The cited article is a podcast transcript from The Pillar, a post-conciliar media platform, dated February 25, 2026. It discusses the Second Sunday of Lent readings (Genesis 12:1-4a, 2 Timothy 1:8b-10, Matthew 17:1-9) through the lens of “suffering in the midst of promise,” framing the Abrahamic call and Transfiguration as part of a personal, experiential journey of faith. The discussion, led by JD Flynn and Kate Olivera, omits any reference to the objective, social kingship of Christ, the necessity of the Church for salvation, or the dogmatic definitions of the pre-1958 Magisterium. Its language reflects the modernist hermeneutic of “development” and personalistic spirituality, reducing divine revelation to a metaphor for human experience and completely ignoring the apocalyptic context of the Lenten liturgy, which prepares souls for the Passion and the final judgment. The thesis is clear: this podcast exemplifies the “synthesis of all errors,” Modernism, which Pope St. Pius X condemned in *Pascendi Dominici gregis* and *Lamentabili sane exitu*, by transforming the objective, supernatural realities of faith into a naturalistic narrative of personal growth.
The Poison of the “Journey” Metaphor: Modernism’s Hermeneutic of Dispersion
The podcast’s central framing—”suffering in the midst of promise”—is not a neutral description but a loaded modernist trope. It replaces the Catholic doctrine of *via salutis* (the way of salvation) as a narrow path defined by dogma, sacraments, and hierarchical authority with an amorphous, individualistic “journey.” This is a direct echo of the errors condemned by St. Pius X. Proposition 59 of *Lamentabili* states: “Christ did not proclaim any specific, all-encompassing doctrine suitable for all times and peoples, but rather initiated a certain religious movement, applied or applicable to different times and places.” The podcast’s interpretation of Abram’s call (“Go forth from your land…”) as a paradigm for personal discernment and “promise” as an open-ended future, rather than the concrete, historical establishment of the Chosen People and the immutable promises to Abraham concerning Christ (cf. Gal. 3:16), is a textbook example of this condemned proposition. It turns a definitive act of God’s sovereign grace into a template for human self-actualization. The silence on the fact that Abram’s call was to *leave* his people and *go to* a land God would show him—a literal, geographical obedience prefiguring the Church’s exclusive role as the Ark of Salvation—exposes the naturalistic, ecumenical mentality of the speakers. They are silent on the *necessity* of the Catholic Church for salvation, defined by the Council of Trent (Session VI, Can. 4), which the Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX (Error 21) explicitly defends against the modernist error that the Church has no power to define her exclusive truth.
Omission of the Social Kingship of Christ: The Heart of the Apostasy
The readings for the day are profoundly Christological. The promise to Abram finds its fulfillment in Christ; 2 Timothy speaks of “the grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before all ages” and the “appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel”; the Transfiguration reveals Christ’s divine majesty. The pre-1958 Church, following Pius XI in *Quas Primas*, would have forcefully connected these to the feast of Christ the King and the absolute duty of all human societies to recognize His reign. Pius XI taught: “The Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men… the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” The podcast’s complete silence on this *mandatory* social and political dimension of the faith is not an oversight; it is a deliberate omission reflecting the modernist rejection of the “errors” condemned in the Syllabus, particularly Errors 39, 40, and 77-80, which attack the State’s duty to recognize the Catholic religion and Christ’s kingship. By discussing “promise” and “suffering” in a vacuum, detached from the concrete, public order demanded by the Gospel, the podcast preaches the “secularism” or “laicism” that Pius XI called “the plague that poisons human society.” It fosters a privatized, inward-looking “faith” that poses no challenge to the modern apostate state, precisely what the Syllabus condemned as the error that “the State… may and ought to grant to all citizens the public exercise of their own peculiar worship” (Error 78).
Biblical Exegesis Corrupted: The Lamentabili Condemnations in Action
The discussion of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9) is particularly revealing. A Catholic exegesis before 1958 would have centered on the objective revelation of Christ’s divine nature, the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (Moses and Elijah), and the voice of the Father confirming Christ as the beloved Son in whom we must hear. It would have emphasized the theological virtue of faith required to “rise” and see only Jesus (v. 8), pointing to the necessity of the Church’s teaching authority to preserve this pure faith. Instead, the podcast’s language (as inferred from the title and context) likely reduces the event to a subjective “experience” of promise or a lesson about enduring suffering. This aligns with several propositions condemned in *Lamentabili*:
* **Proposition 4:** “Ecclesiastical judgments and censures imposed for too free and explicit exegesis prove that the faith of the Church is contrary to history, and that Catholic dogmas in no way agree with the real beginnings of the Christian religion.” The podcast’s historical-critical approach (implied by its “Bible study” format common to post-conciliar circles) treats the Transfiguration as a “story” with “meaning” for us, not as a definite, historical event that defines dogma (the Divinity of Christ).
* **Proposition 23:** “A contradiction can and does exist between the events presented in Holy Scripture and the dogmas of the Church which are based upon them.” By interpreting the “promise” to Abram and the Transfiguration in a way that contradicts the dogmatic definition of the Church’s exclusive role as the sole ark of salvation (Trent, Session VI, Can. 4), the podcast implicitly accepts this condemned proposition.
* **Proposition 61:** “It can be proclaimed without contradiction that no chapter of Holy Scripture… contains doctrine fully consistent with the doctrine of the Church on the same matters.” The entire premise of the podcast—that the readings speak of a universal, non-dogmatic “journey” of “promise”—is a living embodiment of this error, severing Scripture from the immutable sense defined by the Church.
The “Suffering” Heresy: Naturalizing the Supernatural
The focus on “suffering” is a key modernist tactic. Pre-1958 Catholic spirituality, while honoring redemptive suffering, always placed it within the strict framework of the Church’s sacrificial role and the merit of Christ’s Passion. Suffering had meaning only in union with the *unbloody sacrifice of Calvary* offered in the Holy Mass and in reparation for sin. The podcast’s framing, however, suggests suffering is part of a “promise” in a general, existential sense. This is the error of naturalizing supernatural realities. It echoes the condemned proposition that “the sacraments merely serve to remind man of the presence of the ever-benevolent Creator” (*Lamentabili*, Prop. 41). It reduces the purpose of Lent—to do penance for sin, make reparation, and prepare for the Resurrection through the sacraments—to a vague psychological or moral “journey.” The grave omission is any mention of the *sacramental system* as the sole means of grace. Without the Sacraments, especially Penance and the Eucharist, suffering is meaningless in Catholic theology. The podcast’s silence on the sacraments is a silent denial of their absolute necessity, a hallmark of the “abomination of desolation” occupying the Vatican since John XXIII.
The “Pillar” of Modernism: Rejecting the True Pillar of the Church
The podcast’s platform, “The Pillar,” is itself a symptom. It uses Catholic terminology while promoting a modernist, post-conciliar ethos. The true Pillar and foundation of truth is the Church, built upon Peter (Matt. 16:18), which subsists *only* in the body of bishops in communion with the Roman Pontiff, *provided he is a Catholic*. Since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, the occupants of the Vatican have promulgated the heresies of Vatican II (especially *Lumen Gentium* and *Dignitatis Humanae*), which directly contradict the Syllabus of Errors and the teaching of Pius IX and Leo XIII. Therefore, the structures they lead are the “conciliar sect.” A podcast produced under their auspices, even if it uses traditional language, is part of the “paramasonic structure” (as noted in the Fatima file’s analysis of Masonic operations) working to dilute and destroy the faith. The speakers, by participating in this platform, are complicit in the apostasy. They operate as if the post-conciliar “Church” were legitimate, thereby giving scandal and leading souls into the “broad way” of Modernism.
Conclusion: A Call to Reject and Flee
This podcast is not a harmless Bible study. It is a precise instrument of the “synthesis of all heresies,” Modernism. It takes the raw material of Scripture and, through the lens of the “hermeneutic of continuity” (a phrase itself condemned by the very nature of the Syllabus’s absolute condemnations), transforms it into a palatable, experience-based spirituality devoid of dogma, sacraments, and the social reign of Christ. It teaches a “faith” that can be held by non-Catholics, a “journey” that does not require the exclusive path of the Catholic Church. This is the “dogmaless Christianity” prophesied by Pius X (*Pascendi*, 44) and the “broad and liberal Protestantism” he warned would be the end result of Modernism. The faithful are bound in conscience to reject such productions, to seek out the true faith as it existed before the apostasy of 1958, and to adhere to the unchanging Magisterium of Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII. There is no “development of doctrine” here, only the systematic demolition of the faith once delivered to the saints.
Source:
Suffering in the midst of promise (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 25.02.2026