@RomanoSace57080 It is always great to see priests wearing their cassocks everywhere they go. It has been the norm where I come from (even Hindus pay respect to priests when they see them in public) but now, sadly, it's changing
I am no longer a sedevacantist.
For the last month, I have been praying the rosary with the petition that Our Mother would save me from heresy, schism and error.
I beg everyone to do the same.
Interview of Cardinal Oddi on the Traditional Character of John XXIII
Interviewer: The conclave did not seem to have significant internal divisions between progressives and conservatives, divisions that emerged very shortly afterward.
Card. Oddi: “In fact it has been maintained — and I have no trouble believing it — that Roncalli was voted in by the cardinals close to Ottaviani [Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, pro-prefect of the Holy Office and a noted conservative — Ed.].”
That would demonstrate that Cardinal Roncalli was considered a conservative.
“Exactly. That is how it was: He was considered a conservative because he was one.”
The Roman synod, of which John XXIII was so proud, was an affirmation of traditionalism.
“Absolutely! And Roncalli saw himself fully within it.”
And yet, the image presented of the “Good Pope” is that of a Pope who viewed the changes favorably and who liked to go along with the most progressive proposals.
“I believe I am among those who knew him best. And I can say that John XXIII was a hardcore conservative.”
Hardcore?
“In the sense of remaining bound even to the most traditional forms of piety, of the liturgy, and of the praxis of the Church.”
A few examples?
“Just a few years previously, he had reprimanded me and other young priests for having objected to the opportunity to preserve the apparel of some religious orders, which were frequently as elaborate as they were uncomfortable. He accused us of wanting to destroy the Church! He loved altars full of candles, and he opposed any reduction of the protocol required of cardinals. He recommended the Latin language in his first encyclical, and he continued to wear the oldest hat styles. He was immovable in his use of the cassock.”
What would he have thought of the “Johannine turn” that historiography attributes to him?
“He would never have considered it as such. It happened, but he was not aware of it. Far less did he desire it.”
But the “Johannine turn” happened.
“Yes, but carried out by others, and not desired by him.”
Others?
“Even his closest collaborators. Precisely because I knew him very well, I can confirm that when Pope John convened the Council, he had no intention whatsoever of effecting what happened afterward. He wanted a Council for ‘perfecting’ the Church, and he repeated frequently, and privately as well, that he wanted a beautiful, splendid, pure, and holy Church, so that all might say, ‘This is the Bride of Christ!’ This was his intention. Perhaps there was some simplicity in this.”
In any case, John XXIII, in a phrase during the opening speech of the Council, distanced himself from the “prophets of doom,” and seemed to open a space for the proposals so dear to those who wanted revolutionary changes. Thus, many progressives thought the Pope was on their side.
“Precisely. I know that he wept over this interpretation. He certainly had no intention of offending anyone; he was incapable of launching an accusation. I hold him in high regard, and I am convinced that that was not his expression; it was prepared for him, he saw it written, and he read it. I know he suffered greatly when it was interpreted as an allusion to someone near to him, and in particular to Cardinal Ottaviani. He truly suffered over that. It made him look like a reformer who had stopped carrying out the discipline of the Church. I was a close friend of his; I knew him very well. I can say that, in his holiness, he was the most conservative of men.”
"Whatever a man commands as God's representative is to be received no differently than if God Himself were commanding it, provided it does not certainly displease God" (St. Bernard of C., De praec. et disp., cap. 9, n. 21). Of course, first & foremost, this applies to the Pope.