Rodolfo Vargas Rubio: Requiescat in pace

As Secretary in the FIUV General Assembly 2009

From Accion Liturgica blog (machine translation):

We have the sad news of the death of the historian Rodolfo Vargas Rubio. Many today will not know him but he was a great defender of the traditional Liturgy when in Spain it was a wasteland, with hardly any other place of celebration than the Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy, on Laforja Street, in Barcelona. Where many of us were able to attend our first Tridentine Masses.

Rodolfo Vargas was a promoter of the Roma Aeterna Association, a pioneer in the defense of the Traditional Roman Rite, and a member of the Una Voce Association [editor's note: including as Secretary]. A great Latinist and connoisseur of the liturgy, he was also highly appreciated for his sympathy and generosity.

May Our Lady and Venerable Pope Pius XII, for whom Vargas felt great devotion, intercede before God Our Lord for his eternal rest.

Requiescat in Pace

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Cardinal Burke to celebrate the TLM in St Peter's: Press Release

Press Release

The organisers of the annual Ad Petri Sedem ‘Summorum Pontificum’ Pilgrimage to Rome have announced that Raymond, Cardinal Burke, will celebrate the keynote Traditional Latin Mass of their pilgrimage at the Altar of the Throne in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, at 3pm on Saturday 25th October.

Joseph Shaw, President of the FIUV, welcomed the news. “We are grateful to Pope Leo for his pastoral response to the request for a Traditional Mass in St Peter’s. This celebration symbolises the unity with the Holy Father so desired by Catholics attached to the ancient rite of Mass.”

Background

This is the first concrete indication of the attitude of Pope Leo XIV to the Traditional Mass, the Vetus Ordo or 1962 Missal. In the latter years of Pope Francis, the official view was that this form of the Mass, while not completely prohibited, should not be ‘promoted’ or given prominence, with high-profile celebrants in important churches.

It represents a major breakthrough for the pilgrimage, which for the last two years has been denied permission to have a Mass in St Peter’s, following Pope Francis’ restrictions on the Traditional Mass in his Apostolic Letter Traditionis Custodes in 2021.

Up to 2022 (including the pilgrimage immediately after the publication of Traditionis Custodes) Mass in the traditional form had been celebrated for a growing  number of pilgrims by many distinguished celebrants, including Cardinal Burke himself in 2014. In 2023 and 2024, the pilgrimage visited St Peter’s for other prayers and devotions, but not Mass.

The Ad Petri Sedem Pilgrimage has in recent years has grown to more than 1,000 pilgrims, drawn from all over the world.

End

The FIUV (Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce, or Una Voce International) is the federation of lay-led Una Voce or Latin Mass around the world, and is a member of the Coetus Summorum Pontificum which organises the Ad Petri Sedem Pilgrimage.

http://www.fiuv.org/

Email: president@fiuv.org

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Gregorius Magnus 19, Summer 2025

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In this issue we celebrate

60 years of the FIUV;

we consider the attitude to the

TLM of the Franciscan Pontificate;

plus news, comment, and features from around the world.

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Statement on the election of Pope Leo XIV

Press Release of Una Voce International (FIUV) on the election of Pope Leo XIV

Una Voce International (Foederation Internationalis Una Voce) would like to welcome Pope Leo XIV and assure him of the prayer of our member associations, who represent Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass all over the world.

Pope Leo has the chance to make a new start with many matters in the Church, and if the Traditional Mass does not appear to him the most pressing one, we commend to him a policy of peaceful co-existence, in which our supporters in every continent may be encouraged to make the greatest possible contribution to the life of the Church, united to the Holy Father in charity and obedience.

We urge all our supporters and friends to pray for Pope Leo. The following prayer, from the ancient Roman Missal, is the Collect from the Votive Mass ‘On the day of the Coronation of a Pope’, and is suitable for a newly elected Pope.

Deus, ómnium fidélium pastor et rector, fámulum tuum Leonem, quem pastórem Ecclésiæ tuæ præésse voluísti, propítius réspice: da ei, quǽsumus, verbo et exémplo, quibus præest, profícere; ut ad vitam, una cum grege sibi crédito, pervéniat sempitérnam. Per Dominum nostrum.

O God the Pastor and Ruler of all the faithful, look favourably on Thy servant Leo whom Thou hast been pleased to appoint as shepherd of Thy Church: grant to him, we beseech Thee, that by word and example he may edify those over whom he is placed, so that, with the flock entrusted to him, he may attain unto life everlasting.

Contact: 

Joseph Shaw president@fiuv.org

Andris Amolins secretary@fiuv.org

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Rembering Eric de Saventhem, 1919-2005

Today is the 20th anniversary of the demise of Dr. Eric de Saventhem (28.04.2005).

Obituary: Eric Maria Vermehren de Saventhem

23 December 1919 – 28 April 2005

Born in 1919 to a patrician Lübeck family, Eric Maria Vermehren was the youngest of three children. When the Nazis came to power all the family were considered politically unreliable and Eric’s repeated refusal to join the Hitler Youth organisation marked him as ‘unfit to represent German youth’ at Oxford, having won a coveted Rhodes scholarship. His passport was revoked, thus making it impossible for him to travel to England.

Eric Vermehren converted to Catholicism shortly after his sister Isa (who had been expelled from her school in 1933 for refusing to salute the Nazi flag). He subsequently married Countess Elisabeth Gräfin von Plettenberg-Lenhausen, a member of one of Germany’s traditional Catholic families, which had clandestinely distributed the banned anti-Nazi encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge of Pope Pius XI in 1937. Elisabeth’s parents were imprisoned by the Gestapo and she confronted them successfully and obtained their release after three weeks. She herself was variously accused of subversive activities and cross-examined on many occasions by the Gestapo.

Pope Francis, Requiescat in pace.

With the death of Pope Francis, Una Voce International, representing lay Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass all over the world, calls on all Catholics to pray for his soul, as we prayed for him in life.

Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.

We also pray for the Cardinal electors, and for Pope Francis’ successor, for wisdom in guiding the Church, and to see the contribution that the Traditional Mass continues to make to the evangelisation of our societies.

We urge all our supporters to assist at Masses for Pope Francis and pro eligendo Summo Pontifice, and to make their own the Collect from the latter Mass:

We entreat Thee most humbly as suppliants, O Lord, that Thy boundless mercy may give the holy Roman Church a Bishop whose loving care in our regard will always be pleasing to Thee, and may be constantly honoured by Thy people for the glory of Thy name for his beneficent rule. Through Christ our Lord.

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