Catholic bishops of the European Union, meeting in Nicosia, Cyprus, from April 22–24, 2026, under the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU, closed their spring plenary assembly with an urgent appeal for peace in the Middle East. The delegates of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) endorsed a declaration that echoed the recent appeal of the antipope Leo XIV: “Let those who have weapons lay them down.” The bishops also made a public gesture of solidarity with the island’s Maronite Christians, whose villages and churches lie in the Turkish-controlled north since 1974, pledging to advocate for their rights within EU institutions. The assembly heard from the “Latin patriarch of Jerusalem,” the EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean, and the Greek Orthodox archbishop of Cyprus, completing a program steeped in the ecumenism and worldly diplomacy condemned by the perennial Magisterium.
The Antipope’s Plea and the Abdication of Christ’s Kingship
The declaration endorsed by the COMECE delegates, echoing Leo XIV’s words — “Let those who have weapons lay them down” — is presented as a noble plea for peace. However, from the perspective of integral Catholic faith, this statement is a profound betrayal of the social kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism and laicism that remove Christ and His law from public life. Pius XI taught that “the hope of lasting peace will not yet shine upon nations as long as individuals and states renounce and do not wish to recognize the reign of our Savior.” A plea for peace that does not begin with the recognition of Christ’s universal kingship and the obligation of all nations — including Turkey and all parties in the Middle East — to submit to His law is not Christian diplomacy but naturalistic pacifism. It reduces the Church’s mission to that of a humanitarian NGO, a role explicitly condemned by St. Pius X, who warned that the modernists “would reduce the whole of religion to practice” and that “the reform of the Church becomes… a work of adaptation… to the conditions of modern life” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 1907).
Furthermore, the appeal’s deliberate vagueness — “those who have weapons” — is a masterpiece of modernist equivocation. It places all parties on a moral equivalence, failing to distinguish between the aggressor and the defender, between justice and injustice. Catholic teaching is clear: a nation has the right and duty to defend its people and its sacred heritage. The Maronite communities and all Christians in the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus have been deprived of their properties, parishes, and the Monastery of the Prophet Elijah since 1974. A true Catholic response would name the injustice, demand restitution, and call for the recognition of the rights of the true Faith as the foundation of any just social order. Instead, the bishops offer a platitude that serves the interests of secular diplomacy while the faithful remain dispossessed.
Ecumenical Syncretism: The “Latin Patriarch” and the Orthodox Archbishop
The plenary assembly’s program was a textbook exercise in the false ecumenism condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. The bishops heard from “His Beatitude Georgios III, Greek Orthodox archbishop of Nova Justiniana and All Cyprus,” as part of their “ecumenical program.” Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Mortalium Animos (1928), condemned such gatherings where “the representatives of different religions meet… to promote… the union of all” as based on the false premise that “all religions are more or less good and praiseworthy.” The participation of a schismatic Orthodox prelate as a partner in dialogue, rather than as a soul to be converted to the one true Church, is a direct violation of the Catholic dogma extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation). The Orthodox are in schism; they reject the Primacy of the Pope and key Catholic dogmas. To treat their archbishop as a peer in a shared mission is to deny the divine constitution of the Church.
Equally scandalous was the participation of “Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem,” who addressed the assembly via video link. The “Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem” is a post-conciliar structure whose very existence, in its current ecumenical orientation, undermines the missionary mandate of the Church. The true mission of the Church in the Holy Land — and everywhere — is the conversion of souls to the Catholic Faith, not the maintenance of a diplomatic presence that seeks coexistence with non-Catholic religions. The bishops were urged to “invest in interreligious dialogue at home as a model for the region,” a directive that transforms the Church from a society divinely instituted for the salvation of souls into a forum for interfaith chatter. This is the very “religious indifferentism” condemned by Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos (1832) and by the Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX (Proposition 17: “Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ”).
The Maronite Cause: Solidarity Without Supernatural Foundation
The bishops’ visit to Kormakitis, a Maronite village in the Turkish-controlled north, and their celebration of Mass in the Maronite rite, is presented as a gesture of solidarity. Maronite Archbishop Selim Sfeir called Cyprus a “natural bridge” between Europe and the Middle East and named “greed” as the root of wars. He cited Paul VI — one of the architects of the conciliar revolution — as calling the Church “an expert in humanity.” This phrase, emblematic of the post-conciliar Church’s turn toward anthropocentrism, reduces the Church’s mission to a humanitarian expertise, stripping it of its supernatural character. The Church is not “an expert in humanity”; she is the Mystical Body of Christ, the Ark of Salvation, whose primary mission is to lead souls to eternal life through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments.
The bishops pledged to advocate within EU institutions for the rights and heritage of Cyprus’ Christians. Cypriot Deputy Minister of Culture Vasiliki Kassianidou cited more than 550 religious monuments under occupation, over 20,000 stolen icons, and looted cemeteries since 1974. Combating the illicit trafficking of cultural property is a Cypriot presidency priority. While the defense of sacred property is a legitimate concern, the bishops’ reliance on EU institutions — the same secular, Masonic-inspired structures that have legislated abortion, promoted gender ideology, and undermined the natural law across the continent — reveals the bankruptcy of their strategy. They seek justice from a system that is itself fundamentally unjust, because it refuses to acknowledge the social kingship of Christ. Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Immortale Dei (1885), taught that “the Almighty, therefore, has given the charge of the human race to two powers, the ecclesiastical and the the civil, the one being set over divine, and the other over human, each the highest in its own kind.” The bishops’ appeal to Brussels, rather than to the principles of Catholic social doctrine and the authority of the true Church, is a symptom of the conciliar capitulation to the modern state.
The EU Commissioner and the “Demographic Winter”
The assembly also heard from EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica, who briefed the bishops on the new EU Pact for the Mediterranean, with its 21 initiatives focused on youth, investment, and migration, and on Europe’s “demographic winter.” The inclusion of an EU commissioner as a briefer at a bishops’ assembly is itself a scandal, symbolizing the subordination of the Church’s mission to the political agenda of a secularist bloc. The “demographic winter” — the plummeting birth rates across Europe — is the direct consequence of the rejection of Catholic moral teaching on marriage, contraception, and the family. Yet the EU’s proposed solutions focus on migration and investment, not on the restoration of the Christian family. The bishops, rather than denouncing the root causes — contraception, divorce, abortion, and the secularization of marriage — as mortal sins against God’s law, silently accept the premises of a system that is engineering the demographic collapse of Christian Europe.
This is the inevitable fruit of the conciliar revolution. The post-conciliar Church, having embraced the spirit of the world through Gaudium et Spes and the ecumenism of Unitatis Redintegratio, has lost the capacity to speak with prophetic authority. It can only echo the slogans of secular institutions, adding a veneer of religious sentiment to policies that are antithetical to the Faith. The bishops of COMECE are not shepherds defending the flock; they are lobbyists in the corridors of a neo-pagan empire, pleading for crumbs from a table that is set against Christ the King.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation in the Holy Place
The spring plenary of COMECE in Cyprus is a microcosm of the post-conciliar apostasy. The bishops echo the antipope’s pleas for disarmament without mentioning the conversion of nations to Christ. They engage in ecumenical dialogue with schismatics and invest in interreligious dialogue as a substitute for the missionary mandate. They advocate for Christian rights through secular institutions while accepting the premises of a system that has legislated against the natural law. They cite Paul VI — the pontiff who inaugurated the conciliar revolution — as an authority. And they do all this while the faithful in the Turkish-occupied north remain dispossessed, while Christians in the Holy Land suffer, and while Europe’s demographic and spiritual collapse accelerates.
The true remedy for the afflictions of Cyprus, the Holy Land, and all nations is not EU pacts, interreligious dialogue, or humanitarian advocacy. It is the recognition of the social kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the submission of all states and peoples to His law, and the restoration of the Church’s full freedom and independence from secular authority. As Pope Pius XI declared: “If rulers and legitimate superiors will have the conviction that they exercise authority not so much by their own right as by the command and in the place of the Divine King, everyone will notice how religiously and wisely they will use their authority.” Until the bishops of COMECE — and the entire conciliar structure — return to this immutable teaching, their assemblies will remain what they are: gatherings of functionaries in the service of the abomination of desolation, occupying the place where the true Church of Christ once stood.
Source:
EU bishops in Cyprus echo Pope Leo XIV: ‘Let those who have weapons lay them down’ (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 29.04.2026