VaticanNews portal reports on “Bp.” Jean-Marie Lovey of Sion, Switzerland, commemorating victims of a January 1 fire in Crans-Montana that killed over 40 people. The prelate celebrated what he termed a “Eucharistic celebration” with 400 attendees, joined by Protestant leaders, before participants laid flowers at the disaster site. Lovey emphasized “shared presence” as the Church’s primary response, describing this as “the very being of God” while omitting any mention of the Mass’s propitiatory value, the necessity of prayer for the dead, or the Four Last Things. His concluding message reduced Christian hope to vacuous sentiment: “families must believe in the possibility of light” without reference to Christ’s Sacrifice or the Church’s mediation.
Naturalistic Reduction of the Sacraments to Human Solidarity
The prelate’s description of the funeral rites as a “Eucharistic celebration” constitutes theological subterfuge, deliberately obscuring the Sacrificium Propitiatorium (propitiatory sacrifice) which constitutes the essence of the Mass (Council of Trent, Session XXII). By focusing exclusively on human gathering – “people need to gather, to come together again, to live together the emotion” – Lovey reduces the Most Holy Sacrifice to a communal therapy session. This contradicts Pius XII’s condemnation in Mediator Dei: “The worship rendered by the Church… is directed… to the propitiation of God” (para. 17). The blasphemous implication that God’s “very being” is mere human presence obliterates the transcendentem excellentiam (transcendent excellence) of the Divine Nature (First Vatican Council, Dei Filius, ch.1).
Erasure of Supernatural Realities
Nowhere does Lovey mention:
- The necessity of being in statu gratiae (state of grace) at death
- The imperative to pray for the souls in Purgatory
- The eternal consequences of dying in mortal sin
- The Church’s duty to implore God’s mercy through the Immaculate Heart
This calculated silence constitutes pastoral malpractice. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (can. 468 §2) obliges bishops to “promote the salvation of souls through prayer, preaching, and all works of charity.” By contrast, Lovey’s focus on “shared presence” and “laying flowers” reduces Catholicism to pagan grief ritual. His invitation to “sign a book of remembrance” mocks the Church’s teaching that “it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins” (2 Maccabees 12:46).
Ecumenical Apostasy and Masonic Solidarity
The joint prayer service with “the president of the Swiss Synod and Synodal Council of the Valais Church” constitutes formal participation in heresy, condemned by Pius XI in Mortalium Animos: “The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ” (para. 10). Lovey’s claim that Protestant presence reflects “a beautiful image of the Church” denies the unicam Ecclesiam (one Church) of the Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus dogma (Council of Florence, Cantate Domino). His praise for secular “solidarity” and “professionalism” echoes Freemasonry’s natural virtues, condemned in Pius IX’s Quanta Cura: “The plan… to establish everywhere… that absurd and erroneous maxim which proclaims liberty of conscience” (para. 3).
Modernist Eschatology: From Redemption to Self-Help
Lovey’s perversion of the Epiphany – “upon the land of darkness… a light shines” – divorces hope from Christ’s Redemption, reducing it to empty psychology. Contrast this with Pius IX’s definition: “The Son of God… through the great mystery of the Incarnation… came down from heaven for the salvation of mankind” (Ineffabilis Deus). The bishop’s therapeutic “light is possible” heresy denies Original Sin’s consequences, condemned in the Council of Trent’s Decree on Justification (Session VI, ch.1). Nowhere does he mention:
- Satisfactory suffering through the Communion of Saints
- The necessity of the Sacraments for salvation
- Christ’s Kingship over nations (Pius XI, Quas Primas)
The tragedy’s victims – predominantly young revelers at a nightclub – received no warning about the novissimi (last things) or call to repentance. Lovey’s refusal to proclaim judgment (“each of us shall give account of himself to God” – Romans 14:12) constitutes criminal negligence of his episcopal duty. This modernist betrayal confirms St. Pius X’s warning: “The Modernist as reformer… embraces all the errors… to reconcile faith with science” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 38). The conciliar sect continues its war against Catholic eschatology, replacing supernatural hope with worldly comfort.
Source:
Swiss Bishop: The Church is close to the families of the Crans-Montana victims (vaticannews.va)
Date: 03.01.2026