The National Catholic Register portal reports on the conclusion of the 39-day war between the United States and Iran, noting that a Memorandum of Understanding, highly favorable to Iran, has been reached. The article by Alberto M. Fernandez describes a situation where Iran, despite military setbacks, emerges triumphant, securing sanctions relief and the return of frozen funds, while the United States, under President Trump, oscillates between boasting of a “deal” and threatening a return to war. The Iranian regime, facing internal collapse and a restive population, utilizes propaganda, comparing Trump to the humiliated Roman Emperor Valerian, while the “pope” Leo XIV offers platitudes about “communication networks” and “polarization.” The entire geopolitical theater, characterized by bluster, deception, and the survival of a tyrannical regime, unfolds in a vacuum of moral clarity, where the Catholic Church, usurped by Modernists, is reduced to a mere observer of “polarization” rather than the herald of Christ the King.
The Triumph of the Iranian Tyranny and the Humiliation of the West
The cited article lays bare the grim reality of a conflict where the forces of tyranny have, in effect, won. The Iranian regime, which was “struggling to survive even before the war,” has managed to leverage its control over the Strait of Hormuz to extract concessions. The agreement, as described, is “highly favorable to Iran,” promising “billions of dollars in frozen funds” and “much-sought sanctions relief.” This is not merely a diplomatic failure; it is a capitulation. The image chosen by the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman—a third-century rock relief depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission to the Persian king Shapur I—is a deliberate and blasphemous inversion of the natural order. It proclaims the triumph of a satanic empire over a West that has long since abandoned its Christian foundations.
Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors.” He lamented that “this plague… began with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations; the Church’s authority to teach men, to issue laws, to govern nations, which authority she received from Christ the Lord to lead men to eternal happiness, was denied.” The current situation, where a militant Islamic regime humiliates a West that has expelled God from its public life, is the bitter fruit of this denial. The United States, once a bastion of Christendom (however imperfect), now stumbles from one “military intervention” to another, lacking any supernatural vision, any understanding of the Corpus Christianum. Its interventions are not motivated by the spread of the Faith or the defense of the Church, but by geopolitical hubris and economic interest. As St. Pius X warned in Lamentabili sane exitu, “The Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences” only when that progress is divorced from divine revelation. The “progress” of the West, its technological and military might, has led not to peace, but to a “ferocious war” that it cannot win because it fights without God.
The Propaganda of the Regime and the Silence of the Faithful
The article notes the “textbook case in media manipulation” by Iran, which utilized social media to project an image of victory. This is the modus operandi of the modern world, a world steeped in the errors condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors. Error 79 states: “Moreover, it is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to propagate the pest of indifferentism.” The “communication networks” and “algorithms” mentioned by Leo XIV are not neutral tools; they are the instruments of this “pest of indifferentism,” magnifying the lies of tyrants and drowning out the voice of Truth.
The response of the White House, as described, is a pathetic exercise in spin. “Unlike past agreements where America paid Iran upfront and hoped they’d comply, this MOU is structured so Iran gets nothing until they deliver.” This is the language of the marketplace, not of the Kingdom of God. It is the language of a nation that has forgotten the words of Our Lord: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). The United States, in its pursuit of a “deal,” has gained nothing but the enmity of a regime whose very existence is predicated on the destruction of the West. The “warm peace” that Trump envisions is a chimera, a contradiction in terms. Peace, true peace, is only possible in the Kingdom of Christ. As Pius XI declared, “The state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.” This harmony is impossible without the recognition of the supreme authority of Jesus Christ.
The Usurper on the Throne of Peter and the Sins of Omission
The most damning aspect of the cited article is its treatment of the “pope.” Leo XIV is quoted as warning that “communication networks, fragmented information environments and algorithms that reward conflict can magnify polarization and resentment, increase propaganda and make shared discernment more difficult.” This is not the voice of the Vicar of Christ; it is the voice of a sociologist, a Modernist, a man of the world. Where is the call to repentance? Where is the condemnation of the Iranian regime’s persecution of Christians? Where is the defense of the innocent lives lost in this conflict? Where is the proclamation of the Social Kingship of Christ?
The article’s silence on these points is deafening. It is a silence that speaks volumes about the state of the post-conciliar structures. The “clergy” of the neo-church are not shepherds; they are bureaucrats, navigating the treacherous waters of geopolitics with the same moral compass as any secular statesman. They are the heirs of the Modernists condemned by St. Pius X, who taught that “the Church listening cooperates in such a way with the Church teaching in defining truths of faith, that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening” (Lamentabili, Proposition 6). Leo XIV’s statement is a perfect embodiment of this heresy. He does not teach; he observes. He does not condemn; he warns. He does not lead; he follows the algorithm.
The Strait of Hormuz and the Strait Gate
The conflict over the Strait of Hormuz is a fitting metaphor for the spiritual state of the world. The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage through which a significant portion of the world’s oil supply flows, is a chokepoint of global commerce. The Strait Gate, as Our Lord described it, is the narrow path that leads to life: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
The world, and the West in particular, has chosen the “wide gate” of secularism, materialism, and apostasy. It has rejected the “narrow way” of the Cross, of sacrifice, of the recognition of Christ the King. And now it finds itself at the mercy of a regime that worships a false god and seeks its destruction. The “uneasy end” to this war is not a peace; it is a reprieve. It is the calm before the next storm, the next humiliation, the next capitulation.
The cited article, with its focus on “negotiations” and “deals,” is a symptom of a world that has lost its way. It is a world that has forgotten the words of the Prophet Daniel: “The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will” (Daniel 4:17). The United States, for all its might, is but a tool in the hands of Providence. Iran, for all its bluster, is but a scourge sent to punish a faithless world. The only hope for true peace, for an end to the “polarization” and “propaganda,” is a return to the Social Kingship of Christ. As Pius XI wrote, “Then at last… so many wounds can be healed, then there will be hope that the law will regain its former authority, sweet peace will return again, swords and weapons will fall from hands, when all willingly accept the reign of Christ and obey Him, and every tongue will confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.”
The “uneasy end” to the war with Iran is not a cause for celebration, but a call to repentance. It is a reminder that the “peace” of the world is a lie, and that true peace is only found in the Heart of Christ, in the Sacraments of the true Church, and in the recognition of His supreme authority over all nations, all peoples, and all creation. The silence of the usurpers in the Vatican on this matter is not merely a failure of leadership; it is a betrayal of their sacred trust. They are the “hirelings” who flee at the approach of the wolf (John 10:12), leaving the flock to be devoured by the forces of darkness.
Source:
An Uneasy End to an Elusive War with Iran Draws Near (ncregister.com)
Date: 26.05.2026