Christus Resurréxit! Resurréxit Vere! Sunday is the 4^th Sunday after Easter, and as custom we share a reflection on Sunday’s Collect by Dr. Mike Foley: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/04/the-school-of-love-in-collect-for.html

Sacred Heart Latin Mass resumes today at 3pm

After a 14^th month hiatus, the 1^st Sunday Traditional Latin Mass returns to Sacred Heart parish in Salisbury (45 minutes north of Charlotte) and at a new time of 3pm. Fr. Robert Ferguson, FSSP will be visiting and offering the Mass.

St. Peter of Verona Palms at St. Ann today (12:30pm Mass)

Thursday was the feast of St. Peter of Verona, and as many readers know, there is an ancient custom in the traditional rite to bless palms on his feast day. Tradition holds when the palms are buried around the 4 corners of one’s property, they protect against natural disasters. Father Jones has kindly blessed the palms and we will be handing out these our Latin Mass welcome table after Mass while quantities last. Please note: If you already received one in prior years, you do not need a new one year (unless you moved). We also thank Fr. Jones for taking the time to bless the palms. To learn more about St. Peter of Verona visit: https://charlottelatinmass.org/2021/04/29/feasts-of-ss-peter-of-verona-and-joseph-the-workman/
(also see our note about Blessed Carino, St. Peter’s assassin below)

Farewell to the Hren Family

A few weeks ago we said farewell to one of the Latin Mass families, the Carters as they moved out west. Now, we are sad to announce that the Hren family (Joshua, Brittany and children) will be moving back home to the Midwest soon.  Needless to say, the Hrens have shared with us that it is not easy to leave St. Ann’s Latin Mass community, which as they kindly note is filled with not a few holy souls–people whose lives exude charity and total commitedness to Christ. The Hrens say: Thank you all, from our hearts, for striving after holiness and truth.

St. Leo the Great Parish Latin Mass Survey

As mentioned last week, parishioners of St. Leo the Great parish in Winston-Salem are conducting a Latin Mass interest survey to see if there is interest in a Latin Mass at that parish.  They are collecting information to establish the level of interest.  If you are interested, please fill out this survey: https://forms.gle/d1YociePCZvF6YUS7

Fr. Barone’s Latin Institute Update and Request for Help

As you may have read the other week, Fr. Barone’s new Latin Institute, Veterum Sapientia Institute is up and running and he wanted to share an update and ask for help. To learn more visit: https://charlottelatinmass.org/2021/04/14/latin-institute-update/ 

Latin Mass & Traditional News

• Conversion of St. Peter of Verona’s Assassin: As noted earlier, Thursday April 29 was the feast of St. Peter of Verona, a 13 century Dominican who was martyred for defending the faith against heresy in Italy. However, there is actually more to the story. Like many saints, St. Peter’s martyrdom resulted in the conversion of his assassin, who is now beatified. To learn more about this story visit: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/04/blessed-carino-assassin-of-st-peter.html

• The Legend of St. Philip the Apostle: Interesting piece on the history of St. Philip in the liturgy and the legend of him banishing a dragon: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/05/the-legend-of-st-philip-apostle.html
  
  Side note on dragons: Dragons appear periodically in Sacred Scripture – Daniel 14:22; Job 40:10 – yet what are they? One possibility is that they were actually dinosaurs. From a traditional Catholic perspective, this should not be surprising, as all animals were created on the 6^th day of creation – hours before Adam was formed, and later were likely placed on Noe’s ark and survived the flood (though now extinct). St. George is frequently depicted as slaying a dragon in the 4th century AD. What was the dragon he slayed? For more on this topic visit:
  https://www.kolbecenter.org/historical-evidence-for-dinosaur-and-human-co-existence/)

• How Liturgical “Forms” Concretely Define Religious Belief — or Undermine It: Dr. Peter Kwasniewski writes a helpful piece in understanding the differences in theology between the Traditional Latin Mass and Novus Ordo. He also noted something that we had noted few weeks ago regarding COVID and the two “forms” of the Roman Rite:
  
  The pandemic has only accelerated the already glaring differences between the traditional practice of Catholicism and its modern substitute. The loss of faith evidenced statistically is understandable, even predictable, given that the main catechism for most Catholics is the Mass. A concerted return to the traditional liturgy is not simply beneficial but necessary for the continued life of our churches. Bishops who do not grasp this in time will preside over the white-chasubled funerals of their cremated dioceses [emphasis added].
  
  http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/04/how-liturgical-forms-concretely-define.html

Pro-Life Update

• Federal Government caught purchasing aborted fetal remains: As noted above, the differences between traditional Catholicism and modernist/Novus Ordo Catholicism have become apparent during COVID but also over the debate over abortion linked “vaccines”, more properly called COVID-19 experimental injections. The modernists claim that abortion linked vaccines are “morally permissible” because the connection between the recipient and the original abortion are distant. We’ve covered in prior posts how, according to traditional teaching of the Church, this is simply insufficient and at variance with the Church’s perennial teachings. However, evidence is now growing that the link between abortion fetal tissue and medical research is much closer than previously claimed. These disturbing articles should be a tragic reminder that Church leaders should take a closer look at the evidence and science, and trust in the traditional teachings of the Church:  

1. Federal Government Caught Buying ‘Fresh’ Flesh Of Aborted Babies Who Could Have Survived As Preemies: https://thefederalist.com/2021/04/15/federal-government-caught-buying-fresh-flesh-of-aborted-babies-who-could-have-survived-as-preemies/
   
2. Top 10 Sickening Details About How Federal Employees Trafficked Baby Body Parts: https://thefederalist.com/2021/04/26/top-10-sickening-details-about-how-federal-employees-trafficked-baby-body-parts/

• Support NC House Bill 588: Opposing Vaccine “Passports (Contact your Rep): While some Catholics have offered confusing statements over abortion linked vaccines, the Church has been clear over the years, that vaccines or similar treatments must never be mandatory. Regrettably the health dictatorship in DC and in North Carolina are exploring ways to allow the private sector to mandate the COVID-19 injections in order to participate in society (schools, shopping, etc.) 
  
  Thankfully though, NC Representative Keith Kidwell has introduced legislation to ban such draconian measures. To learn how to take action on House Bill 588, please the Carolina Pro-Life Action Network’s webpage: https://www.prolifecharlotte.org/oppose-vaccine-passports/
  
  *C-PLAN’s page also includes Church statements on mandatory vaccines

The Ottaviani Intervention: What is it?

For some deeper weekend reading on the crisis in the Church, we wanted to recommend The Ottaviani Intervention. One may ask – what is it exactly? It’s named after Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, a senior Vatican prelate, who served as the Prefect of the Holy Office from 1959 – 1968, now known as the Congregation of Doctrine and Faith – the Holy See’s main “agency” with overseeing and safeguarding the deposit of faith. After his retirement, as the Novus Ordo Mass was being finalized, and he and another Cardinal, formed a theological review of the Novus Ordo Missal and examined whether it maintained continuity with the Mass of Pius V, otherwise known as the Tridentine Mass or the Traditional Latin Mass. His review, sent to Pope Paul VI in 1969 said:

• [T]he Novus Ordo represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session XXII of the Council of Trent.

• Recent reforms have amply demonstrated that fresh changes in the liturgy could lead to nothing but complete bewilderment on the part of the faithful who are already showing signs of restiveness and of an indubitable lessening of faith.

• Therefore we most earnestly beseech Your Holiness […] not to deprive us of the possibility of continuing to have recourse to the fruitful integrity of that Missale Romanum of St. Pius V, so highly praised by Your Holiness and so deeply loved and venerated by the whole Catholic world.

Ottaviani Intervention: https://lms.org.uk/ottaviani-intervention

Are we not seeing, with the modernist theological statements of today, the “complete bewilderment on the part of the faithful” today? Lex orandi, lex credendi: What we pray (e.g. the Mass), is what we believe. What Mass are you attending on Sundays?