A group of merchants in Los Angeles, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, seeks to intervene in a federal lawsuit to preserve a cross and Nativity scene at El Pueblo de Los Angeles, arguing solely on the basis of historic heritage, cultural diversity, and economic benefit rather than the social reign of Christ the King. The cited article relates the capitulation of pseudo-Catholic institutions to the secularist framework of the United States Constitution, reducing the sacred symbols of Redemption to mere artifacts of “cultural heritage” and drivers of foot traffic for local businesses.
The Total Substitution of Supernatural Ends with Naturalistic Pragmatism
The filing by the Becket Fund — a darling of the conciliar establishment — reveals the complete evacuation of the supernatural order from the defense of Catholic symbols. The merchants’ “concrete economic interests in preserving the cross and nativity as important attractions that draw visitors to the area” and their desire to protect “authentic and uninterrupted links to its historic past” constitute a textbook application of laicism condemned by Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas: “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 cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the instrument of the world’s salvation, is here presented as a commercial asset for a cafe owner on Olvera Street. The Nativity, the manifestation of the Incarnate Word, is reduced to a seasonal decoration in a gazebo, 150 feet from the cross, serving a “growing volume of visitors.” This is not the regnum Christi; it is the kingdom of Mammon wearing a borrowed halo.
Religious Liberty: The Heretical Foundation of the Defense
The very instrument of defense — the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — operates on the condemned principle of libertas ecclesiae severed from veritas. The Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX explicitly condemns the proposition that “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship” (Error 77) and that “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Error 80). The Becket Fund’s entire jurisprudence rests on the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause — a Masonic construct ensuring the separation of Church and State (Error 55) — rather than on the divine right of Christ the King to public acknowledgment and obedience. By arguing that the displays “may not be sufficiently ‘established’ to violate the establishment clause,” the merchants’ lawyers concede the legitimacy of the secularist legal framework. They do not challenge the court’s authority to judge the King of Kings; they merely haggle over the degree of “establishment.” This is the hermeneutic of capitulation elevated to legal strategy.
Indifferentism and Syncretism as “Cultural Heritage”
The filing boasts that the plaza hosts an annual “Blessing of the Animals” during Lent “at which a cardinal or bishop provides benedictions to local pets,” and that “Chinese and Italian heritage groups” coexist with the “Mexican Catholic background” of one merchant. This is religious indifferentism (Syllabus, Errors 15-18) paraded as civic virtue. The “Blessing of the Animals” — a liturgical absurdity unknown to the Tradition — performed by a “cardinal or bishop” of the conciliar sect, signifies the profanation of the sacerdotal character and the reduction of sacramentalia to folk customs. The explicit mention of non-Catholic “heritage groups” as equal stakeholders in the “cultural heritage” of the site confirms the ecumenical and interreligious agenda: the cross is not the standard of the one true Faith, but a totem for multicultural coexistence. As Pius XI teaches, “the Christian religion began to be equated with other false religions and shamelessly placed in the same category.” The merchants’ lawyer, Edward Flores, declares that “Preserving our distinct cultures and educating others about our roles in the founding and growth of Los Angeles ennobles Americans across all ethnicities, faiths, cultures, and generations.” Faith is reduced to ethnicity; the Church to a cultural association. There is no mention of the salvation of souls, the necessity of baptism, the Social Kingship of Christ, or the duty of the State to profess the Catholic Faith. Only “pride in their own contributions” and “future potential” — purely naturalistic, Pelagian categories.
The Conciliar Sect’s Complicity in the Profanation
The article notes the presence of “La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, a Catholic parish the roots of which date to 1784.” This parish, now part of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles under the “pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost), stands in silent acquiescence while the cross and Nativity are defended as municipal property. The “cardinal or bishop” who blesses animals is a minister of the neo-church, the “abomination of desolation” occupying the visible structures. The Becket Fund, founded and staffed by operatives of the conciliar establishment, functions as the legal arm of the neo-church’s surrender to secularism. They do not seek the restoration of all things in Christ (Instaurare omnia in Christo), but the preservation of “historic resources” within the paramasonic order. The very fact that the lawsuit is in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit — a tribunal of the Masonic republic — and that the defense relies on “existing court precedent,” demonstrates that the conciliar hierarchy has abdicated the rights of Christ the King for a place at the table of the enemies of God.
The Theological Bankruptcy of “Historic Preservation” Apologetics
The argument that the “longstanding and historic nature of the cross and nativity” protects them legally is a tacit admission that their sacred character is denied. If the cross is defended only because it is old, it is no longer the vexilla regis but an antique. Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat this plague: “this plague is the secularism of our times, so-called laicism… It began with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The merchants’ brief is a legal brief for laicism. It accepts the premise that the State is the source of rights (Syllabus, Error 39) and that the Church’s rights are concessions from the civil power (Error 19). It ignores the teaching of Quas Primas that “rulers of states… have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him” and that “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.” There are no valiant helpers here — only cafe owners seeking foot traffic and lawyers billing hours to defend a cross they have already surrendered in principle.
Symptomatic Conclusion: The Fruit of the Conciliar Revolution
This episode is the inevitable fruit of Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae — the false declaration on religious liberty that contradicts the Syllabus, Quanta Cura, Immortale Dei, Libertas Praestantissimum, and Quas Primas. The conciliar sect, having proclaimed that the State has no duty to profess the true religion, cannot now defend the cross except as a “historic monument.” Having embraced “dialogue” with the world, it speaks the world’s language: economics, heritage, inclusion, legal precedent. The cross on Olvera Street stands as a reproach to the apostasy of the neo-church. It is defended by merchants for profit, by lawyers for precedent, by a “bishop” for pets, and by a “pope” (Leo XIV) who presides over the demolition of the Social Kingship of Christ. Non est hic Deus vester — this is not your God. The true cross demands not a legal brief citing the Establishment Clause, but the confessio fidei of a Catholic State and the lex orandi of the Tridentine Mass. Until then, it remains a scandalum — a sign of contradiction profaned by its very defenders.
Source:
Los Angeles merchants seek to save 10-foot cross, Nativity scene in city’s historic center (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 26.08.2026