The Vatican News portal (August 7, 2026) publishes an article by “Fr.” Francesco Patton, OFM, the “Custos” of the Holy Land, extolling the Franciscan archaeological excavations at Capernaum as a privileged means to “encounter” Jesus, while concluding with a brazen solicitation of funds to spread the words of the usurper antipope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost). The piece reduces the divine mission of the Incarnate Word to a historical-archaeological tourist itinerary, stripping the holy places of their supernatural and sacramental character to instrumentalize them as propaganda tools for the conciliar sect occupying the Vatican.
The Naturalistic Reduction of the Incarnation to Archaeological Tourism
The cited article relates that “pilgrims who visit Capernaum on the shores of Lake Tiberias can have the extraordinary experience of seeing the city where Jesus spent most of the three years of his ministry.” This language reveals the naturalistic mentality that dominates the neo-church: the “experience” sought is visual, emotional, and archaeological, not supernatural. There is no mention of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, no reference to the Sacramentum Caritatis, no call to conversion, penance, or the state of grace. The “guardians of this place” are described as a “praying and welcoming fraternity,” but their prayer is sterile without the Una Voce of the True Mass and their welcome is a welcome into the abomination of desolation (Matt. 24:15).
The article quotes the archaeologist “Fr.” Stanislao Loffreda stating the “ultimate goal” of archaeology is “to establish contact with past generations, to speak with them and to allow them to speak to the current generations.” This is spiritism disguised as science. The Catholic Faith teaches that contact with the “great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) is achieved through the Communio Sanctorum in the Holy Mass, not through digging in the dust. Lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of praying is the law of believing); the neo-church’s “liturgy” is archaeology, therefore its god is history.
The Franciscan Custody: Guardians of the Abomination of Desolation
The text boasts that “the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land… are the guardians of this place.” In reality, since the usurpation of the See of Peter by John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli) in 1958, the Custody has become an instrument of the paramasonic structure that controls the Vatican. Their “guardianship” consists in administering holy sites as museums for the conciliar sect’s “pilgrims,” facilitating the ecumenical betrayal evidenced by the shared ownership with the “Greek Orthodox Patriarchate” — schismatics who reject the Filioque and the Primacy of Peter.
The article notes the modern “memorial” over the House of Peter, designed by architect Ildo Avetta and “consecrated on 29 June 1990” by the conciliar hierarchy. This structure, a banal modernist spaceship hovering over the ruins, is the perfect architectural symbol of the neo-church: rootless, weightless, devoid of the sacrum, celebrating man rather than God. That the excavator “Fr.” Virgilio Corbo was buried beneath it in 1991 seals the pact: the servants of the conciliar revolution rest in the monuments they built to replace the House of God with the house of man.
The “Domus Ecclesia” Myth: Protestantizing the Primitive Church
Central to the article’s narrative is the fabrication of the “domus ecclesia” — the claim that the House of Peter was “turned into a place for religious meetings” by the end of the first century. This thesis, dear to modernist exegetes and Protestant historians, aims to deny the visible, hierarchical, and sacerdotal constitution of the Church willed by Christ. It suggests the early Church was a horizontal “community of believers” gathering in homes, anticipating the conciliar sect’s “People of God” ecclesiology (Lumen Gentium, a document of the robber council Vatican II).
The “evidence” cited — graffiti bearing Jesus’ name and monogram, liturgical expressions such as Amen and Kyrie Eleison — proves only that Christians prayed there. It does not prove the absence of the Holy Mass, the priesthood, or the Episcopate. St. Pius X condemned the Modernist error that “the sacraments arose as a result of the interpretation by the Apostles… of Christ’s thoughts and intentions” (Lamentabili Sane Exitu, prop. 40). The “domus ecclesia” narrative is the archaeological wing of that heresy.
Furthermore, the article cites the pilgrim Egeria (4th century) describing the house “transformed into a church.” The neo-church uses antiquity to legitimize its novelty. But Tradition is not archaeology; it is the living transmission of the Deposit of Faith by the Magisterium. The true Church does not need spades to find her Lord; she possesses Him in the Tabernacle, Corpus, Sanguis, Anima et Divinitas.
Ecumenical Compromise with Schismatics at the Expense of Truth
The article casually notes: “Two-thirds of it belong to the Franciscan Custody… The remaining part on the eastern side belongs to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.” This status quo of religious indifferentism is presented as normal. The “coexistence of a Christian and Jewish community” in Byzantine times is praised as “an exceptional case in the region.” This is the spirit of Assisi projected into the past: a relativistic coexistence where truth is sacrificed for social peace.
The true Catholic principle is Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (Outside the Church there is no salvation). The Holy Places are not condominiums to be shared with schismatics, heretics, and infidels. They are the patrimony of the Una, Sancta, Catholica et Apostolica Ecclesia, to be defended, not co-managed. The “Franciscan presence” described at the end — welcoming pilgrims to “the city of Jesus” — is in reality a ministry of deception, leading souls to venerate stones under the authority of a false hierarchy, while the True Mass is suppressed in those very sanctuaries.
Fundraising for the Antipope: Simony Disguised as Mission
The article concludes with a nauseating appeal: “Your contribution for a great mission: support us in bringing the Pope’s words into every home”. Here the mask falls completely. The archaeological tourism, the “spiritual” reflections, the “Franciscan welcome” — all are bait for fundraising to propagate the teachings of Leo XIV (Robert Prevost), the current usurper on the Chair of Peter.
This is simony in its modern form: using sacred things (the Holy Places, the memory of the Apostles) to fund the propagation of heresy (the “magisterium” of the conciliar antipopes). Qui in altari serviunt, altari participant (They who serve at the altar share in the altar — 1 Cor. 9:13). But these men serve not the Altar of Christ, but the table of the conciliar sect. Their “mission” is the destruction of the Faith under the guise of spreading it.
Symptomatic Conclusion: The Conciliar Sect’s Religion of Man
This article is a textbook specimen of the conciliar sect’s anthropology: man is the measure, history is the revelation, archaeology is the liturgy, and the “Pope” is the CEO of a global NGO. The silence on sin, judgment, hell, the necessity of Baptism, the Holy Sacrifice, the Immaculate Conception, the Kingship of Christ over nations (Pius XI, Quas Primas) is not an omission; it is the essence of their apostasy.
The “Franciscans” of the Custody, like the entire neo-church hierarchy, have abandoned the cura animarum for the cura lapidum (care of souls for care of stones). They preserve the stones of Capernaum while letting the living stones of the faithful (1 Pet. 2:5) crumble into the sand of Modernism. Ichabod — the glory has departed (1 Sam. 4:21). The true Capernaum is not an archaeological park in Galilee; it is every altar where the True Mass is offered by a valid priest in communion with the true Successor of Peter (sede vacante since 1958), awaiting the restoration of all things in Christ. Veni, Domine Iesu (Apoc. 22:20).
Source:
Following in Jesus’ Footsteps: Capernaum, the Town of Jesus (vaticannews.va)
Date: 07.08.2026