Antichurch Prelate Naturalizes Divine Chastisement in Venezuelan Catastrophe
The National Catholic Register portal, the English-language mouthpiece of the EWTN propaganda apparatus, reports on an interview granted by Carlos Márquez, the auxiliary “bishop” of the Caracas novus ordo structure, to its Spanish-language sister agency ACI Prensa. The occasion is the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, 2026, leaving nearly five thousand dead and tens of thousands injured. Márquez, presented as a shepherd comforting his flock, declares it “tremendous pride” to seek answers for suffering, dismisses earthquakes as mere “natural processes” necessary for creation’s “evolution,” and reduces the divine promise to mere “accompaniment” in suffering. He cites the apostate Wojtyła — canonized by the antipope Bergoglio — as spiritual authority for Venezuelan resilience. The article epitomizes the naturalistic, therapeutic deformation of the Gospel that defines the conciliar sect: God is stripped of His justice, Providence is reduced to geological necessity, and the Church’s mission is reduced to psychological accompaniment.
The Usurpation of the Episcopal Office and the Nullity of the Conciliar Hierarchy
The very premise of the article rests upon a usurpation. Carlos Márquez presents himself, and is presented by the conciliar media, as “auxiliary bishop of Caracas.” According to the unchanging discipline of the Church, codified in the 1917 Code of Canon Law (can. 2370) and the dogmatic constitution Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis of Pius XII, no man receives the episcopate without a canonical mission from the Roman Pontiff. Since the death of Pius XII in 1958, the See of Peter has been vacant; the line of claimants — Roncalli, Montini, Luciani, Wojtyła, Ratzinger, Bergoglio, Prevost — are manifest heretics who, by the very fact of their public adhesion to the conciliar errors (religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality, religious freedom), have severed themselves from the Mystical Body and lost all jurisdiction ipso facto (ipso facto et sine ulla declaratione). As St. Robert Bellarmine teaches in De Romano Pontifice (lib. 2, cap. 30): “Manifestus haereticus ipso facto cessat esse Papa et caput, sicut cessat esse Christianus et membrum corporis Ecclesiae” (A manifest heretic by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and a member of the Church’s body). Consequently, the “episcopal” consecrations performed within the conciliar sect — including that of Márquez, presumably administered in the invalid rite of Paul VI (1968) — are devoid of sacramental grace and canonical mission. He is a layman exercising a usurped jurisdiction, a pseudo-episcopus without mission (sine missione canonica), and his “pastoral” words carry no more supernatural authority than the words of any layman. The Cum ex Apostolatus Officio of Paul IV declares that any promotion of a heretic to any dignity is “nulla, irrita et invalida” (null, void, and invalid). The Register’s presentation of this layman as a “bishop” is a deliberate falsification of reality, a participation in the great imposture of the abominatio desolationis standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15).
Naturalism Masquerading as Theology: The Denial of Divine Providence and Justice
The theological core of Márquez’s discourse is a radical naturalism condemned by the Syllabus of Pius IX. He declares: “We can’t escape biological law; we can’t escape the laws of nature. What we once thought was a curse or divine punishment, we now know to be natural processes, processes that are even necessary.” This statement is a formal adherence to the condemned propositions of the Syllabus: “There exists no Supreme, all-wise, all-provident Divine Being, distinct from the universe… God is identical with the nature of things, and is therefore subject to changes” (Error 1); “All action of God upon man and the world is to be denied” (Error 2); “Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood” (Error 3). By declaring earthquakes “natural processes” that are “necessary” for creation’s “evolution” toward “fullness,” Márquez expels God from His creation, reducing the Governor of the universe to a spectator of necessary geological mechanisms. This is the deus otiosus of the deists, condemned by Vatican I (Dei Filius, can. 1: “Si quis Deum… mundi creatorem… non solum esse negaverit, sed etiam eundem mundi creatorem… non continua eius providentia gubernare… anathema sit”). The Bishop of Hippo, St. Augustine, thunders against this impiety: “Non est enim Deus naturae necessitas, sed voluntas” (God is not the necessity of nature, but Will — De Trinitate, III, 2). To call a chastisement that kills five thousand souls a “necessary process of evolution” is to blaspheme the Potestas ordinata of God, who “metitur caelos spithama, et calcat calcagno terram” (Isa. 40:12) and “tetigit montes et fumigant” (Ps. 103:32). The Council of Trent teaches infallibly that temporal punishments are inflicted by God for sin (Sess. 14, cap. 8; can. 12 de Satisfactione: “Si quis dixerit… poenas temporales… a Deo non infligi… anathema sit”). Márquez calls it “pride” to seek the why of suffering; the Church teaches it is wisdom to recognize the rod of the Father: “Quem diligit Dominus, castigat” (Heb. 12:6; Prov. 3:12).
The Therapeutic Deformation of the Redemption: “Accompaniment” Instead of Salvation
Márquez reduces the Incarnation and the Cross to a ministry of “accompaniment”: “Christ’s promise was not that we would not suffer… Amid the pain, he promised not to abandon us… He promises us his companionship in the midst of pain.” This is the anthropocentric inversion of the Gospel. The promise of Christ is not mere solidarity in suffering, but Redemption from sin, which is the cause of suffering. “Non est veniet filius hominis judicare vivos et mortuos” (2 Tim. 4:1). The Quas Primas of Pius XI, cited in the context, proclaims: “Christ received from the Father power and honor and a kingdom… all power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him” (Matt. 28:18). The Kingship of Christ is legislative, judicial, and executive — He gives laws, judges, and coerces. Márquez presents a “King” who merely walks beside the suffering, offering the sacraments as therapy sessions to “comfort and heal us, and transform our hearts so we can move forward.” This is the cult of man condemned by Pius XI in Ubi Arcano and by St. Pius X in Pascendi: the supernatural order is dissolved into a naturalistic humanism where grace is reduced to psychological resilience. The sacraments of the conciliar sect, administered by invalidly ordained ministers using invalid rites (Paul VI’s 1968/1969 rites), are empty signs; they confer no grace ex opere operato because they lack the form, matter, and intention of the Church. To present them as channels of “comfort” is to prostitute the holy mysteries.
The Invocation of the Antipope Wojtyła: Canonization of the Conciliar Apostasy
Márquez invokes the words of “St. John Paul II” spoken in Caracas in 1996 as a spiritual anchor for the Venezuelan people. This invocation seals the apostasy. Karol Wojtyła was a manifest heretic who taught and practiced religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), false ecumenism (Assisi 1986), and the salvation of non-Christians in their false religions (Redemptoris Missio 10). He was “canonized” by Jorge Bergoglio, himself a manifest heretic. As the Defense of Sedevacantism document establishes, citing Bellarmine and Wernz-Vidal: “By notorious and publicly manifested heresy, the Roman Pontiff… is deprived ipso facto of his personal jurisdiction even before any declaratory sentence by the Church.” A heretic cannot canonize; the “canonization” of Wojtyła is a null act, a theatrical legitimization of the conciliar revolution. To quote him as a saint is to canonize the errors of Vatican II. The “land of grace” and “land of saints” rhetoric applied to Venezuela by a false bishop invoking a false saint is the language of the civitas terrena masquerading as the Civitas Dei, the very laicism condemned in Quas Primas>: “When God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” Venezuela’s tragedy is not a geological accident; it is the fruit of a nation that has apostatized from the Social Kingship of Christ, embracing socialism, abortion, and the conciliar counter-church.
The Symptomatic Structure: The Conciliar Sect as an Instrument of Naturalistic Consolation
The article reveals the essential function of the conciliar sect in the modern world: not the salus animarum through the Sacrificium Propitiatorium and the integral proclamation of the Depositum Fidei, but the psychological management of suffering within the immanent frame. The “bishop” tells the victims not to ask “why” — the very question that opens the soul to metanoia — but to “work so that the future may be better.” This is pure Pelagian naturalism: man saves himself by his efforts, God is a silent companion. The EWTN/Register apparatus amplifies this message globally, presenting the conciliar hierarchy as the legitimate voice of Catholicism. The death toll (4,829) is reported as a statistic, not as a summons to penance. The “hope” offered is a vague eschatological optimism (“God has the final word, which is a word of life”), severed from the necessitas medii of the Church, the Sacraments, and the Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. The silence on the Social Reign of Christ the King (Quas Primas), on the duty of the State to profess the Catholic Faith (Syllabus, Error 77-78), on the necessity of the Traditional Latin Mass as the supreme act of propitiation, is the silence of the abomination of desolation. The conciliar sect does not convert nations; it accompanies them into the abyss.
Conclusion: The Verdict of Immutable Truth
The article is a manifesto of the neo-church: a false hierarchy, exercising no jurisdiction, preaching a naturalistic gospel, invoking false saints, administering invalid sacraments, offering therapeutic accompaniment instead of the Crux et Corona. The Venezuelan earthquakes are a flagellum Dei, a call to penance from the Rex Tremendae Maiestatis whom the conciliar sect has dethroned. The only true response is not the “resilience” preached by Márquez, but the conversion of the nation to the Integral Catholic Faith, the recognition of the Sede Vacante, the rejection of the conciliar sect as the synagoga Satanae (Apoc. 2:9), and the restoration of the Sacrum Tridentinum as the sole rule of worship and life. “Regnavit a ligno Deus” (Ps. 95:10, Vulgate) — God has reigned from the Cross; the conciliar sect reigns from the ruins of the sanctuary, offering stones for bread.
Source:
Where Is God in the Midst of Tragedy? A Bishop Responds Following Venezuela Earthquakes (ncregister.com)
Date: 19.07.2026