Chicago Archdiocese Failures Expose Rot of Conciliar Revolution
EWTN News reports the case of Brett Smith (né Zagorac), a substitute teacher employed for over a year in multiple schools of the Chicago archdiocese despite a decades-long history of child molestation allegations across Illinois, Indiana, and Arizona. Court documents reveal at least 10 arrests since 2002 for crimes including felony child molesting, battery, and forgery, with convictions resulting in jail time. The archdiocese claims Smith passed state background checks, blaming governmental systems for failing to flag his record. Police arrested Smith on January 29, 2026, for aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving a juvenile, adding to charges in Evergreen Park. A family also filed a police complaint against Smith for misconduct during home tutoring arranged through the archdiocese. This scandal exemplifies the systemic collapse of ecclesiastical discipline under conciliar church structures.
Naturalism Replaces Supernatural Vigilance
The archdiocese’s reliance on bureaucratic processes—“state background check[s] and a fingerprint check”—exposes its practical naturalism (prioritizing human systems over divine law). Pius XI’s Quas Primas condemns such secularization: “When God and Jesus Christ are removed from laws and states… the foundations of authority are destroyed.” By outsourcing moral discernment to civil agencies, the archdiocese violates its duty to protect the innocent as sacred souls entrusted to Christ’s Church. Canon 1401 of the 1917 Code mandates bishops to investigate even “secret allegations” of clergy misconduct—a standard abandoned here.
“Neither his current name nor previous names appears on any convicted sex offender list in the country. We are still working to determine how these government systems… did not identify him.”
This statement reveals a blasphemous inversion of responsibility. Instead of lamenting the spiritual harm to children, the archdiocese focuses on procedural compliance. St. Pius X’s Lamentabili sane condemns such “excessive trust in natural means” (Prop. 12) as modernist heresy. Pre-conciliar practice required bishops to investigate accusations extra-judicially, guided by salus animarum (the salvation of souls), not legal technicalities.
Name Changes and False Identities: Masonic Subversion
Smith’s repeated use of aliases (Brett Zagorac, Brett Smith) mirrors masonic tactics of deception documented in the False Fatima Apparitions file: “Disinformation strategy… Stage 2 (1940-1958): Globalization of the cult and control of the narrative through Lucia’s isolation.” The Arizona Department of Public Safety explicitly warned that Smith posed a “substantial risk of victimization” due to his history of forged identities. Yet the archdiocese granted him access to children, echoing the conciliar church’s embrace of ambiguity—a hallmark of modernism condemned by St. Pius X (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 26).
Sacramental Negligence and the Abandonment of Canon Law
Smith tutored a student in the child’s home—a setting historically forbidden without multiple safeguards. The 1917 Code’s Canon 1339 prohibited unsupervised contact between clergy and minors, while Canon 2359 mandated excommunication for solicitation during confession. Post-conciliar dismissals of these laws enabled predators like Smith. The archdiocese admits no knowledge of misconduct in schools but ignores the theological reality that scandal arises from any compromise with evil (1 Cor. 8:12). Quas Primas reminds rulers that they must “fulfill their duty to God” by upholding His laws—a duty the Chicago hierarchy has abandoned.
Symptomatic of Conciliar Apostasy
This case typifies the conciliar church’s systemic failure. Post-1958 reforms replaced Thomistic clarity with situational ethics, enabling predators to exploit bureaucratic loopholes. The Syllabus of Errors condemns such secularization: “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits” (Prop. 39). By deferring to state background checks, the archdiocese subordinates divine law to human relativism—precisely the error Pius IX anathematized.
True Catholic shepherds would have barred Smith after his first allegation, applying Canon 2142’s directive to avoid “even the appearance of scandal.” Instead, the conciliar church’s obsession with “process” and “dialogue” (Condemned in Lamentabili, Prop. 65) perpetuates devastation. As souls are sacrificed to modernist expediency, the words of Pius XI resound: “Unless men and states recognize the reign of our Savior, the hope of lasting peace will never shine upon nations.” (Quas Primas).
Source:
Documents reveal years of sex abuse allegations against fired Chicago Archdiocese substitute teacher (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 30.01.2026