DON'T CROSS THAT LINE!!

 From Hiraeth in Exile comes this outrageous example of the sickness that has infected the "synodal church," first under Bergoglio, and now Prevost, the seeds of which, go back many, many decades after the infiltration by communists and homosexuals, recruited by the likes of Bella Dodd and other commies.

See if you can stomach this one, then, make up your own mind about whom or what is holding the Vatican hostage -- pray and fast!

But remember, DON'T CROSS THAT LINE!!

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more EXCLUSIVE: Women’s Conference Cut Off Rachel Mastrogiacomo For Criticizing the Novus Ordo & Pachamama Hours Before Michael Matt Called Mary a Feminist — Then They Erased Her From the Website Leaked Emails reveal weeks of SSPX scrutiny and Denver archdiocesan involvement before Mastrogiacomo was cut off mid-speech and later scrubbed from the conference website. Chris Jackson Oct 1 Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more EXCLUSIVE: Women’s Conference Cut Off Rachel Mastrogiacomo For Criticizing the Novus Ordo & Pachamama Hours Before Michael Matt Called Mary a Feminist — Then They Erased Her From the Website Leaked Emails reveal weeks of SSPX scrutiny and Denver archdiocesan involvement before Mastrogiacomo was cut off mid-speech and later scrubbed from the conference website. Chris Jackson Oct 1   READ IN APP   Something very strange happened Saturday at the Restore Tradition Women’s Conference in Littleton, Colorado. Rachel Mastrogiacomo had been advertised for months as one of the conference speakers. Her photograph appeared on the website. Hiraeth In Exile is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Her biography was there. The official schedule gave her the 1:30 p.m. slot for a talk titled “Out of the Darkness and into the Light.” She arrived. She took the stage. She began telling the audience how clerical abuse nearly destroyed her life, how Catholic Tradition helped restore it, why the Traditional Latin Mass became indispensable to her healing, and what she believes the crisis in the Church has revealed about the Novus Ordo, Pachamama, spiritual warfare and the postconciliar establishment. Then she was interrupted. Twice. Reliable sources familiar with the event tell Hiraeth in Exile that the second interruption came abruptly while she was in the portion of her presentation contrasting the traditional rites with the Novus Ordo. The stated explanation was that her time had expired. The audience reportedly responded with a standing ovation. Then came the really odd part. Within days, Mastrogiacomo’s speaking slot disappeared from Restore Tradition’s online schedule. Before the conference, the schedule showed breakout sessions ending at 1:30, followed by Mastrogiacomo at 1:30, a break at 2:45, and Michael Matt’s keynote at 3:15. The conference schedule supplied to Hiraeth confirms her advertised 1:30 appearance. Afterward, the website changed. Mastrogiacomo’s name disappeared. The breakout sessions that had ended at 1:30 somehow expanded until 2:45, neatly swallowing the entire period in which she had actually stood on the stage and spoken. Her speaker listing disappeared from a later version of the site as well. That is quite a way to handle a scheduling dispute. Hat tip to Anthony Stine, who first alerted me to this story. What followed sent me through contemporaneous emails, the original conference schedule, before-and-after website captures, Mastrogiacomo’s prepared manuscript, and information supplied by reliable sources familiar with the events in Littleton. The result is far more troubling than a speaker simply going a few minutes over time. The Trouble Began Long Before Saturday The documentary trail begins in July. Emails reviewed by Hiraeth show that concerns had arisen over Mastrogiacomo’s connection to the Society of Saint Pius X. On July 28, Restore Tradition organizer Jane Brennan wrote that the problem was not coming from her or the conference planning committee. She specifically attributed the concern to the pastor of the host parish and Denver’s new archbishop. Restore Tradition, Brennan explained, was a separate organization. But because the conference was being hosted at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, an Archdiocese of Denver parish, the organization had to abide by decisions made by the parish and archdiocesan authorities. “They make the final determination,” she wrote. Brennan added that Fr. Matthew McCarthy would meet with the chancellor. That is important. Before Rachel Mastrogiacomo ever stepped behind the conference microphone, ecclesiastical authorities were already involved in deciding whether she could speak at Restore Tradition. Michael Matt Was Under Scrutiny Too The emails become even more revealing a few days later. On July 31, Brennan asked whether Mastrogiacomo had publicly supported the SSPX. The response pointed out that other scheduled speakers had publicly defended the Society far more prominently. Michael Matt was among them. Brennan answered: “Yes, Michael Matt is being challenged a lot more than you.” She explained that certain Colorado-based speakers like Matt Gaspers, who also defended the SSPX, were situated differently because they lived within the diocese and were considered in good standing there, whereas the immediate process concerned speakers coming from outside. Days later she was even more explicit: “Michael Matt is the one they are most concerned about. Since he speaks so publicly in defense of the SSPX.” Remember that sentence. The Denver ecclesiastical establishment was apparently worried about Michael Matt because he defended the SSPX too vigorously. A few weeks later he would stand on the keynote stage at the same conference and describe the Blessed Virgin Mary as “the ultimate feminist in the history of the universe.” The line between dangerous and acceptable traditionalism is apparently finer than we thought. “We Will Not Be Putting Anything in Writing” The dispute dragged on. On August 5, Mastrogiacomo’s husband wrote Brennan explaining that the family still did not know whether the invitation remained intact. Their understanding after an earlier telephone conversation had been that concerns surrounding Rachel’s SSPX connection might result in cancellation. They needed an answer simply to plan travel and finances. Brennan responded that the timing of the decision was beyond her control. Then came a particularly interesting sentence: “So on the advice of council we will not be putting anything in writing or allowing a third party to be a part of these discussions.” She again referred to waiting for the chancellor’s decision. Eventually, after more than three weeks of uncertainty, the invitation survived. An August 18 email in the correspondence reflects surprise that the appearance had not been cancelled and gratitude that Denver’s archbishop had ultimately allowed the matter to proceed. Whatever negotiations took place behind the scenes, by late August Rachel Mastrogiacomo was still a speaker. Her photograph remained on the website. Her name remained on the schedule. She prepared her address. Then she went to Denver. Where Is the Gag Order? This is where the paper trail becomes especially important. I reviewed the email exchanges provided to Hiraeth. There is plenty of discussion about the SSPX. There is discussion about the parish. There is discussion about the chancery. There is discussion about whether she would be permitted to speak. There is even the extraordinary declaration that certain discussions would no longer be put in writing. What I did not find in the correspondence was a written instruction telling Mastrogiacomo: Do not criticize the Novus Ordo. Do not mention Pachamama. Do not discuss the postconciliar crisis. Do not question decisions of the hierarchy. Do not draw conclusions from your own experience with the Traditional Mass. That is important because reliable sources say that, after the conference, a narrative began circulating that Mastrogiacomo had somehow “gone rogue.” Yet the contemporaneous written record supplied to Hiraeth contains no such prohibition on topics. Rachel Gave the Full Speech Online There is another advantage in reporting this story. We do not have to guess what Mastrogiacomo intended to say. She gave the full speech last night. The speech begins with her childhood, the devastating death of her father, severe scrupulosity, her spiritual formation and the vulnerability that eventually placed her in the path of an abusive Catholic cleric. Much of the presentation concerns clerical abuse, trauma and the spiritual consequences that followed. Then the argument broadens. Mastrogiacomo discusses corruption within the Church, warnings against Modernism, the Pachamama scandal and what she understands as a deeper spiritual war within Catholic institutions. Her speech explicitly mentions the 2019 Pachamama episode and the subsequent call by four exorcists for prayer and fasting against diabolical influence within the Church. Then comes the hinge: “I found a way forward through a return to Tradition.” “The Church will too.” From there she explains how discovering the Traditional Latin Mass transformed her spiritual life. This was no passing liturgical preference. For Mastrogiacomo, it became intimately connected to surviving trauma. She describes how the priest facing ad orientem allowed her to concentrate again upon the Sacrifice being offered to God instead of being psychologically triggered by having another priest facing her. Then she goes further. She argues that the Traditional Mass makes the sacrificial nature of the liturgy clearer, creates a profound sense of order, and gives people escaping occult environments something radically different from the ritual disorder they experienced elsewhere. “The Traditional Mass provides this in a way that the Novus Ordo does not,” she says. She then quotes Joseph Ratzinger’s famous description of the postconciliar reform as a “fabricated liturgy” and a “banal product of the moment.” This is where things became uncomfortable. Then the Microphone Came On Reliable sources familiar with what happened tell Hiraeth that the emcee interrupted Mastrogiacomo twice. The first intervention redirected her toward discussing her healing through the Traditional Latin Mass. There was a peculiar irony to that. According to the manuscript, that was precisely where the presentation itself was already going. Later came another interruption. This time she was well into the portion of her presentation dealing with the traditional rites, the deficiencies she perceived in the Novus Ordo and the spiritual power of the older liturgical tradition. The emcee announced that her time was up and that the conference needed to remain on schedule. Sources who witnessed the event describe the intervention as abrupt rather than the ordinary gentle warning given to a speaker whose time is running short. Then the audience stood. According to multiple accounts supplied to Hiraeth, Mastrogiacomo received a standing ovation. Afterward, a substantial crowd of women gathered around her wanting to speak with her and hear more. Reliable sources place the number at roughly fifty. If the purpose of stopping her had been to extinguish interest in what she was saying, the immediate result appears to have been precisely the opposite. Then Things Got Stranger Offstage Sources familiar with what happened after the speech describe an increasingly uncomfortable scene. Conference volunteers reportedly began trying to disperse the group surrounding Mastrogiacomo. One volunteer allegedly told her, in front of attendees, that she was the one “drawing attention” to herself. Women standing nearby objected. Another interaction involving her belongings created the impression among witnesses that the conference wanted her moved along quickly. Mastrogiacomo eventually withdrew from the activity and later left. I want to distinguish these accounts carefully from the written record. The emails establish the pre-conference SSPX controversy and the role of Denver ecclesiastical authorities in deciding whether she could appear. The original schedule establishes that she was an official 1:30 speaker. The YouTube video establishes what she intended to say. The later website demonstrates that her slot was subsequently removed. The precise hallway exchanges come from reliable source reporting. There is also a particularly striking account involving the emcee. A source familiar with events says the woman who interrupted the talk was later seen visibly upset, reportedly near tears, expressing profound distress over what she had been required to do. If accurate, that does not sound like an emcee irritated because a speaker ran four minutes long. It sounds like something else. Did the Order Come From Archbishop Golka? This is the most serious unresolved question. A reliable source told Hiraeth that a priest described as “in the know” said conference organizers themselves were unhappy about what happened to Rachel and that the direction to stop or curtail Mastrogiacomo came from Archbishop James Golka. I have not obtained an email, text or directive personally signed by Golka ordering the September 26 interruption. Accordingly, I am not presenting that claim as established fact. But the broader involvement of Denver ecclesiastical authorities is documented. Weeks before the conference, Brennan specifically wrote that the host pastor and Denver’s new archbishop had concerns and that the ecclesiastical authorities would make the final determination regarding outside speakers. So the suggestion of chancery involvement on September 26 did not arise out of nowhere. There is an obvious question for Denver: Did Archbishop Golka, the chancery, the host pastor or anyone acting with archdiocesan authority instruct Restore Tradition personnel during Mastrogiacomo’s presentation to redirect or stop her? That should be easy to answer. Then Rachel Mastrogiacomo Disappeared This is the part that makes the innocent scheduling explanation especially difficult to swallow. Speakers go over time every day. Conference organizers cut them off. Everyone moves on. They generally do not rewrite the schedule afterward. Restore Tradition did. Before the event, the schedule showed: 12:45–1:30 — breakout sessions. 1:30 — Rachel Mastrogiacomo. 2:45 — break. 3:15 — Michael Matt keynote. Afterward, Mastrogiacomo was gone. The breakout block suddenly stretched from 12:45 until 2:45. Then came the break. Then Michael Matt. Two hours of breakout sessions. How convenient. The woman who had actually stood on the stage at 1:30 had simply ceased to exist in the online record. Her speaker listing disappeared from a later version of the conference site as well. There could be an explanation. Restore Tradition should give one. Because whatever the motive, the effect is undeniable: the current website presents a conference schedule from which an actual speaker has been removed after the event occurred. You can delete a webpage. You cannot delete Saturday afternoon. And Then Michael Matt Took the Stage Now we reach the part that makes the entire episode almost too perfect. This was a conference devoted to authentic Catholic femininity. On Friday, Fr. Chad Ripperger had delivered a talk titled “The Sins of Eve, Feminism and Our Lady.” Abby Johnson spoke about a journey “from Feminism to Authentic Femininity.” The stated purpose of the weekend was restoration. Then Rachel Mastrogiacomo spoke. Her prepared presentation praised the Traditional Latin Mass, criticized what she sees as grave deficiencies in the Novus Ordo, condemned Pachamama, discussed corruption within the Church and argued that Tradition offered a way forward. She was interrupted twice. Her audience reportedly stood for her. Her public traces on the conference website soon began disappearing. Then Michael Matt took the stage. And this came out of his mouth: “You need to lead us back to sanity and I hope and honestly believe only you can do it. The feminine power harnessed from the ultimate feminist in the history of the universe, Our Lady, who with one word, with her fiat, co-redeemed all men on earth. You wanna talk about a feminist? She’s it!” At Restore Tradition. At the conference about authentic femininity. Hours after a woman criticizing the Novus Ordo had been cut short. You could not script the irony this well. The speaker saying hard things about the postconciliar liturgy needed intervention. The keynote speaker who baptized the language of feminism by applying it to the Immaculate Mother of God apparently did not. Apparently “the ultimate feminist” was safely within bounds. Traditional Enough to Sell Tickets This is where the story becomes bigger than Rachel Mastrogiacomo. Traditional Catholicism has developed an entire professional ecosystem around describing the postconciliar disaster. There are conferences. Media outlets. Celebrity speakers. Institutes. Retreats. Panels. Livestreams. Books. Donor networks. Every year Catholics gather to discuss the collapse in vocations, the liturgical revolution, doctrinal confusion, episcopal cowardice, synodality, suppression of the Traditional Mass and all the other debris left by sixty years of ecclesiastical revolution. Yet there is often an invisible line. You may describe the symptoms. You may rage at the consequences. You may condemn abuses. You may praise the old Mass. You may even quote Archbishop Lefebvre approvingly. Then someone asks whether the Novus Ordo itself belongs among the causes rather than merely among the victims. Suddenly the room temperature changes. This is precisely why the SSPX remains such an uncomfortable presence even for traditionalists who have quietly adopted much of Lefebvre’s analysis. The Society keeps asking where the rupture occurred. It refuses to stop five yards short of the conclusion simply because diocesan respectability begins there. That is harder to domesticate. A Tradition That Requires Chancery Permission Jane Brennan’s July email exposes the structural problem beautifully. Restore Tradition may be an independent organization. But its conference was being held on archdiocesan parish property. Therefore the parish and archdiocesan authorities ultimately controlled who could speak. That is understandable as a matter of property and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. It also creates an obvious problem for a movement supposedly devoted to confronting a crisis produced and perpetuated by much of the ecclesiastical establishment itself. How far can you restore Tradition if the very bureaucracy you are criticizing controls the perimeter of acceptable criticism? There is a point at which permission becomes theology. The old Mass can be beautiful. The old saints can be praised. Fatima can be invoked. Freemasonry can be denounced. Pachamama can be condemned—perhaps, depending on the room. But if the practical limit is whatever a chancery will tolerate, then “Tradition” risks becoming aesthetic. Incense without consequences. Latin without conclusions. Lefebvre without Lefebvre. The Speech Makes the Censorship Question Worse Mastrogiacomo’s speech does not sound like some ideological ambush. Its central argument is rooted in suffering. She describes discovering in the Traditional Mass a way to understand her own victimhood through the Sacrifice of Christ. At one point she writes that the TLM became “the joy of my life.” From there the manuscript moves into the Blessed Virgin, Fatima, prayer, penance and the Rosary. There is certainly controversial material in the speech. Fine. That is what discussion is for. But this was Restore Tradition, not the National Liturgical Commission. If a woman cannot explain why she believes the Traditional Mass gave her something the new rite could not without someone reaching for a microphone, what exactly is being restored? The “She Went Rogue” Explanation Needs Receipts Sources say some version of the “gone rogue” explanation circulated afterward. That is easy to test. The organizers had weeks to resolve concerns about Mastrogiacomo. They nearly cancelled her. There were discussions involving the host parish and chancery. Her SSPX connection was examined. Other speakers’ SSPX advocacy was examined. Her participation survived all of that. She remained advertised. She remained on the official schedule. Then she came to Denver and delivered a speech whose central theme—finding healing through the Traditional Latin Mass—was exactly how the conference itself had promoted her appearance. If she was told in advance that criticism of the Novus Ordo or discussion of Pachamama was forbidden, show the instruction. If she agreed to those conditions, show the agreement. If the explanation is merely that someone became uncomfortable after she began speaking, say that. But “she went rogue” requires evidence. I have yet to see it. The Women Apparently Did Not Need Protecting There is another irony here. The entire event was marketed toward traditional Catholic women capable of understanding the crisis in the Church, resisting feminism and rebuilding Catholic culture. Yet when a speaker became controversial, sources say conference workers tried to disperse the women surrounding her afterward. Why? These were adults. They had bought tickets. They had listened to talks about spiritual warfare, Church crisis, feminism and Tradition. Apparently they were capable of deciding whether Rachel Mastrogiacomo had anything worth hearing. Their standing ovation suggests they already had. There is something strangely patronizing about organizing a conference to form strong Catholic women and then becoming nervous when those women want to continue listening to the woman who just challenged the approved boundaries. The Website Edit Is the Receipt In stories like this, motives are difficult to prove. Someone can deny what was said in a hallway. Someone can dispute what another person intended. Someone can insist an interruption was merely logistical. The altered schedule is different. It exists. Before the conference, Rachel Mastrogiacomo had a 1:30 slot. After the conference, she did not. The event immediately before hers expanded to occupy the missing time. That deserves an explanation independent of every disputed conversation surrounding this story. Why rewrite a completed schedule? Why remove a speaker after she actually spoke? Why make the historical record less accurate after the fact? Perhaps there is a mundane reason. Restore Tradition should provide it. Until then, the edit speaks more loudly than another thousand words about keeping to schedule. Restore Tradition Should Answer a Few Simple Questions Why was Rachel Mastrogiacomo interrupted twice? Who directed the emcee to intervene? Did anyone from the Archdiocese of Denver, the host parish or Archbishop Golka’s office communicate with conference personnel during the speech? Was Mastrogiacomo given explicit restrictions concerning criticism of the Novus Ordo or discussion of Pachamama? If so, when, how and by whom? Why was her 1:30 appearance removed from the online schedule after the conference? Why was the preceding breakout session expanded to fill the period in which she had spoken? Why did her speaker listing disappear? Will the complete recording of her presentation be released alongside the other conference talks? And perhaps the simplest question of all: What exactly happened in Littleton? Tradition Cannot Be a Costume For decades Catholics have watched a curious dance. The crisis may be acknowledged. The ruins may be catalogued. The villains may be denounced. Everyone may agree that something catastrophic happened after the Council. But every generation of respectable traditionalism seems to inherit a perimeter beyond which one must suddenly become careful. One can approach the conclusion. One can gesture toward it. One can quote somebody else saying it. Then comes the invisible rope. That is how Tradition becomes a brand rather than a judgment. The Traditional Mass becomes décor. The saints become mascots. Archbishop Lefebvre becomes a courageous historical figure whose actual conclusions are carefully kept in the display case. And conferences become places where Catholics gather to complain about a revolution while still asking the revolution how much resistance will be permitted. Rachel Mastrogiacomo’s speech touched that nerve. She had suffered horribly. She found something in the Traditional Mass that she says she could not find in the Novus Ordo. She said so. She pushed the argument farther than some people apparently wanted. Then somebody interrupted her. And afterward, somebody edited the schedule. Hours later Michael Matt stood before the same crowd and called Our Lady the greatest feminist in the history of the universe. Nobody stopped him. That may be the most revealing detail of all. At a conference called Restore Tradition, criticism of the Novus Ordo apparently became dangerous territory. Calling the Blessed Virgin Mary a feminist made the keynote. I could invent a parody of Trad Inc. I doubt I could improve upon Littleton. If you value independent Catholic analysis and want to help keep this work going, you can make a one-time contribution below. Every donation directly supports the writing, research, and production of Hiraeth in Exile. Make a One-Time Donation End of very revealing article! Pray for strength and honor! Viva Cristo rey!  Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun, and fr. vincent capodanno, pray for us... St. Michael the archangel, defend us in battle... St. joseph, pray for us!! Our lady help of christians, pray for us!! Gene Delalla