The False Promise of “Stiff Old Brew”: How a Vermont Campus Donation Reveals the Apostasy of the Conciliar Sect
[EWTN News] reports that entrepreneur Raj Peter Bhakta intends to give the former Green Mountain College campus in Poultney, Vermont, valued at over $20 million, to a Catholic nonprofit for a “spiritual revival” focused on “long-term faith formation” and a “capital T” truth not “mitigated by politically correct terminology.” Bhakta, a Catholic, criticizes the “lukewarm version of our faith” in vogue and seeks to foster something more substantial for youth. The application deadline is March 31, 2026, with maintenance costs estimated at $1.5 million yearly and rebuilding potentially $200–300 million. Eligible recipients include dioceses, religious orders, Catholic colleges, and faith-based nonprofits.
This transaction, framed as a magnanimous gift for the “Catholic Church,” is in reality a stark symptom of the theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar abomination of desolation. It embodies the naturalistic, human-centered, and utterly deficient “revival” promoted by the conciliar sect, which has systematically purged Catholic doctrine of its supernatural purpose and social reign. The analysis must proceed from the immutable yardstick of Catholic theology before the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, exposing how every element of this proposal is contaminated by the modernist errors condemned by St. Pius X and Pope Pius IX.
I. The Naturalistic “Spiritual Revival” vs. the Supernatural Kingdom of Christ
Bhakta’s stated goal is a “spiritual revival” necessary for the U.S. “to turn itself around.” This language is pure naturalism, a condemned error. Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors explicitly condemns the notion that the civil order can be renewed without the public reign of Christ the King. Error #40 states: “The teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society.” The Syllabus rejects the idea that society can be “turned around” by vague spiritual initiatives detached from the social kingship of Christ. In contrast, Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925), instituted the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism.” Pius XI declared that when “God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The “desired benefits” of peace and order flow only from public, societal recognition of Christ’s royal authority: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ.”
Bhakta’s vision of “faith formation” for youth is a privatized, internalized experience, utterly silent on the obligation of the state and all human institutions to recognize Christ’s law. This omission is not accidental but foundational to the conciliar sect’s apostasy. The Syllabus, Error #55, condemns the separation of Church and State: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” The true Catholic position, articulated by Pius XI, is that Christ’s reign “encompasses all men” and extends to “individuals, families, and states.” A “revival” that does not demand the explicit subordination of all law, education, and governance to the Divine Law and the teaching authority of the Church is a deception, fostering a “lukewarm” Catholicism precisely because it accepts the Modernist premise of a neutral public square. The donor’s plea for “capital T truth” is meaningless if that truth is not proclaimed as the sole foundation for all human activity, as Pius XI insisted: “His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.”
II. The Materialist Obsession and the Neglect of the Supernatural
The financial parameters of this gift are revealing. Bhakta states rebuilding “will easily cost $200 [million] or $300 million” and yearly expenses are “$1.5 million.” The entire discussion is framed in terms of material capacity and operational sustainability. This is the language of the cult of man and the “human rights” paradigm condemned by Pius IX. Error #58 of the Syllabus declares: “All the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches by every possible means, and the gratification of pleasure.” While not advocating greed, the focus on multi-million dollar budgets and “financial capacity” as the primary criterion for a “Catholic” mission reduces the Church to a corporate entity. It is a direct manifestation of the “errors concerning civil society” listed in the Syllabus, where the temporal power is exalted and the spiritual is subordinated to financial viability.
The genuine Catholic mission, as defined by Quas Primas, is not about “reviving a campus” but about the salvation of souls through the unbloody sacrifice of Calvary, the sacraments, and the preaching of the entire moral law. Pius XI wrote that the Kingdom of Christ “is opposed only to the kingdom of Satan and the powers of darkness – and 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.” There is zero mention of the cross, the sacraments, the necessity of grace, or the horror of mortal sin in Bhakta’s proposal. The “spiritual revival” is a naturalistic humanism in Catholic-sounding clothing. It is the very “dogmaless Christianity” and “broad and liberal Protestantism” St. Pius X condemned in Lamentabili sane exitu, Proposition 65: “Contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism.”
III. The “Lukewarm Faith” Critique: A Modernist Trap
Bhakta’s criticism of the “lukewarm version of our faith, which is in vogue in many places,” is superficially appealing but fundamentally deceptive. It accepts the Modernist premise that there is a spectrum of “versions” of the faith, some “stiff” and authentic, others “lukewarm” and inauthentic. This is a denial of the unity and immutability of Catholic doctrine. St. Pius X, in his encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis (1907), identified this as a Modernist tactic: “They [Modernists] assert that the Church has shown herself to be an obstacle to progress… They assert that the Church must be brought into line with the modern world.” The dichotomy between “lukewarm” and “stiff old brew” is a false one, created by the Modernists themselves to make their own errors seem like a moderate middle ground.
The true Catholic faith is not a “brew” to be taken “stiff” or “lukewarm.” It is a supernatural deposit to be believed in its totality, under pain of mortal sin. Error #21 of the Syllabus states: “The revelation which is the object of Catholic faith did not cease with the Apostles.” The “faith” of the conciliar sect is indeed “lukewarm” because it has been emptied of its supernatural content through the “evolution of dogma” and the “hermeneutics of continuity.” Bhakta’s desired “stiff old brew” is a nostalgic illusion if it does not include the entire doctrinal, liturgical, and disciplinary tradition of the Church as it existed before the robber council of Vatican II. His call for “capital T truth” is hollow without the explicit rejection of the false ecumenism, religious liberty, and collegiality of the conciliar sect, all of which are condemned by the Syllabus (e.g., Errors #15-18 on Indifferentism) and by Lamentabili.
IV. The Omission of the Social Kingship and the “Enemies Within”
The article is silent on the most critical issue: the public, legal, and social reign of Jesus Christ. This silence is itself a damning accusation. As St. Pius X warned in his motu proprio E Supremi (1903), the “enemies of the Church” are not only external but “within her bosom.” The Syllabus, in its preface, laments that “the present misfortune must mainly be imputed to the frauds and machinations of these sects” (referring to Masonry). The conciliar sect, by embracing the principles of the French Revolution (religious liberty, separation of Church and State), has made its peace with the “enemies within” and thus cannot possibly foster a true “revival.”
A genuine Catholic revival, as per Quas Primas, would require the excommunication and deposition of all modernist clerics who deny Christ’s kingship. It would require the re-establishment of Catholic states where the Social Kingship of Christ is recognized in constitutions and laws. It would require the condemnation of the errors of Vatican II, especially Dignitatis Humanae (religious liberty) and Nostra Aetate (false ecumenism). The donor’s vision, by seeking to work within the structures of the conciliar sect (dioceses, “Catholic colleges”), is complicit in the apostasy. It is like trying to “revive” a body by perfuming a corpse. The Syllabus, Error #23, condemns: “Roman pontiffs and ecumenical councils have wandered outside the limits of their powers, have usurped the rights of princes, and have even erred in defining matters of faith and morals.” The very bodies Bhakta considers legitimate (“dioceses”) are, in the integral Catholic view, occupied by heretics and schismatics, as proven by their public adherence to conciliar errors.
V. The “Catholic Nonprofit” Mirage and the Sedevacantist Reality
The article assumes the existence of legitimate “Catholic nonprofits,” dioceses, and religious orders. This is a fatal error of fact. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, the See of Peter has been vacant since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. The line of antipopes from John XXIII through the current usurper “Pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) are all manifest heretics and thus, by divine law, incapable of holding office. As St. Robert Bellarmine, cited in the provided Defense of Sedevacantism, states: “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.” The 1917 Code of Canon Law, Canon 188.4, confirms: “Every office becomes vacant by the mere fact… if the cleric: … 4. Publicly defects from the Catholic faith.”
Therefore, any “diocese” or “religious order” in communion with the conciliar sect is a paramasonic structure occupying Catholic property and titles. Any “Catholic nonprofit” approved by such bodies is necessarily contaminated by the same modernist errors. Bhakta’s search for a “suitable Catholic nonprofit” is a search for a needle in a haystack of apostasy. The only legitimate Catholic entities are those which reject the conciliar sect and its antipopes, profess the integral faith as defined before 1958, and are in communion with the (unknown) true Catholic hierarchy that must exist somewhere in the Church’s invisible remnant. The donor’s entire premise is built on the falsehood that the conciliar “Church” is the Catholic Church. This is the “great apostasy” foretold by St. Paul (2 Thess 2:3) and identified by St. Pius X as Modernism, “the synthesis of all heresies.”
VI. The “Capital T Truth” That Must Be Rejected
Bhakta’s desire for “capital T truth” is ironically subverted by his own framework. The “truth” he seeks, if it is to be Catholic, must be the whole truth, which includes:
- The Social Kingship of Christ over all nations, requiring Catholic states and the rejection of religious liberty (Syllabus, Errors #15, #77).
- The infallibility and immutability of the Catholic Faith, condemned by Modernism (Lamentabili, Props. 58-65).
- The exclusive salvific nature of the Catholic Church: “Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus” (Syllabus, Error #16 condemned).
- The necessity of the sacraments for salvation, especially Baptism and the Eucharist, which are profaned in the conciliar sect’s new rites.
- The absolute prohibition of interfaith worship and false ecumenism (Syllabus, Errors #15-18; Lamentabili, Props. 21-23).
- The duty to resist and reject the conciliar “popes” and their modernist doctrines, as they are manifest heretics (Bellarmine, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio).
None of these non-negotiables are mentioned. The “truth” is reduced to a generic, inoffensive Christianity that can coexist with the “lukewarm” version it claims to oppose. This is the ultimate triumph of Modernism: to make the rejection of Modernism appear as a mere matter of “style” or “intensity” rather than a matter of doctrinal substance. The donor wants the “stiff old brew” but without the intoxicating—and world-condemning—doctrines that made the pre-1958 Church a target of the “synagogue of Satan” (as Pius IX called the Masons in the Syllabus’s concluding paragraph).
Conclusion: A Gift to the Conciliar Sect, Not the Catholic Church
The proposed donation is not a gift to the Catholic Church but to the conciliar sect. It will perpetuate the very “lukewarm” faith it decries by funding institutions that are, in principle, committed to the errors of Vatican II. The “spiritual revival” will be a revival of naturalistic religiosity, not a supernatural restoration of the Kingdom of Christ in its fullness. The donor’s financial and operational criteria are the criteria of a business, not of the Mystical Body of Christ, which “is not built on financial capacity but on the foundation of the Apostles” (Eph 2:20), and which has always thrived on persecution and poverty, not multi-million dollar endowments.
The only “revival” that can save souls is one that begins with the solemn, public, and unconditional rejection of the conciliar “popes” and their errors, the return to the unadulterated Roman Rite and all pre-1958 doctrine and discipline, and the establishment of Catholic social order where Christ is explicitly proclaimed King of kings and Lord of lords in constitutions and laws. Anything less is a collaboration with the “enemies within” and a squandering of resources on the sinking ship of the neo-church. The donor’s noble intention is tragically misdirected, a victim of the “deception” and “astute frauds” of the Masonic-inspired Modernist revolution that has occupied the Vatican since the death of Pius XII.
Source:
Historic Vermont campus offered free to Catholic nonprofit by donor (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 27.02.2026