Recently, I bumped into a friend who expressed her surprise that 2019 was the first time I had ever attended the pre-1955 (i.e., ancient or unreformed) Holy Week liturgies. She was under the impression that someone who travels, reads, thinks, and writes a good deal about the sacred liturgy would surely have done this long…
As the Vatican continues its bizarre feud with the venerable Roman Rite, going so far as to prohibit the offering of the Ancient Mass in St. Peter’s upper basilica (the very Mass for which that basilica was built), it is delightful to be able to share some very good news. Benedictus, the “Traditional Catholic Companion,”…
Editor’s Note: Dr. Kwasniewski is taking a short break from writing new material for OnePeterFive while he finishes a number of books he has agreed to deliver to publishers. We wish him well in these endeavors and may reprint from time to time some of his earlier and now mostly forgotten articles until his return.…
Catholic schools exist to teach the truth that sets us free, to spread this truth far and wide, to deepen our grasp and expression of it, and to link it with other areas of human research and endeavor. The Catholic school is defined by its unconditional and publicly manifest adherence, at every level—vision, policy, management,…
A reader sent me this letter; my reply is given after it. Greetings in Christ! I thought I would share my reflections on your article “Do New Saints Vindicate the New Mass?” First, I agree with the majority of your points, including: Bl. Carlo does seem to have been sanctified; it is God alone who…
The German novelist Martin Mosebach, who has also become well known for his eloquent and outspoken defense of the traditional Latin Mass, articulated a particular problem that many in the Church today face — namely, the problem of a certain self-consciousness and critical spirit invading our prayer life as Catholics. Here is how he puts…
In my article “Have There Been Worse Crises Than This One?,” I explained why I believe the Church is in a crisis second to none in her history—a crisis of unique gravity. The question on the minds of many is this: What might happen next—in the near future, in ten years, in twenty years, in…
Pope Pius XI’s encyclical on atheistic communism, Divini Redemptoris, was promulgated on March 19, 1937, the feast of St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church and patron of workers. Almost 84 years later, his analysis, so far from being outdated, finds disturbing relevance to our own time and place. It seems fitting to take a…
Don’t you hate it when fellow Catholics say to you: “The Church has faced crises worse than this one before”? You hate it because you know it’s false. Of several popes who flirted with heresy, only two seem to have crossed a line: Honorius and John XXII. Honorius made one error in regard to Christology;…
Editor’s Note: In light of the news that Pope Francis has changed canon law to accommodate official women “lectors” and “acolytes,” we are re-publishing this article, which originally appeared here on July 17, 2015. In many contemporary debates concerning the priesthood, one rarely hears a genuinely theological account of what makes a priest a priest.…
Back around the turn of the millennium, I was invited one day to sing for the first time the Mass of the Dedication of a Church (Introit: Terribilis est locus iste), at a solemn Mass on the anniversary of a parish run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. It was the first time I…
