The EWTN News article dated January 3, 2026, reports on Gabriel Castillo – a lay evangelist affiliated with post-conciliar structures – promoting his book The Power of the Rosary at the SEEK conference. Castillo claims the rosary is “the greatest prayer for overcoming vice,” particularly pornography addiction, while advocating visualization techniques and daily repetition. His testimony includes alleged demonic encounters during his struggle with impurity, resolved through Marian devotion. The piece exemplifies the neo-church’s reduction of spiritual warfare to therapeutic self-help strategies.
Naturalization of Supernatural Reality
Castillo’s approach dangerously conflates ex opere operato sacramental efficacy with private devotion. While the rosary has always been esteemed in Catholic tradition, his claim that it constitutes “the greatest prayer for overcoming vice” lacks theological foundation. The Council of Trent (Session XIV, Chapter 4) teaches that the principal remedy against sin resides in the Sacrament of Penance, through which “the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn 1:7). By omitting this essential truth, Castillo substitutes sacramental grace with mechanistic repetition of prayers – a hallmark of Jansenist and Quietist errors condemned in Unigenitus Dei Filius (1713) and Cum occasione (1653).
The cited 2018 pornography statistics serve not to highlight mankind’s fallen nature, but to promote a self-help program. Contrast this with Pius XI’s encyclical Casti Connubii (1930), which identifies lust as a consequence of original sin requiring sanctifying grace, not merely devotional effort: “For not the bowing of the knee, but the descent of the Holy Spirit constitutes prayer” (St. Augustine, De Symbolo ad Catechumenos I).
Subjectivist Visualization Techniques
Castillo’s instruction to “visualize the mystery as if you’re present” and imagine holding the Christ Child promotes the condemned error of imaginative prayer. St. John of the Cross warns in The Ascent of Mount Carmel (Book III, Chapter 32) that such practices risk diabolical deception: “The devil induces these imaginary visions to corrupt spiritual persons with error.” The true Catholic approach follows St. Teresa of Avila’s alumbrado doctrine – rejecting sensory imaginings in favor of intellectual contemplation (Interior Castle, Sixth Mansions).
The suggestion to superimpose Christ’s Passion onto local scenery (“visualize Jesus hanging on that tree“) echoes Protestant emotionalism rather than Catholic Christocentrism. As the Roman Catechism (1566) teaches, devotion must be grounded in objective reality: “We adore Christ as God-made-man in Bethlehem and crucified at Jerusalem, not as imagined in subjective mental constructs.”
Sacramental Omissions and Neo-Pelagianism
Nowhere does Castillo mention sacramental Confession as necessary for overcoming mortal sin. This silence constitutes pastoral malpractice, contradicting Canon 901 of the 1917 Code: “The faithful of either sex who have reached the age of discretion are bound to confess their grave sins at least once a year.” His advice to “be satisfied doing it poorly” dangerously implies that imperfect prayer suffices for spiritual growth, ignoring the Thomistic principle that actus humani require proper intentionality (ST I-II, Q.20, A.3).
The reduction of spiritual warfare to daily rosary quotas (“deny yourself twice a day“) smacks of semi-Pelagianism – condemned at the Council of Orange (529) – by suggesting human effort rather than divine grace effects conversion. Contrast this with St. Alphonsus Liguori’s The Glories of Mary, which always subordinates Marian devotion to Eucharistic and penitential spirituality: “Mary is the moon who reflects the Sun of Justice; her power derives wholly from union with Christ’s sacrifice.”
Demonic Narratives and Occult Preoccupations
Castillo’s sensationalist testimony about “demonic voices” and physical oppression during prayer lacks ecclesiastical discernment. The Rituale Romanum (Titulus XII) reserves judgment on diabolical phenomena to bishops and appointed exorcists, condemning lay speculation about demonic activity. His claim that merely saying “Mary” expelled evil forces contradicts exorcism protocols requiring priestly authority and sacramental instruments (holy water, blessed salt, etc.).
This fixation on personal mystical experiences reflects the neo-church’s abandonment of sensus Catholicus in favor of Pentecostal-style emotionalism. As Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange observes in The Three Ages of the Interior Life, “Extraordinary phenomena like visions or locutions generally indicate spiritual immaturity; the unitive way operates through infused contemplation, not sensory manifestations.”
Structural Apostasy of Conciliar Institutions
The article’s publication by EWTN – founded by a religious sister who promoted the invalid Novus Ordo service – and Castillo’s affiliation with post-conciliar “youth ministry” reveal institutionalized apostasy. His position as “director of youth ministry” in a diocesan structure recognizing the Vatican II antipopes implicates him in the conciliar sect’s errors. The “Children of Mary” podcast title ironically mocks the true Children of Mary sodality founded by St. Louis de Montfort – a bastion of counter-revolutionary Catholicism.
Castillo’s social media empire (“50 million views”) exemplifies Bergoglio’s call for a “digital mission” (Vatican News, June 2025), replacing sacramental evangelization with virtual entertainment. As Pius XI warned in Quas Primas (25), this secularizes religion: “When men recognize Christ’s royal dignity, societies will receive unheard-of blessings… but abandoning Christ’s law produces societal collapse.”
Conclusion: Weaponizing Devotion Against Doctrine
This neo-church promotion of the rosary constitutes not authentic Marian piety, but a modernist weaponization of devotion to undermine Catholic soteriology. By divorcing the rosary from its Tridentine liturgical context and sacramental economy, post-conciliar operatives reduce it to therapeutic technique – precisely the “vain repetition” condemned by Protestants which true Catholics have always rejected. As the 1917 Acta Apostolicae Sedis (Vol. IX, p. 498) decrees regarding private revelations: “No new public cult may be introduced without Holy See approval.” Castillo’s unapproved “method” of visualizing mysteries and his claims of private revelation remain suspect until judged by lawful pre-1958 ecclesiastical authority – which the conciliar sect cannot provide.
Source:
Catholic lay evangelist says the rosary is ‘the greatest prayer for overcoming vice’ (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 03.01.2026