The Apostasy of “Faith in Christ Plus Democracy”
The cited article from EWTN News reports the public statement of Father Alberto Reyes, a priest of the Archdiocese of Camagüey, Cuba. His central thesis is that, alongside faith in Jesus Christ, the sole salvation for Cuba lies in the overthrow of the communist regime and its replacement by a “genuine democracy.” He decries the regime’s lies, economic collapse, and repression, concluding that only a “total, absolute, and radical change of the political system to one that defends freedom and democracy in a real way” can save the nation. This position, presented as a Catholic moral imperative, is in reality a profound apostasy from the integral Catholic doctrine of the Social Kingship of Christ and a capitulation to the very secularist errors condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium.
A False Dichotomy: Christ or the State, Not Christ *and* Democracy
Father Reyes constructs a false dichotomy: the communist regime versus a democratic system. He presents “faith in Christ” as a personal, spiritual complement to a fundamentally political solution. This is a lethal error. The pre-conciliar Church, following the doctrine of Pope Pius XI in the encyclical Quas Primas, unequivocally taught that the only salvation for individuals, families, and states is the public and social recognition of the reign of Christ the King.
Pius XI declared that the purpose of instituting the feast of Christ the King was to address “the plague that poisons human society: the secularism of our times, so-called laicism.” He stated that this plague began “with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The Pope explicitly links the removal of God from public life to societal collapse: “When God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed… the entire human society had to be shaken.” Therefore, to propose that any human political system—be it called “democracy,” “republic,” or otherwise—can be a savior apart from, or even alongside, the explicit and public submission of that system to the laws of Christ the King is to preach a different gospel.
The Condemned Error: Indifferentism in Political Organization
Father Reyes’s advocacy for “democracy” as a neutral or positive good, without conditioning it upon its subordination to Catholic doctrine, directly echoes the errors condemned in the Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX. The Syllabus anathematizes the proposition that:
“In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship.” (Error 77)
Furthermore, it condemns the idea that:
“The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” (Error 55)
The priest’s call for a system that “defends freedom and democracy” inherently promotes a secular order where the State is neutral regarding religion—a neutrality that is, in practice, a hostility to the exclusive rights of Christ the King. This is the “indifferentism” Pius IX condemned. The Syllabus further states that the civil power has no right to “interfere in matters relating to religion, morality and spiritual government” (Error 44), but it also affirms the Church’s right and duty to instruct rulers that their authority must be exercised for the glory of God and the good of souls. Father Reyes inverts this, making the political system the primary savior and reducing faith to a private addendum.
The Silence That Screams: Omission of Christ’s Social Kingship
The gravest accusation against the article and the priest’s statement is its total silence on the non-negotiable Catholic doctrine that all human authority is derived from and subject to the authority of Christ. There is no mention of:
- The duty of the State to publicly worship God and recognize the Catholic religion as the sole religion of the State (cf. Pius XI, Quas Primas; Leo XIII, Immortale Dei).
- The obligation of civil laws to be conformed to the moral law as defined by the Church.
- The teaching that “there is no power but from God” (Rom. 13:1) and that rulers are “God’s ministers” (Rom. 13:4, 6).
- The final judgment of Christ, where all nations will be judged according to how they recognized or denied His reign (Matt. 25:31-46).
This silence is not accidental; it is the hallmark of the modernist and naturalistic mentality that has infiltrated the post-conciliar “Church.” It treats political organization as a purely secular, technical matter, devoid of supernatural significance. For an integral Catholic, the primary political question is not “democracy or dictatorship?” but “Is the State subordinate to Christ the King or to human will?” Father Reyes, by making “democracy” the salvific political form, falls into the error of placing human reason and political philosophy above divine revelation and the teaching authority of the Church.
The Modernist Synthesis: Faith and Politics as Separate Spheres
The priest’s formulation—”in addition to faith in Christ”—reveals the modernist synthesis condemned by St. Pius X in the encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis and the decree Lamentabili sane exitu. Modernism seeks to separate the supernatural from the natural, faith from reason, the spiritual from the temporal. It reduces faith to a personal, interior sentiment while leaving the public square to the dictates of “progress,” “liberty,” and “democracy”—all vague, evolving concepts divorced from the immutable law of God.
Lamentabili condemned propositions such as:
“Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him.” (Proposition 58)
“Christian doctrine was initially Jewish, but through gradual development, it became first Pauline, then Johannine, and finally Greek and universal.” (Proposition 60)
Father Reyes’s implied theology assumes that political doctrine can “develop” from the Gospel into a modern democratic form. This is precisely the evolutionist heresy. The Social Doctrine of the Church, as defined before the rupture of 1958, is not a development but an application of the unchanging principles of the Gospel and Natural Law as taught by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. It does not endorse any specific modern political form but judges all forms by their conformity to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The priest’s silence on this hierarchy—placing a human political system as co-savior with Christ—is a repudiation of the Faith.
The “Conciliar Sect” and Its Priests: Agents of Apostasy
Father Reyes functions as a typical priest of the post-conciliar “conciliar sect.” His language is that of the world: “fed up with so much deception,” “human rights,” “freedom and democracy.” He echoes the secularist cries of the Syllabus’s “errors concerning civil society” (Nos. 39-55), which Pius IX condemned as stemming from “the synagogue of Satan.” He calls for “dialogue” (the U.S.-Cuba talks) and a change in “political system,” never calling for the public conversion of Cuba to the Catholic Faith as the sole religion of the state, nor for the rulers to submit to the authority of the true Church.
This is the inevitable fruit of the Vatican II revolution, which in Dignitatis Humanae invented a “right” to religious freedom contrary to the Syllabus and the consistent teaching of the Popes. The “priest” in the article operates entirely within this new, man-centered paradigm. He is a spiritual guide leading his people away from Christ the King and toward the idol of the secular, pluralistic state—a state that, by its very nature of indifference, is an enemy of the Social Kingship of Christ.
Conclusion: A Call to Reject the Modernist Gospel
The article presents a Cuban priest preaching a gospel of political naturalism. His message is not the Catholic Faith but a synthesis of residual Christian sentiment and Enlightenment political ideals. It is a “different gospel” (Gal. 1:8-9). The integral Catholic, standing on the unshakable rock of pre-1958 doctrine, must reject this teaching with absolute horror. The salvation of Cuba, as of every nation, is not found in any human political system, however “democratic.” It is found solely in the public acknowledgment of Our Lord Jesus Christ as King, and the submission of all laws, institutions, and rulers to His supreme and absolute dominion.
The true Catholic mission in Cuba, and everywhere, is not to advocate for democracy but to preach, as did Pius XI, that “all power in heaven and on earth is given to Christ the Lord,” and that “there is no power in us that is exempt from this reign.” The state must “publicly honor Christ and obey Him,” and its laws must be “ordered on the basis of God’s commandments and Christian principles.” Father Reyes’s omission of this entire supernatural order is the definitive proof of his apostasy and the modernist infection of the conciliar sect he serves. The only “change” Cuba needs is the restoration of the Social Kingship of Christ the King over all its public life—a truth that the current “pope” “Leo XIV” and his entire counterfeit hierarchy have abandoned.
Source:
Cuban priest: In addition to faith in Christ, only democracy can save Cuba (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 17.03.2026