EWTN News reports on the alleged demolition of a monastery and Catholic school belonging to the Salvatorian Sisters in Yaroun, southern Lebanon, by Israeli forces. The mayor of Yaroun, Adib Ajaka, rejected Israeli military claims that the religious nature of the buildings was unknown, noting the presence of a cross and a statue of the Virgin Mary. The Council of Melkite Greek Catholic Bishops in Lebanon called upon the Lebanese government and the United Nations to protect civilian and religious property. The article further notes that Pope Leo XIV was presented with a historic stone from the village church during his December 2025 visit to Lebanon, and that the pope has sent humanitarian aid shipments to Lebanon and Ukraine. The destruction is part of a broader pattern of church vandalism across Lebanon, including the storming of the Church of Mar Shalita in Qobeiyat and the Church of Our Lady in Ajaltoun.
The article presents a lamentable but all-too-predictable episode in the ongoing persecution of Christians in the Middle East, yet it does so through the lens of the conciliar sect’s characteristic naturalism, diplomatic cowardice, and theological bankruptcy. While the destruction of Catholic property is rightly condemned, the response offered—appeals to the United Nations, expressions of gratitude for Vatican “humanitarian aid,” and the presentation of a historic stone to the antipope—reveals the utter impotence of the post-conciliar structure in defending the rights of Christ the King over nations and peoples. The true dimensions of this tragedy are spiritual and theological, not merely humanitarian, and it is precisely these dimensions that the article, in keeping with the conciliar mentality, systematically obscures.
The Primacy of Christ the King and the Duty of Nations
The destruction of a Catholic monastery and school is not merely a violation of “human rights” or “religious freedom”—those modernist abstractions condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (propositions 15, 18, 77-79). It is an offense against the social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who possesses supreme authority over all nations and all peoples, whether Christian or non-Christian. Pope Pius XI declared in Quas Primas (1925): “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 State of Israel, like every nation, is bound to recognize the rights of Christ and to respect the property of His Church. When it fails to do so, it acts against the divine constitution of society, and the consequences—both temporal and spiritual—are inevitable.
Pius XI further warned: “When God and Jesus Christ—as we lamented—were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed, because the main reason why some have the right to command and others have the duty to obey was removed.” The modern state of Israel, founded on secular and Masonic principles, is a direct product of this rebellion against Christ the King. Its actions in Lebanon, including the destruction of Catholic institutions, are the natural fruits of a political order that has explicitly rejected the sovereignty of Our Lord.
The Conciliar Sect’s Diplomatic Impotence
The response of the conciliar structures to this outrage is revealing in its emptiness. The Council of Melkite Greek Catholic Bishops—operating within the post-conciliar framework—called upon the Lebanese government and the United Nations to protect religious property. This appeal to the United Nations, that Masonic-influenced body founded on the principles of secularism and religious indifferentism, is a scandal and a betrayal. The true Church of Christ has never needed the protection of secular international organizations; her protection comes from God, and her rights are defended by the recognition of Christ’s social Kingship by the nations themselves.
Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (proposition 80). Yet this is precisely the program of the conciliar sect: to seek accommodation with the enemies of Christ through diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and appeals to international bodies, rather than proclaiming the fullness of Catholic truth and demanding, with apostolic firmness, that nations submit to the reign of Christ the King.
The article notes that “the pope has sent humanitarian aid shipments to Lebanon and Ukraine.” While material assistance to the suffering is a work of corporal mercy, it is no substitute for the spiritual mission of the Church. The conciliar sect has reduced the Church’s role to that of a humanitarian NGO, distributing medicine and food while remaining silent on the doctrinal and moral causes of the persecution. Where is the call to repentance? Where is the demand that Israel recognize its obligations under the natural and divine law? Where is the proclamation that the social Kingship of Christ demands the protection of His Church and His faithful? These questions are not merely unanswered—they are unasked, because the conciliar sect has abandoned the very framework within which they would make sense.
The Antipope and the Historic Stone: A Symbol of Spiritual Bankruptcy
The article recounts that during the antipope Leo XIV’s visit to Lebanon in December 2025, “a historic stone from the village church dating back to 1872, engraved with an image of St. George, was presented to him in the hope of drawing attention to Yaroun and its people.” Today, the church is destroyed, and the fate of the stone is unknown. This episode is a parable of the conciliar era: the faithful entrust their sacred patrimony to the structures of the neo-church, and the structures offer nothing in return but empty gestures and diplomatic pleasantries.
The presentation of the stone to the antipope is itself a symptom of the confusion that reigns among those who, while retaining some attachment to Catholic practice, remain in communion with the conciliar sect. The antipope has no authority to receive such gifts, no power to defend the Church, and no mandate from Christ to act as her representative. He is, as the sedevacantist position holds, a usurper who has assumed the throne of Peter without legitimate title, and his visits and gestures are part of the ongoing deception by which the conciliar sect maintains its grip on the faithful.
The Broader Pattern of Persecution and the Silence on Its Causes
The article notes that the destruction in Yaroun is part of a broader pattern of church vandalism across Lebanon, including the storming of the Church of Mar Shalita in Qobeiyat and the Church of Our Lady in Ajaltoun. These incidents, the article states, “reflect a broader climate in which Lebanese Christians increasingly feel under pressure, facing different forms of intimidation and attack from multiple actors.” This is true as far as it goes, but it does not go nearly far enough.
The persecution of Christians in the Middle East is not merely a political or military problem; it is a spiritual crisis rooted in the rejection of Christ the King by the nations and by the conciliar sect itself. The post-conciliar Church, by embracing religious liberty, false ecumenism, and dialogue with Islam, has abandoned the mission of converting the world to Catholicism and has thereby left Christians in the Middle East without the spiritual and doctrinal armor they need to resist persecution. The conciliar sect’s “dialogue” with Islam is not merely ineffective—it is a betrayal of the mandate given by Christ to teach and baptize all nations (Matthew 28:19-20).
St. Pius X, in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), warned that the Modernists—the forerunners of the conciliar revolution—sought to “reconcile the Church with the progress of modern civilization,” which in practice means the subordination of Catholic truth to the demands of secular society. The destruction of Catholic institutions in Lebanon is one of the fruits of this reconciliation: the conciliar sect, having abandoned the proclamation of Christ’s social Kingship, is powerless to defend His Church against the enemies that its own policies have emboldened.
The Duty of Catholics: Rejection of the Conciliar Sect and Return to Tradition
The faithful who read this article and are moved by the suffering of their brethren in Lebanon must understand that the solution to this crisis is not more diplomacy, more humanitarian aid, or more appeals to the United Nations. The solution is the restoration of the social Kingship of Christ, which requires first and foremost the rejection of the conciliar sect and its modernist errors.
Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas: “If rulers and legitimate superiors will have the conviction that they exercise authority not so much by their own right as by the command and in the place of the Divine King, everyone will notice how religiously and wisely they will use their authority.” Until nations recognize this truth, persecution will continue, and the conciliar sect will continue to offer only empty gestures in response.
The faithful must also reject the false “traditionalists”—the Lefebvrians, the FSSPX, the indultists—who, while preserving some external forms of Catholic worship, continue to recognize the legitimacy of the antipopes and the conciliar structures. Archbishop Lefebvre himself acknowledged the validity of the usurpers, declaring: “give us the old Mass, that is enough for us.” This is not the language of Catholic resistance; it is the language of compromise with the enemies of Christ. The true Church endures in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith, who reject the conciliar revolution in its entirety, and who await the restoration of the papal throne by divine Providence.
Conclusion
The destruction of the monastery and school in Yaroun is a tragedy that exposes, once again, the bankruptcy of the conciliar sect and the urgency of returning to the unchanging Catholic faith. The response of the neo-church—appeals to the United Nations, humanitarian aid, diplomatic visits by the antipope—is not merely inadequate; it is a continuation of the modernist apostasy that has brought the Church to her present state of humiliation. The faithful must reject this false response and turn instead to the immutable teaching of the Church: that Christ is King, that His rights over nations are absolute, and that no true peace is possible except in the Kingdom of Christ. As Pius XI declared: “The peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ.” Outside of this, there is only the bulldozer and the ruin.
Source:
Outrage grows over alleged bulldozing of Catholic monastery and school in Lebanon (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 05.05.2026