VaticanNews portal reports (June 6, 2026) that during his apostolic journey to Spain, the antipope Leo XIV addressed authorities and the diplomatic corps at the Royal Palace in Madrid, declaring he came “to affirm, encourage and instill a renewed fidelity to the Gospel among believers.” He praised Spain’s commitment to “international law and multilateralism,” encouraged “dialogue and civic friendship,” and called for protecting “religious freedom and freedom of conscience.” He invoked Spanish saints including St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Ávila, and St. Ignatius of Loyola, while lamenting “growing polarization” and calling for a “qualitative leap forward” in education and culture. Notably, he acknowledged Islam’s presence on the Iberian Peninsula as “a long-standing political, cultural, and religious reality” and encouraged “peaceful coexistence and dialogue among religions.” This address is a textbook example of the conciliar sect’s systematic replacement of the supernatural mission of the Church with naturalistic humanism, false ecumenism, and the religion of man.
The Gospel Without Christ the King: A Contradiction in Terms
The antipope declares he comes to Spain “to affirm, encourage and instill a renewed fidelity to the Gospel among believers.” This phrase, seemingly innocuous, contains within it the entire modernist reduction of Catholicism. The “Gospel” is severed from its dogmatic content — the Kingship of Christ, the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation, the obligation of nations to submit to the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ. What remains is a vague, contentless “fidelity” that can mean anything and therefore means nothing.
Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the “secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors.” He taught with absolute clarity: “The Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men” and “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.” Furthermore, Pius XI insisted: “It matters not whether individuals, families, or states, for men united in societies are no less subject to the authority of Christ than individuals.”
Where in Leo XIV’s address is there any mention of Christ’s royal authority over Spain? Where is the call for Spain to publicly recognize the Social Kingship of Our Lord? Where is the reminder that “rulers of states… fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness” (Pius XI, Quas Primas)? The silence is deafening and damning. The “Gospel” Leo XIV preaches is a Gospel stripped of its royal Lord — which is to say, it is not the Gospel at all.
“Religious Freedom and Freedom of Conscience”: The Conciliar Heresy Unmasked
Perhaps the most revealing passage in the entire address is Leo XIV’s declaration that “religious freedom and freedom of conscience must be protected.” This is not Catholic teaching. This is the heresy of Dignitatis Humanae, the conciliar document that Pius IX condemned in advance when he included among the errors of the Syllabus of Errors (1864) the propositions that:
– Error 77: “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship.”
– Error 78: “Hence it has been wisely decided by law, in some Catholic countries, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship.”
– Error 79: “Moreover, it is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to propagate the pest of indifferentism.”
Pius IX condemned these propositions absolutely. The Church has always taught that error has no rights, that the Catholic religion alone is the true religion, and that the State has the duty to profess and protect it. As Pius IX declared: “The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion” — this was condemned as Error 21 of the Syllabus. The Church has always possessed and exercised this power.
Leo XIV’s invocation of “religious freedom” is not a development of doctrine — it is a corruption of doctrine, precisely the kind of evolution that the Holy Office under St. Pius X condemned in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), particularly Error 65: “Contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism.” This is exactly what Leo XIV represents: a dogmaless Catholicism that has reconciled itself with the world by abandoning every doctrine the world finds inconvenient.
Islam Acknowledged as “Religious Reality”: The Betrayal of Catholic Spain
The most scandalous passage in the entire address is Leo XIV’s acknowledgment that “the presence of Islam on the Iberian Peninsula has constituted ‘a long-standing political, cultural, and religious reality'” and his encouragement of the country to move forward in “peaceful coexistence and dialogue among religions.”
Let us recall what Spain actually is in the light of Catholic history and doctrine. Spain is the nation that, for eight centuries, fought the Reconquista — the sacred struggle to liberate Christian lands from Islamic occupation. Spain is the nation of Ferdinand and Isabella, who completed the reconquest of Granada in 1492. Spain is the nation that, under the patronage of Our Lady of the Pillar and Santiago Matamoros, defended Christian civilization against the Crescent. The very identity of Catholic Spain is inseparable from its confession that there is no “religious reality” in Islam except the reality of error and the enemy of Christ.
Pius IX, in the Syllabus, condemned Error 16: “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation.” And Error 17: “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.” Leo XIV’s call for “dialogue among religions” presupposes precisely this condemned indifferentism — that Islam is a legitimate “religious reality” with which the Catholic Church can coexist as one partner among many.
The antipope’s language reveals the modernist subtext: Islam is not a heresy to be combated, not a false religion to be exposed, but a “reality” to be “acknowledged.” This is the language of the United Nations, not of the Catholic Church. It is the language of Nostra Aetate and Fratelli Tutti, not of the Crusaders or of St. Ferdinand III of Castile.
Invoking the Saints While Betraying Their Faith
Leo XIV invokes St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Ávila, and St. Ignatius of Loyola. This is a particularly cynical maneuver. These saints lived and died in the confession of the one true Catholic faith — the faith that Leo XIV systematically undermines.
St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus precisely to combat heresy and to defend the authority of the Roman Pontiff. The Jesuits were the Church’s shock troops against Protestantism. What would St. Ignatius say to a “pope” who calls for “dialogue among religions” and protects “religious freedom”? He would say what every saint would say: this is apostasy.
St. Teresa of Ávila, whom Leo XIV quotes regarding the “interior castle,” was a Doctor of the Church who taught that the soul’s journey to God passes through the mysteries of faith, the Passion of Christ, and the sacramental life of the Church. Her interior castle is not the modernist “openness to the Totus Alius” that Leo XIV describes — a vague transcendence stripped of dogmatic content. It is the soul’s progressive union with the Triune God through the Catholic faith and the sacraments.
The antipope’s use of St. Teresa’s imagery to justify “religious freedom” is a reductio ad absurdum of the hermeneutics of continuity. He takes the words of a saint and fills them with a meaning diametrically opposed to what she intended. This is precisely what St. Pius X warned against in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), where he described the modernist method of “interpreting” the Fathers and Doctors in light of contemporary philosophy rather than accepting their teaching as authoritative.
“Multilateralism” and “International Law”: The Religion of the New World Order
Leo XIV thanks Spain “for its faithful adherence to international law and multilateralism” and praises its “active commitment to peace and solidarity among peoples.” This language is not Catholic. It is the language of the United Nations, of globalist institutions, of the New World Order that the Church has consistently condemned.
Pius XI taught in Quas Primas 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.” Peace is not achieved through “multilateralism” or “international law” — it is achieved through the recognition of Christ’s Kingship. “For what we wrote at the beginning of Our Pontificate about the diminishing authority of law and respect for power, the same can be applied to the present times: ‘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'” (Pius XI, Quas Primas).
Leo XIV’s praise of “multilateralism” is a tacit endorsement of the globalist project that seeks to replace the sovereignty of Christ the King with the sovereignty of international institutions. This is the “abomination of desolation standing in the holy place” (Mt 24:15) — the replacement of divine authority with human constructs.
The Omission That Condemns: No Mention of the Social Kingship of Christ
The most telling aspect of Leo XIV’s address is not what he says, but what he omits. In an address to the authorities of a historically Catholic nation, there is:
– No mention of the Social Kingship of Christ over Spain
– No mention of the duty of the State to profess the Catholic religion
– No mention of the errors of liberalism, socialism, or religious indifferentism
– No mention of the necessity of Catholic education under the authority of the Church
– No mention of the condemnation of Freemasonry, communism, or secret societies
– No mention of the obligation to submit to the authority of the Church in matters of faith and morals
Pius IX, in the Syllabus, condemned Error 19: “The Church is not a true and perfect society, entirely free — nor is she endowed with proper and perpetual rights of her own, conferred upon her by her Divine Founder; but it appertains to the civil power to define what are the rights of the Church, and the limits within which she may exercise those rights.” And Error 55: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.”
Leo XIV’s entire address presupposes the separation of Church and State, the subordination of the Church to civil authority, and the reduction of religion to a private matter of “conscience.” This is not a development of Catholic social teaching — it is its complete inversion.
“Polarization” and the Refusal to Preach the Truth
Leo XIV laments “the temptation to gain popularity by fanning the flames of polarization” and invites everyone “to set aside the divisive and polarizing narratives of your societal reality and history.” This is the language of a diplomat, not of a shepherd. The truth is always “polarizing” to those who love error. Our Lord Himself said: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword” (Mt 10:34). The Gospel divides — it divides truth from error, light from darkness, the children of God from the children of the devil.
The antipope’s call to “set aside divisive narratives” is a call to silence the truth. It is a call to abandon the prophetic mission of the Church in exchange for worldly approval. This is precisely what Pius XI identified as the root of modern society’s ills: “this kind of outpouring of evil has afflicted the whole world because very many have removed Jesus Christ and His most holy law from their customs, from private, family, and public life” (Quas Primas).
Conclusion: The Antipope as Architect of the New World Religion
Leo XIV’s address to the authorities of Spain is a comprehensive manifesto of modernist apostasy. It replaces the Social Kingship of Christ with “multilateralism.” It replaces the Church’s missionary mandate with “dialogue among religions.” It replaces the duty of the State to profess the true faith with “religious freedom.” It replaces the supernatural order with naturalistic humanism. It replaces the sword of truth with the velvet glove of diplomatic compromise.
This is not the Catholic Church. This is the conciliar sect — the “abomination of desolation” that occupies the Vatican and uses the language of Catholicism to advance the agenda of the New World Order. As the Defense of Sedevacantism demonstrates, a manifest heretic cannot be Pope. Leo XIV’s manifest heresy — his public, repeated, and obstinate denial of defined Catholic doctrine — deprives him of all jurisdiction and authority.
Spain, the land of the Reconquista, the land of St. Ignatius and St. Teresa, the land that once confessed Christ as King before all nations, is now being told by an antipope to embrace Islam as a “religious reality” and to seek peace in “multilateralism” rather than in the Kingdom of Christ. May the faithful in Spain — and everywhere — reject this apostasy and return to the immutable Tradition of the Catholic Church, which alone is the Ark of Salvation.
“The state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men” (St. Augustine, quoted by Pius XI in Quas Primas). And the harmony of that association depends entirely on its submission to Christ the King. Without Him, there is only the discord that Leo XIV laments but refuses to cure — because the cure would require him to preach the truth he has abandoned.
Source:
Pope in Spain: 'I come to affirm and renew fidelity to the Gospel' (vaticannews.va)
Date: 06.06.2026