Having thus considered the characteristics of Our Lady’s dolours, we must now pass to a peculiarity of them, which it is necessary always to bear in mind, namely, their union with the intensest joy.

That her dolours were accompanied throughout with floods of heavenly joy, she herself revealed to St. Bridget. But indeed it could not be otherwise. Can we suppose it possible that a sinless rational creature can ever be otherwise than bathed in joy?

Beatitude is the life of God, and it is out of that life that torrents of gladness inundate His whole creation. It is sin only that brings sorrow, and if the sins of others can make the sinless grieve, they can never interfere with that abiding gladness deep down, which union with God must of necessity produce. Moreover there is no merit where there is no love.

If Our Lady’s dolours had not risen out of her love and been animated by it, they would not have been meritorious. But in truth love was the very cause of them. Out of the excess of love came the excess of sorrow. Now it is undeniable that love cannot exist without delectation. Love is of itself essentially a joy; and in proportion to the eminence of our Mother’s love must also be the eminence of her celestial joy. To sorrow and rejoice at once is possible even for us, whose inward life sin has distracted, and made irregular and uncompact.

We have all of us done so, even though our sensitive nature is a battle-field where the struggles are quickly over, and one or other of the contending passions is left master of the field. But it is in Jesus and Mary that this perfect union of the uttermost of joy and sorrow has taken place, and been an abiding, lifelong, normal state. It is one of the most remarkable phenomena of the Incarnation, and has seemed, in our Lord’s lower Nature, to be a sort of adumbration of His union of Two Natures in one Person.

It is also one of His characteristics in which He has given His Mother largely to participate. In His Passion He restrained His Divinity, and would not let it sensibly penetrate His Human Nature with its light and glory. Nay, He even laid His hand upon that Beatific Vision, which was due to His Sacred Humanity, and which was uncloudedly before His Soul from the first moment of His Incarnation, and would not allow it to include within its sphere of gladness His sensitive nature, lest it should blunt His suffering: and quench the fire of His great agony.

So, in her measure, our Blessed Lady in the depths of her soul was filled with gladness because of her intimate union with God, and yet the gladness had a sphere of its own, and was not allowed to break out with its vast world of light, so at least as to banish all sorrow from the heart. As was said before, her joy, so far from alleviating her sufferings, probably made her suffer more.

But once again we must remember it was not with her as with the martyrs. They sang among the fires and exulted among the panthers, because their soul was all whole and joyous, while their flesh was torn and their bones broken. But with her the soul was the chief sufferer ; and joy and sorrow divided it against itself. This was nearer to a mystery. Indeed it was a true participation in the characteristics of Jesus, a cleaving asunder of the soul without disturbing its simplicity, a division without sedition, a wound which was a new life, a battle while all was harmony and peace.

O Mother! we cannot tell how it was, only that so it wasl Thou wert all joy, and being so near God, how couldst thou help but be so? Thou wert all sorrow, and what else couldst thou be in those dark abysses of the Passion? And thy sorrow had no power over thy joy; but thy joy had power over thy sorrow, and gave it a brisker acid, a more volatile and pervasive bitterness ! Glad creature I sorrow crushed thee, and then a joy, like that of heaven, sat upon thy burden, and made it tenfold more hard to bear.

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Yet we are hardly doing justice to her sorrows, when we say that they had no influence upon her joys. Doubtless they increased them, and were to her the fountains of new joys which she had never had before, or of new degrees of old accustomed joys. It is not as if her joy and sorrow were two oceans in her soul, which had no mutual inlets, and did not commingle with each other, or ebb and flow in sympathy.

So far from that, there is a sense in which we might say that her sorrow and her joy were almost identical; for her joys were sorrows, and her sorrows joys. They might be the one or the other, according to the double life that was in them. Truly in her sorrows were many reasons for joy, such as the grandest and happiest archangel of heaven has not in himself. If we look long at the darkness of Calvary, a beautiful light breaks out of its gloomiest centre.

What is it all but a magnificent reparation of the Divine Honour? Not Michael, when flushed with triumphant sanctity he drove usurping Lucifer out of heaven, so rejoiced in the honour of God, as Mary did. She, who had been allowed to fathom sin so deeply, and who in the spirit of Gethsernane had tasted somewhat of the Father’s anger, could exult in the satisfaction of His justice, as neither angel nor saint could do. She, who had lived thirty-three years with Jesus and had caught from Him His passionate yearning for His Father’s honour, could find depths of blissful congratulation in the restoring of that honour, which not all creatures together could discover. Sometimes there has been a minutest drop of that joy in our hearts, and we know what it was like, but could not tell even if we would. O for that land, where it will be an unchecked, eternal habit!

There was joy too through all the immense wisdom with which God had endowed her, because of the divine wisdom which was apparent to her in the whole scheme of our redemption. There was not a cavern of shame, but it was illuminated by several of the divine perfections, shedding over it a perfect blaze of beautiful splendour. There was not a physical horror in the Passion, from which an unloving faith shrinks back in vulgar fastidiousness, but was clothed with a strange loveliness out of the treasures of the divine mind and will.

The science of the Incarnation never came out, even to her, in such amazing, fascinating clearness as it did in her Compassion, with all its reasons, possibilities, adaptations, and conveniences. The sight she saw would have been enough to feed the worship of the nine choirs of angels for ever.

“Of Mary, one can never say enough” is the phrase attributed to St Bernard of Clairvaux and which is the title given to a two-day event held in the shadow of the Vatican in a few weeks time.

Headlined by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke and Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the conference is notable for the high-level nature of its discussion and speakers. Also forming part of the programme is prominent Italian historian Professor Roberto de Mattei, respected theologian Fr Thomas Crean, OP, leading Mariologist Fr Manfred Hauke, the theologian of the papal household Fr Wojciech Giertych and the Vicar General for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, Monsignor Schmitz.

The conference, held in the Augustinianum right next to the Vatican, will be in Italian, English and French on October 7 and 8. Solemn, pontifical Vespers the day before will be offered by Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney.

Interviewed by the Catholic Herald, organisers expressed the hope that it would “give rise to a renewed love for Our Lady and a deeper awareness of the role she plays in the life of the Church and of every Christian.”

The interview, published by this correspondent at the Catholic Herald, can be read in full here. Readers wishing to fully subscribe to the Herald can do so using the code FULTON50, giving a year at half price.

Dear brothers and sisters, I would like to thank Senator Simone Pillon, the speakers, and the participants in the Assisi 2026 roundtables.

The topic assigned to me is the relationship between the Christian West, post-humanism, and Islam in light of the lesson of St. Francis, who invited the sultan to convert.

Today we are facing an unprecedented identity crisis. The Christian West is no longer merely threatened by external forces, but is being eroded by an internal apostasy. We are witnessing the triumph of post-humanism: a nihilistic ideology that, in its attempt to emancipate humanity from God, ends up destroying humanity itself, reducing it to manipulable matter, to an algorithm among algorithms, and depriving it of its dignity as the image and likeness of the Creator.

On the other hand, we are witnessing the vigorous expansion of Islam, a faith that—unlike our secularized West—is not ashamed of God, is not ashamed of transcendence, but proposes an anthropology and a revelation radically different from those of Christianity.

In this scenario, the question we ask ourselves is crucial: is the lesson of St. Francis of Assisi—who, eight hundred years ago, went to Sultan Malik al-Kamil and invited him to convert to Christ—still valid?

The answer from Catholic theology and right reason is unequivocal: yes, it is not only valid, but urgent and indispensable.

Today, unfortunately, a certain sentimental and relativist trend has portrayed St. Francis as a precursor of modern syncretism, a prophet of pacifist dialogue as an end in itself, where all religions are equivalent and none possesses the truth. This is a historical and theological falsification! Francis did not go to Egypt to launch a diplomatic salon or to confirm the Sultan in his faith. Francis went to the Sultan driven by love for souls and by the unshakable certainty that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of mankind. True love for others does not consist in leaving them in error, but in proclaiming to them the Truth that sets them free.

The call to conversion is not an act of hostility, nor a legacy of medieval intolerance. On the contrary, it is the highest act of charity.

If we look at post-humanism, the West has lost its faith because it has lost its reason. We think we can redefine human nature, marriage, life, and death. Faced with this spiritual void, Islam appears to many as a solid rock. But the answer to Western nihilism cannot be submission to a conception of God that separates faith from reason, or that conceives of divine omnipotence as pure arbitrariness.

St. Francis’s lesson to the Sultan reminds us that the alternative to nihilism is not fundamentalism, but Christ, the incarnate Logos. In Christ, divine reason becomes flesh and reveals itself as Love.

Interreligious dialogue, if it is to be authentic and respectful of human dignity, cannot be based on disguising one’s own identity. Muslims do not respect a weak Christianity that is ashamed of the Cross and reduces itself to a charity organization or an environmental watchdog. They respect those who believe. St. Francis showed respect for the Sultan precisely because he spoke to him with the parrhesia of the Holy Spirit, offering his own life as a witness.

We can do the same, offering to people of the Muslim faith who come to our countries what we have that is most precious: conversion to faith in the one true God.

Dear friends, the West will save itself from post-humanism and will not be assimilated by other faiths only if it rediscovers the courage of mission. We must not be afraid to proclaim Christ’s social kingship. We must return to saying, with the same humility and the same zeal as the Poor Man of Assisi, that outside of Jesus Christ there is no salvation.

The conversion that Francis asked of the Sultan is the very same conversion that we must ask today, first and foremost, of ourselves, of a Europe that has renounced its roots, and of every person who seeks the truth. “Only if the West puts God back at the center will humanity once again become truly human.”

The full text sent by His Eminence to Per Mariam, is found below. {To read a Catholic Herald summary report on the speech, click here}

The First Saturdays Devotion: The Efficacious Response to the Present Crisis in the Church and the World

Thank you for the kind introduction. I thank, in a special way, His Excellency, The Most Reverend Johannes Willibrordus Maria Hendriks, Bishop of Haarlem-Amsterdam, for his most warm welcome to the Diocese and his invitation to offer, this morning, the Pontifical Mass in your most beautiful Cathedral Basilica of Saint Bavo. I am likewise deeply grateful to all who have labored to make possible my visit to the Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam, yesterday and today. I have prayed, especially in the offering of the Holy Mass, that God will bless the Diocese with a new flowering of the Catholic faith as it is so magnificently manifested in the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Bavo.

Conscious, with you, of the most serious challenges which the Church confronts in a totally secularized society and which each of us faces in our personal lives, I wish to speak with you about the First Saturdays Devotion, repeatedly requested by Our Lady of Fatima, as the efficacious response to the present crisis in the Church and in the world. I will also speak briefly about the devotion to Saint Peregrine Laziosi as a powerful means of obtaining divine grace in confronting the grave illness of cancer, which is the Black Plague of our time.

On December 10, 1925, the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the Infant Jesus at her side and resting on a bright cloud, appeared to the Servant of God Lucia dos Santos, the surviving shepherd child of Fatima who was at the time a Postulant with the Sisters of Saint Dorothy in Pontevedra, Spain. Our Lady rested one of her hands on the shoulder of Lucia and with the other hand showed Lucia her Immaculate Heart encircled with thorns. The Child Jesus then spoke to Lucia these words: “Have compassion on the Heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.” (1)

After these words of the Infant Jesus, Our Lady spoke:

Look, my daughter, at my Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me. (2)

The words of Our Lady referred to the second part of the Secret or Message of Fatima revealed to the shepherd children of Fatima on July 13, 1917, the third of her six apparitions from May to October of that year.

At the conclusion of the apparition on July 13^th, Our Lady showed the three shepherd children, Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, and the Servant of God Lucia dos Santos, an understandably terrifying vision of Hell and spoke to them with these words:

You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. (3)

The vision of Hell is the first part of the Secret or Message.

Our Lady then made clear that the devotion to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart is a devotion of reparation for the many and grievous sins which offend the Most Sacred Heart of her Divine Son and, therefore, offend her Heart perfectly united to His Most Sacred Heart. The reparation made to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary for the grievous offense caused by our sins thus rescues souls from eternal death.

Our Lady then made known what Our Lord was asking through her apparition. She declared:

To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. (4)

While making clear the great suffering which results from a failure to practice devotion to her Immaculate Heart, Our Lady also gave words of hope:

In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc. (5)

Our Lady’s words on devotion to her Immaculate Heart are the second part of the Secret or Message.

There is also a third part of the Secret or Message, which the Servant of God Lucia only committed to writing on January 3, 1944. She wrote:

At the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated toward him from her hand. Pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: “Penance, Penance, Penance!” (6)

The Secret or Message speaks about the practical apostasy of our time, that is, the going away from Christ by many in the Church and the violence and death which are its fruit. Many, while they may not directly espouse heretical teachings, in practice reject the truth and love which flows unceasingly and immeasurably from the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Instead, they embrace the confusion, lies and violence of contemporary culture. Their lives contradict the most fundamental truths of the faith.

It is helpful to distinguish two kinds of “exterior manifestation” of apostasy, as they are set forth in the Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique. Apostasy can be manifested externally in an explicit and formal manner, “if the member of the faithful makes known by a categorical declaration or by acts which are equivalent to a declaration, that he renounces the Catholic faith.” (7) Such would be the case of a baptized Catholic who embraces Judaism or Islam or who, by declarations, writings and other means, announces himself to be a free thinker of atheist, or to belong to those who are creating a so-called new church which has broken with the Apostolic Tradition or to those who are notoriously hostile to the Catholic faith like the Freemasons.

Apostasy can also manifest itself in an implicit and interpretative manner “when a Christian without formally signifying that he renounces his faith, pretending even to treasure the title of Christian, conducts himself in such a way that one can surely conclude that he has become a stranger to the faith.” (8) Examples are those who applaud the attacks of impiety against religion, who mock the pastors of the Church, who deride the institutions of the Church, above all, her sacred rites, or who propose or support legislation contrary to divine law or against the Church. “There is in these exterior manifestations, when they are conscious and above all repeated, the proof that the faith has disappeared from the hearts of those who make themselves culpable for them. It is implicit apostasy.” (9)

In short, “[a]postasy is a sin against the faith, since it rejects revealed doctrine; against religion, because it denies to God true worship; against justice, since it violates the promises of the Christian.” (10) Referring to a modern author, Jean-François Badet, who calls apostasy “spiritual suicide,” the Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique declares: “This ‘spiritual suicide’ is, after the hatred of God, the most grave of sins, for it more completely and definitively than the faults simply opposed to the moral virtues separates the powers of the human soul, intelligence and will, from God.” (11) It is clear that apostasy, either explicit or implicit, leads hearts away from the Immaculate Heart of Mary and, thus, from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the only font of our salvation. In that regard, as the Message of Fatima makes, the pastors of the Church, who in some way cooperate with apostasy, also by their silence, bear a most heavy burden of responsibility.

The third part of the Secret or Message described the martyrdom of those remaining true to Our Lord, those of one heart, in Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, with His Most Sacred Heart. The Servant of God Lucia writes that beneath the two arms of “a big cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork tree with the bark … there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in their hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.” (12) As is clear from Our Lady’s message, only the Faith, which places man in the relationship of unity of heart with the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the mediation of her Immaculate Heart, can save man from the chastisements which rebellion against God necessarily brings upon its perpetrators and upon the whole of society. It is also clear that living the Faith in a totally secularized culture means readiness to accept indifference, ridicule, misunderstanding, persecution, exile and even death, in order to remain one with Christ in the Church under the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Through the call for reparation and penance, Our Lady shows the way to salvation from eternal death, the fruit of mortal sin.

Regarding the Devotion of the First Saturdays, the Servant of God Lucia received a second vision of the Child Jesus on February 15, 1926, just some two months after the vision of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, with the Infant Jesus at her side on a bright cloud. In the vision of February 15, 1926, when the Servant of God observed to the Child Jesus that her confessor had declared that the devotion of the First Saturdays was not lacking in the world, He replied:

It is true, my daughter, that many souls begin them, but few finish them, and those who do finish them, do so to receive the graces that are promised. It would please me more if they did five decades with fervor and with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of their heavenly Mother, than if they did fifteen decades in a tepid and indifferent manner. (13)

In both the apparitions of December 10, 1925, and of February 15, 1926, Our Lady made clear the substance of the devotion of the First Saturdays: 1) a profound realization of how sin offends Our Lord and His Immaculate Mother, 2) a humble and contrite heart which strives to make reparation for sins committed and the offense they cause to Our Lord and His Immaculate Mother, and 3) trust in the promise which accompanies the devotion, that is, Our Lady’s promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, those who observe the First Saturdays with true repentance and desire of reparation. The devotion is not an isolated act but expresses a way of life, namely, daily conversion of heart to Christ’s Most Sacred Heart, under the maternal guidance and care of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Our Lady’s insistence on the devotion of the First Saturdays is a wonderful expression of her unfailing maternal love. She appeared at Fatima to the three shepherd children and at Pontevedra to the Servant of God Lucia dos Santos to show her children the way to freedom from the rebellion before God, which is grievous sin with its fruit, eternal death.

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Through the devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, especially the devotion of the First Saturdays, the promise of Our Lord made through the Prophet Isaiah is realized: “For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.” (14) It was fulfilled, first of all and most perfectly of all, in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary by her irreplaceable cooperation in the Mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation. It is to be fulfilled in each of our lives as co-workers, with the Virgin Mother of God in her Divine Son’s work of the Redemption. As Saint Paul wrote at the beginning of the Letter to the Colossians:

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church, of which I became a minister according to the divine office which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now made manifest to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ. (15)

It is not that the Sacrifice of Our Lord is in any way defective. It is perfect and procures divine grace and eternal life for all who unite themselves to Our Lord in His Sacrifice. All that is lacking is our wholehearted participation in Our Lord’s Sacrifice, our daily taking up the Cross and following Him. (16)

Even as Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, participates in the work of the Redemptive Incarnation in an altogether unique manner, that is, by conceiving God the Son in her Immaculate Womb by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, so we are called to be co-workers with Christ in the truth. (17) Each of us, in accord with our vocation and with the particular gifts with which God has called to life, is called to cooperate with divine grace and so to give glory to God and to work for the salvation of the world. The Blessed Virgin Mary is Co-Redemptrix, that is, she participates in Our Lord’s saving work, in a unique way. We are, in virtue of Baptism and Confirmation, co-redeemers, that is, we participate in Our Lord’s saving work by sanctifying the portion of His vineyard, which He has entrusted into our care.

As the account of the Finding of Our Lord in the Temple teaches us, the Virgin Mother of God was always treasuring the mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation in her heart. (18) She maternally draws our hearts to her Immaculate Heart, so that we may place our hearts ever more perfectly into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, treasuring in our hearts the great mystery of Christ alive within us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we, under the maternal care of Our Lady, will give powerful witness in the world to Christ, to His divine truth and divine love, even at the cost of indifference, ridicule, misunderstanding, persecution, and death. Thus, by God’s grace, through the intercession of the Mother of God, Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse, and all the saints, the evils of the present time will be overcome and the world will be prepared to welcome the Bridegroom at His coming on the Last Day. (19)

Following the question-and-answer period after my presentation, you will have the opportunity to venerate a relic from the bones of Saint Peregrine Laziosi. Born of a wealthy family at Forli, Italy, in 1260, Saint Peregrine, as a youth, was an active member of the anti-papal party. During a political demonstration, to which Saint Philip Benizi was sent as a mediator by the Pope, Peregrine struck Saint Phil0ip on the0 face. Following the incident, Peregrine repented, converted to Catholicism, and eventually entered the religious order of Servants of Mary or Servites. Ordained a priest, he was known for the excellence of his preaching and for his goodness as a confessor.

One of the special penances he imposed on himself was to stand whenever it was not necessary to sit. When tired, he would support himself on a choir stall. At the age of 60, he developed a cancerous infection in his right leg. His condition deteriorated to the point that the physician decided to amputate his leg. The night before the operation, Saint Peregrine prayed before a fresco of the Crucifixion in the chapter room of the monastery. He fell into a deep sleep during which he seemed to see Jesus descend from the cross to touch his leg. The following day, when the doctor was going to do the amputation, he could find no sign of the cancer. He died of a fever on May 1, 1345, at the age of 84. At the time of his death and burial, and to the present, many healings have been associated with his intercession. He was canonized a saint by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726. He is the patron of cancer patients.

The plague of cancer seems to spread more and more in our time. Let us invoke the intercession of Saint Peregrine Laziosi, venerating the relic from his bones, on behalf of the many who suffer with cancer. Let us ask Saint Peregrine to protect us from all forms of cancer and to guide physicians and other healthcare workers in their care of the victims of cancer. May our veneration of the relic of Saint Peregrine Laziosi bring many blessings to those whom we are remembering as wed venerate his relic.

Let us, with hearts united to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, lift up to Lord the love which inspires the devotion of the First Saturdays in reparation of the offense which our sins give to His Most Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart of His Virgin Mother. Let us commit ourselves to the devotion of the First Saturdays and the way of life, the way of divine love, which it expresses. Let us trust that through the confession of our sins and Holy Communion – the most perfect communion of our hearts with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus – , and through the meditation on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, the mysteries of our communion with the Lord – the Mystery of Faith – , we will be purified of sin and confirmed in grace to be His faithful “fellow workers in the truth” (20) for the salvation of the world.

Thank you for your kind attention. May God bless you and your homes.

Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE

Footnotes:

¹ “… tem pena do Coração da Tua Mãe Santíssima, que está coberto de espinhos que os homens ingratos a todos os momentos Lhe cravam, sem haver quem faça um ato de reparação para os tirar.” Carmelo de Coimbra, Um caminho sob o olhar de Maria. Biografia da Irmã Maria Lúcia de Jesus e do Coração Imaculado (Marco de Canaveses: Edições Carmelo, 2013), p. 168. [Hereafter, Carmelo]. English translation: Carmel of Coimbra, A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary: Biography of Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart, O.C.D., tr. James A. Colson (Washington, NJ: World Apostolate of Fatima, USA, 2015), p. 158. [Hereafter, CarmeloEng].

² “Olha minha filha, o Meu Coração Cercado de espinhos, que os homens ingratos a todos os momentos me cravam com blasfémias e ingratidões. Tu ao menos procura consolar-me e diz a todos aqueles que durante cinco meses, no primeiro sábado, se confessarem, recebendo a Sagrada Comunhão, rezando um terço e me fizerem quinze minutos de companhia, meditando nos mistérios do Rosário, com o fim de me desagravarem, que eu prometo assistir-lhes na hora da morte com todas as graças necessárias para a salvação das suas almas.” Carmelo, p. 168. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 158.

³ “Vistes o inferno, para onde vão as almas dos pobres pecadores; para as salvar, Deus quer estabelecer no mundo a devoção a Meu Imaculado Coração. Se fizerem o que Eu vos disser, salvar-se-ão muitas almas e terão paz. A guerra vai acabar. Mas, se não deixarem de ofender a Deus, no reinado de Pio XI começará outra pior. Quando virdes uma noite alumiada por uma luz desconhecida, sabei que é o grande sinal que Deus vos dá de que vai a punir o mundo de seus crimes, por meio da guerra, da fome e de perseguições à Igreja e ao Santo Padre.” Carmelo, p. 63. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 68.

⁴ “Para a impedir, virei pedir a consagração da Rússia a Meu Imaculado Coração e a Comunhão reparadora nos primeiros sábados. Se atenderem a Meus pedidos, a Rússia se converterá e terão paz; se não, espalhará seus erros pelo mundo, promovendo guerras e perseguições à Igreja. Os bons serão martirizados, o Santo Padre terá muito que sofrer, várias nações serão aniquiladas.” Carmelo, p. 63. English translation: CarmeloEng, pp. 68-69.

⁵ “Por fim, o Meu Imaculado Coração triunfará. O Santo Padre consagrar-Me-á a Rússia que se converterá e será concedido ao mundo algum tempo de paz. Em Portugal se conservará sempre o dogma da Fé, etc.” Carmelo, p. 64. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 69.

⁶ “Vimos ao lado esquerdo de Nossa Senhora um pouco mais alto um Anjo com uma espada de fogo em a mão esquerda; ao cintilar, despedia chamas que parecia iam incendiar o mundo; mas apagavam-se como o contacto do brilho que da mão direita expedia Nossa Senhora ao seu encontro: O Anjo apontando com a mão direita para a terra, com voz forte disse: Penitência, Penitência, Penitência!” Carmelo, p. 64. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 69.

⁷ “… le fidèle fait connaitre par une déclaration catégorique ou par des actes qui équivalent à une déclaration, qu’il renonce à la foi catholique.” Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, Tome premier (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1903), col. 1603. [Hereafter, DTC]. English translation by author.

⁸ “… quand un chrétien, sans signifier formellement qu’il renonce à sa croyance, prétendant même garder son titre de chrétien, se conduit de telle sorte qu’on peut conclure sûrement qu’il est devenu éstranger à la foi.” DTC, col. 1603. English translation by author.

⁹ “Il y a dans ces manifestations extérieures, quand elles sont réfléchies et surtout répétées, la preuve que la foi a disparu des cœurs qui s’en rendent coupables.” DTC, col. 1603. English translation by author.

¹⁰ “L’apostasie est un péché contre la foi, puisqu’elle rejette la doctrine révélée ; contra la religion, puisqu’elle refuse à Dieu le culte vrai ; contre la justice, puisqu’elle foule aux pieds les promesses du chrétien.” DTC, col. 1604. English translation by author.

¹¹ “Ce « suicide religieux » est, après la haine de Dieu, le plus grave des péchés, parce que plus complètement et plus définitivement que les fautes simplement opposées aux vertus morales, il sépare de Dieu le puissances de l’âme humaine, intelligence et volonté.” DTC, col. 1604. English translation by author.

¹² “… una grande Cruz de troncos toscos como se fora de sobreiro com a casca … estavam dois Anjos cada um com um regador de cristal em a mão, neles recolhiam o sangue dos Mártires e com ele regavam as almas que se aproximavam de Deus.” Carmelo, p. 64. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 69.

¹³ “É verdade, minha filha, que muitas almas os começam, mas poucas os acabam e as que os terminam é com o fim de receberem as graças que aí estão prometidas; e me agradam mais as que fizerem os 5 com fervor e com o fim de desgravar o Coração da Tua Mãe de Céu, que as que fizerem os 15, tíbios e indiferentes.” Carmelo, p. 171. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 160.

¹⁴ Is 61, 10-11.

¹⁵ Col 1, 24-28.

¹⁶ Cf. Lk 9, 23-24.

¹⁷ Cf. 3 Jn 8.

¹⁸ Lk 2, 51.

¹⁹ Cf. Mt 25, 13.

²⁰ Cf. 3 Jn 8.

As of last week, the Catholic world has now received firm evidence that the Sino-Vatican deal has failed. It is a striking claim, but it is well grounded. But it has passed relatively un-noticed by the Catholic world at large.

First signed in 2018 as a “provisional agreement,” the deal between Beijing and the Holy See regarding the appointment of bishops was described by Pope Francis at the time as “writing this new chapter of the Catholic Church in China.”

He stated that “the Agreement sets out stable elements of cooperation between the state authorities and the Apostolic See, in the hope of providing the Catholic community with good shepherds.”

Explaining his attention to the Church in China and implementing the deal, Francis defended it as rooted in the search for unity:

“Precisely for the sake of supporting and promoting the preaching of the Gospel in China and reestablishing full and visible unity in the Church, it was essential, before all else, to deal with the issue of the appointment of bishops.”

As for its purpose, Francis added that “the Holy See has desired – and continues to desire – only to attain the Church’s specific spiritual and pastoral aims, namely, to support and advance the preaching of the Gospel, and to reestablish and preserve the full and visible unity of the Catholic community in China.”

Renewed every two years since 2018, the deal was most recently extended for a 4-year term in 2024, meaning that the next time it is due to renewal it will have been in force for a decade.

Despite that, the deal has remained highly confidential. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin has defended this aspect. “The text is confidential because it has not yet been finally approved,” the Vatican press corps was told in summer 2023.

As Per Mariam readers will be well aware, the Sino-Vatican deal remains one of the most controversial points of Pope Francis’ legacy. Local Catholics described it as a Vatican betrayal of them; China experts warned that Church was caving to Communist China; politicians in numerous countries and international human rights bodies have also slated the deal. Indeed the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China has reported that Christian persecution has increased as a direct result of the deal.

Despite this, the Holy See has remained firm in its defence and continuation in exercising the deal. China continues to hold the upper hand as it nominates and selects bishops, leaving the Vatican the mere token duty of approving the candidate. But, as the Chinese-state church demonstrates in its own details, it does not publicly acknowledge the role of the Holy See.

Secret consecrations

Recent days have now put the final nail in the coffin of any debate regarding the efficacy of the deal, as an Underground bishop revealed that bishops are being consecrated in secret for the Underground Church.

Interviewed by Catholic World Report, the anonymous prelate stated that in order to “assure the survival of China’s Church,” the Underground has been secretly consecrating bishops for the Church which is loyal to Rome.

Though he was unsure, or unwilling, to give precise figures, the bishop said that “at least ten new bishops” had been consecrated for his province alone. Per Mariam has been informed that most of the consecrations took place in the last year.

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The 2018 Sino-Vatican deal ushered in “a state of emergency” to the Church in China, the bishop added.

He further noted that Chinese Catholics are still hurting from the deal – quite aside from active persecution – and “question Rome’s genuine concern for their spiritual well-being when the Holy See approves of government-selected bishops who are suspiciously reliable to the state.”

“They wonder, who is the pope in China? Xi Jinping or Pope Leo XIV?”

The Holy See Press Office has still not replied to questions from this correspondent regarding whether the Pope knew of the consecrations, or had approved them, or if the Vatican was entirely oblivious. Now that the secret consecrations have been revealed, it is important for the Church to know if the Vatican approved them or not, and how much it knew.

But even without receipt of these answers, the Underground Church has demonstrated that the Holy See’s policy with China is fundamentally flawed. For years politicians and activists have been saying so, and now the Underground Church is proving it by its daily life.

Just after the deal was signed in 2018, AsiaNews reported that Underground Catholics felt betrayed by the Vatican. It appears that feeling has only increased.

Not only that, but the Underground fears for the integrity of the faith. Hence why a “state of emergency” has been invoked as bishops seeks to prioritise the passing on of the Catholic faith rather than the creed polluted with Communism which Beijing demands.

Pope Francis wrote in 2018 that the deal was intended “to attain the Church’s specific spiritual and pastoral aims, namely, to support and advance the preaching of the Gospel, and to reestablish and preserve the full and visible unity of the Catholic community in China.” The Underground has proved that the deal has missed its mark entirely.

Returning to whether the Vatican did indeed know about the secret consecrations, the answer which would leave the Holy See in the most favourable light is that Rome was unaware. For this to be the most favourable option might seem strange, but one must remember the facts.

Religious watchdogs have consistently reported that Christian persecution in China has increased precisely because of the deal. If the Vatican knew that the deal had failed – to the extent that Underground bishops were required to be secretly consecrated in order to preserve the faith – and yet kept renewing it, then the Holy See would be complicit in the persecution of its own flock.

Strange as it might seem, Catholics ought thus to hope that the Holy See only learned about the secret consecrations at the same time as everyone else.

As for the future, it is clear that the Underground both loves but mistrusts Rome. It loves the Holy See enough to risk persecution in order to be loyal to the Church, but mistrusts the Vatican’s policies and episcopal choices. The Underground knows what it has done all along – namely that the Vatican cannot expect to make a deal with Beijing and emerge victorious.

It is not until 2028 that the Sino-Vatican is next up for renewal. Pope Leo will face a momentous choice at that stage, between taking a courageous stance and rejecting it, or consigning Chinese Catholics to yet more persecution. Inaction leads to Chinese control and being complicit in the persecution of the Church.

The fate of China’s Catholics and the Vatican’s moral integrity rely upon the Holy See rejecting the ill-fated deal.

From August 24 to 28, Archbishop Richard Gallagher conducted a visit to Moscow, with his schedule including politicians, ecumenical leaders and local Catholics. Gallagher serves as the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organization, and as such his visit to Moscow bore particular significance.

The English archbishop has not set foot in the country since the tail-end of 2021, meaning that this was his first visit in Russia since the outbreak of war with Ukraine in February 2022.

Gallagher does not cut an imposing figure. One of the few Vatican officials sporting a beard, the diplomat conveys a quiet confidence rather than a domineering presence. But that did not ring true for his speech to the assembled media, following the highly anticipated meeting with Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. His prepared text was vivacious and firm.

The rest of this correspondent’s report, originally published on the Catholic Herald, is found at this link.

Shortly after the signing of the Vatican’s secret deal with China in 2018, Catholics in the Underground Church professed to feeling betrayed. AsiaNews – a site that regularly documents the abductions and torturing of underground Catholics – reported that “Underground Catholics bitterly suspect that the Vatican has abandoned them.”

Since then, the Chinese government’s process of Sinicization – by which China subverts religions to the control of the Communist state – has proliferated and persecution of the Underground Church loyal to Rome has also increased.

“It is the government that China’s Catholics today resist, not their fellow faithful,” said an un-named Chinese bishop as part of a detailed analysis published recently by Catholic World Report. …

The rest of this correspondent’s report, originally published on the Catholic Herald, is found at this link.

Closing his series of catechetical talks on Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium, Pope Leo tackled a chief underlying element behind the previous number of speeches – namely examining the rationale behind Vatican II’s promotion of a liturgical reform. In doing so, he drew from the Council text itself, but also from Pope Paul VI’s writings while still Cardinal Montini, along with Pope Pius XII’s reforms to the Holy Week liturgies.

In Leo’s assessment, the liturgical reform is built around Montini’s argument that the liturgy must demand more specific participation from the congregation. Quoting directly from the future Paul VI’s 1962 letter, Leo stated that Catholics “cannot and must no longer remain silent and passive. Their physical presence cannot be reconciled with their spiritual absence.”

The rest of this correspondent’s report, originally published on the Catholic Herald, is found at this link.

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