Father Donald Kloster will be celebrating the Traditional Mass on the following days at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, 138 Candlewood Lake Road, Brookfield, CT

Friday October 7th, 7:00 am Low Mass, Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

Monday October 10th, 7:00 am Low Mass

Tuesday October 11th,  7:00 am Low Mass

Wednesday October 12th, 7:00 am Low Mass

Pope Benedict’s enemies have never relented.  He remains for them the mortal enemy – in the past but also now. Does not his continued presence act in some way as a restraint – if not a very effective one – on Bergoglio? One apparent response of the clerical establishment was Frederic Martel’s In the Closet of the Vatican (2019), which features defamatory insinuations regarding Pope Benedict, Gänswein, Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Muller. The author seems to have enjoyed discrete Vatican cooperation in his “research” – up to a point. 

In Benedict’s homeland of Germany, the situation is far worse. Earlier this year a massive study was released on clerical sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich. Of course, the main focus and purpose of the study was Ratzinger’s tenure as Archbishop, and even his handling of one specific case, Fr. “H” (his real name can be found by searching English language media). Of course, Pope Benedict did himself no favors with his implausible responses, fashioned by his incompetent legal and public relations team. Probably the truth of the matter is that Ratzinger was doing the same as all his colleagues in the episcopacy. The reactions of the German media, both secular and Catholic, were hysterical, and it was even suggested that Pope Benedict might be sentenced to a life of “prayer and penitence.”

Now, a German court has initiated a procedure directing Pope Benedict, the Vatican, the Archdiocese of Munich and some others to submit written responses regarding a claim of one of the victims of Fr H. This abuse happened in the 1990’s but the victim alleges Ratzinger shares responsibility by introducing this priest into the Munich archdiocese in 1980. I do not hold myself out as an expert in German civil procedure, but several things must be emphasized immediately. First of all, this is a civil, not a criminal case. Second, the action taken was not at the initiative of the court but was a consequence of the filing by the civil claim by the alleged victim. Third, the court’s action seems to be like our practice of discovery. It is intended to ascertain if facts exist that would support the claim of the plaintiff and permit his case to go forward. Now what is interesting is that, under German law, the plaintiff apparently can pursue his case even if his substantive claim has been barred by the statute of limitations (by the passage of time). Under German law, a civil claim can be pursued simply to have a court reach a determination regarding the facts of a case even if no damages can be obtained.

The purpose of this claim is perhaps just to force the Catholic Church, and Pope Benedict himself, to respond “on the record” to the court’s inquiry. One response would be to assert the statute of limitations. But this might be embarrassing for Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church to do, because they might be seen as relying on a technicality of procedural law to avoid responsibility.

The court’s action, of course, once more aroused a storm of agitation against Pope Benedict in the German media – including those of the German Catholic Church. It is one thing for someone to bring a civil action against Pope Benedict; it is another to have the facts reviewed by a court pursuant to a kind of summons. Andrea Titz (sic!) is acting as the spokeswoman for the court having jurisdiction of this case. She is a judge and somewhat of a local celebrity in her own right, having been involved in a number of high-profile legal cases in the German state of Bavaria. These prominent forces in the media and the legal bureaucracy assure that this case will continue to generate adverse publicity and embarrassment for Pope Benedict.

Poor Pope Benedict! His enemies give him no respite. Like Cardinal Zen, he must experience even in his last years the truth that “the life of man upon earth is a warfare.” (Job 7:1)

On the entire legal situation, see this article (in German) in CORRECTIV.

On the nature of the court’s recent action (in the German Wikipedia): Feststellungsklage

On Andrea Titz: German Wikipedia

Sermon for the Feast of Saint Wenceslaus Sacred Heart, Georgetown, CT, 2022

Today is a national holiday in the Czech Republic in honor of their patron saint, St
Wenceslaus, whose feast we celebrate at this Mass here in Georgetown CT. St
Wenceslaus was born in Bohemia in 903 and died on September 28, 929. Most of
us know nothing about this time in middle Europe. The great saints Cyril and
Methodius were the missionaries to this part of Europe in which paganism
persisted. Wenceslaus’ grandfather became a Christian in this missionary effort
and Ludmilla his grandmother, of deep faith, became Wenceslaus’ teacher, not
only in matters of faith but also of culture, teaching him both Old Slavonic and
Latin.
Wenceslaus’ mother, Dragomir, supported pagan belief and tried to gain control of
the kingdom. She had Ludmilla strangled and civil war broke out. It was the
young Wenceslaus who emerged as the leader of Bohemia, and it became his task
to bring together the warring factions, to deal with the powerful rulers surrounding
him, and to bring to fruition the missionary effort of SS Cyril and Methodius by
leading by example as a Christian leader. His honesty, his realism in dealing with
those in power, and very importantly his attempt to reduce the oppression of the
peasants by the nobility: all this grounded in his Christian faith.
For religious and national motives, Wenceslaus was murdered by his twin brother,
Boleslaus on the feast of SS Cosmas and Damian as Wenceslaus was on his way to
Mass. Wenceslaus’ last words were: “May God forgive you, brother”. He was
hailed as a martyr and by his death did what he was unable to do while he was
living: he made Bohemia Christian.
We look in vain today for a leader whose Christian faith lies at the very heart of
what he says and does in the political sphere. We certainly cannot find such a man
or woman in Europe at this time when Europe is undergoing a rapid de-
Christianization. We cannot find such a person in our own country where
dechristianization is happening but where there seems to be still a sizable part of
the populace that calls itself Christian. And why we cannot find a Wenceslaus in
the United States is because of the American character that insists that religion is a
purely private matter and should have no bearing on one’s actions in the secular
sphere.

St. Wenceslaus is the symbol of what a truly Christian ruler looks like, whose
public actions come from his Christian faith. We all know the Christmas Carol
“Good King St Wenceslaus”, the words of which were written by John Mason
Neale, the great Anglo-Catholic priest in England in the second half of the 19 th
century. The carol is about what it means to be a good king. When seeing a poor
peasant struggling to carry wood in the cold of winter, he acts to help the peasant.
His page warns him that it is too cold, too dark, but the King tells him to follow in
his footsteps to help the peasant and the night will seem less dark and the cold less
cold. The carol ends with these words: “Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth
or rank possessing, ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing”.
We will honor St. Wenceslaus at our gathering after Mass by singing his carol
before our time of fellowship: a fitting thing to do after celebrating this Mass in
his honor.

(Above and below) Cardinal Zen during his visit to New York (February 15, 2020)

Please pray for Cardinal Zen, on trial now in Hong Kong. He was our guest in New York just 2 1/2 years ago.

Our annual pilgrimage to Auriesville, New York – this year, unavoidably, in advance of the official “Pilgrimage for the Restoration.” The weather was glorious, but very few visitors or pilgrims were about. Often, however, the grounds of the shrine are most impressive, the experience most spritual, when visited in silence. The shrine in the best condition I have seen in years – the current management is a vast improvement over the Jesuits.