A MODEST PROPOSAL TO POPE LEO FOR SUPPRESSING CUSTODIS TRADITIONIS AND REFINING SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM…

 

Dear Pope Leo,

Thank you for listening to those who have come to discover the Ancient Rites of the Church due to the generosity and magnanimity of Pope Benedict XVI. 

I recommend that you simply discard Custodis Traditionis and reinstate Summorum Pontificum.

It might be a good idea to revisit why the late, great Pope Benedict XVI referred to the two forms of the one Roman Rite as the Extraordinary Form and the Ordinary Form. 

The Ordinary Form is the normal form of the Mass and all Latin Rite priests should respect the Ordinary Form as the normal form of the Mass for parishes. Remind them, though, to read the black and do the red and stop turning the Normal Mass into a sideshow of personality idiosyncrasies. 

Emphasize that the Extraordinary Form of the Mass is precisely that, out of the ordinary. If it is to be added to a parish’s Mass schedule, it should not replace any of the Ordinary Form Masses. It should be at a separate time. 

Emphasize too, that the faithful who request the Extraordinary Form for the other sacraments, like Baptism and Holy Matrimony and also for Requiems should be granted their request. 

Remind bishops to be engaged with those who celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and not to look down on them or to be aloof from them. Make sure priests respect those who want the normal form of the Mass to remain precisely that, the normal form and to respect those who desire the Extraordinary Form. 

Remind bishops and priests not to be rigid but flexible but within the context of the Canon Laws of the Church.

Finally, allow kneeling at an altar railing for Holy Communion at the Normal Mass as well as ad orientem. This will show the continuity between the two Masses, one normal and one out of the normal usage. 

Thank you for taking all this into consideration. I remember you at every Mass I celebrate. 

Sincerely  your in Christ,

Fr. Allan J. McDonald

Diocese of Savannah

IT APPEARS THAT TRADITIONIS CUSTODIS IS BECOMING WHAT IT SHOULD BE AT SAINT PETER’S BASILICA: POPE LEO IS THE CUSTODIAN OF TRADITION, THE TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS THAT IS…

 In the ancient Rite, today is the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, a stand alone archangel feast.

The TLM for this Feast was celebrated on the main floor of St. Peter’s Baslica! Thank you Pope Leo! Remind your brother bishops, one in my province, to stop being such rigid types and allow generously the TLM to be celebrated. STOP HARASSING PRACTICNG CATHOLICS WITH THE OLD TRADITIONIS CUSTODIS CRAP!

BREAKING: a Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form was offered today for the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel at the altar of St. Michael in St. Peter's Basilica. The first time in years that a TLM has been offered here.

And from Rorate Caeli:

In March 2021, we published a very sad post regarding the end of the Traditional Latin Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica: 

Since the 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which recognized that the Traditional Mass had never been abrogated (and in fact could never be so), many priests who have celebrated in the several side altars of St. Peter's have done so by using the 1962 Missal. And it was celebrated daily in two of the Basilica's major altars, especially the Altar of Blessed Pope Innocent XI. ...And the Latin Mass has been once again relegated to the Catacombs: it can only be celebrated (not by any priest in good standing, but exclusively by so-called "authorized priests") in set times (7, 7:30, 8, and 9 am) in the Clementine Chapel of the Vatican crypt. Yes, they really do hate us. Yes, they want us all to die and disappear. Yes, if they could, they would wipe us off from the face of the earth.

This was a prelude to what would come in July 2021, with the absolutely illegitimate motu proprio Traditionis custodes, whose aim is to one day completely extinguish the Traditional Latin Mass.

Well, that "prelude" has now ended. We already knew a Pontifical Mass had been allowed for the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage (Oct. 25). But already today, on Michaelmas, a Traditional Latin Mass was once again celebrated in the main floor of the Basilica, at the altar of Saint Michael the Archangel.

Is this a sign of things to come, as the Vatican Basilica Ban of March 2021 was a sign of the worldwide ban and restrictions of July 2021? One can only hope.

 (Image and news courtesy of Josh Mansfield on X.)

THIS DIALOGUE IS IMPORTANT AS THIS BISHOP KEPT HIS MOUTH SHUT THROUGHOUT POPE FRANCIS’ CRACKDOWN OF THE TLM

 I copy this from Facebook:

⚜ PAPA LEON XIV IN CONVERSATIONS WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF TRADITIONAL LITURGY

A Process of Synodality: Listening and Dialogue. 

On the morning of 9/26, Pope Leon XIV received in audience Archbishop Guido Pozzo, ex-secretary of the 'missing' Pontificia Commission Ecclesia Dei.

In the first book where the first interview appears, "León XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century", published last week, the new Pope announced that "he will soon meet with representatives of the Tridentian rite." And, in fact, the Pope is already in talks with representatives of the traditional rite.

⚜ WHO IS MONSEÑOR GUIDO POZZO?

Monsignor Pozzo worked for the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the direction of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He taught at the Lateran University and was Undersecretary of the International Theological Commission. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him secretary of the Pontificia Commission Ecclesia Dei, responsible for the Traditional Roman Rite and the communities committed to him. He also took part in conversations with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X during the pontificate of Benedict XVI. In 2012, the German Pope named him titular archbishop of Bagnoregio.

Monsignor Pozzo remained as secretary of Ecclesia Dei until Pope Francis dissolved this commission in 2019 and placed his responsibilities directly under the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. With the motu proprio Traditionis custodes, Francisco transferred responsibilities to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline from the Sacraments and the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

What the head of the Argentine Church understood as a kind of "normalization" actually meant a downward level, as Francisco recognized no real need for the continued existence of the traditional rite, of ancient communities and ritual congregations, and worked for its dissolution and disappearance.

Following the dissolution of Ecclesia Dei in 2019, Monsignor Pozzo, then 67 years old, received financial supervision from the Pontific Choir of the Sistine Chapel. Otherwise, the cleric has remained silent. He has not spoken publicly since, not even about the motu proprio Traditionis custodes, with which Francisco launched a general attack against the traditional rite.

Archbishop Pozzo is now 74 years old and is undoubtedly a loyal and competent interlocutor of Pope Leo XIV in matters of tradition and traditional rite.

⚜ CARDINAL BURKE AND 

      CARDINAL SARAH

Having already received Cardinal Robert Sarah and Cardinal Raymond Burke, Pope Lion XIV has continued his colloquiums with clergy closely linked to the traditional rite with the audience received by Monsignor Guido Pozzo.

The "opportunities" spoken of by Lion XIV in his interview with Elise Ann Allen (Crux), which constitutes the basis of the book of conversations mentioned earlier, he created them himself by convening selected ecclesiastes. For chronological context:

Elise Ann Allen's interview with Lion XIV will take place July 10th and 30th.

On August 22, Lion XIV receives in audience Cardinal Raymond Burke.

On September 8, it was announced that a pontifical mass could be held again according to the traditional rite in the traditional pilgrimage Ad Petri Sedem, on October 25, at the Basilica of Saint Peter. Cardinal Raymond Burke would be the celebrant.

On September 22, Lion XIV receives in audience Cardinal Robert Sarah.

On September 18, the Spanish edition of the book of conversations "León XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century" will be published in Peru. The declaration of Lion XIV about his desire to meet with representatives of the traditional rite is made public.

▪︎ On September 26, Leon XIV receives in audience Archbishop Guido Pozzo.

A GREAT COMMENTARY BY SILIRE NON POSSUM ON SAINT JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH ELECT…

 

Please note that as the catechists-elect KNEEL on the hard, very hard and uncomfortably hard concrete, to have the “ministry” of Catechist conferred upon them by Pope Leo XIV. How glorious would it be for all of us to kneel at papal and non-papal Mass to have the Most Holy Eucharist conferred upon us as we receive our Lord in the most solemn and reverential way possible! It isn’t a stretch of the imagination to see communicants kneeling for Holy Communion, no?

“Cor ad cor loquitur”: Newman to Become Doctor of the Church

Marco Felipe Perfetti

Silere non possum

At the conclusion of the Eucharistic celebration for the Jubilee of Catechists, Pope Leo XIV surprised the faithful with an announcement destined to leave its mark on the history of the Church. “I have the joy of announcing,” he declared from the steps of St. Peter’s, just before the Angelus, “that on November 1st, in the context of the Jubilee of the Educational World, I will bestow the title of Doctor of the Church upon Saint John Henry Newman, who contributed in a decisive way to the renewal of theology and to the understanding of Christian doctrine in its development.”


The Pope’s words resound as the confirmation of an intuition that has run through recent Church history: the figure of Newman, marked by conversions, contradictions, and an enduring fidelity to conscience, emerges today as a necessary teacher in a cultural and ecclesial season that vacillates between relativistic subjectivism and rigid dogmatism.

Conscience, the echo of truth

For Newman, conscience was never a synonym for personal whim. On the contrary, it is “the echo of God’s voice in the innermost being of man.” This image, recurring often in his writings, frees the conscience both from the illusion of being a private tribunal deciding in isolation, and from the opposite temptation of reducing it to a mere external application of norms.

In the Apologia pro vita sua, Newman recounts his own inner journey not out of autobiographical vanity but to show how conscience was both compass and wound, light and cross. Faithful conscience does not guarantee immediate peace: it requires purification, discernment, and the willingness to change. This is why Newman endured the struggle of leaving Anglicanism and, after years of study and conflict, embraced Catholicism. In our own age, where conscience is often confused with feeling or calculation, Newman’s lesson is a powerful correction: truth and freedom do not oppose each other but call each other forth. Authentic freedom is that which allows itself to be educated by truth, while truth never imposes itself except by respecting the freedom of the listener.

Faith and reason, a fruitful bond

The Oxford University Sermons were the workshop where Newman explored the relationship between faith and reason. Faith, for him, is not a blind leap into the void, but a real assent born from the interweaving of clues, experiences, testimonies, and reflection. Newman distinguished between implicit and explicit reason, showing that human life is constantly sustained by unformalized yet decisive rationalities. This vision challenges both rationalism, which seeks to reduce faith to syllogism, and emotionalism, which reduces it to sentiment. Newman thus offers a balanced perspective: faith is reason enlarged—reason that does not censor the experience of mystery, but integrates and illuminates it.

Holiness and everyday truth

Another essential aspect of Newman’s spirituality appears in his Sermon on Evangelical Holiness. He distinguishes between natural virtue and Christian holiness. The former may express nobility and discipline, yet remains incomplete without the gift of the Spirit. Holiness, by contrast, is not aesthetic or moral perfection but a life shaped by the cross. Here Newman grasped something radically evangelical: truth is not mere intellectual possession but interior transformation, daily choice, fidelity in the ordinary. His insistence that truth is transmitted from person to person—more than from book to book—explains his celebrated motto: cor ad cor loquitur, “heart speaks to heart.”

The Idea of a University: an integral educational project

The proclamation of Newman will take place, significantly, within the context of the Jubilee of the Educational World. This is no coincidence. With his Idea of a University, Newman left one of the most prophetic works of the 19th century. There he insists that theology is an essential part of knowledge: excluding it mutilates intelligence, fragments reality, and destroys unity. In the discourses collected in that volume, Newman warns against knowledge reduced to mere technical skill, devoid of vision. True education, he argues, forms not only experts but persons capable of judgment. And such judgment is born from the habit of connecting disciplines, of reading reality synthetically, of recognizing that without God, knowledge collapses into mere instrumentality.

His educational project is therefore no academic ornament but a spirituality of the mind: to form men and women able to think freely, discern rigorously, and choose with conscience. This is the decisive point of contact between Newman and the theme of the Jubilee that Pope Leo XIV wishes to highlight.

Why Doctor of the Church

What does it mean, then, to proclaim Newman Doctor of the Church? It is not an erudite recognition, nor a posthumous prize for a brilliant intellectual. It acknowledges that his thought has given the Church enduring criteria for walking through history.


Newman is a Doctor because he offered a theology of conscience able to safeguard believers both from relativism and legalism. He is a Doctor because he showed that the development of doctrine is not betrayal but dynamic fidelity—like a seed growing into a tree. He is a Doctor because he united faith and reason in a harmony that today appears more urgent than ever, in a world at risk of severing the link between intelligence and spirituality. He is a Doctor because he understood education as the heart of the Church’s mission: not indoctrination, but the formation of free and responsible consciences.


For Leo XIV, Newman is not only a 19th-century theologian but a companion for the 21st century. At a time when the Church itself must rethink its relationship with truth, education, and freedom, the thought and witness of the English cardinal offer a path of discernment.

A Doctor for all time

On November 1st, the Feast of All Saints, the Church will not only proclaim a new Doctor. It will recognize that Newman’s voice—with its insistence on conscience, truth, doctrinal development, and education—remains a living and necessary voice. His motto, cor ad cor loquitur, is not a slogan but the synthesis of a method: truth passes through persons, faith matures through integral education, and holiness is built in the unity of reason and heart. 

This is why Newman deserves the title of Doctor: because he handed down to the Church not only pages of theology but a spiritual and intellectual criterion of life that remains strikingly relevant.

Marco Felipe Perfetti
Silere non possum

I WILL SEE THE DOCTOR ON NOVEMBER FIRST AS THE POPE HAS MADE THE APPOINTMENT FOR ME

I am pleased to announce that on November 1, during the Jubilee of the World of Education, I will confer the title of Doctor of the Church on Saint John Henry Newman, who contributed decisively to the renewal of theology and to the understanding of the development of Christian doctrine.

HAS CARDINAL CUPICH LOST FAVOR?

 

Under Pope Francis, Cardinal Cupich took it upon himself to be the Cardinal-face of the American Hierarchy touting all that Pope Francis wanted and more. 

I could be wrong, so please correct me, but I think Cardinal Cupich went directly to the pope, bypassing the then Prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops, Robert Cardinal Prevost, to get the Bishop of San Diego, also a Cardinal, not his Metropolitan, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, named the Cardinal-Archbishop of Washington, DC. 

Just as Pope Francis caused polarization in the Universal Church, Cardinal Cupich, backed by Pope Francis, caused polarization in the American Hierarchy. 

Well, Cardinal Cupich is still causing polarization in the American Hierarchy, but it appears that bishops are quite willing to speak out against what Cardinal Cupich is doing, which may not have happened under Pope Francis.

There’s a new sheriff in town, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV and other bishops, not aligned with Cardinal Cupich, are speaking up boldly, with Parrhesia.

Here is a list of bishops now opposing Cardinal Cupich’s Twlight Zonish, or is it, Cupich Zonish, honoring of pro-abortion “Catholic” Senator Durbin:

Bishop Carl A. Kemme of the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, on Thursday joined several other bishops in urging Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago to retract his planned “lifetime achievement award” for pro-abortion, pro-LGBT Democratic Senator Richard Durbin.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordilione of San Francisco, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield, IL, Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, Bishop James Wall of Gallup, New Mexico, and Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Texas, as well as Bishop Joseph Strickland of no diocese, have also joined the pushback against Cupich’s plan to award the radically pro-abortion senator.