Cardinal Bagnasco, head of Italian Bishop's Cconference, speaks to Pope Francis

The dust is well-settled on June’s “Gay Pride” festivities held up and down the Italian peninsula. The pamphlets and confetti, condom packets and night club brochures have been swept up and the rainbow and hammer-and-sickle flags mostly put away, so we can take a look around at the general lie of the land, see which bishops said what about it in the end.

When I took photos of the Rome Pride demonstration in 2009, no one had ever even heard of anyone suggesting any response against it from the Church, either episcopal or lay. But last month a few tiny little events, barely grudgingly endorsed by a few bishops – and banned by others – went forward.

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Michael Matt prays before the statue which wept 101 times. (Photo: Walter Matt)

Michael J. Matt visits the shrine of Our Lady at Akita in Japan. There he discovers an apparent conspiracy to silence and cover up the apparitions of Our Lady to Sister Agnes Sasagawa back in 1973.

After an 11-year investigation, Bishop John Shorjiro Ito (Nilgata, Japan) approved the miracles that had happened at Akita as well as the messages given to Sr. Agnes, expressing his firm conviction that the message was essentially Our Lady's attempt to deliver the same message she'd delivered at Fatima which, according Bishop Ito, had been largely ignored.

The Infant of Prague

I have not been in Prague for twenty-something years and when beginning the walk toward the famous Charles Bridge, karluv most, I wondered if things had changed.  

Going even further back in time, I remember being here in 1990 when the iron curtain was falling down. Obviously much has changed since then. Now there was even a museum of communism within easy walking distance from our rented flat. In a way, that made me feel old. To take our children there and try to explain to them what this “communism” was all about would make a large part of my life, which was lived under the shadow of the Soviet Empire, into history. Something harmless and hard to imagine as the Habsburg Empire. Something fit for an interactive exhibition in other words. However, to me, communism still felt very much alive, a spirit that had not died and which was still preying on my mind.

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As part of the RTV documentary "Hidden Catholics," Michael J. Matt interviews one of three or four traditional Catholic priests in Japan -- Father Thomas Onada, a Japanese convert who is now a priest of the SSPX.

Every week, Father visits the small traditional Catholic remnant on an Asian circuit that includes Osaka and Tokyo, thus serving the Church as missionary priest to the 'hidden Catholics' of Japan who have kept the old Faith in a place dominated by Buddhists and Shintoists.

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Michael Matt teams up with the Oken Rekishi Kenkyukai in Tokyo for a weekend conference on the principles of the French Revolution and how they impact our world still today, 230 years later.

Michael's talk (simultaneously translated into Japanese) answers the questions: what can Catholics today learn from the French Vendeans who resisted the French Revolution to become the original Traditional Catholics?

What can the remnant of Catholic believers around the world today learn from the "first responders" against the New World Order in the Vendee as well as from “Hidden Christians” of Japan who kept the faith for over 250 years — without the mass and without priests?

A Letter From Rome . . .

A LARGE NUMBER of churches have welcomed the traditional Mass in Rome during the fifty years that have passed since the promulgation of the Novus Ordo Missae of Paul VI (3 April 1969), but the one that is most distinguished for the unbroken continuity with which the ancient Roman Rite has been celebrated there since 1969 is the Church of San Giuseppe a Capo le Case, on the Via Francesco Crispi, near the more famous Via Sistina.

The Blood of Christ, to which we owe our redemption, gives the life of each Christian a sacrifical character, as a participation in the immolation which Christ made of himself on Calvary. It is intimately linked to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of the Cross. And it is not without significance that the Church of San Giuseppe a Capo, so intimately linked to the relic of the Precious Blood, has the privilege of being the most ancient Church of Rome, where there is a regular celebration of the Holy Mass according to the ancient Roman rite.

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Reporting from Tokyo, Michael J. Matt comments on cultures largely untouched by Christianity and how they differ from, say, Europe.

As Europe and America prepare to banish Christ from their borders, what can we learn from countries such as Japan that never embraced Him? Since Catholicism is, according to its critics, responsible for all the evil in the world, is this a good thing for Japan? Do the Catholic-bashing revisionists have a point?

Traditionalists talk a lot about finding ways to return the Church – and consequently the world – to the state of Christendom in the Age of Faith. We all have dreams of recreating the glories and certainties of medieval Christendom, and some monastics – Norcia, Le Barroux, Clear Creek, the Benedictines of Mary, the Carmelite monks of Cody, Wyoming - are even going so far as to bring these dreams to reality in stone and mortar. But much as we all love pointed arches and Gregorian Chant, is it possible that these dreams are leaving out a big piece of the puzzle? At least, in terms of rebuilding larger Catholic civilisation, are we perhaps forgetting that the fruits of Christian culture presuppose a social, political and cultural context that made such physical manifestations possible?

New from Remnant TV. . . 

From the Editor's Desk, Michael J. Matt comments on veteran journalist Damion Thompson losing his job as Editor-In-Chief of the Catholic Herald for telling the truth about the Amazon Synod. So, who's next?

What's a faithful Catholic to do in the face of what Walter Cardinal Brandmuller calls "heresy" and "apostasy" at the highest levels of the Church? What does Catholic resistance to the pontificate of Francis look like?

The 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki (first victims of Japan's Catholic persecution)

This weekend, Michael J. Matt will team up with the Traditional Catholic remnant in Japan for a conference on the French Revolution.

 Michael’s talk answers the questions: What can Catholics today learn from the French Vendeans who resisted the demonic Revolution? And what can the remnant of Catholic believers learn from the “Hidden Christians” of Japan who kept the old Faith for 250 years—without the Mass and without priests?