The Conciliar Sect’s False Hope: A “Renewal” Built on Apostasy
The cited article from EWTN News reports a significant increase in catechumens preparing for baptism in France, particularly among young people, and attributes this trend to a reaction against societal superficiality and a desire for the “truth” found in the preaching of the traditional Catholic faith. It highlights the role of the Institute of the Good Shepherd (IBP) seminary and the Traditional Latin Mass in attracting converts. The article concludes with a message of optimism, suggesting this phenomenon proves the Catholic Church is “always alive” and “fruitful” as long as priests preach with fidelity.
Factual Deconstruction: A Schismatic Institute and a Phantom Church
The article presents the Institute of the Good Shepherd (IBP) as a legitimate Catholic institution. This is a fatal omission. The IBP, while using the traditional rite, is in full canonical communion with the post-conciliar hierarchy in Rome, which has been proven to be occupied by a series of manifest heretics. Therefore, it is a schismatic structure within the conciliar sect, not a part of the una sancta catholica et apostolica Ecclesia. Its sacraments, while potentially valid in form, are illicit and administered within a false ecclesial communion that denies the exclusive reign of Christ the King over all nations, as Pius XI demanded in Quas Primas.
Furthermore, the article’s central statistic—a projected 20,000 baptisms—is presented as a triumph. Yet, it ignores the fundamental Catholic principle that baptism administered within a heretical or schismatic community is valid only if the proper form and intention are preserved, but it does not incorporate the recipient into the true Church if the community itself is not Catholic. As the 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 87) and the decrees of the Holy Office make clear, baptism alone does not suffice for salvation if one remains in a false religious community. The article’s joy over numbers is a naturalistic, sociological celebration that bypasses the supernatural necessity of being in the corpus mysticum of the true Church, outside of which there is no salvation (cf. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus).
Linguistic Analysis: The Language of Naturalistic Optimism
The article’s tone is one of cautious optimism and pastoral warmth, employing phrases like “thirst of their souls,” “spiritual awakening,” and “Church of Our Lord is always alive.” This language is symptomatic of the post-conciliar “hermeneutics of continuity,” which seeks to find signs of life within a corpse. The use of “Our Lord” and “Catholic Church” is deliberately ambiguous, applying these titles to the conciliar structure that has systematically dismantled Catholic doctrine. The article silently assumes the legitimacy of the current “papacy” and the post-Vatican II hierarchy, thereby accepting the foundational error of modernism. The linguistic choice to describe the phenomenon as a “reaction to a society that’s not finding answers” reduces the supernatural crisis of faith to a psychological or sociological one, aligning perfectly with the errors condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus (Error 3: “Human reason… is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood”).
Theological Confrontation: Christ’s Kingship vs. the Conciliar Desert
The article’s core error is its implicit denial of the mystery of iniquity (2 Thess. 2:7) and the definitive apostasy foretold by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. It presents a narrative of organic growth within the “Church,” while the truth is that the visible structure governing the Vatican has been perverted.
* **On the Social Reign of Christ the King:** Pius XI, in Quas Primas, declared that “the entire human society had to be shaken, because it lacked a stable and strong foundation” when “God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states.” The article celebrates a “thirst” that leads to the conciliar structures, which explicitly deny the social kingship of Christ through documents like Dignitatis Humanae (religious liberty) and Nostra Aetate (religious indifferentism). The converts are being led into a community that has officially embraced the errors of the Syllabus, particularly Error 15 (“Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion…”) and Error 77 (“In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State”). Therefore, their “thirst” is being directed to a poisoned well.
* **On the Necessity of the True Hierarchy:** The article mentions priests and a seminary but omits the essential condition for legitimate priestly formation: submission to a valid, Catholic bishop. The bishops of the Institute of the Good Shepherd are in communion with the “bishop” of Rome, whom sedevacantist theology, based on St. Robert Bellarmine and Canon 188.4, demonstrates to be a manifest heretic and thus ipso facto deposed. As Bellarmine stated: “A manifest heretic… is not a Christian… therefore, a manifest heretic cannot be Pope.” The “priest” quoted, Fr. Strapazzon, operates within this invalid hierarchical structure. His “fidelity” is a fidelity to a modernist interpretation of tradition, not to the unchanging Faith.
* **On the Nature of the Church:** The article’s concluding claim that “the Church of Our Lord is always alive” is a direct contradiction of Christ’s own prophecy that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). The “Church” that prevails is the one that preserves the Faith intact. The post-conciliar structure has propagated the errors of modernism, which St. Pius X called “the synthesis of all heresies” in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and condemned in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (Propositions 21-26, 54-65). Therefore, it is not the Church. The article’s optimism is a diabolical deception, offering a “form of godliness” while denying the power thereof (2 Tim. 3:5).
Symptomatic Analysis: The Modernist Strategy of “Re-Sacralization”
This article is a classic example of the conciliar sect’s strategy to retain the faithful by creating a pseudo-traditionalist enclave that appears Catholic but is fundamentally neutered. The focus on the Traditional Latin Mass, while good in itself, is severed from its necessary context: the profession of the integral, anti-modernist Faith and rejection of the post-conciliar hierarchy. The IBP and similar groups are allowed to exist as a “safety valve,” giving traditionalists the illusion of a Catholic home while keeping them within the conciliar communion that embraces ecumenism and religious liberty.
The article’s omission of any mention of the Sede Vacante, the manifest heresies of the last eight “popes,” or the absolute necessity of rejecting the Second Vatican Council is not accidental; it is the very point. It promotes a “religion of the spirit” detached from doctrinal purity and hierarchical integrity. This aligns perfectly with the Modernist error condemned by St. Pius X: “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). The article treats the “conversions” as an end in themselves, not as souls being incorporated into the one true fold of Christ, which exists only in those communities that maintain the Faith of all time and reject the conciliar errors.
Exposure of the Bankruptcy: A Call to the True Remnant
The “thirst” spoken of is real, but the article’s proposed solution is a mirage. The true answer to this thirst is not the conciliar sect’s “traditionalist” wing, but the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church as it existed before the death of Pope Pius XII. The true Church is found in the remnant that recognizes the sede vacante, rejects the VATICAN II “reforms” as heretical, and receives sacraments from priests and bishops who are in communion with no heretic.
The article’s silence on the following is damning:
1. The explicit condemnation of religious liberty by Pius IX (Syllabus, Errors 15-18) and its ratification by Vatican I.
2. The requirement for the public and solemn consecration of nations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as demanded by Christ to Sister Lucy of Fatima (a message the article’s framework file correctly identifies as a “Masonic operation,” but whose core request—consecration of Russia—remains a Catholic duty rejected by the conciliar popes).
3. The absolute necessity of the state’s recognition of Christ the King as its sole sovereign, as taught by Pius XI in Quas Primas, a doctrine utterly repudiated by the conciliar sect’s embrace of secular democracy.
The converts described are being catechized into a new religion—a hybrid of pre-1958 practices and post-1958 heresies. They are being taught to be “Catholic” while accepting the foundational errors of modernism. This is not a revival; it is a sophisticated form of apostasy, dressing the old truths in a new, compromised context.
Conclusion: The article is a pastoral lie. It offers hope where there is only peril. The “new generation of catechumens” is being led into the conciliar wilderness, not into the Promised Land of the true Church. Their thirst will not be quenched by the diluted sacraments and ambiguous doctrine of the IBP or any other group in communion with the antipopes. The only path to salvation is the via antiqua: the integral Catholic Faith, the traditional liturgy, and the hierarchy of the Church as it existed before the avalanche of modernism, outside of which there is no remission of sins, no valid sacraments in a proper ecclesial context, and no hope of eternal life. The article’s silence on this truth makes it an instrument of deception, not of evangelization.
Source:
‘Thirst of their souls’ is awakening a new generation of catechumens in France, priest says (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 23.03.2026