Vatican Commentary Reduces Christ’s Kingship to Therapeutic Devotion
The VaticanNews portal (November 14, 2025) presents a commentary by “Fr.” Edmund Power, OSB, on the Thirty-third Sunday liturgy that systematically evacuates Catholic eschatology of its doctrinal substance. Beneath the veneer of pious language lies a complete inversion of the Church’s teaching on the social reign of Christ the King.
Naturalistic Reduction of the Church’s Mission
The commentary reduces the Church’s mission to maintaining a “loving relationship with God” described as “full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good.” This humanistic formulation deliberately avoids Regnum Christi (the Kingship of Christ) as defined by Pius XI: “The empire of our Redeemer embraces all men… His reign extends not only to Catholic nations… but also to all non-Christians” (Encyclical Quas Primas, §18). The glaring omission of Christ’s juridical authority over nations fulfills Pius IX’s condemnation of those who claim “the Church is an enemy of… progress” (Syllabus of Errors §57).
Erasure of Supernatural Realities
Nowhere does the text mention:
- The necessity of sacraments for salvation (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
- The propitiatory sacrifice of the Mass
- The Four Last Things (Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell)
This silence constitutes heresy by omission, violating Canon 1324 of the 1917 Code which obliges the faithful to “shun profane and vain babblings, and the contradictions of the falsely called knowledge”. The reduction of apocalyptic warnings to psychological “challenges” denies the judicium particulare (particular judgment) affirmed by Benedict XII’s Benedictus Deus (1336).
Subversion of Eschatological Warnings
The commentary distorts Christ’s prophecy about the Temple’s destruction (Luke 21:5-19) into a metaphor about “physical and metaphorical structures” rather than:
- A warning against Jewish ritualism condemned in Suprema Haec Sacra (Holy Office 1949)
- The prefiguration of God’s judgment on apostate nations (Jeremiah 7:1-15)
When “Fr.” Power claims “He [Christ] is not talking about the end of the world in a literal sense,” he directly contradicts Christ’s words: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). This modernist exegesis echoes the condemned proposition: “The Gospels do not prove the Divinity of Jesus Christ” (Lamentabili §27).
Psychological Spiritualism Replaces Doctrine
The text’s core message reduces Catholicism to therapeutic self-help:
“the condition we long for (‘gladness’ and ‘happiness’) is available and permanent… only in our loving relationship to God (‘being devoted to you’).”
This denies the Catholic definition of happiness as “the Beatific Vision consisting in the knowledge and love of God” (Council of Florence, Laetentur Caeli). The replacement of caritas (theological virtue) with emotional “devotion” aligns with Modernist subjectivism condemned by Pascendi Dominici Gregis §14: “Religious sentiment… must be considered the soul of religion”.
Omission of the Church’s Militant Role
The commentary’s call to “remain steady and unswayed” lacks any reference to:
- Spiritual combat against heresy (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
- Duty to publicly profess the Faith (Romans 10:9)
- Necessity of ecclesiastical authority (Matthew 18:17-18)
This pacifist stance violates Leo XIII’s mandate: “The Church… cannot suffer error to be put on an equal footing with truth” (Libertas Praestantissimum §34). The absence of Marian intercession and saintly models reveals the post-conciliar sect’s rupture with Tradition.
Source:
Lord's Day Reflection: Serving the Author of all that is good (vaticannews.va)
Date: 14.11.2025