The EWTN News portal reports that Missouri voters rejected Amendment 5 by an 83% margin, a proposal to eliminate the state income tax in favor of expanded sales taxes. The four “bishops” of the Missouri conciliar structure — the “archbishop” of St. Louis and the “bishops” of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Springfield-Cape Girardeau, and Jefferson City — intervened in July to urge voters to consider “moral principles” and warned that the “most vulnerable” would bear undue burdens from increased sales taxes. The “Catholic” Governor Mike Kehoe supported the measure; the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy celebrated its defeat. This episode exposes the total substitution of the Church’s divine mission for the salvation of souls with a secularized, naturalistic social activism indistinguishable from left-wing NGO advocacy.
The Conciliar “Episcopate” as Agents of the Welfare State
The four men presented as “Catholic bishops” are functionaries of the ecclesia novae adventus, the conciliar sect occupying the visible structures of the Church since the usurpation of John XXIII. They possess no jurisdiction, no mission from Christ, and no authority to bind consciences. Their intervention in a purely civil tax referendum is not the exercise of the munus docendi but a usurpation of the temporal power for ends entirely alien to the Kingdom of God.
Pius XI in Quas Primas (1925) teaches with absolute clarity: “His reign encompasses not only 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” (Denz. 2158). The Social Kingship of Christ demands that the State publicly profess the Catholic Faith, order its laws to the divine commandments, and subordinate its fiscal policy to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The Missouri “bishops” are silent on this. They do not demand that Missouri recognize Christ the King. They do not condemn the secularist constitution which excludes God from legislation. They haggle over the regressivity of sales taxes versus income taxes — a debate proper to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, not to successors of the Apostles.
Reduction of Supernatural Charity to Material Redistribution
The “bishops'” statement acknowledges that supporters of the repeal have “a sincere desire to promote the long-term prosperity” of Missouri, but insists such aims be “weighed alongside the potential effects on those who are most vulnerable.” This is the language of Rerum Novarum stripped of its theological soul. Leo XIII taught that “the State is nothing else than a harmonious association of men” (Quas Primas, n. 30) and that its happiness depends on obedience to Christ. The conciliar “bishops” have inverted the order: they speak of “vulnerable residents” as abstract demographic categories, not as souls redeemed by the Precious Blood and destined for eternity.
Where is the warning that a State which refuses to acknowledge Christ the King inevitably legislates injustice? Where is the condemnation of usury, of the fiat currency system, of the Masonic financial architecture that makes tax policy a shell game for the enrichment of the few? The “bishops” accept the Masonic frame — “revenue neutrality,” “competitiveness,” “economic growth” — and merely quibble over which tax extraction method hurts the poor less. This is laicism in miters.
The “Catholic” Governor: Symptom of the Anti-Christendom
Governor Mike Kehoe, identified as “a Catholic,” champions the tax cut as “thinking boldly about its future” and pursuing “conservative policies that help Missouri families keep more of what they earn.” The “bishops” do not rebuke him for his public support of a policy they deem immoral. They do not warn him that a Catholic politician has a grave duty to order temporal affairs to the finis ultimus. They do not threaten canonical penalties for scandal. Why? Because in the conciliar sect, “dialogue” replaces correction, “accompaniment” replaces judgment, and the “laity” are autonomous subjects of their own salvation.
Pius XI warned: “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” (Quas Primas, n. 31). Kehoe derives his authority from the ballot box, not from God. The “bishops” derive their “authority” from the conciliar revolution, not from Christ. They are two wings of the same bird of prey.
EWTN: The Propaganda Arm of the Neo-Church
The article appears on EWTN News, the media flagship of the conciliar establishment. Daniel Payne, “senior editor,” frames the “bishops'” intervention as a moral victory: “Voters in Missouri overwhelmingly rejected a proposal… a measure the Missouri Catholic bishops had warned could adversely impact the state’s poorest residents.” The subtext is clear: the “Church” is relevant, engaged, defending the poor. This is the hermeneutic of continuity with the world, not with Tradition.
The Syllabus of Pius IX (1864) condemns: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55). The conciliar sect lives this error. Its “bishops” intervene in the State not to convert it to Christ, but to manage its secularism more humanely. They are the chaplains of the Masonic city.
Theological Bankruptcy: Silence on the Supernatural Order
Read the “bishops'” statement as reported. Not one word on:
– The Social Kingship of Christ the King (Quas Primas)
– The duty of the State to profess the Catholic Faith (Immortale Dei, Leo XIII)
– The condemnation of religious liberty (Mirari Vos, Gregory XVI; Quanta Cura, Pius IX)
– The necessity of the Catholic confessional State (Libertas, Leo XIII)
– The final judgment, hell, the salvation of souls
– The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the center of Christian society
– The rights of God (jura Dei) violated by secular legislation
They speak only of “moral principles” — vague, contentless, adaptable to any ideology. This is Modernism defined by St. Pius X in Pascendi: “The dogmas of faith should be understood according to their practical function, i.e., as binding in action, rather than as principles of belief” (Lamentabili, prop. 26). The “principles” are severed from the depositum fidei and become tools for social engineering.
The “Vulnerable” as Idol of the New Religion
The phrase “most vulnerable” functions as a secularized imago Dei. In the conciliar liturgy of the world, the poor replace Christ. The “preferential option for the poor” — a liberation theology construct baptized by the neo-church — displaces the preferential option for the Truth. St. Thomas teaches: “Misericordia sine veritate non est misericordia sed mater ruinae” (Mercy without truth is not mercy but the mother of ruin). The “bishops” offer the poor a slightly less regressive tax code while denying them the Kingship of Christ, the only source of true justice and peace.
Pius XI: “Oh, what happiness we would enjoy if individuals, families, and states allowed themselves to be governed by Christ” (Quas Primas). The Missouri “bishops” do not propose this happiness. They propose a sales tax exemption on groceries.
Canon 188.4 and the Vacancy of the Sees
The 1917 Code, Canon 188.4, declares that an office becomes vacant ipso facto by “public defection from the Catholic faith”. The “bishops” of Missouri, by their adherence to the conciliar errors — religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality, the new Mass, the new catechism — have publicly defected. They hold no office. Their “pastoral letter” on tax policy has no more canonical weight than a press release from the Sierra Club.
The faithful of Missouri are not bound to obey them. They are bound to flee them (Titus 3:10-11). The true pastors — validly ordained bishops and priests holding the integral Faith — are the only ones with authority to speak on the moral order of civil society. And they would speak not of tax brackets, but of Christus Rex.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation in the Heartland
This episode is a microcosm of the Great Apostasy. The structures of the Church are occupied by men who think like secular humanists, act like NGO lobbyists, and speak like politicians. They have exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man (Rom. 1:23). The rejection of Amendment 5 by 83% of voters — many doubtless “Catholic” — changes nothing. Missouri remains a secularist State, the “bishops” remain hirelings, and EWTN remains the mouthpiece of the synagoga Satanae.
“Non est aliud nomen sub caelo datum hominibus, in quo oporteat nos salvari” (Acts 4:12). Not tax policy. Not “vulnerable populations.” Not “moral principles” detached from the Person of Christ. Only Christ the King. The Missouri “bishops” have forgotten this. Or worse, they never knew Him.
Source:
Missouri voters reject income tax proposal after bishops warned of its effects on ‘most vulnerable’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 05.08.2026