This, obviously, is the beginning of the loosening of restrictions on the Latin Mass, a step in the right direction. What must be kept in mind is that there is a war between God and Satan going on inside the Church right now. There is not going to be a clear and easy path of restoration, just as there is not going to be a clear and easy path of destruction.
Ultimately, the Providence of God will not be denied, and so we continue to fight in the heart and bosom of the church for the restoration of the one thing that has the power bestowed upon it by God himself to change history, and that is the Latin Mass.
Yes, the Mass matters! Keep the faith, don’t lose hope, and continue to pray for Pope Leo, that he will be given the grace to recognize and resist the diabolical forces which at this very moment are at work against him inside the Vatican. Yes, Pope Leo was formed in the Novus Ordo, and so it is going to be more difficult for him to see the perils that he now faces. All the more so, then, we must pray for him!
Latin Mass Returns to Pope’s Basilica
LATIN MASS CATHOLICS living in 2025 have no idea how good we have it today compared to how it was when this newspaper was founded sixty years ago. Yes, the Vatican under Francis conducted a reign of terror against us, but that’s because Francis was threatened by the great strides that had been made since the early days of the Revolution. Because the pioneer Traditional Catholics never gave up hope, the Latin Mass has come storming back again and again, no matter how many times the Vatican tries to “abrogate” it.
After the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage to the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome (October 24-25, 2025), as I stood and listened to the strains of the “Christus Vincit” fade up into Michelangelo’s dome, the thought struck me—it happened again! The Latin Mass will not be denied, because God wills it so. The pioneer traditionalist always knew this to be true, even though they never expected to see it come back in their lifetime. And that’s what God asks of us now, I suppose that we continue to fight even though common sense tells us the ultimate victory is still a long way off. So far away, in fact, that we will not likely live to see it, even if we know it will come in God’s good time.
In her Divine element, the Church is inviolate. The Church in her human element is not, and the reality is that God has allowed some very bad popes, some of whom lived immoral lives or even favored heresies and ambiguities in doctrine. But the Church always survived every chastisement, even the worst popes in history.
We must look further down the road than the enemies of Tradition can see. Why? Because we know that it’s the Mass that matters, even if they do not. And the reason they do not is that Modernism has destroyed the Catholic appreciation for the sublime in the hearts and minds of the Modernists. For them, the liturgy is a banal, on-the-spot product and transcends nothing, which is why their “reformed liturgy” is in hospice care.
For them, the way forward is not through the worship of Almighty God, but rather through the enthronement of Man on the twin altars of Synodality and Globalism. They believe they can defeat the God worshipped in the venerable Roman Rite of the Mass, but they will fail. And that’s our secret weapon. We know that it’s the Mass that matters, not because it has the power to transform the Christian soldier into a crusader, but rather because it has the power to transform him into a saint. And the Revolution has no answer for sanctity, which is why it spent a hundred years trying to destroy the saint-maker that is the Latin Mass.
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There is no more powerful counterrevolutionary force on the face of the earth than mothers and fathers with babies in their arms taking a stand for Christ the King by kneeling before the sanctuary at a Traditional Latin Mass. We know this, God knows it, but the Revolution today does not! And therein lies the great advantage for the Children of Light.
Five thousand pilgrims were on hand in Rome on October 25 to see Raymond Cardinal Burke bring the Traditional Latin Mass back to St. Peter’s. Hundreds of priests, several bishops, and at least six cardinals showed up on the eve of the Feast of Christ the King to put the world on notice that the Latin Mass cannot be executed. It will always rise again.
It’s the Mass that matters because it’s the Faith that matters, and the Latin Mass—as touchstone of the Faith—defends and teaches the Doctrine better than every pope in history.
Cardinal Burke’s Summorum Pontificum Latin Mass exceeded all expectations. Thousands more than had been anticipated showed up for it. The most powerful media people in Rome were on hand to broadcast it to the world. And now that it has happened, it cannot be undone. The precedent has been set. Here at The Remnant, we vigorously promoted the event in the months leading up to it but, other than that, there had not been much advertising. It still dominated the headlines, and the media recorded every word of Cardinal Burke’s sermon, including these few excerpts:
“Privileged to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass today, we cannot help but think of the faithful who throughout the Christian centuries, have encountered our Lord and deepened their life with Him through this venerable form of the Roman Rite. Many were inspired to practice heroic sanctity, even unto Martyrdom. Those of us who are old enough who have grown up worshiping God according to the Usus Antiquior cannot help but consider how it inspired us to keep our gaze fixed upon Jesus, especially in responding to our vocation in life. …
“Through the Sacred Liturgy, our admiration of God in spirit, in truth, our Lord is with us in the most perfect way possible on this earth. It is the most excellent expression of our life in Him, witnessing now the great beauty of the rite of the Mass. Let us be inspired and strengthened to reflect that beauty in the goodness of our daily living under the maternal care of our Lady.”
Standing with the rest of the media at the edge of the sanctuary of the Altar of the Chair (in the shadow of Bernini’s Baldacchino), I watched Cardinal Burke lead the five thousand in singing the “Christus Vincit.” Tears burned in my eyes as Christ rules, Christ reigns, Christ commands filled the Basilica over the bones of St. Peter once again. And after the Mass, as His Eminence began to process out, he stepped out of line to embrace his old friend, Walter Cardinal Brandmuller, the only other surviving “dubia cardinal.” (I’d be lying if I said I did not see the justice in these two faithful and much maligned advisors to Pope Francis getting the last word after all.)
So, is the war over? Don’t be silly! Is Pope Leo a traditionalist? Don’t be silly! But an important precedent has been set, one with which the bishops of the world will now have to deal: If the TLM is not banned in the Pope’s own church, by whose authority can the bishops ban it in theirs?
But let’s back up. Why did this happen? Why was the Latin Mass allowed to make a triumphal return to the most important church in Christendom? Surely the progressives and the radicals (e.g., Father James Martin) were not happy. Was it because Pope Leo is a closet traditionalist trying to set an uncomfortable precedent for every bishop in the world to “get over himself” and liberate the Latin Mass? No, Pope Leo is no traditionalist.
So, why did he give permission for Cardinal Burke to celebrate the Latin Mass in his own Basilica, just months after the death of Francis—the very pope who had banned it? The short answer is that God willed it to be so. As a product of the long Revolution of Vatican II, Pope Leo is not trying to fool us, and neither is he trying to silence or seduce us. He has all the power, and we have none. So, something else is clearly at work here, something larger than any pope.
I believe it’s a “God thing.” Regardless of where one comes down on why this happened, the takeaway on which we can all agree is that it’s the Latin Mass that matters spiritually, historically, politically, and for all time. Why? Again, because in and of itself—and whether those attached to it realize it or not—it is the most effective counterrevolutionary force on earth. God gave it to us, and only God can take it away.
It’s up to us to use this precedent to the fullest extent possible for the restoration of the one force on earth that can lead the world out this valley of death—the Traditional Catholic Faith, the touchstone of which is the Traditional Latin Mass.
It was the Mass that mattered in 1549 England during the Western Uprising in Cornwall and Devon after the Book of Common Prayer was imposed on the people by the English Reformation; it was the Mass that mattered when I was boy and the pioneer Traditional Catholics waged holy war in its defense; and it’s the Mass that mattered at the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage in Rome. From the moment thousands of Latin Mass pilgrims walked over the Tiber on the Angel Bridge, past the Castel Sant’Angelo, and down the Via della Conciliazione, it was positively palpable just how much the Mass still matters.
So, is the war over? Don’t be silly! Is Pope Leo a traditionalist? Don’t be silly! But an important precedent has been set, one with which the bishops of the world will now have to deal: If the TLM is not banned in the Pope’s own church, by whose authority can the bishops ban it in theirs?
It’s up to us to use this precedent to the fullest extent possible for the restoration of the one force on earth that can lead the world out this valley of death—the Traditional Catholic Faith, the touchstone of which is the Traditional Latin Mass.
Christ is the Head of the Church, Not the Pope!
Momentous things are happening in this clash between Revolution and Counterrevolution and between the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. We need to fight this Holy War with the tools and the armor God provides. Those of us who have been in these trenches all our lives know what to do. When it comes to the diabolically disordered post-conciliar popes, we must keep a supernatural vision of what is happening to our Church in crisis.
The pope is human. He can sin, he can even go to hell—only neo-Catholics and sedevacantists would say otherwise.
The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, not the mystical body of the Pope. The Church has only one head, Jesus Christ, and it is He—not the pope! —Who made the infallible promise to us that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Catholic Church.
We need not be constantly fixated on the Pope, whose words and acts on a daily basis are fallible. We need not parse his every word. We must not make him the pivotal point of our life as baptized Christians. For us, the pivotable point is Jesus Christ, especially in the Holy Eucharist and in the daily sacrifice of the altar all throughout the world.
Whatever Pope Leo turns out to be, we can live out our Catholic Faith because God has already given us the means to do so—His Holy Word, the Deposit of Faith, the Mass of all ages, the Blessed Sacrament, the Catechism, and the constant protection of Our Lady, the Angels, and Saints.
In her Divine element, the Church is inviolate. The Church in her human element is not, and the reality is that God has allowed some very bad popes, some of whom lived immoral lives or even favored heresies and ambiguities in doctrine. But the Church always survived every chastisement, even the worst popes in history.
Again, it’s the Mass that matters because it’s the Faith that matters, and the Latin Mass—as touchstone of the Faith—defends and teaches the Doctrine better than every pope in history.
More than anything else on earth, the Latin Mass will restore all things in Christ.
So, what do we do if a pope preaches errors and commit scandals through his connivence with error and immoral events? We do what traditionalists have always done—we reject it first in our mind and heart, and then publicly, always maintaining respect for the august office of the papacy.
The pope is human. He can sin, he can even go to hell—only neo-Catholics and sedevacantists would say otherwise. And when God allows a bad pope, we must not succumb to the all-too-human reactions of anger and bitterness. Instead, and with deep sorrow in our hearts, we must double our prayers and sacrifices for the conversion of the Pope, just as children of a bad and scandalous father must recognize his errors and then continue to love him and pray for him.
As victim of the deceit created by Modernists, we pray for the liberation of Pope Leo XIV from his spiritual captivity. We pray God to help him recognize the clarity, integrity and beauty of the Faith and Liturgy of all ages, and start to confirm the entire Church in Faith and to provide her with faithful shepherds who are truly men of God, defenders of the Catholic Faith, and mortal enemies of any collaboration with the ideological agenda of the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
That is what we must do. And that is what the five thousand did in Rome last month, when they expressed gratitude to Pope Leo for having liberated the Mass in his own Basilica, prayed for him, and then sent a message to the whole world that it’s the Mass that matters—even more than popes and princes—because in and of itself the Latin Mass has the God-given power to confuse the tongues of the builders of the new Tower of Babel and make men into saints, sons of God, and heirs of heaven.
More than anything else on earth, the Latin Mass will restore all things in Christ.
