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  The Catholic Trumpet: Pope Leo XIV Meets and Praises False Religions
Posted by: Stone - 05-22-2025, 05:56 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet - No Replies

Pope Leo XIV Meets and Praises False Religions

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The Catholic Trumpet [slightly reformatted and adapted] | May 21, 2025

On May 19th, 2025, Pope Leo XIV stood before leaders of Judaism, Islam, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy—not to call them to conversion, but to affirm them in their errors.

See Our Video Below:


He spoke of “shared prayer,” of “unity without division,” of “building bridges” and “walking together.” He invoked the ecumenical dreams of Francis and John XXIII. He praised Nostra Aetate, defended Fratelli Tutti, and called for new synodal structures to deepen interreligious fraternity.

But the Catholic Church has already spoken.

She has defined—once for all time—that there is no salvation outside her walls. That Christ is not one among many, but the only name under Heaven by which men are saved. That unity without truth is betrayal. That to affirm false religion is to deny the Gospel.

What took place in the Clementine Hall was not a witness to the Faith.

It was a contradiction of it.

We do not mock. We mourn.

And we beg all Catholics to see what is unfolding.

To pray for the Pope’s conversion.

To offer reparation to the Sacred Heart.

And to hold fast to the one true Faith—whole and entire—without compromise.

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  The Catholic Trumpet: The NeoSSPX PR Shift Begins
Posted by: Stone - 05-22-2025, 05:53 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet - No Replies

The NeoSSPX PR Shift Begins

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The Catholic Trumpet | May 21, 2025

Not much to say here. Just watch the video.

Pray for the Neo-SSPX.

Pray for Kennedy Hall.

And pray that all negotiations with Modernist Rome cease—until Rome converts to the Catholic Faith of Tradition.

That’s the only unity Heaven will recognize.

Video is embedded below, you can also see Kennedys original video this was taken from by clicking this link: Pope Leo And The SSPX Need For Bishops: What Will He Do?

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  ‘No exceptions’: UK moves to crush sacred seal of confession in abuse cases
Posted by: Stone - 05-22-2025, 05:49 AM - Forum: Global News - No Replies

‘No exceptions’: UK moves to crush sacred seal of confession in abuse cases
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, told the IICSA that the seal is 'an essential part of the exercise of priesthood.'

[Image: shutterstock_2342512559.jpg]

Priest holding a rosary during Confession
Halinskyi Max/Shutterstock

May 21, 2025
(LifeSiteNews) — Under proposed new legislation, Catholic priests in England and Wales would be required to report child sexual abuse heard in confession under a new government policy—despite Church law imposing automatic excommunication for breaking the sacramental seal.

Jess Phillips, Labour’s safeguarding minister, confirmed the Crime and Policing Bill will include no religious exemptions.

In a May 13 letter to the National Secular Society (NSS), the Home Office said it was not considering “any kind of exception” and that “there are no exceptions on the basis of where disclosures are received, including confessionals.”

“The duty will apply to all individuals undertaking relevant activity with children, including within religious and faith-based settings,” Phillips wrote.

The NSS had urged the government to adopt the recommendations made by the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) for mandatory reporting without exceptions for confidential or religious settings. “Safeguarding children must take precedence over religious interests,” said NSS spokesperson Alejandro Sanchez.

Catholic teaching holds the seal of confession to be absolute. Canon 983 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states: “The sacramental seal is inviolable.” Canon 1388 imposes automatic excommunication on any priest who directly violates it.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, told the IICSA that the seal is “an essential part of the exercise of priesthood.”

READ: Washington bishops say priests won’t comply with new law requiring them to break Seal of Confession

David Paton, a Catholic academic who submitted evidence to Parliament, said the policy could backfire. “There is no evidence that mandatory reporting by priests would reduce abuse,” he told The Pillar. “Priests will still be forbidden by canon law from breaking the seal, so there could be no practical benefit.”

He warned the policy would expose clergy to malicious accusations without any possibility of defence.

The Crime and Policing Bill, now at Report Stage in the House of Commons, does not include criminal penalties for failure to report. Instead, it allows for professional sanctions or disqualification from working with children—effectively ending the ministry of accused priests.

This move comes at the same time of similar attempts elsewhere, including the USA’s Washington state and Hong Kong.

The Church has long held that no earthly authority may compel a priest to violate the confessional seal.

The Roman Catechism teaches that priests must observe “a perpetual and religious silence concerning all the sins confessed to them” and that penitents should never fear that their sins will be revealed.

Catholic teaching insists the integrity of the sacrament depends entirely on its absolute and inviolable confidentiality. Meanwhile, Catholics in England and Wales were subject to at least some form of legal harassment and exclusion from public life from 1534 until the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829.

READ: Trump DOJ investigating Washington for new law forcing priests to break Seal of Confession

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  KY archbishop issues new guidelines discouraging faithful from kneeling for Holy Communion
Posted by: Stone - 05-22-2025, 05:42 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism - No Replies

Kentucky archbishop issues new guidelines discouraging faithful from kneeling for Holy Communion
The archbishop of Louisville released a document stating that clergy must instruct parishioners that standing is ‘normative’ for receiving the Eucharist, based on the USCCB’s designation.

[Image: Archbishop_Fabre.jpg]

Archbishop Shelton Fabre
Festival of Faiths/Wikimedia CC BY SA 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/festoffaiths/52532109670/

May 20, 2025
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Shelton Fabre of the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky, issued a document on the norms for receiving the Eucharist last week that notably discouraged communicants from kneeling as they receive the Blessed Sacrament.

The May 14 document entitled Norms for Posture and the Communion Rite emphasized that while the faithful cannot be denied Holy Communion if they choose to kneel, diocesan clergy will be required to instruct parishioners no later than June 22 that standing is the “normative” posture for receiving the sacrament in the United States. These guidelines are similar to other statements bishops have made that discourage kneeling while receiving the Eucharist.

“Standing is the norm for the reception for Holy Communion,” Archbishop Fabre wrote, citing the designation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2002.

“While communicants may not be denied Holy Communion because they kneel, catechesis of the faithful (such as sacramental preparation) should instruct that standing is the normative posture for reception of Holy Communion,” he added. “Deacons, servers, and other liturgical ministers are to observe the normative posture of standing to receive Holy Communion to appropriately model this norm for the faithful.”

The tradition of the Catholic Church, unbroken until after the Second Vatican Council, is that the lay faithful receive the Blessed Sacrament, administered by a priest, his hands having been consecrated for the handling of the sacred Eucharist, on the tongue while kneeling.

The Code of Canon Law, which binds all bishops and priests in the Roman Rite, legislates the following:
  • Sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who seek them at appropriate times, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them. (Can. 843 §1.)
  • Any baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to Holy Communion. (Can. 912)
Additionally, Cardinal Francis Arinze, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, has underscored the importance of receiving the Blessed Sacrament while kneeling to show proper reverence while receiving the Lord.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, too, citing Cardinal Arinze’s past comments, recently promoted kneeling for Holy Communion in a series of X posts.


It’s worth noting that Archbishop Fabre’s document also featured more traditional guidelines for communicants to follow as they approach to receive the sacrament, including kneeling from the Agnus Dei until they join the Communion procession. One of the guidelines also noted that the faithful can’t be denied the sacrament if they choose to receive the Host on the tongue.

READ: Italian priest scolds ‘disobedient,’ ‘prideful’ parishioners for receiving Communion on tongue

Archbishop Fabre’s guidelines about standing to receive the Eucharist echo those of other notable Catholic prelates such as Cardinal Blase Cupich, the heterodox archbishop of Chicago. Last year, Cupich all but forbade the faithful from kneeling to receive the Blessed Sacrament, claiming that doing so “disrupts the flow” of the Communion procession.

READ: Cardinal Cupich discourages kneeling for Holy Communion, says standing is the ‘norm’

“(N)o one should engage in a gesture that calls attention to oneself or disrupts the flow of the procession (to and from Holy Communion),” he wrote, though he has allowed heterodoxy and liturgical abuses in Chicago parishes.

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  Fr. Hewko: Wednesday Devotion - The Work of St. Joseph
Posted by: Deus Vult - 05-21-2025, 12:06 PM - Forum: Litanies - No Replies

The Work of St. Joseph
Wednesday Devotion


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  Fr. Hewko's Sermons: Votive Mass of St. Joseph
Posted by: Deus Vult - 05-21-2025, 10:45 AM - Forum: May 2025 - No Replies

Votive Mass of St. Joseph
May 21, 2025  (London)

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  Draconian Measures for Chartres Pilgrimage: Novus Ordo for the Confession
Posted by: Stone - 05-21-2025, 06:02 AM - Forum: General Commentary - No Replies

You can't negotiate with compromisers without compromising yourself:


Draconian Measures for Chartres Pilgrimage: Novus Ordo for the Confession

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In April and early May, making use of the Papal interregnum, the bishops of France negotiated with Cardinal Roche, Prefect of Divine Worship, in order to obscure the pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres.

PaixLiturgique.fr (May 19) reports about a letter dated May 6 by Archbishop Vincent Jordy of Tours and Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen to all the bishops of France.

The text informs of Cardinal Roche's responses on April 8 regarding the liturgy during the Chartres pilgrimage.

The measures are:

- In rigid application of Traditionis Custodes (July 16, 2021) priests ordained before that document might celebrate the traditional Mass, but would need to ask permission from the bishops of each diocese crossed along the way (Évry, Versailles, Chartres).

- For priests ordained after July 2021, the bishop would have to request permission from the Dicastery for Divine Worship.

- All priests should be able to celebrate the New Mass during the pilgrimage.

- Priests should use the new ritual when listening to confessions.

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  Leo XIV Continues "Francis' Commitment to a Synodal Church"
Posted by: Stone - 05-20-2025, 08:45 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV - No Replies

Leo XIV Continues "Francis' Commitment to a Synodal Church"

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gloria.tv | May 19, 2025

This morning, Pope Leo XIV received schismatic Christians, pagans, and Jews in audience in the Apostolic Palace. They had gathered in Rome for his inauguration.

In his address, he thanked them politely for their presence and prayers, which he said were "of great comfort and encouragement to me."

Pope Leo XIV believes that "one of the strong points of Pope Francis's pontificate has been universal brotherhood."

He claimed that synodality and ecumenism are closely related. "I intend to continue Pope Francis's commitment to promoting the synodal character of the Catholic Church and developing new, concrete forms of ever-more-intense synodality in the ecumenical field."

He continued: "Our common journey can and should also be understood in a broad sense, involving everyone, in the spirit of human brotherhood."

Leo XIV quoted Francis’s 2019 Abu Dhabi document, praising his predecessor for promoting a 'culture of dialogue'.

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  The Recusant: SSPX Watch [Fr Udressy defects to the conciliar church...]
Posted by: Stone - 05-19-2025, 07:54 AM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX - No Replies

The following is taken from The Recusant - Issue 63 Easter 2025:

SSPX Watch!


Fr Udressy defects to the conciliar church and says the new Mass.

Readers from the early years of the Resistance will remember Fr. Firmin Udressy as one of Bishop Fellay’s loyal liberals. As District Superior of Germany, he was a zealous persecutor of any faithful whom he perceived had a “bad spirit” regardless of whether they had actually done anything, as in the case of an 89-year-old man for instance, who had used his savings to help purchase the very chapel from which he was banned (See Recusant 17, p.35). The same Fr. Udressy seemed very friendly towards Ecclesia Dei and Novus Ordo priests and even attended an Una Voce conference (see Recusant 26, p.34). Prior to being District Superior he was prior of Munich, arguably the most prominent German priory, and was responsible for them advertising their Mass as being “in the extraordinary form” (see Recusant 13, p.34).

Thus it may not come as any great surprise to hear that in September 2024 he left the SSPX and began offering the New Mass. According to some very joyful, upbeat articles on more than one conciliar website, Udressy has joined the ‘conservative Novus Ordo’ French-based ‘Community of St. Martin’ which says “the Mass of St. Paul VI” and not “the Mass of St. Pius V.” Will the German SSPX learn an important lesson from this or draw the right conclusions, or are they going to pretend that they didn’t see any signs going back years? Will Fr. Udressy’s actions as District Superior be looked at again? Will anyone draw a causal link between his liberalism then and his joining the Novus Ordo now? Of course not. And yet, is not Fr. Udressy at least being more honest than his (former) superiors? They are the ones who ought to have left and haven’t. If all priests who felt like Fr. Udressy had made the move like him, there would have been plenty of high-level departures over the past twenty years, one suspects, and the events of 2012 would never have taken place.


Is the SSPX “Semper Idem”..?

In late November last year, the SSPX General House released a statement marking the fiftieth anniversary of Archbishop Lefebvre’s November 1974 Declaration, entitled “1974-2024 Semper Idem.” You may look in vain for anything openly liberal in this statement - these are words written to satisfy everyone that the SSPX hasn’t changed, after all. But don’t be fooled! The problem is not what the words say, but that the words and the reality do not match.

For example, Archbishop Lefebvre complains about a “naturalist and Teilhardian teaching in universities, seminaries and catechetics.” Take a look at the evolutionist cosmology being pushed by Fr. Paul Robinson (now in charge of Angelus Press, if you please!), complete with billions-of-years-old timeline, Noah’s flood not being worldwide and the days of creation presented by Genesis in the wrong order, and then tell me about naturalist and Teilhardian teaching going on in seminaries and schools! Archbishop Lefebvre also says that the Vatican II revolution “is poisoned through and through; it derives from heresy and ends in heresy, even if all its acts are not formally heretical. It is therefore impossible for any conscientious and faithful Catholic to espouse this Reformation or to submit to it in any way whatsoever.”

True, but then how does that square with declaring that the same Vatican II “enlightens and deepens our understanding of Tradition; or that “we accept” the conciliar code of canon law and also the “legitimately promulgated” New Mass? How does it fit with promoting conciliar devotions such as the Divine Mercy among the faithful (see Recusant 29, p.33)? We could go on. If the SSPX really stood by the 1974 Declaration and wanted to make those words its own again, to be the same as always (“semper idem”), it would retract those declarations named above, apologise and clean up all the many other dalliances with conciliarism.

“No authority,” says the Archbishop, “not even the highest in the hierarchy, can force us to abandon or diminish our Catholic Faith, so clearly expressed and professed by the Church’s Magisterium for nineteen centuries.” True. That is why the expulsion of Resistance priests from the SSPX is of no consequence and why they were and are right to defy their SSPX superiors. Yes, in reality the 1974 declaration is a charter for the Resistance. This statement’s title should have been not “semper idem” but “adhuc decipientes.” In fact, may I suggest a motto for the SSPX, from Genesis? “et abiit, parvipendens quod primogenita vendidisset.”


Fr. Pagliarani’s Angelus Interview: admitting more than he perhaps realises...

Shortly before Christmas, The Angelus carried an interview with the Superior General, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, (also reproduced in the January British District newsletter). In his answer to the first question, he says that the SSPX has become “de-demonised” in the eyes of many and is no longer seen as “schismatic” or as “reacting against modernity. Hmm. Doubtless true, but what might the reason for that be, and is it not something that ought to prompt some soul-searching? Is the modern world less evil than twenty-odd years ago? Ought you not rather to be seen as more at war with it, and not less?

In Question 2 he is asked: “What does the Society of Saint Pius X have to offer to Catholics today that is not provided by the Ecclesia Dei communities?” His answer is little more than that the SSPX have greater “liberty,” that the Ecclesia Dei communities are in a “precarious” position which leads to them “persistently remaining silent” about liberal errors (but increasingly, whether he will admit it or not, the SSPX does too, witness for instance their failure to speak out against covid vaccines or their steady embrace of evolutionist cosmology) and he presents this silence as merely a sort of handicap which means that “Tradition cannot be defended effectively” and not as something wrong in itself, much less the “betrayal” which Archbishop Lefebvre quite rightly named it.

He also is careful to point out that: “Of course, we are not judging here the good that this or that priest may be doing in this or that situation…” Oh thank God for that! Above all, we mustn’t be judgemental! He ends his answer to this question by saying that Archbishop Lefebvre stood for “the true liberty of working entirely and unconditionally for the restoration of the Faith, the priesthood and the Mass.” This talk of “true liberty” may be true in its own way, but it sins by omission. Archbishop Lefebvre also said some far more hard-hitting things about betrayal, about shaking hands with the very people who are destroying the Church, about doing the work of the devil, and so forth. But perhaps that is the Archbishop Lefebvre who we’d rather forget? So much for his answer.

Now what is the real answer? What does distinguish the SSPX for the Ecclesia Dei priests? Not much. They are even more compromised, having been left marinating in compromise for much longer their teaching is even more laced with Vatican II and conciliar Popes. And of course they don’t have a bishop. They are ‘ahead of the curve,’ that is all. The SSPX will no doubt catch them up at some point.

To his credit, he does admit there is a danger of SSPX faithful “falling asleep in a comfortable situation that was acquired by the efforts of their elders.” In our experience this is true of SSPX faithful to a very great extent, far more than anyone has been prepared to admit so far, outside of the Resistance that is. It is even true of SSPX priests too.

The rest of the interview is boilerplate. He says that SSPX show “generosity in their apostolate” (do they, compared to twenty or thirty years ago?); he praises the late Bishop Tissier de Mallerais; he manages to sound like Bishop Fellay when talking about “Providence”; and he says we all need to pray more. True, but hardly a great revelation. As above, talk is cheap.

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  Fr. Ruiz Sermons: Our fight for the profession of the Integrity of the Catholic Faith - May 18, 2025
Posted by: Deus Vult - 05-18-2025, 09:29 PM - Forum: Fr. Ruiz's Sermons May 2025 - No Replies

Our fight for the profession of the Integrity of the Catholic Faith
Fourth Sunday after Easter - May 18, 2025  (NH)

  

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  The Catholic Trumpet: The Church Infiltrated—But Not Conquered
Posted by: Stone - 05-18-2025, 05:48 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet - No Replies

The Church Infiltrated—But Not Conquered

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The Catholic Trumpet | May 16, 2025


The structures of the Church have been infiltrated by her most bitter enemies—but the Church herself remains spotless and undefiled, for she is the Mystical Body of Christ. Pope St. Pius X warned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis that “the partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church’s open enemies; but, what is to be most dreaded and deplored, in her very bosom, and are the more mischievous the less they are suspected.” These traitors, masked as shepherds, aimed to corrupt doctrine and morals from within.

Communist subversion is not a theory—it is documented history. Bella Dodd, a former Communist agent who returned to the Faith, testified before Congress: “In the 1930s, I helped place over a thousand communist men in Catholic seminaries.” She personally placed infiltrators who advanced through the hierarchy and now infect seminaries, chanceries, and even the papacy itself.

Wherever Communism entered, so did perversion. St. Pius V, in Horrendum Illud Scelus (1568), declared sodomy among clerics a crime “so detestable and so grave that it calls down the wrath of Almighty God” and mandated that offending clerics be stripped of their office and handed over to the civil power for execution.

St. Peter Damian, writing to Pope Leo IX, warned: “This vice is the death of bodies, the destruction of souls… it defiles everything and permits nothing to remain pure.” By the mid-20th century, agents had turned seminaries into breeding grounds of impurity, effeminacy, and apostasy. The “lavender mafia” is not a new rot, it is the fruit of infiltration.

More insidious still, many infiltrators advanced a Judaizing apostasy—reviving the heresy condemned by St. Paul in Galatians. Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate contradicts the defined dogma that “the New Law has made void the Old Law” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, Q. 103, Art. 3). Any claim that Jews have their own valid covenant is pure heresy.

+Archbishop Lefebvre warned: “We are not of this new religion! We do not accept this new religion! We are of the religion of all time; we are of the Catholic religion.” And again: “The Church is occupied. It is a revolution. We must resist this revolution.”

The hierarchy has been invaded by Communists, perverts, and false apostles, but the true Church remains undefiled, for she is founded upon Christ and cannot err. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith.

Expose the wolves. Defend the truth. Stand beneath Our Lady’s banner.

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Star Fr. Hewko's Sermons:4th unday aft Easter 5/18/25 "I Will Send the Holy Ghost to You"
Posted by: Deus Vult - 05-17-2025, 11:19 PM - Forum: May 2025 - No Replies

Fourth Sunday After Easter  May 18, 2025
"I Will Send the Holy Ghost to You"  (London)




Audio

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  Fr. Hewko, Catechism: "Heroic Life & Martyrdom of Bl. Ralph Corby & Bl. John Duckett" 5/16/25 (UK)
Posted by: Deus Vult - 05-16-2025, 09:26 PM - Forum: Catechisms - No Replies

"Heroic Life & Martyrdom of Bl. Ralph Corby & Bl. John Duckett"
May 16, 2025  (UK)


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  Fr. Hewko's Sermons: "To Teach, To Sanctify, To Govern" May 15, 2025 (England)
Posted by: Deus Vult - 05-16-2025, 09:31 AM - Forum: May 2025 - No Replies

 "To Teach, To Sanctify, To Govern"
May 15, 2025  (England)


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  Another Catholic church attacked by Islamists in disturbing trend across France
Posted by: Stone - 05-16-2025, 07:01 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence - No Replies

Another Catholic church attacked by Islamists in disturbing trend across France
The severity of the attack, which included physical violence against the parish priest, 
stunned the local community and has fueled broader concerns over religious freedom and safety.

[Image: shutterstock_2273766295.jpg]

Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Repos Church in Avignon, France
Syclades / Shutterstock.com

May 15, 2025
AVIGNON, France (LifeSiteNews) — Another Catholic church in a historic French city was the scene of a violent Islamist attack over the weekend.

A group of youths stormed a parish following evening Mass on May 10, assaulting the priest and threatening to set the building ablaze in future. The attackers remain at large as church leaders and officials confront a disturbing rise in anti-Christian aggression across France.

The incident, which included physical violence, has led local authorities to trigger a police investigation and deploy heightened security around the church.

This youths entered Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Repos Church in Montfavet, a quiet district of Avignon (the former home of the papacy in the 14th century), on Saturday, May 10, at approximately 7:50 p.m., shortly after evening Mass concluded.

According to La Provence, a group of young men – estimated to number between nine and 15 – approached Father Laurent Milan, the parish priest. One member of the group initially claimed he wished to convert to Christianity. However, only moments later, the group launched into a tirade of abuse.

The attackers shouted an obscene blasphemous insult directed at Jesus Christ, as well as “Allahu Akbar.” They then physically assaulted the priest, punching him, subduing him, before fleeing with stolen church property – including checkbooks, a chalice, and a painting, according to multiple reports.

The severity of the attack stunned the local community and has fueled broader concerns over religious freedom and safety.

Several of the attackers identified themselves as Muslim, reinforcing suspicions of an Islamist motive. The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe pointed to the use of jihadist slogans as evidence of religious hostility. “This attack reflects a growing pattern of anti-Christian aggression in France,” the Observatory stated.

Father Milan shared his account with La Provence: “They entered and started insulting the Christian faith. Then they said, ‘We’re coming back to burn it down!’” His composure during the ordeal, along with that of several parishioners, helped prevent further violence during the incident.

The Observatory highlighted other alarming incidents in 2025, including the assault of priests in Lisieux and Tarascon, and a kidnapping and beating of a 96-year-old priest in Cambrai, who was tied to a chair and gagged by burglars. Such events reflect a broader trend of hostility toward Christian institutions. France continues to report near-daily church vandalism, including the theft of consecrated hosts and desecration of tabernacles.

Father Milan filed a formal police complaint the same night, supported by five witnesses, France Bleu reported. Police promptly opened an investigation into “non-public insults based on religion” and “threats of destructive acts.” Patrols were stationed at the church for Sunday Mass, and surveillance remained in place into Monday, according to BFMTV. Authorities are currently reviewing security footage, though no arrests had been made as of May 14.

The Archdiocese of Avignon responded to the incident. “The church is located in an area troubled by youth delinquency,” noted Archbishop Francois Fonlupt. “This aggression is deplorable, and we commend the priest and parishioners for their restraint and courage.”

Father Milan had previously reported troubling behavior. On May 7, just days before the violent assault, youths banged on church windows during a parish meeting and stole candles and a computer, he told La Provence. “These incidents are increasing in frequency,” he warned.

Residents have expressed alarm and outrage. “I’m horrified that young people did this,” a nearby café patron told La Provence, echoing community concern.

This attack is part of a broader pattern. In 2025 alone, vandals stole a cross from a church in Corancy, while €10,000 in damages was reported at Saint-Martin Church in Colmar. The Observatory continues to warn of mounting anti-Christian hostility throughout the country.

Archbishop Fonlupt, however, suggested the cause of the attack was “the poverty that reigns in certain neighborhoods of Vaucluse.” He wrote that this was “at the root of this evil,” calling on people to reject “discord and hatred.”

He added: “I thank the parish priest and the parishioners of Montfavet for their reactions to this situation and their witness to the Gospel.”

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