The article, sourced from the National Catholic Register portal (May 1, 2026), presents a Sunday guide for the Fifth Sunday of Easter by Msgr. Charles Pope, a dean and pastor in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC. The text offers a commentary on the Mass readings (Acts 6:1-7; Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12), focusing on themes of Christ as the “living stone,” the “royal priesthood of all the baptized,” and the call to “announce the praises” of God. While superficially orthodox in its vocabulary, the article, typical of post-conciliar catechetics, presents a diluted, naturalistic, and ultimately modernist interpretation of Scripture that strips the Faith of its supernatural rigor, hierarchical clarity, and prophetic urgency. It is a testament to the triumph of the “hermeneutics of continuity” as a cloak for doctrinal revolution.
The “Living Stone” Without the Weight of Sin: A Christology Stripped of Redemptive Blood
The article begins by quoting 1 Peter 2:4-9, correctly identifying Christ as the “living stone” and the “cornerstone.” Msgr. Pope writes: “This is Jesus Christ for us: He is the perfect stone who carries our weight.” This is a tragically insufficient Christology. To “carry our weight” is a metaphor for emotional support, not the propitiatory sacrifice on Calvary. The article is silent on the reason Christ became the cornerstone: to be the “stone which the builders rejected” (Psalm 118:22), to be the sacrificial Lamb whose blood redeems us from sin. As Pope Pius XI teaches in Quas Primas, Christ’s kingship is not merely symbolic but is acquired through His Redemption: “We no longer belong to ourselves, for Christ has bought us with a great price; and our bodies are members of Christ.” The article’s Christ is a supportive friend, not the Divine Lawgiver and Judge who demands the renunciation of sin and the carrying of our cross. This is the Christ of Modernism, a “Christ of faith” divorced from the “Christ of history,” a distinction condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (proposition 29): “It can be admitted that the historical Christ is considerably lower than the Christ of faith.” By omitting the necessity of repentance, the reality of sin, and the propitiatory nature of the Mass, the article presents a Christ who “carries our weight” but does not demand we lay down the burden of our sins at the foot of the Cross.
The “Royal Priesthood”: A Democratic Heresy Cloaked in Scriptural Language
The most egregious theological error in the article is its treatment of the “royal priesthood of all the baptized.” Msgr. Pope states: “Each of us who is baptized into Christ Jesus is made priest, prophet and king. This ‘royal’ priesthood of all the baptized, while different from the ministerial priesthood, means that all baptized believers share in the royal priesthood, wherein they freely offer themselves to God.” This is a masterful example of modernist equivocation. While technically acknowledging a difference between the “ministerial” and “common” priesthood, the article’s emphasis falls entirely on the latter, effectively democratizing the sacred and blurring the divinely instituted hierarchy. The Council of Trent, in its Doctrine on the Sacrament of Order, anathematizes anyone who says that there is no hierarchy in the Church by divine ordinance: “If anyone says that there is not in the Catholic Church a hierarchy instituted by divine ordinance, consisting of bishops, priests, and ministers [deacons], let him be anathema.” (Session XXIII, Canon 6). The article’s language, echoing the conciliar constitution Lumen Gentium, reduces the ministerial priesthood to a functional role within a “community of the baptized,” rather than a sacred power conferred by the sacrament of Holy Orders to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and forgive sins. This is the “evolution of dogma” condemned by St. Pius X, where the organic structure of the Church is seen as subject to change (cf. Lamentabili, proposition 53). The “priesthood of all believers” becomes a tool to undermine the unique and necessary role of the ordained priest as alter Christus, another Christ, standing in persona Christi at the altar. In the true Catholic understanding, the faithful participate in the priesthood of Christ through their baptism, but this participation is ordered towards and dependent upon the ministerial priesthood for the administration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Penance. The article’s framing, however, suggests a self-sufficient “royal priesthood” that “freely offers themselves,” a concept closer to Protestantism than to Catholic Tradition.
A “Holy Nation” Without the Sword of Truth: The Church as a Humanitarian NGO
The article describes the faithful as a “holy nation” and a “people of his own,” stating: “To be holy means to be set apart. Hence, we are called out from among the many to be a people that is set apart for God.” Again, the language is scriptural, but the content is hollowed out. What does it mean to be “set apart” in the modernist paradigm? It is a call to vague moral uplift, to “sharing burdens,” and to “announcing praises.” It is a call stripped of its supernatural and militant character. The Church is not merely an “assembly of those called out” for fellowship; she is the Ecclesia Militans, the Church Militant, engaged in a war against the world, the flesh, and the devil. As Pope Pius IX declared in the Syllabus of Errors (proposition 24), the Church has the right to use force, to exercise not only spiritual but also temporal power, directly and indirectly, for the salvation of souls. The article’s vision of the Church is that of a humanitarian NGO, a community of “living stones” supporting each other’s “weight,” rather than a divine institution wielding the sword of truth and the keys of binding and loosing. There is no mention of the Church’s infallible Magisterium, her authority to teach, govern, and sanctify, or her duty to condemn error and heresy. The “light of Christ” is reduced to a warm glow of communal support, not the blazing fire of divine truth that burns away error and sin.
The Omission of the Supernatural: A Symptom of Systemic Apostasy
The most damning critique of the article is not what it says, but what it omits. There is no mention of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the re-presentation of Calvary. There is no mention of the necessity of confession, of the state of grace, of the reality of mortal sin and its eternal consequences. There is no mention of the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. There is no mention of the necessity of the Catholic Faith for salvation (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus). There is no mention of the social reign of Christ the King over nations and individuals, as taught by Pius XI. There is no mention of the dangers of Modernism, the errors of ecumenism, or the apostasy of the post-conciliar era. This silence is not accidental; it is the hallmark of the “new catechesis” that has gutted the Faith of its supernatural content and replaced it with a naturalistic humanism. As Pope Leo XIII warned in Testem Benevolentiae, the Americanist heresy sought to adapt the Church to the spirit of the age, emphasizing active virtues over passive ones, and downplaying the necessity of the sacraments and the authority of the hierarchy. Msgr. Pope’s Sunday guide is a perfect example of this heresy in action. The “light of Christ” it proclaims is the dim, flickering light of human goodwill, not the supernatural light of divine revelation that illuminates the path to eternal salvation.
In conclusion, this article from the National Catholic Register is a textbook example of modernist homiletics. It uses orthodox vocabulary to convey heterodox ideas, presenting a Christ who is a supportive friend rather than a Divine Judge, a Church that is a humanitarian community rather than a militant institution, and a priesthood that is democratized rather than divinely instituted. It is a “living stone” that casts no shadow, a “light” that leads not to the Father but to the comfortable darkness of religious indifferentism. The faithful must reject this watered-down Gospel and return to the fullness of the Catholic Faith, as taught by the unchanging Magisterium of the true Church, before the “abomination of desolation” in the Holy Place becomes irreversible.
Source:
Living Stones, Walk in the Light of Christ (ncregister.com)
Date: 01.05.2026