Vatican’s “Pray with Pope” Initiative Masks Doctrinal Apostasy
The VaticanNews portal (7 January 2026) reports on the “Pray with the Pope” initiative, a collaboration between the Dicastery for Communication and the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. Antipope Leo XIV inaugurates this project with a January 2026 video message urging “prayer with the Word of God” as a “source of hope.” The initiative claims to foster “communion” through monthly prayer intentions addressing global issues like “peace and disarmament.” Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery, describes it as a “protected space” challenging modernity’s pace, while Fr. Cristóbal Fones frames it as an “open invitation” from a “synodal perspective.”
Reduction of the Church’s Mission to Naturalistic Humanism
The initiative’s emphasis on prayer as a tool for global unity ignores the sine qua non of true spiritual communion: submission to Christ the King through the One True Church. Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925) declares: “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast [of Christ the King] that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ” (§32). Here, Ruffini speaks of “mending nets” through prayer while omitting the Church’s divine mandate to convert nations and reject false religions. The Syllabus of Errors (1864) condemns such indifferentism: “Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ” (Error 17) is denounced as heresy.
“Prayer has the power to restore unity where it has been fractured”
This statement by Ruffini epitomizes the neo-church’s abandonment of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. True unity flows not from subjective prayer but from membership in the Mystical Body of Christ. St. Cyprian’s De Unitate Ecclesiae (4th century) states: “He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother.” The initiative’s silence on the necessity of sacraments (especially Penance and the Eucharist) for grace exposes its reduction of Catholicism to a vague spiritualism.
Synodal Deception and the Erosion of Doctrine
Fr. Fones’ reference to a “synodal perspective” confirms the initiative’s alignment with Vatican II’s condemned collegiality. The Lamentabili Sane decree (1907) anathematizes the notion that “Christian doctrine was initially Jewish, but through gradual development, it became first Pauline, then Johannine, and finally Greek and universal” (Error 60). By treating prayer intentions as evolving “global concerns,” the neo-church perpetuates Modernism’s evolutionary dogma. Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) identifies this as the “synthesis of all heresies,” wherein faith is subordinated to human experience.
Omission of Christ’s Kingship: A Calculated Silence
Nowhere does the initiative acknowledge the Social Reign of Christ the King—the only foundation for lasting peace. Quas Primas warns: “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, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony” (§19). The article’s focus on “division, war, and violence” while ignoring humanity’s rebellion against Divine Law constitutes pastoral malpractice. True Catholic prayer seeks not worldly unity but the conversion of sinners to the One True Faith.
The False Ecumenism of “Spiritual Longing”
Ruffini’s claim that secular societies possess a “deep spiritual longing” echoes Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate. This contradicts the Council of Florence’s decree Cantate Domino (1442): “[The Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church… cannot become participants in eternal life.” By inviting non-Catholics to “join the Pope’s prayer intentions,” the initiative promotes the heretical belief that prayer transcends doctrinal truth. St. Robert Bellarmine clarifies in De Controversiis: “Prayer without the true Faith is but a cry in the darkness.”
Conclusion: A Network of Apostasy
The “Pray with the Pope” initiative epitomizes the conciliar sect’s betrayal of its mission. It replaces the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary with subjective spiritualism, elevates synodal novelty over apostolic tradition, and obscures Christ’s kingship beneath a façade of humanitarian concern. As Pius IX’s Syllabus condemns: “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Error 80). True Catholics must reject this pseudo-prayer network and cling to the Lex Orandi of the eternal Roman Rite, which alone guards the Lex Credendi.
Source:
“Pray with the Pope”: a real network of communion in a divided world (vaticannews.va)
Date: 07.01.2026