The Form of the Liturgy

It is to be regretted that the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the form of the Latin Mass promulgated after the Second Vatican Council in 1970, has become a symbol of near-complete rejection of the Latin Catholic liturgical tradition. This … [Read more...]

The Novus Ordo at 50: Loss or Gain?

A Reply to Prof. Mary Healy

The recent half-century of Pope Paul VI’s reformed (“Ordinary Form,” or OF) Mass, which came shortly after the twelfth anniversary of the liberalization of the previous (“Extraordinary Form,” or EF) form of Mass, should stimulate us to engag … [Read more...]

The Revised Catechism on the Death Penalty

A Careful Reading

With popular news articles beginning on August 2, 2018, various media agencies have been proclaiming: “Pope Francis has declared the death penalty wrong in all cases, a definitive change in church teaching . . .” (New York Times), “Pope Fran … [Read more...]

Kazakhstan Bishop Schneider Broadcasts Seeds of Faith Around the World

His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C, has been referred to in the National Catholic Register as “one of the leading voices of fidelity, continuity, and tradition in the Church today.”[1. Pentin, Edward. “How Bishop Athanasius Sc … [Read more...]

Is There Really Any Hope for a Return to the Traditional Latin Mass?

Interview with Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

In the essays by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, collected in Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness: Why the Modern Age Needs the Mass of Ages, Dr. Kwasniewski writes as an unabashed adherent for the traditional Latin Mass. He is positive not only … [Read more...]

Questions Regarding the Use of Latin in Celebrating the Mass

When things go bad in a family, organization, religion, or society, the tendency is to look for a change that occurred before things started to crumble. It is difficult to deny the tumultuous situation within the Church at the present time, … [Read more...]

Symbols and the “Hermeneutic of Continuity”

The camauro appears in the portraits of popes before the Reformation. Its revival for a single occasion by Pope Benedict XVI was surely within his well-known program of the “hermeneutic of continuity."   From left to right: Pope Innocent V … [Read more...]

Bringing back Latin

During the debates of the Second Vatican Council one prelate after another addressed the Fathers of the Council in fluent Latin. That they did so is hardly surprising, for Latin remained the living language of the Roman Catholic Church. … [Read more...]

On bringing back Latin

Editorial, December 2009

It is certain that there has been a drastic decline in the knowledge of Latin in the Catholic Church since Vatican II. It probably did not occur to most of the bishops at the council that their approval of the use of the vernacular in the … [Read more...]