Catholic News Agency reports on January 10, 2026, that Franciscan Father Francesco Ielpo, custos of the Holy Land, urged pilgrims to visit Jerusalem to support local Christians economically. The article simultaneously announces “Pope” Leo XIV’s appointment of Mark Freeman as “bishop” of Ballarat, Australia, and covers UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticizing Israel’s ban on Caritas Internationalis in Gaza. It further mentions a Requiem Mass offered by Swiss “Bishop” Jean-Marie Lovey for fire victims, displacement of Aleppo Christians, persecution of Indian Catholics, and Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel’s Christmas message emphasizing “solidarity.” The entire narrative reduces Catholicism to humanitarianism while masking doctrinal bankruptcy.
Pilgrimage Reduced to Economic Transaction
The conciliar sect’s custos declares:
“The best way to help the Holy Land and the people there is to visit.”
This reduces sacred pilgrimage—peregrinatio fidei (pilgrimage of faith)—to a financial subsidy program. True Catholic pilgrimage seeks penance, spiritual renewal, and adoration of God at sites sanctified by the Incarnate Word (Pius XI, Quas Primas). The article omits all references to sacramental grace, instead promoting tourism as “witness”—a modernist distortion equating physical presence with evangelization.
When the custos claims pilgrims encounter a “living Church,” he conceals the apostate reality: Jerusalem’s Catholic population has collapsed from 30,000 in 1948 to 6,000 today due to conciliar ecumenism with Islam and Judaism. The true Church mourns this devastation, while the neo-church celebrates it as “hope.”
Illegitimate Appointments and Ecumenical Betrayal
Leo XIV’s appointment of Freeman—a conciliar “priest”—as “bishop” of Ballarat continues the invalid succession condemned by Pius XII’s Sacramentum Ordinis. Australian “Archbishop” Timothy Costelloe’s applause for Freeman’s “pastoral sensitivity” confirms the sect’s preference for human respect over doctrinal fidelity.
The article’s coverage of Caritas Internationalis—a paramasonic organization—lamenting its Gaza exclusion reveals the conciliar church’s alignment with UN secularism. Guterres’ demand that Israel permit Caritas’ operations ignores the spiritual danger of Catholic agencies collaborating with regimes hostile to Christ the King (Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors, #39-55).
Naturalism Masquerading as Piety
“Bishop” Lovey’s televised Requiem Mass in Switzerland epitomizes the neo-church’s theatrical religiosity. Bells tolling “as a sign of solidarity” replace prayers for the dead’s souls, reducing liturgy to psychological therapy. The true Church offers the Most Holy Sacrifice to implore God’s mercy for the departed (Council of Trent, Session XXV).
In Aleppo, clergy “appeal for dialogue” while avoiding calls for conversion of Muslim aggressors—direct defiance of Mortalium Animos (Pius XI). Syrian Christians’ suffering stems from Vatican II’s abandonment of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, leaving them vulnerable to Islamic persecution.
Persecution Without Prophetic Witness
The All India Catholic Union’s plea to Narendra Modi’s government admits defeat:
“Token gestures… are inadequate without firm action, accountability, and legal reform.”
Yet it dares not demand India’s submission to Christ’s Social Reign—the only solution to Hindu persecution (Leo XIII, Immortale Dei).
Cardinal Souraphiel’s Ethiopia message compounds this betrayal, calling the Incarnation “bread fit to be eaten by humanity”—a ambiguously modernist phrase evading the Eucharist’s propitiatory nature. His “solidarity” with war victims ignores their need for sanctifying grace through valid sacraments, unavailable in conciliar structures.
Omission of Supernatural Realities
Nowhere does the article mention:
– Reparation for blasphemies committed in the Holy Land
– The necessity of conversion for non-Catholics
– The Immaculate Heart’s triumph over global apostasy
– Hell’s existence for unrepentant sinners
This silence screams apostasy. As the counterfeit church peddles “solidarity” and “dialogue,” true Catholics cling to the perennial Magisterium: “Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ” (Pius XI)—not UN resolutions or interfaith platitudes.
Source:
‘Come back to the Holy Land’: Custos calls pilgrims to visit land of Jesus (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 10.01.2026