The Blood of Martyrs Without the Reign of Christ the King
The cited article from the *National Catholic Register*, authored by Father Raymond J. de Souza, presents a devotional meditation on the Seven Last Words of Christ, focusing on the first word, “Father, forgive them.” It uses the occasion to highlight the historical precedence of Catholic martyrdom in North America, predating the United States, through figures such as the Spanish “Georgia Martyrs” (1597), St. Isaac Jogues (1646), and St. Juan de Padilla (1541). The article contrasts the Catholic missionary enterprise with the later Protestant “Pilgrims” and notes the upcoming beatification of Fulton Sheen. The underlying thesis is that the Catholic faith, through the sacrifice of martyrs, consecrated the land long before the American Revolution, and that the pattern of Christ’s forgiveness from the Cross is the model for all Christian witness.
The sharp critical thesis is this: The article, while employing traditional devotional language, fundamentally reduces the Catholic Faith to a naturalistic ethic of “witness” and “forgiveness,” utterly divorced from the **integral reign of Christ the King** over all societies and nations as defined by the unchanging Magisterium before the conciliar apostasy. It promotes a sentimental, individualized piety that silently accepts the modernist separation of religion from public life, thereby becoming an unwitting tool of the very secularism condemned by Pius XI in *Quas Primas* and Pius IX in the *Syllabus of Errors*. The article’s omissions are more damning than its content.
1. The Historical Omission: Catholic America or Spanish Christendom?
The article correctly notes that Catholic missionaries arrived in North America before the Protestant Pilgrims. However, it frames this within the narrative of “the United States” and “American” history, using terms like “the land was consecrated by the blood of martyrs long before any soldiers fell in the Revolutionary War.” This subtly accepts the premise of the United States as a neutral political entity to which the Faith was later added. It ignores the Catholic doctrine of the **social reign of Christ the King**, which demands that nations be explicitly consecrated to Him and that their laws and constitutions reflect His divine law.
The Spanish missionaries came as agents of the **Catholic Monarchs**, Ferdinand and Isabella, who governed their realms under the requirement that “the Catholic religion shall be the only one allowed” (as reaffirmed by Pius IX in the *Syllabus*, Error 77). The martyrdoms occurred within the context of a *Catholic empire* attempting to establish a society ordered to the Faith. The article’s silence on this political dimension is a silent endorsement of the Americanist heresy of the separation of Church and State. It presents the martyrs as proto-American citizens who died for a generic “faith,” rather than as soldiers of Christ who died defending the **indivisible unity of the Church and a Catholic social order** against pagan errors. This is the error of *Indifferentism* (Syllabus, Errors 15-17) applied retroactively to history.
2. The Theological Vacuum: Absence of Christ’s Judicial Authority
The entire meditation is built on the first word of Christ from the Cross: “Father, forgive them.” It emphasizes mercy, forgiveness, and love for enemies. This is undeniably a Christian virtue. However, the article presents it in **complete isolation** from the full doctrine of Christ’s Kingship, which Pius XI defined in *Quas Primas* as possessing a **threefold authority**: legislative, judicial, and executive.
> “To define the power and essence of this reign, we will briefly say that it consists of a threefold authority, without which we could not even understand the reign… Concerning the judicial authority, which Jesus received from the Father, He Himself says… ‘for the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.’ In this judicial authority, as an inseparable part of judgment, is also included the right of the judge to reward and punish men even during their lifetime.” (*Quas Primas*, 1925)
The article’s Christ is a Savior who forgives, but not a King who judges. It omits the terrifying reality that **those who crucify Christ “know not what they do,” yet this ignorance does not exempt them from the judgment of the living God**. The article fails to connect the martyr’s death to the **defense of Christ’s rights over a society**. The Georgia Martyrs died because a chief, Juanillo, wanted to practice polygamy—a violation of the **natural law as defined by the Catholic Church**. Their martyrdom was a **judicial act** of the Church’s mission to govern souls and, by extension, societies. By reducing their sacrifice to a mere example of “forgiveness,” the article strips it of its **polemical, juridical, and social character**. It turns martyrs into passive victims rather than active defenders of the **immutable laws of God** against pagan customs. This is the modernist error of reducing religion to a private sentiment, condemned by Pius IX:
> “The civil authority… possesses not only the right called that of ‘exsequatur,’ but also that of appeal, called ‘appellatio ab abusu.’” (Syllabus, Error 41) — an error which assumes the State can judge the Church’s exercise of its judicial authority. The martyrs’ blood, according to Pius XI, should water the soil for the **public recognition of Christ’s law**, not merely inspire personal piety.
3. The Conciliar “Beatification” as Apostate Signature
The article states: “A few weeks after Fulton Sheen is beatified this fall…” This is a fatal flaw. The “beatification” of Fulton Sheen is an act of the **conciliar sect**, specifically of “Pope” Francis (Jorge Bergoglio). Sheen, while a popular television personality, held numerous ambiguous positions on ecumenism and the nature of the Church, and his cause was promoted by the very architects of Vatican II’s revolution. His “beatification” is a **null and invalid act** performed by an **antipope** (“Pope” Leo XIV’s predecessor in the line of usurpers beginning with John XXIII). From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, Sheen is not a blessed soul in Heaven but a probable soul in peril, and his “cult” is a **sacrilegious mockery** of the true veneration of saints.
The article’s casual acceptance of this “beatification” demonstrates its complete **submission to the post-conciliar structures**. It treats the conciliar “saints” and “martyrs” as legitimate, thereby endorsing the **ecumenical, naturalistic religion** of the Vatican II sect. As St. Pius X taught in *Pascendi Dominici gregis* and *Lamentabili sane exitu*, Modernism seeks to “reform” the Church by adapting it to the spirit of the age. The article, by linking the ancient martyrs to the new conciliar “martyrs” (like the Georgia Martyrs, who are true pre-1958 saints, with Fulton Sheen, a post-1958 figure), **equates the immutable Faith of the martyrs with the evolving religion of the conciliar apostates**. This is the core error of **hermeneutics of continuity**, which Pius X condemned as the synthesis of all heresies.
4. The Silence on the Social Kingship: The Gravest Omission
The article’s tone is one of quiet devotion, but its **silence** is deafening. It never once mentions that the martyrs died for a **society**—the Spanish missions in Guale territory—which was to be a **visible reflection of the Kingdom of Christ**. It does not quote Pius XI’s thunderous declaration:
> “If men were ever to recognize Christ’s royal authority over themselves, both privately and publicly, then unheard-of blessings would flow upon the whole society… For what we wrote at the beginning of Our Pontificate about the diminishing authority of law and respect for power, the same can be applied to the present times: ‘When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.’” (*Quas Primas*)
The article instead presents the martyrs as individuals who forgave personal enemies. It **relativizes** the Faith into a private morality, exactly the error condemned by the *Syllabus*:
> “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” (Error 55)
> “It is not lawful for bishops to publish even letters Apostolic without the permission of Government.” (Error 28)
The Georgia Martyrs were killed because they **asserted the Church’s authority over marriage** in a territory that was, in the Spanish view, part of Christendom. Their blood was a witness to the **social doctrine of the Church**, not merely to personal forgiveness. The article’s failure to frame their sacrifice in this light is a **betrayal of their true motive**. It makes their death meaningless in social terms, reducing it to a sentimental story about “loving your enemies” while the **enemy—the State, the pagan chief, the false religion—is implicitly granted its own autonomous sphere**. This is the **naturalism** of the conciliar sect, which speaks of “dialogue” and “witness” but never of **dominion**.
5. The “Pilgrims” as a False Antithesis
The article sets up the Catholic missionaries against the “Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock… seeking religious liberty.” This is a **catastrophic theological error**. The *Syllabus of Errors* explicitly condemns the idea that “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Error 15) and that “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Error 16). The Pilgrims sought a “liberty” that was, in Catholic doctrine, a **liberty from the true Faith**—a license to practice heresy. By contrasting the Catholic martyrs with the Pilgrims without condemning the Pilgrims’ religious indifferentism, the article **implicitly endorses the Americanist heresy** that all religions are equally paths to God, and that the State can be neutral. The true Catholic position is that **no State can be neutral**; it must either serve Christ the King or serve the devil (cf. *Quas Primas*).
The article’s narrative suggests that the Catholic Church in America was a precursor to the pluralistic “American experiment.” This is a **modernist reinterpretation of history** designed to make the Faith palatable to the secular mind. The *Syllabus* condemned those who think “the civil power… has a right to an indirect negative power over religious affairs” (Error 41). The Spanish Crown, for all its flaws, at least recognized the **patronato real**—the royal patronage that subordinated the State to the Church’s mission. The article’s silence on this is a **whitewashing of Catholic political doctrine**.
6. The Martyrdom of the “Georgia Martyrs” Recontextualized
The article describes the martyrdom of the five Franciscans for defending marriage against Chief Juanillo’s desire for polygamy. It notes that the surviving friar, Francisco de Ávila, “refused to testify against the men in a trial because he knew they would be put to death if convicted.” This is presented as an act of Christian mercy. But from the integral Catholic perspective, this is a **dangerous ambiguity**.
The true Catholic doctrine, as seen in the actions of the early Church and the teachings of the Fathers, is that **heresy and apostasy must be punished by the legitimate authority**. St. Robert Bellarmine, cited in the *Defense of Sedevacantism* file, explains that a manifest heretic loses all jurisdiction. Juanillo, having been baptized, was a **manifest heretic and apostate** for rejecting the Church’s law on marriage and killing the missionaries. The civil authority, in a Catholic society, has the duty to **punish such crimes** to protect the common good and the honor of God. Ávila’s refusal to cooperate with a just trial, while perhaps motivated by personal mercy, could be seen as a **dereliction of his duty to the social order**. The article presents this as the ideal, thereby **weakening the doctrine of the State’s duty to punish heresy and sacrilege**, a doctrine defined by the Council of Trent and Pius IX.
Conclusion: A Call to Return to the Unchanging Faith
The article by Father de Souza is a **symptom of the post-conciliar disease**. It takes the glorious, uncompromising witness of Catholic martyrs—who died for the **total claim of Christ over individuals and societies**—and reduces it to a **generic, ecumenical message of forgiveness** that fits neatly into the **naturalistic, humanistic framework** of the conciliar sect. It speaks of “martyrdom” but strips it of its **juridical and social content**. It celebrates the “older than America” Faith but divorces it from the **Catholic doctrine of the State** that made the Spanish missions possible. It mentions the upcoming “beatification” of a modernist icon as if it were a normal Catholic event.
This is not the Faith of the martyrs. This is the **faith of the apostates**. As Pius XI warned in *Quas Primas*, the feast of Christ the King was instituted to combat the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism.” The article, in its silence on the social reign, **preaches the very secularism** Pius XI condemned. The martyrs of Georgia, Jogues, and Padilla did not die so that their blood could water the soil of a “free” society where all religions are tolerated. They died to **consecrate that soil to Christ the King alone**, and to establish a society where the **laws of the Church are the laws of the land**.
The only adequate response to such naturalistic piety is the **uncompromising proclamation** of the *Syllabus of Errors* and *Quas Primas*: **There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church; the State must recognize Jesus Christ as its King; and the “beatifications” and “saints” of the conciliar sect are null and void.** The blood of the true martyrs cries out not for vague “forgiveness,” but for the **restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King** and the **overthrow of the modernist abomination** that occupies the Vatican.
**TAGS:** Christ the King, martyrdom, social reign, Quas Primas, Syllabus of Errors, Fulton Sheen, Georgia Martyrs, conciliar apostasy, naturalism, sedevacantism
Source:
First Word from the Cross: Older Than America — The Blood of the Martyrs (ncregister.com)
Date: 30.03.2026