The article from the EWTN News portal (May 15, 2026) reports on the failure of the Donald Trump-Xi Jinping summit to secure the release of Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong media mogul sentenced by the Chinese Communist Party. The text highlights the expressions of gratitude from Lai’s daughter, Claire, toward the Trump administration, while simultaneously revealing a purely naturalistic and political understanding of “freedom,” entirely stripped of the theological dimension of the human person’s ultimate end.
A “Freedom” Stripped of Its Supernatural Foundation
The entire narrative presented by EWTN News and the statements of Claire Lai revolve around the concept of “freedom,” yet this freedom is understood exclusively in a horizontal, political, and material sense. Claire Lai describes her father as a man who was “anti-violence, pro-democracy, pro-free press, free speech, and anti-Hong Kong independence.” He is presented as a “symbol of freedom” and a “symbol of hope.” However, from the perspective of integral Catholic faith, this definition of freedom is gravely deficient and ultimately illusory. True freedom is not the mere absence of political constraint or the ability to express opinions in a secular public square. As the Church has always taught, true freedom is the ability to do good, to fulfill the moral law, and to attain our supernatural end—the Beatific Vision. A man can be “pro-free press” and “pro-democracy” while simultaneously being enslaved to sin, error, and the rejection of God’s sovereignty. The article’s silence on the state of Jimmy Lai’s soul, his adherence to the true Faith, and the ultimate purpose of his suffering exposes the profound spiritual bankruptcy of modern secular discourse, even when it claims to champion “human rights.”
The Idolatry of Political Saviors
The article reveals a disturbing tendency to place hope in political figures rather than in Divine Providence. Claire Lai states that her family is “so grateful to President Trump and his administration” and expresses confidence that “it’s him and his administration that will secure the release of my father.” While it is not wrong to seek the intercession of civil authorities, the language used here borders on a political messianism that is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching. The Church has consistently taught that ultimate justice and deliverance come from God alone, and that civil authority is merely a minister of God for the good of society (Romans 13:4). To place one’s confidence in a political administration as the primary agent of salvation is to commit the error of naturalism condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, specifically proposition 39: “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits.” The state is not the source of rights; God is. Furthermore, the article’s uncritical praise for Trump’s efforts ignores the fact that the entire geopolitical order, including both the United States and China, is built upon the rejection of the Social Reign of Christ the King. As Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas, peace and justice are only possible when nations and individuals recognize the sovereignty of Christ. A summit between two leaders of nations that have both explicitly rejected God’s law can never produce true justice, only a temporary and unstable political compromise.
The Omission of the True Church and the Sacramental Life
Perhaps the most glaring omission in the EWTN News report is the complete absence of any reference to the true Church, the sacraments, and the supernatural means of grace. Claire Lai mentions that her father has learned “just the abundance of God’s mercy and the abundance of his grace” in prison, and she invokes “our good Lord and the Blessed Mother.” However, there is no mention of the Catholic Church as the sole ark of salvation, no mention of the necessity of the sacraments—particularly Confession and the Holy Eucharist—for the remission of sins and the strengthening of the soul in suffering. The language used is generic, Protestant, and sentimental, reflecting the very religious indifferentism that the Church has condemned. Proposition 16 of the Syllabus of Errors explicitly condemns the idea that “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation.” The article’s failure to specify that Jimmy Lai’s hope and salvation depend on his union with the Catholic Church and participation in her sacraments is a grave omission that reduces Christianity to a vague spiritual sentimentality. The suffering of a prisoner, no matter how unjust, is ultimately meaningless if it is not united to the suffering of Christ through the sacramental life of the Church. The article treats Jimmy Lai’s imprisonment as a political problem requiring a political solution, rather than a spiritual trial requiring supernatural grace.
The Sin of Communism and the Duty of the Church
The article mentions that Jimmy Lai was detained by the “Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” and sentenced for “national security violations.” It notes that “99% of the things they pulled out was from prior to the National Security Law coming into force.” This is presented as evidence of the injustice of his imprisonment. While the injustice is real, the article fails to identify the root cause of this injustice: the intrinsically evil nature of Communism. The Church has consistently condemned Communism as a system that is incompatible with the natural law and the rights of God and man. Pope Pius XI, in Divini Redemptoris, taught that Communism is “intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever.” The article’s failure to explicitly condemn Communism as a diabolical ideology, and instead to treat it merely as a political adversary, is a symptom of the modernist error of separating faith from public life. The Church does not engage in political negotiations with evil; she condemns error and calls for the conversion of souls and the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom. The EWTN News report, by framing the issue as a diplomatic problem between the US and China, implicitly accepts the legitimacy of the Communist regime and the secular international order, rather than calling for its overthrow and the establishment of a social order based on Catholic principles.
The Scandal of EWTN’s Naturalistic Reporting
The fact that this report comes from EWTN News, a media outlet that claims to be Catholic, makes the omissions and errors even more scandalous. The article reads like a secular news report, using the language of “human rights,” “democracy,” and “freedom of the press” without any reference to the Catholic doctrine on these subjects. It invokes the Ascension of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit, but only as a sentimental backdrop to a political story, rather than as the central reality that gives meaning to all human events. The article’s silence on the necessity of the true Faith, the sacraments, and the Social Kingship of Christ is a betrayal of the Catholic mission. It reduces the Church to a mere chaplaincy for secular political causes, rather than the City of God that stands as a beacon of truth in a world lost in darkness. The faithful must reject this naturalistic reporting and demand that Catholic media uphold the integral Faith, proclaiming that there is no true freedom, no true justice, and no true peace outside of Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church. The suffering of Jimmy Lai, and all political prisoners, must be seen in the light of eternity, and the only true solution to the evils of this world is the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the establishment of the Social Reign of Christ the King over all nations.
[Antichurch] The Lai Case: When “Freedom of the Press” Masks the Absence of the Highest Good
The article from the EWTN News portal (May 15, 2026) reports on the failure of the Donald Trump-Xi Jinping summit to secure the release of Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong media mogul sentenced by the Chinese Communist Party. The text highlights the expressions of gratitude from Lai’s daughter, Claire, toward the Trump administration, while simultaneously revealing a purely naturalistic and political understanding of “freedom,” entirely stripped of the theological dimension of the human person’s ultimate end.
A “Freedom” Stripped of Its Supernatural Foundation
The entire narrative presented by EWTN News and the statements of Claire Lai revolve around the concept of “freedom,” yet this freedom is understood exclusively in a horizontal, political, and material sense. Claire Lai describes her father as a man who was “anti-violence, pro-democracy, pro-free press, free speech, and anti-Hong Kong independence.” He is presented as a “symbol of freedom” and a “symbol of hope.” However, from the perspective of integral Catholic faith, this definition of freedom is gravely deficient and ultimately illusory. True freedom is not the mere absence of political constraint or the ability to express opinions in a secular public square. As the Church has always taught, true freedom is the ability to do good, to fulfill the moral law, and to attain our supernatural end—the Beatific Vision. A man can be “pro-free press” and “pro-democracy” while simultaneously being enslaved to sin, error, and the rejection of God’s sovereignty. The article’s silence on the state of Jimmy Lai’s soul, his adherence to the true Faith, and the ultimate purpose of his suffering exposes the profound spiritual bankruptcy of modern secular discourse, even when it claims to champion “human rights.”
The Idolatry of Political Saviors
The article reveals a disturbing tendency to place hope in political figures rather than in Divine Providence. Claire Lai states that her family is “so grateful to President Trump and his administration” and expresses confidence that “it’s him and his administration that will secure the release of my father.” While it is not wrong to seek the intercession of civil authorities, the language used here borders on a political messianism that is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching. The Church has consistently taught that ultimate justice and deliverance come from God alone, and that civil authority is merely a minister of God for the good of society (Romans 13:4). To place one’s confidence in a political administration as the primary agent of salvation is to commit the error of naturalism condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, specifically proposition 39: “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits.” The state is not the source of rights; God is. Furthermore, the article’s uncritical praise for Trump’s efforts ignores the fact that the entire geopolitical order, including both the United States and China, is built upon the rejection of the Social Reign of Christ the King. As Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas, peace and justice are only possible when nations and individuals recognize the sovereignty of Christ. A summit between two leaders of nations that have both explicitly rejected God’s law can never produce true justice, only a temporary and unstable political compromise.
The Omission of the True Church and the Sacramental Life
Perhaps the most glaring omission in the EWTN News report is the complete absence of any reference to the true Church, the sacraments, and the supernatural means of grace. Claire Lai mentions that her father has learned “just the abundance of God’s mercy and the abundance of his grace” in prison, and she invokes “our good Lord and the Blessed Mother.” However, there is no mention of the Catholic Church as the sole ark of salvation, no mention of the necessity of the sacraments—particularly Confession and the Holy Eucharist—for the remission of sins and the strengthening of the soul in suffering. The language used is generic, Protestant, and sentimental, reflecting the very religious indifferentism that the Church has condemned. Proposition 16 of the Syllabus of Errors explicitly condemns the idea that “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation.” The article’s failure to specify that Jimmy Lai’s hope and salvation depend on his union with the Catholic Church and participation in her sacraments is a grave omission that reduces Christianity to a vague spiritual sentimentality. The suffering of a prisoner, no matter how unjust, is ultimately meaningless if it is not united to the suffering of Christ through the sacramental life of the Church. The article treats Jimmy Lai’s imprisonment as a political problem requiring a political solution, rather than a spiritual trial requiring supernatural grace.
The Sin of Communism and the Duty of the Church
The article mentions that Jimmy Lai was detained by the “Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” and sentenced for “national security violations.” It notes that “99% of the things they pulled out was from prior to the National Security Law coming into force.” This is presented as evidence of the injustice of his imprisonment. While the injustice is real, the article fails to identify the root cause of this injustice: the intrinsically evil nature of Communism. The Church has consistently condemned Communism as a system that is incompatible with the natural law and the rights of God and man. Pope Pius XI, in Divini Redemptoris, taught that Communism is “intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever.” The article’s failure to explicitly condemn Communism as a diabolical ideology, and instead to treat it merely as a political adversary, is a symptom of the modernist error of separating faith from public life. The Church does not engage in political negotiations with evil; she condemns error and calls for the conversion of souls and the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom. The EWTN News report, by framing the issue as a diplomatic problem between the US and China, implicitly accepts the legitimacy of the Communist regime and the secular international order, rather than calling for its overthrow and the establishment of a social order based on Catholic principles.
The Scandal of EWTN’s Naturalistic Reporting
The fact that this report comes from EWTN News, a media outlet that claims to be Catholic, makes the omissions and errors even more scandalous. The article reads like a secular news report, using the language of “human rights,” “democracy,” and “freedom of the press” without any reference to the Catholic doctrine on these subjects. It invokes the Ascension of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit, but only as a sentimental backdrop to a political story, rather than as the central reality that gives meaning to all human events. The article’s silence on the necessity of the true Faith, the sacraments, and the Social Kingship of Christ is a betrayal of the Catholic mission. It reduces the Church to a mere chaplaincy for secular political causes, rather than the City of God that stands as a beacon of truth in a world lost in darkness. The faithful must reject this naturalistic reporting and demand that Catholic media uphold the integral Faith, proclaiming that there is no true freedom, no true justice, and no true peace outside of Jesus Christ and His Holy Catholic Church. The suffering of Jimmy Lai, and all political prisoners, must be seen in the light of eternity, and the only true solution to the evils of this world is the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the establishment of the Social Reign of Christ the King over all nations.
Source:
Trump’s China Summit Fails to Produce Breakthrough for Release of Jimmy Lai (ncregister.com)
Date: 15.05.2026