EWTN News portal reports that on June 3, 2026, the usurper occupying the Vatican, Leo XIV (Robert Prevost), during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, called upon Catholics to “rediscover the signs and symbols of the sacred liturgy.” The pontiff’s remarks were part of his ongoing catechesis on the Second Vatican Council’s document Sacrosanctum Concilium, which he presented as a guide for liturgical participation. He emphasized the importance of gestures such as the sign of peace and kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, stating that these are not “arbitrary ceremonies” but essential for experiencing “the presence of God through Jesus Christ.” Furthermore, he encouraged Catholics to participate in Corpus Christi processions as a form of “public witness to the faith.” This address, while cloaked in the language of reverence, is yet another attempt by the conciliar sect to legitimize the very revolution that destroyed the sacred liturgy and replaced it with a naturalistic, Protestantized assembly.
The Usurper’s Call to “Rediscover” What His Revolution Destroyed
The very premise of Leo XIV’s catechesis is a profound deception. He speaks of “rediscovering signs and symbols” as if they were lost treasures, conveniently omitting the fact that it was the conciar revolution, initiated by his predecessors and codified in Sacrosanctum Concilium, that systematically dismantled the sacred liturgy, stripping it of its supernatural character and reducing it to a mere “celebration” of the assembly. The Traditional Latin Mass, the lex orandi of the Roman Rite for centuries, was not “rediscovered” but rather suppressed, marginalized, and replaced by a fabricated rite that embodies the very errors condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and Lamentabili Sane Exitus.
When Leo XIV states, “We need to let ourselves be educated by the rites of the liturgy, tending to the beauty of our celebrations with a delicate hand and without arbitrariness,” he implicitly endorses the post-conciliar liturgical reform, which was anything but “without arbitrariness.” The Novus Ordo Missae, promulgated by the apostate Paul VI in 1969, was a radical departure from the immutable Catholic theology of the Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice. As the Ottaviani Intervention (1969) clearly demonstrated, the new rite represented a “striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session XXII of the Council of Trent.” The Council of Trent, an ecumenical council whose canons are infallible, anathematized anyone who would say that the Mass was “only a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving” or that it should be celebrated in the vernacular to the exclusion of Latin. The Novus Ordo, with its emphasis on the “memorial” of the Last Supper, its use of the vernacular, its turning of the priest towards the people, and its omission of prayers explicitly affirming the propitiatory nature of the sacrifice, embodies these very heresies.
The “Signs and Symbols” of Apostasy
Leo XIV’s emphasis on “signs and symbols” such as the sign of peace and kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament is a classic modernist tactic: to focus on external gestures while ignoring or denying the underlying reality they are meant to signify. The sign of peace, as introduced in the Novus Ordo, is not the ancient kiss of peace exchanged among the faithful as a sign of charity before the Offertory, but a theatrical gesture of “fraternal sharing” that disrupts the sacred action of the Mass and reduces it to a social gathering. It is a symbol of the false ecumenism and religious indifferentism that permeates the conciliar sect, where the unique and exclusive mediation of Christ is obscured by a superficial display of “unity” that denies the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation.
Similarly, while kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament is indeed a gesture of adoration, the very nature of the “Blessed Sacrament” in the post-conciliar context is suspect. If the Novus Ordo is not a true sacrifice, and if the words of consecration are not pronounced with the intention of confecting the Eucharist, then what is being adored? The modernist “theology” of the Eucharist, influenced by the condemned errors of the Reformation and the rationalism condemned in the Syllabus of Errors (propositions 5, 6, 7), reduces the Real Presence to a mere “presence” among the assembly, a “symbol” of Christ’s spiritual presence, rather than the true, real, and substantial presence of Our Lord under the appearances of bread and wine. To kneel before a “symbol” is not adoration but idolatry.
As Pope Pius XI taught in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), the reign of Christ the King extends over all aspects of life, including worship. The sacred liturgy is not a human invention to be “rediscovered” or “reformed” according to the whims of men, but a divine institution, entrusted to the Church by Christ Himself, to be preserved and transmitted faithfully. The Council of Trent, in its Doctrine and Canons on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Session XXII), declared that the Mass is “a true and proper sacrifice” offered to God, and that it is “propitiatory,” obtaining mercy and grace for the living and the dead. Any attempt to alter this doctrine, whether by omission, ambiguity, or outright denial, is an act of sacrilege and apostasy.
The Corpus Christi Procession: A Public Witness to What Faith?
Leo XIV’s encouragement of Corpus Christi processions as “public witness to the faith” is particularly ironic. What “faith” is being witnessed? The faith of the Catholic Church, which holds that the Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, offered in an unbloody manner on the altar for the remission of sins? Or the faith of the conciar sect, which has reduced the Eucharist to a “memorial meal” and the procession to a mere “expression of popular piety”?
The true Corpus Christi procession, as practiced for centuries, was a solemn act of public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, a visible proclamation of the Real Presence, and a public act of faith in the kingship of Christ over society. It was a manifestation of the social reign of Christ the King, as taught by Pius XI in Quas Primas. In the post-conciliar context, however, such processions have often become ecumenical spectacles, where the “Blessed Sacrament” is paraded alongside representatives of false religions, or where the focus shifts from adoration to “community building” and “dialogue.” This is not a witness to the Catholic faith but a betrayal of it, a public denial of the exclusive truth of the Catholic religion and the necessity of the Eucharist for salvation.
As Pope Pius IX declared in the Syllabus of Errors (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” is an error condemned by the Church. The post-conciliar liturgy, with its Protestantized theology and ecumenical overtones, embodies this very error. To participate in such processions, knowing the state of apostasy of the conciar sect, is to give tacit approval to this apostasy and to participate in a lie.
The Silence on the True Liturgy: The Gravest Omission
The most damning aspect of Leo XIV’s catechesis is what he does not say. There is no mention of the Traditional Latin Mass, the usus antiquior, which the conciar sect has sought to suppress through documents such as Traditionis Custodes (2021). There is no call to return to the liturgy that nourished the saints and martyrs of the Church for centuries. There is no acknowledgment that the post-conciliar liturgical reform was a rupture with tradition, a violation of the principle lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
Instead, Leo XIV continues the conciliar narrative of “reform” and “renewal,” using the language of the Second Vatican Council to justify the very revolution that has led to the near-total collapse of faith, vocations, and practice in the Western world. He speaks of “encounter with God” through “signs and symbols,” but he does not speak of the necessity of the sacraments, the state of grace, the reality of sin, or the final judgment. His language is that of naturalistic humanism, not supernatural Catholicism.
As St. Pius X warned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, the Modernists “proceed to the extent of asserting that there is in the Church a double Christ: one historical, the other the Christ of faith.” The post-conciliar liturgy, with its emphasis on the “assembly” and the “community,” reflects this dualism, where the historical Christ of the Gospels is replaced by a “Christ” who is merely a symbol of human unity and brotherhood. This is not the Christ of Catholic faith, who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6), and “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Conclusion: A Call to Reject the Conciliar Abomination
The address of Leo XIV is not a call to authentic Catholic worship but a further entrenchment of the conciliar revolution. It is an attempt to dress up the abomination of desolation in the garments of tradition, to make the faithful believe that the post-conciliar liturgy is a legitimate development rather than a catastrophic rupture. The faithful must reject this deception and cling to the immutable Tradition of the Catholic Church, as preserved in the Traditional Latin Mass and the teachings of the pre-conciliar Magisterium.
As Pope Pius IX declared in Quanta Cura (1864), attached to the Syllabus of Errors, “The Church is a true and perfect society, entirely free, and endowed with proper and perpetual rights of her own, conferred upon her by her Divine Founder.” The conciar sect, having abandoned these rights and submitted to the spirit of the world, is not the true Church but a counterfeit, a “synagogue of Satan” (Apocalypse 2:9). The faithful must not be deceived by its empty gestures and false piety. They must seek out the true Mass, the true sacraments, and the true faith, wherever they may be found, even if it means separation from the structures occupying the Vatican.
Let us pray for the restoration of the true Church, the true Mass, and the true faith, and for the conversion of those who have been led astray by the conciliar abomination. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam!
Source:
Pope Leo XIV: We must rediscover signs and symbols of the sacred liturgy (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 03.06.2026