Neo-Church’s Invalid Ordinations Mock Apostolic Tradition
Catholic News Agency (Jan. 17, 2026) reports the ordination of Travis Moger, a former Baptist pastor, as a “priest” in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. The article celebrates his “unique journey” involving a papal dispensation from celibacy granted by Jorge Bergoglio (“Pope Francis”), despite Moger being married with children. The narrative frames this as a “movement of the Spirit,” quoting “Fr.” Thomas Falkenthal and “bishop” Mark Brennan praising Moger’s “spiritual fatherhood” supposedly enriched by his biological parenthood.
Sacrilegious Subversion of Holy Orders
The neo-church’s ordination of a married convert violates divine law embedded in apostolic tradition. The Council of Trent infallibly declared:
“If anyone says that clerics constituted in sacred orders or regulars who have solemnly professed chastity can contract marriage, and that such is valid notwithstanding ecclesiastical law or vow […] let him be anathema” (Session XXIV, Canon 9).
Pius XII’s encyclical Sacra Virginitas (1954) reaffirmed priestly celibacy as “a divine gift” reflecting Christ’s spousal relationship with the Church. Bergoglio’s dispensation constitutes doctrinal heresy, reducing Holy Orders to a bureaucratic formality.
Naturalism Replaces Supernatural Faith
The article’s claim that biological fatherhood “informs spiritual fatherhood” exposes the neo-church’s naturalist heresy. True priesthood operates ex opere operato (by the work performed), deriving efficacy from Christ alone—not human experiences.
St. Thomas Aquinas dismantled this error:
“The sacrament of Order imprints a character—a spiritual power ordained to sacred things—which no earthly paternity can mimic” (Summa Theologica III, q.63, a.2).
By equating Moger’s familial role with sacerdotal ministry, the neo-church denies the ontological change conferred by valid ordination.
Ecumenical Betrayal of the One True Church
Moger’s path through the “OCIA” (formerly RCIA) program exemplifies the neo-church’s indifferentism. Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors condemned the idea that “man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Proposition 16).
Baptist congregations reject transubstantiation, sacramental confession, and papal authority—foundational Catholic truths. The article’s silence on Moger’s formal renunciation of Protestant heresies proves the neo-church treats conversion as a psychological process, not the extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation) demanded by pre-1958 magisterium.
False Mercy Over Divine Justice
The “bishop” Brennan’s statement that family men “make good priests” inverts Catholic discipline. Pope Pius XI condemned this inversion in Ad Catholici Sacerdotii:
“The priest must be totally consecrated to the Lord […] Celibacy is a heavy burden—yet a noble one” (¶42).
Bergoglio’s neo-church replaces the sacrificium intellectus (sacrifice of intellect) demanded of clergy with therapeutic affirmations of human experience.
Omission of the Church’s True Mission
Nowhere does the article mention the salus animarum (salvation of souls) or the priest’s duty to offer the propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass. Moger’s daughter celebrates his focus on “the impoverished and the cast aside”—a Marxist distortion of Matthew 25:40.
Pius XI’s Quas Primas commanded:
“States must submit to Christ’s reign […] not by social work, but by obedience to His divine laws” (¶19).
The neo-church’s silence on these truths confirms its apostasy from Catholic integralism.
Source:
From Baptist pastor to Catholic priest: A unique journey to priesthood (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 17.01.2026