Vatican News portal reports on an interview with Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, the new Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity (the former Apostolic Almonry), appointed by “Pope” Leo XIV. The article describes the activities of this Vatican office—from distributing apostolic blessings to running medical clinics and shelters for the homeless—and presents the archbishop’s vision of charity as the “center of Christian life,” where the poor are treated as the “face of Christ” who “evangelize us.” The article notes that the Almonry serves as an “emergency room of charity,” welcoming the marginalized and coordinating international aid to war-torn regions. Behind the veneer of philanthropy, however, lies a profound theological subversion: the reduction of the supernatural life of grace to mere social assistance, and the replacement of the true Church’s mission of saving souls with the conciliar sect’s agenda of humanistic solidarity.
The Eclipse of the Supernatural: Charity Without the Cross
The most glaring deficiency in the archbishop’s discourse—and in the conciliar “charity” he represents—is the complete silence regarding the supernatural end of man. When Marín de San Martín declares that “the center of Christian life is charity… God is love… the greatest is love”, he strips charity of its theological context. In the integral Catholic faith, charity (*caritas*) is not merely a humanitarian impulse; it is a supernatural virtue infused by God, which orders man toward his final end: the Beatific Vision. As the *Catechism of the Council of Trent* teaches, charity is the queen of virtues because it unites the soul to God Himself.
By contrast, the archbishop reduces charity to “practical charity… life itself”, where “we must bring Christ to the poor” and “find Christ in the poor”. This is not the Catholic doctrine of the Mystical Body, where Christ is present in the souls of the faithful by sanctifying grace. Instead, it is a naturalistic projection: Christ is “found” merely in the material needs of the marginalized. There is no mention of the necessity of the sacraments, the state of grace, or the eternal damnation that awaits those who die outside the true Faith. The “poor” become an idolatrous substitute for God—a fetish of the conciliar revolution.
The “Preferential Option” and the Marxist Captivity of the Church
The archbishop’s language reveals the deep infiltration of Marxist and modernist categories into the conciliar sect. His assertion that “the poor and the excluded… are the preferential option… It is the Gospel’s option” is a direct echo of the liberation theology condemned by the authentic Magisterium. The phrase “preferential option for the poor” was weaponized by the enemies of the Church to reduce the Gospel to a program of socio-economic liberation, ignoring the primacy of the spiritual.
Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical *Quas Primas*, taught that the reign of Christ the King extends over all men, “not only to Catholic nations… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ”. The conciliar sect, however, has abandoned this universal kingship, focusing instead on the “excluded” as a political class. The “Dicastery for the Service of Charity” is not an instrument of the Church’s spiritual mercy; it is a bureaucratic arm of the “Church of the New Advent,” which seeks to legitimize itself through humanitarian works while abandoning the preaching of the Gospel of salvation.
The “Poor” as Evangelizers: A Heresy Against the Apostolate
Perhaps the most blasphemous statement in the interview is the claim that “the poor evangelize us”. This inverts the divine order established by Christ, who said, *”Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”* (Matt. 28:19). The mission of the Church is to evangelize the poor, to lift them from ignorance and sin, and to lead them to the true Faith. The conciliar sect, having lost the dogmatic faith, now claims to be “evangelized” by those who often lack even the basic truths of religion.
This is the logical endpoint of the modernist heresy condemned by St. Pius X in *Pascendi Dominici gregis*: the evolution of dogma and the replacement of divine revelation with human experience. The poor, in this paradigm, are not souls to be saved but “prophets” of a new, horizontal religion. The archbishop’s statement that “Christ is alive… He is not merely a theory, an idea, or a page in the book” is a false piety; for without the immutable truths of the Faith, “Christ” is merely a symbol of human solidarity, not the God-Man who shed His Blood for the remission of sins.
The “House of Zacchaeus” and the Corruption of Almsgiving
The article describes the Almonry as the “House of Zacchaeus,” a reference to the chief tax collector who repented and gave half his goods to the poor. Yet Zacchaeus’s charity was a fruit of his conversion to Christ, not a substitute for it. The conciliar Almonry, however, dispenses “apostolic blessings” and material aid without any mention of the necessity of repentance, confession, or adherence to the Catholic Faith.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 1311) and the teachings of the Council of Trent emphasize that almsgiving is a work of mercy only when performed in a state of grace. The modernist “charity” of the Vatican is a sterile humanitarianism, devoid of the supernatural merit that alone can open the gates of Heaven. The “Homeless Jesus” sculpture mentioned in the article—depicting a vagrant with the wounds of Christ—is a fitting symbol of this reductionism: Christ is no longer the King of Glory, but a destitute man, stripped of His majesty and reduced to a social cause.
Conclusion: The Bankruptcy of Conciliar “Mercy”
The interview with Archbishop Marín de San Martín exposes the spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar institution. By placing the “poor” at the center of the Church’s mission, the conciliar sect has abandoned the *lex orandi, lex credendi* of the immemorial Tradition. The true Church has always practiced charity, but always as a fruit of the Faith, never as a replacement for it.
As Pope Pius IX declared in the *Syllabus of Errors*, “the teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society” when society is defined by the standards of secular humanism. The Vatican’s “service of charity” is not a work of the true Church; it is the humanitarian facade of the “abomination of desolation,” which seeks to build a naturalistic paradise on earth while the souls of the faithful are led into the abyss of indifferentism. The poor do not need our alms alone; they need the Truth that sets them free. But the conciliar sect, having rejected that Truth, can only offer them bread—and even that, at the cost of their immortal souls.
[Antichurch] The Poor as “Compass”: How the Conciliar Sect Replaces the Gospel with Naturalistic Humanism
Vatican News portal reports on an interview with Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, the new Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity (the former Apostolic Almonry), appointed by “Pope” Leo XIV. The article describes the activities of this Vatican office—from distributing apostolic blessings to running medical clinics and shelters for the homeless—and presents the archbishop’s vision of charity as the “center of Christian life,” where the poor are treated as the “face of Christ” who “evangelize us.” The article notes that the Almonry serves as an “emergency room of charity,” welcoming the marginalized and coordinating international aid to war-torn regions. Behind the veneer of philanthropy, however, lies a profound theological subversion: the reduction of the supernatural life of grace to mere social assistance, and the replacement of the true Church’s mission of saving souls with the conciliar sect’s agenda of humanistic solidarity.
The Eclipse of the Supernatural: Charity Without the Cross
The most glaring deficiency in the archbishop’s discourse—and in the conciliar “charity” he represents—is the complete silence regarding the supernatural end of man. When Marín de San Martín declares that “the center of Christian life is charity… God is love… the greatest is love”, he strips charity of its theological context. In the integral Catholic faith, charity (*caritas*) is not merely a humanitarian impulse; it is a supernatural virtue infused by God, which orders man toward his final end: the Beatific Vision. As the *Catechism of the Council of Trent* teaches, charity is the queen of virtues because it unites the soul to God Himself.
By contrast, the archbishop reduces charity to “practical charity… life itself”, where “we must bring Christ to the poor” and “find Christ in the poor”. This is not the Catholic doctrine of the Mystical Body, where Christ is present in the souls of the faithful by sanctifying grace. Instead, it is a naturalistic projection: Christ is “found” merely in the material needs of the marginalized. There is no mention of the necessity of the sacraments, the state of grace, or the eternal damnation that awaits those who die outside the true Faith. The “poor” become an idolatrous substitute for God—a fetish of the conciliar revolution.
The “Preferential Option” and the Marxist Captivity of the Church
The archbishop’s language reveals the deep infiltration of Marxist and modernist categories into the conciliar sect. His assertion that “the poor and the excluded… are the preferential option… It is the Gospel’s option” is a direct echo of the liberation theology condemned by the authentic Magisterium. The phrase “preferential option for the poor” was weaponized by the enemies of the Church to reduce the Gospel to a program of socio-economic liberation, ignoring the primacy of the spiritual.
Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical *Quas Primas*, taught that the reign of Christ the King extends over all men, “not only to Catholic nations… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ”. The conciliar sect, however, has abandoned this universal kingship, focusing instead on the “excluded” as a political class. The “Dicastery for the Service of Charity” is not an instrument of the Church’s spiritual mercy; it is a bureaucratic arm of the “Church of the New Advent,” which seeks to legitimize itself through humanitarian works while abandoning the preaching of the Gospel of salvation.
The “Poor” as Evangelizers: A Heresy Against the Apostolate
Perhaps the most blasphemous statement in the interview is the claim that “the poor evangelize us”. This inverts the divine order established by Christ, who said, *”Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”* (Matt. 28:19). The mission of the Church is to evangelize the poor, to lift them from ignorance and sin, and to lead them to the true Faith. The conciliar sect, having lost the dogmatic faith, now claims to be “evangelized” by those who often lack even the basic truths of religion.
This is the logical endpoint of the modernist heresy condemned by St. Pius X in *Pascendi Dominici gregis*: the evolution of dogma and the replacement of divine revelation with human experience. The poor, in this paradigm, are not souls to be saved but “prophets” of a new, horizontal religion. The archbishop’s statement that “Christ is alive… He is not merely a theory, an idea, or a page in the book” is a false piety; for without the immutable truths of the Faith, “Christ” is merely a symbol of human solidarity, not the God-Man who shed His Blood for the remission of sins.
The “House of Zacchaeus” and the Corruption of Almsgiving
The article describes the Almonry as the “House of Zacchaeus,” a reference to the chief tax collector who repented and gave half his goods to the poor. Yet Zacchaeus’s charity was a fruit of his conversion to Christ, not a substitute for it. The conciliar Almonry, however, dispenses “apostolic blessings” and material aid without any mention of the necessity of repentance, confession, or adherence to the Catholic Faith.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 1311) and the teachings of the Council of Trent emphasize that almsgiving is a work of mercy only when performed in a state of grace. The modernist “charity” of the Vatican is a sterile humanitarianism, devoid of the supernatural merit that alone can open the gates of Heaven. The “Homeless Jesus” sculpture mentioned in the article—depicting a vagrant with the wounds of Christ—is a fitting symbol of this reductionism: Christ is no longer the King of Glory, but a destitute man, stripped of His majesty and reduced to a social cause.
Conclusion: The Bankruptcy of Conciliar “Mercy”
The interview with Archbishop Marín de San Martín exposes the spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar institution. By placing the “poor” at the center of the Church’s mission, the conciliar sect has abandoned the *lex orandi, lex credendi* of the immemorial Tradition. The true Church has always practiced charity, but always as a fruit of the Faith, never as a replacement for it.
As Pope Pius IX declared in the *Syllabus of Errors*, “the teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society” when society is defined by the standards of secular humanism. The Vatican’s “service of charity” is not a work of the true Church; it is the humanitarian facade of the “abomination of desolation,” which seeks to build a naturalistic paradise on earth while the souls of the faithful are led into the abyss of indifferentism. The poor do not need our alms alone; they need the Truth that sets them free. But the conciliar sect, having rejected that Truth, can only offer them bread—and even that, at the cost of their immortal souls.
Source:
The Pope’s Almoner: The poor are our compass for walking in the Church (vaticannews.va)
Date: 13.05.2026