EWTN News portal (November 9, 2026) reports on the impending restoration of the Pauline Chapel in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, framing the conservation of Baroque artwork and the veneration of the Salus Populi Romani icon by the usurpers Jorge Bergoglio (“Francis”) and Robert Prevost (“Leo XIV”) as a benign ecclesiastical event. The article details the 90-day closure, the collaboration with the Masonic Governorate of Vatican City State, the icon’s alleged Lucan origin, and the relocation of the dubious “Holy Crib” relic, all while noting Bergoglio’s 126 visits and his tomb’s placement near the icon. This theatrical preservation of stone and pigment serves only to mask the spiritual desolation of a basilica occupied by the abomination of desolation, where false popes render idolatrous homage to an icon they have no authority to venerate.
The Conciliar Sect’s Theatrical Restoration: A Potemkin Village for the Abomination of Desolation
The cited article reads like a real estate brochure for a museum, obsessing over “early Baroque architecture,” “pictorial cycles,” and the “naturalistic moon” inspired by Galileo Galilei’s telescope. This fixation on the accidentia of art and architecture, to the total exclusion of the substantia of the Faith, is the hallmark of the conciliar sect’s naturalistic religion. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, teaches that “the hope of lasting peace will not yet shine upon nations as long as individuals and states renounce and do not wish to recognize the reign of our Savior” and that the Church’s mission is to “restore the reign of our Lord”, not to curate frescoes for tourists. The article’s silence on the Social Kingship of Christ, the necessity of the Catholic Confession for salvation, or the state of grace required to approach any Marian image, exposes the laicism condemned by Pius XI: “the secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors… began with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The restoration is a Potemkin village, a beautiful facade on a structure from which the Divine Indwelling has departed Ichabod (1 Sam 4:21), because the true Hierarchy has been eclipsed by the synagoga Satanae (Apoc 2:9) foretold by Pius IX in the Syllabus: “the synagogue of Satan, which gathers its troops against the Church of Christ, takes its strength” from the sects “whether they be called masonic or bear another name.”
Antipope Francis’ Idolatrous Cultus: The Salus Populi Romani as Talisman for a False Shepherd
The article highlights with apparent approval that the manifest heretic Jorge Bergoglio “venerated the icon before and after every apostolic journey, visiting it 126 times in his 12-year pontificate” and that “his tomb, placed near the chapel, was made at the pope’s express request to be buried near the icon.” This is not Catholic piety; it is idolatry and sacrilege. St. Robert Bellarmine, cited in the Defense of Sedevacantism, declares with absolute clarity: “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.” Bergoglio, by his public profession of religious liberty, false ecumenism, and the cult of man (evident in his encyclicals Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Si’), is a manifest heretic who ipso facto lost all jurisdiction and membership in the Church (Canon 188.4, 1917 Code; Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, Paul IV). His “veneration” is the homage of an intruder, a latro et latronum (Jn 10:1), stealing the honor due to the Mother of God. The placement of his tomb in the basilica is a deliberate profanation, a cadaver of the anti-church planted in the sanctuary to mark territory. The article’s mention of the new usurper, Robert Prevost (“Leo XIV”), praying before the icon confirms the seamless continuity of the occupation: “the line of usurpers begins with John XXIII.” As Pius IV’s Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio dogmatizes: “his promotion or elevation… shall be null, void, and of no effect” for anyone who “has defected from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy.”
The Galileo Moon: Scientism Infiltrates the Sanctuary
A striking detail in the article is the description of Lodovico Cardi’s “Assumption of the Virgin,” where “the Virgin stands atop a naturalistic moon, inspired by telescopic images by renowned astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610.” This admission reveals the novitatis studiosi (lovers of novelty) condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane Exitu and Pascendi Dominici Gregis. The decree condemns the proposition: “The pursuit of novelty in the investigation of the foundations of things leads in our times to deplorable consequences, abandoning all restraint… it causes the heritage of humanity to be rejected.” Here, the Queen of Heaven is depicted standing on a moon rendered not by faith or tradition, but by the profane telescope of a man condemned by the Holy Office (1616, 1633). This is the evolution of dogma in art: the supernatural mystery of the Assumption reduced to a naturalistic illustration of Copernican astronomy. It prefigures the Modernist heresy condemned in Lamentabili (prop. 58): “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him.” The article treats this Scientistic intrusion as a point of artistic interest, not theological scandal, proving the neo-church’s capitulation to scientia falsa (1 Tim 6:20).
EWTN: The Propaganda Arm of the Neo-Church
The source, EWTN News (“Vatican Bureau”), functions as the Pravda of the conciliar sect. The byline—Ishmael Adibuah, “interning as a staff writer… with a background in scientific research, teaching, and congressional service”—epitomizes the clerico-liberal formation condemned in the Syllabus (Section IV): “Socialism, Communism, Secret Societies, Biblical Societies, Clerico-Liberal Societies.” The article’s closing “newsletter” pitch (“Daily/Weekly… I agree to receive communications from EWTN”) reveals the commercial, Naturalistic essence of the enterprise: it sells content, not grace. It reports on the “Governorate of Vatican City State” as a legitimate partner, ignoring that this entity is the civil arm of the Masonic occupation of the Papal States, a usurpation condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus (prop. 76): “The abolition of the temporal power of which the Apostolic See is possessed would contribute in the greatest degree to the liberty and prosperity of the Church”—a lie of the Revolution. EWTN’s silence on the vacancy of the See, the invalidity of the Novus Ordo Missae, and the heresy of the “popes” makes it complicit in perfidia Judaica and the mysterium iniquitatis (2 Thess 2:7).
The Theological Vacuum: Silence on the Vacant See and the Kingship of Christ
The gravest accusation against the article is its eloquent silence. Not a word on the Sede Vacante since the death of Pius XII (1958). Not a word on the Novus Ordo Missae—the “table of assembly” that has replaced the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary in that very basilica. Not a word on the duty of the faithful to non possumus resist the auto-demolition of the Church. The article speaks of “popes” venerating an icon, while the true Church, the Ecclesia militans, endures in the catacombs of the faithful remnant who keep the Traditio intact. Pius XI in Quas Primas commands: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ… if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate.” The conciliar sect’s “rulers” (Bergoglio, Prevost, the Governorate) refuse this obedience publicly, substituting the cultus hominis for the cultus Dei. The restoration of the Pauline Chapel is thus a ludibrium—a mockery. As St. Augustine warns (Sermon 47, cited in Quas Primas): “the celebrations of the Martyrs… were an encouragement to martyrdom.” Today, the conciliar sect’s celebrations encourage only apostasy and worldliness.
Conclusion: Ruins of Stone, Ruins of Faith
The restoration of the Pauline Chapel is a metaphor for the conciliar sect itself: a frantic attempt to preserve the externals of Catholicism—art, architecture, icons, processions—while the internal life of grace, the Hierarchy, the Sacrifice, and the Doctrine have been eviscerated by Modernism. The Salus Populi Romani does not save a people who have rejected the Rex Populi Romani, Christ the King. The icon, the chapel, the basilica, and the very stones of Rome cry out against the usurpers who occupy them. Non praevalebunt (Mt 16:18)—the gates of hell shall not prevail against the true Church, but they have manifestly prevailed against the neo-church’s theatrical facade. Let the faithful detach their hearts from these occupied stones and cleave to the Traditio of the Fathers, the Mass of All Time, and the true Vicars of Christ, awaiting the restoration in veritate by a true Pope, si Deus voluerit.
Source:
Restoration to begin on important chapel of Marian basilica in Rome (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 09.11.2026