The “Return” to the Abomination: How a Schismatic Narrative Whitewashes the Post-Conciliar Apostasy
The EWTN News article reports that two Spanish nuns, excommunicated for adhering to a sedevacantist position (correctly identifying the post-Pius XII Vatican as a “conciliar Church” void of legitimate authority), have been “received back into the Catholic Church” by a modern-day archbishop. This narrative, dripping with the naturalistic and mercantile language of the New Advent, is not a story of repentance but a stark illustration of the theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the entire conciliar system. It presents a false dichotomy between two schismatic positions—one sedevacantist, one conciliar—while pretending the latter is the “Catholic Church.” The article’s very framework is a masterpiece of deception, omitting the supernatural essence of the Church, the nature of jurisdiction, and the non-negotiable requirement of submission to the immutable Magisterium.
1. Factual Deconstruction: A House of Cards Built on a False Foundation
The article operates on several unexamined, heretical premises:
* **The Legitimacy of the “Conciliar Church”:** It accepts without question the authority of Archbishop Mario Iceta and the “Holy See” that appointed him. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, the See of Peter has been vacant since the death of Pius XII. The “pontifical commissioner” is a functionary of a paramasonic structure occupying the Vatican, possessing no legitimate jurisdiction. His act of “lifting excommunication” is a nullity, as he holds no office in the Church of Christ. The article’s entire premise that there is a “Catholic Church” into which one can “return” from a schismatic group is a fundamental lie. Both groups are in schism: one for rejecting the conciliar antipopes, the other for accepting them. Neither is in communion with the true Church, which endures in those who hold the integral faith and are led by pre-1958 bishops and priests in valid, non-schismatic orders.
* **The Nature of Excommunication:** The article calls excommunication a “medicinal measure,” quoting Iceta. This is a sentimental, naturalistic distortion. Excommunication is a censura, a medicinal penalty, but its application presupposes legitimate jurisdiction. A modern bishop, even if validly ordained (which is dubious for many post-1968 ordinations due to changed rites and intent), has no jurisdiction if he is in manifest schism or heresy, as per the doctrine of Bellarmine and Canon 188.4. The excommunication imposed by such an authority is invalid. The “conversion” it supposedly “lifts” is a theatrical performance between two schismatic bodies.
* **The “Conversion” Narrative:** The article states the two nuns “humbly and gratefully followed the guidelines set forth by the Church.” This is a profound equivocation. The “guidelines” came from the very conciliar sect they had rightfully condemned. Their “conversion” is not to the Catholic faith but to acceptance of the Novus Ordo and the Bergoglio “magisterium.” It is a surrender to the very “double and confusing language, ambiguity, and loopholes in clear doctrine” they originally protested. This is not repentance; it is capitulation to apostasy.
2. Linguistic and Rhetorical Analysis: The Language of Apostasy
The article’s language is a telltale sign of the Modernist infection condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu and Pascendi Dominici gregis.
* **“Conciliar Church”:** The quoted phrase from the nuns’ original statement is the only accurate descriptor in the entire article. Yet the article immediately neutralizes it by framing their subsequent “return” as to the “Catholic Church.” This is the hermeneutics of continuity in action: treating the “conciliar Church” and the Catholic Church as one entity, thereby relativizing the catastrophic rupture of Vatican II.
* **“Personal conversion” and “journey back to the Father’s house”:** This is the sentimental, psychological, and individualistic language of Modernism. It reduces the supernatural reality of ecclesial communion to a personal, subjective feeling of “return.” It is silent on the objective, juridical, and doctrinal requirements for being in the Church: profession of the integral faith, submission to the legitimate hierarchy, and rejection of the errors of Vatican II. The article’s silence on the necessity of rejecting the “errors of the conciliar popes” is the gravest accusation. A true conversion would require abjuring the “conciliar Church” and its doctrines, not submitting to its “guidelines.”
* **“Medicinal measure” and “heart of mercy”:** While excommunication is medicinal, the article uses this to soften the stark reality of schism. It presents the conciliar authority as a loving mother, when in fact it is a merciless persecutor of traditional doctrine (as seen in the brutal treatment of the elderly nuns). This is the “cult of man” replacing the fear of God. It echoes the naturalistic, sentimental religion condemned in the Syllabus of Errors (e.g., Error #58: “All the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches… and the gratification of pleasure”). Here, “mercy” is detached from justice and truth.
3. Theological Confrontation: Doctrinal Annihilation
Every core statement of the article contradicts the unchanging faith.
* **On the Church and Schism:** The article assumes the post-1958 structures are the Church. This is the foundational error. The Church is a perfect society, a visible monarchy with the Pope as its visible head. Quas Primas of Pius XI teaches that Christ’s kingdom “encompasses all men” and that the Church, “established by Christ as a perfect society,” demands “full freedom and independence from secular authority.” The conciliar sect, by embracing religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae) and ecumenism, has become a “national church, withdrawn from the authority of the Roman pontiff” (Syllabus, Error #37). It is an “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place. To be in communion with it is to be in schism from the true Church. The two nuns have not “returned home”; they have entered the barracks of the enemy.
* **On Papal Authority and Vacancy:** The article’s source material (the nuns’ original statement) correctly, though incompletely, identifies Pius XII as “the last valid supreme pontiff.” This aligns with the sedevacantist argument based on Bellarmine: a manifest heretic (and the conciliar popes are manifest heretics, as proven by their adherence to Vatican II errors) loses office ipso facto. The article treats this as a fringe opinion, a “schismatic” view, while presenting the acceptance of the Bergoglio line as normative. This inverts Catholic order. The Syllabus condemns the idea that “the Roman pontiffs have… erred in defining matters of faith and morals” (Error #23), but this is precisely what the conciliar popes have done by approving the doctrines of Vatican II, which are condemned in Lamentabili (e.g., Propositions 21, 22, 54, 65). Therefore, they cannot be popes. The article’s neutrality on this point is a betrayal of the faith.
* **On Excommunication and Jurisdiction:** The article presents excommunication as a routine canonical tool. But Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code states an office is lost by “publicly defects from the Catholic faith.” The conciliar “bishops” and “popes” have publicly defected. They have no jurisdiction. Any “excommunication” they impose is invalid. The true Church, in this desert, has no visible means to excommunicate in the ordinary way. The article’s entire drama of “lifting excommunication” is a charade performed by actors without a script from heaven.
4. Symptomatic Analysis: The Conciliar Revolution in Microcosm
This article is a perfect case study in the systemic apostasy of the post-Conciliar Church.
* **The Hermeneutics of Continuity:** The article seamlessly blends the language of the “Catholic Church” with the “conciliar Church.” It reports that the “Catholic Church” received them, meaning the conciliar structure. This is the great lie: that the revolution is a development, not a rupture. Pius XI in Quas Primas warned that when Christ is “removed from laws and states,” the foundations of authority are destroyed. Here, Christ’s authority is removed from the very definition of the Church, replaced by a human, sociological entity that “lifts excommunications” based on “personal conversion” to its own errors.
* **The Cult of the Human and the Omission of the Supernatural:** The article is utterly silent on the state of the souls of these nuns. Did they abjure the errors of Vatican II? Do they now accept religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality, the new Mass? The article does not say. It only mentions they followed “guidelines.” This is naturalistic journalism for a naturalistic religion. There is no mention of the necessity of the state of grace, of sacramental confession with a valid priest, of the horror of sacrilege in receiving the Novus Ordo “communion.” The supernatural ends of man—eternal salvation—are completely absent. This is the “cult of man” in its purest form: a focus on institutional belonging and personal feelings, with no reference to God’s laws or the salvation of souls.
* **The Democratization and “Lay” Authority:** The article notes the nuns “complained” about “double and confusing language from the chair of Peter.” It treats this as a legitimate grievance. But the “chair of Peter” is not a committee subject to the “complaints” of nuns. The pope’s authority is from God. To “complain” about his teachings is to reject the Faith itself. The article’s tone legitimizes this democratic, lay-led rebellion against authority, which is a hallmark of the post-Conciliar church’s internal revolution. The “conversion” is framed as the nuns submitting to the “guidelines” of the very authority they had rebelled against, but now that authority is portrayed as reasonable and merciful—a complete inversion of the traditional Catholic view of authority as paternal and potentially punitive for the sake of souls.
* **The False Mercy:** Iceta’s quote about the “joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” is perverted. True repentance requires contrition for sin and the firm purpose of amendment. The amendment here is amendment to the conciliar sect’s position. It is repentance for schism *from the conciliar sect*, not for the errors of the conciliar sect. It is the mercy of the false church for those who submit to its falsehoods. This is the “mercy” of Antichrist, which calls evil good and good evil (Is. 5:20).
Conclusion: A Choice Between Two Schisms
The article presents a false resolution to a real crisis. It pretends the “Catholic Church” is the conciliar structure and that returning to it is a return to the fold. In reality, it is a report of two souls moving from one form of schism (sedevacantist, which at least correctly identifies the vacancy) to another (conciliar, which accepts the antipopes and their errors). The true Catholic, holding the faith of Pius IX, Pius X, and Pius XII, must reject both. He must recognize that the “excommunication” was imposed by an invalid authority and is therefore null. He must also recognize that the “reception” into the conciliar sect is a formal adhesion to a false religion, a betrayal of Christ the King, whose reign must be over all aspects of life, including the Church itself, as Quas Primas dogmatically teaches.
The only “return” that matters is the return of the entire world to the immutable Catholic faith as it existed before the apostasy of Vatican II. This requires the repudiation of every single “conciliar” document and “magisterial” act from John XXIII to Bergoglio. The two nuns in Spain have not come home. They have gone over to the enemy’s camp, accepting its terms of surrender. The article, in its meticulous avoidance of doctrinal truth and its embrace of naturalistic, psychological categories, is itself a symptom of the plague. It is a narrative designed to make the faithful believe the conciliar apostasy is a legitimate, merciful, and Catholic option. It is nothing of the sort. It is the abomination of desolation, speaking as the Church.
Source:
2 laicized nuns in Spain return to Catholic communion after leaving schismatic group (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 24.02.2026