The Resignation of a Conciliar Diplomat: A Symptom of Apostasy
The conciliar news outlet The Pillar reports on the sudden resignation of Archbishop Jean-Marie Speich, apostolic delegate to the Netherlands, after only ten months in office. Speich, who reached the customary retirement age of 70 in June 2025, was appointed by “Pope” Francis in April 2025 and his resignation was accepted by “Pope” Leo XIV on February 21, 2026. The article details speculation regarding his desire to manage a family estate in France, stress over an asbestos-ridden nunciature renovation, and his alleged role in facilitating the return of the notorious predator Fr. Marko Rupnik during his tenure as nuncio to Slovenia. The piece concludes by noting the revolving door of nuncios to the Netherlands and the bleak ecclesiastical situation in the country, marked by parish closures and a vocational crisis.
This incident is not a mere administrative curiosity but a profound revelation of the theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar sect. The analysis must begin by stripping away the naturalistic and bureaucratic language that masks a deeper reality: the entire diplomatic service of the Novus Ordo is a function of an invalid and apostate hierarchy. The focus on “personal reasons,” “stress,” and “renovation” is a deliberate evasion of the supernatural causes and effects that govern the true Church. The silence on the state of souls, the validity of sacraments, and the duty of public penance is the gravest accusation.
Naturalistic Explanations for a Supernatural Crisis
The article’s entire framework is rooted in worldly, psychological, and administrative categories. The resignation is framed as a puzzle to be solved by investigating “stress,” “family estate” management, or “complicated renovations.” This is a classic modernist tactic: to reduce ecclesial events to human resources management and personal biography, thereby expelling any consideration of divine law, ecclesiastical penalties, or the judgment of God upon a corrupt hierarchy. The true Catholic mind, formed by the consistent magisterium, immediately asks: What canonical penalties or divine judgments may have been incurred? The article never poses this question. It treats the nuncio as a mid-level corporate manager, not as a successor to the apostles tasked with guarding the faith.
The speculation about Speich’s role in the Rupnik scandal is presented as a potential “fallout” or a reason for him to leave “before his role… blew up in his face.” This language of “blowback” and “scandal management” is the lexicon of public relations, not of Catholic governance. The concern is not for the souls of the victims or the honor of the Church, but for institutional damage control. This exposes the fundamental shift in the post-conciliar church: from a divinely instituted society for the salvation of souls to a human organization concerned with its own reputation and stability.
Theological Contradiction: The Nuncio’s Role vs. Catholic Doctrine
The very office of “apostolic nuncio” as currently exercised is a theological fiction. In the true Church, the papal legate’s authority flows from the Petrine office to teach, sanctify, and govern in the name of Christ. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Can. 267) defined the nuncio as a diplomatic representative of the Holy See with specific rights and duties grounded in canon law and papal authority. However, the authority of the modern “papacy” and “Vatican” is null and void, as demonstrated by the sedevacantist thesis rooted in the teachings of St. Robert Bellarmine and Canon 188.4.
A manifest heretic, which the conciliar “popes” have proven to be by their embrace of Modernism, religious liberty, and ecumenism, cannot hold office in the Church. Bellarmine states unequivocally: “a manifest heretic… by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” (De Romano Pontifice). TheBull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio of Paul IV declares that any cleric who has “defected from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy” has a promotion that is “null, void, and of no effect.” The “appointments” and “resignations” within this structure are therefore ecclesiastical theater, the shuffling of chairs on the deck of a sinking ship whose captain has no legitimate commission.
The article notes that Speich was consecrated a bishop by “Pope” Francis in 2013. This consecration, while likely materially valid, was illicit and occurred within a schismatic and heretical context. The principle of communicatio in sacris (communicating in sacred things) with heretics is strictly forbidden. A bishop ordained or consecrated by a manifest heretic participates in his schism and heresy, vitiating his own jurisdiction in the eyes of God, even if the sacramental character remains. The entire diplomatic corps is thus a network operating without legitimate jurisdiction, serving a counterfeit papacy.
Symptomatic of the Conciliar Apostasy: The Rupnik Scandal as Paradigm
The connection to the Rupnik scandal is not an incidental detail but the key to understanding the systemic disease. Fr. Marko Rupnik, a “Jesuit” iconographer, was convicted by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) of sexual crimes related to the sacrament of penance in 2019. His subsequent “rehabilitation” and alleged facilitation by nuncios like Speich is not a failure of discipline; it is the logical outcome of the conciliar church’s doctrinal collapse.
The “Lamentabili Sane Exitu” of St. Pius X condemned the Modernist proposition that “the Church… has no right to require any internal assent from the faithful to the pronouncements issued by the Church” (Proposition 7). The post-conciliar church, by its silence, ambiguity, and canonical maneuvers in the Rupnik case, demonstrates that it operates on precisely this principle. There is no internal assent required to the moral law or to the divine institution of the sacraments. The “trial” now underway is a sham, designed to create an illusion of justice while protecting the network of complicity. The fact that a nuncio could reportedly call the incardination of a convicted sexual predator an “excellent” solution reveals a mindset utterly alien to Catholic sanctity. It is the mindset of a bureaucratic organization protecting its own, not a divinely protected society defending the purity of the sacraments and the innocence of the faithful.
This aligns perfectly with the “Lamentabili” condemnation of the error that “the sacraments merely serve to remind man of the presence of the ever-benevolent Creator” (Proposition 41). The sacrilege committed by Rupnik—using the sacrament of penance as an occasion for abuse—is treated not as an unspeakable crime against the Body of Christ but as a disciplinary matter to be managed. The supernatural reality of the sacrament as an objective conduit of grace is denied in practice, reduced to a mere “reminder.”
Omission of the Supernatural: The Article’s Most Grave Fault
The article’s most damning feature is what it never mentions. There is no reference to:
- The state of grace or mortal sin of the individuals involved.
- The duty of public penance and reparation for such public scandals.
- The nullity of the “sacraments” celebrated in a state of manifest heresy and schism according to Canon 188.4.
- The final judgment of God upon these souls and this false hierarchy.
- The obligation of the faithful to flee such a corrupt structure to preserve their faith.
- The reign of Christ the King over all nations, which the conciliar church has explicitly denied in documents like Dignitatis Humanae.
This silence is not accidental; it is doctrinal. The post-conciliar church, as predicted by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, has adopted a “modernist” hermeneutic that treats religion as a human phenomenon. The article reflects this perfectly: it is about personnel moves, stress, and renovations. It is a piece from a business journal, not a Catholic news service. The true Catholic perspective, defined by Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas, insists that “the kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men” and that “all power in heaven and on earth is given to Christ the Lord.” Therefore, every human act, including the appointment or resignation of a nuncio, must be judged by its conformity to or rebellion against the law of Christ. The article makes no such judgment because its authors do not recognize that law as supreme.
The Dutch Context: Apostasy in Practice
The article’s closing paragraphs on the Dutch Church’s “sweeping parish reorganization,” “closures, mergers, and the sale of church buildings,” and the “bleak” vocational situation are presented as administrative challenges. In reality, they are the visible fruits of decades of apostasy. The Netherlands, once a Catholic mission territory, is now a wasteland of faith because the conciliar church embraced the errors condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors: the separation of Church and State (Error 55), the idea that “the Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion” (Error 21), and that “it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State” (Error 77).
The “uptick in adult baptisms” is likely a statistical artifact of immigration or vague “spiritual” seeking, not a conversion to the integral Catholic faith. The bishops mentioned—Cardinal Eijk, Hendriks, de Korte—are all actors in the conciliar drama, shepherds who have overseen the destruction of their flocks while remaining in communion with the apostate “papacy.” Their approaching retirement is irrelevant; they have already failed in their primary duty to feed their sheep with sound doctrine.
Conclusion: A Call to Repudiation
The resignation of Archbishop Speich is a non-event within a non-Church. It is a rearrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic of Modernism. The true Catholic, adhering to the unchanging faith of the ages, must view this entire episode with the contempt it deserves. The diplomatic service of the Vatican is a service to the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place. The Rupnik scandal is not a mistake; it is the logical consequence of a theology that reduces the sacraments to symbols and morality to personal “discernment.”
As Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas, the peace of society depends on the public recognition of the reign of Christ the King. The conciliar church, by its embrace of religious liberty and ecumenism, has explicitly denied this reign. Therefore, all its structures—including its nunciatures—are illegitimate. The only “resignation” that matters is the collective abdication of the entire conciliar hierarchy from any claim to teach, sanctify, or govern in the name of Christ. The only “family estate” worth caring for is the one true Church, outside of which there is no salvation. The only “stress” that should concern a bishop is the terror of the final judgment, which he faces with particular severity for having led souls into the Novus Ordo abyss.
The faithful are not to seek solutions or explanations from this “neo-church.” They are to flee it, as one flees a plague, and to adhere to the immutable Catholic faith, wherever it is found in priests and bishops who reject the conciliar errors and acknowledge the reality of the sede vacante. The reign of Christ the King demands nothing less.
Source:
Why has the Netherlands’ nuncio resigned? (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 24.02.2026