EWTN News reports that during his apostolic visit to Barcelona on June 10, 2026, the usurper Robert Prevost — who styles himself “Pope Leo XIV” — delivered a lengthy reflection on soccer ahead of the FIFA World Cup, reducing the mission of the Church to a sports metaphor. “Soccer helps us remember something very important: that life is not a race to be run in solitude; it is something played as a team, and we must learn to run together,” he declared. He also spoke of his personal sporting pastimes — tennis, American football, and playing defense in soccer during his time in Peru — and concluded by comparing the charitable work of Barcelona diocesan organizations to a sports team. This spectacle is not merely banal; it is a revelatory symptom of the total apostasy of the conciliar sect, which has replaced the preaching of Christ the King with the idolatry of sport and the cult of horizontal, naturalistic humanism.
The Abomination of Desolation: A “Pontiff” on the Soccer Field
Let us consider what has actually taken place. The man who claims to occupy the Chair of Peter — the Vicar of Christ on earth, the successor of the Prince of the Apostles, the custodian of divine revelation and the supreme judge of faith and morals — stands before the faithful and speaks at length about soccer. Not about the Four Last Things. Not about the necessity of baptism. Not about the reality of hell. Not about the Social Kingship of Christ. Not about the obligation of states to profess the Catholic faith. Not about the immortality of the soul, the necessity of grace, the horror of sin, or the infinite value of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. No. He speaks about passing the ball.
“Soccer also helps us remember something very important: that life is not a race to be run in solitude; it is something played as a team, and we must learn to run together,” he stated. One must ask: which life? The supernatural life of grace, which is the only life that matters for eternity? He says nothing of it. The life he describes is purely naturalistic — a horizontal existence of human cooperation stripped of all reference to God, to the Church’s mission of saving souls, to the obedience owed to the Divine King. This is the religion of naturalism, condemned in the very first proposition of the Syllabus of Errors by Pope Pius IX: “Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of good and evil; it is law to itself.” The conciliar sect has made this condemned proposition its operative program.
The Cult of the Body and the Oblivion of the Soul
The usurper further declared: “A little sport is good for everyone; one has to find ways to — let’s say — maintain and enjoy good health: body, mind, and soul.” Note the order: body, mind, and soul. The body comes first. The soul is an afterthought, tacked on at the end as though it were an appendix to physical fitness. This inversion is not accidental. It is the systematic program of the conciliar revolution, which has replaced the asceticism of the saints with the cult of bodily well-being. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, taught that Christ must reign “in the mind of man, whose duty it is to accept revealed truths with complete submission to the divine will and to believe firmly and constantly in the teaching of Christ; let Christ reign in the will, which should obey God’s laws and commandments; let Him reign in the heart, which, having despised desires, must love God above all and belong only to Him; let Him reign in the body and its members, which, as instruments… should contribute to the inner sanctification of souls.” The body exists for the sanctification of the soul, not the reverse. The neo-church has turned this divine order upside down.
Moreover, the claim that sport is “good for everyone” without any qualification is a naturalistic platitude unworthy of any serious moral teaching. What of the occasions of sin that accompany professional sports — the idolatry of athletes, the violence, the gambling, the scandal of immodest dress, the desecration of the Lord’s Day? Not a word. The conciliar sect has no doctrine of sin; it has only the language of “wellness” and “teamwork.”
The “Team” Heresy: Democratization of the Church
The central metaphor employed by the usurper — that life is a team sport and we must “run together” — is not merely trite; it is theologically pernicious. It reflects the conciliar ecclesiology of Lumen Gentium, which reduced the hierarchical Church of Christ to a “People of God” moving forward together in a horizontal journey. The Church is not a team. The Church is a societas perfecta, a perfect society established by Christ with a hierarchical constitution — Pope, bishops, priests, and faithful — each with distinct and divinely instituted roles. Pope Pius IX condemned the proposition that “the Church is not a true and perfect society, entirely free” (Syllabus, prop. 19). The Church does not “run together” as equals; she teaches, governs, and sanctifies with the authority of Christ, and the faithful owe her obedience.
The image of the soccer team — where all players are fundamentally equal and the “star” who does not pass the ball is merely inefficient — is a perfect metaphor for the conciliar democratization of the Church. In this vision, the hierarchy exists to facilitate the “participation” of all the “players,” not to exercise the authority of Christ over souls. This is the ecclesiology of collegiality, condemned implicitly by the constant teaching of the pre-conciliar Magisterium. As St. Robert Bellarmine taught, the papal authority is not delegated by the Church but comes directly from Christ — it is not a team decision.
Silence on the Social Kingship of Christ
Perhaps the most damning omission in this entire spectacle is the total silence on the Social Kingship of Christ. The FIFA World Cup is a global event involving nations, governments, and hundreds of millions of souls. If there were a true Pope on the Chair of Peter, he would seize such an occasion to proclaim — as Pius XI did in Quas Primas — that “the State must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations” and that “not only private individuals, but also rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” He would remind nations that “Christ, whom not only was cast out of the state, but was also forgotten and ignored through contempt, will very severely avenge these insults, because His royal dignity demands that all relations in the state be ordered on the basis of God’s commandments and Christian principles.”
Instead, the usurper says nothing. He does not call Spain — a nation that has legalized abortion, promoted gender ideology, and systematically dismantled Catholic education — to repentance. He does not remind the nations gathering for the World Cup that they owe allegiance to Christ the King. He does not even mention the name of Christ in any supernatural or doctrinal context. His Christ is reduced to a vague inspiration for “teamwork” — a Christ who is not King but mascot, not Redeemer but coach.
The “Missionary” in Peru: A Window into Conciliar Formation
The usurper’s nostalgic recollection of playing soccer with seminarians in Trujillo, Peru, is also revealing. It paints a picture of the conciliar formation system: future “priests” bonded not through common prayer, not through the study of scholastic theology, not through the practice of mortification and the cultivation of the interior life, but through playing sports together. This is the formation system that has produced the current crop of conciliar clergy — men who are more comfortable on a soccer field than before the Blessed Sacrament, more fluent in the language of “teamwork” than in the language of the Summa Theologica.
Pope St. Pius X, in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, warned that the Modernists — “the synthesis of all errors” — would infiltrate the Church through the corruption of seminaries and the formation of clergy. The conciliar formation system, with its emphasis on horizontal human relationships, psychological “group dynamics,” and naturalistic activities like sports, is the fulfillment of this prophecy. The men it produces are not soldiers of Christ; they are social workers with collars.
The Charitable Front: “Diocesan Organizations” as Substitute for the Church
The usurper delivered these remarks to “members of diocesan charitable and assistance organizations” in Barcelona, and concluded by “acknowledging and commending” their work as a team. This is the conciliar model of the Church: not a divine institution for the salvation of souls through the preaching of the Gospel, the administration of the sacraments, and the teaching of doctrine, but a humanitarian NGO engaged in “assistance” and “charity” divorced from supernatural faith.
Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas that the Church “established by Christ as a perfect society, demands for itself by a right belonging to it, which it cannot renounce, full freedom and independence from secular authority, and that in fulfilling the mission entrusted to it by God — to teach, govern, and lead all to eternal happiness, those who belong to the Kingdom of Christ — it cannot depend on anyone’s will.” The conciliar sect has abandoned this mission entirely. It no longer teaches with authority; it “dialogues.” It no longer governs; it “accompanies.” It no longer leads to eternal happiness; it “assists” with temporal needs. The Church of Christ has been replaced by a charitable bureaucracy, and the “pope” is its chief public relations officer.
Conclusion: The Logical Fruit of the Conciliar Revolution
This spectacle — a man claiming to be the Vicar of Christ delivering a homily on soccer to charitable workers in Barcelona — is not an aberration. It is the logical and inevitable fruit of the conciliar revolution. When the Church’s doctrine is reduced to “mercy” without truth, when the Mass is reduced to a “celebration” of community, when the priesthood is reduced to “service” of the “People of God,” when the supernatural is systematically replaced by the natural — then the “pope” becomes a sports commentator, the Church becomes a team, and the salvation of souls becomes a game.
The faithful who still profess the integral Catholic faith must see this for what it is: confirmation that the See of Peter is occupied by an antipope who exercises no jurisdiction, teaches no truth, and sanctifies no one. As St. Robert Bellarmine taught, a manifest heretic ceases to be Pope and head, “just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” The conciliar sect, with its naturalism, its democratization, its false ecumenism, and its cult of man, has departed from the Catholic faith. Its “popes” are not popes. Its “churches” are not churches. Its “sacraments” are not sacraments.
Let us return to the immutable Tradition. Let us proclaim with Pius XI: Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat — Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands. And let us reject with contempt the soccer sermons of the conciar sect, which has made the abomination of desolation speak where once the Vicar of Christ preached the Gospel of the Kingdom.
Source:
Ahead of the World Cup, Pope Leo XIV shares an important lesson from soccer (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 10.06.2026