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| Leo Appoints a Sister to Rule Over Bishops |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-18-2026, 08:08 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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[Pope] Leo Appoints a Sister to Rule Over Bishops, While a Cardinal Says Laity Can Now Rule Over the Ordained
Meanwhile Leo XIV appoints three more terrible bishops, including one praised by a female "bishop" of the womenpriest movement
Chris Jackson via Hiraeth in Exile | Feb 18, 2026
Women in the Episcopacy? The Brambilla Appointment and Its Implications
When Sister Simona Brambilla was appointed prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life in January 2025, shockwaves rippled through Catholic media. Here was the first woman (and first non-cleric) ever to head a major Roman dicastery. In practical terms, Sr. Brambilla’s promotion means she now exercises authority over one of the largest departments in the Vatican and even oversees a subordinate Cardinal-Pro-Prefect assigned under her. On February 14, 2026, Leo XIV escalated the experiment by naming Brambilla a member of the Dicastery for Bishops, inserting a woman religious into the curial machinery that shapes the selection of bishops. The Holy See Press Office bulletin announcing the appointment listed her among the dicastery’s members alongside a roster of Francis-era cardinals and synodal officials, making clear that this was a formal integration into the consultative body tasked with episcopal nominations.
“She has authority over a cardinal; that has never happened in the Church,” marveled one amazed observer. Indeed, this appointment, made by Francis and enthusiastically carried on by Leo XIV, blurs the line between the lay and clerical roles in Church governance. While women remain barred from Holy Orders, the Brambilla precedent effectively creates a female quasi-bishop at the highest levels of the Curia. She wields decision-making power akin to that of a diocesan ordinary, except over all religious orders globally and now over the selection of bishops. It is little wonder that leftists and feminists described her elevation as “completely new” and a “very good news” symbol for women in the Church.
From the Vatican’s perspective, this move was made possible by Francis’s 2022 constitution Praedicate Evangelium, which explicitly opened the door for laypeople (including women) to lead Vatican departments. In other words, the constitutional framework no longer treats curial offices as participating in sacred authority derived from ordination, but as delegated administrative tasks that the Pope can entrust to anyone competent.
The underlying theology, spelled out by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, among others, posits that governance in areas like religious life or education does not strictly require the grace of Holy Orders, but can be exercised by those with particular charisms and expertise. Ouellet argues that the Holy Spirit’s gifts “have their own weight of authority” wherever sacramental ordination is not necessary, and that even a layperson or nun can be legitimately placed in charge, “without detract[ing] from the value” of their service despite a “lack of holy Order”. The Brambilla appointment puts this theory into practice on an unprecedented scale.
Still, the implications are profound and troubling. For one, Brambilla’s role as Prefect grants her a status long reserved to bishops and cardinals. She will be a voting member of episcopal conferences when invited, participate in high-level synods, and be treated as a peer by prelates. This has prompted talk (half in jest, half in alarm) of “women in the episcopacy” in all but name. Canonically, she is not a bishop, yet functionally Sister Brambilla occupies an office indistinguishable from that of a diocesan bishop curially. The symbol is powerful: a woman religious now sits at a desk historically held by apostolic men, issuing directives that affect clergy and laity alike.
This sets the stage for a push toward female deacons or even female cardinals (offices that, while not requiring priestly orders, confer significant ecclesial authority). The Vatican insists nothing about Brambilla’s job involves sacred ordination; she cannot confer sacraments or govern a diocese. Cardinal Ouellet himself emphasized that appointing a woman prefect “does not mean entrusting [her] with tasks that are strictly sacramental,” only administrative leadership under the Pope’s ultimate jurisdiction. Yet optics and ecclesiology often intertwine. The Church now visibly operates with two tracks of authority: one sacramental-hierarchical, the other charismatic-administrative. The former is male-only; the latter is open to females. Such a bifurcation is a novelty.
Traditional ecclesiology, from St. Paul through Pope Pius XII, linked governance (the munus regendi) inseparably with Holy Orders. By contrast, the novel and erroneous post-conciliar approach, especially under Leo, leans into a more “democratic” distribution of power (in the non-sacramental realm) as a fulfillment of the Council’s call for lay co-responsibility. This is another sign of rupture: a concession to modern egalitarianism that subtly undermines the Church’s divinely ordained hierarchy. If a nun can run a congregation of the Roman Curia, and have a role in selecting bishops, does it not suggest that ordination is a contingent accident rather than an intrinsic necessity for governing the Church?
Rome may answer “no,” but the ambiguity is unescapable. In sum, the Brambilla precedent accelerates the Vatican II project of “updating” structures, even at the risk of doctrinal muddiness about the nature of authority. It is a risk the current regime is clearly willing to take.
The Ouellet Thesis: Laity Have Power Over the Ordained
Providing the theological underpinning for reforms like Brambilla’s placement is what might be called the Ouellet Thesis; a line of reasoning championed by Cardinal Marc Ouellet (Prefect Emeritus of Bishops). In essence, Ouellet proposes that the Church rediscover the role of the Holy Spirit’s charisms as a source of authority alongside the sacrament of Orders. He notes that Vatican II already “happily revalued” charisms and non-ordained ministries after “centuries of mistrust.”
While affirming that the episcopate remains a sacrament with the full tria munera (teaching, sanctifying, governing), Ouellet incredibly argues that this does not imply that “the sacrament of Holy Orders is the exclusive source of all government in the Church”. In a recent Vatican News article, he reflects on Francis’s “bold decision” to appoint laypeople and religious to high office, asking whether this is a mere temporary concession or a true “ecclesiological advance.”
Ouellet leans toward the latter. He discerned in Francis’s move “the authority of the Holy Spirit at work beyond the link… between the ordained ministry and the government of the Church.” In plainer terms, charismatic gifts bestowed by the Spirit can empower a person for governance tasks even without ordination. Ouellet hastens to add that this is “not a question of substituting charismatic governance for hierarchical government.” The Pope’s delegates still govern in communion with the ordained pastors. But it is a question of integrating the laity and women “without reservation” into the Church’s administrative and pastoral apparatus.
Conciliar Canon law already permits laity to cooperate in power of governance (cf. Canon 129 §2); Francis and Leo have simply taken this to a new level. According to Ouellet, having dicasteries “directed by competent persons, lay or religious, with a charism recognized by the supreme authority, does not detract” from their service just because they lack Holy Orders. In fact, he insists the charisms themselves carry a genuine “weight of authority” in certain fields, e.g. in social communications, education, finance, or dialogue, where specific expertise is needed and ordination per se adds no technical competence.
This erroneous thesis fundamentally changes how the Church understands authority. It shifts emphasis from the ontological character of the ordained minister (the traditional Catholic focus) to the spiritual and natural gifts of individuals, irrespective of clerical status. For example, if a lay woman has a proven charism for leadership in religious life, the Pope can appoint her to oversee nuns globally, trusting the Holy Spirit’s guidance in her work. The sacramental priesthood remains intact for sacramental duties, but in governance the hierarchy can at times yield to the charismatically endowed non-ordained.
Ouellet grounds this in a “richer” pneumatology: we must better discern the Holy Spirit’s action “beyond the sacraments” and within the Church-as-communion. It’s a warped theology that takes Vatican II’s talk of the “people of God” and “universal call to holiness” to its logical administrative conclusion. To its proponents, this development corrects an overly clerical vision of authority and allows the Church to use all her gifts. In reality, it is a spiritual veneer on what is, in effect, a managerial revolution.
One cannot ignore that this thinking conveniently aligns with modern secular values of egalitarian governance and meritocracy. In practice, the Ouellet Thesis smooths the path for more appointments like Sister Brambilla’s. It provides the doctrinal justification: the Pope is not “making” a woman a bishop; he is “entrusting a person recognized as competent… by virtue of a charism” with a responsibility, all under his own supreme authority. The hierarchical principle is preserved at the very top (the Pope as source of jurisdiction), but below that, flexibility reigns.
This “flexibility” is actually a rupture disguised as development. Did Christ or the Apostles ever envision charismatic governance separate from the sacramental hierarchy? No. Governance flows from Orders. The new paradigm means an uncoupling and a false disfigured view of authority in the Church.
Read more here.
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| The Catholic Trumpet: A Layman’s Resolution of Fidelity |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-17-2026, 08:51 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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A Layman’s Resolution of Fidelity
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/photo_2026-02-06%2008.52.36.jpeg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet | February 17, 2026
What does the Blessed Virgin Mary ask of us in this present crisis?
Beyond remaining in the state of grace, praying the Rosary daily, wearing the Brown Scapular, and praying for the Pope that he may consecrate Russia in union with all the bishops of the world exactly as Our Lady requested in 1929, the question must be asked plainly: what concrete action does she expect from us as lay faithful?
It is inconceivable that Our Lady would desire passive neutrality in the face of doctrinal collapse. The Catholic Faith has always advanced through clarity, fidelity, and courageous witness. Therefore, it follows that she expects the laity to rally behind those priests who remain faithful, who refuse compromise, and who continue to hold the line of +Archbishop Lefebvre without ambiguity.
Today, this is not a subjective judgment. It can be measured objectively. Fidelity is shown by adherence to Catholic doctrine as it has always been taught, by the public condemnation of the errors and heresies of Vatican II, by the rejection of the New Mass, and by the consistent and unflinching articulation of these truths. By this standard, Father Hewko and the priests he supports and works with have provided the clearest instruction, the most consistent witness, and the strongest defense of the Faith. It is therefore not only reasonable but obligatory that the laity support, encourage, and rally behind such priests.
Moreover, given the deepening of the crisis and its acceleration in the years ahead, especially from 2026 onward, it is evident that Our Lady calls for a redoubling of these efforts. The laity must not retreat but rather strengthen their supernatural and practical support of faithful clergy, always within the limits of their state, yet with full confidence in the limitless power of grace.
Trusting entirely in Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces, it is not beyond hope that a bishop, validly consecrated and possessing the fullness of Holy Orders, may abandon the errors and confusions of the last decade, reject the false resistance, and return to a firm and uncompromising defense of Catholic doctrine. Such a bishop, aligned with the clarity and fidelity already demonstrated by faithful priests, could restore unity around the Faith itself, not personalities, and serve the good of souls in this time of trial.
All of this must be undertaken with humility, obedience to one’s state in life, and total reliance on the supernatural action of the Mother of God. The laity do not replace the hierarchy, but neither are they permitted to remain silent when the Faith is under assault. History shows that God often preserves His Church through small, faithful remnants who act with courage, charity, and conviction.
May Our Lady find us faithful.
Slave of Mary
Of The Catholic Trumpet
Anthony Martinello
02/16/2026
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| Leo XIV Appoints Agenda 2030 Bishop: "Against Ecumenism Is Against Christ" |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-17-2026, 08:48 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Leo XIV Appoints Agenda 2030 Bishop: "Against Ecumenism Is Against Christ"
![[Image: 7q4kxea9w9o0dfr7887d4ylhm4brzhso7ux3zu9?...1771402140]](https://seedus4268.gloriatv.net/storage1/7q4kxea9w9o0dfr7887d4ylhm4brzhso7ux3zu9?secure=yrkkKyA3LL89wA5a5I0Iqw&expires=1771402140)
gloria.tv | February 16, 2026
Pope Leo XIV appointed today the Cabo Verde born Bishop Teodoro Mendes Tavares, 62, of Ponta de Pedras, Brazil, as Bishop of Santiago de Cabo Verde.
Cabo Verde is an island country in the central Atlantic Ocean, off the west coast of Africa, made up of ten volcanic islands.
Born on 7 January 1964 in Cabo Verde, Bishop Tavares took his vows with the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans). He was ordained a priest on 11 July 1993 and was sent as a missionary to Brazil in 1994, to the Prelacy of Tefé, in the Amazonas region.
In 1995, he earned a licentiate in "ecumenism" from Trinity College in Dublin. His doctoral theses was on "Churches and European immigration policy in light of the Schengen and Dublin agreements".
In 2011, Benedict XVI appointed him as auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese of Belém do Pará, Brazil. Back then, the Catholic website FratresInUnum.wordpress.com described the appointment as anti-Catholic.
Francis advanced him in 2015 as Coadjutor and then Bishop of Ponta de Pedras, Brazil.
Signatory of the Cop30 Declaration
In 2023, the Brazilian bishops elected him president of the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Dialogue for the 2023–27 term.
In July 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed him as a member of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
In November 2025, Tavares was listed as one of the Catholic bishops who signed a joint church statement at the COP30 UN-sponsored meeting in Belém.
Amazon Synod Is “Historic Milestone”
Monsignor Tavares participated in the Amazon Synod in 2019. Talking to VaticanNews.va, he described the long-forgotten Synod as a “historic milestone” that gives visibility to “the cry of the Amazon”.
“Earth Is Common Home… Religions Serve Fraternity”
In May 2021, according to Cnbb.org.br, he suggested that all dioceses should have "ecumenical" pastoral teams and groups to organise "ecumenical" prayers and celebrations.
He also said: “The Holy Father says that the Earth is our common home, and that we are all brothers and sisters. In the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, he clearly reiterates that a path of peace between religions is possible. He even states that religious leaders are called to be true dialoguers, playing an active role in building peace, not just as intermediaries, but as genuine mediators who seek peace as their ultimate goal. Furthermore, he affirms that religions are at the service of fraternity in the world.”
“Francis Is Ecumenical... Follow this Path”
In 2023, Monsignor Tavares told CanCanova.com that Pope Francis sets a “shining example” for the path we should follow in favour of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue in our search for unity in diversity.
He believes that “today's highly divided world expects churches and religions, members of other faiths, and us Catholic Christians in particular to promote a culture of encounter, dialogue, fraternity, social friendship, and peace”.
"Not to Be Ecumenical Is to Disobey the Magisterium"
In April 2024, he spoke at another interreligious celebration, according to A12.com: “Above all, this celebration shows the Catholic Church's openness to dialogue between Christians and people of other religions. I want to reiterate what Pope Francis has emphasised: the importance of living in a culture of encounter, dialogue, fraternity and social friendship. Religions must contribute to fraternity, peace, and goodness in the world, and never the opposite. So, the Catholic Church's great banner is peace, fraternity, and unity.”
In September 2025, he said at an ecumenical conference, as reported by CnBB.org.br: “Ecumenism is essential for the Church. Not to be ecumenical is to disobey the magisterium and go against the will of Christ, who prayed for the unity of his disciples.”
Salvation in Different Religious Traditions
Talking to Paulinas.com.br, Mons Tavares said that Nostra Aetate from Vatican II is the Magna Carta for interreligious dialogue:
“It represented a paradigm shift: from ecclesiocentrism and exclusivism to the recognition of the value of non-Christian religions. The Church proclaims Christ, but respects and esteems other religious confessions. The Declaration introduced a more inclusive vision, recognizing God's action in the history of salvation, which is realized under different names and in different traditions.”
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| Fr. James Martin praises Pope Leo for celebrating Mass with altar girls |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-17-2026, 08:43 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Fr. James Martin praises Pope Leo for celebrating Mass with altar girls
Martin’s claim that it is un-controversial to have female altar servers is contradicted by many arguments,
including irrefutable theological principles and practical considerations.
![[Image: Untitled-11.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Untitled-11.png)
Pope Leo XIV leaving the event at the Waterfront Mass on December 2, 2025, in Beirut, Lebanon
Photo by Adri Salido/Getty Images
Feb 16, 2026
(LifeSiteNews [adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — Dissident Jesuit priest James Martin has praised Pope Leo XIV for including two female altar servers at a Mass he celebrated at a parish in Rome this past weekend.
“The use of female altar servers has proven controversial in some US dioceses, and among some bishops, but, apparently, not in the Diocese of Rome or for its bishop,” Martin said on social media Monday.
Martin’s remarks come amid what seems to be a rather grueling media tour promoting his new autobiography, Work in Progress. In recent days, Martin has appeared on Good Morning America and left-wing talk show host Stephen Colbert’s late-night program to boost book sales. He told Colbert that Leo is continuing Francis’ pro-LGBT agenda.
Martin’s claim that it is un-controversial to have female altar servers is contradicted by many arguments, including irrefutable theological principles as well as practical considerations that take into account the differences between boys and girls and the preparation of young boys for seminary.
The role of altar servers has historically been reserved for men and boys in the life of the Church, with several popes expressly forbidding women from serving at the altar. Fifth-century Pope Gelasius (492-496) condemned “the evil practice” of “women serving the priest at the celebration of Mass.” Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) reiterated this in his 1755 encyclical Allatae Sunt.
In a 2024 letter written by Sri Lankan Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjit, His Eminence declared that “no girls should be invited to serve at the altar” because that role “is one of the main sources of vocations to the priesthood in Sri Lanka and it will affect the number of candidates entering the seminaries, which risk we cannot take.”
Despite the Church’s longstanding teachings and tradition of denying women the role of altar boy, John Paul II permitted female altar servers in the 1990s. The Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts backed the move in a controversial decision.
Lectors, as well as acolytes, were historically minor orders reserved for men alone as they serve as stepping stones to the priesthood. Bishop Athanasius Schneider noted this in his 2023 book Credo when he said that ministers of the Church represent Christ, and because of this their ministries are to be carried out by ordained men or by their substitutes, male lectors or altar boys.
The cracking open of the door to female altar servers arguably took place under Paul VI when in his 1972 motu proprio Ministeria Quaedam he allowed the roles of lector and acolyte to be “lay ministries,” which eventually led to women stepping into the roles. Pope Francis went further in his 2021 motu proprio Spiritus Domini, which modified canon law to allow women to be officially installed as acolytes and lectors.
Bishop Schneider told LifeSite co-founder John-Henry Westen during a recent interview that allowing women to serve as lectors and altar servers introduces feminism into the “core” of the Roman liturgy, as it is a key step toward the ordination of female “priests.” His Excellency noted that this is exactly what happened in the Anglican Church, whose archbishop of Canterbury is now a woman who supports abortion and homosexual “marriage.”
Left-wing Catholic influencers who agree with Martin’s specious reasoning were quick to pounce on conservative critics of Leo. Former Democratic congressional candidate Chris Hale posted several images on his X account of female altar servers being included in liturgies offered by John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
Regardless, the theological principles and millennia-old teaching of the Church are irrefutable. Conservative and traditional Catholics on social media drew additional attention to how Leo’s liturgy was banal and uninspiring.
“Terrible music, ritual detached from tradition, and nonsensical things like female altar boys. Nobody finds this particularly profound,” former Disney child actor turned Catholic commentator Murray Rounds said in an X post.
A Spanish priest cleverly responded to Martin by noting that “the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass has proven controversial in some US dioceses, and among some bishops, but, apparently, not in the Diocese of Rome or for its bishop” — a reference to a Latin Mass offered by Cardinal Raymond Burke in St. Peter’s last year.
Traditional priest Fr. Nicolás E. Despósito urged Catholics not to be shocked by the news but rather to recall that “the real problem isn’t girls at the altar; it’s the apostasy at the top: Salvation outside the Church, blessings for sodomites, ‘God wills all religions,’ and communion for adulterers.”
Pope Leo’s Sunday Mass at Santa Maria Regina Pacis in the coastline neighborhood of Ostia was the first time he offered Mass at a parish church in Rome. At least one of the female servers was wearing Adidas sneakers.
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| The Catholic Trumpet [Video]: SSPX - Hermeneutered by Dialogue |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-14-2026, 06:05 PM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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Hermeneutered by Dialogue: The Neo-SSPX Continues Its Tango with the Conciliar Church
Dear Resistance,
If what was good yesterday is good today, and what was evil yesterday is still evil today, Catholics are forced to ask a simple, unavoidable question.
That question is addressed directly and without compromise in the newest video released on The Catholic Trumpet YouTube channel.
In 1991, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais and Richard Williamson of the SSPX consecrated Licínio Rangel in Brazil — without negotiations, without agreements, without recognition, without appeasement of the Conciliar Church. That act was defended as necessary and Catholic.
Today, in 2026, we see Father Pagliarani and the Neo-SSPX leadership meeting with Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, architect of documents that undermine Our Lady’s role as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all Graces.
That is not resistance. That is collaboration.
History has already shown the pattern.
Within one year of his consecration, Bishop Rangel reconciled with Rome and accepted the Novus Ordo. Bishop Rifan followed: acceptance of the New Mass, altar girls, and Vatican II in practice.
The lesson is devastating: valid episcopal consecrations do not preserve the Faith when doctrine is surrendered.
We do not lack bishops. We lack faith and doctrinal fidelity.
This trajectory did not begin yesterday. The GREC meetings of 1994–1995 initiated structured dialogue with Modernist Rome — engagement without condemnation, discussion without clarity — a Hegelian tango now spanning more than three decades.
The rupture became formal in 2012 with the Doctrinal Declaration and General Chapter, abandoning Archbishop Lefebvre’s principle of “no practical agreement without a prior doctrinal agreement.”
Everything since has been damage control — not reversal.
Until the Neo-SSPX:
• Condemns the GREC trajectory
• Rejects the 2012 Doctrinal Declaration
• Repudiates Ecclesia Dei and Cardinal Hoyos’ conditions
• Purges conciliar sacramental dependency
• Openly condemns Vatican II as Marcel Lefebvre did …new consecrations are merely spectacle.
+Archbishop Lefebvre ordered his Bishops to provide the sacraments, and to pass down and preach the Faith of Eternal Rome.
The question remains: Will we hold the Faith — or negotiate with its destroyers?
In the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts,
- The Catholic Trumpet
Quote:“Anyone who loves the Truth hates Error. This hatred of Error is the touchstone by which one recognizes love for the Truth. If you do not love the Truth, you may say, up to a certain point, that you love It and even believe It; but be sure that, in this case, you will lack a horror of that which is false, and by this sign you will recognize that you do not love the Truth. When a man who loves Truth ceases to love It, he does not begin by declaring his defection from It: he begins by detesting Error less.” -Ernest Hello, L’Homme
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| EU Parliament backs resolution demanding ‘full recognition of trans women as women’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-14-2026, 08:04 AM - Forum: Global News
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EU Parliament backs resolution demanding ‘full recognition of trans women as women’
The European Parliament passed a non-binding text in a 340–141 promoting transgender ideology
and labeling the pro-life position against abortion as ‘gender-based violence.’
![[Image: Untitled-33-810x500.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Untitled-33-810x500.png)
Headquarters of the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
Fabrizio Maffei/Shutterstock
Feb 13, 2026
(LifeSiteNews) — The European Parliament has voted in favor of a resolution that calls for the “full recognition of trans women as women.”
On February 12, the EU body adopted the non-binding text that outlines the EU priorities for the upcoming session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. It was approved by 340 votes in favor, 141 against, and 68 abstentions.
The resolution is not legally binding for member states, but will be part of the EU’s official negotiating position as a bloc at the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, taking place in New York next month.
The text calls for “the full recognition of trans women as women, noting that their inclusion is essential for the effectiveness of any gender-equality and anti-violence policies.”
The document also claims that denying someone an abortion constitutes “gender-based violence.”
The resolution further states that “violations of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including the denial of safe and legal abortion services and all forms of obstetric and gynaecological violence, constitute gender-based violence and breaches of fundamental human rights.”
German MEP Tomasz Froelich from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) told LifeSiteNews that on Friday, the Parliament voted on an amendment to the resolution stating that “only biological women can become pregnant.” The amendment was rejected with 200 votes in favor, 233 against, and 107 abstentions.
In a blatant contradiction, the text called denial of abortion “gender-based violence” while at the same time denying that only women can become pregnant.
Froelich called the European Parliament a “madhouse.”
The pro-life and pro-family advocacy group CitizenGO slammed the resolution, saying it was part of the “pro-abortion” and gender ideology agenda, and announced that the group would continue to campaign against the adopted text at the upcoming U.N. meeting.
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| The Example of the Angers Martyrs |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-12-2026, 12:49 PM - Forum: The Saints
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The Example of the Angers Martyrs - On the Anniversary of Their Martyrdom
by Etienne Muret
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.diocese49.org%2Fwp-...715ba3bbf1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.diocese49.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F02%2Fmartyrs-davrille-visuels.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6a1d9dec783a6d5102c87f3ec0b47bc54df7473343a2fbb60d601b715ba3bbf1)
Dominicans of Avrillé from Le Sel de la terre 127, Winter 2023-2024 [adapted]
THE YEAR 2024 is the 230th anniversary of the Champ-des-martyrs shootings in Avrillé. Around two thousand people were shot in this enclosure[1], both men and women. Even if, in many cases, history has only preserved the names of these victims of the Terror[2], we can affirm without fear of error that it was in hatred of the Catholic faith that all these people were massacred. For whenever the revolutionary clerk noted the reasons for condemnation – or the sham that took the place of it – behind the qualifiers of “fanaticism” or “complicity with brigands”, what was always targeted was attachment and fidelity to traditional religion. The monsters who judged these unfortunate people sometimes tried to hide their hatred of true religion under political motives, but there’s no mistaking it. The arsenal of defamatory invectives and the outrageousness of the words used failed to disguise the real motive behind the condemnations.
This anniversary is therefore an opportunity to recall these glorious events, and to draw from them lessons of faith, strength and fidelity for our struggles today. For the story of the martyrs of Angers and Avrillé offers many analogies with the present situation, and is in some ways a model for the battles we must wage today to preserve the Christian faith and spirit in the midst of general apostasy.
What’s more, this story took place just a stone’s throw from the Haye-aux-Bonshommes site: the ground we walk on was sprinkled with the blood of these martyrs.
It’s part of our heritage. We don’t have the right to ignore it or let it be forgotten.
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On nine occasions[3] from January 12 to April 16, 1794, columns of victims took to the road leading to the Champ-des-martyrs, a field that was then part of the Cloux farm estate, one of the farms that depended, until the Revolution, on the Grandmontain priory of La Haye-aux-Bonshommes[4]. At the time of the sale of national property, this estate was bought by one of Angers’ revolutionaries, Sieur Desvallois, who himself offered his field for shooting: “It will make manure!” he cynically declared.
Among these victims, the Church retained eighty-four, those for whom there was enough information to be able to affirm the religious character of their condemnation and initiate a beatification process. The vast majority were common women – wives, mothers and daughters of peasants, craftsmen, workers and merchants – with a few squires and two nuns. Only four men appear in this list, although a large number of others fell under the bullets at the Champ-des-martyrs. But these men had almost all served in the Catholic army and, as former Vendée soldiers, their condemnation could appear to have been inspired by political rather than religious motives. This is why the prudent diocesan tribunal in charge of the ordinary trial (in 1905-1919) thought it was right not to consider them as genuine martyrs, even if, in this context of religious persecution, the accusation of sympathy for the “brigands” – who were fighting for God and the King – could be qualified as a religious motive. This was also the case in the trials of the Laval and Noël Pinot martyrs.
To these eighty-four martyrs by shooting, we must add fifteen or sixteen who were guillotined in Angers, Place du Ralliement, including thirteen priests (counting Blessed Noël Pinot who was beatified before the others, under Pius XI), one nun and two women.[5]
The deeds of these one hundred martyrs constitute one of the most beautiful pages in the religious history of Anjou, a page worthy of the martyrdom accounts of the Christians of the early Church.
✵
As everyone knows, the Revolutionary Terror used the most atrocious means in its war against the Catholic populations of the West. 1794 was the year of the infernal columns and the great massacres of the Vendéens. Arrests multiplied, and prisons overflowed with inmates. And yet, these prisons were very numerous. In Angers, prisoners were incarcerated not only in the National Prison (Place des Halles, now Place Louis-Imbach) and the Château, but also in convents and churches that had been converted into prisons: Le Calvaire, Le Bon-Pasteur, Les Pénitentes, Le Carmel, Saint-Aubin, Les Petits-Pères (Lazaristes) in the Cathedral, Saint-Aubin, the two seminaries, La Rossignolerie (school of the Brothers of Christian Doctrine) and many other places.
But what can be done? There are too many prisoners, and the guillotine is no longer enough[6]. The guillotine is a spectacular punishment, particularly appreciated by revolutionaries, with its theatrical staging to impress the spirits, but it’s too slow and too expensive. Each execution cost the nation fifty-nine pounds.
The lack of hygiene and food, coupled with the cold – the thermometer fell to 17° below zero that winter – did cause deadly epidemics, and in less than a year, a good thousand prisoners died on their rotting straw beds[7]. But even that couldn’t empty the prisons.
In Nantes, prisoners were drowned in the Loire; in Angers, they were shot en masse. The shootings began in December 1793, on the banks of the Maine, at Port-de-1’Ancre, then at Sainte-Gemmes and Les Ponts-de-Cé. The bodies were thrown into the river Maine, but this soon gave rise to hygiene problems. Another location had to be found.
This is why the most massive shootings finally took place at the Champ-des-martyrs, in Avrillé. To speed things up, the judges from the military commission visited the prisons. Put in the presence of the suspects, they proceeded to a semblance of interrogation, which the clerk noted down in a few words: “… Did you go to the masses of the refractory priests? – Why didn’t you go to the masses of the sworn priests? …”. The minutes take up one or two lines, almost always punctuated by the word “fanatic”, “pronounced fanatic”, “superlative fanatic”, “invincible fanatic” or “fieffé aristocrate”, which, in revolutionary parlance, means: faithful Catholic, irredeemable, attached to traditional religion and the old order. In the margin, the clerk added “F”: to be shot, or, more rarely, “G”: to be guillotined.
Terrorists surrounded executions with sinister ceremony. The military commission – the most ferocious of the two revolutionary tribunals, and a major purveyor of guillotines and shootings – was based in the former Dominican convent, next to the cathedral, while the revolutionary committee was housed in the bishop’s palace. This is where the chain of victims was formed, tied up two by two. Those unable to walk were thrown into a cart, and the column moved off, flanked by a double row of gendarmes. Crossing the main branch of the Maine at what is now the Pont de Verdun, they crossed the Doutre district, and the chain lengthened as they stoped in front of each “prison”. Then they took the path that climbs towards Avrillé, “the path of silence”, as it was known in those days. The contrast between the prisoners – mostly common men and women, with a few nobles and bourgeois, admirable Christians calmly walking to their deaths, murmuring the rosary or singing hymns to the Virgin – and the vociferous troupe of “sans-culottes”, flanked by shrews reeking of alcohol and vice, hurled insults at the condemned. The judges, girded in their tricolor scarves and swaddling in their robes, followed the procession, with the military band alternating between the revolutionary songs “Ça ira” and the “Marseillaise” (now national anthem of France!)
Arriving at the Champ-des-martyrs, the chain was undone and the condemned lined up in front of the prepared pits. The gendarmes fired a salvo, the bodies fell. The wounded and dying were “finished” off with sabers and bayonets. A little earth was thrown in, and the pit was ready for the next batch.
Love of Truth and Hatred of Lies
It would take hours to recount in detail the marvels contained in the deeds of all these martyrs. Let’s just pick a few pearls from this treasure trove and try to apply their lessons.
One of the first testimonies these martyrs give us is their refusal to lie or make shameful compromises. Even to save their own lives, our martyrs refused to compromise. Preserved accounts provide us with several examples. Here are three of them.
The first is that of Perrine-Renée Potier, wife Turpault, mother of five children. Arrested in Les Aubiers, she was taken to Cholet “kicked and sabered”, and three days later gave birth to a son who died immediately after his baptism. Taken to Angers on January 16, 1794, she appeared before the military commission on the 24th, and let it be known that she was still pregnant. Thanks to this, she avoided being shot. Full of remorse for what she called her “fault”, she was interrogated again on February 9 and April 2 in the Calvaire prison.
“But you’re pregnant, aren’t you?” One of the judges asked.
“No, I’m not, and you can judge me”, she replied.
Back in her cell, her companions asked her:
“But why didn’t you say yes? You were saved!”
“I know that”, she replied, “but I’d rather die than tell a lie.”
And she prepared herself for death with constant prayer. She was shot on Holy Wednesday, April 16, 1794.[8]
The other example is that of Sister Marie-Anne, one of the two Daughters of Charity (Congregation founded by saint Vincent-de-Paul) who were shot on February 1st, 1794 along with four hundred other victims, because they had refused the oath of “Liberté, Égalité” (Freedom and Equality). Entering the Champ-des-martyrs enclosure, Sister Marie-Anne intones the litanies of the Blessed Virgin; all the condemned women respond: “Ora pro nobis”. The chain was transformed into a Marian procession. One of the soldiers was distraught at the sight: “It hurts to see such women die!” The commander was also moved and wanted to save the two nuns:
Quote:Citizens, there is still time to escape the death that threatens you. You have rendered services to humanity. Why, for the sake of an oath asked of you, would you give up your life and discontinue the good works you have always done? Let it not be so, return to your home, continue to render the services you have always rendered. Do not take the oath, for it is repugnant and upsetting to you. I take it upon myself to say that you have taken it, and I give you my word that nothing will be done to you or your companions.
Sister Marie-Anne’s response is admirable:
Quote:Citizen, not only do we not want to take the oath you’re talking about, we don’t even want to be seen to have taken it. Do not believe us cowardly enough and attached enough to a miserable life to believe us capable of soiling our soul and sacrificing it for an oath we have always hated and still hate. God will not ask us to account for the services we could render to our fellow human beings only by taking an oath that He hates and condemns, and if we can only preserve our lives on this condition, we declare to you that we would rather die than do anything contrary to the love we have sworn to our God.[9]
In the same vein, we should mention the heroic attitude of Abbé Laigneau de Langellerie. He was chaplain to the Angers Carmelite convent. Interned at the major seminary in 1792, condemned to deportation, but detained in Nantes due to his state of health, he escaped from prison, disguised as a peasant, on July 27, 1793, and returned clandestinely to Angers. Arrested on October 11, 1794 as he was about to perform extreme unction on a sick woman, he was taken amidst boos to the bishop’s palace, where the revolutionary committee was sitting. During his interrogation, the judge told him that if he stopped opposing the oath and rallied to the Republic, he would be in a better position:
Quote:You know that there are many priests who are now in society and who live there peacefully, that the Republic gives them protection. Because they are subject to the law, they have taken the required oath. They are not hiding. So you must have conspired against the Republic?
But in the face of this tempting offer, Abbé de Langellerie remained imperturbable and faithful to his duty.
My conscience and my science have never allowed me to take the required oath.
What did you find in the oath that could hurt your conscience?
It was to approve by an oath your French Republic, which has destroyed the religion of Jesus Christ who is the God of my heart, Deus cordis mei. […]
So you’re convinced that the Republic can’t survive and that the Catholic religion must be re-established?
With regard to the French Republic, I think that it is an enemy of the religion of Jesus Christ, but that a republican government must protect the Christian religion. […] I stand by my answers, which contain the truth, but I do not wish to sign, […as] I generally refuse my signature in matters of the Republic.[10]
Transferred to the Angers criminal court[11] (by this date, the military commission no longer existed), Abbé de Langellerie was condemned as a refractory priest and enemy of the Republic. He was guillotined on October 14, 1794, during the first vespers of Saint Teresa of Avila, founder of the Carmelite nuns of which he was chaplain. He was the last victim of the guillotine in Anjou.
Defending Faith and True Religion
Another witness given by these exemplary Christians is their faith and their spirit of faith.
This is particularly true of priests.
Abbé Ledoyen, vicar of Contigné, remained in his parish to exercise his ministry. Taking refuge with Mme Déan de Luigné, who was hiding refractory priests in her château de la Bossivière, he was discovered and arrested with his benefactress and her three daughters[12] on December 17, 1793. Taken to Chateauneuf-sur-Sarthe, he was interrogated at length on December 23. The last words of his interrogation were a resounding profession of faith. To his judges, who accused him of having “abused the weakness and simplicity of country folk to lead them into the cruellest errors”, he replied:
That he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them, that he tried to prevent them from falling into the errors of the innovators
That he sincerely professed such maxims.
That he had always urged them to follow the apostolic and Roman Catholic religion, outside of which there is no salvation, and that they should always be firm and faithful to it.
Similarly, Guillaume Repin, parish priest of Martigné-Briand – then a venerable old man of eighty-four – was accused by the municipal officers of Martigné of having “gangrened his parish”. Arrested and imprisoned on December 24, 1793, he told the judges who questioned him on Christmas Day that he had not taken the oath because “he had his faith and religion to preserve“. Sentenced to death, he was guillotined on January 2, 1794.[13]
But faithfulness to the faith of their baptism is also a matter for the laity.
Charlotte Lucas, a schoolteacher and, as such, subject to the oath of “Liberté, Égalité”, did not want to take it. She “believes that something has changed in religion, which prevented her from doing so”, she explained to the Chalonnes Justice of the Peace on January 4, 1794. Taken to Angers and detained at Le Calvaire, she first appeared before the Revolutionary Committee. Then, on January 18, the military commission sent her to her death, without even questioning her, because she looked like a “God-eater”.[14]
Renée-Marie Feillatreau, widow of Dumont, was a good Catholic woman who defended her faith valiantly. Her convictions, which she made no secret of, attracted the attention of patriots. To those who urged her to be more cautious, she replied: “Why shouldn’t there be martyrs today as there were in the past?”
Arrested in Angers, she was interned at the château. When she appeared in court on March 18, 1794, the judges of the Revolutionary Committee accused her of having shouted “Long live religion and long live the King” when the Vendéens had occupied Angers the previous June. In her defense, she simply proclaimed that she “would rather die than renounce her religion“. She admitted to having met refractory priests, attended their Mass and spoken with them, “particularly about religion“. In the sentence drawn up by the military commission, she was accused of having “encouraged the fanaticism of the rebellious priests […] and taken sacred vases and ornaments from the Republic, which she had taken to hidden places where these scoundrels of priests celebrated their bloodthirsty and murderous cult”. She was guillotined on March 28, in Place du Ralliement.[15]
Antoine Fournier, father of a refractory priest and former soldier in the Vendée army, was one of the one hundred and five victims of the first shoot-out on January 12, 1794. He defended the clandestine priests and declared that he blamed the conduct of those who attacked the Catholic religion.
“Do you disapprove of the monstrous priests who slit our brothers’ throats?” The judge asked.
“I don’t think priests were capable of giving bad advice.”
“You are accused of having criticized the conduct of the Republicans, saying that they were profaning holy sacred vessels, destroying mission crosses,” etc., etc., etc.
“Yes, I have blamed and continue to blame the conduct of those who throw away mission crosses and desecrate sacred vessels.”
“So you would suffer death to defend your religion?”
“Yes.”[16]
He was condemned as “father of a refractory priest and worthy of being one, an outraged fanatic.”
To be continued.
1. The exact number of victims is difficult to establish. Abbé Houdebine estimates the total number of victims of the Terror in Angers at around 3,000, and the number shot at the Champ-des-martyrs at around 2,000 (Dictionnaire de Maine-et-Loire [Célestin PORT], 1.1, new ed. 1965, p. 39a). See also N. DELAHAYE and P.-M. GABORIT, Les Douze colonnes infernales de Turreau, and J.-F. COUET, Dans les prisons d’Angers sous la Terreur, 1793-1794. For full bibliographical references, see the bibliography at the end of this article. ↑
2. Sometimes names are even missing, as revolutionaries didn’t always take the trouble to note the names of victims and keep up-to-date registers. ↑
3. Here are the dates of the nine shootings at the Champ-des-Martyrs: January 12, 1794 (105 men shot); January 15 (300 victims); January 18 (250 people); January 20 (408 victims – this was when Turreau’s infernal columns began to operate); January 21 (70 men and 80 women); January 22 (80 women); February 1 (400 people); February 10 (200 people); April 16 (99 people). The eighty-four “martyrs of Angers” shot belonged to the five shootings of January 12 and 18, February 1 and 10 and April 16. ↑
4. “It was a deserted field, located in the enclosure of the former Haye-aux-Bonshommes.Bonshommes, west of Angers, two kilometers from the city walls.” (Positio, p. 164.) ↑
5. They are Sister Rosalie de la Sorinière (a Calvary nun), Marie de la Dive, wife of Henri de la Sorinière and sister-in-law of the former, and Renée-Marie Feillatreau, widow of Dumont. ↑
6. In Angers, the guillotine was erected from late October 1793 to mid-October 1794 on Place du Ralliement (then known as Place de la Guillotine), a square created in 1791 after the demolition of three churches. The death machine had been erected on the site of the high altar of the former Saint-Pierre church. The guillotine claimed 285 victims, including 31 clergymen. ↑
7. On February 18, 1794, the doctors on duty at the Calvaire prison wrote to the Revolutionary Committee: “Pregnant women and nursing mothers are exposed to terrible misery, their children dying at birth or languishing perched between the emaciated arms of those who gave birth to them. Some mothers have seen five or six of their children perish in their arms, without being able to provide the slightest relief. There’s not a day goes by when six or eight unfortunates die on Calvary alone. If we don’t remedy the abuses a little, we’ll see diseases spread from one to the next, and into the very heart of the city.” ↑
8. See Positio, pp. 364-371 and Yves DAOUD AL, Guillaume Repin…, p. 103-104. The eldest son of Perrine Turpault, François-Joseph-Paul, later wrote to the mayor of Cholet: “As the son of a mother who bore the greatest testimony to the truth, since she preferred death to the most innocent lie under the reign of terror, this lesson has always been engraved in my memory.” (Positio, p. 587). ↑
9. Abbé GRUGET, Les Fusillades du Champ-des-martyrs, p. 31-32. Quoted in the Positio, p. 402-403. Abbé Gruget concludes his account as follows: “[The commander] might have wanted to save them, but that would have meant compromising himself with the revolutionary court. 10. He preferred, like Pilate, to act and pronounce against his conscience. He gave the order to shoot…”. ↑
11. Positio, p. 152-154. ↑
12. In the transfer note sent by the Revolutionary Committee to the President of the Criminal Court, the signatories write: “We are sending you, brother and friend, an interrogation of Langellerie, an ex-refractory priest. We are counting on your zeal to speed up his trial. Bread is scarce. Greetings and brotherhood.” (Positio, p. 155.) ↑
13. They were arrested on the denunciation of a certain Maillard, whom Mme de Luigné had once charitably raised. Imprisoned at Calvaire, Mme de Luigné and her daughter Louise-Aimée were shot at the Champ-des-martyrs on February 1, 1794, but Catherine and Françoise, although condemned to death, were spared and settled after the Revolution in Abbé Gruget’s parish (La Trinité d’Angers). 14. See Positio, p. 246 ff. ↑
15. Positio, p. 29 ff. ↑
16. Positio, p. 177-178. ↑
17. Positio, pp. 322-333. ↑
18. Interrogation of A Fournier by the Cholet revolutionary committee, December 29, 1793 (Positio, p. 168-169). ↑
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