VaticanNews portal reports on a Mass celebrated on January 9, 2026 at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, presided over by “Bishop” Iyad Twal with “Apostolic Nuncio” Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso concelebrating. The event drew over 5,000 attendees including diplomats and representatives of Eastern Catholic communities, featuring holy water collected from the Jordan River and prayers for peace in Palestine. The article frames this as an annual pilgrimage to commemorate Christ’s baptism, while omitting any mention of the Social Kingship of Christ or the duty of nations to submit to His authority.
Naturalization of Sacramental Theology
The ceremony’s focus on geographical location and material water constitutes a radical departure from Catholic sacramental theology. The ritualistic sprinkling of Jordan River water replaces the ex opere operato (by the work worked) efficacy of sacraments with superstitious attachment to places, directly contradicting the Council of Trent’s condemnation of “the cult of places and things” (Session XXV). Pius XII’s Mediator Dei explicitly warns against such “archaeologism” (¶62), while the 1917 Code of Canon Law prohibits blessings with water not properly consecrated according to Roman Ritual forms (Canon 1149). The reduction of sacramental grace to emotional experience through environmental staging exemplifies the conciliar sect’s materialist degradation of worship.
False Ecumenism Masquerading as Unity
The involvement of Melkite, Maronite, Chaldean, Syriac, and Armenian representatives constitutes liturgical syncretism forbidden by Pius XI’s Mortalium Animos: “The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it” (¶10). The article’s silence on whether these groups maintain the integral Catholic faith before their post-conciliar deformations reveals the ceremony’s true purpose: not the glorification of Christ’s baptismal revelation, but the advancement of the “pan-Christian” heresy condemned in Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (Proposition 18). This pseudo-worship service implements the revolutionary principle of Vatican II’s Unitatis Redintegratio, which falsely claims Eastern sects “possess true sacraments” (¶15).
Omission of Christ’s Social Kingship
The exclusive focus on “peace in the Holy Land” constitutes blasphemous naturalism, ignoring Pius XI’s teaching that “nations will be happy and prosperous only when the commandments of God and His holy Church are observed” (Ubi Arcano, ¶43). Nowhere does the article mention the Regnum Christi (Kingdom of Christ) or the duty of Muslim-majority Jordan to recognize His universal sovereignty. This intentional omission reflects the conciliar sect’s rejection of Quas Primas, which established Christ’s royal authority over all nations and mandated the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat secular nationalism (¶18-19). The diplomats’ presence served not evangelization but validation of the Masonic separation of Church and State condemned in Pius IX’s Syllabus (Proposition 55).
Illegitimate Clergy Performing Invalid Rites
The presiding “hierarchs” possess no canonical mission since their alleged ordinations derive from Paul VI’s invalid rites. As the Holy Office decreed in Lamentabili Sane Exitu: “The elders fulfilling supervisory functions at Christian gatherings were appointed by the Apostles as priests or bishops… but they did not, in the proper sense, continue the apostolical mission” (Proposition 50). The ceremony’s organizers – Jordan’s Ministry of Tourism and Baptism Site Administration – confirm the event’s true nature: not a Catholic liturgy but a state-sponsored religious spectacle implementing Benedict XV’s condemned “interconfessionalism” (Ad Beatissimi, ¶24). The invitation to pilgrims constitutes spiritual fraud, luring souls into sacrilegious communions at invalid “Masses” celebrated by apostate clergy.
Theological Vacuum and Modernist Apostasy
The complete absence of references to conversion or the exclusive salvific role of the Catholic Church exposes the ceremony’s doctrinal bankruptcy. St. Pius X’s Lamentabili condemned the notion that “Revelation was merely man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God” (Proposition 20), yet this event embodies precisely that subjectivist heresy. By reducing Christ’s baptism to a “significant event marking the beginning of His ministry” rather than the Epiphany of the Holy Trinity (Matthew 3:16-17), the conciliar sect denies the dogmatic content of Scripture in favor of modernist historicism. The VaticanNews portal’s promotion of this sacrilege confirms its role as propagandist for the “abomination of desolation” (Daniel 11:31) occupying Rome.
Source:
Praying at the Jordan River for peace in the Holy Land (vaticannews.va)
Date: 09.01.2026