Yesterday’s commentary, Occasionally Catholic Remarks Do Not Make Modernists Catholics Themselves, concerned Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV’s March 13, 2026, address to putative confessors about the Sacrament of Penance.

One of the things I did not mention in yesterday’s commentary was that “Pope Leo” did not remind his listeners that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself specifically instituted the Sacrament of Penance by uttering the following words to ten of the then eleven Apostles on Easter Sunday:

He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. (John 20: 21-23)

As the commentary in the Douay-Rheims Bible notes of verse twenty-three:

"Whose sins"... See here the commission, stamped by the broad seal of heaven, by virtue of which the pastors of Christ's church absolve repenting sinners upon their confession. 

Prevost/Leo also omitted any reference to the requirements for a good confession, namely, contrition for one’s sins, an integral confession of them made to a true priest, and a firm resolve to do penance and avoid the near occasions of sin as the means to sin no more.

Thus, I have decided to present to the readers of this site five reflections on the Sacrament of Penance and the ways to make a good Confession.

Three of those reflections are sermons given by the great Austrian missionary to the United States of America, Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., one is a reflection by Saint Francis de Sales, and the final two were written by a devout Barnabite priest, Father Carlo Giuseppe Quadrupani (1740-1807).

The next original commentary for this website is being written. I hope to have it completed for posting by this time tomorrow morning, the Feast of Saint Patrick, but it might not be completed until Wednesday, March 18, 2026, the Feast of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV gave an address to putative confessors on Friday, March 13, 2026, Friday in the Third Week of Lent, that gave a fairly good description of the Sacrament of Penance.

One must remember, however, that Modernists can sound Catholic on one occasion while acting as Modernists on others (praising false religions for their “ability” to produce “peace,” establishing a special chair for the head of the heretical and schismatic sect, King Charles III, etc.).

This commentary gives credit where credit is due but also discusses the omissions found in Prevost/Leo’s March 13, 2026, address.pur

Reflections on Laetare Sunday are found near the end of this commentary.

With a heavy sigh, I must return to the work of the war with no clear but ever shifting goals later today, although I might not have it completed for posting tomorrow, Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent, given the lateness of this current posting.

A blessed Laetare Sunday to you all.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

This is another relatively brief commentary on what President Donald John Trump calls a “military excursion” against Iran in conjunction with the Zionist State of Israel.

A republished reflection about Pope Saint Gregory the Great, whose feast is celebrated today, Thursday, March 12, 2026, on which is commemorated the Mass of Thursday in the Third Week of Lent, was published about twenty-five minutes ago or so. Please scroll below.

Also, three people were kind enough to make donations two days ago, but there is still a very urgent need to raise another $750. Please consider making a non-tax-deductible gift now if you have the financial wherewithal to do so. Thank you very much.

Today, the twenty-third day of Lent, is the chronological halfway mark of our Lenten journey into the desert. There are forty days of fasting in Lent plus the six Sundays (the first four Sundays of Lent, Passion Sunday, and Palm Sunday) that add up to forty-six days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.

Let us continue to pray to Our Lady through her Most Holy Rosary to grant us perseverance in our Lenten resolutions as Holy Week will be upon us in but sixteen days with the praying of First Vespers for Palm Sunday on Saturday evening, March 28, 2026!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Pope Saint Gregory the Great, pray for us.

Saints Cosmas and Damian, pray for us.

This is a republished reflection on Pope Saint Gregory the Great, whose feast is celebrated today, Thursday, March 12, 2025 (which is also Thursday in the Fouth Week of  Lent), that draws principally upon Pope Saint Pius X's Iucunda Sane, March 12, 1904.

A new commentary will be published almost immediately hereafter.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Pope Saint Gregory the Great, pray for us.

The title of this commentary is self-explanatory.

The next original article should appear on Friday, March 13, as I intend most of today working on a book project.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

This is a brief commentary that focuses on how the lie of “religious liberty” gives such free rein to the adversary that a Superior Court judge in Indiana has ruled that the killing of innocent babies is an exercise of “religious freedom.”

I will have a related commentary on Wednesday (I am just too tired from the writing of this article) before returning to Donald John Trump’s and Benjamin Netanyahu’s preemptive war of choice, which has now taken the life of an eighth American service member who should never have been put in harm’s way in behalf of the “Greater Israel” Project.”

Non-tax-deductible financial gifts are urgently needed at this time. Please make a donation, especially if it has been a while before you did so. Thank you.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Frances of Rome, pray for us.

This article in honor of Saint John of God, whose feast is commemorated today, Sunday, March 8, 2026, the Third Sunday of Lent, was written ninteen years ago now. A lot of hard work went into its completion. I believe it to be one a piece that will give great consolation to those who have not as of yet read it.

Saint John of God was little understood during his life. It was the case that even his longtime spiritual director, Blessed John of Avila, who knew him fairly well, did not understand his decisions. Saint John of God suffered from all manner of slanders and even beatings in his life. He suffered slanders even up to the point of his own death. It was enough for him to be understood by God. It should be enough for us as well, especially during this time of apostasy and betrayal when so many of us are misunderstood and castigated by relatives and friends and acquaintances as being "outside of the Church" for our refusal to make any concessions to conciliarism or its false shepherds. We should be grateful that we are as misunderstood and hated and calumniated as was Saint John of God!

The appendix contains reflections on the Third Sunday of Lent.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint John of God, pray for us.

Believe it or not, a few readers have written to me to say that the government United States of America is exempt from the Just War Theory and from most other aspects of the moral law because it is not a Catholic nation and is so “exceptional” that God blesses whatever its leaders believe is best for the national security.

This is a revised and expanded, although still entirely inadequate, commentary on the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P., Saturday, March 7, 2026, with a Commemoration of Saturday of the Second Week of Lent.

The next original article should be published within fifeen minutes of this posting.

Today is also the First Saturday of the month of March, the month of our Good Saint Joseph.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, O.P., pray for us.

Time has run out on me insofar as completing the next original article. I will resume work on it later today.

For the moment, though, I offer readers Dom Prosper Gueranger's panegyric on behalf of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas, whose feast feast we celebrate today with a Commemoration of Friday in the Second Week of Lent and of the Holy Shroud of Our Lord Jesus Christ in some places.

Today, Friday, March 6, 2026, would have been the one hundred fifth birthday of my late mother, Norma Florence Red Fox Droleskey, who was born on March 6, 1921, as Maxine Coomer to an unwed mother, Ruth Coomer, at a foundling hospital in Kanas City, Missouri. (She was adopted by a vaudevillian performer who claimed to be a Sioux Indian Chieftain--see Guest Column: Chief Red Fox, by George Farias--some months later along with her twin brother, Max Coomer, who was renamed Louis Red Fox in honor of "The Chief's" brother, Louis Humes, and later died in infancy. My mother herself was renamed as Norma Florence Red Fox in honor of my adoptive grandather's only sister, Norma Irene Humes.

Please pray for the soul of my late mother, who died of stomach and esophageal cancer on March 18, 1982, in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Someone at "Find a Grave" found her obituary from Long Island's Newsday newspaper and included in the information from The Corpus Christi Caller. The photograph was taken by me around 1979 or 1980 in Harlingen, Texas, and has appeared on this site, from which some enterprising person copied it: Norma Florence Red Fox Droleskey (1921-1982) - Find a Grave Memorial.

Our  Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saints Perpetua and Felicity, pray for us.