The Vatican News portal reports on the 18th European Futsal Championship for Priests, held in Lublin, Poland, where the Polish team won gold. The article quotes Fr. Marek Łosiak, captain, stating the event aims to show priests are “people of passion and talent, and above all, men with God in their hearts.” Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, sent a message citing Pope Francis’s Jubilee of Sport speech: “It is no coincidence that sport has played a significant role in the lives of many saints… as a means of evangelization.” The tournament involved 18 teams and is framed as fostering “fraternity among the clergy through sport.”
This spectacle is not a harmless gathering but a profound manifestation of the post-conciliar Church’s apostasy, reducing the sacred priesthood to a naturalistic, Pelagian display of human talent and fraternity, while utterly omitting the supernatural essence of the priestly vocation. It is a symptom of the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place.
The Desacralization of the Priesthood: From Altar to Arena
The article presents the priest primarily as an athlete—a “man of passion and talent”—with the secondary, vague attribute of having “God in his hearts.” This inverts the Catholic truth defined by the Council of Trent: the priesthood is configured to Christ the High Priest, whose primary duty is the sacrifice of the Most Holy Sacrifice and the administration of the sacraments, through which grace flows. The priesthood is not a platform for natural talents or human fraternity; it is a participation in the *sacerdotium* of Christ, ordered exclusively to the worship of God and the sanctification of souls. By elevating sport to a means of “evangelization” and “witness,” the event promotes the modernist error condemned by St. Pius X in *Lamentabili sane exitu*: the reduction of the supernatural to the natural, where “human actions” and “personal discipline” replace the doctrine of grace and the sacraments. The silence on the Mass, confession, preaching, or the combat against sin is deafening and damning. It is the gravest accusation: a complete omission of the supernatural order, the *finis operantis* of the priesthood.
“Fraternity” Over Doctrine: The Heresy of Naturalistic Unity
The stated goal of “strengthening fraternity among the clergy through sport” is a naturalistic, anti-supernatural concept. True Catholic fraternity (*fraternitas*) is rooted in the communion of the same faith, the same sacraments, and the same sacrifice (Eph. 4:4-6). It is a supernatural bond in Christ. The “fraternity” promoted here is a mere human sentiment, a worldly camaraderie that transcends “national borders” but has no foundation in Catholic doctrine. This directly contradicts the Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX, which condemns the idea that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55) not by advocating theocracy, but by affirming that all human associations, including sporting events, must be ordered to the ultimate end of the glory of God and the salvation of souls. A “fraternity” that ignores doctrinal unity and the public reign of Christ the King is a tool of the ecumenical and masonic project of creating a neutral, humanistic space where all “priests” (including those in invalid orders) can mingle, thereby relativizing the exclusive truth of the Catholic hierarchy. Cardinal de Mendonça’s message, citing Pope Francis, places this event within the framework of the “Jubilee of Sport,” a conciliar invention that treats sport as a “means of evangelization.” This is a repackaging of the modernist error that the Church can use natural, worldly means (like sport) to achieve supernatural ends, ignoring that *gratia non tollit naturam, sed perficit*—grace does not destroy nature but perfects it. Sport, left to its own natural ends, cannot evangelize; it can only produce natural excitement and human bonds. To claim otherwise is to adopt the “moderate rationalism” condemned in the Syllabus (Errors 8-14), which seeks to subject theology to natural sciences and human methods.
The Usurpers’ “Church” and the Vacancy of the See
The article refers to “Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça” and the “Vatican” as if they possess legitimate authority. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, this is a fatal deception. The line of antipopes began with Angelo Roncalli (“John XXIII”), who promulgated the heretical Vatican II. As St. Robert Bellarmine taught, a manifest heretic *ipso facto* loses the papal office. The post-conciliar “popes,” including the current usurper “Pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost), have consistently promulgated teachings that are heretical (e.g., religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality). Therefore, the See of Peter is vacant (*sedes vacat*). The “Cardinal” and the “Dicastery” are functionaries of a paramasonic structure occupying the Vatican, not the Catholic Church. Their endorsement of this event does not sanctify it; it confirms its alignment with the “Church of the New Advent,” which systematically dismantles Catholic dogma and practice. The participation of “priests” from various European nations, many undoubtedly ordained in the new rites or in communion with the usurpers, means this is a gathering of individuals who, while potentially validly ordained (depending on the matter and form used), are in schism and apostasy by adhering to the conciliar errors. Their “fraternity” is a schismatic fraternity, a false unity that rejects the exclusive rights of the true Church.
The Rejection of Christ’s Kingship and the Syllabus Condemnations
Pius XI, in his encyclical *Quas Primas*, established the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that removes Christ from public life. He wrote: “When God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The futsal championship is a perfect illustration of this secularized mentality. It is a purely human, recreational event with a veneer of Catholic language (“evangelization,” “witness”). It does not publicly honor Christ as King; it honors human athletic prowess and clerical celebrity. It embodies the errors condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus:
– **Error 40:** “The teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society.” This event implies the opposite: that the Church’s interests are served by worldly activities like sport, thus making the Church “friendly” to society’s naturalistic goals.
– **Error 77:** “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State.” The international, border-transcending nature of this event, with no doctrinal boundaries, promotes a relativistic, one-world “priestly” community that mirrors the indifferentism of Error 16: “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation.”
– **Error 57:** “Moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction.” By framing the event as a “witness” and “evangelization” through sport, it suggests moral formation can occur through natural human activity without explicit reference to divine law, the sacraments, or the Church’s teaching authority.
The Omission of the Supernatural: A Modernist Tactic
The article’s complete silence on the sacraments, the doctrine of grace, the necessity of the Church for salvation, and the combat against modernism is not accidental. It is the hallmark of the modernist synthesis condemned by Pius X. *Lamentabili sane exitu* condemns propositions that reduce Christianity to a “religious movement” (Prop. 59) and that dogmas are merely “interpretations of religious facts” (Prop. 22). This futsal event presents the priesthood as a “movement” of athletic and social engagement, not as a sacramental office grounded in immutable dogma. The “witness” is a natural, human witness of talent and camaraderie, not the supernatural witness of a man who offers the Holy Sacrifice, absolves sins, and preaches the faith *extra Ecclesiam nulla salus*. The omission is the message: the post-conciliar Church has nothing supernatural to offer, only naturalistic programs and human warmth. This is the “synthesis of all errors” in practice.
Conclusion: An Abomination of Desolation
The European Futsal Championship for Priests is a perfect microcosm of the apostate conciliar sect. It replaces the sacred with the profane, the supernatural with the natural, the doctrine of Christ the King with the doctrine of human potential, and the unity of the true faith with the unity of worldly fraternity. It is an act of worship to the “cult of man” so fiercely condemned by Pius IX. The priests participating, unless they are sedevacantists in grave error for attending, are complicit in the desecration of their own vocation. They bear witness not to Christ, but to the spirit of the age, which has infiltrated and taken possession of the structures occupying Rome. The only legitimate response of a Catholic is to reject this spectacle with utter contempt, to pray for the conversion of these prelates and priests, and to await the restoration of the true Church and the public reign of Christ the King, as foretold by Pius XI and demanded by the Syllabus of Errors. Until then, such events are the bread and circuses of the apostate “church,” designed to distract the faithful from the spiritual ruin wrought by modernism.
Source:
Poland, Croatia, Portugal top teams at European Futsal Championship for Priests (vaticannews.va)
Date: 13.02.2026