The National Catholic Register publishes a commentary by its founding editor, “Father” Raymond J. de Souza, celebrating the death of Lutheran King Harald V of Norway as an occasion for “Catholic reflection on kingship.” The article cites “Bishop” Erik Varden of the conciliar sect’s Trondheim diocese — who recently preached a Lenten retreat for the usurper antipope Leo XIV — praising the hereditary Lutheran monarch as a father of the nation whose “consecration” in a Lutheran cathedral mirrors ordination. The piece treats the Lutheran state church’s rituals as valid Christian acts, ignores the king’s adherence to a heretical sect, and presents naturalistic monarchy as a participation in Christ’s Kingship. This article exposes the conciliar sect’s complete surrender to religious indifferentism, confusing the social reign of Christ the King with the pageantry of a heretical crown.
The Conciliar Sect’s Capitulation to Heretical Monarchy
The cited article from the National Catholic Register — a flagship publication of the conciliar sect — offers a textbook example of the ecumenical betrayal that defines the post-conciliar apostasy. Its author, “Father” Raymond J. de Souza, founding editor of Convivium magazine, uses the death of a Lutheran monarch to construct a sentimental theology of kingship that nowhere confesses the absolute necessity of the Catholic Faith for salvation, nowhere denounces Lutheranism as a damnable heresy, and nowhere affirms that Christ’s Kingship is exercised solely through His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
The article centers on “Bishop” Erik Varden of the conciliar sect’s Trondheim diocese, a convert from Anglicanism who was chosen by the usurper antipope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) to preach the Lenten retreat in 2026. This fact alone condemns the piece: a “bishop” legitimated by a manifest heretic and antipope, praising a Lutheran king, published in a “Catholic” register that recognizes the usurper’s authority. The entire edifice rests on a foundation of sand — or rather, on the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15).
Lutheranism Elevated to Christian Dignity: The Death of the Missionary Mandate
The article reports that the “presiding bishop of the Church of Norway (Lutheran),” Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, claimed church bells signal “the presence of God on earth and the hope of life after death.” A Lutheran heretic speaks of God’s presence while denying the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Real Presence, the priesthood, and the papacy — and the “Catholic” commentator quotes him approvingly, without correction, without anathema, without the slightest whisper of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.
Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), condemned the proposition: “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church” (Error 18). The National Catholic Register in 2026 effectively canonizes this condemned error. King Harald V, a formal adherent of the Lutheran sect, is presented as a model of Christian kingship. His “consecration” in Nidaros Cathedral — a Lutheran rite performed by a Lutheran “bishop” laying hands on a Lutheran king — is described as having an “unmistakable similarity to an ordination.”
This is not similarity; this is simulation. A heretical rite performed by a heretic for a heretic has no more connection to the sacrament of Holy Orders than a Masonic initiation. The Council of Trent anathematized those who deny the hierarchical priesthood (Session XXIII, Canon 1). The conciliar sect’s “bishop” Varden calls this Lutheran ceremony a “consecration” and a “blessing for his service,” thereby conferring Catholic sacramental language on a Protestant ritual. This is the democratization of the sacred — the very essence of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907): the reduction of the supernatural to the natural, of grace to sentiment, of the Church to a human community.
The Kingship of Christ Reduced to Naturalistic Pageantry
The article’s thesis is that hereditary monarchy reflects divine order because “no one chooses his own father; it is a given.” This is naturalistic political philosophy masquerading as theology. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas (1925), teaches that Christ’s Kingship is primarily spiritual and founded on the hypostatic union and redemption: “He possesses, in a word, dominion over all creatures, not by force but by essence and nature… through the hypostatic union, Christ has authority over all creatures” (citing St. Cyril of Alexandria). The encyclical declares: “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” (citing Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum).
But Pius XI insists this Kingship demands public recognition by states of the Catholic religion as the only true religion: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ… if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.” The same encyclical condemns laicism — “the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations; the Church’s authority to teach men, to issue laws, to govern nations… was denied. And then, slowly, the Christian religion began to be equated with other false religions and shamelessly placed in the same category”.
The Register article does precisely what Quas Primas condemns: it equates the Lutheran monarchy with Christian kingship, presenting Norway’s “Christian heritage” as sufficiently embodied in a heretical king who “profess[es] the Evangelical-Lutheran religion.” The article notes that Harald “intervened to preserve the constitutional requirement: ‘The King shall at all times profess the Evangelical-Lutheran religion'” — and presents this as a defense of Christian identity.
This is the triumph of indifferentism. The Syllabus of Errors condemned: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Error 15) and “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Error 16). The article’s entire framework assumes that a Lutheran king ruling a secularized Lutheran nation constitutes a “stable axis in society” that “stands for self-evident continuity” and manifests “Providence at work in history.”
The Conciliar “Bishop” as Agent of Ecumenical Deception
“Bishop” Varden’s commentary, quoted at length, reveals the theological vacuum of the conciliar sect. He writes: “Physical death is a passage from life to Life… All of us must make this passage one day. That is our life’s only certainty.” Not a word of the Last Judgment. Not a word of the necessity of dying in a state of grace. Not a word that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation — defined by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), confirmed by Pope Boniface VIII in Unam Sanctam (1302), and taught by all popes until the conciliar revolution.
Varden praises Harald as “a good father” who “embodied the nation,” “saw us, knew us, valued us,” with “no ego seemed to stand in the way.” This is pure humanitarianism. The king’s Lutheranism, his participation in a false religion, his death outside the Ark of Salvation — none of this troubles the conciliar “bishop.” He pledges to “stand loyally by King Haakon, that the heritage may continue, nurtured by the trust that for ages has bound the people and its sovereign together in this country.”
What heritage? The heritage of Lutheranism, which denies the Mass, the papacy, the sacraments, the communion of saints, purgatory, and the mediation of the Blessed Virgin. The heritage of a state that in 2012 removed the Evangelical Lutheran faith as the official religion, and in 2017 stripped the king of headship of the national church. The “bishop” calls this “a manifestation of Providence at work in history.”
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), condemned the Modernist proposition: “The Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadfastly adheres to its views, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress” (Prop. 63). The conciliar sect has not merely failed to defend evangelical ethics — it has abandoned the very definition of the Church’s mission. It has replaced regnum Christi with regnum hominis.
The Feast of Christ the King: Traditional vs. Conciliar Perversion
The article mentions “feast days that prompt Catholic reflection on kingship: the feast of the Queenship of Mary (Aug. 22) and the feast of King Louis of France (Aug. 25).” It fails to mention the Feast of Christ the King — instituted by Pius XI in Quas Primas for the last Sunday of October, immediately preceding All Saints, to crown the liturgical year with the triumph of Christ in His Saints. The conciliar sect moved this feast to the last Sunday of the liturgical year (November), severing its connection to the eschatological triumph of Christ over all nations and reducing it to a generic “end of year” celebration.
The article’s timing — published September 5, referencing an August 28 death — shows no awareness of the traditional feast. It uses the Lutheran king’s death as a substitute for the true feast. This is the hermeneutic of rupture in action: the liturgical year, the sanctoral cycle, the very rhythm of the Church’s life — all replaced by secular events and ecumenical sentiment.
The Constitutional Apostasy: Norway and the Conciliar Sect in Parallel
The article details Norway’s constitutional trajectory: 1908 abolition of coronation, 2012 removal of Lutheranism as state religion, 2017 removal of king as church head, 2012-2017 preservation of the requirement that the king be Lutheran. This mirrors the conciliar sect’s trajectory: 1958 death of Pius XII, 1962-1965 Vatican II, 1969 Novus Ordo Missae, 1983 New Code of Canon Law — each step removing the Catholic Church’s exclusive claims, her sacramental integrity, her jurisdictional purity, until the “pope” becomes a “bishop of Rome” presiding over a “church of the New Advent” that dialogues with false religions as equals.
King Harald’s intervention to keep the Lutheran requirement in the constitution is hailed as wisdom: “Harald believed that acknowledgment of religious pluralism and religious freedom ought not imply a turning away from Norway’s Christian heritage. To the contrary, he argued that Norway’s Christian identity was a more secure foundation for respecting the dignity of others.”
This is the exact rhetoric of Dignitatis Humanae and Nostra Aetate — the conciliar documents that declared religious freedom a human right and proclaimed that non-Christian religions reflect “a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.” Pius XI condemned this in advance: “the Christian religion began to be equated with other false religions and shamelessly placed in the same category; then it was subordinated to secular power… further still went those who conceived that the divine religion should be replaced by a natural religion, a natural inner impulse.” (Quas Primas)
The conciliar “bishop” Varden, the “Catholic” Register, the Lutheran “bishop” Tveit, and the Lutheran King Harald — all sing from the same Modernist hymnal. The distinction between truth and error, between the Church and sects, between grace and nature, between salvation and damnation — erased.
The Silence on the Social Kingship of Christ: The Gravest Omission
Nowhere in the article does the name “Jesus Christ” appear as King of nations by right. Nowhere does it cite Quas Primas. Nowhere does it demand that Norway, or any nation, publicly profess the Catholic Faith, submit to the Church’s teaching authority, conform its laws to the divine law. The “kingship” discussed is entirely horizontal: stability, continuity, national unity, fatherly care, “self-evident continuity,” “comforting” presence.
Pius XI taught: “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, because the main reason why some have the right to command and others have the duty to obey was removed.” The article derives the king’s authority from heredity and national sentiment — from men, not from God. It finds “Providence” in the succession “The King is dead, long live the King!” — but this acclamation, stripped of the Catholic Faith, is idolatry of the state.
The Syllabus of Errors condemned: “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits” (Error 39) and “The civil law prevails” over conflicting ecclesiastical law (Error 42). The article presents the Lutheran monarchy as a bulwark against secularism — but a Lutheran monarchy is secularism in theological disguise: a state that has already rejected the Church’s authority, the Mass, the papacy, the sacraments. It is the intermediate stage between Christendom and atheism, as history proves: Norway today is “highly secularized,” as the article admits.
Conclusion: The Conciliar Sect as the Great Facilitator of Apostasy
The National Catholic Register article is not a mistake; it is a manifesto of the conciliar religion. It demonstrates that the sect occupying the Vatican structures has no more interest in the Kingship of Christ than the Lutheran state church of Norway. Both have accommodated the world. Both have replaced the regnum Christi with a regnum humanitatis. Both use Christian vocabulary — “consecration,” “blessing,” “Providence,” “father,” “heritage” — to sanctify the natural order.
True Catholic reflection on the death of a Lutheran king would be: prayer for his conversion before death, sorrow for his eternal peril, condemnation of the heresy that damned him, and a call for Norway to return to the Catholic Faith as the only foundation of true social order. The conciliar sect offers instead: ecumenical encomiums, naturalistic political theory, and the betrayal of souls.
As Pope Pius XI warned: “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… The annual celebration of this solemnity will also remind states that not only private individuals, but also rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him: for it will remind them of the final judgment, in which Christ, whom not only was cast out of the state, but was also forgotten and ignored through contempt, will very severely avenge these insults.” (Quas Primas)
The conciliar sect has forgotten. The Lutheran king died in his heresy. The “bishop” who praised him serves an antipope. The “Catholic” register that published it serves the same master. This is not the Church of Christ. This is the Church of the New Advent — the paramasonic structure, the abomination of desolation. Viva Cristo Rey! — but only the Christ the King of Quas Primas, not the christ of the conciliar compromise.
Source:
What the Death of Norway’s King Harald Teaches Us About Christ the King (ncregister.com)
Date: 05.09.2026