The National Catholic Register portal reports that on June 2, 2026, U.S. leaders of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal announced the launch of “Evangelize America,” an ecumenically-oriented initiative following an audience with the antipope Leo XIV on May 30, 2026. Deacon Darrell Wentworth, president of the new organization, stated that “our fight is not with our Protestant brothers and sisters,” and explicitly cited John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis as inspirations. The initiative includes placing a Pentecostal member in every small group of twelve. Leo XIV praised the charismatic movement as “a great gift to the Church.” This entire enterprise constitutes a flagrant violation of Catholic ecclesiology, a betrayal of the Church’s missionary mandate, and a consummate expression of the conciliar apostasy that has reduced the Catholic religion to a fraternity club for the enemies of Christ the King.
The Ecumenical Heresy Codified in Structure
The most revealing aspect of this “Evangelize America” initiative is not merely its stated goal of ecumenical cooperation, but its structural incorporation of non-Catholics into what is presented as Catholic evangelization. Deacon Wentworth describes groups of twelve that will include “one charismatic Catholic focused on pursuing full communion and healing animosity between local Christian denominations, and one Pentecostal.” Let the gravity of this sink in: a Pentecostal — a member of a sect that denies the Real Presence, rejects the sacramental system, denies the necessity of baptism for salvation, rejects the authority of the Magisterium, and operates under the influence of deluded emotionalism — is to be embedded in Catholic evangelization teams as a full, equal member.
This is not evangelization. This is the abdication of evangelization. The Catholic Church has always taught that the purpose of missionary activity is the conversion of non-Catholics to the one true Church outside of which there is no salvation. The encyclical Quas Primas of Pius XI (1925) establishes 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 Church’s mission is to bring all men to submission to Christ the King through incorporation into His Mystical Body — not to sit alongside them as partners in a joint venture while leaving them in their errors.
The Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX (1864) condemns precisely this mentality: “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” (Proposition 17) is condemned as error. And Proposition 18 explicitly condemns the claim that “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 inclusion of a Pentecostal as a member of a Catholic evangelization team implicitly treats Protestantism as a legitimate, parallel form of Christianity — a proposition condemned by an ecumenical council.
“Our Fight Is Not with Our Protestant Brothers and Sisters” — A Direct Contradition of Catholic Mission
Deacon Wentworth’s statement that “our fight is not with flesh and blood. It is not with our Protestant brothers and sisters or Christians of other traditions” is a breathtaking inversion of Catholic doctrine. The Catholic Church has always recognized that the greatest obstacle to the salvation of souls is error — and that Protestantism, Orthodoxy, and every other false religion is an obstacle to be overcome, not a partner to be embraced. The Council of Florence (1439) dogmatically defined: “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; but that they will go into the ‘everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Matthew 25:41), unless before the end of life they are joined with Her.”
To say that the fight is “not with” Protestants is to say that their errors do not matter — that their rejection of the Mass, the Real Presence, the sacraments, the papacy, and the entirety of Catholic doctrine is of no consequence to God. This is the heresy of indifferentism in its purest form. St. Pius X, in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), identified this exact tendency as a hallmark of Modernism: the reduction of religion to subjective experience, where the content of belief becomes irrelevant and only the “spirit” matters.
The “fight” absolutely is with Protestantism — not in the sense of personal animosity, but in the sense that Protestantism is a system of damnable error that leads souls to hell. Every Protestant who dies outside the Catholic Church is lost, unless they are invincibly ignorant and implicitly desire what the Church offers. The duty of every Catholic is to work for the conversion of Protestants — not to “heal animosity” between denominations as though the Catholic Church were merely one among many equal options.
The Charismatic Movement as a Vehicle for Apostasy
The Catholic Charismatic Renewal has been, since its inception, one of the most destructive forces within the conciliar sect. It introduced into Catholic worship the emotionalism, subjectivism, and anti-intellectualism of Pentecostalism — precisely the errors that the Church has always condemned in Protestant sects. The movement’s emphasis on “personal experience of the Holy Spirit” bypasses the sacramental system, the teaching authority of the Magisterium, and the necessity of sanctifying grace received through the sacraments.
The antipope Leo XIV’s praise of the charismatic movement as “a great gift to the Church” is entirely consistent with the trajectory of his predecessors in the line of usurpers. John Paul II embraced the charismatics. Benedict XVI, despite his more polished theology, never condemned them. Francis actively promoted them. Each successive antipope has deepened the Church’s capitulation to the very errors that the pre-conciliar Magisterium condemned.
The Lamentabili sane exitu of St. Pius X (1907) condemned the proposition that “the dogmas of faith should be understood according to their practical function, i.e., as binding in action, rather than as principles of belief” (Proposition 26). The charismatic movement operates on exactly this principle: doctrine is irrelevant; what matters is the “experience” of the Spirit, the emotional high, the feeling of community. This is Modernism pure and simple — the reduction of Catholic religion to naturalistic emotionalism dressed in Catholic vocabulary.
The Usurpation of Papal Authority
The entire framing of this initiative — the audience with Leo XIV, the citation of previous antipopes as authorities, the claim of papal approval — rests on the fundamental error of sedevacantism: the recognition of post-1958 occupants of the See of Peter as legitimate popes. As the theological sources demonstrate, a manifest heretic ipso facto loses his office. St. Robert Bellarmine teaches: “A Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” Wernz and Vidal confirm: “By notorious and publicly manifested heresy, the Roman Pontiff, should he fall into it, is deprived ipso facto of his personal jurisdiction even before any declaratory sentence by the Church.”
Every antipope from John XXIII onward has professed heresies — religious liberty, ecumenism, the collegiality of bishops as a rival authority to the papacy, the irreformability of doctrine denied in practice if not always in explicit theory. Leo XIV’s encouragement of an ecumenical initiative that treats Protestantism as a valid partner in evangelization is yet another manifestation of the heresy that has characterized every post-conciliar usurper. His words carry no authority, his approval confers no legitimacy, and his “Church” is not the Catholic Church but the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.
The Strategy of the Twelve: A Masonic Model
The organizational structure of “groups of twelve” modeled on the Apostles is a grotesque parody of Catholic ecclesiology. The Twelve Apostles were chosen by Christ Himself, ordained by Him, and given authority to teach, govern, and sanctify. Their authority derived from Christ, not from a democratic assembly. The idea that a priest, a deacon, his wife, seven lay members, a charismatic Catholic, and a Pentecostal can form a group “modeled after the Twelve Apostles” is blasphemous in its presumption and heretical in its implications.
This structure reflects the conciliar democratization of the Church — the reduction of the hierarchical, sacramental institution founded by Christ to a voluntary association of equals. The Council of Trent taught that the hierarchy of the Church is of divine institution, not human arrangement. The idea that lay members can be assigned “seven tasks that influence culture” alongside a priest and deacon reflects the conciliar error that the laity share in the priestly office — an error condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium.
Moreover, the inclusion of a Pentecostal as a structural member of this group effectively places a non-Catholic in a position of influence over Catholic souls. This is not merely imprudent — it is a violation of the Church’s law and tradition regarding the danger of false teachers. St. Paul warns: “If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to that which you have received, let him be anathema” (Galatians 1:9). The Catholic Church has always forbidden Catholics from participating in non-Catholic worship or religious activities. Canon 1258 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law forbade Catholics from taking active part in non-Catholic religious functions. The “Evangelize America” initiative institutionalizes this violation.
The Silence About Conversion
Perhaps the most damning omission in the entire article is any mention of conversion — the conversion of non-Catholics to the Catholic Church. The word “conversion” does not appear. The goal is not to bring Protestants into the Catholic Church but to “bring Christians together” and “heal animosity.” This is the language of the World Council of Churches, not of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church has always taught that there is only one true religion, outside of which no one can be saved. The Syllabus of Errors condemns the proposition that “man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Proposition 16). Pius IX’s Quanto Conficiamur (1863), while acknowledging the possibility of invincible ignorance, never wavered from the teaching that the Catholic Church is the only ark of salvation. The idea that Christians should simply “come together” without the non-Catholics submitting to the authority of the Catholic Church is a denial of the Church’s divine mission.
The antipope Leo XIV’s statement that the charismatic movement is about helping “everyone to experience the power of the Holy Spirit and fall in love with God the Father instead of all the material things present in society” reduces Christianity to a vague theism devoid of doctrinal content. It is not the Catholic faith. It is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the religion of Modernism — the “dogmaless Christianity” that Lamentabili condemned as “a broad and liberal Protestantism” (Proposition 65).
Conclusion: The Symptom of Total Apostasy
The “Evangelize America” initiative is not an anomaly. It is the logical, inevitable fruit of the conciliar revolution. When the Catholic Church’s teaching on religious liberty was proclaimed at Vatican II — the teaching that man has a right to religious freedom that the Church must respect — the door was opened to every form of indifferentism and false ecumenism. When the Mass was replaced with the Novus Ordo — a Protestantized memorial meal stripped of its propitiatory character — the distinctiveness of Catholic worship was obliterated. When the hierarchy of the Church was redefined as a “college” of equals rather than a monarchy under the Vicar of Christ, the authority to teach and govern was effectively dissolved.
What remains is not the Catholic Church but a paramasonic structure that uses Catholic vocabulary to promote a naturalistic, ecumenical, anti-doctrinal religion. The “Evangelize America” initiative, with its inclusion of Pentecostals, its silence about conversion, its appeal to the authority of antipopes, and its reduction of evangelization to emotional experience, is a perfect embodiment of this apostasy.
The faithful who wish to remain Catholic — truly Catholic, in communion with the unchanging faith of the Church — must reject this entire enterprise. They must reject the authority of Leo XIV and all his predecessors from John XXIII onward. They must reject the charismatic movement as a vehicle of Modernism. They must reject ecumenism as a betrayal of the Church’s missionary mandate. And they must hold fast to the depositum fidei — the deposit of faith — as taught by the Church before the conciliar revolution, when the Church still professed that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) — and that name is Jesus Christ, known and served only in His one true Church.
Source:
U.S. Catholic Charismatic Leaders Announce Ecumenically-Oriented Evangelization Initiative (ncregister.com)
Date: 02.06.2026