NEW - Pope Leo XIV says "there is no such thing as a holy war," rejecting any religious justification for conflicts around the world: "Only peace is holy."

“It feels really empty without him,” says 16-year-old Corey Diawara, whose father was deported in July. His father had lived in the U.S. for 25 years and had no criminal record. Moussa Diawara says he was deported without being able to speak to his lawyer or a judge. He was eventually sent to Mali, a country a U.S. immigration judge ruled he could not be deported to. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security told 60 Minutes that Ghana had provided the U.S. with “diplomatic assurances for his safety.” DHS also questioned the credibility of Diawara’s arguments for fearing persecution in Mali. cbsn.ws/4etdVdW

As is often the case in breaking news, the truth slowly comes out. Today we learn directly from the organizers of the TLM pilgrimage that when they could not get Saint Peter’s basilica… “permission was sought and gained for a Prelatial (Pontifical) Low Mass in St Mary Major.” So unlike what so many bloggers, podcasters, journalists, and rage baiters claimed, this was NOT a last-minute change but something that was known since August. Respect to those who have already corrected what they previously posted and shame on those who have not. I’ll also note, since I shared early on that events on their official website were still incorrect a day before the pilgrimage began (and many of these same people, including a priest involved said I was lying about that when it was updated the following day) the organizers also said this… “The SP website was based on what happened last year. The problem was that as things were confirmed, very late in the day, they were contirmed as being different trom what they expected, and the website was not updated. So I now understand.”

Good grief. Again, I attend the TLM in Rome with the ICKSP and with the FSSP when I'm in the States. I have attended this TLM pilgrimage many times over the years. I am NOT a journalist or blogger who gets paid to rage. I am, however, someone who has been organizing pilgrimages like this for decades and knows exactly how the Vatican and the churches work. The news over the last few days is that the TLM pilgrimage Mass was not allowed in Saint Peter's Basilica, that the Vatican threw together an event to block them, that the group was denied entry into the basilica to pray, and that they were only allowed one hour at Saint Mary Major at the last minute, with no photos. Let me break this down... Celebrations for the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis were being planned as early as 2021. Meetings took place with Pope Francis in 2022 to discuss the events. In January 2025, the Italian government met with Vatican officials to plan the events. In January 2026, Vatican News referenced planned events to take place throughout the year. So despite what some are saying, the Franciscan event that is happening today was not thrown together to block this Mass at the last minute. In fact, this event coincides with a huge event that starts tomorrow in Assisi, where 5,000 people have registered and which Pope Leo was originally scheduled to attend. When the organizers requested the Mass for this day, they were told the altar was already reserved and offered another day or another location. They chose another location, Saint Mary Major. No scandal. As for the procession, the group was not banned from entering. They were not allowed to process in. They could not carry their flags and banners and would have to enter through security like everyone else. If you check the photos, you'll see that the line at that time was over an hour long. So if they arrived at their scheduled time of 1 p.m., it would have been difficult to get through security and across town in time for their 3 p.m. Mass. 👏🏻 Props to the PR people who positioned the group for a photo in front of the walls set up for construction of the Nativity scene instead of moving them over a few feet for an unobstructed view of the basilica! 👏🏻 Last year, we were able to process in because there was a dedicated entrance for the Jubilee with very little wait. Anyone could process in (unfortunately), which is why we ended up with some inappropriate processions. But that was an exception during the Jubilee. Normally, groups cannot just process beyond the piazza, as was the case today. As for the Mass at Saint Mary Major, they allow one hour for Mass. I have been here with cardinals leading pilgrimages of hundreds of people. Do you know how much time they were allowed for Mass? One hour. Saint Mary Major says on their Mass reservation form and in their confirmation emails that private groups are allowed one hour. Could they have made an exception? Sure, but they don't usually for cardinals bringing busloads of people, so why would they here? And for the photos during Mass, permission to use a professional photographer has to be requested well in advance. Did the organizers know this and make the proper request? I don't know. Professional photos on Vatican property, including Saint Peter's Basilica, Saint Peter's Square, Saint Mary Major, Saint John Lateran, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, and the Scala Santa, require special permission. I've been making these requests for years. It's simple, but getting a reply takes time. It is the Vatican, after all. So perhaps they did not have permission or even ask for permission. There is plenty to question in the Church, but if you're not looking for clicks, this looks more like poor planning and poor communication, possibly on both sides, than some grand conspiracy.

JUST IN: The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith today released a new document titled “VENITE AD ME [COME TO ME]: Considerations on the Transmission of the Faith in an Epochal Change” — vatican.va/roman_curia/congr… Signed by DDF Prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the section on Liturgy (n. 90-94) states: 90. The second consideration linked to the rediscovery of the centrality of the proclamation of the kerygma concerns the liturgy. If the heart of the Christian proclamation is the encounter with God’s saving love in Christ, the liturgy constitutes the privileged place in which this mystery is celebrated and communicated sacramentally. For this reason, it plays a central role in handing on the faith, serving as the beating heart of ecclesial life, where the community is nourished by the Word of God and the Bread of eternal life. In this regard, we must move beyond a reductive view that regards the liturgy as merely a ritual framework for ecclesial life. The liturgy, in fact, is first and foremost an experience of faith, even before it is a teaching, in that it allows the faithful to participate in gestures, words, silences, and symbols, thereby experiencing the mystery of Christ in a living way. As stated in Evangelii Gaudium, “the Church evangelizes and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the liturgy”[94]; precisely through its symbolic power and its ability to engage the whole person fully, the liturgy becomes an authentic place of proclamation and encounter with the Lord. In the liturgical action, and particularly in the Eucharist, we are drawn ever more deeply into the Paschal Mystery, while the sacramental character of the Church—called to be a sign of God’s love for humanity—is made visible. In this sacramental event, the encounter with the Risen One becomes a shared and vital act that educates believers not only by “informing” them, but by shaping them from within so that they may become participants in the mystery being celebrated. For this reason, in the liturgy, faith is transmitted in a performative way: we do not merely speak of God but enter into a relationship with him. The liturgy is living memory and tradition, generating and shaping Christians capable of bearing witness to the salvation they have encountered: by participating in liturgical prayer, one enters, in fact, into a history, into a shared memory that spans the centuries. Therefore, to celebrate means first and foremost to receive a faith that has been believed, lived, and prayed by others before us. 91. Furthermore, this dynamic highlights the eminently communal dimension of the liturgy. Faith, in fact, is not transmitted solely through individual proclamation or teaching, but within a people who celebrate together. In the liturgy, the believer is never isolated but is part of a “we” that precedes, accompanies, and transcends him or her. This communal dimension serves as a powerful antidote to the allure of a selfish and individualistic lifestyle, which, as we have already seen, is so widespread today in many contexts. Precisely because it is an ecclesial and communal experience, the celebration of the faith is closely linked to processes of inculturation—that is, to the effort “to communicate more effectively the truth of the Gospel in a specific context, without renouncing the truth, the goodness and the light which it can bring whenever perfection is not possible.”[95] Applied to the liturgy, this perspective requires preserving the richness of the Church’s symbolic tradition, while at the same time making it accessible and meaningful to the men and women of our time, within a healthy and fruitful tension between fidelity to tradition and the comprehensibility of the message being celebrated. 92. From the perspective of the transmission of the faith, therefore, the liturgy is of crucial importance, in accordance with the ancient adage lex orandi, lex credendi. [96] It follows that the liturgical celebration cannot be reduced to a mere formal performance, but must be an action in which the signs truly speak to the minds and hearts of the faithful, expressing in a vivid and concrete way the one faith of the Church and strengthening in each believer the awareness of being a member of the Body of Christ. Only through fully conscious participation, which presupposes an adequate education in liturgical language, can faith be transmitted not as an abstract doctrine, but as a new life that is communicated by attraction in daily life. The young Augustine also bore witness to this power of the liturgy; years after that experience, he was able to write: “How greatly I wept at your hymns and canticles, how deeply was I moved by the sounds of your Church sweetly singing! Those voices flowed into my ears, and your truth melted into my heart until the feeling of devotion surged up from within; my tears ran down, and I was the better for them.”[97] Through the beauty of the signs and the power of the Word, the liturgical action thus becomes the generative source of the Church’s mission, enabling the community to give an account of the hope that dwells within it, through the credibility of a life transfigured by grace. For this reason, special care must be taken in the celebrations, and a mystagogical accompaniment of the younger generations is necessary, so that they may fully understand and live out what they celebrate in the liturgy. 93. In addition, the liturgy can be experienced in different ways. Indeed, popular piety also has its own way of expressing a liturgical sensibility, which takes different forms according to the various cultures. To understand this, we can cite a beautiful account by Romano Guardini, in which he recounts his visit to Sicily: “Today I saw something magnificent: Monreale. […] When we arrived—it was Holy Thursday—the solemn Mass had proceeded beyond the consecration. […] What should I say about the splendor of this place? […] The crowd sat and watched. […] Almost no one was reading. All were living in the gaze; all were intent on contemplation. Then it became clear to me what the foundation of true liturgical piety is: the ability to perceive the ‘sacred’ within the image and its dynamism. Monreale, Holy Saturday. […] Every now and then a ray of sunlight pierced through the vault, and then a golden smile spread through the space above. […] Yet the most beautiful thing was the people. […] The sacred ceremony lasted more than four hours, but there was a lively participation throughout. There are different ways of prayerful participation. One takes place through listening, speaking and gesture, and the other through seeing. The first way is a good one, and in Northern Europe it is the only way we know. But we have lost something that was still present in Monreale: the capacity for living-in-the-gaze, for dwelling in the act of seeing, for welcoming the sacred in the form and event, by contemplating them.” [98] 94. Particular care should also be taken to enable the faithful in every diocese, as well as those who are approaching or returning to the community of believers, to encounter the various liturgical sensibilities present within the tradition of the Catholic Church. With due respect for the liturgical norms currently in force, pastors are called to highlight the richness of the Catholic liturgical heritage—consider, for example the variety of musical styles that characterize it—in such a way as to enter into contact with the different sensibilities of their contemporaries. Specific attention should also be given to accompanying the significant stages of human life with the Church’s blessing. Especially in the West, there is a progressive loss of the collective memory of rites and ritual practices in favor of a highly radical form of individualism; yet this does not eliminate the anthropological need for rituality, to which human beings have always responded in different ways. The Christian community grows and is built up through ritual practices, and in this regard, the Church’s rich spiritual heritage represents a precious and inexhaustible resource.

BREAKING: Fr. Chad Ripperger silenced by his bishop for a year. Denver Archbishop James Golka has ordered Fr. Ripperger to cease all public ministry — no talks, no preaching, no writing. lifesitenews.com/news/breaki…

Capital punishment is unacceptable in any case. The planned broadcast of the taking of a life by firing squad is nothing short of performative barbarism. Do we really want our children, who will inevitably view it, exposed to the pornography of a state-sponsored slaying?