EWTN News reports on the release of a new edition of “The Fifteen Saturdays of the Most Holy Rosary,” timed to coincide with the visit of the antipope Leo XIV to Pompeii on May 8, 2026. The article promotes the devotion of St. Bartolo Longo, canonized by the same antipope on October 19, 2025, and presents his dramatic conversion from Satanism as a model for the faithful. Dominican Father Joseph-Anthony Kress is quoted extensively, extolling the devotion’s Christocentric and contemplative nature, its integration of sacramental life, and its role in fostering perseverance. The article also notes that Longo’s work inspired John Paul II’s addition of the luminous mysteries to the rosary. This entire narrative, however, is a masterful exercise in conciliar hagiography, designed to legitimize the neo-church’s apparatus of “saints,” devotions, and sacramental life, while obscuring the theological bankruptcy and spiritual dangers inherent in the post-conciliar revolution.
The Canonization Factory: Legitimizing the Conciliar Sect
The article’s central premise rests on the authority of the antipope Leo XIV, who “canonized” Bartolo Longo. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, this act is null and void. As established by the Defense of Sedevacantism document, a manifest heretic loses his office automatically, ipso factoextra Ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation) and that the true Church is governed by lawful pastors.
Bartolo Longo: A Saint for the New Order
Bartolo Longo’s life, as presented, is a textbook example of the conciliar narrative: a dramatic conversion, a focus on charity, and a promotion of popular piety. While his personal conversion may have been genuine, his subsequent canonization by the antipope Leo XIV immediately renders his cult suspect. The conciliar sect has a well-documented history of “canonizing” individuals whose lives, while perhaps admirable in some aspects, do not meet the rigorous standards of heroic virtue required by the pre-conciliar Church, or whose “sainthood” serves to legitimize conciliar innovations. The article mentions Longo’s inspiration for John Paul II’s luminous mysteries, a clear indication of his utility to the modernist agenda. The luminous mysteries themselves are a conciliar innovation, an unauthorized addition to the rosary that dilutes its traditional Christocentric focus and opens the door to further liturgical and devotional experimentation. To promote Longo is, by extension, to promote the very innovations that have impoverished Catholic worship and devotion.
The Fifteen Saturdays: Sacramentalism Without Substance
The devotion itself, the “Fifteen Saturdays,” is presented as a “unique devotion to pray and meditate on, as it is both devotional and sacramental.” Father Kress emphasizes its integration of “the reception of the Eucharist” and “confession.” This language is deeply problematic. In the conciar sect, the “Eucharist” is often a mere symbol or a communal meal, stripped of its true sacrificial character, and “confession” is frequently reduced to a therapeutic exercise or a mere formality, lacking the rigor and contrition demanded by the Sacrament of Penance as understood by the pre-conciliar Church. To encourage participation in these conciar “sacraments” is to lead the faithful into sacrilege and spiritual delusion. The article’s claim that this devotion “disposes us to a more worthy reception of the sacraments” is a cruel irony, as the “sacraments” offered by the neo-church are themselves unworthy of the name, being either invalid or gravely illicit.
The Language of Perseverance and Hope: A Modernist Siren Song
The article repeatedly employs the language of “hope,” “perseverance,” and “conversion.” Father Kress speaks of Longo’s conversion as a testament to “the hope that we as Christians cling to, that there’s never a situation, never a particular life circumstance, that eliminates the hope of a conversion and union with Christ.” While hope is a theological virtue, the conciar sect’s understanding of it is often divorced from the necessity of true repentance, adherence to all of Christ’s commandments, and submission to the authority of the true Church. Their “hope” is a naturalistic optimism, a belief in man’s inherent goodness and capacity for self-improvement, rather than a supernatural trust in God’s mercy and grace, which can only be obtained through the true sacraments and the true faith. The emphasis on “perseverance” in the context of a devotion promoted by the conciar sect is a subtle call to remain within its fold, to persevere in error, rather than to seek the truth wherever it may be found, even if it means standing alone against the tide of apostasy.
The Omission of Truth: The Gravest Accusation
Perhaps the most damning aspect of this article is what it omits. There is no mention of the true state of the Church, the crisis of authority, the invalidity of the conciliar “Mass,” the sacrilegious nature of its “sacraments,” or the manifest heresy of its “popes.” There is no warning that receiving “Communion” in post-conciliar structures, where the Mass has been reduced to a table of assembly, and the rubrics violate the theology of the propitiatory sacrifice, is if not “just” sacrilege, then idolatry. There is no call to seek out true priests, true Masses, and true sacraments. The article operates entirely within the framework of the concilar sect, presenting its “saints,” its “devotions,” and its “sacraments” as the only legitimate options for the faithful. This silence about supernatural matters is the gravest accusation, as it leaves the reader spiritually adrift in a sea of modernist error, unaware of the true dangers to their soul.
The Papal Visit: A Charade of Authority
The timing of the antipope’s visit to Pompeii, coinciding with the release of this devotion, is not coincidental. It is a calculated move to reinforce the conciliar narrative, to present the antipope as the legitimate successor of Peter, and to lend his authority to the promotion of a “saint” and a devotion that serve the interests of the neo-church. The article describes the visit as highlighting Longo’s “legacy,” but the true legacy of this visit is the further entrenchment of the conciliar revolution and the continued deception of the faithful. The “Holy Father” celebrating “Mass” in Piazza Bartolo Longo is a charade, a mockery of the true priesthood and the true Sacrifice of the Mass.
Conclusion: A Call to Discernment
The article on the “Fifteen Saturdays” devotion is a prime example of the conciliar sect’s strategy: to fill the spiritual vacuum left by the destruction of true Catholic worship and doctrine with a plethora of “devotions,” “saints,” and “sacraments” that are either empty of true grace or actively harmful to the soul. It is a call to discernment, to reject the false promises of the neo-church, and to seek the truth in the unchanging teachings of the pre-conciliar Church. The faithful must remember that regina apostolorum ora pro nobis (Queen of Apostles, pray for us) is a prayer for the true Church, not for the abomination of desolation that currently occupies the Vatican. True perseverance lies not in adhering to the conciliar innovations, but in holding fast to the faith once delivered to the saints, even if it means standing against the tide of modernist apostasy.
Source:
New release seeks to revive St. Bartolo Longo’s ‘Fifteen Saturdays’ devotion (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 08.05.2026