14 July 2025
The Worst Bishops Just Made An Earth Shattering Decree
If you thought Fiducia Supplicans was bad....
Selja Pilgrimage: Norway’s Catholic Faith Revived at Shrine of St Sunniva
14 Catholic Scouts Declared "Martyrs" by Pope Leo XIV
I wonder how many Martyrs the Germans gave the Church between the years 1933 and 1945? We know of many of them, but many are known but to God.
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From Aleteia
By Philip Kosloski
These scouts were certainly brave, trustworthy, loyal and reverent, putting to test the oath that they took before being killed for their faith.On June 20, 2025, Pope Leo XIV officially recognized a large group of French priests and laymen who were persecuted by the Nazi regime.
Many French men were sent to the German front through a Compulsory Work Service. In response to this order, various French priests, religious, and laymen followed these workers into German territory. However, because they were caring for the physical and spiritual needs of these workers, they were arrested, tortured and put to death mainly in concentration camps.
Included in this number of martyrs are 14 men who were part of the Scouts de France movement.
Catholic scouting
Inspired by Baden-Powell and the "Boy Scout" movement that began in England, French priest Venerable Jacques Sevin began Catholic scouting in France.
He had been following Baden-Powell’s progress and was intrigued by the idea of scouting. Sevin decided he needed to go to the source and asked permission to travel to England to experience it for himself.
Sevin was allowed during the summer to observe the recently formed scouting troops and personally met Baden-Powell at a camp in 1913. This renewed Sevin’s interest in the movement and he returned to France thinking of different ways to incorporate the Catholic faith into scouting.
Sevin then went on to co-found the Fédération des Scouts de France in 1920 and later became known as the “Father of Catholic Scouting” for his innovative ideas. He died in 1951 while clutching a crucifix in his hand and saying to those around him, “Be saints, all of you! Nothing else counts.”
The 14 men who were declared martyrs by Pope Leo XIV were part of this same scouting movement in France.
They all professed an Oath and Law that included the following (which may sound similar to the Boy Scout Oath and Law):
On my honor and with the grace of God, I promise to do my best to serve God, the Church and my country, to help my neighbor in any circumstance and to observe the Scout Law.
The Scout must strive to be trustworthy.
The Scout is loyal to his country, his parents, his leaders and his subordinates.
The Scout must serve and save his neighbor.
The Scout is polite and chivalrous.
The Scout must be pure in his thoughts, words and actions.
These scouts truly lived-up to their Oath and Law, and are great examples to any modern-day scouts.
As a note, in the United States the Federation of North American Explorers is a new group of scouts who are similarly inspired by Venerable Sevin and ultimately have their roots in the Scouts de France movement.
Pictured: The Venerable Jacques Sevin, SJ, Founder of the Scouts de France
Restoring Christian Culture — The Why and the How
What is culture, and why does restoring Christian culture matter for the future of the Church? In this keynote address from the Securing Sacred Ground Fundraising Gala, June 21, 2025, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski explains how authentic Catholic culture flows from the Holy Mass and why the traditional liturgy is the beating heart of Western civilization. From Gothic cathedrals down to hearth and home, Dr. Kwasniewski shows how everything in Christian society exists to "foster and protect the holy sacrifice of the Mass." He addresses the devastating impact of post-Vatican II reforms and the scourge of modern iconoclasm, and tells the audience they should embrace the Benedictine motto "succisa virescit" (cut down, it flourishes again) as they strive to rebuild. This is a rallying cry for Catholics who refuse to surrender their patrimony and are building the institutions needed for cultural restoration. Learn why initiatives like Sanctus Ranch and Lumen Christi Academy represent the future of faithful Catholicism.
French Nobles Give Bastille Day Right Royal ‘Non’
My thanks to my old fellow Evil Trad, Hillary White who tweets from @WUWTS, who brought this to my attention, and who wrote when she tweeted it,
Dear France, the fact that you continue to celebrate this festival of mass murder every year is the reason no one likes you. You're welcome.#A_bas_la_République, #Abolir_la_fête_nationale, #Vive_le_roi #Vive_la_France!
From The Irish Times
France’s 6,000 aristocrats struggle to slow the erosion of their traditions
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| Pierre-Louis and Sabine de La Rochefoucauld, Duke and Duchess d’Estissac, with an ancestor. “Throughout Europe there are families like ours. I especially admire the Habsburgs. They’re the most fervent, almost mystics.” Photograph: Lara Marlowe Because he was grand master of the royal wardrobe, the presence of François Alexandre Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld was required when Louis XVI dressed in the Palace at Versailles. One morning 224 years ago – some accounts place it before the storming of the Bastille, others immediately after – the king asked de La Rochefoucauld if it was true there was a revolt in Paris. “No, majesty. It is not a revolt; it’s a revolution,” de La Rochefoucauld replied. He was the first to define the founding event of modern French history. No notice De La Rochefoucauld’s grandson, nine generations removed, Pierre-Louis de La Rochefoucauld, duc d’Estissac, lives a block away from the Champs-Élysées, where the French republic will celebrate its revolution tomorrow. This year, as every year, the duke, aged 65, will pay it no notice. “We had to run away, hide or get killed,” he says. “It’s not a date I want to remember.” The family has proof of its lineage for the last 1,000 years, back to Foucaud the 1st in 1019. In the 17th century, François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld, became a famous writer of maxims and memoirs, whose pithy observations on human folly are still quoted today. Some 15 de La Rochefoucaulds were guillotined in the revolution. The present-day scion has a special fondness for Pierre-Louis de La Rochefoucauld, Bishop of Saintes. “Because I bear his name, I feel close to him.” The duke never passes the intersection of the rue d’Assas and Vaugirard without thinking of his namesake, who was detained in a Carmelite chapel there with 150 other clergy on September 2nd, 1792. “They were ordered to recognise the new status of the church under the revolution,” the duke recounts. “All of them said No. One by one, they were shoved into the garden where dozens of ‘patriots’ fell upon them, killing them with hammers and knives.” Pierre-Louis de La Rochefoucauld was declared a blessed martyr in 1920. He would have been canonised, the duke believes, had the church not been intimidated by the government. “In France, the legal government considers that the revolution was a marvellous thing,” he says bitterly. There are fewer and fewer practising Catholics in France, the duke admits. “If you go into a church, you see people like me. Chivalry was the basis of the old nobility, and the Catholic faith is the basis of chivalry. Throughout Europe there are families like ours. I especially admire the Habsburgs. They’re the most fervent, almost mystics.” The duke is “not at ease” in street demonstrations, but he nonetheless marched twice last winter, against the law that legalised same-sex marriage. The demonstrators were “happy and sympathiques, but I was horrified by the behaviour of the police”. The socialist education minister Vincent Peillon holds a doctorate in philosophy, and published a book, The French revolution is not over, in 2008. Peillon is a bugbear of religious conservatives, who accuse him of wanting to abolish gender differences and impose his “atheist ideology”. The duke sees the present government as modern-day Jacobins. “Peillon says ‘we’ when he talks about the revolution. He believes that as long as the Catholic Church exists ‘we’ will not have won entirely,” he explains. The duke “worked in property”. His wife, the duchess Sabine, does public relations for the Louvre. Their name has been an advantage in those professions. Many French people, for example around the family château at Combreux, respect their role in history, he says. Others are hateful, like the jealous colleague who once told his wife, “I thought they guillotined you all in the revolution.” France’s surviving 6,000 aristocrats struggle to slow the erosion of their property and traditions. The duke goes stag-hunting often, in the forest of Orléans. Nearly every year, he says, he and fellow hunters have to stave off some draft law seeking to ban it. ‘Closed circle’ The duke’s father was president of the 1,200-strong, all-male Jockey Club, which Marcel Proust described as the most closed circle in the world. Liveried servants still address members by their titles. “We have a principle; one doesn’t come to the Jockey to do business,” the duke says. Unlike the British aristocracy, French nobles have largely shunned commerce – and marriage outside their milieu. “The Anglo-Saxon expression, ‘to make money’ – I find it horrible, horrible. And I am not alone.” He particularly objects to fortunes amassed in finance, because it produces nothing real – probably the only sentiment he shares with president François Hollande. |