The EWTN News portal reports that the “archbishop” of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, traveled to the Diocese of Makurdi in Nigeria on August 22, 2026, to confer the Novus Ordo presbyteral ordination upon fourteen deacons. In his homily, Cordileone urged the ordinands to be “friends and fathers” to their flocks, emphasizing a ministry of “accompaniment” and “bridge-building” rooted in a nebulous “sacrificial love” stripped of its propitiatory and juridical reality. The piece concludes with vague references to martyrdom and the “Eucharistic sacrifice” celebrated in the fabricated rite of Paul VI. This event is not a transmission of the Catholic priesthood but a Masonic parody of Holy Orders, producing functionaries for a counterfeit church.
Invalid Rite, Null Orders, No Priesthood
The fundamental fact suppressed by the report is the invalidity of the ordination rite employed. The “archbishop” Cordileone, himself a product of the post-conciliar formation, utilized the 1968 Pontificale Romanum of Montini (Paul VI), which deliberately excised the essential form and matter defined by the Council of Trent and Pope Pius XII. As Pius XII defined in Sacramentum Ordinis (1947): “The matter of this sacrament is the imposition of hands… the form is the words of the Preface… by which the grace of the Holy Spirit is invoked.” The Montini rite replaced the precise, sacrificial Preface with a vague “prayer of ordination” that omits the explicit petition for the power to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass and to forgive sins. No power to consecrate, no power to absolve, no priesthood. These fourteen men received a ceremonial commissioning for a Protestantized ministry, not the indelible character of the Sacerdos et Victima.
The “Archbishop” Cordileone: A Functionary of the Abomination
Cordileone is presented as a legitimate successor of the Apostles. He is nothing of the sort. Installed in 2012 by the usurper Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), he holds jurisdiction from a line of claimants beginning with Roncalli (John XXIII) who have publicly professed the heresies of religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio), and collegiality (Lumen Gentium). By the principle Cum ex Apostolatus Officio (Paul IV, 1559), a manifest heretic cannot hold ecclesiastical office. Cordileone’s public adherence to the Second Vatican Council and the Novus Ordo Missae constitutes notorious defection from the Catholic faith (Canon 188 §4, 1917 Code). He possesses no jurisdiction, no orders, no mission. His act of “ordaining” is a nullity compounded by his own lack of episcopal character, conferred as it was in the same invalid rite.
Linguistic Engineering: “Friends and Fathers” vs. Alter Christus
The linguistic level reveals the anthropocentric inversion at the heart of the conciliar “priesthood.” Cordileone’s mantra — “Be friends and fathers to your people” — replaces the ontological reality of the priest as Alter Christus, Sacerdos et Victima, configured to Christ the High Priest in sacris. The term “friend” (amicus) is borrowed from John 15:15 (“I call you friends”), but wrenched from its context: the Apostles were friends because they knew the Master’s business — the Sacrifice of the Cross. The conciliar “friendship” is horizontal, therapeutic, devoid of the munus sanctificandi exercised in persona Christi Capitis at the altar. “Fatherhood” is reduced to psychosocial accompaniment, not the generation of supernatural life through the Sacraments of the living (Baptism, Penance, Eucharist). The report notes Cordileone said authentic friendship is “a liberating service, one that brings joy to both.” This is Pelagian self-help, not the Co-redemptive suffering of the Curé d’Ars or St. Pius X’s Sacerdos Alter Christus.
Theological Bankruptcy: “Bridge,” “People of God,” “Eucharistic Celebration”
The vocabulary is a catechism of Modernist errors condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) and Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907).
- “Bridge and not an obstacle”: The priest is not a “bridge” but a mediator — Pontifex — who stands between God and man, offering the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary for the propitiation of sins. The “bridge” metaphor implies humanity walks to God by its own effort, the priest merely facilitating. This is the heresy of immanentism: religion as human ascent.
- “People of God”: The Vatican II ecclesiological category (Lumen Gentium, Ch. 2) that flattens the hierarchical constitution (Episcopus, Presbyter, Diaconus) into a common “baptismal priesthood,” dissolving the sacra potestas of Orders into a generic “mission.” Cordileone’s use signals full assimilation of the conciliar ecclesiology of the Church as People of God.
- “Eucharistic celebration”: The Novus Ordo Missae is not the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is a memorial meal, a “supper” (Cena Domini), where the “presider” narrates the Institution Narrative as history, not as the consecratory form effecting Transubstantiation. The report’s phrase “Eucharistic celebration they celebrate” admits the novelty: they “celebrate” a rite, they do not offer the Hostia immaculata.
Martyrdom Rhetoric in Service of the False Church
Cordileone’s reference to the “dangerous step” of ordination in Nigeria — “the possibility that Our Lord may call you to lay down your life for your friends” — is a cruel manipulation. True martyrdom is witness to the Catholic Faith entire and inviolate (Martyr est testis veritatis). To die for the Novus Ordo sect, for the “Diocese of Makurdi” erected under the authority of the usurpers, for the “Eucharistic celebration” of the new rite, is not martyrdom but tragic waste. The Nigerian faithful, persecuted by Islamic militants, deserve the true Mass, the true Sacraments, the true priesthood — not a simulacrum administered by men ordained in a rite crafted by Freemasons (Bugnini) to destroy the Church. The report’s mention of “priest murdered, followed by kidnappings at Mass” underscores the diabolical irony: the “Mass” they attend is the very instrument of the abomination of desolation prophesied by Daniel and Our Lord (Matt 24:15).
EWTN: Propaganda Arm of the Neo-Church
The source, EWTN News (ACI Africa), is the media flagship of the conciliar establishment, founded by the “Mother Angelica” who built her empire on the Novus Ordo and the charismatic movement. Its reporting serves to normalize the invalid sacraments, the heretical hierarchy, and the false ecumenism. The journalist, Jude Atemanke, a “Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication,” exemplifies the laicized, professionalized “Catholic media” that replaces the Prophetic Office of the Church with public relations.
Systemic Apostasy: The Nigerian Context
The Diocese of Makurdi, like the entire Nigerian “hierarchy,” operates within the paramasonic structure occupying the Vatican. Its bishops participate in the “Synod on Synodality,” endorse Fiducia Supplicans (blessing same-sex unions), and implement the Traditionis Custodes persecution of the true Mass. The ordination of fourteen men into this structure is not a “growth of the Church” but a consolidation of the counter-church in Africa. The true Catholic Church in Nigeria — if it exists — survives in the catacombs, served by priests of the true rite, validly ordained before 1968 or by bishops consecrated in the traditional rite (e.g., Thuc line), maintaining the Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi intact.
Conclusion: Return to the Immutable Priesthood
The event in Makurdi is a liturgical and sacramental nullity, a media spectacle for the Church of the New Advent. The fourteen ordinands received a mandate for social work, not the Character indelebilis of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. The faithful of Nigeria, yearning for the Bread of Angels and the Blood of the New Covenant, are fed stones. Quas Primas (Pius XI, 1925) declares: “Peace is only possible in the Kingdom of Christ.” There is no Kingdom, no Peace, no Priesthood, no Sacrifice where the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary has been abolished and replaced by a “celebration” of “friendship.” Sede Vacante. The true Church endures. The neo-church ordains its own dissolution.
Source:
San Francisco archbishop urges new Nigerian priests to be ‘friends and fathers’ to their people (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 24.08.2026