EWTN News reports that José Dionisio Gómez, auxiliary bishop-elect of Caracas, Venezuela, offered reflections to ACI Prensa on how Venezuelan society can be rebuilt in light of Easter, emphasizing hope, reconciliation, and solidarity amid political and economic crisis. While invoking Christ’s resurrection, the prelate’s discourse remains entirely within the naturalistic framework of human effort, political amnesty, and social fraternity — devoid of any mention of the supernatural order, the necessity of conversion to the Catholic faith, the sacramental life, or the Social Kingship of Christ. This is precisely the hallmark of the conciliar neo-church: reducing the Gospel to a program of humanitarian optimism while remaining silent on the only true foundation of peace and justice — the reign of Christ the King over individuals, families, and states.
The Resurrection Reduced to Human Resilience
Gómez stated that “Christ’s resurrection is a source of solace and strength” and that Venezuelans “possess the capacity, through the grace of God and with the solidarity of their brothers and sisters, to overcome” suffering. He further declared: “To rise with Christ is to strive to be better people and better witnesses to his resurrection.”
At first glance, these words appear pious. But what do they actually mean? The resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ — the central mystery of our faith, the historical and supernatural fact by which God conquered sin and death, opening the gates of Heaven to the elect — is here reduced to a metaphor for human perseverance. “Rising with Christ” becomes synonymous with “striving to be better people,” a purely naturalistic moralism indistinguishable from secular self-help philosophy.
Where is the recognition that without sanctifying grace, received through the sacraments, no man can rise from the state of mortal sin? Where is the acknowledgment that the resurrection demands faith, repentance, baptism, and perseverance in the commandments? The silence is deafening — and damning.
Pius XI, in Quas Primas (1925), taught with unmistakable clarity: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations or to those who, by receiving baptism according to law, belong to the Church, even though their erroneous opinions have led them astray or discord has separated them from love, but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” The kingdom of Christ is not a vague inspiration for social betterment; it is a real, public, and binding authority over every nation and every soul.
Solidarity Without the Supernatural: A Masonic Slogan in Episcopal Vestments
The bishop-elect repeatedly invoked “solidarity,” “brotherhood,” and “the common good” — phrases that, stripped of their Catholic supernatural content, are indistinguishable from the language of Freemasonry and secular humanitarianism. He stated: “A society achieves reconciliation and rebuilds itself not with heroes but with free, responsible people capable of living together with dignity and building a future worthy of hope.”
This is the language of the conciliar revolution — the same revolution that produced Dignitatis Humanae (Vatican II’s declaration on religious freedom, condemned in advance by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, propositions 77-79). The “dignity” of man apart from his supernatural end — the vision of God in eternity — is a modernist fiction. As St. Pius X warned in Lamentabili (1907), proposition 65: “Contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism.” Gómez’s discourse is precisely this: dogmaless, sacramentless, and Christless in everything but name.
The Syllabus of Errors condemned the proposition that “the entire government of public schools… may and ought to appertain to the civil power” (prop. 45) and that “Catholics may approve of the system of educating youth unconnected with Catholic faith and the power of the Church” (prop. 48). Yet Gómez speaks of “education for peace” and “nonviolence” without any reference to Catholic doctrine, the teaching authority of the Church, or the formation of youth in the faith. What kind of “peace” is this that has no foundation in the peace of Christ, which He Himself said He came to bring — a peace the world cannot give (John 14:27)?
The Amnesty Law: Mercy Without Justice, Forgiveness Without Repentance
Gómez commented on Venezuela’s Law on Amnesty and National Reconciliation: “The amnesty law is also the law of God’s mercy, who desires that all men be saved. For this reason, he offers his forgiveness to all.” He added: “A wounded country and a wounded human being are healed through forgiveness and reconciliation by setting aside interests of any kind and always seeking paths toward the common good and brotherhood, where we are all one despite our differing ways of thinking, accepting one another.”
This is a gross distortion of divine mercy. God’s mercy is not an amnesty that bypasses justice — it is offered to the repentant sinner who confesss his sins, makes satisfaction, and resolves to amend his life. The Church has always taught that mercy and justice are both attributes of God, and that one cannot be set aside for the other. As the Council of Trent declared, the sacrament of penance requires contrition, confession, and satisfaction — not a blanket political amnesty that “sets aside what divides us.”
Moreover, the phrase “we are all one despite our differing ways of thinking” is pure indifferentism — the heresy condemned by Pius IX in the Syllatus (prop. 15-18): “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” and “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation.” To say that differing ways of thinking should be “accepted” in the name of brotherhood is to deny that there is one truth, one faith, one baptism (Eph 4:5), and that the Catholic Church is the only ark of salvation.
St. José Gregorio Hernández: A Saint Co-opted by the Conciliar Sect
Gómez invoked the example of St. José Gregorio Hernández, “who offered his life for the end of World War I.” While Hernández is a figure venerated in Venezuela, his invocation here serves only to reinforce the naturalistic tone of the discourse — a holy man reduced to a model of humanitarian self-sacrifice, stripped of the supernatural context of prayer, sacrifice, and intercession through the true Mass and sacraments.
The conciar sect consistently coopts pre-conciliar saints and blesseds, stripping their lives and witness of doctrinal content and repackaging them as models of “social commitment” and “solidarity.” This is not veneration — it is exploitation in service of the modernist agenda.
The Capture of Maduro and the “New Political Era”: Where Is the Church’s Voice?
The article notes that the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. military forces in January 2026 “ushered in a new political era.” Gómez acknowledged this but offered no moral framework for evaluating the situation in light of Catholic teaching on just governance, the rights of the Church, the duty of Catholic states to profess the faith, or the principles of legitimate authority.
Pius XI in Quas Primas was unequivocal: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ, but let them fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.” Where is this teaching in Gómez’s discourse? Nowhere. The “new political era” is greeted with cautious optimism, but without any demand that the new order recognize the kingship of Christ, submit to the Church’s authority, or govern according to the commandments of God.
This is the abomination of desolation speaking through the mouth of a bishop-elect: a Church that has abdicated its divine mission to teach, govern, and sanctify, and that now contents itself with offering platitudes about “hope” and “reconciliation” while the world burns.
The Franciscan Jubilee Year: Another Opportunity for Naturalism
Gómez noted that the “new era” coincides with the Franciscan Jubilee Year, which he called “a good opportunity to embark on a path of education for peace, one that entails nonviolence and reconciliation.” The language of “nonviolence” and “education for peace” is the language of the post-conciliar Church — a Church that has replaced the sword of the Spirit with the platitudes of UNESCO.
True peace, as Pius XI taught, is found only in the kingdom of Christ: “Then at last… so many wounds can be healed, then there will be hope that the law will regain its former authority, sweet peace will return again, swords and weapons will fall from hands, when all willingly accept the reign of Christ and obey Him, and every tongue will confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” Without Christ the King, there is no peace — only the temporary and illusory truces of human diplomacy.
Conclusion: The Bankruptcy of Conciliar Pastoral Care
The discourse of Bishop-elect José Dionisio Gómez is a textbook example of the theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar Church. Christ’s resurrection is reduced to a metaphor for human resilience. Divine mercy is conflated with political amnesty. The Social Kingship of Christ is replaced by “solidarity” and “brotherhood.” The sacramental life, the necessity of conversion, the reality of sin and judgment, the exclusive salvific mission of the Catholic Church — all are absent.
This is not the voice of the Church founded by Christ. It is the voice of the conciliar sect — a paramasonic structure that has emptied the faith of its supernatural content and replaced it with the empty humanitarianism of the world. As St. Pius X warned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), the modernists “propose to reform the Church by adapting it to the times” — and the result is a Church that has nothing to say to the world that the world could not say for itself.
Venezuela — and every nation — does not need “solidarity” and “reconciliation” in the natural sense. It needs the Social Reign of Christ the King, the restoration of the true Mass, the preaching of the integral Catholic faith, and the submission of every soul and every state to the authority of the one true Church. Until that is recognized, all talk of “rebuilding society” is building on sand.
Source:
Bishop reminds Venezuelan people: ‘Christ’s resurrection is a source of solace and strength’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 16.04.2026