Archaeological Tourism and the Eclipse of Catholic Doctrine
[Vatican News] reports on a pilgrimage to Jordan led by “Father” Francesco Giosuè Voltaggio, a professor of Sacred Scripture within the post-conciliar structures, which produced a podcast series. The article describes the journey through biblical landscapes like Wadi Rum, Mount Nebo, the Jabbok stream, and the Jordan River baptism site, emphasizing archaeological, historical, and catechetical insights. Participants and modern clerics, including the Apostolic Nuncio to Jordan and Cyprus, Archbishop Giovanni Pietro dal Toso, testify to the spiritual benefits of connecting Scripture to place. The common thread, according to Voltaggio, is “Christian initiation,” shaped on the stages of Israel in the desert, framing the whole of Christian life as a “paschal itinerary.” The narrative celebrates the discovery of Byzantine churches at the baptism site and the 2025 consecration of a new church there, entrusted to the Institute of the Incarnate Word. The pilgrimage concludes with visits to Hellenistic cities of the Decapolis, highlighting the peaceful conquest of the Empire through apostolic preaching.
This presentation of a pilgrimage is not a Catholic endeavor but a meticulously crafted naturalistic and modernist spectacle. It replaces the supernatural end of man—the vision of God in Heaven—with an immanent focus on historical-geographical experience, psychological renewal, and ecumenical sentiment. The entire account is a symptom of the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place, where the language of faith is emptied of its dogmatic content and repackaged as a feel-good, experience-based tourism product. The omission of any reference to the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation, the reality of mortal sin, the sacramental system instituted by Christ, or the absolute primacy of the Incarnate Word’s reign over all nations is not accidental; it is the very essence of the conciliar revolution’s project to reduce Catholicism to a vague theism compatible with modernist errors.
The Naturalistic Reduction of Sacred Space
The article’s core error is its reduction of holy places to mere archaeological and psychological catalysts. The desert is described as a place of “silence, where God speaks to the heart,” but there is no mention of the desert as a figure of penance, of combat against the world, the flesh, and the devil, or of the purifying trials that lead to sanctifying grace. The focus is on “wonder” and “renewing faith” through immersion in “living reality.” This is pure immanentism. Pre-1958 Catholic theology, grounded in St. Thomas Aquinas, held that sacred places derive their holiness exclusively from the sacraments and liturgical worship performed there, not from their geological or historical attributes. The article’s silence on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being the central act of any true pilgrimage is deafening. A Catholic pilgrimage, as taught by the Church Fathers and codified in canon law, is ordered to the worship of God, the gaining of indulgences, and the increase of sanctifying grace. What is described is a biblical-themed retreat for the conciliar sect, devoid of sacrificial worship and oriented toward subjective experience.
The pilgrimage’s stage at the Jordan River is recounted, at the site of Jesus’ Baptism, which, as Father Voltaggio recalls, “is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of recent times: ancient Byzantine churches have been found and sites described by the earliest pilgrims have been brought to light.”
The exclamation over “archaeological discoveries” reveals the true object of veneration: not the Incarnate Word who sanctified the waters, but the remains of human piety. This inverts the Catholic order. The Council of Trent (Sess. VII, Can. 1 on Baptism) defined Baptism as the instrument of regeneration that “washes away original sin and actual sins.” The article mentions baptism only in the context of tourism and historical reconstruction. The Baptism of Our Lord is reduced to a site to be visited, not a mystery to be adored and a sacrament to be received with proper disposition. The new church consecrated in 2025 is presented as an achievement, yet the “Institute of the Incarnate Word” is a post-conciliar community operating within the conciliar structures; its sacraments, while potentially valid in form, are administered in a context of public schism and heresy, thus rendering them illicit and, for the recipients, often sacrilegious due to the lack of proper faith and communion with the true Church.
The Omission of the Social Kingship of Christ
The entire pilgrimage narrative is a studied avoidance of the doctrine of the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ, defined with such clarity by Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas. The article speaks of “renewing one’s faith” and feeling “connected to the universal Church,” but it never once mentions that Christ must reign in the minds, wills, and hearts of individuals, families, and states. This is not an oversight; it is a deliberate exclusion of the “plague of secularism” that Pius XI condemned. The pilgrims walk the paths of the Old Testament and the routes of the Apostles, yet there is no call for the “public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ” by rulers and governments. There is no reminder that “when God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.”
Instead, the emphasis is on personal, interior experience and inter-Christian connection. The Apostolic Nuncio states: “For our Christians in Jordan, seeing Christians from the West come here, on pilgrimage, means feeling connected to the universal Church, feeling that they are not alone.” This is a naturalistic, sociological definition of “Church”. The “universal Church” in Catholic doctrine is the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church” founded by Christ, outside of which there is no salvation (cf. Lumen Gentium 14, but defined long before by the Fathers and Boniface VIII’s Unam Sanctam). The conciliar sect’s “universal Church” is a human organization based on external communion with the usurper in Rome, not on the unity of faith, sacraments, and hierarchical governance under a legitimate Pope. The feeling of “not being alone” is a psychological comfort, not the objective reality of being in “the communion of saints” through valid sacraments and orthodox faith.
The “Catechesis” of Indifferentism and the Suppression of Dogma
The podcast is said to provide “biblical, archaeological, historical and catechetical insights.” Yet the catechesis presented is a masterpiece of dogmatic vacuum. The Syllabus of Errors (1864) condemned proposition #16: “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation.” The article’s entire framework—a pilgrimage that can be appreciated by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, focusing on shared biblical roots—implicitly promotes this condemned indifferentism. The mention of the Decapolis and the “peaceful conquest” of the Empire through preaching is presented as a model for today, but stripped of its dogmatic content: the Apostles preached “Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2), demanding conversion from paganism and the worship of the One True God. The modern narrative reduces this to a generic “proclamation” and “conversion” to an undefined “Christ” or “Word.”
The article quotes Voltaggio: “The whole of Christian life is a paschal itinerary.” This is a deliberate ambiguity. In Catholic theology, the “paschal mystery” is the unique, unrepeatable sacrifice of Calvary, made present in the Mass. To say “Christian life is a paschal itinerary” without explicit reference to the “unbloody sacrifice of Calvary” and the necessity of “offering it up” in union with Christ, is to reduce Christianity to a moral journey of self-improvement. This is the essence of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and Lamentabili sane exitu. Proposition #26 of Lamentabili states: “The dogmas of faith should be understood according to their practical function, i.e., as binding in action, rather than as principles of belief.” The article’s catechesis is precisely this: a set of inspiring stories and places to “bind in action” (i.e., to foster feelings of connection and wonder), not a set of revealed truths to be believed.
The Heresy of “Christian Initiation” Apart from Sacramental Grace
The stated theme, “Christian initiation,” is presented as a process shaped on Israel’s desert journey. This is a return to the pre-Constantinian cateumenate stripped of its sacramental efficacy. The Church Fathers, especially St. Augustine, indeed used the Exodus as a type of Christian life, but always within the framework of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist as the non-negotiable, grace-conferring pillars of initiation. The article mentions “the golden age of the Catechumenate” but says nothing of the exorcisms, anointings, and the crucial administration of Baptism and Confirmation at the Easter Vigil. This omission is theological sabotage. It presents initiation as a “journey” of “stages” (desert, crossing Jordan, entering the land) that can be experienced spiritually through a pilgrimage, rather than as a sacramental event that imprints an indelible character and infuses sanctifying grace.
This aligns perfectly with the post-conciliar de-sacramentalization of Christian life. The “journey” metaphor, divorced from the sacraments, is the language of the “Church as People of God” and “communion” emphasized in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, which shifted focus from hierarchical, sacramental membership to a vague, horizontal community. For a Catholic, “Christian initiation” is complete only with the reception of the “sacraments of initiation” (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist) from a validly ordained priest in communion with a legitimate bishop. The podcast’s participants, likely including many who are not even Catholic in the proper sense (i.e., not in formal schism), are all implicitly treated as if they are on a level playing field of spiritual experience. This is the heresy of indifferentism in practice.
The “Apostolic Nuncio”: A Symbol of the Usurping Sect
The inclusion of “Archbishop” Giovanni Pietro dal Toso, the Apostolic Nuncio, is a particularly grotesque element. The Nuncio is a key official of the conciliar sect, serving the antipopes from John XXIII through the current usurper, Leo XIV (Robert Prevost). His presence sanctifies, in the eyes of the unwary, the entire modernist enterprise. His statement about Jordanian Christians feeling connected to the “universal Church” through such pilgrimages is a diabolical deception. The true Catholic Christians in Jordan (likely a small remnant) are in a state of “material schism” if they recognize the conciliar popes, or “formal schism” if they knowingly accept them. They are not connected to the “universal Church” in the sense of being in full communion with the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church”. They are part of a “sect” that occupies Catholic buildings and uses Catholic terminology while propagating heresy. The Nuncio, as a high official of this sect, is a public heretic and apostate, having presumably accepted the errors of Vatican II, religious liberty, ecumenism, and the new canon law. His blessing on this pilgrimage makes it an act of “synagogue of Satan” activity (Apoc. 2:9, 3:9), offering a counterfeit “Catholic” experience that leads souls away from the true, integral faith.
The article also mentions Father Sergio Perez of the Institute of the Incarnate Word. This group, like the Nuncio’s diplomatic service, operates within the conciliar framework. Their administration of sacraments, while potentially valid in matter and form, is “illicit” and, given the general state of heresy and schism in the post-conciliar hierarchy, likely “suspicious” in terms of intention and fruit. The consecration of a new church in 2025 is a triumph of the “new church”, a building for the celebration of the invalid Novus Ordo “mass” and the reception of invalid “communion” by those in mortal sin. It is a monument to apostasy, not to the glory of God.
The Heresy of “Peaceful Conquest” and the Denial of the Church’s Warfare
The article’s closing reflection on the Decapolis is perhaps its most theologically bankrupt moment:
“These very roads… were travelled by the Apostles themselves. Just think of Saint Paul. We need only recall that Paul alone covered more than 15,000 kilometres along the roads of the Empire. And so, gradually, Christianity entered the Empire itself and conquered it from within: a peaceful conquest thanks to the proclamation, the preaching and the conversion of the first believers who embraced Christ, the kerygma, His Word.”
This is a deliberate falsification of history and theology. The spread of Christianity was not a “peaceful conquest” in the sense of a genteel, conflict-free dissemination of ideas. The Apostles and early Christians faced “persecution from the Jews and the Gentiles”, were “stoned, imprisoned, and killed”. The “conquest” was spiritual and supernatural, won through the “blood of the martyrs” and the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17), but it involved “warfare” (2 Cor. 10:3-5) against principalities and powers, and often against earthly powers that sought to exterminate the Church. The article’s sanitized version erases the “millitant” character of the Church, which is “militant” on earth precisely because it is engaged in constant battle against error, heresy, and the world.
More importantly, it presents the model for today: “peaceful conquest” through “proclamation” and “conversion” to an undefined “kerygma.” This is the “new evangelization” of the conciliar sect, which rejects the “crusading spirit” and the duty of Catholic rulers to “defend the faith” and “punish heretics” (as defined by the Decretals and the Council of Constance). It promotes a “dialogue” model where all religions are respected as paths to God, directly contradicting the Syllabus (Props. 15-18) and the teaching of Pope Pius IX in Quanto conficiamur. The “roads” of the Decapolis are now the “roads” of ecumenical and interreligious encounter, where the “kerygma” is watered down to avoid “offense.”
The Silence of the Damned: What is Not Said
The most damning aspect of the article is its “silence about supernatural matters”, which the instructions correctly identify as “the gravest accusation.” In a text about a Catholic pilgrimage to the Holy Land, there is not a single mention of:
- The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: The unbloody re-presentation of Calvary, the source and summit of the Church’s life. No Mass is described, no altar is mentioned as the center of the pilgrimage.
- The Sacraments: Especially Penance (necessary for the remission of sins committed after Baptism) and the Eucharist (the true Food of the soul). The article mentions baptism only as a historical site.
- The State of Grace: The necessity of being in a state of sanctifying grace to merit Heaven. No call to confession, no warning about mortal sin.
- The Final Judgment: The article’s eschatology is purely this-worldly (“renewing faith,” “feeling connected”). There is no mention of “death, judgment, heaven, and hell.”
- The Primacy of Peter: No reference to the Pope as Vicar of Christ, no prayer for the legitimate Pope (whose See is vacant). The “universal Church” is a geographic and sociological concept, not a hierarchical one centered on the Roman Pontiff.
- The Errors of Modernism: No condemnation of religious liberty, ecumenism, the evolution of dogma, or the democratization of the Church. The entire framework assumes these errors.
This silence is not neutral; it is doctrinally satanic. It creates a Catholicism without the Cross, without sacrifice, without the necessity of the Church, without judgment. It is the “kerygma” of the “Church of the New Advent”: a feel-good, experience-based, archaeologically-anchored spirituality that is utterly compatible with Freemasonry’s natural religion. As St. Pius X taught in Pascendi, the Modernist “renews all things in Christ” by making Christ a vague “immanent” principle, not the “transcendent” Judge and King who demands the submission of intellect and will to His revealed law.
Conclusion: A Pilgrimage to Nowhere
The pilgrimage described is a journey into the “spiritual desert” of Modernism. It uses the language of Scripture and the allure of Holy Land geography to lead souls away from the “narrow way” of Catholic dogma and sacramental life. It is a perfect expression of the conciliar sect’s strategy: retain the “shell” of Catholic piety (pilgrimages, biblical sites, beautiful churches) while emptying it of the “kernel” of supernatural truth and grace. The participants may feel a temporary emotional uplift, but they will not receive sanctifying grace, they will not be fortified against error, and they will not be prepared for death. Instead, they will be further inoculated against the necessity of the “one, true Church” and the “social reign of Christ the King.”
True Catholic pilgrimage, as defined by the “immutable Tradition”, is ordered to the “unbloody sacrifice of Calvary”, to the veneration of the “true relics of the saints” (not archaeological sites), and to the increase of “sanctifying grace” through the sacraments. It involves “penance, prayer, and almsgiving”, not merely meditation on landscapes. It culminates in the “Holy Mass” and the reception of “Holy Communion” on the tongue, from a validly ordained, Catholic priest who is not in schism. The podcast and its pilgrimage are a counterfeit, a “whitewashed tomb” (Matt. 23:27) of naturalistic humanism. The faithful are called not to such empty journeys, but to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12), to detest the errors of Modernism, and to seek the “one fold and one shepherd” (John 10:16) in the remnant of the true Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.
Source:
In the footsteps of Scripture: a pilgrimage to Jordan becomes a podcast (vaticannews.va)
Date: 23.03.2026