The Invalid “Beatifications” of the Conciliar Sect: Apostasy Masked as Sanctity
Vatican News (February 21, 2026) reports that the antipope occupying the See of Rome, styled “Leo XIV,” has authorized a new wave of “beatifications” and declarations of “heroic virtue.” This includes the “equipollent beatification” of a 16th-century French Franciscan, Gabriele Maria, and the recognition of heroic virtues for several 19th- and 20th-century figures, among them a Lebanese Melkite “monk,” Béchara Abou-Mourad. The article presents these acts as routine updates from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The underlying reality, however, is a profound and damning manifestation of the post-conciliar apostasy, a systematic destruction of the Catholic understanding of sanctity, canon law, and the very nature of the Church.
1. The Fundamental Invalidity: A “Pope” Who Is Not a Pope
The entire proceeding is ipso facto null and void because the one purporting to act is not the Vicar of Christ but a manifest heretic occupying the Chair of Peter during a sede vacante of epic proportions. The pre-1958 theological consensus, crystallized by St. Robert Bellarmine and codified in Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code, is unequivocal: a manifest heretic loses all ecclesiastical office automatically, without need of declaration. The current occupant of the Vatican, like his predecessors since John XXIII, has propagated the errors of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (e.g., propositions 54, 57, 65: evolution of dogma, hostility to progress, dogmaless Christianity). Therefore, any act of “magisterium” or “canonization” emanating from this source is a mere theatrical performance, possessing no spiritual authority whatsoever. As the Syllabus of Errors (Pius IX, 1864) condemns, the Church has no innate right to acquire such power from the civil authority (Error #26); here, the “conciliar sect” attempts to wield a power it does not possess, having surrendered its divine constitution to the spirit of the age.
2. Ecumenical Apostasy: Honoring a Schismatic “Monk”
The most glaring scandal is the beatification of Béchara Abou-Mourad, a member of the Basilian Order of the Most Holy Savior of the Melkites. The Melkite Greek Catholic Church, while in formal “communion” with Rome, retains Eastern schismatic liturgical and canonical traditions that reject the Latin Rite’s doctrinal purity and the supreme, universal jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff as defined before 1958. To “beatify” a figure from such a community is a deliberate act of ecumenical syncretism, a violation of the First Commandment and the Catholic doctrine that outside the true Church there is no salvation (extra Ecclesiam nulla salus). This act implicitly endorses the false theology of “breathing with two lungs” and the heresy that separated Eastern “churches” possess legitimate hierarchical structures. The miracle attributed to him—a physical healing—is evaluated through the naturalistic, medicalized lens of the post-conciliar process, which has systematically downgraded the requirement for a miracle to be an instantaneous, complete, and scientifically inexplicable cure, as was rigorously demanded before 1958. The report’s focus on the woman’s ability to “walk without assistance” reduces sanctity to physical well-being, a hallmark of the conciliar sect’s cult of man.
3. The Modernist Profanation of “Heroic Virtue”
The decrees on heroic virtue for figures like Francesco Lombardi (d. 1922) and Fausto Gei (d. 1968) are particularly egregious. Lombardi’s life, while containing superficially Catholic elements (promotion of the Sacred Heart, social works inspired by Rerum Novarum), is presented in the language of naturalistic humanism. His founding of a “workers’ mutual aid society” and a “rural credit bank” is highlighted as much as his prayer life. This reflects the Modernist error condemned by Pius X: the reduction of Christian virtue to social activism and the “evolution of Christian consciousness” (Lamentabili, #54). Gei’s “apostolate of the pen” from his sickbed, while seemingly pious, is framed entirely in terms of “advocacy” and “raising awareness” among civil and religious authorities—a clear echo of the Modernist principle that the Church must conform to the “progress” of the world (Syllabus, Error #40: “The teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society”). The comparison of Theophane (d. 1968) to Padre Pio of Pietrelcina is a definitive mark of the cause’s corruption. Padre Pio, as is well-documented in traditional Catholic sources, was a figure deeply implicated in the post-conciliar revolution, his stigmatization subject to serious doubt, and his “ministry” marked by questionable phenomena and allegiance to the conciliar popes. To invoke him as a standard is to invoke a symbol of the very apostasy.
4. The Omission of Supernatural Reality and Christ’s Kingship
The article’s language is meticulously naturalistic. It speaks of “charity,” “apostolic zeal,” “spirituality,” “pastoral initiatives,” and “social outreach.” It is utterly silent on the sensus fidei, the state of sanctifying grace, the theological virtues, the sacrificial nature of the priesthood, and the ultimate end of man: the vision of God. This silence is not accidental; it is the very essence of the conciliar sect’s religion. It is a religion of immanent human experience, not of supernatural revelation. Contrast this with the unchanging doctrine of Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas (1925): the Kingdom of Christ is primarily spiritual, entered through repentance, faith, and baptism, and demands the denial of self and carrying of the cross. The “saints” of the conciliar sect are presented as social workers, mystics of self-acceptance, and community builders—not as soldiers of Christ who battled heresy, defended the Faith, and sought the conversion of souls in the strict, Catholic sense. The article never mentions the Final Judgment, the eternity of hell, the absolute necessity of the Catholic Faith for salvation, or the duty of Catholic rulers to publicly recognize Christ as King (Quas Primas). This omission is a damning confession of apostasy.
5. The Symptom of Systemic Apostasy: The “Cult of the Beatification”
This entire spectacle is a symptom of the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15). The pre-1958 Church, while canonizing saints, always emphasized their imitatio Christi in its most heroic, counter-cultural form: virginity, martyrdom, monumental theological combat, radical poverty. The post-conciliar “cult of the saint” has become a tool for:
- Ecumenism: Elevating figures from schismatic communities (Abou-Mourad).
- Naturalism: Celebrating social work over supernatural virtue (Lombardi, Gei).
- Subjectivism: Focusing on personal “spirituality” and “experience” over objective doctrine.
- Democratization: The “spontaneous devotion” for Gabriele Maria bypasses the rigorous, juridical process that once guarded against popular superstition.
This is the “new Pentecost” of the conciliar revolution: a descent not of the Holy Ghost, but of the spirit of Modernism, which Pius X defined as the synthesis of all heresies. It seeks to create a new type of “saint” for a new, man-centered church. The faithful are being conditioned to accept this pantomime as legitimate, while the true Church—the one that holds the immutable faith—endures in the catacombs, led by bishops and priests who maintain the integral doctrine and liturgy of all time.
Final Note: The authentic Catholic response to such sacrilege is not engagement but repudiation. The decrees of the conciliar sect’s ” Dicastery” are null. The “blesseds” and “venerables” it promotes are not models for Catholics. Our models are the saints canonized before the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, who fought the world, the flesh, and the devil with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. We must flee the conciliar sect and its entire apparatus of lies, and cleave to the semper eadem faith of our fathers.
Source:
Two new blesseds: A Lebanese monk and a French Franciscan (vaticannews.va)
Date: 21.02.2026