Pope Leo XIV concluded his summer vacation in Castel Gandolfo yesterday, returning to the Vatican after more than three weeks in the Castelli Romani. The Pontiff left the residence at 20:34, greeting and blessing several children and their families who were waiting for him at the exit. During his stay, he celebrated the Sunday Angelus, presided over liturgical celebrations, met with the faithful and pilgrims, and performed gestures of special attention toward the most vulnerable. In the coming days, Leo XIV will resume his usual duties at the Holy See, while also returning to the Pontifical Villas for some previously scheduled appointments.
The Pardon of Assisi.
In the coming days, the celebrations of the Pardon of Assisi will begin. On August 2, we celebrate the Pardon of Assisi, the gift that Saint Francis obtained so that the greatest possible number of souls could find their way back to Heaven through conversion, confession, and the grace of God. Saint Francis did not proclaim a Gospel adapted to the world. He announced Christ crucified, invited people to do penance, and desired the salvation of souls. That is why he also went to the Sultan: not to affirm that all religions were equal, but to bear witness to Jesus Christ and call every man to the truth of the Gospel.
Since the early centuries, the Christian faith has been guarded by the Church Fathers as a treasure received from the Apostles. They taught that the truth cannot be modified according to the times, because Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Saint Irenaeus of Lyon recalled that the true faith is the one transmitted by the Apostles and safeguarded by the Church, warning against doctrines that depart from the received truth. Saint Athanasius firmly affirmed that fidelity to Christ requires remaining steadfast in the true faith, even when the world or many men turn away from the truth. Saint Augustine wrote: “No one can have God as Father if he does not have the Church as Mother,” recalling the importance of remaining united to the authentic faith transmitted by the Church.
Today, the words of Saint Paul come to mind: “The time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine” (2Tm 4, 3). And also: “In the last days, difficult times will come” (2Tim 3, 1). We see with concern a growing confusion in the faith. The idea that all religions lead equally to God, some interreligious prayer meetings that may be perceived as a Mass on the same level as all religions, the issue of Pachamama, openings to civil unions, blessings for same-sex couples, and access to the Eucharist for some divorced and remarried persons are issues that raise deep concern and distance the faithful from the clarity of the Gospel.
Christ never said that all paths lead to the Father. The Apostles proclaimed: “There is salvation in no one else” (Acts 4, 12). The mission of the Church is not to adapt the Gospel to the spirit of the times, but to proclaim it in its entirety, even when it is difficult and goes against the current. The Church Fathers remind us that God’s mercy does not eliminate the need for conversion. Saint John Chrysostom taught that it is not enough to call oneself Christian, but one must live according to the Gospel and transform one’s life. Churches are emptying, many are abandoning the faith, sin is often relativized, confession is neglected, and conversion is weakened. All of this is also the result of a loss of clarity in the proclamation of the truth.
Saint Paul strongly warns: “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed!” (Gal 1, 8). “Enter by the narrow gate… for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life” (Mt 7, 13-14).
Cordileone at the Apostolic Signatura.
It is an appointment that has not gone unnoticed: «I am deeply grateful to the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, for appointing me a member of the Supreme Apostolic Signatura». “I assume this responsibility with a deep sense of stewardship, recognizing that every office in the Church is entrusted to the service of Christ, His people, and the mission of the Gospel”. “As we commemorate the 800th anniversary of the passing of our patron, Saint Francis of Assisi, I pray that his example of humble fidelity to Christ and joyful service to others may continue to guide my ministry.”
Pope Leo XIV also appointed to the Supreme Tribunal prelates such as Bishop Edward M. Lohse of Kalamazoo, Michigan; Bishop Krzysztof Nitkiewicz of Sandomierz, Poland; and Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, former secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts. The Pope also included in the group several academics: Father Eduardo Baura de la Peña, of Opus Dei, professor of Canon Law at the Santa Croce University in Rome; Father Gianpaolo Montini, professor emeritus of Canon Law at the Gregorian University in Rome; and Father Ulrich Rhode, SJ, also professor of Canon Law at the Gregorian University. Rhode is an alumnus of the Higher School of Philosophy and Theology of Saint George (Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt-Georgen) in Frankfurt, Germany, where the young Father Jorge Bergoglio briefly studied in 1986. Cordileone was appointed Archbishop of San Francisco exactly 14 years ago, on July 27, 2012, by Pope Benedict XVI. He recently requested easier access to the Traditional Latin Mass.
Why Covadonga?
In the Cathedral of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Around five hundred people posed naked in front of the Cathedral of Santa Ana in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, painted with the colors of the rainbow flag. This idea was taken by American photographer Spencer Tunick during the Culture & Business Pride festival. The fact that religious settings are frequently chosen for this type of performance is a matter of psychiatry. What is curious is that the Bishop of the Canary Islands, Monsignor José Mazuelos, who did not participate in the event, instead of condemning the incident and ordering the crowd dressed in rainbow colors to get dressed, described the maneuver as «marketing for the city». Photographer Tunick directed the performance from the roof of the bishop’s residence. The explanation was the usual one: «An image that aims to symbolize diversity, freedom, and the rights of LGTBIQA+ people».
The photograph was taken on the day dedicated to Saint Anne, with the cathedral full of the faithful for the liturgical celebrations in honor of the city’s patron saint. Precisely for this reason, many faithful were unable to attend Mass as usual, due to security measures for the photo session. The Bishop Mazuelos himself had to request police intervention to open an access corridor to the church. The local press reports that some dressed in rainbow colors entered the cathedral naked and painted. But “anything that serves as promotion for the city is good” seems to have been dressed: “Not only do I not oppose this artistic intervention, but I support it”. and as if that were not enough, the bishop continued with sublime arguments: “When we go to the beach, we see naked bodies, right?”. It is a pity that the cathedral square is not the beach.
More about deranged bishops.
A laywoman delivered a joint sermon during Mass in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising this week on the occasion of the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, it was her auxiliary bishop, Wolfgang Bischof, who together with Theresia Reischl, president of the Archdiocese’s Women’s Commission offered a joint homily. The Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments categorically rejected the German proposal and pointed out that the Church has repeatedly made this teaching clear. “The reservation of the homily to a priest or deacon is not a mere disciplinary norm, but derives from the very nature of the liturgy”. The homily is not only a public platform for delivering a speech of a spiritual nature, but is “an integral part of the Liturgy of the Word, intrinsically linked to the proclamation of the Gospel and constitutes an exercise of the munus docendi entrusted to ordained ministers through the Sacrament of Holy Orders”. You will see that in this case, as always happens with this type of abuse, the bishop is promoted and the salaried laywoman rewarded.
Tobin and just war.
Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, offered the faithful a reflection on the meaning of war in light of Catholic doctrine, reaffirming the Church’s radical preference for peace and urging the rejection of any form of glorification or idealization of armed conflict. The starting point of his message is a passage from the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council: “as long as man remains marked by sin, the threat of war will continue to hang over humanity; to the extent that sin is overcome through charity, violence can also be overcome”.
The cardinal defines it as “always an evil”, even when undertaken out of necessity, with the aim of defending human lives or restoring peace. He acknowledges that there may be circumstances in which military action is inevitable, but this recognition does not make war something to be welcomed or celebrated. Every conflict entails the devastation of human lives, especially of innocent people, and the destruction of homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, and places of worship. He also addresses the traditional Catholic doctrine of just war. Tobin considers it a useful tool for determining whether a military intervention can be morally justified, but only under strict and limited conditions. The sacrifice of soldiers and the populations involved must be distinguished from the violence inflicted during the conflict, which retains all its moral drama.
The message finally recalls the condemnation of the arms race by the Second Vatican Council. Gaudium et Spes defines it as one of the most serious scourges of humanity, emphasizing that its economic and social consequences fall primarily on the poor.
Are there any Catholic intellectuals left?
While Catholic intellectuals remain silent, it is secular voices, sometimes openly unbelieving, that keep open in public debate the questions that once were ours: God, evil, forgiveness, death, destiny. And this is not something recent. Much earlier, an unbeliever glimpsed the void that would later be called “secularization”: Pier Paolo Pasolini, who never believed and, precisely for that reason, wept—with prophetic clarity—the disappearance of the sacred from the world of the poor. As an unbelieving director, he created one of the most religious portraits of Christ ever conceived: The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (1964), dedicated “to the memory of John XXIII”. When faith falls silent, the questions that only it could raise remain latent beneath the ashes; and those who guard them are often those who do not share them.
It is no longer a matter of Catholic intellectuals opposed to secular intellectuals, but simply of intellectuals, guardians of what he rightly calls the “conscience of culture”. In the second century, the anonymous author of the Letter to Diognetus described Christians this way: they are not distinguished from others by territory, language, or customs; they inhabit all cities and are the soul of the world, just as the soul is in the body: omnipresent and invisible. When Christianity had a great cultural legacy, it did so in this context of widespread presence, not in that of a garrison.
Augustine did not write De civitate Dei as a partisan manifesto, but as a man who reflected on the collapse of Rome with greater depth than his contemporaries. Lupo reminds us that Montini listened to Maritain not because he was a Catholic philosopher, but because he was a true philosopher; and The Fifth Gospel by Pomilio is not a masterpiece, although it is Catholic or precisely because of that: it is a masterpiece, and faith works in it like yeast in the dough, invisible and omnipresent.
What exactly has been abandoned? Not in the newspapers, nor in the conferences, where, if anything, generically Catholic voices are magnified. Something primordial has been abandoned: interiority, which makes thought possible. John Henry Newman, a former Anglican and later a Catholic cardinal, expressed it with a striking formula: “Conscience has rights because it has duties”. Not the other way around. When rights are claimed without the duty that sustains them, it is no longer conscience that speaks, but arbitrariness that has usurped its name. We live in an age that has multiplied rights and lost the grammar of duties; perhaps the first cultural service of Christians is to remember, by living it, that conscience is not the place where claims are made, but the place that is not abandoned.
The Rotary and other Masonic clubs.
An interesting and lengthy article by Roberto Pecchioli analyzing the origins and role of Rotary and Lions Clubs International, the historical relationship between the Catholic Church and Freemasonry, the influence of economic and cultural powers in society, the crisis of Europe’s Christian roots, and the challenges the Church faces in its dialogue with the contemporary world. Our Christian roots are slowly fading, have we definitively lost the connection with our past, or is it still possible to recover it?
«The Christian religion was founded by Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. Therefore, it will not disappear. The Gospel itself recognized the danger of losing its roots: “When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). The Christian religion will not disappear, but I am convinced that it is destined to cease being “Roman”, that is, to no longer be rooted in a specific civilization, ours, which has ceased to influence. As Emmanuel Todd writes, we have moved from the “zombie stage” of Christianity, a phase in which people almost no longer believe but retain some traits of Christian civilization, to the “zero stage”, in which everything has dissolved—faith, doctrine, and the specific Christian worldview—in the corner of the world improperly called the West. Civilizations are born, live, and die. European Christian civilization is in its death throes. I do not believe it will survive, except in small groups, pockets of resistance. As Alasdair MacIntyre wrote, we need a new Saint Benedict, but the barbarian enemy is not at the gates; it has already invaded the city».
What are the historical origins of Rotary and Lions? What were their purposes and how have they evolved over time? Some argue that these service clubs may have links to Masonic circles or represent a gateway to other associative networks. What historical evidence supports this theory and what are the differences between these organizations?
«Rotary International is an international service club founded in the United States in 1905. Its members, the Rotarians, number nearly one and a half million worldwide. Its official purpose is «service above self-interest», as its motto indicates. It brings together members of the professional, academic, and business elite. Over time, it has imitated similar associations, also self-described as «service», such as Soroptimist—a women’s club—and the Lions Club, founded in 1917 by American Freemason Melvin Jones. The name Rotary Club derives from the Lombard king Rotari, who in the seventh century granted architects known as Maestri Comacini the status of free men, with the right to travel and work anywhere without hindrance. They have a rule that states that » no club shall have as its objective the economic enrichment of its members», and while the charitable work of both associations is genuine, the reality is that they are primarily places of meeting, exchange of favors, forging relationships, and creating networks of friendship that are rarely disinterested. One enters certain environments partly out of vanity, partly to boast of one’s own success, and above all to forge useful relationships in professions, business, and political action».
«The proximity between Freemasonry, Rotary, and the Lions is not an absurd idea, if the Masons were the founders of these organizations, if the network is international and hierarchical, with its epicenter in the U.S. (instead of England as in the case of Freemasonry), and if they share ideals or tendencies. Internationalism, secularism, and so-called philanthropic activity, a typically Masonic term. Friends of humanity, but with the aim of guiding it and reinforcing their dominion beyond time and space. The differences are evident: the «service clubs» are primarily spaces where charitable activities are carried out, people gather and «recognize» each other. Freemasonry is pure and anti-Christian power, whose aim is to establish a new order out of the chaos it sows. «Ordo ab chao» is one of the mottos of so-called Freemasonry».
Are there documents proving a structural link between Rotary, Lions, and Freemasonry, or is it mainly interpretations based on shared associations, organizational or cultural similarities? What has been the historical relationship between the Catholic Church and Freemasonry? Why has the Church expressed reservations about Catholic membership in Masonic organizations? How has the Catholic world perceived the presence of secular and philanthropic associations such as Rotary and Lions?
«I do not think the links are structural. Undoubtedly, many Masons are also Rotarians or Lions. I believe there is a proximity whereby one joins—co-opted—the Rotary or Lions clubs, and from there some consider joining lodges. The Catholic Church understood, as early as 1717—the year of the founding of Freemasonry—the magnitude of the attack launched against it by an association that rejected the Church but not yet organized religion, which believed (still) in a distant God, the Great Architect, indifferent to the fate of humanity and creation. Under the pretext of free thought, it questioned all the ethical, spiritual, dogmatic, and doctrinal presuppositions of Christianity, particularly Catholic and Orthodox Christianity. Belonging to both Freemasonry and the Church has been prohibited since 1738 by decree of Pope Clement XII, reaffirmed several times and confirmed by canon law. For Catholics, any good work remains good regardless of who performs it, but secularism—the rejection of transcendence, which implies that one can do good but not because one sees the face of God in others—is an insurmountable barrier. Of course, there are many Catholics in Rotary, and even more in Lions. They are attracted by the idea of service, but even more by the possibility of accessing circles of power».
«Anyone who acts outside—in reality against—the Christian world and the Church must always be viewed with the utmost caution. The prohibition of Freemasonry remains just and understandable. Freemasonry is perhaps the most important of the reserved—though no longer hidden—powers that hold the common destiny in their hands, beyond democratic and liberal discourse. It is not the only one: think of the Bilderberg Club, the Round Table, and other closed and oligarchic circles, where matters of utmost importance are decided outside institutional channels and without the knowledge of the people. The French and American revolutions were carried out by Masons, just as nineteenth-century nationalism is largely Masonic. The Italian Risorgimento was also Masonic, carried out against the Church and without the people. A long-term project to revolutionize our civilization, control it, and subject it to Masonic values—or anti-values. Exercising influence is a completely legitimate operation: it means appearing openly, spreading ideas, visions, and projects. If influence becomes organized power, exercised in secret, choosing the ruling classes by loyalty to the project and the lodge—or other oligarchic groups—we enter the terrain of enmity. Inimica vis, enemy force, is (was?) one of the Church’s judgments on Freemasonry».
Dechristianization is a fact. It began with the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century and continued with the progressive marginalization of religion of liberal origin—a private matter without consequences or public interest—and of Marxist origin (total materialism and declared atheism), leading to the current phase of indifference and denial of the natural law established by God and inscribed in the heart of man. Proof of this is legislation that first legalized divorce (immediately accepted without question in Protestant circles), then abortion, and today even marriage and homosexual sexuality, leading to a drift toward euthanasia, a dramatic denial of the right to life. Another phenomenon is the abandonment of marriage, even civil marriage, in favor of cohabitation, the trivialization of sexuality, the sexualization of children, and practical materialism in all aspects of existence. Ours is a soft civilization, devoid of shared values beyond generic appeals to tolerance and equality».
«Pluralism is a misleading term. It is correct to recognize the diversity of experiences and values, accepting their public relevance. Pluralism, like all «isms», implies idolizing different ideas and visions, equating them to the point of homogenization. Ethical relativism, denounced by Pope Ratzinger, becomes nihilism, that is, believing in nothing. Without common symbols—among them, of course, the cross and other external expressions of Christianity—means denying history and breaking with what we were and are. This is how civilizations die by suicide».
«We have described the pressures. Immense, pressing, and long-term. But it is as if the Church, since the 1960s, and particularly after the Second Vatican Council, had lost its voice and become just another voice in the worldly choir. There is talk of Masonic prelates and cardinals. The crisis is, above all, one of faith. It is as if God had died, as Nietzsche said, even in the hearts of the clergy. Without God and without Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, Christianity is a philosophy like any other, more difficult to spread because it is more demanding. Then there are the scandals: those of a sexual nature and those related to the economic, political, and financial role of the Vatican. It is difficult to speak of the Christian message. But it always has been, and in any case, it is impossible if one no longer believes in it or is afraid to confront the world. An old song used to say: whoever believes more, whoever suffers more, always wins. We will probably have to start from the catacombs».
«The sociological Church serves no one, least of all God. It may maintain some vested interests, defend a few second-rate positions, but it does not transmit the deposit of faith and does not convince anyone. Dialogue cannot exist unless it starts from clear positions. The Church spends its time apologizing, asking for forgiveness, and being ashamed of what it has been. Why should we believe it today if it has been wrong for centuries?». Martini and, more recently, Ravasi have engaged in dialogue with the secular world and with Freemasonry as if they were defeated, as if they should be ashamed of being cardinals and Catholics. Beyond pompous titles like The Courtyard of the Gentiles, there is no evidence that they have converted their «Masonic brothers». Society is no longer free; it has lost values, principles, and pillars. Is that freedom? The new evangelization is indispensable in the metropolitan desert. Before, it was called apostolate; the chemist Bergoglio dismissed it with barely disguised disdain, as if it were banal propaganda, doomed to failure, because the world offers more.
The speech by Marco Rubio.
We have the full opening speech by Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, at the ministerial meeting on the resurgence of political terrorism at the United States Department of State on July 16, 2026, which we have already mentioned.
Marco Rubio recalled the assassination of Charles James Kirk: » the assassination of the greatest conservative activist of a generation, a man who was also a husband and father of two young children, shot dead while speaking before a crowd of students «. «This is a distinctive and unique evil. It has always been fueled by a hatred that prevails over everything else, a hatred of civilization itself. It is a revolt of the worst against the best, a revolt of the weak and cowardly against the strong and good. It is perpetrated by those who are incapable of building, who are incapable of creating, who are incapable of achieving great things, and who take revenge on the world for their own inadequacy by seeking to destroy those who are».
« One of the criticisms sometimes heard about communism, for example, is that it sounds good in theory, but never works in practice. In reality, that is not true. Communism does not sound good in theory. The world it imagines for all of us is small, flat, gray, devoid of all exception, empty of all that is good and noble in the human soul. The world it imagines is a world without courage, a world without creativity or ambition, a world without heroes, without glory or great causes to fight for, without… a world without miracles, without myths, without men who rise above others to achieve incredible and extraordinary things. And the world that communism imagines is a world without God ».
«…he will send his angels and they will remove from his Kingdom all who cause scandal and do evil…»
Good reading.