The Hollow “Peace” of Bethlehem’s Betrayers
The Vatican News portal (December 20, 2025) publishes a Christmas message by Ibrahim Faltas, a Franciscan friar of the Custody of the Holy Land, lamenting violence in Gaza while promoting a naturalistic “peace” divorced from the Kingship of Christ. The text decries suffering yet omits the necessity of societal conversion to Christ the King, reducing the Incarnation to a vague humanitarian symbol.
Naturalism Masquerading as Christian Hope
Faltas declares:
“Peace is not an illusion, but a choice for life. Peace is not merely a word… Peace is courage – the courage to help and to bear witness to the Saviour’s truth.”
This equivocation reduces peace to subjective human effort, ignoring the regnum Christi (kingdom of Christ) that demands the submission of all nations to His Social Reign. Pius XI condemned this error in Quas Primas: “When once men recognize… that Christ has been given all power in heaven and on earth… then at last will many evils be banished” (1925). The article’s silence on Christ’s right to govern states and laws exposes its modernist foundation.
Omission of the Church’s Prophetic Duty
While decrying “silence” over Gaza, Faltas himself remains silent about the apostasy of post-conciliar structures enabling this crisis. The Franciscan Custody—tasked with guarding Catholicism’s holiest sites—colludes with usurpers who deny Christ’s exclusive claim over Jerusalem. Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors condemns as heresy the notion that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (Error 80). Yet Faltas echoes this by demanding peace through worldly “dialogue” rather than denouncing Israel’s rejection of baptism and Palestine’s Islamic tyranny.
Theological Subversion of the Incarnation
The article reduces the Nativity to a moral fable:
“a child wrapped in swaddling clothes… brings peace to hearts without peace.”
This ignores the hypostatic union—the divine personhood of Christ—that establishes His right to rule nations. St. Cyril of Alexandria, cited in Quas Primas, clarifies: “Christ has dominion over all creatures by essence and nature”. Faltas’ “peace” excludes the dogmatic truth that outside the Church there is no salvation—a silence echoing the Vatican II heresy of religious liberty.
Apostate Franciscans and the Abandonment of Mission
The Custody of the Holy Land—once a bulwark against Islamic desecration—now parrots UN-style humanitarianism. Faltas asks:
“Does their despair not disturb our consciences?”
Yet he disturbs no conscience with the Gospel! This inversion fulfills St. Pius X’s warning in Lamentabili against Modernists who reduce revelation to “man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God” (Proposition 20). True Franciscans like St. Leonard of Port Maurice preached public Rosary processions to reclaim the Holy Land—not ecumenical groveling.
The Antichurch’s Symphony of Silence
Faltas condemns “indifference” yet never names the root evil: global apostasy from Christ the King. His plea for “solidarity” avoids demanding that Muslims renounce jihad or Jews acknowledge the Messiah. Such cowardice flows from the antipapal regime’s betrayal of Quas Primas, which instituted Christ’s feast to combat “laicism” denying “the reign of our Savior.” The article’s closing focus on “human dignity” absent sanctifying grace exposes its alignment with the Declaration on Human Dignity (2025)—the Antichurch’s latest blasphemy equating man with God.
Source:
Message from the Holy Land: Peace is not an illusion but a life choice (vaticannews.va)
Date: 20.12.2025