John XXIII’s Latin letter “Proximo mense” (5 July 1960) is a congratulatory address to Josef Frings on the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination, praising his personal qualities, humanitarian initiatives, loyalty to the Roman See, and various ecclesiastical achievements in Cologne, while granting him the faculty to impart a plenary indulgence on the occasion.
The document is a brief Latin letter in which John XXIII appoints Richard James Cushing as his legate to preside at a national Eucharistic Congress in Piura, Peru, exhorting greater Eucharistic devotion, more frequent Communion, and an increase in priestly vocations, while invoking blessings for clergy and faithful gathered there. Its apparently pious language, however, conceals and normalizes the usurpation of authority by John XXIII and the conciliar revolution he was preparing, instrumentalizing Eucharistic devotion to reinforce a counterfeit hierarchy and a nascent neo-church detached from the unchanging doctrine of the Kingship of Christ and the true nature of the Church.
Monachium is presented here as the proud, cultured, Eucharistic centre of Bavaria, chosen to host an “international Eucharistic congress,” and the author appoints Cardinal Testa as his legate to preside in his name. The letter exalts the Blessed Sacrament as sign and cause of unity, compares the congress to a global “station” of prayer for the world, links it programmatically with the announced “ecumenical council,” and urges supplications for social order, moral life, and diffusion of “Christ’s religion” across the world. It culminates in a solemn blessing over the city, the congress, and all participants, as an anticipated triumph of a supposedly “orthodox” faith radiating from a modernist occupation of Rome.
The Latin text presents John XXIII’s congratulatory letter to Aloisius Iosephus Muench on the fifth anniversary of his episcopal consecration, praising his “charity” toward workers, his expertise in social questions, his leadership of the “National Catholic Rural Conference,” his role as Apostolic Visitor and Nuncio in post-war Germany, and finally his service in the Roman Curia, crowned by the red hat. It is a compact eulogy of a functionary whose merit is defined almost exclusively by sociological activity, diplomatic usefulness, and alignment with a new humanistic agenda, wrapped in pious phrases and a Psalm verse.
Ioannes XXIII’s Latin letter “Mox quinquagesima” congratulates Ernesto Ruffini on the fiftieth anniversary of his priestly ordination, praising his work in Roman institutions, his role in priestly formation, his administration of the Archdiocese of Palermo, and granting him, on this occasion, the faculty to impart a blessing with a plenary indulgence to the faithful.
In this brief Latin letter, John XXIII addresses Bishop Beniamino Ubaldi of Gubbio on the 8th centenary of the death of St. Ubaldo, praising the city’s traditional devotion to its heavenly patron, commending the planned celebrations, and exhorting the faithful—very generically—to imitate the saint’s virtues, renew Christian life, and trust in his intercession, concluding with an “Apostolic Blessing.” Behind this apparently harmless rhetoric stands the subtle inauguration of a new cult of sentimentality and civic religiosity, designed to cloak the conciliar revolution with a veneer of tradition while evacuating the Faith of its doctrinal sharpness and social kingship of Christ.
The Latin letter “Sacra Palaestinae” (17 April 1960) by John XXIII congratulates the Franciscan Order on the fourth centenary of its stable seat at St. Saviour’s in Jerusalem, extols their role as guardians of the Holy Places, encourages the promotion of pilgrimages and financial support for the custodial works, and reaffirms earlier prescriptions that in every diocese at least once a year a collection should be made for the Holy Land. Behind pious language about the “victorious banners” of Christ’s sanctuaries, the text reduces the mystery of the Incarnate Word’s homeland to an object of diplomatic, sentimental, and financial cult, perfectly suited to the emerging conciliar religion: a horizontal, naturalistic management of “Sacred Places” severed from the unchanging demands of Christ the King and the integral Catholic Faith.
Dated 5 April 1960, this Latin letter of John XXIII to Benjamin de Arriba y Castro, then archbishop of Tarragona and cardinal of the conciliar structures, congratulates him on the 25th anniversary of his episcopal ordination. The text praises his loyalty to the Roman See as then occupied, commends his concern for priestly sanctity and migrants, invokes divine assistance, and grants him the faculty to impart, on a chosen day, a blessing with a plenary indulgence in the name of John XXIII to the faithful of his jurisdiction.
The Latin letter under consideration is a brief missive of John XXIII, appointing Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira as his legate for the inauguration and “dedication” of the newly built Brazilian capital, Brasília. It praises Brazil for wishing to surround this political project with sacred ceremonies, urges that the new city become a beacon of “Christian humanism,” concord, justice, hospitality, festivity, and peace, and confers an “apostolic blessing” upon the celebrations. It is a polished, optimistic benediction of a modern state-capital, couched in religious language yet wholly subordinate to secular categories. In reality, this document is a concise manifesto of naturalistic civic religion, revealing the nascent conciliar sect’s abdication of the Kingship of Christ and its willingness to anoint the emerging Masonic world-order.
In this Latin letter of 5 March 1960, John XXIII delegates Cardinal Jaime de Barros Câmara as his legate to the National Eucharistic Congress in Curitiba (Curitybae), Brazil. The text exhorts Brazilians to fervent devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, presenting the Eucharist as “the summit of Christ’s marvels,” “the banner of unity, the bond of peace, the food of charity,” and as the foundation for moral life, family, schools, public institutions, and laws, since “no one can lay another foundation than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 3:11). It cloaks the Brazilian nation with ornate praise and expresses confidence that Eucharistic piety will safeguard Catholic religion and social order.
