The article from the *National Catholic Register* (March 19, 2026) reports that Nigerian bishops, during their *ad limina* visit to Rome, met with the modern antipope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) to discuss the severe persecution of Christians in Nigeria. The bishops described their meeting as an expression of “filial communion” with the “pope” and an effort to counter “false narratives” from the Nigerian government. While acknowledging the horrific violence—72% of global Christian killings occur in Nigeria—the bishops’ response remains entirely within the naturalistic, political framework of the post-conciliar “Church,” seeking solutions from a man who occupies the See of Peter while promoting the errors of Vatican II. Their appeal to the conciliar “papacy” is not a remedy but a ratification of the apostasy that has made such persecution possible by stripping nations of the social reign of Christ the King.
The Naturalistic Trap: Bishops Plead with a Usurper for Temporal Security
The Nigerian bishops’ primary error is foundational: they recognize and appeal to “Pope Leo XIV,” a manifest heretic who promotes the errors of Modernism, religious liberty, and ecumenism condemned by St. Pius X and Pius IX. According to the unchanging doctrine of the Church, a manifest heretic loses all ecclesiastical office *ipso facto* (Canon 188.4, 1917 Code; Bellarmine, *De Romano Pontifice*). By showing “filial communion” with this antipope, the bishops publicly reject the Catholic Faith and align themselves with the “abomination of desolation” occupying the Vatican. Their plea for “security” and “common good” from a man who denies the exclusive salvific role of the Catholic Church (Syllabus of Errors, Proposition 18) is a spiritual absurdity. They ask a wolf to guard the sheep.
Silence on the Supernatural: The Omission of Christ’s Kingship
The article’s gravest defect is its complete silence on the *sole* solution to persecution: the public and social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas (1925), dogmatically taught that Christ’s kingdom is universal and that “states are happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.” He explicitly condemned secularism as the root cause of societal collapse: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The Nigerian bishops, however, speak only of “security,” “constitutional responsibility,” and “common good”—naturalistic concepts utterly divorced from the primacy of God’s laws. Their discourse mirrors the modernist “hermeneutics of discontinuity” that replaced the Social Kingship of Christ with the idolatry of man and the state.
The Conciliar Sect’s “Dialogue” as a Tool of Apostasy
The bishops’ mention of countering “false narratives” aligns with the conciliar sect’s obsession with “perception management” rather than truth. Modernism, as condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (Proposition 8), treats theology as a human science subject to “correction” by exegetes. Here, the bishops engage in the same relativistic game: debating “vocabulary” (Cardinal Okpaleke’s “many interpretations”) while ignoring the objective reality that Nigeria’s constitution is “lopsided in favor of Islam” (Archbishop Ugorji). The Syllabus of Errors (Proposition 77) condemns the idea that “it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State.” The bishops’ failure to demand the establishment of Catholicity in Nigeria’s laws is a direct surrender to the secularist errors Pius IX anathematized.
The “Beatification” of Blessed Iwene Tansi: A Symbol of Conciliar Corruption
The article’s reference to “Blessed Iwene Tansi” is a calculated insertion of the conciliar sect’s pseudo-sanctity. Tansi was beatified by the antipope John Paul II in 1998—a ceremony utterly null and void, as John Paul II was a manifest heretic who promoted religious liberty and syncretism (cf. Bellarmine on manifest heretics). The bishops’ assurance that the canonization cause is “proceeding according to the style of the Church” is a lie; the “style of the Church” before 1958 required miracles that were instantaneous, complete, and scientifically inexplicable. The post-conciliar “beatification” machine, as seen in the cases of the pseudo-mystic Faustina Kowalska (whose diary is on the Index of Forbidden Books) and the heretic John Paul II, is a tool of the Modernist revolution to create a “saintly” face for apostasy.
Political Engagement Without Christ: The Road to Slavery
The bishops’ call for “security for all” and criticism of “private interests” is a naturalistic echo of the Syllabus’s condemned errors. Proposition 58 teaches that “all the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation… of riches.” Their appeal to constitutional processes and “common good” accepts the secularist premise that the state is autonomous from Christ the King. Pius XI in Quas Primas warned: “If rulers… will have the conviction that they exercise authority… in the place of the Divine King… peace will flourish.” The opposite is true: when rulers are told they serve only “the people” (as in Nigeria’s constitution), they become tyrants. The bishops’ failure to proclaim “Christus Vincit, Christus Regnat” is a betrayal of their episcopal office.
The “Ad Limina” Farce: Communion with Apostasy
The entire *ad limina* ritual is a sacrilegious parody of the true visit *ad limina Apostolorum*. The bishops’ “filial communion” with Leo XIV is a formal cooperation in the sin of schism and heresy. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 2232) required bishops to swear fidelity to the Roman Pontiff as the “Vicar of Christ.” Leo XIV, who promotes the errors of Assisi and Pachamama, cannot be that Vicar. By participating, the Nigerian bishops become “fellow workers” (2 Cor. 6:15) with the “man of sin” (2 Thess. 2:3), thereby losing any right to be called Catholic shepherds.
Conclusion: A Call to Reject the Conciliar Sect and Restore Christ’s Reign
The Nigerian bishops’ appeal to the antipope is not a solution but a ratification of the apostasy that has unleashed persecution. As Pius XI taught, “the more the sweetest Name of our Redeemer is omitted… the more loudly it must be confessed.” The bishops must cease their naturalistic lobbying and instead:
1. Publicly denounce Leo XIV as a manifest heretic and usurper (Bellarmine, *De Romano Pontifice*).
2. Demand the restoration of the Social Kingship of Christ in Nigeria’s constitution, as Pius XI commanded in Quas Primas.
3. Reject all conciliar “beatifications” and return to the pre-1958 Martyrology.
4. Rally the faithful to the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary and the sacraments administered by priests in communion with the true Church, not the conciliar sect.
Without this, their cries are those of hirelings (John 10:12-13) who, by recognizing the wolf in sheep’s clothing, have abandoned the flock to the lions.
Source:
Nigerian Bishops Tell the Pope: Our People Are Dying (ncregister.com)
Date: 19.03.2026