Review of Matt’s opening speech at Catholic Identity Conference…

A Critique of the False Recognize-and-Resist Ecclesiology of Michael Matt and The Remnant (VIDEO)

The so-called Catholic Identity Conference (CIC) is an annual ‘traditional Catholic’ event in the United States, typically held in or near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 2022, it tried to get some serious media coverage with its ‘Declaration of Filial Resistance to the Pope’, which, however, predictably went nowhere:

The last such identity conference took place Sep.… READ MORE

The Faith allows for mystery but not for contradiction…

Sedevacantism and the Mystery of the Church’s Passion:
Reply to Robert Morrison

On June 30, 2023, the semi-traditionalist flagship publication The Remnant published a brief article entitled “Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s Vision of the Great Mystery of the Church’s Passion”. Its author is Robert Morrison, a writer we have had occasion to critique a number of times before on this blog and in our podcast program.

In this post we will touch on a few things from that article that appear to call for some sedevacantist reaction. Morrison writes:

Whereas Archbishop Lefebvre accepted the existence of a great mystery as it relates to the Church’s crisis, others have attempted to eliminate the mystery, typically in one of two ways described by Archbishop Lefebvre:

“There are people who are seeing the passion of the Church and the tragedy of papacy and so they conclude that such a degradation of papacy is not possible and so the pope can not be the pope.

READ MORE

TRADCAST EXPRESS to the rescue…

A Reply to Kennedy Hall’s Video ‘Why I am Not a Sedevacantist’

On May 26, 2023, the Canadian recognize-and-resist pundit, SSPX apologist, and benevolent beard expert Kennedy Hall explained in a special 20-minute YouTube video why he is not a Sedevacantist.

True to the video’s title, Hall does not argue that Sedevacantism is false, nor does he claim that one shouldn’t be a Sedevacantist, he merely explains why he isn’t one:

In the month of June, we decided to give Hall’s argumentation a fair review in the “express” edition of our podcast program, TRADCAST.… READ MORE

Yet SSPX accepts Novus Ordo priests without re-ordination…

SSPX Priest: ‘My Conviction is that Novus Ordo Priests are Not Validly Ordained’

Fr. Michael Johnson, SSPX, on June 18, 2023

Although Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Garden Grove, California, does not officially belong to the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), priests of the Society currently take care of priestly duties there.

This past Sunday, June 18, 2023, Fr. Michael Johnson, SSPX, offered Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians and gave a sermon in which he briefly mentioned that it is his personal conviction that priestly ordinations in the 1968 Roman rite of Paul VI (“Novus Ordo” ordinations) are invalid.… READ MORE

Scanning mistake led to truncated translation…

Pope Pius IX’s Encyclical Quartus Supra:
The ‘Missing’ Passages

Recently, a reader of this blog made us aware that the English translation of the encyclical letter Quartus Supra of Pope Pius IX (r. 1846-1878), to which we often link, found at the immensely useful site PapalEncyclicals.Net, is missing a number of paragraphs:

Indeed, the numbered paragraphs jump from 44 to 50, with no explanation. In addition, paragraph 44 contains this very odd sentence: “Our Constitution ensures that safer and more effective measures [***] children, We have decided in the present crisis to write all this to you to arouse your pure mind to the duty We have laid upon you.”… READ MORE

Questions of schism, excommunication, and more…

Five SSPX Myths Debunked? Novus Ordo Watch Answers Kennedy Hall on the Catholic Family Podcast

Host Kevin Davis and guest Mario Derksen react to a recent video by Kennedy Hall defending the SSPX

On May 11, 2023, Mr. Kennedy Hall published a 25-minute video defending the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX or SSPX) against five common objections, namely: (a) Abp. Marcel Lefebvre was automatically excommunicated when he consecrated bishops without a papal mandate on June 30, 1988; (b) the SSPX is schismatic; (c) Abp. Lefebvre said the New Mass; (d) Francis’s suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass is the SSPX’s fault; (e) although the excommunications against the four living SSPX bishops were lifted in 2009, Abp.… READ MORE

Novus Ordo Watch for your ears…

Bergoglio and the ‘Huonderful’ Sacraments of the SSPX

TRADCAST 035 now available

TRADCAST — The Traditional Catholic Podcast

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION
AND TO LISTEN TO ALL EPISODES

In case you missed our initial announcement on May 10: We have published another full-length episode of our popular TRADCAST podcast program. As always, it is loaded with real traditional Catholicism, insightful commentary, hard-hitting refutations of various errors, and razor-sharp analysis. Our content is typically challenging but is always delivered in an accessible way — not excluding an occasional relieving touch of humor, so necessary in our chaotic and bizarre times.… READ MORE

While offering an odd theology of his own…

‘Most accomplished Example of Modernism’:
SSPX Superior deconstructs Bergoglio’s Synod Theology

On May 12, 2023, the official news site of the Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) published an insightful interview with Fr. Davide Pagliarani, the Society’s Superior General:

Back in March, ‘Pope’ Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) celebrated his 10-year anniversary of usurping the Chair of St. Peter. Father Pagliarani, who as a Lefebvrist acknowledges Francis to be a true Pope (Vicar of Christ) but refuses him submission as he deems appropriate, was asked to identify what in his estimation is “is the most significant point of these last few years”, and his response was: synodality.… READ MORE

TRADCAST 035 (10 MAY 2023)

Contents

  • Segment 1 — A detailed explanation of the controversy over ‘Bishop’ Vitus Huonder’s consecration of the holy oils at the Holy Thursday Chrism Mass for the SSPX in Germany: why it matters; “From the Jorge’s Mouth”: various recent crazy and scandalous things said by ‘Pope’ Francis.
  • Segment 2 — Vatican News promotes water as creating “sublime communion with God”; Jewish rabbi gives blessing at Novus Ordo Mass; the controversy over Paul VI’s 1968 rite of episcopal consecration: valid or invalid?
  • Total run time: 1 hr 14 min

You can listen to the show by clicking the big play button in the embedded player above.… READ MORE

An informative reality check…

‘Bishop’ Huonder says Francis told him SSPX Not Schismatic! But what is that worth?

A video by the retired Swiss Novus Ordo bishop Vitus Huonder (b. 1942) is making waves.

Huonder, the former ordinary of Chur, Switzerland, has been supportive of the Society of St. Pius X for a few years now. The Society, abbreviated ‘SSPX’ in the United States and Canada and ‘FSSPX’ in the rest of the world, was founded in 1970 by Abp. Marcel Lefebvre to train priests for the Traditional Latin Mass and promote the Roman Catholic Faith as it had been known and taught until the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).… READ MORE

Lefebvrists playing with fire…

SSPX Holy Oils consecrated by Novus Ordo Bishop —
Invalid Last Rites coming soon!

[UPDATE Apr. 18: Photo clearly showing ‘Bishop’ Huonder conducting the Chrism Mass ceremony emerges.]

[UPDATE Apr. 8: SSPX German District publishes 19 photos of Chrism Mass in Zaitzkofen, ‘Bp.’ Huonder’s face not visible in any of them. Accompanying text does not mention his name either (or that of anyone else). The SSPX is hoping you won’t ask or care to know who the ‘bishop’ was.]

[UPDATE Apr. 6: GloriaTV reports the ceremony took place as scheduled, with ‘Bishop’ Huonder ‘consecrating’ the holy oils in Germany.READ MORE

Airtight & extremely compelling…

The Logic of Sedevacantism

Bp. Donald Sanborn disproves Recognize-and-Resist

If video won’t play, CLICK HERE to watch on YouTube

On Dec. 21, 2013, His Excellency Bp. Donald Sanborn of Most Holy Trinity Seminary (now in Reading, PA), gave an airtight presentation of the case for Sedevacantism, demonstrating with impeccable logic that the religion taught, practiced, and imposed by the apparent authorities in the Vatican is not the Roman Catholic religion founded by our Lord Jesus Christ and represented by all true Popes up until Pius XII (d. 1958).

Using easy-to-follow argumentation, Bp. Sanborn shows that Catholic principles applied to the doctrines of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and the post-conciliar magisterium require us to conclude that the church of Vatican II is essentially different from the Catholic Church before the council, that is, the Church of Pope Pius XII and his predecessors. … READ MORE

Lecture by Fr. Gabriel Lavery, CMRI

Can Catholics resist the Pope because St. Paul resisted St. Peter?

Time and again the recognize-and-resist traditionalists — those who recognize Francis as a true Pope but resist his teachings, laws, and canonizations if they judge them not to be “in line with Tradition” — invoke the incident described in the second chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, in which the Apostle resisted Pope St. Peter “to his face”, as supposed historical precedent and divine approval for “resisting the Pope”.

In a prior blog post, we had already explained, using solid Catholic authorities, why this argument does not hold water.… READ MORE

Novus Ordo Watch for your ears…

Bergoglio’s Mystical Body of the Antichrist:

TRADCAST 034 now available

TRADCAST — The Traditional Catholic Podcast

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION
AND TO LISTEN TO ALL EPISODES

In case you missed our initial announcement on Nov. 23: We have published another full-length episode of our popular TRADCAST podcast program. As always, it is loaded with real traditional Catholicism, insightful commentary, hard-hitting refutations of various errors, and razor-sharp analysis. Our content is typically challenging but is always delivered in an accessible way — not excluding an occasional relieving touch of humor, so necessary in our chaotic and bizarre times.… READ MORE

TRADCAST 034 (23 NOV 2022)

Contents

  • Segment 1 — Ecumenism before and after Vatican II: a substantial change of the Catholic religion; Francis’ apostasy and the Mystical Body of the Antichrist; the Indifferentism of ‘Cardinal’ Louis Raphael Sako.
  • Segment 2 — The miraculous propagation and preservation of the Catholic Church through the centuries vs. the Great Apostasy and “operation of error” after Pope Pius XII; an exposition and refutation of Francis’ heretical ideas about mercy and forgiveness without repentance.
  • Total run time: 1 hr 22 min

You can listen to the show by clicking the big play button in the embedded player above.… READ MORE