The EWTN news portal reports on a February 19, 2026, address by the current occupant of the Vatican, “Pope Leo XIV,” to the clergy of the Diocese of Rome. The speaker urged young priests facing crisis to “share their fatigue” and not isolate themselves, to “rekindle the fire” of their ministry through creativity, communal work, and a renewed focus on evangelization, especially among youth. The tone is therapeutic and managerial, emphasizing personal well-being, adaptability, and engagement with contemporary social and virtual realities. The article concludes with a sharp thesis: this pastoral program is not a remedy for crisis but the very essence of the apostasy that has consumed the post-conciliar structure, a naturalistic humanism utterly alien to the unchangeable Catholic faith.
Theological Omission: The Unspoken Dogma of Christ’s Kingship
The entire address operates within a vacuum of supernatural truth. There is not a single mention of the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation, the horror of mortal sin, the reality of Hell, or the absolute duty of every human society to publicly recognize and obey Our Lord Jesus Christ as King. This silence is not accidental; it is the hallmark of Modernism, condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (Proposition 63: “The Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadfastly adheres to its views, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress”). The “fire” to be rekindled is not the fire of divine charity that consumes souls for God’s glory, but the tepid embers of institutional maintenance and psychological resilience.
Pius XI, in his sublime encyclical Quas Primas (1925), established the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the exact error promulgated here. He declared that the “plague” of his time was “the secularism of our times, so-called laicism,” which “began with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The Pope taught that Christ’s reign “encompasses all men” and that “the state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations” only because they serve Christ’s Kingdom. He warned rulers that they have a “duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him,” for “His royal dignity demands that all relations in the state be ordered on the basis of God’s commandments and Christian principles.” The modernist “pope” says nothing of this. His “evangelization” is a vague “reconnection with the promise of Jesus,” devoid of the content defined by the Council of Trent: the necessity of baptism for salvation, the obligation to believe all defined dogmas, and the duty of states to profess the Catholic faith. This is the “indifferentism” condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (Proposition 16: “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation”).
Linguistic Decay: From Supernatural Warfare to Therapeutic Management
The language of the address is a clinical study in naturalism. Words like “fatigue,” “crisis,” “loneliness,” “frustration,” “existential unease,” “aggressiveness,” and “virtual world” frame the priestly vocation as a psychological profession. The recommended solutions are “sharing,” “dialogue,” “creativity,” “experimenting with other ways,” and “welcoming.” This is the language of the psychologist’s office, not the language of the Church militant. Compare this to the unyielding, supernatural tone of Pius XI: “May all men… allow themselves to be governed by Christ. Then at last… so many wounds can be healed, then there will be hope that the law will regain its former authority, sweet peace will return again, swords and weapons will fall from hands.” The modernist document speaks of “rekindling fire” through “enthusiasm” and “apostolate,” while Pius XI speaks of the “sweet yoke of Christ” and conforming life “to the laws of the Divine Kingdom.” One is Pelagian optimism; the other is Catholic supernaturalism.
Ecclesiological Subversion: “Communion” Without Truth
The speaker exhorts priests to “work together, avoiding solitary action and the temptation of self-referentiality,” and to foster “greater coordination.” This slogan of “communion” is the watchword of the conciliar sect, used to suppress doctrinal clarity and enforce uniformity of practice while allowing a thousand heresies. True Catholic communion is founded on the profession of the same integral faith, as defined by the Oath Against Modernism (Pius X, 1910): “I… shall hold, profess, and observe the doctrine… which the Catholic Church has defined and declared.” The “coordination” demanded here is the coordination of apostasy, the pooling of resources for a “new evangelization” that, as per the document, explicitly seeks “ways… even outside the traditional paths.” This directly contradicts Pius IX’s condemnation: “The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion” (Syllabus, Prop. 21) is an error, yet the practical program of “dialogue” and “engagement” assumes exactly that the Catholic religion is not uniquely true.
Evangelization Redefined: From Conversion to Accompaniment
The core directive is to place “proclaiming the Gospel anew” at the center, but the content is emptied. It is not about converting nations to the one true faith, but about “helping people reconnect with the promise of Jesus” and “experimenting with other ways of transmitting the faith.” This is the “synthesis of all heresies” (Pius X, Pascendi Dominici gregis, 1907) in action. Modernism, as defined by Pius X, holds that “the dogmas which the Church proposes as revealed are not truths of divine origin but are a certain interpretation of religious facts” (Lamentabili, Prop. 22). Therefore, “transmitting the faith” becomes a malleable “accompaniment” of subjective “promises,” not the authoritative deposit of faith to be believed under pain of damnation. The ARTICLE’s silence on the damning truth that “outside the Church there is no salvation” (Council of Florence) is its most damning feature. Pius XI, in Quas Primas, quoting Leo XIII, stated that Christ’s reign “encompasses also all non-Christians,” not because they are saved in their errors, but because they are subject to His judicial authority and must be converted. The modernist “evangelization” has no such goal; its goal is “engagement” and “welcome,” a subtle form of the indifferentism Pius IX anathematized.
The Youth Obsession: A Modernist Idol
The disproportionate focus on “young people” and their “virtual world” and “aggressiveness” reveals the true god of the post-conciliar sect: the homo novus, the autonomous, self-realizing individual. The pastoral method is tailored to the “potential and struggles of their generation,” not to the immutable truths of God. This is the “cult of man” condemned by Pius XI in Quadragesimo Anno (1931) and the “evolution of dogma” condemned by Pius X. Where is the call to form young people in the rigorous asceticism of the Gospel? Where is the call to detach them from the world, to embrace the Cross, to fight concupiscence? Instead, we are told to “understand and interpret the profound existential unease” and “share a little of their lives.” This is the pastoral of the therapist, not the apostle. It is the exact opposite of St. Pius X’s warning in Lamentabili against those who “overstep the boundaries set by the Fathers of the Church” and seek a “development of dogmas” that is “their corruption” (I. On the False Striving for Novelty).
The “Fire” That Is Not: A Heresy of the Will
The central metaphor, “rekindle the fire,” is profoundly heretical in its context. In Catholic theology, the “fire” of charity is a supernatural habit infused by God, nourished by the sacraments (especially Holy Mass and Confession), and protected by the theological virtues. It is not a psychological state to be “rekindled” through peer support and creative experiments. The address completely omits the sacramental system as the sole ordinary means of grace. There is no mention of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the true and unique re-presentation of Calvary, the source and summit of the Church’s life. There is no mention of Confession as the necessary tribunal for the remission of sins. This omission is a denial of the entire Catholic religion. Pius XI, in Quas Primas, grounded Christ’s kingship in the hypostatic union and in the Redemption: “Christ… as Redeemer acquired the Church with His Blood.” The modernist “fire” has no connection to the Blood of Christ; it is a purely immanent, human energy. This aligns with Lamentabili, Prop. 25: “Faith, as assent of the mind, is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities.” The “fire” is probabilistic enthusiasm, not the firm assent of faith to revealed dogma.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation Speaks
This address is not a call to priestly renewal; it is a manifesto of apostasy. It systematically replaces the supernatural, hierarchical, missionary, and sacrificial Catholic Church with a naturalistic, communitarian, therapeutic, and experiment-driven “community of believers.” Every sentence breathes the spirit of the “modernist” condemned by St. Pius X: the disdain for “the old scholastic doctors” (Lamentabili, Prop. 13), the reduction of faith to “practical function” (Prop. 26), the denial of the Church’s right to define doctrine (Prop. 4), and the focus on “the needs of the present times” over the immutable past. The “pope” who delivers this speech is a usurper, and the “clergy” who listen are, for the most part, accomplices in the destruction of the Mystical Body. They speak of “fatigue” while the souls of millions perish for lack of knowledge. They speak of “creativity” while the unchanging Truth of God is buried under a mountain of subjective experiments. They speak of “communion” while they are in formal schism with the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, which endures only in those who reject the entire conciliar revolution and its spirit. The only “fire” that needs rekindling is the fire of divine zeal to convert nations, to destroy heresy, and to restore the Social Reign of Christ the King—a fire utterly extinguished in the conciliar sect. The faithful must flee this “abomination of desolation” (Matt. 24:15) and seek refuge in the traditional Faith, outside the walls of the neo-church.
Source:
Pope Leo encourages young priests in crisis to share their fatigue (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 19.02.2026