I’ve always loved Camus. But his shadow side must be faced. In his novella, The Fall, the Algerian-French philosopher and novelist Albert Camus stops lamenting social injustice for a moment as well as the “meaninglessness” and “absurdity” of an empty Nietzschean universe in general, and turns instead to biography, specifically to his own cruelty. Camus was a… Read More The Falls of Albert Camus
This week Raymond Arroyo, Father Gerald Murray, and Robert Royal break down new reports suggesting Pope Leo may be easing the Latin Mass restrictions through broader exemptions. They examine what this means for bishops, traditional communities, and whether these changes signal the beginning of a quiet shift away from Traditionis Custodes. The Posse also unpacks… Read More “Generous Exemptions” from Pope Francis’ Restrictions on The Latin Mass On Route?
“God is Dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. And we – we still have to vanquish his shadow, too. — Frederich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 109. The Forerunners: 2015: For the Neo-modernist or Progressivist Catholic today, the traditional understanding… Read More Progressivist Theology. What it is.
St. Antoninus writes: In the Event of the Most Grave Confusion(s): “The people are not oblidged to know…” And St. Thomas Aquinas on whether one must avoid (ipso facto or otherwise) excommunicated persons before sentence has been passed Principles St. Antoninus, commenting on the Great Western Schism. (1054 A.D.) “The question was much discussed and much… Read More In the Most Grave Confusion(s): “The People Are Not Oblidged to Know…”
Pieter Vree, New Oxford Review “We see how the power of the Antichrist is expanding, and we can only pray that the Lord will give us strong shepherds who will defend his church in this hour of need from the power of evil.” — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, 2015 German journalist Peter Seewald first met Joseph… Read More Was Pope Benedict XVI Holding Back the Destroying Flood?
Our New Religion Isn’t Enough. Freya India.Jun 04, 2024. These days it seems like everything is described as a new religion. Social justice is a new religion. So is climate activism. Trumpism, too. I saw a funny tweet recently about how girlboss feminism has now reinvented the Sabbath, with the shocking news that we might benefit from “one lazy day” a… Read More Who is God? The Universe?
… and the Challenges for Leo. “In his May 12 article in First Things — “Francis is Full” — Bishop Robert Barron eloquently wrote of the late Pontiff’s many positive accomplishments as well as some very serious problems like a legacy of disunity. Bishop Barron’s evaluation of Pope Francis’ ministry provides a lens through which… Read More Dr. Ralph Martin on Bishop Barron and the fraught legacy of Francis
When the heretic Hans Kung met with Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, Kung said it was a deeply personal conversation. Benedict said he “respected” Kung’s “path” (without agreeing with it all). He urged Kung to teach students in regard to world religions and in other areas; and so, again, an ominous pluralism was seen to… Read More Hans Kung and Benedict XVI
by Michael Davies.From Catholic, October 1996. The Catholic Church was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son made Man. He has promised His Church that She will continue to exist exactly as He constituted her until He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. The Catholic Church is the Church that is indefectible. The… Read More Michael Davies on the Indefectibility of the Mass of Paul VI.
Insularity: speaks only to insiders or fans, alienating broader audiences. For example, a critic might say: “The film collapses under its own self-referential weight, obsessed with referencing itself rather than telling a compelling story.” God forbid that we Christians devolve into this kind of self-referential vanity. For all his problems, Pope Francis was correct in… Read More Insularity
Faculty said to be “demoralized,” students “totally perplexed”. Dr. Janet Smith explains the implications. Dr. Smith, former Professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, on the recent dismissals of several distinguished professors there. Dr. Ralph Martin speaks…
Robert Royal & Fr. Gerald Murray discuss the fallout from the TLM controversy, the new Vatican document on the next steps for synodality, “Pathways for the Implementation of the Synod” that includes a new study on liturgy instituted by Pope Leo XIV, and why two Catholic bishops have lifted the obligation to attend Sunday Mass… Read More “Syondality”: Apparently Not Being Dialed Down?
“A secret Vatican survey finally surfaces—and it tells a very different story than the one Pope Francis used to restrict the Latin Mass. In this explosive episode of The Prayerful Posse, Raymond Arroyo is joined by canon lawyer Fr. Gerald Murray and editor Robert Royal to unpack the newly leaked document that exposes how most… Read More Did Pope Francis Deliberately Mislead Church Regarding TLM Survey?
NEW OXFORD NOTEBOOK By Pieter Vree, Editor | June 2025 | New Oxford Review Notebook. Well, that’s finally over. Pope Francis died on April 21, bringing to a close a chaotic pontificate characterized by chronic confusion and polarizing polemics. The late Pope, an imprecise thinker, writer, and speaker, was known to engage in studied ambiguity and to issue pointed barbs.… Read More Farewell, Francis. Hello, Leo XIV
Pope Francis was a remarkable impactful man. It took me the whole of ten minutes to forget him. It was frankly embarrassing and painful watching him, living in his own digs, chasing the cameras for over a decade to ensure that the peoples of the world understood him to be the only really humble Pope,… Read More Francis and Leo.
I suspect most of his legacy will be allowed to fade away. It will matter only to small aging liberal sects until they pass too. The history of the Church shows this. Who thinks of Hans Küng much anymore? Certainly not Catholics. That there is a so-called ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ in Catholicism is a ridiculous thing. Certainly… Read More The post-Francis Era
His Excellency, The Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, OFMCap, writes at First Things of the Francis Papacy and the near future: “… an interregnum between papacies is a time for candor. The lack of it, given today’s challenges, is too expensive. In many ways, whatever its strengths, the Francis pontificate was inadequate to the real issues… Read More The Post-Francis Era
See also, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and a New World Order. Our complex theological predicament, which only the hierarchical Church may, in time, formally adjudicate. By Stephen Hand. 2015. If Francis and Cardinal Kasper have taught us anything over the past few years, it’s that without resurrecting that final “checkmate,” which popes from the… Read More John XXIII, Benedict XVI and Francis. 2015.
LBC interviews Gavin Ashenden on PopeFrancis on Palm Sunday 2025, on Death, resignation of popes, & the Latin Mass. ++ Cardinal Gerhard Müller and participants of the 13th Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage Oct. 26, 2024 St. Peter’s Basilica. + Summorum Pontificum Conference Celebrates Benedict XVI’s Liturgical Legacy (2015) + Cardinal Raymond Burke offers Traditional Latin Mass,… Read More LBC interviews Gavin Ashenden on Pope Francis.
In a recent letter to American Catholics, “excommunicated” Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano delivered a reasonable and cogent body blow to globalists, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) for failing to teach the whole Catholic Faith and for actually exploiting the poor and vulnerable. This website and its editor does… Read More Archbishop Vigano’s Body Blow
He writes, “Pope Francis has already done irreparable damage to the office of the papacy itself. Never again will a (non-ex cathedra) papal teaching just be accepted by the Faithful without scrutiny or criticism. It is done. It cannot be undone. Francis has left his mark, and it’s permanent”. If we do not elect a… Read More Is Shane Right?
Fr. Gerald Murray & Robert Royal discuss Pope Francis’ new book, Hope: The Autobiography, the appointment of Cardinal Robert McElroy as next Archbishop of Washington. Full Disclosure: for many decades and to this day, my wife and I have regularly attended the Traditional Latin Mass with profound gratefulness. We attend the Novus Ordo Mass when… Read More Fr. Gerald Murray and Robert Royal on Francis
“The living magisterium makes extensive use of documents of the past, but it does so while judging and interpreting, gladly finding in them its present thought, but likewise, when needful, distinguishing its present thought from what is traditional only in appearance. “It is revealed truth always living in the mind of the Church, or, if it is preferred, the… Read More Tradition and the Living Magisterium.
Trump joins other world leaders at “reopening” of Notre Dame Cathedral. What burned in that fire and what is possibly being reborn? Antichristic Uncertainties. 12/7/24 + March 2025. Christians reportedly suffering increasing persecution in Syria + UN ignores Persecution of Christians + “…more than two Christian monuments are targeted EVERY day in France” + At… Read More Antichristic Uncertainties
…. and Fr. Gerald Murray on the new “altar” of the new Notre Dame Cathedral. If the altar is absurdist, “unworthy, unsuitable, modernistic” does it not mock the very beauty which is supposed to enshrine it? Making war on the Catholic Tradition. Catholic thinker and apologist Trent Horn writes, “Pope Francis announced that he would… Read More Pope Francis and The Two Minds of (Cardinal?!) Timothy Radcliffe
Edward Pentin. National Catholic Register. Traditional Latin Mass communities are flourishing around the world with rising vocations and strong Mass attendance but their existence was ignored in the Synod on Synodality’s October assembly and final report. VATICAN CITY — One of the persistent criticisms of the final assembly of the Synod on Synodality has been… Read More Why Was the Synod So Silent on the Traditional Latin Mass?
Mocking retro-politics, retro-sexual morality and “Q-Anon Adjacent” traditional Catholics: “Beneath the veil of the internet’s ‘Trad Caths’”. “… there’s been an uptick in “Trad Cath” content — internet for “traditionalist Catholic” — promoting traditions like the Latin Mass and women wearing veils in church. A lot of these traditions are vibes and aesthetic-based, and easily… Read More NPR and the TLM
Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register reports, “At the IX Pax Liturgica Meeting in Rome today, Cardinal Gerhard Müller warned against bishops betraying their divine mission by relativising doctrine and failing to uphold the orthodox faith. “We must not give in to the following suggestion: If you want to reach people today and be… Read More Cardinal Gerhard Müller warns against bishops betraying their divine mission
OSV. German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Vatican Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, spoke with OSV News briefly as he wound down a three-week visit to the United States with a quick stop at a health care ethics seminar hosted by the National Catholic Bioethics Center in… Read More Cardinal Gerhard Müller Questions Canonical Legitimacy of Synod
“…Can the Holy Spirit really be calling the Church to abandon structures of ecclesial governance whose evolution over time the Holy Spirit presumably inspired? How can the Holy Spirit teach us one thing about the ethics of human love and the nature of marriage for two millennia, and then “surprise” us by calling the Church… Read More German ‘Synodality’ and the World Church. George Wiegel.
… and the state of the Church.. unfinished controversy? | New Oxford Review 2001. Cardinal Walter Kasper famously contested Cardinal Ratzinger’s defense of the “ontological primacy of the universal church” over the local churches. By Philip Blosser | April 2002Philip Blosser, Professor of Philosophy at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina. “When Cardinals clash in… Read More Revisiting The Kasper-Ratzinger debate
National Catholic Register. Church leaders tell the Register that rogue NGOs and recruitment into sex parties are among the ways Western entities are imposing LGBTQ ‘proselytization’ in Africa. Youth — street kids in Kampala, Uganda, are shown — are particularly vulnerable to the ideologies of Western aid groups working in Africa; various groups aim to… Read More Shame. African Archbishops: ‘They Are Sending Us Missionaries of Evil’
CWR: “Despite calls from abuse victims and their advocates to stop displaying artwork by the disgraced former Jesuit priest Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, the Vatican has again used one of the artist’s images to illustrate an online article. In addition … a video was published by Argentine public TV channel Canal de la Cuidad that… Read More “Horrific in the Extreme”. Rupnik art on Vatican website again & in Popes’ apartment
The Pillar. “Prominent U.K. figures in the arts, business, journalism, and politics have appealed to the Vatican not to impose new restrictions on the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass. In a letter to the Times of London, published July 3, more than 40 signatories, Catholic and non-Catholic … Read More UK cultural grandees urge Vatican to keep TLM in new ‘Agatha Christie’ letter
Updated 2x. “Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on Friday said he will not participate in a Vatican summons to face charges of schism, reiterating his claims that Pope Francis is not the legitimate pope of the Catholic Church. The archbishop had previously revealed he received an email from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith… Read More Declared Excommunicated. Vigano Refused Vatican Summons.
And soon everyone in the medical professions —and way beyond— will be required to sign on to the ideology which in truth takes direct aim at the heart of Creation, the family, law, education and human identity itself. Christine Niles reports, “Dr. John Money: pedophile founder of gender ideology. Dr. John Money coined the phrases… Read More Our Medical Schools Are Being Transformed
A discussion between Robert Moynihan, editor of Inside the Vatican magazine, and Fr. C. Murr on the reportedly imminent excommunication of Carlo Maria Viganò who served as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States 2011 to 2016. Archbishop Vigano previously served as secretary-general of the Governorate of Vatican City State from 2009 to 2011. Vatican officials have said that if such… Read More Archbishop Vigano’s Fate
“He regards the liturgy as reactionary and effeminate” Damian Thompson. A month ago, 18,000 young people walked on pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres Cathedral in order to demonstrate their love of the Traditional Latin Mass — an intricate and solemn ceremony which, to the horror of Pope Francis, is attracting an unlikely following among Generation Z Catholics. Inside the… Read More Will Pope Francis kill the Latin Mass?
Ralph C. Martin is a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and was involved in the early Catholic charismatic renewal as founder of the Word of God (community) and cofounder of the Sword of the Spirit association of covenant communities. In this talk Ralph Martin shows how Progressives suppress many parts of Scripture in the attempt to fashion a new Gospel and a new… Read More Dr. Ralph Martin on the Urgent Relevance of Gospel Teaching Today
(CNA) Father Julio Fernández Techera, a Jesuit priest and rector of the Catholic University of Uruguay, has written a widely circulated, critical essay about the Society of Jesus warning that the order, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534, is in “deep decline.” The essay by the 57-year-old priest is titled “Ad Usum Nostrorum… Read More Rest in Pieces. Jesuits in “Profound Decline” 🪦
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