The article from the National Catholic Register (CNA), dated April 2, 2026, reports on antipope Leo XIV’s celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at the Basilica of St. John Lateran. It details his homily, which framed the liturgy around Christ’s “service” and “justice,” culminating in the appeal: “As humanity is brought to its knees by so many acts of brutality, let us too kneel down as brothers and sisters alongside the oppressed.” The narrative presents this as a return to tradition (location) and a深化 of the “theology of service” associated with “Pope Francis.” The article’s entire focus is on horizontal, naturalistic humanitarianism, utterly devoid of the supernatural kingship of Christ, the doctrine of the Social Reign of Christ the King, or any reference to the necessity of the Catholic faith for salvation. This liturgical act and its accompanying theology represent the final, polished expression of the modernist apostasy condemned by St. Pius X and Pope Pius IX.
Theological Bankrupty: A “Service” That Denies the King
The homily’s central theme is the “revelation of God” in the “gesture” of washing feet, presented as the ultimate expression of divine love and “justice.” This is a deliberate, calculated deformation of Catholic theology. Quas Primas of Pope Pius XI, promulgated in 1925, dogmatically defines the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism and laicism that remove Christ from public life. Pius XI taught that Christ’s reign is “primarily spiritual and relates mainly to spiritual matters,” yet it absolutely demands public recognition: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ, but let them fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.” The encyclical states unequivocally: “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… it is necessary that Christ reign in the mind of man… in the will… in the heart… in the body.” The complete absence of this doctrine of the Social Reign of Christ the King in Leo XIV’s homily is not an oversight; it is the definitive signature of apostasy. He speaks of “justice” and “the oppressed” in the vague, worldly terms of modern social justice, not in the Catholic sense of justice as the virtue that gives each their due, beginning with God. The “justice of God” revealed is reduced to an example of humble service, not the justitia that demands the conversion of nations and the subordination of all human law to the divine law of the Gospel.
Liturgical Revolution Perpetuated: The Foot-Washing as Symbol of the New Church
The article notes Leo XIV washed the feet of “12 priests of the Diocese of Rome.” This is a continuation of the post-conciliar revolution. The pre-1958 Roman Rite mandated the washing of the feet of men (not exclusively priests) after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, as a commemoration of the Last Supper. The 1955 reform of Pope Pius XII already began altering the rite, but the radical change—washing the feet of women and laymen and presenting it as an optional “Rite of the Washing of the Feet”—was introduced in 1966. Leo XIV’s choice to wash only priests is a minor, reactionary tweak within the revolutionary framework; it does not restore the ancient rite or its theology. The ancient rite was a simple commemoration of the apostles’ washing; the post-conciliar “Mandatum” is a dramatized, self-referential ritual about “service” that has become a central symbol of the “Church of the New Advent.” The very act, as performed in the conciliar and post-conciliar structures, is an ecumenical, humanistic tableau that signifies the abandonment of the sacrificial, hierarchical, and kingly nature of the Catholic priesthood. It visually preaches the “option for the poor” liberation theology that Pius XI condemned as secularism. The focus on priests serving priests within a clerical club underscores the inward, self-congratulatory nature of the neo-church.
Language of Naturalism: The Silence That Screams Apostasy
A symptomatic analysis of the homily’s vocabulary reveals the total triumph of naturalism. Key Catholic supernatural concepts are conspicuously absent:
* No mention of the Unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary. The Eucharist is reduced to “sacrament of salvation” and “nourishment,” stripped of its propitiatory, expiatory, and sacrificial nature defined by the Council of Trent.
* No mention of sin, damnation, or the necessity of sanctifying grace.
* No mention of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ, outside of which there is no salvation.
* No mention of the baptismal character or the indelible priestly character.
* No mention of judgment, heaven, or hell.
* The “justice of God” is not His eternal law or His sanctifying justice, but an immanent quality of His “love” expressed in service.
This is the precise “natural religion” and “natural inner impulse” condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (Error #5: “Divine revelation is imperfect, and therefore subject to a continual and indefinite progress…”) and by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (Proposition #20: “Revelation was merely man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God.”). The homily operates entirely within the范畴 of “humanity,” “brutality,” “oppressed,” and “service”—the vocabulary of the UN or a humanitarian NGO, not of the Sancta Romana Ecclesia. The “false image of God” it purifies is not the theological error of a pagan, but the true Catholic God of majesty, justice, and kingly power, replacing Him with a god of “gratuitous and humble gesture.”
Symptomatic of the Conciliar Apostasy: The Hermeneutics of Continuity in Action
The article’s attempt to frame this as a “return” (to the Lateran) and a continuity with Benedict XVI and Francis is the classic “hermeneutics of continuity” fraud. The location is a hollow shell; the theology is radically new. Pius XI, in Quas Primas, instituted the feast of Christ the King to combat the exact errors Leo XIV embodies: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” Leo XIV’s “kneeling alongside the oppressed” is a direct inversion. He does not call for the nations to kneel before Christ the King; he calls for the Church to kneel with the world in a gesture of solidarity. This is the “option for the poor” divorced from the command to preach the faith and convert nations. It is the “Church of the poor” of the modernists, not the “Church of Christ the King.” The reference to Benedict XVI’s warning about seeking a “God of success” is a cynical misappropriation; Benedict XVI himself was a modernist who denied the Catholic doctrine of the Mass and promoted interreligious dialogue. Leo XIV uses Benedict’s words to attack a “prosperity gospel” straw man while preaching the exact social gospel Benedict himself promoted.
Critique of the “Clericalism” and the True Priesthood
Addressing “beloved brothers in the priesthood,” Leo XIV says they are “called to serve the people of God with our whole lives.” This is the post-conciliar definition of priesthood as “service” (diakonia), a definition that empties the priesthood of its sacrificial and hierarchical character. The true Catholic priesthood, as defined by the Council of Trent and Pope Pius XI, is first and foremost a participation in the one sacrifice of Christ, the High Priest. The priest acts in persona Christi Capitis, offering the sacrifice of the Mass and absolving sins. His service is not a generic humanitarianism but the service of leading souls to heaven through the sacraments. By reducing the priesthood to “service” in the style of a social worker, Leo XIV perpetuates the conciliar destruction of the priesthood. The washing of the feet of priests by the “pope” is a perfect symbol of this inverted clericalism: it is not the priest acting for the people, but the “pope” serving his fellow clerics in a display of mutual admiration, utterly disconnected from the salvation of souls.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation Stands in the Holy Place
The Holy Thursday liturgy celebrated by antipope Leo XIV is a meticulously choreographed act of apostasy. It uses the ancient trappings of the Roman Rite (the Lateran, the Latin rite elements implied) to present a theology that is wholly modernist. It replaces the Social Reign of Christ the King with the “kingdom of service.” It replaces the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with a “supper” of fraternity. It replaces the hierarchical, sacramental priesthood with a “brotherhood” of servants. It replaces the supernatural goal of heaven with the naturalistic goal of “liberation” from “brutality.” Every element is a direct refutation of the unchanging faith. The Syllabus of Errors condemned the idea that “the civil power may interfere in matters relating to religion” (Error #44) and that “the Church ought to be separated from the State” (Error #55). Leo XIV’s “kneeling alongside the oppressed” is the ultimate synthesis: the Church abandons any claim to public authority and merges with the secular world in a shared, naturalistic struggle. This is not a “development of doctrine”; it is the systematic dismantling of the Faith. The faithful are not invited to adore Christ the King in the Eucharist, but to imitate a “service” that has no reference to grace, no goal of eternal life, and no submission to the absolute sovereignty of God. It is the liturgy of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.
Source:
Pope Leo XIV: ‘Kneel Down as Brothers and Sisters Alongside the Oppressed’ (ncregister.com)
Date: 02.04.2026