EWTN News portal reports on the first anniversary of the election of Robert Francis Prevost, who assumed the name Leo XIV, as the usurper of the papal throne. U.S. “bishops” of the conciliar sect recorded video messages recounting their reactions to his election, expressing shock, pride, and excitement that an American had been chosen. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago stated: “Being from Chicago, we also have a double sense of pride. After all, we like to say that Chicago produced a pope, and that we take great pride in.” Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski of St. Louis remarked that “conventional wisdom has been that there will never be a pope from the United States,”</i while Bishop Douglas Lucia of Syracuse recalled that “everybody said, ‘Well, it could never be an American.'” The article presents these reactions as heartfelt testimonies of joy, framing the election of an American to the highest office in the Church as a historic and unprecedented milestone worthy of national celebration.
The Cult of National Identity Over the Catholic Faith
The reactions captured in this article reveal a profound theological sickness at the heart of the conciliar structures: the elevation of national identity and patriotic pride above the supernatural reality of the Church and her mission. When Cardinal Cupich declares that Chicago “produced a pope” and that this is a source of “great pride,” he reduces the Vicar of Christ — or rather, the one who claims that office — to a product of American civic achievement. This is not Catholic theology; it is civic religion dressed in ecclesiastical vestments.
The Catholic Church is not a federation of national churches, nor is the papacy an office to be distributed among geopolitical powers as a matter of representational equity. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, una, sancta, catholica et apostolica, and the successor of Peter is the universal pastor of all the faithful, not a national representative. When St. Pius X condemned the Sillon movement in his letter Notre Charge Apostolique (1910), he denounced precisely this error: the subordination of the supernatural order to temporal and national concerns. The Sillon sought to create a form of democracy that would unite all men regardless of creed, placing the nation above the Church. The conciliar sect has accomplished what the Sillon only aspired to: a Church whose leaders measure the significance of the papacy by its national origin.
Bishop McClory’s admission that he never thought “we would have a pope from the United States” and that he felt “a tremendous kind of excitement and joy” at this possibility reveals that his understanding of the papacy is fundamentally secular. The proper reaction of a Catholic bishop to the election of a new pope should be an act of faith in the guidance of the Holy Ghost, prayer for the new pontiff, and submission to his authority in matters of faith and morals. Instead, the reactions recorded here are indistinguishable from those of citizens celebrating a presidential election victory. The language of “pride,” “excitement,” and “joy” over an American pope is the language of nationalism, not of Catholic faith.
The Heresy of Americanism and Its Fruition
This celebration of an American pope is the natural and inevitable fruit of the heresy of Americanism, condemned by Pope Leo XIII in his letter Testem Benevolentiae (1899). In that document, Leo XIII warned against the tendency to adapt the Church’s discipline and life to the spirit of American democracy, to downplay the necessity of external authority, and to emphasize active virtues over passive ones. He specifically condemned the idea that the Church should conform herself to the spirit of the age and to the particular genius of a nation.
The conciliar sect has not merely tolerated Americanism; it has embraced it fully and elevated it to a governing principle. The election of Robert Prevost — a man formed entirely within the post-conciliar system, a member of the Augustinian order as restructured after the Council, and a career curial official — as the one claiming the papal throne is the culmination of decades of infiltration of Catholic structures by modernist and liberal currents. That American “bishops” should celebrate his election as a national achievement demonstrates that they have internalized the very errors Leo XIII warned against: the confusion of the Church’s mission with the values of liberal democracy and national prestige.
Pope Leo XIII wrote that certain adaptations of the Church’s life to American conditions were not to be tolerated when they involved a diminution of the Church’s authority or a distortion of her doctrine. The conciliar sect has done far worse: it has replaced the Church’s doctrine with the doctrines of religious liberty, ecumenism, and collegiality — all of which were condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. The celebration of an American pope is not a sign of the Church’s vitality; it is a symptom of her captivity to the spirit of the world.
The Silence on the Usurpation of Peter’s Throne
Most damningly, the article and the bishops’ testimonies are entirely silent on the fundamental question: whether Robert Francis Prevost is the legitimate successor of Peter at all. The sedevacantist position, grounded in the teaching of St. Robert Bellarmine, holds that a manifest heretic ipso facto ceases to be pope and head of the Church. The conciliar sect, from John XXIII onward, has promulgated doctrines and engaged in practices that constitute manifest heresy: the declaration of religious liberty in Dignitatis Humanae (condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, prop. 77-80), the apostolic constitution Ut Unum Sint promoting false ecumenism, the Assisi gatherings of 1986 and 2002, and the systematic destruction of the Most Holy Sacrifice through the Novus Ordo Missae.
St. Robert Bellarmine taught in De Romano Pontifice (Book II, Chapter 30) that a pope who is a manifest heretic “by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” Wernz and Vidal in Ius Canonicum confirmed this teaching, stating that a manifest heretic is deprived ipso facto of his jurisdiction even before any declaratory sentence by the Church. Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law further supports this, stating that every office becomes vacant by the mere fact of public defection from the Catholic faith.
The “bishops” celebrating Leo XIV’s anniversary do not address this question because they cannot. To acknowledge it would require them to confront the manifest heresies of the conciliar period and to admit that the structures they serve are not the Catholic Church but a counterfeit. Their silence is not ignorance; it is complicity in the greatest deception in the history of Christianity.
The Reduction of the Papacy to a Media Event
The article’s framing of the anniversary as a media event — complete with video messages, personal anecdotes about watching television, and expressions of surprise — reveals the extent to which the conciliar sect has reduced the papacy to a spectacle. Bishop William Byrne’s account of “flying home” from the grocery store to watch the election results on his computer is not a story of faith; it is a story of consumer entertainment. The election of a pope has become equivalent to the announcement of a new CEO or a political candidate: a moment of drama and excitement, followed by commentary and analysis, but devoid of supernatural significance.
This is entirely consistent with the conciliar sect’s treatment of sacred realities. Just as the Novus Ordo Missae reduced the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to a communal meal centered on the assembly, so too has the conciliar papacy been reduced to a media personality whose significance is measured by his ability to generate interest, excitement, and positive coverage. The “bishops'” video messages are not acts of faith; they are public relations exercises designed to maintain the relevance of the conciliar structures in the public eye.
Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that removes Christ and His law from public life. He wrote 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 conciliar sect has not only failed to recognize the reign of Christ the King; it has replaced Him with the cult of personality, national pride, and media spectacle. The celebration of an American pope is a celebration of everything that Pius XI condemned.
The Omission of Catholic Doctrine on the Papacy
Nowhere in the article or the bishops’ testimonies is there any mention of the Catholic doctrine on the papacy: that the pope is the Vicar of Christ, the successor of St. Peter, the supreme judge in matters of faith and morals, and the universal pastor of the Church. There is no mention of the conditions required for a valid election, the role of the Holy Ghost in guiding the Church, or the duties of the faithful toward the true successor of Peter. The entire discussion is conducted in the language of secular achievement: an American has been elected, this is unprecedented, and this is a source of pride.
This omission is not accidental; it is systematic. The conciliar sect has consistently avoided teaching the faithful about the true nature of the papacy because doing so would expose the illegitimacy of its own claimants. If the faithful understood that a manifest heretic cannot be pope, they would immediately question the legitimacy of every conciliar “pope” from John XXIII onward. If the faithful understood that the Church’s authority comes from Christ and not from democratic processes or media approval, they would reject the conciliar sect’s claim to represent the Catholic Church.
The Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX condemned the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (prop. 80). The conciliar sect has done exactly this: it has reconciled itself with the modern world, adopted its values, and transformed the papacy into an instrument of dialogue and accommodation. The celebration of an American pope is the logical conclusion of this process: the papacy has become a prize to be distributed among nations, a symbol of inclusivity and diversity, rather than the rock upon which Christ built His Church.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation Continues
The first anniversary of the election of Robert Francis Prevost as the one claiming the papal throne is not a cause for celebration; it is a cause for mourning. It marks another year of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, another year of the conciliar sect’s occupation of the structures of the Catholic Church, and another year of the faithful being led astray by false shepherds who have no authority from Christ.
The reactions of the American “bishops” — their pride, their excitement, their sense of national achievement — are a damning indictment of the conciliar sect’s apostasy. They reveal men who have lost the faith, who no longer understand the supernatural nature of the Church, and who measure the significance of the papacy by the standards of the world rather than by the standards of Christ.
The true Church endures, as She always has, in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith, who offer the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass according to the immemorial Roman Rite, and who reject the conciliar revolution in all its forms. To these faithful, the anniversary of Leo XIV’s election is a reminder of the urgency of the present moment: the need to preserve the faith, to resist the conciliar sect’s claims, and to await the restoration of the true Church and the legitimate successor of Peter. Adveniat regnum Tuum.
Source:
U.S. bishops recount year since Pope Leo XIV’s election (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 07.05.2026