The Pillar portal reports that an Egyptian national, identifying himself as Salam Faragalla, infiltrated the Archdiocese of Turin for four months, posing as a Coptic Catholic priest, celebrating the Novus Ordo Missae and hearing confessions in multiple parishes. The archdiocese accepted forged documents without verifying them with the relevant Egyptian authorities, only uncovering the deception after a parishioner recognized the imposter in a compromising photograph. The conciliar officials now speak of “fraud,” “scandal,” and potential “canonical penalties,” while the false “priest” faces Italian criminal charges. This farce lays bare the utter collapse of ecclesiastical discipline and the impossibility of valid ministry within the structures of the neo-church.
The Theatricality of Invalid Orders and Jurisdiction
The article treats the simulation of the priesthood as a criminal fraud, yet it inadvertently admits the far more damning reality: within the conciliar sect, the distinction between a “validly ordained” presbyter and an impostor is merely bureaucratic. The “Archdiocese of Turin” assigned this man as a “parochial vicar” based solely on paperwork. No supernatural discernment, no examination of doctrine, no verification of the character indelebilis (indelible character) of Holy Orders was undertaken—because the conciliar hierarchy possesses neither the authority nor the grace to discern them. The “priest” Fr. Davide Pavanello admits the impostor’s Mass was “peculiar,” yet he concelebrated with him for months. This is the fructus of the Novus Ordo: a “table of assembly” where the sacerdos is interchangeable with a layman, provided the paperwork is in order.
The “Coptic Catholic Church” itself is a creature of the same apostasy, an Eastern rite subsumed into the ecumenical machinery of the neo-church. The article notes the “Alexandrian liturgical rite” as a cover for the impostor’s liturgical anomalies. In reality, the Coptic Catholic hierarchy, in communion with the usurpers in the Vatican since the false union of 1741 and definitively integrated into the conciliar structure, shares the same invalid sacraments and false doctrine. The impostor did not merely simulate a rite; he participated in the general simulation of the priesthood that defines the post-conciliar era.
Jurisdiction Supplied by the Devil: The Nullity of “Confessions”
Several parishioners expressed concern about having gone to confession with Faragalla, which would not constitute a valid exercise of the sacrament.
This understatement is the theological crux. The “confessions” heard by this impostor were sacrilegious nullities, not merely because he lacked orders, but because no “priest” in the conciliar sect possesses jurisdiction to absolve. Jurisdiction is required for the valid exercise of the Power of the Keys (potestas clavium). As the Council of Trent teaches, “If anyone says that the sacramental absolution of the priest is not a judicial act, but a mere ministry of pronouncing and declaring sins to be forgiven… let him be anathema” (Sess. XIV, Can. 9). Jurisdiction comes from the Roman Pontiff. Since the See of Peter has been vacant since the death of Pius XII in 1958—occupied by a line of manifest heretics (John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, and now Leo XIV/Robert Prevost) who have publicly defected from the Faith (haeresis manifesta)—there is no source of jurisdiction. The 1917 Code, Canon 188 §4, declares that an office becomes vacant ipso facto by “public defection from the Catholic faith.” The usurpers, by their adherence to the heresies of Vatican II (religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality, new ecclesiology), have severed themselves from the Church. Therefore, every “confession” heard in the conciliar structures for over six decades is invalid for want of jurisdiction, regardless of the personal orthodoxy or validity of orders of the individual “priest.” The faithful in Turin were not merely defrauded by an Egyptian actor; they have been spiritually starved by a hierarchy that cannot bind or loose.
The Incompetence of the “Chancery” as Symptom of the Great Apostasy
The article reveals the “Archdiocese of Turin” accepted the impostor’s documents without contacting the “Coptic Catholic leaders in Egypt” until a laywoman intervened. The spokesman, Alberto Riccadonna, speculates the motive “can’t be economic” and suggests the impostor “perhaps truly feels a calling to the priesthood.” This bureaucratic naivety masks a diabolical disorientation. The “chancery” did not know that the “Coptic Catholic Church” has no “vicariates” but “eparchies.” They did not verify bi-ritual faculties. They did not check university enrollment. This is not mere negligence; it is the inevitable fruit of a structure that has replaced the munus regendi (office of governing) with managerial administration. The “Church” has become an NGO processing visas and payroll, incapable of guarding the deposit of faith or the sanctity of the altar. As St. Pius X condemned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, the Modernist “priest” is a “man of action” who neglects the supernatural for the temporal. The Turin officials are functionaries of a paramasonic structure, concerned only with “scandal management” and “clear communication,” not the salvation of souls.
The “Canonical Penalties” of a Non-Existent Law
Faragalla could also be liable to canonical penalties, including excommunication for the simulation of sacraments.
The article cites the 1983 Code of Canon Law—a document promulgated by the antipope John Paul II, which enshrines the heresies of Vatican II (e.g., Can. 844 on communicatio in sacris, Can. 750 on religious submission of intellect and will to non-infallible magisterium). This “law” has no binding force. Lex injusta non est lex (an unjust law is no law). A law that presumes the validity of the Novus Ordo, the liceity of ecumenism, and the authority of a heretical “pope” is irritus (void). The only true canonical penalty applicable here is the ipso facto excommunication incurred by the “bishops” and “priests” of the conciliar sect for the crime of schism and heresy (Canon 1364 §1 of the 1917 Code, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio of Paul IV). The impostor Faragalla, if baptized, sinned gravely by simulating sacraments; but the “Archbishop of Turin” and his “priests” sin infinitely more gravely by leading souls to hell under the guise of the Church of Christ.
The Linguistic Camouflage: “Cleric,” “Priest,” “Mass,” “Confession”
The Pillar, a publication of the conciliar establishment, uses Catholic terminology—”cleric,” “priest,” “Mass,” “confession,” “parish,” “archdiocese”—to describe the actors and actions of the neo-church. This is the equivocatio (equivocation) condemned by the Council of Trent: using the same words to signify different realities. The “Mass” celebrated by Faragalla was the Novus Ordo Missae, a Protestantized meal service fabricated by the freemason Bugnini, per se invalid in its typical editions due to the defect of form (“for all” vs “for many” in the original promulgation) and the defect of intention of the “concelebrants” who do not intend to do what the Church does (offer a propitiatory sacrifice). The “confession” was a psychological counseling session devoid of sacramental form and jurisdiction. The “priest” Fr. Pavanello is a man ordained in the invalid Paul VI rite of 1968, or conditionally valid but lacking jurisdiction. The article’s language serves to normalize the counterfeit, reassuring the laity that the “system works” because the “fake” was caught. The system is the fake.
The Silence on the Supernatural: The Gravest Accusation
Nowhere in the article—nor in the statements of the “parish priests” or the “spokesman”—is there mention of: the state of grace, the reality of the Sacrificium Propitiatorium (Propitiatory Sacrifice), the danger of sacrilegious communion, the reality of Hell, the necessity of the Baptismus Flaminis (Baptism of Desire) or Sanguinis (Baptism of Blood) for the unbaptized impostor, the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Kingship of Christ over society. The discourse is entirely naturalistic: fraud charges, prison sentences, administrative fines (€929), “room and board,” “engineering studies,” “psychological calling,” “scandal management,” “clear communication.” This is the laicism condemned by Pius XI in Quas Primas: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The conciliar “Church” has become a purely human institution, indistinguishable from a secular NGO, managing a crisis of personnel with the tools of the civil magistrate. It has ceased to be the Church.
The Impostor as a Sign of the Times
Faragalla is not an anomaly; he is a signum (sign). He wore the collar, spoke the language, performed the rituals, and was accepted by the hierarchy because the hierarchy itself is an impostor. The “Coptic Catholic” rite, the “Archdiocese of Turin,” the “Pillar” media outlet, the “canonical penalties”—all are part of the abominatio desolationis (abomination of desolation) standing in the holy place (Matt 24:15). The true Church of Christ subsists in the remnants of the faithful who hold the integral Faith of Trent, the Mass of Pius V, and the Sede Vacante, served by bishops and priests of valid orders and jurisdiction (derived from the last valid Cardinals or the principle of epikeia in necessity). The structures occupying the Vatican are the “Church of the New Advent,” a paramasonic counterfeit. Faragalla merely did openly what the conciliar “clergy” do daily by office: simulate the sacred mysteries without the mandate of Christ.
Conclusion: The Only Remedy is the Return to Tradition
The Turin farce will end with a prison sentence for the Egyptian and a press release about “improved vetting procedures.” The souls who confessed to him remain in their sins, unabsolved. The “priests” who concelebrated with him remain ministers of a false sect. The “Archbishop” remains a usurper of a see he does not hold. The only solution is not “better bureaucracy” but the total rejection of the conciliar sect, the recognition of the Sede Vacante, and the return to the Traditio Catholica in its entirety—doctrine, liturgy, discipline, and mission. Non praevalebunt (They shall not prevail). The gates of Hell will not prevail against the true Church, but they have manifestly prevailed against the counterfeit occupying its visible structures.
Source:
Counterfeit Coptic cleric could catch charges (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 04.11.2026