Despite the decline of the Catholic Church in almost every metric since the Second Vatican council, Poland remains a strongly Catholic country, at least in relative terms. Poland was behind the iron curtain when the reforms of Vatican II were implemented, and the Catholic Church provided an oasis of hope to the people against the…
The practical fall-out from Traditionis Custodes will be making itself felt for some time to come. In some places it has already been devastating; in others, it appears it will be minimal. The theological fall-out, however, threatens a profound problem on a different plane. This arises from the claim made in Article 1 of the…
Editor’s Note: here is published an excerpt from the unparalleled liturgical commentary of the great Dom Prosper Guéranger. The full English text of his commentary can be found here online or purchased here in print. By Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875) “Today the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven; rejoice, for she reigns with Christ forever.” The…
We have put up with a lot as Catholics, and we all have our breaking points—some at different moments and for different reasons. “The straw that broke the camel’s back” refers to increasing the load on a beast of burden until the “final straw” makes the beast collapse. “Beast of burden” is a key concept,…
I once wrote an article for Rorate Caeli entitled “Conservative Fragility.” I have noticed in recent weeks the extent to which conservative Catholics are sounding jittery, short-tempered, dismissive, and intolerant towards traditionally-minded Catholics who refuse to embrace the papally-bestowed role of scapegoat for the abrogation of Summorum Pontificum. One such person in particular—no need for…
One hundred years ago, at the age of forty-eight, the tenor par excellence died in Naples: Enrico Caruso. He was born on February 27, 1873, in a large family and he enjoyed singing from childhood. Thanks to the Rev. Giuseppe Bronzetti, pastor of the Church of Sant’Anna delle Paludi, he made his first vocal appearances…
Many OnePeterFive readers are familiar with, if not regular attendees of, the Traditional Latin Mass. The Tridentine Mass is the sort of bedrock or cornerstone of all things traditionally Catholic. However, many of your average Sunday Mass-going Catholics (as well as not-so-regular attendees and fallen-away Catholics) have never heard of the Old Mass. Or if…
Two weeks ago we announced that OnePeterFive had been acquired by Crisis Publications. At that time I noted that we would soon announce a new editor for the site, so I’m happy to share with you that Timothy Flanders has been named the editor of OnePeterFive, effective today. Tim should be familiar to 1P5 readers. He…
One night, many years ago, I found myself embroiled in an unusual argument at a bar on Second Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. For reasons I have long forgotten, I mentioned the Mona Lisa to a young lady sitting there on the barstool next to me. She remarked that she did not care for the Mona…
The Council had been over for less than a year. Catholics were excited and confused. Different moves towards implementation, sometimes contradictory, were rumored. Already Catholic liberals were hard at work to lead the Church in their direction. What was Rome to do? After fifty-five years, we know what Cardinal Ottaviani, one of Cardinal Ratzinger’s predecessors…
(Editor’s Note: This is Part III of a three-part series: “Leading a Traditional Catholic Life in a Time of Civil War.” Part I can be found here, and Part II can be found here.) In the first part, I spoke of how easy it would be to get discouraged by the renewed assault on the…
