Return to Tradition is right about Pius XII and “antiquarianism”, wrong about Communion in the hand
In an episode on the Amoris laetitia meeting, Anthony Stine says the Church condemned interfaith marriages until Vatican II, that Communion in the hand was not the practice of the early Church, and that Pius XII condemned reviving ancient practices for their own sake. The last holds up; the first two do not.
By TradWatch™ staff
4 min read
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Verdicts at a glance
- Misleading
The Church condemned interfaith marriages until the Second Vatican Council. · Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
- Inaccurate
Receiving Communion in the hand was not the practice of the early Church. · Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
- Accurate
Pius XII condemned the error of restoring ancient practices simply because they are ancient. · Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
In this brief · 7 sections
On 12 October 2026 Return to Tradition published “Leo's Amoris Laetitia Conference Endorses Destroying The Traditional Family” on YouTube and as a podcast (YouTube; podcast). Anthony Stine reads and comments on three LifeSiteNews reports: Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão’s address to the Amoris laetitia meeting, Professor Vincenzo Rosito’s address there, and remarks by Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś of Kraków on reading tradition in the light of Vatican II. TradWatch™ has already examined the first two reports (Ferrão; Rosito). Three historical statements the host makes in his own words can be checked.
What was said
Statement 1: Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
Return to Tradition · October 12, 2026
Interfaith unions which the church condemned until Vatican II
In brief: The Church condemned interfaith marriages until the Second Vatican Council.
Our verdict: MisleadingContains some truth but leaves a false impression.
See the recordThis content is embedded for purposes of commentary, criticism, and news reporting. TradWatch is not affiliated with Return to Tradition. Views quoted are those of the speaker.
Statement 2: Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
Return to Tradition · October 12, 2026
receiving Holy Communion in the hand that was not the practice in the early church
In brief: Receiving Communion in the hand was not the practice of the early Church.
Our verdict: InaccurateThe record contradicts the claim.
See the recordThis content is embedded for purposes of commentary, criticism, and news reporting. TradWatch is not affiliated with Return to Tradition. Views quoted are those of the speaker.
Statement 3: Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
Return to Tradition · October 12, 2026
it's condemned by Pius the 12th as an error
In brief: Pius XII condemned the error of restoring ancient practices simply because they are ancient.
Our verdict: AccurateThe record supports the claim as stated.
See the recordThis content is embedded for purposes of commentary, criticism, and news reporting. TradWatch is not affiliated with Return to Tradition. Views quoted are those of the speaker.
Context
The episode is mostly commentary on the Amoris laetitia meeting in the Vatican (7–14 October 2026) and on Cardinal Ryś’s interview. Its claims about the speakers’ words come from LifeSiteNews reports and are examined in the pieces linked above.
On statement 1 · Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
The host is reading LifeSiteNews’s summary of Cardinal Ferrão’s address, which listed “interfaith unions” among the changes in family life the Cardinal described.
On statement 2 · Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
The host gives it as the clearest example of reformers presenting their own changes as a return to ancient practice.
On statement 3 · Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
The host calls this error “archaeologism” and says reformers use it to justify changes.
The record
What the sources show, statement by statement.
Verifiable factcan be checked against the sources cited.TradWatch analysisis our interpretation, clearly labelled.Statement 1 · Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
The Church condemned interfaith marriages until the Second Vatican Council.
Verifiable fact The restrictions are still in canon law
The 1983 Code of Canon Law still treats such marriages as exceptions needing the Church’s leave. A marriage between a Catholic and an unbaptised person is invalid unless a dispensation is granted (can. 1086), and a marriage between a Catholic and a baptised non-Catholic “cannot be celebrated without the express permission of the competent authority” (can. 1124), on the conditions of cann. 1125–1126 (CIC, Book IV).
Source
- 2
Official Church source
cann. 1086, 1124–1126
Code of Canon Law, Book IV, Part I
Holy See (vatican.va)
- 2
TradWatch analysis Not a before-and-after the Council
The Church has long discouraged marriages across religious lines and permitted them only by dispensation, and it still does. Saying it “condemned” them “until Vatican II” suggests a prohibition the Council lifted; the law that applies today keeps the same basic structure of impediment and permission.
Source
- 2
Official Church source
cann. 1086, 1124–1126
Code of Canon Law, Book IV, Part I
Holy See (vatican.va)
- 2
Statement 2 · Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
Receiving Communion in the hand was not the practice of the early Church.
Verifiable fact A fourth-century bishop describes it
St Cyril of Jerusalem, instructing the newly baptised in the fourth century, told them: “make your left hand a throne for the right, as for that which is to receive a King. And having hollowed your palm, receive the Body of Christ, saying over it, Amen” (Mystagogical Catechesis 5, 21).
Source
TradWatch analysis A historical point, not a verdict on today’s practice
Whether Communion in the hand should be encouraged today is a separate question on which Catholics disagree in good faith, and the host goes on to say others in the early Church did not endorse it. But the claim that it was not practised in the early Church is contradicted by the early sources themselves.
Source
Statement 3 · Anthony Stine, Return to Tradition
Pius XII condemned the error of restoring ancient practices simply because they are ancient.
Verifiable fact Mediator Dei, 1947
Pius XII wrote that “ancient usage must not be esteemed more suitable and proper … on the simple ground that it carries the savor and aroma of antiquity”, and that “it is neither wise nor laudable to reduce everything to antiquity by every possible device” (Mediator Dei 61–62). In the same passage he called the liturgy of the early ages “most certainly worthy of all veneration” and returning to the sources “a wise and most laudable thing”: what he rejected was antiquity as the measure of everything.
Source
- 4
Official Church source
nn. 61–62
Pius XII, Mediator Dei (20 November 1947)
Holy See (vatican.va) · November 20, 1947
- 4
Bottom line
The episode is right that Pius XII rejected restoring ancient practice simply because it is ancient. But Communion in the hand is described by St Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century, and the Church’s rules on interfaith marriages were not lifted at Vatican II: the current Code still requires a dispensation or permission.
The original
This content is embedded for purposes of commentary, criticism, and news reporting. TradWatch is not affiliated with Return to Tradition. Views quoted are those of the speaker.
Open on YouTubeSources
- 1.Primary sourceCited in statement 1
Leo's Amoris Laetitia Conference Endorses Destroying The Traditional Family
Return to Tradition · October 12, 2026
podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anthony-stine/episodes/Leos-Amoris-Laetitia-Con…
- 2.Official Church sourceCited in statement 1
cann. 1086, 1124–1126 — Code of Canon Law, Book IV, Part I
Holy See (vatican.va)
vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib4-cann998-1165_en.ht…
- 3.
- 4.Official Church sourceCited in statement 3
nn. 61–62 — Pius XII, Mediator Dei (20 November 1947)
Holy See (vatican.va) · November 20, 1947
vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20111947_medi…
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