EWTN News reports that thieves forcibly opened the tabernacle at Holy Thorn Monastery in Valladolid, Spain, on December 28, 2025, stealing consecrated Hosts while leaving other valuables untouched. The monastery, founded in 1147, houses a relic of Christ’s crown of thorns. Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid – president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference – announced an “act of reparation” scheduled for January 3, 2026, urging faithful to pray “in reparation for this sacrilegious act.” This marks the second such theft in nine months within the archdiocese, following a similar desecration in Arroyo de la Encomienda in March 2025.
Sacrilege as Symptom of Ecclesial Apostasy
The reported theft constitutes not merely criminal vandalism but direct blasphemy against Christ’s Real Presence, fulfilling the Code of Canon Law (1917) definition of sacrilege as “the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred thing” (Canon 2325). While the article expresses proper horror at the physical violation, its analysis remains superficial, ignoring the theological context enabling such outrages. The Second Vatican Council’s destruction of Eucharistic piety through liturgical abuses and doctrinal ambiguity created conditions where sacrilege becomes inevitable. As Pope Pius XII warned: “The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin” (Radio Message, March 23, 1952). This incident manifests the conciliar church’s failure to uphold Quas Primas‘ teaching that “the rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences” (Pius XI, 1925).
Modernist Betrayal of Eucharistic Doctrine
The archdiocesan statement describes the Eucharist as “the real presence of Jesus Christ in the bread and wine, transformed into his body and blood after the consecration” – dangerously imprecise language implying transubstantiation occurs gradually rather than instantaneously at the words of consecration. Compare this to the Council of Trent’s dogmatic definition: “By the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood” (Session XIII, Chapter IV). The modernists’ linguistic ambiguity reflects their systematic dismantling of Eucharistic doctrine, exemplified by Paul VI’s Mysterium Fidei (1965) which introduced the heretical concept of “transfinalization.”
Illegitimate Authority Compounds Sacrilege
The planned “act of reparation” led by Archbishop Argüello constitutes liturgical theater devoid of sacramental validity. As the Syllabus of Errors condemns those who claim “the Roman pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (Proposition 80), the conciliar hierarchy’s participation in ecumenical gatherings and acceptance of religious liberty laws nullify their spiritual authority. St. Robert Bellarmine establishes that “manifest heretics automatically lose all jurisdiction” (De Romano Pontifice, II.30), rendering Argüello’s gestures spiritually empty. True reparation requires restoring the integral Catholic faith abandoned by the post-conciliar establishment.
Omissions Reveal Naturalistic Worldview
Nowhere does the article mention the eternal consequences for perpetrators of sacrilege, despite Scripture’s warning: “Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27). The silence about hell’s reality and the Four Last Things exposes the conciliar church’s naturalistic worldview. Contrast this with St. Alphonsus Liguori’s teaching: “The crime of sacrilege is so enormous that the Holy Ghost declares that for those who are guilty of it ‘there is no remedy'” (Preparation for Death, XXVI). By reducing the theft to a police matter rather than a spiritual catastrophe, the neo-church confirms its apostasy from Catholic eschatology.
Root Causes in Conciliar Revolution
These sacrileges directly result from Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Liberty, which abandoned the doctrinal imperative for states to recognize Christ as King. As Pope Pius XI taught: “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” (Quas Primas, 19). Spain’s 1978 constitution – drafted with conciliar church approval – rejected its historic Catholic identity, creating societal conditions where Eucharistic theft becomes conceivable. The article’s failure to connect these dots illustrates the modernist hermeneutic of discontinuity condemned by Pope St. Pius X: “The Modernist sustains and propagates a philosophy from which follows the ruin of all religion” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 40).
Conclusion: Return to Catholic Order
Until Spain and all nations submit to Christ’s social reign through public profession of the true faith and restoration of the Traditional Latin Mass, such sacrileges will multiply. The Holy Thorn Monastery incident serves as divine chastisement for ecclesial betrayal, demanding not cosmetic “acts of reparation” but unconditional return to Catholic Tradition. As Pope Leo XIII decreed: “When all this is taken into account, nothing is more useful or more desirable for Catholic nations than to preserve religion and the things of God… making the greatest possible endeavor to maintain the faith of their forefathers” (Immortale Dei, 37).
Source:
Tabernacle forced open, Blessed Sacrament stolen from monastery in Spain (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 02.01.2026