National Catholic Register portal reports on Fernando Mendoza, the Las Vegas Raiders’ No. 1 draft pick, praising his “visible Catholic faith” and welcoming him into the “fastest-growing” Archdiocese of Las Vegas, where “bishop” Gordon celebrates Mass for the NFL team and young adults pray the Rosary on the Strip. The article enthusiastically presents this conciliar apparatus as a vibrant, welcoming community — never once questioning whether any of it constitutes the true Catholic Church.
A Football Hero for the Church of the New Advent
The National Catholic Register, a publication that has served for decades as a mouthpiece for the post-conciliar establishment, has found its latest cause for celebration: a young man who prays the Rosary and speaks openly about his faith, now drafted into the NFL. One might think the Church has bigger problems — the systematic destruction of the liturgy, the propagation of heresies from the highest levels, the emptying of seminaries of orthodox candidates, the near-total collapse of sacramental life — but no. The Register has found its story, and it is Fernando Mendoza.
The article describes Mendoza’s faith in the warmest possible terms: he prays the Rosary weekly, listens to Mass online before games, and maintains relationships with Dominican priests from Indiana University’s Catholic center. “From the Heisman ceremony to the national championship stage, he has spoken about that faith unabashedly.” One must ask: spoken about what faith? The faith of the Council of Trent, or the faith of the Church of the New Advent? The distinction is not trivial — it is everything.
The “Archdiocese” of Las Vegas: Growth Without Substance
The article’s most revealing passage concerns the Archdiocese of Las Vegas, elevated from a diocese in 2023 — that is, by the authority of the conciliar apparatus. Auxiliary Bishop Gregory Gordon is quoted extensively, speaking of “signs of growth”: 525 catechumens at the Easter vigil, 20 men entering seminary. These numbers are presented as self-evidently good news.
Let us examine this more carefully. Growth in numbers has never been the measure of the Church’s health. Our Lord Himself warned: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). The early Church grew not through institutional expansion but through the blood of martyrs and the uncompromising preaching of truth.
What exactly are these 525 catechumens entering? The article does not say — because the answer would be devastating. They are entering a community that worships at the Novus Ordo Missae, a rite whose Catholicity was questioned even by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci in their famous Critical Study of 1969. They are entering a “Church” that has embraced religious liberty, ecumenism, and collegiality — all condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition that “in the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship” (error 77). The Second Vatican Council’s Dignitatis Humanae proclaimed precisely the opposite. Which teaching does Las Vegas follow?
The 20 men entering seminary are being formed in institutions shaped by the conciliar revolution. What will they learn? The theology of the “people of God” rather than the theology of the Mystical Body? The hermeneutics of continuity — that is, the hermeneutics of deception? They will be ordained, if they are ordained at all, to celebrate a rite of Mass that was never promulgated by any pope in the history of the Church, designed by a committee that included six Protestant observers, and whose architect, Annibale Bugnini, was later exposed as a Freemason and expelled from his position.
The growth of the conciliar sect is not the growth of the Church. It is the growth of the Abomination of Desolation.
“Bishop” Gordon and the NFL: The Sacraments as Team Building
Perhaps the most grotesque detail in the entire article is the revelation that “bishop” Gordon has celebrated Mass for the Raiders on the vigil before games, “serving as the organization’s Catholic chaplain.” The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — the Unbloody renewal of Calvary, the moment when the eternal High Priest offers Himself to the Eternal Father for the sins of the living and the dead — has been reduced to a pre-game ritual for athletes.
This is not piety. This is the profanation of the sacred. St. Paul warns: “Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and of the Blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27). The Novus Ordo Missae, celebrated in a stadium locker room before men prepare to commit violence upon one another for entertainment and profit, is not the worship due to Almighty God. It is a parody — a ceremony that retains the external forms while evacuating the supernatural reality.
The bishop’s words confirm this reduction: “It’s been a blessed opportunity to share the Word of God and the Body of Christ with those who will be going onto the field at Allegiant Stadium and playing football the next day.” The Mass is described as an “opportunity” — language drawn from corporate management, not from the theology of the priesthood. The Body of Christ is “shared” as though it were a motivational speech or a team meeting. The supernatural order — the order of grace, of eternal salvation, of the life of the soul — is entirely absent from this discourse.
The Young Adult “Community”: Fellowship Without the Faith
The article devotes considerable space to young Catholics in Las Vegas who describe their community as “tight-knit,” “welcoming,” and “vibrant.” Jake Espinoza, Emma Gegen, Ivan Lara, and Gavin Weir all testify to the warmth and openness of the local Catholic community. They speak of Bible studies, socials, volunteer opportunities, and public Rosaries on Las Vegas Boulevard.
What they do not speak of — what the article never mentions — is the state of their souls. Are these young people in the state of grace? Do they frequent confession — true confession, with proper matter, form, and intention? Do they receive the Eucharist worthily? Do they believe, without reservation, the entirety of the Catholic faith as defined by the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council? The article is silent on all of these questions, because the conciliar establishment has abandoned the language of the supernatural life in favor of the language of community building.
Ivan Lara’s advice is particularly revealing: “Have a firm understanding of what your priorities are. If you recognize that there’s nothing more important than spending those first 10 minutes in the morning in prayer and showing up to confession or Mass, then you’ll always keep [what’s important] as No. 1.” This is the spirituality of the concillar sect: generic “prayer,” generic “confession,” generic “Mass.” The specific theological content — the propitiatory nature of the sacrifice, the reality of transubstantiation, the necessity of being in the state of grace, the distinction between mortal and venial sin — is entirely absent. One could substitute “meditation,” “therapy,” and “community gathering” and the advice would be functionally identical.
Gavin Weir, described as a “convert,” speaks of “Christian and loving hospitality” replacing the city’s secular reputation. Christian hospitality is a virtue — but it is ordered toward the supernatural end of knowing, loving, and serving God. When “hospitality” becomes the highest good, when “community” replaces communion with the Mystical Body, the faith has been reduced to social work.
The Register’s Silence: What Is Not Said
The most damning aspect of this article is not what it contains, but what it omits. There is no mention of the true state of the Catholic Church. There is no acknowledgment that the See of Peter is occupied by a series of usurpers beginning with John XXIII. There is no recognition that the Novus Ordo Missae is, at best, of doubtful validity and, at worst, a vehicle for sacrilege. There is no warning that receiving “Communion” in post-conciliar structures, where the Mass has been reduced to a table of assembly and the rubrics violate the theology of the propitiatory sacrifice, is if not “just” sacrilege, then idolatry.
There is no mention of the condemnations of Pope Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and Lamentabili Sane Exitu, which identified Modernism as the synthesis of all heresies. There is no recognition that the very “openness” and “diversity” praised by Gegen are the fruits of the Modernist errors condemned in propositions 58, 63, and 65 of Lamentabili: that “truth changes with man” and that “contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism.”
There is no citation of Pope Pius XI’s Quas Primas, which established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that now pervades every aspect of conciliar life — including, and especially, its embrace of professional sports as a vehicle for “evangelization.” Pius XI wrote: “If men were ever to recognize Christ’s royal authority over themselves, both privately and publicly, then unheard-of blessings would flow upon the whole society.” The Register, by contrast, does not call men to recognize Christ’s kingship. It calls them to welcome a football player.
The Hermeneutic of Continuity Applied to Football
The article’s treatment of Mendoza’s faith is a perfect example of the hermeneutic of continuity — the central deception of the conciliar era. Mendoza is described as having a “Catholic faith” without any specification of what that faith contains. He prays the Rosary — but so do many who have no understanding of the mysteries they recite. He listens to Mass online — but which Mass? The Traditional Latin Mass, celebrated by a true priest in communion with the integral faith? Or the Novus Ordo, celebrated by a conciliar “priest” whose orders may be invalid?
The article does not ask these questions because the conciliar establishment cannot ask them. To ask them would be to acknowledge that there is a crisis — not of numbers, not of visibility, not of “growth,” but of being. The question is not whether the conciliar structures are expanding. The question is whether they are the Church of Jesus Christ. And the answer, attested by every Pope from St. Peter to Pius XII, is no.
St. Robert Bellarmine, cited in the provided documents, states with clarity: “A manifest heretic cannot be Pope… The reason for this is that he cannot be the head of something of which he is not a member; now, he who is not a Christian is not a member of the Church, and a manifest heretic is not a Christian… therefore, a manifest heretic cannot be Pope.” The conciliar “popes” have proclaimed religious liberty, embraced false religions, and authorized a liturgical revolution that has emptied churches of their Catholic content. They are manifest heretics. They are not popes. And the structures they govern are not the Church.
Conclusion: The Infinite Ways to Build the Body of Antichrist
Bishop Gordon closes with a remarkable statement: “There will be an infinite number of ways in which we can work together to build up the Body of Christ.” One recalls the words of Our Lord: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
The Body of Christ is built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone (Ephesians 2:20). It is built through the true Mass, the true sacraments, the true preaching of the Gospel, and the true governance of the Church by her legitimate pastors. It is not built through NFL chaplaincies, public Rosaries on the Strip, or the welcoming of football players into communities that have abandoned the faith.
What the Archdiocese of Las Vegas is building is not the Body of Christ. It is the body of the conciliar revolution — a paramasonic structure that retains the name and external forms of Catholicism while emptying them of all supernatural content. It is, in the language of the Apocalypse, the synagogue of Satan (Revelation 2:9).
Fernando Mendoza may be a young man of good intentions. But good intentions do not save souls. Only the truth saves souls. And the truth is that the structures celebrated in this article are not the Catholic Church. They are the Abomination of Desolation standing in the holy place. Let him who reads, understand.
Source:
Fernando Mendoza’s Catholic Playbook: Pro Tips From Las Vegas Faithful for the Raiders’ New QB (ncregister.com)
Date: 24.04.2026