VaticanNews reports on the conclusion of the public veneration of St. Francis of Assisi’s mortal remains in Assisi, which attracted over 370,000 pilgrims. The event, part of the 800th anniversary commemoration of the Saint’s death, culminated in a Mass celebrated by “Cardinal” Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. In his homily, Zuppi emphasized a message of “unarmed strength” born of the Resurrection, urging a rejection of “fighting evil with evil” in a time of individualism and conflict. He stated: “It is not force that rules the world, because love is the only one that can change it.” He presented St. Francis as a universal figure teaching “a love capable of recognizing every person as a brother,” calling for “builders of peace, disarmed and disarming witnesses,” who build “bridges where walls are raised” and embrace “dialogue as the only true defense of peace.” Fr. Marco Moroni, Custos of the Sacred Convent, described the gathering as “a fraternity of 370,000 people,” while Fr. Giulio Cesareo, Director of Communications, noted that pilgrims came not to see Francis but because “he, alive, called us to speak to our hearts and minds.” The article highlights themes of inclusivity, accessibility, and the enduring vitality of Francis’ message throughout 2026.
This event, staged by the conciliar “church,” is not a Catholic devotion but a calculated manifestation of apostasy. It systematically replaces the *social reign of Christ the King*—the irreplaceable foundation of Catholic order—with a naturalistic, sentimental, and implicitly pantheistic “fraternity” that denies the exclusive rights of God and His Church. The complete omission of Christ’s sovereignty, the duty of Catholic states to recognize Him, and the necessity of conversion for salvation exposes the event as a liturgical and catechetical operation of the neo-church, designed to inculcate the Modernist errors solemnly condemned by Pius IX and St. Pius X.
The Naturalistic “Peace” of the Neo-Church vs. the Kingship of Christ
The core of Zuppi’s homily is a deliberate inversion of Catholic doctrine. He preaches a “peace” achieved through “unarmed strength,” “dialogue,” and “building bridges,” which is nothing other than the secular humanist gospel of the world. This stands in stark, heretical opposition to the *only* true peace, which flows from the *reign of Christ*.
Pius XI, in the encyclical *Quas Primas*—a document of the unchanging magisterium—declares unequivocally: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The Pope explains that Christ’s kingdom “encompasses all men” and that “the state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.” Therefore, “rulers of states… must publicly honor and obey” Christ the King, ordering all laws, justice, and education on the basis of God’s commandments. This is not a optional “dialogue” but a non-negotiable duty. The Pope warns that the “secularism of our times… began with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations” and lists its fruits: “seeds of discord… flames of envy and hostility… unbridled desires… domestic peace completely shattered… the whole society profoundly shaken and heading towards destruction.”
Zuppi’s call for “dialogue as the only true defense of peace” is a direct repudiation of this teaching. It promotes the condemned error of the *Syllabus of Errors* (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, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship.” The “peace” of the neo-church is the peace of the slave of sin (John 8:34), a temporary, naturalistic concord based on compromise with error, which is the very “peace” Christ came to destroy (Matthew 10:34). True peace is *only* in the kingdom of Christ (Pius XI, *Quas Primas*), where all powers are “subject to the authority of Jesus Christ” and where “swords and weapons will fall from hands” only when “all willingly accept the reign of Christ and obey Him.”
Omission of Supernatural Salvation and the Duty of Catholic States
The article and Zuppi’s homily are characterized by a profound, damning silence on the *supernatural*. There is no mention of sin, grace, the Sacraments, the state of sanctifying grace, the Four Last Things, or the absolute necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation (*extra Ecclesiam nulla salus*). This silence is the gravest accusation, for it reveals a religion of pure immanence, a “church” that has become a mere humanitarian NGO.
The *Syllabus of Errors* systematically condemns this naturalism. Error 56 states: “Moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction, and it is not at all necessary that human laws should be made conformable to the laws of nature and receive their power of binding from God.” Error 57: “The science of philosophical things and morals and also civil laws may and ought to keep aloof from divine and ecclesiastical authority.” Zuppi’s “love” and “peace” are presented as purely human, ethical achievements, devoid of their necessary foundation in the Redemption and the law of the Gospel. He speaks of Francis teaching “a love capable of recognizing every person as a brother,” but this is a natural, universalist brotherhood that contradicts the Catholic doctrine that true brotherhood exists only *in Christ*, within the Church. As Pius XI notes, Christ’s reign “encompasses also all non-Christians” not by recognizing their religions as valid, but by subjecting them to His authority and calling them to conversion.
Furthermore, the article’s emphasis on “inclusivity” and removing “architectural barriers” for all, regardless of faith, is a direct implementation of the conciliar error of religious liberty. This is condemned by the *Syllabus* (Errors 15-18) which affirms the Catholic state’s right and duty to uphold the exclusive public worship of the true religion and to restrict the public exercise of false cults. The “fraternity” of 370,000 people, gathered without distinction of creed, is precisely the “indifferentism” Pius IX anathematized.
The Misuse of St. Francis: From Catholic Saint to Icon of Modernist “Fraternity”
St. Francis of Assisi, a true Catholic saint who lived before the apostasy, is here presented as a proto-Modernist, a symbol of vague, universal “love” and “peace” divorced from doctrinal integrity. This is a calculated distortion. The true St. Francis was a man of absolute orthodoxy, total poverty, and profound reverence for the hierarchical Church and the Sacraments. He received the stigmata as a sign of his perfect conformity to Christ crucified, the *only* source of peace. His “peace” was the peace of Christ, “not as the world giveth” (John 14:27), which comes through repentance, faith, and submission to the Church.
The article reduces Francis to a sentimental icon of “poor and fragile bones” and a “love” that “disarms death” through mere witness. This is a denial of the Catholic doctrine of the Redemption. Peace with God is not achieved by “building bridges” with the world but by Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, applied through the Sacraments. The “power of a life animated by the Spirit” mentioned by Fr. Moroni is stripped of its supernatural content—it becomes a vague “spirituality” accessible to all, contradicting the exclusive role of the Church as the “sole dispenser of salvation” (Pius XI, *Quas Primas*).
The focus on “inclusivity” and accessibility for “everyone” is a sacrilegious appropriation of Francis’ love for the marginalized. His love was evangelical: he sought the conversion of the Saracens and the reform of the Church. The neo-church’s use of him promotes a horizontal, secular “fraternity” that is antithetical to the vertical, hierarchical, and dogmatic charity of the Catholic Church.
Symptomatic of the Conciliar Revolution’s Apostasy
This entire event is a textbook symptom of the conciliar revolution, which St. Pius X, in the encyclical *Pascendi Dominici gregis* (and the decree *Lamentabili sane exitu*), identified as the “synthesis of all heresies” – Modernism. Modernism, as defined by St. Pius X, is the immanentist, evolutionist, and subjective reinterpretation of Catholic doctrine. The Assisi relic veneration embodies this perfectly:
1. **Hermeneutics of Continuity in Action:** The neo-church claims to “honor” a Catholic saint while emptying his legacy of its supernatural, dogmatic content. This is the “modernist method” condemned by St. Pius X: “They pervert the meaning of the prayers of the Church… and thus they make of them a vehicle for their own errors” (*Pascendi*, 24).
2. **Naturalism and the Cult of Man:** The entire narrative centers on human experience—the “collected and joyful way the pilgrimage unfolded,” “strength” and “concrete sense of God’s presence in daily life.” This is the “cult of man” condemned by Pius IX in the *Syllabus* (Errors 58-61), which places “the accumulation and increase of riches” and “the gratification of pleasure” as the highest good. Here, the “good” is a subjective, emotional “encounter” with a sanitized saint.
3. **False Ecumenism and Religious Indifferentism:** The implicit universalism—a “fraternity” of all pilgrims regardless of creed—is the logical fruit of Vatican II’s *Nostra Aetate* and *Dignitatis Humanae*, which the pre-conciliar magisterium had always condemned. It directly contradicts the *Syllabus* (Error 18: “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion…”).
4. **Silence on the Supernatural and the Sacramental:** The event is purely devotional and sentimental, with no reference to the Mass as the *unbloody sacrifice of Calvary*, no call to confession, no emphasis on the Real Presence. This reflects the post-conciliar reduction of the Mass to a “table of communion” and the loss of the sense of sin, which St. Pius X identified as a mark of Modernism (*Pascendi*, 21).
The neo-church, having abandoned the *deposit of faith*, now peddles in the “mythical inventions” and “philosophical investigations” Pius IX condemned (*Syllabus*, Error 7). St. Francis is turned into a brand for a new, globalized, religiously indifferent “peace” that is the very “plague” Pius XI warned would flow from removing Christ from public life. The 370,000 pilgrims are not gathered for the *worship of God* but for a *human experience*, making this a massive act of idolatry—the worship of a created idea (a sentimental Francis) over the uncreated God.
The true message of St. Francis, in line with *Quas Primas*, is that all peace and order depend on the public and private recognition of Christ’s kingship. The message of Assisi 2026 is its precise opposite: a call to a naturalistic, universal brotherhood that explicitly excludes the social reign of Christ. This is not a Catholic event; it is a liturgical and catechetical operation of the abomination of desolation, standing in the holy place (Matthew 24:15), using the name of a saint to promote the apostasy of the end times.
Source:
Public veneration of St. Francis of Assisi’s relics ends (vaticannews.va)
Date: 23.03.2026