The National Catholic Register, a portal aligned with the conciliar sect, reports on the upcoming visit of the antipope Leo XIV to Spain, framing it through the lens of sociological optimism and the “post-secular” narrative. The article, drawing on interviews with sociologist Rafael Ruiz Andrés and “Bishop Emeritus” César Augusto Franco Martínez, presents a Spain that is “less religious” yet paradoxically experiencing a Catholic “awakening” among youth. This analysis, steeped in the language of secular sociology and conciliar optimism, reveals not a genuine spiritual renewal but the profound theological bankruptcy and strategic adaptation of the post-conciliar structure to a world it has itself helped to create. The thesis is clear: the article is a exercise in wishful thinking, using the metrics of secular social science to mask the catastrophic failure of the conciliar revolution and to legitimize the ongoing occupation of the Vatican by forces hostile to the integral Catholic faith.
The Sociological Lens: Measuring Faith by Worldly Standards
The article’s foundation is built upon the shifting sands of sociological data, a field inherently incapable of grasping supernatural reality. Rafael Ruiz Andrés, a sociology professor, frames the discussion within the “third wave of secularization,” a concept that accepts the retreat of Christ the King from public life as an inevitable historical process rather than a mortal sin of nations. The cited statistics—42% of Spaniards claiming no religion, with Catholic identification fluctuating between 50-56%—are presented as neutral facts. However, from the perspective of unchanging Catholic doctrine, these numbers are not merely descriptive; they are a damning indictment. They represent the fruit of decades of the conciliar sect’s implementation of the very errors condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, particularly the fatal proposition that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55). The “Pluralism and Coexistence Foundation” barometer is itself a product of the secularist mindset, treating religious belief as a private preference rather than the binding duty of every soul and nation before God.
The article notes that “just a few decades ago, the majority of the Spanish population identified as Catholic,” a fact used to underscore “our sense of secularization.” This is a profound understatement. It is not merely a “sense” but a reality: the public and official apostasy of a nation that once bore the title la Católica. This apostasy was not an accident but the direct consequence of the conciliar sect’s embrace of religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), its pursuit of dialogue with the world on the world’s terms, and its systematic dismantling of the social reign of Christ the King, so powerfully reaffirmed by Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas. Pius XI declared that “the State is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men,” and that rulers must “not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ.” The Spain described in the article is the living refutation of this teaching, a society that has explicitly chosen to remove Christ from its laws, education, and public life, and now reaps the whirlwind of spiritual emptiness.
The Myth of the “New” Catholic Youth: Normalizing Apostasy
The article’s central claim—that while there are fewer young Catholics, those who remain are “less inhibited” and their faith is “more normalized”—is a masterpiece of conciliar spin. It celebrates the very marginalization that the Faith demands. To be “normalized” in a secular society is to be rendered innocuous, to have one’s beliefs stripped of their supernatural and socially binding character. The “polarization” of 2011 around issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, which the article laments as a time when “the Church had a more marginalized position,” was in fact a moment of clarity. It was a time when the intrinsic conflict between the Law of God and the laws of a sinful world was visible. The conciliar project, as outlined in Gaudium et Spes, has always sought to overcome this “marginalization” by aligning the Church with the “joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties” of the modern world, effectively baptizing its errors.
The cited increase in young people identifying as Catholic (from 31.6% in 2020 to 45% in 2025) is presented as a sign of hope. But what does this “Catholicism” entail? The article itself provides the answer: it is a Catholicism “fostered by the very context of secularity.” It is a faith that has made peace with the world. The mention of youth apostolates like “Hakuna” and “Effetá” and their “extensive impact on social media” is telling. These are products of the post-conciliar ecosystem, often characterized by an emotional, experiential, and horizontal spirituality that substitutes psychological well-being for the pursuit of holiness, and community feeling for the sacramental life of the true Church. Their “visibility” is the visibility of a brand, not the light of the Faith that is “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14) and which “cannot be hid.”
The comments of “Bishop Emeritus” César Augusto Franco Martínez are even more revealing. He describes today’s youth as living in a “tsunami” culture, seeking immediate sensory impact. His warning that “faith is not a fleeting sentiment” is orthodox in the abstract, but it is divorced from the only context that makes it meaningful: the integral Catholic Faith as taught and practiced before the conciliar revolution. His observation that many young people “believe in God, yet they also believe in reincarnation and in other trends coming from Asia” is not a cause for alarm in the article but is presented as a simple fact of a “multireligious society.” This is the very indifferentism condemned by Pope Pius IX: “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Error 16). The prelate’s call for “depth” and “personal engagement” is hollow when the institution he represents has emptied the sacraments of their objective power, reduced the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to a “memorial meal,” and replaced the quest for sanctifying grace with a focus on “community” and “social dimension.”
The “Post-Secular” Pope: A Shepherd for a Flock of His Own Making
The article’s most audacious claim is that Leo XIV’s visit will be “post-secular in nature,” that of a “religious leader belonging to a denomination of immense significance… who speaks to a diverse, pluralistic society.” This is the ultimate betrayal. The Pope, the Vicar of Christ, is not the head of a “denomination.” He is the visible head of the one true Church founded by Christ, outside of which there is no salvation. To accept the label “post-secular” is to accept the premises of the enemy. It is to concede that the public reign of Christ the King is a relic of the past and that the Church’s role is now that of one voice among many in the marketplace of ideas.
This stands in stark contrast to the mission described by Pope Pius XI. The Feast of Christ the King was instituted precisely to combat the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors.” Pius XI stated that the Church’s mission is “to teach, govern, and lead all to eternal happiness,” a mission that “cannot depend on anyone’s will.” The “dialogue” praised in the article is not the apostolic preaching of the Gospel to convert nations, but a negotiation between equals, where the Church’s “vital message” is tailored to be “heard by audiences wider than the Church itself.” This is the logic of the marketplace, not the logic of the Cross.
The article’s hope that the visit will “encourage young people… to follow Christ with fidelity and to love the Church without prejudice, despite the failings that we Christians may have” is a study in conciliar psychology. It places the “failings” on the same level as the objective truth of the Faith. The “failings” are not subjective weaknesses of individual Christians but the objective, public, and catastrophic betrayal of the Faith by the conciliar authorities themselves: the promulgation of heretical doctrines, the destruction of the liturgy, the silencing of the prophetic voice of the Magisterium. To love the “Church” (i.e., the conciliar structure) “without prejudice” is to love the very institution that has led countless souls astray.
Conclusion: A Journey to a Land of Shadows
The upcoming visit of the antipope Leo XIV to Spain is not a pilgrimage of a shepherd to his flock, but a tour of a corporate CEO to a declining market share. The article from the National Catholic Register is a press release for this tour, using the language of secular sociology to paint a picture of hopeful adaptation. It celebrates the “normalization” of the Faith, which is its emasculation. It praises “dialogue” with a secular world, which is the abandonment of the duty to convert it. It points to a rise in “Catholic” identification, which is a rise in adherence to a naturalistic, worldly parody of the true Faith.
The Spain that Leo XIV will visit is a land of spiritual shadows, a direct result of the conciliar sect’s implementation of the principles condemned in the Syllabus of Errors and its betrayal of the social kingship of Christ. The “hope” offered is not the hope of the Gospel, which is the hope of eternal salvation through the one true Church, but the hope of sociological relevance. It is a hope built on sand. The only true hope for Spain, or any nation, lies in the return to the immutable Tradition of the Catholic Faith: the recognition of Christ the King as the sovereign of all societies, the restoration of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the center of Christian life, and the rejection of the modernist errors that have led to the current desolation. Until then, such visits are not signs of life, but elaborate funerals for a faith that has been systematically killed from within.
Source:
Pope Leo to Visit a Much More Secularized Spain Since Pope Benedict’s World Youth Day in 2011 (ncregister.com)
Date: 04.05.2026