(Above) The 2nd century AD “Porta Nigra” in Trier, Germany. St Simeon (died 1030) had his hermitage here. After his death, this Roman gate was converted into a church and thus survived relatively intact.

Peter Kwasniewski has replied to an article in The Catholic Thing by Dmitrii Solzhenitsyn, “The Original ‘Liturgy Wars’: between East and West,”thecatholicthing.org (9/18/2026). I also feel obliged to add a few words. 

First,  I take issue with the term “liturgy wars” which Solzhenitsyn has borrowed from another source. There is no “liturgy war” between opposing forces in the Roman Catholic Church. Insofar as we are talking of “violence” (physical or coercive measures) the campaign  – directed by the Vatican,  the mainstream religious orders and much of the hierarchy –  is entirely one-sided. It is the representatives of the establishment who are prohibiting traditional masses, imposing malicious requirements on the laity, sanctioning scholars, excommunicating the FSSPX and issuing a never-ending barrage of ad hominem attacks. Aside from intellectual arguments the traditionalists have not replied in kind – of course, they are unable to do so.

Second,  the conflict between the Church of Constantinople and the Roman Catholic Church is not – or not primarily –  a liturgy war. It is a longstanding disagreement, varying in intensity over the years, involving political and theological issues even more than those strictly liturgical. Certainly, at times  – such as under patriarch Michael Cerularios of Constantinople in the 11^th century – liturgical issues were asserted, such as the use of unleavened or leavened bread. But this was not always or consistently the case.

What Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s article does reveal is the conviction in at least part of the Orthodox world that the conflict with the Catholic Church reflects a primordial, unbridgeable divergence between the “East”  (meaning the Orthodox Church) and the West. In this view the Orthodox Church, in its current state, is an exclusive, perfect community which also happens correspond with the early Church. This “East” is seen as originating in the 4th century or even earlier, depending on the author. 

There is no evidence, however,  that this understanding of a monolithic bloc of the “East” as contrasted with a “West” ever existed before relatively recent times. There had been disputes, often fierce,  between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches about specific theological, liturgical and disciplinary questions. But  as we shall see, for centuries representatives of both the “Latin” and “Greek” churches also acted as if no such fundamental gap existed. Mr. Solzhenitsyn seems to acknowledge this difficulty by theorizing that a formal break between Constantinople and Rome only happened in the 11th century because it was only then that the respective liturgical traditions actually came in contact with each other each other. I don’t think the facts support that.

Let us consider the situation in the city of Rome itself. In the year 536 AD Emperor Justinian reconquered the city of Rome. It  – and the papacy – remained more or less closely associated with the Eastern Roman Empire till about 750. An Eastern Roman garrison resided in the city. As time went on numerous popes from the East occupied the papal throne. These “Greeks” came from all of the territories under the control or influence of the Eastern Roman Empire ranging from Palestine to Sicily. It was at this time that the art of Constantinople began to exercise a direct influence in the city of Rome and that strong influences of the East  – not just of the Church of Constantinople – were  felt in the Roman liturgy itself. One thinks of  the Trisagion chanted in the traditional Roman rite on  Good Friday  – among other importations. These centuries saw a “rebirth” of Greek in the city of Rome. Supposedly, this interchange was not a one-way street: according to Byzantine tradition the Mass of the Presanctified, which is much more commonly celebrated in the East than in the West, was composed by Pope Gregory the Great.  However that may be, it is interesting that St. Gregory became associated with liturgical reforms in both Rome and Constantinople.

But these borrowings did not at all mean that the popes of this era, whether Latin or Greek, were subservient to the culture or dictates of the Eastern Empire.  On the contrary, a series of popes, like St. Gregory the Great, vigorously defended Roman  liturgical practices against those of the East. After initial waffling, the popes took a strong stand against the Monothelite heresy introduced by the emperor. Later, the same was true was true of Roman opposition to iconoclasm. So the creative interactions between Rome and Constantinople in this era involved intellectual, liturgical and theological exchanges that were conscious and selective.

Fortunately, we have a direct monument of these years. The church of Santa Maria Antiqua was decorated between roughly 550 and 800 AD. This church was likely associated with the imperial government and Greek bureaucrats and soldiers. In this church we have a wide variety of paintings –  some overpainted repeatedly –  that show the direct influence of the art of Constantinople in the city of Rome. Like the churches of Ravenna or the monastery of St. Catherine’s on Mount Sinai, Santa Maria Antiqua preserves art that was otherwise destroyed in the East during the iconoclastic period. Furthermore, these frescoes were saved from further change by the “Latins” themselves because the church was buried by an earthquake in the 9th century and abandoned for 1000 years.

(Above) Santa Maria Antiqua, so-called palimpsest wall (550-700 AD). Mary as a Byzantine Empress.

(Above and below) Santa Maria Antiqua. Frescoes (8th century AD) with saints of the West and East, perhaps with an anti-iconoclastic message. Note the language of the inscriptions.

After 750 the political bond between the papacy and the Eastern Empire ceased. But contacts between East and West continued and, in some cases, even intensified. In the 9th century we could think of the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius which found both opposition and support in the Church of the West. According to tradition, the first hermit to live on Mount Athos, a Greek, St. Peter of Mount Athos, had received consecration from the Pope of Rome. This is not as startling as it may seem, because it likely happened during the years of iconoclast rule in Constantinople. Like the Islamic conquests, this resulted in the coming to Rome of a stream of religious refugees from the East.

And the interactions continued.  Saint Nilus the Younger founded the Byzantine monastery of Grottaferrata near Rome in 1004.  He was a Greek from Calabria, a mixed Greek and Latin area of South Italy. His successor at Grottaferrata, St. Bartholomew, (died 1065!) is credited as the second founder of that Abbey. He was also Greek from Calabria. He even gave refuge to the Pope of Rome, the notorious Benedict IX, who ended his days as a penitent in this monastery. In this same era, we encounter St. Simeon of Trier, who had been born in Syracuse of Greek parents under Arab rule.  He was educated at Constantinople,  traveled in the east and was for a time at Saint Catherine’s monastery at Mount Sinai. Later he acted as a kind of “tour guide “for western pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Thanks to these contacts he moved to Trier in Germany where he died in 1030 as a hermit and was subsequently recognized as a saint by all. In 1540 his unique Palestinian euchologion (= missal) of the Orthodox rite was translated and published by a German humanist. Unfortunately, the original manuscript has been lost!

I could take issue with other facts that Mr. Solzhenitsyn recites. So, he quotes an unidentified source for the proposition that the Orthodox church prohibited the use of three-dimensional art (statues) and that this had become a key liturgical difference with the West. But, at least in Russia, as an absolute rule this is untrue – there is a well-known museum in the city of Perm that has an outstanding collection of religious sculpture much of it dating from the 17^th century. For the production of such statues continued, as demonstrated by the need for the Russian Church to issue repeated edicts against the practice, such as that of 1721.

My point is the none of the facts set forth above would have been possible if the self-understanding of the Orthodox Church in those times had been that of an exclusive bloc opposed to everything in the West and motivated above all by liturgical differences. Furthermore, these interchanges were often by people very familiar with one or both liturgies and traditions (for example, St. Gregory the Great had lived in Constantinople for years).

In subsequent ages political clashes multiplied and attitudes hardened.  But even then, there were conflicting reactions, even by the same person.  So, Nikolai Gogol,  who wrote horrendous passages against Poles and Catholics,  also was very much impressed by the city of Rome (he started a novel, never finished, set in that city). Whether a reconciliation between the Roman Catholic Church at the Orthodox Church will be possible anytime soon I do not know. But I do agree with the ecumenical movement to this extent:  we should not be building up barriers derived from an incomplete understanding of what actually happened in the past.

I would recommend the following sources for further reading.  Ekonomou, Andrew J., Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy From Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590-752, (Lexington Books, 2007) (a very pro-Greek account!); Rubery, E., Bordi, G., and Osborne, J., Eds., Santa Maria Antiqua: The Sistine Chapel of the Early Middle Ages(Harvey Miller Publishers, London 2021). And generally. the works of that profound scholar of Russia culture, Dmitry S. Likhachev(1906-1999) who detected all kinds of correlations between the artistic development of Russia and of the West. On the sculptures in Perm see “Permskaya Derevyannaya Skulptura,” ru.wikipedia.org. (accessed 10/11/2026) (“Wooden sculpture of Perm” (in Russian))

Nothing new. but an article in The New York Times covers the situation:

King, Maya, “Lower East Side Parishioners Mourn Loss of ‘Spiritual Home, ’” The New York Times (10/11/2026)

Most Holy Redeemer church still remains closed – supposedly for “repairs.”

“Catholic churches, once a mainstay of neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, have become endangered: Many have closed to merge with other churches as part of a reorganization plan that the Archdiocese of New York put forth in 2014 to conserve resources. Others have been torn down and rebuilt as parking lots, college dormitories or, in one case, luxury condos attached to a Barnes & Noble.”

Against the backdrop of a potential $800 million settlementbetween the Archdiocese of New York and victims of sexual abuse from its clergy and lay leaders, Most Holy Redeemer’s sudden closure and what parishioners view as the church leadership’s limited response stands to further damage an already strained relationship between the nation’s foremost Catholic archdiocese and its members.

“I think that the lack of an open line of communication is probably the most disturbing thing to the parishioners,” said Laura Sewell, the executive director of the East Village Community Coalition, which is helping lead the fight to reopen Most Holy Redeemer.

The response of the Archdiocese, is, in my opinion, hardly reassuring:

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the church’s closure was unrelated to the archdiocese’s pending settlement. Construction on the church ceiling began last month ( the church has been closed since August 2025 – SC!) and Mr. Zwilling said the Mass schedule will be determined after the repairs are completed. The frequency of Mass will depend on several factors, Mr. Zwilling added, including “the needs of the people, the availability of Mass elsewhere and the ability to provide priests to celebrate the Mass.”

That leaves all options open, does it not? So the struggle continues:

Parishioners say they have repeatedly asked the archdiocese and parish leadership when repairs would be made so that services could restart but haven’t received satisfying answers. They have held protests, pursued local and national landmarks status and appealed to politicians. And one lawyer has filed a challenge with the Catholic church against the Archdiocese of New York, arguing the cessation of Mass violates canon law because the archdiocese has not issued a formal decree declaring the church or its parish closed.

Perhaps involving a religious order or community might be a way out of the stalemate? Let us hope so!

…for the maintenance of Most Precious Blood church in Little Italy. The would-be donor is the charity which runs the San Gennaro festival. No explanation was given –  that raised speculation that preparations for a sale of the church might be in the works.

Verra (a board member of the San Gennaro Festival)said the check was originally accepted by Father Daniel Ray, the pastor of Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. But he said Bishop Edmund Whalen, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese, ordered it to be returned.

Verra said, “One theory is that they are maintaining the church with money from the sale of the rectory in 2018. Once the money runs out, I think they will shut it down completely and sell it off.”

“Most Precious Blood is an important part of Little Italy history. I think the only reason they have not sold the church already is they know it would create an uproar” (said Verra)

(Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese) insisted, however, “Most Precious Blood is not for sale.” The legal position of the former parish has lived through various twists and turns in recent years.

For more information, read the full article:

Kelly, Keith J. “Archdiocese Turns Down $100G Donation for Historic Little Italy Church, Stirring Speculation,” chelseanewsny.com (10/3/2026)

(Above) Traditional Latin Mass ar Most Precious Blood church in 2019, during the San Gennaro Festival – sponsored by the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny.

Saints et Saintes: Les cultes supprimés, interdits et confinés.

(Saints: The Cults Canceled, Prohibited and Restricted).

By Sylvain Roussillon

Preface by Fr. Jean-François Thomas, SJ

Via Romana, Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt

2026

223 pages

Critical analysis of the “Cultural Revolution” of Vatican II has long concentrated on the liturgical changes during and after the Council.   More recently, attention has been given to the drastic measures taken in other areas as well. For example, Fr. Claude Barthe in his recent The Seven Sacraments, Past & Present(English edition, Os Justi Press, 2026), examines the drastic changes to both the texts and the administration of all the sacraments. Now Sylvain Roussillon has given us Saints: The Cults Canceled, Prohibited and Restricted. It is a catalogue of those saints whose cult was subjected to restrictions of some kind in connection with the Council. Most of these changes date from decrees of Pope Paul VI issued in 1969. Some, however, predate that year and even the Council, so, for example, the cancelation of St. Philomena by a decree in 1961.

How this was done is one more illustration of the disadvantages of the accumulation of centralized papal power by the 1960s. For the Pope, aided by a committee of experts, undertook a review of the entire calendar of Saints in the Latin rite. In this process many saints were subject to sanctions of various kinds. Some were dropped from the general liturgical calendar and their veneration restricted to local use. Others were completely canceled. A third group was not just cancelled but had their cult prohibited. These saints were not just ancient martyrs and obscure local figures but included some of the best-known names in the Christian world: St. Christopher, St. Catherine, St. Barbara, St. George, etc. Saints inserted in the general calendar as recently as 1960 were summarily removed; the same is true of saints venerated as early as the 3^rd century. In many cased these changes reflected a judgment on the historicity of the saint in question,  obviously based on the state of knowledge in the 1960s. But revered figures whose existence was absolutely verified were “demoted” too. Combined with the changes in liturgy, the sacraments, the rules for fasting, and the dress of the religious, the changes to the calendar of Saints dramatically accelerated the sense of disorientation spreading throughout the Church at that time.

Sylvan Roussillon has done us a great service by collecting all this information in one volume. In the case of some saints, he has carried the analysis beyond 1969. For subsequent popes revised or reversed some of Paul VI’s decisions. So, the canceled St. Catherine of Alexandria reappeared in 2001. Roussillon shows that many of these canceled Saints have continued to live on in popular devotion, either locally or in a more general fashion, regardless of papal decrees. Just yesterday, in fact,  I received the catalog of a prominent supplier of religious goods featuring a statue of St. Philomena. 

I regret to say, however, I found Roussillon’s entry for the one saint of whose post–1969 status I had personal experience to be incorrect. For Roussillon tells us that the cult of St. Ursula was canceled – culte supprimé (along with that of her 11,000 companions). Now in 1979 or so I was present at a mass in the city of Cologne where the celebrating priest apologized to the congregation because he had not realized that St. Ursula’s feast day – as one of the city’s patron saints –  was a solemnity in the city of Cologne. October 21, her feast day, remains a solemnity (Hochfest) in the city of Cologne, a mandatory memorial elsewhere in the Archdiocese of Cologne, and an optional memorial in the other dioceses of Germany. Furthermore, her feast day is an optional memorial in the Archdiocese of Vienna, and is celebrated, as you might expect, throughout the Ursuline order worldwide. Finally, as recently as 1989 a new parish dedicated to St. Ursula was established in the British Virgin Islands  – which, after all, are named after St. Ursula and her companions. Thus,  it would be more accurate to say St. Ursula’s cult has been stricken from the general Roman calendar and restricted to local calendars. And this example illustrates how such “local” saints still may enjoy widespread devotion.

(Above and below) She’s still here! The church and shrine of St. Ursula in Cologne, Germany. (photos 7/9/2026)

Further, in discussing the cancellation of St. Catherine of Alexandria in 1969 and the restoration of her cult in 2002, Roussillon writes that this restoration was made for the same reason the cult of St. Cecilia had been kept: popular devotion. Roussillon does not mention in this book any issue with St. Cecilia (he does discuss the topic of popular devotion in regard to St. Margaret).   Nor does he explain to us why this rationale, supposedly protecting St. Catherine,  was not applicable in the case of other popular saints. These examples suggest more rigorous editing would be advisable in a potential second edition or translation of this book. 

Let me add my own observations regarding more recent decades. We have seen a great deal of fluctuation in the calendar of the Saints since the purge of the 1960’s. An ever-expanding stream of canonizations has continued – very often of the founders and members of religious orders.  Beginning with John Paul II, however, popes have been much more open to the influence of popular devotion. Major figures such as Cardinal Newman, Padre Pio, and Father Damien of Molokai have been raised to the altars.  The same is true of numerous modern martyrs. Pope Francis also revisited the causes of saints that had been previously derailed, obviously for political reasons (for example, Queen Isabella of Spain). Another motivation for the “restoration” is ecumenical relations with the Orthodox who didn’t cease to venerate many of the great saints canceled or downgraded in the Roman Catholic Church.

On the other hand, Pope Francis canonized the popes from John XXIII to John Paul II. (John Paul I at this moment remains only a blessed)  As someone once put it,  Pope Francis here canonized ideas, not people (the ideas being those of Vatican II). I might include in this “ideological” category of saints and potential saints the causes of Dorothy Day (pacifism and left-wing political activism), Pedro Arrupe SJ (Jesuit social activism) and Robert Schuman (the EU). 

Locally in New York, the status of the saints is also mixed, even uncertain among the faithful. The remains of the early martyr St. Datian still lie, unreverenced, in the closed church of Most Holy Redeemer on East 3rd St (along with the relics of many other saints). Regarding those more recently canonized, I don’t know how many people go to visit the burial place of (most of) Mother Cabrini on Fort Washinton Avenue. Upon his canonization, St. John Neumann was given a hideous modern statue in St. Patrick’s cathedral – it was removed a few years ago. Even New York’s own Mother Elizabeth Seton once had a shrine in downtown New York, built on the site of a house where she once had lived. That shrine is a now a convent of the Sisters of Life and is virtually inaccessible to the public. The fate of some of other recently canonized saints has also been mixed outside of New York City.  Some have been overtaken by the collapse of their own religious communities. So, the bodies of Marianne Cope and Katherine Drexel had to be reinterred in other locations after their first places of burial, the mother houses of their respective orders, were closed.

Despite these developments,  there are indications that the cult of saints is alive and well – a fact that has been recognized by the hierarchy. In recent years,  a constant procession of relics of saints has moved around this country – St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Jude etc. – attracting no little interest and devotion. Moreover, other recently proclaimed saints and blesseds have unexpectedly attracted widespread and spontaneous devotion such as Blessed Karl of Austria. Indeed, the cause for the canonization of his wife, Empress Zita,  is now underway. 

Fr. Jean-François Thomas, SJ provides Saints: The Cults Canceled, Prohibited and Restricted with a marvelous preface which introduces not just the story of the purge of the saints in the 1960s but also summarizes their role in Christianity. Indeed, this short but profound preface is in fact a miniature guide to the entire world of the Saints. 

“The book of Sylvain Roussillon draws up a list of those (saints)who have paid the price of tales and legends, but also of a spirit systematically suspicious, critical and hardly supernatural. … Sainthood is not at all a historic vestige to which only weak and credulous spirits are attached. Over the course of the centuries the cult of saints has never ceased to change but it has remained constant from its origins. Historical challenges have never been able to make it disappear, and rightly so,  because it is a pillar of the relation of man to God. … (Writing of the Golden Legend) To reject such narratives en bloc, very imprudently and with contempt,  is conducive to the annihilation of an essential part of the relation between God and man… The saints are accessible to all – they are not content to be merely “patron saints”  but are also and especially the intercessors before God.

So, the cult of the saints endures despite the vicissitudes of official Vatican favor. As Fr. Thomas reminds us, their intercession continues and is a key element of the Christian life. And did we not just witness an elaborate series of tableaux depicting the saints of France on the occasion of Pope Leo’s visit to Paris? Roussillon’s book on the saints illustrates a misguided effort to restrict or purge their cults to create a more modern image for the Church. An attempt, which, by all accounts, has failed.

(Above) The massive rectory of St Michael’s parish to the right of the church.

A curious development in the shuttered St. Michael’s parish complex. The charismatic group Chemin Neuf is now operating out of the St. Michael’s rectory building:

Thursday evening gatherings

We gather every Thursday evening for worship, prayer, silence, and formation. The content can vary from week to week – please see schedule below.

– Prayer Gathering: Sung worship, silent prayer, and formation in the charismatic and Ignatian traditions
– Formation and Dinner: spiritual formation around a shared meal
– Mass: weekday Eucharist with sung worship
– Testimony

6:30 pm Doors open
8:00 pm Social

Thursdays, 6:30pm-8:30pm
St. Michael’s Rectory
Entrance at 424 W 34th St

Chemin Neuf Young Adult Ministry, us-chemin-neuf.org (accessed 10/2/2026)

It is unclear to me whether they also enjoy use of St. Michael’s church.

(Above and below) The door to the rectory.

What is Chemin Neuf? It is an ecumenical French charismatic movement. Its account of its own history, with admirable candor, describes the protestant origins of the charismatic renewal. In France it enjoyed growth but also experienced some of the problems which afflicted virtually all the Catholic European charismatic movements.  “Communauté du Chemin Neuf,  fr.wikipedia.org(accessed 10/2/2026). Celine Hoyeau, although she doesn’t have much to say about Chemin Neuf as such, does mention that it was at one of their “youth festivals”  that she encountered the charismatic leader of another group that eventually led to no end of trouble for her. Hoyeau, Celine, La Trahison des Pères at 8 (Bayard, 2021).

In 2022 they came to New York, sponsored by the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (Episcopal). For the occasion Pope Francis himself provided a laudatory video! (Wells, Christopher, “Pope sends message for launch of ecumenical community in New York.” Vaticannews.va (9/9/2022) On January 24, 2024, the dean of St John the Divine spoke at an interfaith prayer service:

He said Community at the Crossing, a recently established intentional ecumenical community in New York, is evidence of the potential to bridge divides. The new community is an initiative of St. John the Divine in partnership with the Chemin Neuf Community, a 50-year-old French Catholic association with an ecumenical focus.

Further, at the same service:

Sister Hannah Spiers, an Anglican sister who is part of the Chemin Neuf Community, is a coordinator of the Community at the Crossing initiative. Community at the Crossing is open to Christians ages 21-33 who commit to spend a year in prayer, discernment, biblical and theological formation, intentional community, service and mission — and to do so with men and women who may be radically different from themselves. Griffin, Beth, “Homilist: New Ecumenical Community Offers Hope among Christians” thegoodnewsroom.org (1/24/2024)

Chemin Neuf includes all Christians. It claims to follow both charismatic and Ignatian spiritualities – things normally seen as opposites. Members use the Book of Common Prayer but also attend the Catholic Mass:

WEEKLY PRAYER

Daily Morning Prayer and weekly prayer gatherings during the academic year.

Morning Prayer

A sung and spoken liturgy based on the Book of Common Prayer, led by the Community at the Crossing.

Weekdays, 8am
Cathedral of St John the Divine

Prayer Gathering

Hosted by the Young Adult Ministry (18-30s).

7:15pm Doors open
7:30pm Sung worship, silent prayer, and formation in the charismatic and Ignatian traditions
8:30pm Social to follow at local bar / eatery

Thursdays, 7pm-8:30pm
Church of Notre Dame
Entrance at 405 W 114th St

Mass

Members of the Community worship at the French-speaking mass at the Church of Notre Dame.

Sundays, 10:30am

“Community in the US: Weekly Prayer,”  us.chemin-neuf.org (accessed 10/2/2026)

Although their first base in the city was at St John the Divine, they are present at the church of Notre Dame (= the chaplaincy of Columbia University) and now at St. Michael’s on West 34^thStreet.

Really, it is amazing to see the scale of the resources that the establishment Catholic Church devotes to true fringe groups like Chemin Neuf ( to the extent it can be considered Catholic at all). The same can be said for the massive annual meeting in the US of Communion and Liberation.  And not to forget the support the Catholic LGBT movement enjoys from the Archdiocese,  the Jesuits and the Franciscans. This, when traditionalists still have to worship on a semi-underground basis; they ask from the ecclesiastical powers that be mere tolerance, not active support!

ADDENDUM: Informed sources tell us that it is planned for Chemin Neuf to have use of the Church of St. Michael once that becomes feasible. Certainly Chemin Neuf is acting on that basis:

NYC- 2-Day Retreat

• Saturday, February 20, 20279:30 AM 
  Sunday, February 21, 20278:00 PM
• St Michael’s Church424 West 34th Street, New York, New York.

Live in New York City or plan to visit? Set aside a couple of days to focus on your relationship in the good company of other couples.

This retreat will include dialogue as a couple, teaching, relaxation, prayer & worship, and in the good company of other couples.  

Children are welcome and will participate in their own programming, giving couples time and space together.

When: February 20-21, 2027
Where: St. Michael’s Church, 424 West 24th Street, New York

This is a commuter retreat. No overnight lodging included.

“Upcoming Events – NYC-2-Day Retreat,” canausa.org (accessed 10/3/2026)

The reader should be aware that, at least twice since 2020, negotiations for St. Michael’s between the Archdiocese and a well-known, well-established traditionalist community reached an advanced stage and fell through. Although, given the real estate values near the Hudson Yards, if I were in Chemin Neuf I might worry how long this arrangement will last

(Above) St. Jean Baptiste church (“Saint Gene’s”).

Thus the New York Post:

Fleming, Kirsten, “Have you heard the Higher Word? NYC grown Catholic orchestra going from strength to strength.” nypost.com (10/1/2026)

The orchestra will be performing tonight, October 2, at 7:15 PM at St. Jean Baptiste church, 184 E. 76th Street, New York. Tickets are required.

According to the above article:

(At their recent concert at Old St Patrick’s Cathedral)the audience was filled with stylish Catholics, young and old, many of whom gathered a few blocks away at Jack’s Wife Frieda for the afterparty. Higher Word claims responsibility for at least two marriages and a few Catholic conversions of musicians.

Well……

But we can certainly support these goals:

To stage such elaborate and elegant evenings, Higher Word relies on ticket sales, donations and the generosity of friends. Many of the musicians play, not for the money, but “for the mission.” They hope to become sustainable and offer a larger calendar of events, including lectures, liturgies and more concerts and eventually to be stitched into the mainstream cultural fabric of the Big Apple. “Anything that’s Catholic shouldn’t be siloed in a corridor, where things that are beautiful are reserved for the secular world,” said McIntosh.

(Above) The Higher Word concert at St Patrick’s Old Cathedral, April 2025.

The pope recently concluded a four-day apostolic visit to France. He left a number of contradictory impressions. First, I’d like to highlight the visual and aural aspects of the visit. Singing the Salve Regina with a multitude before the backdrop of the facade of Notre Dame,  walking past religious sisters, all in habits, the pope exhibited restrained dignity.  Inside Notre Dame,  he knelt before a “modernistic” tabernacle set up on the original medieval altar at the end of the choir and then reverenced the Crown of Thorns brought to France by St. Louis, while the choir sang music of Monteverdi. 

Then came the prayer vigil for “young people.”  What of the tableaux of saints presented there: St. Irenaeus, St. Blandina, St. Genevieve, St. Joan of Arc (riding in on a horse!), St. Francis de Sales, St. Jean Vianney,  a procession of Marian statues (commemorating,  among other apparitions, Lourdes,) and finally “mission saints” of more recent times, including St. Therese of Lisieux, and Charles de Foucauld (riding on bicycles or “classic” cars!). The music included chant, Duruflé’s Ubi Caritas et Amor, the Salve Regina (sung by the young people attending) and, accompanying the procession of Marian statues, Chez nous soyez Reine(just as one hears on the Chartres pilgrimage of Our Lady of Christendom!)

The pope visited the Catholic University of Paris:

“As he arrives at the Catholic University of Paris, Pope Leo XIV pauses to pray at the site of the brutal massacre at the Carmes monastery during the French Revolution, which is marked by the Latin expression “Hic ceciderunt” (Here they fell). On September 2, 1792, a revolutionary mob summarily executed around 115 Catholic priests and Bishops, many of whom refused to submit to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1926.”  Vatican News, X.com (9/26/2026)

Such gestures, images and music break radically with the style of more recent Vatican events, particularly those attempting to appeal to “youth.” One recalls, for example, under Pope Francis the disgraceful scenes from the 2013 World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. The images of Pope Leo’s visit are also hardly consistent with the Catholic progressive party line on evangelization!  For in the Church’s post-Vatican II culture, is it not an article of faith that modern man had to be approached in his own language – with images, art and liturgy of his own and radically different from those of the past? What we saw in Paris was a long litany of no-no’s for the likes of the National Catholic Reporter – or the mainstream Catholic media in France.

Some have taken these scenes and the multitudes in attendance at the papal masses as evidence of the health or at least of the resurrection of the Catholic Church in France.  Among these enthusiasts seems to be Pope Leo himself. A closer view, however, yields a far less rosy picture. First, the size of the throngs in attendance at papal masses is no sign of the health of the Church. Let us remember that in 1978 -1980 (and well beyond) Pope John Paul II was able to routinely mobilize immense crowds at his masses.  Over the last 48 years we have seen how little long-term effect those events actually had (for example, in Ireland). 

Second,  the youth vigil was, after all, a show. It closely resembled the Olympic spectacles that ultimately date back to Leni Riefenstahl’s 1938 film Olympia. Admittedly, what we saw in Paris last week resembled much more the impressive, edifying ceremonies of the Athens and Beijing Olympics – each a celebration a nation’s history and accomplishments, rather than the travesties in Paris two years ago. Nevertheless, the logic of a show, however well done, is entirely different from reality – or from prayer.

Third, aside from the success of these events, the only factual support of this allegedly rediscovered health of the French Catholic Church is one number, taken out of context: the recent uptick in adult converts. It contrasts with almost every other statistic,  which are disastrous. 

The substance of what Leo said was much more ambiguous than what was seen.  The utterances of the Pope were often vague, nonspecific – even contradictory.  Pope Leo did condemn, strongly and directly, in words and accompanied by symbolic gestures, legal euthanasia, recently introduced in France. Yet at the same time he praised the principles of the Enlightenment and slogans associated with the French Revolution. But it is pursuant to those principles that abortion, same-sex marriage and now euthanasia have been legalized and even celebrated in France. And didn’t those principles incite the massacres whose victims the Pope later commemorated on this visit?  

Similarly, the Pope made visits to UNESCO in Paris and then to Metz (the latter representing symbolically the European Union), paying homage to the secular establishment in Europe.  Indeed, it seems the Catholic Church is seeking to “canonize” the EU by promoting the supposed sanctity of Robert Schuman. The Pope did speak out against the drift to war and arms races. But it is this very European Union which is currently funding the conflict in Ukraine and inciting in the West war hysteria against Russia. And by advocating simplistic pacifism and disarmament – apparently unilateral – as the basis for contesting the rhetoric of war, the Pope prevents his massage from being taken seriously.    

Catholic traditionalists, as such, received little or no no attention or consideration during this trip – despite the imaginative interpretations of some commentators. (The Pope did meet with some students of a private (traditionalist?) Catholic school in Metz.) The Pope seemed to deny that a “systemic”  problem of sexual abuse exists in the Catholic Church, calling abuse “first and foremost a human problem.”  After disclaiming any intent to act as a politician, the Pope entered squarely into secular politics by endorsing the view that a right-wing, non-establishment political party in Germany is “not an authentic expression of Christianity.” Does the Pope then believe that the mainstream political parties of Europe, such as those of France, which advocate and implement abortion, same-sex marriage and euthanasia are ”authentic expressions of Christianity?” 1)

And how does this visit square with the Pope’s own actions (or more often, lack of action)? For example, to avoid further scandal  Fr. Marko Rupnik’s mosaics had to be covered up on his visit to Lourdes  – but Leo has been stalling for a year and a half the trial of the same Rupnik. And the persecution of traditionalists throughout the world  – the violation of liberty of conscience – continues, at times with the direct participation of the Vatican. 

Thus,  this apostolic journey left us with some beautiful images and music – and at times encouraging words.  Even a successful papal visit, however, is not going to turn around decades of institutionalized problems. But does what we saw and heard just perhaps indicate that at least the French Catholic Church itself – which presumably was the main organizer of these events –  is seeking some accommodation with “conservatives” and even traditionalists?  As for Pope Leo, if what he saw only has convinced him that there are no structural and spiritual problems in the Catholic Church,  the results of this journey have been anything but positive. We would hope, however, that by participating in the events of this visit he has perceived the inspiring power of Catholic tradition.  A perception that may lead to the beginnings of a real, not a virtual restoration of the Faith.

1. This was especially apparent in Pope Leo’s in-flight news conference after the visit –  a technique copied from his predecessor. Silere non Possum has provided an extremely valuable account of the conference, showing how the Vatican manipulates communication. Six correspondents got to speak. Two represented semiofficial distributors of Vatican news: I. Media and Le Pelerin. Two were from mainstream secular media: ANSA (a kind of Italian AP) and El Pais of Spain (center-left). And finally, there were the reporters from the Catholic progressive establishment: the National Catholic Reporterand KNA ( the news agency of the Catholic Church in Germany). (“Leo XIV, ‘systemic’ abuse and the other issues he addressed on the flight from Metz.”Silere non Possum (9/28/2026)

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On the occasion of the feast of the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel, Solemn Vespers in the traditional form were celebrated at the church of St. Margaret of Cortona in Riverdale, the Bronx, New York City. Cardinal Ernest Simoni assisted.

On 24 December 1963, (Ernest Simoni) was imprisoned by the Communist authorities after offering a Mass for the repose of assassinated US President John F. Kennedy. Simoni was tortured and even offered marriage to leave his faith.^[3] He was sentenced to death by firing squad, but ultimately spent 28 years at penal labour after his sentence was converted into a prison term: 18 years working in various mines, followed by a decade in Shkodër‘s sewage canals. ( “Ernest Simoni,” wikipedia.org (accessed 9/29/2026))

St. Margaret of Cortona church, circa 1965, is a time capsule of late “Cardinal Spellman-style.” (note the presence of a modernistic altar rail). Fr. Sean Connolly, the pastor of St. Margaret’s, assures us the parish is now engaged on a thorough restoration of this church.

(Above) Fr. Sean Connolly, pastor of St Margaret of Cortona, served as assistant priest.

(Above) Charles Weaver led the schola.

(Above and below) Fr. Joseph Falciano, FSSP, was the celebrant. Kai Breskin was the Master of Ceremonies.

Afterwards, Cardinal Simoni met a large and enthusiastic gathering of the faithful in the parish hall. Many were his fellow countrymen.

Congratulations are due to the parish of St. Margaret of Cortona and Fr. Sean Connolly for making possible such a splendid liturgy!

PS: From the printed program: “The Church of St. Margaret of Cortona is also exceptionally grateful to the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny for sponsoring this event and assisting with the planning and preparation required.”