The Catholic Register portal reports on a commentary by Gavin Ashenden regarding the April 27, 2026, visit of Sarah Mullally, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Vatican. Ashenden, a former Anglican bishop now converted to Catholicism, critiques the effusive welcome extended by “Pope” Leo XIV to Mullally, highlighting the theological and ethical contradictions inherent in such ecumenical gestures. He notes that Mullally, once a conservative evangelical, has journeyed into “progressive, fashionable liberalism,” promoting abortion and supporting the blessing of homosexual marriages—positions antithetical to Catholic teaching. Ashenden argues that the Vatican’s courtesies, including a private audience and the unprecedented opportunity for Mullally to bless the faithful in the Clementine Chapel (the site of St. Peter’s martyrdom), obscure the fundamental reality: Anglican orders remain null and void, and the Church of England continues to repudiate essential Catholic doctrines. He concludes that true ecumenism requires honesty about historical and doctrinal divisions, not a “theater of sentiment” that leaves the “deeper wounds of history unhealed.” This spectacle at the Vatican is not merely a diplomatic misstep; it is a profound scandal that mocks the very concept of truth, exposes the conciliar sect’s relentless drive towards apostasy, and betrays the memory of martyrs who shed their blood for the integrity of the Faith.
The Clementine Chapel Desecration: A Symbol of Doctrinal Capitulation
The decision to permit Sarah Mullally, an Anglican woman who presides over a communion that explicitly rejects the sacramental priesthood and the sacrificial nature of the Mass, to impart a blessing within the Clementine Chapel—hallowed by the blood of St. Peter—is an act of breathtaking theological vandalism. This was not merely a courtesy extended to a foreign dignitary; it was a gesture laden with “ecclesial significance,” as Edward Pentin rightly observed. To allow one who holds “heterodox preferences” on abortion and homosexuality, and whose very office is deemed null and void by the infallible judgment of the Church (Apostolicae Curae, 1896), to stand in the symbolic heart of apostolic succession and pronounce a blessing is to declare before the world that the truths for which the Apostles died are now negotiable, if not irrelevant. It is a visual and spiritual oxymoron: the site of authentic martyrdom is used to legitimize a counterfeit ministry that denies the very doctrines that martyrdom affirmed. Such an act does not build bridges; it burns them, leaving only the ashes of Catholic identity. It is a performative contradiction that screams the conciliar sect’s contempt for its own heritage and its eagerness to appease the spirit of the age.
The “Journey” of Sarah Mullally: From Evangelical Clarity to Ethical Anarchy
Gavin Ashenden’s biographical sketch of Sarah Mullally is damning, not merely as a personal critique, but as a case study in the corrosive nature of ambition within a heterodox communion. Her trajectory from “conservative, evangelical clarity” to “progressive, fashionable liberalism” is not an isolated phenomenon; it is the predictable fruit of a system that has severed itself from the unchanging Magisterium. Ashender correctly identifies her embrace of abortion as an “ethical preference” and her support for the blessing of homosexual unions as placing her at the “far end of progressive heterodoxy.” These are not mere policy disagreements; they are direct assaults on the natural law and the divine positive law. The Church has always taught, with St. Pius X and the Syllabus of Errors, that the purpose of civil society is not to enshrine individual autonomy but to uphold the moral order established by God. To welcome such a figure with “fervor” is to declare that the sanctity of life and the integrity of marriage are secondary to the pursuit of a false unity. It is to prefer the applause of the world to the demands of the Gospel. Ashenden’s question—whether her ambition “tainted her evangelical fidelity”—is pertinent, for it reveals the mechanism by which the conciliar revolution advances: not through open warfare, but through the quiet betrayal of principle for the sake of advancement.
The Hermeneutic of Deception: Ecumenism Without Truth
The core of Ashenden’s critique, and the most devastating, is his assertion that the Vatican’s approach represents a “betrayal of responsibility” akin to “affirming someone in their self-harming delusion.” This is a precise diagnosis of the conciliar ecumenical project. The Catholic Church has always held that error has no rights and that the path to unity lies not in the softening of contradiction but in the submission of all to the fullness of Truth, which is Christ and His Church. The Syllabus of Errors (1864) condemned the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Proposition 80). Yet, this is precisely the project that Leo XIV and his predecessors have embraced. The welcome of Mullally is not an act of charity; it is an act of ecclesial dishonesty. It pretends that the Anglican communion, which “still repudiates the Mass, still repudiates the authority of the Bishop of Rome, and still repudiates purgatory,” is a legitimate dialogue partner on equal footing. It ignores the historical reality of the “state theft” of Catholic resources in England and the “energized antagonism” that birthed the Church of England. To engage in such pretense is not to seek unity, but to perpetuate the schism by refusing to name it for what it is. It is, as Ashenden eloquently puts it, a “theater of sentiment” that offers “the form of unity without its substance.”
The Betrayal of Converts and the Scandal of “Pastoral Sensitivity”
Perhaps the most poignant element of Ashenden’s commentary is his personal note regarding Anglican converts to Catholicism who entered the Church “precisely because they were convinced of the lack of integrity of Anglican orders and the danger of its ethical heterodoxy.” For decades, the conciar sect has encouraged such conversions, only to turn around and embrace the very errors these converts fled. This is not merely inconsistent; it is a profound spiritual betrayal. It tells the faithful that their sacrifices—often involving family rupture, social ostracism, and financial hardship—were based on a “harmless delusion” that the Church now deems unnecessary to maintain. Furthermore, the conciliar insistence on being “nice” rather than “honest” reflects a naturalistic, therapeutic worldview that has supplanted the supernatural virtue of charity. True charity, as defined by the Saints, is willing to cause discomfort for the sake of the other’s salvation. The Sacrament of Reconciliation itself requires a frank acknowledgment of sin and a firm purpose of amendment. To suspend this principle at the institutional level is to create a “disordered” system where appearance trumps reality, and where the wounds of schism are not healed but merely bandaged with diplomatic niceties. This is not the charity of Christ; it is the false compassion of the world, which leads not to freedom but to a deeper bondage under the “dark schismatic weight of an unresolved past.”
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation in the Holy Place
The visit of Sarah Mullally to the Vatican, and the manner in which she was received, is not an isolated incident but a symptom of the terminal illness afflicting the conciliar sect. It demonstrates a Church that has lost the courage to proclaim its own identity, preferring the empty gestures of ecumenical diplomacy to the hard truths of the Gospel. It is a Church that welcomes those who deny the Priesthood of Christ, the sanctity of life, and the divine constitution of marriage, while marginalizing those who remain faithful to the perennial Magisterium. Until the structures occupying the Vatican repent of this apostasy and return to the unchanging teaching of the Church—until they recognize that unity is impossible without truth—such encounters will continue to be an offense to God and a scandal to the faithful. The path to true unity lies not in the Clementine Chapel, but at the foot of the Cross, where the price of division was paid and the means of reconciliation established: the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.
Source:
Can Unity Be Built Without Truth? Lessons From Sarah Mullally’s Vatican Visit (ncregister.com)
Date: 28.04.2026