EWTN News portal reports on the launch of Preserving Assisi, a digital platform developed by Haltadefinizione (Gruppo Panini Cultura) in collaboration with the General Custody of the Sacred Convent of Saint Francis — the modernist Franciscan structure occupying the basilica — to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the Seraphic Father’s death. The project boasts 27,000 photographs, 12 terabytes of data, gigapixel images of Lorenzetti’s Crucifixion, and 3D surveys for “future research, monitoring, and conservation.” Supported by the National Committee for the Celebration of the Eighth Centenary, the Umbria Region, the City of Assisi, and the University of Florence, this enterprise exemplifies the conciliar sect’s reduction of the Church’s divine mission to cultural heritage management. While the basilica’s stones are scanned for posterity, the Faith that built them has been demolished by the very custodians celebrating this digital archive.
The Conciliar Sect’s Religion of Cultural Preservation
The article reveals the naturalistic core of post-conciliar religion: the substitution of supernatural faith with cultural patrimony. Lucia Panini declares the purpose is “to organize and preserve knowledge so that it can be studied, shared and passed on to future generations” — not to save souls, not to proclaim Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, not to call men to penance. Friar Marco Moroni, custos of the Sacred Convent, speaks of “artistic and spiritual treasures” opened to “audiences around the world,” using the language of tourism and museology. This is the laicism condemned by Pius XI in Quas Primas: “the Church’s authority to teach men, to issue laws, to govern nations… was denied… the Christian religion began to be equated with other false religions and shamelessly placed in the same category.” The basilica becomes a museum; the Franciscan custodians, curators.
Pius XI taught that Christ’s Kingdom is primarily spiritual and “men who wish to belong to it prepare themselves through repentance, but cannot enter except through faith and baptism.” The Preserving Assisi project mentions none of this. No call to conversion. No warning of judgment. No mention of the Most Holy Sacrifice, the sacraments, the state of grace. Silence about supernatural matters is the gravest accusation. The project serves the cult of man — preserving human artifacts for human consumption — while the divine rights of Christ the King are trampled by the very “custodians” occupying His house.
False Custodians: The Modernist Franciscans
The “General Custody of the Sacred Convent of Saint Francis” is not the Order of Friars Minor founded by the Seraphic Father, but a modernist structure erected on the ruins of the true Order. The Rule of St. Francis commands: “Let the friars be careful not to appropriate any place for themselves… and let them not seek to change the form of the holy Gospel.” Yet the conciliar Franciscans have changed the Gospel — embracing religious liberty, false ecumenism, the new mass, and the novus ordo “ordination” rite that invalidates the priesthood. Their “custody” of the basilica is usurpation, not stewardship.
St. Francis kissed the hands of priests because they handle the Body of Christ. Today’s “friars” in Assisi concelebrate the Protestantized Novus Ordo — a “table of assembly” that denies the propitiatory Sacrifice. They welcome heretics, schismatics, and pagans to “interreligious dialogue” in the very basilica where St. Francis preached conversion to the Catholic Faith. The 1986 Assisi abomination — the syncretistic prayer meeting convened by the antipope John Paul II — was hosted by these same “custodians.” Now they digitize the basilica for “global audiences.” They preserve the corpse while the soul has fled.
The 1997 Earthquake: Divine Chastisement Ignored
The article notes the 1997 earthquake that collapsed sections of the upper basilica, and how pre-quake photographs aided reconstruction. No one asks: Why did God permit this? The Syllabus of Errors condemns the proposition that “the civil government… has a right to an indirect negative power over religious affairs” (Error 41). But the conciliar sect has surrendered the Church’s freedom to the Italian state, the EU, UNESCO. The basilica is a “UNESCO World Heritage Site” — Caesar’s property, not Christ’s. The earthquake was a sign: the physical edifice crumbles because the spiritual edifice has been abandoned by its false shepherds.
Pius IX in Quanta Cura and the Syllabus anathematized the separation of Church and State (Error 55). The “National Committee for the Celebration of the Eighth Centenary,” the “Umbria Region,” the “City of Assisi” — secular powers directing Catholic commemoration. The University of Florence, a secular institution, collaborates. This is the laicism Pius XI denounced: “When God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The digital project is Caesar’s archive, not the Church’s witness.
Technology as Tower of Babel
Luca Ponzio boasts: “It brings together, within a single digital environment, a range of tools and multimedia content designed to present, document, and support the study of the Basilica.” 27,000 photographs. 12 terabytes. 8 billion pixels. A Tower of Babel built with silicon instead of brick. Non in commotione Domini — the Lord is not in the earthquake of technology (1 Kings 19:11). The gigapixel image of Lorenzetti’s Crucifixion is idolatry of the image while the Reality — Christ crucified in the Holy Mass — is denied in the very sanctuary where the painting hangs.
St. Francis wept over the Love not loved. Today, his “sons” digitize the Crucifixion while the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary is replaced by a memorial meal. The Crucifixion painting contains “nearly 8 billion pixels” — but the True Cross is obscured by the novus ordo altar facing the people. High-resolution scans of sacred art serve only to distract from the low-resolution faith of the custodians.
The Sedevacantist Reality: The Basilica Is Occupied Territory
From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, the Basilica of St. Francis is occupied territory. Since 1958, the See of Peter has been vacant; the “popes” from John XXIII to Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) are manifest heretics who ipso facto lost all jurisdiction (St. Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice; Canon 188.4, 1917 Code). The “General Custody” derives its “authority” from these usurpers. Their “preservation” project is preservation of the occupation — documenting the spoils of the abomination of desolation (Matt. 24:15).
Pope Paul IV’s Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio declares that a heretic’s elevation is “null, void, and of no effect.” The conciliar “Franciscans” have no canonical mission. Their “digital archive” has no ecclesiastical authority. It is a private corporate project (Gruppo Panini Cultura) blessed by schismatics. The faithful cannot participate in this simulation of Catholic stewardship without implicit recognition of the usurpers’ legitimacy.
St. Francis Would Reject This Project
The Seraphic Father wrote in his Testament: “Let all the friars… firmly hold the Catholic faith… and let them observe the holy Gospel.” He demanded absolute poverty — not 12-terabyte servers, corporate sponsorships, UNESCO partnerships. He preached penance — not “immersive virtual tours.” He kissed the ground where priests walked — he would flee from the novus ordo “presbyters” who deny the priesthood.
The Preserving Assisi project is a monument to the Great Apostasy. It preserves the accidents of the basilica while the substance — the Faith, the Mass, the priesthood, the papacy — has been annihilated by the conciliar revolution. Quas Primas promised: “If rulers and legitimate superiors will have the conviction that they exercise authority not so much by their own right as by the command and in the place of the Divine King, everyone will notice how religiously and wisely they will use their authority.” The “custodians” exercise authority in the place of the Revolution, not Christ the King.
Let the digital archive burn. Let the basilica crumble. Only the restoration of the Catholic priesthood, the True Mass, and the Papacy can preserve Assisi — because only the Church Militant, not the “conciliar sect,” is the Kingdom of Christ on earth.
Source:
800 years after St. Francis’ death, new digital project preserves his basilica for years to come (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 17.09.2026