The Vatican News portal reports that antipope Leo XIV, in his March 18, 2026 General Audience, continued his catechesis on the Second Vatican Council’s *Lumen gentium*, focusing on the chapter describing the Church as the “People of God.” He emphasized that “every baptized person is an active agent of evangelization, called to bear consistent witness to Christ” through a “prophetic gift which the Lord bestows upon His whole Church.” He elaborated on the “common priesthood,” the “sense of the faith” (*sensus fidei*), and the “consensus of the faithful” as mechanisms by which the entire baptized community shares in the Church’s prophetic mission, with the Magisterium safeguarding unity. He concluded by inviting the faithful to rekindle their awareness of being part of God’s People and the responsibility this entails.
This address is not a mere theological reflection; it is a public, systematic repudiation of the Catholic Faith as it has been understood for two millennia, replacing it with the pantheistic, democratic, and naturalistic errors condemned by the infallible Magisterium. It is the direct implementation of the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place.
The “People of God”: A Heretical Substitution for the Catholic Church
The cornerstone of the address is the conciliar novel, the “People of God” (*Populus Dei*). This phrase, absent from the dogmatic definitions of the Church prior to 1962, is a deliberate ambiguity designed to erode the Catholic doctrine of the Church as the *societas perfecta*—a perfect, hierarchical, supernatural society founded by Christ. The Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX (1864) condemns the error that “the Church is not a true and perfect society, entirely free… but it appertains to the civil power to define what are the rights of the Church” (Error 19). By defining the Church primarily as a “People,” a horizontal, sociological category, the conciliar sect shifts focus from the divinely instituted, hierarchically structured *Mystical Body* to a mere human community, thus paving the way for the secular state’s encroachment (Error 41: “the civil power may interfere in matters relating to religion”).
The pre-conciliar Magisterium taught that the Church is a visible, juridical body with a divinely appointed hierarchy (bishops, priests) who govern by the power of Christ. Pope Pius XII, in *Mystici Corporis Christi* (1943), defined the Church as “the Mystical Body of Christ… constituted and organized by the divine Redeemer.” The “People of God” language, by contrast, flattens this structure, implying an equality among all baptized that directly contradicts the hierarchical order willed by Christ. This is the essence of the Modernist error condemned by St. Pius X in *Pascendi Dominici gregis* (1907) and *Lamentabili sane exitu* (1907), which sought to “develop” the Church into a human, evolutionary reality (cf. Proposition 54: “The organic structure of the Church is subject to change…”).
The “Common Priesthood” as a Denial of the Sacramental Hierarchy
The address’s focus on the “common priesthood” is a direct attack on the exclusive, sacramental priesthood of the ordained minister. While it is true that all baptized share in the *priesthood of Christ* in a generic sense (the “common priesthood”), this participation is spiritual and does not include the power to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass or to forgive sins. The Council of Trent (Session 23, Canon 1) dogmatically defined: “If any one saith, that there is not in the Catholic Church a hierarchy… consisting of bishops, priests, and ministers; let him be anathema.” It further defined (Canon 2) that the priesthood of the New Law is not common to all, but proper to priests alone.
By blurring this distinction, *Lumen gentium* and Leo XIV’s teaching undermine the very necessity of the ordained priesthood. This leads logically to the Protestant error of the “priesthood of all believers,” which the Syllabus condemned (Error 18: “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion…”). The “common priesthood” is presented as a “kingdom of priests” (quoting *Lumen gentium*), a phrase taken from 1 Peter 2:9 but stripped of its context: it refers to the spiritual worship of the faithful, not to sacramental ministry. The pre-conciliar teaching, summarized by Pope Pius XI in *Quas primas* (1925), is clear: Christ’s royal dignity is shared by the faithful, but His *priestly* and *prophetic* offices are exercised in a supreme and unique way by the hierarchical Church. To suggest the baptized “confess the faith… received from God through the Church” as a parallel to the hierarchical preaching is to make the Magisterium a mere mouthpiece for a pre-existing “sense of the faith” of the people, inverting the true order where the Church teaches, not the people.
The “Sensus Fidei” and “Consensus of the Faithful”: Modernist Relativism
The most pernicious error presented is the doctrine of the *sensus fidei* and the “consensus of the faithful” as a source of truth. Leo XIV quotes *Lumen gentium*: “The entire body of the faithful… cannot err in matters of belief… when from the Bishops down to the last of the lay faithful they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals.” This proposition is a paraphrase of the condemned Modernist proposition in *Lamentabili* (Proposition 6): “The Church listening cooperates in such a way with the Church teaching in defining truths of faith, that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening.” The *sensus fidei* is a *charism*, a supernatural instinct for the truth possessed by the faithful *as individuals* under the guidance of the hierarchy. It is not a collective, democratic “consensus” that determines or safeguards doctrine.
St. Robert Bellarmine, in his *De Ecclesia Militante*, explained that the faithful cannot err *as a body* only because they are united to the *true hierarchy*. If the hierarchy errs, the faithful, left to themselves, will err. The *sensus fidei* is not an autonomous organ; it is dependent on and protected by the *Magisterium*. The conciliar inversion makes the “People of God” the primary subject of infallibility, with the hierarchy merely “safeguarding” its consensus. This is the logical foundation for the post-conciliar abomination of “synodality” and “listening sessions,” where lay opinions on doctrine are solicited as if they possessed magisterial weight. It is the democratization of the Faith, condemned in the Syllabus (Error 15: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which… he shall consider true”).
The “Prophetic Gift” and Charismatic Vitality: Rejection of the Hierarchical Magisterium
The address states that the baptized are called to bear witness “in accordance with the prophetic gift which the Lord bestows upon His whole Church.” This language of “gifts” and “charismatic vitality” is straight from the Pentecostal/Charismatic playbook, not Catholic theology. The “prophetic” office of the Church is exercised definitively by the bishops in communion with the Roman Pontiff, as the successors of the Apostles. The Second Vatican Council, in *Lumen gentium* 25, severely qualified episcopal infallibility, tying it to “the assent of the Church” and “the agreement of the faithful,” thereby subjecting the hierarchical Magisterium to the nebulous “consensus” already condemned.
Furthermore, the praise for “consecrated life” and “ecclesial associations” as demonstrations of “charismatic vitality” ignores the catastrophic reality: post-conciliar religious life has been decimated by apostasy, and “ecclesial associations” are hotbeds of heresy, feminism, and ecological paganism. This is the “fruit” of the conciliar spirit, which the Holy Office under St. Pius X identified as the synthesis of all heresies (*Lamentabili*, Introduction). The “variety and fruitfulness” praised is the very “deplorable consequences” of “abandoning all restraint” in pursuit of novelty (Ibid., I).
Omission of the Supernatural End and the Social Kingship of Christ
The entire address is framed in naturalistic, humanistic terms: “active agent of evangelization,” “witness,” “sanctification,” “building up the Church.” There is a profound and damning silence on the supernatural end of man: the explicit necessity of sanctifying grace, the Sacraments as the *sole* means of salvation, the absolute necessity of belonging to the Catholic Church (*Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus*), and the Four Last Things (Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell). This silence is the gravest accusation. It reflects the Modernist error that “the faith of Christ is in opposition to human reason” and that “divine revelation is imperfect” (Syllabus, Errors 6 & 5).
Worse, there is total omission of the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the central theme of Pope Pius XI’s *Quas primas*, which the address’s source document (*Lumen gentium*) deliberately sidelined. Pius XI taught that Christ’s reign “encompasses all men” and that “states… have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” Leo XIV’s “People of God” is a disembodied, spiritualized entity with no claim over nations, laws, or public life. This is the precise apostasy condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus (Error 77: “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State…”). The “People of God” is a purely internal, spiritual reality, utterly compatible with secular, atheistic states—precisely the “secularism” Pius XI lamented in *Quas primas*.
Conclusion: The Systematic Dismantling of the Faith
This address is not a “reflection” but a manifesto. It systematically applies the principles of Modernism, as condemned by St. Pius X, to the governance of the conciliar sect:
1. **Hermeneutics of Continuity in Action:** It presents radical novelties (“People of God,” *sensus fidei* as a collective organ) as if they were the “true” meaning of ancient doctrine.
2. **Democratization of the Church:** It replaces the hierarchical, monarchical constitution willed by Christ with a charismatic, egalitarian “community” where all are “active agents.”
3. **Religious Indifferentism:** By making “witness” the primary act, it reduces the Faith to a personal testimony, indistinguishable from any other religious or philosophical “witness.” The exclusive, salvific truth of Catholicism is obscured.
4. **Naturalism:** The entire framework is this-worldly, concerned with “building up,” “sanctification” as a process, and “evangelization” as a human activity, devoid of the stark, supernatural alternatives of salvation or damnation, grace or sin.
The “theological bankruptcy” is total. The attitudes presented are those of apostates who have exchanged the *depositum fidei* for a sociological project. The spiritual ruin of the faithful is assured by this teaching, which tells them they are “active agents” while stripping them of the supernatural means (the true sacraments, the true Mass, the true hierarchical authority) necessary for salvation. There is only one response: total rejection. The faithful must flee these “structures occupying the Vatican” and adhere to the unchanging Faith, which subsists solely in the Catholic Church that endures outside the conciliar sect, in the remnant who hold to Tradition.
Peace is only possible in the kingdom of Christ (Pius XI, Quas primas), a kingdom which the conciliar “People of God” explicitly rejects in favor of a worldly, democratic, and naturalistic counterfeit.
Source:
Pope at Audience: 'Every baptized person is to bear consistent witness to Christ' (vaticannews.va)
Date: 18.03.2026