The EWTN News portal (February 8, 2026) promotes the alleged sanctity of Pedro Ballester, a 21-year-old Opus Dei numerary who died of cancer in 2018. Vatican representatives are reportedly investigating his life for potential canonization, with claims that he offered his sufferings for “antipope Bergoglio” and the conciliar sect. Ballester is compared to Carlo Acutis—another post-conciliar fabrication canonized in 2025—and described as having a “gift of friendship” while allegedly evangelizing hospital staff. The article frames suffering through therapeutic naturalism rather than dogmatic clarity, exemplifying the neo-church’s substitution of psychological resilience for supernatural virtue.
Naturalistic Reduction of Sanctity to Emotional Resilience
The article reduces Ballester’s spiritual profile to psychologized bromides, praising how he “made really good friends” with nurses and displayed a “very natural” inspiration. This echoes Lamentabili Sane‘s condemnation of modernist reductions of religion to “man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God” (Proposition 20). True Catholic sanctity requires heroic virtue measured against immutable doctrinal standards—not emotional relatability. By celebrating Ballester’s mere sociability as exemplary, the conciliar sect perpetuates Pius X’s warning that Modernism “makes itself the object of faith…out of the need for the divine” (Encyclical Pascendi, 7).
“He realized that he didn’t have much long to live. So he asked people: ‘Are you going to Mass? Are you OK with God? Are you being good to people?’”
This purported evangelism conspicuously avoids doctrinal substance. Ballester allegedly inquires about attendance at invalid Novus Ordo rituals while remaining silent on the necessity of the True Mass, the Four Last Things, or the Church’s social reign—omissions revealing the neo-church’s abandonment of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. Contrast this with St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort’s uncompromising calls to combat heresy, or St. Dominic’s doctrinal defenses against Albigensian errors. Authentic saints disturb complacency; counterfeit ones mirror the world’s expectations.
Opus Dei and the Modernist Subversion of Sacrifice
Ballester’s Opus Dei affiliation warrants scrutiny. Founded in 1928, the organization secured personal prelature status from antipope Paul VI in 1982—a canonical novelty contradicting the Church’s immutable constitution. St. Pius X condemned such innovations, warning that Modernists “twist [canon law] into an instrument for the destruction of hierarchy” (Encyclical Pascendi, 42). Opus Dei’s promotion of “sanctifying daily work” often degenerates into secularization, as seen in Ballester’s prioritization of mundane friendships over doctrinal formation.
His reported statement to Bergoglio—“I offer all the sufferings for you and for the Church”—raises grave concerns. To direct spiritual sufferings toward an antipope presiding over the conciliar abomination constitutes theological incoherence. True victims unite with Christ the King for the Church’s triumph, not for an occupier dismantling Her. St. Paul specifies that sufferings must be offered “for His Body, which is the Church” (Colossians 1:24)—the Mystical Bride, not the counterfeit sect promoting ecumenism and religious liberty.
Manufactured Hagiography as Conciliar Propaganda
The canonization push follows a disturbing pattern: Acutis (techno-obsessed teen), Frassati (mountaineer), and now Ballester (friendly cancer patient). The neo-church fabricates saints embodying worldly ideals—youthful energy, hobbies, emotional resilience—while erasing markers of true holiness: doctrinal militancy, Eucharistic reverence, and combat against modern errors. Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas establishes Christ’s kingship as the sole standard for sanctity, yet Ballester’s portrayal lacks any reference to upholding Syllabus-condemned truths against religious liberty or anti-clericalism.
“God is saying that, now in the 21st century, ‘I’m going to give you a whole load of people that are going to be models for the young.’”
Jack Valero’s claim blasphemously attributes divine approval to neo-church fabrications. True saints arise from the Church’s immutable Tradition—not Bergoglian “paradigm shifts.” Where are Ballester’s documented battles against heresy? Where is his fidelity to the Traditional Latin Mass? The absence of these essentials exposes this cause as propaganda masking apostasy.
Omissions Confirming Apostasy
Crucially absent are Ballester’s positions on Vatican II’s heresies, the Traditional Mass, or Freemasonry’s infiltration—silences damning under Pius IX’s Syllabus condemnation of indifferentism (Proposition 15-17). The article’s glowingly naturalistic narrative—devoid of references to penance, Hell, or Mary’s Immaculate Heart—mirrors the conciliar sect’s cult of man. Authentic saints like St. Thérèse emphasized suffering’s value for converting sinners, not vague “happiness” à la Valero’s claim that Ballester teaches “to be close to God is to be happy.”
Ballester’s alleged canonization would extend the neo-church’s pattern of canonizing useful idols while persecuting true Catholics adhering to Tradition. Until his promoters demonstrate his unflinching opposition to conciliar errors—something impossible under current Vatican occupiers—this cause remains another fraudulent tool for consolidating apostasy.
Source:
University student from England being considered for canonization (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 08.02.2026