Reflections on life, meaning and purpose

Corrupt Cardinal, Corrupt Pontificate

The hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church is partially responsible for why bishops, including the pope, are not investigated or accountable to any external oversight body. As a consequence, one should not be surprised that only 7 out of 150 bishops credibly accused of abusing minors or vulnerable adults have actually been laicized. In the […]

God Makes Great Things Happen with Small Means

As I write, it is the anniversary of the imposition of Traditionis custodes, certainly the legacy document of the Francis pontificate. While it seems, ultimately, destined for dusty irrelevance, it is now a neuralgic sign of the times. Almost by way of a celebration of TC, bad news comes from Chicago for the faithful who […]

Traditionis Custodes: One Year Later

One year ago today, the Roman Pontiff attempted again to suppress the Apostolic Roman Rite. The first attempt of this nature was done by Pope Paul VI in 1969. At this point we can assess some of the fall out and compare this attempt to the first attempt. Bishops’ Response: Night and Day In the […]

Facing Objections to the First Crusade

Above: Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, 15th July 1099, Émile Signol (1847). The First Crusade was nothing short of miraculous, in which our fathers left their homes and families to lay down their lives for Christendom. Yet this event was not without its critics, then and now. For traditional Catholics, it is important to have […]

Carlists Launch Rosary Crusade to Consecrate Texas

June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Hence, the Traditionalist Carlist Circle “Camino Real de Tejas” launched a modest initiative to consecrate the State of Texas to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It consisted in a rosary march over downtown Dallas with the purpose of asking Our Lady for her intercession, so […]

The Pope is Not the Church and the Church is not the Pope

In 1967, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith introduced a new formula to be used in place of the Tridentine Profession of Faith and the Oath against Modernism in all cases where those used to be required. This was updated in 1988 and then re-promulgated again in 1998. The current version consists of […]

The Pope Punts Again on Child Sacrifice

After the landmark overturning of Roe v. Wade, heretic president Joe Biden signed an executive order last Friday promoting child sacrifice with the website ReproductiveRights.gov. The Register reported a comment from the Holy Father yesterday: During an interview with Univisión and Televisa broadcast July 12, Pope Francis spoke about abortion and Biden’s position, after being […]

Not Abandoning the Flock—Not Abandoning the Truth

The following is a real exchange of letters, with identifying details edited out. The correspondence took place about three years ago. LETTER 1 Dear Dr. Kwasniewski, A mutual friend forwarded to me the letters between you and your priest friend entitled “Discovering Tradition: A Priest’s Crisis of Conscience.” Just as a sort of prolegomena, I […]

USCCB Support for Heretical Anti-Church Synodality

At the end of June, the Lepanto Institute sent someone to scope out the heretical Association of US Catholic Priests’ (AUSCP) Annual Assembly in Baltimore, MD, take pictures, listen in on the talks, and obtain whatever literature they could get their hands on. The biggest discovery was the fact that for the first time an […]

The Art of Dress – Problems with Normalcy

In a previous essay, I introduced an approach to dress that I call the School of Normalcy. I will now further explore the problems with this school of thought so widely held by Catholics today. For brevity, I have kept the focus on women’s dress. However, I believe my observations and analysis may benefit both […]