EWTN News reports that on June 6, 2026, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem within the conciliar structures, ordained four priests from the Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Galilee, an institution of the Neocatechumenal Way. The ceremony took place at the Domus Galilaeae International Center, a site built by the Neocatechumenal Way on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Pizzaballa’s homily emphasized the link between the priesthood and the Eucharist, the need for priests to be a “gift” to the community, and the unique challenges of serving in Jerusalem. This event is a direct manifestation of the conciliar sect’s systematic destruction of the Catholic priesthood and its replacement with a modernist, secularized caricature, all while operating from the very sites sanctified by Our Lord’s earthly ministry.
The Neocatechumenal Way: A Trojan Horse of Modernism
The ordination of these four individuals is not a cause for joy but a profound cause for alarm. The Neocatechumenal Way, founded by Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández, is not a genuine Catholic movement but a crypto-Masonic, modernist sect that has infiltrated the conciliar structures. Its very foundation is suspect, as it emerged in the post-conciliar period, precisely when the enemies of the Church were implementing their plan to destroy the Faith from within. The Neocatechumenal Way’s methods, including its emphasis on “community,” its syncretistic practices, and its often-questionable theological pronouncements, are a direct assault on the integrity of Catholic doctrine and the sacredness of the priesthood.
The Redemptoris Mater Seminaries, like the one in Galilee, are not true seminaries in the Catholic sense. They do not form priests according to the immutable principles of the Church, as outlined by the Council of Trent and the great pontiffs. Instead, they produce activists for the conciliar revolution, men formed in the spirit of Vatican II’s errors: ecumenism, religious liberty, and the democratization of the Church. These “priests” are trained to serve the “Church of the New Advent,” not the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church founded by Christ. Their “formation” is a process of indoctrination into the modernist heresy, preparing them to perpetuate the conciliar sect’s agenda.
The Domus Galilaeae: An Abomination in the Holy Land
The choice of the Domus Galilaeae International Center for these ordinations is particularly scandalous. This site, built and controlled by the Neocatechumenal Way, is a monument to the conciliar sect’s audacity. To desecrate the very shores of the Sea of Galilee, where Our Lord walked and performed miracles, with rites and “priests” born of modernist innovation, is an act of spiritual vandalism. It is a brazen attempt to usurp the sacred geography of salvation history for the purposes of the Antichrist’s kingdom. The true Catholic priesthood, ordained to offer the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the salvation of souls, has no place in such a setting, which is dedicated to the glorification of a false ecclesiology.
Pizzaballa’s Homily: A Modernist Sermon
Cardinal Pizzaballa’s homily, as reported, is a textbook example of modernist rhetoric, devoid of true Catholic substance. His emphasis on the priesthood as a “gift” to be “communicated” and not “locked within itself” is a subtle but dangerous distortion. While true in a superficial sense, it omits the essential sacrificial nature of the Catholic priesthood. The priest is not merely a “gift” to the community in a horizontal, humanistic sense; he is alter Christus, configured to Christ the High Priest, whose primary mission is to offer the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary for the propitiation of sins and the salvation of souls. This is the “beauty and demanding nature” of the priesthood that Pizzaballa fails to articulate, reducing it instead to a service of “witness” and “encounter” – terms beloved of modernists who seek to empty the priesthood of its supernatural, sacrificial character.
His statement that “there is no Eucharist without a priest, nor a priest without the Eucharist” is a truism that, in the context of the conciliar sect, becomes a mockery. The “Eucharist” celebrated in these modernist rites is often a mere memorial meal, stripped of its propitiatory nature, and the “priests” who celebrate it are often invalidly ordained according to the new rites, or at best, ordained men who have been formed in error and heresy. The true Eucharist, the true Most Holy Sacrifice, can only be confected by a validly ordained Catholic priest using the traditional rite, acting in persona Christi, with the intention of doing what the Church does.
The Destruction of Priestly Identity
The conciliar sect, through movements like the Neocatechumenal Way and its associated seminaries, has systematically dismantled the true identity of the Catholic priest. The priest is no longer seen as a man set apart, consecrated to God, and dedicated to the salvation of souls through the offering of the Holy Sacrifice and the administration of the sacraments. Instead, he is reduced to a community facilitator, a “servant of the people,” a social worker with a religious veneer. This is a direct consequence of the modernist heresy, which denies the supernatural order and reduces religion to a purely human phenomenon.
The “journey” and “people who have supported and accompanied them” that Pizzaballa encourages the new “priests” to remember are not the journey of faith guided by the Church’s immutable tradition, but the journey through the Neocatechumenal Way’s own peculiar and often manipulative formation process. This process, far from leading to an encounter with the true Christ, often leads to a deeper entanglement in the web of modernist error.
The Scandal of “Vocations” in the Conciliar Sect
The very existence of “vocations” to the Neocatechumenal Way is a scandal. It demonstrates the conciliar sect’s success in attracting individuals to a false image of the priesthood, an image that is appealing to those who seek a “relevant” and “engaged” ministry, but who are unaware of the true demands and glories of the Catholic priesthood. These men are being led astray, their good intentions exploited to serve the ends of the Antichrist’s kingdom. The true Church, enduring in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith, suffers from a genuine lack of vocations because the conciliar sect has obscured the true face of the priesthood and the true nature of the Church.
Jerusalem: A Microcosm of the Conciliar Apostasy
Pizzaballa’s remarks about Jerusalem being a “small, complex reality wounded by many situations” and the need to “live the life of God to the fullest” are a tragic understatement. Jerusalem, the city of Our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, is indeed wounded, but not merely by external conflicts. It is wounded by the abomination of desolation that has taken root in the very structures that claim to represent the Church there. The conciliar sect’s presence in Jerusalem, with its ecumenical overtures to schismatics and heretics, its interreligious dialogue with Jews and Muslims, and its modernist “liturgies,” is a profound desecration of the Holy City. The true Catholic Church, which has always maintained the exclusive claim to the true Faith and the true worship of God, is marginalized and persecuted by these very structures.
The Urgent Need for True Catholic Priesthood
This event underscores the critical importance of supporting and promoting the true Catholic priesthood, ordained according to the traditional rites, formed in the immutable doctrine of the Church, and dedicated to the salvation of souls through the offering of the Most Holy Sacrifice. The conciliar sect’s “priests” are not the solution to the Church’s crisis; they are a significant part of the problem. Their “ministry” is a counterfeit, a dangerous illusion that leads souls away from the true path to salvation.
The faithful must reject these modernist ordinations and the movements that produce them. They must cling to the true Faith, the true sacraments, and the true priesthood, as preserved and transmitted by the Church before the conciliar revolution. Only through a return to the immutable Tradition can the Church be restored and souls be saved. The “beauty and demanding nature” of serving the Church in Jerusalem, or anywhere else, can only be truly understood and lived within the framework of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, not the conciliar sect that has usurped its name and its places.
Source:
Patriarch of Jerusalem ordains 4 priests from Neocatechumenal Way (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 09.06.2026