Vatican News portal (May 1, 2026) reports the arrest of a 36-year-old man by Israeli police for the alleged assault of a 48-year-old French-born religious sister and researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. The attack occurred on April 28 near King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, where the nun was chased, pushed to the ground, and kicked. Father Olivier Poquillon, director of the school, condemned the “unprovoked attack” and the “scourge of hatred,” while Israeli authorities assured their commitment to “safeguarding freedom of religion and freedom of worship for all faiths.” The Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem expressed “deep shock,” noting a “troubling pattern of growing hostility toward the Christian community.” This incident is a stark manifestation of the spiritual bankruptcy of the modern secular state, which, while professing “religious freedom,” provides no true protection for the faithful against the rising tide of hatred and violence, a direct consequence of the rejection of Christ the King’s sovereignty over nations.
The Illusion of “Religious Freedom” in a Godless State
The immediate response from both the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Hebrew University was to frame the attack as an affront to “religious freedom” and “human rights.” Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the assault as a “shameful act,” assuring that Israel remains committed “to safeguarding freedom of religion and freedom of worship for all faiths.” The Hebrew University’s Faculty of Humanities condemned the violence, stating, “Violence against innocent individuals, and especially against members of religious communities, has no place in our society.” These statements echo the modernist mantra of “religious liberty,” a concept unequivocally condemned by the true Church.
Pope Pius IX, in his Syllabus of Errors (1864), explicitly condemned the proposition that “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to exclusions of all other forms of worship” (Proposition 77). Furthermore, he condemned the idea that “Catholics may approve of the system of educating youth unconnected with Catholic faith and the power of the Church, and which regards the knowledge of merely natural things, and only, or at least primarily, the ends of earthly social life” (Proposition 48). The modern secular state, by its very nature, elevates religious indifferentism to a foundational principle, treating all faiths as equally valid paths, or at least equally tolerated private opinions. This is a direct contradiction of the Catholic teaching that the Catholic Church is the only true religion, and that the state has a duty to recognize and promote the true faith, not merely “tolerate” it. The “freedom of worship” touted by Israel is not a Catholic freedom; it is the freedom to practice one’s religion only insofar as it does not challenge the secular order. It is a freedom that, in practice, leaves the faithful vulnerable to violence, as the state’s primary allegiance is to its own secular power structure, not to the protection of the Church or the spiritual welfare of its citizens.
The Scourge of Hatred and the Absence of True Peace
Father Olivier Poquillon, director of the French School, wrote on X, “The scourge of hatred is a shared challenge,” and thanked “those who came to help during the attack, and also diplomats, academics, and all those who offered support.” While the sentiment of gratitude for immediate aid is understandable, the framing of “hatred as a shared challenge” is a classic modernist evasion. It reduces a spiritual battle against the forces of evil to a mere social problem requiring collective human effort. The true “scourge” is not merely “hatred” in the abstract, but the rejection of God and His law, which inevitably manifests as societal decay and violence.
Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), lamented that “the entire human society had to be shaken, because it lacked a stable and strong foundation,” precisely because “God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men.” He further explained 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.” The “peace” offered by secular states like Israel is a fragile, worldly peace, built on compromise and the suppression of absolute truth. It is a peace that cannot address the root cause of violence: sin and the absence of grace. When Christ is removed from the public sphere, when His law is no longer the foundation of society, then the “scourge of hatred” becomes an inevitable symptom of a society adrift without its true compass.
The Deeper Apostasy: A Society Without Christ the King
The Hebrew University’s Faculty of Humanities noted that the assault on the nun is “not an isolated incident, but part of a troubling pattern of growing hostility toward the Christian community and its symbols.” This observation, while accurate in its diagnosis of symptoms, fails to identify the disease. The “growing hostility” is not merely a social anomaly but the logical fruit of a society that has explicitly rejected the Social Reign of Christ the King. Israel, as a secular state, does not profess Christ as its King, nor does it order its laws and public life according to His commandments. It operates on a foundation of naturalism and religious indifferentism, which are condemned by the Syllabus of Errors (Propositions 1-5, 15-18).
The true Church has always taught that “the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men” (St. Augustine, as quoted by Pius XI in Quas Primas), and that “the state is happy not by one means, and man by another.” This implies that the state’s happiness and order are intrinsically linked to the recognition of God’s authority. When a state, like Israel, explicitly or implicitly denies this foundation, it creates a spiritual vacuum that is filled by chaos and violence. The “troubling pattern” is not an aberration but the expected outcome of a society built on sand. The Church’s mission is not merely to condemn individual acts of violence but to call all nations to conversion and to the public acknowledgment of Christ’s kingship. Without this fundamental conversion, any “safeguarding of freedom of worship” is merely a temporary and ultimately ineffective measure against the tide of godlessness.
The Silence on Spiritual Warfare and the Call to True Justice
The article, while reporting on the physical assault and the subsequent arrest, remains entirely silent on the spiritual dimension of the attack. There is no mention of prayer for the victim, no call for reparation, no invocation of the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary or the saints, and certainly no explicit condemnation of the spiritual forces of evil that incite such acts. This omission is characteristic of the modernist mentality, which reduces all reality to the natural and social spheres, ignoring the supernatural order entirely. The “scourge of hatred” is not merely a human failing but a manifestation of the kingdom of Satan, against which Christ’s kingdom is opposed.
Furthermore, the call for “justice” in the article is limited to the secular legal proceedings against the assailant. While secular justice has its place, true justice is rooted in the divine law and the recognition of God’s sovereignty. The Church teaches that “Christ, whom not only was cast out of the state, but was also forgotten and ignored through contempt, will very severely avenge these insults, because His royal dignity demands that all relations in the state be ordered on the basis of God’s commandments and Christian principles” (Pius XI, Quas Primas). The article’s focus on “human rights” and “religious freedom” as the ultimate framework for addressing such violence is a testament to the pervasive influence of modernist thought, which seeks to resolve spiritual crises with purely human solutions. The true remedy for the “scourge of hatred” is not more secular laws or international diplomacy, but the conversion of hearts and nations to Christ the King, the only source of true peace and order.
The Complicity of the Conciliar Sect in a False Peace
It is imperative to note that the source of this report is Vatican News, the official mouthpiece of the conciar sect. The very entity that should be unequivocally condemning the spiritual roots of such violence and calling for the Social Reign of Christ the King instead adopts the language of the world: “religious freedom,” “human rights,” “shared challenge.” This is not surprising, given the conciliar sect’s own embrace of religious liberty as a fundamental human right, a direct contradiction of the perennial Magisterium. The “Pope” Leo XIV and his predecessors, by promoting a false ecumenism and dialogue with all religions, have legitimized the very secular order that allows such attacks to occur. They have abandoned the Church’s prophetic role of calling nations to repentance and conversion, instead becoming mere commentators on worldly events, using the vocabulary of the world to describe spiritual catastrophes.
The conciliar sect’s silence on the need for the conversion of Israel to Catholicism, and its insistence on a “dialogue” that treats all religions as equally valid paths, is a betrayal of the Church’s mission. The true Church has always held that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), and that the Catholic Church is the only ark of salvation. By failing to proclaim this truth, and by instead promoting a false “religious freedom,” the conciar sect bears a heavy responsibility for the spiritual climate that enables such acts of violence against the faithful. The attack on the nun in Jerusalem is not just an act of individual hatred; it is a symptom of a world that has rejected Christ the King, a rejection in which the conciliar sect itself has played a significant and tragic role.
Source:
Suspect arrested over attack on French nun in Jerusalem (vaticannews.va)
Date: 01.05.2026