July is drawing to a close, and it is already the 26th, with no sign of the heat abating. We are experiencing a summer that, as expected, is particularly intense. We are approaching the end of the first full year of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate; what remained of 2025 was the conclusion of the Holy Year, and a certain delay was understandable, but that is no longer the case. Decisions are piling up and cannot wait much longer. We will be here to report on them.
Youth Day in Portugal.
Video message from Leo XIV on the occasion of the Second “Rejoice” Meeting – National Youth Day in Lamego, Portugal. The Pontiff recalled the World Youth Day held three years ago: “I was glad to learn that you are trying to keep the flame of World Youth Day 2023 alive. They were splendid and joyful days, thanks to the harmony among all; to the harmony among different languages and cultures; but above all, to the intense encounter with the Lord Jesus and the experience of the wonders that the living Christ works when we gather in his name.” “It is good to see that you hunger for justice and charity, and that you are not content with fleeting values. Do not fear the restlessness that dwells within you! Harness your drive to draw ever closer to Christ and to bear witness to the values of the Gospel. Firmly rooted in the Word of Jesus , reading the Gospel each day, do not cease to dream of a land of peace and fraternity, nor to contemplate the world with wonder, nor to face the future with the light of hope. Dear young people, do not let anything or anyone rob you of hope.” The Pope invites them to World Youth Day in Seoul in 2027: “It is always special to be with young people, because the enthusiasm of their faith is contagious.”
The apostolic mandate.
Another schism has now materialized, less resounding than that of the Fraternity, smaller in scale, but still a schism, so far without any reaction from the Holy See. A group of sedevacantist monks in Scotland carried out the illicit consecration of a “bishop” on July 25, despite repeated warnings that doing so would constitute a schismatic act and a rupture with the Catholic Church. The Transalpine Redemptorists, also known as the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, broadcast the ceremony live from their monastery in Papa Stronsay, Scotland. The Bishop of Aberdeen, Msgr. Hugh Gilbert, had warned in a pastoral letter published on July 18 that the consecration would constitute an “act of schism” that would “place outside the Catholic Church those who take part in it.” The ceremony was presided over by Bishops Rodrigo Ribeiro da Silva, Fernando Altamira, and Pierre Roy. The consecration was conferred on Fr. Michael Mary, a priest of the order and rector of the community. At the beginning of 2026, the Transalpine Redemptorists publicly denied the legitimacy of the current papacy.
In May they published a sedevacantist declaration stating that they would grant “no juridical recognition” to Pope Leo XIV or to the other pontiffs who, they claim, “have departed” from the faith since the Second Vatican Council. In August 2025, the Vatican authorized the Diocese of Christchurch to prohibit the order from exercising public ministry in that diocese, amid accusations of performing exorcisms without authorization. The bishop withdrew the ministerial faculties of the community members and also asked them to “leave the Diocese of Christchurch.”
The schism becomes visible in the inevitable question of the ritual. Bishop Pierre Roy asks the co-consecrator, Bishop Rodrigo da Silva: “Do you have an apostolic mandate?” The bishop replies: “THE SEAT OF THE BLESSED APOSTLE PETER IS VACANT.” With this response, it is affirmed that there is no reigning Pope from whom an apostolic mandate can emanate. Therefore, the consecration is truly carried out in a genuine state of necessity, and not in disobedience to an existing papal authority. The Society of Saint Pius X prefers to justify its consecrations as acts of disobedience to a “Pope” whom it claims to recognize as legitimate, while maintaining that they can still be members of the Mystical Body of Christ.
‘The Shepherd and the Wolves’
‘The Shepherd and the Wolves’ (Planeta), the new book the Peruvian writer presents this week at the Lima Book Fair (FIL) and which is already on sale in Peru, reviews the pope’s career, especially how he addressed the sexual, psychological, and economic abuses committed by the dissolved Sodalitium of Christian Life (SVC) in Peru. In The Shepherd and the Wolves, Santiago Roncagliolo has traced Prevost’s footprint: “(In Peru) Prevost had been able to handle all these issues, but he did so without creating a war. This is what ultimately led Francis to bring him to the Vatican and promote him as a possible perfect successor.”
The author’s family was sympathetic to the theological and political movement of Liberation Theology, which shaped part of Roncagliolo’s childhood and marked a common point with Prevost, who believes in a Church close to the poor. “There was something I could tell, not only about who the pope is, but about how God is understood in a part of the world and how Latin America is understood.” Roncagliolo embarked on a publication filled with interviews with priests, journalists, and theologians to get to know the “Peruvian pope” and understand how he reached the Vatican.
He maintains that in the process of writing the book he has found the best and worst of the Church, for he has delved into the abuses committed by the Sodalitium against children and poor communities, but he has also discovered people willing to leave everything to serve others. “For me this is a book about good and evil, because the people I have seen in the investigation are the best and the worst of human beings, and they are in conflict within the Church just as they are in the world.”
Appointments to the Apostolic Signatura.
Pope Leo appointed seven new members of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest jurisdictional body of the Catholic Church. They are Archbishops Salvatore Joseph Cordileone (San Francisco) and Krzysztof Nitkiewicz, Bishop of Sandomierz in Poland; canonist Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru, former secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts; American Bishop Edward M. Lohse, titular Bishop of Kalamazoo; and Fathers Eduardo Baura de la Peña and Gianpaolo Montini , both professors of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and the Pontifical Gregorian University, respectively. Joining them is Ulrich Rhode, Sr., a Jesuit, professor of Canon Law at the Collegium Maximum of the Gregorian University.
The Signatura resolves conflicts of jurisdiction between tribunals and settles administrative disputes against acts of curial dicasteries. It is currently presided over by Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, prefect since 2014. Among the new members, the name of Father Gianpaolo Montini stands out, a canonist of recognized trajectory and professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University. During the pontificate of Francis, Montini faced strong hostility in circles close to the Pope, particularly due to his harsh criticism of the reform of the canonical matrimonial process. Pope Francis even considered his removal from Rome, a proposal opposed by the Jesuits, who defended the academic merit of the professor and the role he plays within the university.
On the situation in Germany: “they avoid declaring those bishops heretical. Various explanations are offered and it is maintained that everything is merely a matter of adaptation or modernization. But, if examined more deeply, a genuine contradiction is discovered. What they are doing in Germany constitutes an abuse of the concept of ‘development of dogma.’ The development of dogma does not mean changing its substance.” “Doctrine is founded on the self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ. He is the Truth in person. In Germany there is also the Central Committee of German Catholics, a group of ideologues; perhaps not all its members, but certainly those who lead it. They intend to create another Church according to their own ideas, inspired by woke ideology and feminism. They want women priests, but not because they are concerned about the proclamation of the Gospel or because they have a particular ecclesial vision. They are not interested in the mission of the Church. What they desire is to occupy a position of personal prestige and satisfy their desire to be in the forefront. It is something absurd.”
The schism and the Rupnik case.
This afternoon at 9 p.m. European time, Luigi Casalini, editor of the blog Messainlatino.it analyzes two of the events generating the greatest debate in the Catholic world. The new episcopal consecrations of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, celebrated on July 1, 2026, without a pontifical mandate. The motivations of the Society, the position of the Holy See, and the canonical, theological, and ecclesial consequences of a decision that will undoubtedly mark relations with Rome.
The case of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, Slovenian priest and artist responsible for the famous mosaics of numerous churches and shrines around the world, is now at the center of a canonical process following accusations of alleged spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse. The implications of this case for the Church, for the victims, and on the delicate relationship between artistic value, personal responsibility, and justice.
The ‘atomic’ excommunication.
It is an article by Father Paul Robinson, FSSPX. «This decree is, in a way, like an atomic bomb, because it specifies that the excommunication affects not only the consecrating bishops and the consecrated bishops, as canon law establishes, but, more generally, any person associated with the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, whether priests, seminarians, brothers, religious, or even you, the faithful.» «These measures are extremely severe on the part of the Vatican. And this becomes even more evident considering the current situation of the Church. Let us be honest: within the Church there are heresies of every kind, scandals of every sort; many actions contrary to the faith can be committed without any censure. Mass can be celebrated in a profoundly scandalous manner. The Catholic faith can be publicly denied. Approval can be expressed for homosexual unions, divorce, and other forms of immorality. However, none of these attacks on the faith justifies excommunication.» «Mass excommunications are extremely rare in the history of the Church. It is exceptional for a pope to excommunicate an entire group of people, in our case hundreds of thousands (…) we come to the conclusion that in Rome there exists a kind of syndrome of hostility toward Tradition.»
«The important thing is that we will continue to exist. We will not disappear. By consecrating these bishops, we have guaranteed our future, which is why Rome seems deeply irritated and is trying to impose sanctions of a severity totally disproportionate. It is sad because the Pope is our father and we see him as such. In every family, when a son is mistreated by his father, even when he does something good, something for the good of the family, and the father reacts with punishment and severity, it is a painful situation.
«Can an excommunication be unjust? Naturally, we do not consider this excommunication valid. It is one thing to affirm that an excommunication has been pronounced; it is quite another to know whether it is real or not. (…) What is certain is that the Vatican’s strategy consists in using force and fear against the faithful to prevent us from being traditional Catholics and continuing to do what we have been doing for the last sixty years.» «The storm will pass. I think the consecration ceremony was a magnificent symbol for all of us. (…) Immediately after the episcopal consecrations, the storm arrived: the storm of Roman sanctions. And what must we do? We must remain calm, pray to the Virgin Mary, stay close to her, and have the certainty that the storm will pass.
The disasters of the ‘Church going forth.’
Nothing can justify a schism, but we know that there are many things that explain it. Today everything is known and all kinds of liturgical barbarities circulate through digital media. The first video shows Bishop Trinidad Antonio Márquez Guerrero, appointed auxiliary bishop of San Juan de los Lagos, jumping and dancing while wearing his mitre and liturgical vestments during a youth event held in a bullring in Yahualica. The bishop does not fear making a fool of himself by devaluing his function and his sacred vestments, with all that they signify. The second video shows the pagan dance celebrated in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. The diocesan newspaper described the artists as “interpreters of the history of Our Lady of Guadalupe” and praised the work for “its ability to fuse the Catholic faith with Mexican indigenous culture.”
Homage by the Archdiocese of Munich to Saint Mary Magdalene. A woman dressed in red performed a “liturgical dance” and another, wearing a stole, delivered a homily in dialogue form alongside Auxiliary Bishop Wolfgang Bischof, who remained beside the altar throughout the Eucharistic celebration. Red balloons were used during the Mass. Attended by four hundred women from throughout the diocese. The Mass marked the culmination of the Year of Mary Magdalene, an initiative of women’s associations, the Women’s Commission, the Women’s Forum, and the Office of Women’s Pastoral Care of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis’s declaration equating Mary Magdalene with the apostles.
The nuncios and the masters of ceremonies.
In recent times, on the occasion of the canonical installation in a diocese, it has become increasingly common for the Apostolic Nuncio to preside over the celebration for the installation of the new bishop. This occurs especially in those countries where the papal representative particularly enjoys ostentation, but the custom has spread almost by inertia, probably fostered by a distorted conception. We are witnessing a necessary redefinition of the role of nuncios; their historical function is no longer necessary in many respects today, distances and relations have changed, and their role in the selection of bishops is more than questioned.
Another phenomenon is spreading, not marginal, and we see the appointment of problematic individuals as episcopal masters of ceremonies, priests who have already generated various problems in diocesan life. Instead of intervening seriously in their human and spiritual formation, bishops prefer to indulge them and entrust them with the role of masters of ceremonies , thus opting for the most effective way to stir up divisions within the diocese.
When a talkative, meddlesome, and perhaps even overly indulgent priest assumes the role of master of ceremonies , he not only distorts a role that should be reserved for those who, in the presbyterate, know how to go unnoticed rather than cause annoyance, but he also ends up creating divisions within the clergy, whose members will tend to participate as little as possible in liturgical celebrations rather than having to deal with problematic individuals. The discreet and wise masters of ceremonies are disappearing, and today imitators without foundation abound, whether progressive or reactionary. It is one more sign of the desacralization of celebrations, which are increasingly an empty spectacle in which prayer is lacking and entertainment abounds.
Homilies and artificial intelligence.
This is moving very quickly; the technology exists and it is only a matter of time, very little time, before it becomes part of our lives. We frequently see comments such as: “The priest was well prepared. He read his homily. It was well structured and contained accurate information. But I had the impression that it had been generated by artificial intelligence.” It is enough to test any topic and within a minute, we have a precise report.
The question is: Can an AI-generated homily not be as valid and precise as one prepared by other means?. Pope Leo XIII does not think so. And not only in his recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. At the beginning of Lent this year, meeting with the priests of the Diocese of Rome, he exhorted them to resist the temptation to prepare homilies with the help of artificial intelligence. A true homily consists in sharing the faith, and artificial intelligence is incapable of doing so.
Communicating the Gospel, ultimately, is not simply transmitting information, however important that may be. It is, above all, the communication of a Person: Jesus Christ. Moreover, it is a personal process that goes from the believer who proclaims to the believer who receives. It is, in the end, an encounter between persons. Saint Thomas Aquinas used an expression that later became the motto of the Dominican Order and which the Second Vatican Council also took up to describe preaching: contemplata aliis tradere, that is, “to hand on to others what we ourselves have contemplated.” This is a profoundly personal process. We find an echo of the same dynamic in the words of Saint Paul to the Christians of Corinth, speaking both of the Eucharist (1 Cor 11:23) and of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:3): “I handed on to you what I also received.”
The same dynamism of contemplata aliis tradere also animates the beginning of the First Letter of John: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the Word of life… what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1-3). These words clearly show the transition from personal experience, lived in all its richness, to proclamation.
The preaching of a priest to his people is a true act of intimacy. When we preach, we open ourselves to others and reveal something of our deepest life. The faithful may not be able to describe explicitly the inner world of their priests; nevertheless, at least intuitively, they understand whether we really believe what we say, whether the Gospel truly sets our hearts on fire or not. This is the meaning of affirming that preaching, the proclamation of the Word, is an act of intimacy.
Intimacy spontaneously evokes something private, silent, hidden from public scrutiny. Yet in the proclamation of the Gospel the opposite occurs. The Word of God is destined to reach the whole world. Therefore, paradoxically, its proclamation is at once profoundly intimate and fully public, to the greatest possible extent. Proclaiming the Word involves living this paradox. And it is a paradox that artificial intelligence cannot sustain. No artificial intelligence can ever replace a heart transformed by grace in the act of proclaiming the Gospel.
Brazilian youth.
National survey presented to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of Brazil (CNBB). It received responses from more than 11,000 Catholics between the ages of twelve and twenty-nine throughout Brazil. An online voluntary questionnaire was used instead of a representative random sample. According to the partial results, holiness and the Christian faith were the topics of interest most cited by respondents. Many also expressed their desire for more solid formation in Catholic doctrine, greater emphasis on Sacred Scripture and the Eucharist, as well as a well-celebrated liturgy. When asked what hinders participation in the life of the Church, respondents most frequently cited lack of attention to the liturgy and excessive emphasis on socio-political issues.
Patrícia Espíndola de Lima Teixeira, of the Youth Observatory of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, who coordinated the research, stated that “they do not surprise those who work directly with young people.” “We have a generation exposed to an enormous amount of superficial content, and this is precisely the hypothesis that explains why so many young people demonstrate a thirst for deeper relationships that nourish the faith and a sense of purpose in life.” “What we are conducting is a study free of prejudice, which revealed a pastoral tension that needs to be welcomed and reflected upon with maturity and balance. I think the Church is living precisely this kind of vocation: overcoming polarization and experiencing unity even in our differences, in the spirit of Pentecost. I like to recall the Pauline image of the body and its many members (1 Cor 12:12-27): the Church is one body, but possesses a genuine plurality of gifts, sensibilities, and experiences of life, and this diversity must be lived in communion. This is a theme that deserves continuous and deep exploration, not only with young people, but with everyone.”
“The objective of the research was to listen to the young people and understand their experience of faith. The data revealed that many express a strong desire to deepen their spiritual life. There is considerable interest in topics such as holiness, the Word of God, the Eucharist, Christian formation, and a well-celebrated liturgy. More than labels, young people yearn for authenticity. They hope to find a Church that clearly proclaims Jesus Christ, offers formation, promotes an authentic encounter with God, and helps them live their faith in today’s world.”
Have you understood all this?
Enjoy your reading.