Before the newsletter, a little announcement. As some of you know, we at The Pillar are inviting you to join us for a pilgrimage this September to the beatification of Ven. Fulton Sheen in St. Louis. We did everything we could to keep the price down, but the cost of the pilgrimage might still seem a little steep, because things cost money.
Well, here’s a cool thing. An anonymous friend of ours wants you to go on the pilgrimage. This is a historic Catholic moment, and this friend wants Catholics to be able to experience it. So the benefactor has decided to give the next 10 registrants $500 off the trip cost. When you register here, use the coupon code Sheen500 to take that $500 off.
Hey everybody,
Today’s the last day of June, and you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post.
On this day, in the year 296, began the papacy of Pope Marcellinus, whose story we might never really know.
Marcellinus has been remembered as both an apostate and a martyr, though we don’t know if either is actually true, let alone both.
He became pope just a few years before the terrible Diocletian persecution of Christians began in Rome, and across the empire. The persecution meant eventually that anyone arrested for the practice of Christianity had to apostatize or face execution.
Well, by some accounts, Marcellinus was arrested, and, by some accounts — the ones that have prevailed in some corners as history, even if they were written well after the facts — Marcellinus offered a few pinches of incense to Roman idols, rather than face a slow and painful death.
That led to his release, according to those accounts, and then he re-presented himself to the Christians in Rome, was accepted as a penitent, and suffered soon after another arrest, and then martyrdom.
Some accounts, which have been proven almost certainly untrue, claim that a council of 300 bishops gathered in the year 303, to put Marcellinus on trial for apostasy. While the trial was supposed to have gone on for days, Marcellinus is said to have eventually admitted his sin, after which the supposed council fathers decided not to sanction him, on the principle that the first see — the See of Peter — is judged by no one.
Most everyone now agrees that didn’t happen. And even close to his day, not everyone agreed that Marcellinus had denied the faith — Augustine of Hippo insisted the stories about him were calumny and rumor.
But the stories about him could have some interesting origins. It seems that in the decades after his death, rumors were combined to make the account of his denial, and then his death. And in part because his name was missing from a listing of popes in his era — possibly omitted by a scribe by accident — those rumors were taken as fact in later histories. It doesn’t help that we do know of another martyr from the same persecution named Marcellinus, and it’s possible that names got mixed up. Or that many bishops of his era went into hiding, leading to widespread speculation about what had happened to them.
What we know is this: There was a pope named Marcellinus. He lived through a horrific persecution of Christians. And now, the Church remembers him as a saint. Whatever else is true, may he intercede for us — that we might have the courage of the Christians of his day.
The news
The College of Cardinals concluded this weekend their second consistory in the Leonine pontificate — discussing several critical issues in the life of the Church, and having a discussion on synodality.
It’s remarkable that they’ve had two consistories in less than a year — the large meetings of the college were very rare during the Francis pontificate, to the outspoken dissatisfaction of many cardinals.
Well, now they’re meeting again, and that’s making cardinals happy — for the most part.
Ahead of the consistory, Edgar Beltran talked with a lot of cardinals about what they were expecting — and what their concerns were.
It’s worth discussing for a moment what the consistory actually is, by the way. During the gathering, some Catholic media outlets took pains to call the thing a “business meeting” of cardinals, in order to emphasize that the meetings are not dramatic, high-stakes affairs.
I get the point. But Leo took a different approach. He emphasized in his remarks to cardinals that the consistory is a uniquely ecclesial experience, which he called “’an experience of communion at service of mission” — in other words, that the consistory flows from the sacramental and hierarchical communion of the Church entirely.
This is an important point. It can seem anodyne. But Leo is emphasizing the theological basis for common discernment in the life of the Church — the sacramental communion achieved in baptism, and in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass. If it’s the basis for the consistory, it’s also the basis for synodality, and for the work of the parish finance council, for that matter.
We discern together — in a properly hierarchical way — as an expression and outgrowth of the reality of the ties which bind us. And if we don’t put that first, we risk either flattening our ecclesiology to that of a business meeting, or so broadening our sense of common discernment as to lose what baptism makes of us — a people, shaped in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
Here’s what the cardinals thought.
The tickets were announced for sale on Ticketmaster, and some potential attendees were surprised by three things: that the tickets had a cost associated with them at all, that priests who would concelebrate the Mass would be charged for tickets, and that only upper deck tickets seemed immediately available.
So we called Bishop Louis Tylka in Peoria to ask about exactly those things.
And before you have a hot take on Ticketgate, if there is one, read what he had to say, and form your own view on the subject.
Huh? Why do Scandinavians think their Freemasonry might be different from the garden variety? In an era of declining rates for “joining” anything, why did the bishops see fit to issue this letter?
What’s going on here?
For the first time in over 50 years, the Church in the U.S. will begin praying a new translation of The Liturgy of the Hours. Ascension is designing an edition with exceptional readability and top-of-the-line materials to faithfully serve the Church’s daily prayer for generations. Preorders open July 1.
A growing number of Armenians are “disappointed” and “frustrated” with the Catholic Church over its ties to Azerbaijan and a foundation that has funded hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of restoration projects in the Vatican, a leading activist told The Pillar last week.
What’s this about? Well, in recent years, the Apostolic See has allowed an Azeri foundation very close to the country’s government to pay for expensive restoration projects all over Rome. At the same time, the Azeri government is engaged in a conflict with Christian Armenians, which includes the destruction of major Armenian churches.
Critics say the Vatican shouldn’t take money from the very people trying to erase Armenian Christian cultural identity, and the people who hold it, from a disputed region.
It’s complicated, and serious.
Here’s the latest, in a story we’ve been covering for quite some time.
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The annual number of priestly ordinations is expected to rise in Germany and fall in France in 2026.
A total of 30 new priests will be ordained for Germany’s 27 dioceses in 2026, up from 25 in 2025 and 29 in 2024, the German Catholic news agency KNA reported June 26.
A total of 84 new priests are projected to be ordained in France in 2026, down from 90 in 2025 and 105 in 2024, the French bishops’ conference announced June 25.
“Please turn back”
“I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” Leo wrote.
“I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit and, in some cases, even valid reception of the sacraments, which they love and seek for their sanctification.”
The Apostolic See has been clear that the ordinations will almost certainly lead to declared excommunications for SSPX leadership, and with that, has begun to suggest clearly that currently enjoyed faculty for SSPX priests to validly hear confessions could disappear as well.
Leo’s letter evinced a priest saddened by real disunity in his community, and a pleading father concerned for his wayward son.
In fact, it conveyed what I suspect the forgiving father of that prodigal son must have felt, before his son took the patrimony and squandered it, far from the communion of his father’s house.
Fr. David Pagliarani, superior of the SSPX, responded by an open letter today, lamenting that the pope hasn’t met with him, and insisting on the sincerity of the SSPX’s intentions as they move forward in defiance of the Vatican directive — of their effort to serve the Church “by means that are extraordinary, as one would assist a mother in distress who requires particular help, even if such help is not understood by everyone.”
I must say, I don’t really understand that analogy. Are they taking the mother’s baby away, or what? What does it mean?
In any case, I was struck by the notion of extraordinarity, if you will.
It rang familiar to me.
First, because any time I decide some rule doesn’t apply to me, there is underlying the false sense that I am extraordinary, or doing something extraordinary, and need not submit myself to the annoying or trivial expectations of my community. It’s pride, for me, though I can’t of course speak to anyone else.
But I was also struck because I understand a desire to serve the Church — the Kingdom — in some extraordinary manner. To do something remarkable in response to a crisis, which will, by my own efforts, resolve it. I can empathize, perhaps. And it’s indeed true that some people are called to do things outside from the ordinary or usual manner of proceeding.
The path to holiness — though always a call to the extraordinary — is also predicated, like Leo said about the consistory, upon the ordinary bounds of communion, in the sacramental and hierarchical reality of what makes us a church.
If you want to know whether your extraordinary service to the Kingdom is in the right, the first place is to check whether you’ve been obedient.
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If I was on polymarket (don’t bet on the SSPX on polymarket, guys), I’d bet the consecrations go through tomorrow. I’d bet the Holy See declares the excommunications for the new bishops and SSPX superiors, and I’d bet there’s some ambiguity going forward about the status of SSPX priests and laity consistently attending their liturgies.
I’d bet some U.S. bishops will declare their own precepts on the subject, and others won’t.
I’d bet the SSPX will continue to insist that it’s justified by a state of emergency, and that its outward disobedience is a sign of a deeper, inward conformity to a higher law.
In short, I’d bet on more disunity following those consecrations.
Unless they don’t happen at all. As Leo says, it’s not too late.
“The ultimate test of your greatness”
Saturday is the 250th anniversary of these United States.
If Ed’s well enough, he’ll write a newsletter on Friday, so this seems the right moment for my own observations on the national occasion.
I’m struck by how often John Paul told Americans that the measure of our nation is our virtue — how we care for the most vulnerable, how we care for the poor, how we protect human life, and promote human dignity.
Most of these ideals are taken as policy proposals from the late pontiff — urging that America adopt the policies that would achieve those ends, and that politicians support them.
But JPII, when he spoke, had a way of speaking at every level. Whatever he meant about policy, he also meant something about the lived culture of the communities and places which make up America.
In that sense, I’ve been thinking about this, which he said in Denver, where I live, 33 years ago: “The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones.”
Here’s one of the biggest risks I see for American souls these days: The danger of being dragged to the bottom. Our politics have eroded dramatically in the last 10 years. Our leaders and their comportment are a big part of that, as are the algorithms and anonymity of social media. In the course of that, many of us have allowed ourselves to be more coarse, more cruel, more caustic, and less patient.
Our politics and cultural landscape seem more now to encourage vice, and we seem ever more willing to embrace it.
And the justification is always the same: “Well, WE have to fight this way, because THEY have become so bad.”
“WE have to act like this, because THEY are true enemies of America.”
In that frame, Christianity becomes reduced to pious devotion and to a set of policy aims; the prospect of achieving those policy aims comes to determine the righteousness of our conduct.
“This is a war, and WE have to win it, by the ruthless rules of engagement. Anything else is weak.”
The Christian is rightly concerned with the common good. The Christian American is necessarily concerned with our common good, with the direction of our country and our common flourishing, and what’s left for our children.
But what profit a man to own the libs, and to lose his soul? The same thing for the blue team, by the way. American culture and politics is increasingly deChristianized, and our response is too often to throw in wholesale with the side we believe will best protect us, regardless of the grinding cost of doing so.
Ironically, it’s a self-defeating approach, even on the level of national interest.
America is an amazing place of ingenuity and invention and potential, which has done things no other nation has before, and which has uniquely repented and recovered from many of the great evils she has perpetrated or allowed.
But so much of that is rooted in the virtue of American people. Absent that, I’m not sure what makes America extraordinary, save a vanishingly privileged place for the dollar in global markets.
Further, I’d rather be a saint than live in a great America, and you should want that, too.
The point is this: We’ll lose both our culture and our souls if we — Pillar readers in a good way — don’t put cross of living the Christian life ahead of the political scoreboard.
What matters is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Those are not the characteristics of a “cuck” or a “beta.” They are the hallmarks of carrying the cross with real grace.
We might seem to have less power for that choice, or less influence, or fewer followers, or less retweets. We might see the influence grow of those who disagree with us, and we might be tempted always to vice as the cheat code of “success.”
But the hope for another 250 years of this nation is that it has saints of its own. And some of them should be us.
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Please be assured of our prayers, and please pray for us. We need it.
(And I expect to have an update on Ed by week’s end.)
Yours in Christ,
JD Flynn
editor-in-chief
The Pillar
For the first time in over 50 years, the Church in the U.S. will begin praying a new translation of The Liturgy of the Hours. Ascension is designing an edition with exceptional readability and top-of-the-line materials to faithfully serve the Church’s daily prayer for generations. Preorders open July 1.
I'm conscious as I read this of what a pleasure it is to read something which was not AI generated. Thank you for your work, JD, and all the Pillar writers.
Continued prayers for Ed. I feel even worse for him given that something newsworthy regarding the canonical ban on freemasonry happened while he is out!