CRITICAL CATHOLIC COMMENTARY
in the Twilight of Reason
Mary, Conceived without
Sin,
pray for us who
have recourse to Thee
“Spiritual Criminals and
Murderers of Souls”
Bishop Athanasius Schneider
responds to Vatican-sanctioned “LGBTQ+”
Jubilee Pilgrimage
by Diane Montagna
Sep 10, 2025
“From
my heart I wish Pope Leo XIV the grace
of God, that he may have the courage
to repair this act of abomination which
has sullied the holiness of the Jubilee
Year.”
The
following article is taken directly from
Diane Montagna’s
Substack
and was not written for the Boston Catholic
Journal — but ... is of such significance
to the Catholic world at large that it deserves
every possible exposure, for it reveals an inexcusable
state of dereliction in the papacy of Leo XIV and
nothing less than criminal negligence in the episcopacy
under him. It is an alarming revelation of the submission
of indefeasible Catholic teaching to the clamor
of a disordered and decadent world in which
sexuality in its most perverse expressions is the
axis of existence. It would appear that the Holy
Door of the Jubilee Year has been slammed in the
face of reason itself, to say nothing of the faithful.
Editor
_______________________________________________________
[I have highlighted in
bold what I consider to be extremely important
statements in this discussion. Ed.]
VATICAN CITY, September 10, 2025 — Bishop Athanasius
Schneider has spoken out forcefully against
the recent Vatican-sanctioned
international “LGBTQ+” Jubilee pilgrimage, denouncing
it as a “desecration” of the Holy Door and a “mockery”
of God.
The pilgrimage, listed on the Vatican’s Jubilee 2025
General Calendar, was organized by Italy’s pro-LGBTQ+
association Tenda di Gionata [Jonathan’s Tent]; the
Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, which had lobbied
during the 2018 Vatican Youth Synod; and the U.S.-based
Outreach, led by Fr. James Martin, SJ.
On Saturday afternoon,
viral photographs showed two male participants
openly holding hands
in St. Peter’s Basilica, one carrying a backpack emblazoned
with the words “F*** the Rules.” Another image depicted
a young man in a rainbow shirt taking a selfie of his
“clawed” hand with Bernini’s Baldacchino as the backdrop.
The two-day pilgrimage also featured a Friday evening
vigil at which a lesbian couple recounted their “love
story,” and a Saturday morning Mass celebrated by
the vice-president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference,
who encouraged attendees to be patient until the Church
recognizes the LGBTQ+ lifestyle. Over a thousand
people were in attendance.
In this exclusive interview with the auxiliary bishop
of Astana, Kazakhstan, we discuss his reaction to these
events, Pope Leo XIV’s widely publicized audience
with Fr. James Martin, and the grave risks for the
Catholic Church and the world should she forfeit her
moral authority in such matters.
Bishop Schneider further implores Pope Leo XIV to follow
the example of Pope John Paul II by publicly denouncing
the LGBTQ+ incident in St. Peter’s Basilica, acknowledging
the Vatican’s fault in permitting it, and performing
acts of reparation in humility and truth.
He also denounces priests who affirm the LGBTQ+ lifestyle
as “spiritual criminals” and “murderers of souls,” warning
that God will hold them accountable, while urging
the faithful to work zealously to rescue those deceived
by sin.
_______________________________________________________
Here is my interview
with Bishop Athanasius Schneider
Diane Montagna:
A viral photo of two
homosexual men brazenly holding hands in St Peter’s
Basilica, one with a backpack saying “F*** the Rules”,
and another image of a young man in a “rainbow” shirt
taking a selfie of his clawed hand with Bernini’s Baldacchino
as a backdrop, have gone around the world since September
6. The pilgrimage group also somehow entered the
Basilica holding aloft a “rainbow” cross; it’s unknown
how such an item got through security. The pilgrimage
was approved by the Vatican, as part of the Jubilee
year called by Pope Francis. Your Excellency, what was
your first reaction when you saw these photos?
+Athanasius Schneider: My reaction was a silent
cry of horror, indignation, and sorrow. All true believers
in the Church—both faithful and clergy—who still uphold
the validity of God’s commandments and take Him seriously,
should experience this provocation as a brazen slap
in the face. I believe that many faithful Catholics
and members of the clergy remain, in a sense, stunned
by such a massive blow and require time to recover.
An unprecedented act has taken place in St. Peter’s
Basilica in Rome, one that may fittingly be described,
in the words of Our Lord, as an “abomination of desolation
standing in the holy place” (cf. Mt. 24:15).
What is the significance of the Holy Door, and how
does its meaning affect the reality of what happened
on September 6th?
(AS) One of essential meanings the Jubilee Year and
the Holy Door consists in “leading man to conversion
and penance,” as Pope John Pau II explained it in the
Bull of Indiction of the Holy Year 2000. Another distinctive
sign is the indulgence, which is one of the constitutive
elements of the Jubilee. Hence, the Jubilee Year is
a powerful means of God’s grace to help the faithful
make real progress in holiness through a fruitful reception
of the sacrament of penance and the gaining of the indulgence,
which implies a conscious detachment of all serious
sins and moral disorders. For “free and conscious surrender
to grave sin … separates the believer from the life
of grace with God and therefore excludes the believer
from the holiness to which he is called” (John Paul
II, Incarnationis Mysterium, 9).
The declared aim of the LGBTQ+ organizations that
assembled adherents and activists for this Jubilee pilgrimage
was that the Church recognize and legitimize so-called
gay rights, including homosexual acts and other forms
of extramarital sexual conduct.
There were no signs of repentance and renunciation of
objectively grave homosexual sins and homosexual lifestyle
on the part of the organizers and participants in this
pilgrimage. To pass through the Holy Door and participate
in the Jubilee without repentance, while promoting an
ideology that openly rejects God’s Sixth Commandment,
constitutes a kind of desecration of the Holy Door and
a mockery of God and the gift of an indulgence.
The groups involved in Saturday’s event (Jonathan’s
Tent [Tenda di Gionata], the Global Network of Rainbow
Catholics, and Outreach led by Fr James Martin, SJ)
reject the idea of conversion from an LGBTQ+ lifestyle
and believe instead that it’s time for the Catholic
Church to recognize their lifestyle. What does it say
about the current state of the Vatican that this event
was allowed?
In this, the responsible authorities of the Holy
See collaborated de facto in undermining and calling
into question the validity of God’s Sixth Commandment,
particularly His explicit condemnation of homosexual
activity. They stood by and allowed God to be mocked
and His commandments to be scornfully cast aside.
Was this event worse that the Pachamama scandal in
your view?
From a theological and objective standpoint, the veneration
of the Pachamama in St. Peter’s Basilica was worse than
the LGBTQ+ pilgrimage, for it constituted a direct transgression
of the First Commandment of the Decalogue and was therefore
more godless than even a heinous event that contradicts
or ridicules the Sixth Commandment. The promotion of
sodomy and other sexual immorality amounts to a form
of indirect idolatry, whereas the Pachamama idol was
accorded explicit acts of religious veneration—incense,
lights, candles, and prostrations. Both events must
be publicly repaired by the Pope himself. This is urgently
needed, before it is too late, for God will not be mocked
(cf. Gal. 6:7).
Prior to the pilgrimage through the Holy Door, a
Mass was celebrated by Bishop Francesco Savino, vice-president
of the Italian Bishops Conference, at Rome’s Jesuit-run
Church of the Gesù. Everyone was welcome to receive
Holy Communion. Isn’t one’s assent to all the Church’s
teaching (doctrine and morals) a precondition for receiving
Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist?
Yes, this is certainly a precondition as ordered by
God in Holy Scripture through the teaching of St. Paul:
“Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body
eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many
of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Cor.
11:29-30). The Church kept this precept unchanged and
universally for two thousand years and keeps it still
in her official teaching. The Catechism clearly states
that: “Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not
receive Communion without having received absolution
in the sacrament of penance” (n. 1415). Furthermore,
it notes, Sacred Scripture “presents homosexual acts
as acts of grave depravity, [and] tradition has always
declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.
They are contrary to the natural law. They close the
sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed
from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.
Under no circumstances can they be approved” (n. 2357).”
By permitting such public Masses for LGBTQ+ organizations
in Rome and granting them passage through the Holy Door
of St. Peter’s Basilica, the authorities of the Holy
See displayed before the entire world a striking contradiction
between the Church’s official teaching and her practice.
In so doing, these high-ranking authorities effectively
repudiated the very doctrine they are bound to uphold.
In light of these manifest facts, evident to all, one
must ask: can the world still take the Church’s official
teaching seriously?
The organization “Courage International” is an apostolate
that serves men and women who experience same-sex attraction,
helping them to lead a life of holiness in accord with
the fullness of the Catholic Faith. Had Saturday’s pilgrimage
been sponsored by Courage, there would have been no
scandal. What is your message to the people who participated
in Saturday’s event, who are being misled by Fr James
Martin and the LGBTQ+ movement?
My message to them is first one of compassion. For when
a person consciously rejects God’s explicit commandment
prohibiting any sexual activity outside a valid marriage,
he places himself in the gravest danger—that of losing
eternal life and being eternally condemned to Hell.
We must show compassion toward those who advocate the
legitimization of homosexual activity and persist in
it unrepentant and even proudly. True love for such
persons consists in calling them, gently yet persistently,
to genuine conversion to God’s revealed will. Such individuals
are misled and deceived by the evil spirit, by Satan,
the father of lies, and are ultimately unhappy, even
if they have stifled the voice of conscience.
We must be filled with great zeal to save these souls,
to free them from poisonous deceits.
Those priests who confirm
them in their homosexual activity or in a homosexual
lifestyle are spiritual criminals, murderers of souls,
and God will demand a strict account from them, according
to His word: “Son of man, I have made a watchman for
the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my
mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say
to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and
you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his
way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but
his blood I will require at your hand” (Ez. 33:7-8).
This event was planned before Pope Leo XIV’s election.
Some have argued that it could have and would have been
worse had Pope Francis still been alive. They point
out that Pope Leo did not receive a delegation from
the LGBT+ group at his general Jubilee audience in St
Peter’s Square earlier on Saturday, nor did he send
the group a message.
These arguments are unconvincing. For the Pope to have
received a pro-LGBTQ+ delegation would have been truly
unprecedented and the height of scandal. The fact that
Pope Leo XIV did not cause such scandal in no
way justifies his de facto consent to this event.
Indeed, one cannot reasonably presume naivety on his
part, for it was entirely foreseeable that a pro-LGBTQ+
organization, or at least some of its members, would
exploit the Holy Door and St. Peter’s Basilica as a
platform to promote an ideology that openly scorns and
rejects God’s explicit will as expressed in His holy
Commandment.
Fr. James Martin circulated photos of an audience
he had with Pope Leo several days before the event.
Did popes prior to Pope Francis meet with such figures
in this way? What is your view of this and other recent
audiences, such as that with the controversial Dominican
Sister Lucia Caram, who reportedly supports “gay marriage”?
Before the pontificate of Pope Francis, the successors
of Peter neither received officially nor posed for photographs
with those who, by word or deed, openly rejected the
doctrinal and moral teaching of the Church. Through
these official meetings and photographs, Pope Leo de
facto sent a message to the world that he does not distance
himself from their heterodox and scandalous teaching
and behavior—particularly since the Holy See offered
no clarification afterward and did not correct Fr. James
Martin’s triumphant messages circulated on social media.
There is a common saying that goes: “Qui tacet consentire
videtur”—“He who is silent is taken to agree.”
The Church has traditionally not only preached the
truth but also actively combated error. As Islam continues
to grow in the West and Europe becomes more de-Christianized,
what is at risk if the Catholic Church cedes her moral
authority to these lobbies and movements?
St. Peter and his successors, the Roman Pontiffs, together
with the Holy See, and thus the Catholic Church as such,
received from Christ Himself the highest moral authority
in this world. This authority consists in teaching the
entire world—people of all nations and religions—the
commandments of God, that is, to observe all that Christ
has commanded (cf. Mt. 28:20).
To the extent that the teaching office of the Church—in
the Holy See and the Catholic episcopate—becomes weak,
unclear, ambiguous, or even contradictory, the influence
of anti-truth, in all its ideological derivations and
religious forms, will inevitably increase.
Islam’s strength may increasingly be attractive to some,
but it does not and can never impart to the human soul
the necessary spiritual power to be inwardly transformed
into a new person through Christ’s grace. By permitting
such outrageous events, the authorities of the Holy
See are effectively silencing Christ’s truth, Christ’s
voice. It is therefore imperative for our time that
the words of the Pope and the authorities of the Holy
See regarding the Church’s teaching correspond faithfully
with their deeds. For there is no higher moral authority
in this world than that of Jesus Christ, who entrusted
His authority to the Magisterium of the Pope and the
episcopate. What a tremendous responsibility! And what
an immense future accountability before the judgment
seat of Christ!
Although I wrote to Vatican spokesman Matto Bruni asking
if the Vatican would be issuing an acknowledgement that
this should not have been permitted and apologizing
for the scandal caused, there’s been no response. What
do you believe this silence reveals?
The Holy See finds itself in a kind of impasse and is
faced with two reactions.
On one side, organizations advocating the legitimization
of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle rejoiced. The inclusion of LGBTQ+
activists among the Holy Year pilgrim groups and their
solemn entry into St. Peter’s Basilica—the spiritual
center of Catholicism—sent a message to the entire world
that the Holy See recognizes the primary aim of these
organizations: the approval of homosexual activity and
other sexual conduct outside of marriage. The world
applauds Pope Leo XIV and the Holy See for this.
On the other side, there are all those—Catholics, of
course, but also non-Catholics and adherents of other
religions—who continue to uphold the validity of God’s
commandments and take Him seriously, and who find themselves
in a state of shock. All faithful sons and daughters
of the Holy Church feel deeply humiliated. It is,
as it were, a blush upon the faces of the children of
the Church. We feel ashamed before God.
One perceives an embarrassed silence on the part of
the Holy See, resembling the conscience-stricken silence
of one who has done wrong.
This event occurred on the First Saturday of the
month, a day on which Our Lady of Fatima especially
asked for reparation for offences committed against
her Immaculate Heart. How can the faithful help to remedy
what happened?
The situation that has
ensued is nothing less than a public humiliation of
our Holy Mother Church before the shameless jubilation
of the enemies of God’s commandments. We should all
make a collective act of reparation for the outrage
committed against the sanctity of God’s house and the
holiness of His commandments. We, the children of the
Church—above all the Pope, and especially those clerics
who permitted, supported, and even justified such an
abomination—should make our own the words of the prophet
Daniel: “To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but
to us open shame… because of the treachery that they
have committed against you. To us, O Lord, belongs open
shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers,
because we have sinned against you.” (Dan. 9:7-8)
During the Great Jubilee of 2000, Rome hosted the first
ever World Pride (July 1–9, 2000). Pope John Paul II
publicly denounced the event, saying:
“In the name of the Church of Rome I can only express
my deep sadness at the affront to the Great Jubilee
of the Year 2000 and the offence to the Christian values
of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics
throughout the world. The Church cannot be silent about
the truth, because she would fail in her fidelity to
God the Creator and would not help to distinguish good
from evil” (CCC, n. 2358) In this regard, I wish merely
to read what is said in the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, which, after noting that homosexual acts are
contrary to the natural law, then states: “The number
of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies
is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively
disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They
must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity.
Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard
should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfil
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, n. 2358)
(Angelus, July 9, 2000).”
Your Excellency, what message would you like to send
to Pope Leo XIV?
I would like to implore Pope Leo XIV to repeat, in substance,
these words of Pope John Paul II, thereby manifesting
before the entire world true humility in acknowledging
the fault of the Holy See regarding the outrageous LGBTQ+
event in St. Peter’s Basilica. Humility is courage for
truth. Should Pope Leo XIV make public acts of regret
and even reparation, he will lose nothing; should he
fail to do so, he will forfeit something before the
eyes of God—and God alone matters. From my heart
I wish Pope Leo XIV the grace of God, that he may have
the courage to repair this act of abomination which
has sullied the holiness of the Jubilee Year, employing
in all truth the words of St. Paul: “I did not shrink
from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts
20:26-27).
Your Excellency, is there anything you would like
to add?
May Our Holy
Father Pope Leo XIV take to heart the following words
of Our Lord which He once spoke through St. Bridget
of Sweden to one of his predecessors (Pope Gregory XI):
“Uproot, pluck out
and destroy all the vices of your court! Separate
yourself from the counsel of carnal-minded and worldly
friends and follow humbly the spiritual counsel
of my friends. Get up like a man and clothe yourself
confidently in strength! Start to reform the Church
that I purchased with my own blood in order that it
may be reformed and led back spiritually to its pristine
state of holiness, for nowadays more veneration
is shown to a brothel than to my Holy Church.
My son, heed my counsel. If you obey me in what I told
you, I will welcome you mercifully like a loving father.
Bravely approach the way of justice and you shall prosper.
Do not despise the one who loves you. If you obey, I
will show you mercy and bless and dress you and adorn
you with the precious pontifical regalia of a holy pope.
I shall clothe you with myself in such a way that you
will be in me and I in you, and you shall be glorified
in eternity” (The Book of Revelations, Book IV,
chap. 149).
Printable PDF File
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The Most Urgent Question
of Our Time:
“When
the Son of Man Comes, will He Find Faith on Earth?”
(St. Luke 18.8)
No
more stunning,
no more frightening, and perhaps no more ominously portentous
words are spoken in all the Gospels, in fact, in the
entire New Testament — perhaps even in the entirety
of Sacred Scripture itself; words that have become increasingly
fraught with significance with every passing year of
the most unfortunate papacy of Francis — a papacy not
just likely … but I believe with certainty … will
be understood not simply as among the worst … but the
worst … the most destructive to the Faith and to the
Church in the annals of 2000 years of Church history.
Indeed, with every generation following that devastating
Second Vatican Council — that scorched earth assault
on Tradition and historical Catholicism — the question
increasingly verges on an implied and obvious answer.
Indeed, we must wonder if the question that Christ poses
… “When the Son of Man comes will He find Faith on earth?”
… is, in fact, spoken of this generation, or of one
soon — very soon, to come.
As with so many of Christ’s teachings, this troubling question
is too often and too deftly explained away — especially
by the overwhelming number of the liberal theologians
and bishops who have proliferated and multiplied since
1962 — which is to say, by “the
learned and the wise”. If we heed them, it would
appear that either Christ does not know what He
is saying, or we do not know what He is saying
— although we all agree that He said something
... that sounds suspiciously clear.
We must, however, pay careful attention to these twelve
words, …. perhaps more now than at any
other time in Church history.
“When the Son of Man
comes will He find Faith on earth?”
These are twelve words, however, to which we must pay
careful attention, perhaps more now than at any other
time in Church history.
However reluctant we are to take Christ at His word
— which becomes increasingly inconvenient to us — we
must recognize that Jesus never spoke idly: His words,
His teachings — and yes, His Commandments — were
always uttered to one explicit end: the salvation of
souls — attaining to Heaven and everlasting happiness
and to avoiding Hell and eternal misery.
The Jewish religious authorities —
“the learned” of His own
time — had scornfully dismissed Christ’s warning that
not so much as stone would remain standing in the great
Temple 1
... the very Temple within which, 70 years later, these
words were fulfilled when Rome laid waste in days what
took 46 years to build.
We tend to view such alarming statements made by Jesus
— and there are many — with the same scorn and disdain
today.
Indeed ... what has become of the “Faith of our Fathers?”
A mere fifty years ago we ourselves would have instinctively
replied “Of course He will find faith! There
simply must be some deeper, some obscure and less evident
meaning to this that we do not presently understand
— and what He appears to be saying, He is
not really saying at all. Surely the “learned” of
our own day can deftly explain the answer to this troubling
question. In the end, they will conclude, Jesus is
really asking something entirely different from what
He appears to be asking and that it has nothing
to do with our very real defection from the Faith.”
It is likely that many Jews of Jesus’ time — both the
learned and the unlearned — had replied in much the
same way. In fact, they did.
In other words, to us, our faith, the Faith of the Catholic
Church for two millennia, could no sooner disappear
than ... well, the stones of the great Temple 2000 years
ago!
If, however, we take a careful inventory of our present
and undeniably dismal and increasingly scandalous situation
in the Church — especially as it has unfolded in the
last five decades — Jesus does not quite appear as ...
“perplexing” ... as so many apparently make Him to be.
Candidly
Ask yourself the following:
Has the Faith — the Catholic Faith — flourished
in the last 50 years, or has it withered?
Are vocations to the Priesthood and Religious life
growing or dwindling?
Are Catholics having more children or are they
having fewer children?
Are Missionary efforts, to the end of (dare we
say it?) “conversion” as mandated by Christ
encouraged
as intrinsic to Catholicism — or are they discouraged
as impolite, obtrusive, culturally imperialistic and
inherently inimical to the “Ecumenical spirit of Vatican
II” — especially as interpreted by Pope Francis for
whom “proselytism is solemn nonsense,” to use his own
words, words that mock the sacrifices of countless
missionary saints through the 2000 years preceding Vatican
II’s
“more enlightened”
understanding of the
Great Commission*?
Rather, we find that “conversion” to Christ and His
Church is actively discouraged — that especially
under Pope Francis it is no longer understood as
a holy and inherently necessary endeavor — instead,
it is disdained, even dismissed, as “socially and culturally
incorrect” — indeed, we find that promoting our
Catholic Faith — as Christ has commanded us to—
has been forbidden by Francis and his “progressive”
coterie of feckless and disaffected cardinals and bishops!
What pope, prior to Vatican II, could ever have envisioned
this?
Is our understanding of the Catholic Church, as an
absolutely unique institution indispensable to the
ordinary means of salvation, emphasized as urgently
today (if it is emphasized at all) as it was a hundred
years ago? Fifty years ago? Indeed, is the concept itself
— of the singularity and indispensability of the Holy
Catholic Church — still deemed an actual dogma
and a viable concept at all?
For all our insolence and equivocation, we know the
answers, and we are uncomfortable with them, for they
fly in the face of Christ and all that He taught — to
say nothing of Sacred Scripture, Holy Tradition, and
the Sacred Deposit of the Faith entrusted to the Catholic
Church by God Himself.
Indeed, Christ’s question takes on a greater sense of
urgency still, for the sheep are scattered and confused
as never before. The papacy of Francis has been disastrous
for the Church. Why? Precisely because he has taken
Vatican II to its logical conclusion: the irrelevance
of the Church.
Ubi
est Pastor?
Where is the Shepherd?
Who is earnestly addressing this spiritual malaise and
religious decay due to the indolence and dereliction
of the vast majority of American and European bishops
who appear far more eager for secular plaudits than
the now quaint and discredited notion of “the salvation
of souls.” Pope Francis has effectively declared this
mandate defunct in favor of the rehabilitation of bodies,
societies, economies, and “the environment”. That the
passing material environment of man is infinitely
less important than the eternal abode of his
soul, often appears to elude Francis. Indeed, it appears
to elude most Catholics whose mantra increasingly coincides
with the world’s: Social activism! ... not interior conversion away from this world ... and
to Christ.
Shame! Shame on us! By our silence, our fear of being
disparaged by “other Catholics” for the sake of Christ,
we condone this travesty — are complicit in it
... even promote it!
What will motivate us to recognize, and to redress,
this frightful and ultimately deadly state of affairs?
There are, after all, other contenders in this world
for the souls of men ... seen and unseen! As our own
wick smolders, others blaze! The burning Crescent of
Islam, poised like a scimitar, and every bit as deadly,
glows and grows in the east, and with it, not an ethnic, but a
Religious Cleansing
to which the world remains indifferent — an expunging
of every vestige of Christianity in partibus infidelium.
And even Islam has its secular collaborators: the European
Union — once a continent raised up from utter barbarism
to a civilization formed and ennobled by its Catholic
heritage — will no longer tolerate the inclusion of
its indissoluble Christian heritage within its Constitution.
Not only does it thoroughly repudiate its own Christian
cultural heritage — it prohibits it — even banishes it! This is nothing less than self-loathing.
And perhaps it ought to be.
Surely, then, in our effort to remedy this impending
state of dissolution, we will first turn to our bishops,
since they are, preeminently, the “Teachers and Guardians
of the Faith”. But more often than not — much more often
than not — in the well-appointed office at the end of
the corridor we do not find a shepherd of souls but
a deeply sequestered, occasionally avuncular, and predictably
remote ... “administrator.”
Relegating his prime responsibility as Teacher and Promoter
of the Faith ... to others, in the form of Lay committees
and subcommittees largely “chaired” by liberal Catholics
more concerned with social issues than the salvation
of souls, are we confident that the patrimony of our
faith will somehow percolate through this strata of
already contaminated soil and reach our children authentically
and intact? Is our fear mitigated ... or further exacerbated
... by our bishops’ resolute lack of diligence in being
attentive to what Catholic colleges and theologians
in their own dioceses are really teaching — and who
are teaching the teachers ... who, in turn, are teaching
our children?
Do you think that your bishop actually — that is to
say, cognitively — is aware of, or even concerned with
— what the teachers themselves are actually teaching?
Not in this diocese. Not
in Boston. In fact, Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley had
routinely feted, praised, and held up as exemplary,
the clueless “Catechists” who churn out our children
to the Sacrament of Confirmation — with no clue whatever
of that in which they are being confirmed. By comparison,
even the dismal failure of our public schools in Boston
must be deemed a stunning success.
For most of us — especially in the Archdiocese of Boston,
but no less elsewhere — the answer is, as they say,
a “no-brainer:” it is a universally resounding no.
Most of us find, to our growing dismay and deepening
cynicism, that our bishops appear to have “more important,”
more ... “pressing” things to do ... than to communicate
the Faith to the faithful ... especially the children.
Really, we beg the question: if no one teaches the teachers
— who, then, teaches the children? If they are not brought
the faith by those to whom it has been entrusted — the
bishops, the episcopacy — who will bring it to them?
Will they —
how can they — acquire the Faith
... if no one brings it to them? Saint Paul is very
clear about this:
“How then shall they call
on him, in whom they have not believed? Or how
shall they believe him, of whom they have not
heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher?
And how shall they preach unless they be sent
...?” (Romans 10.14-15)
Ask yourself candidly: do you know more ... or less ...
of your Catholic faith than your children? Very likely
more — although, in all honesty, it is probably little.
You politely assent to the now quaint Catholic notion
that “parents are the primary teachers of their children,”
but knowing little of your own Faith, you simply shell
out $175.00 per child and pan off this grave responsibility
to others of whom you know nothing, and who themselves
largely know nothing of the faith they presume to teach.
You go through the motions as careless of what your
children are taught in their 10 years of “Religious
Education” as your bishop is of what the teachers teach.
10 years later, and $1500 poorer per child, you scratch
your head and wonder why Johnny still does not know
God, and why Judy never goes to Mass — and yet we have
agreed that you know more than your children ...
What, then, we must ask — with growing apprehension
— will your children teach their children
...?
What will they — who know even less than
you
— teach those who know nothing?
Total Ignorance
The momentum, as we see,
is inexorable — until it culminates in total ignorance:
every generation knows less of their faith than the
generation preceding it. It is, in the end, the devolution
from doctrine to legend, from legend to fiction, and
from fiction to myth.
That is not just a poor,
but a stultifying and ultimately deadly patrimony.
This default — at every
level — in transmitting the authentic Catholic faith
intact ... leaves Jesus’
question very suddenly very real.
“Recently,
a Gallup poll was taken on Catholic
attitudes toward Holy Communion.
The poll showed serious confusion
among Catholics about one of the
most basic beliefs of the Church.
Only 30 percent of those surveyed
believe they are actually receiving
the Body and Blood, soul and divinity
of the Lord Jesus Christ under the
appearance of bread and wine.”
The problem is more than mathematical; as we have seen,
it is exponential. 70% of Catholics do not possess this
most fundamental, this most essential understanding
of the core article of genuine Catholic doctrine: that
“Unless you eat of the flesh of
the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, you have no life
in you.” Heavy stuff!
It is not just a matter of the greatest concern, but nothing
less than a matter of the gravest dereliction that most
Catholics do not realize — do not know — that the
very Mass itself is an abbreviation of “The Most
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass”, and that it is really a
Sacrifice, the actual re-enactment of Calvary
before their very eyes!
This failure of understanding ... culminates in a failure
in Faith. It possesses, in significant ways, the remorseless
characteristics of mathematical certainties. Not understanding,
grasping — having never been taught — the most elementary
features of the faith, how can they be understood to
possess what they have not acquired, and how can they
transmit, pass on, what they do not possess? It is inescapable.
Prognostication, of course, is for fools.
But the words of Christ are certainties that will come
to pass.
“Weep not for Me, but for your children,”
5 Christ
told the sorrowing women on the road to Calvary.
Jesus’ question, then — “When
the Son of Man comes will He find faith on earth?”—
is not a “rhetorical question” at all; it is a question
fraught with enormous significance ... the frightful
answer to which appears to be unfolding before our very
eyes ... but that is if you take Christ at His word
— and given Jesus’ track record on things yet to come,
we would do well and wisely to give pause for more than
thought.
Are you worried now ...? Not nearly enough.
And this is all the more frightening still.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Printable PDF Version
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The Holy Catholic Faith
Where is it And Who is Keeping
it?
Has the
Post-Conciliar Church
Lost Custody
of the Faith?
All
indications are that is has
The “Dark Ages” — that disdainful
term for the period in history following the collapse of
the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. until the 15th century
(a period correctly described as the Middle Ages)
is understood by the secular world to have lasted
roughly 1000 years, beginning in Florence, Italy.
Within the post-Conciliar
Catholic Church, however, it appears that the term extends
well beyond the 15th century; indeed, some 500
years beyond it! According to contemporary Catholic thought
articulated within the past five papacies, the “Dark Ages”
really ended in 1965 at the conclusion of the Second
Vatican Council. All the doctrines and teachings prior
to that Council were only imperfectly, deficiently, and
insufficiently articulated or defectively understood.
The 1000 Years of Darkness
Only
the Second Vatican Council finally attained to enlightenment
in the divine economy, and after 1,965 years of suspension,
it alone has provided the final, sufficient, and correct
understanding of God and Church, man and nature. Prior to
that, according to post-Conciliar thought, Catholics had
essentially lived in darkness, specifically the darkness
of the “pre-Conciliar Dark Ages.” It may be said that where
the Rational Enlightenment “saved the world from religion,”
Vatican II saved the Church from Catholicism.
Continue reading
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Martyrology for Today
Semen est sanguis Christianorum (The blood of Christians
is the seed of the Church) Tertullian, Apologeticum,
50
2004 Roman Martyrology by Month
2004 Roman Martyrology
Tuesday, October 2nd in the Year of Grace 2025
This Day, the Second Day of October
Memorial
of the Holy Guardian Angels,
who, first called to contemplate the face of God in splendor,
were also appointed by the Lord to be with men, to assist and
guide them with their invisible but solicitous presence.
2.
At Nicomedia in Bithynia,
Saint Eleutherius,
martyr.
3.
At Numancia in Carthaginian Spain,
Saint Saturius,
hermit.
4.
At Sarcinon in the territory of Atrebatean Neustria,
the passion
of Saint Leodegar, bishop
of Autun, who, afflicted with various injuries and mutilated,
was unjustly put to death by Ebroin, the mayor of the palace
of King Theodoric.
With him
is commemorated the memory of his brother, Saint Gerinus, martyr,
who, at the command of that same Ebroin two years earlier, was
overwhelmed with stones.
5.
At
Andage in the Ardennes Forest in Austrasia,
Saint Beregis,
abbot,
who founded there a monastery of canons regular and diligently
governed it.
6.
In
Rhaetia,
Saint Ursicinus,
bishop
of Chur and first abbot of the monastery of Disentis, which
he himself founded.
7.
At Constantinople,
the commemoration
of Saint Theophilus, monk,
who, for the defense of the sacred Images, was very cruelly
scourged by Leo the Isaurian and driven into exile.
8.
At Nagasaki in Japan,
the blessed
Louis Yakichi and Lucy, spouses, and their sons Andrew and Francis,
martyrs,
who died for Christ: the children were beheaded before their
father together with their mother, and he was afterward cast
into the fire.
9.
In
the sea near Rochefort in France, in a filthy prison ship moored
with anchors,
blessed George
Edmund René, priest and martyr,
who, a canon of Vézelay, was condemned during the time of the
French upheaval to naval imprisonment for exercising the priestly
ministry, and, wasted by disease of the body, died.
10.
At Lyon in France,
blessed Anthony
Chevrier, priest,
who founded the Work of the Prado Providence, where priests
were formed to teach poor youth the Christian religion.
11.
At Fianarantsoa in Madagascar,
blessed John
Beyzym, priest
of the Society of Jesus, who exercised fervent ministry for
lepers on that island, serving both their bodies and souls with
great charitable help.
12.
Near Castalla on the coast of Spain,
the blessed
Francis Carceller,
of the Order of Clerics Regular of the Pious Schools,
and Isidore
Bover Oliver,
of the Society of Diocesan Worker Priests,
priests and
martyrs,
who, during a fierce persecution, were killed by bullets before
a cemetery wall out of hatred for the priesthood, and consummated
their martyrdom.
13.
In the village of Sax near Alicante, also in Spain,
the blessed
Elias and John Baptist Carbonell Molla, priests and martyrs,
brothers,
who in the same persecution against the Church were killed by
bullets.
14.
In the village of Silla near Valencia, also in Spain,
blessed Mary
Guadalupe (Mary Frances) Ricart Olmos, religious
of the Order
of the Servants of Mary
and martyr,
who, in the same period, was crowned for the witness of Christ.
15.
In the city of Stanisławów in Poland,
blessed Mary
Antonina Kratochwil, virgin
of the Congregation
of the School Sisters of Our Lady
and martyr,
who, during wartime, was imprisoned for the faith, where, afflicted
with torments for Christ her Spouse, she died.
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And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
Omnes sancti Mártyres, oráte pro nobis.
(“All ye Holy Martyrs, pray for us,” from the Litaniae Sanctorum, the Litany of the Saints)
℟. Thanks be to God.
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The 1956 edition below, issued during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, is a revision of the typical edition of 1749, which had been promulgated by Pope Benedict XIV remained the foundational text for later updates throughout the 18th–20th centuries up to 2004 — the English translation of which remained the sole source of the Martyrology until the present translation of the 2004 Roman Martyrology by the Boston Catholic Journal in 2025.
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1956 ROMAN MARTYROLOGY
Tuesday October 2nd in the Year of Grace 2025
This Day, the Second Day of October
Feast of the
Holy Guardian Angels.
At Nicomedia, St. Eleutherius,
soldier and martyr, with numberless others. They
were falsely accused of having set fire to the palace of
Diocletian and, by order of this most cruel emperor, were
barbarously massacred in groups. Some were put to the sword,
some consumed by fire, while others were precipitated into
the sea. But the principal one, Eleutherius, having endured
long tortures, and being found stronger after each one,
terminated his victorious martyrdom by fire, as well-tried
gold.
In the vicinity of Arras, the martyrdom of
blessed Leodegarius, bishop
of Autun. After being subjected to various insults and torments
for the truth, he was put to death by Ebroin, chief minister
of Theodoric.
Also, the holy martyr Gerinus,
brother of the blessed Leodegarius, who was overwhelmed
with stones in the same city.
At Antioch, the holy martyrs Primus,
Cyril, and Secundarius.
At Constantinople, St. Theophilus,
a monk, who was most cruelly scourged by Leo the
Isaurian, for the defense of holy images, was driven into
exile, and went gloriously to Heaven.
At Hereford, in England, St. Thomas,
bishop and confessor.
And elsewhere in divers places, many other holy martyrs,
confessors, and holy virgins.
Omnes sancti
Mártyres, oráte pro nobis.
(“All
ye Holy Martyrs, pray for us,” from the Litaniae Sanctorum, the Litany
of the Saints)
Response: Thanks be to God.
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1959 Roman Martyrology by Month
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Why the Martyrs Matter
Each
day we bring you a
calendar, a list really, of the holy Martyrs who had suffered
and died for Christ, for His Bride the Church, and for our holy
Catholic Faith; men and women for whom — and well they knew
— their Profession of Faith would cost them their lives.
They could have repudiated all three (Christ, Church, and Catholic
Faith) and kept their lives for a short time longer (even the
lapsi * only postponed their death — and
at so great a cost!)
What would motivate men, women, even children and entire families
to willingly undergo the most evil and painfully devised tortures;
to suffer death rather than denial?
Why did they not renounce their Catholic Faith when the first
flame licked at their feet, after the first eye was plucked
out, or after they were “baptized” in mockery by boiling water
or molten lead poured over their heads? Why did they not flee
to offer incense to the pagan gods since such a ritual concession
would be merely perfunctory, having been done, after all, under
duress, exacted by the compulsion of the state? What is a little
burned incense and a few words uttered without conviction, compared
to your own life and the lives of those you love? Surely God
knows that you are merely placating the state with empty gestures
…
Did they love their wives, husbands, children — their mothers,
fathers and friends less than we do? Did they value their own
lives less? Were they less sensitive to pain than we are? In
a word, what did they possess that we do not?
Nothing. They possessed what we ourselves are given in the Sacrament
of Confirmation — but cleaved to it in far greater measure than
we do: Faith and faithfulness; fortitude and valor, uncompromising
belief in the invincible reality of God, of life eternal in
Him for the faithful, of damnation everlasting apart from Him
for the unfaithful; of the ephemerality of this passing world
and all within it, and lives lived in total accord with that
adamant belief.
We are the Martyrs to come! What made them so will make us
so. What they suffered we will suffer. What they died for, we
will die for. If only we will! For most us, life will be
a bloodless martyrdom, a suffering for Christ, for the sake
of Christ, for the sake of the Church in a thousand ways outside
the arena. The road to Heaven is lined on both sides with Crosses,
and upon the Crosses people, people who suffered unknown to
the world, but known to God. Catholics living in partibus
infidelium, under the scourge of Islam. Loveless marriages.
Injustices on all sides. Poverty. Illness. Old age. Dependency.
They are the cruciform! Those whose lives became Crosses because
they would not flee God, the Church, the call to, the
demand for, holiness in the most ordinary things of life made
extraordinary through the grace of God. The Martyrology we celebrate
each day is just a vignette, a small, immeasurably small, sampling
of the martyrdom that has been the lives of countless men and
women whom Christ and the Angels know, but whom the world does
not know.
“Exemplum enim dedi vobis”, Christ
said to His Apostles: “I have given you an example.” And His
Martyrs give one to us — and that is why the Martyrs matter.
-
A Martyr is
one who suffers tortures and a violent death for
the sake of Christ and the Catholic Faith.
-
A Confessor
is one who confesses Christ publicly in times of persecution
and who suffers torture, or severe punishment by secular
authorities as a consequence. It is a title given only
given to those who suffered for the Faith —
but was not killed for it —
and who had persevered in the Faith until the
end.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Boston Catholic Journal
Note:
We suggest that you explore our newly edited and revised
“De
SS. Martyrum Cruciatibus — The Torments and Tortures of the
Christian Martyrs”
for an in-depth historical account of the sufferings of the
Martyrs.
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*
Those early Christians who renounced their Catholic Faith
in times of persecution. When confronted with the prospect
of torture and death if they held fast to their faith in
Christ, they denied Him and their Faith through an act of
sacrificing (often incense) to the pagan Roman gods and
in so doing kept their lives and/or their freedom and property.
Totally
Faithful to the Sacred Deposit of Faith entrusted
to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum
Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power, and
yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name.”
(Apocalypse 3.8)
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