It’s Thursday, Pope Leo XIV is in Assisi with the Italian bishops, tomorrow we’ll tell what happened. Let’s go with the news from another very packed day of information.
Pope Leo XIV delivered his usual Wednesday catechesis, thus continuing the cycle of reflections for the Jubilee Year dedicated to hope. The Pontiff chose to relate the Resurrection of Christ to the challenges of the present time and recalled the central dialogue of the catechesis: «Why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?». Two questions that, according to Leo XIV, «cannot be faced in solitude», because tears, when sincere, «are a gift of life» capable of purifying the gaze. Leo XIV quoted Laudato Si’ to remind us that, without a contemplative gaze, human beings become destroyers of creation. Christian hope, he affirmed, responds to the challenges facing humanity today by stopping in the garden where the Crucifix was planted as a seed.
Romania and Nigeria are the countries of origin of the new officials of the Secretariat of State chosen by Pope Leo XIV. The new Undersecretary of the Section for Relations with States and International Organizations of the Secretariat of State is Mihăiţă Blaj, Counselor of the Nunciature, assigned to the same Section. Born in Gherăeşti, Romania, on October 7, 1978; ordained priest on June 29, 2004; incardinated in Iaşi, Romania; graduated in Theology; entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See on July 1, 2012 and has worked in Ecuador, Georgia, and Chad. Since 2022, he has served in the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State.
The new Advisor for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State is Anthony Onyemuche Ekpo, current Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Born in Umudike, Nigeria, on September 24, 1981; ordained priest on July 30, 2011; incardinated in the Diocese of Umuahia; graduated in Systematic Theology and Canon Law; entered the service of the Holy See as an official of the Section for General Affairs on September 5, 2016; appointed Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development on April 18, 2023.
Leo XIV’s appointments are coming in dribs and drabs and, for now, do not affect heavyweights. The current administration of the Vatican remains that of the previous pontificate. One of the departments causing immense discomfort is the one that in the old days was called the Congregation for Religious and is now the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Pope Leo XIV has not only kept the previous ones, but has appointed the nun as prefect, even though he wants to distance himself by claiming that ‘I found it already done’. Today we know that the one who has been pontifical commissioner of the Heralds of the Gospel for the last six years, Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno de Assis, has just submitted his resignation from the position. It is said to be a unilateral and irrevocable decision, and it seems to be a consequence of the exposé book published by the Heralds with the chronicle of the events concerning them over the last eight years and which is spreading like wildfire through the sacred palaces. The documented report leaves the past and present authorities of the Dicastery in a very bad light. We will see if the «cardinal-prefect», Brambilla, will appoint a new commissioner. Will there be someone with the necessary ‘spirit’ to take on that mission as the situation is? Will they finally opt to end that endless process? Will they prefer to embark on a violent path of destruction of the Heralds Association and its two societies of apostolic life?.
An article today analyzes how in 1996, the Czestochowa Commission rejected the Co-Redemptrix with the arguments that are repeated in Mater Populi Fidelis. Without going into the substantive issue, the difficulties posed by the Doctrinal Note of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith are not new at all. The problem lies in that the Dicastery acts as if these difficulties had never been addressed or resolved, not only by the contributions of theologians, but also by that of the Magisterium of the Popes, teaching that the drafters of the Note, as we have already demonstrated , contravening the most basic criteria of correction, considered it appropriate to overlook. Mater Populi Fidelis merely copied and pasted the objections from 1996, with the aggravating factor of having reached the conclusion that, for these «reasons», the title of Co-Redemptrix is now «always inappropriate». The preparation of the new document has a striking characteristic since the work of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has historically been «collegial». For each topic studied, this Vatican department draws on contributions from internal consultants and external experts, among other sources. In the case of this doctrinal note on certain Marian titles, «no Mariologist collaborator could be found». Neither the professors of the Marianum Faculty of Theology nor the members of the Pontifical International Marian Academy (PAMI) participated in the presentation of the document, this can be interpreted as a «silence» that «can be understood as dissent».
Müller, during a question-and-answer session at the Conference on Holiness 2025 in Michigan with the exorcist priest Chad Ripperger, stated that it is «problematic» and «not pastoral» for bishops to impose restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). Bishops must respect the faithful who remain devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass, since the liturgical renewal proposed at the Second Vatican Council has not been entirely successful. It is problematic that bishops, apparently more concerned with liturgical uniformity than with the unity of the faithful in the doctrine of the Church, restrict the celebration of the ancient Roman rite that nourishes the faith of so many Catholics. «We have seen the development of the different rites over 2000 years… The Latin rite has undergone some development, but the structure and essence of all liturgical rites are the same.» «The Second Vatican Council did not propose a reform, but a renewal of the liturgy.» «The Second Vatican Council affirmed that we must continue with Latin as a unifying orientation of the liturgy, but that there is also room for vernacular languages.» This liturgical renewal was not very successful, and that is why Pope Benedict XVI said that we must respect all those good Catholics who wish to continue with the previous form of the Latin rite of the 1962 missal.» «I think the behavior of some bishops is very problematic, when they say: ‘We are not interested in people participating in the Holy Mass (traditional). Jesus said: ‘Do this in memory of me,’ and they are more interested in the unification of external rites and not in the salvation of the people.»
The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference has denounced the «tragedy of 73 million abortions» that take place every year worldwide. In his speech before the 128th Plenary Assembly of the Spanish bishops he spoke about how secular society is hiding abortion and marginalizing defenders of life. «Anyone who publicly declares that abortion is objectively immoral because it ends the life of a human being who are not the parents risks harsh personal, social, and political condemnation: ‘Questioning this achievement? Doubting this right? That is the ultimate expression of fascist and authoritarian thinking and deserves to be immediately labeled as right-wing extremism’.» «Providing information to pregnant women is considered abuse, and praying in front of an abortion clinic is considered a threat.» «Why this refusal to think rationally and let science—DNA, genomics, ultrasound, etc.—speak, inform, and allow us to recognize the truth?» «The tragedy of 73 million abortions a year worldwide, 100,000 of them in Spain, has been normalized. We have reached a point of extreme irrationality in bioethics, which is at the service of biopolitics.» «In the same hospital, one group of doctors may be determined to save a five-and-a-half-month fetus, while another group in the next room deliberately kills a baby of the same age.»
We continue with the topic of abortion which, if it is always terrible, the so-called late-term one is a slaughter. Right Now published an undercover recorded video of a 23-week pregnant woman to whom a late-term abortion was offered at the BC Women’s Health Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia: «Here in British Columbia, dilation and evacuation procedures, or procedural abortions, are available up to 24 weeks and 6 days.» The dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion is one of the most brutal procedures, usually performed on second-trimester fetuses. During the abortion, forceps are inserted into the uterus to extract part of the fetus. The forceps are used to break and extract the fetus’s bones. This process is repeated until the baby is completely dismembered and extracted. Generally, it is necessary to break its spine and crush its skull to be able to extract it. If the cruelty is not enough: «There is the option to terminate the pregnancy through an induced abortion.» In this method, drugs are administered to the mother to induce labor and she gives birth to the baby without complications. Generally, the fetus does not die before birth, which can result in a live-birth abortion. The babies born alive are left to their fate. When the mother expressed her concern about possibly seeing a formed baby after the abortion, the social worker performing the abortion told her that «sometimes people think it’s a full baby that’s just smaller (…) but it’s not exactly like that.» «I would say there are more forms that resemble the human form.» The survival rate of babies born at 22 weeks with treatment was 41 percent in 2023.
Interesting and long article from Ordo Iuris on homosexual unions. The data it provides indicates that it is a social minority affected by this issue and that it is really used to destroy marriage. In Western countries, interest in civil unions between people of the same sex is extremely low, which shows that it does not arise from a genuine social need, but from an ideological agenda. Granting marital privileges to unmarried couples constitutes an injustice toward married couples who raise children and bear the social costs of procreation. The objective of the laws on the subject is not so much «to protect relationships» as to weaken and relativize the institutions of marriage and family. The introduction of an alternative to marriage leads to a greater decline in the birth rate and a blurring of the concept of family. It provides official data on same-sex unions and they are so minimal that they do not warrant comment. The institutionalization of unions between people of the same sex is not an expression of a popular social need, but rather a political agenda; there is no doubt that there is no real social pressure.
In Western countries, real interest in this institution is between 0.1% and 0.04% of the adult population; that is, between one and four hundredths percent. It is a practically invisible phenomenon from a statistical point of view, although it is presented in public debate as a global social revolution. «Offering real alternatives to marriage» is, in practice, the process known in sociology as «the deinstitutionalization of marriage», which means that marriage gradually loses its status as a normative institution (by default, expected, and supported) and degrades to the level of one of the options. If the legislator tells citizens: «you can choose marriage, but there is also a no-strings-attached version with similar privileges», it is not necessary to attack marriage directly to weaken it. Changes in the understanding of marriage and family do not happen suddenly; they resemble a gradual adjustment, a degree, of the helm of a ship. At first, the movement seems minimal, almost imperceptible. But after a few kilometers, it turns out that the ship is already heading in a completely different direction, and there is no easy way to go back. The groups driving this revolution do not hide their final objectives: to deprive marriage, as a union between a man and a woman, of all singularity. The article continually cites, more directed at Poland, the book: R. Dorosiński, In Defense of Marriage. A Response to the Attack on the Foundations of Civilization
And we end by remembering that things in the Caribbean are very hot. The Ford aircraft carrier also arrives in the Caribbean, and the Cartel of the Suns of Venezuela (of which it is said that Maduro is a part) will be included on the blacklist for terrorism starting November 24. Trump declares that he wants to negotiate. The opposition leader Machado calls for revolution. There are two possible scenarios: either Trump continues pressuring and achieves a peaceful transition of power from Maduro, or a military intervention for a regime change looms. But Venezuela is not easy to conquer, not at all. According to experts from Foreign Affairs, between 50,000 and 100,000 men are needed for an operation in Venezuela; the 10,000 marines currently deployed are not enough. The dialogue between Maduro and his opponents seems fruitless. The talks, mediated by Norway and held in Barbados, have stalled, as has a previous attempt supported by the Vatican. There are many things to pray for, too many, we are in the middle of a minefield, Venezuela is one of them.
«If you also knew on this day what leads you to peace!».
Good reading.