The National Catholic Register portal reports that the usurper antipope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) has appointed seven new members to the so-called Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, including the conciliar “archbishop” Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and “bishop” Edward Lohse of Kalamazoo. The article presents this judicial body as the legitimate highest court of the Catholic Church, detailing its procedural functions, historical origins, and the career trajectories of its American appointees within the post-conciliar hierarchy. This reportage constitutes a brazen normalization of the paramasonic judiciary occupying the Palazzo della Cancelleria, legitimizing a counterfeit tribunal that exercises jurisdiction only over the ruins of the conciliar sect, not the Catholic Church.
The Juridical Fiction of a Usurper’s Court
The cited article treats the Apostolic Signatura as a functioning institution of the Catholic Church, describing its competence to review lower tribunal decisions, parish closures, and administrative disputes. It notes the Signatura was “established in its current form in 1908 by Pope Pius X” and that “Pope Benedict XVI changed the law in 2008 to allow non-bishops to serve.” This historical framing deliberately obscures the metaphysical rupture of 1958. Quod ab initio vitiosum est, non potest tractu temporis convalescere (What is void from the beginning cannot be validated by the passage of time). The 1908 structure was a legitimate ecclesiastical tribunal; the current entity bearing its name is a hollowed-out shell, its jurisdiction nullified by the vacancy of the Holy See and the apostasy of its personnel.
The article states: “No court outranks the Pope who, as head of the Church on earth, has supreme authority to judge cases and definitively resolve juridical disputes.” This tautology exposes the circular reasoning of the conciliar sect: the authority of the tribunal derives from the “pope,” whose legitimacy derives from the very structures he controls. Robert Prevost (“Leo XIV”) is a manifest heretic, an apostate from the Catholic faith, and therefore ipso facto deprived of all jurisdiction — as St. Robert Bellarmine teaches: “A manifest heretic cannot be Pope… he cannot be the head of something of which he is not a member” (De Romano Pontifice, II, 30). A heretic cannot confer jurisdiction, cannot appoint judges, cannot constitute tribunals. The Signatura’s “cardinal prefect” Dominique Mamberti, appointed by the antipope Francis (Bergoglio), holds no more authority than a layman playing judge in a Masonic lodge.
Linguistic Engineering: Sanitizing the Abomination
The article’s vocabulary reveals the naturalistic mentality of the neo-church. It speaks of “ideological leanings” — “Cardinal Burke is generally considered one of the more traditional voices… alongside bishops with a reputation for being more progressive-minded, such as Cardinal Tobin and Cardinal Mario Grech.” This reduction of the Catholic faith to a political spectrum (“traditional” vs. “progressive”) is the hallmark of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis: the substitution of supernatural truth with human opinion. The faith is not a “voice” among others; it is the depositum fidei, immutable and indivisible.
The reporter describes members serving “renewable five-year terms” and traveling to Rome “three or four times a year” for “plenary sessions of the Curia.” This bureaucratic language — terms, sessions, travel schedules — reduces the potestas iurisdictionis (power of jurisdiction) to corporate board membership. The article mentions the Signatura handles “763 cases in 2024,” treating justice as case management metrics. Iustitia sine veritate non est iustitia (Justice without truth is not justice). A tribunal that validates the “marriage annulment” assembly line of the Roman Rota, that ratifies the suppression of the Mass of Ages, that collaborates with the “Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith” in protecting clerical predators — this tribunal judges nothing; it administers the dissolution of ecclesial order.
Theological Nullity of Conciliar Appointments
The appointments of Cordileone and Lohse are presented as routine governance. The article notes Cordileone “previously served as an assistant to the Signatura from 1995-2002” and Lohse is a “bishop” of Kalamazoo. Both are products of the post-conciliar formation: ordained in the invalid Novus Ordo rite (post-1968), consecrated in the invalid Pauline episcopal rite, appointed by antipopes. They possess no sacramental orders, no jurisdiction, no mission from Christ. As Pope Pius XII declared in Sacramentum Ordinis (1947), the form of Holy Orders must signify the grace conferred; the Paul VI rites, stripped of essential signification, produce only empty ceremonies.
Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code — still binding as lex ecclesiastica fundamentalis — states: “Every office becomes vacant by the mere fact and without any declaration… if the cleric publicly defects from the Catholic faith.” The “bishops” of the conciliar sect publicly defect by professing the heresies of Vatican II: religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), false ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio), collegiality subverting papal primacy (Lumen Gentium), and the new ecclesiology of “subsistit in.” Their “appointments” to the Signatura are not merely irregular — they are nulla, vacua, et invalida (null, void, and invalid), as Pope Paul IV’s Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio (1559) decrees for any elevation of a heretic: “his promotion or elevation… shall be null, void, and of no effect.”
The article mentions Cardinal Burke’s tenure: appointed by “Benedict XVI” in 2006, made prefect in 2008, removed by “Francis” in 2014, reappointed in 2017, renewed in 2022. This revolving door of “traditional” and “progressive” cardinals confirms the Signatura is a political instrument, not a judicial one. Burke himself — the darling of the “recognize-and-resist” pseudo-traditionalists — continuously acknowledged the validity of the usurpers in the Vatican, famously declaring “give us the old Mass, that is enough for us.” His presence on the Signatura legitimized the very structure that destroys the faith. Qui cum haereticis communicat, haereticus fit (He who communicates with heretics becomes a heretic).
Symptomatic Exposure: The Judiciary of the Antichrist
The article’s description of the Signatura’s functions reveals the total inversion of ecclesiastical justice. It “reviews decisions made by lower tribunals or by bishops” — including “parish closures” and “removal of pastors.” In the neo-church, “parish closures” are the liquidation of territorial structures to fund sex abuse settlements and finance the globalist agenda. “Removal of pastors” targets the few remaining priests who resist the Novus Ordo or the LGBT agenda. The Signatura does not defend the rights of the faithful; it ratifies the tyranny of the “dicasteries.”
The article notes the “Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has its own Supreme Apostolic Tribunal, which adjudicates ‘grave delicts committed against morals and in the celebration of the sacraments,’ including sexual abuse of minors.” This is the fox guarding the henhouse. The same “Dicastery” that promotes Fiducia Supplicans (blessing sodomite unions) and Dignitas Infinita (gender ideology) judges “crimes against morals.” This is not justice; it is the institutionalization of impunity.
The Signatura also serves as “final court of cassation for Vatican City State, settling disputes related to the state’s civil governance.” Here the article inadvertently admits the truth: the Vatican City State is a sovereign temporal entity, a creature of the 1929 Lateran Treaty with Mussolini’s Italy. Its “court” adjudicates civil disputes — contracts, employment, property. This is potestas civilis, not potestas ecclesiastica. The conciliar sect has reduced the Church to a department of a city-state, the “pope” to a CEO, the “cardinals” to a board of directors.
The Americanization of the Neo-Church Judiciary
The article highlights American appointments: Cordileone, Lohse, Burke, Harvey, Tobin (term ended), Bartchak (term ended). It notes “Americans have featured on the Signatura before” and that members “span the spectrum of perceived ideological leanings.” This Americanization reflects the geopolitical reality: the conciliar sect is a tool of US soft power, its “bishops” vetted by the State Department, its “canon law” harmonized with secular legal norms. Cordileone, as “archbishop” of San Francisco, presides over a diocese that hosts “LGBT Masses” and collaborates with Planned Parenthood through “Catholic Charities.” His appointment to the Signatura rewards compliance with the globalist agenda.
The article quotes Cordileone telling Raymond Arroyo that members “will travel to the Eternal City ‘as often as we can,’ perhaps ‘three or four times a year.'” This part-time, absentee judiciary confirms the Signatura is a sinecure, not a tribunal. Real judges reside where they judge. The “members already located in Rome will meet more often” — meaning the Roman Curia bureaucrats run the show, while the Americans collect titles. Honores mutant mores (Honors change manners) — but they do not confer jurisdiction.
Conclusion: The Only True Tribunal is the Conscience Informed by Tradition
The National Catholic Register’s article is not journalism; it is propaganda for the abominatio desolationis standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15). It invites the faithful to recognize a counterfeit court, to obey counterfeit judges, to submit to a counterfeit law. No Catholic is bound by the decisions of the Apostolic Signatura of the conciliar sect. Its decrees are irritae et inanes (void and empty). The true Supreme Tribunal is the immutable Magisterium of the Church: the definitions of Trent, the condemnations of the Syllabus, the encyclicals of St. Pius X against Modernism, the dogmatic constitutions of Vatican I. Roma locuta est, causa finita est (Rome has spoken, the case is closed) — but Rome has not spoken since 1958. The Chair is vacant. The tribunals are dissolved. The faithful must stare et non cedere (stand firm and not yield) to the Tradition, awaiting the restoration of the true hierarchy by Divine Providence. Non praevalebunt (They shall not prevail).
Source:
What Is the Apostolic Signatura? Archbishop Cordileone’s New Vatican Position Explained (ncregister.com)
Date: 01.08.2026