EWTN News reports that on April 22, 2026, the usurper Robert Prevost, known as Leo XIV, visited Bata prison in Equatorial Guinea, telling inmates “no one is excluded from God’s love” and urging them to see that even behind bars, there remains the possibility of change, reconciliation, and hope. The “pontiff” was welcomed by local officials and the prison chaplain, Fr. Pergentino Esono Mba, who thanked him “for his message of mercy and forgiveness.” Leo XIV stressed that “true justice seeks not so much to punish as to help rebuild the lives of victims, offenders, and communities wounded by evil,” adding that “there is no justice without reconciliation” and that “God never grows tired of forgiving.” He also stopped at a memorial honoring victims of a 2021 explosion in Bata. This visit, while framed as an act of compassion, reveals the theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the conciliar sect’s approach to justice, mercy, and the supernatural order, stripping these concepts of their Catholic substance and reducing them to a naturalistic humanism devoid of the fear of God and the necessity of repentance.
The Usurper’s Presumption: Speaking in the Name of a God He Does Not Represent
The very premise of this visit is built upon a foundational lie: that Robert Prevost occupies the Chair of St. Peter and speaks with the authority of Christ’s Vicar on earth. As established in the Defense of Sedevacantism, a manifest heretic ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church (St. Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice). The conciliar sect, of which Leo XIV is the current figurehead, has propagated heresies condemned by the pre-1958 Magisterium — religious liberty, ecumenism, the democratization of the Church — rendering its claim to the papacy null and void. Pope Paul IV’s bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio explicitly states that if the Roman Pontiff has defected from the Catholic Faith, his elevation is null, void, and of no effect. Therefore, Leo XIV’s words from Bata prison carry no more spiritual weight than those of any other secular humanitarian; they are the pronouncements of a man who, by his adherence to the apostasy of Vatican II, has severed himself from the true Church. To attribute his words to “the Pope” or “the Church” is to participate in the grand deception of the conciliar era, an era that Pope Pius XI warned would be marked by the removal of Christ and His law from public life (Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio).
Mercy Without Justice: The Corruption of Catholic Doctrine
Leo XIV’s assertion that “true justice seeks not so much to punish as to help rebuild the lives of victims, offenders, and communities wounded by evil” is a direct assault on the Catholic understanding of justice. The Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches that justice is virtus quae sua cuique tribuit (the virtue which renders to each his due). This includes the rightful punishment of sin, both for the good of the offender and for the preservation of the common good. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, affirmed that Christ possesses judicial authority, which includes the right to reward and punish men even during their lifetime. To speak of justice without punishment is to deny the reality of sin and the divine order. The modernist notion of “restorative justice” or “reconciliation” divorced from the supernatural framework of sin, grace, and eternal consequences is a naturalistic perversion. It reduces the moral order to a social contract, ignoring the eternal destiny of souls. As St. Pius X warned in Lamentabili, the Modernists reject the idea that dogmas are truths of divine origin, instead seeing them as interpretations of religious facts worked out by the human mind (Proposition 22). Leo XIV’s “mercy” is precisely this: a humanistic sentiment, stripped of the supernatural, offering false comfort to those who may be in mortal sin, without the call to repentance and the sacramental means of reconciliation that only the true Church can offer.
The Omission of Repentance and the Sacraments
Perhaps the most damning omission in Leo XIV’s address is any mention of repentance, confession, or the sacraments. He tells inmates that “no one is excluded from God’s love” and that “God never grows tired of forgiving,” but he fails to specify the conditions for forgiveness. Catholic teaching is clear: forgiveness requires contritio cordis (contrition of the heart), oris confessio (confession of the mouth), and satisfactio operis (satisfaction by works) (Council of Trent, Session XIV). The conciliar sect has systematically undermined the sacrament of Penance, reducing it to a communal ritual or even abolishing it in practice, as condemned in Lamentabili (Proposition 46). Leo XIV’s words are a perfect reflection of this modernist tendency: offering a vague, unconditional “love” that does not demand conversion. This is the “false mercy” that Pope St. John Paul II (a heretic and antipope) was accused of promoting, but which has its roots in the post-conciliar rejection of the supernatural. As the Syllabus of Errors condemns, the Church has no right to require internal assent from the faithful to her pronouncements (Proposition 7, Lamentabili), reflecting the modernist desire to make faith a matter of sentiment rather than obedience.
The Naturalistic Humanism of the Conciliar Sect
The entire visit is framed in the language of secular humanism: “human dignity,” “hope,” “reconciliation,” “change.” These are the buzzwords of the United Nations, not of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition that the State, as the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits (Proposition 39). Yet Leo XIV’s message is entirely immanent, focused on earthly well-being and social reintegration, with no reference to the supernatural end of man. The Quas Primas encyclical insists that Christ’s kingdom encompasses all men, and not only Catholic nations, but also non-Christians, so that the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ. By reducing the Gospel to a message of social hope, Leo XIV betrays the royal dignity of Christ, making the Church a servant of the world rather than its judge and guide. This is the “laicism” that Pius XI decried in Quas Primas, the secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors.
The Chaplain’s Complicity and the Neo-Church’s Captivity
The prison chaplain, Fr. Pergentino Esono Mba, thanked Leo XIV for “his message of mercy and forgiveness,” saying, “Your example inspires us to believe in the possibility of change and to trust that, even in darkness, God always opens a door of light and hope.” This is the language of the conciliar sect, a church that has replaced the supernatural certainties of the faith with vague platitudes. A true Catholic chaplain would have reminded the inmates of the necessity of confession, the reality of hell, and the urgency of repentance. Instead, he echoes the modernist mantra of “hope” and “change,” aligning himself with the apostate structures of the neo-church. The chaplain’s 24 years of service in the prison are rendered spiritually fruitless if he is merely a functionary of a system that denies the fullness of Catholic truth. As Pope St. Pius X warned in Pascendi, the Modernists are enemies within the Church, and their influence is seen in the transformation of the clergy into social workers and psychologists, rather than soldiers of Christ.
The Memorial Stop: A Gesture of Political Correctness
Leo XIV’s brief stop at the memorial for victims of the 2021 Bata explosion, while seemingly compassionate, is another example of the conciliar sect’s obsession with political correctness and secular gestures. The true Church would offer Mass for the repose of the souls of the dead, pray for their eternal salvation, and call the living to repentance. Instead, the usurper merely “stopped briefly to pray,” a vague and likely ecumenical gesture that could mean anything or nothing. This is consistent with the post-conciliar practice of interfaith prayer services, condemned by the pre-1958 Magisterium as a denial of the uniqueness of Christ and His Church. The Syllabus of Errors condemns the proposition that man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation (Proposition 16). By engaging in such gestures, Leo XIV reinforces the modernist lie that all paths lead to God, and that the Church’s primary role is to affirm, not to convert.
The Silence on the True Church and the Necessity of the True Mass
Throughout this entire event, there is no mention of the true Catholic Church, the necessity of the True Mass, or the sacraments as the only means of salvation. The “Mass” celebrated by Leo XIV in Mongomo earlier that day was undoubtedly the Novus Ordo Missae, the Protestantized liturgy of Paul VI (a heretic and antipope), which the Defense of Sedevacantism recognizes as invalid or, at best, illicit and dangerous to faith. The Quas Primas encyclical emphasizes that the Church’s liturgy must render honor to Christ the King, but the Novus Ordo is a “table of assembly” that denies the propitiatory nature of the Sacrifice. By failing to call the inmates to the True Mass and the sacraments, Leo XIV condemns them to a false sense of security, offering them the bread of humanism instead of the Bread of Life.
Conclusion: The Spiritual Bankruptcy of the Conciliar Sect
Leo XIV’s visit to Bata prison is a microcosm of the conciliar apostasy: a usurper, claiming a authority he does not possess, offers a message of mercy without justice, hope without repentance, and love without truth. It is the culmination of the modernist revolution that Pope St. Pius X condemned as the synthesis of all heresies (Pascendi Dominici Gregis). The true Church, enduring in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith and are led by bishops with valid sacraments, must reject this false mercy and call all men — including prisoners — to the fullness of truth: that Christ is King, that His Church is the only ark of salvation, and that without repentance and the sacraments, there is no hope of eternal life. As Pope Pius XI declared, the hope of lasting peace will not shine upon nations as long as individuals and states renounce and do not wish to recognize the reign of our Savior (Quas Primas). Leo XIV’s words from Bata prison are not the words of Christ’s Vicar, but of the Antichrist’s precursor, leading souls not to the Kingdom of God, but to the kingdom of man.
Source:
Pope Leo XIV to prisoners: ‘No one is excluded from God’s love’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 22.04.2026