VaticanNews portal reports on the Colombian presidential runoff, presenting the choice between two candidates as merely “continuity or change,” while remaining characteristically silent on the supernatural dimension of governance and the absolute duty of the State to uphold Catholic social order. The article frames a contest between a Marxist negotiator and a law-and-order populist, yet neither candidate is evaluated against the immutable principles of the Church’s social doctrine, which demands that civil authority serve the common good under God, not under the dictates of revolutionary ideology or secular pragmatism.
The False Dichotomy of “Continuity or Change”
The article presents Colombian voters with a binary choice: Senator Ivan Cepeda, the candidate of the “Historic Pact” coalition promising “continuity” with outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s policies, or Abelardo de la Espriella, a political novice nicknamed “The Tiger,” who promises to “halt all talks with the ELN and build ten maximum security prisons.” This framing is itself a symptom of the modernist reduction of politics to a purely naturalistic calculus, stripped of any reference to the moral law or the Kingship of Christ.
Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), established the Feast of Christ the King precisely because “the hope of lasting peace will not yet shine upon nations as long as individuals and states renounce and do not wish to recognize the reign of our Savior.” The Colombian election, as presented, is a contest between two forms of governance that both operate within the framework of secular liberalism — one appeasing a Marxist insurgency through negotiation, the other promising punitive incarceration. Neither candidate is presented as acknowledging the threefold authority of Christ over the State: legislative, judicial, and executive. The article’s silence on this matter is not neutral; it is complicit in the very “public apostasy” that Pius XI condemned.
The ELN and the Folly of Negotiation with Revolutionary Heresy
Senator Cepeda’s promise to continue “negotiating with the National Liberation Army, the ELN, to finally lay down their arms” is presented uncritically as a policy of “tackling poverty.” The ELN is a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization that has waged armed insurgency against the Colombian state for decades, engaging in kidnapping, extortion, and drug trafficking. To negotiate with such an entity as though it were a legitimate political interlocutor is to reward evil and to undermine the natural order of civil authority.
The Church has consistently taught that civil power exists to protect the common good, not to capitulate to those who seek its destruction. Pope Leo XIII, in Immortale Dei (1885), affirmed that the State must “recognize and defend” the authority of the Church and the divine law, and that those who rebel against legitimate authority act against the natural order. The ELN, by its own ideology, is committed to the overthrow of the existing social order and its replacement with a Marxist regime — a regime that is intrinsically opposed to the Catholic faith and the natural law. To negotiate with such forces is not statesmanship; it is betrayal of the common good.
The article’s framing of Cepeda’s approach as “tackling poverty” is a classic example of the modernist tactic of reducing spiritual and moral questions to material ones. Poverty is not merely an economic condition; it is often the result of injustice, vice, and the absence of the true faith. The remedy for poverty is not negotiation with godless revolutionaries but the establishment of a social order founded on the principles of justice, charity, and the recognition of God’s sovereignty over all human affairs.
De la Espriella’s Iron Fist: Natural Order Without Supernatural Foundation
Abelardo de la Espriella’s promise to “halt all talks with the ELN and build ten maximum security prisons” represents a more robust assertion of civil authority, yet it too is presented within a purely naturalistic framework. The building of prisons and the cessation of negotiations are, in themselves, not sufficient to establish a just social order. Without the recognition of Christ’s Kingship and the moral law, even the most rigorous enforcement of order becomes mere coercion — the exercise of power without reference to the supernatural end of man.
The article notes that de la Espriella is a “lawyer, businessman and singer” with “no previous political experience.” This detail is presented as a neutral biographical fact, but it reveals the deeper crisis of the modern State: the reduction of governance to a technical exercise, divorced from any transcendent moral framework. A candidate who has never held political office and whose qualifications include being a “singer” is presented as a viable option for the presidency of a nation of forty million souls. This is the logical consequence of the democratization of authority — when the supernatural foundation of governance is removed, anything goes.
The Silence on the Church and the Supernatural Order
The most damning feature of the article is what it omits entirely. There is no mention of the Catholic Church in Colombia, no reference to the role of the faithful in the political process, no acknowledgment that the governance of nations is subject to the moral law and the authority of Christ the King. The article treats the election as a purely secular event, a contest between two policy platforms, as though the salvation of souls and the eternal destiny of the nation were irrelevant to the political question.
This silence is the hallmark of the post-conciliar apostasy. The Church has always taught that the State is not neutral in matters of religion and morality. Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), condemned the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Proposition 80). The Colombian election, as presented by VaticanNews, is a case study in the very liberalism that Pius IX condemned: a political process stripped of any reference to the supernatural, in which the only questions are fiscal deficits and security policy.
The Fiscal Deficit and the Idolatry of Economics
The article notes that “few available funds” are available because “there’s a fiscal deficit.” This is presented as a practical constraint facing whichever candidate wins. But the fiscal deficit is itself a symptom of a deeper malaise: the subordination of the moral order to the economic. When the State is viewed as a mere manager of resources rather than an instrument of the common good under God, fiscal crises become inevitable. The true deficit of the Colombian State — and of every modern State — is the deficit of faith, justice, and the recognition of Christ’s Kingship.
Pius XI warned in Quas Primas that “when God and Jesus Christ — as we lamented — were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The fiscal deficit of Colombia is a direct consequence of this spiritual deficit. No amount of negotiation with the ELN or construction of prisons will remedy the fundamental disorder of a nation that has abandoned the recognition of God’s sovereignty.
Conclusion: The Only True Choice
The Colombian election, as presented by VaticanNews, offers no true choice. Both candidates operate within the framework of secular liberalism, one through appeasement of Marxist revolutionaries, the other through punitive enforcement of order. Neither acknowledges the Kingship of Christ, the authority of the Church, or the supernatural end of the State. The article’s silence on these matters is not journalistic objectivity; it is the complicity of the post-conciliar apparatus in the ongoing apostasy of the nations.
The only true choice for Colombia — and for every nation — is the recognition of Christ the King and the establishment of a social order founded on the immutable principles of the Catholic faith. As Pius XI declared: “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” — then, and only then, will peace and justice reign. Until that day, every election, every negotiation, and every prison built without reference to the divine law is a step further into the abyss of the modernist revolution.
Source:
Colombians prepare to vote for continuity or change (vaticannews.va)
Date: 20.06.2026