VaticanNews portal reports that on May 7, 2026, the usurper Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) received the staff of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV) to mark its centenary. During the address, he praised books for fostering a “critical sense,” guarding against “fundamentalism,” and promoting a “culture of encounter,” while encouraging staff to “proclaim Christ” through their work. The entire discourse is a masterclass in modernist equivocation, using the language of the Second Vatican Council to undermine the very concept of immutable Catholic truth.
The “Critical Sense” Against the Analogy of Faith
Leo XIV’s encouragement to read as a means to cultivate a “well-formed critical sense” and as an “antidote to closed-mindedness, which is reflected in rigid attitudes and reductive visions of reality” is not wisdom; it is the quintessence of the modernist spirit condemned by Saint Pius X. The modern mind, shaped by Kantian philosophy, places human reason as the supreme judge over all things, including divine revelation. To speak of a “critical sense” in the context of faith is to subject the immutable truths of God to the ever-shifting tribunal of human intellect. True Catholic intellectual formation is not about “critical” distance but about the profound assent of the intellect and will to the revealed Truth. As the Vatican Council (a true ecumenical council, unlike the conciliar sect’s “Vatican II”) teaches, reason is the praeambula fidei (preambles of faith), not its critic. The “rigid attitudes” Leo XIV decries are, in reality, the unwavering adherence to the depositum fidei (deposit of faith), the refusal to compromise on a single jot or tittle of God’s Word. What he calls a “reductive vision of reality” is, in fact, the Catholic understanding that there is one Truth, one Faith, one Baptism, and that all human thought must conform to this divine reality, not the other way around. The pursuit of novelty and the rejection of established doctrine is the very definition of Modernism, which Saint Pius X condemned as the “synthesis of all errors.”
The “Culture of Encounter” and the Heresy of Indifferentism
The reference to Pope Francis’ “culture of encounter” and the idea that books serve as “bridges toward others, fostering dialogue” is a direct echo of the conciliar sect’s false ecumenism and religious indifferentism. This is the heresy condemned by Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos and by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, which explicitly refutes the idea that “it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State” (Proposition 77). The purpose of Catholic literature is not to “broaden perspectives” in a relativistic sense but to proclaim the one, true Faith for the salvation of souls. The “encounter” promoted by the neo-church is not the encounter between God and the soul through grace, but a horizontal, man-centered dialogue that treats all religions as equally valid paths. This is the very spirit of the 19th-century secret societies condemned by Pope Leo XIII in Humanum Genus, which sought to unite all religions under the banner of naturalism. To foster such a “culture” is to betray the mandate of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “Ego sum via, veritas, et vita” (I am the way, the truth, and the life) (John 14:6). There is no “encounter” with error; there is only the duty to condemn it.
The “Proclamation of Christ” Without the Kingship of Christ
Leo XIV’s final point—that books are an opportunity to “proclaim Christ”—is rendered hollow and fraudulent by the context of his address and the entire conciliar project. One cannot proclaim Christ while simultaneously denying His Social Kingship over all nations and institutions. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism and laicism that Leo XIV’s address implicitly endorses. Pius XI taught that the reign of Christ extends not only to individuals but to families and states, and that “the state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.” By omitting any mention of Christ’s public and social reign, Leo XIV reduces the Faith to a private, spiritual affair, a mere matter of personal “encounter” and “dialogue.” This is the very essence of the separation of Church and State condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus (Proposition 55). The “Christ” proclaimed by the neo-church is not the Christ of the Gospels, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but a sentimental figure of “love” and “mercy” detached from His divine authority and justice. The saints Leo XIV mentions—Mary, Anthony, Augustine—are invoked not as models of heroic virtue and defense of truth, but as props for a narrative of comfortable, worldly “encounter.”
The “Family Celebration” of a Century of Apostasy
The centenary of the Vatican Publishing House is not a cause for celebration but for mourning. Since its independence in 1926, it has served not nine true pontiffs, but a succession of men, many of whom have actively worked to undermine the Faith. The LEV has been instrumental in disseminating the modernist “magisterium” of John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, and now Leo XIV. It has published the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the new “mass,” the new “catechism,” and countless works of theological dissent. To call this a “family celebration” is an insult to the true family of God, the Catholic Church, which has been betrayed by these very structures. The LEV is not a servant of the Gospel but a tool of the conciliar revolution, a factory for the production of spiritual poison disguised as “refinement of ideas and programs for the future,” as Paul VI once said. This is the true legacy of the LEV: not the spread of the Faith, but the spread of Modernism, indifferentism, and the destruction of the Church from within.
Conclusion: The Word of God vs. the Words of Men
In the “school of Mary and the Saints,” as Leo XIV puts it, we are indeed nourished by the Word of God. But this Word is not subject to “critical sense” or “dialogue”; it is the eternal, unchanging Truth. “Caeli et terra transibunt, verba autem mea non praeteribunt” (Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away) (Matthew 24:35). The true Pope, the Vicar of Christ, would not encourage “reading” as a means to escape “rigid attitudes” but would urge the faithful to cling to the lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi (the law of prayer is the law of belief is the law of life) as handed down by Tradition. He would not promote a “culture of encounter” but would demand the conversion of all nations to the one true Faith. He would not omit the Social Kingship of Christ but would insist on its recognition in every aspect of public and private life. Leo XIV’s address is not a call to proclaim Christ but a call to accommodate the world, to dilute the Faith, and to continue the work of destruction begun at Vatican II. It is the voice of the conciliar sect, not the voice of the Church. Let us reject this false teaching and return to the immutable Tradition of the Catholic Faith, which alone can save souls and restore the Kingdom of Christ on earth.
Source:
Pope to Vatican Publishing House: 'Reading nourishes the mind' (vaticannews.va)
Date: 07.05.2026