Translator’s Preface: The following book review, which appeared in German at kathnews.de on January 4, 2022, is illuminating for many reasons. In describing the oddity of a new (but not updated) German translation of a book written by Bishop Rifan of Campos around the year 2006, the author, Clemens Victor Oldendorf, paints a portrait of…
On December 18, 2021, the Vatican released the text of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments’ “Responsa Ad Dubia on certain provisions of the Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes [TC] issued ‘motu proprio’ by the Supreme Pontiff Francis, to the Presidents of the Conferences of Bishops.” The Responses were prefaced by…
I always think about the days right after Christmas: the feast of the first martyr, St. Stephen, stoned to death by the Jews; the feast of St. John the Apostle, who, though he did not die a martyr, was submerged in a cauldron of boiling oil and miraculously delivered from it; the feast of the…
Author’s Note: Readers who follow Rod Dreher at The American Conservative may have noticed an article published on December 18th in which he cites my article from OnePeterFive on the Responsa ad Dubia document, followed by a quotation from a recent Substack post of Steve Skojec arguing against the traditionalists. Mr. Dreher then mentions that…
On the day Traditionis Custodes was released, I compared it to the detonation of the first atomic bomb in New Mexico on the same date in 1945. With the release on December 18 of the Responsa Ad Dubia—essentially an instruction on the implementation of the motu proprio—a similar comparison suggests itself. There were two atomic…
Editor’s Note: In connection with our ongoing exploration of traditional principles of ecclesiology and as a “pre-emptive strike” (so to speak) in view of further anti-traditional moves expected from the Vatican, we offer this exclusive excerpt from a forthcoming book by our contributing editor Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, True Obedience in the Church: A Guide to…
Today—and it has already been thus for some years—the intellectual firepower, not to mention the virtue of basic honesty when it comes to Church history and dogmatic theology, is all on the side of traditional Catholic writers. If one wishes to laugh or groan, one need only visit the blogs Pray, Tell or Where Peter…
In the forthcoming English translation of a new book-length interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider, The Springtime that Never Came (due out from Sophia Institute Press in Spring or, latest, Summer 2022), Polish journalist Pawel Lisicki muses in the introduction about his experience of assisting at the bishop’s morning Mass in Kazakhstan: It was a strange…
Against the contempt shown in recent decades—and even more, in recent months—toward Catholic tradition, one does not make progress with pacific words, protestations of loyalty, or the wringing of hands. As if the powerlessness of the lowly were not already a heavy psychological burden, we carry the additional weight of knowing that hardly any high-ranking…
The Church, acknowledging that man is not merely an intellectual being who can subsist on thoughts alone but a creature who approaches reality through his senses, has always emphasized the importance of incorporating sense-perceptible signs into her acts of worship. Even if we assent to supernatural truth sola fide, we do not engage with it…
Those who have been paying attention to the mounting attack on the contemplative religious life and on traditional religious communities (an attack extremely well documented by Hilary White: see this recent article, which also gives links to her past articles) may be wondering: What can be done about this evil? How can nuns or sisters…
