The Pillar’s Worldly News: A Snapshot of Post-Conciliar Apostasy

The Pillar, a mainstream Catholic news outlet, reports on several items from the week of February 19, 2026: an increase in men enrolling in a propaedeutic year before seminary in France; the Holy See’s decision not to participate in President Trump’s Board of Peace; Bishop John Stika celebrating Mass at California’s largest immigration detention center; and the death of Bishop Rick Stika at age 68. Presented as routine news, these items implicitly normalize the post-conciliar Church’s abandonment of Christ’s kingship and its embrace of modernist principles. The underlying assumption is the legitimacy of the conciliar hierarchy and its worldly compromises, which constitute a betrayal of integral Catholicism. This roundup exemplifies the neo-church’s systematic omission of supernatural truths and its substitution of naturalistic humanism for the social reign of Christ the King.

The Omission of Christ’s Kingship in International Affairs

The report that the Holy See will not participate in President Trump’s Board of Peace is framed as a routine diplomatic decision. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, this is a stark rejection of the royal dignity of Christ over nations. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, declared: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ”. The encyclical insists that the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ is the only foundation for lasting peace among nations. The Holy See’s refusal to engage in an initiative that might require acknowledging Christ’s kingship aligns with the error condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors: “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State” (Error 77). The silence on the duty of all states to recognize the Catholic Church as the sole path to salvation (extra Ecclesiam nulla salus) and to enact laws in conformity with God’s commandments reveals a fundamental apostasy. The neo-church, through its “diplomatic” neutrality, participates in the secularist error of separating the spiritual from the temporal, thereby denying the social kingship of Christ.

Modernist Reforms in Seminary Formation

The note on increased enrollment in France’s propaedeutic year before seminary is presented as a positive development. However, such reforms are direct implementations of the Modernist principle of the organic evolution of the Church, condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu: “The organic structure of the Church is subject to change, and the Christian community, like the human community, is subject to continuous evolution” (Proposition 53). The pre-conciliar Church, as reaffirmed by Pius IX in the Syllabus, held that the method of studies in ecclesiastical seminaries is not subject to civil authority (Error 46) and that the Church’s authority to teach is independent of state interference (Error 33). The introduction of a mandatory propaedeutic year, orchestrated by national bishops’ conferences under the auspices of the post-conciliar “Holy See,” represents a democratization and naturalization of priestly formation, prioritizing human psychological and sociological methods over the ascetical, philosophical, and theological formation demanded by Thomistic principles. This is a concrete manifestation of the “false striving for novelty” decried by Pius X (Lamentabili, I), where the heritage of the Church is rejected in favor of modern pedagogical theories.

The Scandal of Collaborative Liturgy with Unjust States

The report that Bishop John Stika celebrated Mass at a California immigration detention center, without any accompanying critique of the state’s immigration policies, is a scandalous example of the neo-church’s complicity with worldly powers. The Syllabus of Errors condemns the notion that civil authority may interfere in matters relating to the administration of the sacraments (Error 44). Yet, by celebrating the Most Holy Sacrifice in a facility operated by a state that enacts laws contrary to the natural law and the common good—and without publicly condemning those laws—the bishop renders the liturgy a tool of state propaganda, not a propitiatory sacrifice that demands the conversion of all society to Christ. Pius XI in Quas Primas taught that the Church must be free from secular authority to fulfill its mission: “the Church, established by Christ as a perfect society, demands for itself by a right belonging to it, which it cannot renounce, full freedom and independence from secular authority”. The bishop’s action, performed in silent cooperation with a government that likely promotes religious indifferentism (condemned in Syllabus Errors 15-18), is a betrayal of the Church’s prophetic role and a sacrilegious reduction of the Unbloody Sacrifice to a mere social event.

The Death of a Conciliar Prelate

The death of Bishop Rick Stika is noted without any evaluation of his episcopate. In the context of the post-conciliar hierarchy, bishops who implement the reforms of Vatican II are architects of the apostasy. St. Pius X, in Pascendi Dominici gregis (referenced in Lamentabili), identified Modernism as “the synthesis of all heresies.” Bishops who promote ecumenism, religious liberty, and the democratization of the Church are guilty of disseminating these errors. The absence of any mention of Stika’s stance on critical issues—such as his likely support for the false ecumenism condemned by Pius XI in Quas primas (which warns against “national conversion without evangelization”) and his probable endorsement of the “hermeneutics of continuity” that Pius X’s Lamentabili anathematizes (Proposition 58: “Truth changes with man”)—is itself a symptom of the neo-church’s refusal to judge its own. His death is merely another event in the ongoing dissolution of the conciliar structure, which will only be judged by God and the true Church.

Linguistic and Theological Omissions: The Language of Apostasy

The article’s tone is bureaucratically neutral, employing phrases like “more men are enrolling,” “will not participate,” and “celebrates Mass.” This language meticulously avoids any supernatural terminology: no mention of sin, heresy, the necessity of the Catholic faith for salvation, the duty of the state to recognize Christ’s kingship, or the final judgment. The Syllabus condemns the error that “the civil authority may interfere in matters relating to religion, morality and spiritual government” (Error 44), yet the article treats the actions of the “Holy See” and bishops as mere administrative updates, stripping them of their doctrinal and moral weight. This is the hallmark of Modernist discourse: to speak of “peace,” “dialogue,” and “immigration” while remaining silent on the absolute primacy of God’s law and the social reign of Christ. The omission of Quas Primas’s core teaching—that “the entire human society had to be shaken, because it lacked a stable and strong foundation” when God is removed from public life—is a deliberate exclusion that exposes the article’s naturalistic humanism. The neo-church has replaced the proclamation of the Regnans in Excelsis (Christ reigns) with the chatter of worldly affairs.

Symptomatic of the Conciliar Revolution

Each item in this roundup is a fruit of the conciliar revolution. The propaedeutic year stems from Vatican II’s Optatam Totius, which introduced evolutionary concepts into seminary formation. The Holy See’s diplomatic refusal mirrors the “spirit of Assisi” and the post-conciliar emphasis on “dialogue” over proclamation, directly opposing Pius XI’s demand that “the sweetest Name of our Redeemer… must be confessed and the rights of Christ the Lord’s royal dignity… must be recognized.” The bishop’s Mass at a detention center reflects the “preferential option for the poor” of liberation theology, condemned by Pius XII and Pius XI, which reduces the Gospel to social action. The death of a conciliar bishop signifies the passing of a generation that implemented the “synthesis of all heresies” (Pius X). These are not isolated events but systemic expressions of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15)—the post-conciliar structures occupying the Vatican, which have exchanged the immutable faith for the evolving doctrines of Modernism.

Source:
News Roundup— Week of February 19 (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 19.02.2026