The VaticanNews portal reports on the activities of the “Diocesan Missionaries Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church” in the highlands of Jujuy Province, Argentina, among the Colla indigenous people. The article, authored by Sr. Leontina Elisa Melano and dated May 15, 2026, presents these religious sisters as exemplars of the “synodal and missionary Church” — a vision aligned with the post-conciliar revolution. It describes their efforts to integrate with indigenous culture, share in their spirituality, and provide pastoral care in remote villages devoid of priests. The piece quotes approvingly from “Pope” Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation *Dilexei te*, praising the supposed wisdom of the poor and framing the sisters’ work as a feminine contribution to building community. What the article systematically conceals is that this entire enterprise constitutes a flagrant violation of Catholic missionary doctrine, a capitulation to paganism, and a practical implementation of the very errors condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium — from the evolution of dogmas to the democratization of the Church and false ecumenism elevated to the level of religious syncretism.
The “Synodal Church”: A Modernist Heresy Cloaked in Pastoral Language
The article’s central framework is the concept of the “synodal and missionary Church,” a phrase repeated like a mantra throughout the text. This is not Catholic terminology. It is the hallmark of the conciliar sect’s revolution, which has replaced the hierarchical constitution of the Church — established by Christ Himself as a perfect society (*societas perfecta*) endowed with supreme authority over all nations — with a horizontal, democratic model where “listening,” “community,” and “feminine contribution” replace the preaching of dogma, the administration of sacraments, and the salvation of souls.
Pope Pius XI, in the encyclical Quas Primas (1925), taught with crystalline clarity: “The Church, established by Christ as a perfect society, demands for itself by a right belonging to it, which it cannot renounce, full freedom and independence from secular authority, and that in fulfilling the mission entrusted to it by God — to teach, govern, and lead all to eternal happiness, those who belong to the Kingdom of Christ — it cannot depend on anyone’s will.” The mission of the Church is not to “listen to reality” or to “coexist with the challenges of a territory.” The mission of the Church is to teach, govern, and sanctify — to bring souls to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments. The article’s language reveals a Church that has abandoned its divine mandate in favor of a naturalistic humanism indistinguishable from secular NGO work.
The sisters are described as seeking “new ways of being present on the territory, in constant listening to reality and to God’s plan for the Prelature: to be a more indigenous church with distinct characteristics.” This phrase — “a more indigenous church with distinct characteristics” — is a direct expression of the condemned error of indigenism and inculturation, which treats the Catholic Faith as a costume to be draped over pagan cultures rather than as the universal truth that must transform and elevate all cultures. Pope Pius XII, in his 1939 instruction to missionaries, insisted that the Church does not “enslave” cultures but purifies and elevates them — yet always preserving the integrity of dogma and worship. The article’s vision is the precise opposite: it is the Church that is being enslaved by pagan culture.
The Omission of Evangelization: Silence as Apostasy
Perhaps the most damning feature of this article is what it does not say. Nowhere — not a single time — does the word “evangelization” appear in connection with converting the Colla people to the Catholic Faith. Nowhere is there mention of baptism, catechesis, the teaching of the Creed, the sacrament of confession, or the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the center of the sisters’ mission. The article speaks of “sharing in their culture,” “offering pastoral care,” and “coexisting with the challenges of their territory” — but never of the one thing necessary: bringing these souls to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His one true Church.
This silence is not accidental. It is the fruit of the post-conciliar apostasy, which has systematically replaced the supernatural mission of the Church with a naturalistic program of “dialogue,” “solidarity,” and “community building.” Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Immortale Dei (1885), taught: “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 own kind, and each fixed within limits defined by its own nature and special object.” The article’s vision of religious sisters living among indigenous people without any mention of their primary duty — the salvation of souls through conversion — is a practical denial of this teaching.
The article quotes “Pope” Leo XIV’s exhortation Dilexei te: “Growing up in precarious circumstances, learning to survive in the most adverse conditions, trusting in God with the assurance that no one else takes them seriously, and helping one another in the darkest moments, the poor have learned many things that they keep hidden in their hearts.” This sentimental romanticization of poverty — detached from any call to conversion, repentance, or the supernatural life of grace — is pure modernism. It is the “cult of man” condemned by Pope St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), where he identified the modernist error of reducing religion to subjective experience and social action. The poor do not need solidarity; they need Christ. They do not need sisters who “share their culture”; they need missionaries who will baptize them, teach them the commandments, and offer them the Holy Sacrifice.
Pagan Spirituality and the “Ancestral Values” of the Colla People
The article celebrates the Colla people’s “Andean identity, culture, spirituality and costumes” and quotes a woman named Delma who expresses joy at “the decision to live according to the ancestral values that were passed on to me.” These “ancestral values” are, in reality, pagan practices — animism, spirit worship, and rituals incompatible with the Catholic Faith. The article presents this not as a problem to be addressed through evangelization, but as something to be celebrated and integrated into the life of the “Church.”
This is precisely the error condemned by Pope Pius IX in The Syllabus of Errors (1864), where he rejected the proposition that “Catholics may approve of the system of educating youth unconnected with Catholic faith and the power of the Church, and which regards the knowledge of merely natural things, and only, or at least primarily, the ends of earthly social life” (Proposition 48). It is also the error condemned in the Lamentabili sane exitu (1907), which rejected the proposition that “the Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics, because it steadily adheres to its views, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress” (Proposition 63).
The Decree for the Propagation of the Faith issued by the Holy Office in 1949 (Pluries Instanterque) explicitly warned against the “danger of indifferentism” in missionary work and insisted that missionaries must not accommodate pagan practices but must lead converts to the fullness of the Catholic Faith. The article’s vision of a “more indigenous church with distinct characteristics” is a direct violation of this directive. There is no such thing as an “indigenous church” with “distinct characteristics” that departs from the universal teaching and worship of the Catholic Church. The Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic — or it is not the Church at all.
The Feminist Revolution Within the Conciliar Sect
The article repeatedly emphasizes the “feminine contribution” of the sisters, describing their presence as “our way of being present, of being a Church, of listening, of making community and being close companions.” This language reveals the feminist revolution that has infected the conciliar sect, where the distinct and complementary roles established by God have been replaced by a secular ideology of gender equality and female empowerment.
Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, taught that Christ’s kingdom “encompasses all men” and that “men united in societies are no less subject to the authority of Christ than individuals.” The article’s emphasis on the “feminine contribution” is not merely a stylistic choice; it is a theological statement that reflects the conciliar sect’s systematic dismantling of the hierarchical order established by Christ. When Sr. Andrea speaks of “our feminine contribution — our way of being present, of being a Church,” she is implicitly claiming a role in the governance and mission of the Church that belongs exclusively to the ordained hierarchy. This is the error of clerico-liberalism condemned by Pope Pius IX in The Syllabus of Errors (Section IV), and it is a direct consequence of the democratization of the Church inaugurated by the Second Vatican Council.
The Absence of the Priest and the Desacralization of Pastoral Care
The article notes that the 50 villages served by the sisters “do not have a priest.” Rather than presenting this as a crisis demanding the ordination of priests and the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, the article treats it as an opportunity for the sisters to exercise “pastoral care” — a term that, in the conciliar lexicon, has been emptied of its supernatural content and refilled with the language of social work and community organizing.
The Catholic understanding of pastoral care is inseparable from the sacramental life. A pastor is one who feeds the sheep — and the food of the sheep is the Word of God and the Body and Blood of Christ. Pope St. Pius X, in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, condemned the modernist error that “the sacraments merely serve to remind man of the presence of the ever-benevolent Creator” (Proposition 41). The article’s vision of pastoral care without priests, without the Mass, and without the sacraments is precisely this modernist error put into practice. What the sisters are providing is not pastoral care; it is a naturalistic simulation of pastoral care that leaves the Colla people without the means of salvation.
Conclusion: The Abomination of Desolation in the Highlands
The article from VaticanNews presents a picture of religious activity that is, in reality, a comprehensive betrayal of the Catholic Faith. The “Diocesan Missionaries Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church” are not missionaries in any Catholic sense of the word. They are agents of the concilar revolution, implementing a program of syncretism, naturalism, and feminist ideology that has nothing to do with the mission entrusted by Christ to His Church.
Pope Pius IX, in The Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Proposition 80). The article’s celebration of the “synodal and missionary Church” is a living example of this condemned proposition. The sisters are not bringing Christ to the Colla people; they are bringing the conciliar sect’s program of dialogue, inculturation, and social solidarity — a program that leaves paganism intact and souls in the state of mortal sin.
The true Catholic response to the situation described in this article would be clear: ordain priests, celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass, baptize the Colla people, teach them the catechism, and lead them to the fullness of the Catholic Faith — not “listen” to their pagan spirituality and call it God’s plan. The “Sisters Project” is not a mission; it is a betrayal — and the souls of the Colla people deserve better than the spiritual bankruptcy of the post-conciliar abomination.
Source:
Religious sisters living mission and faith in highlands of Argentina (vaticannews.va)
Date: 15.05.2026