EWTN News portal reports that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has published a letter of solidarity with the so-called “Church in Mali” following violent attacks in the region. The letter, dated May 19, 2026, was authored by Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, acting as chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace. It was addressed to Bishop Hassa Florent Kone of the Diocese of San in Mali. The attacks in question, which occurred April 25–26, involved coordinated strikes by an al-Qaeda affiliate and Tuareg rebels against military positions, resulting in the death of the country’s defense minister, Sadio Camara, and numerous other casualties. The letter expresses condolences and spiritual closeness, emphasizing the need for “interreligious dialogue,” “social cohesion,” and “economic opportunity” as pathways to peace. This document serves as a textbook example of the post-conciliar Church’s abandonment of its divine mandate to preach the Gospel of Christ the King, replacing supernatural truth with the secular, naturalistic framework of the United Nations.
The USCCB letter is a masterclass in modernist rhetoric, carefully constructed to avoid any mention of the supernatural truths of the Catholic Faith while promoting a purely humanistic and ecumenical agenda.
The Omission of Christ the King and the Supernatural Order
The most glaring and damning omission in the USCCB letter is the complete absence of the Kingship of Jesus Christ and the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation. The letter speaks of “fraternal solidarity,” “spiritual closeness,” and “prayers,” but these are emptied of their Catholic content. There is no call for the conversion of Mali to the one true Faith, no mention of the sacraments as the sole means of sanctifying grace, and no recognition that true peace is only possible through submission to the Social Kingship of Christ.
Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical *Quas Primas*, explicitly taught that “the hope of lasting peace will not yet shine upon nations as long as individuals and states renounce and do not wish to recognize the reign of our Savior.” He further stated: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations or to those who, by receiving baptism according to law, belong to the Church… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” By failing to invoke this fundamental truth, the USCCB reveals itself not as a successor to the Apostles, but as a humanitarian NGO indistinguishable from the secular world. The letter’s peace is a peace without Christ, a peace that the world gives, not the peace that Christ came to bring (John 14:27).
The Promotion of Interreligious Dialogue and Religious Indifferentism
The letter explicitly promotes the modernist heresy of interreligious dialogue as a means to “building social cohesion and lasting peace.” Bishop Zaidan writes:
We reiterate that interreligious dialogue and collaboration among all people of goodwill remain crucial to building social cohesion and lasting peace in the Sahel.
This statement is a direct contradiction of the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church. The Church has always taught that there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church (*Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus*) and that all other religions are false and lead to damnation. Pope Pius IX, in his *Syllabus of Errors*, condemned the proposition that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Proposition 15) and that “man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Proposition 16).
The USCCB’s call for “dialogue” with Muslims, who explicitly deny the Divinity of Christ, the Trinity, and the Redemption, is not merely naive; it is a betrayal of the martyrs who shed their blood rather than offer incense to false gods. The Malian bishops themselves, in their statement, prayed for “the eternal rest of the soldiers and civilians who sacrificed their lives for the homeland,” yet they fail to recognize that the true homeland is Heaven and that no sacrifice has merit outside of the Catholic Faith. This is the fruit of the conciliar revolution: a Church that has traded the supernatural order for the natural, the eternal for the temporal, and the salvation of souls for social justice.
The Naturalistic Reduction of Peace to Economic and Social Factors
The letter further reduces the cause of peace to purely naturalistic and material factors. Bishop Zaidan states:
education access and fostering economic opportunity for young people are essential elements of building peace and promoting respect for human dignity.
While education and economic opportunity are indeed important for the temporal order, they are utterly insufficient for establishing true peace. Peace is a supernatural virtue, a fruit of charity, which is only possible through grace. Pope Pius XI taught that “the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ” is the only path to lasting peace. The USCCB’s focus on “human dignity” without reference to the Divine Dignity of the Redeemer is a hallmark of the modernist cult of man, condemned by Pope St. Pius X in *Pascendi Dominici Gregis*. The letter is silent on the state of grace, the necessity of prayer, penance, and mortification, and the reality of sin as the true cause of war and violence. This is the religion of humanitarianism, not the Religion of the Incarnate God.
The Invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a Modernist Context
The letter concludes with a Marian invocation that is rendered hollow by its modernist context. Bishop Zaidan writes:
In this month of May, I join the bishops of Mali in praying that your country may be guided to truth, unity, and lasting peace, through the maternal intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not in itself objectionable, but in the context of a letter that denies her Divine Son’s Kingship and promotes religious indifferentism, it becomes a blasphemous parody. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mediatrix of All Graces and the Queen of Peace, but her intercession is only efficacious for those who are in the state of grace and who seek the truth. To invoke her intercession while simultaneously promoting dialogue with those who deny her Son’s Divinity is to make her a patroness of apostasy. The true Queen of Peace is not invoked to bless a pluralistic society, but to bring all nations to the feet of her Divine Son. The USCCB’s Marian devotion is a sentimental veneer over a fundamentally naturalistic and modernist agenda.
The Complicity of the Malian Bishops
The letter also highlights the complicity of the Malian bishops in this modernist agenda. The Episcopal Conference of Mali, in its statement, expressed “sincere condolences” and prayed for the victims, but it too failed to call for the conversion of Mali to the Catholic Faith. The bishops entrusted the victims to “God’s mercy,” but they did not specify that this mercy is only available through the sacraments of the Catholic Church. This is the universal language of the post-conciliar Church: a language of vague sentimentality that offends no one and saves no one. The Malian bishops, like their American counterparts, have abandoned their prophetic mission to preach the Gospel of Christ crucified, becoming instead chaplains to a dying civilization.
The USCCB as a Paramasonic Structure
The USCCB’s actions in this matter are entirely consistent with its nature as a paramasonic structure, dedicated to the promotion of the conciliar revolution. The letter’s emphasis on “interreligious dialogue,” “social cohesion,” and “human dignity” is a direct reflection of the Masonic ideals of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical *Humanum Genus*, warned that the goal of Freemasonry is “to promote the progress of the natural order” and to “destroy the influence of the Catholic Church in society.” The USCCB, by adopting this language and this agenda, has shown itself to be a willing tool of the Masonic conspiracy against the Church of Christ.
The USCCB letter is not an expression of Catholic solidarity, but a declaration of allegiance to the spirit of the world. It is a document that could have been written by any secular humanitarian organization, and it is a scandal to the faithful who still believe in the supernatural mission of the Catholic Church. The true response to the violence in Mali is not “interreligious dialogue” or “economic opportunity,” but the preaching of the Gospel of Christ the King, the administration of the sacraments, and the consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Until the Church returns to this mission, her letters of solidarity will be nothing more than empty words, signifying nothing.
Conclusion: The Bankruptcy of Modernist Diplomacy
The USCCB’s letter of solidarity with Mali is a microcosm of the post-conciliar Church’s spiritual and theological bankruptcy. It is a document that is silent on the most fundamental truths of the Catholic Faith: the Kingship of Christ, the necessity of the Church for salvation, the reality of sin and the need for conversion, and the supernatural means of grace. In their place, it offers the bankrupt currency of modernist diplomacy: interreligious dialogue, social cohesion, and human rights. This is not the language of the Church of Peter, but the language of the Church of the New Advent, a church that has traded the eternal truths of God for the passing fashions of the world. The faithful must reject this modernist counterfeit and cling to the unchanging Tradition of the Catholic Church, which alone can bring true peace to the nations.
Source:
U.S. bishops publish letter of solidarity with Church in Mali following violent attacks (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 20.05.2026