An article from Catholic News Agency (November 7, 2025) reports that the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey, dismissed its lawsuit against the U.S. government concerning visa issues for foreign-born “priests.” The legal action, initially filed in August 2024, challenged changes to the R-1 religious worker visa and EB-4 green card backlog affecting five foreign nationals serving in the diocese. Attorney Raymond Lahoud claimed a “deal” was reached with federal agencies to resolve the issue nationally through potential legislation or rulemaking, though no details were disclosed. The report frames this as a pragmatic solution to bureaucratic delays, ignoring the deeper theological implications of the Church submitting to secular immigration systems.
Subordination of Sacred Ministry to Secular Bureaucracy
The article’s premise—that the Church must negotiate with civil authorities to secure visas for her ministers—directly contravenes Quas Primas (1925), where Pius XI declared Christ’s Kingship over all nations and governments. By framing clergy as mere “religious workers” dependent on state approval, the conciliar sect reduces the priesthood to a vocational category subject to human legislation. This echoes the condemned error in Pius IX’s Syllabus (1864): “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55). The diocese’s lawsuit tacitly accepts the state’s usurpation of authority over ecclesiastical personnel, violating the principle that spiritualia non subjiciuntur temporalibus (spiritual matters are not subject to temporal power).
“Attorneys for the Diocese of Paterson dropped a lawsuit they filed last year against the Biden administration’s State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.”
This submission to Caesar’s machinery exposes the modernist rot within the conciliar sect. Instead of demanding the state recognize the Church’s divine right to deploy her ministers freely, Paterson’s “bishops” beg for legislative crumbs. Contrast this with Pope Pius IX’s condemnation: “The civil authority may interfere in matters relating to religion, morality, and spiritual government” (Syllabus, Error 44). The very act of litigation legitimizes the state’s jurisdiction over sacramental ministry—a betrayal of Unam Sanctam, where Boniface VIII affirmed the Church’s supreme authority over temporal powers.
Naturalism Masquerading as Pastoral Care
The article’s focus on visa logistics omits any reference to the supernatural mission of priests. These foreign nationals are labeled “plaintiffs” in a legal battle, not shepherds of souls tasked with offering the Most Holy Sacrifice. Such language reflects the conciliar sect’s abandonment of ex opere operato grace, reducing priesthood to a social service. Pius X’s Lamentabili (1907) condemned the idea that “the Sacraments merely serve to remind man of the presence of the ever-benevolent Creator” (Proposition 41). By treating priestly ministry as an immigration commodity, the diocese implicitly denies its sacramental essence.
Moreover, the report’s silence on the spiritual dangers faced by these “priests” is telling. Are they validly ordained? The 1968 Pontificalis Romani invalidly altered priestly ordination rites, rendering most post-conciliar “clergy” mere laymen in vestments. The article assumes their legitimacy without scrutiny, perpetuating the sect’s sacrilegious fraud. True Catholics must ask: Are these men offering Masses that propitiate God, or are they enacting a counterfeit “table of assembly” condemned by Pius XII?
The Masonic Strategy of Appeasement
Lahoud’s boast of a “deal that impacts the entire country” reveals the conciliar sect’s collusion with globalist powers. This mirrors the Freemasonic tactic noted in the False Fatima Apparitions file: “Disinformation strategy—Stage 3: Takeover of the narrative by modernists.” By lobbying for legislative “fixes,” the diocese further entangles the Church in the web of secular humanism, undermining her independence. Pius IX’s Syllabus explicitly rejected the notion that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (Error 80).
The report’s reference to unaccompanied minors contributing to visa backlogs inadvertently exposes a deeper evil. The Biden administration’s exploitation of migrant crises—prioritizing secular humanitarianism over the Church’s rights—parallels the condemned Jansenist rigorism of the “False Fatima” seers. Meanwhile, the diocese’s capitulation exemplifies the “ecumenism project” critiqued in the same file: surrendering Catholic distinctiveness to appease worldly powers.
Conclusion: A Church in Chains
This episode epitomizes the conciliar sect’s apostasy. Rather than defy a regime hostile to Christ’s Kingship—as true martyrs did under pagan emperors—Paterson’s officials seek compromise. Their dismissal of the lawsuit is not prudence but cowardice, abandoning the fight for the Church’s divine prerogatives. As Pius XI warned in Quas Primas, nations that reject Christ’s reign “will in vain seek peace and salvation.” Until the Church reclaims her sovereignty from the modern state, such humiliations will multiply—proof that only a return to integral Catholic tradition can end this Babylonian captivity.
Source:
New Jersey diocese drops lawsuit in anticipation of fix to foreign-born priest visa issue (catholicnewsagency.com)
Article date: 07.11.2025