The “Idealist” Bishop: How Vatican II’s Spirit Inverts St. Bernard

The VaticanNews portal reports that Bishop Erik Varden, OCSO, delivered the second reflection at the 2026 Lenten Spiritual Exercises in the Vatican for “Pope Leo XIV,” Cardinals, and heads of Dicasteries. Varden’s theme, “Bernard, the Idealist,” presents a twelfth-century Cistercian Doctor of the Church through a lens of subjective psychological introspection and relativistic “dialectic,” utterly foreign to the immutable Catholic theology that formed Bernard himself. This event, occurring within the conciliar sect’s highest circles under an acknowledged antipope, exemplifies the systematic replacement of supernatural Catholic doctrine with a naturalistic, human-centered “spirituality” that is the hallmark of the post-1958 apostasy.

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Factual Deconstruction: The Players and the Stage

The article presents Bishop Erik Varden as a legitimate Catholic bishop and spiritual authority. This is false. Erik Varden is a bishop of the conciliar sect, ordained in the invalid, post-conciliar rite and operating within the paramasonic structure occupying the Vatican. His appointment as a spiritual director for “Pope Leo XIV” (Robert Prevost) and the Roman Curia places him within the hierarchy of the abomination of desolation. His background as a Cistercian abbot is significant: the modern Cistercian Order, like most post-conciliar religious institutes, has been thoroughly infiltrated and reformed according to the spirit of Vatican II, emphasizing “dialogue,” “collegiality,” and psychological adaptation over strict observance and supernatural end.

The subject of his reflection, St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), is a true Doctor of the Church, a pillar of Catholic orthodoxy, and a fierce defender of the faith against heretics like Peter Abelard. The article’s framing of him as an “idealist” is a profound misrepresentation. Bernard was a man of formidable, unwavering faith, a theologian of the *Sentences*, and a preacher of the *Crusade*. His spirituality was rooted in the objective truths of the Incarnation, the Passion, and the hierarchical structure of the Church. To reduce him to a “quicksilver nature” containing “massive tensions” and a journey toward not taking “his course for always the right course” is to strip him of his doctrinal certainty and replace it with a modern, subjective, and evolutionist psychology.

Linguistic Analysis: The Vocabulary of Apostasy

Varden’s language is a textbook case of post-conciliar theological decay. Key phrases reveal the underlying naturalism:

* **”Dialectic was fruitful”:** This Hegelian term implies a process of thesis-antithesis-synthesis, where truth emerges from conflict and compromise. Catholic doctrine is not discovered through dialectical tension but is *received* as a deposit of faith from God. The Syllabus of Errors condemns the notion that “dogmas are… a certain interpretation of religious facts, which the human mind has worked out with great effort” (Proposition 22).
* **”His view of the Church’s needs drove him sometimes to adopt rigid positions”:** This relativizes Bernard’s firm stances against heresy as mere personal rigidity born of perceived “needs,” rather than the necessary, immutable defense of revealed truth. It suggests that doctrinal clarity is a matter of pastoral adaptation.
* **”Learning… to marvel before God’s merciful justice”:** While God’s mercy is infinite, this phrasing, in context, implies a journey from self-righteousness to a more “merciful” (i.e., lax) view of God’s justice. It echoes the Modernist error condemned by St. Pius X in *Pascendi Dominici Gregis*: the idea that religious truth is a “vital” experience that evolves, making past formulations seem harsh or immature.
* **”Pursue authenticity with eyes set on the all-illumining love of God”:** “Authenticity” is a key buzzword of post-Vatican II anthropology, emphasizing personal subjective truth over objective moral and doctrinal norms. Catholic sanctity is not about “pursuing authenticity” but about conforming the will to God’s law and the mind to His revealed truth.

Theological Confrontation: Bernard vs. the Modernist Reinterpretation

The authentic St. Bernard, as a Father and Doctor of the Church, taught and lived in absolute conformity with Catholic dogma. Varden’s “idealist” Bernard is a fabrication.

1. **On the Nature of Truth and Authority:** The real Bernard wrote powerfully on the authority of the Church and the Pope. In his *De Consideratione*, he urged Pope Eugene III on the duties of the papacy. He defended the *depositum fidei* against all innovation. The “dialectical” Bernard of Varden, however, fits the Modernist profile defined by St. Pius X: one who believes “that the divinity of Jesus Christ is not proved by the Gospels” (Lamentabili, Prop. 27) and that “dogmas are not truths of divine origin but are a certain interpretation of religious facts” (Prop. 22). Varden’s emphasis on Bernard’s personal struggle and evolving perspective directly attacks the *immutability* of Catholic truth, condemned in the Syllabus: “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (Prop. 58).
2. **On the Church and Her Mission:** The true Bernard saw the Church as the *Body Mystical* of Christ, a perfect society with a divine constitution, to be defended against all encroachment. Varden’s presentation, by focusing on Bernard’s personal “kindness” and ability to “befriend former enemies,” subtly promotes the post-conciliar error of reducing the Church’s mission to mere human fraternity and dialogue, as condemned by Pius IX: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Syllabus, Prop. 55) is the secular principle underlying such an approach. The article’s silence on Bernard’s monumental role in combating heresy, defending the faith, and shaping the monastic *ora et labora* is deafening. It omits the supernatural warfare that defined his life.
3. **On Sanctity and the Spiritual Life:** Catholic sanctity, as taught by Bernard in works like *On Loving God*, is the ascent of the soul to God through charity, obedience, and the sacraments, grounded in the objective reality of grace. Varden’s description reduces it to a psychological process of “pursuing authenticity” and managing “self-righteousness.” This is the “spirit of the world” entering the sanctuary. It is the error of those who, as Pius X warned, make religion a matter of “inner feeling” and “vital immanence” rather than submission to external, objective revelation and law.

Symptomatic Analysis: The Conciliar Revolution in Microcosm

This single article is a perfect case study of the systemic apostasy. The event is a *spiritual exercise* for the leaders of the conciliar sect. The director is a modern bishop who interprets a medieval saint through a 21st-century psychological-ideological framework. The audience is the antipope and his court. The source is the official Vatican news apparatus.

* **The Hermeneutics of Continuity in Action:** Varden attempts to graft a modernist, subjective “idealism” onto the robust, supernatural figure of St. Bernard. This is the essence of the “hermeneutics of continuity”—to reinterpret pre-conciliar figures and texts in light of post-conciliar (i.e., modernist) principles, thereby making the past subservient to the present revolution. It is a scholarly fraud.
* **Omission of the Supernatural:** The article is utterly silent on the core of Bernard’s life and teaching: the *Incarnation*, the *Passion*, the *Real Presence*, the *authority of the Pope*, the *necessity of the Church for salvation*, the *reality of Hell*, the *value of monastic discipline*. It speaks only of “tensions,” “kindness,” “authenticity,” and “love.” This is the deliberate suppression of the *soteriological* (salvation-oriented) content of Catholicism in favor of a sanitized, humanistic “spirituality.” This aligns perfectly with the errors condemned in the Syllabus: “The faith of Christ is in opposition to human reason and divine revelation not only is not useful, but is even hurtful to the perfection of man” (Prop. 6).
* **The Cult of the Personality:** The focus on Bernard’s “quicksilver nature,” his “temperamental similarity” to the heretic Thomas Merton (whose works were placed on the Index of Forbidden Books and whose syncretism and denial of essential truths are notorious), and his personal “struggles” elevates human psychology over divine grace. It turns a saint into a case study for modern therapeutic spirituality. This is the “cult of man” condemned by Pius IX and Pius X.
* **The Role of the “Cistercian”:** Varden’s order, the Cistercians, is highlighted. The modern Cistercian Order, post-Vatican II, has been a hotbed of liturgical experimentation, ecumenical outreach, and doctrinal dilution. Using a figure from this environment to interpret the uncompromising Bernard is a deliberate act of ideological appropriation. It signals that the “Bernard” being presented is not the historical, dogmatic Bernard, but a constructed figure useful for modern propaganda.

Doctrinal Weapons: The Unchanging Standard

The article’s entire premise is an offense against the unchanging faith. Pope Pius XI, in *Quas Primas*, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism and laicism that such “spiritual exercises” now embody in a new, more subtle form. He wrote that the plague of our times is the denial of “Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations,” leading to the subordination of divine law to human will. The Vatican retreat, directed by a bishop of the conciliar sect for an antipope, is a supreme act of this denial. It discusses a saint while ignoring the *Kingship of Christ* over intellect (requiring submission of mind to defined dogma), will (obedience to His law), and heart (love rooted in the sacraments).

St. Pius X, in *Lamentabili Sane Exitu*, condemned the proposition that “the interpretation of Holy Scripture given by the Church, while not to be scorned, is nevertheless subject to more exact judgments and corrections by exegetes” (Prop. 2). Varden’s entire method—reinterpreting Bernard through a modern “idealism”—is this error applied to the lives and writings of the saints. It makes the living Tradition of the Church subject to the evolving judgments of modern “spiritual directors.”

The Syllabus of Errors provides the final verdict on the mentality on display:
* “Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood” (Prop. 3) – Varden judges Bernard by the standards of modern psychology, not by the standards of Catholic theology.
* “The Church is not a true and perfect society, entirely free… but it appertains to the civil power to define what are the rights of the Church” (Prop. 19) – By accepting the authority of an antipope and his conciliar court, Varden acknowledges a “church” whose structure and rights are defined by the secular principles of collegiality and synodality, not by the divine constitution given by Christ.
* “It is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship… conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people” (Prop. 79) – The entire conciliar project, of which this retreat is a part, is based on the false principle of religious liberty and ecumenical dialogue, which the Syllabus condemns. The “spirituality” being promoted is one that can be shared with heretics and infidels, devoid of the exclusive, absolutist claims of the one true Church.

Conclusion: The Bankruptcy of the Conciliar “Spirituality”

The “Spiritual Exercises” in the Vatican under “Pope Leo XIV” are a sacrilegious parody. They replace the *Ignatian* focus on the concrete, historical life of Christ, His Passion, and the hierarchical Church with a vague, psychological, and evolutionist meditation on a saint’s “idealism.” This is not a retreat for Catholic bishops; it is a seminar for the architects of the new world religion, using the language of sanctity to deconstruct sanctity. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who wrote *In Praise of the New Knighthood* for the Templars and thundered against the innovations of Peter Abelard, would recognize this as the very spirit of error he fought. He would flee such a gathering as he fled the acclaim of the crowd in 1113, knowing that the “idealist” bishop is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, preaching a Christ who is not the King of the *Summa Theologica*, but a mere symbol of human aspiration. The only authentic Lenten exodus is an exodus from the conciliar sect and all its works, back to the immutable faith of St. Bernard and the popes who preceded the apostasy of John XXIII.

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Source:
Bishop Varden at Lenten Retreat: St. Bernard, the Idealist   (vaticannews.va)
Date: 23.02.2026