The Pillar podcast, hosted by JD Flynn and Ed. Condon, announces a bonus episode titled “The Bug,” noting a scheduling adjustment. The podcast operates within the sphere of conservative Catholicism that acknowledges the post-conciliar hierarchy, including the current antipope “Leo XIV,” as legitimate. Its content consistently reflects the neo-Church’s emphasis on ecclesial diplomacy, naturalistic analysis of church affairs, and avoidance of any sedevacantist conclusion regarding the apostasy of the Vatican II hierarchy. This brief announcement, while seemingly trivial, is symptomatic of a deeper theological and spiritual bankruptcy: the normalization of the conciliar revolution and the silencing of the immutable Catholic faith.

---

The “Bug” of Naturalism: A Podcast Adrift from Supernatural Ends

The very framing of a technical glitch or scheduling issue as a “bug” for a podcast that purports to discuss the “Great Catholic Conversation” reveals a fundamental orientation. The focus is on logistical functionality and media presentation, not on the salvation of souls or the defense of the integral faith. This mirrors the entire conciliar sect’s preoccupation with institutional management, pastoral “dialogue,” and temporal relevance, while remaining utterly silent on the *sine qua non* of Catholicism: the state of grace, the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass, the absolute necessity of membership in the Catholic Church for salvation (*Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus*), and the imminent judgment of God upon the world and the souls of men.

1. Factual & Linguistic Level: The Language of Administration, Not of Faith

The language used is that of media production and subscriber management (“paid subscribers,” “set up podcast,” “having issues? email our producer”). This bureaucratic, user-service lexicon is antithetical to the language of the pre-1958 Magisterium, which spoke of dogmas, heresies, sacrileges, apostasy, and the wrath of God. The tone is casual, managerial, and solution-oriented for a listening audience. There is no hint of the grave spiritual crisis, no mention of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15), no alarm at the propagation of heresy from the highest levels of the conciliar structure. The “bug” is presented as a technical inconvenience, not as the inevitable fruit of a church that has defected from the faith.

2. Theological Level: The Omission of God’s Law and the Reign of Christ the King

The podcast’s existence and content are built upon a foundational error: the acceptance of the post-Conciliar “papacy” and “episcopacy” as legitimate. This directly contradicts the dogmatic principle that a manifest heretic cannot be a member of the Church, let alone its head. As St. Robert Bellarmine taught, 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.” The podcasters’ consistent acknowledgment of “Pope” Leo XIV and the “bishops” in communion with him places them in formal communion with heresy and apostasy, thus outside the Catholic Church.

Furthermore, the podcast operates in a world where the kingship of Christ is relegated to a private devotion or a liturgical feast (*Quas Primas*), not the concrete, public, and legal subordination of all human laws and societies to the law of God. Pope Pius XI, in *Quas Primas*, declared that the “plague” of his time was “the secularism of our times, so-called laicism,” which “denied Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The modern conciliar “Church” has embraced this secularism, culminating in the “liberty of conscience” condemned by Pius IX in the *Syllabus of Errors* (Propositions 15-17). The Pillar discusses the symptoms of this apostasy—church politics, liturgical abuses, clerical scandals—without ever diagnosing the disease: the rejection of the Social Reign of Christ the King and the adoption of the false principles of the *Syllabus*.

3. Symptomatic Level: The Conciliar Mindset in Microcosm

This minor podcast announcement is a perfect microcosm of the conciliar mentality:
* **Naturalism:** The concern is with audience retention, audio quality, and scheduling—purely natural, temporal concerns. There is zero reference to the supernatural end of man (the Beatific Vision), the necessity of sanctifying grace, or the eternal consequences of accepting or rejecting the true faith.
* **Hermeneutics of Continuity:** The podcasters implicitly assume a continuity between the Catholic Church and the post-Conciliar structure, treating “Leo XIV” as a valid pontiff and the “magisterium” of the last 60+ years as requiring discernment rather than outright rejection as heretical. This is the synthesis of all heresies, condemned by St. Pius X in *Pascendi Dominici Gregis* and *Lamentabili Sane Exitu*.
* **Silence on Apostasy:** The most damning omission is any reference to the *Syllabus of Errors* or the dogmatic principle that a heretic loses all jurisdiction. The podcast functions as if the primary problem is mismanagement or bad actors within a fundamentally sound system, when in reality the system itself is aparamasonic abomination that has replaced Catholic doctrine with the errors of Modernism, Liberalism, and Naturalism explicitly condemned by Pius IX and Pius X.
* **Complicity with the “New Church”:** By operating within the framework of “paying subscribers” and “podcast apps,” they lend the prestige of Catholic conversation to a structure that is in formal apostasy. They provide a “conservative” veneer that makes the conciliar revolution more palatable to traditionally-minded Catholics, thereby delaying their necessary recognition of the *sedes vacans* and the need to flee the *conciliar sect*.

4. Doctrinal Weapons: The Unchanging Faith vs. The Podcast’s Implicit Assumptions

* **On the Nature of the Church:** The Catholic Church is a perfect society, *societas perfecta*, with an immutable constitution given by Christ. It cannot evolve, cannot enter into “dialogue” as an equal with false religions, and cannot change its doctrine. The post-Conciliar “Church” has done all these things, proving it is not the Catholic Church. The podcast’s entire premise assumes the legitimacy of this new entity.
* **On the Duty of Rulers:** Pius XI in *Quas Primas*: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ, but let them fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.” The conciliar “Church” has abandoned this mission, embracing instead the separation of Church and State condemned in the *Syllabus* (Prop. 55). The Pillar never calls for this subordination of the state to Christ the King.
* **On the Fate of Heretics:** Bellarmine: “A non-Christian in no way can be Pope… a manifest heretic cannot be Pope.” The podcasters, by recognizing “Leo XIV,” implicitly deny this de fide principle. They thus place themselves outside the Catholic faith.
* **On the Modernist Synthesis:** St. Pius X, in *Pascendi*: Modernism is “the synthesis of all heresies.” The conciliar documents and the “magisterium” of the last decades are a living embodiment of this synthesis—religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio), collegiality, the new canon of Scripture, the new Mass. The Pillar’s project is to “converse” about this synthesis as if it were a legitimate development, which is itself a Modernist act.

Conclusion: The “Bug” is the Entire Conciliar Project

The “bug” is not a technical glitch. The “bug” is the entire premise of The Pillar podcast: the attempt to have a “Great Catholic Conversation” within and about a church that has formally apostatized. It is the bug of naturalism, the bug of ignoring the *Syllabus*, the bug of rejecting Bellarmine’s doctrine on a heretical pope, the bug of silence on the Social Reign of Christ the King, and the bug of complicity with the abomination of desolation. There is no “conversation” to be had with apostates. There is only the duty to denounce them, to refuse them any legitimacy, and to cling to the immutable faith handed down by the true Church, which endures in the faithful remnant who reject the conciliar sect and its antipopes. The Pillar, in its very existence, preaches a false gospel of accommodation and continuity, leading souls gently but surely into the pit of apostasy.

---

Source:
Bonus: The Bug   (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 28.02.2026