ASK FATHER: public veneration of relics

Posted on 19 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Dear Fr Zuhlsdorf,

I find myself again researching a matter that does not appear to be covered in the usual sources: the public veneration of relics.

As far as I am aware, there is no ‘rite’ for this per se (certainly not in the Rituale) but that for centuries it has been regulated by local custom.

I would be much obliged if you could point me in the direction of printed sources (or otherwise documented Roman customs) in relation to the public veneration of relics. In addition or alternatively, your views on rubricians for me to contact would be gratefully received.

There is a 2017 Instruction from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints called “Relics in the Church: Authenticity and Preservation”.

In short…

In the Latin Church, there is no single obligatory rite of exposition and veneration of relics comparable to the rite for exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

There are, however, several binding requirements and liturgical norms.

  • The relic must be authentic. The Instruction states that relics of Blesseds and Saints may not be exposed for the veneration of the faithful without a certificate from competent ecclesiastical authority guaranteeing their authenticity.
  • Public cult is permitted only for Saints and Blesseds. Canon 1187 provides: “It is permitted to reverence through public veneration only those servants of God whom the authority of the Church has recorded in the list of the saints or the blessed.” Thus, the bodily remains or personal effects of a Servant of God or Venerable may be preserved, but they may not be presented as relics for public ecclesiastical veneration before beatification.
  • The relic must be displayed in a dignified place. It may be placed in a reliquary on a pedestal, table, shrine, or other suitably decorated place. It must not be placed upon the mensa of the altar, which is reserved for the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Body and Blood of Christ.
  • No particular gesture by the faithful is mandatory. The Directory explicitly recognizes such practices as kissing the reliquary, decorating it with lights and flowers, carrying it in procession, and taking it to the sick or dying. These actions must be conducted with dignity. A person may therefore pray before the relic, bow, make the Sign of the Cross, or kiss the reliquary. A genuflection ordinarily signifies adoration and should not be made to a saint’s relic as though it were the Blessed Sacrament.
  • Incense is regulated when used at Mass. Incense is optional for relics. When a relic of a saint is exposed for public veneration during Mass, it is incensed – as per the Instruction – with two swings of the thurible, at the beginning of the celebration after the altar has been incensed. A relic of the Holy Cross receives three swings.

Consequently, a simple public veneration might consist of the authenticated relic being placed on a dignified stand with candles, perhaps with a reading and prayer invoking the saint’s intercession, perhaps a hymn or litany, and an opportunity for the faithful to approach and kiss the reliquary. It is possible that local dioceses have some legislation.

As a bonus, since today in the Vetus Ordo calendar is the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, here is a 1st class relic of the saint which I am fortunate to have.

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Daily Rome Shot 1662

Posted on 19 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance, utilities, groceries, and now also my late mother’s place.  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.  

Not trying to photo bomb…

White to move and mate in 4.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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Your Sunday Sermon Notes – 8th Sunday after Pentecost (N.O.: 16th Ordinary) 2026

Posted on 19 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.

Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of obligation for this 8th Sunday after Pentecost in the Vetus Ordo (16th Ordinary Sunday in the Novus Ordo)?

Tell us about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.  I know there has been upheaval.

Any local changes or (hopefully good) news?

A taste of what I offered at 1 Peter 5 this week.  I wrote about the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost but related it to the great feasts nearby.

[…]

The Mass of the 8th Sunday after Pentecost sets before us the household of God and the household of this world, the inheritance promised to sons and the account demanded of stewards, the freedom of those led by the Spirit and the anxious calculations of those who live according to the flesh. The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel converge upon a single demand: we must become in conduct what grace has made us in being. Baptism has transferred us from the dominion of sin into the familia of God, yet the adopted child must live according to the Father, and the steward must use the goods of his Lord with the eternal reckoning always before his eyes.

[…]

 

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ASK FATHER: Cut off from my beloved SSPX chapel, suffering.

Posted on 19 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

I recently read your “In Illo Tempore: 8th Sunday after Pentecost” commentary on One Peter Five. I ask your opinion on this, given your remarks on suffering. What would you say to someone who is suffering, due to having gone to an SSPX chapel for years, who has come to fall in love with that community since the issuing TC by Pope Francis, and now feels cut off due to the recent excommunications levied against laity, where out of humility, he feels that he can’t simply write off the excommunications as invalid. As someone who feels they found a solid, stable community with the Society, and now feel unjustly commanded by Rome to cut myself off from them, being forced back into the Diocesan structure again, I’m feeling much suffering, confusion and bitter zeal. Any words of advice would be helpful. Thank you and God Bless.

You are not alone.

I am still grappling with the fact that the Holy See and some bishops – with the sloppy documents they put out – have gone out of their way to scare people, to make them feel like outsiders or transgressors. This is an epoch when everyone is supposed to be hyper-pastoral, to listen, to accompany as people discern. According to a footnote, adulterers can receive Communion after “discerning”, but if you “discern” that you want to attend a TLM at an SSPX chapel you are … what? It’s not even clear “what” you are, so poorly drafted are these declarations and explanations.

However badly done it was, the “Explanatory Note”, which has no juridical force, did reference a previous document which made some distinctions about lay people who frequent chapels of the SSPX. The 1996 Explanatory Note describes people who attend SSPX chapels without having a “schismatic spirit”. In that case a person does not incur any censure.

In what you wrote, I do not pick up any sense of defiance of Rome or the local bishop. In fact, you seem concerned to respect their authority. Also, you state that you have developed a strong bond with the community of a chapel. That does not sound like a “schismatic spirit” to me. However, that is something only you can determine.

I note that you mentioned that you have gone to the SSPX chapel “since the issuing of TC”. It seems that you simply want to have the Church’s traditional sacred liturgy. That’s your primary motive.  You did not write, “I go there in defiance of the Pope and the local bishop and no one can stop me!”

When laws place restrictions on people the Church wants us to interpret the laws as strictly as possible so that there isn’t “restriction creep”. Laws are not supposed to be cruel. Even though, as I understand, the 2026 Explanatory Note doesn’t have any juridical effect, in the spirit of that principle of interpretation of law – that is odiosa restringenda – it seems to me that your participation at an SSPX chapel especially because of the social bonds you now have, will not result in a censure, either automatic or declared.

So much suffering and anxiety has been inflicted on so many people because of ideology driven despotism. Let us ask Our Blessed Mother to intervene with the High Priest and bring this mess to an end.

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

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A Cardinal accidently gets it right!

Posted on 18 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My good friend Fr. Murray was on with Raymond Arroyo and Robert Royal and one of their topics was an odd thing the Windy Cardinal said about synoldaling (“walking together”).  He compared synoldaling to an ethnic Croatian folk dance.

Little did he realize….  with some emphases.

ARROYO: Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago wrote in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper, this week that synodality is the Church learning to dance. He compared it to Croatian folk dances in his childhood parish hall. Father, is that actually a description of governance, or is it a way of taking authority, if you will, from the Church without having to define who is leading?

MURRAY: I thought it was a very unfortunate analogy that the cardinal used, because he is basically saying that the relationship in the Church now is like a dance, and the dance involves people moving and all the rest.

But a Croatian folk dance is staged. In other words, the steps are all predetermined. Nobody acts independently. If you act independently, you mess up the dance. By implication, then, synodality means that we can all dance together, but we all have to know already what the steps are. If we step out of line, there is a problem.

I do not think he intended it that way, but that is exactly what synodality has become. As you saw in the synodal process used at the last consistory of cardinals, they were given a checklist of topics they could discuss and restricted time in which to speak. Then, of course, the table discussions were filtered through what the moderator of each table wanted.

That is basically like a dance: you do steps A, B, C, D, and E, and then we all clap at the end.

Why are they using analogies? Because synodality has no definition. We all know what a hammer is. We do not describe a hammer as something like a wrench, but not quite. We know what things are, and we have definitions when they are objects that we can identify.

Synodality cannot be identified, and they are using that to their benefit. Any innovation they introduce, such as putting laypeople in the Synod of Bishops, is now simply called synodality.

ARROYO: That metaphor may be apt, though, Father. It is choreographed within an inch of its life. Everybody claps at the end, and you have to do the two-step many times in between.

It’s on YouTube HERE

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Daily Rome Shot 1661

Posted on 18 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance, utilities, groceries, and now also my late mother’s place.  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.  

Heh…

Fascinating…

White to move and mate in 4.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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WDTPRS – 16th (Novus Ordo) Sunday in Ordinary Time: Wherein Fr. Z rants.

Posted on 17 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

We have been cheated of the beauty of our Catholic worship in Latin, which is our common patrimony.

In fact, the swindle is far deeper.  People have been denied the opportunity to learn Latin, which pretty much every more or less schooled person had as something so fundamental that it wasn’t even questioned.

At a certain point, those who wanted to subvert the Church (and society with it) had enough power to strike.  They knew that Latin, which helped people learn how to think if nothing else, had to go.  It has now been a long time since Latin was commonplace in schooling.  After such a gap of time, it will be difficult for many to grasp these tightly woven ancient Latin Collects with their lovely rhythms, their clarity of thought, their force.  After many centuries they still communicate the profound intellectual formation and the faith of their composers, our Christian family ancestors.

Alas, the treasury doors were slammed in people faces.  And ears!   By getting rid of Latin, they got rid of the sacred music!  And since there was nothing written in the vernacular, they quickly glommed onto the lowest possible denominator of music – popular ditties, poorly played and without substance.

The erosion began and still goes on.

We have arrived at a point where hardly any of our bishops can pronounce Latin much less read it.  What does that mean for our identity as Roman Catholics of the Latin Church?  (Yes, I know that not all of you are Romans.) This may be one of the reasons why certain bishops are so hostile to Mass being celebrated in the Church’s official language of prayer: they don’t know Latin themselves and, therefore, they suppress it contra legem (that’s Latin, btw).

I digress.

The Collect for the 16th Ordinary Sunday, Novus Ordo, is not in any pre-Conciliar Missale Romanum.  It has its antecedent in a 9th century manuscript.  Enjoy the fine clausula (rhythmic ending).

Propitiare, Domine, famulis tuis, et clementer gratiae tuae super eos dona multiplica, ut, spe, fide et caritate ferventes, semper in mandatis tuis vigili custodia perseverent.

I like that cusTOdia perseVErent.  If memory serves, I think that’s called cursus velox.  It’s been a long time.

Famulus and feminine famula appear frequently in our Mass orations.  Famulus is probably from Latin’s ancient cousin, the Oscan faama, “house.”   A Latin famulus or famula was a household servant or hand-maid, slave or free. They were considered members of the larger family under the paterfamilias.

Custodia is “a watching, guard, care, protection” and has the military overtone of “guard, sentinel”.  Vigil is “wakeful, watchful”, and, like custodia, can also be “a watchman, sentinel”.  Liturgically, a “vigil” is the evening and night before a great feast day.  In ancient times vigils were times of fasting and penance.  Men who were to be knighted kept a night’s vigil. They were watchful against the attacks of the world, the flesh and the Devil.  They fasted, prayed, and examined their consciences in order to be pure for the rites to follow.  In the ancient Roman churches there were great vigils before ordinations when the whole people would wake during the night for prayers and readings.

LITERAL VERSION:

Look propitiously on Your servants, O Lord, and indulgently multiply upon them the gifts of Your grace so that, burning with faith, hope and charity, they may with vigilant watchfulness persevere always in your commands.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

Lord, be merciful to your people. Fill us with your gifts and make us always eager to serve you in faith, hope, and love.

Notice any concept missing?

It’s like they were trying to make entire generations quit going to church.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

Show favor, O Lord, to your servants and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity, they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands.

Scripture often gives us images of watches during the night.  At the birth of the Lord shepherds “were keeping watch over their flock by night (vigilantes et custodientes vigilias noctis)” (Luke 2:8).  Jesus said, “Watch (vigilate) therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched (vigilaret) and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:42-44).   Our Lord explains that servants should keep watch in order to open the door for the master of the house even if he returns in the dead of the night (cf Luke 12:37-39).

St Paul constantly urges Christians to be “watchful”.  In 1 Peter 5:8 we read sobering, “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”.

The Enemy is seeking you!

In the ancient Roman countryside there were great estates (latifundia) having many buildings for family, household servants, the various workers, storage, etc.  These dwellings were often self-sufficient, and were surrounded with walls against attacks by brigands.  Even into Renaissance times, a great house in a city (domus) might be fortified with watch towers.  The householder or the lord of the estate was the head or father of the larger “family”.  Kind or cruel, the paterfamilias was judge, protector and provider to everyone under his care.

Simple ancient famuli had to work to produce good fruits in order to survive with a good quality of life and a safe place to belong.  We sophisticated modern famuli, marked with the family name “Christian”, marked permanently with the family seal through baptism and confirmation, must produce fruits according to our vocations.

When life’s reckoning comes, will we be like the foolish virgins? They watched all night for the arrival of the Bridegroom, but they didn’t have enough oil for their lamps.  They were locked out of the house in the dangerous night with no place to go, no work to do, no purpose to fulfill. They no longer belonged.  They were… out.

“Vigilate… Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13).

When you hear the priest pronounce this Collect, beg our Lord – so gracious and patient with us even when we are lazy and sinful – to continue to give us the gifts of faith, hope and charity that we need for salvation.

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WDTPRS – 8th Sunday after Pentecost – living right

Posted on 17 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Collect for Mass and the Office for this upcoming 8th Sunday after Pentecost is found in the ancient Veronese Sacramentary and the Gelasian and the so-called Gregorian. It survived the liturgical snipper with their scissors and paste pots to live on in the post-Conciliar Missale Romanum on Thursday of the 1st week of Lent. However, there is a minor adjustment in the Novus Ordo version.

Let’s drill into what our prayer really says.

COLLECT (1962MR)

Largire nobis, quaesumus, Domine, semper spiritum
cogitandi quae recta sunt,
propitius et agendi:
ut, qui sine te esse non possumus,
secundum te vivere valeamus.

In the Novus Ordo version that oddly placed propitius (“propitiously”) is replaced by promptius (“more readily/openly”). In the critical edition of the ancient Veronese Sacramentary, you find promptius. The reformers preferred the version that pre-dated the “Tridentine” editio princeps of 1570. What happened? Probably some ancient copyist made a mistake in reading an old manuscript’s ink squiggles in – mpt – and – pit -. Easy to do.  Why the reversion was thought necessary, after having prayed the perfectly good collect for so many centuries, beats me.   I’m not sure that, as the Council Fathers commanded, the good of the Church “genuinely and certainly” required it (Sacrosanctum Concilium 23).

One meaning of secundum in the prestigious Lewis & Short Dictionary is “agreeably to, in accordance with, according to”. Remember that largire is an imperative of a deponent verb, not an infinitive. The famous verb cogito is more than simply “to think”. It reflects deeper reflection, true pursuit in the mind: “to consider thoroughly, to ponder, to weigh, reflect upon, think”.

LITERAL ATTEMPT

We beg you, O Lord, bestow upon us propitiously the spirit
of thinking always things which are correct,
and of carrying them out,
so that we who are not able to exist without You
may be able to live according to Your will.

In my peregrinations though the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) I found a text which harks to at least part of the content of this prayer (In io. eu. tr. 51,3):

“For Christ, who humbled Himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, is the teacher of humility. When He teaches us humility He doesn’t thus let go of His divinity: for in it (His divinity) He is the equal of the Father, while in this (His humility) He is like unto us; and in that He is the Father’s equal He created us in order that we might exist; and in that He is like to us, He redeemed us so that we would not perish.”

In Acts 17:28, we read about our God, “in whom we live and move and have our being”, a concept perhaps influenced by the legendary Epimenides of Knossos (6th c?).   He was a Cretan, of course, and is famous for the paradoxical “All Cretans are liars.”  Today, we might update that by having, say, a famous Jesuit say… wellll…. never mind.  St. Paul seems to have known the Epimenides Paradox.  In Titus, he writes:

For there are many insubordinate men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially the circumcision party; 11 they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for base gain what they have no right to teach. 12 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 instead of giving heed to Jewish myths or to commands of men who reject the truth. 15 To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed.

Moving on from the Jesuits, and back to our prayer….

We are made to act as God acts: to know, will and love.

When we cleave to God, seeking what is good and true and beautiful through the tangle of our wounded intellect, we are really seeking God.

Once we know what is good, true and beautiful, either because we reasoned to it or perhaps an authority helped us, then we must act in accordance with the good, truth and beauty we found.

Today we pray to God in our Collect to give us the actual graces we need in order to live properly according to His image within us.

We are even more ourselves, even freer when, eschewing our own errant wills, we embrace the One who is Goodness, Truth and Beauty.

Yet there are times when we purposely (and thereafter habitually) choose against what reason and authority point to as the Good, True and Beautiful. We make the choice to stray and sin. In doing so we diminish ourselves. After all, we have our very existence from the One whom we choose to defy. We must return to the correct path, as Dante did in his Divine Comedy. His fictional self strayed into the dark woods after leaving the path of the right reason.

We could so often avoid sin if we would just act readily on those impulses of our minds and consciences toward what is good and true and beautiful. In a way, the phrase of the Nike commercial (níke means “victory” in ancient Greek) sums it up: Just Do It. And we have many helps in discerning the good, especially in the authoritative teachings of the Church. Over time we build up good habits of acting at the right time and measure, so that we have the habits that are virtues.

A problem rises when circumstances and our passions confuse us and we must ponder to discern the correct path. Most of the time we get ourselves into trouble by hesitating about doing what we know is right. We mull, dawdle, pick and get ourselves into a hornet nest of problems.

Strive, in accord with a conscience formed by the Church’s teachings and according to common sense, after the good, true and beautiful, which are ultimately reflects of God.

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Daily Rome Shot 1660 – A day that will live in INFAMY

Posted on 16 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today is the anniversary of several notable events. The most noteworthy, according to me, are the following.

It is the anniversary of St. Simon Stock’s vision of Mary in 1251, hence it is the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

In 1969 Apollo 11 lifted off.

In 1970 Fischer with black beat Spassky in Game 3.

In 2021, based partly on a lie about a results of a survey of bishops, the cruel Motu Proprio Traditionis custodes was promulgated along with a letter to Catholic Bishops. It was, and still is, a black mark in the Church’s pastoral mission procuring repeated blows by bishops and the dicastery on the already bruised people of God. Pray regularly, please, a Memorare for its abrogation.

Welcome registrant:

DanShell

A word of thanks is due to several of you readers who have sent me items from my wish list.  Alas, more and more often it seems there are no “gift slips” included, which means that I don’t know who sent what and I have no way to write a note of thanks.  Just recently I received a couple of brass candle “followers” that are the correct size for some altar candles which another reader sent.  Also, I received a book about an interested historical person in New York and some – yum – beef jerky.  THAT was a real help during my recent travel misadventures and misconnection.  I had tucked a pouch into my backpack before sallying forth into the unknown and therefore had something to eat when I got stuck in ATL after everything was closed.  I have some wonderful San Marzano tomatoes and some chess puzzles, wonderful hot chili oil, etc.  Also, I’m taking my desktop to an expert to clone my c: drive to a very much larger SSD.  One of you sent my the drive.  I tried to do it myself, but it didn’t work.  I need help with it.  It’ll cost not nothing, but it will be worth it.  My point is, thank you, all of you for being so good to me.  I pray for my benefactors and regularly (every Sunday now – more often when I’m in Rome) say Mass for you.  It is my pleasure and duty.

Another note.  I’ll be updating the “mom’s stuff” page shortly.   And a couple of you reached out to acquire some things.  I’m on it.

Meanwhile…

At Infovaticana we read:

A group of laypeople has founded the association Pro Fide Ecclesiae, in Germany, a new movement that seeks to give voice to Catholics who do not feel represented by the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) or heard by the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK). According to Kath.net, the initiative was established last Sunday in Offenbach am Main and counts among its founding members the emeritus bishop of Chur, Marian Eleganti, one of the most critical voices regarding the German Synodal Way.

The promoters of the association maintain that there is a broad sector of “conservative in values” faithful who remain loyal to the Church’s magisterium and who have been excluded from ecclesial debate in Germany. Although they assert that these Catholics are not a minority in the parishes, they denounce that they have become practically invisible in official dialogue and media coverage.

A lay movement in defense of the magisterium
Pro Fide Ecclesiae defines itself canonically as a lay movement, inspired by the conciliar decree Apostolicam Actuositatem on the apostolate of the laity, although it is also open to priests and other members of the clergy.

Its main objective is to strengthen the Catholic faith and promote firm adherence to the Church’s magisterium, as well as to establish links with other associations of the faithful that share the same orientation.

Among the founders is Bishop Marian Eleganti, who summarized the purpose of the initiative with a forceful statement: “We want to defend the faith against heretical interpretations and falsifications”.

HA!

Black to move. Mate in …?

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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Daily Rome Shot 1659 – GO TO CONFESSION (says the Jesuit)

Posted on 14 July 2026 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links.  US HERE – WHY?  This helps to pay for health insurance, utilities, groceries, and now also my late mother’s place.  At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.  

 

Black to move. Mate in 4.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Also, I note with interest the pastoral letters issued by some bishops about the SSPX situation.  I mentioned the other day that I was please that a bishop openly said that he would be willing to talk to any SSPX priest who would approach him.  Some one sent me a note with letters from other bishops. Caggiano of Bridgeport makes an inviting appeal.  Burbidge of Arlington refers to his “brother priests” though he doesn’t explicit invite them.  Lucia of Syracuse, on the other hand, wrote a rather harsh letter, and seems to go a bit beyond what the Holy See so ineptly indicated about frequenting SSPX chapels.  He suggests that going to a SSPX chapel after reading his letter – even once – would be formal adherence to schism.  That can’t be, of course, but that’s the take away.   Moreover, they all repeat the claim the SSPX absolutions are now invalid.  They get that from the “Explanatory Note”.  The problem I see with that is that there is no clear legitimate statement that Leo XIV removed the faculty.  The Dicastery can’t do it without Leo.

And from my friend Fr. McTeigue:

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

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