“Bishop” Fernandes Capitulates to Modernist Humanism, Betrays Eucharistic Duty
The Catholic News Agency portal (December 29, 2025) reports that “Bishop” Earl Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio, issued a Mass dispensation until January 11, 2026, for immigrants fearing deportation by ICE agents. The article frames this as pastoral sensitivity, quoting Fernandes’ claims about ICE trucks near parishes and plummeting attendance at Hispanic Posadas. This modernist distortion of sacramental theology exposes the conciliar sect’s surrender to naturalistic politics over supernatural truth.
Sacramental Obligation Sacrificed on Altar of Earthly Security
Fernandes’ dispensation violates the Codex Iuris Canonici (1917), which permits absence from Sunday Mass only for grave impediments like illness or travel impossibility (Canon 1248). The Catechism of the Council of Trent declares: “The faithful are bound to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days… a precept so serious that deliberate failure constitutes mortal sin”. By equating fear of civil authorities with canonical impediments, Fernandes reduces the Holy Sacrifice to a negotiable social activity.
The article notes
“sharp drops in Mass attendance”
among Hispanics and African migrants, yet Fernandes responds not with exhortations to trust Divine Providence but with sacramental laxism. This echoes Pius IX’s condemnation in the Syllabus of Errors: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55). True shepherds would remind the faithful that “we ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29), even at risk of deportation.
Modernist Subversion of the Church’s Mission
Fernandes’ statement that
“people need Mass and the sacraments more than ever”
while simultaneously dispensing from them reveals the conciliar sect’s internal contradiction. His rhetoric employs the naturalistic language of social workers, not the theological precision demanded by Pius X in Lamentabili Sane (1907), which condemned the error that “the Church listening cooperates… with the Church teaching” (Proposition 6).
The article omits any mention of:
1. Sacrilegious Communions: No warning that immigrants in irregular marital situations (common among undocumented populations) risk eternal damnation by receiving the Eucharist unworthily (1 Cor 11:27).
2. Duty of States: Silence on governments’ right to enforce borders, condemned by Pius XII’s Exsul Familia as “false humanitarianism.”
3. Supernatural Hope: No call for conversion of ICE agents or prayers for just enforcement—replaced by sociological handwringing about “families being together.”
Operation Buckeye Exposes Conciliar Cowardice
Fernandes laments
“an atmosphere of fear”
while himself capitulating to worldly anxiety. Contrast this with the Cristero martyrs he references—Mexican Catholics who faced firing squads rather than skip Mass during anti-clerical persecutions. The 1929 Martyrology records Blessed José Sánchez del Río’s words before execution: “Viva Cristo Rey!” This “bishop” instead whispers “Viva ICE exemptions!”
The dispensation’s expiration date (January 11) proves its political theater. If ICE raids truly impeded Mass attendance, the dispensation would last until raids ceased. Instead, Fernandes gives a liturgically arbitrary deadline, revealing this as virtue-signaling to the conciliar sect’s liberal wing.
Systemic Apostasy from Quas Primas
Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925) established Christ’s social kingship, commanding nations to “obey not only His laws as private individuals, but also as rulers and lawmakers”. Fernandes inverts this, granting Caesar sovereignty over sacramental life. His dispensation implies that:
– ICE trucks hold more power than the Real Presence.
– Civil law trumps the Lex Orandi.
– The state determines access to grace.
This is the rotten fruit of Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae, which abandoned the Church’s mission to convert states to Christ the King. As Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange warned in 1946: “Once the social reign of Christ is denied, the Church becomes a chaplain to democracy.”
Source:
Bishop of Columbus grants Mass dispensation to immigrants who fear deportation (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 29.12.2025