The National Catholic Register, a flagship organ of the conciliar sect, publishes a commentary by George Weigel — Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and chief architect of the neo-conservative “Catholic” narrative — reflecting on the sixtieth anniversary of the 1966 Baltimore Orioles World Series victory. Weigel waxes nostalgic for Memorial Stadium, misapplies the prophetic phrase “abomination of desolation” to its demolition, and extracts two “lessons for 21st-century America”: camaraderie built on “excellence ordered to a common cause” and the craftsmanship of men who “played hard but played clean.” The article is a masterclass in the naturalistic reduction of the Kingship of Christ, substituting the Civitas Dei for the civitas terrena and baptizing American civil religion as a surrogate for the Social Reign of Christ the King.
The Blasphemous Trivialization of Sacred Scripture
Weigel opens with a staggering act of exegetical violence. He describes the demolition of a baseball stadium — a structure dedicated to “equality and freedom throughout the world” — as akin to “the abomination of desolation” (cf. Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11). This phrase, uttered by the Prophet Daniel and confirmed by Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24:15), signifies the ultimate profanation of the Temple, the cessation of the perpetual sacrifice, and the reign of Antichrist. To apply this terminus technicus of eschatological horror to the wrecking ball striking a secular sports arena is not mere literary hyperbole; it is sacrilege. It reveals a mind so thoroughly secularized that the sacred vocabulary of the Faith has been emptied of its supernatural referent and pressed into service for maudlin sports nostalgia. This is the lingua novae ecclesiae: the profanation of the holy to sanctify the mundane.
The Naturalistic Reduction of the Common Good
The inscription on the stadium façade — dedicated to those who died to “preserve equality and freedom throughout the world” — is cited approvingly by Weigel as a stirring memorial. This inscription encapsulates the Masonic-Liberal creed condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus Errorum (1864): “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55) and “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State” (Error 77). The “equality and freedom” celebrated are the libertas perditionis — the liberty of indifference — not the libertas filiorum Dei. Weigel finds “satisfaction” that Camden Yards inspired “classic baseball architecture,” but breathes not a word of the lex orandi, lex credendi principle: architecture either manifests the vertical dimension (theocentric) or the horizontal (anthropocentric). A stadium is a temple of the body; a church is a temple of the Holy Ghost. To mourn the former with the language of the latter is the definitive mark of the laicism Pius XI diagnosed in Quas Primas: “the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations… the Christian religion began to be equated with other false religions and shamelessly placed in the same category.”
The Americanist Heresy: “Excellence Ordered to a Common Cause” Without Christ the King
Weigel distills the 1966 Orioles into a parable for modern politics: “camaraderie… built on excellence ordered to a common cause” and “craftsmen, doing something very difficult very well… taking satisfaction and a certain joie de combat from the often-grinding work.” This is the Pelagian dream of the civitas naturalis: virtue without grace, unity without the Unum Necessarium, peace without the Princeps Pacis. Pius XI, in the very encyclical Weigel’s outlet claims to uphold but ignores, Quas Primas (1925), anathematizes this precise error: “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 entire human society had to be shaken, because it lacked a stable and strong foundation.” The “common cause” of a baseball team is the pennant; the “common cause” of a nation without Christ is the will of the majority — vox populi, vox diaboli. The partnership of Brooks and Frank Robinson is held up as a model of racial harmony achieved by “excellence.” But justitia sine fide non est virtus (justice without faith is not virtue). True fraternity flows solely from the Paternitas Dei and the Fratres in Christo; any other “camaraderie” is a conspiratio iniquitatis, however pleasant its external manners. Weigel’s plea for “more such men today, not least in politics” is a demand for virtuous pagans to manage the collapse of Christendom — the perennial temptation of Catholic liberalism since Lamennais and Maritain.
The Symptomatic Silence: Absence of the Supernatural, the Sacraments, and the True Church
Read the text again. There is zero mention of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacraments, the state of grace, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Final Judgment, or the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus). There is no reference to the Kingship of Christ over temporal societies, defined dogmatically by Pius XI: “His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” The “lessons” are entirely immanent. This silence is the argumentum ex silentio that condemns the entire neo-conservative project. It is the practical application of the Modernist proposition condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907): “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) and “Christ did not proclaim any specific, all-encompassing doctrine suitable for all times and peoples, but rather initiated a certain religious movement” (Prop. 59). Weigel’s Christianity is a “movement” providing ethical seasoning for the American project; it is not the Una, Sancta, Catholica et Apostolica Ecclesia demanding the submission of every knee — in caelis, in terris, et infernorum (Phil. 2:10).
George Weigel: Propagandist for the Neo-Church’s Cult of Man
George Weigel is not a harmless nostalgist; he is a principal ideologue of the conciliar sect’s accommodation to the world. His biography of Karol Wojtyła (John Paul II) canonized the architect of Assisi and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) — the text that enshrined religious liberty and the “seeds of the Word” in false religions. Weigel’s “Ethics and Public Policy Center” functions as a quinta columna within the ruins of Catholic culture, directing the faithful toward the City of Man under the guise of “faithful citizenship.” This article, published on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7), ignores the Lepanto victory won by the Rosary and the Social Kingship of Christ, offering instead a ersatz liturgy of the diamond. The “diamond jubilee” is a counterfeit feast; the true Jubilee is the Annum Sanctum of the Redemption. Weigel writes: “Time will not dim the glory of their deeds” — quoting the stadium’s Masonic inscription. But the Psalmist declares: “Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Ps. 126:1). The 1966 Orioles are dust; Memorial Stadium is rubble; the “conciliar church” is the abominatio desolationis standing where the Holy Place ought to be. Convertimini ad me, et salvi eritis (Isa. 45:22) — not to the ballpark, nor to the voting booth, but to the Sacratissimum Cor Jesu, King of Nations.
Source:
Reflections on a Diamond Jubilee (ncregister.com)
Date: 07.10.2026