VaticanNews portal reports on January 18, 2026 that antipope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) delivered an Angelus address emphasizing humanity’s “preciousness in God’s eyes” while reducing St. John the Baptist’s witness to a psychological exercise in humility. The article quotes the usurper’s call to “make time each day” for prayer and reflection to “encounter the Lord Who loves us,” conspicuously avoiding any reference to repentance, grace, or sacramental life.
Evisceration of Prophetic Ministry
The address distorts the Baptist’s mission into a self-help message:
“John recognized Jesus as the Savior… Then he stepped aside, having completed his task”
This whitewashes the vox clamantis in deserto (voice crying in the wilderness) who demanded “Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Where Leo XIV speaks of avoiding “illusions of success,” the true Precursor warned of the “wrath to come” and “the axe laid to the root of the trees” (Luke 3:7-9).
The conciliar sect’s leader reduces the last Old Testament prophet to a guru of self-effacement:
“John knew he was sent to prepare the way of the Lord… stepped out of the spotlight”
while suppressing the Baptist’s uncompromising condemnation of Herod’s adultery (Mark 6:18) – a moral clarity utterly absent in this Angelus. This aligns with the modernist abolition of the Church’s prophetic duty to condemn sin, condemned by Pius X as making religion “a matter of feeling” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 8).
Anthropocentric Substitution of Doctrine
Leo XIV’s assertion that
“Our joy and greatness are not founded on passing illusions… but on knowing ourselves to be loved and wanted by our heavenly Father”
substitutes emotional validation for doctrinal truth. Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas establishes Christ’s social kingship as the foundation of human dignity: “When once men recognize… that Christ has authority over all mankind… it will be a primary duty… to give public worship to Christ” (Quas Primas 25).
The address promotes a gnostic “encounter” divorced from sacramental reality:
“the love of a God who even today comes among us… to share in our struggles”
while omitting that God comes through the ex opere operato grace of sacraments. This exemplifies the modernist heresy that revelation is “man’s self-awareness of his relation to God” (Lamentabili 20).
Systematic Omission of Supernatural Realities
Five critical omissions expose the Angelus’ naturalistic foundation:
- No mention of sin – Contra Pope St. Pius X: “The great duty of man is to submit to the will of God” (Vehementer Nos 8)
- No call to conversion – Unlike John’s “Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23)
- No reference to sacraments – Rejecting Trent’s decree on baptismal regeneration (Session V)
- No distinction between nature/grace – Violating Pius XII’s Humani Generis 26
- No warning against false worship – Despite Leo XIII’s condemnation of indifferentism (Humanum Genus 16)
The final Marian reference compounds heresy by reducing Our Lady to a mere “model of simplicity” rather than Mediatrix of All Graces, contradicting Leo XIII’s Octobri Mense: “Mary is the intermediary through whom is transmitted… the heavenly grace which flows from the Divine Head into the members.”
Hermeneutic of Apostasy
This Angelus manifests the conciliar sect’s anthropocentric inversion condemned by St. Pius X: “The modernists place the foundation of religious philosophy in that doctrine which is commonly called agnosticism” (Pascendi 6). By making “feeling precious” the core message, Leo XIV implements Paul VI’s disastrous “cult of man” (Closing Speech, Vatican II).
When the usurper urges faithful to
“withdraw into the desert to meet the Lord”
while presiding over the desecration of Roman churches, he embodies Christ’s warning: “Woe to you, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven against men” (Matthew 23:13). The true desert is the catacomb Church preserving Tradition against this occupier of the Holy See.
Source:
Pope at Angelus: We are precious in God's eyes (vaticannews.va)
Date: 18.01.2026