Dr. K's Weekly Roundup, December 13, 2025

On the Sixtieth Anniversary of Vatican II & more

A note for Substack readers: My apologies for the late delivery of this weekly roundup. When a person is juggling a lot of balls — and at the moment, that describes me: I’m running a publishing house, writing articles, traveling to give lectures, singing in professional and semi-professional choirs, and helping to build up the Pelican+ platform — he’s bound to drop one now and then. I meant to send this out yesterday and the day got away from me. But here it is, hopefully not too late to be of use to you. Happy Gaudete Sunday! —Dr. K

Welcome to another edition of my weekly roundup, a feature I know is much appreciated by many readers.

As of this week, I am very likely to be moving the day of the roundup to Saturday, in order to balance out the weekly rhythm of articles:

• Monday (paywalled),

• Thursday (free),

• Saturday (free).

In future weeks, my plan (or maybe I should say, more modestly, my hope) is to publish the roundup at 8am Central Time on Saturday.

If you are receiving two emails from me, that’s because you are signed up here at Pelican+ and still signed up at my (now-moribund) Substack. Simply cancel the Tradition & Sanity Substack (here’s how to do it) and you will receive only the email from Pelican.

A few faithful readers of T&S have said to me: “But the only thing I’m interested in is your writing and not all the rest of the stuff on Pelican!” My response is simply this: You can still get “just Dr. K” on Pelican if you wish. By signing up for free there, you’ll get the same access to my public writing that you did at Substack; by signing up for a basic membership at the same price as my Substack, you’ll gain access to my paywalled articles; and all these articles will still be pushed out to you by email (though you do have to click through to read the full text at Pelican).

However, let me gently encourage you to explore some of the other writers, podcasters, and resources at Pelican, such as the music library, the chanted prayers, the Patristic sermons, the Guéranger commentary. There’s truly a wealth of Catholic tradition awaiting you, as I discussed in a post yesterday at New Liturgical Movement. It is essentially Tradition & Sanity expanded in all dimensions by the force-multiplying efforts of a team of collaborators working for a common vision.

Living the Catholic Life

Masculinity

Our culture will tell you what a man is, or should be, or should not be. At root, to be a man is a very simple thing. It doesn’t need to be complicated or turned into a “movement.” In the latest episode of Terror of Demons, Timothy Flanders and Kennedy Hall discuss real masculinity is, the distortion of machismo and chauvinism, internet deadends, and more.

Antichrist?

In the latest episode of Confessions of a Convert, Murray Rundus looks at the history of the Protestant claim that the Pope is the Antichrist, and, using St. John Henry Newman as a guide, shows why Catholics should avoid this heretical error. (And, indeed, why Protestants should avoid it too!)

A priest for 50 years

Eric Sammons interviews Fr. John Perricone, who entered the seminary in 1970 and was ordained in 1976. He’s seen the Church change in radical ways in that time, and he lets us know what it’s been like to be a priest in a time of upheaval.

Vatican II Turns 60

The earthquake

An interesting exchange between two Romanian intellectuals some time ago.

Robert Lazu Kmita: Let’s return to the world of faith. You haven’t shied away from admitting that you were intensely visited by the thought of converting to Catholicism. At the same time, you state—disconcertingly—that the famous Second Vatican Council was what blocked this intention, as if it were telling you: ‘Look, son, we don’t really need you.’ I must admit, I don’t quite understand.

Virgil Nemoianu: You see, you’re too young to know the Catholic atmosphere before the Second Vatican Council. It was an austere atmosphere—like entering a particular order, a special discipline. Catholicism brought liturgical stability, epistemological and rational certainties. That was both its unpleasant distancing and its attractive charm for some—especially for some intellectuals. (...) Well, the relaxations promoted by the Second Vatican Council were, for a large mass of Catholics, a welcome opening—but, curiously, they made Catholicism as a whole less appealing to outsiders. It became more similar to other branches of Christianity. It seemed to me (and to others) that the difference between being Catholic and being Orthodox—or even Protestant—was significantly diminished. So why bother? Why strive and make great spiritual and practical efforts? We’re all the same. I’d better stay in my place. The very tolerance codified by the Second Vatican Council told me (at that time) that it was more fitting for me to remain Orthodox—because the difference didn’t really matter.”

One can only speculate about the vast numbers of people who lost interest in the Church, not to mention fled from it, due to the “watering-down” and “dumbing-down” that took place after the Council.

But there are times when no speculation is needed, because we or someone we know is evidence of exactly what I’m describing. I received the following note from someone who listened to my conversation with Larry Chapp and Joshua Charles. When you think about what was done to real people’s lives, to their faith, their prayer, you catch a whiff of its infernal origin.

Dear Dr K, that was an enjoyable discussion. Thank you.

Here’s an anecdote from the VII era. My Dad converted in 1957. The Church he joined and the one I grew up in had the TLM. I was born in 1949, so the parish chaos was in full swing by the time I hit high school. After my parents’ deaths, in 1982 and 1992, I found my Dad’s missal. He had taken a pencil and angrily crossed out all the prayers that he loved so much because they were gone. Sometime during the chaos, he lapsed.

As for me, the destruction of the sacred of the original church mystified me. To remove the Communion rail seemed sacrilegious. Some time later, parts of the original Communion rail were installed in the new church. At the time, it seemed illogical and silly to build a cavernous new church which would only come near capacity on Christmas and Easter. What we *really* needed was a new parish hall!

No one was even talking about the TLM in those years. Colleagues at work happened to mention the TLM was allowed at the Catholic cemetery mausoleum chapel. This was in the nineties. I attended there for three summers, then finally St. **** opened. I do believe in the argument that our patrimony was stolen. People close to me died without sacraments because they were alienated by and from their own Church. I pray that God will have mercy on them.

In a similar mood, Thomas Colsy writes in “Fruit of the council: A Church no longer serious about salvation”:

By their fruits you shall know them (Mt 7:16). It was the hope of the council fathers, led by Pope John XXIII, that the Second Vatican Council would herald a “new Pentecost”. That has not happened. Sixty years on, it is time to consider why, and to look seriously at what has unfolded before our eyes.

One enormous change that took place was in the everyday language and tone the Church’s clerical representatives frequently use. This is not to paint all priests and religious with the same brush, which would be deeply unfair, but when one reads or listens to homilies and writings from before Vatican II compared to after, there is a marked difference. A note can be found repeatedly present in virtually all things called “Catholic” before, which suddenly, inexplicably, fades into hushed, trailing echoes afterwards: gravity.

Catholicism used to be known as a serious religion. Militaryesque priests in cassocks, solemn chant, confessions heard and last rites administered to the dying with urgency. Our religion was iconically unwavering on matters such as contraception, marriage, abortion, funeral rites and, above all, salvation.

The beautifully haunting words and sounds of the Dies Irae once prescribed for all funeral Requiem Masses, now largely absent, used to be synonymous with Catholicism: a keen sense of the time the world will dissolve in ashes, the entry of the King “of fearsome majesty”, everything hidden exposed and revealed, weeping over sins, man seeking clemency from the “reckoning” of the Juste Judex ultionis […]

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