Meanwhile, at the Vatican

Warning to our Traditional Catholic readers: They came for the SSPX (including its lay supporters) this month. The FSSP is next. And then?

Pope Leo XIII laid the groundwork for the Oath Against Modernism (click here for complete text) which was promulgated by Pope St. Pius X in on 1 September 1910, via his Moto Proprio Sacrorum antistitum.  

At the core of the Oath are four key tenets of the Catholic Faith.

Reason and God: God's existence can be proven with certainty by human reason using the natural light of created things. 

External Proofs: Divine revelation and miracles are real, historical, and valid signs of the Christian religion's origin.

Divine Institution: The Church was historically founded by the real Christ and built upon Saint Peter. 

Immutable Dogma: Church dogmas possess absolute, unchanging meaning and do not evolve into entirely new concepts over time. [The emphasis is Walt's.]

Pope Paul VI presumably swore the Oath Against Modernism when he was ordained as a priest, since doing so was required at that time. Yet in 1967 he purported to abolish the Oath and replace it with a watered down "Profession of Faith". 

That was only a foretaste of what was to come, a first step on the path to Francis' and Leo's New Church of the New World Order. Walt anticipates the promulgation of a new "Oath For Modernism", to which all who want to be in "full communion" with the Church will be required to subscribe. God save us! St. Thomas More, pray for us.  

Walt's forecast on Leo XIV's papacy: no change expected

Since May, Walt has said nothing much about Pope Leo XIV, whom many traditional Catholics had hoped (and prayed) would slow down, if not stop the descent of the Roman Catholic Church into wokeness, heresy and irrelevancy. "Give him time," said our old friend Michael Matt. Well, we did, and are saddened to report that the passage of nearly three months has revealed the new pope to be very little different from his predecessor, Francis the Talking Pope.

Pope Prevost's appointments to the Roman Curia, announced very quietly on Friday, have been mostly modernists, and protégés of Francis. 

Nor has he stopped the crackdown on the Traditional Latin Mass, ordered by some bishops "in accordance with the wishes of Pope Francis", even though Francis had gone to his reward.

And today, we have news of a meeting between Pope Leo and Father James Martin, to whom we devoted an entire post just last week. 

Father Martin is as gay as 18 balloons, and found favour in the eyes of Francis as one of the most prominent advocates for "gay marriage" and "greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church". Father Martin told the meeja that Leo "encouraged his ministry", just days before a planned Holy Year pilgrimage of LGBTQ+ Catholics to the Vatican, in a sign of "continued welcome in this new pontificate."

He said also that Leo told him he intended to continue Pope Francis’ policy of LGBTQ+ acceptance in the Church. "I heard the same message from Pope Leo that I heard from Pope Francis, which is the desire to welcome all people, including LGBTQ people," the objectively heretical priest told AP after the audience. "It was wonderful. It was very consoling and very encouraging and frankly a lot of fun."

The meeting, which lasted about half an hour, was officially announced by the Vatican in a sign that the new pope wanted it made public, to signal continuity with Francis, who more than any of Leo’s predecessors worked to make the Catholic Church more queer-friendly. 

From his 2013 quip, "Who am I to judge?" about a purportedly gay priest, to his decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples, Francis distinguished himself with his message of welcome. During his 12-year papacy, Francis met on several occasions with Fr Martin and named him an advisor in the Vatican's communications department and a member of his "Synod on synodality", a big multi-year meeting on the future of the Church.

Still, Francis never changed church teaching saying homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered". Whether Leo will attempt to change dogma is something of a question. Soon after he was elected in May, remarks surfaced from 2012 in which Father Robert Prevost, as he then was, criticized the "homosexual lifestyle" and the role of mass media in promoting acceptance of same-sex relationships that conflicted with Catholic doctrine. 

When he became a cardinal in 2023, Catholic News Service asked Prevost if his views had changed. He acknowledged Francis' call for a more inclusive church, saying Francis "made it very clear that he doesn’t want people to be excluded simply on the basis of choices that they make, whether it be lifestyle, work, way to dress, or whatever." The doctrine of the Church had not changed, Cardinal Prevost said, "but we are looking to be more welcoming and more open and to say all people are welcome in the church." 

So where does the new Pope Prevost stand today? Fr Martin, who knew him from their time working together in the aforementioned synod, told AP he wasn't worried about Leo's views, and had always found him to be "a very open, welcoming, inclusive person.... But it's wonderful to hear this continuation."

Walt's reading of the signs and portents? See headline.

Worth viewing! "Bishop Renounces The Idea Of Sin And Says EVERYONE Deserves The Eucharist", by Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition, 1/9/25.

Dare we hope that Leo XIV will reverse the "woke revolution"?

Today we're pleased to present a mash-up [How about "Editor's cut"? Ed.] of a recent "Underground" vlog from Remnant TV, featuring our traditional Catholic friend, Michael J. Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper. If, after you've watched the clips, you want to see the whole thing (run time 41:12), just click on the link.

The video is Mr Matt's response to the election of Pope Leo XIV. Is he a "traditionalist"? (asks Mr Matt) No, he’s not. Will he denounce the revolution of Vatican II? Likely not. So, what hope is there for a reversal -- or at least a halt -- to Francis' attempt to remake Holy Mother Church to conform to the Age of Woke?

Mr Matt lets us hear from a conservative (and non-Catholic) voice, that of Thomas Sowell, an American economist, economic historian, social philosopher, and political commentator. Listen carefully to his concise and precise analysis of what's wrong with the "Church of Francis".

Ed. regrets to advise that Michael Matt has learned that the clip supposedly featuring the voice of Thomas Sowell was a fake -- generated by AI. Mr Matt has deleted it from his video (the one linked above), and Walt has also deleted it from his Rumble account. AI is turning out to be a very dangerous thing. We'll be more careful about reposting videos, and trust that you, dear readers, will keep a healthy sense of skepticism... yes, even about what you see on WWW.

 

In his video, Mr Matt concludes that, yes, there is a glimmer of hope. No counter-revolution in sight yet, but some of the first signs of change portend a change "back to the future". Let us continue to resist.

 As the New York Times article cited by Mr Matt shows, we are starting to win!

One more thing... Mr Matt got a good chuckle out of this item from Saturday Night Live.

Indeed. Catholicism is not like a cafeteria. You can't pick and choose which things you want to be believe and which items of faith or its practice you want to pass over. You have to accept all of the Faith... or none of it. As Saint Ignatius of Loyola said, "What seems to me white, I will believe black if the hierarchical Church so defines."

California pols: Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, and now... Mel Gibson?

Think about American politics in the Age of Woke (now ending, we hope), and the California politicians who have risen to great heights... or sunk to great depths, take your pick. 

Walt tried, but can't help but remember Kamala Harris, who rose from her knees to prominence as the landslide loser in the recent unpleasantness. Hock Ptui is now leading the pack of would-be successors to Gavin Newsom, who rose from being a leader of the Johnny Carson band to the governorship of the Golden State. 

Mr Newsom isn't the first Hollywood showbiz type to go into politics to parlay his popularity into a nice job in a mayoral mansion or statehouse or even the Oval Office. Clint Eastwood became mayor of Carmel. In the same decade, a great American named Ronald Reagan went from being "best friend" in B-movies to the greatest Republican President until... well, you know the story.

Given that the Golden State has, under successive Democratic administrations, been turned into the Shithole State, many voters are thinking that maybe it's time to elect a Republican governor. Someone in the mold of Ronald Reagan, say. A new poll, reported last week in the California Globe, reveals that the most popular Republican candidate for California's highest office is... wait for it... none other than Mel Gibson!

A new Lost Coast Outpost poll places Mr Gibson, well known for his conservative (and traditional Catholic!) views, in third place in as responders' pick for the governorship, with 12% of the vote, and the top Republican candidate.

The leading candidate, according to the poll (a straight straw poll with no demographic data) is former Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA), swept aside in the Trump tsunami, chosen by 25% of responders.

The nation's pre-eminent Indo-Jamaican politician, who has led the last several polls with significant margins, fell to 20% in the new poll. She says now that she will decide in the summer whether or not to set herself up for another failure.

Mr Gibson has become a speculative candidate in recent weeks thanks to his opposition to both Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over their mismanagement of the Los Angeles fires in January. TMZ News reported on Tuseday that he is "flattered" to be considered and to have done so well in the poll, but (the outlet continued), "We're told Mel has never had any political ambitions -- and that isn’t changing now even if voters are digging his criticisms of current Democratic leadership on the state and local level."

So it's probably nothing, then? Walt thinks otherwise. Mr Gibson is known to have a large ego -- very large indeed -- which may be coupled with a Messianic complex. He has not been heard to say, "My kingdom is not of this world." Stay tuned.

VIDEO: Blood moon on election night: is it a prophetic sign?

It's been a while since WWW featured a video by Dr Taylor Marshall, an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism and is now one of Traditional Catholicism's leading commentators. Here's his take -- or should I say the Bible's take -- on the possible meaning of the blood moon which we'll see on the night of November 8th... as the votes are being counted.

 

Make sure your vote counts, and is counted! As Dr Marshall says, "Go out there and be salty!" I'll see you on the beach.

VIDEO: An unfashionable homily from Fr Roman Galadza

In the modern, post-Vatican II Catholic Church, you don't hear much about the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. Francis, said by some to be Pope, prefers to "dialogue" with the enemies of Christianity about social justice, saving the planet, and other fashionable topics. 

It is left, then, to good bishops and priests, who hold fast to the Faith of Our Fathers, to warn up about what will -- not might, but will -- happen to all of us, sooner or later. Mitred Archpriest Roman Galadza, pastor of Saint Elias Ukrainian Catholic Church, in Brampton ON, is such a priest.

In this short homily, preached yesterday, the Sunday of the Last Judgement, he uses the example of the ugly pictures which dentists used to hang in their offices to show what will happen to your teeth if you don't look after them. So also, if we don't take care of our souls, so that, like the Prodigal Son, we come home to Heaven, we will surely spend eternity in Hell. Please listen and think.

Divine Liturgies, Matins and Vespers from Saint Elias are live-streamed to YouTube. Click here for more information about scheduled services and the parish.