The article from the National Catholic Register (April 1, 2026) reports that following an attack on the Christian town of Al-Suqaylabiyah in Syria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch and most other Churches in Syria announced the scaling back of Easter celebrations to “prayers inside churches only,” citing “the current discouraging circumstances.” The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch condemned the attack but framed its response in terms of “citizenship,” “integration,” and the state’s duty to provide security, while a U.N. report on broader violence, including against Druze civilians, is presented as contextual background.
This response is not a prudent pastoral measure but a spectacular manifestation of the theological and spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar “Church,” which has completely abandoned the Social Kingship of Christ and the duty of public confession of the Faith, reducing Christianity to a private, timid cult utterly subservient to the naturalistic principles of the world.
The Abandonment of Christ the King
The most fundamental error is the complete silence on the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), instituted the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that “denied Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations” and to remind rulers and states of their duty to publicly honor and obey Him. The encyclical declares that the Kingdom of Christ “encompasses all men” and that “states are happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.” It explicitly states that if rulers have the conviction they exercise authority “in the place of the Divine King,” they will use it religiously and wisely, leading to peace.
The patriarchates’ decision to confine Easter—the central feast of the Resurrection, the ultimate triumph of Christ—to private prayer within church walls is a direct, public renunciation of this doctrine. It is the antithesis of the public processions and solemnities Pius XI demanded. Their language of “discouraging circumstances” and “security” places temporal fears above the supernatural imperative to proclaim Christ’s victory over death and His sovereignty over all powers. This is not a pastoral adaptation; it is apostasy in action, a practical denial that Christ’s kingship extends to the public square and that His protection is paramount. They act as if the Church is a mere NGO within a secular state, not the Body of Christ tasked with converting nations.
The Naturalistic and Masonic Framework
The patriarchates’ statements are saturated with the naturalistic, Masonic principles condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors. Their emphasis on “citizenship and integration among all components of Syrian society, far from the logic of majority and minority” directly echoes Syllabus Error 15 (“Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true”) and Error 16 (“Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation”). By framing the issue in terms of civic “integration” and “components,” they reduce the unique, supernatural status of the Catholic Church (the sole ark of salvation) to one equal component among many in a secular, indifferentist society. This is the precise “public apostasy” Pius XI lamented in Quas Primas.
Their call for the state to “control the spread of weapons outside state authority” and their reliance on “state institutions” for security places absolute trust in the temporal power, forgetting the Syllabus’ condemnation (Error 19) that the Church is not a true society with her own rights, and Error 24 that the Church has no temporal power. They implicitly accept the modern liberal principle that the state is the sole guarantor of order, a principle that historically led to the oppression of the Church. Where is their declaration that true security comes only from the public recognition of Christ the King and the observance of His law? Their silence is a betrayal of the doctrine that “when God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed” (Quas Primas).
The Omission of Supernatural Warfare
The article’s entire frame is naturalistic. It discusses “armed groups,” “security personnel,” “property damage,” and “sectarian tendencies.” The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Hama calls for “strict legal measures” and a “judicial investigative committee.” This is a complete surrender to the mindset of the world, which “does not receive the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:14). There is not a single word about:
- The spiritual warfare against principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12).
- The need for public penance and reparation for the sins of the nation.
- The duty of the legitimate civil authority to punish blasphemy, heresy, and sacrilege, and to protect the True Religion as the foundation of society.
- The intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints against demonic assaults.
This omission is the gravest accusation. It proves that these “patriarchates” operate on a purely horizontal, sociological plane. They see a law-and-order problem, not a supernatural crisis where a town of Christians has been violated by agents of Satan. They call for “equality among citizens,” a Masonic slogan, instead of the Catholic doctrine that the True Religion must hold the primacy it is due in society. The Syllabus (Error 57) condemns the view that the Church is an enemy of the progress of natural sciences; here we see the inverse error: the Church’s pastors have become enemies of the *supernatural*, reducing faith to a private, cultural identity.
The Scandal of Ecumenism and Conciliar Structures
The article presents the “Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East” and the “Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East” as two legitimate, parallel expressions of Christianity in Syria, jointly making decisions. This is the fruit of the conciliar revolution’s false ecumenism, which treats schismatics and heretics as “separated brethren” and dilutes the Catholic Church’s exclusive claim to be the “one fold” under the one Shepherd (John 10:16). The Melkite “Catholic” patriarchate is in formal, public communion with the antipopes from John XXIII through Leo XIV, who have promulgated the heresies of Vatican II. Therefore, its members are in a state of material heresy and schism, and its sacraments are administered in a context of general apostasy. Its “Easter” celebration, even if using an Eastern rite, is a liturgical act within the conciliar sect, not the True Church. The joint announcement with the Orthodox is a public witness to the false ecumenical spirit condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus (Errors 15-18) and by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (Propositions 20, 22, 23), which condemned the Modernist idea that the Church’s definitions are not immutable.
The Symptom of Conciliar Apostasy
This incident is a perfect microcosm of the post-conciliar Church’s total failure. The “Church” of the New Advent has no confidence in the supernatural, no doctrine of the Social Kingship of Christ, and no courage to confess the Faith publicly. Its leaders think in categories of “security,” “citizenship,” “integration,” and “sectarianism”—all concepts derived from Enlightenment liberalism and condemned by the Syllabus. Their solution to persecution is to hide, to scale back, to become quieter. This is the spirit of cowardice that Our Lord condemned: “Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:33). The true Catholic response, modeled by the martyrs and by the Church of the catacombs, is to confess Christ the King more boldly, to pray for the conversion of the aggressors, and to call upon the civil authorities (if any remain legitimate) to uphold the rights of the True Religion and punish the authors of sacrilege.
The article’s concluding pivot to a U.N. report on Druze suffering is particularly telling. It relativizes the Christian persecution, placing it within a general climate of violence. This is the theology of the “abomination of desolation”: the eradication of the distinct, supernatural identity of the Church, merging her suffering into the generic suffering of “civilians” in a conflict zone. The Gospel is not about generic human rights; it is about the salvation of souls through Christ alone. By adopting the U.N.’s secular, indifferentist framework, these “patriarchs” align themselves with the very forces of globalism that seek to eliminate the public reign of Christ.
Conclusion: A Call to Return to Tradition
The actions of the Syrian “Churches” are a damning indictment of the entire conciliar project. They demonstrate that the post-1958 hierarchy is incapable of fulfilling the Church’s missionary and social mandate. They have exchanged the “sweet yoke” of Christ the King for the heavy yoke of secular humanism and Masonic citizenship. Their response to persecution is not the fortitude of martyrs but the retreat of defeated naturalists.
The only solution is a complete break from this apostate structure. Catholics must adhere to the unchanging Faith of the ages, professed by the Church before the revolution of Vatican II. They must reject the legitimacy of the antipopes and their synods, and seek refuge in the traditional Mass and sacraments administered by valid, non-communist clergy (where they can be found with moral certainty). They must pray and work for the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King over all nations, as Pius XI commanded, not through compromised conciliar structures, but through the uncompromised witness of the remnant. The true Easter celebration is not a private prayer in a hidden church; it is the public confession that Christ is risen and that His law must govern all human societies. Those who refuse this confession are building their “Easter” upon the sand of worldly security, and when the storm comes—and it will come—their house will fall.
Source:
Syria’s Churches Scale Back Easter Celebrations After Attack On Christian Town (ncregister.com)
Date: 01.04.2026