The EWTN News portal reports on two families in Caracas, Venezuela, who survived a U.S. military strike on January 3, 2026, attributing their survival to miraculous intervention after a bomb landed near their homes. The article describes Elena Berti’s home sustaining severe structural damage while she remained unharmed, with her daughter Patricia Salazar claiming: “A miracle was worked for her” due to Berti’s habit of sleeping with a rosary behind her pillow. Neighbors Arturo Berti and Gracia Mónaco similarly reported surviving the blast unscathed, with Mónaco claiming a Virgin Mary statue remained upright amid the destruction. The piece concludes by promoting a fundraising campaign for home repairs.
Naturalistic Reduction of Divine Providence
The article reduces God’s sovereign protection to a transactional relationship with created objects, stating Elena Berti survived because she “sleeps with a rosary behind her pillow” and kept statues on her nightstand. This echoes the superstitio condemned by Pope Benedict XIV in De Servorum Dei Beatificatione, which distinguishes true devotion from magical thinking (Lib. IV, Pars I, Cap. VIII). The silence on the necessity of sacramental grace is deafening – no mention of whether these individuals received valid sacraments, maintained sanctifying grace, or sought spiritual direction from priests ordained in apostolic succession. Instead, salvation is portrayed as mechanically assured by physical objects, contrary to the Council of Trent’s decree on justification (Session VI, Canon VII).
Exploiting Suffering for Modernist Agenda
Gracia Mónaco’s declaration that
“You have to believe… that God exists, that he is with us”
exemplifies the existential subjectivism of Modernism condemned in Lamentabili Sane (1907). Pius X anathematized the notion that faith springs from “religious experience” rather than intellectual assent to revealed truth (Proposition 25). The article’s emotional focus on survival “against the odds” replaces the sine qua non of Catholic miracles – the glorification of Christ’s Church and confirmation of holiness – with a therapeutic narrative. Where are the calls to repentance? The warnings about the Four Last Things? The true miracle would be conversion of heart, not mere physical preservation.
Structural Apostasy in Neo-Church Journalism
EWTN’s complicity in this naturalism manifests through its uncritical promotion of the families’ fundraising campaign, reducing divine providence to financial appeals. This echoes the conciliar sect’s obsession with earthly activism over supernatural destiny, violating Pius XI’s warning in Quas Primas: “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” (§19). The article’s focus on rebuilding houses ignores the more urgent need to rebuild the domus Dei – the Church devastated by the abomination of desolation in Vatican II.
Omission of Ecclesiastical Authority
Nowhere does the piece reference canonical investigation by legitimate pre-Vatican II bishops regarding these alleged miracles. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 2039 §1) mandates episcopal examination of all purported supernatural phenomena to prevent illusio diabolica. This omission proves the neo-church’s abandonment of regula fidei, instead promoting Protestant-style private judgment. The statue’s survival becomes proof of God’s existence for Mónaco, yet Scripture warns that Satan “transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14). True Catholics consult Mother Church, not personal sentiment.
War as Consequence of Collective Apostasy
The bombing’s root cause – Venezuela’s Marxist dictatorship – stems directly from nations rejecting Christ the King. As Pius IX declared in the Syllabus of Errors: “The Roman Pontiff cannot, and ought not to, reconcile himself… with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (Proposition 80). Instead of calling for the Social Reign of Christ, the article implicitly endorses U.S. military interventionism, another fruit of Americanist heresy condemned in Testem Benevolentiae (1899). Both aggressor and victim nations suffer divine chastisement for establishing governments “without any reference whatsoever to God” (Pius IX, Quanta Cura §3).
Source:
A bomb fell meters from their homes in Caracas, but they survived: ‘It’s a miracle’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 06.01.2026