Vatican News Promotes Syncretic “Nineveh Fast” in Mosul Church Ceremony
Vatican News (January 23, 2026) reports on the reopening of the Tahira Chaldean Church in Mosul and the observance of the “Nineveh Fast” by Eastern Christian communities. The article describes this three-day fast—observed three weeks before Lent by Syriac Churches—as commemorating Jonah’s time in the “Great Fish” and the repentance of Nineveh’s inhabitants. It frames the fast as an ecumenical act of “sobriety, prayer, and solidarity” while omitting any mention of the Catholic Church’s exclusive mediatory role in salvation.
Liturgical Anarchy Masquerading as Tradition
The article presents the Nineveh Fast as a legitimate “ancient tradition” without acknowledging the Catholic Church’s supreme authority to regulate liturgical practices. The Code of Canon Law (1917) explicitly reserves the right to establish feast days and fasts to the Holy See (Canon 1257). By elevating a regional custom to parity with universal Church discipline, the conciliar sect continues its assault on liturgical unity. This mirrors the modernist heresy condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis: “They would have the Church […] allow to the several nations […] to fashion their own particular rites.”
“An ancient tradition, still alive among the Churches of East.”
This phrasing reduces the Faith to ethnographic curiosity. The Catholic Church recognizes no “traditions” apart from those either instituted by Christ, the Apostles, or approved by her universal Magisterium. As Pius XII taught in Mediator Dei: “The sacred liturgy is […] subject to the sovereign jurisdiction of the Church.” The Nineveh Fast’s promotion without Roman approval constitutes liturgical rebellion.
Naturalistic Distortion of Sacred Scripture
The article’s description of Jonah’s mission reduces divine revelation to moral allegory: “Faced with divine punishment, the inhabitants choose fasting and prayer.” This omits the Christological essence of the story—that Jonah prefigures Christ’s Resurrection (Matthew 12:40)—and reduces Nineveh’s repentance to a human achievement rather than grace-mediated conversion. Such naturalism was condemned in Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors: “Divine revelation is imperfect, and therefore subject to continual progress” (Proposition 5).
“It’s a collective act of conversion, to which God responds with His mercy.”
This Pelagian formulation implies God’s mercy is contingent on human action rather than freely given through the Church’s sacraments. The Council of Trent dogmatically defined grace as strictly necessary for justification (Session VI, Canon 1). The article’s silence on sacramental confession—the ordinary means of obtaining mercy for post-baptismal sin—exposes its modernist subversion of soteriology.
Ecumenical Apostasy in Mosul’s “Reconstructed” Church
The Tahira Chaldean Church’s reconstruction is presented uncritically, despite the Chaldean “Church” having fully embraced Vatican II’s heresies. Its leader, Louis Raphaël I Sako, publicly denies extra Ecclesiam nulla salus and promotes interfaith worship—heresies directly condemned by Pope Pius IX in Syllabus of Errors (Propositions 16-18). The article’s celebration of this event constitutes material cooperation with apostasy, violating the divine mandate: “If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed you” (2 John 1:10).
Omission of the Church’s Social Kingship
Nowhere does the article mention Christ’s right to reign over Mosul or Iraq. This reflects the conciliar sect’s betrayal of Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas: “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ.” The “solidarity” praised in the article is naturalistic humanism unless ordered to the Social Reign of Christ the King. As Pope Leo XIII taught in Immortale Dei: “States cannot […] be governed without danger and injury to the Church.”
Theological Implications of Silence
The article’s refusal to address:
- The Chaldean sect’s communion with antipopes
- The invalid Novus Ordo “sacraments” administered there
- The Muslim destruction of churches as divine punishment for Iraq’s apostasy
reveals the conciliar sect’s core heresy: the denial of the Catholic Church as the sole ark of salvation. As the Holy Office decreed under Pius XII (1949): “No one is in the Church of Christ who does not recognize the Roman Pontiff as his head on earth.” The Nineveh Fast narrative—divorced from the Petrine primacy—becomes a vehicle for the modernist synthesis: a “church” of ethnic customs replacing the One True Faith.
Source:
News from the Orient – January 23, 2026 (vaticannews.va)
Date: 30.01.2026