Oh, get a life.
It's funny.
Frankly, I'm more offended by the man who wore it for the past twelve years.
“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, 'You are mad; you are not like us.” ― St. Antony the Great
Oh, get a life.
It's funny.
Frankly, I'm more offended by the man who wore it for the past twelve years.
May he have repented for 12 years of horror, and may God have mercy on his soul.
On November 16, 1955, Pope Pius XII issued Maxima Redemptionis Nostrae Mysteria on the reform of Holy Week and the Triduum. Those attending the Holy Triduum according to the Pian reforms of 1955 experience an abridged liturgy. Having undertaken the music and liturgical planning for both, there is no doubt, at least in my opinion, that the structural reforms were unnecessary and represent a significant loss and disconnect. What was necessary, in my view, was a restoration of the hours so that the liturgical action coincided with that of the LORD's suffering and ancient practice and shedding the ridiculous practice of Holy Thursday in the morning and the Vigil eliminated on Holy Saturday to a morning service for the very reasons the Pope described in the above linked document. Further, the structure of society was changing, and the faithful could no longer attend these sacred services. They became the realm of clericalists.
The current Pope, Francis, granted permission for the pre-55 Holy Week to be used on an experimental basis for three years by the FSSP. The ICRSS has, for many years, conducted the services according to the older books. This experimental permission was not granted to diocesan priests. However, both of these used the prior liturgical books, but with the new hours as evidenced here:
The very idea that in 2025 a Holy Thursday Mass and procession is held after noon at 3 o'clock or Good Friday at 8 o'clock at night is a direct contradiction of Pope Pius XII and every pope that has come after. It is an insult to the liturgy and to the people who cannot attend these hours. It is completely in defiance of Pope Pius XII and the rubrical law for either the Missal of Pius XII, John XXIII or Paul VI. Interpreting liturgical rubrics of prostration meant for clerics to the people forcing people who may not be able to get down or get up to prostrate to kiss and venerate the cross, is an abomination to human dignity, weight, age, even back-braces don't matter. The blatant passing on the requirement to "name" the present Pope in the public prayers is completely and utterly reprehensible within the Roman Catholic liturgy, no matter what one may think of the actions of any current Pontiff and reveals a serious deficiency in thinking.
Sadly, clericalism and fetishism have both invaded the traditional movement.
Dear Vox Cantoris readers:
Two years ago today we were in Easter week of 2023. A good friend of ours and someone familiar with most of the Latin Mass communities of Toronto, both diocesan and SSPX, was struck ill. From that week, the financial appeal above was posted here. You and others have come through in two years to just under the goal of $50,000.00. Andrew has asked me to publish this letter in gracious thanksgiving for your kindness. Andrew is not asking, but I am, please click here or on the above and bring us well over $50,000.00.
God bless you all.
Dear friends,
It's been two years, almost to the day since I fell into a life-threatening illness and bearing a new burden after the more significant cross of widowerhood two years previous. Amidst all this, the support offered to our child and family is beyond human measure and continues in our lives as we claw back from the brink of the abyss: the never-ending battle!
In the wake of my more recent hospitalisation this past autumn, the blessings in my own life are still more than I can count with so many reasons to be grateful for what I have been freely given by God and the intercession of neighbours: a spirit of Charity not outdone in generosity! This informal group of prayer, penances, and almsgiving rallying around our family continues to amaze and humble me. Hence, the bud of a new Apostolate of Gratitude has taken root and expression in a modest Devotion flourishing within our home amidst these latter-day calamities.
This Apostolate of Gratitude has one purpose: the giving of thanks to the Triune God, nothing more or less or besides. (1 Tim. 2:1) The giving of Thanks, the handmaiden of Adoration and Contrition and steward of Supplication, runs contrary to our troubled modern times: a worldly spirit seeking instant and transitory satiation, ever-prowling and ravenous upon the sterile and malnourished.
The Method of this Devotion is found in the venerable Laudate Psalms - 148, 149, 150 - as prayed by Our Lord in the Temple during His earthly life.
The Laudate Psalms as defined here contain all that needs to be prayed for this intention, offered by the Church throughout the ages in public and private prayer. So long as an individual has access to a Psalter or Bible of sufficiently faithful translation, with uniform copies for group prayer, the Devotion may be prayed intact without worry of any obstacle.
The Devotion would ideally be prayed in a church or before an altar of Sacrifice, after the model of Our Lord Himself.
Promulgating the Devotion was brought to the attention of my Parish this past January 10th; upon Parish encouragement, a proposal was then drafted and sent for review to our national Deanery and has since been vetted for refinement and submission to the General Council of my Diocese for consideration and discernment of next steps to follow.
In the meantime, I'm compelled to foster the seedling beyond submission to my Bishop and my own daily personal practice with a proposal to those who have exercised heroic Charity to my family, and possibly expanding that prayer circle: a Novena of Gratitude, wherein the Devotion would be prayed for nine days in honour of the Holy Ghost and in union with the Nine Choirs of Angels. The Novena would start on Palm Sunday and carry us through Easter Monday, walking us through the grandest and greatest time of the Church's year and if compelled possibly beyond these exalted days to come.
To that end a modest and minimal structure is linked, emphasizing a gentle touch at most:
English Version (from the Douay-Rheims - Challoner Revision): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dy5jY364UbpZwGZognz_cCXdDZLd7Oe7SctXuj8jlCk/edit?usp=sharing
Proto-Typical Edition (Clementine Vulgate): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-RKRtBaWhcOYFTblxr-mCefSiplW6PYHCbvSad5TmeU/edit?usp=sharing
I'm really not sure where this present sharing of our Devotion will lead - I don't have clarity of vision to see if this little Devotion and Novena will "go" anywhere beyond daily practice in my own prayer life and possibly that of the one small but mighty soul under my care. But, I am compelled to transmit this presently even if the "right" words are being drawn out of me kicking and screaming. I welcome any advice and as always, prayers!
Oremus pro invicem.
Andrew Rivera
Pope St. Leo, pray for us!
As we warned, the legacy of Thomas "No Mass For You" Collins has come to fruition, and it is rotten fruit. Mass attendance is down 18%! What did he and the rest of them expect when they shut down churches five years ago this month? What did they expect when they told Catholics that Mass wasn't important enough to come to in person and that watching on television or a computer sufficed? What did they expect when they threw their lot in with globalists, communists and atheists?
A valley of tears of their own making.
A rotten tree cannot produce good fruit.
Cardinal Collins in an empty St. Michael's Cathedral, Christmas 2020
Where recent trends show Catholic Mass attendance levels in the United Kingdom and the United States have all but returned to post-pandemic levels, the Archdiocese of Toronto finds itself still with a ways to go.
The Archdiocese is witnessing approximately 18-per-cent fewer people in its parishes' pews for Mass compared to pre-pandemic years, though the faithful have slowly returned since church doors have reopened.
Statistics from the Office of Spiritual Affairs show that the recorded weekend Mass attendance in 2019 was 266,519 parishioners. As many parishes pivoted to virtual offerings following outright cancellations of Mass in 2020 when COVID shuttered the doors of churches everywhere, the number plummeted to 89,386, a decrease of more than 65 per cent.
As restrictions eased in 2021, attendance rose to 114,550 before increasing by 47.9 per cent to 169,482 in 2022. The 200,000 mark was surpassed a year later with an average of 204,713 in 2023 before climbing again to 217,780 last year.
Maribel Mayorga, director of communications for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said information on attendance numbers would be collected diocese by diocese and that no formal reporting structure to the CCCB for national numbers exists at the moment. Still, the pattern in Toronto is shared by dioceses across Canada.
It was Shrove Tuesday, which fell a few weeks earlier than this year in 2015, a decade ago. I was sitting with a colleague at lunch when an email came across the Blackberry: "Letter to Domet." What is this? I exclaimed. A letter from the prominent Toronto law firm of Fogler Rubinoff and a well-known solicitor within the Italian community named Nina Perfetto. I was being sued by Thomas J. Rosica, a Basilian priest and Executive Producer of Salt + Light Television, Vatican apparatchik, Francis minion and all-around annoying bully to anyone in his path. Within hours of the upload of the interview below, the internet went wild. Emails from all over the world, offers of financial support for the lawsuit, messages through third parties from Cardinals and Bishops in Rome and Europe, but not a thing from mine in Toronto. It was an explosion! Even the law firm was taken to task by readers around the world so much that the "pro-bono" lawsuit was quickly no longer. Fogler Rubinoff met its nightmare.
Tom Rosica, now suspended, shamed and taken down by his own actions as a serial plagiarist, (first exposed by this writer) and found to have been coming out of a "gay" bathhouse in Toronto and eventually being sued by another priest for alleged "sexual assault" finally held to some form of account.
But I did it first.
Happy Anniversary, Tom!
Pope Francis may be in his last days. What can we believe from these Rome apparatchiks? Last night's public rosary in St. Peter's Square is certainly a sign. Yet, the ghouls are out with all the speculation and inside sources. It would be a wonderful sight to see the Dean call a press conference and state, "Holy Father Francis is not expected to recover; we pray for his sweet passing to the LORD." How about that?
Instead, we have people calling for prayers for recovery and longer life. Longer life, for what? More of the last twelve years? No, thanks. I want an end to it. He is 88, he's had a long life, and if this is his time, then pray he has a Catholic death, repented with the sacraments.
After twelve years of assault on me by this Pontiff, and yes, that is how I feel and have felt nearly every day, that is the best I can do. He has disturbed my peace, slandered my work, mocked my beliefs and betrayed me in every way. When he came out that dark night in March 2013, I did not know him, but I felt sick and wanted to vomit. It lasted for hours. May he repent from his sins, may he repent from the damage done, receive the sacraments and pass in peace.
That is my hope for him. That is the best I can do.
The rest is up to God.
As a result of the lawsuit by a priest against Thomas J. Rosica for an alleged "sexual assault" of asking him to "cuddle" whilst he was wearing boxers and a T-shirt lying on a bed, I decided to write something I have been sitting on for several years. I had had enough of the cover-up and what I know that has failed to ever be addressed or acknowledged.
A story was told in The Desolate City; a book published in 1986 by Anne Roche Muggeridge of a memorandum issued by the long-ago rector of St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto. There was no internet, no email to forward news. It was an occurrence buried in the book about a scandal at the seminary which occurred in 1980 or 1981. Further research on my part uncovered an old Globe and Mail article from the later Rector, the "James Martin" of his era (1976) calling for "understanding" of gay priests and seminarians and others referring to the "fems" and the "machos," -- the nicknames of the seminarians at St. Augustine's Seminary at the time. We know what the "fems" were and, are! The big find was the actual memorandum by the Rector. I discovered an old microfiche-type story of it from a long-defunct Toronto "gay" magazine called The Body Politic. I spent much spare time transcribing it and with the continued coverup of the Rosica matters, now public including the alleged spotting going in and coming out of a "gay" bathhouse in Toronto, I had enough and I published it. There has been blowback for the disclosure. I wrote it for a few reasons the primary being the belief that Catholics of the Archdiocese of Toronto had and have a right to know what I know and what coverups have continued to occur here. (By the way, I was told by a priest that you have no right to know what I know.) The second reason was as a service to our new Archbishop, Francis Cardinal Leo. When this saga first started (with an article in the Globe and Mail by a priest who would go on to become Rector and then after being removed by Emmet Cardinal Carter due to the scandal and later returned under Cardinal Ambrozic to serve as Judicial Vicor until his retirement under Thomas Cardinal "No Mass for You" Collins) Francis Cardinal Leo was a boy of six years old in Montreal. That is how long ago this was and many of those involved then are still active. Unless he asked or some chancery minion told him of the sordid perverted "gay" history of the Archdiocese of Toronto, he would know nothing of the history or the details of some of the men still in active ministry or around him in 2024 courting his favour and seeking their influence. That post, which can be read at the link below, caused a quiet outrage. As if it were possible, I have been ostracised even more. Priests, whom I thought were friends, whom I worked with for years, supported and advised -- who ate my food, drank my wine and Oban, and relaxed in the "safe space" of the home of my wife and me, have betrayed me and revealed themselves for the cowards they are. Those whom I considered friends have abandoned me as I recall the Office of Tenebrae--"Omnes amÃci mei dereliquérunt me." As a good friend said just a few days ago when I was kvetching about the matter, "David, there is a price to pay for being a whistleblower."
Those who cover up and those who say that you do not have a right to know not only betray you, they betray Our Lord Jesus Christ because they sit by and allow the corruption to perpetuate to another generation and another and another.
When I continue to speak and hear the stories of victims right here in Toronto when I see for myself the results of abuse, the health problems--physical, psychological and even spiritual and the difficulties of PTSD on daily functioning, when I still deal with the anger due to the actions of those Toronto Basilian priests to a 13-year-old boy in 1969; when I read public letters such as this one by Lisa Roers of Elgin Nebraska or the post below by Rachel Maria Mastrogiacomo below this post, I know that my decision was the correct one and that the ostracisation and betrayals against me are a small price to pay for the truth and the ongoing shaming of abuse victims by evil churchmen and their chanceryrats.
These maggots have no place in the Church. These vile and despicable cretins deserve the Hell to which they are headed. If they repent, I trust the LORD to assign them the lowest rung of purgatory until the Second Coming and then the most distant circle of heaven. But they won't repent, they won't acknowledge what they did and continue to do. The very depths of Hell are where they are headed and what they deserve, whether they believe it exists or not.
(Caution: the letter below contains explicit language as to the abuse)
A week ago I watched a series of posts by Joseph Sciambra regarding the mocking of him by just one other Catholic grifter, Matt Fradd. Joseph Sciambra was sexually assaulted by Catholic priests and told as far as being "gay"; "God made you that way." A demonic lie, of course. Fradd took the liberty to mock Sciambra and his suffering. A disgraceful and repugnant action made worse by Fradd's continuing social media commentary.
Rachel Maria Mastrogiacomo is a woman who was raped and assaulted by priests engaging in ritual sexual abuse.
NEWS – RACHEL MARIA MASTROGIACOMORobert McElroy covered up the crimes against Rachel and Francis rewarded him as the new Archbishop of Washington. McCarrick. Wuerl. Gregory. Now McElroy. My sympathies to the actual Catholics of the Archdiocese of Washington that you are subjected to this insanity. You are being ruled by a miscreant who has covered up abuse and violence. You are being mocked by Rome. Wear it with a badge of honour.
To my readers here in Toronto: Do you think for one moment this filth, this demonic action, these lies and cover-ups of the sodomites in the Church here and abuse did not happen? They all covered up and they continue to do it. To those of us who dare to confront it, they sanction, threaten and undertake gossip, calumny, character assassination and threats. They think they have won. They have not. They will not. They have already lost.
Do you not think that they knew all along about Tom Rosica?
How many others?
Tribus miraculis ornatum diem sanctum colimus: hodie stella magos duxit ad praesepium, hodie vinum ex aqua factum est ad nuptias, hodie in Jordane Christus baptizari voluit ut salvaret nos. Alleluia.
We
honor this holy day, adorned with three miracles: today the star led the Magi
to the manger; today water was turned into wine for the wedding; today Christ
desired to be baptized in the Jordan that he might save us. Alleluia.
INTROIT Mal. 3:1; 1 Par. 29:12
Behold, the Lord, the Ruler, is come. He has dominion over all, and in His hand is power and might.Ps. 71:2. O God, with Your judgment endow the king, and with Your justice, the kings son. V. Glory be . . .
COLLECT
O God, who by the star this day revealed Your only-begotten Son to all nations, grant that we, who know You now by faith, may be brought one day before the vision of Your majesty. Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord . . .
LESSON
Isa. 60:1-6
Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side. Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense: and shewing forth praise to the Lord.
GRADUAL
Isa. 60:6, 1
All they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense, and showing forth praise to the Lord.V. Arise and be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
Alleluia,
alleluia. V. Matt. 2:2
We have seen His star in the East and have come with gifts to worship the Lord. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
Matt. 2:1-12
Now
when Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of King Herod,
behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying: "Where is
he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and
are come to adore him." And King Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all
Jerusalem with him. And assembling together all the chief priests and the
scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born. But
they said to him: "In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the
prophet: 'And thou Bethlehem the land of Juda art not the least among the
princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule
my people Israel.' " Then Herod, privately calling the wise men learned
diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them; And sending them
into Bethlehem, said: Go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you
have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him.
Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the East, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, (here, genuflect) and falling down they adored him: and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country.
OFFERTORY
ANTIPHON Ps. 71:10-11
The kings of Tharsis and the isles shall offer gifts; the kings of Arabia and Saba shall pay Him homage, all nations shall serve Him.
SECRET
O Lord, look with favour upon the gifts offered by Your Church. It is not gold, frankincense, and myrrh that is offered now, but the King, God and Saviour, who was signified by these gifts, is Himself our Sacrifice and our Food, Jesus Christ Your Son, our Lord; who lives and rules with You . . .
COMMUNION
ANTIPHON Matt. 2:2
We have seen His star in the East and have come with gifts to worship the Lord.
POSTCOMMUNION
O
Almighty God, grant that we may understand with pure minds the revelation of
Christ which we here solemnly commemorate. Through Our Lord . . .
"I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open." Isaiah 22:22
"His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore." Isaiah 9:7
"To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Isaiah 42:7.