The Pillar portal reports on Pope Leo’s first Lenten message, Vatican governance shifts, beatification announcements, a bishop’s video on evangelization, and the Vatican’s diplomatic ties with Azerbaijan. The article presents these developments as ordinary events within a functioning Catholic Church, portraying Pope Leo as a legitimate pontiff guiding the faithful through Lent with pastoral solicitude. The underlying thesis, however, is that the article uncritically propagates the theological and structural errors of the post-conciliar sect, reducing Catholic life to naturalistic humanism, validating modernist beatifications, endorsing lay governance, and prioritizing diplomatic compromise over the Church’s supernatural mission—all while omitting the non-negotiable doctrines of the Social Reign of Christ the King, the exclusive authority of the hierarchical priesthood, and the absolute necessity of the Church for salvation.
The Lenten Message: A Gospel Without the Cross or the Church
The article centers on Pope Leo’s Lenten exhortation, which urges two practices: listening to the Word of God to hear “the cry of those who are anguished and suffering,” and fasting from food and from “harsh words.” While these practices have a place in Catholic asceticism, the presentation is a masterclass in the modernist reduction of religion to horizontal, human-centered activism. The pope’s message, as quoted, says: “Our God is one who seeks to involve us… listening to the word in the liturgy teaches us to listen to the truth of reality. In the midst of the many voices… Sacred Scripture helps us to recognize and respond to the cry of those who are anguished and suffering.” This framing makes Sacred Scripture a tool for sociological analysis and social justice advocacy, not a supernatural revelation from God to be believed and obeyed. It echoes the errors condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu: “The dogmas which the Church proposes as revealed are not truths of divine origin but are a certain interpretation of religious facts, which the human mind has worked out with great effort” (Proposition 22). The Lenten call lacks any mention of sin as an offense against God, the necessity of contrition and sacramental confession, the propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass, or the duty to convert nations to Catholic unity. It is a naturalistic religion of listening and empathy, utterly devoid of the supernatural end of man—the vision of God. Pius XI, in Quas Primas, defined Christ’s kingdom as spiritual, entering through faith and baptism, and requiring renunciation of earthly riches and carrying the cross. The article’s Lenten message is its antithesis: a focus on earthly suffering without reference to redemption from sin, a “fasting” that is merely behavioral modification, and a “listening” that prioritizes human anguish over God’s law. This is the “synthesis of all errors” of Modernism (Pius X, Pascendi Dominici gregis), where religion becomes a human experience rather than a divine institution demanding submission.
Beatifications: Canonizing the Spirit of the Age
The article lists several “venerables” and “blesseds” slated for 2026, including Fulton Sheen. The acceptance of these beatifications assumes the legitimacy of the post-conciliar canonization process, which has been weaponized to promote ecumenism, liberal theology, and the “cult of man.” The process itself is suspect: it relies on “heroic virtue” defined in naturalistic terms and often ignores doctrinal integrity. Fulton Sheen, for instance, was a prominent ecumenist who promoted interfaith dialogue, directly contradicting Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors, which condemned the idea that “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion” (Proposition 18). Sheen’s beatification, like that of John Paul II (a notorious heretic who prayed with pagans and kissed the Koran), signifies the neo-church’s approval of religious indifferentism. The article treats these events as routine, never questioning whether a “church” that beatifies such figures can be the true Church of Christ. This silence is damning. The true Church, as defined by the Council of Trent and Pius IX, is “the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church,” outside of which there is no salvation. To beatify those who promoted errors condemned by the Magisterium is to declare those errors compatible with sanctity—a direct negation of Catholic doctrine. The article’s matter-of-fact reporting on these events demonstrates its full assimilation into the conciliar sect’s apostasy.
Lay Governance: The Democratization of the Church
The article notes that Pope Leo confirmed lay members in the Dicastery for Bishops and appointed a religious sister, Simona Brambilla. This is presented as a normal administrative update. Yet the governance of the Church by laypersons—especially women, who cannot receive Holy Orders—is a radical rupture with Catholic tradition and law. The Syllabus of Errors explicitly condemns: “The ecclesiastical power ought not to exercise its authority without the permission and assent of the civil government” (Proposition 20), but here the inverse is true: the spiritual authority of bishops is being exercised with the “assent” and participation of laypeople, who have no sacramental authority. The Church’s governance is hierarchical and sacramental, derived from Christ through the apostles. As Pius IX taught, the Church “has not the power of using force, nor has she any temporal power, direct or indirect” (Proposition 24), but her spiritual power is absolute and non-negotiable. To place laypeople in a body that advises on episcopal appointments is to reduce the episcopacy to a managerial role subject to popular acclaim—a direct import of democratic principles condemned by the Syllabus (Propositions 39, 77). Cardinal Ouellet’s essay, mentioned in the article, attempts to theologize this shift, but it is merely a refurbished version of the Modernist error that “the Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadfastly adheres to its views” (Lamentabili, Proposition 63). The article’s neutral tone on this development is itself an endorsement of the revolution. The true Catholic doctrine, held before 1958, is that the Church’s authority is spiritual, hierarchical, and independent of any human suffrage. The involvement of laypeople in governance is not “participation” in the sense of actuos participation of the laity in the apostolate, but an usurpation of the power that belongs solely to the ordained.
Diplomacy Over Doctrine: The Vatican and Azerbaijan
The article discusses the Vatican’s financial ties with Azerbaijan, noting that the Azerbaijani government funds Vatican restorations. This is framed as a pragmatic diplomatic reality, with the suggestion that such funding may inhibit the Holy See from advocating for persecuted Armenians. The analysis misses the deeper apostasy: the Vatican’s prioritization of geopolitical influence and material security over the Church’s duty to confess Christ the King before all nations. Pius XI, in Quas Primas, declared that rulers must publicly honor Christ and obey Him, for “the final judgment, in which Christ… will very severely avenge these insults.” The Vatican’s acceptance of money from a Muslim regime that persecutes Christians is a scandalous betrayal of the Social Kingship of Christ. It embodies the error condemned by Pius IX: “The civil government, even when in the hands of an infidel sovereign, has a right to an indirect negative power over religious affairs” (Proposition 41). Here, the Vatican is not resisting but collaborating, allowing financial dependence to mute its prophetic voice. The article treats this as a clever political dilemma, not as a fundamental compromise of the Church’s mission. The true Church, as the “sacred depository of the truth” (Pius IX, Syllabus), cannot be in business with those who oppress the faithful. The article’s failure to condemn this, and its focus on “caviar diplomacy” as a mere funding issue, reveals its complete acceptance of the neo-church’s worldly posture.
The Tone of Apostasy: Language and Omission
The article’s language is consistently naturalistic and therapeutic. Phrases like “listening to the truth of reality,” “coherence between faith and life,” “pastoral vision,” and “evangelization” are deployed without reference to grace, the sacraments, or the necessity of Catholic unity. The supernatural is absent. There is no mention of the Mass as a propitiatory sacrifice, the Real Presence, the authority of the Church to teach infallibly, or the duty of states to recognize the Catholic religion as the sole true religion (condemned as an error by Pius IX, Proposition 77). The article’s silence on these doctrines is not neutral; it is a tacit acceptance of the post-conciliar revolution that has emptied Catholicism of its supernatural content. The focus on “meekness,” “kindness,” and “hope” in public discourse reduces the faith to a set of ethical platitudes, precisely the “dogmaless Christianity” Pius X warned against (Lamentabili, Proposition 65). The article’s treatment of the altar server controversy as a “silly” debate further trivializes the sacred. The traditional discipline reserving altar service to boys was a recognition of the male priesthood and a safeguard against the feminization and democratization of the sacred. The article’s dismissal of this as “terminally online Americans” shows its contempt for the supernatural significance of liturgical roles.
Symptomatic of the Conciliar Sect
Every element of the article reflects the systemic errors of the conciliar sect:
- Hermeneutics of Continuity: The article assumes continuity between the pre-1958 Church and the current “papacy,” ignoring the radical rupture. The acceptance of “Pope Leo” as a valid pontiff contradicts the sedevacantist position, based on Bellarmine and Canon 188.4, that a manifest heretic loses office ipso facto. The current occupant of the Vatican, like his predecessors since John XXIII, has promulgated heresies (e.g., religious liberty, collegiality, ecumenism), thus automatically forfeiting the papacy.
- Evolution of Dogma: The beatifications and the new Lenten emphasis show a “development” that actually corrupts doctrine. The Church’s teaching on salvation, the sacraments, and the social order has been inverted.
- False Ecumenism: The Vatican’s ties with Azerbaijan, while not directly ecumenical, reflect the same spirit of compromise with non-Catholic powers that defines modernism. The Church should be a sign of contradiction, not a diplomatic player seeking legitimacy from regimes hostile to Christ.
- Democratization: Lay governance in the Dicastery for Bishops is the logical outcome of the conciliar idolatry of the “sensus fidelium” divorced from the hierarchical Magisterium.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation
The article is a pristine example of the neo-church’s apostasy. It presents a Catholicism stripped of its supernatural purpose, reduced to humanistic ethics, administrative tinkering, and diplomatic maneuvering. It assumes the legitimacy of antipopes and modernist “saints,” endorses lay governance, and prioritizes material concerns over the confession of Christ’s Kingship. This is not the Catholic Church founded by Christ; it is the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15). The true Catholic response is not to engage with this article’s premises but to reject them entirely, to cling to the immutable faith of the pre-1958 Church, and to recognize that the structures occupying the Vatican are a sect that has severed itself from the Body of Christ. As St. Pius X warned, the “synthesis of all heresies” is Modernism, and this article is its vernacular expression.
Source:
Fat Tuesday, ‘participation,’ and spot becomes chip (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 17.02.2026