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| Leo XIV calls for respect for 'the rites promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI and Pope Saint John Paul |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-15-2026, 08:53 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Leo XIV Backs Liturgical Program after 'Traditionis Custodes'
gloria.tv | August 14, 2026
Leo XIV has sent a message to Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship. The occasion is a meeting at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon devoted to liturgical formation. Dated June 29, the brief message was published today in the Vatican bulletin.
The text appears to reinforce Cardinal Roche’s recent statement that Leo XIV does not intend to abolish Traditionis Custodes.
Leo XIV calls for respect for “the rites promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI and Pope Saint John Paul II.” He adds that this respect must spring from “sincere fidelity to ecclesial communion.”
Furthermore, Leo XIV relies heavily on Francis’ 2022 Apostolic Letter Desiderio Desideravi, quoting it several times. That document was closely connected to the post Traditionis Custodes liturgical program and contains a strong defence of the post-Vatican II reform.
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| Umberto Longo: a Freemason appointed to the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-15-2026, 08:51 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Umberto Longo: a Freemason appointed to the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences
![[Image: Screenshot_20260814_233515_ChatGPT-930x600.jpg]](https://infovaticana.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Screenshot_20260814_233515_ChatGPT-930x600.jpg)
InfoVaticana [Slightly adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original] | August 15, 2026
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Italian historian Umberto Longo, director of the Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo and full professor of Medieval History at La Sapienza University of Rome, as a member of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences. The appointment was officially announced by the Holy See on August 13, together with those of Francesco Cesareo and Anna Barańska, and reported by Vatican News.
The relevant fact is that Longo’s membership in Freemasonry does not simply follow from his attendance at conferences organized by lodges. There are documents published by Italian Masonic institutions themselves that present him as a “Fratello,” attribute to him specific degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and place him in internal positions. The documentation is considerably stronger than what a mere proximity to Masonic circles might suggest.
The first evidence appears in Logos, the publication of the Regional Inspectorate of Lazio of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, corresponding to 2013. On the page dedicated to the “Cariche per il 2013” of the Loggia di Perfezione Maestri Segreti «Giano», Oriente di Roma, it expressly lists “Fr. Oratore Umberto Longo 4°”. The magazine itself immediately clarifies that the degrees indicated are those held by each “Fratello” at the time of assuming office.
We are not, therefore, dealing with the name of an external guest. “Fr.” means Fratello, brother; “Oratore” is the position Longo held within that Lodge of Perfection, and “4°” indicates his degree in the Scottish Rite. The same issue of Logos also publishes various works under the heading “Le Tavole del Fr. Oratore Umberto Longo 4°” —nine ritual tables engraved for the Lodge’s work during 2013— and a study on the history of the Rite again signed “Fr. Umberto Longo 4°”. In the introduction, the Regional Inspector for Lazio expressly presents the fascicle as the collection of the tables engraved “a cura dell’Oratore Fr. Umberto Longo 4°”.
To this documentation is added a second official source, this time from the Grande Oriente d’Italia. Its magazine Erasmo, issue 7-8 of 2013, reports on a “Tornata di I° Grado” held on March 25 at the Casa Massonica Romana in Piazzale degli Archivi. The chronicle explains that numerous brothers and Worshipful Masters participated and expressly lists among the latter Umberto Longo. It was not an open academic congress, but ritual Masonic work of the first degree.
But probably the most significant documentary evidence appears when crossing two different sources from 2014. On July 8, 2014, the official website of the Grande Oriente d’Italia announced that Umberto Longo would deliver the following day, within the so-called “Luglio Scozzese” organized by the Regional Inspectorate of Lazio, a lecture entitled “La via dinamica di perfezionamento dei Cavalieri Scozzesi. Tradizione e ritualità, rigenerazione e universalità”.
That same work, with exactly the same title, appears published in the 2014 issue of Logos, the magazine of the Scottish Rite. And there the author is unequivocally identified as “Fr. U. Longo 9°”. The Grande Oriente publicly attributes the lecture to Umberto Longo; the Scottish Rite publication reproduces that same intervention and attributes it to “Brother U. Longo,” ninth degree. The same issue also includes the “Tavola d’Agape 2013 del Fr. Oratore U. Longo 9°”: the annual ritual agape of the “Giano” Lodge, whose prayer was once again delivered by the same Orator whom the magazine had identified the previous year with full name and surname.
The content of the text is equally revealing. Longo does not write from the perspective of an external researcher describing the rituals as a historical object. He speaks of the “privilege of participating in an initiation rite”, of using the instruments that “Freemasonry makes available”, and of the aspirations of Masons and the duties of Scottish Knights.
The documentation does not end in 2014. In Logos of 2015 appears another intervention entitled “La piramide rituale scozzese”, signed “Fr. U. Longo 9°”. The text is again written unequivocally from within the Rite. Longo uses expressions such as “nel rituale di IV Grado ci sono stati fatti compiere” and, even more explicitly, “Come massoni e scozzesi abbiamo quindi…”: “As Masons and Scots, therefore, we have…”. It is difficult to conceive of a more direct formulation regarding the condition from which the author writes.
The identification admits no doubt
LifeSiteNews, which reported on the case on August 14, introduced some formal caution regarding the identification between the “Fr. Umberto Longo” of the ritual publications and the professor at La Sapienza. The cross-referencing of the primary sources makes that caution untenable.
In 2019, the Grande Oriente d’Italia again included Umberto Longo as a speaker —presented as a historian, alongside Carlo Ricotti— at the congress organized in Rome by the “Dio e Popolo” lodge no. 786 and the Collegio Circoscrizionale dei Maestri Venerabili del Lazio on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the Roman Republic.
And in December 2022 the identification is sealed by the very organization of the event. Longo participated in Venice in a conference dedicated to Hugo Pratt and the initiatory universe of Corto Maltese, and the organizing entity expressly identified the speaker as “prof. Umberto Longo, professore ordinario di Storia Medievale a La Sapienza Università di Roma”. The event was sponsored by the Fondazione Scozzese Triveneta; the closing greetings were delivered by Gian-Paolo Barbi, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; and the honorary president of the organizing association was Luigi Milazzi, exactly the same Sovereign Grand Commander who heads the organizational chart of the Supreme Council in the issues of Logos from 2013, 2014, and 2015 in which “Fr. Umberto Longo” signs. The professor at La Sapienza who speaks on esotericism under Scottish sponsorship in 2022, before the leadership of the Rite, is the same person whom the Rite had been publishing as a brother of the fourth and ninth degrees.
The sequence established by the open sources is, therefore, unequivocal: in 2013 Longo appears in internal documentation as “Fr. Oratore Umberto Longo 4°” and the Grande Oriente includes him among the Worshipful Masters present at a ritual meeting; in 2014 the Scottish Rite publishes as “Fr. U. Longo 9°” exactly the same lecture that the Grande Oriente publicly attributes to Umberto Longo; in 2015 he again signs as ninth degree a text in which he speaks in the first person as a member of the “Masons and Scots”; in 2019 the Grande Oriente presents him as a speaker at one of its lodges; and in 2022 he speaks, identified by name, surname, and chair, at an event sponsored by a Scottish foundation and closed by the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Rite.
There is, therefore, more than sufficient primary documentation to establish that Umberto Longo belongs to Freemasonry, held positions in a Lodge of Perfection, and attained at least the ninth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. No public source records any act of abandonment, resignation, or rupture with the institution; on the contrary, his connection with the circles of the Rite is documented continuously at least until December 2022, barely three and a half years before his pontifical appointment. If Longo had ceased to be a Mason, it is up to him—or to the Holy See, which appointed him—to prove it. The documents published by the Masonic organizations themselves say what they say.
What the Church teaches about Freemasonry
The appointment takes on special relevance in light of the Church’s position on Freemasonry. The Declaration on Freemasonry of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of 1983, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and approved by John Paul II, establishes that the Church’s negative judgment remains unchanged because the principles of Masonic associations are incompatible with Catholic doctrine. Membership remains prohibited, and the faithful enrolled in them are, the document states, in a state of grave sin and cannot receive Holy Communion.
The Holy See reiterated that position in November 2023, when the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recalled, with the approval of Pope Francis, that the active membership of a faithful in Freemasonry is prohibited by the “irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry.”
It is not recorded that Umberto Longo is Catholic, so it would not be correct to automatically transfer to him the canonical consequences that those documents establish for the faithful. Nor is that the question: the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences is an academic body that has included non-Catholic members. The question raised by his appointment is another, and more serious: Leo XIV has incorporated into a pontifical body—precisely the one in charge of historical sciences, a field where historiography inspired by Freemasonry has its own well-known agenda regarding the Risorgimento, the Papal States, or the historical processes of the Church—a Mason of the ninth degree of the Scottish Rite, brother, Worshipful Master, and officer of a Lodge of Perfection according to the official publications of the Rite and the Grande Oriente d’Italia themselves.
The evidence does not come from anonymous lists, leaks, or accusations by third parties. It has been published for years on the official pages of Italian Freemasonry. The question that remains in the air is who prepared the proposal for the appointment and what filter was applied—if any was applied—before placing it on the Pope’s desk. This medium has requested comments from the interested party and from the Holy See Press Office.
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| Catholic funerals for two Freemasons stopped by Church authorities - Canon 1184 cited |
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Posted by: SAguide - 08-13-2026, 02:10 PM - Forum: General Commentary
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Catholic funerals for two Freemasons stopped by Church authorities
Two planned Catholic funerals for Freemasons were stopped in
Italy after diocesan authorities applied canon law.
ROME ( LifeSiteNews) — Two planned Catholic funerals for Freemasons were stopped in Italy after diocesan authorities applied canon law.
The Roman case concerned Bruno Battisti D’Amario, an 88-year-old respected classical guitarist and professor who died August 5. He was also closely associated with composer Ennio Morricone and performed guitar for several famous Italian Western film soundtracks. His funeral had been scheduled for August 7 at Santa Maria in Montesanto, commonly known as the “Church of the Artists.” The church was even due to be specially open for the ceremony during the August closure.
The Grand Orient of Italy (GOI) — the national leading Masonic lodge — published a public tribute identifying Battisti D’Amario as a “master brother” and stating that he founded the Roman Giuseppe Leti lodge, composed the GOI’s official anthem, and held senior positions within the organization. The GOI also said he had twice served as president of the regional council of Worshipful Masters in Lazio and as a councilor of the order. The public tribute was later deleted.
Church officials said they did not know about Battisti D’Amario’s Masonic affiliation when the funeral was arranged. Father Fabrizio Maria Gatta initially told La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana that the funeral had been requested by the daughter and that “God’s mercy goes beyond our categories, and it is not for us to run blood tests on someone who has died.”
“I have called Cardinal Reina, who is the Vicar General of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome and my direct superior, and after consulting the legal office of the Diocese of Rome he could do nothing other than deny authorization for the funeral Mass,” Staglianò told La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana. “Nothing prevents the artist from receiving Masses for the repose of his soul after the burial.”
The following day, the same issue arose in Camporosso in the Diocese of Ventimiglia-Sanremo. Bishop Setta learned only after the funeral had already been arranged that Tarducci belonged to a Masonic lodge and served as Worshipful Master. The information came from a local newspaper and public funeral notices.
On August 8, the diocese published an official statement declaring that Suetta discussed the matter with the parish priest and the deceased’s family and sought further instructions that could not be obtained within the limited time available. Faced with the simultaneous case in Rome, the bishop adopted the same indications given there by Cardinal Reina and ordered the planned funeral at St. Mark’s parish church not to take place.
The diocese explicitly cited Canon 1184, which states that ecclesiastical funerals are to be denied to those who, without showing signs of repentance before death, are “notoriously apostate, heretical or schismatic” or are “other manifest sinners” whose funerals would cause public scandal.
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| Pope Leo appoints pro-female ordination consultors to religious life dicastery |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-11-2026, 07:20 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Pope Leo appoints pro-female ordination consultors to religious life dicastery
Among the 15 new councilors are several figures who have publicly supported heterodox positions associated with the synodal reforms of Pope Francis.
![[Image: GettyImages-2249537295.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2249537295.jpg)
Pope Leo XIV
Adri Salido/Getty Images
Aug 10, 2026
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — Pope Leo XIV has appointed new consultors to the Vatican’s religious life dicastery, including advocates of LGBT ideology and “women’s ordination,” greater liturgical experimentation, and structural changes to Church governance.
On August 6, Pope Leo appointed 15 new consultors to the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, headed by Prefect Sister Simona Brambilla. The appointments include two bishops, five priests, two religious brothers, and six religious sisters, among them several figures who have publicly supported heterodox positions associated with the synodal reforms of Pope Francis.
Perhaps the most revealing appointment is Sister Patricia Murray, a former executive secretary of the International Union of Superiors General. Murray has been a prominent supporter of Francis’ understanding of so-called synodality within women’s religious life.
At a 2021 conference on synodality, Murray argued that discussions concerning controversial questions could not simply be excluded from the process. “We have to also allow the topics that people want to talk about to be named,” she said, explicitly mentioning women’s diaconate and priesthood.
Murray was also questioned about “the pain of LGBTQ+ people” during a Vatican press conference concerning the synod on October 16, 2023. “I think, at many of the tables, if not all, the question of hurt, and the woundedness of people both individually and collectively has been dealt with and listened to,” she answered.
She said participants discussed how the Church might “represent that hurt,” adding some had argued that apologies alone for “hurts that have been caused” were insufficient.
Another relevant appointment is Sister Maria Nirmalini, an Indian religious who participated in the 2023 Synod on Synodality. In an interview with Vatican News, Nirmalini called for a “liturgical reform … with less emphasis on uniformity and more on creativity.”
She also praised Pope Francis for “including us women” and framed this as a sign that “all are included in this journey.” Paraphrasing St. Catherine of Siena, Nirmalini called women to “demand equality” and to offer their gifts “whether … legitimated or not” because “no one, not even the Church, has the right to deny the gifts of God.”
The Indian sister presented the synod as a “new beginning” involving “persons at all levels of the Church” with “no one left behind,” which implies a shift away from hierarchical governance toward broad participatory processes. “Here history was being created,” Nirmalini stated. She explicitly hoped for a “substantial toning down of clericalism” and a greater emphasis by the Church on the issue of “co-responsibility in the care for creation.”
Nirmalini praised Francis in unusually enthusiastic terms also on another occasion. On March 13, 2023, in a tribute marking the tenth anniversary of Francis pontificate, she described it as “a new kind of leadership, a new way of being Church” and praised what she called reforms that the Church “desperately” needed. “That was just the beginning,” she said.
She also singled out Francis’ approach to Islam as an important achievement, saying: “One of the many firsts of Pope Francis is the long stride he has made in interreligious dialogue, particularly with Muslims.”
Another newly appointed consultant is Brother Emili Turú Rofes, a Catalan Marist who served as Superior General of the Marist Brothers from 2009 to 2017. Turú has strongly promoted the synodal transformation of the Church. In an interview published in The Synodal Times on February 12, 2024, Turú described synodality as what “the Lord expects from the Church in this millennium.”
Turú also framed the synod as a direct continuation and implementation of the Second Vatican Council, stating that “we are now in the implementation of Vatican II,” implying that the post-conciliar trajectory is a normative yet unfinished path for the Church.
In that interview, Turú said that religious communities must be ready to “shed what is not essential in their own tradition” to embrace “the newness of the Spirit.” Finally, he expressed the hope for a “new style of relationship in the Church … with believers and non-believers. I hope that in a few years, when we look back, we will be able to recognize that the journey we have made together has made us better people.”
Sister María Rosaura González Casas is another appointee whose writings and public statements point toward significant changes in the Church’s structures. The Mexican religious sister is a psychologist and professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
In an interview with Europa Press published on October 31, 2022, González Casas claimed that the Church has systematically failed women, and that if this continues “we will have no future as a Church.” She added that women had frequently been treated within the Church as “second-class people” and merely as “labor force,” without an adequate voice in decision-making. She attributed this situation to what she called the influence of ecclesial culture and hierarchical structures, also causing “abuse of nuns.”
The remaining appointments announced August 6 are Bishop Alfonso Vincenzo Amarante; Bishop Kevin Otieno Mwandha; priests Ignasi Fossas, Damián Astigueta, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Benjamin Earl, and Flavien Mambueni; Brother Antoine Kazindu; and Sisters Chiara Lorenzato, Mary Lembo, and Maria do Disterro Rocha Santos.
The appointments come as the Vatican dicastery responsible for consecrated life continues under the leadership of Sister Simona Brambilla, who became its prefect under Pope Francis on January 6, 2025.
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