The VaticanNews portal (December 6, 2025) presents a saccharine portrayal of St. Nicholas that obscures Catholic doctrine beneath a veneer of ecumenism and historical reductionism. The article reduces the fourth-century bishop to a folkloric figure, emphasizing his “unifying” role with schismatic Orthodox communities while omitting his fierce defense of Catholic truth against Arian heretics at the Council of Nicaea. It celebrates the conciliar antipope’s visits to Bari’s basilica as legitimate acts of piety, ignoring the apostate nature of the post-conciliar hierarchy. This deliberate silence about Nicholas’ combat against heresy exemplifies the neo-church’s agenda to replace doctrinal clarity with sentimental fables.
Ecumenical Subversion of Hagiography
The article proclaims Nicholas as a “unifying figure among Catholics and Orthodox Christians”, committing the grave error of placing the Church founded by Christ on equal footing with schismatic bodies. This violates Pius XI’s condemnation in Mortalium Animos (1928): “The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it”. The portal’s delight in Orthodox veneration of Nicholas – including their heretical title “Wonderworker” rather than Confessor – constitutes implicit acceptance of Eastern errors. Nowhere does the text mention that the Russian Orthodox Church remains outside the true Church, its sacraments invalid and its teachings poisoned by the Photian schism.
The description of Bari’s basilica as an “important place of ecumenism” with an Orthodox altar in its crypt exposes the conciliar sect’s betrayal. St. Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane (1907) condemned the proposition that “the Church listening cooperates… with the Church teaching” (Proposition 6), yet here we see the Vatican II sect literally architecting liturgical cooperation with heretics. The article’s reverence for the Orthodox liturgy celebrated at Nicholas’ tomb constitutes apostasy from the extra Ecclesiam nulla salus doctrine defined at Lateran IV.
Naturalistic Reduction of Supernatural Reality
Nowhere does the text identify Nicholas as Bishop Nicholas, stripping him of his sacramental office to refashion him as a generic humanitarian. The portal dwells on legends of gift-giving and child protection while suppressing his documented tearing of the Arian heretic Arius’ blasphemous writings at Nicaea – the defining moment of his episcopacy. This reduction aligns with Modernist methodology condemned in Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), which noted how Modernists “reduce all to mere phenomena”, replacing theology with anthropology.
The grotesque legend of children “brined in a wooden barrel” receives prominent attention, while Nicholas’ defense of Christ’s divinity against Arius – the actual reason for his patristic significance – goes unmentioned. This exemplifies the conciliar sect’s obsession with miraculous spectacle over doctrinal substance. The portal even mocks Catholic sensibilities by suggesting Nicholas’ patronage of brewers stems from this macabre tale rather than from his apostolic governance of Myra’s vineyards – a deliberate trivialization of sacramental wine’s necessity for valid Masses.
Illegitimate Relic Veneration by Apostate Hierarchy
The article’s reference to antipope Bergoglio’s visits to venerate Nicholas’ relics constitutes spiritual fraud. Canon 2200 of the 1917 Code declares that “those who publicly defect from the Catholic faith” lose all ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Since the conciliar antipopes have promulgated heresies like religious liberty (contra Quanta Cura) and collegiality (contra Vatican I), their pretended “veneration” at Catholic shrines is sacrilege. St. Nicholas himself would have denounced these usurpers as he denounced Arius, for they deny Christ’s Kingship by promoting the very religious indifferentism the saint combated.
The portal’s celebration of the “transmission of relics” from Myra to Bari whitewashes the sacrilegious theft by Italian sailors in 1087. True Catholic historiography would lament this violation of ecclesiastical property rights, not glorify it as pious zeal. Nicholas’ true legacy lies not in stolen bones, but in his embodiment of the episcopal office defined by Pius X: “The Church is essentially an unequal society… comprising two categories of persons, the Pastors and the flock” (Vehementer Nos, 1906). The conciliar sect’s inversion of this hierarchy – evident in its ecumenical debasement of Nicholas’ memory – proves its non-Catholic nature.
Conclusion: Restoring the Patron of Orthodoxy
Authentic Catholic devotion to St. Nicholas requires rejecting this conciliar distortion. We venerate him as the hammer of Arians, the model of episcopal fortitude, and the guardian of children’s souls against modern heresies far deadlier than any brine barrel. Let us invoke his intercession against the conciliar antipopes who’ve abandoned his Nicene faith, remembering his words to the Arian heretics: “You sons of darkness! You enemies of all truth!” May he purge the Church of the modernist corruption that reduces saints to fairy tales and true worship to ecumenist pageantry.
Source:
5 things to know and share about St. Nicholas (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 06.12.2025