Philadelphia “Archdiocese” Novena: Superstitious Remedy for Apostasy It Enabled
The Catholic News Agency portal (December 6, 2025) reports that the “Archdiocese of Philadelphia” promotes a St. Andrew Christmas Novena recited 15 times daily to reconcile the “83% of baptized Catholics” allegedly disconnected from sacramental life. Meghan Cokeley, director of the “Office for New Evangelization,” claims this initiative—involving 400 participants praying for initials of “fallen away” relatives—originated during her Eucharistic “adoration.” She frames it as joining St. Andrew, the “fisher of men,” to “catch” souls. The effort forms part of the “Trust and Hope” campaign for “parish renewal,” acknowledging widespread sorrow over liturgical abandonment.
Naturalistic Methodology Masquerading as Supernatural Faith
The novena’s quantitative approach—15 repetitions daily targeting a statistical “83%”—reveals a mechanistic superstition diametrically opposed to Catholic asceticism. Ex opere operato (by the work performed) sacramental efficacy is replaced by ex opere operantis (depending on the worker’s intention), reducing grace to numerical incantations. This echoes Modernist tendencies condemned in Lamentabili Sane (1907), which rejected “the pursuit of novelty” in spiritual matters. The Syllabus of Errors (1864) explicitly anathematizes such semi-Pelagianism: “Moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction” (Proposition 56).
“By joining our prayer with the saint, we are asking him to ‘go fishing’ for our loved ones and catch them for Jesus,”
Cokeley’s metaphor reduces soteriology to a human-centric endeavor, stripping St. Andrew of his cultus as an intercessor subordinate to Christ’s sole mediatorship. Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925) declares: “Christ reigns over us not only by the law of His nature, but also by the law which He acquired through our redemption.” The novena’s language—”vouchsafe… grant my desires”—borderlines pagan incantation, treating prayer not as latria (divine worship) but a tool to manipulate divine will.
False Ecclesiology Concealing Apostate Hierarchy
Silence about why 83% reject sacraments exposes the conciliar sect’s culpability. The “Archdiocese” operates under antipopes who, since John XXIII, systematically dismantled Catholic worship through the 1969 Novus Ordo—a “table of assembly” invalidating Christ’s Sacrifice. Pius IX’s Syllabus condemns the very premise of “parish renewal” programs: “The Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics” (Proposition 63). True evangelization requires condemning errors, not sentimentalizing apostasy.
“Time spent in prayer is the most fruitful investment of one’s life,”
Cokeley’s statement ignores that prayer without doctrinal integrity fuels spiritual ruin. St. Robert Bellarmine (De Romano Pontifice) teaches that manifest heretics forfeit ecclesiastical jurisdiction. When “clergy” deny Transubstantiation, propagate religious indifferentism, and desecrate altars, no novena compensates for their crimes. The “Eucharistic adoration” Cokeley references occurs amidst sacrilege—invalid matter, lay distributors, and modernist architecture profaning the Real Presence.
Omission of Christ’s Social Kingship as Core Failure
The novena’s individualistic focus (“pray for loved ones”) abandons the Church’s mission to establish Regnum Christi over societies. Pius XI’s Quas Primas mandates: “Rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ.” Yet the “Archdiocese” collaborates with Philadelphia’s pro-abortion governance rather than demanding America’s submission to the Sovereignty of Christ. This betrayal fulfills Lamentabili’s warning against “religious facts which the human mind has worked out with great effort” (Proposition 22).
Symptom of Conciliar Apostasy
This initiative typifies the conciliar sect’s inversion of evangelization. Souls reject sacraments because antipapal “clergy” destroyed faith through:
- Invalid sacraments via Ordo Missae (1969)
- Ecumenism equating Catholicism with heresy (Vatican II’s Unitatis Redintegratio)
- Religious liberty denying Christ’s exclusive claim (DH 2)
Instead of repudiating these errors, the “Office for New Evangelization” peddles superstition. True reconciliation requires:
- Abjuring Vatican II
- Rejecting antipopes
- Restoring the Tridentine Mass
As the Syllabus decrees: “The Roman pontiff cannot, and ought not to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Proposition 80). Until then, such novenas mock the Depositum Fidei, accelerating the apostasy they feign to lament.
Source:
Philadelphia Archdiocese prays St. Andrew novena for fallen away Catholics (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 06.12.2025