RECOVERED PAPAL LITURGICAL BOMBSHELL—THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE PONTIFICAL DALMATIC

 First, we have two new canonized saints, Saint Carlo Acutis and Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati! Praised be Jesus Christ now and forever! 

The Traditional Latin Novus Ordo Pontifical Canonization Mass was splendidly celebrated with wonderful sacred chant. 

The altar was wonderfully vested with the extra large candlesticks, including the Episcopal candle on one side and the giant crucifix on the other side. 

The Sacred Host consecrated was the larger host compared to the smaller large Host, a novelty at papal Masses at the Vatican.

The Holy Father used a beautiful ornate chalice.

The Piazza was packed to capacity with crowds extending now the Via Della Conciliazione.

But now for the bombshell, while the papal cufflinks seem to have disappeared in favor of the buttons latching the cuffs, the papal tunical or dalmatic has made its reappearance. While the chasuable is an ornate golden one with various symbols attached to this symbol, the pontifical dalmatic is a kind of off-white and not immediately noticeable. Will the fannon eventually, bricks by bricks, reappear one day?

The Holy Father gave a splendid homily filled with recommendations that one follow all the Catholic practices of our Faith, from prayer and Mass attendance and adoration of the Most Blessed Sacracment to frequent confession and the repentance of sin. No ideological group was mentioned who are exempt from repentance of sin and frequent confesssion. 

Of course, the good works we must preform in addition to our strong Catholic Faith are necessary from sainthood, meaning eternal salvation in heaven. Receiving the gift of eternal salvation require Catholic Faith and Good Works, both made possible by God’s grace, alone in Jesus Christ.

Most of all, the homily focused on heaven, the salvation of sinners which makes us all saints when we find ourselves welcomed by God into the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Soteriology is the study of and promotion salvation and the explanation of our glorified life in heaven. 

Pope Leo draws on the words of these two great saints, one the first millennial to be canonized and a saint formed in the true beauty of the post-Vatican II Church which includes so many maintained pious customs from the Church prior to the council. Eucharistic Devotion was particularly noted. 

Giving an inch to ideological groups in the Church, sinners that they are, they will in a demonic way take a mile. 

BUT!!! THE GATES OF HELL SHALL PREVAIL AGAINST THE CHURCH!

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HOLY MASS WITH CANONIZATIONS OF THE BLESSED:
- PIER GIORGIO FRASSATI
- CARLO ACUTIS

PAPAL MASS

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV

St. Peter's Square
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 7 September 2025

[Multimedia]

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EN

Dear brothers and sisters,

In the first reading, we heard a question: [Lord,] “who has learned your counsel, unless you have given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?” (Wis 9:17).  This question comes after two young Blesseds, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, were proclaimed saints, and this is providential because in the Book of Wisdom, this question is attributed to a young man like them: King Solomon.  Upon the death of his father David, he realized that he had many things: power, wealth, health, youth, beauty, and the entire kingdom.  It was precisely this great abundance of resources that raised a question in his heart: “What must I do so that nothing is lost?”  Solomon understood that the only way to find an answer was to ask God for an even greater gift, that of his wisdom, so that he might know God’s plans and follow them faithfully.  He realized, in fact, that only in this way would everything find its place in the Lord’s great plan.  Yes, because the greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan.

Jesus, too, in the Gospel, speaks to us of a plan to which we must commit wholeheartedly.  He says: “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:27); and again: “none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions” (v. 33).  He calls us to abandon ourselves without hesitation to the adventure that he offers us, with the intelligence and strength that comes from his Spirit, that we can receive to the extent that we empty ourselves of the things and ideas to which we are attached, in order to listen to his word.

Many young people, over the centuries, have had to face this crossroad in their lives.  Think of Saint Francis of Assisi, like Solomon, he too was young and rich, thirsty for glory and fame.  That is why he went to war, hoping to be knighted and adorned with honors.  But Jesus appeared to him along the way and asked him to reflect on what he was doing.  Coming to his senses, he asked God a simple question: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” (Legend of the Three Companions, cap. II: Fonti Francescane, 1401). From there, he changed his life and began to write a different story: the wonderful story of holiness that we all know, stripping himself of everything to follow the Lord (cf. Lk 14:33), living in poverty and preferring the love of his brothers and sisters, especially the weakest and smallest, to his father’s gold, silver and precious fabrics.

How many similar saints we could recall!  Sometimes we portray them as great figures, forgetting that for them it all began when, while still young, they said “yes” to God and gave themselves to him completely, keeping nothing for themselves.  Saint Augustine recounts that, in the “tortuous and tangled knot” of his life, a voice deep within him said: “I want you” (Confessions, II, 10,18). God gave him a new direction, a new path, a new reason, in which nothing of his life was lost.

In this setting, today we look to Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati and Saint Carlo Acutis: a young man from the early 20th century and a teenager from our own day, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for him.

Pier Giorgio encountered the Lord through school and church groups — Catholic Action, the Conferences of Saint Vincent, the FUCI (Italian Catholic University Federation), the Dominican Third Order — and he bore witness to God with his joy of living and of being a Christian in prayer, friendship and charity.  This was so evident that seeing him walking the streets of Turin with carts full of supplies for the poor, his friends renamed him “Frassati Impresa Trasporti” (Frassati Transport Company)! Even today, Pier Giorgio’s life is a beacon for lay spirituality.  For him, faith was not a private devotion, but it was driven by the power of the Gospel and his membership in ecclesial associations.  He was also generously committed to society, contributed to political life and devoted himself ardently to the service of the poor.

Carlo, for his part, encountered Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, Andrea and Antonia — who are here today with his two siblings, Francesca and Michele — and then at school, and above all in the sacraments celebrated in the parish community.  He grew up naturally integrating prayer, sport, study and charity into his days as a child and young man.

Both Pier Giorgio and Carlo cultivated their love for God and for their brothers and sisters through simple acts, available to everyone: daily Mass, prayer, and especially Eucharistic Adoration.  Carlo used to say: “In front of the sun, you get a tan. In front of the Eucharist, you become a saint!”  And again: “Sadness is looking at yourself; happiness is looking at God.  Conversion is nothing more than shifting your gaze from below to above; a simple movement of the eyes is enough.”  Another essential practice for them was frequent Confession.  Carlo wrote: “The only thing we really have to fear is sin;” and he marveled because — in his own words — “people are so concerned with the beauty of their bodies and do not care about the beauty of their souls.” Finally, both had a great devotion to the saints and to the Virgin Mary, and they practiced charity generously.  Pier Giorgio said: “Around the poor and the sick, I see a light that we do not have” (Nicola Gori, Al prezzo della vita: L’Osservatore romano, 11 February 2021).  He called charity “the foundation of our religion” and, like Carlo, he practiced it above all through small, concrete gestures, often hidden, living what Pope Francis called “a holiness found in our next-door neighbors” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, 7).

Even when illness struck them and cut short their young lives, not even this stopped them nor prevented them from loving, offering themselves to God, blessing him and praying to him for themselves and for everyone.  One day Pier Giorgio said: “The day of my death will be the most beautiful day of my life” (Irene Funghi, I giovani assieme a Frassati: un compagno nei nostri cammini tortuosi: Avvenire, 2 agosto 2025).  In his last photo, which shows him climbing a mountain in the Val di Lanzo, with his face turned towards his goal, he wrote: “Upwards” (Ibid).  Moreover, Carlo, who was even younger than Pier Giorgio, loved to say that heaven has always been waiting for us, and that to love tomorrow is to give the best of our fruit today.

Dear friends, Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces.  They encourage us with their words: “Not I, but God,” as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: “If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.”  This is the simple but winning formula of their holiness.  It is also the type of witness we are called to follow, in order to enjoy life to the full and meet the Lord in the feast of heaven.