Letters – Page 7 – Antipope John XXIII

A solemn Eucharistic Congress in Guatemala in 1959 with Francis Spellman as papal legate, reflecting traditional Catholic devotion and reverence.

Certiores quidem (1959.01.29)

amdg / 2025-11-12

This short Latin letter of John XXIII appoints Francis Spellman as papal legate to the Central American Eucharistic Congress in Guatemala (February 1959), extols the “splendour” of the event, and enumerates themes to be discussed: the role of the Eucharist in “domestic concord,” youth education, social-class harmony, perfection of the human person, and the tranquillity and prosperity of the republics concerned — closing with a Marian invocation and the so‑called apostolic blessing.

A traditional Catholic scene depicting John XXIII presiding over a Marian Congress in Saigon, with a crowd of faithful Catholics gathered under the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Letters

Exeunte iubilari anno (1959.01.31)

amdg / 2025-11-12

At the end of the so‑called Marian Jubilee of Lourdes (1958), John XXIII addresses Gregory Peter Agagianian, Armenian patriarch and head of Propaganda Fide, appointing him as his legate to preside over a Marian Congress in Saigon. The letter enthusiastically approves the Vietnamese bishops’ plan to celebrate the Lourdes apparitions, extols obtaining the “powerful patronage” of the Immaculate, and grants the legate faculties to pontifically preside, bless the faithful in his name, and proclaim a plenary indulgence. It is a brief, programmatic gesture: Rome’s public embrace of Lourdes, Marian congresses, and indulgences as instruments of its global policy in a strategically anti-communist region.

St. Antoninus of Florence kneeling in prayer before a baroque altar with a statue of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by medieval manuscripts and an archiepiscopal crozier in a historic Florentine church.

Letters

Epistula ad Eliam tit. S. Marci Card. Dalla Costa (1959.02.24)

amdg / 2025-11-12

John XXIII’s Latin letter commemorates the fifth centenary of the death of St Antoninus of Florence, praising his innocence, austerity, episcopal prudence, doctrinal writings, devotion to Our Lady, and exhorting the Florentine hierarchy and faithful to imitate his virtues, while presenting the then-archbishop Dalla Costa as continuator of his pastoral spirit and extending an “Apostolic Blessing” as confirmation of this continuity. The entire text is a carefully staged tableau: a true Dominican and Catholic saint is ceremonially co-opted to lend moral capital and pseudo-apostolic credibility to the nascent conciliar revolution.

A solemn portrait of John XXIII seated at a papal desk, holding a letter to Louis Shvoy, Bishop of Alba Regalis.

Letters

Octogesimum Natalem (1959.02.25)

amdg / 2025-11-12

John XXIII’s brief Latin note flatters Louis Shvoy, “bishop” of Alba Regalis, on his eightieth birthday, praising his prudence, firmness, and merits, invoking divine reward, and imparting an “Apostolic Blessing” on him, his clergy, and his people; nothing more is said, and precisely this emptiness, issuing from the first usurper of the conciliar epoch, reveals an ecclesiastical power already transformed into courteous naturalism, sentimentality and institutional self-congratulation cut off from the integral kingship of Christ and the authentic Catholic notion of the episcopate and grace.

Venerable James Duhig receives a letter from John XXIII in a traditional Catholic cathedral, symbolizing the tension between institutional pride and doctrinal crisis.

Letters

Abrisbanensis (1959.03.17)

amdg / 2025-11-12

Venerable James Duhig is congratulated by John XXIII for one hundred years since the erection of the Brisbane diocese: the letter enumerates institutional successes (parishes, schools, hospitals, charitable works, multiplication of dioceses), applauds the dedication of a regional seminary named after Pius XII, and expresses paternal hopes for greater unity, obedience, and moral probity among clergy and faithful in Queensland, all framed in courteous, devotional rhetoric and supported by a brief citation of St Augustine. In reality, this seemingly pious epistle is a paradigm of the new conciliar mentality in embryo: a naturalistic glorification of structures and statistics, a studied silence about the combats of the true faith, and a preparatory stage-setting for the revolution that would soon devastate those very dioceses it flatters.

A solemn procession for the translation of St. Pius X's relics from St. Peter's Basilica to St. Mark's in Venice, with John XXIII's letter prominently displayed.

Letters

Primo exacto saeculo post ordinationem sacerdotalem S. Pii X (1959.03.29)

amdg / 2025-11-12

Pius X’s centenary letter by John XXIII praises the “sweet image” of Pius X, approves and extols the solemn translation of his relics from St Peter’s Basilica to St Mark’s in Venice, appoints Giovanni Urbani as personal legate to preside in his name, and grants a plenary indulgence under usual conditions to the faithful participating in those celebrations. The entire text wraps genuine Catholic elements (veneration of a pre-conciliar pope, indulgences, liturgical solemnity) in the authority-claim and signature of the man who inaugurates the conciliar revolution, thereby turning the memory of the great antimodernist pope into a façade for the nascent neo-church and its systemic betrayal of his doctrine.

Franciscan friars in brown habits kneeling in prayer before a statue of St. Francis of Assisi with the Vatican in the background.

Letters

Cum natalicia (1959.04.04)

amdg / 2025-11-12

In this Latin letter dated 4 April 1959, John XXIII addresses the Ministers General of the four Franciscan branches on the 750th anniversary of Innocent III’s approbation of the Franciscan Rule. He praises Francis as lawgiver and exemplar of poverty, celebrates the historical fecundity of the Franciscan movement in the Church and in “civilization,” urges fidelity to the Rule, calls for renewed zeal in preaching adapted to modern conditions, and invokes Our Lady’s patronage over the Franciscan families, concluding with his “Apostolic Blessing.”

Depiction of Ioachima de Vedruna de Mas amidst suffering children and the sick, with a shadowy Roncalli's decretal in the background.

Letters

Materna Caritas (1959.04.12)

amdg / 2025-11-12

Ioannes Roncalli, presenting himself as “Supreme Pastor,” solemnly proclaims the “canonization” of Ioachima de Vedruna de Mas, depicting her as a model of maternal charity, religious founder, and wonder-working intercessor, and inserts her into the liturgical cult of the structures then still outwardly occupying the Apostolic See. The document narrates her life in edifying style, enumerates alleged miracles, and culminates in Roncalli’s juridical formula that she is to be venerated as a “Saint” in the whole “Church.” The entire act, however, is founded upon usurped authority, modernist assumptions, and a sacrilegious falsification of the very notion of sanctity and canonization.

A sedevacantist Catholic bishop in traditional vestments stands solemnly in front of an Argentine cathedral, holding a copy of 'Si ingratae mentis' by antipope John XXIII.

Letters

Si ingratae mentis (1959.05.11)

amdg / 2025-11-12

Dated 11 May 1959, this Latin letter of antipope John XXIII to Antonio Caggiano and the other Argentine hierarchy commemorates two anniversaries: the centenary of formal diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Argentina, and the 25th anniversary of Pius XI’s reorganization of the ecclesiastical structure in that country. It praises Argentina as a Christian nation, exalts the post-1929 ecclesiastical expansion (parishes, churches, clergy, religious, Catholic Action, schools, hospitals), encourages civil and ecclesiastical authorities to deepen collaboration with the Roman See, and bestows an “apostolic blessing” as a pledge of divine favor.

Venerable Benedict Aloisi Masella surrounded by faithful in Palestrina, 1959, with a marble monument of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the background.

Letters

A A A La Ioannes XXIII (1959.05.24)

amdg / 2025-11-12

Venerable Benedict Aloisi Masella is congratulated on his eightieth birthday and fortieth episcopal anniversary; the conciliar court of John XXIII encourages solemn local celebrations in Palestrina, the erection of a marble monument in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the renewal of public consecration to her Immaculate Heart, and grants, through Aloisi Masella, a plenary indulgence attached to a pontifical Mass celebrated on the designated day. All is expressed in impeccably courteous Latin, presenting John XXIII as benevolent pastor and Rome as dispenser of spiritual favors. This seemingly harmless epistolary compliment is, in reality, a concentrated symptom of the new religion: the polite ceremonial façade hides the usurpation of authority, the instrumentalization of Marian devotion, and the replacement of the true Roman Church by a paramasonic apparatus celebrating itself.