POPE LEO, HUMBLE IN HIS EMBRACE OF PAPAL TRAPPINGS, MAKES CLEAR WHAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH “BELIEVES, TEACHES AND PROCLAIMS, TO BE REVEALED BY GOD!”

 

Pope Leo is very clear when His Holiness is teaching. No scratching of one’s head here, asking oneself, what the heck does that mean, what he just said.

In his talk in Turkey to bishops, clergy, religious and pastoral workers in Istanbul/Constantinople, Pope Leo sounds like Pope Benedict XVI in that Pope Benedict predicted a “smaller but more faithful Catholic Church.” Without citing Pope Benedict, Pope Leo says the same thing to the Catholic Church in Constantinople/Istanbul—about the “Logic of Littleness!” And also channeling Pope Benedict, Pope Leo makes clear that “what earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful!”

My most humble and extremely astute comments are embedded in Pope Leo’s text in red:

Türkiye is called to hope in the “Logic of Littleness”

During a meeting with bishops, clergy, religious, and pastoral workers in Istanbul, Pope Leo XIV highlights Türkiye's profound Christian roots and encourages the small Catholic community to look to the future with confidence, service, and renewed mission.

Homily of the Holy Father

Your Excellencies,
Dear brother priests,
Dear religious sisters and brothers, pastoral workers,
and all my brothers and sisters,

It is a great joy for me to be with you. I am grateful to the Lord that in my first Apostolic Journey he has granted me the grace to visit this “holy land” that is Türkiye, a place where the story of the people of Israel meets the birth of Christianity, where the Old and New Testaments embrace and where the pages of numerous Councils were written.

The faith that unites us has deep roots. Obedient to God’s call, our father Abraham set out from Ur of the Chaldeans and then, from the region of Harran in the south of present-day Türkiye, he departed for the Promised Land (cf. Gen 12:1). In the fullness of time, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, his disciples also came to Anatolia. In Antioch, whose bishop was Saint Ignatius, they were called “Christians” for the first time (cf. Acts 11:26). From that city, Saint Paul began some of his apostolic journeys that led to the founding of many communities. It was likewise in Ephesus on the shores of the Anatolian peninsula, where, according to some ancient sources, John the Beloved Disciple and Evangelist lived and died (cf. Saint Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, III, 3, 4; Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, V, 24, 3).

Furthermore, we recall with admiration the great Byzantine history, the missionary impulse of the Church of Constantinople and the spread of Christianity throughout the Levant. Even today in Türkiye there are many communities of Eastern-rite Christians — Armenians, Syrians and Chaldeans — as well as those of the Latin rite. The Ecumenical Patriarchate remains a point of reference both for its Greek faithful and for those of other Orthodox Churches.

Dear friends, your communities emerged from the richness of this long history, and it is you who are called today to nurture the seed of faith handed down to us by Abraham, the Apostles and the Fathers. The history that precedes you is not something merely to be remembered and then venerated as a glorious past while we look with resignation at how small the Catholic Church has become numerically. On the contrary, we are invited to adopt an evangelical vision, enlightened by the Holy Spirit. (Read the highlighted text, if that doesn’t sound like Pope Benedict, who was mocked by the progressive heterodox when he said it, I don’t know what is—a smaller but more faithful Church!)

When we look with God’s eyes, we discover that he has chosen the way of littleness, descending into our midst. This is the way of the Lord, to which we are all called to bear witness. The prophets announce God’s promise by speaking of a small shoot that will spring forth (cf. Is 11:1). Jesus praises the little ones who trust in him (cf. Mk 10:13–16). He teaches that God’s kingdom does not impose itself with displays of power (cf. Lk 17:20–21), but grows like the smallest of all the seeds planted in the earth (cf. Mk 4:31).

This logic of littleness is the Church’s true strength. It does not lie in her resources or structures, nor do the fruits of her mission depend on numbers, economic power or social influence. The Church instead lives by the light of the Lamb; gathered around him, she is sent out into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this mission, she is constantly called to trust in the Lord’s promise: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk 12:32). Let us remember also the words of Pope Francis who said, “A Christian community in which the faithful, priests and bishops do not follow the path of littleness has no future… The kingdom of God sprouts in small things, always in what is small” (Homily at Santa Marta, 3 December 2019). (These words are Pope Benedict all over again, although attributed to the late Pope Francis, no?)

The Church in Türkiye is a small community, yet fruitful like a seed and leaven of the kingdom. I therefore encourage you to cultivate a spiritual attitude of confident hope, rooted in faith and in union with God. There is a need to witness to the Gospel with joy and look to the future with hope. Some hopeful signs are already clearly present. Let us ask the Lord, therefore, for the grace to recognize and to nurture them. There are other signs, perhaps, that we may need to express creatively through perseverance in faith and in witness.

Among the most beautiful and promising signs, I think of the many young people who come knocking at the doors of the Catholic Church with their questions and concerns. In this regard, I urge you to continue the good pastoral work that you are doing. I also encourage you to listen, to accompany young people, to give special attention to those areas where the Church in Türkiye is called to serve: ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, transmitting the faith to the local population, and pastoral service to refugees and migrants.

This last aspect deserves special reflection. The significant presence of migrants and refugees in this country presents the Church with the challenge of welcoming and serving some of the most vulnerable. At the same time, this Church itself is made up largely of foreigners, and many of you — priests, sisters and pastoral workers — come from other lands. This calls for a special commitment to inculturation so that the language, customs and culture of Türkiye become more and more your own. Moreover, the communication of the Gospel always passes through such inculturation. (YES! Migrants/immigrants are called to embrace the cultures to which they have gone. Certainly maintaining one’s own cultural heritage is important, but in a new country that a migrant/immigrant calls home, they must embrace what  that culture offers and not create enclaves that dismiss their new country’s culture. The great immigration to America from Europe and other places, in times past, found those new immigrants seeking citizenship in the USA, embracing the American Culture, while preserving their own, and sharing their cultural heritage with Americans of all stripes. But they were also patriotic and defended their new country!)

I would also like to recall that it was in this land of yours that the first eight Ecumenical Councils were held. This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a “milestone in the history of the Church but also of humanity as a whole” (Francis, Address to the International Theological Commission, 28 November 2024). This ever-relevant event puts before us several challenges that I would like to mention.

The first is the importance of grasping the essence of the faith and of being Christian. Around the Creed, the Church at Nicaea rediscovered its unity (cf. Bull Spes Non Confundit, 17). The Creed is not simply a doctrinal formula; it is an invitation to seek — amid different sensibilities, spiritualities and cultures — the unity and essential core of the Christian faith centered on Christ and on the Church’s Tradition. Nicaea still asks us: Who is Jesus for us? What does it essentially mean to be Christian? The Creed, unanimously professed together, becomes a criterion for discernment, a compass, the center around which our beliefs and actions must revolve. In speaking about the connection between faith and works, I would like to thank the international organizations for their support of the Church’s charitable activities, especially for the help offered to the victims following the earthquake in 2023. Here I would single out Caritas Internationalis and Kirche in Not. 

The second challenge is the urgency of rediscovering in Christ the face of God the Father. Nicaea affirms the divinity of Jesus and his equality with the Father. In Jesus, we find the true face of God and his definitive word about humanity and history. This truth constantly challenges our own ideas of God whenever they do not correspond to what Jesus has revealed. It invites us to ongoing discernment regarding our forms of faith, prayer, pastoral life and spirituality. But there is also another challenge, which we might call a “new Arianism,” present in today’s culture and sometimes even among believers. This occurs when Jesus is admired on a merely human level, perhaps even with religious respect, yet not truly regarded as the living and true God among us. His divinity, his lordship over history, is overshadowed, and he is reduced to a great historical figure, a wise teacher, or a prophet who fought for justice — but nothing more. Nicaea reminds us that Jesus Christ is not a figure of the past; he is the Son of God present among us, guiding history toward the future promised by God. (Maybe Pope Leo reads my blog where I did declare that the post-Vatican II spirit, especially as it regards the manner in which the revised Mass is celebrated, contributes to what Pope Leo here calls a “new Arianism” but what I called a “neo-Arianism”! Of course, the foundation of the nature of how the Mass is celebrated, apart from any reforms, is a devolving Christology from a high Christology, in union with the Council of Nicaea, to a Protestanized low Christology of the post-Vatican II era. I am not sure what came first, the low Christology that led to so much liturgical abuse in the Modern Mass or liturgical abuse in the Modern Mass that led to a low Christology, a new Arianism! The new manner of distributing Holy Communion in the revised Mass, that of standing, on the move, in the hand and by those not ordained for this ministry, but randomly selected, with very little practical, spiritual and doctrinal formation, and often living in a way that isn’t edifying, has contributed to this new Arianism of the post-Vatican II era! I hope Pope Leo can make these connections. The first step has occurred naming the NEW ARIANISM!)

Finally, the third challenge is the mediation of faith and the development of doctrine. In a complex cultural context, the Nicene Creed expressed the essence of the faith through the philosophical and cultural categories of its time. Yet only a few decades later, at the First Council of Constantinople, we see that it was further deepened and expanded. Thanks to this doctrinal development, there emerged a new formulation, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed that we profess together in our Sunday liturgies. Here too we learn an important lesson: the Christian faith must always be expressed in the languages and categories of the culture in which we live, just as the Fathers did at Nicaea and in the other Councils. At the same time, we must distinguish the essence of the faith from the historical formulas that express it — formulas that are always partial and provisional and can change as doctrine is more deeply understood. Let us recall that the Church’s newest Doctor, Saint John Henry Newman, insisted on the development of Christian doctrine, because doctrine is not an abstract, static idea, but reflects the very mystery of Christ. Therefore, its development is organic, akin to that of a living reality, gradually bringing to light and expressing more fully the essential heart of the faith. (Here, Pope Leo is clarifying the “Development of Doctrine” which is always faithful to what preceded although new clarity is brought to the Divine Truth. Certainly we see this principle when we pray the Apostles’ Creed compared to the Nicene Creed. The latter is more detailed and states the Divine Truth more clearly. While Pope Leo doesn’t explicit say this, but it is certainly implied, development of doctrine can’t negate what came before, change a Divine Truth that contradicts its roots. What we see the heterodox doing in the Church today, under the guise of doctrinal development, is to change the sexual anthropology of the Church to embrace the ideologies of the LGBTQ+++ teachings, that there is more than ”male and female” and that spouses can be of whatever sex one believes they are even if contrary to natural law, Church doctrine and common sense. This then opens the door to the development of doctrine in a new way that is in breach with what preceded. Same sex marriage with polygamy blessed and recognized, Holy Orders to include them, they, those of whatever sex they, them, those, claim and whatever type of “marriage” they choose. It also means embracing with zeal the new Arianism that Pope Leo, thanks be to God, condemns! As well, the development of doctrine can’t negate what preceded! The post-Vatican II Church must be in continuity with the pre-Vatican II Church and can never be seen as a “new” Church differing completely from it’s pre-Vatican II roots. And just as we continue to pray the “Apostles’ Creed” as well as the newer creed, the Nicene Creed, because the two need each other, the same with the liturgy of the Church, the older, more ancient Liturgy can’t be tossed out and forbidden because a new one developed from it! I hope Pope Leo understands this and connects the dots as brilliantly as Pope Benedict did!!!)

Dear friends, before concluding, I would like to recall someone so dear to you, Saint John XXIII, who loved and served the people of this land. He wrote, “I like to repeat what I feel in my heart: I love this country and its inhabitants.” While looking from the window of the Jesuit house at the fishermen busy with their boats and nets on the Bosporus, he continued: “The sight moves me. The other night, around one in the morning, it was pouring rain, yet the fishermen were there, undaunted in their hard labor… To imitate the fishermen of the Bosporus — working day and night with their torches lit, each on his small boat, following the direction of their spiritual leaders — this is our serious and sacred duty.”

I hope that you will be moved by this same passion, in order to keep alive the joy of faith, and continue to work as courageous fishermen in the Lord’s boat. May Mary Most Holy, the Theotokos, intercede for you and keep you in her care. Thank you.

HOW COOL IT IS THAT THE VERY FIRST THANKSGIVING WASN’T IN PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS BUT IN SAINT AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA AND WITH THE CELEBRATION OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS! AND IT WAS ON THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY!

Many Americans accept the Protestant version of what they say was the very first Thanksgiving on the land that would eventually become the USA, Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. But, because of an antipathy towards the Spanish, who were Catholics, they canceled the real first Thanksgiving which was 56 years earlier. 

The first Thanksgiving in our nation’s history took place on September 8, 1565, in St. Augustine, FL. After Fr. Francisco López celebrated Mass, the Spanish settlers and the local Native American tribe came together to share a communal meal. (Of course, September 8th is the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Augustine is the name of Pope Leo’s religious order! But in the USA we call it Saint Ahgusteen, not Augusten!)

The Mass was celebrated on the feast day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.The word “Eucharist” literally means “thanksgiving” in Greek. 

The meal After the Mass, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the Spanish Admiral, invited the Seloy tribe, the native people who lived there, to a feast. The meal included hardtack, a type of cracker, and stew made from pork and garbanzo beans. 

The location The Mass took place at the Mission of Nombre de Dios, which was named by Menéndez. The mission is now the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche, the oldest shrine in the continental United States. 

The significance The Mass and feast were the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent settlement in the land. 

The mission grounds commemorate the first Mass with a Rustic Altar and a statue of Father Lopez. The mission is open to the public.

POPE LEO MUST REALLY LOVE TURKEY 🦃 BECAUSE ON TURKEY DAY, THE POPE WILL NOT ONLY EAT TURKEY, HE’LL BE IN TURKEY! 🦃 YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFFING UP! 🦃

Turkey Day for Pope Leo XIV

 Happy 😊 Thanksgiving 🙏 Day to Pope Leo and all people who give thanks…

I am sure the pope was served turkey 🦃 on his flight to Turkey 🦃 🇹🇷. He is having pumpkin 🎃 pie 🥧 for sure! I wonder if he is having a southern favorite, sweet potato 🍠 casserole 🥘 with melted marshmallows on top! 🔝 Yum 😋!

ONCE AGAIN, POPE LEO ISSUES AN APOSTOLIC LETTER CORRECTING SOMETHING POPE FRANCIS BROUGHT ABOUT—IS THIS A TEMPLATE ON HOW POPE LEO WILL RESPECTFULLY REVERSE POPE FRANCIS MISTAKES WITH TRADITIONIS CUSTODIS? I THINK IT IS!

This Apostolic Letter, issued this November 26th morning concerns only the structural apparatus of the Diocese of Rome.

But Silere non possum has the politics behind it and knowing how Pope Francis was duped to create an untenable “reform” of how the Diocese of Rome functions, Pope Leo corrects it and in a very brief Apostolic letter. 

Here is the brief letter, which really has nothing to do with anything else but does it? I think it is a template for fixing Traditionis Custodis, where Pope Francis was also duped by someone about the need to issue this stupid Motu Proprio in the manner in which it was issued!

After the short Apostolic Letter, I will reproduce what Silere non possum sees in it from the Roman perspective:

APOSTOLIC LETTER

MOTU PROPRIO

OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF

LEO XIV

IMMOTA MANET

ON THE CENTRAL SECTOR OF THE DIOCESE OF ROME

With the motivation, premises, and considerations expressed in the Motu Proprio "La vera bellezza," issued on October 4, 2024, by my venerated Predecessor, remaining unchanged, and believing that some of the reflections were specifically directed at the Jubilee Year now drawing to a close, during which, however, not only a specificity but also a homogeneity and unity of the Central Sector of the Diocese of Rome has emerged even more clearly, with this Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio, I establish and order that the five Prefectures, from I to V, return to being part of a single Central Sector, which is thus once again added to the other four Sectors of the Diocese of Rome.

I hereby decree that what is established in this Apostolic Letter be given firm and permanent effect, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, even if worthy of special mention, and that it be promulgated by publication in L'Osservatore Romano, taking effect on the day of its publication, and subsequently inserted into the official commentary of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on November 11, 2025, the Memorial of Saint Martin, the first of my Pontificate.

LEO PP. XIV

Here is Silere non possum’s political take and the backstory for this Apostolic letter:

Bishop Renato Tarantelli, vicegerent of the Diocese of Rome was Pope Francis’ ghost writer for Pope Francis’ motu proprio that created all the chaos in Rome now “fixed or corrected” by Pope Leo XIV!

Rome - Pope Leo XIV has done what many Roman parish priests have been waiting for for over a year: repairing a structural error that had paralyzed the diocese, bringing the five Prefectures of the Central Sector under a single pastoral unit. A clear, uncluttered gesture, devoid of frills and the pneumatic language with which, in October 2024, Pope Francis had wrapped a measure that made no sense either pastorally or administratively.

To understand the significance of what happened today, we must return to that Motu Proprio of 2024, written—as Silere non possum has repeatedly denounced—based on the ideas and pressure of Bishop Renato Tarantelli, vicegerent of the Diocese of Rome, (a favorite of Pope Francis who attended his ordination as a bishop at St. John Lateran last year). There was no real consultation with parish priests, no community discernment, no dialogue with those who carry out pastoral work in the neighborhoods. Just an ideological approach, a reform constructed on paper, as if Rome were a model to be modeled according to the theories of some improvised urban planner.

The result was an interminable document, a torrent of words without substance, similar—as Silere non possum immediately pointed out—to certain defense briefs produced in court to confuse the judge: long, verbose, seemingly technical, but lacking in content. A defense brief, then, that explains nothing. The difference is that, instead of citing Supreme Court rulings or normative interpretations, here mercy, beauty, pastoral care, even Russian writers, were brandished. Speaking without saying anything is not just a stylistic affectation: when the Pope's diocese is reorganized, vagueness becomes operational confusion, confusion translates into poor pastoral care, and the lives of the faithful and clergy become a daily hell. These are issues that never even cross the mind of someone who has never been a parish priest and, having failed in his career as a lawyer, has fallen back on the seminary, only to be quickly promoted to bishop. After all, if someone wasn't capable of being a lawyer and ended up in the seminary, there must be a reason. And indeed, that text bore all the hallmarks of someone who knows the codes only by hearsay: unsystematic verbosity, exaggerated concepts, useless metaphors.

Francis's provision dismembered the Central Sector, distributing the Prefectures among the four cardinal sectors. The whole thing was presented as a "synodal" gesture, the result of "numerous interventions" and "requests already made." Let's be honest here: those requests came from nowhere, except Tarantelli's desk. The parishes, named in question, knew nothing about it. The number of priests interviewed was zero. The vast majority of Roman priests learned everything after the fact and were left speechless.

The Heart of the Problem with the Motu Proprio "True Beauty"

Francis's entire text rested on an unproven assumption: that the center of Rome was so isolated and self-referential that it needed to be dissolved and "distributed" across the other four sectors. The Pope justified this with pages and pages of reflections on beauty, the city's history, tourism, and the theology of encounter. All true, but completely disconnected from the real issue: the ordinary pastoral care of the Central Sector cannot be reorganized with inspired prose, but with coherent administrative choices. The invocation of a "single center," of "bridges," of "geographical synodality" was insufficient to give meaning to a reform that complicated the lives of parish priests, obscured the chain of command, and, in effect, emptied the Central Sector of its historical and functional identity. The goal was to dismember a sector; the reasons were stitched together, and they were vague ones that created discontent and chaos.

Leo XIV: Surgery on the Essential

And so, today, Leo XIV, who in recent months has been dismantling, one after another, norms so fragile they couldn't even be held together with glue, has finally decided to end this period of confusion. With the Motu Proprio Immota Manet, just a few lines long but surgical in substance, the Pope has reestablished what everyone has always known: the five Prefectures of the Central Sector constitute a natural, pastoral, and historical unity.

And if a provision needs to be corrected, it is corrected without embarrassment: "...I establish and order that the five Prefectures, from I to V, return to being part of a single Central Sector, which is therefore once again added to the other four Sectors of the Diocese of Rome." One sentence. Just one. And yet it was enough to bring down an entire poorly constructed edifice. And let's be clear: this is not a gesture against his predecessor, but simply a recognition that his predecessor had been manipulated by Renato Tarantelli, as Silere non possum has always denounced. The Pope was literally dumbfounded by him and others in his circle, and signed. The parish priests paid the price. The Pope says it diplomatically, but he does say it: some considerations in Francis's text were tied to the impending Jubilee and were contradicted by the very reality of the Jubilee, which revealed a homogeneous, specific Central Sector, indispensable as an autonomous pastoral unit.

The priests of Rome now look to the future with hope and hope that Leo XIV will soon initiate a true reclamation of people, not just of norms. They are grateful because, finally, the Pope is returning to devote real attention to his diocese and his priests.

d.R.M.

Silence is not possible

IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT IN NEWLY BUILT, TRADITIONAL CHURCHES, THAT THERE ONLY BE ONE MAIN ALTAR IN THE MAIN SANCTUARY RATHER THAN TWO ALTARS, ALA, THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH OF VATICAN II AND PLACING ALTARS IN FRONT OF OLD ALTARS?????

First of all, I want to congratulate Saint Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax, Virginia. Their new Church is splendid. Their pastor and the laity there, as well as their bishop, are to be congratulated and praised for this marvelous post-Vatican II architecture and interior embellishments. It is splendid.

EXCEPT!

There are two altar in the main sanctuary. The one where the tabernacle is appears to me to be a pre-Vatican II altar under the baldacchino, with a new altar placed in front of it so the Mass can be said facing the nave, as was done in the immediate aftermath of Vatican II in almost every church in the USA and elsewhere.

Why, oh, why couldn’t they have made sure the tabernacle wasn’t placed on an altar-looking “altar”and so much higher than the Altar of Sacrifice????? It over powers the very beautiful Altar of Sacrifice, over powers it, I say. 

And if one is going to have a baldacchino, it should be over the altar of sacrifice even if the altar is free-standing as at Saint Peter’s Basilica. The tabernacle could behind it at the apse’s back wall, elevated but not overpowering the altar. 

While the tabernacle should be in the dead center of the church, I think the best solution is that directly behind the altar of sacrifice there should be a nice small chapel, similar to the lovely side chapels, visible from the nave of the church, to place the tabernacle. There is something to be said about the tabernacle not being so prominent during the celebration of the Mass facing the nave, so the focus is on the current celebration of the One Eternal Sacrifice, but now in time and no focus on a previous celebration in time, of the One Eternal Sacfifce at a previous Mass with Hosts in the tabernacle from that or those celebrations. 

I believe that the rubric for the celebration of Mass by a bishop prior to Vatican II mandated that the tabernacle in the main sanctuary, be empty. 

Just my two cents worth, although that term, sadly, very sadly, is now out of date! 

Press title from the Liturgical Arts Journal’s article for the story and more photos:

New Church Architecture: St. Mary of Sorrows in Fairfax, Virginia

by Shawn Tribeon November 25, 2025

YES! YES! YES! HIS HOLINESS CASSOCK IS IN DESPERATE NEED OF THIS! I HOPE HE WEARS IT !

The Serpone Company has made the white sash for the sutan/cassock of Holy Father Leo XIV, with the embroidered coat of arms of his pontificate, donated by the Augustinian fraternity Pia union Santa Rita "Lombardy" of Abbiategrasso (Milan).

AH:

AH:

BLAH:

THE MASS OF POPE PAUL VI AS IT CAN AND SHOULD BE CELEBRATED AND WHERE WE SHOULD PLACE OUR ENERGIES IN IMPROVING ITS CELEBRATION!

My Diocese of residence, the Diocese of Charleston, is a booming diocese from the Low Country where I live, which is the coastal southern part of South Carolina, to the midlands and upstate. 

Of particular note is the metro area of Greenville, South Carolina, at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is about 100 miles from Augusta, Georgia where I grew up and where I visited as a young child.

 The Catholic Church in the Greenville Metro area is booming and it is a Post-Vatican II Church with the Modern Mass celebrated as Vatican II intended, not some liberal/progressive hodgepodge of neo-Arianism mishmash, kitschy and banal hymns from the 70’s and 80’s folk era. 

The National Catholic Register has a great article about the Catholic Church in Greenville, which you can read HERE. Of particular note is what is happening at Greenville’s downtown Catholic Church since the early 2000’s, St. Mary Church. 

The video below is their Solemn Sung Mass for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe from this past Sunday.

It is the Modern Mass at its best:

1. Please note the Entrance Procession with the proper chant flowing directly into a marvelous metrical hymn embellished by the great choir. But note, too, how the laity are singing both the Proper Chant and then the metrical hymn!

2. Please note how crisp the Introductory Rite is, with no stupid bantering by the celebrant prior to introducing the Penitential Act. The Kyrie chanted in Greek and the Gloria in Latin, with the Collect in English. There is a great mix of Latin and vernacular in this Mass. 

3. Please note the excellent lector wearing Sunday Best for a layman!

4. The Credo is spoken which seems to be the default in Modern Masses. I don’t see why one sung version of the Credo, in Latin or English can’t be used and memorized by the laity when used weekly!

5. The Liturgy of the Eucharist is Ad Orientem and has been so at this parish since the early 2000’s. Please note the number of altar boys. This parish has provided a considerable number of candidates for the priesthood in the Diocese of Charleston. 

6. Please note the Communion Procession. There are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, both male and female and all in appropriate Sunday Best clothing. 

While I love the Traditional Latin Mass, I see it as a “boutique” Mass today. There is only a small minority of Catholics who prefer it. I think it should be an option in a parish, but our energy needs to be focused on celebrating the Mass of Pope Paul VI as it is meant to be celebrated and should be mandated to be celebrated as in this video. Fr. Jay Newman, pastor of Saint Mary Church in Greenville, has chosen all the years he’s been the pastor to focus on the proper and traditional manner of celebrating the Mass of Pope Paul VI rather than spending his time and energy on the TLM. I think there is wisdom in this approach!

NO POLYGAMY! NO SAME SEX MARRIAGE: YES TO ORTHODOXY…

 

Press title for Vatican News article:

Doctrine of the Faith: Monogamy is not a limitation but a promise of the infinite

The doctrinal Note Una caro. In Praise of Monogamy has been published, exploring the value of marriage as an “exclusive union and mutual belonging.” It highlights the importance of conjugal charity and attentiveness to the poor, and condemns all forms of violence, both physical and psychological. In an individualistic and consumerist age, young people must be educated to understand love as responsibility and trust in the other.

IN MY MOST HUMBLE OPINION, IT IS A WATERED DOWN ARIANISM THAT INFECTS THE VATICAN II CHURCH AND HER LITURGIES…

This is an expression of the low Christology, neo-Arianism Jesus infecting Catholicism since Vatican II:

Anyone my age and older knows that the pre-Vatican II Church, in union with the Church of the East, including the Eastern Orthodox, promoted a high Christology of Jesus Christ, crucified and Risen. 

This flowed from the Councils of Nicaea and Ephesus. 

This high Christology was maintained both in the East and West in the liturgies of the Church, especially the Mass or Divine Liturgy, but also in devotions, prayers and bodily postures at prayer and liturgies. The East had its own forms of public piety and reverence but equal to the West’s in terms of the foundation of a high Christology.

All of this was a result of the fight against the Arian heresies. If one does not hold a high Christology or agrees with Arias and his heresies, one’s relationship to Christ is dumbed down, not only in theology but also religious practices. 

After Vatican II, the Church of the West, but, thanks be to God, not the Church of the East, began to dabble in a modified Arian heresy. The humanity of Jesus, during his public ministry, not after His glorious crucifixion, resurrection, Ascension and Sending of His Holy Spirit, was emphasized. 

Emphasizing Jesus as a Good Buddy, Friend, Brother and just an all around Nice Guy had and has ramifications for the spirituality of the Western Church, the style or ethos of her liturgies, her piety and her forms of reverence. 

For the most part, all of the external forms of piety and reverence were either dumbed down or thrown out in the post-Vatican II reforms of the Church’s liturgies and the practices of piety, devotion and rubrics for the Mass.

Comparing the prescribed rubrical forms of external piety required by bishops and priests in the liturgy in terms of the pre-Vatican II and post-Vatican II ways of celebrating Mass and also including how the laity express that reverence in liturgies, we see the deleterious effects of a neo-Arianism on the post-Vatican II Church and her liturgies, reverence and external expressions of piety. 

It’s a kind of Protestant folksiness in terms of how one views Christ in personal terms and the jettison of formality and reverence in that relationship. Fellowship, folksiness and casualness mark many of the local celebration of the Modern Mass today—a neo-Arianism.

Again, this has not, for the most part, affected the Church of the East in union with Rome and certainly not Eastern Orthodoxy. 

The anti-rubricism of the modern Mass, along with an antipathy for kneeling for Holy Communion and receiving externally in a casual, on-the-move way, standing, in the hand and by anyone trained or not trained to be a Eucharistic Minister all goes back to an interpretation of Vatican II that promotes a neo-Arianism. This includes, too, the liturgical practice of the Church in terms of ad orientem!

I think Pope Leo gets this faux or neo-Arianism in his new Apostolic Letter on the Council of Nicaea. It remains to be seen if His Holiness can connect the dots in terms of the current crisis of Catholicism in the West and its neo-Arianism expressed in the Modern Liturgy. 

This is how Silire non possum describes it:

The new Apostolic Letter In unitate fidei by Pope Leo XIV arrives at a historical moment in which religious confusion is no less insidious than the turmoil that shook the Church in the fourth century. Then as now, faith risks being reduced to a symbolic language, a private emotion, a moral portrait of Jesus rather than the concrete confession of God made man. The Pope brings the entire Church back to the source: the Nicene profession of faith, the heart of Christianity, “because in Jesus Christ, consubstantial with the Father, God has become our neighbor.”

Leo XIV’s work is not archaeology; it is a judgment on the present. To understand it, one must grasp the theological logic the Letter employs—a logic that shines precisely where early Christian thought reached its maturity. And its core threads emerge from what the great patristic tradition always taught: faith cannot endure unless it preserves the full mystery of Christ

The decisive question is not “What do we think about Jesus?” but “Who is Jesus?”

The Apostolic Letter recalls that the question asked at Caesarea Philippi - “Who do you say that I am?” - is not an ancient echo but the living crossroads that always separates authentic faith from its caricature. Leo XIV shows that Arianism was not an accidental episode in history but a recurring temptation: reducing Christ to an intermediary, an exalted being yet not fully God. The same logic that once threatened the faith - the greatest danger to Christian doctrine because it denied the Son’s real participation in the Father’s essence - reappears today in subtler forms: Jesus as a moral teacher, a spiritual symbol, an “energy of goodness.”

This is why the Letter restates with clarity the Nicene formula: “begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father”.This is not technical theology; it is the very condition for saying anything true about salvation. Faith cannot rest on vague religious feelings. Faith “stands or falls” on the Son’s consubstantiality. 

Without the true divinity of the Son, salvation does not exist. 

In unitate fidei forcefully recalls what the ancient tradition understood with radical clarity: only God saves. If Christ is not fully God, redemption dissolves into myth. Leo XIV states this openly by drawing from the patristic core: salvation is not an idea, nor psychological comfort, nor an ethical journey; it is the incursion of the Infinite into human flesh. Christ “descended” for us – descendit - a word the Pope highlights because it contains the whole Christian paradox: the downward movement of the Most High, the self-emptying that reveals glory. The Letter shows that the truth of the Incarnation - total, real, without docetic reductions - is what ensures that our humanity has been reached in all its depths, redeemed in both body and soul, in what is most fragile and most great within us.

Early Christian theology insisted on one principle: God truly became man to make man capable of God. Without this ontological reality, Christianity becomes moral philosophy. With it, Christianity becomes an event: our nature is raised, healed, divinized.

The real problem of ancient Arianism - and its modern versions

Leo XIV’s reading is not nostalgic; it is surgical. The Pope sees that the contemporary crisis - Christological relativism, psychological reduction of faith, doctrinal uncertainty - arises from the very root the Fathers fought: a concept of God that is too small. For Arius, the Son was an intermediate being, unable to know the Father fully, subject to change. Leo XIV shows that similar notions circulate today beneath more refined language: “Christianity as inspiration,” “Jesus as an exceptional prophet,” “God as pure spiritual energy.” The Apostolic Letter responds by affirming that the infinite distance between God and humanity has been bridged only because the Son is God. And it adds a crucial point: the Incarnation is not a sacred myth but a historical, concrete, verifiable fact, held by the faith with the firmness of the Creed.

Unity of faith is not uniformity, but communion in truth

In unitate fidei does not propose doctrinal rigidity. It proposes a criterion: Christian unity arises only if the truth of Christ is preserved integrally. Like the Fathers of Nicaea - guided by the conviction that the Church transmits a received faith, not an invented one - Leo XIV asks the Church today not to bend doctrine to cultural fashions. The Pope is not speaking of nostalgia but of foundations: the Creed is not the past; it is the compass for navigating times of bewilderment. Christianity without dogma dissolves into spiritualism. Christianity with dogma lives because it remains anchored to the event from which it was born.

Nicaea as light for the present: a Christianity capable of inhabiting history

Leo emphasizes a point the ancient theology showed with force: God is not a static and distant being, but the One who enters history, even into its wounds. This dismantles the caricature of an “immutable” God as indifferent. True divine immutability - as the Fathers taught - is the immutability of self-giving love, not inertia. This is why the Pope connects the profession of faith with the wounds of the world: wars, injustices, fears. Not because the Gospel is a social tool, but because only God-with-us can be a credible hope for humanity. 

Hope is not an idea. It is a Presence

What In unitate fidei tells us is clear: the Church cannot lose Christ without losing herself. This magisterial text is an act of guardianship and freedom. Guardianship of the apostolic faith; freedom from cultural trends that wish to reduce Christianity to just another discourse. Leo XIV places again at the center what the Fathers defended with courage and intelligence: only if Christ is true God and true man is Christianity truly good news. Everything else - reductionist, symbolic, spiritualistic interpretations - is nothing but an elegant revival of an ancient temptation: a God who does not save, a Christ who does not change life, a faith that does not generate hope.

Marco Felipe Perfetti
Silere non possum

SPLENDID PAPAL MASS FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF OUR LORD, JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE

 

Holy Father! Let me offer a critique of “themed Masses”! Why in the name of God and all that is holy, is an added theme given to this great and wondrous Solemnity—the Jubilee of Choirs???

Holy Father, this homily, almost in its entirety is about choirs not Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe!!!! What the!!!!

And it’s pablum. 

But I will give you a break given that today, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe,  you issued your Apostolic Letter on the 1,700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. And in that letter, you glorify and honor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe! 

JUBILEE OF CHOIRS

HOLY MASS

HOMILY OF POPE LEO XIV

St Peter's Square
Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Sunday, 23 November 2025

[Multimedia]

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Dear sisters and brothers,

In the responsorial Psalm, we have sung, “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord” (cf. Ps 122). Today’s liturgy invites us, therefore, to walk together in praise and joy towards the encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, gentle and humble Sovereign, the One who is the beginning and end of all things. His power is love, his throne the Cross, and through the Cross his Kingdom shines forth upon the world.  “From the wood he reigns” (cf. Hymn Vexilla Regis) as Prince of Peace and King of Justice who, in his Passion, reveals to the world the immense mercy of God’s heart. This love is also the inspiration and motive for your singing.

Dear choristers and musicians, today you celebrate your jubilee and you show thanks to the Lord for granting you the gift and grace to serve him by offering your voices and talents for his glory and for the spiritual edification of your brothers and sisters (cf. Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, 120).  Your task is to draw others into the praise of God and to help them to participate more fully in the liturgy through song.  Today, you fully express your “iubilum,” your exultation, which flows from hearts overflowing with the joy of grace.

Great civilizations have given us the gift of music in order to express what we carry deep in our hearts and what words cannot always convey.  Music can give expression to the whole range of feelings and emotions that arise within us from a living relationship with reality.  Singing, in particular, constitutes a natural and refined expression of the human being: mind, feelings, body and soul come together to communicate the great events of life.  As Saint Augustine reminded us: “Cantare amantis est” (cf. Sermo 336,1), that is, “singing belongs to those who love.”  Those who sing give expression to love, but also to the pain, tenderness and desire that dwell in their hearts, while at the same time, loving those to whom they address their song (cf. Enarrationes in Psalmos, 72,1).

For the people of God, song expresses invocation and praise. It is the “new song” that the Risen Christ raises to the Father, in which all the baptized participate as one body animated by the new life of the Spirit. In Christ, we become singers of grace, children of the Church who discover in the Risen One the cause of our praise. Liturgical music thus becomes a precious instrument through which we carry out our service of praise to God and express the joy of new life in Christ.

Saint Augustine exhorts us, again, to sing while we walk, like weary travelers who find in song a foretaste of the joy they will experience when they reach their destination. “Sing, but continue your journey […] progress in virtue” (Sermon 256, 3). Being part of a choir means advancing together, therefore, taking our brothers and sisters by the hand and helping them to walk with us. It means singing the praises of God together, consoling our brothers and sisters in their suffering, exhorting them when they seem to give in to fatigue and encouraging them when difficulties seem to prevail. Singing reminds us that we are a Church on a journey, an authentic synodal reality capable of sharing with everyone the vocation to praise and joy on this pilgrimage of love and hope.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch also employs moving words to express the relationship between the song of the choir and the unity of the Church: “From your unity and harmonious love, sing to Jesus Christ. And let each one become a choir, so that being harmonious of your arrangement and taking up the song of God in unison, you may with one voice sing to the Father through Jesus Christ, that he may both hear you and recognize you for your good works” (Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Ephesios, IV). In fact, the different voices of a choir harmonize with each other, giving rise to a single hymn of praise, a luminous symbol of the Church, which unites everyone in love in a single pleasing melody.

You belong to choirs that carry out their ministry primarily in liturgical settings. Yours is a true ministry that requires preparation, commitment, mutual understanding and, above all, a deep spiritual life, so that when you sing, you both pray and help everyone else to pray. This ministry requires discipline and a spirit of service, especially when preparing for a solemn liturgy or an important event in your communities. The choir is a small family of individuals united by their love of music and the service they offer. However, remember that the community is your larger family.  You are not on stage, but rather a part of that community, endeavoring to help it grow in unity by inspiring and engaging its members. As in all families, tensions or minor misunderstandings can arise. These things are normal when working together and striving to achieve a goal. We can say to some extent that the choir symbolizes of the Church, which, striving toward its goal, walks through history praising God. Even when this journey is beset by difficulties and trials and joyful moments give way to more challenging ones, singing makes the journey lighter, providing relief and consolation.

Strive, therefore, to make your choirs ever harmonious and beautiful, and a brighter image of the Church praising her Lord. Study the Magisterium carefully. The conciliar documents set out the norms for carrying out your service in the best possible way. Above all, dedicate yourselves to facilitating the participation of the people of God, without giving in to the temptation of ostentation, which prevents the entire liturgical assembly from actively participating in the singing. In this, be an eloquent sign of the Church’s prayer, expressing its love for God through the beauty of music. Take care that your spiritual life is always worthy of the service you perform, so that your ministry may authentically express the grace of the liturgy.

I place all of you under the protection of Saint Cecilia, the virgin and martyr who raised the most beautiful song of love through her life here in Rome, giving herself entirely to Christ and offering the Church a shining example of faith and love. Let us continue singing and once again make our own the invitation of today’s responsorial psalm: “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.”