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| The Catholic Trumpet: A Layman’s Resolution of Fidelity |
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Posted by: Stone - 6 hours ago - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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A Layman’s Resolution of Fidelity
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/photo_2026-02-06%2008.52.36.jpeg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet | February 17, 2026
What does the Blessed Virgin Mary ask of us in this present crisis?
Beyond remaining in the state of grace, praying the Rosary daily, wearing the Brown Scapular, and praying for the Pope that he may consecrate Russia in union with all the bishops of the world exactly as Our Lady requested in 1929, the question must be asked plainly: what concrete action does she expect from us as lay faithful?
It is inconceivable that Our Lady would desire passive neutrality in the face of doctrinal collapse. The Catholic Faith has always advanced through clarity, fidelity, and courageous witness. Therefore, it follows that she expects the laity to rally behind those priests who remain faithful, who refuse compromise, and who continue to hold the line of +Archbishop Lefebvre without ambiguity.
Today, this is not a subjective judgment. It can be measured objectively. Fidelity is shown by adherence to Catholic doctrine as it has always been taught, by the public condemnation of the errors and heresies of Vatican II, by the rejection of the New Mass, and by the consistent and unflinching articulation of these truths. By this standard, Father Hewko and the priests he supports and works with have provided the clearest instruction, the most consistent witness, and the strongest defense of the Faith. It is therefore not only reasonable but obligatory that the laity support, encourage, and rally behind such priests.
Moreover, given the deepening of the crisis and its acceleration in the years ahead, especially from 2026 onward, it is evident that Our Lady calls for a redoubling of these efforts. The laity must not retreat but rather strengthen their supernatural and practical support of faithful clergy, always within the limits of their state, yet with full confidence in the limitless power of grace.
Trusting entirely in Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces, it is not beyond hope that a bishop, validly consecrated and possessing the fullness of Holy Orders, may abandon the errors and confusions of the last decade, reject the false resistance, and return to a firm and uncompromising defense of Catholic doctrine. Such a bishop, aligned with the clarity and fidelity already demonstrated by faithful priests, could restore unity around the Faith itself, not personalities, and serve the good of souls in this time of trial.
All of this must be undertaken with humility, obedience to one’s state in life, and total reliance on the supernatural action of the Mother of God. The laity do not replace the hierarchy, but neither are they permitted to remain silent when the Faith is under assault. History shows that God often preserves His Church through small, faithful remnants who act with courage, charity, and conviction.
May Our Lady find us faithful.
Slave of Mary
Of The Catholic Trumpet
Anthony Martinello
02/16/2026
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| Leo XIV Appoints Agenda 2030 Bishop: "Against Ecumenism Is Against Christ" |
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Posted by: Stone - 6 hours ago - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Leo XIV Appoints Agenda 2030 Bishop: "Against Ecumenism Is Against Christ"
![[Image: 7q4kxea9w9o0dfr7887d4ylhm4brzhso7ux3zu9?...1771402140]](https://seedus4268.gloriatv.net/storage1/7q4kxea9w9o0dfr7887d4ylhm4brzhso7ux3zu9?secure=yrkkKyA3LL89wA5a5I0Iqw&expires=1771402140)
gloria.tv | February 16, 2026
Pope Leo XIV appointed today the Cabo Verde born Bishop Teodoro Mendes Tavares, 62, of Ponta de Pedras, Brazil, as Bishop of Santiago de Cabo Verde.
Cabo Verde is an island country in the central Atlantic Ocean, off the west coast of Africa, made up of ten volcanic islands.
Born on 7 January 1964 in Cabo Verde, Bishop Tavares took his vows with the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans). He was ordained a priest on 11 July 1993 and was sent as a missionary to Brazil in 1994, to the Prelacy of Tefé, in the Amazonas region.
In 1995, he earned a licentiate in "ecumenism" from Trinity College in Dublin. His doctoral theses was on "Churches and European immigration policy in light of the Schengen and Dublin agreements".
In 2011, Benedict XVI appointed him as auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese of Belém do Pará, Brazil. Back then, the Catholic website FratresInUnum.wordpress.com described the appointment as anti-Catholic.
Francis advanced him in 2015 as Coadjutor and then Bishop of Ponta de Pedras, Brazil.
Signatory of the Cop30 Declaration
In 2023, the Brazilian bishops elected him president of the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Dialogue for the 2023–27 term.
In July 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed him as a member of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
In November 2025, Tavares was listed as one of the Catholic bishops who signed a joint church statement at the COP30 UN-sponsored meeting in Belém.
Amazon Synod Is “Historic Milestone”
Monsignor Tavares participated in the Amazon Synod in 2019. Talking to VaticanNews.va, he described the long-forgotten Synod as a “historic milestone” that gives visibility to “the cry of the Amazon”.
“Earth Is Common Home… Religions Serve Fraternity”
In May 2021, according to Cnbb.org.br, he suggested that all dioceses should have "ecumenical" pastoral teams and groups to organise "ecumenical" prayers and celebrations.
He also said: “The Holy Father says that the Earth is our common home, and that we are all brothers and sisters. In the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, he clearly reiterates that a path of peace between religions is possible. He even states that religious leaders are called to be true dialoguers, playing an active role in building peace, not just as intermediaries, but as genuine mediators who seek peace as their ultimate goal. Furthermore, he affirms that religions are at the service of fraternity in the world.”
“Francis Is Ecumenical... Follow this Path”
In 2023, Monsignor Tavares told CanCanova.com that Pope Francis sets a “shining example” for the path we should follow in favour of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue in our search for unity in diversity.
He believes that “today's highly divided world expects churches and religions, members of other faiths, and us Catholic Christians in particular to promote a culture of encounter, dialogue, fraternity, social friendship, and peace”.
"Not to Be Ecumenical Is to Disobey the Magisterium"
In April 2024, he spoke at another interreligious celebration, according to A12.com: “Above all, this celebration shows the Catholic Church's openness to dialogue between Christians and people of other religions. I want to reiterate what Pope Francis has emphasised: the importance of living in a culture of encounter, dialogue, fraternity and social friendship. Religions must contribute to fraternity, peace, and goodness in the world, and never the opposite. So, the Catholic Church's great banner is peace, fraternity, and unity.”
In September 2025, he said at an ecumenical conference, as reported by CnBB.org.br: “Ecumenism is essential for the Church. Not to be ecumenical is to disobey the magisterium and go against the will of Christ, who prayed for the unity of his disciples.”
Salvation in Different Religious Traditions
Talking to Paulinas.com.br, Mons Tavares said that Nostra Aetate from Vatican II is the Magna Carta for interreligious dialogue:
“It represented a paradigm shift: from ecclesiocentrism and exclusivism to the recognition of the value of non-Christian religions. The Church proclaims Christ, but respects and esteems other religious confessions. The Declaration introduced a more inclusive vision, recognizing God's action in the history of salvation, which is realized under different names and in different traditions.”
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| Fr. James Martin praises Pope Leo for celebrating Mass with altar girls |
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Posted by: Stone - 6 hours ago - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Fr. James Martin praises Pope Leo for celebrating Mass with altar girls
Martin’s claim that it is un-controversial to have female altar servers is contradicted by many arguments,
including irrefutable theological principles and practical considerations.
![[Image: Untitled-11.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Untitled-11.png)
Pope Leo XIV leaving the event at the Waterfront Mass on December 2, 2025, in Beirut, Lebanon
Photo by Adri Salido/Getty Images
Feb 16, 2026
(LifeSiteNews [adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — Dissident Jesuit priest James Martin has praised Pope Leo XIV for including two female altar servers at a Mass he celebrated at a parish in Rome this past weekend.
“The use of female altar servers has proven controversial in some US dioceses, and among some bishops, but, apparently, not in the Diocese of Rome or for its bishop,” Martin said on social media Monday.
Martin’s remarks come amid what seems to be a rather grueling media tour promoting his new autobiography, Work in Progress. In recent days, Martin has appeared on Good Morning America and left-wing talk show host Stephen Colbert’s late-night program to boost book sales. He told Colbert that Leo is continuing Francis’ pro-LGBT agenda.
Martin’s claim that it is un-controversial to have female altar servers is contradicted by many arguments, including irrefutable theological principles as well as practical considerations that take into account the differences between boys and girls and the preparation of young boys for seminary.
The role of altar servers has historically been reserved for men and boys in the life of the Church, with several popes expressly forbidding women from serving at the altar. Fifth-century Pope Gelasius (492-496) condemned “the evil practice” of “women serving the priest at the celebration of Mass.” Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) reiterated this in his 1755 encyclical Allatae Sunt.
In a 2024 letter written by Sri Lankan Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjit, His Eminence declared that “no girls should be invited to serve at the altar” because that role “is one of the main sources of vocations to the priesthood in Sri Lanka and it will affect the number of candidates entering the seminaries, which risk we cannot take.”
Despite the Church’s longstanding teachings and tradition of denying women the role of altar boy, John Paul II permitted female altar servers in the 1990s. The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts backed the move in a controversial decision.
Lectors, as well as acolytes, were historically minor orders reserved for men alone as they serve as stepping stones to the priesthood. Bishop Athanasius Schneider noted this in his 2023 book Credo when he said that ministers of the Church represent Christ, and because of this their ministries are to be carried out by ordained men or by their substitutes, male lectors or altar boys.
The cracking open of the door to female altar servers arguably took place under Paul VI when in his 1972 motu proprio Ministeria Quaedam he allowed the roles of lector and acolyte to be “lay ministries,” which eventually led to women stepping into the roles. Pope Francis went further in his 2021 motu proprio Spiritus Domini, which modified canon law to allow women to be officially installed as acolytes and lectors.
Bishop Schneider told LifeSite co-founder John-Henry Westen during a recent interview that allowing women to serve as lectors and altar servers introduces feminism into the “core” of the Roman liturgy, as it is a key step toward the ordination of female “priests.” His Excellency noted that this is exactly what happened in the Anglican Church, whose archbishop of Canterbury is now a woman who supports abortion and homosexual “marriage.”
Left-wing Catholic influencers who agree with Martin’s specious reasoning were quick to pounce on conservative critics of Leo. Former Democratic congressional candidate Chris Hale posted several images on his X account of female altar servers being included in liturgies offered by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
Regardless, the theological principles and millennia-old teaching of the Church are irrefutable. Conservative and traditional Catholics on social media drew additional attention to how Leo’s liturgy was banal and uninspiring.
“Terrible music, ritual detached from tradition, and nonsensical things like female altar boys. Nobody finds this particularly profound,” former Disney child actor turned Catholic commentator Murray Rounds said in an X post.
A Spanish priest cleverly responded to Martin by noting that “the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass has proven controversial in some US dioceses, and among some bishops, but, apparently, not in the Diocese of Rome or for its bishop” — a reference to a Latin Mass offered by Cardinal Raymond Burke in St. Peter’s last year.
Traditional priest Fr. Nicolás E. Despósito urged Catholics not to be shocked by the news but rather to recall that “the real problem isn’t girls at the altar; it’s the apostasy at the top: Salvation outside the Church, blessings for sodomites, ‘God wills all religions,’ and communion for adulterers.”
Pope Leo’s Sunday Mass at Santa Maria Regina Pacis in the coastline neighborhood of Ostia was the first time he offered Mass at a parish church in Rome. At least one of the female servers was wearing Adidas sneakers.
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| The Catholic Trumpet [Video]: SSPX - Hermeneutered by Dialogue |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-14-2026, 06:05 PM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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Hermeneutered by Dialogue: The Neo-SSPX Continues Its Tango with the Conciliar Church
Dear Resistance,
If what was good yesterday is good today, and what was evil yesterday is still evil today, Catholics are forced to ask a simple, unavoidable question.
That question is addressed directly and without compromise in the newest video released on The Catholic Trumpet YouTube channel.
In 1991, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais and Richard Williamson of the SSPX consecrated Licínio Rangel in Brazil — without negotiations, without agreements, without recognition, without appeasement of the Conciliar Church. That act was defended as necessary and Catholic.
Today, in 2026, we see Father Pagliarani and the Neo-SSPX leadership meeting with Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, architect of documents that undermine Our Lady’s role as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all Graces.
That is not resistance. That is collaboration.
History has already shown the pattern.
Within one year of his consecration, Bishop Rangel reconciled with Rome and accepted the Novus Ordo. Bishop Rifan followed: acceptance of the New Mass, altar girls, and Vatican II in practice.
The lesson is devastating: valid episcopal consecrations do not preserve the Faith when doctrine is surrendered.
We do not lack bishops. We lack faith and doctrinal fidelity.
This trajectory did not begin yesterday. The GREC meetings of 1994–1995 initiated structured dialogue with Modernist Rome — engagement without condemnation, discussion without clarity — a Hegelian tango now spanning more than three decades.
The rupture became formal in 2012 with the Doctrinal Declaration and General Chapter, abandoning Archbishop Lefebvre’s principle of “no practical agreement without a prior doctrinal agreement.”
Everything since has been damage control — not reversal.
Until the Neo-SSPX:
• Condemns the GREC trajectory
• Rejects the 2012 Doctrinal Declaration
• Repudiates Ecclesia Dei and Cardinal Hoyos’ conditions
• Purges conciliar sacramental dependency
• Openly condemns Vatican II as Marcel Lefebvre did …new consecrations are merely spectacle.
+Archbishop Lefebvre ordered his Bishops to provide the sacraments, and to pass down and preach the Faith of Eternal Rome.
The question remains: Will we hold the Faith — or negotiate with its destroyers?
In the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts,
- The Catholic Trumpet
Quote:“Anyone who loves the Truth hates Error. This hatred of Error is the touchstone by which one recognizes love for the Truth. If you do not love the Truth, you may say, up to a certain point, that you love It and even believe It; but be sure that, in this case, you will lack a horror of that which is false, and by this sign you will recognize that you do not love the Truth. When a man who loves Truth ceases to love It, he does not begin by declaring his defection from It: he begins by detesting Error less.” -Ernest Hello, L’Homme
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| EU Parliament backs resolution demanding ‘full recognition of trans women as women’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-14-2026, 08:04 AM - Forum: Global News
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EU Parliament backs resolution demanding ‘full recognition of trans women as women’
The European Parliament passed a non-binding text in a 340–141 promoting transgender ideology
and labeling the pro-life position against abortion as ‘gender-based violence.’
![[Image: Untitled-33-810x500.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Untitled-33-810x500.png)
Headquarters of the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
Fabrizio Maffei/Shutterstock
Feb 13, 2026
(LifeSiteNews) — The European Parliament has voted in favor of a resolution that calls for the “full recognition of trans women as women.”
On February 12, the EU body adopted the non-binding text that outlines the EU priorities for the upcoming session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. It was approved by 340 votes in favor, 141 against, and 68 abstentions.
The resolution is not legally binding for member states, but will be part of the EU’s official negotiating position as a bloc at the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, taking place in New York next month.
The text calls for “the full recognition of trans women as women, noting that their inclusion is essential for the effectiveness of any gender-equality and anti-violence policies.”
The document also claims that denying someone an abortion constitutes “gender-based violence.”
The resolution further states that “violations of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including the denial of safe and legal abortion services and all forms of obstetric and gynaecological violence, constitute gender-based violence and breaches of fundamental human rights.”
German MEP Tomasz Froelich from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) told LifeSiteNews that on Friday, the Parliament voted on an amendment to the resolution stating that “only biological women can become pregnant.” The amendment was rejected with 200 votes in favor, 233 against, and 107 abstentions.
In a blatant contradiction, the text called denial of abortion “gender-based violence” while at the same time denying that only women can become pregnant.
Froelich called the European Parliament a “madhouse.”
The pro-life and pro-family advocacy group CitizenGO slammed the resolution, saying it was part of the “pro-abortion” and gender ideology agenda, and announced that the group would continue to campaign against the adopted text at the upcoming U.N. meeting.
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| The Example of the Angers Martyrs |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-12-2026, 12:49 PM - Forum: The Saints
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The Example of the Angers Martyrs - On the Anniversary of Their Martyrdom
by Etienne Muret
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.diocese49.org%2Fwp-...715ba3bbf1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.diocese49.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F02%2Fmartyrs-davrille-visuels.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6a1d9dec783a6d5102c87f3ec0b47bc54df7473343a2fbb60d601b715ba3bbf1)
Dominicans of Avrillé from Le Sel de la terre 127, Winter 2023-2024 [adapted]
THE YEAR 2024 is the 230th anniversary of the Champ-des-martyrs shootings in Avrillé. Around two thousand people were shot in this enclosure[1], both men and women. Even if, in many cases, history has only preserved the names of these victims of the Terror[2], we can affirm without fear of error that it was in hatred of the Catholic faith that all these people were massacred. For whenever the revolutionary clerk noted the reasons for condemnation – or the sham that took the place of it – behind the qualifiers of “fanaticism” or “complicity with brigands”, what was always targeted was attachment and fidelity to traditional religion. The monsters who judged these unfortunate people sometimes tried to hide their hatred of true religion under political motives, but there’s no mistaking it. The arsenal of defamatory invectives and the outrageousness of the words used failed to disguise the real motive behind the condemnations.
This anniversary is therefore an opportunity to recall these glorious events, and to draw from them lessons of faith, strength and fidelity for our struggles today. For the story of the martyrs of Angers and Avrillé offers many analogies with the present situation, and is in some ways a model for the battles we must wage today to preserve the Christian faith and spirit in the midst of general apostasy.
What’s more, this story took place just a stone’s throw from the Haye-aux-Bonshommes site: the ground we walk on was sprinkled with the blood of these martyrs.
It’s part of our heritage. We don’t have the right to ignore it or let it be forgotten.
✵
On nine occasions[3] from January 12 to April 16, 1794, columns of victims took to the road leading to the Champ-des-martyrs, a field that was then part of the Cloux farm estate, one of the farms that depended, until the Revolution, on the Grandmontain priory of La Haye-aux-Bonshommes[4]. At the time of the sale of national property, this estate was bought by one of Angers’ revolutionaries, Sieur Desvallois, who himself offered his field for shooting: “It will make manure!” he cynically declared.
Among these victims, the Church retained eighty-four, those for whom there was enough information to be able to affirm the religious character of their condemnation and initiate a beatification process. The vast majority were common women – wives, mothers and daughters of peasants, craftsmen, workers and merchants – with a few squires and two nuns. Only four men appear in this list, although a large number of others fell under the bullets at the Champ-des-martyrs. But these men had almost all served in the Catholic army and, as former Vendée soldiers, their condemnation could appear to have been inspired by political rather than religious motives. This is why the prudent diocesan tribunal in charge of the ordinary trial (in 1905-1919) thought it was right not to consider them as genuine martyrs, even if, in this context of religious persecution, the accusation of sympathy for the “brigands” – who were fighting for God and the King – could be qualified as a religious motive. This was also the case in the trials of the Laval and Noël Pinot martyrs.
To these eighty-four martyrs by shooting, we must add fifteen or sixteen who were guillotined in Angers, Place du Ralliement, including thirteen priests (counting Blessed Noël Pinot who was beatified before the others, under Pius XI), one nun and two women.[5]
The deeds of these one hundred martyrs constitute one of the most beautiful pages in the religious history of Anjou, a page worthy of the martyrdom accounts of the Christians of the early Church.
✵
As everyone knows, the Revolutionary Terror used the most atrocious means in its war against the Catholic populations of the West. 1794 was the year of the infernal columns and the great massacres of the Vendéens. Arrests multiplied, and prisons overflowed with inmates. And yet, these prisons were very numerous. In Angers, prisoners were incarcerated not only in the National Prison (Place des Halles, now Place Louis-Imbach) and the Château, but also in convents and churches that had been converted into prisons: Le Calvaire, Le Bon-Pasteur, Les Pénitentes, Le Carmel, Saint-Aubin, Les Petits-Pères (Lazaristes) in the Cathedral, Saint-Aubin, the two seminaries, La Rossignolerie (school of the Brothers of Christian Doctrine) and many other places.
But what can be done? There are too many prisoners, and the guillotine is no longer enough[6]. The guillotine is a spectacular punishment, particularly appreciated by revolutionaries, with its theatrical staging to impress the spirits, but it’s too slow and too expensive. Each execution cost the nation fifty-nine pounds.
The lack of hygiene and food, coupled with the cold – the thermometer fell to 17° below zero that winter – did cause deadly epidemics, and in less than a year, a good thousand prisoners died on their rotting straw beds[7]. But even that couldn’t empty the prisons.
In Nantes, prisoners were drowned in the Loire; in Angers, they were shot en masse. The shootings began in December 1793, on the banks of the Maine, at Port-de-1’Ancre, then at Sainte-Gemmes and Les Ponts-de-Cé. The bodies were thrown into the river Maine, but this soon gave rise to hygiene problems. Another location had to be found.
This is why the most massive shootings finally took place at the Champ-des-martyrs, in Avrillé. To speed things up, the judges from the military commission visited the prisons. Put in the presence of the suspects, they proceeded to a semblance of interrogation, which the clerk noted down in a few words: “… Did you go to the masses of the refractory priests? – Why didn’t you go to the masses of the sworn priests? …”. The minutes take up one or two lines, almost always punctuated by the word “fanatic”, “pronounced fanatic”, “superlative fanatic”, “invincible fanatic” or “fieffé aristocrate”, which, in revolutionary parlance, means: faithful Catholic, irredeemable, attached to traditional religion and the old order. In the margin, the clerk added “F”: to be shot, or, more rarely, “G”: to be guillotined.
Terrorists surrounded executions with sinister ceremony. The military commission – the most ferocious of the two revolutionary tribunals, and a major purveyor of guillotines and shootings – was based in the former Dominican convent, next to the cathedral, while the revolutionary committee was housed in the bishop’s palace. This is where the chain of victims was formed, tied up two by two. Those unable to walk were thrown into a cart, and the column moved off, flanked by a double row of gendarmes. Crossing the main branch of the Maine at what is now the Pont de Verdun, they crossed the Doutre district, and the chain lengthened as they stoped in front of each “prison”. Then they took the path that climbs towards Avrillé, “the path of silence”, as it was known in those days. The contrast between the prisoners – mostly common men and women, with a few nobles and bourgeois, admirable Christians calmly walking to their deaths, murmuring the rosary or singing hymns to the Virgin – and the vociferous troupe of “sans-culottes”, flanked by shrews reeking of alcohol and vice, hurled insults at the condemned. The judges, girded in their tricolor scarves and swaddling in their robes, followed the procession, with the military band alternating between the revolutionary songs “Ça ira” and the “Marseillaise” (now national anthem of France!)
Arriving at the Champ-des-martyrs, the chain was undone and the condemned lined up in front of the prepared pits. The gendarmes fired a salvo, the bodies fell. The wounded and dying were “finished” off with sabers and bayonets. A little earth was thrown in, and the pit was ready for the next batch.
Love of Truth and Hatred of Lies
It would take hours to recount in detail the marvels contained in the deeds of all these martyrs. Let’s just pick a few pearls from this treasure trove and try to apply their lessons.
One of the first testimonies these martyrs give us is their refusal to lie or make shameful compromises. Even to save their own lives, our martyrs refused to compromise. Preserved accounts provide us with several examples. Here are three of them.
The first is that of Perrine-Renée Potier, wife Turpault, mother of five children. Arrested in Les Aubiers, she was taken to Cholet “kicked and sabered”, and three days later gave birth to a son who died immediately after his baptism. Taken to Angers on January 16, 1794, she appeared before the military commission on the 24th, and let it be known that she was still pregnant. Thanks to this, she avoided being shot. Full of remorse for what she called her “fault”, she was interrogated again on February 9 and April 2 in the Calvaire prison.
“But you’re pregnant, aren’t you?” One of the judges asked.
“No, I’m not, and you can judge me”, she replied.
Back in her cell, her companions asked her:
“But why didn’t you say yes? You were saved!”
“I know that”, she replied, “but I’d rather die than tell a lie.”
And she prepared herself for death with constant prayer. She was shot on Holy Wednesday, April 16, 1794.[8]
The other example is that of Sister Marie-Anne, one of the two Daughters of Charity (Congregation founded by saint Vincent-de-Paul) who were shot on February 1st, 1794 along with four hundred other victims, because they had refused the oath of “Liberté, Égalité” (Freedom and Equality). Entering the Champ-des-martyrs enclosure, Sister Marie-Anne intones the litanies of the Blessed Virgin; all the condemned women respond: “Ora pro nobis”. The chain was transformed into a Marian procession. One of the soldiers was distraught at the sight: “It hurts to see such women die!” The commander was also moved and wanted to save the two nuns:
Quote:Citizens, there is still time to escape the death that threatens you. You have rendered services to humanity. Why, for the sake of an oath asked of you, would you give up your life and discontinue the good works you have always done? Let it not be so, return to your home, continue to render the services you have always rendered. Do not take the oath, for it is repugnant and upsetting to you. I take it upon myself to say that you have taken it, and I give you my word that nothing will be done to you or your companions.
Sister Marie-Anne’s response is admirable:
Quote:Citizen, not only do we not want to take the oath you’re talking about, we don’t even want to be seen to have taken it. Do not believe us cowardly enough and attached enough to a miserable life to believe us capable of soiling our soul and sacrificing it for an oath we have always hated and still hate. God will not ask us to account for the services we could render to our fellow human beings only by taking an oath that He hates and condemns, and if we can only preserve our lives on this condition, we declare to you that we would rather die than do anything contrary to the love we have sworn to our God.[9]
In the same vein, we should mention the heroic attitude of Abbé Laigneau de Langellerie. He was chaplain to the Angers Carmelite convent. Interned at the major seminary in 1792, condemned to deportation, but detained in Nantes due to his state of health, he escaped from prison, disguised as a peasant, on July 27, 1793, and returned clandestinely to Angers. Arrested on October 11, 1794 as he was about to perform extreme unction on a sick woman, he was taken amidst boos to the bishop’s palace, where the revolutionary committee was sitting. During his interrogation, the judge told him that if he stopped opposing the oath and rallied to the Republic, he would be in a better position:
Quote:You know that there are many priests who are now in society and who live there peacefully, that the Republic gives them protection. Because they are subject to the law, they have taken the required oath. They are not hiding. So you must have conspired against the Republic?
But in the face of this tempting offer, Abbé de Langellerie remained imperturbable and faithful to his duty.
My conscience and my science have never allowed me to take the required oath.
What did you find in the oath that could hurt your conscience?
It was to approve by an oath your French Republic, which has destroyed the religion of Jesus Christ who is the God of my heart, Deus cordis mei. […]
So you’re convinced that the Republic can’t survive and that the Catholic religion must be re-established?
With regard to the French Republic, I think that it is an enemy of the religion of Jesus Christ, but that a republican government must protect the Christian religion. […] I stand by my answers, which contain the truth, but I do not wish to sign, […as] I generally refuse my signature in matters of the Republic.[10]
Transferred to the Angers criminal court[11] (by this date, the military commission no longer existed), Abbé de Langellerie was condemned as a refractory priest and enemy of the Republic. He was guillotined on October 14, 1794, during the first vespers of Saint Teresa of Avila, founder of the Carmelite nuns of which he was chaplain. He was the last victim of the guillotine in Anjou.
Defending Faith and True Religion
Another witness given by these exemplary Christians is their faith and their spirit of faith.
This is particularly true of priests.
Abbé Ledoyen, vicar of Contigné, remained in his parish to exercise his ministry. Taking refuge with Mme Déan de Luigné, who was hiding refractory priests in her château de la Bossivière, he was discovered and arrested with his benefactress and her three daughters[12] on December 17, 1793. Taken to Chateauneuf-sur-Sarthe, he was interrogated at length on December 23. The last words of his interrogation were a resounding profession of faith. To his judges, who accused him of having “abused the weakness and simplicity of country folk to lead them into the cruellest errors”, he replied:
That he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them, that he tried to prevent them from falling into the errors of the innovators
That he sincerely professed such maxims.
That he had always urged them to follow the apostolic and Roman Catholic religion, outside of which there is no salvation, and that they should always be firm and faithful to it.
Similarly, Guillaume Repin, parish priest of Martigné-Briand – then a venerable old man of eighty-four – was accused by the municipal officers of Martigné of having “gangrened his parish”. Arrested and imprisoned on December 24, 1793, he told the judges who questioned him on Christmas Day that he had not taken the oath because “he had his faith and religion to preserve“. Sentenced to death, he was guillotined on January 2, 1794.[13]
But faithfulness to the faith of their baptism is also a matter for the laity.
Charlotte Lucas, a schoolteacher and, as such, subject to the oath of “Liberté, Égalité”, did not want to take it. She “believes that something has changed in religion, which prevented her from doing so”, she explained to the Chalonnes Justice of the Peace on January 4, 1794. Taken to Angers and detained at Le Calvaire, she first appeared before the Revolutionary Committee. Then, on January 18, the military commission sent her to her death, without even questioning her, because she looked like a “God-eater”.[14]
Renée-Marie Feillatreau, widow of Dumont, was a good Catholic woman who defended her faith valiantly. Her convictions, which she made no secret of, attracted the attention of patriots. To those who urged her to be more cautious, she replied: “Why shouldn’t there be martyrs today as there were in the past?”
Arrested in Angers, she was interned at the château. When she appeared in court on March 18, 1794, the judges of the Revolutionary Committee accused her of having shouted “Long live religion and long live the King” when the Vendéens had occupied Angers the previous June. In her defense, she simply proclaimed that she “would rather die than renounce her religion“. She admitted to having met refractory priests, attended their Mass and spoken with them, “particularly about religion“. In the sentence drawn up by the military commission, she was accused of having “encouraged the fanaticism of the rebellious priests […] and taken sacred vases and ornaments from the Republic, which she had taken to hidden places where these scoundrels of priests celebrated their bloodthirsty and murderous cult”. She was guillotined on March 28, in Place du Ralliement.[15]
Antoine Fournier, father of a refractory priest and former soldier in the Vendée army, was one of the one hundred and five victims of the first shoot-out on January 12, 1794. He defended the clandestine priests and declared that he blamed the conduct of those who attacked the Catholic religion.
“Do you disapprove of the monstrous priests who slit our brothers’ throats?” The judge asked.
“I don’t think priests were capable of giving bad advice.”
“You are accused of having criticized the conduct of the Republicans, saying that they were profaning holy sacred vessels, destroying mission crosses,” etc., etc., etc.
“Yes, I have blamed and continue to blame the conduct of those who throw away mission crosses and desecrate sacred vessels.”
“So you would suffer death to defend your religion?”
“Yes.”[16]
He was condemned as “father of a refractory priest and worthy of being one, an outraged fanatic.”
To be continued.
1. The exact number of victims is difficult to establish. Abbé Houdebine estimates the total number of victims of the Terror in Angers at around 3,000, and the number shot at the Champ-des-martyrs at around 2,000 (Dictionnaire de Maine-et-Loire [Célestin PORT], 1.1, new ed. 1965, p. 39a). See also N. DELAHAYE and P.-M. GABORIT, Les Douze colonnes infernales de Turreau, and J.-F. COUET, Dans les prisons d’Angers sous la Terreur, 1793-1794. For full bibliographical references, see the bibliography at the end of this article. ↑
2. Sometimes names are even missing, as revolutionaries didn’t always take the trouble to note the names of victims and keep up-to-date registers. ↑
3. Here are the dates of the nine shootings at the Champ-des-Martyrs: January 12, 1794 (105 men shot); January 15 (300 victims); January 18 (250 people); January 20 (408 victims – this was when Turreau’s infernal columns began to operate); January 21 (70 men and 80 women); January 22 (80 women); February 1 (400 people); February 10 (200 people); April 16 (99 people). The eighty-four “martyrs of Angers” shot belonged to the five shootings of January 12 and 18, February 1 and 10 and April 16. ↑
4. “It was a deserted field, located in the enclosure of the former Haye-aux-Bonshommes.Bonshommes, west of Angers, two kilometers from the city walls.” (Positio, p. 164.) ↑
5. They are Sister Rosalie de la Sorinière (a Calvary nun), Marie de la Dive, wife of Henri de la Sorinière and sister-in-law of the former, and Renée-Marie Feillatreau, widow of Dumont. ↑
6. In Angers, the guillotine was erected from late October 1793 to mid-October 1794 on Place du Ralliement (then known as Place de la Guillotine), a square created in 1791 after the demolition of three churches. The death machine had been erected on the site of the high altar of the former Saint-Pierre church. The guillotine claimed 285 victims, including 31 clergymen. ↑
7. On February 18, 1794, the doctors on duty at the Calvaire prison wrote to the Revolutionary Committee: “Pregnant women and nursing mothers are exposed to terrible misery, their children dying at birth or languishing perched between the emaciated arms of those who gave birth to them. Some mothers have seen five or six of their children perish in their arms, without being able to provide the slightest relief. There’s not a day goes by when six or eight unfortunates die on Calvary alone. If we don’t remedy the abuses a little, we’ll see diseases spread from one to the next, and into the very heart of the city.” ↑
8. See Positio, pp. 364-371 and Yves DAOUD AL, Guillaume Repin…, p. 103-104. The eldest son of Perrine Turpault, François-Joseph-Paul, later wrote to the mayor of Cholet: “As the son of a mother who bore the greatest testimony to the truth, since she preferred death to the most innocent lie under the reign of terror, this lesson has always been engraved in my memory.” (Positio, p. 587). ↑
9. Abbé GRUGET, Les Fusillades du Champ-des-martyrs, p. 31-32. Quoted in the Positio, p. 402-403. Abbé Gruget concludes his account as follows: “[The commander] might have wanted to save them, but that would have meant compromising himself with the revolutionary court. 10. He preferred, like Pilate, to act and pronounce against his conscience. He gave the order to shoot…”. ↑
11. Positio, p. 152-154. ↑
12. In the transfer note sent by the Revolutionary Committee to the President of the Criminal Court, the signatories write: “We are sending you, brother and friend, an interrogation of Langellerie, an ex-refractory priest. We are counting on your zeal to speed up his trial. Bread is scarce. Greetings and brotherhood.” (Positio, p. 155.) ↑
13. They were arrested on the denunciation of a certain Maillard, whom Mme de Luigné had once charitably raised. Imprisoned at Calvaire, Mme de Luigné and her daughter Louise-Aimée were shot at the Champ-des-martyrs on February 1, 1794, but Catherine and Françoise, although condemned to death, were spared and settled after the Revolution in Abbé Gruget’s parish (La Trinité d’Angers). 14. See Positio, p. 246 ff. ↑
15. Positio, p. 29 ff. ↑
16. Positio, p. 177-178. ↑
17. Positio, pp. 322-333. ↑
18. Interrogation of A Fournier by the Cholet revolutionary committee, December 29, 1793 (Positio, p. 168-169). ↑
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| BREAKING: Cdl. Fernandez urges SSPX to drop plan to consecrate bishops |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-12-2026, 10:45 AM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX
- Replies (1)
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BREAKING: Cdl. Fernandez urges SSPX to drop plan to consecrate bishops
If the consecrations go ahead, the Vatican will recognize the crime of 'schism' on the part of the Society of St. Pius X.
![[Image: Untitled-36.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Untitled-36.png)
Argentine cardinal and Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Victor Manuel Fernández presides over the sixth Novemdiales Mass held for the late Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica, on May 1, 2025 in Vatican City
Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
Feb 12, 2026
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [Emphasis The Catacombs]) — Hopes for an agreement between the Vatican and the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) were dashed this morning after a meeting between the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) and Father Davide Pagliarani.
Today Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and Fr. Pagliarani, the superior general of the SSPX, met in Rome for what the Vatican’s media chief, Matteo Bruni, had described on February 5 as “an opportunity for an informal and personal dialogue.” However, a communique released after the meeting revealed that Fernández threatened Pagliarani and the SSPX with the crime of “schism” if the episcopal consecrations announced by the Society go ahead.
The message noted that Fernández offered Pagliarani the initiation of a dialogue on several contentious issues, including whether God willed the plurality of religions, and the degree of the binding authority of the documents of the Second Vatican Council. However, this dialogue would presuppose the suspension of the SSPX’s intention to create bishops without papal sanction. According to the document:
Quote:It was reiterated by the Holy See that the ordination of bishops without the mandate of the Holy Father, who holds supreme ordinary power, which is full, universal, direct, and immediate, and direct (cf. CDC, can. 331; Dogmatic Constitution Pastor aeternus, chaps. I and III), would imply a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism) with grave consequences for the Fraternity as a whole (JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei, July 2, 1988, nos. 3 and 5c; PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR 1 LEGISLATIVE TEXTS, Explanatory Note, August 24, 1996, no. 1). Therefore, the possibility of carrying out this dialogue presupposes that the Fraternity suspend the decision of the announced episcopal ordinations.
The communique reported that Fernández had, after clarifying theological points on which the SSPX and the DDF have disagreed, proposed “a path of specifically theological dialogue, with a well-defined methodology.” He also “proposed to address a series of issues listed by the FSSPX in a letter dated January 17, 2019.”
This dialogue would contain the carrot of a clear canonical status for the Society.
“The purpose of this process would be to highlight, among the issues under discussion, the minimum requirements for full communion with the Catholic Church and, consequently, to outline a canonical statute for the Fraternity, along with other aspects to be further explored,” the communique stated.
According to the DDF, Pagliarani will now “present the proposal to his Council and give his response to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In the event of a positive response, the steps, stages, and procedures to be followed will be established by mutual agreement.”
“The whole Church is asked to accompany this journey, especially in the coming days, with prayer to the Holy Spirit. He is the principal architect of the true ecclesial communion desired by Christ,” the statement concluded.
This morning’s meeting, proposed by Fernández, followed the Society’s February 2 announcement that they would consecrate new bishops this July 1. The late founder of the Society, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, famously ordained four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II on June 30, 1988. He took this step to ensure that Catholic Tradition, as he and the SSPX understood it, would survive in the post Vatican II-era Church.
Lefebvre, together with the new bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta, were subsequently declared excommunicated latae sententiae by the pope. The excommunications of the four bishops were lifted by Pope Benedict on January 21, 2009; Lefebvre had died on March 25, 1991. As of today, only two of those prelates are still living: Fellay and De Galaretta.
In its February 2 communique, the SSPX explained that Pagliarani had approached the Vatican on the subject of consecrating new bishops in August:
Quote:Last August, he sought the favour of an audience with the Holy Father, making known his desire to present to the Holy Father, in a filial manner, the current situation of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X.
In a second letter, he explicitly expressed the particular need of the Society to ensure the continuation of the ministry of its bishops, who have been travelling the world for nearly 40 years to respond to the many faithful attached to the Tradition of the Church and desirous, for the good of their souls, that the sacraments of Holy Orders and Confirmation be conferred.
However, despite the support and encouragement the Society had been offered by his late predecessor Francis, who had explicitly permitted SSPX priests to hear confessions and officiate at weddings, Pope Leo apparently did not give the Society permission to ordain new bishops. As the communique continues, Pagliarani decided to plan new episcopal consecrations anyway:
Quote:After having long matured his reflection in prayer, and having received from the Holy See, in recent days, a letter which does not in any way respond to our requests, Father Pagliarani, in harmony with the unanimous advice of his Council, judges that the objective state of grave necessity in which souls find themselves requires such a decision.
This clearly follows Lefebvre’s precedent, and the SSPX quoted their late founder in explaining Pagliarani’s rationale:
Quote:The Society [of Saint Pius X] is not primarily seeking its own survival. It primarily seeks the good of the Universal Church and, for this reason, the Society is, par excellence, a work of the Church, which, with unique freedom and strength, responds adequately to the specific needs of an unprecedentedly tragic era.
This single goal is still ours today, just as it was 50 years ago. “That is why, without any spirit of rebellion, bitterness, or resentment, we pursue our work of forming priests, with the timeless Magisterium as our guide. We are persuaded that we can render no greater service to the Holy Catholic Church, to the Sovereign Pontiff and to posterity (Abp. Lefebvre, Declaration of 21 November 1974).”
It is yet unknown who the candidates for the SSPX’s planned episcopal consecrations are.
Developing….
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| Pope Leo approves Pontifical Marian Academy statutes rejecting ‘maximalism’ in devotion to Our Lady |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-12-2026, 10:35 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Pope Leo approves Pontifical Marian Academy statutes rejecting ‘maximalism’ in devotion to Our Lady
The statutes also say that the spread of Marian ‘knowledge’ should serve not only the Church but a ‘universal brotherhood in solidarity, justice, and world peace.’
![[Image: GettyImages-2248107846-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2248107846-810x500.jpg)
Pope Leo XIV gives a speech as he joins Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (not pictured)
during a cultural program in the library of the Presidential Palace on November 27, 2025, in Ankara, Turkey
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Feb 11, 2026
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV has approved new statutes of the Pontifical International Marian Academy that express the goal of avoiding “maximalism” in Marian devotions.
On Saturday, the Vatican published new statutes regarding the “identity and purpose” and governing composition and structure of the Pontifical Marian Academy. A few clauses of the statutes could potentially be used as a pretext for rejecting certain Marian devotions, prompting at least one commentator to describe them as an attempt to subtly alter and weaken Marian devotion.
For example, while expressing the academy’s mission of promoting, supporting, and coordinating Marian research, Article 4 of the statutes declares that this should be conducted “in view of a healthy popular piety to avoid any form of maximalism or minimalism.”
The statues also proclaim that Marian piety should not be “reduced to a sterile devotionism, but give life to Marian places that promote the well-being and integral development of the human person in harmony with the environment.” This particular clause suggests that Marian devotion has as its aim the “well-being and development” of the person and the benefit of the environment, rather than the honor of the Blessed Mother and the spiritual welfare of the person.
“While no faithful Catholic would defend superstition or doctrinal excess detached from the Church’s teaching authority, the terminology employed seems to subtly redefine what generations of saints, theologians, and popes promoted without hesitation,” remarked the Radical Fidelity Substack.
Significantly, the statutes also restructure the Academy to include as its members so-called “‘mariology sents’ of other Christian denominations, as well as other religions and cultures,” meaning its members may include people who reject Catholic teaching on the Blessed Mother, such as on her Immaculate Conception and role as Mediatrix.
In addition, the spread of Marian “knowledge” is to serve not only the Church but a “universal brotherhood in solidarity, justice, and world peace,” according to the statutes. The concept of a “universal brotherhood” united in anything other than the Church and her faith, worship, and sacraments is not a Catholic one. As Bishop Marian Eleganti has put it, “For the sake of the indispensable mediation of Jesus Christ, we should not speak of universal brotherhood, but of charity in the sense of the parable of the Good Samaritan.”
“It is clear that this is an attempt by the Synodal Modernists to reshape Marian theology according to the sensitivities of Protestant sects, false religions, and even atheist perspectives, all to diminish devotion to Our Lady, traditionally honored as the Destroyer of Heresies,” commented Radical Fidelity.
The Academy now must also conduct its activities in coordination with dicasteries such as the Dicastery for Culture and Education, which is currently headed by the heterodox prelate Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, a consistent promoter of LGBT ideology.
Radical Fidelity has suggested that what Catholics need is not the Vatican’s current rejection of Mary’s titles of Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix, and consequent downplaying of her powerful role in our salvation — and therefore weakening of our devotion to her — but a “more authentic, doctrinally rooted, and confidently proclaimed devotion that recognizes that all true honor given to Mary ultimately redounds to the glory of her Son.”
“In this age marked by the doctrinal confusion and spiritual indifference that is promoted by the squatters in Rome, the safest path remains the one consistently recommended by Tradition: Ad Jesum per Mariam.”
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| The Pope is Just the Vicar: On the Footsteps of Fr. Calmel, O.P. |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-11-2026, 09:48 AM - Forum: Sedevacantism
- No Replies
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The Pope is Just the Vicar: On the Footsteps of Fr. Calmel, O.P.
![[Image: roger_calmel.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9dperR2lKSdqnjR912-UPvajDspKLGKCwMgmEA9SNsChyphenhyphendrk6bjtlTNAtLEVsbS_qQIb2f556wDcoSYGpexllZ5kA1TQWVuLjuFCBsKcTGOPQMSygIX-8gYh2DuIUJ2cx5PHofw/s1600/roger_calmel.jpg)
THE POPE IS JUST THE VICAR
by Cristiana de Magistris on conciliovaticanosecondo.it and published also in Corrispondenza Romana via Rorate Caeli [Emphasis The Catacombs] | October 10, 2014
When, in the years of Vatican Council II and the immediate post-Council, with revolutionary winds blowing over the Church of Christ, a Dominican theologian, Father Roger-Thomas Calmel, raised his counter-revolutionary banner, with his pen and his word, his voice was heard calling the faithful to relentless resistance in fidelity to Tradition always with an attitude of peace and even spiritual joy amongst trial.
The message of Father Calmel has never ceased to be relevant. But it becomes of particular interest when one is faced with it anew - and it is our case - of truth "always, everywhere and by all" established begins to waft the breath of the baleful doubt, starting from the top of the Catholic hierarchy.
The prophetic spirit of Father Calmel, is like few in the past 50 years, he had foreseen this tragic possibility and warned the faithful by providing them with the weapons to remain faithful to the Church at all times and thereby avoid the temptation of sedevacantism or even that which is more deadly, despair.
Since this is a crisis of authority, by which the errors are advocated by those who would have the task of condemning them, the point of departure, which is fundamental and indispensable, is to understand where the power of Authority comes from, starting at its vertex, the Pope.
Father Calmel began by stating that the Head of the Church is one, our Lord Jesus Christ, who "is always infallible, always sinless, always holy [...]. He is the only Head, because everyone else, including the highest, have no authority except by Him and through Him. "Going up to the sky, this invisible Head left to his Church a visible head as His Vicar, the Pope, "who only enjoys a supreme jurisdiction." "But if the Pope is the Vicar of Jesus, [...], he is only the Vicar: vicens regens, taking the place of Jesus Christ, but remains distinct from Him. "Evidently the Pope's prerogatives are quite exceptional, guarding the means of grace, the sacraments, and the revealed truth. He enjoys, in some cases, well-circumscribed and determined infallibility. For the rest, "he could be lacking in many regards." Church history - apart from a bunch of Pope Saints and a small number of unworthy Popes –is full of mediocre and imperfect Popes. This should neither surprise nor frighten. On the contrary, it is precisely in weakness, and sometimes even in the unworthiness, of the popes that brings out the Lordship of our Savior, who is the only Head of the Church, on which he exercises His government "holding in His hand even the insufficient Popes as well as their failures and limits".
Now, Father Calmel warns, because this trust in the invisible Head of the Church is so profound as to exceed all possible deficiencies of His Vicar on earth, it is necessary that our spiritual life "is referring to Jesus Christ and not to the Pope; that our interior life, which embraces - no need to say it - even the Pope and the hierarchy, is based not on hierarchy and the Pope, but on the divine Pontiff [...] from whom the visible supreme Vicar depend even more than other priests".
And for good reason, obvious to all as well as very basic: "The Church - writes this illustrious son of St. Dominic - it is not the mystical body of the Pope. The Church, with the Pope, is the mystical body of Christ. When the interior life of Christians is increasingly oriented to Jesus Christ, they do not fall into despair, even when they suffer unto agony from the shortcomings of the pope, be it an Honorius I or the antagonist popes at the end of the Middle Ages; or be it, in the extreme case of a pope who is lacking according to the new possibilities offered by modernism. "Even if a pope had come to the extreme limit to change the Faith", or blindness or spirit or fantasy (chimera) or to a mortal illusion" (among many offered by modernism), well, "the pope who could come to this point would not deprive the Lord Jesus His infallible government, who holds him in His hand, the pope mislead, and He would prevents him from committing to the perversion of faith, the authority received from above."
But even in these unfortunate cases, the interior life of Christians cannot exclude the Pope, without ceasing to be Christian. A real interior life, necessarily centered on Jesus Christ, always includes his Vicar and the obedience due to him, but "this obedience, far from being unconditional, is always practiced in the light of theological faith and natural law."
And here comes the thorny issue of obedience to the Vicar of Christ. Thorny, notes once again Father Calmel, only for those who want to ignore or disregard the articles of the Catholic faith regarding the Supreme Pontiff. It should be recalled that every Christian lives "through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ, through His Church, which is governed by the Pope, to whom we obey in all that is within his competence. We do not live totally, by and for the Pope, as though it were he that had purchased eternal redemption; that's why Christian obedience can neither always nor in all things identify the Pope with Jesus Christ. "
A Christian who wants to be unconditionally acceptable to the Pope, always and in everything "has necessarily abandoned himself to human respect" and he "demonstrates much superficiality and complicity." It is also true, recognizes the Dominican theologian, he who often preached obedience to the Vicar of Christ, which has more than the stench of servitude than the perfume of virtue, sometimes to make a career, or to prepare his head for the cardinal's hat, or to give luster to his Order or to his Congregation. But note well, "neither God nor the service of the Pope are in need of our lie: Deus non eget nostro mendacio." We must always remember the subordination of obedience to the truth and authority of Tradition. The Pope, like all men of the Church, cannot legitimately use of his authority if not to define or clarify the truth that has always been taught. If one depart from this path, it would cease the duty of our obedience and would be worth the admonition of St. Peter: "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
The Pope – in as much as he is Pope - it is not always infallible, and - as a man - is never flawless. "We should not be shocked if trials, sometimes very cruel, came upon, the Church precisely by its visible head. We should not be shocked if, although subject to the Pope, we cannot follow him blindly, unconditionally, always and in everything. "But what can we do if a situation of this kind become the sad and unfortunate reality? In this case it should even more strongly orient one's interior life to the only Savior and Lord of the world, feeding of the Apostolic Tradition, with its dogmas, its immortal Missal and the Catechism, as well as prayer and penance.
On the other hand, Revelation has never taught that the Vicar of Christ is immune from inflicting on the Church such trials of this sort. And modernism, reigning for fifty years, it is certainly a fertile ground for them to sprout. But, if that happens - as seems to be happening - even though a sort of bewilderment and vertigo assail the souls of the faithful, we must remember that the Church is the Bride of Christ and it is He who - despite the human failures – guides us in His ineffable and often to us, incomprehensible providence. Father Calmel compares the state of our interior life overwhelmed by such a test to the prayer of the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane, when he said to the apostles while the soldiers were advancing: Sinite usque huc (Lk 22,51). "It's as if the Lord said: Scandal can get to this point; but leave it be, and according to My recommendation, watch and pray ... With My consent to drink the chalice, I have merited all grace for you, while you were asleep and you left Me alone; for you in particular I have obtained a grace of supernatural strength, that will be the measure of all your trials, also of the trials that could come to the Holy Church by the part of the Pope. I've now given you the ability of escaping this vertigo. "
The Christian soul that founds their interior life on the perennial Tradition has nothing to fear, even in what Father Calmel believes the worst of the trials for the Church: the betrayal of the Vicar.
With the optimism of the holy souls, while recognizing the immense tragedy that grips the Bride of Christ, he holds it to be, however, a grace to live in these times of trial, in which the greatest suffering of the children of the Church is precisely that it cannot follow the Pope as they would like. "We are docile children of the Pope, but we refuse to enter into complicity with the papal directives that lead to sin." Cardinal Cajetan does not hesitate to say that "We must resist the Pope who publicly destroys the Church." It is, in these cases, of a kind of "eclipse of the Papacy". This test, however, notes Father Calmel, cannot be "neither entire nor too long" and - above all - "we have the grace to sanctify ourselves" in this eclipse in which the Church is the Bride of Christ, despite everything. As was his habit, to elevate his gaze toward heaven and said, "We have the grace to suffer and endure without making it a tragedy. The Holy Virgin defends us. “
So, what to do?
The true children of the Church, as most wish to again see their Mother clothed in her glorious splendor, beginning with the visible Head, all the more they must put their lives, with the grace of God and preserving the Tradition, in the wake of the Saints. "Then the Lord Jesus will ultimately grant to His flock the shepherd of which he will endeavored to render himself worthy. To the insufficiencies or the defection of the Head, we must not add our own personal negligence. That the apostolic Tradition will live at least in the hearts of the faithful, even if, at the moment, languishing in the heart and in the decisions of those who are responsible at the level of the Church. Then surely the Lord will have mercy.” The true kind.
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| The Pope is Just the Vicar: On the Footsteps of Fr. Calmel, O.P. |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-11-2026, 09:47 AM - Forum: Uncompromising Fighters for the Faith
- No Replies
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The Pope is Just the Vicar: On the Footsteps of Fr. Calmel, O.P.
THE POPE IS JUST THE VICAR
by Cristiana de Magistris on conciliovaticanosecondo.it and published also in Corrispondenza Romana via Rorate Caeli [Emphasis The Catacombs] | October 10, 2014
When, in the years of Vatican Council II and the immediate post-Council, with revolutionary winds blowing over the Church of Christ, a Dominican theologian, Father Roger-Thomas Calmel, raised his counter-revolutionary banner, with his pen and his word, his voice was heard calling the faithful to relentless resistance in fidelity to Tradition always with an attitude of peace and even spiritual joy amongst trial.
The message of Father Calmel has never ceased to be relevant. But it becomes of particular interest when one is faced with it anew - and it is our case - of truth "always, everywhere and by all" established begins to waft the breath of the baleful doubt, starting from the top of the Catholic hierarchy.
The prophetic spirit of Father Calmel, is like few in the past 50 years, he had foreseen this tragic possibility and warned the faithful by providing them with the weapons to remain faithful to the Church at all times and thereby avoid the temptation of sedevacantism or even that which is more deadly, despair.
Since this is a crisis of authority, by which the errors are advocated by those who would have the task of condemning them, the point of departure, which is fundamental and indispensable, is to understand where the power of Authority comes from, starting at its vertex, the Pope.
Father Calmel began by stating that the Head of the Church is one, our Lord Jesus Christ, who "is always infallible, always sinless, always holy [...]. He is the only Head, because everyone else, including the highest, have no authority except by Him and through Him. "Going up to the sky, this invisible Head left to his Church a visible head as His Vicar, the Pope, "who only enjoys a supreme jurisdiction." "But if the Pope is the Vicar of Jesus, [...], he is only the Vicar: vicens regens, taking the place of Jesus Christ, but remains distinct from Him. "Evidently the Pope's prerogatives are quite exceptional, guarding the means of grace, the sacraments, and the revealed truth. He enjoys, in some cases, well-circumscribed and determined infallibility. For the rest, "he could be lacking in many regards." Church history - apart from a bunch of Pope Saints and a small number of unworthy Popes –is full of mediocre and imperfect Popes. This should neither surprise nor frighten. On the contrary, it is precisely in weakness, and sometimes even in the unworthiness, of the popes that brings out the Lordship of our Savior, who is the only Head of the Church, on which he exercises His government "holding in His hand even the insufficient Popes as well as their failures and limits".
Now, Father Calmel warns, because this trust in the invisible Head of the Church is so profound as to exceed all possible deficiencies of His Vicar on earth, it is necessary that our spiritual life "is referring to Jesus Christ and not to the Pope; that our interior life, which embraces - no need to say it - even the Pope and the hierarchy, is based not on hierarchy and the Pope, but on the divine Pontiff [...] from whom the visible supreme Vicar depend even more than other priests".
And for good reason, obvious to all as well as very basic: "The Church - writes this illustrious son of St. Dominic - it is not the mystical body of the Pope. The Church, with the Pope, is the mystical body of Christ. When the interior life of Christians is increasingly oriented to Jesus Christ, they do not fall into despair, even when they suffer unto agony from the shortcomings of the pope, be it an Honorius I or the antagonist popes at the end of the Middle Ages; or be it, in the extreme case of a pope who is lacking according to the new possibilities offered by modernism. "Even if a pope had come to the extreme limit to change the Faith", or blindness or spirit or fantasy (chimera) or to a mortal illusion" (among many offered by modernism), well, "the pope who could come to this point would not deprive the Lord Jesus His infallible government, who holds him in His hand, the pope mislead, and He would prevents him from committing to the perversion of faith, the authority received from above."
But even in these unfortunate cases, the interior life of Christians cannot exclude the Pope, without ceasing to be Christian. A real interior life, necessarily centered on Jesus Christ, always includes his Vicar and the obedience due to him, but "this obedience, far from being unconditional, is always practiced in the light of theological faith and natural law."
And here comes the thorny issue of obedience to the Vicar of Christ. Thorny, notes once again Father Calmel, only for those who want to ignore or disregard the articles of the Catholic faith regarding the Supreme Pontiff. It should be recalled that every Christian lives "through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ, through His Church, which is governed by the Pope, to whom we obey in all that is within his competence. We do not live totally, by and for the Pope, as though it were he that had purchased eternal redemption; that's why Christian obedience can neither always nor in all things identify the Pope with Jesus Christ. "
A Christian who wants to be unconditionally acceptable to the Pope, always and in everything "has necessarily abandoned himself to human respect" and he "demonstrates much superficiality and complicity." It is also true, recognizes the Dominican theologian, he who often preached obedience to the Vicar of Christ, which has more than the stench of servitude than the perfume of virtue, sometimes to make a career, or to prepare his head for the cardinal's hat, or to give luster to his Order or to his Congregation. But note well, "neither God nor the service of the Pope are in need of our lie: Deus non eget nostro mendacio." We must always remember the subordination of obedience to the truth and authority of Tradition. The Pope, like all men of the Church, cannot legitimately use of his authority if not to define or clarify the truth that has always been taught. If one depart from this path, it would cease the duty of our obedience and would be worth the admonition of St. Peter: "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
The Pope – in as much as he is Pope - it is not always infallible, and - as a man - is never flawless. "We should not be shocked if trials, sometimes very cruel, came upon, the Church precisely by its visible head. We should not be shocked if, although subject to the Pope, we cannot follow him blindly, unconditionally, always and in everything. "But what can we do if a situation of this kind become the sad and unfortunate reality? In this case it should even more strongly orient one's interior life to the only Savior and Lord of the world, feeding of the Apostolic Tradition, with its dogmas, its immortal Missal and the Catechism, as well as prayer and penance.
On the other hand, Revelation has never taught that the Vicar of Christ is immune from inflicting on the Church such trials of this sort. And modernism, reigning for fifty years, it is certainly a fertile ground for them to sprout. But, if that happens - as seems to be happening - even though a sort of bewilderment and vertigo assail the souls of the faithful, we must remember that the Church is the Bride of Christ and it is He who - despite the human failures – guides us in His ineffable and often to us, incomprehensible providence. Father Calmel compares the state of our interior life overwhelmed by such a test to the prayer of the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane, when he said to the apostles while the soldiers were advancing: Sinite usque huc (Lk 22,51). "It's as if the Lord said: Scandal can get to this point; but leave it be, and according to My recommendation, watch and pray ... With My consent to drink the chalice, I have merited all grace for you, while you were asleep and you left Me alone; for you in particular I have obtained a grace of supernatural strength, that will be the measure of all your trials, also of the trials that could come to the Holy Church by the part of the Pope. I've now given you the ability of escaping this vertigo. "
The Christian soul that founds their interior life on the perennial Tradition has nothing to fear, even in what Father Calmel believes the worst of the trials for the Church: the betrayal of the Vicar.
With the optimism of the holy souls, while recognizing the immense tragedy that grips the Bride of Christ, he holds it to be, however, a grace to live in these times of trial, in which the greatest suffering of the children of the Church is precisely that it cannot follow the Pope as they would like. "We are docile children of the Pope, but we refuse to enter into complicity with the papal directives that lead to sin." Cardinal Cajetan does not hesitate to say that "We must resist the Pope who publicly destroys the Church." It is, in these cases, of a kind of "eclipse of the Papacy". This test, however, notes Father Calmel, cannot be "neither entire nor too long" and - above all - "we have the grace to sanctify ourselves" in this eclipse in which the Church is the Bride of Christ, despite everything. As was his habit, to elevate his gaze toward heaven and said, "We have the grace to suffer and endure without making it a tragedy. The Holy Virgin defends us. “
So, what to do?
The true children of the Church, as most wish to again see their Mother clothed in her glorious splendor, beginning with the visible Head, all the more they must put their lives, with the grace of God and preserving the Tradition, in the wake of the Saints. "Then the Lord Jesus will ultimately grant to His flock the shepherd of which he will endeavored to render himself worthy. To the insufficiencies or the defection of the Head, we must not add our own personal negligence. That the apostolic Tradition will live at least in the hearts of the faithful, even if, at the moment, languishing in the heart and in the decisions of those who are responsible at the level of the Church. Then surely the Lord will have mercy.” The true kind.
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