National Catholic Register portal reports on the election of Joseph Vijay, a film actor raised Catholic, as chief minister of Tamil Nadu, India. The article quotes conciliar clergy celebrating this as a “historic development” and expressing hope for “positive changes.” Archbishop George Antonysamy and Father Vincent Chinnadurai are cited praising Vijay’s victory while acknowledging his tenuous connection to the Catholic faith. The article notes Hindu nationalist attempts to polarize voters over Vijay’s Christian name, and Vijay’s public relations maneuver of linking himself to the Old Testament figure of Joseph. The entire celebration is framed in purely naturalistic terms — political power, identity politics, and social work — while the supernatural mission of the Church is entirely absent.
The Triumph of Naturalism Over Supernatural Faith
The article presents what is, in essence, a purely secular political event — the election of a government official — and frames it as a cause for rejoicing by the conciliar Church. Father Vincent Chinnadurai, rector of the Santhome Basilica, declares: “We are really rejoicing that we have a Catholic chief minister.” Archbishop George Antonysamy adds: “This is a historic development. We hope it will lead to positive changes.”
Let us be precise about what is happening here. The Church, which according to her divine constitution is a societas perfecta — a perfect society instituted by Christ for the salvation of souls — is being reduced to an ethnic lobby group celebrating the election of one of its nominal members to a secular political office. This is the logical terminus of the post-conciliar revolution: the Church no longer exists to lead souls to eternal salvation through the sacraments and the preaching of the integral faith, but to celebrate temporal power attained by those who happen to share a nominal religious identity.
Pius XI, in the encyclical Quas Primas, taught with absolute clarity that Christ’s kingship extends over all nations and all aspects of civil society: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations or to those who, by receiving baptism according to law, belong to the Church, even though their erroneous opinions have led them astray or discord has separated them from love, 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 duty of Catholics in public life is not merely to attain power but to subject the state to the laws of Christ the King. Yet the article contains not a single reference to this obligation. Vijay’s promises — subsidized electricity, women’s safety, anti-narcotics units — are purely temporal, purely naturalistic. There is no mention of defending the Catholic faith, protecting the unborn, safeguarding the sacraments, or submitting civil law to divine law.
This silence is not accidental. It is the hallmark of the post-conciliar Church, which has abandoned the supernatural mission of the Church in favor of what the Syllabus of Errors condemned as the separation of Church and State (Proposition 55): “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” Pius IX further condemned the proposition (No. 77) that “in the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship.” The conciliar clergy celebrating Vijay’s election have fully embraced this condemned error.
The “Joseph” Relativism: Syncretism as Political Strategy
Perhaps the most revealing passage in the article is Vijay’s response to Hindu nationalist attempts to brand him as a Christian. Rather than profess the Catholic faith openly and without ambiguity, Vijay “publicized a Christmas program in which he made a speech linking himself to the Old Testament figure of Joseph, who looked after his brothers even after they had thrown him into a well, while he was the ruler of Egypt.” He further asserted that “Tamil Nadu is a mother; all children are equal.”
This is not the language of Catholic faith. This is the language of religious indifferentism — the heresy condemned by Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (Proposition 15): “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true,” and Proposition 17: “Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ.” By framing his message in terms of a generic Old Testament narrative and the equality of all “children” of Tamil Nadu, Vijay effectively empties his Catholic identity of any supernatural content. He becomes a religiously neutral figure, acceptable to Hindus, Christians, and all others — precisely the vision of the post-conciliar Church.
The conciliar clergy not only fail to condemn this relativism but celebrate it. Archbishop Antonysamy acknowledges that “Vijay is not known much as a Catholic” and expresses hope based purely on future “performance” — a purely naturalistic criterion. The faith itself is irrelevant; what matters is whether the politician delivers temporal goods.
The Vailankanni Incident: Superstition Without Doctrine
The article notes that “Thousands of Vijay’s fans thronged the Marian shrine of Vailankanni, known as the Lourdes of the East” and chanted political slogans inside the church premises. This detail, presented without criticism, reveals the degradation of Catholic devotional life under conciliar management. A church — the house of God, the place of the Most Holy Sacrifice — is treated as a political rally venue. The fans chant “TVK, TVK” — the acronym of a political party — inside sacred precincts.
The article does not condemn this sacrilege. It does not explain that the Blessed Virgin Mary is not a talisman for political victories, that true devotion to Our Lady requires conversion of life, frequentation of the sacraments, and fidelity to the Immaculate Heart — not the chanting of political slogans. The silence of the conciliar clergy on this matter speaks volumes about their understanding of the faith, or rather, their lack thereof.
Furthermore, the reference to Vailankanni as “the Lourdes of the East” is itself telling. The post-conciliar Church has consistently promoted the cult of false or dubious apparitions — Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje — while neglecting the true devotional life of the Church centered on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments. The comparison to Lourdes places Vailankanni in the same category of spectacle-driven, sentimental piety that characterizes the neo-church.
The Fan Club Church: Democratization and the Destruction of Hierarchy
The article reveals that Vijay’s political party “was built on more than 80,000 fan clubs established from 2009 across the state, carrying out social work and social campaigns.” Father Chinnadurai notes that most of Vijay’s legislators “hail from his fan base.” This is the democratization of authority — the same principle that the post-conciliar Church has applied to ecclesial life through “synodality,” “collegiality,” and “the sense of the faithful.”
The Catholic Church is not a democracy. She is a divinely instituted hierarchy, with authority flowing from Christ to Peter and from Peter to the bishops. The notion that political authority — or, by extension, ecclesial authority — can be built on fan clubs and social media followings is antithetical to Catholic ecclesiology. The Syllabus of Errors condemned the proposition (No. 60) that “Authority is nothing else but numbers and the sum total of material forces.” Yet this is precisely the principle at work in Vijay’s political movement and, by extension, in the conciliar Church that celebrates it.
The Absence of Persecution: Silence on the Gravest Evil
The article’s subtitle mentions that Vijay’s election is a source of pride “in a country where Christians face growing persecution.” Yet the article itself contains no substantive discussion of this persecution — no call to defend the faith, no mention of the martyrs, no exhortation to fortitude. The persecution is reduced to a background detail, a talking point, while the real celebration is reserved for political power.
This is the conciliar method: acknowledge persecution in passing while actively collaborating with the forces that cause it. The post-conciliar Church has consistently prioritized “dialogue” with persecutors over the defense of the faith. She has embraced religious freedom — condemned by Pius IX and Gregory XVI — and thereby legitimized the very systems that persecute Catholics. The celebration of Vijay’s election, with its emphasis on temporal power and religious indifferentism, is a perfect illustration of this betrayal.
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili Sane Exitu, condemned the proposition (No. 63) that “The Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadfastly adheres to its views, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress.” The conciliar clergy in Tamil Nadu have effectively admitted this impotence — not because they adhere to evangelical ethics, but because they have abandoned them.
Conclusion: The Church of the New Advent Has No Supernatural Mission
The election of Joseph Vijay as chief minister of Tamil Nadu is, in itself, a morally neutral event. A Catholic holding political power is not inherently good or bad; what matters is whether that power is exercised in accordance with the laws of Christ the King. But the reaction of the conciliar Church — her clergy, her institutions, her media — reveals the full extent of the post-conciliar apostasy.
There is no mention of the supernatural mission of the Church. There is no call to defend the faith against persecution. There is no insistence that the state be subject to the laws of Christ. There is no condemnation of religious indifferentism or syncretism. There is no recognition that the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments are the true source of grace and salvation. Instead, there is celebration of political power, hope for “positive changes” defined in purely temporal terms, and a complete capitulation to the spirit of the age.
Pius XI warned in Quas Primas: “When God and Jesus Christ — as we lamented — were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed, because the main reason why some have the right to command and others have the duty to obey was removed.” The conciliar Church in Tamil Nadu has removed Christ from the equation entirely. She celebrates a politician who is “not known much as a Catholic,” who responds to religious challenges with Old Testament relativism, and whose party is built on fan clubs. This is not the Catholic Church. This is the Church of the New Advent — the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, celebrating the triumph of naturalism while the faith is betrayed.
The true Church endures — in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith, who attend the Most Holy Sacrifice of the traditional Latin Mass, and who recognize that there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Let them pray for the conversion of India, for the true faith to be preached to all nations, and for the social reign of Christ the King — not for the election of Catholic-sounding politicians who serve the agenda of the conciliar revolution.
Source:
Catholic Film Star Becomes First Christian Chief Minister of Major Indian State (ncregister.com)
Date: 14.05.2026