The cited article from EWTN News (April 3, 2026) reports on the public participation of the apostate figure “Pope Leo XIV” in the Via Crucis at the Colosseum, emphasizing his personal carrying of the cross and his call for the faithful to “live our lives as a journey.” This event is presented as a significant liturgical and pastoral moment, marking the first appearance of a “papal” figure at this devotion in four years. The article’s tone is one of routine reporting of a pious act, masking the profound theological and doctrinal abyss it represents. The core error is the presentation of a modernist, naturalistic “spirituality of the journey” as a substitute for the immutable Catholic doctrine of redemption, sacrifice, and the absolute kingship of Christ over all aspects of life, which the post-conciliar sect has systematically dismantled.
The “Journey” as Modernist Heresy: Evolution of Dogma in Practice
The central theme promoted by the antipope is the metaphor of life as a “journey.” This is not a harmless devotional expression but a direct manifestation of the condemned Modernist principle of the evolution of dogma. The Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX (1864) condemns the proposition that “Christian doctrine was initially Jewish, but through gradual development, it became first Pauline, then Johannine, and finally Greek and universal” (Error 60). The “journey” metaphor implies that truth, understanding, and even doctrine are not fixed realities to be believed but are a personal, evolving process. This is the heresy of doctrinal development, anathematized by St. Pius X in *Lamentabili sane exitu* (1907), which condemns the errors that “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (Error 58) and that “Christ did not proclaim any specific, all-encompassing doctrine suitable for all times and peoples, but rather initiated a certain religious movement” (Error 59). The article’s uncritical reporting of this language normalizes apostasy.
Omission of the Propitiatory Sacrifice and the Reign of Christ the King
The Via Crucis is, in its authentic Catholic sense, a meditation on the one, perfect, and propitiatory Sacrifice of Calvary. It is an act of reparation for sin and a public confession of Christ’s kingship won through His Blood. The article contains a glaring and damning silence on these supernatural realities. There is no mention of sin, no reference to the just wrath of God, no call for repentance, no acknowledgment of the Holy Mass as the re-presentation of that sacrifice. This silence is the hallmark of the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15). In contrast, Pope Pius XI, in the encyclical *Quas Primas* (1925), instituted the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that “denied Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations” and to remind states and individuals that “all power in heaven and on earth is given to Christ the Lord.” The antipope’s performance, devoid of this royal and sacrificial context, reduces the Way of the Cross to a mere ethical walk, a “journey” of personal inspiration, perfectly aligning with the secular humanism Pius XI lamented. The article quotes the antipope urging the Church to “follow in the footprints” of Christ, but the implication is a mere moral imitation, not the Catholic truth of being configured to Christ through grace, sacraments, and submission to His law.
The Theater of Legitimacy: Occupying Sacred Space
The event takes place at the Colosseum, a site of early Christian martyrdom. The post-conciliar sect’s occupation of this space is a calculated act of symbolic usurpation. It visually appropriates the glory of the martyrs while completely emptying their witness of its meaning. The martyrs died for the integrity of the Catholic faith, refusing to offer sacrifice to false gods. The antipope, representing a sect that promotes religious liberty (condemned in Syllabus Error 15-16) and ecumenism (a project of syncretism), performs a ritual that has been stripped of its sacrificial and dogmatic content. The article notes the “flickering cross” and candles, focusing on aesthetics and emotion—the very tools of the “disinformation strategy” described in the analysis of the false Fatima apparitions, where spectacle replaces substance. This is the “cult of man” in action: a focus on human experience (“live our lives as a journey”) over God’s rights.
Linguistic Analysis: The Language of Naturalism
The vocabulary employed is meticulously naturalistic and psychological. “Live our lives as a journey,” “follow in the footprints,” “love” (mentioned in the related article title). These are the buzzwords of modern pastoral psychology, not the language of Catholic theology. The pre-conciliar Church spoke of imitation of Christ, carrying the cross in reparation, satisfaction, and conformity to the Crucified. The shift to “journey” reflects the Modernist heresy that “faith is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities” (*Lamentabili*, Error 25) and that dogmas are “binding in action, rather than as principles of belief” (Error 26). The language is vague, open-ended, and subjective—perfect for a sect that has no fixed dogmas to defend.
Symptomatic of the Conciliar Revolution’s Apostasy
This event is not an anomaly but a logical consequence of the “conciliar revolution.” The “papal” figure’s presence at the Colosseum after a four-year absence is a PR stunt to manufacture continuity and piety, distracting from the sect’s ongoing doctrinal collapse. It serves the “ecumenism project” by presenting a palatable, non-dogmatic face of Catholicism to the world. The article, sourced from EWTN, itself a flagship of the conciliar apparatus, functions as propaganda for the “neo-church.” It promotes the false idea that the essence of Catholicism can be found in such external, emotionally charged rituals, even when performed by a manifest heretic (the antipope “Leo XIV” and his predecessors have promulgated heresies on religion, morality, and the Church, satisfying the criteria for automatic loss of office per Bellarmine and Canon 188.4). The complete absence of any reference to the necessity of the Catholic faith for salvation, the duty of the state to recognize Christ as King (as demanded by *Quas Primas*), or the horror of sin, exposes this as an act of idolatrous theater. As the Syllabus declares (Error 80): “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.” This Via Crucis is the exact fulfillment of that condemned error: a “reconciliation” of the symbol of the Cross with the spirit of the world.
Contrast with Immutable Catholic Teaching
True Catholic piety, as taught before the apostasy of the mid-20th century, would have focused this Good Friday on:
1. The sacrifice of the Mass as the same offering of Calvary made present.
2. The propitiatory nature of Christ’s Blood for the remission of sin.
3. The kingship of Christ, which demands that all human laws and societies be ordered to His glory, a truth Pius XI proclaimed in *Quas Primas*: “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders… but let rulers… fulfill this duty themselves… if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate.”
4. The necessity of being in the true Church for salvation, condemned as an error by the Syllabus (Errors 15-18).
5. The duty of reparation for the sins of the world and the blasphemies against Christ’s kingship.
The article presents none of this. Instead, it offers a sentimental, individualistic “journey” compatible with any “religion of the heart.” This is the “natural religion” and “indifferentism” Pius IX condemned. The antipope’s act is a blasphemous parody of the true Via Crucis, a syncretistic ritual suitable for the “Church of the New Advent” that worships man, not God.
Conclusion: The EWTN report on “Pope Leo XIV’s” Via Crucis is a documented piece of apostasy. It showcases the conciliar sect’s perfected method: occupying Catholic symbols, using traditional language while emptying it of its supernatural content, and promoting a modernist, evolutionary “spirituality” that directly contradicts the dogmatic, sacrificial, and royal Faith of all time. The event is a sacrilegious spectacle, and its reporting is an act of complicity in the great apostasy foretold by St. Pius X. The faithful are not being led to the foot of the Cross for reparation and conversion, but on a vague “journey” of self-discovery, precisely the error that *Lamentabili* and the Syllabus sought to extirpate.
Source:
PHOTOS: Pope Leo XIV carries the cross at the Via Crucis in the Colosseum (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 03.04.2026