Earthly Hope Amidst Tyranny: A Vacuum of Catholic Truth
EWTN News reports on reactions to Nicolás Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces, quoting former Nicaraguan ambassador Arturo McFields, researcher Martha Patricia Molina, and exiled auxiliary “bishop” Silvio Báez. McFields claims Maduro’s arrest brings “winds of hope” to Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, calling dictatorships transient. Molina demands changes to international law to permit military interventions against “criminal dictatorships,” while Báez contrasts tyrannical power with the adoration of Christ. These statements, though superficially aligned with justice, omit the regnum Christi (kingship of Christ) as the sole foundation for societal order.
Naturalism Masquerading as Liberation
The article reduces hope to a political calculus, with McFields declaring: “Democracy is not easy, but hope has strongly resurged among Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and Cubans.” This secularized hope ignores Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas, which insists peace flows only from “restoring the reign of our Lord” in society. By framing liberation as mere regime change, the narrative bows to naturalism—the error condemned in the Syllabus of Errors (1864) for elevating human agency above divine law (Proposition 39).
Appeals to Illegitimate Authority
Antipope Leo XIV’s call to “respect Venezuelan sovereignty” after Maduro’s capture exemplifies the conciliar sect’s betrayal. True popes, such as Pius IX, condemned religious indifferentism (Syllabus, Proposition 77), yet this false “pontiff” prioritizes earthly geopolitics over the duty of nations to submit to Christ. Similarly, Báez’s homily—though rightly noting that “tyrants pass away”—originates from a hierarchy complicit in Nicaragua’s persecution of Catholics. His title as “auxiliary bishop” holds no validity, as the post-conciliar episcopacy lacks apostolic succession.
Omission of Christ’s Social Kingship
Nowhere does the article acknowledge Christ’s right to rule nations, reducing justice to a mechanistic process. Molina’s demand to rewrite international law for military interventions sidesteps the Church’s teaching on just war, which requires legitimate authority (Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II Q.40)—a criterion void when invoked by modernist states. The Lamentabili Sane (1907) condemned such naturalism, noting that Modernists reduce faith to “a sum of probabilities” (Proposition 25). True liberation requires nations to “publicly venerate and obey the reigning Christ” (Quas Primas), not idolize democracy.
Flawed Foundations of Justice
Báez’s warning against kneeling to “any idol or power of this world” rings hollow while ignoring the true King. The article’s focus on U.S. intervention tacitly endorses a globalist disorder that rejects Quas Primas’ decree: “Rulers of states must not refuse public veneration to Christ.” To celebrate Maduro’s capture without demanding Venezuela’s conversion to the Catholic Faith perpetuates the very relativism that birthed these tyrannies—a failure Pius IX anathematized as “equating the Christian religion with false ones” (Syllabus, Proposition 21).
Source:
After Maduro’s capture, there’s hope for Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, leader says (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 08.01.2026