VaticanNews reports Bishop Erik Varden’s ninth reflection at the 2026 Lenten Retreat for antipope “Pope” Leo XIV, Cardinals residing in Rome, and heads of Dicasteries, promoting “Bernard the Realist” as a model of sanctity. This constitutes a deliberate Modernist reinterpretation of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, reducing Catholic asceticism to psychological integration while omitting the non-negotiable dogma of the Social Reign of Christ the King. The entire exercise unfolds within the conciliar sect’s apostasy from integral Catholic faith.
The Apostasy of Recognizing the “Pope” Leo XIV
The very premise of these “Spiritual Exercises” is built upon the recognition of “Pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) as the Vicar of Christ. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, this is manifest heresy. St. Robert Bellarmine, whose teaching on the papacy is definitive, declared: “The fifth true opinion is that a Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church” (De Romano Pontifice). The line of usurpers beginning with John XXIII has consistently promulgated errors condemned by Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors and St. Pius X’s Lamentabili sane exitu, notably religious liberty, ecumenism, and the evolution of dogma. Therefore, participation in retreats under such a figure constitutes formal cooperation with apostasy. As Cardinal Billot taught, a hidden heretic retains jurisdiction, but a manifest heretic is “deprived of all jurisdiction and power, as St. Cyprian, St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome say.” Leo XIV, by his relentless promotion of conciliar errors, is manifestly such a heretic.
Naturalistic Psychology Masquerading as Spirituality
Bishop Varden’s reflection is steeped in naturalistic humanism, explicitly invoking the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan—a Freudian disciple whose system is antithetical to Catholic supernaturalism. Lacan’s dictum that “the real is what we butt against” reduces reality to brute material resistance, utterly devoid of the supernatural order. Varden applies this to St. Bernard, claiming he “became a realist not merely in the sense of accepting things as they is. He learnt above all that the deepest reality of all human affairs is a cry for mercy.” This cry for mercy is stripped of its supernatural object—the mercy of God through Christ—and reduced to a vague psychological phenomenon. The authentic Catholic affectus, which Bernard indeed prized, is not sentimental integration but a supernatural movement of the will toward God, nourished by the sacraments and penance. Pius XI in Quas Primas reminds us that Christ’s kingdom “requires its followers not only to renounce earthly riches and possessions, to be distinguished by modesty of conduct, and to hunger and thirst for justice, but also to deny themselves and carry their cross.” Varden’s “realism” omits the cross, replacing it with a therapeutic acceptance of “things as they are.” This is the precise error of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X: the reduction of faith to interior experience (Lamentabili, propositions 20, 25).
Omission of Christ’s Social Kingship: The Heart of Modernist Apostasy
The most glaring omission in Varden’s reflection is any mention of the Social Reign of Christ the King—a dogma defined by Pius XI in Quas Primas and violently opposed by the conciliar sect. Pius XI taught that Christ “reigns in the minds of men… in the wills of men… in the hearts of men” and that His kingdom “encompasses all men” including “states.” The encyclical declares: “The state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men” and warns that when “God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the entire human society had to be shaken.” This is the direct antithesis of the Syllabus of Errors’ proposition 55: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” Varden’s silence on this dogma is not accidental; it is symptomatic of the conciliar sect’s embrace of secularism. By focusing exclusively on interior “affect” and psychological “realism,” the reflection diverts attention from the absolute primacy of God’s law over human societies—a primacy that demands the public recognition of Christ’s kingship. This omission is a public apostasy from the faith of Pius XI.
“Bernard the Realist”: A Modernist Hermeneutic of Suspicion
The phrase “Bernard the Realist” is a calculated Modernist re-branding. It imports the Lacanian concept of “the real” into hagiography, transforming the Cistercian reformer into a proto-psychologist. This is a classic Modernist tactic: Lamentabili sane exitu condemned the proposition that “the principal articles of the Apostles’ Creed did not have the same meaning for the first Christians as they do for contemporary Christians” (prop. 62). Varden’s reading imposes a contemporary, naturalistic framework onto Bernard, severing him from his true context: a fierce defender of orthodoxy against rationalism (Abelard), a promoter of the Second Crusade for Christ’s honor, and a monastic rigorist who wrote: “Convert to God with all your heart, and He will convert you to all good.” The authentic Bernard knew that the deepest reality is not a “cry for mercy” in the abstract, but the objective truth of the Incarnation and the necessity of penance. By contrast, Varden’s Bernard is a therapeutic figure, “at freedom with himself”—a phrase echoing Modernist autonomy, not Catholic freedom which is “glorious to behold” only when “supernaturally illumined” by Christ’s grace. This is the synthesis of all errors: the reduction of supernatural reality to immanent experience.
The Conciliar Sect’s “Spiritual Exercises”: A Synthesis of Apostasy
These “Spiritual Exercises” are not Catholic but constitute the abominatio desolationis (Matt 24:15) standing in the holy place. They combine:
1. Acceptance of the antipope and his modernist curia—a direct violation of Canon 188.4 (1917 Code) which states an office becomes vacant by “publicly defects from the Catholic faith.”
2. Naturalistic psychology (Lacan) in place of ascetic theology.
3. Omission of the Social Kingship of Christ—the very antidote to the secularism Pius XI identified as the “plague that poisons human society.”
4. A “Bernard” stripped of his doctrinal battles and monastic severity, turned into a precursor of Vatican II’s “humanism.”
This is the logical outcome of the conciliar revolution. As the Syllabus condemned error 80: “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.” Leo XIV’s “spiritual exercises” are precisely that reconciliation—a surrender of Catholic transcendence to the immanent “real.” The faithful are called not to participate in such abominations but to flee to the true Church, which endures in those who profess the integral faith and are led by valid bishops (pre-1958) and priests. The only legitimate “spiritual exercises” are those grounded in the unchanging doctrine of Christ’s exclusive reign and the necessity of penance, as taught by St. Bernard in his authentic writings and by the Magisterium before the eclipse of 1958.
Source:
Lenten Retreat: Bishop Varden reflects on 'Bernard the Realist' (vaticannews.va)
Date: 26.02.2026