The National Catholic Register (ncregister.com) reports on August 11, 2026, that “Fr.” Mike Schmitz, host of the phenomenally popular “Bible in a Year” podcast, appeared on EWTN News In Depth in Dublin to recount his “crisis of faith” and subsequent “conversion.” The article details his resentment toward Church teachings — specifically Humanae Vitae — during his seminary years, a pivotal intellectual encounter with a “Fr.” Tony in Central America that led to the “joy of being wrong,” and his resultant vocational surrender. Schmitz emphasizes his celebrity indifference (“I don’t feel famous. Just remember who the real Star is”) and his desire that audiences “be drawn more toward Jesus, to know more of his heart.” This conciliar celebrity “priest’s” subjectivist, intellectually reduced conversion narrative lays bare the utter spiritual bankruptcy of the neo-church, which substitutes sentimental encounter for the sacrificium laudis of the True Mass and the objective reality of the Kingship of Christ.
The Naturalistic Reduction of Conversion to Intellectual Assent
The article presents Schmitz’s “conversion” as a purely intellectual and emotional transaction: he “would go to daily Mass and scoff the entire Mass… rolling my eyes… ‘The Church is wrong and I’m right'” until a rational argument for Humanae Vitae produced a “most incredible experience of the joy of being wrong.” This is the quintessence of Modernist subjectivism condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), where the Council of the Holy Office rejected the proposition that “Faith, as assent of the mind, is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities” (Prop. 25) and that “The dogmas of faith should be understood according to their practical function, i.e., as binding in action, rather than as principles of belief” (Prop. 26). Schmitz’s “faith” is not the virtus infusa of supernatural grace assenting to Divine Revelation on the authority of God Revealing (fides divina), but a naturalistic acquiescence to a rational argument — ratio humana judging veritas divina. The “joy” he describes is the satisfaction of intellectual pride subdued, not the gaudium in veritate of the justified sinner approaching the Tribunal of Penance. There is no mention of sacramental Confession, no mention of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the propitiatory act of Calvary, no mention of the state of sanctifying grace. The “Mass” he scoffed at was the Novus Ordo Missae — a fabricated rite that de facto denies the Sacrifice and the Real Presence — rendering his “daily Mass” attendance a participation in the abominatio desolationis foretold by Daniel (9:27; 11:31; 12:11) and identified by the Fathers with the end-times apostasy.
The Invalid “Priesthood” and Sacramental Void of the Conciliar Sect
Schmitz is presented as a “priest,” “chaplain for the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota in Duluth,” ordained in the post-1968 rite of “Paul VI.” This rite, stripped of the essential form and intention for the Sacrament of Holy Order as defined by the Council of Trent (Sess. XXIII, Can. 2) and Pope Pius XII (Sacramentum Ordinis, 1947), produces no valid priests. The “Fr.” Tony who “laid out a clear, rational case for the dignity of human love” is equally invalid. Consequently, the “Mass” Schmitz attended, the “seminars” he heard, the “vocation” he accepted — all are nullities. The character indelebilis of the priesthood is absent; the potestas ordinis to confect the Eucharist and absolve sins is non-existent. The “Newman Center” is not a Catholic chaplaincy but a conciliar outpost propagating the novus ordo religion. As the Defense of Sedevacantism file demonstrates, a manifest heretic cannot be Pope (non potest esse caput quod non est membrum — a non-member cannot be head), and the line of claimants from John XXIII onward has publicly defected from the Faith (Canon 188.4, 1917 Code; Cum ex Apostolatus Officio). Schmitz operates entirely within this secta conciliaris, a structura paramasonica occupying the Vatican.
Sentimentalist “Jesus” Substitutes the True Christ the King
Schmitz’s stated goal: “I want everybody who shows up to be able to… be drawn more toward Jesus, to know more of his heart… This is what God says: Basically, this is what you need to know about my heart.” This is the cultus hominis condemned by Pius XI in Quas Primas (1925): “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 encyclical establishes the Social Reign of Christ the King over all nations, all laws, all public life — “His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ” (Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum, cited in Quas Primas). Schmitz’s “Jesus” is a therapeutic companion, a “Star” among celebrities, not the Rex Regum et Dominus Dominantium (Apoc. 19:16) who demands public, legal, corporate submission of states and societies. The “Parables Tour” filling a “National Stadium” is idolatry of personality, a theatrum mundi replacing the theatrum crucis. The Syllabus of Errors (1864) condemns the proposition: “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Prop. 80). Schmitz’s entire enterprise is reconciliatio cum mundo — a celebrity “priest” making the Faith palatable to the spiritus saeculi.
The “Bible in a Year” Phenomenon: Modernist Scripturalism Divorced from Tradition
The article boasts “one billion downloads” for the “Bible in a Year” podcast. This is the Protestantized sola scriptura of the conciliar sect, condemned by the Council of Trent (Sess. IV) and Vatican I (Dei Filius, Ch. 2). Lamentabili Sane Exitu condemns the Modernist errors: “The Gospels do not prove the Divinity of Jesus Christ, but it is a dogma which Christian consciousness has derived from the concept of the Messiah” (Prop. 27); “The natural sense of the Gospel texts cannot be reconciled with the teaching of Catholic theologians about the consciousness and infallible knowledge of Jesus Christ” (Prop. 32); “Christ did not intend to establish the Church as a community lasting for centuries on earth” (Prop. 52). Schmitz’s podcast feeds the concupiscentia novitatis — the itch for “engaging” Scripture divorced from the Magisterium vivum, the Traditio apostolica, and the Lex orandi, lex credendi of the Roman Rite. It is lectio divina without sacrificium, verbum without Carne.
EWTN and the Register: Propaganda Organs of the Abomination of Desolation
The interview was conducted by Colm Flynn for “EWTN News In Depth” and published by the National Catholic Register (Alyssa Murphy, “Managing Editor of Digital Assets”). These are official organs of the conciliar sect, funded by the faithful’s donations to propagate the novus ordo religion. They promote “Fr.” Schmitz as a “star” — “the real Star is” Jesus, but the de facto star is Schmitz. This is the ecclesia conciliaris manufacturing its own saints and celebrities extra Ecclesiam, mimicking the sanctorum canonizatio of true Popes (pre-1958) while canonizing the architects of the revolution (John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II). The article’s tone — “inspire and uplift,” “stories that inspire” — reveals the finis operis: emotional manipulation, not salus animarum. Quas Primas warns: “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… who are indeed the most valiant helpers of the Pastors of the Church and contribute most to the expansion and establishment of Christ’s Kingdom, either by combating the triple concupiscence of the world through religious vows…” The conciliar “media apostolate” does the opposite: it inflames the concupiscentia oculorum and superbia vitae.
Silence on the Apostasy: The Gravest Indictment
The article is utterly silent on the crisis of the Church: the New Mass, religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), false ecumenism, collegiality, the “hermeneutic of continuity,” the “canonizations” of Modernists, the occupation of the Holy See by manifest heretics. Schmitz’s “conversion” is a conversio ad sectam, not conversio ad Dominum. He accepted Humanae Vitae — an encyclical of the antipope Paul VI, which itself contains the germ of the contraceptive mentality by admitting “responsible parenthood” as a subjective criterion — but he never questioned the validity of the “popes” who imposed the Novus Ordo, who pray with pagans in Assisi, who teach that the Old Covenant is salvific without Christ. Quas Primas declares: “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 conciliar “hierarchy” exercises authority contra Regem Christum. Schmitz is their propheta blandus, soothing the faithful into the via lata of the novus ordo. Ego sum via, veritas, et vita (John 14:6) — not the “way” of a podcast, the “truth” of a rational argument, the “life” of a celebrity tour. Outside the True Church — the remnant adhering to the Tridentine Mass, the pre-1958 Magisterium, and valid sacraments — there is no salvation, no priesthood, no sacrifice, no grace. Schmitz’s “billion downloads” are a signum contradictionis: the measure of the apostasy’s reach, not the Faith’s vitality. Qui non est mecum, contra me est (Matt. 12:30).
Source:
Father Mike Schmitz on His Crisis of Faith: I Thought ‘the Church Is Wrong and I’m Right’ (ncregister.com)
Date: 11.08.2026