EWTN News portal reports on the restoration of an episcopal presence in Tarsus, Turkey, by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch — a schismatic body outside the Catholic Church — alongside ordinations in the structures occupying Armagh, Toronto, and Hong Kong, the freeing of a Nigerian “priest,” and the defeat of an abortion expansion bill in Ireland. Beneath the veneer of encouraging news lies a tapestry of apostasy: the normalization of schismatic “churches,” the promotion of a conciliar “Church” that has abandoned the supernatural mission of the true Church, and the systematic silence about the only remedy for the world’s ills — the Social Reign of Christ the King. This article is a microcosm of the post-conciliar catastrophe, where naturalistic humanitarianism supplants the preaching of the Gospel, and where the structures occupying the Vatican collaborate with schismatics and heretics in the name of “dialogue” while the faithful are led further into spiritual ruin.
The Tarsus “Restoration”: A Schismatic Ceremony Presented as Good News
The article opens by celebrating the consecration of Bishop Paul Orduloglu by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch for a “newly formed Diocese of Tarsus, Adana, and Hatay.” This is presented uncritically — as though the establishment of a schismatic episcopal see were a cause for rejoicing among Catholics. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch is a body that has been in formal schism from the Catholic Church since the Great Schism of 1054, and its “bishops” possess no valid jurisdiction, no legitimate apostolic succession in the Catholic sense, and no authority whatsoever within the Church of Christ. As Pope Leo XIII declared in Satis Cognitum (1896), the Church of Christ is one, and those who are separated from it are not part of it: “The Church of Christ, therefore, is one and the same for ever; those who leave it depart from the will and command of Christ the Lord.”
The article notes that Orduloglu’s region is “still recovering from a devastating 2023 earthquake” and that “nine churches were destroyed” and “roughly 80 Christians were killed.” While the suffering of any human being is a natural object of compassion, the article’s framing is revealing: it treats the reconstruction of schismatic churches and the renewal of schismatic “parish life” as inherently praiseworthy, without a single word about the eternal damnation that awaits those who persist in schism. The Catholic position is unambiguous: extra Ecclesiam nulla salus — outside the Church there is no salvation. St. Cyprian of Carthage taught this, the Fourth Lateran Council defined it, and Pope Boniface VIII reaffirmed it in Unam Sanctam. Yet the post-conciliar structures, and the media organs that serve them, have abandoned this dogma in favor of a naturalistic solidarity that treats all “Christians” as equal members of Christ’s Body regardless of their communion — or lack thereof — with the Catholic Church.
The bishop’s stated priorities — “catechism, choirs, youth groups, and efforts to preserve both Arabic and liturgical identity” — are the language of cultural preservation, not supernatural evangelization. There is no mention of the necessity of conversion to the Catholic Church, no mention of the sacraments as they are understood in Catholic theology, no mention of the state of grace or the reality of eternal judgment. This is the religion of humanitarianism dressed in liturgical vestments — precisely the kind of naturalism that Pope Pius IX condemned in the Syllabus of Errors and that St. Pius X identified as the “synthesis of all heresies” in Pascendi Dominici Gregis.
Ordinations in the Conciliar Structures: Sacramental Simulation Without Guarantee
The article reports on priestly ordinations in the archdioceses of Armagh and Toronto — three in Ireland and four in Canada. Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh is quoted as expressing gratitude for the ordinandi’s “generous ‘yes’ to God’s call” and hoping they will have “many years of fulfillment in serving God’s people.” Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto told the ordinandi that they “heard the words of Christ saying ‘Come, follow me.'”
These statements, while superficially orthodox in vocabulary, exist within a conciliar framework that has fundamentally altered the nature of the priesthood and the Mass. The 1968 Ordo Consecrationis Episcopalis and the 1969 Ordo Presbyterorum Ordinandi introduced new consecratory formulas that are at best ambiguous and at worst invalid — a matter of serious theological debate that the structures occupying the Vatican have never adequately addressed. The question of whether ordinations performed under these new rites produce true priests with the power to confect the Holy Eucharist and absolve sins is not a matter of academic speculation; it is a question of eternal consequence for every soul who receives “sacraments” from such men.
Moreover, the priesthood as understood in the conciliar sect is no longer the Catholic priesthood. The 1965 conciliar decree Presbyterorum Ordinis redefined the priest’s role in terms of service to the community rather than the offering of the Holy Sacrifice. The priest is now a “presider,” a facilitator of assembly, a social worker in clerical dress. The propitiatory character of the Mass — the very reason the priesthood exists — has been obscured if not denied. As the Defense of Sedevacantism document notes, citing St. Robert Bellarmine, a manifest heretic ceases to be a member of the Church and loses all jurisdiction. If the men overseeing these ordinations are themselves manifest heretics — as the post-conciliar popes and bishops demonstrably are, given their embrace of religious freedom, ecumenism, and the evolution of doctrine condemned by Vatican I — then the ordinations they confer are at minimum suspect and at maximum null and void.
The article’s tone is one of institutional optimism: “a moment of encouragement and hope.” But hope in what? In a structure that has abandoned the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the center of Christian life? In “priests” who will offer the Novus Ordo — a rite that even Cardinal Ottaviani and Cardinal Bacci described in their famous 1969 Brief Critical Study as representing “a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Holy Mass”? The faithful are being encouraged to place their trust in a system that has severed itself from the Church of Christ.
Hong Kong and the 80th Anniversary of a Conciliar Diocese
The article celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Diocese of Hong Kong, with Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan declaring that “the joy of our Church lies in being able to share the joy of the Gospel with Hong Kong.” The event included an exhibition on the growth of the diocese, the work of Caritas International, and Catholic education.
The language here is entirely naturalistic. “The joy of the Gospel” — a phrase popularized by the apostate Jorge Mario Bergoglio in his 2013 exhortation of the same name — has been emptied of its supernatural content. The “Gospel” in the conciliar context is no longer the proclamation of Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father, the necessity of baptism, the reality of sin and hell, and the call to repentance and conversion. It is a message of social uplift, humanitarian concern, and interreligious harmony. The exhibition’s focus on Caritas International — the global charitable arm of the conciliar sect — reveals the true priority: not the salvation of souls through the sacraments, but the alleviation of temporal suffering through organized philanthropy.
This is precisely the inversion that Pope Pius XI warned against in Quas Primas (1925), where he lamented that “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.” The structures occupying the Vatican have removed Christ from their public mission, replacing the supernatural reign of the Redeemer-King with a program of social service that any secular NGO could emulate. The 80th anniversary of the Hong Kong diocese is not a cause for Catholic celebration; it is an occasion to mourn the transformation of a once-missionary outpost into a branch office of the Church of the New Advent.
The Nigerian “Priest”: A Humanitarian Episode Without Supernatural Context
The freeing of Father Nathaniel Asuwaye after three months of captivity in Nigeria is reported as straightforwardly good news. And indeed, the liberation of any innocent person from unjust captivity is a natural good. But the article’s treatment of this episode is entirely devoid of supernatural perspective. There is no mention of the state of the priest’s soul, no mention of the necessity of the sacraments for salvation, no mention of the spiritual dangers facing Catholics in regions of persecution and chaos.
The Diocese of Kafanchan exists within the conciliar structures. The “Masses” celebrated there are almost certainly the Novus Ordo. The “catechesis” received by the faithful is almost certainly the diluted, modernist product of post-conciliar revisionism. The priest himself was ordained under the new rites. His kidnapping, while a temporal evil that merits natural compassion, is presented in isolation from the far greater spiritual catastrophe that has befallen the Church in Africa and throughout the world since the conciliar revolution.
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), condemned the modernist proposition that “the Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and natural sciences” (proposition 57) and that “the organic structure of the Church is subject to change, and the Christian community, like the human community, is subject to continuous evolution” (proposition 53). The conciliar structures have embraced this evolutionary model, transforming the Church from a divine institution with an unchanging deposit of faith into a human community that adapts to the spirit of the age. The Nigerian episode, as reported, is a symptom of this transformation: the Church is presented as a humanitarian organization whose priests are social workers at risk in dangerous environments, not as an army of priests offering the Holy Sacrifice of Calvary for the salvation of souls and the propagation of the Faith.
Notre Dame and the “Day of Eastern Christians”: Ecumenism as Religious Syncretism
Perhaps the most revealing item in the article is the report on the “Day of Eastern Christians” at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, coinciding with the 170th anniversary of L’Œuvre d’Orient. Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, presided over the liturgy “in the presence of Eastern Catholic patriarchs and representatives, bishops, and supporters.” Speakers “stressed that aid to Eastern Christians is not only material but also spiritual and ecclesial, affirming that they belong fully to the universal Church.”
This is the ecumenical project in full display. The “Eastern Christians” referenced include not only Eastern Catholics (who are in communion with Rome, at least nominally, within the conciliar structures) but also members of the Eastern Orthodox churches — bodies in formal schism from the Catholic Church. The 1964 conciliar decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum and the subsequent ecumenical initiatives of the post-conciliar period have systematically blurred the distinction between Catholic and non-Catholic “Eastern Christians,” treating the latter as separated brethren rather than as souls in danger of eternal perdition outside the true Church.
Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition that “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” (proposition 17). The First Vatican Council defined that the Church of Christ is the Catholic Church, and that those who are not members of it cannot be saved. Yet the conciliar structures have effectively repudiated this teaching, treating all “Christians” as members of a broadly defined “People of God” and engaging in joint liturgical celebrations that imply a unity that does not exist.
Cardinal Gugerotti’s warning against “the world’s silence in the face of suffering in the Middle East” is a naturalistic appeal to humanitarian concern. It says nothing about the spiritual causes of persecution — the abandonment of the Catholic missionary mandate, the failure to preach the Gospel to all nations, the replacement of supernatural faith with interreligious dialogue. The “solidarity” of French Catholics with Eastern Christians is not the solidarity of the Faith, which demands the conversion of schismatics and heretics; it is the solidarity of natural sympathy, which treats all human suffering as equally grievous regardless of the spiritual state of the sufferer.
Ireland’s Abortion Bill Defeat: A Natural Good Within a Spiritual Catastrophe
The defeat of the Social Democrats’ Reproductive Rights (Amendment) Bill in the Irish Dáil is reported as a victory for “pro-life campaigners.” And indeed, any restriction on the legal killing of unborn children is a natural good. But the article’s framing reveals the limitations of the pro-life movement as it exists within the conciliar context.
The bill would have abolished the three-day waiting period for abortion, revised criteria for fatal fetal abnormality, and removed criminal sanctions. The government raised “significant legal and operational concerns,” and the bill was defeated. Pro-life advocates are quoted as celebrating the victory, crediting “a core group of pro-life TDs” and “coordinated pro-life lobbying.”
What is entirely absent from this report is any mention of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the natural law, the divine positive law, and the necessity of conforming civil law to the law of God. The defeat of this bill is a political event within a secular democracy; it is not presented as an act of obedience to the Social Reign of Christ the King. There is no mention of the teaching of Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas that “Christ possesses dominion over all creatures, not by force but by essence and nature” and that “His kingdom is primarily spiritual and concerns mainly spiritual matters” but also encompasses temporal affairs, since “Christ received from the Father unlimited right over all that is created.”
The Irish pro-life movement, as described, operates entirely within the framework of secular lobbying and democratic persuasion. It does not challenge the legitimacy of a secular state that claims the right to legislate on matters of life and death — a right that belongs to God alone. It does not invoke the teaching of Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors that “the Church has the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion” (condemned proposition 21, meaning the Church does have this power) and that “the Church has not the power of using force, nor has she any temporal power, direct or indirect” is a condemned error (proposition 24, meaning the Church does have such power).
The defeat of the abortion bill is a natural good, but it is a good achieved within a system that denies the very principles that would make it a Catholic victory. As long as the structures occupying the Vatican refuse to proclaim the Social Reign of Christ the King and insist on the “autonomy of temporal affairs” — a teaching of the conciliar document Gaudium et Spes that directly contradicts the teaching of every pre-conciliar pope — the pro-life movement will continue to fight rearguard actions within a system that is fundamentally ordered against the law of God.
The Systemic Apostasy: What the Article Reveals by What It Omits
The most damning aspect of this article is not what it says, but what it omits. There is no mention of the true Church — the Catholic Church as it existed before the conciliar revolution, with its unchanging doctrine, its valid sacraments, and its supernatural mission. There is no mention of the necessity of the Traditional Latin Mass as the true expression of Catholic worship. There is no mention of the crisis of faith, the loss of the sense of sin, the abandonment of the sacrament of confession, the collapse of religious vocations in the true sense, or the spiritual devastation wrought by the Novus Ordo and the conciliar reforms.
There is no mention of the teaching of St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis that the modernists — the very men who have taken control of the structures occupying the Vatican — are “the most dangerous enemies of the Church” because they do not attack from without but corrupt from within, using the language of orthodoxy to convey heterodox meaning. There is no mention of the Syllabus of Errors, which condemned virtually every proposition that the conciliar structures have since embraced: religious liberty, the separation of Church and state, the autonomy of civil society from ecclesiastical authority, the equivalence of Catholicism with other forms of worship.
The article presents a world in which the “Church” is a network of humanitarian organizations, cultural preservation societies, and political lobbying groups. It is a world in which the supernatural has been entirely eclipsed by the natural, in which the salvation of souls has been replaced by the alleviation of temporal suffering, in which the preaching of the Gospel has been supplanted by interreligious dialogue and ecumenical collaboration. This is the world that the conciliar revolution has created — a world that Pope Pius XI described in Quas Primas as the consequence of removing Christ and His law from human society: “seeds of discord sown everywhere, flames of envy and hostility… unbridled desires… domestic peace completely shattered… the whole society profoundly shaken and heading towards destruction.”
The article is not merely a collection of news items. It is a confession of faith — not the Catholic faith, but the faith of the Church of the New Advent, the faith of humanitarianism, the faith of naturalism, the faith of the Antichrist. And it is presented without the slightest awareness of its own apostasy, which is the most terrifying symptom of all.
Conclusion: The Only True Hope
The only true hope for the world — for the Christians of Tarsus, for the faithful of Armagh and Toronto, for the Catholics of Hong Kong, for the kidnapped priests of Nigeria, for the Eastern Christians of the Middle East, for the unborn children of Ireland — is the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King and the return of the Catholic Church to her supernatural mission. This means the rejection of the conciliar revolution, the repudiation of the post-conciliar antipopes, the restoration of the Traditional Latin Mass, and the re-establishment of the Church’s authority over all aspects of human life — individual, domestic, and civil.
As Pope Pius XI declared in Quas Primas: “If rulers and legitimate superiors will have the conviction that they exercise authority not so much by their own right as by the command and in the place of the Divine King, everyone will notice how religiously and wisely they will use their authority.” Until this teaching is restored — until Christ the King is recognized as the sovereign of all nations, all societies, and all individuals — the world will continue to descend into the chaos and destruction that we see around us. The structures occupying the Vatican, far from offering a remedy, are themselves the primary cause of the disease. The faithful must look elsewhere — to the true Church, which endures in those who profess the integral Catholic faith and are led by bishops with valid sacraments and validly ordained priests — for the only hope that does not disappoint.
Source:
Tarsus Diocese restored after more than a century (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 16.05.2026