The EWTN News portal reports on the sixth annual De Sales Basketball Invitational, held February 13–15, 2026, at Saint Francis de Sales Seminary in St. Francis, Wisconsin, where 450 seminarians from 18 U.S. seminaries competed. The host seminary’s team, the Shoremen, won the championship 56–54 in overtime against St. Meinrad Seminary. Father John Baumgardner, vice rector, emphasized the event’s role in fostering “fraternity” and “brotherhood,” noting the attendance of bishops, priests, and Catholic families, calling it “truly such a Catholic weekend.” The article presents the tournament as a highlight of seminary life and a boost for vocations, with no reference to doctrinal crisis, the sede vacante, or the necessity of the public reign of Christ the King over all human activities.
This superficial celebration of naturalistic camaraderie within the conciliar sect’s seminaries is a stark manifestation of the post-Conciliar Church’s apostasy. The event’s focus on “fraternity” and “brotherhood” — while omitting the supernatural end of the seminary: the formation of priests to offer the unbloody sacrifice of Calvary and save souls — reduces the Catholic priesthood to a mere fraternal club. The very concept of “fraternity” here is a naturalistic, modernist substitute for the true Catholic communion founded on shared faith, sacraments, and obedience to the unchanging Magisterium. As Pope Pius XI declared in *Quas Primas*, the Kingdom of Christ is “primarily spiritual and relates mainly to spiritual matters,” and its purpose is to lead souls to eternal happiness through repentance, faith, and baptism — not to provide recreational weekends. The silence on the Most Holy Sacrifice, the state of grace, and the final judgment exposes the event as a diversion from the Church’s supernatural mission.
Fraternity Without the Faith: The Naturalistic Replacement
The article repeatedly praises the “fraternity” and “brotherhood” among seminarians. In the pre-Conciliar Church, fraternity was a consequence of shared supernatural life in Christ through the sacraments and doctrinal unity. Today, within the conciliar sect, fraternity is reduced to a natural, emotional bond, devoid of requirement for integral Catholic faith. This aligns perfectly with the errors condemned by Pope Pius IX in the *Syllabus of Errors*: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55) and the promotion of indifferentism (Errors 15–17). By hosting an event that implicitly includes seminaries from various “ecclesial communities” without insisting on the profession of the one true faith, the conciliar structure practices the indifferentism Pius IX anathematized. The absence of any declaration that only Catholics in full communion with the true Church (pre-1958) can share genuine ecclesiastical fraternity reveals the modernist assumption that religious labels are interchangeable.
The Conciliar Seminaries: Structures of Apostasy
The participating seminaries — including St. Joseph Seminary College, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, and Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary — are all part of the post-Conciliar “conciliar sect,” which rejects the immutable doctrines of the Church. As proven by the *Lamentabili sane exitu* of St. Pius X, Modernism “aims at such a development of dogmas as appears to be their corruption” (Proposition 1). These seminaries teach the evolution of dogma, religious liberty, and ecumenism — all condemned by pre-1958 Magisterium. The *Syllabus* explicitly condemns the notion that “the civil power may interfere in matters relating to religion, morality and spiritual government” (Error 44), yet these seminaries operate under the authority of bishops who submit to the “civil power” of the conciliar “popes” and their secularist agenda. The participation of bishops and priests from this apostate hierarchy at the event demonstrates their approval of this naturalistic replacement of the Church’s mission. They are “blind leaders of the blind” (Matt. 15:14), leading seminarians into further apostasy under the guise of “fraternity.”
EWTN’s Role: The Pulpit of Neo-Catholicism
The article originates from EWTN News, a flagship outlet of the neo-Catholic establishment. EWTN consistently promotes the “hermeneutics of continuity” — the Modernist heresy that post-Conciliar novelties are in harmony with Tradition. This directly contradicts the teaching of St. Pius X in *Pascendi Dominici gregis*: Modernists “reject the external authority of the Church” and “transform the Catholic dogma.” By reporting this event uncritically, EWTN participates in the “disinformation strategy” described in the False Fatima file: normalizing the conciliar sect’s activities as “Catholic” while omitting the catastrophic rupture with Tradition. The article’s tone is cheerful and promotional, void of any prophetic warning about the loss of faith, the vacancy of the Holy See, or the necessity of rejecting the conciliar “popes.” This silence is itself a heresy, as it denies the duty of the Church to condemn error and call souls to repentance.
The Omission of Sede Vacante: The Unpardonable Silence
Most grave is the complete silence on the *sede vacante* — the vacancy of the Holy See since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. The article mentions “Pope Leo XIV” (Robert Prevost) in a related link, treating him as a legitimate pope. According to the *Defense of Sedevacantism* file, a manifest heretic automatically loses his office (*ipso facto*) by divine law. The conciliar “popes,” from John XXIII through Francis and now Prevost, have promulgated doctrines contrary to the Catholic faith (e.g., religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality), thus falling under Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code: “Publicly defects from the Catholic faith.” St. Robert Bellarmine teaches that a manifest heretic “ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian.” Therefore, the entire conciliar hierarchy, including the bishops attending this tournament, is illicit and schismatic. The article’s failure to address this fundamental reality makes it complicit in the damnation of souls by presenting apostates as legitimate pastors.
Pius XI’s Warning Ignored: Christ’s Kingship vs. Basketball
Pope Pius XI, in *Quas Primas*, instituted the feast of Christ the King to combat secularism and remind rulers and nations of their duty to publicly honor Christ. He wrote: “When God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The De Sales Invitational, while seemingly harmless, is a symptom of this removal: it reduces Catholic life to a recreational event, with no explicit reference to Christ’s kingship over the basketball court, the seminary, or the nations. The article quotes Baumgardner saying the event is an opportunity “to worship God beautifully and reverently,” but provides no details of liturgical worship — only basketball. This reflects the Conciliar Church’s replacement of the sacred liturgy (the true worship of God) with profane entertainment. The *Syllabus* condemns the error that “the civil power may interfere in matters relating to religion” (Error 44); here, the “civil” power of basketball and fraternity interferes with the primary religious duty of seminarians: prayer, study, and sacramental preparation for the priesthood.
The Theological Bankruptcy of “Fraternity” in the Conciliar Sect
The conciliar notion of “fraternity” is rooted in the naturalism condemned by Pius IX. Error 58 of the *Syllabus* states: “All the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches by every possible means, and the gratification of pleasure.” The basketball tournament promotes pleasure and camaraderie as ends in themselves, detached from the ascetical struggle for sanctity. True Catholic fraternity is forged in the sacrifice of the Mass, in mutual correction toward holiness, and in shared defense of the faith against Modernism. The *Lamentabili* condemns the proposition that “the Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadfastly adheres to its views” (Proposition 63) — yet the conciliar Church steadfastly adheres to its modernist views, and this event demonstrates its abandonment of evangelical ethics in favor of worldly recreation. The seminarians are being trained not as soldiers of Christ, but as participants in a religiously neutral social club.
Conclusion: A Symptom of the Great Apostasy
The De Sales Basketball Invitational is not a neutral event; it is a liturgical and catechetical act of the conciliar sect, promoting a naturalistic, human-centered “Catholicism” devoid of supernatural grace. It embodies the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15) — the replacement of the Church’s mission with worldly entertainment. The participating seminaries are factories of apostasy, producing priests who will celebrate the invalid Novus Ordo “Mass,” preach ecumenism, and deny the necessity of Catholicity for salvation. The article’s cheerful reporting, devoid of any reference to the *sede vacante*, the errors of Vatican II, or the duty of Catholic kings to publicly honor Christ the King, makes it a tool of the conciliar revolution. As St. Pius X warned in *Pascendi*, Modernists “introduce into the Church the spirit of worldliness.” This basketball tournament is worldliness disguised as Catholicism. The only appropriate response is total rejection of the conciliar sect and its activities, and adherence to the one true Church, which endures in those who profess the integral Catholic faith outside the usurping structures occupying the Vatican.
Source:
450 seminarians compete in sixth annual De Sales Basketball Invitational (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 21.02.2026