EWTN News portal reports on a study by the Institute for Family Studies documenting the catastrophic loneliness, demoralization, and digital enslavement of young American men, proposing as remedy the same conciliar pastoral incompetence that created the vacuum. The cited article relates that over half of men aged 18–29 feel lonely, nearly half lack community, 43% consider themselves failures, and vast majorities are trapped in pornography, gaming, and gambling — yet the proposed solution is “digital sobriety” urged by antipope Leo XIV and “authentic friendships” engineered by the neo-church. This is not a sociological crisis; it is the inevitable fruit of sixty years of denying Christ the King His public reign, replacing the supernatural life of grace with naturalistic therapy, and substituting the Cross with the “American dream.”
The Naturalistic Reduction of the Human Condition
The article treats the devastation of a generation as a dataset for policy adjustment. Michael Toscano, director of the “Family First Technology Initiative,” declares: “We really tried to allow young men to speak for themselves… They still have these honorable aspirations to be responsible men, to marry, to have children, and to contribute to society.” Nowhere is there mention of sanctifying grace, the state of grace, the Four Last Things, or the Social Kingship of Christ. The “honorable aspirations” are reduced to bourgeois milestones: marriage, fatherhood, employment. This is Pelagianism masquerading as pastoral care: man saving himself by natural effort, “contributing to society” as the summum bonum.
Pius XI in Quas Primas (1925) condemns this exact error: “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 entire human society had to be shaken, because it lacked a stable and strong foundation.” The Institute for Family Studies and EWTN propose to repair the shaking by reinforcing the godless foundation.
The Antichurch’s “Digital Sobriety” — A Novelty of the Neo-Magisterium
Toscano references “Pope Leo’s call for ‘digital sobriety'” — meaning the antipope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost), the latest usurper in the line from John XXIII. This phrase appears nowhere in Catholic Tradition before 1958. It is a bureaucratic slogan invented by the conciliar sect to manage the symptoms of the apostasy it engineered. The true remedy for the slavery of the passions is not “sobriety” but mortification, penance, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Rosary, and submission to Christ the King.
The Syllabus of Errors (Pius IX, 1864) condemns proposition 80: “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.” “Digital sobriety” is precisely this reconciliation — a capitulation to the technological order, managing its excesses while accepting its dominion.
Silence on the Supernatural Order — The Gravest Accusation
The article mentions “religious services” and “faith-based groups” as sociological variables correlated with better outcomes: “Young men connected to marriage, education, or religious communities were more likely to report having three or more close friends.” Religion is instrumentalized as a social support mechanism. The Most Holy Sacrifice is reduced to a “community activity.” The Sacraments are absent. The Real Presence is unmentioned. Confession — the tribunal of mercy — is nowhere found.
St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907) condemns proposition 26: “The dogmas of faith should be understood according to their practical function, i.e., as binding in action, rather than as principles of belief.” The neo-church has made this condemned pragmatism its entire operating system. The “Church” of the article is a sociological fact, not the Mystical Body of Christ.
The “American Dream” as Idol
The study finds: “About half agreed with the statement ‘No matter how hard I work, people like me will never achieve the American dream,’ while nearly three-quarters (72%) said personal connections matter more than ability or hard work when it comes to getting ahead.” The “American dream” — material prosperity, social mobility, autonomous self-making — is the false eschaton of Masonic liberalism. Young men despair because they cannot attain this idol.
Pius XI in Quas Primas teaches: “His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ… Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ.” The “American dream” is rebellion against this reign. The despair is the just chastisement of Deus non irridetur (God is not mocked).
Digital Enslavement as Demonic Occupation
The statistics are horrifying: “44% play video games many times each day… 42% reported viewing pornography daily or several times each week, including 24% of regular religious service attendees… 23% gambling daily.” These are not “maladaptive coping mechanisms” (Toscano’s clinical euphemism). They are mortal sins crying to heaven: impurity, sloth, avarice. The “religious service attendees” who view pornography are sacrilegiously profaning the very Mass of the neo-church they attend — which, being the Novus Ordo, is already a Protestantized meal, not the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary.
The article notes: “Two-thirds of daily online gamblers reported emotional distress, while 66% of daily gamblers and 63% of daily pornography users described themselves as failures.” This is the worm that dieth not (Mark 9:44) — the beginning of eternal torment in time. The neo-church offers “mentorship” and “friendship.” Christ offers “Come ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt 25:34) — or “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matt 25:41).
The Conciliar Sect’s Complicity in the Ruin
Toscano admits: “The lonely might be sitting in the pew right next to them.” Of course they are. The “pews” of the conciliar sect are filled with men who have never heard a sermon on hell, never been taught the Catechism of the Council of Trent, never seen a priest act in persona Christi at a valid Mass, never been told that extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.
The “Church” Toscano urges to “listen carefully to young men’s experiences, affirm their aspirations, and create opportunities for authentic friendships” is the same structure that:
- abolished the Traditional Latin Mass (the lex orandi of the lex credendi);
- promulgated Dignitatis Humanae (religious liberty — condemned by Pius IX, Syllabus prop. 15, 77, 78, 79);
- embraced Nostra Aetate (false ecumenism — condemned by Pius XI, Mortalium Animos);
- instituted the Novus Ordo Missae (a fabrication of Bugnini, the “Polish Bugnini” Blachnicki’s mentor);
- canonized heretics (John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II) and pseudo-mystics (Faustina Kowalska, whose writings were on the Index).
The Sedevacantist Reality: No Authority, No Grace, No Salvation in the Neo-Church
The article’s entire framework assumes the legitimacy of the “Church” led by “Pope Leo.” From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, the See of Peter has been vacant since 1958. The men in the pews are not “lonely Catholics” — they are sheep without a shepherd, scattered by hirelings (John 10:12-13). The “priests” they see are either invalidly ordained (post-1968 rite) or, if validly ordained, function in a schismatic structure devoid of jurisdiction and the missio canonica.
St. Robert Bellarmine (De Romano Pontifice) teaches: “A Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” The line of usurpers from John XXIII to Leo XIV are manifest heretics (religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality, new Mass). They hold no office. Their “calls for digital sobriety” have the authority of a Masonic lodge circular.
Canon 188.4 (1917 Code): “Every office becomes vacant by the mere fact and without any declaration… if the cleric: 4. Publicly defects from the Catholic faith.” The conciliar hierarchy has publicly defected. They are not the Church. They are the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matt 24:15).
The Only Solution: The Social Kingship of Christ and the Traditional Mass
Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King “to address the needs of the present times and provide a special remedy against the plague that poisons human society. And this plague is the secularism of our times, so-called laicism.” (Quas Primas). The remedy is not “digital sobriety” or “mentorship programs.” It is the public, liturgical, legal, and social recognition of Christ as King — which the neo-church has abolished.
The young men in the study are not “demoralized.” They are damned — unless they find the true Church, the true Mass, the true Sacraments, and the true Pope (none reigning visibly since 1958). They must be told: “Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). They must be directed to the sedevacantist chapels where the Traditional Latin Mass is offered by bishops and priests with valid orders and jurisdiction supplied by epikeia for the salvation of souls.
EWTN, the Institute for Family Studies, and the antipope Leo XIV offer opium. The Cross offers salvation. Non est aliud nomen sub caelo datum hominibus, in quo oporteat nos salvari (Acts 4:12) — There is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.
Source:
Study finds many young men feel lonely, disconnected, shut out of the American dream (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 05.08.2026