Letters – Antipope John XXIII

A reverent depiction of John XXIII writing 'Mirabilis ille' in St. Peter's Basilica, surrounded by bishops, highlighting the subtle subversion of Catholic ecclesiology.

Mirabilis ille (1963.01.06)

amdg / 2025-11-12

The letter “Mirabilis ille,” dated 6 January 1963, is John XXIII’s Epiphany message to all bishops and other “Fathers” of the so‑called Second Vatican Council. It recalls with pathos the “wonderful assembly” of bishops in St Peter’s, insists that the Council is to be seen as continually in progress even between its sessions, establishes a new commission of “cardinals” to coordinate conciliar work, exhorts bishops to collaborate through correspondence and local initiatives, urges clergy and laity to pray and engage for the Council’s success, highlights the presence and goodwill of non-Catholic observers, and universalizes the Council’s horizon as an instrument for peace, unity, and the good of all humanity. Under a veil of pious citations and rhetorical unction, the text programmatically shifts the axis of the Church from the immutable reign of Christ the King and the defense of dogma to a horizontal, diplomatic, media-conscious “event,” in which authority is functionally democratized and truth is relativized to “the whole human family.”

Saint Anthony of Padua with his incorrupt tongue in a basilica surrounded by Franciscan friars, juxtaposed with faint modernist elements of the Second Vatican Council in the background.

Letters

Franciscales and the Cult of Relics in the Conciliar Captivity (1963.01.16)

amdg / 2025-11-12

The text is a Latin letter issued in January 1963 by John XXIII to Basil Heiser, General Minister of the Conventual Franciscans, on the 700th anniversary of the translation of the relics of St Anthony of Padua to the basilica bearing his name. It offers rhetorical praise of St Anthony’s sanctity, preaching, miracles, and charity, urges the Franciscan “Family” to imitate his prayer, doctrine and works of mercy, links the celebrations to the then-ongoing Second Vatican Council, and imparts an “apostolic blessing.” From the standpoint of integral Catholic doctrine, this apparently pious tribute functions as a subtle legitimation of the conciliar revolution through the instrumentalization of a true saint to adorn the authority of an usurping antipope and his neo-church.

Archbishop Tatsuo Doi standing before a newly constructed church in Tokyo surrounded by faithful Catholics.

Letters

Quamvis nullum (1963.01.20)

amdg / 2025-11-12

Quamvis nullum is a short Latin congratulatory letter in which John XXIII, acting as supreme hierarch of the conciliar revolution, praises Tatsuji (Tatsuo) Doi on the 25th anniversary of his episcopal consecration as Archbishop of Tokyo, extols his role as a model ecclesiastical leader and first Japanese member of the College of “Cardinals,” notes the supposed flourishing of Catholicism in Japan, encourages the construction of a new principal church, and grants the faculty to impart a plenary indulgence on a chosen day to the faithful of his archdiocese. The text appears innocuous and “pious,” but in reality it is a distilled manifestation of the new paramasonic cult: a horizontalist, naturalistic, episcopocentric self-celebration that replaces the supernatural kingship of Christ and the militancy of the true Church with diplomatic flattery, human achievements, and the affirmation of a church born in 1958, foreign to the Catholic Faith.

Cardinal Ephraem Forni receiving a papal letter from John XXIII in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, 1963.

Letters

QUAMVIS RELIGIOSO (1963.02.09)

amdg / 2025-11-12

The brief Latin letter “Quamvis religioso,” dated 9 February 1963 and signed by John XXIII, is a congratulatory note addressed to Ephraem Forni on the double jubilee of his episcopal consecration and priestly ordination. It rehearses the standard curial compliments: thanksgiving to God for graces received, praise for Forni’s diplomatic service as Apostolic Nuncio in Ecuador, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and his elevation to the “College of Cardinals”; it concludes with wishes for renewed zeal for “the glory of God and the salvation of souls” and an “Apostolic Blessing.” Beneath its polished Latinity, however, this text is an exquisitely revealing miniature of the conciliar revolution: a self-referential, bureaucratic liturgy of a paramasonic apparatus which invokes Catholic piety while silently presupposing a new religion and a new Church incompatible with the unchanging doctrine of Christ the King and the pre-1958 Magisterium.

Depiction of John XXIII blessing the University of Ferrara during its 1963 inauguration ceremony, symbolizing the theological conflict between tradition and the conciliar revolution.

Letters

Ex obsequii (1963.02.12)

amdg / 2025-11-12

The document “Ex obsequii” (12 February 1963) is a brief Latin letter of John XXIII addressed to Giovanni Dell’Acqua, rector of the University of Ferrara, on the occasion of inaugurating the university’s new premises. John XXIII expresses satisfaction at the new seat, delegates Cardinal Amleto Giovanni Cicognani as his representative, extols the historical prestige of the university, invokes God as “Lord of sciences” to protect and increase the institution, and imparts his “Apostolic” blessing upon faculty, students, administrators, and all participants in the ceremony. It is a polished exercise in academic and civic cordiality, whose apparent piety masks the same anthropocentric, naturalistic program that would soon be codified by the conciliar revolution.

St. Catherine of Bologna in prayer before a tabernacle in a traditional Catholic church

Letters

LA IOANNES PP. XXIII EPISTULA AD IACOBUM… (1963.02.13)

amdg / 2025-11-12

The document is a short Latin letter of 13 February 1963 in which John XXIII, addressing Giacomo Lercaro in Bologna on the fifth centenary of St. Catherine of Bologna’s death, offers “benevolent” wishes for the commemorations, praises the traditional local devotion to the saint, briefly recalls her virtues, mystical gifts, writings, and artistic talents, and imparts his “Apostolic Blessing” to Lercaro, clergy, religious, and faithful taking part in the celebrations.

Cardinal Cicognani holding Octogesimum mox letter in Vatican's Apostolic Palace, surrounded by traditional Catholic symbols and frescoes.

Letters

Octogesimum mox (1963.02.24)

amdg / 2025-11-12

Without any doctrinal pretext, the letter of John XXIII (Octogesimum mox, 24 February 1963) to Cicognani is a short panegyric: it congratulates him on his forthcoming 80th birthday, praises his diligence in handling “public affairs of the Church,” recalls his diplomatic and curial services (notably as Apostolic Delegate in the USA and in roles tied to the Eastern Churches and Vatican II), and imparts a blessing. Beneath this apparently innocuous protocolary compliment, however, stands the entire programmatic inversion of the Catholic Church into the conciliar apparatus: the text is a self-revelation of a bureaucracy celebrating itself while the Faith is being dissolved.

St. Peter of Alcantara in prayer at El Palancar, surrounded by a serene landscape.

Letters

Lilium (1962.01.02)

amdg / 2025-11-12

This Latin letter of John XXIII, issued on 2 January 1962 and addressed to Augustin Sépinski, then Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, praises St. Peter of Alcantara on the fourth centenary of his death, encourages solemn commemorations among Franciscans, extols his austerity, contemplative spirit and collaboration with St. Teresa of Avila, and proposes him as a model of penitence and prayer against the rising “naturalism” of modern society. It urges Franciscans and the faithful to imitate his poverty, mortification, contemplative life, and to root apostolic work in interior life, ending with an “Apostolic Blessing.”

Archbishop Antonio Caggiano in a traditional Catholic cathedral, symbolizing his administrative work and the theological implications of John XXIII's letter.

Letters

Piae cum certatione (1962.02.19)

amdg / 2025-11-12

Dated 19 February 1962, this Latin letter of John XXIII to Antonio Caggiano, then Buenos Aires hierarch, congratulates him on fifty years of priesthood: it heaps praise on his diocesan administration in Rosario, his organizational skills, his role in Catholic Action, “social action,” Eucharistic and Marian congresses, and a so‑called “great holy mission,” and it grants him the faculty to impart a plenary indulgence on the faithful on an appointed day.

Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows kneeling in prayer before a traditional Catholic altar with Malcolm Lavelle observing in a dimly lit chapel, reflecting pre-conciliar devotion and doctrinal rigor.

Letters

Sanctitatis altrix (1962.02.27)

amdg / 2025-11-12

The letter “Sanctitatis altrix” of John XXIII, addressed to Malcolm Lavelle of the Passionists on the centenary of the death of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, is an apparently pious exhortation: it praises the Church as “nurturer of holiness,” extols St. Gabriel’s youthful virtue, his detachment from the world, his Marian devotion, his penance and joy, and proposes him as a model for youth, clergy, families, and the Passionist Congregation, with a final linkage between his example and the coming Second Vatican Council as a hope for “rich fruits.” Beneath this devotional surface, the text functions as a spiritual anesthetic: it instrumentalizes a true saint of pre-conciliar Catholicism to baptize the conciliar revolution and to mask, with sentimental rhetoric, the emerging apostasy of the conciliar sect.