Nuntiatoria LXVIII: Veritas Fortis

w/c 24/08/25

ORDO

Dies	24 SUN	25 MON	26 TUE	27 WED	28 THU	29 FRI	30 SAT	31 SUN
Officium	S. Bartholomæi Apostoli	S. Ludovici Regis Franciæ Confessoris	S. Zephyrini Papæ et Martyris	S. Josephi Calasanctii Confessoris	S. Augustini Episcopi et Confessoris et Ecclesiæ Doctoris	In Decollatione S. Joannis Baptistæ	S. Rosæ a Sancta Maria Limange Virginis	S. Raymundi Nonnati Confessoris
CLASSIS	Duplex II	Semiduplex	Simplex	Duplex	Duplex	Duplex maius	Duplex	Duplex
Color	Rubeum	Albus	Rubeum	Albus	Albus	Rubeum	Albus	Albus
MISSA	Mihi autem	Os justi	Sacerdotes	Veníte	In médio	Loquébar	Dilexísti	Os justi
Orationes	2a. Dominica XI Post Pentecosten	2a. A cunctis 3a. Ecclesiae	2a. A cunctis 3a. Ecclesiae	NA	2a. S. Hermetis Martyris	2a. S. Sabinæ Martyris	2a.Ss. Felicis et Adaucti Martyrum	2a. Dominica XII Post Pentecosten
NOTAE	Gl. Cr. Pref. de Apostolis Ev. propr. ad fin. Missae	Gl. Pref. de Communis	Gl. Pref. de Communis	Gl. Pref. de Communis	Gl. Pref. de Communis	Gl. Cr. Pref. de Communis	Gl. Pref. de Communis	Gl. Cr. Pref. de sanctissima Trinitate Ev. propr. ad fin. Missae
Nota Bene/Vel/Votiva		Missae votivae vel Requiem permittuntur	Missae votivae vel Requiem permittuntur					GB S. Aidanus Lindisfarnensis Missa “Státuit”

Veritas Fortis

Veritas Fortis — “Strong Truth” — expresses the conviction that the truth of Christ is not fragile, but possesses a strength greater than the powers of the age. It reminds the faithful that fidelity to the truth, even when unpopular, is both our defence and our victory. 🔝

From the Primus

HE ✠Jerome OSJV, Titular Archbishop of Selsey

Carissimi, Beloved in Christ,

In every age of the Church, the Lord raises up voices to remind His people that truth cannot be silenced, nor light overcome by the shadows of error. In our time, we find ourselves assailed not by the sword of persecution alone, but by the subtler weapons of confusion, compromise, and cowardice. The battlefield has shifted from the arena to the classroom, from the scaffold to the council chamber, from the fires of martyrdom to the withering chill of indifference. Yet the call remains the same: “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2).

Recent events bear witness to this struggle. In Scotland, a grandmother was arrested within a clinic buffer zone simply for standing silently with a sign offering help to women in crisis pregnancies, before prosecutors declined to pursue charges against her¹. In London, organisers predict the largest ever March for Life, responding to Parliament’s recent vote to decriminalise abortion up to birth². Across the Atlantic, a federal judge has struck down Texas’ law mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in schools, denouncing the measure as unconstitutional pressure on children³. In Switzerland, Catholic churches openly sponsor Pride festivals, presenting ideological affirmation as “pastoral care”⁴. In Pakistan, Christians in Jaranwala still await justice two years after the worst violence against their community in living memory, as arsonists are acquitted by local courts⁵.

What unites these scattered scenes is not geography but spirit. It is the spirit of apostasy, the spirit of the age, a counterfeit “compassion” that silences prayer, forgets the martyrs, and exchanges the worship of God for the approval of men. This spirit finds expression even within the Church herself, when clergy abandon the altar of Christ for the platforms of worldly recognition, or when the Holy Sacrifice is treated as a stage for entertainment rather than the trembling threshold of eternity.

Yet, beloved, the answer is not despair, nor a retreat into mere lamentation. The answer is fidelity. It is the humble but courageous persistence of those who still kneel to pray outside clinics, who still teach the young the Catechism when schools will not, who still sing the ancient liturgy even when told to be silent. Fidelity is not glamorous, and it will not be applauded by the powers of this world. But it is fidelity that saves, fidelity that sanctifies, fidelity that will one day rebuild a Christendom more authentic because it was purchased not by cultural prestige but by sacrificial love.

The saints of old, whom our Tridentine liturgy sets before us week by week, knew this well. St. Bartholomew bore his flaying with joy because he had already died to himself in Christ. St. Mary, Queen of Heaven, reigns not by worldly dominion but by the humility of her fiat. The martyrs of Jaranwala, though uncanonised, stand today before the Lamb as witnesses to the same Lord who “conquered not by the sword, but by the Cross.”

Therefore, I exhort you, dearly beloved, to three things:

Renew your worship. Cleave to the sacred liturgy in its fullness and reverence. It is here, not in politics or fashion, that we are conformed to Christ and taught the moral law inseparable from His worship.

Guard your families. Teach the young the Commandments and the Creed. Where schools fail, parents must instruct; where parishes falter, the faithful must hold fast. A Church that forgets catechesis will quickly forget Christ.

Bear witness in public. Do not be cowed into silence. Whether in the marketplace, the university, or the halls of Parliament, speak the truth with charity but with courage. For silence, in such an hour as this, is itself a form of betrayal.

My brethren, the world tells us that faith must be private, that morality is subjective, that tradition is outdated. But Christ tells us: “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:31–32). Freedom is not license; it is the liberty of the children of God, who live in His truth and are not enslaved by the lies of the age.

As we look upon the ruins of the present and the trials of the faithful across the world, let us not be shaken. Rather, let us rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer reproach for the Name of Jesus, and let us prepare ourselves, as St. Paul commands, to “preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:2).

May the Immaculate Queen intercede for us, may the Apostles strengthen us, and may Christ the King reign once more in our homes, our communities, and our nations.

With my Apostolic blessing, and In Christ the Truth, 🔝

¹ Belfast News Letter, Carla Lockhart MP welcoming dismissal of charges against Rose Docherty (Aug. 2025).
² Catherine Robinson, Right to Life UK, commentary on March for Life London (Aug. 2025).
³ CNA, “Federal judge blocks Texas from displaying Ten Commandments in public schools” (Aug. 2025).
⁴ Kath.ch (Lucerne), coverage of St Peter’s Chapel and Catholic involvement in Pride Central Switzerland (Aug. 2025).
⁵ Aid to the Church in Need, report on Jaranwala violence and court acquittals (Aug. 2025).

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Recent Epistles & Conferences

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Liturgical Notes

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The Time after Pentecost in the Tridentine Rite
The Time after Pentecost in the Tridentine liturgical calendar, sometimes called the “Season after Pentecost,” corresponds to what is now known in the modern Roman Rite as “Ordinary Time.” Yet unlike the postconciliar terminology, the Tridentine designation is not “ordinary” in tone or theology. It is profoundly mystical, drawing the Church into a deepening participation in the life of the Holy Ghost poured out upon the Mystical Body at Pentecost.

A Season of Fulfilment and Mission
The Time after Pentecost is the longest of the liturgical seasons, extending from the Monday after the Octave of Pentecost to the final Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent. It represents the age of the Church — the time between the descent of the Holy Ghost and the Second Coming of Christ. Where Advent looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, and Easter celebrated His triumph, the Time after Pentecost lives out His indwelling. It is the season of sanctification, corresponding to the Holy Ghost in the economy of salvation, just as Advent and Christmas reflect the Father’s sending, and Lent and Easter the Son’s redeeming work.

Dom Prosper Guéranger writes that “the mystery of Pentecost embraces the whole duration of the Church’s existence” — a mystery of fruitfulness, guidance, and spiritual warfare. It is not a neutral stretch of ‘green vestments’ but a continuation of the supernatural drama of the Church militant, sustained by the fire of divine charity.

The Green of Growth — But Also of Struggle
Liturgically, green dominates this time, symbolising hope and spiritual renewal. Yet the Masses of the Sundays after Pentecost contain numerous reminders that the Christian life is not passive growth but an active battle. Readings from St. Paul’s epistles dominate, especially exhortations to moral purity, perseverance, and readiness for the day of judgment. The Gospels often feature Christ’s miracles, parables of the Kingdom, or calls to vigilance — all designed to awaken souls from spiritual sloth.

Fr. Pius Parsch notes that “the Sundays after Pentecost are dominated by two great thoughts: the growth of the Church and the interior life of the Christian.” These twin aspects — ecclesial expansion and individual sanctity — are ever present in the collects and readings, pointing to the fruit of Pentecost as the Church’s leavening power in the world.

The Numbering and Shape of the Season
In the Tridentine Missal, Sundays are numbered “after Pentecost,” beginning with the Sunday immediately following the octave day (Trinity Sunday stands apart). The exact number of these Sundays varies depending on the date of Easter. Since the final Sundays are taken from the “Sundays after Epiphany” not used earlier in the year, the readings and prayers of the last Sundays are drawn from both ends of the temporal cycle. This produces a subtle eschatological tone in the final weeks — especially from the 24th Sunday after Pentecost onward — anticipating the Second Coming and the Last Judgment.

In this way, the Time after Pentecost includes both the lived reality of the Church’s mission and the urgency of her final consummation. The Kingdom is already present, but not yet fully manifest.

The Role of Feasts and the Saints
The richness of the season is also punctuated by numerous feasts: of Our Lady (e.g., the Visitation, the Assumption), of the angels (e.g., St. Michael), of apostles and martyrs, confessors and virgins. Unlike Advent or Lent, which are penitential in tone, the Time after Pentecost includes joyful celebrations that model Christian holiness in diverse vocations. The saints are the mature fruit of Pentecost, witnesses to the Spirit’s indwelling.

As Dom Guéranger says, this season “is the longest of all in the liturgical year: its length admits of its being considered as the image of eternity.” It teaches that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are not given for a moment, but for a lifetime of growth in grace — and for the eternal life to come.

Conclusion: A Time of Interiorisation and Apostolic Zeal
The Time after Pentecost is not a liturgical afterthought, but the climax of the year — the age of the Church, the time in which we now live. Every soul is invited to be a continuation of the Incarnation through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. The sacraments, the Mass, and the feasts of the saints all nourish this divine life, which began in Baptism and is ordered to glory.

Thus, the Time after Pentecost is not simply the Church’s “green season,” but her most fruitful and missionary phase — a time of living in the Spirit, bearing His fruits, and hastening toward the return of the King. 🔝

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The Liturgy of the Eleventh Sunday Post Pentecost

The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost gathers the faithful around a theme that echoes throughout the Propers: man in his weakness, raised up and transformed by the superabundant grace of God. The texts, from Introit to Gospel, speak of mercy, renewal, and the confession of faith.

The Introit
“Deus in loco sancto suo: Deus qui inhabitare facit unanimes in domo: ipse dabit virtutem et fortitudinem plebi suae” — “God in His holy place; God who maketh men of one mind to dwell in a house: He shall give strength and power to His people” (Ps. 67:6–7, 36).

Dom Guéranger observes that the Introit places before us the God of Israel dwelling in the midst of His people, but now in the Church: “The house is the Church; unity is her note; and her strength, which comes from God, makes her invincible against the gates of hell”¹.

The Collect
“Almighty, everlasting God, who in the abundance of Thy goodness dost exceed both the merits and the prayers of Thy suppliants, pour forth Thy mercy upon us…”

Pius Parsch notes that this Collect teaches the heart of Christian prayer: “We ask little, we merit nothing, yet God gives all and gives before we ask; His mercy outruns our prayer and surpasses our deserts”².

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15:1–10
St. Paul recalls the Gospel he preached and confesses: “By the grace of God, I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void.” Guéranger remarks: “He is keenly alive to the nothingness of man left to himself, and to the omnipotence of grace; yet he is also conscious that grace requires the fidelity of the human will”³. Goffine comments: “We are nothing without grace; yet we must co-operate with grace, otherwise it remains fruitless”⁴.

The Fathers confirm this truth. St. Augustine: *“When God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing else but His own gifts”*⁵. Chrysostom: “Paul ascribes all to grace, but does not destroy free will, for he adds, I labored more abundantly”⁶.

The Gradual and Alleluia
“O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in the whole earth! For Thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens” (Ps. 8:2).

Here the Church bursts into praise: the weak may boast only in the greatness of God’s Name. As Baur remarks, “the Gradual interrupts human speech with divine praise, lest man dwell on his weakness without rejoicing in God’s majesty”⁷.

The Gospel: Mark 7:31–37
The healing of the deaf and dumb man is proclaimed. Jesus takes him aside, touches his ears and tongue, and sighs heavenward before saying: Ephpheta! — “Be opened!” Immediately, he speaks plainly.

Guéranger: “This man represents the human race, made deaf and dumb by original sin. The cure cost the Savior sighs and tears, even unto death”⁸. Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen applies: “The miracle is a symbol of the grace of baptism. The ears signify faith which comes by hearing; the tongue the confession of faith. Without grace, man is deaf to divine truth and dumb to God’s praise”⁹.

St. Ambrose had already seen the baptismal connection: “The priest touches the ears and nostrils of the catechumen, saying, Ephpheta, that he may receive both faith and the breath of divine life”¹⁰. The Roman Catechism explains: “The opening of the ears signifies that faith comes by hearing; the loosing of the tongue, that we must confess with the mouth the faith which we hold in the heart”¹¹.

The Offertory
“My hope is in Thee, O Lord; I have said: Thou art my God; my times are in Thy hands” (Ps. 30:15–16).

Here the Church places her confidence wholly in God. Guéranger sees in this a renewal of baptismal vows: “The soul, once dumb and deaf, now speaks: ‘Thou art my God!’”¹².

The Communion
“Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first of all thy fruits: and thy barns shall be filled with abundance, and thy presses shall run over with wine” (Prov. 3:9–10).

Baur interprets the Communion spiritually: “The true offering is man’s heart, his first fruits, sanctified by grace. Then God fills the soul with abundance — a superabundance of divine life, pressed down and overflowing”¹³.

Mystical Application
This Sunday, then, teaches the soul its condition and its cure: weakness without Christ, strength in Him. St. Bernard reminds: *“The tongue that speaks not of Christ is mute, and the ear that hears not His voice is deaf”*¹⁴. But Christ still sighs to heaven, still touches ear and tongue, still utters Ephpheta! — that we may hear and proclaim.

The liturgy is therefore not merely a remembrance but a sacramental present: what Christ wrought on the man of Decapolis, He now works in us. We, too, are taken aside by the liturgy, touched by divine power, and bidden to be opened — to faith, to confession, to praise, and to life. 🔝

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1. Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, vol. 10 (Dublin: O’Shea, 1884), p. 187.
2. Pius Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace, vol. 4 (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1962), p. 110.
3. Guéranger, Liturgical Year, vol. 10, p. 190.
4. Leonard Goffine, Devout Instructions on the Epistles and Gospels (New York: Benziger, 1880), p. 508.
5. St. Augustine, Epistle 194, 5.19 (PL 33: 890).
6. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily 38 (PG 61: 323).
7. F. X. Baur, Die Erklärung der Sonntagsevangelien (Mainz, 1863), p. 246.
8. Guéranger, Liturgical Year, vol. 10, p. 194.
9. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, Divine Intimacy (Rockford: TAN, 1987), meditation 254.
10. St. Ambrose, De Mysteriis, I.3 (PL 16: 386).
11. Catechismus Romanus, Part II, Ch. 2 (trans. Donovan, 1829), p. 151.
12. Guéranger, Liturgical Year, vol. 10, p. 196.
13. Baur, Sonntagsevangelien, p. 250.
14. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon on the Song of Songs, 18.6 (PL 183: 862).

Missalettes (Sunday XI Post Pentecost)

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St. Bartholomew, Apostle & Martyr

August 24 – Apostle, Double Major
The feast of St Bartholomew the Apostle, observed on 24 August in the Roman Rite, closes the cycle of major Apostolic commemorations in the liturgical year. The ancient propers of the Mass reflect the dignity of the apostolic office, the glory of martyrdom, and the power of divine truth triumphing over pagan darkness.

Introit — Mihi autem nimis honorati sunt amici tui, Deus (Ps. 138:17, 1)
The Mass opens with words from the Psalmist: “To me, Thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened. O Lord, Thou hast proved me, and known me: Thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up.”

Here the “friends of God” are the Apostles, whose intimacy with Christ gives them a place of supreme honour. Their “principality” — their authority — is not earthly power, but the strength of the truth which they proclaimed to the nations. In Bartholomew, the guileless Israelite, we see how God raises up a simple, honest heart to bear such dignity.

Collect
“O Almighty and everlasting God, Who didst give to us in Thine Apostle Bartholomew a preacher of Thy name and a patron of our salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that by his intercession, Thine everlasting benefits may increase within us.”

This prayer sets before us two aspects of apostolic witness: preaching and patronage. The Apostle preaches Christ with his lips, but also remains a living intercessor in heaven, whose merits continue to aid the Church. The faithful are encouraged to rely upon his intercession that the “everlasting benefits” — faith, hope, charity, and the gift of salvation — may grow within us.

Epistle — 1 Corinthians 12:27–31
The reading situates the Apostles within the mystical Body: “You are the body of Christ, and members of member. And God indeed hath set some in the Church; first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly doctors…”

The Apostle is here presented as foundation and beginning: the one through whom the life of the Church is mediated and extended. The variety of gifts in the Body all serve the unity of Christ. Bartholomew, though hidden in the obscurity of tradition, represents this order of grace by which the Church is established.

Gradual — Confitebuntur caeli mirabilia tua, Domine (Ps. 88:6, 2)
The chant turns our gaze heavenward: “The heavens shall confess Thy wonders, O Lord: and Thy truth in the Church of the saints. The heavens shall confess Thy wonders, O Lord.”

The glory of the martyr-Apostle is not his own, but God’s truth shining in him. Just as Nathaniel confessed Christ as the Son of God and King of Israel, so now the Church confesses Christ through the witness of Bartholomew’s death.

Alleluia — Te martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus
The Alleluia verse places St Bartholomew among the white-robed army of martyrs, whose blood has become the seed of the Church. The heavenly liturgy joins the earthly, and the Church Militant lifts her voice with the Church Triumphant.

Gospel — Luke 6:12–19
The Gospel recounts Christ’s choosing of the Twelve, after a night of prayer: “He called unto Him His disciples, and chose twelve of them, whom also He named apostles.”

This passage situates Bartholomew in the great mystery of election. The Apostles were not volunteers but chosen men, each called by name after Christ communed with His Father in prayer. The Gospel then shows the fruit of this election: “A great multitude of people… came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases.” The apostolic vocation is at once contemplative and active — chosen in prayer, and sent forth for healing and preaching.

Offertory — Mihi autem nimis honorati sunt amici tui, Deus (Ps. 138:17)
The Offertory repeats the Introit, as if to underscore the theme of apostolic friendship with God. The Mass itself is the supreme expression of Christ’s friendship — the laying down of His life for His friends (John 15:13). In this sacrifice, the Apostle Bartholomew is united with his Lord, offering his own life in witness to divine love.

Secret
“Sanctify, O Lord, the gifts which we offer, and by the intercession of blessed Bartholomew, Thine Apostle, cleanse us from all the stains of our sins.”

The prayer reveals the priestly role of the Apostles. By their intercession, the faithful are cleansed, and the gifts sanctified. The sacrifice of the Mass continues their mission until the end of time.

Communion — Vos qui secuti estis me (Matt. 19:28)
The Communion verse places Christ’s promise before the Apostles: “You who have followed Me shall sit upon seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Here we see the eschatological dignity of the Apostles: they will judge, not according to their own merits, but by the authority of Christ in them. For the faithful who partake of the Eucharist, the verse is also a reminder that to receive Christ is to be conformed to Him in suffering and glory, as Bartholomew was.

Postcommunion
“Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that by the intercession of blessed Bartholomew, Thine Apostle, we may obtain that which we have received in faith to be effectual in our salvation.”

The Sacrament we have received is not a private act of devotion but the means of salvation. Through the Apostle’s prayers, the faithful ask that their communion may bear fruit in perseverance and eternal life.

Conclusion
The ancient propers of St Bartholomew’s feast weave together the themes of apostolic election, integrity of heart, martyrdom, and heavenly glory. They remind the Church that her foundation is not of this world but in the choice and friendship of God, and that every disciple, like Nathaniel, is called to confess Christ as Son of God and King of Israel, even unto death. 🔝

Missalettes (St Bartholomew, Apostle)

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Hagiography of St. Bartholomew

Among the Twelve whom Our Lord chose to be the foundation stones of His Church, Saint Bartholomew is one of the more hidden and mysterious. The Gospels tell us little about him, yet the silence surrounding his name is itself a testimony to the humility of the Apostles, who were not chosen for fame but for fidelity.

Identity and calling
Bartholomew appears in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14) and in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:13) among the lists of the Twelve. The name “Bartholomew” means son of Tolmai, which suggests that it may not have been a personal name but a family designation. For this reason, many Fathers of the Church identified him with Nathaniel, the man from Cana in Galilee whom Philip brought to Jesus (John 1:45-51). Nathaniel’s initial scepticism—“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”—gave way to a profound confession of faith: “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel.” Christ, in turn, praised his candour, declaring him to be “an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.”

This exchange reveals something essential about Bartholomew’s character: he was a man of simple integrity, whose heart was prepared to receive Christ by a love of truth.

Mission and martyrdom
Tradition holds that Bartholomew, after Pentecost, travelled widely as a missionary of the Gospel. Ancient sources variously place his labours in India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, Armenia, and even parts of Arabia. The strongest tradition associates him with Armenia, where he is said to have converted King Polymius by healing his daughter of demonic possession. The king’s brother, however, incited by jealousy and anger, ordered Bartholomew’s torture and execution. He was flayed alive and finally beheaded, sealing his witness with the shedding of his blood.

Because of this, sacred art often depicts him holding a large knife—the instrument of his martyrdom—or even carrying his own flayed skin. This grim image is not meant to horrify but to remind the faithful of the cost of discipleship and the glory of suffering borne in union with Christ.

Legacy and relics
The relics of St Bartholomew became objects of great veneration. They were first enshrined in Armenia, later transferred to Mesopotamia, and eventually brought to Rome, where they rest today in the Church of St. Bartholomew on Tiber Island. This shrine was established by the Emperor Otto III in the year 1000 and remains a place of pilgrimage.

The Apostle’s witness is also remembered in the ancient Roman liturgy, where the Collect for his feast prays that the Church may both love what he believed and preach what he taught.

Patronage and meaning
Bartholomew is venerated as patron of Armenia, of tanners and leather workers, and of all those who suffer for truth. His life teaches that God does not call the ambitious or worldly to be the foundation of His Church, but men of guileless heart, willing to be sent where they would not otherwise go, and to endure what nature would recoil from, for the sake of the Kingdom.

For the faithful today, his example is a summons to integrity, courage, and fidelity. In an age marked by compromise and duplicity, St Bartholomew stands as a model of the honest disciple, whose yes is yes, and whose no is no, and who holds nothing back when Christ calls him to the Cross. 🔝

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A Spiritual Reflection on St Bartholomew the Apostle

When Philip brought Nathaniel to Christ, the future Apostle heard those remarkable words: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” (John 1:47). This simple phrase captures the essence of St Bartholomew’s sanctity. He was honest, transparent of heart, a man without duplicity. Such a soul was ready to recognise the Messiah, even after his first scepticism — “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” His doubt was not cynical, but the honest question of one who sought truth. And when truth stood before him, he confessed it without hesitation: “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel.”

From this moment, Bartholomew gave himself entirely to Christ. He travelled far from home, endured hardships and rejection, and finally gave his life in a most brutal martyrdom. Yet the Gospel remembers him above all for his guilelessness. This is his enduring lesson for the faithful.

In a world filled with half-truths, masks, and the temptation to live a double life, Christians are called to cultivate the simplicity of heart that Christ praised. The faithful must learn to speak truth without fear, to confess Christ openly, and to live with integrity before God and men. To be “without guile” is not to be naïve, but to be single-hearted: not saying one thing and meaning another, not professing faith with lips while denying it by actions, not seeking hidden advantage while pretending charity.

St Bartholomew also teaches perseverance. He followed Christ to the end, even when it led to suffering and death. His skin was torn from him, yet he clung to the faith that clothed him with eternal glory. For us, the daily cross is smaller but no less real: resisting temptation, enduring misunderstanding, or quietly living our faith in a hostile culture. We may not be asked to shed our blood, but we are certainly asked to give our lives — in patience, in fidelity, in love that costs.

Finally, Bartholomew reminds us that the Lord sees into the heart. Christ recognised his purity of intention before a word was spoken. So too, God sees the hidden battles of the faithful, the small acts of honesty, the quiet confessions of faith. Nothing is lost in His sight.

Let us therefore ask St Bartholomew to obtain for us the grace of a guileless heart, that we may be disciples in spirit and in truth. May we confess Christ without fear, live without duplicity, and persevere to the end — so that with Bartholomew and all the Apostles we may sit at the banquet of the Lamb in eternal joy. 🔝

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Spiritual Reflection: for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

The Gospel of this Sunday shows Christ sighing to heaven and speaking a single word to the deaf-mute: Ephpheta! — Be opened. This is more than an historical miracle. It is a word addressed to each soul, a command of grace that demands a response.

Hearing with Faith
To be opened first means to hear. Many live today as though deaf to God, overwhelmed by noise, but unhearing of truth. The liturgy calls us to silence the distractions of the world so that the ear of the heart may hear the voice of Christ. This is not passive listening, but obedience. Faith comes by hearing, as the Apostle says, and the Christian must daily let the Word shape thought, desire, and action. To ignore the teaching of the Church is to slip again into the deafness from which Christ has delivered us.

Speaking with Confession
The miracle also looses the tongue. We are not saved to remain silent, but to confess with our lips what we believe in our hearts. This is why the baptismal rite includes the Ephpheta: the Christian is marked as one who will proclaim Christ. Yet in daily life, fear often makes us dumb—silent in the face of error, hesitant to defend the truth, reluctant to speak the name of Jesus. The liturgy today is a summons to holy courage: to speak rightly in prayer, faithfully in catechesis, and bravely in public witness.

Living by Grace, not by Ourselves
The Epistle reminds us: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” This means that no Christian can boast of his own strength, nor despair of his own weakness. All fruitfulness comes from grace, but grace demands our cooperation. To live the Ephpheta is to remain supple to grace: to allow ourselves to be instructed, corrected, and sanctified. Pride closes the ears and stiffens the tongue; humility opens them again to God’s transforming work.

Practical Implications
In practical terms, this Sunday calls us to cultivate three habits:

• Daily receptivity to God’s Word, through Scripture and the teaching of the Church, so that our ears are not closed by worldliness.
• The discipline of speech, using our tongues for prayer, edification, and truth, while rejecting gossip, slander, or cowardice.
• Dependence on grace, praying each day for fidelity and strength, knowing that our merits are God’s gifts and our labor fruitful only when united with Him.

Conclusion
The cry Ephpheta resounds still in the sacraments, in the liturgy, and in the silence of prayer. Each of us is called to be opened: ears to receive, tongues to confess, hearts to live in grace. The deaf hear, the dumb speak, and the Christian becomes what he is meant to be—a living witness of Christ. 🔝

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A sermon for Sunday

by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK

St. Bartholomew/Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Bartholomew, as well as commemorating the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. Little is known about St. Bartholomew save that he was one of the twelve disciples whom Jesus chose to be his closest followers. Today’s Gospel from St. Luke tells us that the twelve were “Simon whom he surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon who is called Zelotes, and Jude, the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot who was the traitor.” Jesus chose twelve disciples to symbolise the twelve tribes of Israel. The Kingdom of God, future in its fullness, was now being manifested in Jesus’s own person and ministry. The existing Jewish establishment did not receive this message and so brought judgement upon themselves. Consequently, the faithful remnant of Israel would now require different leadership, that of Jesus himself and the twelve whom he associated with him. Among the twelve some were more prominent than others, the most notable being St. Peter, St. James and St. John. Though St. Bartholomew is named as being among the twelve nothing further is said about him in the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke.

In St. John’s Gospel St. Bartholomew is not mentioned at all, but instead Nathanael is mentioned as a prominent disciple of Jesus. By contrast, the other Gospels do not refer to Nathanael, but do mention Bartholomew. In the list of twelve, Philip is mentioned alongside Bartholomew, whereas in St. John’s Gospel Nathanael is introduced to Jesus by Philip. Since Matthew, Mark and Luke associate Philip with Bartholomew, and John refers to Philip with Nathanael it is usually supposed that Bartholomew and Nathanael are different names for the same person. This is not certain, but it appears the most probable hypothesis and, if it is true, we are able to say more about Bartholomew than it may appear at first sight.

St. John’s Gospel tells how some of Jesus’ first followers were initially disciples of St. John the Baptist. They were drawn to follow the one whom the Baptist pointed to as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. The Gospel refers to St. Peter and his brother St. Andrew and then to St. Philip. It is said that Philip found Nathanael and said to him that they had found the one whom Moses in the Law and the prophets also wrote. Nathanael asked whether anything good could come from Nazareth. Philip told him to come and see. When Jesus saw Nathanael he said to him, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.” Nathanael asked him in response how he knew him. Jesus said that he had seen him under the fig tree before Philip called him. “Nathanael answered him and said: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him: Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, thou believest; greater things than these shalt thou see. And he saith to him: Amen, Amen, I say to you, you shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

What is the meaning of this mysterious incident? Why does Jesus respond to Nathanael’s recognition of his Messiahship by referring to himself as the Son of Man? The people looked for an anointed liberator, the Messiah, who would defeat Rome and restore the kingdom to Israel. But there was another tradition that suggested that the Messiah would be more than simply a warrior and a conqueror. The Book of Daniel speaks of the rule of the beasts (the pagan rulers oppressing Israel) being replaced in the future by the rule of one who was the Son of Man. The Son of Man would be enthroned alongside God and would usher in the Kingdom of God, the rule of the saints of the most high (Daniel 7). A later work, the Book of Enoch, saw this Son of Man as one who, in the age to come, would cast down kings and rulers from their thrones, sit on the throne of glory and hold judgement. He would be the support of the righteous and holy, the light of the nations, the hope of the troubled in heart. In other words, in Judaism at the time of Jesus there was, as well as the popular hope of a warrior hero who would be another David, another tradition that looked forward to one who was the Son of Man of Daniel 7, an exalted figure who would be enthroned alongside God as judge of the nations.

It was to this tradition of a future exalted figure that Jesus referred to when he spoke of the Son of Man. The day of the Son of Man would come like a flash of lightening from the clear sky (Matthew 24:27), when no one expects it (Matthew 24:37). Veiled in clouds, surrounded by hosts of angels, the Son of Man will appear (Mark 13:26). He will be enthroned at the right hand of God and send out his angels to gather in his elect from the four winds. He will hold judgement, with the twelve disciples as assessors (Matthew 19:28). As the universal ruler he is the head and representative of the people of God and his followers will share in his rule.

At his trial before the Sanhedrin Jesus was asked by the high priest whether he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. He replied not in terms of the hope for another David, who would be a warrior and a conqueror, but as the one who would be the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God and coming with the clouds of heaven (Mark 14:62). In other words, his response combined the hope of Psalm 110 of one who would be enthroned alongside God, and also of Daniel 7, of one who would come with the clouds of heaven and be enthroned as judge of the nations alongside the Ancient of Days. It was this claim that prompted the high priest to tear his robe at the perceived blasphemy of one who was implicitly claiming equality with God. In preferring to speak of his future destiny as Son of Man Jesus was not (as is sometimes supposed) claiming a more modest role than a warrior and a conqueror like King David. He was claiming a more exalted one, who would be more than another David, but the future judge of the nations (Matthew 25:31-46).

Hence, in responding to Nathanael’s recognition of Jesus’ Messiahship with a reference to the Son of Man, Jesus is not disowning the confession, but implicitly making a more exalted claim. The patriarch Jacob had a dream in which he saw a ladder with angels of God ascending to heaven. But in the ministry of Jesus heaven and earth would be permanently united. He was indeed the King of Israel, as Nathanael, the Israelite without guile, had rightly discerned, but his role was greater than a national liberator. He would be one in whom heaven and earth, God and Man, would come together as never before. 

At first sight he seemed to have the wrong credentials. Nathanael had scornfully said that surely nothing good could come from a place so insignificant as Nazareth. Though in the future Jesus would judge the nations as Son of Man, his messianic destiny, enthronement and rule, would come about through reversal, repudiation, suffering and death. The Son of Man had not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. In order to fulfil his future destiny as Son of Man, enthroned at the right hand of God, he would take evil upon himself and somehow subsume it into good.

The time would come when Jesus no longer taught, but acted and suffered. His disciples, including St. Bartholomew, all forsook him and fled at the time of his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. But Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon his disciples to preach the gospel to all nations. 

That was the faith of the Church then and it is so now. Let us follow the example of St. Bartholomew and remain faithful to that preaching and witness today. Let us make our own the words of today’s Collect.

Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given us this day a reverent and holy joy in the feast of thy blessed apostle Bartholomew; grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church ever to love that which he believed and to preach that which he taught. 🔝

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Brethren: I made known unto you the gospel which I preached to you, and which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast after what manner I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.

In today’s epistle St. Paul recalls to the Corinthians the gospel that he preached to them, the good news of salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was not a message of his own devising, but the gospel that he himself had received, namely that Christ had died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. He then recounts the resurrection appearances, firstly to Cephas (St. Peter), then to the eleven, then he was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, some of whom were still alive at the time St. Paul was writing (about twenty years after the crucifixion), though some have since died. After that he was seen by St. James, then by all the apostles. Last of all he was seen by St. Paul himself, as a man born out of due time. St. Paul confesses that he was the least of the apostles and not worthy to be called an apostle because he persecuted the Church of God. But whether it was St. Paul himself, or those who were apostles before him, the gospel preached was the same, to which the faithful must hold fast, unless they had believed in vain.

This is excellent historical evidence. St. Paul recounts elsewhere to the Galatians his previous life as a persecutor. He had zeal, but his zeal was not according to knowledge. After he had seen the light on the Damascus road he did not immediately go to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before him, but went into Arabia, before returning to Damascus. After three years he went to Jerusalem to see St. Peter, with whom he stayed for fifteen days. On that occasion he saw none of the other apostles save St. James, the brother of the Lord. Fourteen years later he again travelled to Jerusalem and it was there agreed with the leading apostles who were before him, St. Peter, St. James and St. John, that they should continue to focus their energies on mission to the Jews, whereas St. Paul would continue his work of evangelising the Gentiles. But it was agreed between them that the underlying gospel message was the same (Galatians 2).

Thus, when St. Paul writes to the Corinthians recalling them to the gospel he had preached to them he was able to speak as one who, though not himself an eyewitness of the ministry of Jesus, knew personally the original apostles of Jesus who had known him before his crucifixion. It has been rightly observed that it is hardly likely that when St. Paul stayed with St. Peter in Jerusalem for fifteen days they spent all the time talking about the weather. On the contrary, St. Paul clearly returned to Jerusalem on several occasions to learn more from those who had known Jesus personally before the crucifixion, and to ensure that the gospel that he preached was the same as the gospel which was first preached in Jerusalem by those who were apostles before him. Whether the gospel was delivered by St. Paul or by those who were apostles before him, so they preached and so they have believed.

It is important to emphasise this point today. We rightly think of St. Paul as the pioneer among the early Christian missionaries and the most significant figure among them because, unlike those who were apostles before him (with the exception of St. John) he was an original thinker and theologian. It is entirely right that, due to this, his epistles were faithfully preserved by the Church, and form a central feature of the New Testament. But it is easy for us to become so overwhelmed by the theological power and originality of the epistles of St. Paul that we are in danger of forgetting that he was not himself the first to preach the gospel, but in fact preached the gospel as it had been received by him from those who were apostles before him. His epistles are not records of the gospel which he originally preached to the unconverted, but are rather written to the faithful to strengthen them in their faith in the face of the many problems that confronted them in a pagan society. The gospel he originally preached to them is the presupposition behind all his writings and when he wishes to recall his churches to the fundamentals of the faith, he appeals, as in today’s epistle to the Corinthians, to the gospel that he originally preached to them.

We have additional confirmation that the gospel that St. Paul preached was the same as those who were apostles before him from the various accounts of the preaching of the first apostles in Jerusalem as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The underlying message of these sermons is that the time that the prophets of old had looked forward to has now been fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He had gone about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, but had been cruelly mistreated and put to death in a miscarriage of justice. But he had been raised to life to God’s right hand, from where he had poured out the Holy Sprit to guide, strengthen and cheer the faithful. He would be the judge of men on the last day, when the Kingdom of God would finally come on earth as it is in heaven and God’s purposes would finally be fulfilled. In the meantime salvation was on offer for all who repented of their sins, who believed and were baptised.

This is in outline the same faith that St. Paul clearly presupposes in his epistles and to which he recalls the Corinthians in the epistle that we heard today. It is the same as the faith that is presupposed in the epistles of St. Peter, St. James, St. Jude and St. John, the good news of salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is not to deny that the differing writings of the New Testament place emphasis on very different aspects of the faith, but it is necessary to warn against so emphasising the diversity of the writings of the New Testament that we lose sight of the common faith which all the writings presuppose. It is the gospel that was preached in the first age of the Church in Jerusalem as recorded in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, and remained the fundamental presupposition behind all the writings of the New Testament. It may reach a more profound and deeper expression in the writings of those who were original thinkers and theologians such as St. Paul and St. John, but the underlying message presupposed by them is the same as the faith first preached in the early Church in Jerusalem.

The gospel message is not an appeal to a generalised mystical or religious experience that could in theory happen to anyone at any place and time, but to the very specific events that happened in first century Palestine by those who had witnessed them. The early Christians had all sorts of dramatic religious experiences (not least the Corinthians) but the gospel as preached by the apostles was not a message about a private religious experience but a testimony to events that actually happened. This so called scandal of particularity is essential to the Christian faith. It cannot be eliminated without the Christian faith becoming something essentially different. This is precisely what St. Paul was warning the Corinthians against. Some of them were getting so carried away by their religious experiences that they were in danger of abandoning the gospel that they had first received. They were tempted to see it as something too primitive and unsophisticated for them.

This problem existed when St. Paul was writing as soon as twenty years after the crucifixion and it still exists today. People prefer a religion that is all about everyone cultivating their purely private and personal religious experience and see the message of the gospel as too unsophisticated for them. People find it offensive to be told they are less than perfect and are encouraged to cultivate self worth and self esteem at every possible opportunity. Religion is only acceptable if it is seen as a type of therapy. We need to listen again to the good news that was first preached in the earliest days of the Church in Jerusalem, the gospel of salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the faith delivered once for all to the saints. For so we preach and so we have believed. 🔝

Beheading of St. John the Baptist

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. Today’s Gospel from St. Mark recounts how Herod Antipas (the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea and son of Herod the Great) had arrested John and imprisoned him because John had criticised his marriage to Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. John had told Herod that it was not lawful for him to take his brother’s wife. Herodias wanted to put John to death and sought for a convenient time to manoeuvre the situation so that Herod would agree to this. On the occasion of his birthday Herod made a lavish banquet. The daughter of Herodias came in and danced. This pleased Herod to such an extent that he agreed to grant her whatever she wished. She was persuaded by her mother to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Consequently, Herod beheaded John, and “brought his head on a dish, and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother. Which his disciples hearing, came, and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.”

The beheading of St. John the Baptist is not only recounted in Christian sources. Josephus, the Jewish historian, though not a Christian, seems to have thought highly of John the Baptist. He writes that “for Herod had him put to death, though he was a good man and had exhorted the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practice justice towards their fellows and piety towards God, and so doing to join him in baptism. In his view this was a necessary preliminary if baptism was to be acceptable to God. They must not employ it to gain pardon for whatever sins they committed, but as a consecration of the body implying that the soul was already cleansed by right behaviour. When others too joined the crowds about him, because they were moved to the highest degree by his sermons, Herod became alarmed. Eloquence that had so great an effect on mankind might lead to some form of sedition, for it looked as if they would be guided by John in everything that they did. Herod therefore decided that it would be much better to strike first and be rid of him before his work led to an uprising…. Though John, because of Herod’s suspicions, was brought in chains to Machaerus… and there put to death, the verdict of the Jews was that the destruction brought upon Herod’s army was a vindication of John, since God saw fit to inflict such a blow upon Herod.”

Both the account in the Gospels and the account of John in Josephus show that he was a great prophet and moral authority who spoke truth to power. Whereas in the Gospel narrative John is the victim of a grudge killing on the part of Herod’s wife, Josephus states that the execution of John took place because Herod feared that his message was potentially subversive and a threat to political and social stability. Most probably the Gospel narrative gives the immediate reason for the execution of John, while Josephus draws attention to Herod’s fear that, as well as criticising his irregular marital affairs, John was also more generally a threat to the social order.  Great crimes often have more than one motivation. There is an immediate motivation, but in addition there is often an underlying issue with a particular individual that leads to the crime eventually being committed. It has been said that truth purchetheth hatred, and those who speak truth to power have rarely been popular. 

It is clear that John stood in the tradition of the great Hebrew prophets. The prophets were the conscience of the nation and spoke truth to power. The Old Testament narrative draws a distinction between the kings who exercised power and the prophets who preached righteousness. The prophet spoke truth to power, whether they will hear of whether they will forbear, as Ezekiel put it. The prophet Nathan criticised King David for his adultery with Bathsheba. The prophet Elijah criticised King Ahab for the seizure of Naboth’s vineyard and the subsequent murder of Naboth. John’s condemnation of Herod Antipas’ marriage to his brother’s wife clearly stood in this tradition. In his appearance John resembled Elijah, in his message he resembled Amos, a blunt, outspoken, fearless man. The times were evil, he told his hearers, and they needed to repent and be baptised in the face of divine judgment on their sins. The axe was laid at the root of the tree, and every tree that did not bring forth good fruit would be cast down and thrown into the fire. A mightier one would come after him, indeed who was already among them, who would baptise them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Some responded to John’s preaching. Most did not. Many were scandalised by his message and Herod Antipas saw his message as potentially so dangerous in terms of his criticism of his marital affairs and the social order in general that he put him to death.

Clearly John, like the Hebrew prophets before him, was no diplomat or soft courtier. He refused to prophesy smooth things or follow the multitude to do evil. He simply spoke truth to power and was prepared to suffer and ultimately die for it. He was an uncomfortable and disturbing figure. He was one of those whom Jesus in the beatitudes described as being persecuted and suffering for righteousness sake. 

There is much that we can learn from the life and witness of St. John the Baptist today. All of us are constantly tempted to water down the message of the Gospel to make it more palatable to our audience. We are constantly told that people find the Christian message and our preaching of it offensive. If we proclaim that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and need to repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of our sins we will be told that our message is too much for people today to accept. We live in an age in which people are encouraged at every available opportunity to cultivate their own sense of worth and self esteem. People get offended if you tell them that they are less than perfect or that they should consider the needs of others as well as themselves. Pride was once said to be the cardinal sin and to come before a fall, but it is now seen as the cardinal virtue, for we live in age in which we are all encouraged to believe not in God and objective moral standards, but only in ourselves. We have all followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts and would rather feel good about ourselves than repent of our sins and be forgiven.

But the message of St. John the Baptist is that the truth is more important than diplomacy, and that the truth will out in the end. Let us pray that we will follow his example in our own time by preaching the Gospel in season and out of season, constantly speaking the truth to power, boldly rebuking vice, and patiently suffering for truth’s sake. 🔝

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The Beheading of St John the Baptist

On 29 August the Church commemorates the Decollatio Sancti Ioannis Baptistae, the Beheading of St John the Baptist, the last and greatest of the prophets, the Forerunner of Christ, and the “voice crying in the wilderness” who prepared the way of the Lord. The feast was observed in both East and West from the fourth century onwards, testimony to the universal veneration of the Prophet who bridged the Old and New Covenants¹.

The Gospel recounts the grim banquet of Herod, the dance of Salome, and the cruel demand of Herodias that silenced the Baptist’s voice. Yet even in death, he continued to speak. John had rebuked Herod for his unlawful union with Herodias, sealing with his blood the sanctity of marriage and the sovereignty of God’s law. “John’s courage in reproving Herod was the very cause of his martyrdom, but this very death became his highest glory,” observes Johann Evangelist Baur, “for he sealed his testimony with blood”².

The Collect of the day petitions God that the faithful may be strengthened by the intercession of him “whose death we venerate,” that we may likewise contend for justice and truth. Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen O.C.D. comments that John’s passion foreshadowed that of Christ: “As the Bridegroom was to be taken away, so too the Friend of the Bridegroom was sacrificed beforehand, foreshadowing the Cross by his fidelity to the divine law”³. The Office echoes the suffering of the just, while the antiphon at Lauds recalls Proverbs: Memoria justi cum laudibus, et impiorum nomen putrescet — “The memory of the just shall be blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.”

Nor is this day one of mourning only, but of triumph. “The shedding of his blood was his entrance into glory, his prison became a gate into heaven, and his silence before Herod speaks with greater power through the centuries,” writes Leonard Goffine⁴.

The Baptist’s witness is for all times. He died because he would not bend the truth of God’s law to the whims of rulers or the seductions of worldly approval. In an age when fidelity to the natural and divine law is often suppressed, John’s voice still cries out: Non licet tibi — it is not lawful. His feast bids the faithful to imitate his humility before Christ — “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30) — and to embrace constancy in the face of worldly pressure, remembering that truth is worth the cost, that witness requires sacrifice, and that fidelity to God leads, as with John, to eternal life. 🔝

¹ Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year: Time After Pentecost, vol. XIV (Dublin: James Duffy & Sons, 1910), pp. 324–327.
² Johann Evangelist Baur, The Light of the World, or the Great Consummation (London: Burns and Oates, 1874), vol. II, p. 278.
³ Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1963), Meditation 270, pp. 874–875.
⁴ Leonard Goffine, The Devout Instructions on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and Holydays (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1880), pp. 619–620.

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Forgotten Rubrics: The Sign of the Cross

The Sign of the Cross is the simplest and most universal of Catholic gestures, and yet one of the most neglected in its depth and meaning. From the earliest centuries, Christians marked themselves with the Cross upon waking, before prayer, at meals, when leaving home, at the approach of danger, and at the hour of death. Tertullian testified: “At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign” (De Corona, c. 3).

In the Roman liturgy, the Sign of the Cross is everywhere. The Mass begins and ends with it. It is made repeatedly by the priest in blessing, consecration, absolution, and dismissal. The faithful are expected to make it at the words Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini; before the Gospel; at the Confiteor and absolution; when receiving blessings and Sacraments; and privately at moments of devotion. And yet, outside of liturgy, many Catholics today either neglect it or perform it hastily, without reverence.

The older rubrics of the Missal preserve forgotten details about how the Sign of the Cross was to be made. Priests were instructed to trace it distinctly, not perfunctorily, and to pronounce the accompanying words audibly when required. In certain rites, the Sign of the Cross was to be made upon specific objects—the chalice, the host, the communicant’s head, the water, the oil—so as to indicate that Christ’s victory over sin and death extends through every element sanctified by the Church.

Spiritual writers insist on its significance. Goffine explains: “By this holy sign we openly profess the chief mysteries of our faith: the unity of God in the Trinity, and the Redemption of mankind by the Cross of Christ” (Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels, p. 748). Dom Gueranger calls it “the most simple, the sublimest of Christian prayers,” noting that it is both profession and invocation—profession of the Faith, and invocation of the Divine power (Liturgical Year, Vol. 4).

There is also an ascetical dimension. The Sign of the Cross sanctifies the body as well as the soul. St. John Chrysostom preached: “Never leave your house without making the Sign of the Cross. It will be to you a staff, a weapon, a safeguard. Not only in times of persecution, but in every occasion, let it be to you as a shield, as an armor” (Hom. in Matt. 54).

The manner of the Cross
The earliest witnesses show that Christians of both East and West made the sign with three fingers, touching forehead, breast, right shoulder and then left. This was the common way of professing the Trinity and the Redemption, and it remains the Orthodox practice to this day. Only later did the Latin Church develop the custom of moving from left to right, largely through imitation of the priest’s blessing as seen by the faithful. Both manners are legitimate and express sound doctrine, yet the Eastern usage retains greater continuity with the most ancient tradition. For Catholics, the essential point is not the direction but the reverence and faith with which the sign is made.

Pastoral guidance
Priests and catechists should carefully instruct both children and converts in the proper manner of making the Sign of the Cross—forehead, breast, shoulders—pronounced with the full formula, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” Parents should reinforce this at home, ensuring children begin and end the day with it, use it before meals, and in times of fear or temptation. The faithful should be taught to make it slowly, reverently, and consciously, recognising it as both prayer and protection.

The recovery of this rubric begins in the family, is reinforced in catechesis, and is sanctified in the liturgy. To make the Sign of the Cross with care is to re-immerse oneself constantly in the mystery of Baptism, to be clothed again with the power of the Passion, and to affirm publicly the hope of Resurrection. Forgotten in its depth, the rubric of the Cross is a continual catechesis, a safeguard against the world, and a proclamation of faith. 🔝

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Veritas Fortis: Strong Truth

In an age of confusion, compromise, and apostasy, when the truth of Christ is obscured by error both within the Church and without, it is necessary to raise once more a clear and fearless banner. Nuntiatoria, as a witness to the perennial faith, takes as its motto the words Veritas Fortis — “Strong Truth.” This is no mere ornament of language, but a declaration of identity and purpose for all who labour for the restoration of Christendom and the salvation of souls.

The Strength of Truth
Truth is strong, not because of human eloquence or social approval, but because truth is divine. Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, is Himself the Truth (Jn. 14:6), unchanging and victorious. The truth revealed in Him cannot be silenced by censure, nor destroyed by persecution, nor diluted by compromise. Empires have risen and fallen, ideologies have strutted across the stage of history, and fashions of morality have shifted like shadows; yet the Gospel has endured.

The strength of truth is shown most clearly when it appears weak. The martyrs did not conquer by the sword, but by fidelity unto death. The saints bore ridicule and rejection, yet their witness outlasted the laughter of their enemies. In every age, men have sought to weaken or obscure the truth, but Veritas Fortis — the Truth remains strong, outlasting error and consoling the faithful who cling to it.

The Challenge of Truth
But Veritas Fortis is not only a statement about Christ’s Gospel; it is a demand upon us who claim to live by it. If truth is strong, then our witness must not be weak. The Christian who knows that truth is invincible has no excuse for cowardice or silence. We are called to stand firm, to speak clearly, and to live faithfully, even when unpopular or costly. To proclaim the dignity of life, the sanctity of marriage, and the kingship of Christ is to share in the strength of truth against the shifting sands of ideology.

Practical Commitments
To profess Veritas Fortis is to embrace three duties:

• Worship — To uphold the sacred liturgy in its fullness, reverence, and fidelity, knowing that authentic worship shapes and safeguards the truth in the souls of the faithful.
• Teaching — To hand on the perennial doctrine of the Church without compromise or dilution, guarding the young and the simple from the deceits of the age.
• Witness — To confess Christ in public life with courage and clarity, living the Gospel in word and deed, and resisting the temptation to silence or accommodation.

Comfort and Consolation
The motto consoles as well as commands. It reassures us that fidelity is never futile, even when ignored or opposed. Truth defends us; we do not defend truth. In clinging to Christ and His teaching, we are borne not by our own strength but by His. The Christian who lives Veritas Fortis lives in confidence that apparent defeats are never final, for the victory of truth is guaranteed in the triumph of Christ.

Conclusion
Let Veritas Fortis be our confession and our banner: a confession that the truth is strong because it is divine, and a banner calling us to live with the same strength, courage, and clarity. In this conviction, we march forward, not in the frailty of human effort, but in the assurance that Christ the King reigns, and that His truth shall prevail when all else has crumbled. 🔝

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Friendship with Christ: Consolation and Covenant

The well-known hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” is often sung with sincere devotion. Its verses express the comfort of laying down our sorrows before Christ in prayer, reminding us that we need never carry our burdens alone. Yet while the hymn has a certain sweetness, it risks presenting friendship with Christ as purely sentimental—a consoling companionship detached from covenantal demands. This reflects a wider tendency to reduce our Lord to a kind of “imaginary friend,” neglecting the majesty of the One who is both Friend and King.

The Apostles and Us
There is a difference between being with Jesus as the Apostles were, and being with Him now. They spoke with Him daily, ate at His table, and lived in a unique intimacy that flowed from their vocation. Not everything said to them is addressed in the same way to all believers. Yet the principle of divine friendship remains, offered to us by grace, though in another form.

“You Are My Friends If You Do What I Command”
Christ Himself gives the measure of this friendship: *“You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you”*¹. Friendship with Christ is not a casual familiarity but a covenantal bond. It is lived in obedience, expressed in the keeping of His commandments, and sealed in sacramental grace. To claim friendship with Him while ignoring His law is to fall into the delusion of a false intimacy.

Amicitia cum Deo
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that charity is nothing less than amicitia cum Deo—friendship with God². Such friendship is made possible because God communicates His very life to us, raising us to share in His divine nature³. This is not the friendship of equals but the friendship of a King who stoops down to lift His servant into His household. True friendship with Christ deepens reverence rather than erasing it.

The Shape of Friendship
How then is this friendship manifested? It is seen in fidelity to the commandments⁴, in the life of prayer⁵, in the sacraments that bind us to Him⁶, in imitation of His virtues⁷, and in charity toward neighbour⁸. It is a friendship that consoles, but also one that commands. It is tender, but never sentimental.

Conclusion
The hymn is not wrong to speak of Christ as Friend. But if we think of Him merely as a kindly confidant, we dishonour His majesty. He is Friend precisely because He is Lord—the Friend who laid down His life for us⁹, who calls us to holiness, and who reigns as King of Kings¹⁰. To walk in true friendship with Him is to walk in love, obedience, and reverent communion. 🔝

1. Apocalypse (Revelation) 19:16: “And he hath on his garment and on his thigh written: King of kings and Lord of lords.”
2. John 15:14 (Douay-Rheims).
3. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II–II, q.23, a.1.
4. Cf. 2 Peter 1:4: “That by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature.”
5. John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
6. Teresa of Avila, Life, ch. 8: prayer as “an intimate sharing between friends.”
7. John 6:56: “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.”
8. Matthew 11:29: “Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart.”
9. Matthew 25:40: “Whatsoever you do to the least of My brethren, you do to Me.”
10. John 15:13: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

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CURRENT AFFAIRS

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Pope Leo XIV Calls for a “Great Cultural Conversion” at the Rimini Meeting

Pope Leo XIV has addressed the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples at Rimini with a call for “faith, hope, and charity to be translated into a great cultural conversion.” In his message of 11 August to Bishop Nicolò Anselmi of Rimini, the Pope reflected on the biblical image of the desert, recalling how it was in the wilderness that Israel was betrothed to God, where freedom matured in hardship, and where monks and nuns have lived in silence on behalf of all humanity. The desert, he wrote, becomes not only a place of trial but a place of decision, of love, and of hope, transfigured by the grace of God².

Leo XIV singled out for special praise an exhibition dedicated to the martyrs of Algeria, whose self-offering he described as the authentic path of Christian mission: not self-assertion or cultural identity politics, but “self-giving to the point of martyrdom of those who, day and night, in joy and amid tribulations, worship Jesus alone as Lord.” In their sacrifice, he said, the Church’s vocation is revealed as solidarity with all humanity, overcoming indifference through imitation of the Incarnate Word².

The Pope also commended the Rimini Meeting’s long-standing emphasis on dialogue as an “exercise in listening” that prepares the “new stones” with which to build the future. He warned that when governments and international institutions fail to uphold justice, religious communities and civil society must “dare to be prophetic.” The kingdom of God, which is peace, must not be resisted, he insisted. Yet his appeal for cultural engagement was coupled with a reminder that no renewal can occur apart from the poor and the vulnerable. Without the victims of history, the hungry and thirsty for justice, widows and orphans, the young and the elderly, migrants and refugees, even the voice of creation itself, there will be no stones to build the future¹.

The Pope turned finally to the digital revolution, cautioning that it risks accentuating division unless it is inhabited creatively by Christians guided by the Holy Spirit. A faith indifferent to the desertification of the world, or complicit in it, would no longer follow Christ. The task of the Church, he said, is to allow the deserts of our age to blossom into gardens of hope and to be transfigured into the City of God².

The Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, founded in 1980 under the inspiration of Monsignor Luigi Giussani and the Communion and Liberation movement, has long been a forum for dialogue and cultural debate. Previous popes have encouraged it: John Paul II saw its evangelising potential, Benedict XVI urged fidelity to Christ as its anchor, and Francis stressed its interreligious openness. Leo XIV’s message continues this line, but it also illustrates the unease many Catholics feel with the Rimini model. The martyrs of Algeria bore witness not to dialogue but to Christ crucified and risen, sealing their confession with blood. Their sacrifice demonstrates that the path of the Church is not cultural synthesis but the Cross. Likewise, conversion in Catholic tradition is supernatural before it is cultural: the turning of the soul by grace from sin to God. To speak of “cultural conversion” without rooting it in the necessity of repentance and sacramental life risks reducing Christianity to a programme of fraternity and development. The desert in Scripture was not a marketplace of ideas but the place where God formed His people, purified them, and prepared them to worship Him alone. If Rimini is to be more than an exchange of perspectives, it must recover that truth—that the desert blooms only when men and women embrace the Cross of Christ. 🔝

¹ CNA/ACI Prensa, “Pope Leo XIV calls for a ‘great cultural conversion’ in his greeting to Rimini meeting,” 21 August 2025.
² Holy See Press Office, “Message of the Holy Father Leo XIV to the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin,” 11 August 2025.

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Injustice Recedes When Christ is Preached: Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV has addressed a message, through his Secretary of State, to the bishops of the Amazon gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, under the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA). From August 17–20, 2025, some 90 bishops convened to reflect on the pastoral needs of the region, continuing the structures and initiatives launched after the Amazon Synod of 2019.

Proclaiming Christ as the First Duty
The Holy Father insisted that the proclamation of Christ is the indispensable foundation of all pastoral work in the Amazon. He declared: “It is necessary that Jesus Christ, in whom all things are recapitulated, be announced with clarity and immense charity among the inhabitants of the Amazon, so that we may strive to give them fresh and pure the bread of the Good News and the heavenly food of the Eucharist, the only means to truly be the People of God and the Body of Christ.”

In this statement, the Pope restated the perennial doctrine that the Church exists primarily to make Christ known and to administer the sacraments. Echoing St. Paul’s teaching, he affirmed that “wherever the name of Christ is preached, injustice recedes proportionally, for, as the Apostle Paul asserts, all exploitation of man by man disappears if we are able to receive one another as brothers and sisters.”

This clear insistence on the primacy of preaching and the Eucharist stands as a needed correction to the temptation, present since the Amazon Synod, to reduce the Church’s mission to merely social or ecological concerns. The Pope here ties true justice to the spread of the Gospel, not to political or secular programs.

Justice and the Shortage of Priests
The Amazon continues to face severe challenges in the availability of priests to administer the sacraments to remote communities. While some voices in 2019 sought to exploit this reality to argue for the ordination of viri probati or other irregular proposals, Pope Leo did not endorse such measures. Instead, he called for renewed missionary zeal, linking justice for indigenous peoples to their right to receive the faith “fresh and pure,” rather than diluted by inculturation that risks syncretism.

Care for Creation in Right Order
Turning to creation, the Pope urged the faithful to exercise both the “right and duty” of stewardship, warning against two dangers: exploitation of natural resources without regard for the Creator, and the idolatry of nature, whereby man becomes enslaved to the environment rather than using it rightly as a means to glorify God.

Quoting the spirit of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Pope insisted that creation has been entrusted to man so that, through it, we may “attain our end of praising God and thus obtaining the salvation of our souls.” In this, Pope Leo carefully distinguished Catholic teaching on stewardship from pantheistic or naturalist ideologies that have sometimes crept into contemporary ecological discourse.

Continuity and Caution
While Pope Leo’s emphasis on Christ and the Eucharist offers hope for a reorientation of Amazonian pastoral initiatives back toward supernatural ends, the framework of CEAMA — a body created in the wake of the Amazon Synod — remains problematic. Traditional Catholics continue to express concern that such structures may perpetuate the synod’s ambiguities and the push for inculturation at the expense of doctrine.

Nevertheless, the Pope’s words that “injustice recedes when Christ is preached” remind us that no authentic renewal of society or creation can be achieved apart from the Kingship of Christ. The Amazon, like every region, requires not accommodation to the spirit of the age, but fidelity to the Great Commission: “Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). 🔝

1. Pius XI, Quas Primas (1925), §12 – “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”
2. Eph. 1:10 – “To re-establish all things in Christ.”
3. 1 Pet. 2:9 – “That you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
4. Mk 16:15 – “Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

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SSPX Jubilee Pilgrimage to Rome 2025: A Historic Moment of Witness

The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) will return to Rome this August for a worldwide Jubilee pilgrimage, marking its most significant public act of witness in the Eternal City since the Holy Year of 2000. Pilgrims from across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia will converge upon Rome from 18–22 August 2025, with the focal point on 20 August: a Pontifical High Mass and procession into the Archbasilica of St John Lateran, the Mother and Head of all churches.

Historic Precedent
The SSPX last organised Jubilee pilgrimages in 1975 and 2000, both highly symbolic moments in its relationship with Rome. In 2000, thousands of faithful processed through the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica in an act of fidelity to the See of Rome, despite the ongoing canonical irregularity of the Society. The 2025 pilgrimage thus recalls and renews that demonstration of Catholic attachment to the heart of the Church.

Vatican Recognition
What has drawn particular attention is that the pilgrimage has been listed on the official Vatican Jubilee Year calendar. While the Holy See stresses that this does not amount to sponsorship or endorsement, the inclusion represents a rare acknowledgment of the Society’s presence in the life of the Church. Catholic News Agency noted that the pilgrimage stands “amid ongoing tensions” yet still appears alongside diocesan and religious events in Rome’s Jubilee schedule. For some, this signals the enduring complexity of the SSPX-Vatican dialogue, caught between recognition of sacramental validity and unresolved questions of canonical status.

International Participation
Districts of the SSPX worldwide are mobilising pilgrim groups.

• Great Britain & Ireland: 18–22 August, visiting the seven basilicas of Rome and culminating in the Lateran procession.
• United States: 18–27 August, with a full tour of Italian shrines including Assisi, Loreto, Lanciano, San Giovanni Rotondo, and Monte Sant’Angelo.
• France: 19–21 August, with a focus on Roman basilicas.
• Australia and Canada: Extended tours covering Florence, Assisi, and Rome.

Typical itineraries include daily traditional Mass, rosary processions, and visits to major shrines of Christendom, bringing pilgrims to the roots of Catholic tradition and devotion.

A Witness in the Heart of Rome
For the SSPX faithful, the pilgrimage is more than a devotional exercise: it is an expression of Catholic identity and a declaration of fidelity to the Church’s perennial magisterium. The choice of St John Lateran as the goal is emblematic, for it is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. To cross its threshold through the Holy Door, in this Jubilee, signifies both adherence to the papacy and a reminder of the crisis that continues to wound the Church.

Context and Meaning
This pilgrimage unfolds in a climate of contradiction: a Vatican that has sought to restrict the Traditional Latin Mass through Traditionis Custodes now receives, at least on the Jubilee calendar, the largest organised gathering of traditional Catholics in Rome in decades. For many, the act of pilgrimage is itself a statement that Catholic tradition cannot be suppressed, and that fidelity to the Mass of the Ages and the faith of the Fathers is the true path of renewal.

Conclusion
As thousands of faithful descend upon the Eternal City this August, the SSPX Jubilee Pilgrimage will stand as a moment of witness: a sign of attachment to Rome, a testimony to the vitality of Catholic tradition, and a reminder that true unity is found only in the perennial magisterium. Whether this visible presence will influence the course of the Society’s relationship with the Vatican remains to be seen, but it will undoubtedly mark one of the most striking scenes of the Jubilee Year. 🔝

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Desecration at Westminster Cathedral? Drug-Dealing Reports Raise Alarm

Westminster Cathedral, the mother church of Roman Catholicism in England and Wales, has sought to play down reports that its very precincts are being used as a marketplace for narcotics. The claim, carried in the Daily Mail, alleged that rough sleepers and dealers were using both the grounds and even the interior of the Cathedral for illicit transactions.¹

The newspaper cited the testimony of private security officers patrolling the area, who reported that while police and community support officers had made street-level dealing more difficult, activity had shifted indoors. “There are deals going on inside the cathedral, in the pews and in the quiet side-chapels too,” one officer claimed. Another added that repeat arrests of known dealers were rendered ineffective by their swift release by the courts.²

Parishioners and residents likewise spoke of a growing sense of disorder. One worshipper, 79-year-old Ethal Bram, lamented the “desecration” of a holy place, recounting incidents of individuals shouting from the sanctuary microphone or wandering aimlessly within. “It is sad because it is a place of reverence,” she told reporters.

The Mail also highlighted the increase in rough sleeping in the surrounding area, with some of those involved said to have arrived in the country only recently. Westminster Council itself acknowledges that approximately 400 people are sleeping rough in the borough every night, one of the highest concentrations in the country.³ The visible presence of such a vulnerable population has been linked by local councillors and security staff alike to increased anti-social behaviour and the open trade in drugs around the Cathedral precincts.⁴

Yet Westminster Cathedral itself has sought to reassure the faithful. In a formal statement, the Diocese insisted there had been “no direct reports of drug-dealing” inside the building, while at the same time urging anyone who witnesses criminal activity to report it to security or the police. It emphasised that more than 5,000 people visit Westminster Cathedral daily and that, despite the recent reports, it remains “a welcoming, prayerful and safe environment.”⁵

A deeper malaise
Whether or not the worst claims are substantiated, the controversy exposes a troubling reality: that the nation’s foremost Catholic church should even be credibly associated with scenes of lawlessness reflects both a crisis of policing and a collapse of reverence for sacred space.

Nor is Westminster Cathedral alone. Across Britain, churches of every denomination have become increasingly vulnerable to vandalism, theft, and disorder. Reports of tabernacles desecrated, sacred vessels stolen, graffiti scrawled on holy images, and altars profaned have become a grim commonplace.⁶ Even small parish churches—once instinctively respected, even by those far from the faith—are now treated by some as little more than public rooms to be misused.

In former generations, even the most wayward members of society instinctively respected churches, recognising them as sanctuaries of order, prayer, and silence. Today, in an era of increasing secularisation and social fragmentation, the sacred is treated as just another hall, and the weak enforcement of law only emboldens those who would desecrate holy ground.

If Westminster Cathedral—so visible a symbol of Catholic faith in Britain—cannot maintain an atmosphere of prayer and safety within its walls, it illustrates in miniature the wider cultural collapse: the loss of the sacred, the toleration of disorder, and the absence of moral seriousness in public life. The decline is not merely social, but spiritual: a people that no longer acknowledges God will not long respect the things of God. 🔝

¹ Daily Mail, July 2025.
² Westminster Conservatives, “How dealers are selling hard drugs during Mass in the pews of Britain’s biggest Catholic cathedral,” July 2025.
³ Westminster Conservatives, “Understanding the Challenge of Tackling Rough Sleeping in Central London,” 2025.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Premier Christian News, 21 Aug 2025.
⁶ Heritage Crime Report, Historic England, 2023; Christian Concern, 2024.

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A Note of Sorrow: The Apostasy of Canon Stephen Maughan

With profound regret and genuine surprise, we record the decision of Canon Stephen Maughan, long entrusted with sacred ministry in the Diocese of Middlesbrough and a respected celebrant of the Traditional Latin Mass, to leave the Catholic Church and be received into the Church of England. His reception is scheduled for 15 September 2025, after which he will begin ministry within the Diocese of York¹.

A ministry of pastoral depth
Ordained in 2005, Canon Maughan served faithfully across diverse apostolates: as parish priest of St Charles Borromeo, Hull, as chaplain to schools and hospitals, and in the classroom as a Religious Education teacher². His pastoral zeal and his gift for teaching shaped the lives of many entrusted to his care. He also held significant canonical responsibilities as Chancellor and Judicial Vicar, guiding sensitive tribunal cases with discretion and mercy³.

Catholic life in the bones of a school
His influence extended powerfully into Catholic education. In 2024, St Charles Voluntary Catholic Academy—closely linked with his parish—was judged Outstanding by the Catholic Schools Inspectorate. Inspectors reported: *“From the moment you enter it, this school shouts out its Catholic identity with joy and energy… Catholic Life is in the bones of this school”*⁴. This judgment testified not only to the work of staff and pupils, but to the priestly witness Canon Maughan gave to that community.

A steadfast celebrant of tradition
Among the faithful attached to the usus antiquior, Canon Maughan was valued as a celebrant of the Traditional Latin Mass. His reverent service at the altar, his fidelity to the Church’s liturgical books, and his pastoral encouragement brought spiritual nourishment to many in the diocese.

A departure that wounds
It is all the more grievous that such a priest should abandon the Church’s unity. Clerical Whispers observed: “Whilst Canon Maughan may be laicised under the arrangement, meaning he should not exercise his priestly ministry, he will remain a priest”⁵. Catholic doctrine reaffirms that Holy Orders are indelible; and as Pope Leo XIII declared in Apostolicae curae, Anglican ordinations are “absolutely null and utterly void”⁶. No ecclesial appointment can undo the sacramental reality of his Catholic priesthood, though his visible ministry now departs from the Church.

A call to prayer
For those who have benefitted from his pastoral labours, this decision is a wound. The faithful are urged to respond not with recrimination, but with prayer: for Canon Maughan himself, for the parish and school communities he leaves, and for fidelity among clergy and laity in times of trial. May Christ the Eternal High Priest draw back into unity those who wander, and may His Church be renewed in faith and truth. 🔝

1. The Catholic Herald, “Catholic priest leaves diocese to join Church of England” (18 August 2025).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. St Charles Voluntary Catholic Academy, “St Charles’ VC Academy shouts out its Catholic identity with joy and energy” (28 June 2024).
5. Clerical Whispers, report, August 2025.
6. Leo XIII, Apostolicae curae (1896).

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Counterfeit Voices, Real Dangers: Bishop Barron on AI Abuse

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester has sounded the alarm over the growing proliferation of AI-generated videos impersonating him on social media. In a message shared on August 20, he stressed that what may appear silly—or even amusing—poses a serious threat to reputation and public trust¹. Barron recounted examples including a fabricated brawl in a Chicago restaurant, a supposed summons to Rome for high-level discussions with Pope Leo XIV, and even a video purporting to show him giving advice on how to “remove demons from your toilet”².

“This is all ridiculous,” Barron explained, noting that a moment’s scrutiny reveals the falsity of such productions. Yet the matter is not harmless: “These are fraudsters … it’s doing damage to my reputation, but it’s also doing damage to people who are being defrauded.” He urged the faithful to rely only on verified accounts: “Look for the blue check. That’s the sign it’s from me. Don’t take these silly things seriously. Don’t watch them”³.

A wider challenge of discernment
The bishop’s warning reveals more than a personal inconvenience. It demonstrates the capacity of modern technology to undermine trust in religious voices and to weaponise deception for financial gain. The danger is not unlike the “false prophets” warned of in Scripture (Matt. 7:15). If the voice of a shepherd can be forged, the sheep must be taught to discern.

Leo XIV on the ethical governance of AI
Pope Leo XIV has repeatedly spoken of the urgent need for an ethical framework in the development and use of artificial intelligence. In June he told participants at the Second Annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Corporate Governance that there is “urgent need for serious reflection and ongoing discussion on the inherently ethical dimension of AI, as well as its responsible governance”⁴. He warned that AI, though a tool of great ingenuity, can be misused “for selfish gain … or worse, to foment conflict and aggression”⁵.

The pope also emphasised the risks to the young: “All of us, I am sure, are concerned for children and young people and the possible consequences of the use of AI on their intellectual and neurological development. … Access to data — however extensive — must not be confused with intelligence”⁶.

At the AI for Good Summit in Geneva, he called humanity to responsibility: “Humanity is at a crossroads, facing the immense potential generated by the digital revolution driven by Artificial Intelligence … This epochal transformation requires responsibility and discernment to ensure that AI is developed and utilized for the common good”⁷. He underlined that “although responsibility for the ethical use of AI systems begins with those who develop, manage and oversee them, those who use them also share in this responsibility … AI therefore requires proper ethical management and regulatory frameworks centered on the human person”⁸.

A Catholic reflection
Barron’s experience and Leo XIV’s teaching converge in a single pastoral warning: deception is not only possible but pervasive in the digital age. The countermeasure is not despair but vigilance, prudence, and fidelity to authentic doctrine and witness. Catholics must cultivate discernment in what they consume, caution in what they share, and confidence in the voice of Christ, which cannot be imitated by machines.

Technology is not morally neutral; it is either directed to the common good or corrupted for exploitation. In an era when voices may be forged and truth counterfeited, the task of the faithful is to cleave more firmly to the truth of Christ, the teaching of His Church, and the virtue of prudence. Thus the warning of a bishop and the counsel of the pope become a single exhortation: to use new tools with wisdom, to guard against deception, and to remain steadfast in the light of the Gospel. 🔝

¹ Diego López Marina, “Bishop Barron warns about fake AI videos impersonating him,” ACI Prensa, 21 August 2025 (English translation adapted by CNA).
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Pope Leo XIV, Message to the Second Annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, Vatican, 19–20 June 2025.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Pope Leo XIV, Address to the Second Annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Corporate Governance, Rome, 19–20 June 2025.
⁷ Pope Leo XIV, Message to the AI for Good Summit, Geneva, 10 July 2025.
⁸ Ibid.; see also Catholic News Service, “Pope Leo XIV says artificial intelligence must have ethical management,” 11 July 2025.

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IN OTHER NEWS…

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Lucy Connolly Released: Justice, Free Speech, and the Unequal Scales of Modern Britain

Lucy Connolly, a former childminder from Northampton and wife of a Conservative councillor, was released from prison on 21 August 2025 after serving less than a year of her 31-month sentence for incitement to racial hatred.¹ Her case, from the beginning, has stirred fierce debate—not only over the limits of free expression but also over the appearance of “two-tier justice” in Britain.

The Case and Sentence
In October 2024, Birmingham Crown Court sentenced Connolly to two years and seven months imprisonment after she pled guilty to a charge of “publishing and distributing threatening or abusive material intended to stir up racial hatred.”² Her offending post, written in the aftermath of the Southport murders, called for mass deportations and arson attacks on asylum-seeker hotels.

Connolly’s supporters have not denied the recklessness of her words, but many questioned why her sentence was so severe compared to punishments for violent crime. Offenders guilty of knife attacks or burglary have often received shorter custodial terms.³

Early Release
Prisoners in England and Wales are eligible for release on licence once they have served 40% of their custodial term, with time on remand deducted. Connolly had already spent 72 days in custody before sentencing. As such, her eligibility date fell in August 2025.⁴ She will now serve the remainder of her sentence under probation supervision in the community.

Public Reaction
Her release immediately reignited controversy. Kemi Badenoch, among other public figures, condemned the disproportionate sentence and pointed to inconsistencies in judicial handling of similar cases.⁵ The Free Speech Union likewise described her imprisonment as symptomatic of “two-tier justice,” where ordinary citizens are punished more harshly for speech than certain minority groups are for direct calls to violence.⁶

By contrast, Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the verdict, insisting earlier this year that “freedom of expression has limits” when words cross into incitement of violence.⁷ Progressive commentators praised the conviction as an essential deterrent against “hate speech.”

The Deeper Issue
This controversy reflects a broader unease. Britain’s legal system, once renowned for impartiality, increasingly appears to enforce law according to ideological priorities. Public confidence erodes when one community can chant “jihad” on the streets of London without consequence, while a middle-class mother with no criminal record is imprisoned for words typed in anger.

Catholic teaching warns against this very disorder. Justice, says St. Thomas Aquinas, is the perpetual and constant will to render each his due.⁸ When the law becomes partial, applied harshly to some but lightly to others, it ceases to reflect divine justice and instead becomes a tool of political expedience.

Justice, Mercy, and Truth
The Church teaches that words do matter, and speech can indeed incite sin and violence. The Apostle James likened the tongue to “a fire, a world of iniquity,” capable of setting “the wheel of nature on fire” (James 3:6). Yet Catholic moral theology also demands proportionality in punishment. A grave disparity between the handling of violent crime and verbal offences represents a disorder of justice itself.

Nor can the State’s response be divorced from mercy. St. John Paul II wrote that “the firm and constant determination to respect, promote, and defend the dignity of the human person” lies at the heart of justice, but it must always be tempered by mercy, which restores rather than merely punishes.⁹

A Symptom of Decline
Connolly’s imprisonment and early release symbolise more than a single case: they point to a civilisational malaise. Britain has exchanged impartial law for ideological policing, treating some words as more dangerous than some crimes. This imbalance deepens division, fuels resentment, and undermines public trust.

For Catholics, the lesson is clear. Freedom of expression is not absolute, yet neither is it to be curtailed selectively. As Pope Leo XIII warned in Libertas, once freedom is measured by the State’s ideology rather than the natural law, it “becomes the cause of grave disorder.”¹⁰

Connolly is now free, but Britain’s justice system remains in question. Without a return to principles rooted in truth, equality before the law, and the dignity of all persons, the scales of justice will continue to tilt—and trust in them will continue to collapse. 🔝

¹ The Guardian, “Ex-childminder who called for arson on asylum-seeker hotels released from jail,” 21 Aug. 2025.
² Birmingham Crown Court Sentencing Remarks, October 2024.
³ The Times, “Lucy Connolly released from jail after asylum hotel tweet,” 21 Aug. 2025.
⁴ ITV News Anglia, “Why has Lucy Connolly been released from prison now?” 21 Aug. 2025.
⁵ Kemi Badenoch, statement quoted in The Times, 21 Aug. 2025.
⁶ Free Speech Union, press statement, 21 Aug. 2025.
⁷ Keir Starmer, Commons statement on hate speech sentencing, March 2025.
⁸ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q.58, a.1.
⁹ John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia (1980), §12.
¹⁰ Leo XIII, Libertas (1888), §15.

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Protecting Children: The NHS Sussex Controversy

A conflict of interest too great to ignore
When the Cass Review laid bare the dangers of ideological capture in healthcare, the message was clear: safeguarding is not served by slogans, but by evidence, accountability, and integrity¹. Today, that warning rings with urgency in Sussex. NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board (ICB) has launched an inquiry into prescribing practices at WellBN in Brighton and Hove, where puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones were reportedly offered to children under 18—including some under 16—without proper paediatric or mental health oversight².

At first sight this might seem the responsible course of action. Yet the terms of reference reveal the fatal flaw: NHS Sussex proposes to investigate itself. The commissioner that authorised and funded these practices now claims authority to examine its own complicity. As Rachel Cashman has argued, such an inquiry would be discredited before the ink is dry.

Voices from within and without
Cashman speaks not merely as a professional who has worked at the highest levels of NHS leadership, but also as a mother whose family has been directly affected by these failures. In a recent public statement she cited a Brighton clinician who boasted of expanding his patient list from 60 to 2,500 with NHS Sussex’s knowledge and money, styling himself “the pied piper of trans healthcare”³. Families had already raised alarm through legal correspondence as early as 2023. Their concerns were denied, dismissed, and ignored—even when national NHS leaders privately admitted they had reached the desks of the most senior medical officers by 2024.

What makes Cashman’s intervention all the more striking is that she and the Archbishop of Selsey together co-founded PHSEBrighton, an initiative designed to provide parents, schools, and communities with evidence-based resources for safeguarding children in the face of ideological pressure. Their joint work underscores that this debate is not about politics or personal grievance but about the fundamental responsibility to protect children.

A pattern of failed governance
The crisis in Sussex cannot be treated as an aberration. It reveals a culture of denial at the heart of public institutions. NHS Sussex appointed Dr Dinesh Sinha as Chief Medical Officer despite his role at the Tavistock clinic, where tribunal judges in Appleby v Tavistock condemned his behaviour as “unsympathetic, almost hostile”⁴. Brighton and Hove City Council leaders, in 2023, dismissed parents’ safeguarding concerns as “baseless smears,” despite having already received detailed legal warnings from affected families⁵.

This pattern of governance—prioritising institutional reputation and ideology over children’s welfare—is precisely what the Cass Review identified as corrosive to trust. The Nolan principles of integrity, accountability, and openness have been systematically betrayed.

Warnings ignored, families vindicated
The current investigation was not self-initiated but forced by a High Court case brought by families. Only when litigation pressed the issue into the public record did NHS Sussex act⁶. Since 2022, parents and campaigners have documented the direct pipeline from classroom to clinic in Brighton, warning of ideological fast-tracking. Cashman herself spoke publicly on this at the 2024 CAN-SG conference, where the response included protests, smoke bombs, and police escorts.

The vehemence of activist opposition demonstrates how ideological zeal has crowded out what should be the first concern: safeguarding children. The consequence has been trauma borne not by institutions but by families.

The children at the centre
This controversy is too easily labelled a “culture war.” But such framing is itself a tactic of evasion. Children’s safety is not a partisan issue. The Cass Review showed that when services expand without proper oversight, the cost is borne by the most vulnerable. Families live that cost daily.

Both Cashman and the Archbishop insist that debate must return to first principles: a child’s welfare is not an ideological pawn. In founding PHSEBrighton, they placed this truth at the centre of their work: that authentic safeguarding can only be achieved when adults act with courage, transparency, and fidelity to truth, not expedience or fear.

Independence is non-negotiable
If the NHS Sussex inquiry is to command any credibility, independence is not optional—it is essential. Anything less will be a continuation of the culture of self-protection. An independent review must include full disclosure of all complaints, risks, and correspondence dating back to 2021, when the WellBN service began.

Affected families must know that truth will not be buried beneath process and protectionism. As Cashman herself wrote: “If I can hold that balance, surely the system entrusted with protecting children can do the same.”

The Archbishop has expressed the same conviction: that this is not simply a question of governance, but of moral clarity. For when children are imperilled, silence is complicity. 🔝

1. The Cass Review: Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People, NHS England, 2024.
2. NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board, Terms of Reference: WellBN Investigation, 2025.
3. Sarah Savage interview with Dr Sam Hall, July 2025.
4. Appleby v Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, Employment Tribunal Judgment, 2022.
5. Brighton and Hove News, Parents seek apology from council leader for calling their concerns ‘baseless smears’, 2023.

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Common Sense in Scotland: A Victory for Free Speech and Life

The decision of the Scottish Procurator Fiscal not to prosecute 75-year-old grandmother Rose Docherty has been hailed as a landmark victory for both free speech and the pro-life cause. Arrested in February at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Docherty stood silently within the 200-metre “buffer zone,” holding a sign that read: “Coercion is a crime. Here to talk, only if you want.”¹

She was accused of breaching the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Act, which criminalises harassment, intimidation, or any attempt to “influence” a decision about abortion. Docherty, who refused to accept an official warning, maintained that her presence was peaceful and non-intrusive. The Procurator Fiscal ultimately concluded there was insufficient admissible evidence to pursue the case.²

A grandmother’s witness
Docherty’s case became one of the most high-profile examples of the new legislation, attracting attention even from the U.S. State Department, which urged Scotland to respect freedom of expression.³ For Docherty herself, the ruling was not merely personal vindication: “This is a victory not just for me, but for everyone in Scotland who believes we should be free to hold a peaceful conversation. Criminalising kindness has no place in a free society.”⁴

Political and legal reactions
DUP MP Carla Lockhart welcomed the news, declaring it “a significant victory for common sense and for the protection of fundamental freedoms.” She warned that buffer zones do not merely address harassment but risk criminalising private thoughts: “These laws are not about tackling harassment or abuse. They are based on the notion of ‘influence’ being an offence. As we have witnessed, this can then be used against someone standing peacefully and even silently in the street.”⁵

Lockhart also noted that Docherty’s case is not unique. Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, co-director of March for Life UK, has been investigated and arrested multiple times in Birmingham despite being acquitted twice for silently praying near a clinic in Kings Norton.⁶ For Lockhart, the concern is that such legislation creates a chilling effect where peaceful witness to life is treated as criminality.

A question of conscience and culture
Buffer zones in Scotland, in force since September 2024, carry penalties of up to £10,000, or even unlimited fines if referred to higher courts.⁷ That a grandmother quietly offering help could face prosecution under such laws illustrates the inversion of justice that occurs when conscience is treated as suspect.

For Catholics, the implications are even more profound. Abortion is not simply a matter of choice or healthcare but a violation of the natural law and the divine commandment against murder. To suppress peaceful opposition is to silence the prophetic duty of the faithful. As Pope St John Paul II warned: “A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.”⁸

Conclusion
The decision not to prosecute Rose Docherty must not remain a Scottish anomaly. It is an opportunity to call for reform across the United Kingdom, restoring the freedom to witness to life in peace. If this judgment represents a triumph of common sense, then it must be extended to every corner of the country. 🔝

¹ New York Post, “Grandmother arrested for holding sign offering conversation outside Scottish hospital performing abortions,” 27 February 2025.
² The Times, “Grandmother arrested at anti-abortion protest has case dropped,” 21 August 2025.
³ Christian Today, “MP hopes ‘common sense’ decision in Scottish abortion zone case will lead to change across UK,” 21 August 2025.
⁴ CARE, “Scottish grandmother cleared over abortion buffer zone arrest,” 21 August 2025.
⁵ Belfast News Letter, cited in Christian Today, ibid.
⁶ Christian Today, ibid.
⁷ The Times, ibid.
⁸ John Paul II, Homily in Denver, 15 August 1993.

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A Great Witness for Life: Britain’s Largest March Expected This September

The organisers of March for Life UK have announced that this year’s gathering, set for 6 September, is expected to be the largest since the movement began in 2013. From its humble beginnings in Birmingham with only a few hundred faithful witnesses, the march has expanded rapidly, drawing nearly 10,000 people to the streets of London last year.

This year’s march will take place against the backdrop of the House of Commons’ recent decision to support the complete decriminalisation of abortion at any stage of pregnancy, a vote which must still pass through the Lords and receive royal assent before becoming law. The radical scope of that proposal has galvanised many who recognise it as a direct assault upon the most fundamental of human rights — the right to life.

Voices of resistance
The event will begin with a morning programme at the Emmanuel Centre, hosting pro-life organisations, testimonies, and a “Pro-Life Human Rights Summit.” The march itself will commence at 1:30pm and proceed to Parliament Square for a rally. Confirmed speakers include Carla Lockhart MP, chair of the Pro-Life All-Party Parliamentary Group; Sara Spencer, the student midwife suspended for expressing her pro-life convictions; Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, co-director of March for Life UK, who has faced repeated arrest for silent prayer near abortion clinics; and Josiah Presley, who survived an abortion attempt.

Catherine Robinson of Right to Life UK has urged participation: “We encourage all those who value life to come to the March for Life UK and make your voice heard.”

A sign of the times
The rapid growth of the March for Life in Britain reflects a profound unease among ordinary people at the culture of death entrenched in law and politics. Where Parliament has ignored natural law and Christian teaching, the faithful are compelled to bear witness publicly.

This is not the first time Catholic voices in Britain have warned against such disregard for human life. When the Abortion Act was debated in 1967, Cardinal John Heenan stated that it would “open the floodgates to the destruction of countless innocent lives” and warned that Britain risked replacing compassion with convenience in its medical ethos¹. His words, long dismissed as alarmist, have been tragically vindicated by more than nine million abortions since the Act came into force.

As Pope John Paul II later warned, “a great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world” (Evangelium Vitae, 1995, §100)². This march, though political in its location, is at root a spiritual act — a visible reminder that the right to life is not granted by the State but bestowed by God.

For Catholics, the timing is providential. As secular law strips the unborn of recognition, the faithful are called to defend them with renewed vigour, uniting civic protest with prayer, penance, and the works of mercy. The March for Life is thus not merely a political demonstration but an outward expression of the perennial teaching of the Church that every life, from conception until natural death, is sacred. 🔝

¹ Cardinal John Heenan, Statement on the Abortion Bill, House of Lords Debate, 30 October 1967, Hansard Parliamentary Debates.
² John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Encyclical Letter, 1995), §100.

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A Crisis in Religious Education: The Decline of Specialists and the Threat to Social Cohesion

Concerns are mounting in England and Wales over the growing shortage of specialist teachers in Religious Studies (RS), despite the subject remaining one of the most popular among secondary students. With nearly 250,000 pupils sitting RS at GCSE level in 2024—making it the seventh most popular subject—the gap between demand and qualified teaching provision is widening. According to government figures, more than half of RS teachers (51%) deliver the subject as a secondary responsibility rather than their primary area of expertise, a figure that has remained stubbornly unchanged since 2011¹.

Warnings from educators
Sarah Lane Cawte, Chair of the Religious Education Council of England & Wales, has sounded the alarm, warning that “too many in this enormous cohort continue to receive poor quality, tokenistic RE as an afterthought, something that threatens to undermine societal cohesion and leaves students poorly prepared for life in modern Britain.” She emphasised that high-quality religious education allows young people to explore their own worldview and those of others with empathy, intellectual curiosity, and academic rigour².

While the government restored a bursary for RS teacher training in 2024, it remains far below the levels offered for subjects such as geography, computing, and mathematics, raising questions about the seriousness of its commitment to safeguarding the subject’s future³.

Universities and the erosion of theology
The crisis extends beyond schools. Theology, once considered a cornerstone of the university curriculum, has suffered steep decline. Only 21 higher education institutions in the UK now offer theology courses, compared with 90 offering history and 101 offering sociology⁴. The Theos think tank, in an open letter, warned that such erosion of theological study could have “adverse effects for society,” depriving the nation of the intellectual tools needed to engage deeply with global cultures and sacred texts⁵.

A deeper malaise
The shortage of religious educators cannot be dismissed as a bureaucratic problem alone. It reveals something deeper about modern Britain’s loss of confidence in the role of religion within public life. While leaders frame RS as a matter of empathy, debate, and worldview, the very foundations of the subject—the reality of God, the claims of revelation, the truth of the Christian faith—are often deliberately avoided. What remains is a “neutralised” subject, where pupils are introduced to religions as cultural curiosities but denied the depth and coherence of doctrine.

This crisis mirrors the broader decline in theology within universities: the very discipline that formed the foundation of Western higher education is increasingly sidelined in favour of subjects judged more “practical” or “relevant” to economic needs. Yet, as history shows, the study of God and divine truth is not ancillary to human flourishing but its very heart. When theology is neglected, society is left unable to engage with the moral and spiritual dimensions of culture, reducing religion to sociology or politics.

Conclusion
The warnings of RS specialists deserve to be heard. But if their call is heeded only in terms of social cohesion or critical thinking skills, the heart of the matter will remain untouched. Religious education, and especially theology, should not be preserved merely as tools for tolerance or civic management. They must be restored as encounters with the truth, aimed at forming minds and souls in wisdom. Without this recovery, Britain risks raising a generation that knows about religion but does not know what it means to seek God. 🔝

1. Theos Think Tank, “Open Letter on the Decline of Theology,” 2025.
2. Department for Education, Teacher Workforce Data 2011–2024.
3. Religious Education Council of England & Wales, Press Statement, 2025.
4. Department for Education, Teacher Training Bursary Allocations, 2024.
5. UCAS Course Listings, 2025.

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Two Years On: No Justice for Christians After Jaranwala Atrocities

Faisalabad, Pakistan (August 2025) — Two years since the bloodshed that Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has termed “the worst episode of violence against Christians” in Pakistan’s history, the Christian community in the Diocese of Faisalabad remains in the throes of unresolved grief and anger.

On 16 August 2023, mobs in Jaranwala rioted, torching over 25 churches and 80 homes belonging to Christians, along with presbyteries, church halls, and graveyards¹². Despite more than 5,200 individuals being accused and over 380 arrests made—with many suspects later granted bail—not a single conviction has been secured. In June 2025, a local Anti-Terrorism Court acquitted 10 defendants accused of setting fire to one of the churches³⁴. Christians continue to bear the scars of attack and the sting of judicial inaction.

Bishop Indrias Rehmat denounces this failure: *“Justice has not been done… the police have not done their duty. Nobody has been punished… At this stage, we do not see any hope of any culprit being punished”*². Yet, from despair has emerged resilience: Christians are “ready to fight for their rights… we should shout and scream,” he declares².

What makes the injustice all the more bitter is that the only convictions related to the crisis were against Christians themselves—Rocky and Raja Masih—who were initially accused of blasphemy, ostensibly triggering the mob violence, only to be acquitted later². Thus, while Christians remain victims, they also risk being cast, unjustly, as perpetrators.

Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan: A History of Persecution

Origins and Misuse
British colonial authorities first introduced blasphemy laws in the early 20th century, following inter-religious riots over religious defamation. Under General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s, the laws were drastically expanded—most notably Section 295-C, mandating the death penalty for alleged insults to the Prophet Muhammad⁵. Since then, minorities, particularly Christians, have borne the brunt of accusations and extrajudicial reprisals.

Case Study: Asia Bibi
One of the most infamous cases is that of Asia Bibi, a Catholic mother accused in 2009 of blasphemy after a dispute over drinking water. In 2010, she was sentenced to death by a district court⁶⁷.

Her case drew international attention. In January 2011, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was assassinated by his own bodyguard for defending her, while Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti was gunned down two months later for his opposition to the blasphemy laws⁶.

On 31 October 2018, Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned Asia Bibi’s sentence, citing “material contradictions and inconsistent statements of the witnesses”⁸. The verdict sparked massive unrest, with extremist protests, school closures, and road blockades⁹. She was eventually forced into exile and received asylum in Canada by May 2019¹¹¹².

Conclusion
The Jaranwala case underscores a recurring pattern: Pakistan’s judiciary and law enforcement, constrained by political pressure and societal prejudice, often fail to protect Christian minorities. When Christians face accusations, however fabricated, the consequences are swift and severe; when Christians are the victims, justice evaporates in silence.

The Asia Bibi case remains emblematic: a false accusation escalating to death sentence, violent unrest, and eventual exile. Yet in that tragedy is also a lesson: international solidarity and courage can still uphold justice, though imperfectly.

Catholics worldwide must hear the cry of Faisalabad’s faithful: How long, O Lord? (Ps. 94:3). The persecuted Church in Pakistan is a living witness to the mystery of the Cross — and thus also to the promise of the Resurrection. 🔝

1. Aid to the Church in Need, report on Jaranwala attacks, August 2023.
2. ACI Prensa / Catholic News Agency, “No justice two years after worst episode of violence against Christians in Pakistan,” Aug. 21, 2025.
3. Premier Christian News, “Court acquits suspects in Jaranwala church arson,” June 2025.
4. Christian Today, “Two years on, no convictions for Jaranwala violence,” June 2025.
5. SAHSOL LUMS, The Evolution and Abuse of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws (Lahore University of Management Sciences, 2020).
6. “Asia Bibi blasphemy case,” Wikipedia, last updated 2025.
7. Axios, “Pakistan acquits Christian woman facing death penalty for blasphemy,” Oct. 31, 2018.
8. Supreme Court of Pakistan judgment in Asia Bibi v. State, Oct. 2018.
9. Time Magazine, “Pakistan blasphemy acquittal sparks nationwide protests,” Nov. 2018.
10. Ibid.
11. Al Jazeera, “Asia Bibi arrives in Canada after blasphemy ordeal,” May 8, 2019.
12. Time Magazine, “Trudeau confirms Canada offered asylum to Asia Bibi,” Nov. 2018.

Timeline of Christian Persecution in Pakistan

1987–2021
Over 1,800 people charged under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, disproportionately affecting Christians and other minorities.¹
1997 – Shantinagar
Entire Christian village attacked after false allegations of Qur’an desecration. Churches and homes destroyed.²
2009 – Gojra Riots
A mob burned eight Christians alive after accusations of blasphemy.³
2009 – Asia Bibi Arrested
Accused of blasphemy in Sheikhupura after a dispute over drinking water. Sentenced to death in 2010.⁴
2011 – Assassinations
Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti killed for opposing blasphemy laws and defending Asia Bibi.⁴
2015 – Youhanabad Bombings
Suicide bombers targeted two churches in Lahore’s Christian quarter, killing 15 and injuring over 70. Retaliatory violence erupted against Muslims.⁵
2018 – Asia Bibi Acquitted
Supreme Court overturns her death sentence. Riots paralyze Pakistan; she later flees to Canada in 2019.⁶
2021 – Sialkot Lynching
A Sri Lankan Christian factory manager accused of blasphemy beaten to death and burned by a mob. Widely condemned internationally.⁷
2023 – Jaranwala Pogrom
Mobs attack Faisalabad Diocese, burning 25 churches and 80 homes. No convictions two years later.⁸ 🔝

1. ACN, “Pakistan: Blasphemy Laws and Minorities,” 2021.
2. Human Rights Watch, Pakistan: State Fails Christian Village After Blasphemy Riots, 1997.
3. Amnesty International, Gojra Attacks on Christians, 2009.
4. Asia Bibi blasphemy case (Wikipedia, updated 2025).
5. BBC News, “Lahore church bombings: Christian protests erupt,” March 2015.
6. Axios, “Pakistan acquits Christian woman facing death penalty,” Oct. 31, 2018.
7. BBC News, “Pakistan Sialkot lynching: Mob kills Sri Lankan,” Dec. 2021.
8. ACI Prensa / CNA, “No justice two years after worst episode of violence against Christians in Pakistan,” Aug. 21, 2025.

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“A strong sign for queer-friendly pastoral care”: Lucerne churches involved in Pride Central Switzerland

The Catholic Church in Lucerne has deepened its involvement with Pride Central Switzerland, set for August 23rd, through direct participation, financial sponsorship, and new initiatives centred on the so-called Queer Bible. Organisers describe this as a natural extension of pastoral activity, though in reality it represents a striking departure from the Catholic faith and a public accommodation with the ideology of the age.

St. Peter’s Chapel at the centre
Since Pride Central Switzerland was revived in 2022, the Catholic-run St. Peter’s Chapel on the Reuss has been the hub of church activity. Its director, Meinrad Furrer, a Catholic theologian who identifies as queer, has spearheaded participation, drawing in not only the Catholic city and cantonal churches but also the Evangelical Reformed and Christian Catholic (Old Catholic) bodies.

Ingrid Schmid, communications head for the Catholic Church of the City of Lucerne, explained: “With our Pride commitment, we want to send a strong signal for queer-friendly pastoral care, an ecumenical stance, and a creative theological project: the Queer Bible.”

The Pride Slam and the “Queer Bible”
This year introduces a Pride Slam, staged in a local bar, with preachers and poets performing together. At the Pride festival itself, the ecumenical team will staff a booth offering “queer Bible verses” and personal blessings, distributed via a “wheel of fortune.” The climax comes on Sunday, August 24th, when St. Peter’s Chapel hosts a Celebration of Pride service. Clergy from the Reformed, Old Catholic, and Roman Catholic traditions will preach short sermons on texts from the Queer Bible, randomly drawn during the liturgy.

Public witness and financial backing
Church-affiliated participants will also march behind a banner declaring: “God loves diversity. We do too.” Both the Catholic City Church of Lucerne and the Cantonal Catholic Church contribute personnel and money. Nana Amstad-Paul, Synodal Councilor for pastoral and ecumenical affairs, stated that the cantonal church “is naturally committed and happy to support the Catholic Church’s presence at Pride.” Funding has been incorporated into the project budget of St. Peter’s Chapel since 2022.

A rupture with Catholic doctrine
Though presented as pastoral innovation, the Lucerne programme contradicts clear and authoritative teaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law,” and therefore “under no circumstances can they be approved”¹. To propose a Queer Bible is not creative theology but a profanation of God’s Word, which the Church has always guarded against distortion.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration Persona Humana (1975) warned explicitly: “There can be no true promotion of human dignity unless the essential order of human sexuality is respected”². Far from respecting that order, the Lucerne initiative turns sexuality into an ideology and Scripture into propaganda.

Pope John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor warned against “creative hermeneutics” that manipulate Revelation to justify behaviour the Church has always condemned³. The Queer Bible embodies precisely this danger: a counterfeit gospel that replaces the call to repentance with affirmation of sin.

False inclusivity and pastoral deception
The slogan “God loves diversity. We do too.” is emblematic of the confusion. God indeed loves all people, but His love is inseparable from truth and a call to conversion. To suggest that God’s love ratifies every human lifestyle is to collapse divine charity into sentimental relativism. As Pope Benedict XVI reminded the German Bundestag in 2011, the Church cannot submit Revelation to the shifting majority opinion of society, but must remain anchored in the moral law inscribed by the Creator⁴.

Moreover, to offer blessings on the basis of a person’s “queer identity” is a direct contradiction of the CDF’s 2021 Responsum, which declared: “The Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex”⁵. That prohibition applies equally to liturgical gimmicks which attempt to cloak ideological approval in religious symbolism.

A sign of the times
What is presented in Lucerne as “queer-friendly pastoral care” is in truth a capitulation to secular activism. It substitutes ideology for evangelisation, entertainment for worship, and affirmation for conversion. The result is not pastoral care but pastoral betrayal.

As St. Paul admonished: “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:2). The Catholic faithful, both in Switzerland and beyond, are left with the scandal of seeing their Church not defending the deposit of faith, but bending it to the rainbow banners of the age. 🔝

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2357.
2. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona Humana, 1975, §8.
3. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, 1993, §53.
4. Benedict XVI, Address to the Bundestag, Berlin, 22 September 2011.
5. CDF, Responsum ad dubium on the blessing of the unions of persons of the same sex, 15 March 2021.

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Liturgy and Moral Teaching: A False Charge Against Tradition

When Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo recently claimed that the traditional liturgy of the Church can be used as a way for Catholics to “disconnect from the Church’s political or social teachings,” he put his finger on a question at the heart of modern Catholic life: can worship and morality ever be separated?

At first glance, his words seemed to suggest that the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) risks becoming an aesthetic refuge, a space for private devotion divorced from the social and moral demands of the Gospel. Yet the charge rings hollow. Wherever the TLM is flourishing—in North America, Africa, or the Philippines—it is precisely those communities who most faithfully uphold the Church’s perennial moral teaching on marriage, family, and life. Meanwhile, in the very parishes most wedded to the post-conciliar liturgical reform, dissent from Catholic morality is widespread.

The irony is stark: Cardinal Kikuchi has attributed to the traditional liturgy a weakness that in fact belongs to the modern rite itself.

Worship, Faith, and Morals Are Inseparable
The Catholic tradition has never permitted a divide between liturgy and moral teaching. The maxim lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi—the law of prayer, belief, and life—captures the indivisible unity of worship, doctrine, and moral order.

Pope Pius XII in Mediator Dei taught that the liturgy “is a sacred action surpassing all others” through which the faithful are “stirred up to acquire a Christian spirit” that leads to virtuous living¹. Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium reaffirmed that liturgy is both “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed” and “the font from which all her power flows”².

The Fathers of the Church said the same in even plainer terms. St. Augustine declared: “To worship God is nothing else than to love Him, and to do His will”³, warning against those who sing alleluia with their lips but live iniquity with their lives⁴. St. Leo the Great insisted that the Eucharistic sacrifice must transform the faithful morally: “Let the sacrifice of the faithful be the offering of themselves… for what the faithful celebrate in the mystery, they must fulfill in practice”⁵.

A Japanese Cultural Phenomenon
Cardinal Kikuchi’s remarks were offered in the specific context of Japan, where Catholics are a tiny minority—fewer than half a million in a nation of 123 million. In this setting, Catholic social teaching is frequently misunderstood. Many politically conservative Japanese regard it as “too liberal” or even “communist”⁶. The Latin Mass, with its transcendence and beauty, may therefore appear as a way to encounter the divine without confronting controversial social doctrines.

Yet to portray this as a defect of the TLM is to confuse cultural reception with liturgical essence. In Europe and North America, the TLM is more often a fortress of coherence, chosen precisely because it manifests the unity of worship and moral truth. In Africa, it functions as a moral teacher for community and family life. In China, it is an act of resistance against Communist oppression; in the Philippines, a youth movement of renewal. In every setting where it is embraced, the traditional liturgy has proven itself a source of fidelity, not of evasion.

The Deficiency of the Modern Rite
Why, then, would a prelate suggest otherwise? The answer lies in the weakness of the modern rite itself. By its very structure—its simplification, horizontality, and adaptability to contemporary sensibilities—the Novus Ordo Missae has too often obscured the sacrificial and transcendent character of the Mass. Where worship becomes a communal gathering rather than an encounter with divine law, the faithful are not naturally formed to embrace the Church’s moral teaching.

In this sense, the modern rite has produced generations of Catholics who perceive doctrine as optional and moral teaching as negotiable. It is precisely here that Kikuchi’s accusation against the TLM functions as a defensive reversal: what is said of tradition in Japan is in truth the enduring critique of the reformed liturgy across the Catholic world.

The deeper irony is that those who attend the Latin Mass are far more likely to uphold the Church’s unpopular moral teachings than those who attend the modern rite. To blame the TLM for a “disconnect” is to misidentify the real cause: a liturgical reform that failed to manifest the necessary unity of worship, faith, and moral life.

Conclusion: Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi
The true Catholic liturgy embodies the ancient principle: what the Church prays (lex orandi), she believes (lex credendi), and therefore lives (lex vivendi). The Traditional Latin Mass makes this inseparability visible in every gesture, silence, and orientation toward God. Its very ethos instills reverence, obedience, and a moral seriousness consonant with the perennial teaching of the Church.

The Novus Ordo, by contrast, has too often fragmented this triad. In practice, what is prayed no longer clearly teaches what the Church believes, nor does it reliably shape how Catholics live. This deficiency is the root of the moral collapse seen in so many parishes since the liturgical reform.

Cardinal Kikuchi’s criticism of the TLM thus reveals the deeper truth: that it is the modern rite which has failed to bind worship and moral teaching together. The remedy lies not in suppressing the old Mass, but in recovering its witness—where the sacrifice of the altar forms disciples whose lives bear fruit in fidelity to Catholic doctrine and in courageous witness to divine law. 🔝

1. Pius XII, Mediator Dei (1947), nn. 20, 25.
2. Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963), n. 10.
3. St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, Book X, ch. 3.
4. St. Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 149, 8.
5. St. Leo the Great, Sermon 91 (On the Fast of Pentecost), ch. 3.
6. Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, remarks reported in Per Mariam (15 August 2025).

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Rosary at Loyola: A Case Study in the Collapse of Catholic Identity

Praying the Rosary on a Catholic campus ought to be a peaceful, even ordinary act of faith. Yet at Loyola University Chicago—named for the founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius—such prayer provoked outrage. Volunteers from Tradition, Family, Property (TFP) Student Action came to offer reparation after a campus drag show that contradicted Catholic teaching on chastity and the dignity of the human person. Instead of respectful silence, they were met with jeers, curses, and even spitting. Students shouted, “God made me gay,” while Rosary prayers were drowned out by chants of “Aggressor!” and accusations of “child abuse,” even as defenders insisted: “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin.”

The video footage forces a painful question: would St. Ignatius recognize the institution that bears his name? Events at odds with the faith are embraced in the name of “inclusion,” while those who uphold perennial doctrine are mocked and marginalized. Loyola thus provides a stark case study in the broader collapse of Catholic identity in higher education.

The Jesuit drift
Loyola is not unique. Across America, Catholic universities have accommodated the spirit of the age at the expense of fidelity to the Gospel. At the University of Notre Dame, America’s flagship Catholic institution, administrators defended a publicly funded drag performance in November 2023 as an exercise of “academic freedom.” Students protesting the event argued that drag culture “defiles femininity” and undermines the dignity of women, yet the performance proceeded under official sanction¹.

At John Carroll University in Ohio, another Jesuit school, the administration in 2019 cancelled a longstanding drag show out of concern that it would cause “divisiveness.” The decision sparked a backlash, with some students insisting that banning the event betrayed Jesuit values of inclusion and hospitality. The controversy revealed the underlying confusion: Catholic identity was not upheld as a standard but subordinated to the competing claims of diversity politics².

Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States, likewise illustrates the tension. The university has a long record of inviting speakers who openly contradict Church teaching on life and marriage, while simultaneously restricting the visibility of orthodox Catholic groups. On one infamous occasion, the name of Jesus was covered during a presidential address on campus. Such actions prompted protests from alumni and Church authorities, but the trend toward accommodation of secular norms has continued³.

The European parallel
The crisis is not confined to the United States. The Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, founded in 1425 as one of Europe’s great Catholic institutions, has become a symbol of secularisation. In 2011, it removed “Catholic” from its official Dutch title, rebranding itself as “KU Leuven.” The decision was justified in the name of pluralism and academic freedom, but it marked a deliberate break from ecclesial oversight and historic mission⁴. Today, Leuven is a leading European research university, but one in which Catholic identity is vestigial rather than formative—an example of how Catholic universities globally have redefined themselves away from their founding charisms.

The UK case
Britain presents a similar picture. St Mary’s University, Twickenham, the largest Catholic university in the country, has in recent years courted controversy over its direction. Founded in 1850 by the Vincentians to train teachers rooted in the Catholic faith, St Mary’s has become increasingly aligned with secular academic norms. Critics note its public partnerships with organisations promoting gender ideology and its ambiguous witness in the area of Catholic moral teaching. While still formally Catholic, the university has faced scrutiny from both clergy and laity for a reluctance to speak clearly against cultural currents hostile to the Church⁵. What was established as a Catholic teacher-training college for the formation of future generations risks following the same path of institutional drift seen at Leuven, Georgetown, and Loyola.

The faith exodus
The identity crisis of Catholic universities has measurable consequences. Studies repeatedly warn that Catholic young people are more likely to lose their faith during the college years than at any other time. One widely cited figure indicates that as many as eighty-five percent abandon regular practice while attending Catholic institutions, a pattern linked to the absence of clear doctrinal witness and the dominance of cultural conformity on campus⁶.

Research by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) offers a nuanced picture: Catholic students at Catholic colleges are somewhat more likely to retain an interest in religious belief than peers at secular schools. By junior year, eighty-seven percent said adherence to religious teaching remained important. Yet conviction often erodes in practice. Only fifty-six percent opposed abortion, and barely one in three opposed same-sex marriage, underscoring the fragility of formation even within a “Catholic” environment⁷.

Loyola as microcosm
The Rosary incident at Loyola crystallizes these wider trends. The Jesuit name remains, but the mission is blurred. Official policies of “equity and inclusion” extend welcome to lifestyles contrary to the Gospel, while students praying in fidelity to Catholic moral teaching are treated as aggressors. Catholic identity risks becoming a branding device rather than an animating principle.

The deeper tragedy is not merely administrative drift but spiritual scandal. As Our Lord warned: “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones” (Luke 17:2). When Catholic universities celebrate error while punishing fidelity, they fail in their mission to form souls for Christ.

Conclusion
If St. Ignatius were to walk the campus of Loyola today, would he recognize his creation? The Jesuit founder envisioned universities as training grounds for discipleship, rooted in truth and devoted to the glory of God. What he would find instead is an institution where the Rosary provokes hostility and where inclusivity is interpreted against the very faith that once defined it.

The Rosary prayed in reparation at Loyola was more than a protest. It was a prophetic moment of witness. In the jeers, hostility, and chants of “Aggressor!” one hears the echo of Christ’s own words: “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you” (John 15:18).

This reality aligns with the warnings of the recent pastoral epistle In Omni Generatione: On the Prudent Formation of Young People in the Present Age, which observed that “institutions that once upheld the pursuit of wisdom now often undermine it; places that once nurtured virtue now promote vice; paths that promised stability now lead to uncertainty and debt.”⁸ The epistle reminded parents and educators that the choice of university is not merely an academic question but a spiritual one, for “the intellectual environment of many universities is no longer a marketplace of ideas but a factory of ideological formation.”⁹

The future of Catholic higher education will depend on whether institutions recover the courage to confess Christ in the face of opposition—or continue to surrender to the applause of the world at the cost of souls. As the Archbishop wrote: “Let us therefore walk as children of light, forming our youth not for the approval of the age but for the eternal glory of God.”¹⁰ 🔝

¹ Catholic News Agency, Notre Dame Students Defend Dignity and Sanctity of Women Ahead of Campus Drag Show, November 2023.
² The Fire, John Carroll University Bans Student-Run Drag Show in Attempt to Avoid Controversy, March 2019.
³ The Washington Post, Obama at Georgetown: Religious Symbol Covered at White House Request, April 2009.
⁴ KU Leuven, History of the University, institutional archives; La Croix International, “Catholic University of Leuven drops ‘Catholic’ from Dutch title,” September 2011.
⁵ The Tablet, “St Mary’s urged to uphold Catholic ethos,” July 2019.
⁶ The Young Catholic Woman, Catholic Universities: A Threat to the Catholic Faith, 2017.
⁷ Archdiocese of Baltimore, reporting on CARA study, Catholics at Catholic Colleges Less Likely to Stray from Church, February 2018.
⁸ In Omni Generatione: On the Prudent Formation of Young People in the Present Age, Archbishop of Selsey, 14 August 2025, §Carissimi.
⁹ Ibid., §The Crisis of Higher Education.
¹⁰ Ibid., §Conclusion.

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Lavender in the Sanctuary: Vocations, Vice, and the Need for Truth

A crisis of credibility
“The homosexual infiltration of the Vatican is not anecdote but architecture,” writes Chris Jackson, arguing that “promotion follows the lavender path. Advancement depends not on orthodoxy or even on competence, but on being ‘in the parish.’ A discreet double life means fraternity and protection. Exposure means exile.”¹ His contention is stark: secrecy and vice have become systems of governance.

Gene Thomas Gomulka, himself a former seminary instructor and diocesan official, presents case histories showing how this culture damages vocations. One man, “Bob,” was groomed by a priest in minor seminary: “While Bob entered formation because he felt he had a vocation, his motivation to be ordained stemmed from being able, as a perceived ‘celibate’ priest, to live in the closet and keep his ‘secret’ from family and friends.”² Others, like the promising seminarian Anthony Gorgia, were driven out when they reported misconduct: “Anthony’s dreams of being a priest were crushed when he was coerced into leaving formation… after he witnessed the seminary vice rector, Father Adam Park, preying on fellow seminarians.”³

These testimonies converge with Jackson’s warning: “The omertà is the operating system of the Vatican.”⁴ Whether in Rome or in American dioceses, the same silence protects the guilty and punishes the honest.

Inclination and behaviour
Yet one point of distinction must be made. Jackson contends that “entire seminaries in the 1960s and 70s became dominated by homosexual cliques,” and Gomulka lists numerous clergy publicly disgraced in “Grindr” scandals.⁵ But it does not follow that homosexual inclination itself is the cause of abuse. The John Jay Report showed that the majority of abuse victims were male, but it did not equate same-sex attraction with inevitable misconduct.⁶ The Catechism is clear: “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition… These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition” (CCC §2358).

The Fathers of the Church also distinguish between temptation and sin. St. Augustine preached: “It is not the temptation but the consent which is the sin.”⁷ To conflate orientation with unchastity is as false as to accuse every heterosexual priest of womanising. The real scandal is not attraction but duplicity—those who vow celibacy yet live double lives, and the bishops who defend them.

The dossier and the silence
Both writers recall Benedict XVI’s 2012 secret report. Jackson notes: “Phil Lawler reminds us that Benedict XVI commissioned a secret report in 2012 on the rot inside the Curia… documented not only corruption and financial scheming, but also the network of homosexual power at the Vatican’s highest levels.”⁸ Francis himself later admitted receiving from Benedict “a box of files filled with the most difficult and painful situations.”⁹ Yet he has acted little upon them. The prophet’s rebuke applies: “His watchmen are blind, all ignorant; dumb dogs not able to bark” (Is. 56:10).

The remnant Church
Jackson concludes with a sober lesson: “The next conclave will not be a conclave of Athanasiuses but of courtiers raised in this very system… What remains is what has always remained: the remnant. The ordinary faithful, clinging to the sacraments where they are valid, the Mass where it is preserved, the catechism where it is remembered.”¹⁰ Gomulka reaches a similar conclusion from the opposite angle: the homosexualisation of seminaries has created “retention and recruitment problems, which have resulted in good, holy, straight seminarians and priests… leaving formation or ministry, requesting to study in another seminary, or being unjustly laicized, often as whistleblowers.”¹¹

A true diagnosis
The enemy, then, is not temptation but duplicity. The Church is wounded not by men who bear heavy crosses faithfully, but by those who live in hypocrisy. As Gomulka’s testimony shows, seminarians who attempted to report misconduct were often driven out, while those who concealed their double lives advanced.¹¹ In such an environment, it is the virtue of honesty—not orientation—that becomes the true dividing line.

St. Gregory the Great in his Pastoral Rule warned that “he who is not a model of good living must never become a pastor of souls.” Where this principle is ignored, the priesthood becomes not a sacrificial offering but a mask for personal vice. It is not inclination alone that destroys vocations, but the tolerance of untruth.

The Fathers recognised the constant battle between flesh and spirit. St. Paul, confessing his own struggle, wrote: “For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do” (Rom. 7:19). This realism is the key to pastoral discernment: temptation is universal, but fidelity is possible by grace. The problem is not that priests face sexual temptation, but that too many are taught—by silence or by example—that duplicity is survivable, even rewarded. In this sense, the “lavender mafia” is not merely a description of sexual cliques, but of a wider culture of dishonesty and complicity that corrodes both heterosexual and homosexual vocations alike.

Pope St. Pius X, in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), described the core error of modernism as a “perversion of mind” that preferred subjectivism to truth (n. 39). The modern crisis of celibacy has the same root: the refusal to acknowledge truth, whether about human weakness or about divine grace. The scandal is not temptation but its institutional concealment, which breeds corruption and weakens faith in the supernatural.

Conclusion: the path forward
The way forward is clarity and courage. Clarity to distinguish between inclination and sin, temptation and betrayal. Courage to expose cover-up and defend truth, even when it implicates those in scarlet and purple. Without such clarity, the Church will continue to misdiagnose the crisis: chasing statistics about orientation rather than confronting the deeper vice of hypocrisy. Without such courage, the cycle of secrecy will continue: promising reports shelved, dossiers unopened, and predators shielded.

What is needed is a renewal of celibate fatherhood, lived with integrity. Priests must once again be spiritual fathers, men who, like St. John Vianney, offer their entire lives for their people with no hidden corners. Bishops must once again be shepherds who guard their flocks against wolves, even when the wolves wear mitres. And the laity must once again demand holiness rather than spin, truth rather than slogans.

Pius XI, in Quas Primas (1925), reminded the Church that the Kingship of Christ cannot be realised “if once men neglect and reject the authority of Christ… they are necessarily left without a sure and stable foundation” (n. 18). The scandals of clerical duplicity flow from precisely this rejection of Christ’s authority in favour of worldly calculation. The renewal of the priesthood will only come when Christ reigns once more in hearts, in seminaries, and in the governance of the Church.

Pius XII in Sacra Virginitas (1954) insisted that consecrated celibacy is “not a mere human law… but rises to the dignity of a divine gift” (n. 14). To treat it as a cover for duplicity is not only a betrayal of the priestly office but a sacrilege against a divine gift. The only proper response is what he called a “chaste vigilance” (n. 55): firm discipline, clear teaching, and support for those who struggle to live the evangelical counsel of chastity faithfully.

Jackson warns that “Rome’s rainbow will not be the final word.”¹² Indeed, the final word belongs to Christ, who promised that His Church will endure. Yet endurance is not automatic. The Mystical Body, wounded by sin, requires purification. That purification will not come from bureaucratic reform alone, but from fidelity—men and women who refuse compromise and cling to the truth.

History proves that the remnant has always carried the torch when shepherds failed. St. Athanasius defied emperors and councils to preserve the true faith against Arianism. St. Catherine of Siena rebuked popes themselves for their weakness and summoned them to reform. In every age, sanctity was restored not by committees but by saints.

Today, as Gomulka notes, good men are still being driven from seminaries by corruption, while others remain faithful in the face of trials.¹¹ They are the seeds of renewal, provided the faithful recognise them and support them. If the hierarchy persists in silence, the task of witness will fall ever more heavily upon the remnant. But this has always been the way of the Church: the small and faithful deeds of ordinary Catholics, lived in truth, overcoming the power of falsehood.

In the words of St. Paul to the Philippians, “Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That you may be blameless and sincere children of God, without reproof, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:14–15). That is the vocation of priests and laity alike: to shine as lights in a crooked generation.

Rome’s rainbow, as Jackson insists, will not be the final word. The final word will be Christ, Truth Himself, before whom every lie is exposed and every secret revealed. The question is whether His Church will meet Him clothed in fidelity, or stripped by scandal.

A pastoral exhortation to the Old Roman faithful
Beloved sons and daughters, the weight of these revelations is heavy, yet they must not crush our hope. We were not promised an immaculate hierarchy, but we were promised an indefectible Church. The Cross has always been the form of her life, and it is the Cross that purifies her members.

To my brother priests: live celibacy in truth. The world mocks it, some bishops betray it, but the Lord honours it. Your strength is not in secrecy but in sacrificial charity, visible to your flock. Guard the altar as men who will give account to Christ Himself.

To our seminarians and young men discerning: do not be afraid. The Lord who calls equips. Do not be seduced by the world’s lies, nor disheartened by clerical scandals. If you are faithful to prayer, to discipline, to the sacramental life, your vocation will be a light in the darkness.

To the laity: demand holiness. Hold us accountable as priests and bishops. Insist on reverence in worship and truth in teaching. Support your good pastors, and withdraw support from those who live dishonestly. Your fidelity in families, in workplaces, and in public life is the seedbed of Christian restoration.

Remember: the Kingship of Christ, so powerfully proclaimed in Quas Primas, begins in the heart and extends outward. If He reigns in us, then no corruption in Rome can overthrow His reign in the world. “Veritas lucet”—the truth shines—and it shines most brightly in the lives of those who, amid a crooked generation, refuse compromise. 🔝

¹ Chris Jackson, “Lavender in the Sanctuary: The Vatican’s Closet Is No Longer Closed,” Hiraeth in Exile, August 19, 2025.
² Gene Thomas Gomulka, “Why Men Become Priests,” John 18:37 Substack, August 17, 2025.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Jackson, Lavender in the Sanctuary.
⁵ Jackson, Lavender in the Sanctuary; Gomulka, Why Men Become Priests.
⁶ The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States, 1950–2002 (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2004), pp. 68–73.
⁷ Augustine, Sermon 151.
⁸ Jackson, Lavender in the Sanctuary.
⁹ Pope Francis, Life: My Story Through History (HarperOne, 2025).
¹⁰ Jackson, Lavender in the Sanctuary.
¹¹ Gomulka, Why Men Become Priests.
¹² Jackson, Lavender in the Sanctuary.
Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), n. 39.
Pius XI, Quas Primas (1925), n. 18.
Pius XII, Sacra Virginitas (1954), nn. 14, 55.

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The Myth of the Dining Table: Penal Times and the Sacredness of the Altar

In recent years, performances such as Secret Byrd by the Gesualdo Six have sought to immerse audiences in the atmosphere of Elizabethan recusancy. Their staging of William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices is arranged around a lavish dining table, with performers and audience moving among candles, food, and wine in an attempt to evoke clandestine worship. While theatrically striking, this presentation is historically false. No Catholic priest under persecution in England, Ireland, or France ever offered the Holy Sacrifice around a household dining table. To suggest otherwise is to project twentieth-century liturgical novelties backwards onto an age when Catholics risked life and liberty to preserve the integrity of the Roman Rite¹.

In reality, wherever Catholics were driven underground, the liturgy was celebrated with the utmost reverence. In England’s penal era, recusant families constructed hidden chapels and priest holes, ensuring that Mass was offered on a proper mensa or portable altar stone containing relics. At Harvington Hall, Worcestershire, priest chambers remain to this day, testimony to a devotion that never reduced the altar to a table². Vestments, candles, and sacred vessels were hidden in cupboards and carefully set out whenever the priest arrived³.

In Ireland under the Penal Laws, the faithful gathered at “Mass rocks” in the countryside, where priests vested, candles were lit, and scouts watched for soldiers. Accounts speak of congregations kneeling in mud and rain, yet still reverent before the Sacrifice of Calvary. Priests carried portable chalices and altar stones under their coats, and when ambushed, some consumed the Sacred Species before arrest to preserve reverence for the Blessed Sacrament⁴.

During the French Revolution, refractory clergy risked death to celebrate in barns and lofts; the faithful concealed crucifixes and candlesticks under floorboards until the priest arrived, ensuring that the rubrics were kept in full. In Normandy and the Vendée, hidden Masses bound Catholics together in defiance of the regime, with every effort made to preserve the solemnity of the liturgy⁵.

The lesson is clear: Mass was never casual, never re-imagined as convivial dining. The altar was always treated as holy, the vestments as essential, the Sacrifice as central. The myth of the “dining table” Mass obscures the faith of persecuted Catholics who endured suffering precisely to preserve reverence.

There is a further irony. The very image projected in performances like Secret Byrd — a priest around a table with people seated about — was in fact characteristic of the Protestant Reformation, where the altar was reduced to a table and the Sacrifice of the Mass denied. Cranmer’s communion tables in England, Zwingli’s memorial suppers in Zurich, and Calvin’s stripped-down meals in Geneva all rejected the Catholic doctrine of the Mass as Sacrifice. Today, this Protestant conception has been ironically adopted in the Novus Ordo, where versus populum celebrations and the language of “meal” are often emphasised above the Sacrifice. What was once the mark of rupture is now claimed as renewal. Yet history proves the opposite: Catholics under persecution clung fiercely to the altar as Sacrifice, never as table.

This history has a contemporary parallel in the Old Roman Apostolate. Our missions often gather in domestic settings—sitting rooms converted into chapels, temporary altars erected in halls, or private oratories in homes. But here too, the same reverence is required. A proper altar must be prepared with linens, candles, crucifix, and sacred vessels. The priest must vest as prescribed. The faithful must comport themselves with recollection and devotion. The ambience must reflect what is truly taking place: not a meal among friends, but the unbloody renewal of Calvary.

Our forebears in England, Ireland, and France whisper their testimony across the centuries: the Mass is never to be diminished, no matter the circumstances. Whether in a hidden chamber, at a Mass rock, in a barn loft, or today in a suburban home, the altar is always Calvary, and Christ deserves nothing less than our utmost reverence. 🔝

1. See reviews of Secret Byrd: Andrew Benson-Wilson, “Secret Byrd – an immersive staged Mass,” Andrew Benson-Wilson Early Music Reviews (31 Jan 2023); Joshua Barone, “The Gesualdo Six Offer a Moving Musical Experience with ‘Secret Byrd,’” New York Classical Review (11 Nov 2024).
2. Dom Bede Camm, Forgotten Shrines: An Account of Some Old Catholic Halls and Missions in England (Macdonald & Evans, 1910), pp. 23–27.
3. Michael Hodgetts, Secret Hiding Places: The Historic England Guide to Priest Holes (Historic England, 2015), pp. 45–49.
4. John O’Donovan, Mass-Rocks in the Penal Days (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1954), pp. 88–94.
5. Timothy Tackett, Religion, Revolution, and Regional Culture in Eighteenth-Century France: The Ecclesiastical Oath of 1791 (Princeton University Press, 1986), pp. 201–206.

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Archbishop Mathew’s Prayer for Catholic Unity
Almighty and everlasting God, Whose only begotten Son, Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd, has said, “Other sheep I have that are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd”; let Thy rich and abundant blessing rest upon the Old Roman Apostolate, to the end that it may serve Thy purpose by gathering in the lost and straying sheep. Enlighten, sanctify, and quicken it by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, that suspicions and prejudices may be disarmed, and the other sheep being brought to hear and to know the voice of their true Shepherd thereby, all may be brought into full and perfect unity in the one fold of Thy Holy Catholic Church, under the wise and loving keeping of Thy Vicar, through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who with Thee and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth God, world without end. Amen.

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Old Roman TV

OLD ROMAN TV Daily Schedule Lent 2025: GMT 0600 Angelus 0605 Morning Prayers 0800 Daily Mass 1200 Angelus 1205 Bishop Challoner’s Daily Meditation 1700 Latin Rosary (live, 15 decades) 1800 Angelus 2100 Evening Prayers & Examen 🔝

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Litany of St Joseph

Lord, have mercy on us.	Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.	Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.	Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.	Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven,	have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the World,	have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,	have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God,	have mercy on us.
Holy Mary,	pray for us.
St. Joseph,	pray for us.
Renowned offspring of David,	pray for us.
Light of Patriarchs,	pray for us.
Spouse of the Mother of God,	pray for us.
Guardian of the Redeemer	pray for us.
Chaste guardian of the Virgin,	pray for us.
Foster father of the Son of God,	pray for us.
Diligent protector of Christ,	pray for us.
Servant of Christ	pray for us.
Minister of salvation	pray for us.
Head of the Holy Family,	pray for us.
Joseph most just,	pray for us.
Joseph most chaste,	pray for us.
Joseph most prudent,	pray for us.
Joseph most strong,	pray for us.
Joseph most obedient,	pray for us.
Joseph most faithful,	pray for us.
Mirror of patience,	pray for us.
Lover of poverty,	pray for us.
Model of workers,	pray for us.
Glory of family life,	pray for us.
Guardian of virgins,	pray for us.
Pillar of families,	pray for us.
Support in difficulties,	pray for us.
Solace of the wretched,	pray for us.
Hope of the sick,	pray for us.
Patron of exiles,	pray for us.
Patron of the afflicted,	pray for us.
Patron of the poor,	pray for us.
Patron of the dying,	pray for us.
Terror of demons,	pray for us.
Protector of Holy Church,	pray for us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,	spare us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,	graciously hear us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,	have mercy on us, O Jesus.
He made him the lord of his household	And prince over all his possessions.

Let us pray:
O God, in your ineffable providence you were pleased to choose Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your most holy Mother; grant, we beg you, that we may be worthy to have him for our intercessor in heaven whom on earth we venerate as our Protector: You who live and reign forever and ever.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Note: Pope Francis added these titles to the Litany of St. Joseph in his “Lettera della Congregazione per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti ai Presidenti delle Conferenze dei Vescovi circa nuove invocazioni nelle Litanie in onore di San Giuseppe,” written on May 1, 2021:

Custos Redemptoris (Guardian of the Redeemer)Serve Christi (Servant of Christ)Minister salutis (Minister of salvation)Fulcimen in difficultatibus (Support in difficulties)Patrone exsulum (Patron of refugees)Patrone afflictorum (Patron of the suffering)
Patrone pauperum (Patron of the poor)

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