Vatican News portal (January 17, 2026) reports on Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, presiding over ceremonies at the Marian Shrine of Berdychiv. The article emphasizes humanitarian aspects of Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure while promoting a “Year of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” proclaimed by Latin-rite bishops. The nuncio speaks of Ukrainians being “wounded but God is with us,” describes psychological trauma among civilians, and claims celebrations were conducted “in union with Pope Leo XIV and the entire Church.” This narrative exemplifies the conciliar sect’s saccharine naturalism masking doctrinal apostasy.
Illegitimate Authority Usurps Sacred Devotions
The article celebrates the 35th anniversary of Latin-rite hierarchy renewal in Ukraine, initiated on January 16, 1991. Yet this “renewal” occurred under John Paul II – a manifest heretic who promulgated the blasphemous Assisi interreligious meetings (1986) and kissed the Quran (1999). Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code explicitly states: “Every office becomes vacant by the mere fact […] if the cleric publicly defects from the Catholic faith”. By recognizing antipopes since John XXIII, these bishops lack jurisdiction. Their proclamation of a “Year of the Sacred Heart” constitutes sacrilege, as St. Pius X warned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis: Modernists reduce devotions to “symbolic narratives” detached from dogmatic truth.
“We prayed that God’s goodness would overcome sin and war and grant us peace.”
This vague formulation omits the necessary conditions for peace established in Pius XI’s Quas Primas: “The peace of Christ can only be found in the Kingdom of Christ” through societal submission to His sovereignty. Nowhere does the nuncio mention Russia’s consecration to the Immaculate Heart – the sole Heaven-prescribed remedy for war (Sister Lucia, True Fatima Apparitions being rejected). The article reduces prayer to therapeutic emotionalism rather than propitiatory sacrifice.
Naturalism Replaces Supernatural Faith
Archbishop Kulbokas focuses on material suffering while suppressing doctrinal causes of divine chastisement. He compares current hardships to the Holodomor yet ignores how Soviet terror directly resulted from Ukraine’s 1917-1921 persecution of Catholics and collaboration with Orthodox schismatics. Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors condemns as heresy the notion that “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Error 80). By emphasizing psychological trauma over spiritual danger:
“Today, the entire Ukrainian population is battered and severely traumatized.”
The nuncio adopts therapeutic language alien to Catholic soteriology. True pastors would echo St. Paul: “Whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth” (Hebrews 12:6). The Lamentabili Sane condemns precisely this Modernist tendency to replace “the necessity of grace for salvation” with “humanitarian sympathy” (Proposition 58).
Ecumenical Subversion of Marian Piety
The Berdychiv shrine’s history reveals why this “Marian” event reeks of apostasy. After the 1991 “renewal,” the site became an ecumenical center promoting “unity” with Orthodox schismatics. True Marian devotion requires rejecting all false religions, as Our Lady of Fatima commanded: “Do not follow the false religions!” The article’s reference to celebrating “in union with Pope Leo XIV” confirms adherence to the antipope installed by Bergoglio’s invalid conclave. St. Robert Bellarmine’s De Romano Pontifice declares manifest heretics automatically lose office – making all post-1958 “popes” usurpers.
War as Consequence of Collective Apostasy
Nowhere does the article identify Ukraine’s true spiritual malady: widespread adherence to the Eastern Orthodox schism and growing acceptance of conciliar heresies. Pius XI’s Mortalium Animos mandates that Catholics must “totally abstain from the pestilent indifferism” of ecumenism. Yet the nuncio describes Latin-rite Catholics collaborating with Orthodox communities in humanitarian work – a violation of Canon 1258 forbidding “communicatio in sacris” with heretics. Until Ukraine’s hierarchy demands conversion to extra Ecclesiam nulla salus and consecrates Russia to the Immaculate Heart, their prayers for peace mock God’s justice.
The Vatican News piece exemplifies how the conciliar sect replaces lex orandi with psychosocial manipulation. True Catholics must reject these sacrilegious ceremonies and pray for Ukraine’s return to the integral faith before Heaven’s justice demands greater chastisements.
Source:
Nuncio to Ukraine: 'We are wounded but God is with us' (vaticannews.va)
Date: 17.01.2026