Restoration Radio returns to the air next week

The original flagship show of Restoration Radio returns to the airwaves next Tuesday with a show discussing the Rogation Days, the Ember Days, Corpus Christi, and the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. We hope you join us.

"Marriage Equality"

The latest Clerical Conversations on the Crisis took on the topic of "marriage equality" and what a Catholic's perspective on this question is.  Listen to the podcast here.

The Latest from...not London

I was in London in November 2012 visiting friends and I had a chance to visit very briefly with Bishop Williamson. When we've met in London in the past there was usually more time to talk and visit, but at the time I came last year the Bishop was looking for new digs and with his dealing with various invites from around the world, we only had time for an evening tea.

At the time he let me know that the St. Marcel Initiative would have a publishing arm and that as part of the support of his apostolate St. Marcel would be putting out his works through that publishing house and we have spent the past months transferring to them the electronic "guts" of the books we have published as well as working on sending a certain number of the Letters from the Rector books to him to sell through his own publishing house. Publishing is a particularly slow-moving business and these things take time which is why we have not given any updates until now.

As we have been such a long-time "Dino Distributor," this leaves us with some unfinished business. All of those who pre-ordered the Collected Sermons and Conferences of Bishop Williamson in 2012 were promised a "schema workbook" that was to be published in 2013 by us. It has been decided that it was best to interrupt this project on the TRP side and send it to the Bishop's new publishing house. TRP will guarantee that the commitment of the free copy of the book to those customers will stand, but cannot give any estimate of a publishing date at this time. I will be in contact with each of those customers by email personally.

There are also two previously unreleased works I've done with the Bishop. One is a 2011 interview I did with the Bishop which could not be released because of the "interview ban" that Bishop Fellay had imposed. The other, much less controversial, is another wonderful part of the long-running "Poetry Series" (you can find links to the other parts in the sidebar) which the bishop and I worked on. It is on W.B. Yeats' "A Prayer for My Daughter." Both items will be released in coming months.

While True Restoration Press has never made its financial relationship with the Bishop public, given that he has his own apostolate now, we feel compelled to disclose that the Bishop now receives royalties on all work sold by True Restoration. Let it also be known that the Bishop does now, and has always, owned all the copyrights to his work. True Restoration will continue to sell its remaining stock of "Dino" sermons and conferences, until the stock is depleted, which will probably be around the time that all the new printings of the books will be rolling out of the Bishop's house (as mentioned above, publishing is a slow-moving industry).

On a personal note, I have genuinely enjoyed collaborating with the Bishop for the last 6 years and I look forward to his future books and interviews with the St. Marcel Initiative, which will pick up from True Restoration's work from 2006-2012. For now, I may share that the Bishop is in good health and is looking forward to this next chapter in his episcopal career. He's certainly been unleashed from the "episcopal penalty box" and is out with the faithful, who need his great sermons and encouraging conversation. He is thankful for the support and prayers that you have expressed to him through me and TRP. For my part, I am thankful for all that I have learned and continue to learn from him. My time with him has been an enormous privilege and blessing.

Tuscany Press

Peter Mongeau, owner of Tuscany Press, joins host of The Beautiful Things Magdalene Zapp tonight to discuss fiction in general and the current state of Catholic fiction in particular.  Join her at 9pm EDST or listen anytime after.

The Scapular

It's First Saturday at the end of this week, and we thought it would be a perfect time to launch Bishop Dolan's new ongoing monthly show: Devotions with Bishop Dolan.  Our inaugural episode will be on the Scapular and will be at 9:30am EDST this Saturday.  We hope you can join us!

Archbishop Lefebvre, from the men who knew him

In the last 25 years the vast majority of priests ordained for the Society of St. Pius X were not ordained by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.  Indeed, many of those priests, like me, never even met the man who did so much to preserve the Traditional Mass.

22 years and one month ago the Archbishop passed to his eternal reward.  Bishop Donald Sanborn and Father Anthony Cekada will share their recollections and memories of the man who they knew and who ordained them in this month's Clerical Conversations on the Crisis.  Join us at 7pm EDST or download the podcast anytime after tonight and listen at your leisure.

The Beautiful Things

Tonight is the first episode in a new show hosted by Magdalene Zapp.  The show's ongoing title is The Beautiful Things and it will offer a Catholic perspective on art.  I'll be joining her tonight.  I hope you do as well.

Charles Coulombe & Charlemagne

Charles Coulombe will join Nicholas Wansbutter on another edition of Catholic History with Charles Coulombe.  Tonight's topic?  Charlemagne.  If you can't join us at 9pm EDST you can download it in the morning and listen anytime.

The Hobbit, this week and next

For those of you who missed Swords & Space Radio's first show on The Hobbit this week, don't fear, the podcast is here!

Nicholas and Matthew Zepf covered the book in this first episode.  Next week's episode will be on the monster/juggernaut (personal opinion) that Director Peter Jackson has managed to make into 3 movies, the first of which is now available on DVD.

Next week's episode will be on the newly-erected AMDG Radio network, which will attempt to look at secular themes (like science fiction) from a Catholic perspective, while Restoration Radio will continue to look at more explicitly Catholic themes.

Nicholas will stay on as a host of Restoration Radio but will be pushing Swords & Space (hopefully) into a weekly show.  Going forward, all Swords & Space episodes will appear on that network (including the archived ones that originally aired on RR).  Our radio universe continues to expand and we thank the folks at AMDG who are taking on S&S as their first show on their new network.  You can find AMDG Radio on facebook and twitter.

Restoration Radio, one year on

One year ago yesterday Charles Coulombe joined Nicholas Wansbutter, Piers Hugill, and me as Restoration Radio had its first broadcast.  Our goal was simple: have conversations with laymen and clergy about the Catholic Faith and the ecosystem around it (our daily lives).  We wanted to make the shows available to a large audience, for free (including on iTunes, where you can download it into your "Podcasts" app), to not just reach "the choir," but Novus Ordo Catholics and non-Catholics as well (That being said, we do pay stipends to our guests in recognition of their time and if you feel like our shows add value to your life, please click the "donate" button on the right side of the page).

Two days ago Charles Coulombe was a guest for a show on the Papal Zoauves.  The difference, a year on, was that we had done almost 30 shows across many different themes.  We were the first Traditional Catholic radio show on Benedict XVI's abdication, and we were among the very first to comment on the new claimant, Francis.  We've also had some great discussions on the Second Vatican Council, homeschooling, and even the movie For Greater Glory, among many other things.

Restoration Radio currently has four different shows:

Clerical Conversations on the Crisis, featuring Bishop Donald Sanborn and Father Anthony Cekada.  This monthly show looks to discuss various topics relating to the period in the Church after the Second Vatican Council.

Catholic History with Charles Coulombe.  This biweekly show will be focused on history in general and the Catholic viewpoint on various parts of history in particular.

The Beautiful Things with host Magdalene Zapp.  This monthly show will look at art and its relation to our senses, intellect, and faith.

Restoration Radio, our flagship, running at least monthly, featuring an array of different guests, and helmed by different members of the founding group.

We have more shows in pre-production and hope to be a larger part of our audience's time devoted to learning and leisure.  To get the latest scoop on what's happening next with us, make sure that you follow our social media channels on the right hand side of this page.

Flashback Friday: Dr. David Allen White, 2011

One of our favorite teachers in this short life has been Dr. David Allen White.  When he came to our conference in 2011 he gave talks on Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy as well as on Wagner's Ring series.  The excerpt I've included below is 20 minutes out of an almost 2 hour interview.  The whole video is available here.

Restoration Radio's newest show launches this Sunday!

As Restoration Radio continues to grow and develop we can introduce ongoing dedicated shows which can focus on a particular aspect of the wide net that we are throwing out in discussing the Restoration in all factors of our daily lives.

Our newest show, Catholic History with Charles Coulombe, launches this Sunday.  Our topic?  The story of the Papal Zouaves who defended Pope Pius IX and the papal states from the invading Masonic forces of Garibaldi and Cavour.  Join us at 10pm EDST.  If that's too late for you, simply download and listen on Monday morning.

TR Premier Series: The Greatness of Alfred, by Charles A. Coulombe

In the early days of True Restoration we commissioned pieces from guest writers.  As time has gone on and our work has grown we have decided to reintroduce this practice.  Happily, our first piece in the True Restoration Premier Series is from a good personal friend, Charles Coulombe, whose encyclopedic knowledge of Catholic history is rarely matched.  This piece we commissioned was also featured in the March 2013 issue of the Four Marks.

As the recent furor over the recovery of Richard III’s remains from beneath a Leicester, England, Car Park shows us (to say nothing of the wild success of Downton Abbey), British history retains a hold upon the imaginations of the Anglosphere around the globe. It was not only the Ricardians – those stalwarts of the Richard III Society who hold that Richard got a bum rap from Shakespeare and myriad other Tudor apologists, and who keep the faith not only in Britain but in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere – who were keenly interested. For a brief moment, Richard got a new rush of interest from a world-wide audience. But his discovery also roused interest in that other great missing person of English history, Alfred the Great.

As with Richard, the mystery resulted because of Alfred’s interment in a monastery – in this case, Hyde Abbey – that was destroyed as a result of Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. But the rediscovery of Alfred’s remains, though far more difficult to achieve because of the passage of time and lack of DNA, would be even more significant than finding Richard was. Where the hapless son of York was perhaps an unfairly maligned and decent man, whose victory would certainly have changed English and so American history (no Henry VIII!), Alfred in many ways was the foundation of that history. By defeating the Vikings, the King of Wessex ensured the survival of English nationality; his work in reforming administration, founding the Royal Navy, codifying the country’s laws, and spreading education earned him a place in English-speaking history akin to that of Charlemagne (upon whom he partly modelled himself) among the French, Germans, and Italians.

As with Charlemagne also, a great deal of Alfred’s energy was put into reforming and strengthening the local Church – binding it more closely to Rome (Alfred translated the Dialogues of Pope St. Gregory the Great, among a number of other works, from Latin into Anglo-Saxon), and endowing abbeys and other churches. And as with Charlemagne, Alfred was personally pious, delighting in prayer and the Sacraments. The private holiness and public heroism of both Sovereigns led their peoples to consider them Saints: if Alfred’s remains are indeed found at St. Bartholomew’s Church in his capital of Winchester, they may be holy relics rather than mere illustrious bones.

Charlemagne’s canonisation was procured by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa from an antipope of his own creation; so although often colloquially called “St. Charlemagne” (by St. Joan of Arc, among others) he is more properly called “Blessed.” His cultus was formerly widespread in dioceses throughout France and Germany; but even today his feast is celebrated with great pomp in Aachen, Frankfurt, and Osnabruck. Similarly, Henry VI – himself a later candidate for Sainthood, and founder of Eton and King’s College, Cambridge – petitioned Rome unsuccessfully for Alfred’s canonisation in 1441. Nevertheless, local liturgical and popular devotion to him as a saint – or at least a blessed – has fitfully continued among some English Catholics to our own day: the Diocese of Northampton observes his feast on October 26. G.K. Chesterton was quite devoted to him, as may be seen by his Ballad of the White Horse.

All of that is interesting, to be sure. But one might well wonder what relevance it has to Catholics in the second decade of the 21^st century? Even if the relics of Alfred are found – a minor miracle in itself – why should we care, especially since the Anglicans (whose Anglo-Catholic wing openly venerates Alfred as a Saint) are sure to muscle in on the entombment, as they are doing with Richard III? One answer might be that in this day when the Faith is so much under attack by most Western Governments, veneration –especially of the public kind - of royal, military, and knightly saints and candidates for sainthood go alongside such things as devotions to Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, and Christ the King in showing our repudiation of all efforts against our religion by our leaders. Contemplation of such figures as Bl. Charles of Austria, Louis XVI, the Count of Chambord, Mary Queen of Scots, St. Edward the Confessor, St. Louis, St. Nuno Alvares Pereira, Bl. Adrian Fortescue, the exiled Catholic Stuarts and their Jacobite Supporters, Andreas Hofer, the Heroes of the Vendee, the Carlists, the Papal Zouaves, the Cristeros and on and on – these will both help form our ideas of what good government really is while strengthening us to resist its opposite.

But Alfred means more to us than simply another name in the long gallery of Catholic heroes. His total defeat at the hands of the pagan Vikings led to his taking refuge at the Isle of Athelney in the Somerset marshes. During his time there, the young King would have had much to think about – the death of his brother and thousands of his subjects at the hands of the Vikings would have been bad enough; but while he sat in relative safety in the marshes, his people were at the mercy of the invader – and mercy was not in their lexicon. For a believing Catholic today, his own home and church might seem a bit like Athelney, as all about us that we love and value in Church and State is universally derided, morality ridiculed, and God insulted.

Alfred surged out with his men, and in time defeated the Vikings, settling down to the regime of renewal and recovery that places him at the beginning of so many of the institutions and practices we still benefit from today. In like manner, albeit with the weapons of prayer, example, and public profession of our Faith, we too are called to venture forth from our respective Athelneys. To us falls the duty of evangelizing the English-speaking World, or at least our corner of it. If God wills that the relics of Alfred the Great are to reappear, let us see in them a standard calling us forth to victory.

The serenity of sedevacantism: reflections on the 2013 "conclave"

During the 2005 "conclave" I was still solidly in the "Recognize-and-Resist" SSPX camp.  I was glued to the screen watching ballot after ballot and excitedly calling friends about Ratzinger and his solid chances to be "elected."  I had not really done my homework on him at the time; I just remembered glossy pictures in Latin Mass and excerpts from The Ratzinger Report I had read in my salad days of Traditional Catholicism.  I thought that he would definitely be more "traditional" than JPII, but would that be enough?

As the white smoke billowed my heart jumped, like the heart of any true Catholic who thinks he/she is witnessing the election of a true pope.  True Catholics have a tremendous attachment to the office and person of the Pope - an office given to us by Christ to hold His scepter over His Church.  To bind and loose - in His place - in our short time in this life.

I called two friends and we chatted excitedly about what this would mean.  The one friend, always (and still today) an Indult type, the other SSPX though "sedevacantist friendly."  While I was in the SSPX I was in the minority of people who considered sedevacantism a valid "alternative explanation" so I didn't have the time or inclination to demonize it as "non-Catholic" or label it with all the other insane labels R&R types have to put on an idea in order to emotionally pollute themselves from calmly looking at it.

But even in 2005 I felt disconnected from the Novus Ordo sect - the organization that appears to the outside world to be the visible Catholic Church but metaphysically is an impostor.  In 2005 I still saw with my eyes of flesh instead of my eyes of faith, and I had not confronted the one issue that to this day dominates every fiber of Joseph Ratzinger's being: Vatican II.

All the problems and issues we see and experience today go back to Vatican II and the question of the Pope.  Is Vatican II an ecumenical council of the Catholic Church or is it not?  Is it to be accepted as coming from Christ through His Church or is it not?

Standard R&R answers (keep in mind that typically these answers will come from the mouths of people - and sometimes clergy! - who have not even read one single document of Vatican II):

• Pastoral council
• Non-binding, and besides, there's no heresy anyway!

Sedevacantist responses (to the above points):

• Please show us where in previous Catholic teaching a "pastoral council" is defined and what its authority is.  Church history shows us there are valid councils and invalid councils.  We don't have any "in-betweeners."
• Nope.  Every single document ends with the same formulary as in Trent, with "I, Paul, Bishop of Rome, etc."  One can make the outrageous claim that it is non-binding, except for the fact that it has guided the Novus Ordo sect in every aspect for the last half-century.  You can claim all you want that it's not binding - but the Novus Ordo sect de-Catholicized every country which still recognized Jesus Christ as King (thanks Dignitatis Humanae - which by the way contains heresy directly contrary to the teachings of the pre-Vatican II popes).  The Novus Ordo sect destroyed the faith of millions by introducing the even-less-than-banal Novus Ordo Missae (thanks Sacrosanctum Concilium - which contains statements and propositions and attitudes condemned by Mediator Dei).  Saying it's "not binding" reminds me of Neville Chamberlain coming back to England waving a piece of paper he had signed with Hitler.  The facts weren't important...we had a piece of paper!  

For the sedevacantist, life is fairly simple: Vatican II is an invalid council (we have precedent in Church history) implemented by anti-popes (we have precedent in Church history).  Given that "he who is not of the body cannot be the head" (St. Robert Bellarmine) we serenely await an intervention of Our Lord (we have precedent in the Great Western Schism, where Our Lord used human instruments to end the crisis) and in the meantime we work out our salvation in fear and trembling, attending Mass where we can and when we can't, saying the Rosary and trying to sanctify our lives.

We don't set up parallel churches or our own wedding tribunals (SSPX) or attempt to judge each and every action of the body we call "The Holy See" as orthodox or not by referencing our own judgment in reference to "Tradition"(that judgment being not guaranteed by anything).

For the conservative or the recognize-and-resister, life is pretty complicated.  Vatican II was a "bad, but certainly valid council" (an undefined idea in the Church with no precedent), implemented by valid popes (actions don't mean anything - a new period has been entered into in which we must know the hearts and minds of possible heretics before judging them as such - and that's a get-out-of-jail free card that only Martin Luther could have invented).

Given that you must have a valid Pope to consecrate Russia (because you live your life according to private revelation, while ignoring immediate doctrinal problems) you anxiously await the miracle of "the triumph of the Immaculate Heart" (while ignoring that Our Lady did not specify that the triumph would happen before the Final Judgement - oh, and you worship as a great "traditionalist" [Benedict XVI] a man who was complicit in the suppression of the Third Secret).

In the meantime, you resist whatever parts of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the 1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church, the latest version (2002) of the "Ordinary Form" (darkly humorous term) of the Mass, encyclicals, allocutions, and pretty much anything you want that would normally fall under the Universal Ordinary Magisterium of the Church and therefore would normally fall under the charism of the Church's INDEFECTIBILITY not under the charism of the Pope's INFALLIBILITY.  You resist, with your free will, these legal measures and documents from a man you call "Holy Father," who rules the juridical body you call "The Holy See," and is the man you view as the Vicar of Jesus Christ on Earth. Yet, you fail to see how this is not protestant behavior.

2013 was very different for me.  I was able to watch the white smoke with the same sadness (yet serenity) that anyone who was alive during the Great Western Schism might have felt (if they had streaming internet back then, of course!).  I knew that something was not right but I knew that God, not I, would fix it.  I would not recognize a man as "Holy Father" who was blatantly not Catholic (Francis has celebrated Hanukkah with the Jews and has been prayed over by protestants - actions which would have earned him an excommunication and the title of apostate under any pre-Vatican II papacy).  I know the Church has had many anti-popes in her history and unlike all Catholics before my era in the Church I have access to over 2000 years of Church history so I know there is nothing new under the sun.  I'm not so arrogant as to believe the times of anti-popes have "passed."

To paraphrase St. Jerome, I live in an era in which the world has groaned, awoken, and marveled to find itself Modernist.  The Arian crisis afflicted 95% of the Church of its time.  The Modernist crisis has afflicted 99% of the Church of our time.  To those in the 99% who are looking at this joker who has balloons at his "Masses," and is not even certainly a priest (he was ordained in the 1969 ordinal), consider joining the 1%.  We don't have any crises of faith nor do we have to worry about all the anxiety and battles waged in the forums and websites of the neo-conservative and neo-trad Catholics.  We know the truth: we understand the metaphysical realities of the situation though everything conspires to make us believe otherwise.

We know that Our Lord promised to be with us always.  And we hold Him to that promise.  We wait on Him to fix the mess that men have made.  And we don't force our reality (habemus papam!) to fit our pre-made conclusions (sedevacantism can't be right!).  Like St. Thomas, we use reality to draw our conclusions.  And when all other options are inadequate to explain the situation, the remaining possibility, however uncertain to our eyes of flesh, must be the correct explanation, and will be seen by our eyes of faith.