The Vatican News portal reports that on September 6–9, 2026, the “Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia,” “Bishop” Aldo Berardi, and the “Greek Catholic Metropolitan of Kuwait and Baghdad,” “Archbishop” Ghattas Hazim, jointly led a delegation of “Catholics and Orthodox Christians” on a pilgrimage to Mount Athos, the schismatic monastic republic under the jurisdiction of the “Ecumenical Patriarch” Bartholomew. The group visited twelve of the twenty monasteries, having received the “blessing” of the schismatic patriarch himself, an act hailed by Berardi as a “historic journey” manifesting “the good relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Kuwait.” This grotesque spectacle of conciliar clergy venerating schismatic altars and seeking benediction from a heretical patriarch is not a step toward unity but the consummation of the great apostasy: the visible abandonment of the *extra Ecclesiam nulla salus* dogma and the enthronement of religious indifferentism as the new religion of the neo-church.
The Conciliar Sect Legitimizes Schism as a Path to Holiness
The cited article relates that the delegation was “welcomed first at Simonopetra and later at Vatopedi” and visited monasteries “subject to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.” It notes with approval that these monasteries “enjoy a high degree of autonomy” under their abbots. Here the conciliar sect’s “prelates” do not enter Mount Athos as missionaries bearing the truth of the *Unam Sanctam*, demanding the return of the separated brethren to the one fold of Christ; they enter as pilgrims seeking spiritual enrichment from schismatics, implicitly acknowledging that the Holy Ghost operates salvifically outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church. This is the heresy of *ecclesiology of communion* condemned in advance by Pius IX in the *Syllabus of Errors* (Proposition 17): *”Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ.”* The “blessing” of Bartholomew, a bishop devoid of canonical mission and jurisdiction, is sought and received as a genuine spiritual gift, a practical denial that jurisdiction and the power to bless flow exclusively from the Roman Pontiff through the hierarchy united to him.
The “Greek Catholic” Metropolitan: Uniatism as a Tool for Ecumenical Surrender
The participation of “Archbishop” Ghattas Hazim, identified as the “Greek Catholic Metropolitan of Kuwait and Baghdad (of the Patriarchate of Antioch),” is particularly diabolical. The Uniates, established historically as a bridge for the return of the Orthodox, have in the conciliar epoch become the vanguard of *false ecumenism*. The article states the pilgrimage was initiated by Metropolitan Hazim’s request to “move forward with this initiative, aimed at continuing to open paths toward Christian unity.” This phrase—”paths toward Christian unity”—is the semantic hallmark of the Second Vatican Council’s *Unitatis Redintegratio*, a document that inverts the Catholic principle: unity is not the return of dissidents to the one true Church, but a fabricated “communion” of equals. The *Syllabus* (Proposition 18) condemns: *”Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church.”* The same condemnation applies *a fortiori* to Orthodoxy, which retains valid orders but lacks the *forma* of the Church—unity of faith and submission to the Roman Pontiff. By treating the schismatic monasteries as “a place rich in holiness” where “a number of saints have ties,” the Uniates betray their very *raison d’être*: they confirm the schismatics in their error, suggesting that sanctity flourishes outside the Ark of Salvation.
Mount Athos: A Citadel of Schism, Not a Sanctuary of the Holy Ghost
The article gushes: *”Mount Athos has always been a place rich in holiness, where a number of saints have ties including St. Gregory Palamas (14th century) and St. Areta (6th century).”* This is a theological lie of the first order. Since the Great Schism of 1054, Mount Athos has been a fortress of Photian schism and Palamite heresy (the essence-energies distinction, condemned implicitly by the Council of Florence and the Thomistic tradition). The “saints” venerated there are not saints of the Catholic Church; they are heroes of the resistance to Roman Primacy. St. Gregory Palamas is the theological architect of the Orthodox rejection of the *Filioque* and the Beatific Vision as taught by the Church. To call this mountain “rich in holiness” is to call the *synagoga Satanae* a temple of the Living God. Pius XI in *Quas Primas* teaches that Christ’s Kingdom *”encompasses all men… not only to Catholic nations… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.”* The Kingship of Christ demands the *conversion* of the Athonite monks, not a conciliar photo-op at their gates. The silence of the “delegation” regarding the *Filioque*, the Primacy, the Immaculate Conception, and the Assumption—dogmas denied by their hosts—is a *clamorosa* profession of faith in religious indifferentism.
The “Blessing” of Bartholomew: Usurpation of the Petrine Prerogative
The report states: *”Patriarch Bartholomew welcomed Metropolitan Hazim’s request… and agreed to bestow his blessing upon its participants.”* A schismatic patriarch, who rejects the dogma of Papal Infallibility and Universal Jurisdiction defined at Vatican I (*Pastor Aeternus*), bestows a “blessing” on “Catholic” clergy, and they receive it as a grace. This is the *abominatio desolationis* in the holy place. St. Robert Bellarmine, cited in the *Defense of Sedevacantism*, teaches: *”A manifest heretic cannot be Pope… a non-Christian in no way can be Pope… he who is not a Christian is not a member of the Church, and a manifest heretic is not a Christian.”* While Bartholomew is not a claimant to the Papacy, he is a manifest schismatic, separated from the Head. He possesses no jurisdiction, no authority to bless *in foro externo* those who claim to be Catholic. By soliciting and receiving this “blessing,” Berardi and Hazim publicly declare that the schismatic hierarchy possesses spiritual authority independent of Rome. This is the *de facto* recognition of the *branch theory*—the heresy that the Church consists of three branches (Roman, Orthodox, Anglican)—condemned by Pius IX (*Syllabus*, Prop. 21: *”The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion”*).
Linguistic Engineering: The Vocabulary of the Anti-Church
The linguistic level of the article reveals the naturalistic reduction of the supernatural. Terms like *”historic journey,”* *”good relationship,”* *”open paths toward Christian unity,”* *”firsthand insight into the monastic spirituality,”* *”administrative, disciplinary, and spiritual authority that each abbot exercises”*—this is the language of diplomacy, NGOs, and cultural exchange. There is not a single word of *supernatural* vocabulary: no mention of *conversion*, *salvation of souls*, *state of grace*, *sacraments*, *indulgences*, *the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass*, *the Social Kingship of Christ*. The “pilgrimage” is stripped of its Catholic essence—penance, prayer for the conversion of infidels, the gaining of indulgences—and reframed as an ecumenical “fact-finding mission.” The *Syllabus* (Prop. 77) condemns: *”In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship.”* The conciliar sect applies this to the Church herself: it is no longer “expedient” that the Catholic Church be held as the only true Church. The “blessing” of the schismatic patriarch is the new *exequatur*.
The Theological Bankruptcy of “Ecumenical Pilgrimage”
Theologically, a pilgrimage is an act of *latria* or *dulia* directed toward a holy place *because* of its connection to the true God and His saints. A Catholic cannot make a pilgrimage to a schismatic monastery *as a pilgrim* without implicitly venerating the schism. The *Code of Canon Law* (1917), Canon 1258, forbade *communicatio in sacris* with heretics and schismatics. The 1917 Code, reflecting immutable divine law, is swept aside by the “spirit of the Council.” The article mentions the delegation included a “seminarian Pedro Mendoza (of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem).” This is the formation of future “priests” of the neo-church: their first “spiritual experience” is not the catacombs of Rome or the Holy Sepulchre, but the schismatic lavras of Athos, drinking from the poisoned well of Palamism. *Lamentabili Sane Exitu* (Prop. 54) condemns: *”Dogmas, sacraments, and hierarchy, both in concept and in reality, are merely modes of explanation and stages in the evolution of Christian consciousness.”* The “ecumenical pilgrimage” is the liturgical enactment of this evolutionist heresy: the hierarchy of truth is flattened; the Catholic Church becomes one “expression” among others.
Symptomatic Level: The Conciliar Revolution’s Logical Terminus
This event is not an anomaly; it is the *logical terminus* of the conciliar revolution. *Nostra Aetate*, *Unitatis Redintegratio*, *Dignitatis Humanae*—the trilogy of apostasy—demanded precisely this: the recognition of “elements of sanctification” outside the visible Church (LG 8), the right to religious freedom for error (DH 2), and dialogue as the new mode of existence (UR 4). The “Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia” is a structure of the conciliar sect, erected by the usurpers in the Vatican to manage the “Catholic” presence in the Arabian Peninsula. Its “Vicar,” Berardi, acts not as a missionary of the Kingship of Christ—*Quas Primas* demands that *”rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ”*—but as a functionary of interreligious dialogue, legitimizing the Orthodox schism in a land where Islam dominates, thereby signaling to the Muslim world that Christianity is a divided house, a mere collection of “faith communities.” The *Syllabus* (Prop. 55) condemns: *”The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.”* The conciliar sect has separated the Church from *Christ the King*, making her a servant of the Masonic ideal of “universal fraternity.”
The Silence on the Social Kingship of Christ: The Gravest Accusation
The most damning aspect of the article is its *total silence* on the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 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.”* The pilgrimage to Mount Athos is a capitulation to that very plague. By treating the schismatic monasteries as a legitimate spiritual destination, the conciliar “clergy” declare that the Kingdom of Christ *does not* require the visible unity of the Church, that the *regnum Christi* can coexist with the *regnum Satanae* in a “good relationship.” They have *”removed Jesus Christ and His most holy law from their customs, from private, family, and public life”* (*Quas Primas*). The “blessing” of Bartholomew is the *osculum infame* rendered to the prince of this world by those who have abandoned the *vexillum Regis*.
Conclusion: The Conciliar Sect is Not the Catholic Church
This “historic journey” is a historic crime. It confirms that the structures occupying the Vatican—the “Apostolic Vicariates,” the “Greek Catholic Metropolitanates,” the “Latin Patriarchates”—are not the Catholic Church but a *paramasonic structure* erected to dismantle the *depositum fidei* from within. True Catholics, adhering to the *integral Catholic faith* of the pre-1958 Magisterium, must flee these pseudo-clerics and their ecumenical pilgrimages as they would flee a pestilence. The only “path toward Christian unity” is the one traced by Pius IX: *”The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion”* (condemned error). The truth is the opposite: the Catholic Church *is* the only true religion, and outside her there is no salvation, no true sanctity, no valid mission, and no blessing but a curse. *Quas Primas*: *”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 conciliar sect has removed Christ the King from Mount Athos; they have brought the authority of men—Bartholomew, Berardi, Hazim—and called it “holiness.” *Anathema sit.*
Source:
Catholics and Orthodox Christians make a pilgrimage to Mount Athos (vaticannews.va)
Date: 15.09.2026