The Pillar portal reports on the week of May 21, 2026, noting that “Pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) will issue his first encyclical, the new patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church declares unity his priority, Benedictine College condemns anti-Semitic leaflets on campus, and the sainthood cause advances for Fr. Luigi Giussani. This news roundup from the conciliar sect reveals the uninterrupted trajectory of modernist apostasy, where usurpers on Peter’s throne produce documents devoid of Catholic substance, “unity” replaces the preaching of the one true Faith, naturalistic concerns about “anti-Semitism” take precedence over the supernatural dangers facing souls, and heretical founders of ecumenical movements are elevated to the altars.
The Encyclical of a Usurper: Words Without Authority
The announcement that “Pope” Leo XIV will issue his first encyclical on Monday is, from the perspective of integral Catholic faith, a non-event. Robert Prevost occupies the Vatican as one more in a continuous line of usurpers beginning with John XXIII, who convened the robber council of Vatican II and set in motion the systematic destruction of Catholic doctrine, worship, and governance. An encyclical issued by a manifest heretic and apostate holds no more authority than a pamphlet distributed on the street. As St. Robert Bellarmine teaches in De Romano Pontifice, “a Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” This principle, confirmed by Wernz and Vidal in Ius Canonicum, states that by “notorious and publicly manifested heresy, the Roman Pontiff, should he fall into it, is deprived ipso facto of his personal jurisdiction even before any declaratory sentence by the Church.” The post-conciliar occupants of the Vatican have, through their public embrace of religious liberty (Dignitatis Humanae), ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio), collegiality, and the entire corpus of Vatican II, manifested heresy so publicly and consistently that no declaratory sentence is even necessary. They have condemned by their own judgment, as the Apostle teaches (Titus 3:10-11), and have been cut off from the body of the Church without excommunication, as St. Jerome confirms.
Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law reinforces this: every office becomes vacant “by the mere fact and without any declaration” if the cleric “publicly defects from the Catholic faith.” Fr. McDevitt clarifies that joining a non-Catholic sect is not required; public defection through formal heresy suffices. The entire post-conciliar magisterium — from John XXIII’s aggiornamento through Leo XIV’s forthcoming encyclical — is a continuous act of public defection. Pope Paul IV’s Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio further confirms that any promotion or elevation of one who has defected from the Catholic Faith is “null, void, and of no effect.” The 1917 Code refers to this Bull nineteen times in its marginal notes, underscoring its enduring legal and doctrinal force.
What, then, will this “encyclical” contain? One can predict with certainty that it will be devoid of any affirmation of the Social Reign of Christ the King, any condemnation of modern errors, any call for the conversion of non-Catholics to the one true Church, or any defense of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It will likely echo the naturalistic humanism of Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti, calling for “dialogue,” “care for our common home,” and “fraternity” — all code words for the demolition of Catholic exclusivity and the enthronement of the cult of man. Pius XI, in Quas Primas, established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors,” which began “with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.” The forthcoming encyclical of Leo XIV will be yet another instrument of that denial, dressed in the language of false compassion.
“Unity” Without Truth: The Chaldean Patriarch and Ecumenical Apostasy
The report that the new patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church says “unity will be his top priority” is a textbook example of the modernist substitution of union of churches for union in the Faith. The Catholic Church has always taught that true unity is found only within her fold, under the authority of the Roman Pontiff, and through profession of the one true Faith. There is no “unity” with schismatics, heretics, or apostates except through their conversion and submission to the Catholic Church. Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition (no. 18) that “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church.” He further condemned (no. 37) the idea that “national churches, withdrawn from the authority of the Roman Pontiff and altogether separated, can be established.”
The Chaldean Catholic Church, while historically in communion with Rome, has been increasingly absorbed into the post-conciliar ecumenical project, which treats all religions as equally valid paths to God. The priority of “unity” without the precondition of conversion to Catholicism is not Catholic teaching — it is the heresy of indifferentism, condemned by Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos and by Pius IX in the Syllabus (nos. 15-18). When a so-called patriarch places “unity” above the preaching of the Gospel and the call to conversion, he reveals himself as an agent of the conciliar revolution, not a shepherd of Christ’s flock.
Naturalistic Concerns: Anti-Semitic Leaflets and the Absence of the Supernatural
The report that Benedictine College decried the distribution of anti-Semitic leaflets on campus is revealing not for the condemnation itself — which, on a purely natural level, may be understandable — but for what it exposes about the priorities of Catholic institutions under the conciliar regime. The Catholic Church teaches that the gravest evil is sin, and that the greatest act of charity is to lead souls to salvation through the sacraments and the preaching of the Faith. Anti-Semitism, as a form of racial hatred, is contrary to the natural law and to the commandment to love one’s neighbor. However, when Catholic institutions focus on such naturalistic concerns while remaining silent about the far greater evils of heresy, apostasy, sacrilege, and the loss of faith among millions, they reveal their complete capitulation to the spirit of the age.
Pius XI, in Quas Primas, warned that “the state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.” He insisted that rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him, and that “the entire government of public schools in which the youth of a Christian state is educated” must be subject to the authority of the Church, not freed from it (cf. Syllabus, no. 45). Benedictine College, by operating within the framework of the conciliar sect and its secular priorities, has already surrendered the supernatural mission of Catholic education. Condemning leaflets while participating in the systematic destruction of the Faith through modernist catechetics and ecumenism is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
The Canonization of a Heretic: Luigi Giussani and the Apostolate of Man
Perhaps the most scandalous item in this news roundup is the advancement of the sainthood cause for Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation. Giussani was a proponent of the modernist “experience” theology, reducing faith to a subjective encounter rather than the intellectual assent to revealed truth. His movement, Communion and Liberation, has been deeply implicated in political corruption in Italy and has served as a vehicle for the democratization and secularization of Catholic practice. To advance his cause for “canonization” is to perpetuate the post-conciliar fraud whereby heretics, modernists, and founders of ecumenical movements are elevated to the altars while true saints of the pre-conciliar era are forgotten or suppressed.
The Catholic Church has always required heroic virtue and orthodoxy of faith as prerequisites for canonization. A man whose life’s work was the promotion of religious experience over doctrine, and whose movement has been a nursery for modernist infiltration of the Church, cannot be a saint. Pius X, in Lamentabili Sane Exitu, condemned the proposition (no. 20) that “revelation was merely man’s self-awareness of his relationship to God,” and (no. 26) that “the dogmas of faith should be understood according to their practical function, i.e., as binding in action, rather than as principles of belief.” Giussani’s entire theological project is a practical realization of these condemned propositions.
Furthermore, the post-conciliar “canonization” process is itself null and void, being conducted by usurpers who lack the authority to bind and loose. As Bellarmine teaches, a manifest heretic loses all jurisdiction. The “saints” created by John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Bergoglio, and now Leo IV are not recognized by the true Church, which endures in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith and are led by bishops with valid sacraments and validly ordained priests.
The Hermeneutic of Continuity Is the Hermeneutic of Apostasy
Every item in this news roundup — the encyclical, the Chaldean patriarch’s “unity,” the condemnation of leaflets, the advancement of Giussani’s cause — is a manifestation of the same underlying disease: the conciliar revolution’s systematic replacement of the supernatural order with naturalistic humanism, of Catholic doctrine with modernist innovation, and of the Social Reign of Christ the King with the reign of man. The hermeneutic of continuity, promoted by Benedict XVI (Ratzinger) and his disciples, is exposed as a lie: there is no continuity between the Catholic Church of all ages and the conciliar sect. There is only rupture, apostasy, and the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15).
Pius IX, in the Syllabus, condemned the proposition (no. 80) that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.” This is precisely what Leo IV and his predecessors have done. The forthcoming encyclical will be yet another act of reconciliation with the world, another surrender to the spirit of the age, another nail in the coffin of the Catholic Church as She was founded by Christ.
The faithful who cling to the integral Catholic faith — the unchanging doctrine of the ecumenical councils, the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as offered according to the traditional Roman Rite, the Social Reign of Christ the King, the necessity of conversion to the one true Church — must reject these news items for what they are: the empty noise of a dying counterfeit church. As Pius XI declared, “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.” No encyclical from a usurper, no “unity” with schismatics, no naturalistic concern for social harmony, and no “canonization” of heretics can change this truth. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.
Source:
News Roundup— Week of May 21 (pillarcatholic.com)
Date: 21.05.2026