SSPX Superior General Responds to Pope's Appeal

As people have pointed out, the Chinese Communists do what the SSPX is doing tomorrow, and Leo and the Vatican have no problem with it.

From Rorate Cæli

By Don Davide Pagliarani, FSSPX

In response to the appeal sent by letter by His Holiness to him, Fr. Pagliarani, Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), sent the following message:

Letter from the Superior General in Response to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV

The Superior General

To His Holiness

Pope Leo XIV

Ecône, 30 June 2026

 

Most Holy Father,

Thank you very much for the letter that Your Holiness so kindly addressed to me.

I have been deeply touched by Your paternal solicitude.

For a long time, I had hoped to have the opportunity of meeting You in person, in order to express to You directly our sincere desire to serve the Church. Unfortunately, that opportunity has not presented itself.

I ask only that You consider the sincerity of this intention, which is in no way feigned. Paradoxically, in the present circumstances, we believe it to be our very duty to do everything possible to mend Christ's seamless garment, torn by forces and pressures incompatible with a truly Catholic spirit. I ask only that You consider the authenticity of this intention before making a decision concerning the Society of Saint Pius X. It is not yet too late.

Far be it from us to separate ourselves from the Roman Church. We desire, on the contrary, to serve her by means that are extraordinary, as one would assist a mother in distress who requires particular help, even if such help is not understood by everyone. Yet I am certain that the Holy Father could understand it.

The Holy See has shown itself capable of understanding very complex situations and of allowing time for discernment.

May I therefore filially ask Your Holiness to take the time necessary for that discernment.

If my own words are not sufficient, I would ask You to reflect upon two very simple facts. First, in 1988 the Society was already declared schismatic, for reasons and in circumstances entirely analogous to those of today. Yet, after so many years, we are speaking together as a father and his son. Your Holiness is paternally urging me to avoid a schism which, theoretically, has already taken place. Does not Your very attitude—whose paternal concern I deeply appreciate—constitute proof that the Society is neither schismatic nor hostile to the Church?

Secondly, some years ago, the Holy See entrusted two bishops of the Church with the task of engaging in dialogue with the Society of Saint Pius X: Bishop Vitus Huonder, then Bishop of Chur, now deceased, and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Astana. Both, after taking the necessary time for discernment, recognised the profoundly Catholic spirit of the Society and bore public witness to it.

Above all, however, I venture to address Your Holiness in the name of the thousands of souls who have rediscovered the Catholic faith and the practice of religion through the apostolate of the Society. This is a fact of which Your predecessors themselves took note. These souls have but one desire: to attain salvation through this instrument which Divine Providence has placed at their disposal. They have suffered, and they are sincere. I am confident that Your paternal heart as universal Shepherd will be moved by this very particular situation. One day, all the difficulties between the Holy See and the Society will be resolved. A gesture of understanding on Your part, far from harming unity, could only manifest before the world and before all Christians Your concern for unity and Your goodness as a father.

I leave all this to Your consideration. I renew my prayers for Your Holiness.

For a long time, even before Your election, I have been praying to Saint Rita for the present situation. I saw in the election of an Augustinian Pope a sign of hope. I am certain that the Saint will intercede. It is never too late.

Please give us Your blessing.

I take this opportunity to remain, with the deepest devotion in Our Lord,

Don Davide Pagliarani

Who Was the American in 1775?

With all due respect to Dr Birzer, the true American in 1775 was the man who stayed loyal to his King and signed a Declaration of Dependence.

From The Imaginative Conservative

By Bradley J. Birzer, PhD

The Americans of the Revolution wrote about the new man who leaves behind his old prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the mode of life he embraces, and whose labors would change the world. But, one must ask, to what extent was this true? Just exactly how new was the American of 1775?

In his famous Letters from an American Farmer, Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur wrote about “this new man…. That strange mixture of blood which you will find in no other country…. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. . . . [he] leaves behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.”[1]

To be certain, Crevecoeur exaggerated, but, one must ask, to what extent? Just exactly how new was the American of 1775? As David Hackett Fisher has so effectively demonstrated, five ethnic groups made up American stock on the eve of the American Revolution.

First were the thousands upon thousands of Puritans who sought an escape from elitist Anglican Oxford monarchical control in the 1630s and 1640s. They, of course, settled in New England.

Second were the thousands upon thousands of Anglicans who sought an escape from the middle-brow, Cambridge parliamentary control in the 1640s and 1650s. They, of course, settled in Virginia and its surrounding environs.

Third were the thousands upon thousands of Quakers who sought an escape from the Puritans as well as the Anglicans, hoping peaceably to live their own lives as they saw fit in the 1660s and 1670s. They, of course, settled in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.

Fourth were the thousands upon thousands of Scots-Irish who sought an escape from all things not Scottish during the hundred years leading up to the American Revolution. They, of course, settled almost anywhere that was devoid of governmental authority. Only nominally Presbyterian, they were the least religious of the free migrants who came to the American colonies. They were also the least concentrated, coming, more often than not, clan by clan.

Fifth were the thousands upon thousands of Africans, captured as prisoners of war, and sold in the Americas. Though only involuntary indentured servants for their first fifty years in the English colonies, black Americans soon found what few rights they enjoyed narrowing and narrowing. The slave owners began, slowly at first, to change that forced indentured servitude into chattel slavery, beginning sometime around 1669.

Thus, by 1763, free Americans were, by and large, Anglo-Saxon-Celtic and very Protestant. They were also, by profession, almost exclusively involved in agriculture. It must also be noted, of course, that there were other groups living on American soil, including some Swedes, some Dutch, and a few Germans. There was also a sizeable, if dwindling, population of American Indians.

In no small part due to immigration, the American population grew.

     1700: 251,000

     1730: 629,000

     1760: 1.594 million

     1770: 2.148 million

     1780: 2.78 million

     1790: 3.929 million

     1800: 5.308 million

     1810: 7.240 million

     1820: 9.638 million

What gave the population such power, though, was the American propensity for and love of procreation. As demographic historian Walter Nugent has explained:

Fertility was enormously high as long as the young couple could form their own household on their own land. Females reached menarche at about age fifteen in 1800 and perhaps a few months earlier in 1850. If a woman married soon after that, as many did, the ultimate size of her family could be prodigious. The American and Canadian census manuscripts are crowded with cases of women marrying at sixteen or seventeen and producing a child every eighteen to twenty-four months–about the biological maximum because of breast-feeding and pregnancy intervals–until reaching menopause in their mid-forties. The average number of children born per woman in her lifetime, as of 1790, was almost eight…. Newly married women could look forward to twenty or even thirty fertile years.[2]

A quick calculation using Dr. Nugent’s data reveals that the average American woman on the frontier had thirteen live births. No one in the history of the world—before or since—has seen or experienced such pro-creative rates as Americans enjoyed for nearly two centuries.

Quoting the Swedish scientist, Peter Kalm, in his own work, Dr. Nugent records:

In the morning I undertook a little journey again to Raccoon, New Jersey. It does not seem difficult to find out the reasons why the people multiply faster here than in Europe. As soon as a person is old enough he may marry in these provinces without any fear of poverty. There is such an amount of good land yet uncultivated that a newly married man can, without difficulty, get a spot of ground where he may comfortably subsist with his wife and children.[3]

Or, the profound Enlightenment thinker, Benjamin Rush:

The universal prevalence of the protestant religion, the checks lately given to negro slavery, the general unwillingness among us to acknowledge the usurpations of primogeniture, the universal practice of inoculation for the smallpox, and absence of the plague, render the imposition of government for that purpose [population growth] unnecessary. These advantages can only be secured to our country by AGRICULTURE. This is the true basis of national health, riches, and populousness.[4]

Or, observer Jeremy Belknap:

Where land is cheap, and the means of subsistence may be acquired in such plenty, and in so short a time as is evidently the case in our new plantations, encouragement is given to early marriage. A young man who has cleared a piece of land, and built a hut for his present accommodation, soon begins to experience the truth of that old adage, ‘it is not good for man to be alone.’ Having a prospect of increasing this substance by labour, which he knows himself able to perform, he attaches himself to a female earlier than prudence would dictate if he had not such a prospect. Nor are the young females of the country averse to a settlement in the new plantation.[5]

Yet, one should not ignore the urban population of late colonial America, either. Its numbers:

     Philadelphia 28,000

     New York 21,800

     Boston 15,520

     Charleston 10,863

     Newport 9,200[6]

Without question, America was becoming a world unto herself in the years leading up to the Revolution.

__________

Notes:

[1] Quoted in Ward, Harry M. The American Revolution (Manhattan: St. Martin’s Press, 1995), p. 3.

[2] Walter Nugent, Structures of American Social History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981), 57-58.

[3] Quoted in Nugent, Structures, 52.

[4] Quoted in Nugent, Structures, 51.

[5] Quoted in Nugent, Structures, 52-53.

[6] The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, ed. Jack P. Greene and J.R. Pole (Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 1992), p. 46.

The featured image is “The Smoker, the Drummer of the Jersey Blues” (1900), by Theophile Marie Francois Lybaert, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Bishop Challoner's Meditations ~ July 1st

ON TIME AND ETERNITY

Consider first, how precious a thing time is which we are so apt to squander away, as if it were of no value. Time is the measure of our lives; therefore as much as we lose of our time, so much of our lives is absolutely lost. All our time is given us, in order to our employing it in the service of our Maker, and by that means securing to our souls a happy eternity; and there is not one moment of it in which we may not store up for ourselves a treasure for eternity; so that, as many as we lose of these precious moments, they are so many lost eternities. Our time is a talent with which God has entrusted us, and of which he will one day demand of us a strict account how we have spent every hour of it. Our salvation or damnation for eternity will depend upon the good or bad use of our time. Ah! how little do we think of this? How little do we think of the sins we are daily guilty of, in squandering away so much of this precious time? 

Consider 2ndly, how short is the whole time of this mortal life; a mere nothing compared with eternity, and how very quickly it passes away. When past 'tis gone - it is no more; it leaves no footsteps behind it. The time to come is not ours: we cannot promise ourselves one moment of it. The present time is all we can call our own, and God only knows how long it will be so. It fies away in an instant, and when once it is gone it cannot be called back. Our hours, one after another, all post away with precipitate haste into the vast gulf of eternity, and are swallowed up there, and then appear no more. The very moment in which we are reading this line is just passing, never, never more to return. And as many of these hours, as many of these moments as are once lost are lost for ever: the loss is irreparable. Learn hence, O my soul, to set a just value upon thy present time - learn to husband it well, and employ it all to the best advantage.

Consider 3rdly, that as all time is short and passes quickly away, so all the temporal enjoyments of the honours, riches, and pleasures of this world are of the like condition: they all pass away with time - they are all transitory, uncertain, and inconstant. Only eternity and the goods or evils which it comprises, are truly great, as being without end, without change, without comparison; admitting of no mixture of evil in its goods, nor any alloy of comfort in its evils. O how quickly does the glory of this world pass away! How very soon will all temporal grandeur, all worldly pride and state, all the riches and pleasures of worldlings, be buried in the coffin! A few short years are more than any one can promise himself. and after that, poor sinner, what will become of thee? Alas! the worms will prey upon thy body, and merciless devils on thy unrepenting soul! Thy worldly friends will all forget thee. The very stone on which thou hast got thy name engraved will not long outlive thee. O how true is that sentence: 'vanity of vanities, and all is vanity but to love God, and to serve him alone!' - Kempis.

Conclude to make such use of this present time and of all temporary things as to make them serviceable to thy soul in her journey towards eternity. But take care not to let thy heart cleave to them by any disorderly affection, lest thou be entangled in them and perish with them.

1 July, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

Moments of Silence

1. Such is the speed of modern life that many people forget God and do not even pause to think about themselves. Action is everything. There is no time for reflection, no time for prayer. Life has become mechanical and superficial, for nobody has the time nor the inclination to think about spiritual matters.

What is the result? Since men are not machines but living beings composed of soul and body, and are capable of feeling and of passion, their lower inclinations break loose and insist on being satisfied. In the absence of prayer and of all effort to lead a good life, grace is lacking to inspire the mind, to strengthen the will and to keep the heart pure. Rapid materialistic progress has accustomed men to accept as inevitable the most shameful falls. The absence of any kind of contact with God makes the soul the slave of sin.

Examine yourself. Perhaps you have not yet sunk to this low level of spirituality and are still capable of feeling remorse and the urge to do good. But you must listen for God's voice, and a certain amount of silence is necessary if His voice is not to be drowned in the tumult of the world. We are in real need of solitude, recollection and prayer. 

2. Even though the Apostles lived in times which were very different from ours, they were asked by our divine Master to spend a little time in solitude and recollection. They had been sent by Jesus to preach in the villages of Palestine and had been successful in their mission. When they returned they told our divine Redeemer with some satisfaction what they had accomplished in His name and with His grace. They may have been inclined to boast a little, and it is quite certain that they had become spiritually dissipated as a result of their work. So Jesus said to them: “Come apart into a desert place and rest a while.” (Mark 6:21; Mt. 14:13; Luke 9:10; John 6:1) 

We must take this advice also, for a certain amount of silence and recollection is absolutely essential. We should go on retreat every year and set aside one day every month for the same purpose. We need to spend at least a quarter of an hour every day in meditation, if possible a quarter of an hour in conversation with Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist or, if we cannot do any better, an interval of prayer in some other secluded place. If we have not been doing at least this much, let us make sure to do so in future. 

3. Solitude and recollection will make our lives more peaceful and more purposeful and will enable us to co-operate with God's grace by striving to become more perfect. “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” says St. Paul, “and put on the new man, which has been created according to God in justice and in holiness.” (Eph. 4:23-24) 

The turmoil of a purely external life leads to hardness of heart, tepidity and sin. Recollection and prayer place us in contact with God, Who will give us the grace to lead holy lives.

Eastern Rite ~ Feasts of 1 July AM 7534

Today is the Feast of the Holy Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian.

✠✠✠✠✠

The Holy Martyrs, Wonderworkers and Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian were born in Rome, brothers by birth, and physicians by profession. They suffered in Rome during the reign of the emperor Carinus (283-284). Brought up by their parents in the rules of piety, they led strict and chaste lives, and they were granted by God the gift of healing the sick. By their generosity and exceptional kindness to all, the brothers converted many to Christ. The brothers told the sick, “It is not by our own power that we treat you, but by the power of Christ, the true God. Believe in Him and be healed.” Since they accepted no payment for their treatment of the infirm, the holy brothers were called “unmercenary physicians.”

Their life of active service and their great spiritual influence on the people around them led many into the Church, attracting the attention of the Roman authorities. Soldiers were sent after the brothers. Hearing about this, local Christians convinced Saints Cosmas and Damian to hide for a while until they could help them escape. Unable to find the brothers, the soldiers arrested instead other Christians of the area where the saints lived. Saints Cosmas and Damian then came out of hiding and surrendered to the soldiers, asking them to release those who had been arrested because of them.

At Rome, the saints were imprisoned and put on trial. Before the Roman emperor and the judge, they openly professed their faith in Christ God, Who had come into the world to save mankind and redeem the world from sin, and they resolutely refused to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. They said, “We have done evil to no one, we are not involved with the magic or sorcery of which you accuse us. We treat the infirm by the power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we take no payment for rendering aid to the sick because our Lord commanded His disciples, ‘Freely have you received, freely give’ (Mt. 10: 8).”

The emperor, however, continued with his demands. Through the prayer of the holy brothers, imbued with the power of grace, God suddenly struck Carinus blind, so that he too might experience the almighty power of the Lord, Who does not forgive blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Mt. 12:31). The people, beholding the miracle, cried out, “Great is the Christian God! There is no other God but Him!” Many of those who believed besought the holy brothers to heal the emperor, and he himself implored the saints, promising to convert to the true God, Christ the Savior, so the saints healed him. After this, Saints Cosmas and Damian were honourably set free, and once again they set about treating the sick.

But what the hatred of the pagans and the ferocity of the Roman authorities could not do, was accomplished by black envy, one of the strongest passions of sinful human nature. An older physician, an instructor, under whom the holy brothers had studied the art of medicine, became envious of their fame. Driven to madness by malice, and overcome by passionate envy, he summoned the two brothers, formerly his most beloved students, proposing that they should all go together in order to gather various medicinal herbs. Going far into the mountains, he murdered them and threw their bodies into a river.

Thus these holy brothers, the Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian, ended their earthly journey as martyrs. Although they had devoted their lives to the Christian service of their neighbours, and had escaped the Roman sword and prison, they were treacherously murdered by their teacher.

The Lord glorifies those who are pleasing to God. Now, through the prayers of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian, God grants healing to all who with faith have recourse to their heavenly intercession.

The Unmercenary Saints Cosmas and Damian of Rome should not be confused with the Unmercenary Saints Cosmas and Damian of Asia Minor (November 1), or the Unmercenary Saints Cosmas and Damian of Arabia (October 17).

Troparion — Tone 8

Holy unmercenaries and wonderworkers, Cosmas and Damian, visit our / infirmities. / Freely you have received; freely give to us.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Having received the grace of healing, / you grant healing to those in need. / Glorious wonder-workers and physicians, Cosmas and Damian, / visit us and put down the insolence of our enemies, / and bring healing to the world through your miracles.

Byzantine Saints: Holy Wonderworking Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian at Rome

IN LUMINE FIDEI: 1 JULY – THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD

IN LUMINE FIDEI: 1 JULY – THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD: O Blood of my crucified Jesus, dwell in my soul to purify it. O Blood of my crucified Jesus, dwell in my heart to inflame it. O B...

IN LUMINE FIDEI: JULY – THE MONTH OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD

IN LUMINE FIDEI: JULY – THE MONTH OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD: Like devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, devotion to His Precious Blood is one of the oldest forms of Catholic piety, and over th...

1 July, The Chesterton Calendar

JULY 1st

The average man votes below himself; he votes with half a mind or a hundredth part of one. A man ought to vote with the whole of himself, as he worships or gets married. A man ought to vote with his head and heart, his soul and stomach, his eye for faces and his ear for music; also (when sufficiently provoked) with his hands and feet. If he has ever seen a fine sunset, the crimson colour of it should creep into his vote. If he has ever heard splendid songs, they should be in his ears when he makes the mystical cross. But as it is, the difficulty with English democracy at all elections is that it is something less than itself. The question is not so much whether only a minority of the electorate votes. The point is that only a minority of the voter votes.

'Tremendous Trifles.'

1 July, The Holy Rule of St Benedict, Patriarch of Western Monasticism

CHAPTER XXIV. What the measure of excommunication should be

1 Mar. 1 July. 31 Oct.

The measure of excommunication or chastisement should be meted out according to the gravity of the offence, the estimation of which shall be left to the judgment of the Abbot. If any brother be found guilty of lighter faults, let him be excluded from the common table. And this shall be the rule for one so deprived: he shall intone neither Psalm nor antiphon in the Oratory, nor shall he read a lesson, until he have made satisfaction. Let him take his meals alone, after those of the brethren so that if, for example, the brethren eat at the sixth hour, let him eat at the ninth: if they eat at the ninth, let him eat in the evening, until by proper satisfaction he obtain pardon.

2 July, The Roman Martyrology

Sexto Nonas Iúlii Luna décima séptima Anno Dómini 2026

July 2nd 2026, the 17th day of the Moon,

On the morrow we keep the feast of the visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth.
On the same 2nd day of July, were born into the better life:

At Rome, upon the Aurelian Way, the holy martyrs Processus and Martinian, who were baptized by the blessed Apostle Peter in the Mamertine Prison, and crowned with martyrdom under Nero by being slain with the sword, after suffering the beating of their mouths, the rack, thongs, cudgels, fire, and loaded whips.
At Rome also, the three holy soldiers who turned to Christ at the martyrdom of the blessed Apostle Paul, and thus earned a share with him in the glory of heaven.
On the same day, the holy martyrs Ariston, Crescentian, Eutychian, Urban, Vitalis, Justus, Felicissimus, Felix, Marcia, and Symphorosa, who were all crowned with martyrdom in the Campania while the persecution was raging under the Emperor Diocletian.
At Winchester, in England, the holy Swithin, Bishop of that city, [in the year 863,] whose holiness shone forth in the grace of working miracles, and whose feast day we keep upon the 15th day of this present month of July. [His head was taken to the cathedral of Évreux at the end of the fourteenth century.]
At Bamberg, [in Bavaria,] holy Otto, Bishop of [that see,] who preached the Gospel to the Pomeranians, and turned them to the faith, [in the year 1139.]
At Tours, the holy woman Monegund, [about the year 573]
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.

Meme of the Moment

Today is the Feast of the Most Precious Blood.

Traditional Catholic Evening Prayers in English | June

Traditional Catholic evening devotional prayers to close your day with your mind, heart, tongue, and soul on our Lord! The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Begin and end each day with prayer. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! This video is a compilation of many traditional evening prayers Catholics say, and should not be considered a replacement for those who have an obligation to pray the Divine Office evening prayers.

Compline

From St Thomas Aquinas Seminary. You may follow the Office at Divinum Officium.

Byzantine Saints: Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All Praised Twelve Apostles

St Theobald: Butler's Lives of the Saints

Vespers for the Commemoration St Paul, Apostle

From the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem. You may follow the Office at Divinum Officium.

Summa Contra Gentiles, Book II: VIII That God’s Power Is His Substance

From Contemplating History

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 7 March 1274), was a Doctor of the Church, Philosopher, Theologian, Jurist, Dominican Friar, and Priest. Known as Doctor Angelicus "Angelic Doctor," and the Doctor Communis "Universal Doctor" his writings serve as a defense and proof of the validity of Christ's authority over all. The Summa contra Gentiles (also known as Liber de veritate catholicae fidei contra errores infidelium, "Book on the truth of the Catholic faith against the errors of the unbelievers"). The Summa contra Gentiles consists of four books. The structure of Saint Thomas's work is designed to proceed from general philosophical arguments for monotheism, to which Muslims and Jews are likely to consent even within their own respective religious traditions, before progressing to the discussion of specifically Christian doctrine. Book II is dedicated to the Creation (in other words, the physical universe, everything which exists). Whether you are a history enthusiast, a student of religion, or simply curious about the impact of the Roman Catholic Church on the world, this playlist is designed to provide an informative and engaging journey through its captivating past. Subscribe to the Contemplating History channel for more educational content and immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of history.

What Pope Leo Really Said About AI | Magnifica Humanitas Roundtable 1

From Catholic Truth Society

What does Pope Leo really say about Artificial Intelligence in 'Magnifica Humanitas'? Why did the Pope choose AI as the subject of his first encyclical? And Is Artificial Intelligence a threat to human dignity? Welcome to part one of this CTS Roundtable discussion on 'Magnifica Humanitas', Pope Leo’s groundbreaking encyclical on Artificial Intelligence, technology and the future of humanity. You can get Pope Leo's new encyclical on AI from CTS now: https://bit.ly/4dQbjFM

The Holy Rosary

Tuesday, the Sorrowful Mysteries, in Latin with Cardinal Burke.

Kingship, Taxation and Palaces

From Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP

Two pieces of Royal news caught my eye today – the amount of tax paid by the King, which many media outlets reported misleadingly, and also that the King will no longer live in Buckingham Palace, which I think is a matter of concern.

Trustworthy Scientific Inference in the Age of AI - James Carzon, PhD, BA(Phil), (Carnegie Mellon University)

From The Society of Catholic Scientists

The Love Found Beneath Venezuela’s Rubble

Natural disasters, like these earthquakes, bring out the best or worst in people. Love and sacrifice, as in these stories, or violence and theft, as in looting.

From Aleteia

By Cerith Gardiner

A mother's sacrifice, a rescued newborn, and strangers who crossed oceans reveal love's extraordinary strength.

When two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24, buildings collapsed, families were separated, and whole communities were left digging through dust and concrete for the people they loved.

The scale of the disaster is almost impossible to absorb. According to Reuters, the death toll has risen above 1,400, with tens of thousands still unaccounted for and rescue teams racing against time in La Guaira, the hardest-hit state. Yet amid the devastation, certain stories have begun to emerge from the rubble — not because they make the tragedy easier to understand, but because they show what love looks like when everything else gives way.

A mother's love

One of those stories is that of Andrea Bello, the wife of Venezuelan soccer player Héctor Bello, who died while shielding their 1-year-old daughter, Alana, as their home collapsed. Their little girl survived. Andrea did not.

In the days that followed, Héctor's grief poured onto Instagram in a tribute that has touched hearts across Venezuela. Yet what makes his words so moving is not simply his anguish, but the ordinary moments he refuses to let disappear.

He remembers Andrea teasing him after sending him a photograph. "Our little girl is beautiful," he told her. Laughing, she replied, "And me?" His answer came just as quickly: "Yes, you're beautiful too, but not as beautiful as me!" They laughed together over the phone while their daughter repeatedly interrupted the call, delighted by the funny filters they were trying on. Those tiny memories now sit alongside the unimaginable.

"You will always be our favorite heroine, Mommy," he wrote. Then came the promise that somehow says everything a little girl will one day need to know about her mother: "I will make sure our daughter knows what a wonderful woman you were, how much you loved her. I will tell her how you saved her, my love, how you gave your own life for our daughter ... that with your last breaths, you never abandoned her."

A newborn rescue

Elsewhere, rescue workers searching the ruins heard another sound that has become all too precious in recent days: the cry of a baby. An 18-day-old newborn was pulled alive from the rubble after spending more than a day trapped beneath the collapsed remains of a building.

A short time later, rescuers found the baby's mother alive, too. Amid so much heartbreak, the images of the tiny infant wrapped in blankets and carried carefully to safety reminded the world why rescue teams refuse to give up, even when the odds seem impossibly small.

An international response

That determination has reached far beyond Venezuela's borders. Search-and-rescue teams, doctors, engineers, and rescue dogs have traveled from around the world, working side by side in places where every hour matters. Speaking to the BBC, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher observed something remarkable about the international response: "Politics all falls away at this point."

The earthquake has left Venezuela and the world grieving on a scale that words cannot soften. Yet amid the devastation, certain images will endure: a mother shielding her daughter with her own body; rescuers celebrating the cry of a newborn pulled alive from the rubble; strangers crossing oceans to help people they have never met. These are the stories that remind us what remains when so much has been lost.

For Héctor Bello, that story will now be told to his little daughter. One day she will learn not only that her mother saved her life, but that she was the woman who laughed at his jokes, interrupted video calls with their little girl, and filled an ordinary family life with extraordinary love.

Yet not every family has been granted such a measure of consolation. Argentine footballer Lucas Trejo spent more than 70 agonizing hours searching for his wife and two young children before learning they had all perished beneath the rubble. His heartbreaking loss is a reminder that behind every joyful rescue are countless families now facing an absence that cannot be repaired.

As the rescue effort continues and Venezuela begins the long road to recovery, let us keep in our prayers every family living through this tragedy: those mourning loved ones, those still waiting for news, the injured, the souls of the many departed, the rescuers who continue their tireless work, and all those who now face the difficult task of rebuilding not only their homes, but their lives.