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It’s the feast of St. Blaise, you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post.
St. Blaise was a doctor and a martyred bishop from the early fourth century.
We don’t know a lot about him, but we know that about 200 years after he died, a story emerged to credit him with saving a boy from choking on a fish bone. That story grew and grew, with more details added over the centuries, and eventually the emergence of a pious practice: lighting candles to ask for St. Blaise’s intercession against diseases or infections of the throat and neck.
All that led to our liturgical practice of throat blessing, celebrated today, with blessed candles and through the intercession of St. Blaise.
Flu cases in the United States continue to surge this winter, so I’d suggest you get your throat blessed — if you didn’t this morning, there is perhaps an evening throat blessing at your parish church tonight — unless, of course, you live on the parts of the East Coast in which cars remain tucked under a thick blanket of ice.
Anyway, if you don’t know a lot about St. Blaise, then you definitely don’t know he’s part of the coolest named aggregate of saints you’ve never heard of.
Cooler than the Justice League, the Fantastic Four, the Highwaymen, the 2014 Miami Heat, or the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, for that matter, St. Blaise is part of a saintly supergroup called the Holy Helpers.
There are 14 of ‘em. They came to prominence as a group in the 14th century, when Germanic Catholics looked for intercessors to guard against the Black Death. Together, they were believed to pray against the symptoms of the plague, to pray for doctors, for good confessions, family healing, and for good and holy deaths.
Their names are Agathius, Barbara, Blaise, Catherine of Alexandria, Christopher, Cyriacus, Denis, Erasmus, Eustace, George, Giles, Margaret of Anticoh, Pantaleon, and Vitus.
In Bavaria the Holy Helpers have a shrine basilica, built in a place where the 14 had appeared as children to a shepherd in the 1400s. After they appeared, a local young woman was cured of the plague, and her cure was widely attributed to their intercession.
Maybe you already knew about the Holy Helpers. I’m pretty sure I learned about them in Covidtide, and then promptly forgot until this morning.
But it seems to me this is a failure of opportunity. We have, in our very own Church, a plague-fighting supergroup of saints and martyrs, each with a gritty origin story, a long set of cool legends, and a particular penchant for kicking evil squarely in the ass.
They ought to be comic books, an anime series, a couple of films by now, and a few themed rollercoasters at the National Shrine. Little kids should grow up playing Blaise and Eustace, fighting the demons of the plague with their intercessory superpowers, and have branded Catherine of Alexandria spinning wheels which turn into flying fighting discs.
Teenagers should be writing St. Margaret or St. Giles fanfic, and dressing up like the Helpers at SaintCon, which is how we should rebrand at least one major Catholic youth conference in this country.
You get the idea. We’ve got superheroes, they’ve got an awesome name, they’re itching to be merchandised right into the best catechesis I can think of, and we’re watching the pitch sail by.
Well no longer. I hope some enterprising Pillar reader is keen to launch the Holy Helpers Universe. I’ll buy a ticket to the first movie.
And, good news: In America, we’ve got a Cardinal Blase, named for one of the OG Holy Helpers. I think it’s plausible he’d back this entire idea, and maybe help get it out of my rabbit hole here, and into the mainstream — especially since he’s pretty well connected. If you pitch it to him, don’t bring my name up. I’m not sure that would help.
But do, and I mean this quite seriously, join me in praying for Cardinal Blase on his feast day. Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may he be blessed abundantly through the grace of Jesus Christ.
And may the Holy Helpers pray for us all.
The news
You wouldn’t expect that the Epstein emails would contain a whole lot for specifically Catholic media to cover — but there is.
For example, there is a 2015 email in which a decorator working for Epstein claims, improbably, that Epstein “liv[ed] with John Paul the Second in Vatican.”
This seems … unlikely, at best.
Perhaps more interesting is a 2013 email in which Epstein told former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers that a change in leadership at the “Vatican Bank” might have been “the most important change in the Vatican” — rather than the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
So why did Epstein say that? What was he even talking about?
Well, it turns out he was just plagiarizing. And he wasn’t right, either.
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The “first phase” of the German synodal way ended Saturday, with a heated debate over whether the country’s new permanent “synodal body” should monitor the implementation of synodal way resolutions in dioceses.
The conversation is important, because it saw even noted-synodal way supporter Cardinal Reinhard Marx pushing back on a plan that would see bishops’ diocesan leadership monitored by a central ecclesial body within Germany.
It could represent, in short, the self-defeat of the entire synodal way project, ahead of widespread expectation that the Vatican is not likely to approve its plans for an oversight and rule-making body anyhow.
In short, the wheels seem to many Germans to be coming off the synodal way, and Saturday’s meeting is, to them, evidence of that.
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The meeting comes as the archbishop continues to be mired in controversy. He has been accused of mistreating his predecessor, and was more recently accused of helping to facilitate the extortion of a political prisoner’s family member.
In light of that, a meeting between Pope Leo and Biord raises questions about what, if anything, the pontiff intends to do about the ecclesial situation in Venezuela.
As the country of Venezuela faces continued instability, so does its Church.
Edgar Beltran has the analysis.
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Porras, the archbishop emeritus of Caracas, was barred from leaving the country on Dec. 10 after he repeatedly called for the release of political prisoners in Venezuela and advocated for human rights in the country.
The return of his passport comes amid uncertainty about the political future of Venezuela, leaving unclear its meaning.
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Next, the tide seems to be turning on public support for assisted suicide across Europe.
While widespread legalization of euthanasia seemed a certainty in Europe just months ago, three bills that would expand the process are now struggling — suggesting that the champions of assisted suicide appear to be on the back foot.
Luke Coppen brings you the facts on assisted suicide across Europe.
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Here’s a story I love. And I bet you will, too.
Jack Figge talked with employees, business owners, and community members about what happens when a business decides to hire people who are often overlooked.
I am, you know, the father of two children with profound intellectual disabilities. I wonder often what will happen as they grow up, as their friends and playmates move on to the robust, full lives to which God will call them. I wonder who will see them. Who will make time for them. What they’ll do all day, to have a sense of meaning and purpose in their lives. What God might be calling them to.
This story gives me hope. It’ll do the same for you.
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The SSPX is a traditionalist society of priests with a complicated relationship to the Church. Its leadership was excommunicated in 1988, when founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without a papal mandate.
Despite having no canonical status, the society has claimed a kind of jurisdiction-by-necessity, claiming the right to operate as a legitimate canonical body, exercising all kinds of acts of authority and jurisdiction, because of a situation in the Church it calls a crisis, effectively occasioned by Vatican Council II.
The Church has been clear that the priests of the society do not exercise legitimate ministries, as a result of having no canonical status, and the 1988 acts of schism, episcopal consecration in defiance of the pope.
But efforts to reconcile the group have sometimes muddied the waters of their status — with the group’s situation referred to sometimes as “imperfect communion,” with Benedict lifting the excommunications of the illicitly consecrated bishops as an “act of personal mercy,” and with Pope Francis extending faculties to the society’s priests for confession, and delegation to validly witness marriages.
But it should be absolutely clear that the Society of St. Pius X is not a recognized institution in the Church, and thus, many of its actions — setting up chapels, ordaining priests, etc, are illicit — in contravention of canon law. This is most obviously demonstrated by the fact that the society does not subject itself — nor seemingly consider itself subject — to the laws and policies and acts of governance of local diocesan bishops.
More concerning, though, is the sense perpetuated by the society that those who worship in their chapels can often themselves disregard the legitimate governance of their diocesan bishops, in favor of the claimed emergency jurisdiction of the SSPX and a vague nod toward tradition. The 2021 promulgation of Traditionis custodes seems to have given them more confidence in that position, despite Pope Francis’ ample permissions extended to traditionalist groups in ordinary and regular hierarchical communion with the successor of St. Peter.
This means that, theologically and liturgically, the SSPX is doing its own thing. But it also means — and it’s always troubled me — that while the SSPX claims a safeguarding program of its own, there is no evidence of serious professional oversight into their safe environment policies, and diocesan bishops tend neither to attempt canonical oversight, nor be welcomed to do so. What that means within the SSPX is unclear, but the situation should be a significant red flag.
This is a hierarchical Church. Ecclesia without hierarchy is no way to be Catholic. Still, despite that situation, the SSPX has not gone “full sede,” or anything like that — it continues, or has continued, to claim a concrete relationship to the pope and to the Church, and a desire for some “regularization” of its status. At times, the prospect of erecting the SSPX as a personal prelature has been floated.
But the difficulty is usually in the detail on these things, and it became clear this week that the SSPX is apparently not getting the response it hoped for at the Holy See. Thus, it announced plans to do an act of schism, by illicitly consecrating bishops.
There is some speculation that the SSPX is trying to force the Holy See’s hand: To threaten an unconscionable act, in order to bring the Holy See to the table for some brokered solution to a situation of ecclesiastical rupture.
In that way, you might think that the SSPX have learned from the German bishops, who seemed during the Francis papacy to try a similar path — at odds with the Holy See, they’d start a game of ecclesiastical chicken, suggesting they were going to do whatever they wanted, and waiting for the Holy See to blink.
But if that’s the SSPX plan, I suspect they’ve radically misunderstood Pope Leo.
I have no doubt that the pope wants to see the priests of the SSPX reconciled to the Church, and to see the Catholics worshipping at their “chapels” to be in more normal situations as well.
But I also think Pope Leo has made clear that he won’t be blackmailed, coerced, pushed around, or manipulated.
I don’t think the SSPX announcement this week will bring Vatican officials to a table, begging the group’s leaders not to compound their situation, and looking for some hurried solution to keep or create a false peace.
I suspect instead that Leo will remind bishops of the consequence — excommunication — for illicitly consecrating a bishop, and then let the SSPX do what they want.
I suspect he’ll wait for them to commit a serious breach of ecclesial communion, or not. I suspect their choices, not his, will determine what happens next.
For most of the past 20 years, the official strategy with the SSPX has been one measure of conciliation or another — a series of gestures from Benedict and Francis, all of which were hoped to show good faith, to demonstrate mercy, and to effect by persuasion a change in the heart of the SSPX leadership.
I’m betting we’re at the end of that. Pope Leo is a canonist; he knows that excommunication is meant to be a medicinal penalty. I suspect he’s willing to see whether the medicine will work.
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On Charlotte
The Washington Post, it was reported last month, is not sending reporters to the Winter Olympics, or to the Washington Nationals spring training camp — reportedly because of massive layoffs coming to our capital city’s hometown paper, which could decimate the sports and international desks.
The Olympics are all the way in Milan, so I guess I understand how that could get expensive, especially since they don’t even take American Express at the Olympics, if the commercials are to be believed.
But spring training is in West Palm Beach. I found a one-way flight this morning from DCA to Fort Lauderdale for $127. I found an Amtrak ticket for $114, and if the train runs on time, you’ll get to there in time for a game or two before the real season starts.
If the sports page of a city’s paper can’t cover the trip down to Florida, to watch its hometown ballplayers, then it’s in trouble.
And while I can’t comment on the quality of sports journalism at The Post, I do have an observation about its religion reporting.
The Washington Post on Monday included a short feature on the troubles in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, which we at The Pillar have covered extensively in recent months.
The report focused on Bishop Michael Martin’s decision to restrict the presence of altar rails in order to encourage standing — the normative posture, as it were, in the U.S., “unless an individual member of the faithful wishes to receive Communion while kneeling” — for the reception of Holy Communion.
It noted that priests have sent a dubia to the Vatican asking about the limitations on the bishop’s authority regarding liturgical instruction. (That dubia was first reported in The Pillar, by the way, but the Washington Post forgot to mention that.)
And it looked at Charlotte as a kind of microcosm for the liturgical disagreements emerging among Catholics in many parts of the U.S. Church right now.
But the story added a red herring I’m scratching my head about.
As the report framed Martin and his predecessor, retired Bishop Peter Jugis, as liturgical foils for each other — it noted that Bishop Martin “is a Franciscan, a community known for an emphasis on simplicity and poverty and seen today by some as more left-leaning because of its focus on social justice.”
Martin is, as it happens, a Conventual Franciscan, if we want to be specific. I know a fair number of Conventual Franciscans, some of whom are “left-leaning” and many of whom are not, but I don’t see them especially known as the “social justice” wing of the Church, or even of the Franciscan family. They do campus ministry and run some schools and parishes. That seems to be their reputation.
More to the point, I don’t see an emphasis or not on “social justice” as an actual “left-right” divider among American clergy at all.
I see how liturgical viewpoints can be divided along the left/right paradigm, and how perspectives on Catholic doctrine can divide that way, and how perspectives on American politics can certainly do so.
But caring about “social justice” doesn’t lend itself easily to that particular frame.
In fact, some of the traddiest, theologically “conservative” priests I know are the most emphatic about the rights of exploited laborers, immigrants, and the poor, and some of the most theologically “left-leaning,” liturgically laissez-faire guys I know are the ones declining to give their suburban parish employees a living wage, maternity leave, or decent health insurance.
Are those maniple-wearing trads, offering the TLM and quoting St. Thomas, “left-leaning” because they take seriously the teachings of the Church on human dignity? I don’t think so.
So why add that trope to the report?
My best guess: It’s to signify to the reader who the good guy is — “Hey, you might not be familiar with all this liturgical stuff, but this guy is part of a social justice-y, ‘left-leaning’ wing of the Church. Know what I mean?”
It’s odd, too, because I’ve spent a fair amount of time on the phone with clergy and laity of Charlotte in recent months, and none of them has said anything to me about Martin being especially focused on social justice.
But the bit evokes worn out stereotypes about the hippy priests who want to be close to their people, and the rigid sacristy-dwellers who don’t care about the poor. Perhaps it once had resonance [I doubt it], but it doesn’t fit in the landscape of the U.S. Church of 2026 — in fact, it misunderstands and misrepresents us.
The Church is considerably more complex than that. The problems are decidedly more complex than that. And the people aren’t stereotypes.
But you already know about that. Because when you want to know what’s happening in the Church, you read The Pillar. Even if we’re not going to the Olympics, either.
[But we are sponsored and supported by subscriber-readers. So if you want good, serious, and reliable coverage of the Church, today is the day to sign up.]
Please be assured of our prayers, and please pray for us. We need it. And pray for Cardinal Blase!
Yours in Christ,
JD Flynn
editor-in-chief
The Pillar
Your note about the Washington Post article irks me—I haven’t read the post for years, but I’m always amazed that supposedly well educated journalists refuse to “get religion”, and feel the need to subtly indicate who the good guys and bad guys are. It’s just such an insult to the reader’s intelligence.
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Anyway, I subscribe to the Pillar, and have given gift subscriptions. I know which side my bread is buttered.
The Pillar should go to the Olympics and tell us about the daily work of the Catholic chaplain at the Olympic Village (or each one of the four Villages in Milano-Cortina’s case).
Traditionally the Olympic Villages have an interfaith center, with 24/7 ministers for each of the 5 most mentioned faiths (athletes, coaches and officials are polled about it), and accredited ministers for many other faiths/denominations who can enter the Village when called by an Olympian. At least that was the rule in Rio, where I volunteered.
On my very first day at the Village, a Saturday, I went to the interfaith center for Mass since I did not know whether my work schedule would allow me to go on Sunday. There I met Father Leandro, who was assigned to the Village by the Rio Archdiocese. He wore a volunteer’s trousers and coat, and the clerical shirt. The Mass had only 3 people: priest, server and me - it was before the start of the Games, most teams had not arrived by then.
I also remember that some activists complained that African-Brazilian religions were not among those with full-time ministers at the Village. They had completely missed the fact that the interfaith center was a service to the athletes, not an exhibit on the religious landscape of the host country. Besides, these religions did have accredited ministers who could enter the Village.