Conciliar Sect’s Bishop Applauds Human Solutions Over Divine Law
Catholic News Agency reports on January 16, 2026, that “Bishop” Earl Fernandes of the Diocese of Columbus praised the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s rule change easing visa restrictions for foreign religious workers. The article highlights Fernandes’ endorsement of the Religious Workforce Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), which seeks to extend R-1 visas for clergy and religious while green card applications are processed. This legislative effort, supported by both Democratic and Republican politicians, is framed as essential to maintaining sacramental and pastoral ministries.
Naturalization of the Clergy and the Eclipse of the Church’s Divine Mission
The article reduces the sacred priesthood to a bureaucratic commodity, stating:
“We take comfort in knowing that sacramental and pastoral care will not be disrupted in our parishes, schools, hospitals, and prison ministries.”
This ignores the foundational truth that sacraments derive efficacy from valid ordination and adherence to the lex orandi (law of worship). The post-conciliar sect’s clergy, ordained under the invalid 1968 rites, lack the power to confect sacraments. Their presence in ministries constitutes not pastoral care but sacrilegious simulation. Pius XII’s Sacramentum Ordinis (1947) definitively requires specific matter and form for valid ordination, which Paul VI’s rite abolished.
Fernandes’ gratitude toward secular authorities—
“I urge you to continue to push for the passage of the Religious Workforce Protection Act with your representatives”
—exposes the conciliar sect’s surrender to civil power. Contrast this with Pope Pius IX’s condemnation in the Syllabus of Errors (1864):
“The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55).
By lobbying for legislative “fixes,” the conciliar hierarchy implicitly accepts the state’s jurisdiction over ecclesiastical affairs, violating Christ’s exclusive kingship over societies.
Humanist Rhetoric Masking Apostasy
Fernandes employs modernist buzzwords detached from Catholic eschatology:
“The impact of our international priests and religious across the United States is pivotal in helping us build a civilization of love, assisting in the growth of the virtues of solidarity and fraternity.”
The term “civilization of love”—popularized by the apostate Wojtyła—replaces the Social Kingship of Christ, which demands the subordination of all civil laws to divine law. Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925) anathematizes this equivalence:
“When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”
Nowhere does Fernandes mention conversion of nations or the duty of states to profess the Catholic Faith—a silence revealing the conciliar sect’s embrace of religious indifferentism condemned by Pius IX (Syllabus, Error 15).
Canonical and Sacramental Nullity Disguised as Pastoral Care
The article notes that 21 “priests” and 13 “sisters” in Fernandes’ diocese hold R-1 visas. However:
1. Their ordinations and professions are likely invalid due to the post-conciliar sect’s liturgical aberrations.
2. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 1322) forbids clerics from secular employment incompatible with their sacred office. By treating them as visa-dependent laborers, the conciliar sect reduces holy orders to a civil profession.
Sen. Kaine’s statement—
“Faith communities across America… depend on foreign religious workers”
—further illustrates the inversion: clergy exist to serve the Church’s divine mission, not to be “workers” sustaining “communities” as NGOs.
The Masonic Harmony of Bipartisan Apostasy
The article celebrates collaboration between Democrats (Kaine) and Republicans (Carey, Jordan, Moreno) on the visa bill. This reflects the conciliar sect’s alignment with Freemasonic principles of religious syncretism. Pope Leo XIII’s Humanum Genus (1884) warns:
“[Freemasonry]… is prone to counterfeit Catholicity by a feigned charity, and to strike up a friendship with a world which is at enmity with God.”
By applauding secular lawmakers—
“prayers of gratitude for our civic leaders”
—Fernandes ignores St. Paul’s admonition: “What fellowship hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14).
Omission of the Supernatural: The Silent Apostasy
The entire article omits:
– The necessity of valid sacraments for salvation.
– The Church’s divine constitution as the sole ark of salvation (Pius IX, Singulari Quadem).
– The duty of nations to submit to Christ the King (Pius XI, Quas Primas).
This silence confirms the conciliar sect’s naturalism—a heresy condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane (1907):
“Revelation was merely man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God” (Error 20).
Conclusion: The conciliar sect’s celebration of visa reforms exposes its surrender to secular power and abandonment of the Church’s divine mission. True Catholics must reject this clerical careerism and demand the restoration of Christ’s Social Kingship—instaurare omnia in Christo (Eph. 1:10).
Source:
Bishop Fernandes praises religious worker visa rule change, says work still to be done (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 16.01.2026