Catholic News Agency reports (December 26, 2025) on the Basilica of St. Stephen in Jerusalem, commemorating the protomartyr’s death near Damascus Gate. The article describes the current Dominican-administered church built in 1900, mentions Stephen’s visionary experience before execution, and notes Saul’s presence at the martyrdom. While containing basic hagiographical facts, the treatment exemplifies the conciliar sect’s reduction of martyrdom to historical curiosity rather than supernatural witness.
Naturalistic Reduction of Martyrdom
The article’s description of Stephen as merely “a Jew who likely became a follower of Jesus” ignores the ex opere operato (by the work worked) nature of sacramental grace. The deliberate omission of Stephen’s diaconate ordination through apostolic imposition of hands (Acts 6:6) reflects the neo-church’s systematic dismantling of holy orders’ sacramental dignity. By reducing his identity to sociological categories (“Jew… follower”), the author follows the modernist playbook condemned in Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis: “They deny every miraculous event.”
“Stephen’s martyrdom was overseen by a Pharisee named Saul — later St. Paul — who became a disciple after a dramatic vision of Christ and became a martyr himself.”
This equivocal phrasing implies equivalence between authentic apostolic martyrdom and the conciliar sect’s romanticized “witness” devoid of dogmatic content. The true Church teaches with St. Augustine: “Non poena sed causa martyrem facit” (Not the punishment but the cause makes the martyr) – meaning defense of immutable truth, not merely “proclaiming faith” as the article states. The heretical implication that Paul’s later conversion validates his complicity in murder reveals the moral relativism inherent in conciliar ecclesiology.
Architectural Memorialization as Substitute for Doctrine
The article’s focus on the basilica’s physicality (“grand Catholic church… since 1900”) exemplifies neo-Catholicism’s materialism, condemned by Pius XI in Quas Primas: “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty.” By emphasizing the building’s timeline over the martyr’s theological significance, the author engages in the archeological positivism denounced in the Holy Office’s 1907 decree Lamentabili (Proposition 64).
The glaring omission of the Eucharistic sacrifice offered at this site for centuries before the conciliar revolution exposes the neo-church’s abandonment of the Mass as propitiatory sacrifice. No mention is made of whether the Dominicans celebrate the Novus Ordo or true Mass there – a silence speaking volumes about their liturgical apostasy.
Ersatz Hagiography and Protestantized Sainthood
The article’s reference to “Eastern Catholics honor[ing] him one day later” constitutes false ecumenism condemned in Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (Proposition 17). The true Church maintains with the Council of Florence: “The Holy Roman Church… firmly believes, professes and preaches that all those outside the Catholic Church… cannot share in eternal life.”
Stephen’s vision of Christ standing (Acts 7:56) – a profound theological statement about the Son’s active intercession for martyrs – is reduced to biographical trivia. Compare this with St. Augustine’s exposition in City of God (Book XVIII): “Christ stood as helper to Stephen, but sits as ruler over all.” The conciliar sect’s inability to expound dogma reflects its loss of the depositum fidei.
Conclusion: Martyrdom Without the Cross
The entire article exemplifies the neo-church’s neutered hagiography – celebrating “heroic lives” while denying the supernatural economy that gives martyrdom meaning. As true Catholics venerate St. Stephen, we echo St. Fulgentius’ Christmas homily: “Yesterday Christ was born on earth that today Stephen might be born in heaven.” The conciliar sect’s historical curiosity about martyrdom sites stands condemned by the martyrs themselves, who died not for archaeological artifacts but for the lex credendi now abandoned in occupied Rome.
Source:
St. Stephen: Visiting the spot where the first martyr died (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 26.12.2025