February 11th is a big day in Church history. Ten years ago today, I woke up jet lagged in Rome after having arrived the evening before, and was shocked to see late-edition newspapers with massive headlines “Benedict announces resignation”. I guess he heard that I was in town and couldn’t take it. This explanation is every bit as plausible as “insomnia” or “jet lag from having to fly to Brazil to World Youth Day”. That morning, while I was snoozing off my jet lag a few hundred yards away, Pope Benedict mentioned almost tangentially towards the end of an address to a consistory of the Cardinals that he was going to resign the ministry of the bishop of Rome for the active governance of the Church. No bizarre qualifications there! Miraculously, the Vatican was re-admitted to the SWIFT banking network the next morning, having been cut-off on January 1, ARSH 2013, some six weeks before.

165 years ago today, the Mother of God appeared to a barely-literate peasant girl who struggled to name the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity in her catechism class, growth stunted from impoverished malnutrition, in a garbage dump. Through this girl, the Queen of Heaven confirmed to the world that she was, in fact, The Immaculate Conception, conceived without the stain of Original Sin in order to be the Ark of the New Covenant.

And today, Dr. Mazza appears on the Taylor Marshall show discussing at length the canonical invalidity of Pope Benedict’s catastrophic attempted partial resignation.

St. Bernadette, pray for us.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and on your Holy Catholic Church outside of which there is no salvation.