Catholic News Agency (January 6, 2026) reports on John Bishop’s lecture “God Made Men” at the SEEK 2026 conference in Fort Worth, Texas, where hundreds of young men received instruction on masculinity based on “John Paul II’s theology of the body.” Bishop criticized male passivity, urging attendees to “act” and become “men fully alive” through sacrificial action while invoking Adam’s encounter with Eve as a model of pure vision. The presentation exemplifies the neo-church’s systematic replacement of sacramental grace with anthropocentric self-help.
Naturalism Replacing Supernatural Grace
The lecture reduces Catholic masculinity to natural virtue (virtus naturalis) divorced from sanctifying grace, declaring:
“Study after study shows that when a good man acts and doesn’t hold anything back… the effect of that one man’s life multiplies beyond anything that we can understand.”
This appeal to sociological studies—rather than the Council of Trent’s teaching on justification—reveals the modernist tendency to ground spiritual life in empirical data. Pius XI condemned this inversion in Quas Primas, stressing that Christ’s kingship demands submission to divine law, not secular psychology:
“When men recognize… the royal dignity of Christ… unheard-of blessings would flow upon the whole society” (Quas Primas, §19).
By omitting the necessity of sacraments for moral transformation, Bishop reduces Christianity to Stoic activism.
Heretical Foundations in Wojtyła’s Theology
Bishop’s claim that
“Eve’s body was a manifestation of her soul”
derives from Wojtyła’s erroneous theology of the body—a system condemned by the Holy Office in 1907 as modernist:
“The Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadfastly adheres to its views, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress” (Lamentabili Sane Exitu, §63).
Wojtyła’s anthropology—which conflates nuptial symbolism with ontological reality—contradicts St. Thomas Aquinas’ teaching that the soul is the form of the body (Summa Theologiae I, q.76, a.1). The article’s uncritical promotion of this heretical framework exposes its adherence to conciliar errors.
Silence on Sacramental Life and Ecclesial Authority
Nowhere does the lecture mention penance, Holy Eucharist, or submission to legitimate pre-conciliar pastors—the very means by which men conquer concupiscence. Pius XII’s Mediator Dei warns against such naturalism:
“The enemy of mankind… has striven… to destroy the life of divine grace which is nourished in men by the sacraments” (§5).
Student Patricio Parra’s conclusion—“just be quiet and act”—epitomizes Pelagian self-reliance, contrasting starkly with Our Lord’s command: “Without Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The article’s celebration of this mindset confirms the neo-church’s abandonment of supernatural grace.
Symptomatic Omission of the Social Kingship of Christ
Bishop’s exhortation to “make your body go through hard things” ignores the Church’s perennial teaching that suffering gains merit only when united to Christ’s Passion through membership in His Mystical Body. The Syllabus of Errors condemns this privatization of religion:
“The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Syllabus of Pius IX, §80).
By reducing masculine holiness to personal discipline while omitting the duty to restore all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10), the conference promotes the very secularism Pius XI decried as the “plague of our age” (Quas Primas, §18).
Conclusion: A Counterfeit of Catholic Manhood
The SEEK conference’s vision of manhood—divorced from the sacramental economy and ecclesial authority—constitutes a gnostic parody of true Catholic masculinity. As St. Pius X warned:
“The enemy… has succeeded in… preaching a doctrine which… is simply the negation of Catholicism” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, §39).
Until such gatherings renounce Wojtyła’s errors and return to the integral faith professed before 1958, they remain obstacles to authentic renewal.
Source:
‘As men, you’re called to act!’ speaker says to a packed room of young men at SEEK 2026 (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 06.01.2026