The document is a Latin letter of John XXIII, dated 27 February 1962, addressed to Fr. Malcolm Lavelle, superior general of the Passionists, on the centenary of the death of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. It praises Gabriel’s early piety, his Passionist vocation, contempt of the world, penance, purity, Marian devotion, and proposes him as a model for youth, clergy, religious, and families, linking his example to the upcoming Second Vatican Council.
This Latin letter of John XXIII (“Ioannes PP. XXIII”) congratulates Antonio Caggiano, “cardinal” and archbishop of Buenos Aires, on the fiftieth anniversary of his priestly ordination, praising his episcopal governance, his organizational and social initiatives, his role in Catholic Action, Marian and Eucharistic congresses, his mediation in social conflicts, and granting him the faculty to impart a blessing with plenary indulgence on the occasion of his jubilee.
Sanctimonious Praise of Alcantarine Asceticism in Service of a Coming Revolution
The text is a Latin letter of John XXIII to Augustine Sépinski, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, on the 400th anniversary of the death of St Peter of Alcantara. It extols Peter’s austerity, contemplative spirit, role in reform, collaboration with St Teresa of Jesus, his Treatise on prayer and meditation, and exhorts the Franciscans and the faithful to imitate his poverty, penance, and interior life as an antidote to “naturalism.” It presents Peter as a model of evangelical perfection for clergy and laity, and wraps this commemoration in the solemn “apostolic” blessing of the writer.
The text is a short Latin congratulatory letter in which John XXIII extols Aloisio Traglia on the 25th anniversary of his episcopal consecration, praising his services in the Roman Curia, as Vicar in Rome, and as president of bodies overseeing “Catholic Action” and the lay apostolate in Italy. John XXIII lauds Traglia’s diligence, affability, eloquence, and merits “for the Church,” invokes divine assistance so that he may continue his work, especially in fostering the “ancient Christian piety” of Rome, and imparts his “Apostolic Blessing.”
The document “Ad Dilectos” (8 December 1961) is a circular letter in which antipope John XXIII addresses the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops of Latin America, praising their peoples’ Catholic heritage and Marian devotion, exhorting the hierarchy to catechesis, sacramental life, vocations, Catholic Action, and implementation of “Christian social doctrine” in response to civil, social, and economic challenges, while insisting that authentic renewal and social order must rest on divine law as taught by the “Church” and by his own recent magisterial interventions. Beneath the apparently pious exhortations, the text functions as a programmatic ideological preparation: it seeks to align Latin America to the aggiornamento of the coming council, to subordinate temporal order to the emergent neo-church, and to dilute the reign of Christ the King into a humanitarian-social project managed by the conciliar sect.
This Latin letter, issued on December 8, 1961 by John XXIII to Hyginus Anglès on the 50th anniversary of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, praises the Institute’s role in promoting sacred music (Gregorian chant, polyphony, Latin in the liturgy), commends its fidelity to the directives of Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII, encourages the cultivation of Latin and chant alongside suitable vernacular religious songs for non-solemn settings, and blesses efforts to adapt musical formation to missionary territories by integrating local melodies into Catholic worship; in short, it presents itself as a harmonious continuation of pre-1958 liturgical doctrine while quietly inaugurating the programmatic instrumentalization of sacred music for the conciliar revolution it was about to unleash.
Dated October 12, 1961, and signed by John XXIII, this Latin letter is addressed to Antonio María Barbieri on the 25th anniversary of his episcopal consecration. It offers praise for his loyalty to the Roman See, his pastoral governance, preaching, and care for the poor; it encourages him to grow in wisdom, imitate the “good shepherd” and Franciscan ideals, serve the “Church” with pure heart and constancy, and imparts to him and his flock the “apostolic blessing” together with the grant of a plenary indulgence on a chosen day for the faithful present at his benediction. Behind this apparently benign congratulatory form lies the naked program of the conciliar revolution: the sacrilegious use of sacred language and indulgences to confirm a false hierarchy and cement obedience to a new, man‑centred religion occupying Catholic structures.
The document attributed to John XXIII and addressed to Rufino Santos and the other hierarchy of the Philippine islands congratulates them for the growth, material development, and organisation of their seminaries. It praises buildings, numbers, structures, the coordination of curricula, attention to spiritual directors, and encourages the promotion of vocations and the creation of a national college in Rome as a sign of ecclesial maturity. It is a serenely bureaucratic self-congratulation of a system that, on the eve of the conciliar revolution, was already internally severed from *integral Catholic faith* and preparing an army of functionaries for the future conciliar sect.
This Latin letter, issued by antipope John XXIII on July 20, 1961, commemorates the fifth centenary of the canonization of St. Catherine of Siena, addressing Michael Browne as Master General of the Order of Preachers. It rehearses Catherine’s virtues and historical role: her defense of the Roman Pontiff, efforts for the Pope’s return from Avignon, interventions for peace in Italy, love of the Most Holy Eucharist, devotion to the Passion and the Precious Blood, and spiritual influence through her letters and Dialogue. It notes how later pontiffs assigned her patronages (of Rome, of Italy, of women in Catholic Action, of certain congregations) and exhorts the Dominican family and the faithful to celebrate the jubilee in her honor. The text cloaks a grave fraud: the usurper of 1961 parasitically invokes a true medieval saint to confer borrowed legitimacy on the conciliar revolution he is engineering against the very Faith she served unto death.
Dated 4 July 1961, this Latin letter of John XXIII appoints Richard James Cushing as papal legate to the National Eucharistic Congress in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. It praises Bishop Aloisio Rodríguez Pardo, extols Bolivian Eucharistic devotion, entrusts Cushing with representing the “pope,” proposes the motto “Omnes unum sumus in Christo” (We are all one in Christ), and links Eucharistic worship with unity, charity, social justice, and concern for the poor and indigenous. It culminates in an Apostolic Blessing as an encouragement to Eucharistic piety and fraternal concord.
