The EWTN News portal publishes a travelogue disguised as a feast day report, directing the faithful to the crypt of Salerno Cathedral to gaze upon the purported relics of St. Matthew. The article, penned by Jonah McKeown—a veteran of the conciliar propaganda apparatus, formerly of Catholic News Agency, now staff writer for the National Catholic Register—catalogues the statue by Michelangelo Naccherino, the architectural history of the crypt, and a pious legend concerning the pirate Ariadeno Barbarossa. It cites the antipope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) for a sentimental reflection on “mercy” and notes the liturgical alignment with schismatic Orthodoxy. This piece is not hagiography; it is religious tourism marketed by the paramasonic structure occupying the Vatican.
The Naturalistic Reduction of Sacred Relics to Archaeological Curiosities
The cited article treats the mortal remains of an Apostle—Princeps Apostolorum, a pillar of the Church (Gal 2:9)—as a destination for cultural sightseeing. It describes the bronze statue, the inkwell held by the angel, the renovation by the Fontana architects, and the “legend” of the storm that scattered the Turkish fleet. Nowhere does it proclaim the dogmatic reality: that the veneration of relics (cultus duliae) is due to the saints because their bodies were temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor 6:19) and are destined for glorious resurrection. The Council of Trent anathematizes those who deny that the bodies of the holy martyrs and other saints are to be venerated (Sess. XXV, De invocatione sanctorum). The EWTN piece, however, adopts the tone of a Baedeker guide, stripping the relic of its theandric significance—its participation in the virtus sanctificans of Christ the King. This is the laicism condemned by Pius XI in Quas Primas: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” Here, the saint is removed from the supernatural order and placed in the museum of human history.
The Antipope’s Anthropocentric “Mercy” vs. Christ’s Kingship
The article quotes the manifest heretic Joseph Ratzinger (“Pope Benedict”), who in 2006 declared: “in the figure of Matthew, the Gospels present to us a true and proper paradox: those who seem to be the farthest from holiness can even become a model of the acceptance of God’s mercy.” This is the theology of the Church of the New Advent: man-centered, therapeutic, devoid of the timor Domini. St. Matthew did not “accept mercy” as a passive psychological experience; he abandoned all (Luke 5:28), rose up, and followed the Rex Regum unto martyrdom. The antipope’s “paradox” inverts the Gospel: it suggests holiness is accessible without the crux, without the imitatio Christi in its full rigor. Pius XI taught that Christ’s Kingdom demands “that men… deny themselves and carry their cross” (Quas Primas). The conciliar “mercy” is a counterfeit coin, minted to purchase the world’s applause. To cite a usurper of the See of Peter as a spiritual authority is to legitimize the Great Apostasy foretold in 2 Thess 2:3.
False Ecumenism with Schismatics as Institutionalized Indifferentism
The article casually notes: “Eastern Catholics and the Orthodox churches celebrate St. Matthew on Nov. 16 along with St. Fulvianus.” This is not a harmless calendrical notation; it is a manifesto of the heresy of ecumenism condemned by Pius XI in Mortalium Animos (1928): “The Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in [non-Catholic] assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for such enterprises.” The “Eastern Catholics” (Uniates) are here presented as a bridge to schism, implying a communion in sacris with those who reject the Filioque, papal primacy, and the Immaculate Conception. This is the “ecumenism project” exposed in the Fatima dossier: “The imprecise formulation ‘conversion of Russia’… opens the way to religious relativism. It can serve to legitimize dialogue with schismatic Orthodoxy.” The article’s silence on the necessity of conversion to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church for salvation (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus) is the silence of the grave.
The Conciliar Sect’s Propaganda Apparatus: EWTN and the National Catholic Register
Jonah McKeown is identified as a “staff writer for CNA’s sister news partner, the National Catholic Register.” This is the ministry of truth for the neo-church. EWTN, founded by the modernist “Mother” Angelica, has long served as the electronic altar of the conciliar revolution, promoting the Novus Ordo, the false “saints” (John Paul II, John XXIII, Paul VI), and the hermeneutic of rupture disguised as continuity. The article’s very structure—dateline, byline, “Related Articles,” subscription pitch—mirrors secular journalism. It is sacra prophanata: holy things prostituted for web traffic. The “Privacy Policy” disclaimer at the end is the perfect metaphor: the conciliar sect protects data but betrays the Deposit of Faith.
Silence on the Supernatural: The Grave Omission of the Mass and Final Judgment
Search the text for “Mass,” “Sacrifice,” “Eucharist,” “soul,” “grace,” “heaven,” “hell,” “judgment.” They are absent. The article speaks of a “feast day,” a “crypt,” a “statue,” a “pirate,” a “storm.” It is pure naturalism. This silence is the gravest accusation. The true feast of St. Matthew (September 21 in the immemorial Roman Calendar) is the Sacrificium laudis of the Traditional Latin Mass, where the Apostle is named in the Communicantes and his intercession implored per Christum Dominum nostrum. In the conciliar sect, the “Mass” is a Protestantized assembly (coena dominica), the priest a “presider,” the altar a table. St. Matthew, who wrote the Gospel of the Kingdom (Regnum Christi), is reduced to a character in a travel blog. Quas Primas warns: “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders… 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.” The conciliar sect has no Kingdom, no Pastors, no Sacrifice—only a hollow simulacrum.
The Invalidity of Post-Conciliar “Feasts” and “Veneration”
The article observes a “feast day” on September 21. But in the abomination of desolation (Matt 24:15), there are no valid feasts. The new calendar (1969) is the work of the freemason Bugnini and the antipope Paul VI (Montini), designed to desacralize the liturgical year. The “bishops” who govern Salerno are ordained in the invalid 1968 rite of Paul VI (Pontificale Romanum), lacking the forma specifica of episcopal consecration (Sacramentum Ordinis, Pius XII). Without valid bishops, there are no valid priests; without valid priests, no Mass; without Mass, no Church. The crypt in Salerno may hold the bones of the Apostle, but the structure above it is a synagogue of Satan (Apoc 2:9), a Masonic temple where the verbum Dei is bound. True Catholics, adhering to the Sedes Vacans since 1958, venerate St. Matthew in the catacombs of the Tradition, at the altar of the true Mass, under the authority of true bishops preserving the integrum depositum fidei. The EWTN article is an invitation to spiritual suicide.
“He who gives the Kingdom of Heaven does not take away earthly things!” (Hymn Crudelis Herodes, cited in Quas Primas). The conciliar sect takes away the Kingdom and leaves only the earthly things: the crypt, the statue, the tourist brochure. Reject the conciliar counterfeit. Return to the Tradition. Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.
Source:
Where is the body of St. Matthew? A visit to his tomb (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 21.09.2026