VaticanNews portal reports on May 12, 2026, that the Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church elected Metropolitan Shio III as the new Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, succeeding the late Ilia II. Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, sent a congratulatory message expressing hope that Shio III’s ministry would “strengthen the bonds of cordial friendship and promote an ever more fraternal dialogue between our Churches.” Pope Leo XIV similarly sent a message praying for “light, discernment, and strength” for the new patriarch. The article presents this ecumenical exchange as normal and praiseworthy. This is the abomination of desolation in action: the conciliar sect’s systematic legitimization of schism and false religion as “fraternal dialogue,” directly contradicting the perennial Magisterium of the true Church.
The Ecumenical Apostasy: Recognizing Schism as “Fraternal”
The congratulatory message of Cardinal Koch to Shio III is a textbook example of the modernist heresy of ecumenism, condemned unequivocally by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Koch writes: “May your ministry help strengthen the bonds of cordial friendship and promote an ever more fraternal dialogue between our Churches.” This language presupposes that the Georgian Orthodox Church — a body in formal schism from Rome since the Great Schism of 1054 — is a “sister Church” with whom “fraternal dialogue” is appropriate. This is not merely diplomatic courtesy; it is a direct repudiation of Catholic doctrine on the nature of the Church and the obligation of all Christians to be in communion with the Roman Pontiff.
Pope Pius XI, in Mortalium Animos (1928), condemned this very error with unmistakable clarity: “The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it.” The encyclical explicitly forbade Catholics from participating in assemblies with non-Catholics that would imply the Church of Christ is anything other than the one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. To speak of “fraternal dialogue between our Churches” is to deny the dogma Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus (Outside the Church there is no salvation) and to treat schism as a matter of mere organizational difference rather than a grave wound to the Body of Christ.
The Condemnation of Ecumenical Indifferentism
The conciliar sect’s ecumenism is rooted in the heresy of indifferentism — the belief that all religions are equally valid paths to God. This was condemned by Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos (1832): “This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs…” And further: “Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.”
Cardinal Koch’s language — “bonds of cordial friendship,” “fraternal dialogue” — is precisely the “immoderate freedom of opinion” and “desire for novelty” that Gregory XVI warned against. It treats the schismatic Georgian Orthodox Church not as a body in error requiring conversion, but as a partner in dialogue. This is the very essence of the religious indifferentism condemned in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), Proposition 15: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true,” and Proposition 17: “Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ.”
Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus, also condemned Proposition 18: “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church.” The Georgian Orthodox Church, while not Protestant, is equally schismatic and equally outside the true Church. To treat it as a valid interlocutor in “fraternal dialogue” is to adopt the same indifferentist mentality.
The Dogma of the Church’s Exclusive Salvific Claims
The perennial Magisterium teaches with absolute clarity that there is only one true Church — the Roman Catholic Church — and that all who are outside it are in a state of spiritual peril. Pope Boniface VIII, in Unam Sanctam (1302), declared: “We declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” This is not a disciplinary statement but a dogmatic definition.
Pope Eugene IV, at the Council of Florence (1439), in the decree Cantate Domino, stated with even greater severity: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes, and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the ‘eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Mt. 25:41), unless before the end of life they are joined with Her.”
Cardinal Koch’s message to Shio III — praying for his ministry and hoping for “fraternal dialogue” — implicitly denies this dogma. It treats the Georgian Orthodox Church as if it were already in some salvific communion with Rome, rather than a body of schismatics who must be converted to the true faith. This is the abomination of desolation: the systematic replacement of Catholic dogma with modernist indifferentism.
Leo XIV’s Message: Praying for a Schismatic
The article notes that Pope Leo XIV sent a message to locum tenens Shio following the death of Ilia II, praying that the Lord would grant him “light, discernment, and strength, so that he may guide the Orthodox Church of Georgia with the same pastoral charity that inspired the late Patriarch.” This is a scandal of the highest order. The usurper in the Vatican prays for a schismatic hierarch to guide his schismatic church — not for his conversion to Catholicism, but for the success of his schismatic ministry.
This is the direct opposite of what a true Pope would do. A true successor of St. Peter would pray for the conversion of the schismatics, not for the flourishing of their schism. Pope Leo XIII, in Satis Cognitum (1896), wrote: “The Church of Christ is not a community of Christians brought together by accident, but a society divinely established, which is one in faith, one in worship, one in the communion of sacraments, and one in the legitimate ministry of the hierarchy.” And further: “Those who are not united to the Head cannot be members of the Church.”
The Georgian Orthodox Church is not united to the Head — the Roman Pontiff — and therefore is not part of the Church of Christ. To pray for its guidance and flourishing is to pray for the success of schism, which is a mortal sin against the virtue of religion.
The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity: An Instrument of Apostasy
The very existence of the “Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity” is a monument to the conciliar revolution’s betrayal of Catholic truth. Before the Second Vatican Council, the Church’s approach to non-Catholics was clear: they must convert and return to the one true Church. The Holy Office (now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith) was responsible for safeguarding orthodoxy, not for promoting “unity” with those in error.
The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity was created by John XXIII as part of the conciliar revolution, with the explicit purpose of fostering ecumenical dialogue with schismatics, heretics, and even pagans. This is a direct repudiation of the Church’s perennial teaching. Pope Pius XI, in Mortalium Animos, explicitly condemned the very idea: “The Apostolic See can by no means take part in their [ecumenical] assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics to give to such enterprises their favor or support; for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ.”
Cardinal Koch, as Prefect of this dicastery, is an instrument of this apostasy. His congratulatory message to Shio III is not an isolated act of diplomatic courtesy; it is the systematic implementation of the conciliar sect’s ecumenical program, which treats schism as a legitimate diversity rather than a grave sin against the unity of the Church.
The Georgian Orthodox Church: A Body in Schism
The article presents the Georgian Orthodox Church as a legitimate Christian body, worthy of “fraternal dialogue.” This is a lie. The Georgian Orthodox Church has been in formal schism from Rome since the Great Schism of 1054. It rejects papal primacy, the Filioque, the Immaculate Conception, Purgatory, and numerous other Catholic dogmas. It is not a “sister Church” but a schismatic body in error.
The conciliar sect’s ecumenism treats all Christian bodies as equally valid expressions of the Christian faith, differing only in “ecclesial communion.” This is the heresy of the “subsistit in” doctrine of Lumen Gentium (1964), which taught that the Church of Christ “subsists in” the Catholic Church, rather than “is” the Catholic Church. This subtle change opened the door to the recognition of non-Catholic bodies as genuine expressions of the Church of Christ — a direct contradiction of the perennial Magisterium.
Pope Pius XII, in Mystici Corporis (1943), taught: “The Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same thing.” This is the unchanging truth. The Georgian Orthodox Church is not part of the Mystical Body of Christ, and no amount of “fraternal dialogue” can change this reality.
The Silence on Conversion: The Gravest Omission
The most damning aspect of the VaticanNews article — and of Cardinal Koch’s message — is what it omits. There is no mention of the need for the Georgian Orthodox to convert to Catholicism. There is no call for the return of the schismatics to the one true Church. There is no acknowledgment that the Georgian Orthodox Church is in error and that its members are in spiritual peril.
This silence is the hallmark of the conciliar revolution. The Church’s perennial mission is the conversion of souls to the true faith. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas (1925), wrote: “The Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men… 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 conciliar sect has abandoned this mission. It no longer seeks the conversion of schismatics but their “dialogue.” It no longer proclaims the necessity of the one true Church but celebrates the diversity of “Christian traditions.” This is the spiritual bankruptcy of Modernism, the “synthesis of all errors” condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907).
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation Continues
The election of Shio III as Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church and the conciliar sect’s ecumenical response is yet another manifestation of the abomination of desolation that has occupied the Vatican since the death of Pope Pius XII. Cardinal Koch’s congratulatory message, Leo XIV’s prayer for a schismatic hierarch, and the VaticanNews article’s uncritical presentation of this exchange as normal and praiseworthy — all of this is the fruit of the conciliar revolution’s systematic betrayal of Catholic truth.
The true Church — the Roman Catholic Church, faithful to the perennial Magisterium — teaches that there is one Church, one faith, one baptism, and that all who are outside the Church must be converted to the true faith. The conciliar sect teaches that all religions are paths to God, that schism is a matter of “ecclesial communion” rather than heresy, and that “dialogue” is more important than truth.
This is the great apostasy foretold by St. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4: “Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”
The conciliar sect, with its ecumenical apostasy, its indifferentism, and its systematic denial of Catholic dogma, is the fulfillment of this prophecy. The faithful must reject this abomination and cling to the unchanging truth of the Catholic faith, as taught by the perennial Magisterium, the Church Fathers, and the ecumenical councils — before the conciliar revolution corrupted everything.
Source:
Shio III is new Catholicos-Patriarch of Orthodox Church in Georgia (vaticannews.va)
Date: 12.05.2026