Vatican News portal (May 20, 2026) reports on an interview with historian Bernardo Groschopp aboard a cruise ship, discussing how indigenous communities in the Arctic and Patagonia are affected by climate change and how their “environmental knowledge” is valuable for scientists. The article presents these communities as models of sustainable living and environmental stewardship, while lamenting that Western civilization has failed to learn from them. This seemingly benign environmental narrative, however, reveals the deeply modernist and naturalistic orientation of the conciliar sect, which consistently prioritizes earthly concerns over supernatural truths and substitutes pagan romanticism for Catholic doctrine.
The Primacy of Earthly Concerns Over Supernatural Truths
The article’s entire framework is built upon the assumption that climate change is the defining crisis of our time and that indigenous communities hold the key to addressing it. Groschopp states: “They really have a perfect relationship with the environment” and “they really do care about the environment in the same way.” This language reveals a worldview that places the created order — specifically, the natural environment — at the center of moral and spiritual concern. The article never once mentions God, the soul, the sacraments, final judgment, or the supernatural destiny of man. This silence is not accidental; it is the hallmark of the modernist mentality condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu and Pascendi Dominici gregis, which reduces religion to a merely natural and social phenomenon.
St. Pius X warned that Modernism seeks to strip the faith of its supernatural content, reducing it to a feeling or a social program. The Vatican News article does precisely this: it transforms the Catholic faith into an environmentalist manifesto. Where the true Church teaches that “our conversation is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20) and that this world is a vale of souls, the conciliar sect teaches that the purpose of human existence is to maintain a “perfect relationship with the environment.” This is not Catholicism; it is naturalism, condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (propositions 1–7) as the denial of the supernatural order.
Pagan Romanticism Disguised as Respect
The article romanticizes indigenous communities, presenting them as noble savages living in harmony with nature. Groschopp recounts how Sámi fishermen stopped fishing once they had what they needed, contrasting this with Western overconsumption: “Where those fishermen stopped once they had what they needed, we often keep going – catching more fish, extracting more resources, pushing natural systems far beyond what they can sustain.” This narrative is deeply problematic from a Catholic perspective. It implicitly condemns the Western Christian civilization that built hospitals, universities, and cathedrals, while elevating pagan and animistic cultures as models of virtue.
The Catholic Church has always taught that all peoples are called to the true faith and that pagan cultures, however admirable certain natural virtues may appear, are fundamentally disordered because they lack the true knowledge of God and the means of salvation. The Church’s missionary mandate, reaffirmed by Pius XI in Quas Primas, is to bring all nations under the kingship of Christ — not to learn environmental management from animist communities. The article’s tone of admiration for indigenous “knowledge” and “relationship with the environment” is a form of religious indifferentism, condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus (propositions 15–18), which holds that all religions and cultures are equally valid paths to truth.
The Omission of Catholic Missionary Teaching
Perhaps the most damning omission in the entire article is any reference to the Church’s missionary mandate. The conciliar sect, following the errors of Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate and Redemptoris Missio, has systematically abandoned the Church’s teaching that she is the one true religion and that all peoples must be brought to the faith. Instead, the article presents indigenous communities as autonomous repositories of wisdom from which the West should learn. This is the exact opposite of Catholic teaching.
Pius XI, in Quas Primas, declared: “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 Church’s duty is not to sit at the feet of pagan communities but to evangelize them, baptize them, and bring them into the Kingdom of Christ. The Vatican News article, by contrast, implies that these communities have nothing to gain from the Catholic faith and everything to offer the West. This is apostasy pure and simple.
The Climate Change Narrative as Modernist Religion
The article treats climate change not merely as a scientific or political issue but as a quasi-religious imperative. Groschopp describes the thawing of permafrost, the migration of animal species, and the erosion of Arctic coasts in apocalyptic terms: “I think it’s striking how many problems thawing permafrost can create for these communities… this process also releases enormous amounts of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, creating a feedback loop that further alters Arctic environments.” The language of crisis, catastrophe, and urgency mirrors the language of religious eschatology — but with the environment, not God, as the object of ultimate concern.
This is characteristic of the modernist project identified by St. Pius X: the transformation of Catholic eschatology into a worldly utopianism. Where the true Church teaches that the end times will be marked by the spread of the Gospel, the coming of the Antichrist, and the final judgment, the conciliar sect teaches that the end times will be marked by environmental catastrophe. The “salvation” offered is not the salvation of souls through the sacraments but the “salvation” of the planet through sustainable practices and indigenous wisdom. This is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place: the replacement of the supernatural religion of Christ with a naturalistic cult of the earth.
The Irony of Vatican News
It is deeply ironic that this article appears on Vatican News, the official news portal of the conciliar sect occupying the Vatican. The same institution that claims to be the voice of the Catholic Church is using its platform to promote a narrative that is fundamentally anti-Catholic: one that elevates pagan cultures above Christian civilization, replaces the supernatural mission of the Church with environmental activism, and treats climate change as the paramount moral issue of our time.
The true Catholic position on the natural world is one of stewardship, not worship. God created the world for man’s use and for His glory, and man is commanded to “increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). The earth is not a sacred entity to be worshipped but a created order to be governed under the kingship of Christ. Pius XI, in Quas Primas, made clear that Christ’s kingship extends over all creation and that the ordering of human society — including its relationship to the natural world — must be governed by divine law, not by the “knowledge” of pagan communities or the projections of climate scientists.
The Vatican News article, by failing to mention God, the faith, or the Church’s supernatural mission, reveals itself as a product of the conciliar apostasy. It is not a Catholic article wearing an environmentalist disguise; it is an environmentalist article wearing a Catholic disguise. The faithful should reject it entirely and return to the unchanging teaching of the Church: that Jesus Christ is King, that His Kingdom has no end, and that the only true “environmental crisis” is the crisis of souls living in mortal sin, far from God.
Source:
What indigenous communities teach us about climate change (vaticannews.va)
Date: 20.05.2026