Happy New Year

 

ST. TERESA DIXIT

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

LET’S SAVE OUR COUNTRIES AND OUR FAMILIES

 

SHE HAD ALREADY WARNED US: TERRIBLE SINNERS ENTERING INTO RELIGIOUS ORDERS

“The rulers will all have the same plan, which will be to abolish and make all religious principles disappear to replace them with materialism, atheism, spiritism, and all sorts of vices. 

Those who are at the head of religious communities should beware of the people they are to receive, because the devil will use all his malice to introduce into sin religious orders, so that disorders and love of carnal pleasures will be spread throughout the earth.”

Our Lady of La Salette

MONSTROUS ERRORS OF MODERNISM: BENEDICT XV

Hence arose the monstrous errors of "Modernism," which Our Predecessor rightly declared to be "the synthesis of all heresies," and solemnly condemned. We hereby renew that condemnation in all its fulness, Venerable Brethren, and as the plague is not yet entirely stamped out, but lurks here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully here and there in hidden places, We exhort all to be carefully on their guard against any contagion of the evil […] Nor do We merely desire that Catholics should shrink from the errors of Modernism, but also from the tendencies or what is called the spirit of Modernism. Those who are infected by that spirit develop a keen dislike for all that savours of antiquity and become eager searchers after novelties in everything: in the way in which they carry out religious functions, in the ruling of Catholic institutions, and even in private exercises of piety. Therefore it is Our will that the law of our forefathers should still be held sacred: "Let there be no innovation; keep to what has been handed down." In matters of faith that must be inviolably adhered to as the law; it may however also serve as a guide even in matters subject to change, but even in such cases the rule would hold: "Old things, but in a new way."

Benedicvt XV, Ad Beatissimi, 1-11-1914

Labels: Benedict XV, Modernist heresy

SAINT ALPHONSUS DIXIT

 

MODESTY, A VIRTUE PROPER TO THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE SOUL

 

AVOID THESE

Know also this, that in the last days shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, having an appearance indeed of godliness but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid.”

Apostle Saint Paul II Tim 3: 1-5

8/XII/ IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

 

GO TO THE MADONNA

 

BISHOP SCHNEIDER STANDS UP FOR BISHOP STRICKLAND

“The one charge which is now sure to secure severe punishment is the careful keeping of the traditions of the Fathers.” These words of St. Basil (Ep. 243) can most aptly illustrate the deposition of the Bishop of Tyler, TX/USA, His Excellency Joseph E. Strickland. The deposition of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland signifies a black day for the Catholic Church of our day. We are witnessing a blatant injustice towards a bishop who did his duty in preaching and defending with parrhesia the immutable Catholic faith and morals and in promoting the sacredness of the liturgy, especially in the immemorial traditional rite of the Mass. All understand, and even the declared enemies of this Confessor Bishop, that the accusations brought against him are ultimately insubstantial and disproportionate and were used as a welcome opportunity to silence an uncomfortable prophetic voice within the Church.

What happened to the Bishops during the Arian crisis in the 4th century, who were deposed and exiled only because they intrepidly preached the traditional Catholic Faith, is again happening in our day. At the same time several Bishops, who publicly support heresy, liturgical abuses, gender ideology and openly invite their priests to bless same-sex couples, are not in the least importuned or sanctioned by the Holy See.

Bishop Strickland will probably go down in history as an “Athanasius of the Church in the USA,” who however, unlike St. Athanasius, is not persecuted by the secular power, but incredibly by the Pope himself. It seems that a kind of “purge” of Bishops, who are faithful to the immutable Catholic Faith and the Apostolic discipline, and which has been going on already for some time, has reached now a decisive phase.

May the sacrifice, which Our Lord asked from Bishop Strickland bear plenty spiritual fruits for time and eternity. Bishop Strickland and other faithful Bishops, who were already asked to resign, who are currently marginalized or who will be the next in this row, should say in all sincerity to Pope Francis: “Holy Father, why are you persecuting and beating us? We tried to do what all holy Popes asked us to do? With fraternal love we offer the sacrifice of this kind of persecution and exile for the salvation of your soul and for the good state of the Holy Roman Church. Indeed, we are your best friends, Most Holy Father!”

+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Saint Mary in Astana

November 13, 2023

MEDITATING ON THE CROSS

Great are the advantages to be derived from meditating on the Cross, the first of which is, not only a detestation of past sins, but also the firm resolution to fight against our ever present disorderly appetites, which crucified our Savior. 

The second advantage is the forgiveness of sins, obtained from Jesus crucified, and a wholesome self-contempt which inspires us forever to forsake offending Him, and continually to love and serve Him with all our hearts in acknowledgment of what He suffered for our sakes. 

The third is the unceasing labor with which we root out all depraved habits, however trivial they may appear. 

The fourth consists in our ardent efforts to imitate our Divine Master, who, according to Saint Peter, "suffered for us, leaving us an example so that we could follow in His footsteps" (1P 2, 21).

Father Lorenzo Scupoli – Spiritual Combat

EVEN IF A MARRIED COUPLE SEPARATES THE BOND REMAINS UNTIL DEATH DO THEM PART

 

ON SAINT JOSEPH

"What a happiness, not only to see Jesus Christ, but also to hear him: to carry him in his arms, to lead him from place to place, to embrace and caress him, to feed him, and to be privy to all the great secrets which were concealed from the princes of this world! O astonishing elevation! O unparalleled dignity! That the mother of God, queen of heaven, should call you her lord; that God himself, made man, should call you father, and obey your commands. O glorious Triad on earth, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, how dear a family to the glorious Trinity in heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Nothing is on earth so great, so good, so excellent." 

Saint Bernard

POPE PIUS XII SAID

 

OUR LADY WARNED US

 The sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with the Church, will be thoroughly attacked and profaned. Masonry, then reigning, will implement iniquitous laws aimed at extinguishing this sacrament. They will make it easy for all to live in sin, thus multiplying the birth of illegitimate children without the Church’s blessing. The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs.”

Our Lady of Good Success to Sister Mariana de Jesús Torres

ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE HOLY MASS FOR THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

Upon ordination, the priest receives the power to offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass for the living and the dead.

The divine sacrifice of the Mass contains and immolates the same Jesus Christ who offered Himself on the Cross, but without the shedding of blood.

Through Him we obtain mercy and find grace, succor, and blessing.

Let us draw near to God with a contrite and penitent heart, with a right faith, and in a spirit of fear and respect.

The Mass is offered for the sins, the sorrows, the satisfactions, and other necessities of the faithful.

The Mass is offered for the living and for those who have died in Jesus Christ, and who are not yet entirely purified.

There is nothing more beautiful, greater, and holier than offering Holy Mass for the living and for the dead.

It is the perfect act of divine worship, the only one capable of reconciling men with God.

The holy sacrifice of the Mass relieves the souls in purgatory.

The Holy Mass spreads on sinners the fruits of Christ's Passion and all the benefits of heaven.

(Fuente: Exposición de la doctrina sobre el sacrificio de la , Concilio de Trento, 17 de septiembre de 1562 – Fsspx.News)

TOLERANCE

 

A BISHOP SPEAKS FROM ROME

Bishop Stankevičs, Archbishop of Riga, present at the Synod on Sinodality, declared that "we must be faithful to the Holy Scriptures and to 2,000 years of interpretation of the Church."

COME, JESUS

Humanity does not have the strength to remove the obstacle that it has created trying to prevent your return. Send your Angel, oh Lord, and make our night become bright as the day.

How many hearts await you, oh Lord! How many souls are consumed in the longing for the day when only You will live and reign in all hearts!

Come, Jesus Our Lord.    

There are many signs that the time of your return is not far away.

Oh, Mary! You, who have seen your Son resurrected, who with the first apparition of Jesus saw the unspeakable anguish produced by the night of the Passion suppressed, Mary, to You we offer the first fruits of this day. To You, wife of the Divine Spirit, our heart and our hope.

Pius XII, Easter Message of 1957

FEAST OF ALL SAINTS

This is the great celebration of those who share the triumph and glory of Christ for all eternity, for having been faithful to the Grace of God, striving to following the Divine Master closely, in many cases to the point of martyrdom.

This feast has its origins in the 4th century, when the number of martyrs of the Church became such that it was impossible to devote each day of the year to remember a single martyr. So, the Church chose to have one feast to honor all those who had reached Heaven, on a single day, once a year.

When on May 13, 610, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Roman Pantheon to Christian worship, he consecrated the new temple to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the martyrs. From then on, the Feast of All Saints was fixed on that date and would remain that way for many years, until Pope Gregory IV, in the 7th century, moved the celebration to the first day of the month of November. 

It is very likely that Pope Gregory's decision responded to the desire to counteract the pagan festival of “Samhain” or the Celtic New Year, which was celebrated on the night of October 31 and whose current equivalent is Halloween.

May these heroes and heroines of God intercede for us and help us achieve eternal happiness like them!

FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

 

Saint Augustine dixit

 

The Pope's Response to the Cardinals' Second Dubium

On July 10, 2023, five cardinals transmitted a series of five dubia to Pope Francis. The second concerns the blessing of same-sex couples: “Can the Church… [accept] as a ‘possible good’ objectively sinful situations, such as unions of persons of the same sex, without breaching the revealed doctrine?”

On July 11, 2023, Pope Francis responds to these dubia. As for the second dubium, he recognizes that “the Church has a very clear conception of marriage: an exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the begetting of children. It calls this union ‘marriage.’” But he adds that “other forms of union only realize it ‘in a partial and analogical way’ (Amoris laetitia, 292). And so they cannot be strictly called ‘marriage.’”

He recognizes that this name must be reserved exclusively for “the reality that we call marriage.” He adds that “the Church avoids any rite or sacramental [blessing] that could contradict this conviction and give the impression that something that is not marriage is recognized as marriage.”

However, “in dealing with people, we must not lose the pastoral charity. … The defense of objective truth is not the only expression of this charity, which is also made up of kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness, and encouragement. Therefore, we cannot become judges who only deny, reject, exclude.”

Francis then invokes “pastoral prudence [which] must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage. For when a blessing is requested, one is expressing a request for help from God, a plea for a better life, a trust in a Father who can help us to live better.”

Then comes the exception: “On the other hand, although there are situations that from an objective point of view, are not morally acceptable, pastoral charity itself demands that we do not simply treat as ‘sinners’ other people whose guilt or responsibility can be due to their own fault or responsibility attenuated by various factors that influence subjective imputability.”

There is a very big difference between giving absolution to a person whose responsibility is attenuated and “blessing,” before the Church and the faithful, the objectively bad situation in which he has found himself, thus closing off any possibility of opening himself to the truth while misleading the other faithful.

To mitigate the previous point, the Pope explains that “decisions which, in certain circumstances, can form part of pastoral prudence, should not necessarily become a norm.”

In other words: “It is not appropriate for a diocese, an episcopal conference or any other ecclesial structure to constantly and officially authorize procedures or rites for all kinds of matters, since everything ‘that is part of a practical discernment in particular circumstances cannot be elevated to the level or a rule’” (Amoris laetitia, 304).

Behind this formulation which seems to rule out a systematization of a rite, the fact remains that the Pope clearly accepts that, according to pastoral prudence, in certain circumstances, a priest could be led – and therefore authorized – to bless a homosexual couple. It is this acceptance that led the five cardinals to reformulate their dubium:

“Is it possible, under ‘certain circumstances,’ for a priest to bless homosexual unions thereby suggesting that homosexual behavior itself would not be contrary to God's law and a person's path to God?”

Conclusion

Even if the Pope's response seems to rule out “official authorization” of the blessing of same-sex couples by an ecclesial structure, the fact remains that he authorizes it at least in “certain circumstances.” Moreover, as was the case with the Belgian bishops, he let it happen.

Sources: CNA/FSSPX.News – FSSPX.News

STRANGE BLINDNESS

"You fear dishonor, slander, humiliation, and very often, in order to preserve an imaginary honor before men, you offend God! Wretched, don't you know that true honor is based on virtue? What does it matter to you what men think of you, as long as God esteems you and rewards you? Strange blindness! Human laws are feared and the Gospel is despised as if the orders of Jesus Christ were not worth what the decrees of princes are worth."

Saint Jerome

THE BIBLE TEACHES US THAT WE MUST PRAY FOR THE DEAD

 

IN GOD’S GOOD TIME

“…Therefore let the priest capable of preaching go to the limits of his power to preach, to absolve sins and to celebrate the true Mass. Let the teaching Sister go to the limits of her grace and her power to form girls in the Faith, good morals, purity and literature. Let every priest and layman, every little group of laity and priests having authority and power over a little fort of the Church and Christendom, go to the limits of their possibilities and powers. Let leaders and inmates of such forts know and be in contact with one another. Let each of the forts protected, defended, trained and directed in its praying and singing by a real authority, become as far as possible a fortress of holiness. That is what will guarantee the continuation of the true Church and will prepare efficaciously for its renewal in God’s good time.

“So we need not to be afraid, but to pray with all confidence and to exercise without fear, according to Tradition and in the sphere that is ours, the power we have, preparing thus for the happy time when Rome will come back to being Rome (Eternal Rome) and bishops to being bishops (or rather, to act as true bishops).”

Fr. Roger-Thomas Calmel – Brief Apology for the Church of All Time

SAINT FRANCIS OF SALES SAID

Saint John of the Cross dixit

BAPTISM

 

WITHOUT A WEAPON

 

PRAY IT DAILY

 

MODERNISM PROPOSES A NEW, CONTRARY AND DIFFERENT GOSPEL

No one living in adultery can receive Communion. It has been the doctrine of the Church for two thousand years.

Our Lord, He who is, Who was, and Who is to come, has clearly said that: 

“Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another committeth adultery against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery.” (Mk 10, 11:12)

“You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart”. (Mt 5, 27:28)

A Catholic should only desire and love their legitimate spouse (with whom they contracted a religious marriage before God). Whoever divorces their (legitimate spouse) and contracts a civil marriage (that so-called "marriage" is null before God) commits adultery, and while living in adultery they should not receive Communion because they would be sacrilegiously receiving Communion in mortal sin and they would eat and drink his own damnation, as Saint Paul warns those who do not recognize themselves (do not recognize if there is sin in their conscience that prevents them from receiving Communion) or discern the Body of the Lord (1 Cor 11, 27:32).

There cannot be (as today Modernism sacrilegiously proposes) any "discernment" about the possibility of receiving Communion while living in adultery, because that person desires their new "partner" and fornicates with him/her, and does not stop doing so neither before nor after receiving Communion. Whoever lives in a state of mortal sin, only after having gone to Confession (to the priest in the sacrament of Penance) and confessed their sins with true repentance and with a firm intention of not sinning again, can receive the Eucharist. The adulterer (a person who has divorced from their legitimate spouse, and has supposedly remarried) who does not have the firm intention of stopping living in cohabitation (because that is what it really is) should not, in any case, either go to Confession or receive Communion, since they have no repentance or firm resolution to sin no more. Receiving both sacraments without these dispositions is a sacrilegious act. No one is allowed to receive Communion if they are in mortal sin, whatever it may be.

Let us not forget the biblical teaching of Saint Paul: “whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.” (1 Cor 11, 27:32)

Saint John was beheaded and became a martyr for defending the indissolubility of marriage in the face of Herod's adultery, the same thing happened to Saint Thomas More who rejected the adultery of King Henry VIII. Neither of them proposed to the adulterers to make a "discernment" (as Modernism proposes today).

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.” (Gal 1, 8)

“Heaven and earth shall pass: but my words shall not pass.” (Mt 24, 35)

ROME: FIVE CARDINALS ADDRESS "DUBIA" TO THE POPE

Cardinals Brandmüller, Burke, Zen, Sandoval, and Sarah submitted five questions, called dubia, on August 21, asking for clarification on questions linked to doctrinal development, the blessing of same-sex unions, the authority of the Synod on Synodality, the ordination of women, and sacramental absolution.

These dubia were signed by Cardinals Walter Brandmüller (94), President of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences; Raymond Burke (75), Prefect Emeritus of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura; Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun (90), Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong; Juan Sandoval Íñiguez (90), Archbishop Emeritus of Guadalajara; and Robert Sarah (78), Prefect Emeritus of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The Facts

In a “Notification to Christ’s Faithful (can.212 §3) Regarding Dubia Submitted to Pope Francis,” the cardinals explain that they had written a first set of “questions” that they sent to the Supreme Pontiff on July 10, 2023. The response was not late in coming, as it was dated July 11, the very next day.

However, this letter did not follow the typical dubium format. This type of question is posed in order to receive a “yes” or “no” response. But the Pope gave a detailed response that did not satisfy the five writers, as they found it too vague on all points. So they wrote a second version, more precise, expressly asking for a “yes” or a “no” answer to each point: “Having studied his letter which did not follow the practice of responsa ad dubia [responses to questions], we reformulated the dubia to elicit a clear response based on the perennial doctrine and discipline of the Church. By our letter of August 21, 2023, we submitted the reformulated dubia […] to the Roman Pontiff. Up to the present, we have not received a response to the reformulated dubia.”

The Initial Dubia and Their Reformulation

First dubium

The first dubium treated of the development of doctrine and the affirmation of it by bishops, asking if Divine Revelation “should be reinterpreted according to the cultural changes of our time and according to the new anthropological vision that these changes promote.” The cardinals emphasized that these changes could push the Church to teach things contrary to what she has always taught.

The Pope’s response indicated that the Church “matures in the understanding of what she herself has affirmed in her Magisterium.” But this did not satisfy the cardinals, since, as they stated, this “concerns essential, not secondary, questions for our salvation, like the confession of faith, subjective conditions for access to the sacraments, and observance of the moral law.”

So they reformulated their dubium: “is it possible for the Church today to teach doctrines contrary to those she has previously taught in matters of faith and morals, whether by the Pope ex cathedra, or in the definitions of an Ecumenical Council, or in the ordinary universal magisterium of the Bishops dispersed throughout the world (cf. Lumen Gentium 25)?”

Second dubium

The second dubium dealt with the blessing of same-sex unions. The cardinals emphasized the teaching of the Church on the creation of human nature as man and woman and of the order to multiply, (Gen. 1:27-28). The dubium initially asked if the Church could depart from this teaching and accept “as a ‘possible good’ objectively sinful situations, such as same-sex union.”

The response of the Pope said that to liken marriage to the blessing of same-sex couples would lead to confusion and therefore must be avoided. But the cardinals were concerned about the fact “that the blessing of same-sex couples might create confusion in any case […] in that homosexual acts would be presented practically as a good.”

So the dubium was reformulated: “Is it possible that in some circumstances a pastor could bless unions between homosexual persons, thus suggesting that homosexual behavior as such would not be contrary to God’s law and the person’s journey toward God?”

In line with this doubt, the cardinals asked if the teaching of the Church remains valid—namely, that “every sexual act outside of marriage, and in particular homosexual acts, constitutes an objectively grave sin against God’s law, regardless of the circumstances in which it takes place and the intention with which it is carried out.”

Third dubium

Treating of synodality, the third dubium initially asked “whether synodality can be the supreme regulative criterion of the permanent government of the Church without distorting her constitutive order willed by her Founder,” given that “the Synod of Bishops does not represent the College of Bishops but is merely a consultative organ of the Pope.”

The response of Pope Francis insisted that “synodality, as a style and dynamism, is an essential dimension of the life of the Church,” which includes all the lay faithful, but the cardinals then expressed their concern about the fact that “synodality” is presented “as if, in communion with the Pope, it represents the Supreme Authority of the Church.”

The cardinals’ reformulated dubium asks the question in this way: “Will the Synod of Bishops to be held in Rome, and which includes only a chosen representation of pastors and faithful, exercise, in the doctrinal or pastoral matters on which it will be called to express itself, the Supreme Authority of the Church, which belongs exclusively to the Roman Pontiff and, una cum capite suo, to the College of Bishops (cf. can. 336 C.I.C.)?”

Fourth dubium

The fourth dubium concerned the possible ordination of women. It asked “whether the teaching of St. John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, which teaches as a truth to be definitively held the impossibility of conferring priestly ordination on women, is still valid” and if this teaching “is no longer subject to change nor to the free discussion of pastors or theologians.”

In their reformulated version of the dubium, the cardinals noted that the Pope had affirmed that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis must be definitively maintained and “that it is necessary to understand the priesthood, not in terms of power, but in terms of service.” But they voiced objections to his response, according to which “the question can still be further explored.”

“We are concerned that some may interpret this statement to mean that the matter has not yet been decided in a definitive manner,” they stated. Their reformulated dubium said: “Could the Church in the future have the faculty to confer priestly ordination on women, thus contradicting that the exclusive reservation of this sacrament to baptized males belongs to the very substance of the Sacrament of Orders, which the Church cannot change?”

Fifth dubium

The fifth dubium focused on sacramental absolution. The initial dubium referred to the insistence of Pope Francis on the “duty to absolve everyone and always, so that repentance would not be a necessary condition for sacramental absolution.” It asked if contrition is always necessary for the validity of confession, “so that the priest must postpone absolution when it is clear that this condition is not fulfilled.”

In the reformulated dubium, the cardinals explained that the Pope “confirmed the teaching of the Council of Trent according to which the validity of sacramental absolution requires the sinner’s repentance, which includes the resolve not to sin again.” They added, however: “Some might interpret Your answer as meaning that merely approaching confession is a sufficient condition for receiving absolution, inasmuch as it could implicitly include confession of sins and repentance.”

So they reformulated their dubium as follows: “Can a penitent who, while admitting a sin, refuses to make, in any way, the intention not to commit it again, validly receive sacramental absolution?”

The Vatican Publishes the Pope’s Response 

Likely annoyed by the publication of the “Notification to Christ’s Faithful” by the five cardinals, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith—certainly with the consent or at the request of the Pope—published the Pope’s July 11 letter of response to the five cardinals, which had not been intended to be made public. They had considered it a personal response of Pope Francis and that it was not for them to publish it. These recent incidents, occurring just before the opening of the Synod, are not likely seen with a kind eye at the Vatican. It risks stifling conversation in the hallways and in the Synod chamber. 

Sources: InfoCatolica/vatican.va/cath.ch–Fsspx.Actualités

Notification to Christ’s Faithful (can. 212 § 3) Regarding Dubia Submitted to Pope Francis

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We, members of the Sacred College of Cardinals, in accord with the duty of all the faithful “to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church” (can. 212 § 3) and, above all, in accord with the responsibility of Cardinals “to assist the Roman Pontiff … individually … especially in the daily care of the universal Church” (can. 349), in view of various declarations of highly-placed Prelates, pertaining to the celebration of the next Synod of Bishops, that are openly contrary to the constant doctrine and discipline of the Church, and that have generated and continue to generate great confusion and the falling into error among the faithful and other persons of good will, have manifested our deepest concern to the Roman Pontiff. By our letter of July 10, 2023, employing the proven practice of the submission of dubia [questions] to a superior to provide the superior the occasion to make clear, by his responsa [responses], the doctrine and discipline of the Church, we have submitted five dubia to Pope Francis, a copy of which is attached. By his letter of July 11, 2023, Pope Francis responded to our letter.

Having studied his letter which did not follow the practice of responsa ad dubia [responses to questions], we reformulated the dubia to elicit a clear response based on the perennial doctrine and discipline of the Church. By our letter of August 21, 2023, we submitted the reformulated dubia, a copy of which is attached, to the Roman Pontiff. Up to the present, we have not received a response to the reformulated dubia.

Given the gravity of the matter of the dubia, especially in view of the imminent session of the Synod of Bishops, we judge it our duty to inform you, the faithful (can. 212 § 3), so that you may not be subject to confusion, error, and discouragement but rather may pray for the universal Church and, in particular, the Roman Pontiff, that the Gospel may be taught ever more clearly and followed ever more faithfully.

Yours in Christ,

Walter Cardinal Brandmüller

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke

Juan Cardinal Sandoval Íñiguez

Robert Cardinal Sarah

Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun

Rome, 2 October 2023

Enclosures: 2

D U B I A

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Response of Pope Francis

to the Dubia of July 10, 2023

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Reformulated Dubia

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Introibo ad Altare Dei!

 

PEACE OF SOUL

"...If a person has true virtue, nothing whatever can change him; he is like a rock in the midst of a tempestuous sea. If anyone scorns you, or calumniates you, if someone mocks at you or calls you a hypocrite or a sanctimonious fraud, none of this will have the least effect upon your peace of soul. You will love him just as much as you loved him when he was saying good things about you. You will not fail to do him a good turn and to help him, even if he speaks badly of your assistance. You will say your prayers, go to Confession, to Holy Communion, you will go to Mass, all according to your general custom."

Saint John Mary Vianney

SOLDIER WITHOUT A WEAPON

 

Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows

I grieve for thee, O Mary most sorrowful, in the affliction of thy tender heart at the prophecy of the holy and aged Simeon. Dear Mother, by thy heart so afflicted, obtain for me the virtue of humility and the gift of the holy fear of God. Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, pray for us!

WHATEVER GOODNESS WE HAVE WE OWE TO GOD, LET'S NOT BE LIKE THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARE "HUMBLE" BUT TAKE UMBRAGE WHEN ANYONE REPROVES THEM

 

Many are humble in word, but not in heart. They say: “I am worse than all: I deserve a thousand hells.” But when anyone reproves them, or says a word that displeases them, they immediately take umbrage. They are like hedgehogs, which put out their bristles as soon as they are touched. But how is it – you say you are worse than all, and yet you cannot bear a word?  “He who is truly humble,” says St. Bernard, “esteems himself good for nothing, and desires to be considered good for nothing by others as well.” 

Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, The Path to Salvation

The Most Blessed Sacrament

 

IMPORTANT LETTER FROM BISHOP ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER TO BISHOP JOSEPH STRICKLAND

Your Excellency, Bishop Strickland, dear and esteemed brother in the episcopate!

It is for me a privilege and a joy to express to you all my gratitude and appreciation for your intrepid dedication to uncompromisingly keep, transmit, and defend the Catholic faith, which the apostles handed over to the Church and with which all the generations of Catholics, especially our ancestors, our fathers and mothers, our priests and religious sisters-catechists, were themselves nurtured. In all truth we can apply to you, dear Bishop Strickland, what St. Basil once stated in his time: 

"The one charge which is now sure to secure severe punishment is the careful keeping of the traditions of the Fathers." (Ep. 243)

Let me share with you the following highly timely words of the same great and saint bishop:

The doctrines of true religion are overthrown. The laws of the Church are in confusion. The ambition of men, who have no fear of God, rushes into high posts in the Church, and exalted office is now publicly known as the prize of impiety. The result is that the worse a man blasphemes, the fitter the people think him to be a bishop. Clerical dignity is a thing of the past. 

There is a complete lack of men shepherding the Lord's flock with knowledge. Churchmen in authority are afraid to speak, for those of them who have reached power by human interest are the slaves of those to whom they owe their advancement. Faith is uncertain; souls are drenched in ignorance because adulterators of the word imitate the truth. The mouths of true believers are dumb, while every blasphemous tongue wags free; holy things are trodden under foot. (Ep. 92)

We are living indeed in such a time, as described by St. Basil with such a striking similarity.

The words of St. Basil in his Letter to Pope St. Damasus, in which he was asking the pope's help and efficacious intervention, are fully applicable to our situation today:

The wisdom of this world wins the highest prizes in the Church and has rejected the glory of the cross. Shepherds are banished, and in their places are introduced grievous wolves hurrying the flock of Christ. Houses of prayer have none to assemble in them; desert places are full of lamenting crowds. The elders lament when they compare the present with the past. The younger are yet more to be compassionated, for they do not know of what they have been deprived. (Ep. 90)

Dear Bishop Strickland, unlike St. Basil who addressed Pope Damasus, you don't have, unfortunately, the real chance to address Pope Francis in order that he may help you to keep zealously the holy traditions of the past. On the contrary, the Holy See put you now under scrutiny and threatens you with intimidations and deprivation of the episcopal care of your flock in Tyler, basically only for the one reason, that you, like St. Basil, St. Athanasius, and many other confessor-bishops in history, are keeping the traditions of the Fathers; only because you are not silencing the truth, only because you are not behaving like not a few of the bishops of our day, who -- using the words of St. Gregory of Nazianzus -- "are serving the times and demands of the masses, leaving their boat to the wind which happens to blow at the moment, and like chameleons, know how to give their word many colors" (De vita sua (Carmina) 2, 11)."

However, dear Bishop Strickland, you have the happiness, that all the popes of the past, all the courageous confessor-bishops of the past, all the Catholic martyrs, who in the words of St. Theresa of Avila, were "resolved to undergo a thousand deaths for any one article of the creed" (The Life of Teresa of Jesus, 25:12), are supporting and encouraging you. Furthermore, the little ones in the Church pray for you and support you; they are an ever growing, yet small, army of lay faithful -- in the United States as well as all over the world -- who were put on the periphery by high ranking churchmen, even in the Vatican, whose main concerns seems to be pleasing the world and promoting their naturalistic agenda and the approval of the sin of homosexual activity under the guise of welcoming and inclusion.

Dear Bishop Strickland, thank you, that you are resolved "to serve the Lord, and not the time," as St. Athanasius once admonished the bishops (Ep. ad Dracontium). I pray that more bishops in our day may, like you, raise their voice in defence of the Catholic Faith, providing thereby the spiritual nourishment and consolation for many Catholics, who feel themselves often abandoned like orphans.

For sure, future popes will thank you for your intrepid fidelity to the Catholic Faith and to its holy traditions, by which you contributed to the honor of the Apostolic See, which was partly darkened and stained by our unfavourable time.

St. Joseph, your patron, the "good and faithful servant," be always on your side and the Blessed Virgin Mary, our sweet heavenly Mother, the destroyer of all heresies, be your strength and refuge.

With deep esteem, united in the holy battle for the Faith and in prayers,

Bishop Athanasius Schneider of St. Mary's in Astana, Kazakhstan, August 2, 2023