Given the fever-pitch excitement (or anxiety) in many quarters over Francis's upcoming consecration of Russia, it seems a good time to republish this 1953 text from Msgr Alfredo Ottaviani. He was later made the prefect of the Holy Office, and was chief signatory of the Short Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae ("The Ottaviani …
Continue reading An “Ottaviani Intervention” on Signs and Wonders
Here are some brief reflections on what the latest announcement may mean for us. 1. Our Lady said Russia, not Russia and the World, or Russia and Ukraine, or the USSR, or the individual Soviet republic, or the Russian Federation. Without this being a problem - why can't we just do what we're asked? 2. …
Continue reading Initial thoughts on the Consecration of Ukraine and Russia
This three-part series is a summary and re-ordering of the testimonies given in St Thomas’s 1319 canonisation enquiry.[1] These are not just pious stories about St Thomas Aquinas written by hagiographers: they are sworn testimonies recounted under oath by respectable men, both from the clergy and from the nobility. We see amongst the laymen even …
Continue reading The Fioretti of St Thomas – Part II: His Death
INTRODUCTION This three-part series is a summary and re-ordering of the testimonies given in St Thomas’s 1319 canonisation enquiry, 45 years after his death.[1] These are not just pious stories written by imaginative hagiographers: they are sworn testimonies recounted under oath by respectable men, both from the clergy and the laity. We see amongst the …
Continue reading The Fioretti of St Thomas – Part I: His Life
This week, the WM Review contributed a reading to the Catholic Family Podcast's project "Lent Around the World". One of our editors read an extract from Fr Aloysius Ambruzzi SJ's A Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius (link for UK readers). The text of the meditation is below. Image: Mosaic from St Mark's …
The Rosary and Immaculate Heart: the Two Last Remedies Delivered at numerous pro-life rallies across Ireland in 2018. Edited for publication. It is not unusual for those fighting for any length of time in the pro-life, pro-family movement to be subject at certain times to the temptations of hopelessness and despair. It can often seem …
In this brief piece I would like to draw attention to the following exalted description of the privileges and prerogatives of the Roman Pontiff, by John Henry Cardinal Newman. In this short text, entitled Cathedra Sempiterna, he drew together passages from his Discourses on the Scope and Nature of University Education [later editions published as …
It is a dogma that public revelation ended with the death of the last apostle. Nonetheless, throughout history God has made private revelations to chosen souls, even for the public good. Consider the revelations made to St Joan of Arc, which led to the victory of France over English rule; or the revelations of the …
Continue reading How should Catholics treat private revelations when studying theology?
We are told that on 13 October 1884, His Holiness Pope Leo XIII had a vision in which he saw Satan ask God for one hundred years to the destroy the Catholic Church. Satan’s task is impossible and will never be accomplished. The Church today is what she has always been. She is One, Holy, …
As we all know, one of the requests of Our Lady of Fatima was that the Pope would, with all the bishops, consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Let us read Sr Lucie’s words, referring to June 13, 1929: "Then Our Lady said to me: 'The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father …
Continue reading The King of France, Fatima and the Crisis in the Church