, and trust in the mercy of God.

Not speculation.

Not fear.

But preparation.

The fire we will meet is Love.

The question is: are we learning to receive it?

But, the Church of the East in full communion with the Church of the West under the Supreme Pastor, the pope, holds basically what the Schismatic East holds but is not adverse to how the west has formulated the dogma of purgatory. They know that it isn’t either/or, but rather, both/and although the Eastern Church would prefer the east’s tradition as it regards purgatory:

This an an AI summary highlighted in papal gold:

Yes, the Eastern Catholic Churches (Eastern rites in union with the Pope) believe in the doctrine of purification after death

—often termed purgatory—but generally describe it differently than the Latin (Western) Church. While they affirm the dogma that souls needing purification can be helped by prayer, they do not typically use the term "Purgatory" nor do they share the medieval Latin concepts of "fire" or specific "temporal punishments". 

Key Aspects of Eastern Catholic Belief on Purgatory:

• Core Dogma: They adhere to the same essential dogma as Rome: there is a state of purification for souls on their way to heaven, and prayers for the dead are efficacious.
• Difference in Terminology: Eastern Catholics, such as the Byzantine Church, often avoid the term "purgatory" because it holds specific Western medieval baggage.
• Theological Approach: Instead of a "place" of punishment, the East often views this state as a final journey, growth, or a process of, as some describe it, a "purifying ascent to the Father".
• Unity: As part of the Catholic Church, they fully accept the dogmatic teaching that those who die in God's grace but are not perfectly purified undergo purification.
• Prayers for the Dead: Eastern Catholics routinely celebrate Divine Liturgies for the dead and pray for their purification. 

In essence, Eastern Catholics hold the same belief as the Roman Catholic Church regarding the necessity of post-death purification, but they express and conceptualize it through their own unique Eastern theological tradition.

Dr. Paul Thigpen, PHD—REQUIESCAT IN PACEM…

When I was pastor of The Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta, Georgia (1991-2004) I wanted to hire a “pastoral assistant” to coordinate various ministries of the parish around 1993-94 or so.

I advertised widely for the position. I received one application from an Episcopal Priest, Rev. Fletcher Bingham, a pastor at a small Episcopal Church in Augusta and the other from an Evangelical minister in Florida, Paul Thigpen! 

I thought to myself, self, don’t these applicants know that I am the pastor of a traditionally minded Roman Catholic parish? Why are they applying!

I spoke to both on the phone and eventually hired the Episcopal priest! Yes! You read that correctly!

I received he, his wife and two of his three children into the Church after I had hired him, a couple of weeks later. Eventually one of his sons became a Dominican priest in the western province.

Dr.Paul Thigpen moved to Augusta and joined my parish and was active there until he moved to Savannah. 

He died on Tuesday, February 25th. God rest his soul and may God comfort his wife and family!

You can read about him from ETWN News. Press the title:

Paul Thigpen, theologian who explored ‘wondrous’ question of extraterrestrial life, dies at 71

A convert to Catholicism, Thigpen wrote prolifically on saints, the Blessed Mother, and the possibility of intelligent alien life, among other topics.

CONSIDERING THE SCANDAL OF THE PACHAMMA DEBACLE AT THE VATICAN AND EVEN ON THE ALTAR OF ST. PETER’S BASILICA, POPE LEO XIV GIVES A SOBER WAY TO INCLUTRATION..

My own perspective is that inculturation should take place primarily in popular devotions. It becomes more problematic when dragged into the official liturgies/sacraments of the Church. Obviously the greatest form of inculturation is the use of local languages. Prior to Vatican II this occurred in popular devotions and songs that accompanied these devotions. Vatican II saw the decline of popular devotions, which now, though, are on the upswing again. But with the decline, inculturation was imposed upon the Mass and other sacraments in an unthinking and uncritical way.

Often times, inculturation events are performed for Catholics not of that particular culture and appears to me to be more entertainment dragged into the Mass rather than authentic inculturation. This is particularly true of using cultural costumes and dances and performing these for all to see and wonder what the heck this has to do with the transmission of the Gospel and the worship of the true God and the veneration of the saints. 

Pope Leo gives an excellent corrective. I will highlight in dark red what is truly important in this speech:

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS LEO XIV
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE
"THEOLOGICAL AND PASTORAL CONGRESS"
ON THE GUADALUPE EVENT IN MEXICO

Dear brothers and sisters,

I greet you cordially and thank you for your reflection on the sign of perfect inculturation that the Lord bestowed upon his people in Our Lady of Guadalupe. In reflecting on the inculturation of the Gospel, it is fitting to recognize the way in which God himself has manifested himself and offered us salvation.

He has chosen to reveal himself not as an abstract entity nor as a truth imposed from without, but by progressively entering into history and engaging in dialogue with human freedom. “After speaking long ago to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways” (Heb 1:1), God revealed himself fully in Jesus Christ, in whom he not only communicates a message, but also communicates himself. Therefore, as Saint John of the Cross teaches, after Christ there is no other word to expect, nothing more to say, for everything has been said in him (cf. Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 22, 3-5). Evangelizing consists, above all, in making Jesus Christ present and accessible. Every action of the Church must seek to draw human beings into a living relationship with Him, a relationship that illuminates existence, challenges freedom, and opens a path of conversion, preparing them to receive the gift of faith as a response to the Love that gives meaning to and sustains life in all its dimensions.

However, the proclamation of the Good News always takes place within a concrete experience. Bearing this in mind is to recognize and imitate the logic of the mystery of the Incarnation, by which Christ “became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14), assuming our human condition, with all that it entails in its temporal configuration. It follows, then, that the cultural reality of those who receive the proclamation cannot be ignored, and it is understood that inculturation is not a secondary concession or a mere pastoral strategy, but an intrinsic requirement of the Church’s mission. As Saint Paul VI pointed out, the Gospel—and consequently, evangelization—is not identified with any particular culture, but is capable of permeating them all without submitting to any (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 20).

From this conviction, inculturating the Gospel means following the same path that God has traveled: entering with respect and love into the concrete history of peoples so that Christ may be truly known, loved, and welcomed from within their own human and cultural experience. This implies embracing the languages, symbols, ways of thinking, feeling, and expressing themselves of each people, not only as external vehicles for the proclamation, but as real places where grace desires to dwell and act.

However, it is necessary to clarify that inculturation does not equate to the sacralization of cultures or their adoption as the decisive interpretive framework for the Gospel message. Nor can it be reduced to a relativistic accommodation or a superficial adaptation of the Christian message, since no culture, however valuable, can simply identify with Revelation or become the ultimate criterion of faith. To legitimize everything culturally given or to justify practices, worldviews, or structures that contradict the Gospel and the dignity of the person would be to ignore that every culture—like every human reality—must be illuminated and transformed by the grace that flows from the Paschal Mystery of Christ.

Inculturation is, rather, a demanding and purifying process through which the Gospel, remaining whole in its truth, recognizes, discerns, and embraces the seeds of the Word present in cultures, and at the same time purifies and elevates their authentic values, freeing them from that which obscures or distorts them. These seeds of the Word, as traces of the previous action of the Spirit, find in Jesus Christ their criterion of authenticity and their fullness.

From this perspective, Our Lady of Guadalupe is a lesson in divine pedagogy on the inculturation of salvific truth. She does not canonize a culture nor absolutize its categories, but neither does she ignore or despise them: they are embraced, purified, and transfigured to become a place of encounter with Christ. The Virgin of Guadalupe reveals God's way of approaching his people: respectful in its starting point, intelligible in its language, and firm yet gentle in its guidance toward the encounter with the fullness of Truth, with the blessed Fruit of her womb. On the tilma, amidst painted roses, the Good News enters the symbolic world of a people and makes its closeness visible, offering its newness without violence or coercion. Thus, what happened at Tepeyac is presented not as a theory or a tactic, but as a permanent criterion for discerning the evangelizing mission of the Church, called to proclaim the True God for whom we live, without imposing Him, but also without diluting the radical newness of His saving presence.

Today, in many regions of the Americas and the world, the transmission of faith can no longer be taken for granted, particularly in large urban centers and in pluralistic societies, marked by visions of humanity and life that tend to relegate God to the private sphere or to disregard Him altogether. In this context, strengthening pastoral processes requires an inculturation capable of engaging in dialogue with these complex cultural and anthropological realities, without uncritically accepting them, so that it fosters a mature and adult faith, sustained in demanding and often adverse contexts. This implies conceiving the transmission of the faith not as a fragmented repetition of content nor as a merely functional preparation for the sacraments, but as a true path of discipleship, in which a living relationship with Christ forms believers capable of discerning, of giving an account of their hope, and of living the Gospel with freedom and consistency.

Therefore, catechesis becomes an indispensable priority for all pastors (cf. CELAM, Aparecida Document, 295-300). It is called to occupy a central place in the Church's activity, to accompany in a continuous and profound way the process of maturation that leads to a faith truly understood, embraced, and lived personally and consciously, even when this means going against the grain of dominant cultural discourses.

In this Congress, you have sought to rediscover and understand how to properly disseminate the theological content of the Guadalupe event and, consequently, of the Gospel itself. May the example and intercession of so many holy evangelists and pastors who faced this same challenge in their time—Toribio de Mogrovejo, Junípero Serra, Sebastián de Aparicio, Mamá Antula, José de Anchieta, Juan de Palafox, Pedro de San José de Betancur, Roque González, Mariana de Jesús, Francisco Solano, among so many others—grant you light and strength to continue the proclamation today. And may Our Lady of Guadalupe, Star of the New Evangelization, accompany and inspire every initiative leading up to the 500th anniversary of her apparition. I wholeheartedly impart my blessing to you.

Vatican City, February 5, 2026. Memorial of Saint Philip of Jesus, Mexican protomartyr.

Leo the Poor, 14th

POPE LEO’S LATEST REVERSAL OF POPE FRANCIS

I can’t imagine that Pope Leo isn’t consulting with Bishop Varden about how to deal with a problem like Maria, I mean, like the TLM. Bishop Varden’s approach is my approach and thus the right approach. 

It appears to me that he is not bothered by Summorum Pontificum or the so-called reform of the reform—meaning the reform of the Tridentine Mass in continuity with it! 

My own perspective is that we need the Bugnini Mass to be overhauled like Bugnini overhauled the Tridentine Mass thus making the Bugnini Mass almost unrecognizable from the Tridentine Mass. The new overhaul of the Bugnini Mass needs to make it look nothing like the Bugnini Mass but more like the Tridentine Mass. I am in favor of the 1965 Missal in other words. 

But this is Pope Leo’s latest reversal of Pope Francis. Press the Silieri non possum title for the full report:

Rome: Leo XIV appoints four auxiliaries and ends his predecessor's excesses

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!