EWTN News portal reports on May 11, 2026, about annual ecumenical gatherings at Bílá Hora (White Mountain) in the Czech Republic, where Catholics and Protestants commemorate the 1620 battle that ended the Bohemian Protestant revolt. The event, organized by the lay group “Smíření Bílá hora” since 2020, aims to transform a “historic religious wound” into an occasion for “reconciliation,” with the support of the Czech Bishops’ Conference and the approval of antipope Francis. This initiative, framed as healing past divisions, is in reality a profound act of apostasy that betrays the Catholic martyrs, denies the exclusive truth of the Faith, and advances the modernist agenda of religious indifferentism condemned by the perennial Magisterium.
The Battle of White Mountain: Triumph of Catholic Truth, Not a “Wound”
The article presents the Battle of White Mountain (1620) as a “Czech national trauma” and a “historic Catholic-Protestant wound,” framing the Habsburg victory as a source of division rather than a moment of Catholic triumph. This narrative is a deliberate inversion of reality. The battle ended a Protestant revolt against the rightful Catholic order, preserving the Faith in Bohemia against the heresy of Hussitism and Protestantism. To call this a “wound” is to side with the enemies of Christ and His Church, implying that the defense of Catholic truth is an act of aggression rather than a sacred duty. The Church has always taught that error has no rights, and the suppression of heresy is not a “wound” but a necessary act of charity to protect souls from perdition. As Pope Leo XIII stated in his encyclical Immortale Dei, “The Almighty, therefore, gave the charge of the human race to two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil, the one being set over divine, and the other over human, each the highest in its kind, and each fixed within certain limits, defined by the special nature and object of its office.” The Habsburgs, in defending the Catholic cause, were fulfilling this divine mandate.
Ecumenism: The Heresy of Indifferentism in Action
The core of the Bílá Hora gatherings is ecumenism, described as “Czech and Slovak Christians gathered for ecumenical prayers.” This is a direct manifestation of the heresy of indifferentism, condemned by Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos (1832): “This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs… when all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the truth.” The article’s emphasis on “reconciliation” without the conversion of Protestants to the Catholic Faith is a betrayal of the Church’s mission. True reconciliation can only occur when heretics return to the one true Church, not by pretending that all “Christians” are equal in faith. As Pope Pius XI declared in Mortalium Animos (1928), “The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it.” The Bílá Hora events, by treating Protestants as equal partners in prayer, deny the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation and promote the modernist lie that all religions are paths to God.
The Role of the Post-Conciliar Hierarchy: Apostasy Institutionalized
The involvement of the Czech Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Jan Graubner, and the late Cardinal Dominik Duka in these events demonstrates the complete capitulation of the post-conciliar hierarchy to modernism. These “bishops” are not shepherds defending the flock but wolves in sheep’s clothing, leading souls into the abyss of religious relativism. The article notes that the Czech Bishops’ Conference co-organized the 400th anniversary event in 2020 and continues to support such initiatives. This is not surprising, as the conciliar sect has abandoned the traditional teaching that the Catholic Church is the only true religion. The Syllabus of Errors (1864) by Pope Pius IX explicitly condemns the proposition that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Proposition 15) and that “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion” (Proposition 18). The actions of these “bishops” are a direct violation of these condemnations, revealing them as manifest heretics who have lost their jurisdiction ipso facto according to the teaching of St. Robert Bellarmine.
The Reconciliation Cross: A Symbol of Betrayal
The installation of a “reconciliation cross” at Bílá Hora, described as “a permanent reminder” and “a place for symbolic events,” is a blasphemous appropriation of the Cross of Christ. The Cross is the sign of Catholic victory over heresy, not a symbol of compromise with error. By erecting this cross in the context of ecumenism, the organizers are effectively declaring that the blood of Catholic martyrs who died defending the Faith at White Mountain was shed in vain. This is a slap in the face of the countless Catholics who suffered and died to preserve the true Faith in Bohemia. The cross should be a call to conversion, not a monument to religious indifferentism. As St. Paul warns, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema” (Galatians 1:8). The “reconciliation cross” is a symbol of the modernist gospel of false unity, which is an abomination in the eyes of God.
The Silence on Martyrs and the Glorification of Heresy
The article is conspicuously silent about the Catholic martyrs who died at White Mountain and during the subsequent re-Catholicization of Bohemia. Instead, it focuses on “healing past wounds” and “concrete gestures of forgiveness,” as if the Catholic Church needs to apologize for defending the truth. This is a typical modernist tactic: to erase the memory of Catholic heroism and replace it with sentimentalism and guilt. The true “wound” is not the battle itself but the centuries of Protestant and modernist propaganda that has demonized the Catholic defense of Bohemia. The article’s narrative is a continuation of this propaganda, aimed at making Catholics ashamed of their own history and eager to compromise with heresy. The Church has always venerated her martyrs as heroes of the Faith, not as victims of a “national trauma.” To forget or downplay their sacrifice is a grave sin against the virtue of justice.
The Approval of Antipope Francis: A Seal of Apostasy
The article mentions that antipope Francis, through the apostolic nuncio Archbishop Charles Daniel Balvo, conveyed his appreciation for the ecumenical prayers at Bílá Hora. This approval is a seal of apostasy, confirming that the conciliar sect has fully embraced the heresy of ecumenism. Francis, as a manifest heretic and usurper of the papal throne, has no authority to approve or promote any religious activity. His support for the Bílá Hora gatherings is yet another proof of his complete rejection of Catholic doctrine. As the Syllabus of Errors condemns the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Proposition 80), so too does Francis’s endorsement of ecumenism place him outside the Church. The faithful must reject his authority and refuse to participate in any initiative he supports.
Conclusion: Return to Catholic Truth, Reject Modernist Apostasy
The Bílá Hora “reconciliation” gatherings are a microcosm of the post-conciliar apostasy: a denial of Catholic truth, a betrayal of the martyrs, and a promotion of religious indifferentism. The involvement of the Czech Bishops’ Conference and the approval of antipope Francis reveal the depth of the crisis in the conciliar sect. The faithful must reject these initiatives and return to the unchanging teaching of the Church: that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church, that ecumenism is a heresy, and that the defense of the Faith is a sacred duty. The Battle of White Mountain was not a “wound” but a triumph of Catholic truth, and any attempt to reinterpret it as a source of division or a call for false unity is a betrayal of the blood of the martyrs. As Pope St. Pius X warned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), “Modernism is the synthesis of all heresies,” and the Bílá Hora gatherings are a clear manifestation of this synthesis. The faithful must stand firm in the truth, reject the lies of modernism, and pray for the conversion of heretics and the restoration of the true Church.
Source:
Czechs turn ‘symbol of division’ into ground for Catholic-Protestant unity (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 11.05.2026