Eminent Scholar Calls Out the Pope for Being a Political Pawn

Well, duh! He's a Chicago Demoncrat.

A respected Italian scholar of EU and international law is calling out Pope Leo XIV for being a pawn of political elites.

What Was an Erdstall? The Hidden Tunnels Medieval Peasants Dug Under Their Own Homes

From Medieval Way

Medieval Way investigates the mysterious 'Erdstall' tunnels found across Europe. Despite meticulous 3D mapping and carbon dating, the exact purpose of these hand-carved, narrow subterranean passages remains an enigma. Experts and explorers examine various theories, ranging from defensive refuges to spiritual soul houses, to understand why these structures were built and subsequently concealed.

On a summer morning in the hills outside Glonn, southeast of Munich, a dairy farmer named Beate Greithanner was walking her cattle across a meadow her family had crossed for generations. One of her cows stepped forward, and the ground swallowed it to the hips. The earth had simply opened. Beneath the grass, running under her own land, was a labyrinth of hand-carved passages that nobody alive had known was there. It runs at least eighty feet. It is most likely a thousand years old. And it is one of roughly two thousand of these tunnels hidden under the farms, fields, churches, and forests of Central Europe.

Around seven hundred of them sit beneath Bavaria. Another five hundred beneath Austria. The rest are scattered through the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, and as far as the British Isles. The people who dug them left almost nothing behind. No blueprints, no letters, nothing written down to explain the work. They carved the walls smooth, threaded the passages with holes so tight a grown man can barely force his shoulders through, sealed each system behind a single concealed entrance, and then walked away. Why would anyone do that?

Traditional Catholic Morning Prayers in English | July

Traditional Catholic morning prayers to help start your day in a godly way! The month of July is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. May our devotion to the salvific action of the Precious Blood of Christ increase more fervently this month. We've included the Memorare of the Sacred Heart and litany of the Sacred Heart. Begin your July with daily morning prayer. This video is a compilation of many traditional morning prayers Catholics say, and should not be considered a replacement for those who have an obligation to pray the Divine Office morning prayers.

The Secret Rituals Christ Performed on the Cross

From Totus Catholica

Most people hear the seven last words of Jesus and hear only seven separate cries of agony, pain, then silence. But an honest question has haunted careful readers for centuries. Were those seven last words random, or were they a deliberate sacred act, the most important blessing ever spoken over the human race? In ancient Israel the blessing of God flowed through the priests of Aaron's line, and one man stood above them all, the high priest who alone could pass behind the veil to make atonement for the nation. That is the key that unlocks Calvary. The Old Testament priest offered the sacrifice, then raised his hands and pronounced peace, shalom, meaning wholeness and everything set right. Jesus is not a priest after Aaron but a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and on the cross, he is priest, altar, and victim at once. The crucifixion was not only something that happened to him. It was something he did, a priestly offering. And that same offering reaches you at the altar of every Mass, in the raised hands that bless you, and in the suffering you can now offer instead of merely endure. In this video: • Why the seven last words are the high priest at work, not just a dying man's cries • How Aaron's blessing in Numbers 6 is fulfilled on the cross • Why Jesus is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek • How each of the seven words shows a priest forgiving, pardoning, and providing • Why every Mass ends with the very gesture Christ carried into heaven ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 Seven Cries of Agony or One Sacred Blessing 1:19 Did the Crucifixion Happen to Jesus or Did He Do It 3:23 A Priest Forever After the Order of Melchizedek 4:49 The Seven Last Words as the Priest at Work 6:16 It Is Finished: Tetelestai and the Completed Offering 7:03 Why the Mass Matters: Aaron's Gesture Fulfilled 9:32 Three Things to Do This Week 📖 SCRIPTURE REFERENCED • Numbers 6:24-26: the priestly blessing, the Lord bless you and keep you and give you peace; the Hebrew barak shares a root with the word for knee. • Leviticus 9: Aaron offers the sacrifice, then lifts his hands and blesses the people; sacrifice first, then raised hands, then blessing. • Genesis 14: Melchizedek, the mysterious priest king, appears before Aaron's line. • Hebrews 7: Christ holds his priesthood permanently because he lives forever, a priest after the order of Melchizedek. • 2 Corinthians 4: the light of God's glory shining in the face of Christ, the priest's prayer for a shining face now made a person. • Luke 23:34: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, the priest's work of intercession. • Luke 23:43: today you will be with me in paradise, mercy to the dying thief. • John 19:26-27: woman, behold your son, the priest providing for those entrusted to him. • Psalm 22:1: my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, a psalm that begins in anguish and ends in victory. • John 19:28: I thirst, echoing Psalm 22 and the drink offering poured out beside the altar. • John 19:30: it is finished, tetelestai, meaning accomplished and brought to its goal. • Luke 23:46: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, the offering given entirely to the Father. • Luke 24:50,51: the risen Christ lifts up his hands and blesses his disciples, Aaron's gesture made eternal. ⛪ FROM THE CHURCH FATHERS & THE CATECHISM • St. Augustine (5th century), City of God: Christ is at once the priest who offers and the sacrifice that is offered, which no priest of Aaron could ever be. • CCC 1544: everything in the priesthood of the old covenant finds its fulfilment in Christ, the one mediator. 📜 SOURCES & FURTHER READING • The Dead Sea Scrolls, 11Q Melchizedek: Melchizedek appears as a heavenly deliverer who proclaims liberty to captives and makes atonement at the end of days, showing the longing for such a priest centuries before Calvary. • The Hebrew word, shalom, meaning wholeness and completeness, and barak, to bless. 🔗 EXPLORE MORE 🌍 Website: https://totuscatholica.org/ Rosary Guide: https://totuscatholica.org/rosary ✉️ Contact: https://totuscatholica.org/contact 🔍 Examination of Conscience: https://catholicexaminationofconscien... 📚 Free eBooks: https://buymeacoffee.com/totuscatholi... 👥 Become a Totus Insider: https://buymeacoffee.com/totuscatholi...

He Was an Opium Addict Who Couldn’t Receive the Sacraments. But He’s a Martyr and a Saint

His Feast is on Thursday. Let us pray that, like him, we may have the gift of final perseverance and, unlike him, receive the Last Sacraments before death.

From Aleteia

By Meg Hunter-Kilmer

St. Mark Ji Tianxiang couldn’t stay sober, but he could keep showing up.

St. Mark Ji Tianxiang was an opium addict. Not had been an opium addict. He was an opium addict at the time of his death.

For years, Ji was a respectable Christian, raised in a Christian family in 19th-century China. He was a leader in the Christian community, a well-off doctor who served the poor for free. But he became ill with a violent stomach ailment and treated himself with opium. It was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but Ji soon became addicted to the drug, an addiction that was considered shameful and gravely scandalous.

As his circumstances deteriorated, Ji continued to fight his addiction. He went frequently to confession, refusing to embrace this affliction that had taken control of him. Unfortunately, the priest to whom he confessed (along with nearly everybody in the 19th century) didn’t understand addiction as a disease. Since Ji kept confessing the same sin, the priest thought, that was evidence that he had no firm purpose of amendment, no desire to do better.

Without resolve to repent and sin no more, confession is invalid. After a few years, Ji’s confessor told him to stop coming back until he could fulfill the requirements for confession. For some, this might have been an invitation to leave the Church in anger or shame, but for all his fallenness, Ji knew himself to be loved by the Father and by the Church. He knew that the Lord wanted his heart, even if he couldn’t manage to give over his life. He couldn’t stay sober, but he could keep showing up.

And show up he did, for 30 years. For 30 years, he was unable to receive the sacraments. And for 30 years he prayed that he would die a martyr. It seemed to Ji that the only way he could be saved was through a martyr’s crown.

In 1900, when the Boxer Rebels began to turn against foreigners and Christians, Ji got his chance. He was rounded up with dozens of other Christians, including his son, six grandchilden, and two daughters-in-law. Many of those imprisoned with him were likely disgusted by his presence there among them, this man who couldn’t go a day without a hit. Surely he would be the first to deny the Lord.

But while Ji was never able to beat his addiction, he was, in the end, flooded with the grace of final perseverance. No threat could shake him, no torture make him waver. He was determined to follow the Lord, who had never abandoned him.

As Ji and his family were dragged to prison to await their execution, his grandson looked fearfully at him. “Grandpa, where are we going?” he asked. “We’re going home,” came the answer.

Ji begged his captors to kill him last so that none of his family would have to die alone. He stood beside all nine of them as they were beheaded. In the end, he went to his death singing the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And though he had been away from the sacraments for decades, he is a canonized saint.

St. Mark Ji Tianxiang is a beautiful witness to the grace of God constantly at work in the most hidden ways, to God’s ability to make great saints of the most unlikely among us, and to the grace poured out on those who remain faithful when it seems even the Church herself is driving them away.

On July 9, the feast of St. Mark Ji Tianxiang, let’s ask his intercession for all addicts and for all those who are unable to receive the sacraments, that they may have the courage to be faithful to the Church and that they may always grow in their love for and trust in the Lord. St. Mark Ji Tianxiang, pray for us!

When Rome Fought Back: 8 Modernists Censured by Benedict XVI

From Purely Catholic

How come it seems that only traditionalists get punished by the Vatican? Is it because modernists are just super obedient? Spoiler alert: they’re not. There’s been a concerted efforts over the last decade to crack down on radical traditionalists, while radical modernists only get a slap on the wrist. But it used to not be this way. Pope Benedict XVI regularly excommunicated and censured progressive prelates who took things too far. Let’s take a look at 8 of these instances from his pontificate.

An Important Day For Me

Today is the 81st anniversary of my parents' marriage. Dad (Perry Weismiller) was born on 11 February 1910 in Marysville, KS, and Mum (Doreen Louise Oxley) on 27 December 1923 in Horndean, Hants. They met when Dad was stationed as a PFC in Hq&Hq Sqdn, 8^th USAAF, in High Wycombe, Bucks, and Mum was working in a war plant near there.

They were married in All Saints' Church, Catherington, Hants, on 7 July 1945. I was almost a second-anniversary present!

Here is the Church where they were married, as it looks today.

And here is their wedding picture, taken in front of the church door. Immediately to the left of the bride is my Gran, Olive Elsie Victoria Brown Oxley, and to her left is my Auntie, Hazel Oxley Sluggett. The flower girl in front of Auntie Hazel is my cousin, Doreen Sluggett Kizer. To my Dad's extreme right is my Uncle, Albert Henry Oxley. I have no idea who the rest of the people are, though I'm sure Mum told me when I was a lad.

Dad died on 10 August 1952 in Marysville, KS. Mum passed on 27 November 2001 in Wichita, KS.

Please pray for the repose of their souls. Rest in peace, Mum and Dad. You are gone, but never forgotten.

Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine; et lux perpétua lúceat eis. Requiéscant in pace. Amen.

Memory Eternal!

On the Third Part of the Secret of Fátima: Introduction to Recent Scholarship

The Third Part of the Secret of Fátima is only controversial because the Vatican refuses to release it. Instead, they lie about having done so!

From One Peter Five

By Kevin J. Symonds, MA(Theol)

This vow is a little-known fact in her biography.

Part I: Summary of Biographical Details and Documentation

The third part of the Secret of Fátima has been one of the most controversial aspects of the message of Our Lady at Fátima. This controversy has been largely due to a shroud of mystery and intrigue that grew up around the text. I’d like to dive into and demystify some of this history so as to arrive at a surer grasp of the facts and better understand Our Lady’s message.

The mystery and intrigue surrounding the third part is rooted in human nature. The first line of Aristotle’s Metaphysics explains it well: “All men by nature desire to know.”[1] When the Secret was communicated to the three children (Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta) on July 13, 1917, the children did not hide the fact that there was something Our Lady had told them.  It was impossible to hide because the vision of hell had frightened Lúcia so much that she had a visible reaction about which onlookers later asked her.[2] From this event, word had spread of the Secret and even the local administrator, Arturo dos Santos, made it a part of his interrogation of the children in August of 1917.[3]

Having been bound to silence on the Secret by Our Lady, the children maintained that silence (even against the threat of bodily harm). They talked about it amongst themselves when they were in private, but that was it. After the deaths of Francisco and Jacinta in 1919 and 1920 respectively, Lúcia remained to make Jesus and Mary more well-known and loved. She did this first as a Dorothean sister from 1925-1948 and then as a Carmelite nun from 1948 to her death in 2005.

Lúcia had the supernatural experiences of her childhood at the foundation of her formation. They did not make her a saint. As a nun, she was now learning the vow of obedience and how to practice it. This vow was emphasized by a personal vow of perfection she also made, but which is a little-known fact in her biography.[4] Having thus bound herself to perfection (and thus obedience) in a strict fashion, Lúcia practiced it very notably and this practice has an effect upon the writing down of the Secret, especially the third part.

Lúcia had been commanded by the Bishop of Leiria (Fátima), José da Silva, to write down her memories of Jacinta and Francisco. From this order arose what are arguably the most famous of Lúcia’s writings, her I-IV Memoirs. In the first two, Lúcia tread carefully around the matter of the Secret. It wasn’t until the third Memoir that she wrote about it more in depth, and only because a supernatural intuition had been given to her by heaven that gave her permission to do so.

Lúcia wrote in the third Memoir that the Secret was comprised of three parts. The first was a vision of hell. The second was the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The third, however, Lúcia said she did not have permission to write it down and so she would not say anything about it. Later, in the fourth Memoir, Lúcia provided a little more detail about the Secret, including a line that ended the second part of the Secret, and which later became quite famous: “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.”[5]

The Memoirs themselves were written under less-than-ideal circumstances. Lúcia’s role within the Dorothean religious community was that of a “coadjutrix sister.” Before the Second Vatican Council, it was common for religious orders to have two sets of members. One set did a lot of the grunt work while the other set handled a lot of the administrative and sacramental (in male religious communities) work. This distinction has largely fallen into abeyance after the Second Vatican Council’s decree Perfectae caritatis ordered that within communities of women, “care should be taken that there be only one class of Sisters.”[6]

As a coadjutrix sister, Lúcia was relegated to a lot of the housework or any other task to which she had been ordered by her superiors. Dorothean coadjutrix sisters were not expected to do a lot of writing. Their education was also not the most rigorous. Lúcia, however, was the seer of Fátima. As such, she was in demand by religious authorities and others. Being in such demand strained Lúcia’s religious life and observance. Moreover, the Dorotheans permitted letter-writing only on Sundays.[7] Any other document, if Lúcia had permission, had to be done away from the attention of the other sisters. Balancing the writing with her daily chores meant that Lúcia was often up late at night. She found an out of the way attic space with barely enough light to see.

Lastly, Lúcia never intended the Memoirs themselves for publication. They were written at Bishop José’s order so that there would be a record for authorities from which to draw details. Parts of them could be (and were) published, but the original intent was not for complete publication. They were eventually published in full in 1973 by the Jesuit priest Fr. António María Martins in the book Memórias e cartas da Irmã Lúcia. Sr. Lúcia had not given her permission, and she had been recommended to press legal charges against Fr. Martins. The two met and reconciled.[8]

Such are the conditions under which Lúcia wrote her Memoirs as well as the original intention behind them. The first two parts of the Secret are intimately connected with these conditions and are better understood within this context. In the next article, we’ll dive into the specifics of how the third part was composed.

---

[1]  W.D. Ross (edit.), The Student’s Oxford Aristotle Vol. IV: Metaphysics (London: Oxford University Press, 1942), 980a.

[2] Cf. Fr. António María Martins, S.J., Memórias e cartas da Irmã Lúcia (Porto, Portugal: Simão Guimarães, Filhos, LDA, 1973), 339.

[3] Ibid., 51-53, 145, 149-151, 155-157.

[4] Fr. Robert Fox and Fr. António María Martins, S.J., The Intimate Life of Sister Lucia (Alexandria, South Dakota: Fatima Family Apostolate, 2001), 155-186.

[5] Martins, Memórias e cartas da Irmã Lúcia, 341.

[6] Perfectae caritatis, 15.

[7] Carmelo de Santa Teresa – Coimbra, Um caminho sob o olhar de Maria: Biografia da Irmã Lúcia de Jesus e do Coração Imaculado, O.C.D. (Coimbra, Portugal:Edições Carmelo, 2013), 274.

[8] Cf. Fox and Martins, The Intimate Life of Sister Lucia, 12, 74-76; see also Fr. Luis Kondor, SVD (edit.), Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words, Volume II 5th and 6th Memoirs (Fátima: Santuário de Fátima, 2004), 8.