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The Desecration of Lent: A Modernist Homily from the Antipope

The cited article reports on the Ash Wednesday homily delivered by the individual occupying the Vatican, “Pope Leo XIV,” as presented by Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of Vatican News. The homily centers on a “courageous assumption of responsibility” for both personal and collective sin, emphasizing “structures of sin” within economic, political, and religious systems, and invoking the imagery of a “world that is ablaze” with specific references to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. It concludes with a naturalistic hope of rising from the ashes and rebuilding, citing the “sign and testimony of Resurrection.” This presentation is a quintessential expression of the post-conciliar apostasy, reducing the supernatural reality of Lent and penance to a mere socio-political program of collective guilt and humanistic activism, utterly divorced from the immutable Catholic doctrine on sin, grace, and the purpose of the Lenten season.

1. The Fatal Omission: Silence on the Supernatural End of Lent

The gravest accusation against the homily is its complete silence on the supernatural purpose of Lent. The article quotes the antipope saying: “We recognize our sins so that we can be converted… This is itself a sign and testimony of Resurrection.” This is a deliberate omission of the *raison d’être* of the season. The authentic Catholic Lent, as taught by the Church before the revolution, is a forty-day retreat with the explicit goal of making satisfaction for sin and preparing for Easter through intensified prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Its focus is the individual soul’s reconciliation with God through the Sacrament of Penance, the mortification of the flesh to subdue concupiscence, and the imitation of Christ’s forty-day fast in the desert.

The homily, in contrast, speaks only of “communal dimension,” “collective responsibility,” and “structures of sin.” It transforms penance from an act of contrition (sorrow for having offended God) into an act of social critique. This is the core error of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X: the reduction of religion to a purely internal, subjective “religious sense” and the substitution of supernatural dogma with a naturalistic ethics. The *Lamentabili sane exitu* condemns proposition #25: “Faith, as assent of the mind, is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities,” and #26: “The dogmas of faith should be understood according to their practical function, i.e., as binding in action, rather than as principles of belief.” The homily’s “testimony of Resurrection” is not the Catholic truth of the bodily Resurrection of Christ as the cause of our justification and hope of eternal life, but a vague, immanentist symbol of “rebuilding” society. The sensus Catholicus knows that Lenten ashes are a stark reminder: “Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris” (Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return). This is a call to personal conversion, not a collective political manifesto.

2. The “Structures of Sin” Heresy: Condemned by the Syllabus of Errors

The homily’s central concept, borrowed from the “saint” of the conciliar sect, John Paul II, is that of “structures of sin.” It states sin “takes shape in the real and virtual contexts of life… within real economic, cultural, political and even religious ‘structures of sin’.” This is a direct repudiation of Catholic moral theology, which holds that sin is first and foremost a personal, deliberate act of the will against God’s law. Structures can be occasions of sin or can be ordered to sin, but they cannot sin themselves. To speak of “structures of sin” is to diffuse moral responsibility and undermine the necessity of personal conversion and the Sacrament of Penance.

This error is explicitly condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors. Error #40 states: “The teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society.” The homily’s implication is that the “structures” of modern society (implicitly the liberal, secular order) are intrinsically sinful, a notion that aligns with the Modernist rejection of the social order willed by God. More directly, the Syllabus condemns the idea that the Church should be subordinated to or critical of the temporal power in a way that denies its divine constitution. The homily’s focus on “economic-financial systems” and “arms markets” as “structures of sin” echoes the socialist and communist errors listed in Section IV, which Pius IX anathematizes. It promotes a materialist critique of society, where the primary evil is economic injustice rather than the rejection of Christ the King. This is the naturalistic, Pelagian humanism of the conciliar revolution, which the Syllabus denounces as a “pest.”

3. The Naturalistic “World Ablaze”: A Replacement for the Kingdom of Christ

The antipope’s invocation of “the weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war” and the list of “ashes” (international law, ecosystems, critical thinking, sense of the sacred) is a masterclass in substituting the supernatural with the natural. The true “world ablaze” for the Catholic is the world in mortal sin, under the dominion of Satan, destined for hell without repentance. The “ashes” that matter are those of the Lenten regimen, symbolizing mortality and the need for penance.

This rhetoric directly contradicts the magisterial teaching of Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas, which the user’s files identify as a pre-1958 standard. Pius XI, instituting the feast of Christ the King, wrote: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The homily never mentions Christ the King, His law, or the necessity of the social reign of Christ. Instead, it speaks of “structures of sin” and “international law” as if these were autonomous realities. Pius XI teaches that true peace and order flow only from the recognition of Christ’s kingship: “Then at last… swords and weapons will fall from hands, when all willingly accept the reign of Christ.” The antipope’s vision is a worldly, diplomatic peace negotiated among nations, devoid of any reference to the only name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). This is the “secularism” and “laicism” Pius XI identified as the plague of the age, now preached from the “Vatican.”

4. The Communal “Assumption of Responsibility”: A Heresy of Collegiality and Lay Empowerment

The call for a “courageous assumption of responsibility… that is both personal and collective” and for the Church to exist as a “community of witnesses that recognize their sins” is a subtle but deadly affirmation of the conciliar doctrine of the People of God and the “collegial” nature of the Church. This erodes the hierarchical, sacramental, and juridical structure willed by Christ. The pre-1958 Church taught that the Church is a perfect society founded by Christ, with a divinely appointed hierarchy (bishops, priests) who alone have the power to teach, sanctify, and govern in the name of Christ. The faithful are not a “community of witnesses” in a democratic sense, but a flock to be led by their pastors.

The homily’s language implicitly validates the “sensus fidelium” (sense of the faithful) as a source of revelation parallel to the Magisterium, a condemned Modernist proposition (cf. Lamentabili #6: “The Church listening cooperates… that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening”). By emphasizing the “communal dimension” and collective guilt, it prepares the ground for lay self-governance and the diminishment of priestly authority, a hallmark of the conciliar revolution. The true Catholic Lent is a time for the individual to submit to the Church’s penitential discipline, not for the “community” to engage in socio-political analysis.

5. The Symptomatic Apostasy: A Fruit of the Conciliar Revolution

This homily is not an anomaly; it is the logical fruit of the apostasy formalized at Vatican II. The “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place is the conciliar sect’s replacement of the Catholic Church’s supernatural mission with a naturalistic, human-centered project. The antipope “Leo XIV” is, according to the theological principles in the user’s “Defense of Sedevacantism” file (based on Bellarmine, Canon 188.4, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio), ipso facto deprived of all jurisdiction due to manifest heresy. His public teaching—which contradicts the Syllabus, Quas Primas, and Lamentabili—proves he is not a member of the Church, and therefore cannot be its head. The homily’s focus on “war,” “migrants,” and “economic systems” is the exact “cult of man” and “theological novelties” the user’s framework demands to be exposed. It is a “psychological operation” to divert Catholics from the primary danger: the modernist apostasy within, as the “False Fatima Apparitions” file correctly identifies as the real threat.

The homily’s final words, “we will rise up and rebuild,” are not the Catholic hope of the resurrection of the body and life everlasting, but the modernist project of building a “new world order” without Christ. It is the “evolution of dogmas” and “progress” condemned by Pius IX and Pius X. The “ashes” it mentions are the ashes of the conciliar revolution itself—the destruction of the liturgy, the sacraments, the religious life, and the faith of millions. The only “rebuilding” possible is the restoration of the immutable Tradition, which requires the rejection of this entire conciliar apparatus and all its actors, starting with the antipope and his “clerics.”

Conclusion: The Call to Integral Catholic Resistance

The Ash Wednesday homily of “Pope Leo XIV” is a brazen display of theological bankruptcy. It replaces the supernatural, sacramental, and hierarchical Lenten journey with a naturalistic, social justice program. It condemns “structures of sin” while ignoring the sin of heresy and apostasy that defines the post-conciliar sect. It mourns a “world ablaze” but is silent on the fires of hell and the need for sanctifying grace. It calls for “rebuilding” but has nothing to rebuild but the ruins of the City of Man, having already demolished the City of God.

The only adequate response is the integral Catholic faith of before 1958. As Pius XI taught in Quas Primas, true peace and order come only from the reign of Christ the King. As Pius IX taught in the Syllabus, the Church must be free from state interference and must teach the exclusive truth of the Catholic religion. As Pius X taught in Lamentabili, the faith is not a evolving human consciousness but a deposit to be defended. The homily’s errors are not minor deviations; they are the systematic exposition of the Modernist synthesis, the “synthesis of all errors.” Therefore, Catholics must have no communion with this apostasy. They must flee the conciliar structures, seek out the true (sedevacantist) Church, and live the Lenten season in the traditional manner: with fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and frequent confession, all for the glory of God and the salvation of souls—not for the futile project of reforming a world that has rejected Christ.

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Source:
Our sin and the burden of a world that is in flames   (vaticannews.va)
Date: 19.02.2026