The “Catholic Out Loud” Charade: Human Dignity Without Christ the King
The Pillar portal reports on the Dorothea Project, a group of Catholic women promoting education on “Catholic social teaching” and prayer-based action, primarily concerning immigration. Founded by Katie Holler in response to Trump administration policies, the group rejects political labels (“we’re here because we’re Catholic, not conservative or liberal”), focuses on “human dignity” and “human rights,” and plans to submit a voter guide to the USCCB. Its patrons are Servants of God Dorothy Day and Thea Bowman, and it operates under the authority of local “parishes” and “bishops” of the post-conciliar sect. The project’s theology centers on seeing “all people are made in the image and likeness of God” as a foundational truth, from which flows a duty to protest detention conditions and advocate for immigrants, while avoiding explicit alignment with political parties.
1. Factual Deconstruction: Modernist Foundations and False Patrons
The Dorothea Project’s entire framework is built on the sand of post-Vatican II “Catholic social teaching,” which is a radical departure from the integral Catholic doctrine on the Social Kingship of Christ. Its sources are not the pre-1958 Magisterium but the documents of the conciliar sect, particularly the USCCB’s “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship”—a document riddled with Modernist errors condemned by Lamentabili and the Syllabus of Errors.
The mission of the Dorothea Project… is “bringing Catholic social teaching education to our communities, so that Catholics would be better equipped to take action in defense of human dignity and human rights.”
The phrase “human dignity and human rights” is not Catholic terminology in the pre-1958 sense. It is the language of the French Revolution and Masonic constitutions, explicitly condemned by Pope Pius IX. The Syllabus of Errors (#15) condemns the idea that “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true,” which is the foundation of modern “human rights” based on natural liberty, not on submission to the law of God. The Syllabus (#39) also condemns the notion that “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits”—the very principle that makes “human rights” autonomous from God’s law.
The project’s patrons, Dorothy Day and Thea Bowman, are products of the conciliar revolution. Day was a radical socialist who promoted liturgical experimentation and dissent; her “canonization” process occurs within the false hierarchy. Bowman was a prominent advocate for the “Black Catholic” movement, which embraces racialism and liturgical jazz—both abhorrent to Catholic tradition. Their “servant of God” status is a conciliar fabrication, as the true Church has not recognized any saints after 1958, the year of the death of Pope Pius XII, the last legitimate pontiff.
2. Linguistic and Rhetorical Analysis: The Language of Naturalism and Emotion
The ARTICLE is saturated with naturalistic, psychological, and emotional language that replaces supernatural Catholic motivation. Phrases like “broken heart,” “balm to my soul,” “tug on my heart,” and “feeling a pull on your heart” are the vocabulary of sentimentality, not of Catholic theology. This is a direct fruit of Modernism, which Lamentabili (#25) condemns: “Faith, as assent of the mind, is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities.” The Dorothea Project reduces faith to a feeling and action to an emotional response to news headlines.
The repeated emphasis on “human dignity” as an autonomous principle, divorced from the supernatural end of man, is the core error. Pre-1958 Catholic social teaching always began with the principle that man’s dignity derives from being created in God’s image and redeemed by Christ, and that dignity is ordered to the ultimate end of eternal salvation. Quas Primas (1925) states: “His reign encompasses all men… He is the source of salvation for individuals and for the whole: And there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” The Dorothea Project omits this entirely, speaking of dignity without reference to original sin, redemption, or the necessity of the Church for salvation.
The rejection of political labels (“we’re not conservative or liberal”) is a subtle embrace of Liberal principle #77 of the Syllabus, which condemns the idea that “it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State.” By refusing to identify Catholic teaching as the sole standard for public life, the project accepts the Modernist premise that the State can be neutral—a neutrality Pius IX calls “false and most pernicious.”
2. Theological Confrontation: Christ the King vs. the Idol of Human Dignity
The fundamental error is the substitution of the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ with the naturalistic principle of “human dignity.” Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas teaches infallibly:
His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ… Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ… For what we wrote at the beginning of Our Pontificate about the diminishing authority of law and respect for power, the same can be applied to the present times: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.”
The Dorothea Project never once mentions the duty of the State to publicly recognize Christ as King and to govern according to His law. Instead, it focuses on “human rights” and “common good” defined in purely natural terms. This is a direct rejection of the doctrine of Quas Primas. The project’s members are scandalized by “deplorable conditions” in detention centers but are silent on the far greater evil: the State’s rejection of Christ’s law, which Pius XI says is the cause of all social disorder. Their activism is thus a work of the flesh, not of the spirit, because it does not begin with the primary duty: “To God what is God’s” (Matt. 22:21).
The ARTICLE states: “It starts with dignity. I think it starts with seeing that all people are made in the image and likeness of God first.” This is a half-truth that becomes a deadly error because it stops there. Catholic doctrine teaches that man’s dignity is wounded by sin and can only be restored through grace. The “image and likeness” is not an autonomous principle; it is a call to submission to God’s law. The Syllabus (#56) condemns: “Moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction, and it is not at all necessary that human laws should be made conformable to the laws of nature and receive their power of binding from God.” The Dorothea Project, by focusing on “dignity” without binding human laws to divine law, implicitly accepts this condemned error.
3. Symptomatic Analysis: The Fruit of the Conciliar Apostasy
The Dorothea Project is a perfect symptom of the post-conciliar Church’s apostasy. It operates entirely within the framework of the “conciliar sect” (the neo-church occupying the Vatican since John XXIII). Its members look to the USCCB—a body of modernist heretics who reject the Social Kingship of Christ—for guidance. The Defense of Sedevacantism file demonstrates that a manifest heretic loses office ipso facto. The current “bishops” and “Pope Leo XIV” are manifest heretics who teach religious liberty (condemned by Syllabus #15) and the separation of Church and State (condemned by Syllabus #55). Therefore, their “teaching” on immigration is null and void. The Dorothea Project, by seeking to inform its work with these “documents,” is being guided by heretics and is itself complicit in apostasy.
The project’s emphasis on lay-led action, independent of hierarchical authority, is another Modernist trait. Lamentabili (#6) condemns: “The Church listening cooperates in such a way with the Church teaching in defining truths of faith, that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening.” This is precisely the “listening Church” model of Vatican II, where lay “experience” shapes doctrine. The Dorothea Project women are “listening” to their “hearts” and to the “news” and forming “Catholic” action accordingly, rather than submitting to the unchangeable Magisterium. They are acting as their own magisterium, a direct violation of the hierarchical constitution of the Church.
The project’s patrons, Day and Bowman, are emblematic of the conciliar cult of “saints” who are actually promoters of error. Day’s pacifism and socialism were condemned in the Syllabus (#64: “It is lawful to refuse obedience to legitimate princes, and even to rebel against them” applies to her anarchist tendencies). Bowman’s promotion of “inculturation” (jazz Masses, Black Power rhetoric) is a form of the modernist “evolution of dogma” condemned in Lamentabili (#54-55). By invoking these figures, the Dorothea Project aligns itself with the synthesis of all heresies.
4. The Omission That Condemns: The Reign of Christ Over the State
The most damning silence in the ARTICLE is the complete absence of any mention of the duty of the State to recognize the Catholic Faith as the sole true religion and to govern according to its laws. The Syllabus of Errors (#21) condemns: “The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion.” The Dorothea Project, by never making this claim, implicitly accepts the condemned error. They speak of “human dignity” and “common good” in a vacuum, as if these concepts can be understood without the light of Catholic Faith. This is the error of “moderate rationalism” condemned in the Syllabus (#8-14).
Quas Primas is unequivocal: the purpose of the feast of Christ the King was to combat “the secularism of our times, so-called laicism” and to remind states that “they have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” The Dorothea Project does the opposite: it tries to persuade “bishops” to speak up within a system that has already formally rejected Christ’s Kingship (Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae). Their action is therefore not Catholic but naturalistic, akin to a Masonic lodge promoting “charity” while denying God.
The ARTICLE mentions “the primacy of the family” and “the country has the right to a strong border and national sovereignty, but not at the expense of the common good.” This is a compromise with the Modernist error of #39 of the Syllabus: “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights…” In Catholic doctrine, the State’s rights come from God, and its primary duty is to protect the Catholic Faith and the salvation of souls. The “common good” is not an autonomous standard; it is defined by the law of God. By accepting the State’s “right to a strong border” as a primary principle, the Dorothea Project subordinates supernatural law to national sovereignty—a reversal of Catholic order.
5. The Radical Conclusion: Rejection and Return to Tradition
The Dorothea Project is not a Catholic movement. It is a modernist, naturalistic, lay-led activism that operates within the conciliar sect, uses its erroneous documents, and honors its fabricated “servants of God.” Its focus on “human dignity” without Christ the King is the very apostasy Pius XI warned against in Quas Primas. Its rejection of political labels is an acceptance of Liberal indifferentism condemned by the Syllabus. Its reliance on the USCCB is reliance on a body of apostates.
True Catholic action must begin with the public profession of the Social Kingship of Christ and the condemnation of the Modernist “Church” that has usurped the Vatican. There can be no “Catholic social teaching” that does not begin with the dogma “Outside the Church there is no salvation” and the duty of the State to profess the Catholic Faith exclusively. The Dorothea Project, by its omissions and its principles, is a tool of the conciliar revolution to keep Catholics occupied with naturalistic “good works” while they abandon the supernatural end of man and the reign of Christ.
The only remedy is the total rejection of the post-conciliar structures and a return to the immutable Tradition. Catholics must withdraw from the “conciliar sect,” recognize the See as vacant (sede vacante), and support only those bishops and priests who confess the integral Catholic faith before 1958. Any activism that does not first demand the public enthronement of Christ the King and the repudiation of religious liberty is a work of the Antichrist, who seeks to build a world without Christ.
“The Church… always and everywhere instructs the faithful to show the respect which they should inviolably have for the supreme authority and its secular rights… But the Church has never disobeyed this divine command.” (Pius XI, Quas Primas) The Dorothea Project and the entire conciliar “social teaching” have disobeyed this command. They must be rejected with the same severity with which the Syllabus condemned the errors of Modernism.
[Antichurch] Dorothea Project’s Naturalistic Activism vs. Christ the King’s Social Reign
The “Catholic Out Loud” Charade: Human Dignity Without Christ the King
The Pillar portal reports on the Dorothea Project, a group of Catholic women promoting education on “Catholic social teaching” and prayer-based action, primarily concerning immigration. Founded by Katie Holler in response to Trump administration policies, the group rejects political labels (“we’re here because we’re Catholic, not conservative or liberal”), focuses on “human dignity” and “human rights,” and plans to submit a voter guide to the USCCB. Its patrons are Servants of God Dorothy Day and Thea Bowman, and it operates under the authority of local “parishes” and “bishops” of the post-conciliar sect. The project’s theology centers on seeing “all people are made in the image and likeness of God” as a foundational truth, from which flows a duty to protest detention conditions and advocate for immigrants, while avoiding explicit alignment with political parties.
1. Factual Deconstruction: Modernist Foundations and False Patrons
The Dorothea Project’s entire framework is built on the sand of post-Vatican II “Catholic social teaching,” which is a radical departure from the integral Catholic doctrine on the Social Kingship of Christ. Its sources are not the pre-1958 Magisterium but the documents of the conciliar sect, particularly the USCCB’s “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship”—a document riddled with Modernist errors condemned by Lamentabili and the Syllabus of Errors.
The mission of the Dorothea Project… is “bringing Catholic social teaching education to our communities, so that Catholics would be better equipped to take action in defense of human dignity and human rights.”
The phrase “human dignity and human rights” is not Catholic terminology in the pre-1958 sense. It is the language of the French Revolution and Masonic constitutions, explicitly condemned by Pope Pius IX. The Syllabus of Errors (#15) condemns the idea that “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true,” which is the foundation of modern “human rights” based on natural liberty, not on submission to the law of God. The Syllabus (#39) also condemns the notion that “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits”—the very principle that makes “human rights” autonomous from God’s law.
The project’s patrons, Dorothy Day and Thea Bowman, are products of the conciliar revolution. Day was a radical socialist who promoted liturgical experimentation and dissent; her “canonization” process occurs within the false hierarchy. Bowman was a prominent advocate for the “Black Catholic” movement, which embraces racialism and liturgical jazz—both abhorrent to Catholic tradition. Their “servant of God” status is a conciliar fabrication, as the true Church has not recognized any saints after 1958, the year of the death of Pope Pius XII, the last legitimate pontiff.
2. Linguistic and Rhetorical Analysis: The Language of Naturalism and Emotion
The ARTICLE is saturated with naturalistic, psychological, and emotional language that replaces supernatural Catholic motivation. Phrases like “broken heart,” “balm to my soul,” “tug on my heart,” and “feeling a pull on your heart” are the vocabulary of sentimentality, not of Catholic theology. This is a direct fruit of Modernism, which Lamentabili (#25) condemns: “Faith, as assent of the mind, is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities.” The Dorothea Project reduces faith to a feeling and action to an emotional response to news headlines.
The repeated emphasis on “human dignity” as an autonomous principle, divorced from the supernatural end of man, is the core error. Pre-1958 Catholic social teaching always began with the principle that man’s dignity derives from being created in God’s image and redeemed by Christ, and that dignity is ordered to the ultimate end of eternal salvation. Quas Primas (1925) states: “His reign encompasses all men… He is the source of salvation for individuals and for the whole: And there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” The Dorothea Project omits this entirely, speaking of dignity without reference to original sin, redemption, or the necessity of the Church for salvation.
The rejection of political labels (“we’re not conservative or liberal”) is a subtle embrace of Liberal principle #77 of the Syllabus, which condemns the idea that “it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State.” By refusing to identify Catholic teaching as the sole standard for public life, the project accepts the Modernist premise that the State can be neutral—a neutrality Pius IX calls “false and most pernicious.”
2. Theological Confrontation: Christ the King vs. the Idol of Human Dignity
The fundamental error is the substitution of the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ with the naturalistic principle of “human dignity.” Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas teaches infallibly:
His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ… Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ… For what we wrote at the beginning of Our Pontificate about the diminishing authority of law and respect for power, the same can be applied to the present times: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.”
The Dorothea Project never once mentions the duty of the State to publicly recognize Christ as King and to govern according to His law. Instead, it focuses on “human rights” and “common good” defined in purely natural terms. This is a direct rejection of the doctrine of Quas Primas. The project’s members are scandalized by “deplorable conditions” in detention centers but are silent on the far greater evil: the State’s rejection of Christ’s law, which Pius XI says is the cause of all social disorder. Their activism is thus a work of the flesh, not of the spirit, because it does not begin with the primary duty: “To God what is God’s” (Matt. 22:21).
The ARTICLE states: “It starts with dignity. I think it starts with seeing that all people are made in the image and likeness of God first.” This is a half-truth that becomes a deadly error because it stops there. Catholic doctrine teaches that man’s dignity is wounded by sin and can only be restored through grace. The “image and likeness” is not an autonomous principle; it is a call to submission to God’s law. The Syllabus (#56) condemns: “Moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction, and it is not at all necessary that human laws should be made conformable to the laws of nature and receive their power of binding from God.” The Dorothea Project, by focusing on “dignity” without binding human laws to divine law, implicitly accepts this condemned error.
3. Symptomatic Analysis: The Fruit of the Conciliar Apostasy
The Dorothea Project is a perfect symptom of the post-conciliar Church’s apostasy. It operates entirely within the framework of the “conciliar sect” (the neo-church occupying the Vatican since John XXIII). Its members look to the USCCB—a body of modernist heretics who reject the Social Kingship of Christ—for guidance. The Defense of Sedevacantism file demonstrates that a manifest heretic loses office ipso facto. The current “bishops” and “Pope Leo XIV” are manifest heretics who teach religious liberty (condemned by Syllabus #15) and the separation of Church and State (condemned by Syllabus #55). Therefore, their “teaching” on immigration is null and void. The Dorothea Project, by seeking to inform its work with these “documents,” is being guided by heretics and is itself complicit in apostasy.
The project’s emphasis on lay-led action, independent of hierarchical authority, is another Modernist trait. Lamentabili (#6) condemns: “The Church listening cooperates in such a way with the Church teaching in defining truths of faith, that the Church teaching should only approve the common opinions of the Church listening.” This is precisely the “listening Church” model of Vatican II, where lay “experience” shapes doctrine. The Dorothea Project women are “listening” to their “hearts” and to the “news” and forming “Catholic” action accordingly, rather than submitting to the unchangeable Magisterium. They are acting as their own magisterium, a direct violation of the hierarchical constitution of the Church.
The project’s patrons, Day and Bowman, are emblematic of the conciliar cult of “saints” who are actually promoters of error. Day’s pacifism and socialism were condemned in the Syllabus (#64: “It is lawful to refuse obedience to legitimate princes, and even to rebel against them” applies to her anarchist tendencies). Bowman’s promotion of “inculturation” (jazz Masses, Black Power rhetoric) is a form of the modernist “evolution of dogma” condemned in Lamentabili (#54-55). By invoking these figures, the Dorothea Project aligns itself with the synthesis of all heresies.
4. The Omission That Condemns: The Reign of Christ Over the State
The most damning silence in the ARTICLE is the complete absence of any mention of the duty of the State to recognize the Catholic Faith as the sole true religion and to govern according to its laws. The Syllabus of Errors (#21) condemns: “The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion.” The Dorothea Project, by never making this claim, implicitly accepts the condemned error. They speak of “human dignity” and “common good” in a vacuum, as if these concepts can be understood without the light of Catholic Faith. This is the error of “moderate rationalism” condemned by the Syllabus (#8-14).
Quas Primas is unequivocal: the purpose of the feast of Christ the King was to combat “the secularism of our times, so-called laicism” and to remind states that “they have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” The Dorothea Project does the opposite: it tries to persuade “bishops” to speak up within a system that has already formally rejected Christ’s Kingship (Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae). Their action is therefore not Catholic but naturalistic, akin to a Masonic lodge promoting “charity” while denying God.
The ARTICLE mentions “the primacy of the family” and “the country has the right to a strong border and national sovereignty, but not at the expense of the common good.” This is a compromise with the Modernist error of #39 of the Syllabus: “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights…” In Catholic doctrine, the State’s rights come from God, and its primary duty is to protect the Catholic Faith and the salvation of souls. The “common good” is not an autonomous standard; it is defined by the law of God. By accepting the State’s “right to a strong border” as a primary principle, the Dorothea Project subordinates supernatural law to national sovereignty—a reversal of Catholic order.
5. The Radical Conclusion: Rejection and Return to Tradition
The Dorothea Project is not a Catholic movement. It is a modernist, naturalistic, lay-led activism that operates within the conciliar sect, uses its erroneous documents, and honors its fabricated “servants of God.” Its focus on “human dignity” without Christ the King is the very apostasy Pius XI warned against in Quas Primas. Its rejection of political labels is an acceptance of Liberal indifferentism condemned by the Syllabus. Its reliance on the USCCB is reliance on a body of apostates.
True Catholic action must begin with the public profession of the Social Kingship of Christ and the condemnation of the Modernist “Church” that has usurped the Vatican. There can be no “Catholic social teaching” that does not begin with the dogma “Outside the Church there is no salvation” and the duty of the State to profess the Catholic Faith exclusively. The Dorothea Project, by its omissions and its principles, is a tool of the conciliar revolution to keep Catholics occupied with naturalistic “good works” while they abandon the supernatural end of man and the reign of Christ.
The only remedy is the total rejection of the post-conciliar structures and a return to the immutable Tradition. Catholics must withdraw from the “conciliar sect,” recognize the See as vacant (sede vacante), and support only those bishops and priests who confess the integral Catholic faith before 1958. Any activism that does not first demand the public enthronement of Christ the King and the repudiation of religious liberty is a work of the Antichrist, who seeks to build a world without Christ.
“The Church… always and everywhere instructs the faithful to show the respect which they should inviolably have for the supreme authority and its secular rights… But the Church has never disobeyed this divine command.” (Pius XI, Quas Primas) The Dorothea Project and the entire conciliar “social teaching” have disobeyed this command. They must be rejected with the same severity with which the Syllabus condemned the errors of Modernism.
Source:
'Catholic out loud' – Dorothea Project aims to spread Catholic social teaching (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 20.02.2026