Author: Mark Docherty
Moody’s Downgrades US Debt Rating at 4:45pm on a Friday
Have you noticed the “Republicans” can’t seem to cut a single dollar from the budget? The whole DOGE thing was smoke and mirrors. The current budget proposal would add another $10T to the debt over the next four years. Quite the Big Beautiful Bill, isn’t it? Good for Moody’s. Drop the bomb and see if it shakes any sense into them. -nvp
Moody’s downgrades United States credit rating, citing growth in government debt
Moody’s Ratings cut the United States’ sovereign credit rating down one notch to Aa1 from Aaa, the highest possible, citing the growing burden of financing the federal government’s budget deficit and the rising cost of rolling over existing debt amid high interest rates.
“This one-notch downgrade on our 21-notch rating scale reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns,” the rating agency said in a statement.
The decision to lower the United States credit profile would be expected, at the margin, to lift the yield that investors demand in order to buy U.S. Treasury debt to reflect more risk, and could dampen sentiment toward owning U.S. assets, including stocks. That said, all the major credit rating agencies continue to give the United States their second-highest available rating.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed 3 basis points in after-hours trading, trading at 4.48%. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF — a proxy for longer term debt prices — fell about 1% in after hours trading, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust that tracks the benchmark index for U.S. stocks dropped 0.4%.
Moody’s had been a holdout in keeping U.S. sovereign debt at the highest credit rating possible, and brings the 116-year-old agency into line with its rivals. Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. to AA+ from AAA in August 2011, and Fitch Ratings also cut the U.S. rating to AA+ from AAA, in August 2023.
“Successive U.S. administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs,” Moody’s analysts said in a statement. “We do not believe that material multi-year reductions in mandatory spending and deficits will result from current fiscal proposals under consideration.”
Guidance for Catholics under a Pope suspected of heresy
Pope Paul IV Apostolic Constitution Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio of February 15, 1559:
6. In addition, [by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity We enact, determine, decree and define:] that if ever at any time it shall appear that any Bishop, even if he be acting as an Archbishop, Patriarch or Primate; or any Cardinal of the aforesaid Roman Church, or, as has already been mentioned, any legate, or even the Roman Pontiff, prior to his promotion or his elevation as Cardinal or Roman Pontiff, has deviated from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy:
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- (i) the promotion or elevation, even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals, shall be null, void and worthless;
(ii) it shall not be possible for it to acquire validity (nor for it to be said that it has thus acquired validity) through the acceptance of the office, of consecration, of subsequent authority, nor through possession of administration, nor through the putative enthronement of a Roman Pontiff, or Veneration, or obedience accorded to such by all, nor through the lapse of any period of time in the foregoing situation;
(iii) it shall not be held as partially legitimate in any way;
(iv) to any so promoted to be Bishops, or Archbishops, or Patriarchs, or Primates or elevated as Cardinals, or as Roman Pontiff, no authority shall have been granted, nor shall it be considered to have been so granted either in the spiritual or the temporal domain;
(v) each and all of their words, deeds, actions and enactments, howsoever made, and anything whatsoever to which these may give rise, shall be without force and shall grant no stability whatsoever nor any right to anyone;
(vi) those thus promoted or elevated shall be deprived automatically, and without need for any further declaration, of all dignity, position, honour, title, authority, office and power.
7. Finally, [by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity, We] also [enact, determine, define and decree]: that any and all persons who would have been subject to those thus promoted or elevated if they had not previously deviated from the Faith, become heretics, incurred schism or provoked or committed any or all of these, be they members of anysoever of the following categories: the Cardinals, even those who shall have taken part in the election of this very Pontiff previously deviating from the Faith or heretical or schismatical, or shall otherwise have consented and vouchsafed obedience to him and shall have venerated him;
Castellans, Prefects, Captains and Officials, even of Our Beloved City and of the entire Ecclesiastical State, even if they shall be obliged and beholden to those thus promoted or elevated by homage, oath or security; shall be permitted at any time to withdraw with impunity from obedience and devotion to those thus promoted or elevated and to avoid them as warlocks, heathens, publicans, and heresiarchs (the same subject persons, nevertheless, remaining bound by the duty of fidelity and obedience to any future Bishops, Archbishops, Patriarchs, Primates, Cardinals and Roman Pontiff canonically entering).
The other “Gates” of Hell in 2025… get jabbed or go to prison
Starts Tomorrow: Dr. Mazza investigates Pope Prevost… true or false Pope?
Pope Leo XIV? & The Papacy
Who is Robert Prevost? What is the Papacy?
Mini Course, Major Implications
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STARTS Thursday May 15th, only $99.
Weekly Live Classes start Thursday May 15, at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT and will run approximately 70-80 minutes. Q&A will follow for 10 minutes or more for those who can stay. I will suggest readings. No tests. No pressure. Content: Ages 13 and up. Recorded video link sent afterwards so you can watch on your own time! (Projected duration 4 weeks)
Bannon called it for Prevost live on Piers Morgan ten days before the conclave
“I said the possible unexpected winner would be Prevost ten days earlier on Piers Morgan’s show. I did my research. No one in the betting circles or in the mainstream media was talking about him. But behind the scenes, there was talk of nothing else. They had two problems that he solves. First, they needed to find someone more organized but ideologically aligned with Francis to finish Bergoglio’s radical reimagining of the Church that has abandoned the Latin Mass and traditional pre-Vatican II Catholicism. Second, since MAGA -traditionalist Catholics have been able to cause such a stir in recent years, the flow of donations from the United States has fallen by almost 50%. The Vatican is not in danger of bankruptcy because it has resources, but it has a flow of donations problem, mainly because of the collapse of funding from the US Church and especially from big donors, like the Papal Foundation. Prevost is perfect. He is American but not too much ; he was born in America, but he is more Peruvian, he is close to Liberation Theology. Bergoglio created and selected him for this position. He has been a cardinal for only two years. He put him in charge of the powerful dicastery of bishops to make him known. An American was needed for donors to have access — so they can have their awards, dinners and papal blessings — and for donations to increase, but the American cardinals said in a press conference that he is the least American of them. His brother told the Daily Mail that they had discussed the name Leone before the conclave began. It is impossible for a virtually unknown American archbishop who has spent most of his life in Peru and has been a cardinal for less than two years to come to a conclave and win in the fourth ballot. It was Bergoglio’s globalist Curia. This election is completely rigged . Some Maga Catholics say he met with Cardinal Burke and said he loves the Latin Mass and everything will be fine, but that is not true at all.”
Video: https://www.gloria.tv/post/nUww9CgEejtp4sod3o7a8krj8
Afternoon respite: Woke Snow White DIEs even harder the second time around
Not content with the new Snow White bombing in March, Disney decided to release it again in the US last week, only for it to bomb even worse than the first time and take just $252 per screen. The Telegraph‘s Ed Power has more.
Hi-ho, it’s back to the cinema for Disney’s flop live-action Snow White. Having originally crashed and burned in March, the movie misfired all over again after the House of Mouse re-released it in the US last week. Talk about putting the ‘grim’ in Grimm Fairy Tale.
Disney’s apparent calculation was that that the advent of summer blockbuster season could give this dead-on-arrival feature a new lease of life. You can sort of appreciate the logic: after all, May saw the ailing Marvel Cinematic Universe return from purgatory when Thunderbolts proved a surprise hit.
Where a caped crusader can go, surely Snow White and her terrifying CGI dwarf friends could follow? Who, moreover, wouldn’t want to hear Gal Gadot ham her way through the dreadful ‘All Is Fair’ one last time? A sort of evil twin of Frozen’s ‘Let It Go’, the tune has acquired a cult fanbase on social media, where people are intoxicated by its sheer ‘how did this get made?’ awfulness.
Sadly for Disney, such logic did not long survive contact with reality. Incredibly, the second coming of Snow White was an even bigger disaster than the original run. Unleashed on an unsuspecting 1,000 cinemas across the US, the Rachel Zegler v Gal Gadot calamity brought in a pitiful $252 per screen. To date, the remake has cost Disney an estimated $115 million – much of the cost eaten up for by the bizarre decision to have Zegler act opposite CGI dwarfs straight from the Uncanny Valley.
A meeting with James Martin and Austen Ivereigh that revealed their papal candidate
| May 5, 2025
Rome. The Eternal City is buzzing with anticipation these days ahead of the conclave. The corridors, cafes, and restaurants near the Vatican are a hive of activity with cardinals, journalists, clerics, and opinion-makers of all stripes. We, too, have been strolling through the city, encountering quite a few familiar faces.
But if there’s one meeting we won’t forget, it was this afternoon. Walking around the outskirts of Borgo Pio, I met none other than the Jesuit James Martin and the British native Austin Ivereigh, two of the greatest enthusiasts of Francis’s pontificate and tireless defenders of the synodal line, inclusive and conciliatory… at least on paper.
Upon seeing them, my friend and companion on this trip wanted to greet them, and we introduced ourselves: “We’re from InfoVaticana.” The reaction was instantaneous and, frankly, revealing. James Martin, the author of “Building Bridges,” that book that boasts of building bridges between the Church and the peripheries, chose to turn away and turn his back on us without saying a word. No dialogue, no bridges, no greeting. A pure wall. How significant. We must not be their type.
Austin Ivereigh, for his part, did speak to us… although perhaps he would have preferred not to. Visibly annoyed—and increasingly so as the conversation progressed—he stood up, approached us, and vehemently reproached us for the “campaign” we, according to him, were waging against Cardinal Robert Prevost. “The campaign you’re waging against Prevost is very interesting,” he said, his tone a mixture of anger and frustration.
When we replied, “No, not against Prevost; against the culture of cover-up in the Church, which you’re now in favor of?” the discomfort was palpable. Nervous, Ivereigh mentioned a Sodalitium as the supposed source of the information, and when we explained that there are many cases, all documented, he insisted, ironically, that InfoVaticana “always has more,” referring to the documents we’ve been publishing on the case. His reaction left no room for doubt: Prevost was their man, the candidate on whom they had pinned all their hopes.
The scene couldn’t have been more illustrative. Just hours before the conclave begins, the coup plotters are nervous. And not because someone is defaming Prevost, but because the truth is coming out. Because the documents, the testimonies, and the omissions are there, documented and published. And more are coming.
It’s revealing: the same environment that demands synodality, transparency, and bridges of dialogue cannot bear to shed light on the dark sides of its protégés. For some, the culture of concealment is not a past to be overcome, but a strategy they still try to maintain.
At InfoVaticana, we will continue doing what we’ve always done: telling what others prefer to keep quiet. Because if today’s meeting has demonstrated anything, it’s that there are those who fear, and are very much so, that we will continue to tell more.
Presumptive Pope pledges “complete commitment” to Vatican II, and praises the antimagisterium of Bergoglio
(Correction, an earlier version of this post incorrectly asserted that he was wearing the antichrist cross… several readers pointed out that my eyes aren’t very good this morning: It is in fact a proper crucifix. -nvp)
“…I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, from which I would like to highlight several fundamental points: the return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation (cf. No. 11); the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community (cf. No. 9); growth in collegiality and synodality (cf. No. 33); attention to the sensus fidei (cf. Nos. 119-120), especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as popular piety (cf. No. 123); loving care for the least and the rejected (cf. No. 53); courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities (cf. No. 84; Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1-2). These are evangelical principles that have always inspired and guided the life and activity of God’s Family. In these values, the merciful face of the Father has been revealed and continues to be revealed in his incarnate Son, the ultimate hope of all who sincerely seek truth, justice, peace and fraternity (cf. Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 2; Francis, Spes Non Confundit, 3).”
Too good not to share – TLM at Mary Major
(When I heard about this yesterday, a TLM at Mary Major, I had assumed it happened at a side altar. NOPE. High Altar and full glory, courtesy ICKSP! In the video below, you can watch the procession, with the light of Bergoglio’s latrine-tomb in the background. Enjoy. -nvp)
Francis Witnesses the Traditional Mass in Saint Mary Major
The Jubilee Pilgrimage of the Institute of Christ the King had a celebratory Traditional Mass in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major this week.
In the video below (tip: Una Voce Sevilla, Spain), that lighted spot in the background is the recently opened tomb of Francis, which was put in the place of a magnificent early 17th-century baroque wall ands doorway, decorated with the most beautiful stone, destroyed and demolished to accomodate the enormous humility of the humble pontiff.
Anyway, the Mass is still here.