The “Green” Apostasy: Global South Bishops Preach Naturalism Over Salvation
The cited EWTN News article from March 18, 2026, reports that a group of conciliar bishops from the Global South, led by Cardinals Spengler, Ambongo, and Neri, have issued a manifesto demanding an immediate end to fossil fuel use. They base this on “record global warming” and quote the antipope Francis’s documents Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum, calling for a “just and equitable transition” enforced by a global treaty and registry. Some Catholic economists, notably Catherine Pakaluk and Patrick Fleming, counter that fossil fuels are essential for lifting developing nations out of poverty, criticizing the bishops’ language as ignorant of economic reality and harmful to the poor.
This entire episode is a stark manifestation of the post-conciliar apostasy. The bishops, occupying sees in the conciliar sect, have completely abandoned the supernatural mission of the Church—the salvation of souls—to champion a naturalistic, Masonic-inspired agenda of global governance under the pretext of environmentalism. Their manifesto is not a Catholic document but a political tract that promotes the errors of secularism, socialism, and the subordination of the Church to the state, all condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors. The economists, while correct on the economic facts, remain complicit by recognizing the conciliar hierarchy and failing to condemn the modernist sources (Laudato Si’) that underpin the bishops’ error. The true Catholic position, rooted in the unchanging doctrine before 1958, prioritizes the reign of Christ the King over all nations, the spiritual good of souls, and the legitimate use of earthly resources for human development under the law of God—not the imposition of a global “green” tyranny that will immiserate the poor and further the One World Church of the Antichrist.
1. Factual Level: The Misrepresentation of Poverty and Climate
The bishops’ core claim is that fossil fuel use causes “record global warming” that increases the suffering of the poor, and thus an immediate ban is required. This is a gross misrepresentation of both climate science and economic development. As Pakaluk states, “the No. 1 thing poor nations and poor people need” is “cheap energy.” The historical fact is that every industrialized nation, including those in the Global South today, used fossil fuels to build infrastructure, create jobs, and raise living standards. Fleming correctly notes that “fossil fuels make the building of such infrastructure more affordable and feasible.” The bishops’ demand for a rapid phaseout, promoted through a “Fossil Fuel Treaty,” would deliberately deny developing nations the same path to prosperity that the West took, thereby perpetuating poverty—the very opposite of Catholic social teaching’s preferential option for the poor.
Furthermore, the bishops’ apocalyptic language (“the world is crumbling,” “approaching a breaking point”) is not based on a “clear-eyed” view but on the discredited, politicized narratives of climate alarmism. Their claim that “by far, the biggest source of emissions is land use change, or deforestation for agriculture” actually undermines their own case: if deforestation is the primary driver, then focusing on fossil fuels is a misdirection. Their rejection of “false solutions” like carbon markets while promoting a global treaty with enforcement mechanisms reveals their true goal: not environmental stewardship, but the creation of a supranational authority that will control national economies, a key goal of the globalist Masonic agenda detailed in the False Fatima Apparitions file under “Masonic Operation ‘Fatima’” and “Ecumenism Project.”
2. Linguistic Level: The Tone of Apostate Zealotry
The bishops’ manifesto uses the language of revolutionary urgency and moral condemnation (“unethical,” “must be created,” “demand”). This is not the measured, doctrinally precise language of the pre-conciliar Magisterium but the rhetoric of activist propaganda. Phrases like “happy sobriety” and “less is more” are vague, humanistic slogans borrowed from the pantheistic environmental movement, not from Catholic theology. The tone is one of prophetic denunciation—a role falsely assumed by these modernist prelates, who have exchanged the Church’s mission to preach the Gospel for the world’s mission to preach climate fear. This linguistic shift exposes their fundamental error: they have internalized the world’s priorities. As Pope St. Pius X taught in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (condemned in Lamentabili Sane Exitu), Modernists “under the guise of more serious criticism… aim at such a development of dogmas as appears to be their corruption.” Here, the “dogma” being corrupted is the Church’s teaching on the purpose of earthly goods (to serve human development) and the duty of rulers to provide for the common good, replaced by a new “dogma” of ecological asceticism for the poor.
3. Theological Level: The Omission of Supernatural Ends and the Primacy of Christ the King
The most damning critique is what the bishops omit: any mention of sin, grace, the sacraments, the state of the soul, the final judgment, or the absolute necessity of Catholic faith for salvation. Their entire focus is on temporal, material concerns—the “cry of the earth” and the “cry of the poor” reduced to physical suffering from climate. This is the essence of naturalistic humanism, condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (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”) and by St. Pius X as the synthesis of all Modernism (Lamentabili Sane Exitu, Prop. 65: “Contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity”).
The true Catholic doctrine, as defined by Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas, is that the kingdom of Christ encompasses all human life, but its foundation is spiritual: “His kingdom… is such that men who wish to belong to it prepare themselves through repentance, but cannot enter except through faith and baptism.” The kingship of Christ demands that “all relations in the state be ordered on the basis of God’s commandments and Christian principles, both in the issuing of laws and in the administration of justice.” The bishops, by promoting a treaty that imposes a specific economic model based on questionable science, are in fact usurping the authority of Christ the King. They are not calling nations to obey the divine law (e.g., the Seventh Commandment’s requirement of just use of resources) but to submit to a human, international legal framework that violates the principle of subsidiarity and national sovereignty, both derived from natural law. This is a direct contradiction of Quas Primas: “the state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… it cannot depend on anyone’s will.” The bishops, instead, want the state to depend on the will of global climate bureaucrats.
Furthermore, the bishops’ silence on the primary danger of our age: the apostasy of the conciliar sect itself is deafening. As the False Fatima Apparitions file correctly identifies, the modernist focus on external threats (like climate change) serves to “divert attention from modernism” and “the main danger: modernist apostasy within the Church since the beginning of the 20th century.” The bishops quote the antipope Francis, a notorious heretic who promotes religious liberty, syncretism, and the “dignity” of man—all condemned by Pius IX (Syllabus Errors 15-16, 77-80). By aligning with him, they confirm their own apostasy. The true “common home” is the City of God, not the planet earth; the true “breaking point” is the abomination of desolation in the Temple of God, i.e., the post-conciliar sect’s replacement of Catholic doctrine with Modernist errors.
4. Symptomatic Level: The Masonic/Communist Blueprint in “Ecological” Clothing
The bishops’ manifesto is a carbon copy (pun intended) of the long-standing Masonic strategy to destroy national sovereignty and Catholic social order through environmental scare tactics. The demand for a “mandatory open-source Global Fossil Fuel Registry” and a treaty that holds nations “accountable” is the blueprint for a world government with enforcement power over all countries—exactly the kind of “one world” scheme condemned by Pope Pius IX as the work of the “synagogue of Satan” (Syllabus, final paragraph). The emphasis on “equity,” “differentiated responsibilities,” and “ecological debt” is the language of redistributive socialism, condemned in Syllabus Error 64 (“It is lawful to refuse obedience to legitimate princes, and even to rebel against them”) and Error 39 (“The State… is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits”). Here, the “state” is to be the globalist entity that supersedes all national states.
The bishops also echo the “ecumenism project” of the False Fatima file: by uniting with non-Catholic “churches” and secular bodies for a common cause (the environment), they promote religious indifferentism. Their call for “participatory, democratic processes that protect Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and marginalized communities” is the language of the UN’s sustainable development goals, which are rooted in pantheistic, anti-Catholic principles. This is the same “ecumenical reinterpretation” seen at Fatima, where “conversion of Russia” was emptied of its Catholic meaning. Here, “care for the common home” is emptied of its Catholic meaning (stewardship under God’s law) and filled with a pantheistic, collectivist ideology.
The bishops’ rejection of “green capitalism” and “neo-extractivism” while promoting a state-controlled phaseout is pure socialism. The Syllabus (Error 47) condemns the idea that public schools “should be fully subjected to the civil and political power at the pleasure of the rulers.” The bishops want all economic life subjected to a global civil power. Their call for “happy sobriety” for wealthy nations while demanding they finance the transition for poor nations is a form of guilt-based wealth redistribution that violates the Catholic principle of private property (Syllabus Error 26: “The Church has no innate and legitimate right of acquiring and possessing property” is condemned—the Church affirms this right). The bishops invert justice: they punish productivity (fossil fuels) and reward dependency (on global transfers).
5. The Economists’ Partial Truth and Fatal Compromise
Pakaluk and Fleming are correct that fossil fuels are necessary for development and that the bishops’ stance will harm the poor. Their arguments align with the natural law principle that earthly goods are for human use. However, their analysis remains within the naturalistic framework of the conciliar sect. They do not condemn Laudato Si’ as heretical; they do not call for the bishops’ repentance and deposition; they do not expose the apostasy of the “pope” they implicitly recognize. Their criticism is merely technical (economic) and not theological. They fail to see that the bishops’ error is not just bad economics but theological apostasy: replacing the reign of Christ with the reign of the environment. As Pius XI taught in Quas Primas, “when God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The bishops, by removing Christ from economic policy and replacing Him with “the earth,” are actively destroying the foundation of all just authority.
Fleming’s advocacy for “regenerative agricultural practices” is fine as a technical matter, but he presents it as a “cooperation with the natural order,” a phrase that can slide into pantheism. Catholic teaching holds that the natural order is created by God and must be used according to His law, not “cooperated with” as if it were divine. The bishops’ manifesto, by contrast, explicitly promotes a pantheistic worldview where “the earth” is a quasi-divine entity to which human activity must submit. This is condemned by Pius IX (Syllabus Error 1: “God is identical with the nature of things”).
6. The Sedevacantist Perspective: The True Catholic Response
From the perspective of integral Catholic faith (pre-1958 doctrine), the only response to this episode is total repudiation. The bishops are not Catholic shepherds but apostate Modernists occupying the sees of the conciliar sect. Their manifesto is a fruit of the heresies condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane Exitu: Prop. 65 (“Contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity”) and Prop. 59 (“Truth changes with man, because it develops with him”). They have developed a new “dogma” of climate urgency that supersedes the dogmas of the Faith.
The economists, by engaging with these bishops as if they were legitimate authorities, fall into the error of recognizing the conciliar hierarchy. As the Defense of Sedevacantism file demonstrates using Bellarmine, a manifest heretic (and these bishops, by promoting errors condemned in the Syllabus and Lamentabili, are manifest heretics) loses all jurisdiction ipso facto. Therefore, they have no authority to issue manifestos on any subject, spiritual or temporal. Their demands should be ignored by all Catholics, who must instead obey the true Magisterium of the pre-conciliar Church.
The true Catholic social teaching, as summarized by Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas, is that Christ must reign in the mind, will, heart, and body of every individual and in all societal structures. This reign is achieved through faith, baptism, and the sacraments—not through international treaties on carbon emissions. The Church’s mission is to preach that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), not to negotiate with the UN on “just transitions.” The bishops have inverted the order: they prioritize the “common home” (earth) over the Common Good (the salvation of souls). This is the ultimate theological bankruptcy.
The only “energy” the poor truly need is the grace of Christ. The only “development” that matters is the development of sanctifying grace. The bishops, by focusing on fossil fuels, are leading the poor into materialist slavery and away from the only true liberation: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Their manifesto is a tool of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place—the conciliar sect using the language of care to promote the globalist, pantheistic agenda of the enemies of Christ.
Conclusion: The Global South bishops’ manifesto is not a Catholic document but a Masonic-communist tract disguised as pastoral concern. It promotes the errors of secularism, socialism, and naturalism condemned by Pius IX and St. Pius X. Its focus on climate alarmism distracts from the real crisis: the apostasy of the post-1958 hierarchy. The economists’ rebuttal, while factually correct on energy poverty, fails to condemn the heretical source (Laudato Si’) and the apostate authors. The only Catholic response is to reject the conciliar sect and its “popes,” bishops, and documents entirely, and to hold fast to the unchanging doctrine of the pre-1958 Church, which teaches that all authority comes from God, that Christ is King of all nations, and that the primary duty of the Church is the salvation of souls, not the regulation of carbon emissions.
Source:
Bishops of global south urge abandonment of fossil fuels; some Catholic economists warn against it (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 18.03.2026