The “Splendour of Truth” in the Abomination of Desolation
The cited article from VaticanNews reports on Bishop Erik Varden’s fifth reflection during the 2026 Lenten Spiritual Exercises for “Pope” Leo XIV and the Roman Curia. Varden, a “bishop” of the conciliar sect, focuses on “the splendour of truth,” using St. Bernard to warn against ambition and urging the Church to “speak her own language” of Scripture and tradition. He concludes by praising the “universal call to holiness” from the Second Vatican Council as its “strongest note.” This presentation is a masterclass in theological vacuity and spiritual deception, a perfect reflection of the modernistic apostasy that has consumed the structures occupying the Vatican since the death of Pope Pius XII. It substitutes pious-sounding rhetoric for the immutable, dogmatic faith of the Catholic Church, all while serving the very ambition and untruth it superficially condemns.
1. A “Truth” Stripped of Dogma and Authority
Varden speaks of “truth” as an abstract, existential quality to be “embodied” and made “personally evident,” a language directly lifted from the modernist playbook condemned by St. Pius X. The *Lamentabili sane exitu* (1907), which reaffirmed the condemnation of all Modernist errors, explicitly rejects this subjective, evolutionist view:
Prop. 25: Faith, as assent of the mind, is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities.
Prop. 26: The dogmas of faith should be understood according to their practical function, i.e., as binding in action, rather than as principles of belief.
Varden’s entire reflection operates on this condemned principle. He reduces truth to a “splendour” to be demonstrated through “sacrificial love” and “holiness,” divorced from the **objective, defining authority of the Catholic Magisterium**. There is not a single mention of the **deposit of faith**, the **infallibility of the Church** in defining dogma, or the **absolute necessity of submitting the intellect to revealed truths** (as defined by the First Vatican Council). Instead, truth becomes a matter of personal “embodiment” and cultural “orientation,” echoing the modernist error that doctrine evolves and must be “expressed in new ways.” This is the very “hermeneutics of continuity” that sedevacantists reject as a contradiction in terms; truth does not change its meaning to suit the “fashions” of the world. The pre-conciliar Church, as taught by Pope Pius IX in the *Syllabus of Errors*, condemned the idea that “the method and principles by which the old scholastic doctors cultivated theology are no longer suitable to the demands of our times” (Error 13). Varden’s entire premise—that the Church must update her expression—is a direct repudiation of this.
2. The Hypocrisy of Condemning Ambition Within the Usurper’s Court
Varden, with theatrical eloquence, cites St. Bernard on the “secret virus” of ambition, calling it the “mother of hypocrisy.” The irony is staggering. He delivers this lecture **inside the Vatican** to the court of an antipope (“Leo XIV,” the successor to the line of John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis) and the heads of the conciliar “dicasteries.” The very structure he serves is built upon the ultimate act of **ecclesiastical ambition**: the seizure of the papacy by men who, by their public adherence to the errors of Vatican II (religious liberty, collegiality, ecumenism), have manifestly forfeited the Catholic faith and thus, according to the doctrine of St. Robert Bellarmine and Pope Paul IV’s bull *Cum ex Apostolatus Officio*, cannot validly occupy the See of Rome.
“A manifest heretic cannot be Pope… a heretic is not a member, therefore he cannot be the head of the Church.” (St. Robert Bellarmine, *De Romano Pontifice*).
The “ambitious clergyman” haunting literature is not a comic trope here; it is the living reality of every cardinal and bishop who, knowing the apostasy of the post-1968 “papal” claimants, continues to lend them legitimacy and service. Theirs is not the “selfless service” Varden mentions, but the service of **maintaining a paramasonic structure** in place of the Catholic Church. Their “ambition” is the ambition of the false prophets, to which the *Syllabus* (Error 80) refers: “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.” This is the foundational ambition of the entire conciliar sect, of which Varden is a willing and eloquent functionary.
3. The Omission of Christ’s Social Kingship: A Denial of the Faith
Varden’s reflection is a pure spiritualism, concerned with individual “embodiment” of truth and the Church’s internal “language.” It is utterly silent on the **social reign of Christ the King**, a doctrine defined by Pope Pius XI in *Quas Primas* (1925) as an essential, immutable truth of the Catholic faith. Pius XI taught that Christ’s kingdom “encompasses all men” and that “states are subject to His authority.” He condemned the secularism that “removed Jesus Christ and His most holy law from… public life” as the cause of societal ruin. The encyclical is a direct refutation of the modernistic, naturalistic mentality that pervades Varden’s words.
The silence is deafening and damning. By focusing only on the “existential dimension” of truth within the soul and the Church’s internal “originality,” Varden implicitly accepts the **separation of Church and State** condemned by the *Syllabus* (Error 55: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church”). He accepts the modernist premise that the Church’s mission is to “orient culture” through persuasive “splendour” rather than to demand the **submission of all human laws and societies to the Divine Law** as expressed in the Ten Commandments and the Social Kingship of Christ. This is a complete abandonment of the Catholic doctrine that “the entire government of public schools… may and ought to appertain to the civil power” (Error 45) is a grave error. The state must be Catholic, not merely influenced by a “splendid” Church.
4. The Blasphemous Praise of Vatican II’s “Universal Call to Holiness”
Varden climaxes his reflection by declaring: “Was not the universal call to holiness… the strongest note struck by the Second Vatican Council? It resounded splendidly like a gong throughout its deliberations.” This is not a mere opinion; it is a **formal ratification of the Council’s heretical revolution**. The “universal call to holiness” as presented by Vatican II (*Lumen Gentium*, Chapter V) is inseparable from its **doctrinal context of religious liberty, collegiality, and the new ecclesiology** that makes the Church a “sacrament… of the unity of the whole human race” (LG 1), a concept utterly alien to the *Syllabus* and the constant magisterium.
The pre-conciliar Church taught that holiness is the call of the baptized, yes, but within the **visible, hierarchical, Catholic Church alone**, which is the “sole ark of salvation” (Pius IX, *Quanto conficiamur*). Vatican II’s “call” is a vague, universalistic appeal that destroys the Catholic concept of the **Church as a perfect society** with exclusive rights and a mission to *govern* nations. It is the theological foundation for the **abomination of the post-conciliar “saints”** like John Paul II and the false “martyrs” like the Ulma family, whose “holiness” is measured by sentimental, naturalistic criteria rather than by the **explicit profession of the integral Catholic faith and martyrdom for the rejection of heresy**. To praise this “strongest note” is to endorse the entire conciliar apostasy, which is the synthesis of all errors condemned by St. Pius X.
5. The “Slow-Moving Body” Heresy: The Church Cannot Change
Varden states: “The Church, a slow-moving body, will always run the risk of looking and sounding last-season.” This casual, almost cynical remark is a **direct denial of the immutability of the Church**. The Church is not a “slow-moving body” that adapts; she is the **Mystical Body of Christ**, immutable in her essence, doctrine, and worship. The *Syllabus* condemns the error that “truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him” (Error 58). The Church’s “language” is not a human idiom to be updated; it is the **sacred language of Scripture, Tradition, and the liturgical rites codified by Pope St. Pius V**. To suggest she must find “new ways” to express “ancient truths” is to subscribe to the modernist doctrine of the **evolution of dogma**, which Pius X called “the synthesis of all heresies” (*Pascendi Dominici gregis*).
The true Church does not worry about “looking last-season” before the world. She is the **”pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15)**, and her timeless liturgy and doctrine are a stumbling block to the modern world precisely because they are **unchangeable**. The “splendour of truth” is not found in cultural relevance, but in the **absolute, crystalline clarity of the Thomistic synthesis and the Roman Rite**, which the conciliar revolution has systematically destroyed.
Conclusion: The Apostate’s Masquerade
Bishop Erik Varden’s reflection is a perfect specimen of the **neo-church’s** spiritual discourse: it uses the vocabulary of Catholic piety—truth, holiness, Bernard, liturgy—to preach a空洞 (empty) naturalism and personalism that is fundamentally at odds with the integral Catholic faith. It is a **symptom of the systemic apostasy** foretold by St. Pius X in *Pascendi* and by the *Syllabus*. It offers no defense of the **divine constitution of the Church**, no call for the **public reign of Christ the King**, no condemnation of the **errors of modernism, liberalism, and religious indifferentism**. It is a retreat into a private, existential “truth” precisely when the world needs the **thunderous, dogmatic proclamation of the exclusive rights of God and His Church**.
The only “splendour” here is the splendour of **apostasy dressed in sacral language**. The faithful are not being strengthened against “arrows launched by the Father of Lies”; they are being anesthetized by them. The true Church, which endures in those who hold the **integral Catholic faith** and are in communion with **valid bishops who have not sold out to the conciliar sect**, must reject this performance utterly. We must return to the **unchanging doctrine** of *Quas Primas*, the *Syllabus*, and *Lamentabili*, and recognize that the structures Varden serves are the **”abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place** (Matt. 24:15). There is no “splendour of truth” in the camp of the apostates.
Source:
Lenten Retreat: Bishop Varden reflects on the splendour of truth (vaticannews.va)
Date: 24.02.2026