The article from EWTN News, dated March 16, 2026, reports that the antipope known as “Pope Leo XIV” will accept the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center (NCC) via telecast on July 3, 2026. The award is presented in honor of his “commitment to religious freedom and freedom of conscience and expression around the world,” during the 250th anniversary of American independence. The NCC chair states the antipope’s “moral leadership” embodies the American principle that “liberty of conscience is essential to human freedom and self-government.” The interim CEO of the NCC adds that the “first American pope … really represents those ideals” of religious liberty as a “bedrock” of the U.S. Constitution. The article further notes this event is part of a secular celebration including concerts and fireworks, and that the antipope will also visit Lampedusa to address migration. The thesis is clear: the post-conciliar sect’s head is being celebrated by a secular American institution for promoting the very indifferentism and separation of Church and State solemnly condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium.
The Naturalistic Reduction of the Church’s Mission
The article frames the antipope’s actions within the secular, Enlightenment-derived narrative of “religious freedom” as a universal human right. This is a direct repudiation of the sola fide Catholic doctrine that the one true religion alone possesses the exclusive path to salvation. The NCC’s statement that the antipope advocates “inclusion for all people, regardless of their faith” is a paraphrase of the modernist error condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Error 15) and “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Error 16). The article’s entire premise rests on the falsehood that the state must be neutral among religions, a notion Pius IX anathematized as “indifferentism.” The antipope’s acceptance of an award for this principle is a public act of apostasy, confirming he is a manifest heretic who, per the theological doctrine cited in the Defense of Sedevacantism file, has ipso facto lost the papacy. St. Robert Bellarmine’s teaching is unequivocal: a manifest heretic “ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian.”
The Omission of Christ the King’s Public Reign
The most damning silence in the article is the complete absence of Our Lord Jesus Christ as King of nations. This omission is not accidental but theological. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas—which the article’s framework requires as the unchanging standard—declares that the feast of Christ the King was instituted precisely to combat the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism.” Pius XI writes that when “God and Jesus Christ … were removed from laws and states … the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” He commands that “the annual celebration of this solemnity will also remind states that not only private individuals, but also rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” The article celebrates an antipope who receives an award for promoting a “freedom” that explicitly excludes the public, legal reign of Christ the King, thereby perpetuating the very error Pius XI condemned. The NCC’s focus on the American founding documents, which enshrine religious indifferentism, is the antithesis of Catholic social teaching. Pius XI states that “the Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men” and that rulers must “publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” The antipope’s participation in a ceremony glorifying a state that denies Christ’s kingship is a scandalous repudiation of this doctrine.
The Promotion of Ecumenical Relativism
The article’s language of “religious liberty” and “inclusion for all people, regardless of their faith” is the precise ecumenical and relativistic project warned against in the False Fatima Apparitions file’s section on “ECUMENISM PROJECT.” That file notes how imprecise formulations “open the way to religious relativism” and “serve to legitimize dialogue with schismatic Orthodoxy.” Here, the antipope is lauded for a “commitment” that, in practice, means treating all religions as equal paths to God—a direct contradiction of the Syllabus (Error 18: “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion”). The NCC’s event will “bring other faith leaders into the event to contribute to interfaith dialogue,” which is the modernist “dialogue” condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici gregis as a means to “undermine the foundations of the Catholic religion.” The antipope’s endorsement of this dialogue, by accepting an award from an institution promoting it, is a formal adherence to the “synthesis of all heresies” that is Modernism.
The Symbolism of Americanism and Its Condemnation
The location and context are laden with symbolic import that the article treats as neutral but is, in fact, a repudiation of Catholic doctrine. The award is given on Independence Mall, near the Liberty Bell, celebrating the American Revolution—a political order founded on Enlightenment principles of religious freedom and separation of Church and State. Pope Pius IX condemned these principles in the Syllabus: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55) and “It is not lawful for the civil authority to hinder the public exercise of any cult whatsoever” (Error 79). The NCC chair’s statement that America “understood liberty of conscience as essential to human freedom and self-government” is a direct quote of the Americanist error that Pius IX condemned. The antipope’s virtual presence at this event, accepting an award for embodying these principles, is a public confirmation that the post-conciliar sect has fully embraced the errors of the American and French revolutions, which Pius IX called “pests” and “the synagogue of Satan.” The visit to Lampedusa further underscores his alignment with secular humanist migration policies over the supernatural good of souls and the rights of Christian nations.
The Linguistic and Rhetorical Markers of Apostasy
The article’s language is a study in modernist euphemism and naturalism. Phrases like “moral leadership,” “defense of religious freedom,” “dignity for all people,” and “inclusion for all people” are devoid of supernatural content. There is no mention of sin, heresy, the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation, or the duty of states to recognize Christ’s reign. This silence is the gravest accusation, as Pius XI in Quas Primas states that the plague of secularism began with “the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The article’s tone is celebratory and civic, treating the antipope as a moral figure in a pluralistic pantheon. This is the “cult of man” condemned by Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (Error 58: “all the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches … and the gratification of pleasure”) and the “natural religion” Pius IX condemned (Syllabus, Error 7). The rhetoric transforms the Vicar of Christ into a global civic dignitary, a role the true Church has always rejected as contrary to the spiritual and juridical authority of the Papacy over temporal affairs.
Symptomatic Fruit of the Conciliar Revolution
This event is not an anomaly but the logical culmination of the conciliar revolution’s embrace of the “hermeneutics of continuity” fraud. The post-conciliar “papacy” has systematically promoted religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio), and the “dialogue” with the world (Gaudium et Spes). The antipope Leo XIV’s acceptance of the Liberty Medal is the public coronation of this apostasy. It demonstrates that the “Church of the New Advent” has fully internalized the modernist principle that the Church must adapt to the “rights of man” as defined by secular revolutions. Pius IX’s Syllabus (Error 80) condemns the idea that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.” By accepting this award, the antipope publicly reconciles the “papacy” with American liberalism, thus proving he is a formal heretic and an enemy of the immutable Faith. The article’s presentation of this as a positive event exposes the complete theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the conciliar sect, which has exchanged the “sweet yoke of Christ” for the “yoke of the world,” as Pius XI warned in Quas Primas.
In conclusion, the article is a transparent celebration of the modernist, indifferentist, and Americanist errors solemnly condemned by Pius IX and Pius X. The antipope Leo XIV’s acceptance of the Liberty Medal is an act of public apostasy, confirming his status as a manifest heretic who has no part in the Catholic Church. The true Catholic, adhering to the integral Faith before 1958, must reject this spectacle with abhorrence and pray for the restoration of the true Papacy and the public reign of Christ the King over all nations.
Source:
Pope Leo XIV to accept Liberty Medal from National Constitution Center via telecast on July 3 (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 16.03.2026