National Catholic Register portal reports that Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, the apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, described an extraordinary religious revival in Ukraine’s war zones during Russia’s ongoing invasion. In an interview with the Lithuanian magazine Kelionė, the nuncio recounted stories of military chaplains, soldiers seeking absolution over medical treatment, and claimed that in Kherson “there are no unbelievers left,” with the Catholic parish growing fivefold despite the civilian population dropping to one-fifth of its prewar size. This testimony, presented as evidence of grace amid suffering, demands rigorous examination against the unchanging Catholic faith, for the article’s omissions reveal a far graver spiritual crisis than any missile strike.
The Nuncio’s Narrative: A Window into Conciliar Ecclesiology
The article presents Archbishop Kulbokas as a heroic figure who remained in Kyiv when “most ambassadors had decided to leave,” framing his presence as a witness to faith under fire. The nuncio describes soldiers seeking absolution, chaplains filling voids left by psychologists, and civilians converting from Orthodoxy and Protestantism to Catholicism. Yet this entire narrative operates within the theological framework of the post-conciliar sect, not the Catholic Church of all ages.
When Kulbokas recounts that “in Kherson, there are no unbelievers left,” he speaks the language of the abomination of desolation — the conciliar structure that has occupied the Vatican since 1958. This is not the language of the Church that taught, through Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, that “good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those are not at all in the true Church of Christ” must be condemned as error (Proposition 17). The Catholic Church has always taught the necessity of explicit faith and baptism for salvation, as defined by the Council of Florence: “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 everlasting.”
The nuncio’s triumphalist claim that war has eliminated unbelief is not merely implausible; it is a naturalistic reduction of faith to psychological coping mechanism. The article presents soldiers seeking absolution not as evidence of the Church’s sacramental efficacy, but as a human response to trauma — “when you face eternity, forgiveness is the only thing you really need.” This sentiment, while emotionally compelling, strips the sacrament of its supernatural character and reduces it to therapy.
The Chaplaincy of the Neo-Church: Valid Orders, Invalid Mission
The article devotes significant attention to military chaplains, describing how one brings his dog to the front and tells soldiers: “Don’t be surprised, when you first find yourself in the trenches, you may pee and poop out of fear. This is normal. This happens to everyone.” Another distributes rosaries and blesses soldiers. The nuncio notes that “soldiers are more open with a chaplain than with a psychologist” and that “only 60% to 70% of the need” for chaplains is being met.
What the article conceals is the theological bankruptcy of the conciliar chaplaincy. The chaplains described operate within the structures of the post-conciliar sect, which has systematically dismantled the theology of the Most Holy Sacrifice, reduced the Holy Mass to a “table of assembly,” and introduced ecumenical practices that render its sacraments suspect at best, invalid at worst. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, taught that Christ’s kingdom “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 chaplaincy does not preach this kingship. It does not preach the necessity of conversion to the Catholic Church for salvation. It does not preach the Social Reign of Christ the King over Ukraine, over Russia, over all nations. Instead, it offers comfort without conversion, absolution without contrition, and rosaries without the preaching of the fullness of Catholic truth. This is not the Catholic chaplaincy of old, which would have used every moment of crisis to preach extra Ecclesiam nulla salus — outside the Church there is no salvation.
Conversions Without Content: The Ecumenical Trap
Perhaps most revealing is the article’s treatment of conversions. Archbishop Kulbokas describes how “an Orthodox bishop and two Protestant pastors had converted to Catholicism and later became Catholic priests.” He recounts the story of a Protestant pastor who, warned by a friend — “Don’t go, because you’ll convert and become a Catholic” — attended a single homily and “soon decided to enter the Catholic Church.”
The article provides no information about what these converts were taught, what they professed, or what form of “Catholicism” they embraced. Given that the conversions occurred within the structures of the post-conciliar sect, the overwhelming probability is that these converts were received not into the Catholic Church, but into the paramasonic structure that has occupied the Vatican since the death of Pope Pius XII. This is the sect that, through Unitatis Redintegratio and subsequent documents, has taught that the Orthodox Church possesses valid sacraments and that Protestant communities are “means of grace” — positions condemned by Pope Pius XI’s Mortalium Animos and the consistent teaching of the pre-conciliar Magisterium.
The conversion of an Orthodox bishop to the conciliar sect is not a victory for the Catholic Church; it is a defeat for the faith. Such a convert would have been received without being required to profess the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff as defined by Vatican I, without being required to reject the errors of Orthodoxy, and without being required to accept the fullness of Catholic dogma. He would have been absorbed into an ecumenical structure that treats his former errors with diplomatic courtesy rather than theological condemnation.
The Silence on Modernist Apostasy: The Gravest Omission
The article’s most damning feature is what it does not say. There is no mention of the main danger identified by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and Lamentabili Sane Exitu: the modernist apostasy within the Church itself. While Kulbokas describes Orthodox bishops converting to “Catholicism,” there is no mention of the fact that the occupying structures in the Vatican have done more to destroy the Catholic faith than any external enemy.
St. Pius X taught that the modernists are “the most dangerous enemies of the Church” because they “crawl secretly in her bosom” and “wound her more dangerously.” The conciliar sect, born from the apostasy of John XXIII and consolidated by Paul VI, has introduced errors condemned by every Pope from Gregory XVI to Pius XII. It has taught religious liberty (condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus, Proposition 77), ecumenism (condemned by Pius XI in Mortalium Animos), and the evolution of dogma (condemned by the Syllabus, Proposition 58: “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him”).
The nuncio’s testimony, far from being a sign of hope, is a symptom of the terminal illness of the conciliar sect. It celebrates “religious revival” while ignoring that the religion being revived is not the Catholic faith but a naturalistic, ecumenical, modernist counterfeit. The soldiers seeking absolution may be seeking the sacrament of confession, but the chaplains offering it operate within a structure that has emptied the sacraments of their supernatural content.
The War as Divine Chastisement: What the Nuncio Cannot Say
The article presents the war in Ukraine as a tragedy that has, paradoxically, produced spiritual fruit. But the Catholic teaching on war and suffering is far more demanding than this sentimental narrative. Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus, condemned the proposition that “the injustice of an act when successful inflicts no injury on the sanctity of right” (Proposition 61). The war in Ukraine is not merely a geopolitical conflict; it is a manifestation of the divine chastisement that has fallen upon a world that has rejected Christ the King.
Pius XI, in Quas Primas, taught that “the present misfortune must mainly be imputed to the frauds and machinations of these sects” — referring to Masonic and revolutionary forces that have worked to destroy Christian civilization. The war in Ukraine cannot be understood apart from the broader apostasy of the modern world, including and especially the apostasy of the conciliar sect that has betrayed the Social Reign of Christ the King.
The nuncio’s testimony, by reducing the war to a story of individual conversions and chaplain heroism, conceals the supernatural dimension of the conflict. It does not ask why God has permitted this chastisement. It does not call for the public repentance of nations. It does not demand the restoration of Christ’s kingship over Ukraine, Russia, and all nations. It offers, instead, a naturalistic narrative of human resilience and religious sentiment that would be at home in any secular publication.
Conclusion: The Bankruptcy of Conciliar Witness
The testimony of Archbishop Kulbokas is not a sign of the Catholic Church’s vitality; it is evidence of the conciliar sect’s ability to produce compelling narratives while hollowing out the faith they claim to proclaim. The soldiers seeking absolution, the chaplains with their dogs, the Orthodox bishops converting to “Catholicism” — all of these stories, while emotionally moving, operate within a theological framework that the pre-conciliar Church would have recognized as heretical.
The true Catholic response to the war in Ukraine is not to celebrate “religious revival” within the structures of the neo-church, but to demand the restoration of the integral Catholic faith: the Social Reign of Christ the King, the necessity of conversion to the Catholic Church for salvation, the condemnation of all forms of religious indifferentism, and the rejection of the modernist apostasy that has produced the conciliar abomination. Until the structures occupying the Vatican are swept away and the Catholic Church restored to her true mission, no amount of wartime conversions or chaplain heroism will heal the wounds inflicted by the enemies within.
Source:
Vatican Nuncio: ‘There Are No Unbelievers Left’ in Ukraine’s War Zones (ncregister.com)
Date: 09.05.2026