The “Journey” of Apostasy: Leo XIV’s Good Friday Naturalism
On April 3, 2026, the antipope residing in Rome, “Pope” Leo XIV, carried the cross during the Via Crucis at the Colosseum. Media reports indicate this was the first personal appearance by a “pontiff” at this event in four years, a detail highlighting the performative nature of the conciliar sect’s liturgical theater. The central theme promoted was the exhortation to “live our lives as a journey” in Christ’s love, accompanied by meditations written by “Father” Francesco Patton that focused on “answering for the power we exercise in our daily lives.” This presentation constitutes a masterclass in modernist apostasy, systematically stripping the Passion of its supernatural, sacrificial, and juridical meaning to reduce it to a vague, naturalistic humanism. It is a calculated diversion from the true Catholic doctrine of the Redemption and a blasphemous mockery of the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord.
1. The “Journey” as Naturalistic Humanism
The article’s headline and the antipope’s concluding prayer encapsulate the error: “live our lives as a journey” and the prayer to “follow in the footprints of your beloved Son.” This language is not Catholic; it is the sentimental, evolutionist jargon of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X. The Lamentabili sane exitu (1907) explicitly condemns the proposition that “Christian doctrine was initially Jewish, but through gradual development, it became first Pauline, then Johannine, and finally Greek and universal” (Proposition 60). The “journey” metaphor implies a progressive, evolving understanding of faith and life, directly contradicting the immutable, dogmatic faith of the Church. The Catholic life is not an open-ended “journey” of self-discovery; it is a narrow path (Matt. 7:14) of strict obedience to God’s law, a combat (2 Tim. 2:5) against the world, the flesh, and the devil, culminating in the judgment (Heb. 9:27). The antipope’s phrase empties the Cross of its operative, redemptive power and transforms it into a mere inspirational symbol for personal ethical development.
Furthermore, the focus on “answering for the power we exercise” is a secular humanist trope. The meditations speak of authority answering for “the power to initiate a war or to end it” and “the power to trample upon human dignity.” This is the language of social justice and human rights, not of Catholic theology. The Syllabus of Errors (1864) anathematizes the separation of Church and State (Error 55) and the idea that civil authority is the origin of all rights (Error 39). The true Catholic teaching, as defined by Pope Pius IX and Leo XIII, is that all authority comes from God (Rom. 13:1), and the primary duty of rulers is to publicly honor Christ the King and govern according to His law (Pius XI, Quas Primas). The meditation’s silence on the divine law, the social reign of Christ, and the obligation of the State to recognize the Catholic Church as the sole religion of the State (Syllabus, Error 77) exposes its conciliar, modernist foundation, which seeks to dialogue with the world on the world’s naturalistic terms.
2. The Omission of the Supernatural: The Gravest Sin
The analysis of subtext and omissions is decisive. The article, the antipope’s prayer, and the meditations are conspicuously silent on the supernatural. There is no mention of:
- Sin: The cause of Christ’s Passion. The antipope speaks of “suffering” in generic terms, not of sin which offends God and merits eternal punishment.
- Sacrifice: The Mass is the unbloody sacrifice of Calvary. The Via Crucis is a participation in that one sacrifice. The article reduces it to a “journey” of “love,” severing it from its expiatory, propitiatory, and satisfactory nature. This is the heresy of symbolism condemned in Lamentabili (e.g., Proposition 41: “The sacraments merely serve to remind man of the presence of the ever-benevolent Creator”).
- Grace: No reference to sanctifying grace, the life of the soul, lost by mortal sin and restored through the Sacraments. The “journey” implies an immanent human development, not a supernatural transformation.
- The State of Grace: The absolute necessity of being in the state of grace at death to avoid eternal damnation. The “love” spoken of is vague sentiment, not the theological virtue of charity, which requires obedience to God’s commandments (John 14:15).
- The Final Judgment: The article’s focus on “answering for power” is relativistic and horizontal. The Catholic truth is that every soul will answer before the tribunal of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) for every thought, word, and deed, and be judged according to the law of God. This is absent.
- The Mass: The antipope had just celebrated Good Friday in St. Peter’s. The article mentions no details, but we know the post-conciliar “liturgy” has destroyed the sacrificial nature of the Mass. The Ordo Missae of Paul VI removed the explicit sacrificial language from the Canon. This is the ultimate expression of the apostasy: making the Sacrifice of the Mass into a “meal” or “celebration.”
This systematic omission is not accidental; it is the hallmark of the conciliar sect’s religion. It is a religion of man, not of God. It is the “cult of man” condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus (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”). The “journey” is the journey of the autonomous self toward self-fulfillment, with Christ as a mere companion or inspiration, not as God and King whose law must be obeyed.
3. The “Francis” Legacy of Naturalism and False Ecumenism
The choice of meditations by “Fr.” Francesco Patton, former Custos of the Holy Land, is deeply significant. The Custody of the Holy Land is a hotbed of interreligious dialogue and religious indifferentism, precisely the errors condemned by the Syllabus (Errors 15-18 on Indifferentism). Patton’s meditation, with its focus on “answering for power” in a universal, non-confessional sense, is a direct fruit of the “ecumenical” spirit of Vatican II’s Nostra aetate. This document, which the pre-1958 Church would have condemned as a capitulation to the errors of the Syllabus (especially Error 18: “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion”), opened the floodgates to the relativization of Catholic truth. The Via Crucis at the Colosseum, under the auspices of this “Custody,” becomes a stage for a religious spectacle where the unique, exclusive, and necessary role of Christ as Redeemer and King is obscured behind a veneer of generic “love” and “journeying.”
4. The “Papal” Performance as a Sign of Usurpation
The article notes the antipope’s personal carrying of the cross as “an important sign.” What sign? The sign of a false pontiff simulating a function he does not possess. The theology of the papacy, as defined by St. Robert Bellarmine and the canon law of the Church, requires the pope to be a Catholic in the full, integral sense. As the Defense of Sedevacantism file demonstrates from Bellarmine and Pope Paul IV’s bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, a manifest heretic ipso facto loses all ecclesiastical office, including the papacy. The post-conciliar “popes,” from John XXIII through Leo XIV, have consistently, publicly, and obstinately held and promulgated the errors of Modernism—the “synthesis of all heresies” (St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici gregis). Therefore, they are not popes. Their liturgical actions, however traditional in form (like carrying a cross), are invalid and sacrilegious because they are performed by those who are outside the Church and often in a “liturgy” that is itself a corrupt, Protestantized rite. The antipope’s act is a diabolical mimicry, a theatrical performance designed to lend credibility to the conciliar sect’s false claim to be the Catholic Church.
5. The True Catholic Via Crucis vs. the Conciliar Simulation
The true Catholic Via Crucis, as promoted by St. Francis of Assisi and enshrined in the traditional liturgical books, is a meditation on the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ as the sole, sufficient, and infinitely meritorious sacrifice for the redemption of the world. It is a call to penance, mortification, and imitation of Christ in His suffering. It reminds the faithful that their sins caused the stripes, the thorns, the nails. It is a stark confrontation with the horror of sin and the infinite justice of God. The antipope’s “journey” replaces this with a vague, feel-good “following in the footprints.” The true Way of the Cross leads to Calvary and the altar of sacrifice; the conciliar “journey” leads nowhere but into the abyss of subjectivism and apostasy.
The prayer quoted by Leo XIV, from St. Francis, is itself a target of Modernist reinterpretation. The authentic St. Francis prayed to be “cleansed” and “enlightened” to “do for you alone what we know you want us to do”—an absolute conformity to God’s known will, which is expressed in His law and the teachings of His Church. The conciliar reading of this prayer strips it of its objective content. “What we know you want us to do” is no longer understood as “keep my commandments” (John 14:15) and “teach all nations” (Matt. 28:20) with the exclusive, mandatory authority of the Catholic Church. It is reduced to a personal, subjective “discovery” of God’s will within the “journey” of life, perfectly aligning with the errors of “discernment” and “accompaniment” that dominate the post-conciliar “pastoral” model.
Conclusion: The Apostasy is Total
The article from EWTN News (a modernized “Catholic” outlet) presents the antipope Leo XIV’s Good Friday appearance as a moment of piety and leadership. This is a lie. It is a moment of apostasy. The “journey” theology is a denial of the sacrifice of Calvary. The focus on “power” is a secularization of the kingship of Christ. The silence on sin, grace, judgment, and the exclusive necessity of the Catholic Church is a denial of the very Gospel. As Pope Pius IX taught in the Syllabus, the errors of the day seek to “remove God and Jesus Christ from laws and states” (Error 39 commentary). The antipope’s performance does exactly this: it removes the judicial, expiatory, and sovereign Christ and replaces Him with a companion on a sentimental “journey.” This is the religion of the Antichrist, which will culminate in the final apostasy. The only “journey” for Catholics is the narrow path of integral Tradition, outside of which there is no salvation (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus), a path that leads through the true Mass, the true sacraments, and the true hierarchy—none of which are present in the conciliar sect.
Source:
At the Colosseum, Pope Leo XIV urges the faithful to 'live our lives as a journey' in Christ's love (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 03.04.2026