That Dreaded Specter of ‘Ultramontanism’: Response to Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, STD

Novus Ordo priest blasts Ultramontanism as ‘heresy’…

That Dreaded Specter of ‘Ultramontanism’:
Response to Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, STD

When the ghost of Ultramontanism looms, who ya gonna call?

The Rev. Jeffrey F. Kirby (b. 1975) is a Novus Ordo priest in the diocese of Charleston, South Carolina.

The biographical blurb on his personal web site describes him as

a Catholic priest, moral theologian, and Papal Missionary of Mercy. He serves as the Pastor of Our Lady of Grace Parish in Indian Land, South Carolina and is an Adjunct Professor of Theology at Belmont Abbey College. He has author [sic] several books and digital programs on the moral and spiritual traditions of the Catholic Church.

… READ MORE

What is the ‘True Obedience’ Demanded by the First Vatican Council? An Answer for Kennedy Hall

It doesn’t mean what he thinks it means…

What is the ‘True Obedience’ Demanded by the First Vatican Council? An Answer for Kennedy Hall


The papal keys bind all — including Kennedy Hall

On Feb. 9, 2024, the Canadian writer and YouTuber Kennedy Hall wrote on the web site of Crisis Magazine:

It is all the rage as of late to discuss the “False Spirit of Vatican I” as a way of understanding the cult-like mentality that so many Catholics have imbibed regarding the limits of papal power. Granted, we can admit of a false spirit of Vatican I because there is a true spirit of Vatican I.

… READ MORE

The Immoral Pope Benedict IX: Response to a Recent ‘One Peter Five’ Article

More anti-papal junk from the semi-trads…

The Immoral Pope Benedict IX:
Response to a Recent One Peter Five Article


He may have been a moral reprobate, but he was nevertheless a true Vicar of Christ

The pseudo-traditionalist web site One Peter Five has been on a ferocious campaign against the Papacy for years.

Always promoting a conclusion that is still in search of a good argument, One Peter Five under the editorship of Timothy S. Flanders has been cranking out, with foolhardy determination, all kinds of propaganda material that ultimately only has one chief purpose: to uphold Jorge Bergoglio (‘Pope Francis’) as a true Pope, no matter how badly the Catholic teaching on the Papacy must be distorted in order to accomplish the desired result.… READ MORE

Unofficial Attitudes or Official Teachings? How Eric Sammons Again Distorts the Papacy

Old errors in new garb…

Unofficial Attitudes or Official Teachings?
How Eric Sammons Again Distorts the Papacy

The web site of Crisis Magazine informs the visitor that the online publication is “Orthodox. Faithful. Free.”

Free though it may indeed be, who vouches for its purported orthodoxy and faithfulness? Why, the people who operate Crisis Magazine, of course. In other words, it is a self-endorsement, nothing more than an advertisement. (Hans Küng didn’t think of himself as a heretic either, by the way.) If they are indeed as orthodox and faithful as they claim to be, why do they not get an endorsement — a digital imprimatur of sorts — from the local Novus Ordo bishop of the diocese in which they operate, or at least a nihil obstat from the diocesan censor?… READ MORE

Too Traditional for Tradition? Peter Kwasniewski vs. Pope Saint Pius X

Will the real Traditionalist please stand up?

Too Traditional for Tradition?
Peter Kwasniewski vs. Pope St. Pius X

UPDATE 08-DEC-2023 17:44 UTC:

Dr. Kwasniewski has contacted Novus Ordo Watch and disputed the accuracy of our claim that he has never had an official teaching mandate from the Novus Ordo hierarchy.

Here are the professor’s comments in full, which we are repeating here for the sake of accuracy and fairness:

I noticed in your latest article about my “hubris” a simple factual error:

“When an academic who has a Ph.D. in philosophy but no degree in theology, and who has never had an official teaching mandate from what he recognizes to be the lawful ecclesiastical authority…”

In fact, I received the mandatum to teach theology twice: first from Cardinal Schönborn (yes, I know… but he was the bishop of the diocese in which the International Theological Institute was located), and then from Bishop David Ricken of Cheyenne (prior to his transfer to Green Bay).

… READ MORE

Exclusive Translation: Pope Pius IX’s Apostolic Letter ‘Multiplices Inter’ of 1851

Condemnation of sundry familiar-sounding errors…

Exclusive Translation:
Pope Pius IX’s Apostolic Letter Multiplices Inter of 1851

Pope Pius IX was the second-longest-reigning Pope in the history of the Catholic Church.

Born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti in 1792, he reigned as Pope Pius IX for nearly 32 years, from June 16, 1846 until his death on Feb. 7, 1878. The only Pope who reigned longer than he was St. Peter.

One of the highlights of Pius IX’s long pontificate was the Syllabus of Errors, released on Dec. 8, 1864, along with the encyclical letter Quanta Cura, in which he declared:

But now, as is well known to you, Venerable Brethren, already, scarcely had we been elevated to this Chair of Peter (by the hidden counsel of Divine Providence, certainly by no merit of our own), when, seeing with the greatest grief of Our soul a truly awful storm excited by so many evil opinions, and (seeing also) the most grievous calamities never sufficiently to be deplored which overspread the Christian people from so many errors, according to the duty of Our Apostolic Ministry, and following the illustrious example of Our Predecessors, We raised Our voice, and in many published Encyclical Letters and Allocutions delivered in Consistory, and other Apostolic Letters, we condemned the chief errors of this most unhappy age, and we excited your admirable episcopal vigilance, and we again and again admonished and exhorted all sons of the Catholic Church, to us most dear, that they should altogether abhor and flee from the contagion of so dire a pestilence.

… READ MORE

Pope Pius IX, Apostolic Letter “Multiplices Inter” (1851)

Apostolic Letter of Pope Pius IX

Multiplices Inter (1851)

Apostolic Letter of His Holiness Pope Pius IX, issued on June 10, 1851, condemning certain Errors of Francisco de Paula González Vigil

from which the 1864 Syllabus of Errors draws condemned propositions 15, 21, 23, 30, 51, 54, 68, and 74

(Not to be confused with the Encyclical Inter Multiplices of 1853
nor the Allocution Multiplices Inter Machinationes of 1865)

1. Among the manifold and very heavy cares of Our office, by which We are weighed down on all sides, and among the very great misfortunes of this time, which disturb and violently distress Our mind amid the increasing novelty of all things, there is added the greatly-to-be-lamented fact that the most dangerous books are daily springing forth from the lairs of the Jansenists and other men of that kind, whereby the sons of this age, in order to attract disciples to follow them, speak perverse things in the convincing words of human wisdom.… READ MORE

Athanasius Schneider’s explosive Prayer for the Synod 2023: An incisive Sedevacantist Analysis

Kazakh auxiliary stirs the pot again…

Athanasius Schneider’s explosive Prayer for the Synod 2023: An incisive Sedevacantist Analysis

The world’s most significant insignificant Novus Ordo bishop is back in the news: the Most Rev. Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary for the diocese of Maria Santissima in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Yesterday, Sep. 28, the Vatican journalist Diane Montagna published on her Twitter (or ‘X’) account a “Prayer for the 2023 ‘Synod on Synodality'” that was composed by ‘Bp.’ Schneider (why ‘Bishop’ in quotes?). It is not clear whether the text is Montagna’s translation, or whether Schneider wrote the prayer in English. Although released a day early, it is dated Sep.… READ MORE

Fernandez on Papal Charism and the ‘Doctrine of the Holy Father’: Brazen Baloney or Traditional Teaching?

An insightful reality check…

Fernandez on Papal Charism and the ‘Doctrine of the Holy Father’: Brazen Baloney or Traditional Teaching?

This blog is certainly the last place on earth that would want to defend ‘Archbishop’ (and almost ‘Cardinal’) Victor Manuel Fernandez, the Vatican’s new doctrine chief who is notorious for having written the book Heal Me with your Mouth: the Art of Kissing (1995). However, truth is truth, even if the ‘wrong’ person speaks it.

When the National Catholic Register released an interview with Fernandez on Sep. 11, 2023, one point immediately caught the ire and contempt of the recognize-and-resist traditionalists (we like to refer to them as “semi-trads”) on the internet.… READ MORE

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

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

Theologian in Crisis: Eric Sammons versus the Papal Keys

Clueless ‘expert’ misleads countless souls about the Papacy…

Theologian in Crisis:
Eric Sammons versus the Papal Keys

The recognize-and-resist traditionalists of the Vatican II Church find themselves a difficult position. On the one hand, they utterly refuse to let go of the idea that the Jesuit apostate Jorge Bergoglio (“Francis”) is the Pope of the Catholic Church; on the other hand, they understand that there is absolutely no way anyone can follow the man’s teachings, laws, and liturgical directives without putting one’s soul in grave danger of apostatizing from the Catholic religion and/or of dying in the state of mortal sin.… READ MORE

Against the ‘New Papacy’ of Peter Kwasniewski

Remaking the Papacy to fit Bergoglio into it…

Against the ‘New Papacy’ of Peter Kwasniewski

[This post is a follow-up to Rethinking Peter Kwasniewski: A Sedevacantist Critique of his Anti-Papal Traditionalism.]

On Jan. 4, 2023, the American philosopher Dr. Peter Kwasniewski published an article on One Peter Five entitled “Abandoning the Church Has No Appeal for Traditionalists”, and in this post we will respond to it. By “Traditionalists” he means the people in the Vatican II Church who recognize Francis as the legitimate Pope but resist him in whatever they personally decide is “not in accordance with Tradition”.

We prefer to call such souls — many of whom are genuinely devout and good people who love our Lord beyond measure — “semi-traditionalists”, because, whether intended or not, their adherence to Catholic Tradition is partial only: For one thing, they do not admit the traditional teaching regarding the Papacy and the Church, which is irreconcilable with the idea that the public apostate Jorge Bergoglio (“Pope Francis”) could be the successor of St.… READ MORE

Rethinking Peter Kwasniewski: A Sedevacantist Critique of his Anti-Papal Traditionalism

Enough of the nonsense!

Rethinking Peter Kwasniewski: A Sedevacantist Critique of his Anti-Papal Traditionalism


No Traditionalist when it comes to the Papacy: Philosopher Peter A. Kwasniewski, Ph.D.

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski has been busy “rethinking the Papacy”, and the results are not surprising.

Ever since he first identified, back in 2019, what he calls the “spirit of Vatican I” (that’s Vatican One, referring to the Vatican Council of 1870) as the fundamental problem in the church today “which it will take a mighty exorcism to drive away”, he has not ceased to attack the traditional Catholic teaching on the Papacy in one way or another.… READ MORE

Bergoglio breaks the Semi-Trads: Is the Fence-Sitting coming to an End?

Recognize-and-Resisters pushed over the edge…

Bergoglio breaks the Semi-Trads: Is the Fence-Sitting coming to an End?

Good news, everyone: It seems more and more semi-traditionalists are finally at the breaking point with Jorge Bergoglio. His recent apology tour for indigenous Canadians seems to have put some people over the edge. During this trip, the man otherwise known by his stage name, “Pope Francis”, did not just unload heaps of the expected ideological blather, he also participated in a pagan smudge ceremony petitioning the “western grandmother” for “access to the sacred circle of spirits”.

At this point, even Taylor Marshall has had enough: “I’m at a loss.… READ MORE

No Jekyll-and-Hyde Magisterium: Against the Theological Sophistry of Peter Kwasniewski

Powerful refutation of semi-trad star apologist

No Jekyll-and-Hyde Magisterium: Against the Theological Sophistry of Peter Kwasniewski

On May 26, 2022, One Peter Five published another article by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, the retired philosophy professor who is currently “rethinking the Papacy” in an effort to fit the square peg of Jorge Bergoglio (“Pope Francis”) into the round hole of the Petrine primacy:

The article’s chief contention is that the nature and role of the Church’s magisterium, specifically that of the Pope, has been unduly exaggerated by some to the detriment of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.… READ MORE