November 2025

Antonio Caggiano, archbishop of Buenos Aires, receiving a letter of praise from John XXIII in a serene cathedral setting.
Apostolic Letters

PIAE CUM CERTATIONE (1962.02.19)

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A brief Latin letter of John XXIII (Roncalli) congratulates Antonio Caggiano, “cardinal” and archbishop of Buenos Aires, on fifty years of priesthood, praising his diocesan administration, his role in organizing Eucharistic and Marian events in Argentina, his work with “Catholic Action” and “social action,” his mediation in a railway dispute, and granting him the faculty to impart a blessing with plenary indulgence on a chosen day; the entire text is one smooth, courtly panegyric which, by its silences and euphemisms, reveals a program of ecclesial naturalization and the consolidation of the conciliar revolution within Argentina’s hierarchy.

Saint Peter of Alcántara in prayer at a Franciscan monastery with a pre-1958 priest holding the Syllabus Errorum.
Letters

Lilium (1962.01.02)

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This Latin letter “Lilium,” dated 2 January 1962 and issued by the usurper John XXIII to Augustine Sépinski, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, commemorates the 4th centenary of the death of Saint Peter of Alcántara. It praises Peter’s austerity, contemplative spirit, cooperation with Saint Teresa of Ávila, his reforming zeal, and proposes him as an exemplar especially for Franciscans and for all the faithful against rising “naturalism,” insisting on prayer, penance, poverty, and interior life as the soul of apostolate.

A traditional Catholic bishop in liturgical vestments stands solemnly in a historic Roman church, holding a letter from John XXIII, surrounded by devout laypeople engaged in traditional Catholic Action.
Letters

Quintam vicesimam (1961.12.29)

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At the surface level, this brief Latin letter of John XXIII to Aloisius Traglia is a congratulatory note for the twenty-fifth anniversary of his episcopal consecration. John XXIII recalls Traglia’s curial service, his role as vicar in Rome, his presidency over the episcopal council coordinating Catholic Action and lay apostolate in Italy, and he showers him with praise for his doctrine, diligence, amiability, and usefulness to the “Church,” ending with a blessing. Beneath this seemingly harmless courtesy lies the distilled program of the conciliar sect: the substitution of supernatural mission with bureaucratic careerism, the exaltation of human qualities over Catholic militancy, and the quiet enthronement of the emerging lay-centered, naturalistic neo-church that would soon be unleashed at Vatican II.

Pope Pius X in liturgical vestments surrounded by a Schola Cantorum singing Gregorian chant in a grand Roman basilica.
Letters

Iucunda laudatio (1961.12.08)

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This Latin letter of John XXIII, addressed to Hyginus Anglés on the 50th anniversary of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, is an ornate panegyric: it praises the Institute as heir and guardian of sacred music, recalls Pius X’s reform and the chirograph “Tra le sollecitudini,” extols Gregorian chant, polyphony, Latin in the solemn liturgy, scholae cantorum, and even mentions adapting music in mission territories by elevating indigenous melodies for Catholic worship; the whole text wraps itself in traditional terminology to present the Institute as exemplary servant of divine worship under the aegis of the conciliar renovator.

Portrait of Bishop Antonio Maria Barbieri holding a letter from John XXIII in a traditional Catholic chapel.
Apostolic Letters

SEMPER EXPECTATUS (1961.10.12)

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This brief Latin letter of John XXIII congratulates Antonio María Barbieri on the 25th anniversary of his episcopal consecration, extols his loyalty to the Roman See, praises his pastoral merits and Franciscan vocation, grants him the faculty to impart a plenary indulgence on a chosen day for the faithful present, and concludes with an “Apostolic Blessing” as a confirmation of paternal goodwill. In reality, this apparently innocuous panegyric is a distilled manifesto of the new conciliar cult of personality, sentimentalism, and juridically void “pontifical” favors flowing from usurped authority, preparing the ground for the dissolution of the Catholic episcopate into the humanistic, horizontal fraternity of the conciliar sect.

Young seminarians in traditional cassocks stand reverently in a Philippine seminary chapel, reflecting piety and discipline. The scene includes a subtle portrait of antipope John XXIII in the background.
Letters

Pater misericordiarum (1961.08.22)

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In this Latin letter of 22 August 1961, antipope John XXIII addresses Rufino Santos and the hierarchy of the Philippine islands, congratulating them on the external flourishing of seminaries, the increase of vocations, the construction of suitable houses of formation, and the establishment of the Pontifical Filipino College in Rome. He exhorts them to select suitable candidates, appoint morally exemplary formators, cultivate discipline, piety, obedience, asceticism, Latin studies, and to protect seminarians from worldly novelties, ending with paternal assurances that such efforts will strengthen the Church and the “Kingdom of God” in the Philippines and neighbouring peoples. Behind this apparently benign praise stands the calculated preparation of a compliant, modernist clergy to serve the conciliar revolution soon to be unleashed at Vatican II, a project which this letter serenely clothes in pious phraseology.

A Catholic portrait of St. Catherine of Siena lamenting the modernist betrayal of her teachings in the Vatican.
Letters

Epistula ad Michaëlem Browne (1961.07.20)

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This Latin letter of John XXIII, addressed to Dominican Superior General Michael Browne on the fifth centenary of the canonization of St Catherine of Siena, praises her sanctity, her devotion to the papacy, her Eucharistic piety, and her influence in the Church, and encourages the Order of Preachers and the faithful—especially Italians and Sienese—to celebrate her memory and invoke her intercession in order to obtain a moral and religious renewal. Beneath its pious surface, however, this text instrumentalizes a great medieval saint in order to clothe the incipient conciliar revolution with counterfeit “continuity” and to divert souls from the integral reign of Christ the King and the doctrinal intransigence of the pre-conciliar Magisterium.

A solemn Eucharistic Congress in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, 1961. Devout Catholics kneel in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, with Bishop Rodríguez Pardo and Cardinal Cushing presiding.
Letters

Laetum allatum (1961.07.04)

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The Latin letter “Laetum allatum,” dated July 4, 1961 and attributed to John XXIII, appoints Richard James Cushing as papal legate to a National Eucharistic Congress in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. It praises Bishop Rodríguez Pardo, extols Bolivian Eucharistic devotion, sets “Omnes unum sumus in Christo” (“We are all one in Christ”) as the Congress’ keynote, and exhorts to Eucharistic piety, charity, social justice, and national concord.

Archbishop Martin John O'Connor holding the papal letter 'Nostra Patris' in a historic church library, symbolizing the battle against modern media's influence on Catholic values.
Letters

Nostra Patris (1961.06.29)

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The letter “Nostra Patris,” dated 29 June 1961 and issued by antipope John XXIII to Martin John O’Connor, praises the 25-year legacy of Pius XI’s Vigilanti cura, commends ecclesiastical bodies monitoring cinema, laments immoral and anti-religious films, and urges a more intense Catholic presence in cinematic culture through guidance, formation, criticism, and cooperation with filmmakers, under the direction of a central Pontifical Council for cinema, radio, and television. Behind its apparently prudent concern, however, stands a programmatic capitulation: a shift from guarding the flock through objective doctrinal and disciplinary authority to flattering, dialoguing with, and ultimately integrating a corrupt mass-media culture — one of the early and transparent symptoms of the coming conciliar revolution.

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Antipope John XXIII
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