The National Catholic Register portal publishes a commentary by the conciliar “archbishop emeritus” of Kansas City, Joseph F. Naumann, dated July 7, 2026, in which he exhorts American Catholics to fulfill their civic duty by voting in an upcoming Kansas judicial retention election. Naumann praises the Masonic constitutional order of the United States on its 250th anniversary, presents the secular electoral process as the primary venue for defending human dignity, and explicitly endorses a specific ballot measure to change the method of selecting state supreme court justices. He frames the contest as a battle against “special-interest groups” like Planned Parenthood and “gender-rights advocates,” while carefully noting he speaks only as a “registered Kansas voter,” not as a shepherd of souls. The article epitomizes the total capitulation of the conciliar hierarchy to naturalistic politics, substituting the Social Reign of Christ the King for partisan maneuvering within a godless republic.
The Idolatry of the American Founding and the Repudiation of Quas Primas
The commentary opens with a paean to the “founders of the United States” and their “remarkable system of government with three branches that included checks and balances.” Nowhere does Naumann acknowledge that this system was explicitly constructed upon Enlightenment principles condemned by the Syllabus of Errors: the sovereignty of the people (popular sovereignty) replacing the sovereignty of God; the separation of Church and State (separatio ecclesiae a civitate) condemned by Pius IX; and religious liberty (libertas cultus) anathematized by Gregory XVI and Leo XIII. By celebrating the 250th anniversary of this Masonic experiment as a blessing from God, Naumann commits a categorical error, confusing the City of Man with the City of God.
Pius XI, in Quas Primas (1925), teaches with unmistakable clarity: “When God and Jesus Christ… 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 American Constitution derives authority from “We the People,” not from Christ the King. To call this system “remarkable” and a protector of “God-given dignity” is to baptize the very secularism (laicism) that Pius XI identifies as “the plague that poisons human society.” Naumann’s silence on the Kingship of Christ over civil society is not an omission; it is a positive denial of the dogma that “all power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him” (Matt 28:18), and that “the state is happy not by one means, and man by another… for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men” subject to Christ’s law. By directing the faithful to the voting booth rather than to the altar of the King, Naumann functions as a chaplain to the revolution.
Reduction of the Episcopal Munus to Partisan Political Advocacy
Naumann explicitly disclaims speaking for the archdiocese, presenting himself merely as a “registered Kansas voter.” This rhetorical maneuver is a tacit admission that the conciliar “bishop” has abandoned the munus docendi (teaching office) for the role of a political action committee chairman. The true bishop, as St. Pius X teaches in Lamentabili Sane Exitu, condemns the proposition that “The Church listening cooperates in such a way with the Church teaching in defining truths of faith, that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening” (Prop. 6). Here, the “archbishop” approves the common opinion of the Republican electorate in Kansas and presents it as Catholic duty.
He urges Catholics to become “informed voters” regarding “ballot issues.” This is the heresy of political Catholicism condemned by St. Pius X: the illusion that the salvation of society depends on the manipulation of democratic levers rather than on the restoration of all things in Christ (Instaurare omnia in Christo). The article’s entire focus is on the mechanics of judicial selection—whether lawyers or citizens choose judges—while ignoring the nature of law itself. As the Syllabus of Errors (Prop. 56) condemns: “Moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction, and it is not at all necessary that human laws should be made conformable to the laws of nature and receive their power of binding from God.” Naumann accepts the positivist framework: law is what the majority or their representatives say it is. He fights only over who decides, not what standard binds the decision.
The Abortion Distraction: Treating Symptoms While Affirming the Disease
Naumann cites the Kansas Supreme Court’s discovery of a “right to unlimited abortion” in the state Bill of Rights as “one of the worst consequences of the current judicial selection method.” This is a calculated half-truth designed to herd pro-life Catholics into the voting booth. The true scandal is not the method of selection but the source of law itself. A court that derives its authority from the people can “discover” any right the people—or their cultural overlords—desire. The Kansas Constitution, like the Federal Constitution, contains no explicit recognition of the Kingship of Christ or the supremacy of Divine Law. It is a godless charter. Therefore, its interpretation will inevitably conform to the spirit of the age, which is the spirit of Antichrist.
By focusing on the procedure (direct election vs. bar association nomination), Naumann implies that a popularly elected judge would necessarily rule correctly. This is the democratic fallacy condemned by Leo XIII in Libertas Praestantissimum: the idea that truth and justice are determined by the vote. “The people… are not the source of rights; God is.” If the Kansas electorate is predominantly pro-abortion (as national trends suggest), direct election will entrench the abortion license with democratic legitimacy. Naumann knows this, or he is culpably ignorant. His proposed remedy is a placebo, preserving the patient’s illusion of agency while the disease of secular sovereignty metastasizes.
Ecumenism of the Voting Booth: “Christians, People of Faith, People of Goodwill”
The commentary addresses “Catholics, fellow Christians, all people of faith and people of goodwill.” This inclusive language reveals the conciliar religion’s essence: a vague, naturalistic theism stripped of the extra Ecclesiam nulla salus dogma. The call to “pray for wisdom and prudence in casting their votes” directed at this heterogeneous group assumes a common supernatural end achievable through secular means. It is the practical application of the condemned proposition (Syllabus, Prop. 16): “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation.” Here, the “way of salvation” is replaced by the “way of civic virtue,” and the “observance of any religion” is replaced by participation in the Masonic ritual of voting.
The true Catholic bishop commands; he does not merely “encourage” alongside “people of goodwill.” He teaches that the State must publicly profess the Catholic Faith, protect the Church’s liberty, and suppress public blasphemy and heresy. Naumann’s silence on the duty of the State to Christ is deafening. He does not demand that Kansas acknowledge Christ the King in its constitution; he only demands that Kansans pick their own tyrants in black robes.
The Symptomatic Level: The Conciliar Church as Handmaid of the Republic
This article is not an anomaly; it is the logical fruit of Dignitatis Humanae and Gaudium et Spes. The conciliar “Church” has declared religious liberty a human right, effectively surrendering the Kingship of Christ to the neutral public square. Naumann operates entirely within the parameters of the Americanist heresy condemned by Leo XIII in Testem Benevolentiae: the adaptation of Catholic life to the spirit of the Republic, the exaltation of natural virtue over supernatural grace, and the preference for active external works over contemplation and sacrifice.
The “archbishop” is a functionary of the paramasonic structure occupying the Vatican. His “emeritus” status signifies a retirement not from the world, but into the world. He validates the system by participating in its rituals. The National Catholic Register, a flagship organ of the neo-church, publishes this as “commentary,” signaling that the official stance of the conciliar hierarchy is political engagement as the summit of the lay vocation. This is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place: the substitution of the City of God for the City of Man, of the Cross for the Ballot.
Conclusion: No King But Caesar
Naumann’s article concludes with a civic catechism: “We must never take for granted the sacrifices made by so many of our ancestors, who helped found and preserve our nation. We need to be educated and involved citizens for future generations to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that have been entrusted to us.” Not a word of the Final Judgment. Not a word of the Social Kingship of Christ. Not a word of the necessity of the Catholic State. Only the rhetoric of the Masonic lodge: founding fathers, freedoms, opportunities, future generations.
The integral Catholic faith declares: Non est potestas nisi a Deo (Rom 13:1). Authority comes from God, not the people. The Kansas judicial selection measure is a rearrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic of the Americanist experiment. A faithful Catholic is not a “well-formed voter”; a faithful Catholic is a subject of Christ the King who works for the Restoration of the Christian Order, knowing that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)—certainly not the name of “democracy,” “constitutionalism,” or “judicial reform.” Naumann’s commentary is a testament to the spiritual bankruptcy of the conciliar sect: it has nothing to offer the world but a baptized ballot.
Source:
A Faithful Catholic Is a Well-Formed Voter (ncregister.com)
Date: 07.07.2026