Article from the National Catholic Register portal (April 25, 2026) reports on a new EWTN Learn series titled “The Unknown St. Francis of Assisi,” hosted by Teresa Tomeo in Italy. The series claims to explore the “unknown” aspects of St. Francis’s life, visiting sites such as Santa Maria degli Angeli, Spoleto, and Rivotorto. Tomeo states: “St. Francis brings us back to the basics of the faith… He teaches us about the importance of the Eucharist, about the Incarnational Lord, and he loved Jesus so much that he not only wanted to rebuild the Church spiritually, but physically as well.” The article also mentions St. Clare, the Poor Clares, Mother Angelica, and Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word. However, this seemingly pious presentation is riddled with omissions, equivocations, and a subtle modernist framing that dilutes the radical supernatural reality of St. Francis’s life and mission, reducing it to a palatable, humanistic narrative suitable for the conciliar sect’s ecumenical and sentimental agenda.
Reduction of Sanctity to Sentimental Humanism
The very title, “The Unknown St. Francis of Assisi,” is a modernist trope. It implies that the Church’s eight-century-old understanding of this great saint is somehow deficient or incomplete, and that a modern “discovery” is needed. This aligns perfectly with the modernist error condemned by Pope St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (1907), which rejects the idea that “the Church listening cooperates in such a way with the Church teaching in defining truths of faith, that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening” (Proposition 6). The true St. Francis is not “unknown”; he is known through the unchanging Tradition of the Church, through his Rule, his Testament, and the writings of the early Franciscans. To suggest otherwise is to open the door to a subjective, historically-critical reconstruction of sanctity, a hallmark of the conciliar revolution.
Teresa Tomeo’s commentary exemplifies this reductionism. She states: “St. Francis brings us back to the basics of the faith… He teaches us about the importance of the Eucharist, about the Incarnational Lord.” While superficially true, this language is dangerously vague. What are “the basics of the faith”? For St. Francis, the “basics” were the total, literal, and supernatural imitation of Christ Crucified, a life of radical penance, absolute poverty, and unwavering submission to the Church’s Magisterium. The article’s emphasis on “simplicity of life and the humility of God” is presented in a soft, therapeutic tone, devoid of the terrifying reality of St. Francis’s asceticism, his fierce battles with the devil, and his absolute, uncompromising fidelity to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Real Presence. This is the “cult of man” condemned by Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas (1925), where the spiritual is subordinated to the natural, and the supernatural is reduced to the merely human.
Ecumenical Co-optation and the Erasure of Catholic Exclusivity
The article’s framing of St. Francis’s mission as “rebuilding the Church spiritually, but physically as well” is a classic modernist equivocation. In the mouth of a conciliar sectarian, this phrase is stripped of its Catholic specificity. For St. Francis, rebuilding the Church meant calling souls to the one true Church, outside of which there is no salvation (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus). His physical rebuilding of the chapel of San Damiano was a sign of his obedience to the Church and his desire to restore the liturgical life of the faithful. It was never a call for a “spiritual” ecumenism that would blur the lines between truth and error.
The mention of “holy friendships” and the reference to “St. Carlo, who is buried in Assisi, also loved St. Francis and considered him a friend” is a subtle but clear nod to the conciliar sect’s false ecumenism. St. Carlo Acutis, a figure heavily promoted by the post-Vatican II structures, is presented as a spiritual heir to St. Francis, thereby legitimizing the conciarist narrative of continuity and progress. This is a direct contradiction of the Church’s constant teaching on the immutability of doctrine, as defined by the First Vatican Council: “If anyone says that it is possible that at some time, given the advancement of knowledge, a sense may be assigned to the dogmas propounded by the Church which is different from that which the Church has understood and understands: let him be anathema.” (Session 3, Chapter 4, Canon 3). The “friendship” between St. Francis and a modern conciliar figure is a fabrication designed to bridge the gap between pre-conciliar Catholicism and the post-conciliar apostasy.
The Omission of the Supernatural and the Reality of Sin
Perhaps the most glaring omission in this article is the complete absence of any mention of the reality of sin, the necessity of penance, and the supernatural character of St. Francis’s mission. The article speaks of “conversion” and “a total change of heart,” but these phrases are emptied of their Catholic content. Conversion, for St. Francis, meant a radical break with the world, a life of severe penance, and a constant battle against the flesh, the world, and the devil. As Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas, the Kingdom of Christ requires its followers “not only to renounce earthly riches and possessions, to be distinguished by modesty of conduct, and to hunger and thirst for justice, but also to deny themselves and carry their cross.” The article’s St. Francis is a gentle, poetic figure who “tamed a wolf” and “established the Nativity scene,” not a fiery prophet who wept for sinners, who received the Stigmata as a sign of his union with Christ’s Passion, and who called all men to repentance under pain of eternal damnation.
The silence on the state of grace, the reality of Hell, and the necessity of the sacraments for salvation is deafening. This is the naturalistic humanism that has infected the conciarist structures, a direct result of the apostasy warned of by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici gregis (1907), where he described the modernist as one who “subordinates the supernatural to the natural” and “makes of faith a mere sentiment.” The article’s St. Francis is a product of this modernist hermeneutic, a saint stripped of his supernatural power and reduced to a model of “simplicity” and “humility” that poses no threat to the comfortable, worldly lives of the conciliar sect’s faithful.
The Complicity of EWTN and the Conciliar Sect
The fact that this series is produced by EWTN, a network founded by Mother Angelica, a woman who spent her final years in submission to the conciarist authorities and whose order, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, has been deeply compromised by the post-conciliar revolution, is itself a sign of the times. While Mother Angelica herself may have had personal devotion to the traditional Mass, her legacy has been co-opted by the conciliar sect to promote a “traditionalism” that is entirely compatible with the New Advent. The mention of the “Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word,” an EWTN affiliate, further solidifies this connection. These are not the true sons of St. Francis, who would defend the Faith against all errors, but rather chaplains to the conciliar sect, providing a veneer of orthodoxy while remaining silent on the apostasy that has consumed the structures occupying the Vatican.
The article’s author, Amy Smith, is described as a “Register senior editor,” writing for a publication that, while occasionally publishing traditional-leaning content, remains firmly within the conciarist orbit. The National Catholic Register has never taken a definitive stand against the errors of Vatican II or the legitimacy of the post-conciliar antipopes. Its coverage of saints and spirituality is consistently filtered through a modernist lens, emphasizing “inspiration” and “relevance” over doctrine and truth. This article is a prime example of that approach: a pious-sounding piece that, upon examination, reveals itself to be a subtle instrument of the conciliar sect’s ongoing campaign to reshape Catholicism in its own image.
Conclusion: The True St. Francis vs. the Conciliar Caricature
The “Unknown St. Francis of Assisi” presented in this EWTN series is not the St. Francis of Catholic Tradition. He is a modernist creation, a saint emptied of his supernatural power, his prophetic voice, and his uncompromising fidelity to the one true Church. He is a “Francis” who fits neatly into the conciliar sect’s narrative of ecumenism, religious freedom, and the cult of man. The true St. Francis, the saint of the Portiuncula, the recipient of the Stigmata, the lover of Lady Poverty, and the terror of heretics, would be horrified by this caricature. He would weep for the souls being led astray by this false image, and he would cry out, as he did eight centuries ago: “Penance! Penance! Penance!”
The faithful must reject this modernist distortion and return to the unchanging Tradition of the Church. They must seek the true St. Francis in the writings of the early Franciscans, in the Rule he gave his brothers, and in the lives of the saints who followed him in the centuries before the conciliar revolution. Only then will they find the “unknown” Francis—not the one invented by the conciliar sect, but the one who is known to the Church and to God, the Francis who is a mirror of Christ Crucified and a model of all perfection.
Source:
Discover ‘The Unknown St. Francis of Assisi’ in New ‘EWTN Learn’ Series (ncregister.com)
Date: 25.04.2026