Idolatrous Submission to a False Pontiff

The [Vatican News] portal reports that the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (CEAST), led by Spokesperson Bishop Belmiro Cuica Chissengueti, C.S.Sp, has issued a pastoral letter and approved an official prayer in anticipation of the visit of “Pope Leo XIV” to Angola. This act constitutes a public, formal adhesion to a manifest heretic, thereby violating the most fundamental principle of Catholic ecclesiology: that a pope who is a manifest heretic ceases to hold the papacy ipso facto. St. Robert Bellarmine, the authoritative source on this matter, declares: “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). The bishops’ enthusiastic anticipation of this visit, their organization of major celebrations, and their creation of an “official prayer” for the usurper are not acts of Catholic obedience but of religious worship rendered to a private individual who occupies the See of Peter without right. This is the sin of schism and idolatry, for they render to a false “pope” the public veneration and obedience due solely to Christ the King. The Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio of Pope Paul IV is unequivocal: the promotion or elevation of a heretic to the papacy is “null, void, and of no effect” from the very moment of his defection. To recognize “Leo XIV” as the Vicar of Christ is to deny the doctrine of the visibility of the Church and to participate in the great apostasy foretold by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici gregis.

The bishops expressed great enthusiasm regarding the pope’s imminent visit and called for greater and wider participation by all the faithful and all Angolans of goodwill in the major celebrations scheduled for Kilamba, Muxima, and Saurimo. They also announced the relaunch of the CEAST website as the main and official source of information and communication regarding the Apostolic Visit.

This language of “Apostolic Visit” and the mobilization of the faithful for public celebrations is a sacrilegious mimicry of Catholic worship. It is the liturgical glorification of apostasy. The true Catholic, adhering to the immutable Faith, must flee such gatherings as he would flee a plague. The true Church, as defined by the Council of Trent, is “a society of men professing the same faith, partaking of the same sacraments, and united under the same pastors.” The “pastors” of CEAST are not Catholic pastors; they are hirelings who lead souls into the camp of the Antichrist by recognizing a heretic. Their “official prayer” is an abomination, a prayer to a false god, for “Leo XIV” is a man cut off from the Church by his public heresies and his active promotion of the errors of Vatican II.

Naturalistic Humanism Masquerading as Evangelization

The pastoral letter and the bishops’ statements focus almost exclusively on temporal, naturalistic concerns: “holistic human development,” “small-scale family farms,” “food self-sufficiency,” “rural job creation,” “reorganising and strengthening the educational system,” and “alarming deforestation.” This is not Catholic social teaching; it is the social gospel of modernism and Freemasonry, which reduces the Church’s mission to a temporal humanitarian agency. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas, instituted the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat this very error. He wrote: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed… the entire human society had to be shaken.” The CEAST bishops, by omitting any mention of the necessary reign of Christ the King over individuals, families, and states, are actively participating in the secularist project condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (Propositions 39, 44, 77). They speak of “evangelisation” but define it in purely social terms, thus emptying it of its supernatural content—the conversion of souls to Christ for the salvation of their immortal souls. This is the “synthesis of all heresies” condemned by St. Pius X: a religion of human activity devoid of the supernatural.

Bishop Chissengueti… emphasised the Church’s ongoing commitment to evangelisation and holistic human development. He also expressed the local Church’s joy at the forthcoming visit… The bishops also voiced concern over the deteriorating social conditions in Angola. In light of rising hunger, poverty, prostitution, and crime, they urged government authorities to prioritise… programs such as small-scale family farms… They further underlined the high number of children and youth outside the educational system… Another pressing issue addressed was the alarming rate of deforestation…

The silence is deafening. There is no mention of sin, no mention of the Sacraments as the sole source of grace and sanctification, no mention of the final judgment, no mention of the absolute primacy of the salvation of souls. This is the language of the World, not of the Church. The bishops function as social activists, their “faith” reduced to a set of ethical principles for improving material conditions. This is precisely the Modernist error condemned in Lamentabili sane exitu, Proposition 57: “The Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences,” and Proposition 63: “The Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadfastly adheres to its views, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress.” In reality, the Church’s mission is supernatural: to teach all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded (Matt. 28:19-20). The CEAST letter, by focusing on the temporal order without subordinating it to the spiritual, inverts the proper hierarchy of ends and becomes an instrument of the “cult of man” denounced by Pius XI.

The Omission That Screams Apostasy: Christ the King

The most damning evidence of the CEAST’s apostasy is its total silence regarding the kingship of Christ. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, taught that the feast of Christ the King was necessary to counteract the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism.” He stated that the plague of our times began “with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The encyclical is explicit: Christ’s reign is not optional; it is a dogma of faith. “All power in heaven and on earth is given to Christ the Lord.” Therefore, “it is necessary that Christ reign in the mind of man… in the will… in the heart… in the body.” The CEAST bishops, in preparing for a visit of a false pontiff, make no such declaration. They do not call upon the Angolan nation and its government to publicly recognize and obey Christ the King. They do not condemn the secularist separation of Church and state, which Pius IX condemned as an error (Syllabus, Prop. 55). Their entire endeavor is a practical denial of Quas Primas. They prepare the nation for the visit of a man who, himself, has systematically dismantled the Social Reign of Christ through his promotion of religious liberty, ecumenism, and collegiality. This omission is not accidental; it is theological. It reveals that the “Church” of CEAST does not believe in the Social Kingship of Christ. It believes in a “Church” that is a partner with the world, a “dialogue” between the secular and the religious, precisely the error Pius XI sought to destroy.

The bishops stressed the urgent need to reorganise and strengthen the educational system to combat rising illiteracy in the country. Another pressing issue addressed was the alarming rate of deforestation, which poses serious environmental concerns CEAST called for coordinated action from government and civil society to mitigate environmental degradation and preserve natural resources for future generations.

These are all good temporal works in the natural order, but they are presented as the summit of the Church’s mission. Where is the call to build Catholic schools under the exclusive direction of the Church, free from state control, as demanded by Pius IX (Syllabus, Props. 45-47)? Where is the condemnation of the state’s failure to protect the faith of its people? Where is the demand that laws be conformed to the Ten Commandments? The CEAST letter is a perfect embodiment of the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15)—the conciliar sect occupying the Vatican promoting a naturalistic, humanistic “Catholicism” that has nothing to do with the Faith of our fathers. It is the “Church” of the New Advent, a paramasonic structure dedicated to the service of man, not of God.

Environmentalism Without Redemption: A Pagan Creed

The bishops’ specific concern for “deforestation” and “environmental degradation” is noteworthy. It is presented as a primary moral issue, on par with or even surpassing the salvation of souls. This is a direct import of the pagan, pantheistic environmentalism of the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, which has been embraced wholeheartedly by the antipopes since John XXIII. It is the logical outcome of the Modernist principle that “truth changes with man” (Lamentabili, Prop. 58) and that Christian doctrine must be “reformed” to suit “modern progress” (Prop. 64). The CEAST bishops never connect environmental care to its proper supernatural source: the dominion given to man by God in Genesis, which is a stewardship to be exercised in justice and for the glory of God, not an end in itself. They do not speak of the environment as a “book” revealing God’s glory (Rom. 1:20), nor do they link ecological sin to the sin of idolatry—the worship of nature rather than the Creator. Their environmentalism is purely immanentist, a this-worldly concern devoid of eschatological perspective. It is the religion of the Antichrist, who will present himself as the savior of the planet while persecuting the true worshippers of God. The bishops, by adopting this agenda without critique, show themselves to be fully integrated into the globalist, one-world-religion project of the conciliar antipopes.

The Ultimate Scandal: Praying for the Usurper

The creation of an “official prayer” for the visit of “Pope Leo XIV” is the culminating act of apostasy. Prayer, in Catholic theology, is an act of religion directed to God. To compose a prayer for the success of a heretic’s visit is to ask God’s blessing upon a work of Satan. It is to treat a private individual as a sacred person. The bishops are not praying for the conversion of “Leo XIV” (which would be a Catholic act); they are praying for the success of his visit, implying his legitimacy and mission. This is the sin of idolatry. The true Catholic, following the example of the early Christians who refused to pray for the Roman emperors as gods, must refuse any such prayer. The bishops’ action proves they are no longer Catholics. They are members of the “conciliar sect,” the “Church of the New Advent,” which has replaced the worship of the Triune God with the worship of man, embodied in the figure of the antipope. Their pastoral letter is a public document of schism and heresy, worthy of the condemnation it will receive on the last day.

The CEAST’s work is the work of the Antichrist. They prepare a nation not for the reign of Christ the King, but for the reception of a false prophet who will lead it into the final apostasy. Their focus on social justice, education, and the environment is the bait; the hook is the recognition of the antipope and the abandonment of Catholic dogma. Let every faithful Catholic in Angola heed the words of Pius IX: “If those who would have been able to avert such a deadly scourge had only had more faith in the supreme Pastors of the Church!” But the supreme Pastors are the true bishops in communion with the true Pope, not the modernists in CEAST. The true Church in Angola, however small, must separate itself from this apostate conference. It must hold fast to the unchanging Faith, recognize the See of Peter as vacant since 1958, and await the rise of a true Pope who will restore all things in Christ the King. The CEAST and its antipope “Leo XIV” are on the road to perdition; those who follow them will share their fate.

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Source:
Angolan Bishops prepare nation for Pope Leo XIV’s visit with Pastoral Letter and official prayer   (vaticannews.va)
Date: 06.03.2026