Dr. K's Weekly Roundup, February 21 Edition

Milestones; Fore-Lent; Guitar Wonder; Francis and Vance; Liturgical Lessons; Favorite Articles & Videos; Two New Books; Holy Week

Happy feast (shortly) of the Chair of St. Peter! We’re also in the short but crucial season of Pre-Lent or Fore-Lent, also called Septuagesimatide. People ask every year why we say “Septuagesima” (70th) and “Sexagesima” (60th) and “Quinquagesima” (50th) when the numbers don’t add up. Fr. Z offers a clear and concise explanation.¹ If you wish to know more about the season itself, the only article you need to read is the one by the great Dr. Michael Foley, “Septuagesima: The Time that the Land Forgot.”

I’m back now from the pilgrimage to the isle of Sicily — which gave me a lot to ponder and, Deo volente, write about — and I’m glad not only to be back home but also to be back in my own chair, resuming the Weekly Roundup which I now really look forward to writing each week (and which I hope you enjoy receiving).

First, some good news: this past week, Tradition & Sanity surpassed 10,000 subscribers and 1,000 paid subscribers!

Right around the tipping point, a subscriber left the following message:

If you haven’t already, now’s a good time to join a growing community of readers who receive two articles per week, on Mondays and Thursdays (with voiceovers for those who prefer audio), and a wide-ranging “news and views” on Fridays. You’ll find at T&S candid discussion of a variety of subjects connected to the rich tradition of Holy Mother Church that strive to make us better instruments of Divine Providence in ensuring that it will indeed endure.

Guitar Wonder

Many of you reached out to say how much you enjoyed yesterday’s post on the three variants of Mussorgsky’s great work Pictures at an Exhibition — piano, orchestra, and rock band — even if you didn’t all agree with my callous dismissal of the last of them. Music lovers, take note of this incredible rendition of Mussorgsky on… classical guitar. Kazuhito Yamashita has to be seen and heard to be believed.

News

Obviously, the big news in the past week is Pope Francis’s health condition, which was looking quite grim, and now is looking better — though there is an old Italian joke that runs: “How’s the ailing pope doing? His condition is improving… he’s getting better all the time… the pope has died.”

All I will say is that we should pray for his repentance and conversion before he meets his maker. No man since Paul VI has done more harm to the Church; indeed, it is quite possible that no man in the history of the world has done more harm to the Body of Christ on earth than he. His mortality brings to my mind a picture of dread and desperation. But I have never hid the fact that I am praying that we be delivered from his yoke, nor is this incompatible with praying for his salvation.

The other big news is the continuing ripple effects of J.D. Vance’s invocation of the principle of “ordo amoris,” i.e., that our love has a definite order in which those closer to us deserve our acts of love prior to those who are more remote; and this applies to fellow citizens vs. immigrants — and the direct response made by Pope Francis in the form of a letter addressed to the USCCB. Much ink has been spilled over this controversy:

• The Josias ran a piece called “Ordo Amoris: Love Has an Order, Not All Are Loved Equally.” (Please note that this website is having some trouble with images, so to see the article, scroll down a bit once you get to the page.)

• R.R. Reno’s “Pope Francis’s Apocalyptic Dream.” Reno also wrote a piece called “Altar Rails and Borders” in which he makes the following startling remark: “Tell me your views on altar rails, and I can predict where you stand with regard to the increasingly grave political and cultural phenomenon of mass migration. If you think the restoration of altar rails represents a betrayal of Vatican II, I’m confident that you regard any attempt to enforce borders as anti-Christian xenophobia.”

• Samuel Gregg, “Pope Francis’s immigration letter was seriously imprudent”

• It is hard to dispute the hard-nosed reaction of Rorate Caeli: “A Sick Elderly Francis Hates America — Like Biden, Propped Up to Support Leftist Ideology.”

• On Vance’s remarkable speech in Europe, see Mick Hume, “We Stand with JD Vance Versus Europe’s ‘Enemy Within.’”

Liturgical Lessons

DiPippo & Kwasniewski on Pitre

Gregory DiPippo's five-part series at New Liturgical Movement on Dr. Brant Pitre (you can get links to all the parts here) was and is a masterful critique, but alas, not a huge number of people follow that website. Plus, by now Dr. Pitre's error-saturated video has been seen by over 38K viewers. So, in order to get the critique out there, I recorded DiPippo’s series, spruced up the video with illustrative images, and released it on my YouTube channel. Please share it. We definitely need to do our part in dismantling false narratives.

Two reviews of Two Families

Readers here will have seen me mention before Joseph Bevan’s colorful and insightful Two Families: A Memoir of English Life During and After the Council. This work has now received a pair of reviews that point to its undoubted strengths: Anthony Jones’s “The Tale of Joseph Bevan: A Trad Godfather’s Memoir” and Dorothy Cummings McLean’s “New memoir ‘Two Families’ presents Catholic social history of England in an engaging way.” As I pointed out at NLM (“Rich Historical and Religious Reflections in New Memoir of Modern English Catholicism”), Bevan’s book in fact has a lot to say about the liturgical reform, sacred music, the SSPX, and other matters of interest to readers here.

Benedictine Wisdom

If you are interested in the Benedictine tradition, the Holy Rule, the Divine Office, the monastic life, you will not want to miss “The Rhythms of Day and Night in the Rule of St. Benedict.” The genius of the Rule is evident in how its author pays attention to the role of the sun and seasonal changes, which modern religious have lost sight of, or simply ignore, in favor of following a regimented clock-dominated schedule.

Robert Keim of Via Mediaevalis is doing a whole series on St. Benedict: well worth a look, e.g., “The Cave Where Western Monasticism Was Born”; “Of Flat Characters, Round Characters, and Saints”; “The Rule of Christendom.”

Brick by brick

…or, in this case, board by board. It doesn’t take much to transform a utilitarian space into a noble setting for worship, as we can see in “Another Repurposed Space Turned into a Chapel in Tyler, Texas.”

Pray for priests

A traditional priest writes a sobering and timely article: “‘We are a target for the devil’: A traditional superior offers a survival guide for priests.”

Michael Foley

Dr. Foley continues his marvelous line-by-line commentary on the Roman Mass, with articles on the “In spiritu humilitatis,” the “contrite heart,” the “Veni, Sanctificator.”

Ghost-writer of the Ottaviani Intervention

Every traditional Catholic should know about the hidden heroine of Una Voce Italia and the principal drafter of the Short Critical Study signed by Bacci and Ottaviani. I am speaking, of course, of the one to whom Roberto de Mattei dedicates a short personal tribute: “Cristina Campo and the World of Tradition.”

Three outstanding essays

On the liturgical front, the very best writing of the past weeks has been:

• Emily Finley, “Happy Feast of St. Valentine’s Day”

• Michael Hickman, “The Novus Ordo is Rhetorical Religion”

• Stuart Chessman, “The Traditionalist Movement and the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny” (very wide-ranging and insightful analysis of the current situation in the Church)

Language games

Those who are interested in questions of language in the liturgy — which language should be used, what “register” of it, whether the notion of a reserved or sacral language is appropriate to Christianity, the role of poetry and the needs of memory, the downside of continual updating, etc. — will find this interview with Barry Spurr, author of Language in the Liturgy: Past, Present, Future, of considerable interest.

Sarum revival?

At NLM, Gregory DiPippo shares valuable photos that can serve as references for the Sarum rite as it continues to be rediscovered as a real possibility. Unfortunately, the video from which he extracted them seems to have been pulled down — odd, the way things just vanish nowadays, as if thumbscrews are being applied here, there, and everywhere.

Holy Waters

Did you know there’s not just Holy Water, but Easter Water, Gregorian Water, Epiphany Water, and a Blessing of the Sea? And do you know why we should use exclusively the old Rituale Romanum to do any blessings? Fr. Z has published a great article on all this.

Poverty and riches

“A poor church in solidarity with the poor.” The kind of bilge usually spluttered by plump progressives who skimp on splendor and splurge on self. St. John Vianney is the patron saint of parish priests and he understood a thing or two about poverty. He starved himself on potatoes but spared no expense for the House of God and the divine liturgy. Have a look at the vestments he used, made from silk, with embroidery and lace, preserved in the museum of Ars.

Similarly, here’s a companion piece about a linen alb made by St. Bernadette Soubirous, with plenty of lace, pace false papal pauperism.

A handwritten letter from Pius X

At NLM, I share a letter Pius X wrote in response to a bishop’s query. In this document we catch a glimpse of the soul of Giuseppe Sarto, who, in making his argument, cited (relatively obscure) Gregorian hymns as authorities. The letter is translated and the hymns are given in full. What fine penmanship people had back then!

Favorite Articles and Videos

Given my two week absence, this category will simply be a list of what I’ve enjoyed reading, without further commentary:

• “Architectural Modernism is Dead”: Interview with architect James McCrery

• Kevin Tierney, “Who is in Charge of the Catholic Church?”

• Michel de Jaeghere, “The Spectacle of a Double Collapse, of the Church and of the State”

• Edward Pentin, “Trump’s Early Decisions Expose Damage Caused by Vatican Complicity With Democrat-Run Globalism, Says Italian Scholar”

• Anthony Esolen, “A Plea to Good Bishops”

• Sheryl Collmer, “Bishops Burning Bridges”

• Fr. Jerry J. Pokorsky, “The Church’s Dysfunctional Culture of ‘Respect and Obedience’”

• Archbishop Héctor Aguer, “The Role of Sisters in the Church: Truly Appreciating Nuns Consists in Helping Them Live Their Own Vocation”

• Joe Heschmeyer, “The Death of Liberal Catholicism”

• Joseph Pearce, “Heroes of the Vendée”

• Julian Kwasniewski, “The Trendy Peasant”

• Hilary White, “The Art of the ‘Dark Ages’”

• John Byron Kuhner, “Tolkien Almost Wrecked The Hobbit”

• Robert Lazu Kmita, “Tolkien’s True Love”

• Robert Lazu Kmita, “Why is ‘Orthodoxy’—i.e., the True Christian Faith—Crucially Important?”

• Casey Chalk, “Uncomfortable Martyrdoms”

• Dorothy Cummings McLean, “What the Parish Dance can and can’t do”

• Jerome Stridon, “Trad Godfathers at Vatican II: Bishop Carli”

• Matthaeus Arculus, “Book Review: Something for Nothing?” (on usury)

Two New Books

This wouldn’t be Tradition & Sanity if I wasn’t always telling you about new ways to augment your growing Catholic library!

Os Justi Press has just released two fine books:

Patrick John Brill’s The Great Sacred Music Reform of Pope St. Pius X: The Genesis, Interpretation, and Implementation of the Motu Proprio Tra le Sollecitudini is just what its title tells you. Here’s how one reader describes it:

Dr. Patrick Brill provides thorough and much-needed support for what many traditional-minded Catholics have long known or at least suspected: that St. Pius X’s 1903 motu proprio Tra le Sollectitudini still provides the surest guide for the restoration of Catholic sacred music. Part I of this book provides a detailed commentary on the motu proprio, enlightening for amateur and expert alike, while Part II examines the document's fate from the time of Pius to today, looking at its canonical force and status, positive efforts of implementation, and the neglect it has suffered since Vatican II. As tradition continues to make crucial gains, it will be books like this that serve as practical guides for restoration.” —Dr. Andrew Childs, B.Mus, DMA, professional singer and choir conductor

To read other endorsements and to peek inside, go here.

The other book is a collection I edited, entitled Is African Catholicism a “Vatican II Success Story”? Questioning the Conventional Narrative. It was published right around the second anniversary of the sudden and unexplained death of 51-year-old journalist George Neumayr, who was in Africa doing research for a book on the state of the Church.

The familiar claim that Catholicism is booming in Africa — that it is the one continent where Vatican II has yielded abundant good fruits — does not square with available data and descriptions, as we discover in

• George Neumayr’s articles on Ivory Coast;

• a Nigerian Catholic’s analysis of harmful inculturation inflicted on Africans by racially stereotyping European liturgists;

• Claudio Salvucci’s questioning of the Zaire Use on the basis of Congolese history;

• my evaluation of the evangelical potency of preconciliar faith, life, and worship.

In Africa as elsewhere, traditional Catholicism conquered whole populations and fostered immense cultural creativity. Under the new ecclesiology, new ecumenism, and new liturgy of progressive Western intellectuals, ever-larger numbers are falling away to Protestant sects and deracinating secularism.

To read endorsements and to peek inside, go here.

Holy Week Book

As we gear up for Holy Week 2025, if you are in the fortunate position of being able to attend pre-55 ceremonies, you may be interested in this book, which has the Latin texts, English translations, and Gregorian chants, in their totality, for Palm Sunday and the Triduum, including the Tenebrae services.

Find out more here.

All three of the aforementioned books may also be found on Amazon sites across the world and at Barnes & Noble.

Thank you for reading, and may God bless you!

1. Speaking of Fr. Z, he has kicked off a new news venture that I think will fill a gap, as he will bring to the program his long and diverse experience as a traditional priest together with a gravitas that our younger news-aggregating YouTubers simply don’t have. Give it a listen and considering signing up for it.