Vatican News reports on the upcoming Lenten “Spiritual Exercises” for antipope Leo XIV and his curial officials, scheduled for February 22-27, 2026. The event will be led by Erik Varden, a “bishop” of the post-conciliar structure in Norway. The theme—”Illuminated by a Hidden Glory”—frames a program that includes meditations on topics such as “Becoming free,” “The splendor of truth,” and “Communicating hope.” Varden, ordained in 2011 under the invalid post-conciliar rites, has held roles at Vatican Radio and now leads the Scandinavian “Bishops’ Conference.” His appointment to the “Dicastery for the Clergy” by Leo XIV confirms his alignment with the apostate hierarchy.
A Facade of Piety Concealing Doctrinal Bankruptcy
The choice of themes exposes the spiritual vacuity of the conciliar sect. Nowhere does the program mention penance, the Four Last Things, or the propitiatory Sacrifice of Calvary. Contrast this with the Exercitia Spiritualia of St. Ignatius, which demand meditation on sin, hell, and the Passion—truths anathema to the neo-modernist establishment. Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925) unequivocally declared that “peace is only possible in the Kingdom of Christ”, yet these exercises reduce Lent to a self-help workshop, stripping it of its ex opere operato (from the work performed) sacramental power.
The focus on St. Bernard is particularly insidious. While the article notes sessions titled “Saint Bernard, the Idealist” and “Saint Bernard, the Realist,” it omits Bernard’s actual teachings—his defense of Ecclesia militans (the Church militant) against schismatics and his insistence on the Social Kingship of Christ. Instead, Varden will likely distort Bernard’s legacy to promote the conciliar sect’s false ecumenism, as evidenced by his work with Vatican Radio’s Scandinavian section—a hub for promoting the Novus Ordo among Lutherans.
Theological Subversion Masquerading as Renewal
Varden’s theme, “Illuminated by a Hidden Glory,” reeks of Modernist immanentism. Compare this to St. Pius X’s condemnation in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907): “Modernists place in man the origin of faith… reducing it to mere sentiment” (§6). The phrase “hidden glory” suggests an internal, subjective experience divorced from the objective Deposit of Faith—a hallmark of the heresy condemned by the Holy Office in Lamentabili Sane (1907), which rejected the notion that “revelation was merely man’s consciousness of his relation to God” (Proposition 20).
The schedule’s inclusion of “Eucharistic Adoration” is a farce. The post-conciliar rite’s invalid consecration formulas (as demonstrated by theologians like Fr. Anthony Cekada) render their “Eucharist” a bread-based simulacrum. True adoration requires the ritus antiquus (ancient rite), which the conciliar sect has systematically suppressed. Moreover, the absence of any reference to Confession—the sacrament essential for Lenten purification—reveals the exercises’ naturalistic bent. Pius XII’s Mediator Dei (1947) warned that “the worship rendered to God in mental prayer… must always be accompanied by liturgical prayer” (§31), yet here, both are corrupted.
Structural Apostasy Embodied in Leadership
Varden’s biography epitomizes the conciliar sect’s collapse into heresy. His ordination in 2011 occurred under the invalid Paul VI rite, which the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith implicitly acknowledged as defective in its 1980 protocol on Anglican orders. His subsequent roles—Abbot of Mount St. Bernard, “Bishop” of Trondheim, and “President” of the Scandinavian “Bishops’ Conference”—are illegitimate, as they derive authority from antipopes who lack jurisdiction. Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code states: “Any cleric who publicly defects from the Catholic faith automatically loses his office”. Since John XXIII’s inauguration of the false Vatican II council, the occupiers of the Apostolic See have been manifest heretics, as St. Robert Bellarmine affirmed: “A manifest heretic cannot be Pope” (De Romano Pontifice, II.30).
The article’s closing appeal—”support us in bringing the Pope’s words into every home”—is blasphemous. Leo XIV’s utterances lack the ex cathedra authority reserved for true popes. As Pius IX declared in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), “the Roman Pontiff cannot reconcile himself with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (Proposition 80). Yet this is precisely the agenda advanced through these pseudo-spiritual exercises, which substitute the Cross of Christ with a therapy of worldly optimism.
Omissions That Condemn
Nowhere does the program warn participants of the need to fuga saeculi (flee the world) or to meditate on the Particular Judgment. The true Lenten spirit—embodied in the Dies Irae and the Miserere—is replaced by vacuous themes like “Communicating hope,” a slogan better suited to a corporate retreat than to the season of agonia Christi (Christ’s agony). The article also omits any mention of fasting or almsgiving, pillars of Lenten observance for nineteen centuries. This aligns with Paul VI’s Paenitemini (1966), which gutted Catholic asceticism by reducing fasting to a symbolic gesture.
The silence on the state of the Church is deafening. No mention is made of the worldwide persecution of true Catholics, the suppression of the Latin Mass, or the sacrileges committed by the conciliar sect’s “clergy.” As the Book of Proverbs warns: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (29:18). By ignoring these crises, the exercises confirm the conciliar hierarchy’s complicity in the Church’s destruction.
Conclusion: A Call to Fidelity
These Lenten exercises are not merely flawed—they are a sacrilege. They embody the “abomination of desolation” (Daniel 9:27) predicted by Our Lady of La Salette, who warned of Rome becoming “the seat of the Antichrist”. True Catholics must heed Pius XI’s command in Quas Primas: “Rulers and princes must obey Christ… otherwise, no liberty, order, or tranquility will flourish” (§18). Let us reject these modernist counterfeits and cling to the unchanging Faith, knowing that—as St. Athanasius proclaimed—Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat (Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands).
Source:
‘Illuminated by a Hidden Glory’: Theme of Lenten Spiritual Exercises (vaticannews.va)
Date: 04.02.2026