The Pillar portal (August 4, 2026) publishes an interview with the “bishop” of Spokane, Thomas Daly, regarding the devastating wildfires that have consumed over 10,000 acres and destroyed more than 600 structures, displacing 65,000 souls. The piece frames the catastrophe exclusively through the lens of humanitarian logistics, “pastoral presence,” and collaboration with secular agencies like the Red Cross, while invoking the false “pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) as a model of episcopal activism. The article manifests the total eclipse of the supernatural sensus catholicus: not a word of sin, penance, divine justice, or the necessity of conversion; only the banalities of a naturalistic “reality grounded in faith” that empties hope of its theological content.
Theological Vacuum: Chastisement Without Sin, Mercy Without Conversion
The wildfires ravaging Spokane are not mere “natural disasters” but flagella Dei (scourges of God), permitted by Divine Providence to awaken a slumbering people from the lethargy of sin. The Council of Trent teaches infallibly: “Si quis dixerit… non esse poenam temporalem… anathema sit” (If anyone says… there is no temporal punishment… let him be anathema) (Sess. XIV, Can. 12). Yet “bishop” Daly and his interviewer treat the conflagration as a logistical challenge requiring “housing, foods, things like that.” The word sin appears nowhere. Penance is absent. Conversion is unmentioned. The Catechism of the Council of Trent declares that “calamities… are sent by God… to punish the wickedness of men.” The post-conciliar hierarchy, having abandoned the regnum Christi for the “common home” of Francis’s pantheistic encyclical Laudato Si’, can only see matter, not the Hand of God.
When the “bishop” states, “The best definition of hope is this: ‘reality grounded in faith'”, he proffers a Pelagian caricature of the theological virtue. Hope, as defined by St. Thomas Aquinas (ST II-II, q. 17, a. 1), is “certa expectatio futurae beatitudinis” — certain expectation of future beatitude — rooted in God’s omnipotence and mercy, not in a stoic acceptance of “reality.” This redefinition reduces hope to psychological resilience, a naturalistic coping mechanism indistinguishable from secular grief counseling. It is the hermeneutic of rupture applied to theology: the supernatural order is dissolved into the horizontal.
False Shepherd, False Model: The Antipope as Template
The interviewer explicitly cites the usurper “pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) as a “template for bishops to be reminded to be with their people in these kinds of disasters.” This is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15). A manifest heretic who embraces the conciliar errors of religious liberty, false ecumenism, and collegiality — and who, as “bishop” of Chiclayo, implemented the novelties of Vatican II — is held up as the paradigm of episcopal paternity. St. Robert Bellarmine teaches: “A manifest heretic cannot be Pope… a non-Christian in no way can be Pope… he cannot be the head of something of which he is not a member” (De Romano Pontifice, II, 30). To propose an antipope as a model is to confirm the apostasy of the conciliar sect, which has substituted the Vicar of Christ for a functionary of the “Church of the New Advent.”
“Bishop” Daly himself, ordained in the invalid Novus Ordo rite (1969), consecrated by the dubious hands of the post-conciliar hierarchy, possesses no jurisdiction, no mission, no sacramental authority. He is a hireling (John 10:12), not a shepherd. His “pastoral response” — coordinating with Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul, and the Red Cross (a Masonic-founded secular agency) — is the activity of an NGO, not the ministry of a successor of the Apostles. The Syllabus of Errors (Pius IX, 1864) condemns the proposition: “The Church is not a true and perfect society… but it appertains to the civil power to define what are the rights of the Church” (Error 19). Here, the “Church” subcontracts its charity to the civil power’s agents.
Linguistic Decay: Bureaucratic Newspeak Replaces Sacred Language
The interview’s vocabulary betrays the modernist mentality: “impacted areas,” “immediate needs,” “long-term impact,” “normalcy of life,” “displaced,” “contractors,” “insurance companies.” Not a single term of the sacred lexicon: poenitentia, satisfactio, iustitia Dei, misericordia, oratio, processio, exorcismus, benedictio. The “bishop” speaks as a disaster-relief coordinator. When he recounts his childhood house fire — “it took just a few months to rebuild the house, and that was 50 years ago” — he trivializes the current catastrophe with banal autobiography, revealing a profound inability to interpret events theologically. The faithful are not told to pray the Litany of the Saints, to invoke St. Michael the Archangel against the fire, to organize public processions of reparation, to receive the true Sacraments from valid priests. They are offered “retreat house” accommodation and “grassroots level” assistance.
The phrase “common home” — a direct lift from the apostate Francis — appears in the interviewer’s question, and Daly does not reject it. He merely pivots to “let’s not use someone’s tragedy to further a cause — whether you’re going to use it for fundraising or you’re going to use it to talk about climate change.” This is not a defense of the Faith; it is a tactical silence that preserves the conciliar ecology narrative while avoiding political backlash. The Syllabus condemns: “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Error 80). The conciliar hierarchy has done exactly that.
Symptomatic Analysis: The Fruit of the Conciliar Revolution
This interview is the inevitable fruit of Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes anthropology, which turned the Church’s gaze from coelestia to terrestria. The “bishop” embodies the clericus saecularizatus: concerned with “school-aged kids,” “insurance companies,” “contractors,” “housing.” The Quas Primas of Pius XI (1925) — provided in the context — thunders: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed… the entire human society had to be shaken, because it lacked a stable and strong foundation.” The Spokane fires are a manifestation of that shaking. The conciliar sect’s response — humanitarian management — confirms the judgment.
The collaboration with the Red Cross is particularly damning. The Red Cross, historically linked to Freemasonry and the secularist project, operates on purely naturalistic principles. Pius XI in Quas Primas warns: “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… who are indeed the most valiant helpers of the Pastors of the Church and contribute most to the expansion and establishment of Christ’s Kingdom, either by combating the triple concupiscence of the world through religious vows.” Instead, the “bishop” allies with the agents of the triplex concupiscentia. The Lamentabili Sane Exitu (St. Pius X, 1907) condemns the Modernist proposition: “The Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadfastly adheres to its views, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress” (Prop. 63). The conciliar sect has capitulated to “modern progress” — climate ideology, secular humanitarianism, naturalistic psychology — and abandoned evangelical ethics.
The Silence of the Sacraments: Idolatry of the Temporal
Most damning is the total absence of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary — from the “bishop’s” response. No mention of Missa pro pace, Missa pro propitiatione Dei, Missa votiva de Sancto Spiritu for the cessation of the fire. The Council of Trent declares: “If anyone says that the sacrifice of the Mass is only a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving… and not a propitiatory sacrifice… let him be anathema” (Sess. XXII, Can. 3). The “bishop” offers idolatry of the temporal: food, shelter, contractors, insurance. He feeds the body while the soul perishes. “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his soul?” (Matt. 16:26). The true Church, in such calamities, orders public penance, processions, the Rogationes, the Litaniae Sanctorum, the invocation of the Precious Blood. The conciliar sect orders hotel vouchers.
The “bishop” says: “Look at Scripture: When there’s been famine, when there’s been destruction, when there’s been pestilence, you can’t lose hope that the Lord is there.” He cites Scripture but ignores its moral. In the Old Testament, famine and pestilence are divine punishments for covenant infidelity (Lev. 26; Deut. 28; 2 Sam. 24; 1 Kings 8:35-36). The remedy is always conversio ad Dominum — return to the Lord with fasting, weeping, mourning (Joel 2:12-13). The “bishop” offers ersatz hope: “Christ is with us, and he’s calling us to reach out of ourselves for people.” This is humanitarian Pelagianism: man saves himself by “reaching out.” The true Gospel: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5).
Conclusion: The Conciliar Sect as Instrument of Divine Abandonment
The Spokane wildfires, and the conciliar hierarchy’s response, manifest the iustitia Dei withdrawing its protection from a people — and a hierarchy — that has abandoned the Kingship of Christ. Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the “plague… so-called laicism” that “began with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations” (Quas Primas). The conciliar sect, having enthroned homo in place of Deus, can only manage the consequences of that apostasy with the tools of the world. “Bishop” Daly is not a father of souls but a functionary of the abomination of desolation. The faithful of Spokane, deprived of the true Mass, the true Sacraments, the true Magisterium, are sine pastore — scattered sheep. The fire consumes their homes; the conciliar sect consumes their faith. “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” (Jer. 23:1). The only remedy is the restoration of the integral Catholic Faith, the true Mass, the true priesthood, the true Papacy — the restitutio omnium in Christo. Until then, the fires — temporal and eternal — will not cease.
Source:
‘Reality grounded in faith’ – Daly on Spokane wildfires (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 04.08.2026