EWTN News reports that the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), in cooperation with the Caritas in Veritate Foundation, organized a conference in Brussels on June 9, 2026, titled “Outer Space: A New Frontier of the Common Good.” Representatives of the conciliar structures and EU institutions gathered to discuss the “ethical, political, and strategic implications of outer space governance,” emphasizing that space should be the “common heritage of humanity” and its exploration guided by “responsibility, solidarity, and respect for subsidiarity.” Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, warned against turning space into a “jungle” and stressed that it must be explored “for the benefit of present and future generations.” The conference reaffirmed the need for a “human-centered approach” to space activities, guided by “ethical responsibility, international cooperation, and a commitment to peace.” This event constitutes yet another manifestation of the post-conciliar apostasy: a naturalistic utopianism that dethrones Christ the King from His rightful dominion over all creation and replaces the supernatural mission of the Catholic Church with the horizontal, humanitarian agenda of the United Nations.
The Reign of Christ the King Over All Creation — Including Outer Space
The fundamental and disqualifying error of this entire conference — and of the conciliar sect’s approach to every question of governance, science, and technology — is the complete and systematic omission of the royal kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ over all creation, including outer space. Pope 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.” Pius XI taught with the full authority of the Apostolic office:
> “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.”
And further:
> “He who gives the Kingdom of Heaven does not take away earthly things! — Thus, the Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men… for men united in societies are no less subject to the authority of Christ than individuals.”
Pius XI grounded this teaching in the words of Our Lord Himself: “All power in heaven and on earth is given to Me” (Matthew 28:18). The domain of Christ the King is not limited to Earth, to souls, or to the interior life of the believer — it extends to all that is created, without exception. Outer space, the celestial bodies, the vastness of the cosmos — all of it falls under the sovereign dominion of the Incarnate Word. The Psalmist proclaims: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands” (Psalm 18:2). The entire universe exists for the glory of God and is subject to the governance of Christ the King.
Yet in the entire conference, as reported, not a single mention was made of Christ the King, His royal dignity, or His supreme authority over all creation. This is not a minor omission — it is a damnatio memoriae, a deliberate erasure of the most fundamental truth of Catholic social teaching. It is the very error that Pius XI condemned as the root cause of all modern evils: “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.”
“Common Heritage of Humanity” — A Naturalistic Substitution for Divine Sovereignty
The central concept promoted by the conference is that outer space should be preserved as the “common heritage of humanity.” This phrase, drawn from the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and repeated ad nauseam in United Nations discourse, is not a Catholic concept. It is a naturalistic, secular, and horizontal principle that implicitly denies the sovereignty of God over His own creation. When Archbishop Balestrero speaks of space as an “invitation to avoid repeating many of the mistakes made on Earth” and calls for it to be explored with “responsibility, solidarity, and respect for subsidiarity,” he is operating entirely within the framework of naturalistic humanism — the very framework condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors:
> “The teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society” (Proposition 40) — condemned.
> “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits” (Proposition 39) — condemned.
The concept of “common heritage of humanity” places humanity at the center, as if the universe were a human possession to be governed by human agreements. But the Catholic teaching is the opposite: the universe is God’s creation, governed by His law, and humanity is merely the steward — not the owner — of creation. The Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches that man was placed in the Garden of Eden “to tend it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15), not to claim ownership over it or to redistribute its benefits according to secular principles of “justice.”
The phrase “common heritage of humanity” is, moreover, a hallmark of the Masonic project of the United Nations, which seeks to establish a global governance structure based on naturalistic principles, deliberately excluding God and His law. Pius IX, in the Syllabus, warned that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Proposition 80) — condemned. This conference is precisely such a reconciliation: the conciliar structures genuflecting before the UN’s Outer Space Treaty and adopting its secular framework as if it were compatible with Catholic teaching.
The Omission of the Supernatural Mission of the Church
Perhaps the most damning silence of the entire conference is the complete absence of any reference to the supernatural mission of the Catholic Church. Not a single speaker, as reported, mentioned:
– The salvation of souls, which is the finis operis of the Church’s existence;
– The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the perpetuation of Calvary, which is the center of all Catholic life and the only true source of grace;
– The sacraments, through which souls are sanctified and prepared for eternal beatitude;
– The final judgment, at which every nation, every ruler, and every individual will render an account to Christ the King;
– The state of grace, without which no human endeavor — including space exploration — has any supernatural merit;
– The dangers of mortal sin, which render the soul an enemy of God regardless of how many satellites it launches into orbit.
This silence is not accidental. It is the defining characteristic of the post-conciliar apostasy. The conciliar sect has abandoned the supernatural mission of the Church and replaced it with a purely naturalistic, humanitarian, and horizontal agenda. Pope Pius X, in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), condemned the Modernist proposition that “the Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences” (Proposition 57) — but he also condemned the far worse error that “contemporary Catholicism cannot be reconciled with true knowledge without transforming it into a certain dogmaless Christianity, that is, into a broad and liberal Protestantism” (Proposition 65). This conference is a living illustration of that condemned proposition: the conciliar structures have transformed Catholicism into a “broad and liberal” humanitarianism that is indistinguishable from secular NGOs.
“Human-Centered Approach” — The Cult of Man Condemned
The conference “reaffirmed the importance of promoting a human-centered approach to scientific and technological progress,” according to the COMECE statement. This phrase — “human-centered” — is the very language of the cult of man, which the pre-conciliar Magisterium identified as one of the gravest errors of modernity. Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas:
> “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, because the main reason why some have the right to command and others have the duty to obey was removed.”
A “human-centered approach” is, by definition, an approach that places man — not God — at the center. It is the practical application of the condemned Proposition 3 of the Syllabus: “Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of good and evil; it is law to itself.” It is the religion of humanity that Auguste Comte attempted to establish in the 19th century, and which the conciliar sect has now adopted as its operational philosophy.
The Catholic approach is not “human-centered” — it is God-centered, or more precisely, Christ-centered. Every human activity, including science and technology, must be ordered toward the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Pius XI taught: “It is therefore necessary that Christ reign in the mind of man, whose duty it is to accept revealed truths with complete submission to the divine will and to believe firmly and constantly in the teaching of Christ; let Christ reign in the will, which should obey God’s laws and commandments; let Him reign in the heart, which, having despised desires, must love God above all and belong only to Him.”
The EU as Moral Guide? A Staggering Presumption
Father Manuel Barrios Prieto, secretary-general of COMECE, stated that “the European Union and its institutions have a significant role to play in guiding humanity in navigating such questions wisely.” He highlighted the EU Space Act, the “European Space Shield,” and various EU programs as evidence of the EU’s “growing responsibility in shaping the governance of space activities.”
This statement reveals the profound confusion of the conciliar sect regarding the nature of authority. The European Union is a secular, supranational institution that has systematically legislated against Catholic moral teaching — promoting abortion, gender ideology, and the dissolution of the natural family. It is an institution that derives its authority not from God but from the will of men, precisely the error condemned by Pius IX in Proposition 39 of the Syllabus: “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits.”
The Catholic Church has no need for the European Union to “guide humanity” in any domain. The Church possesses her own divinely instituted Magisterium, guided by the Holy Ghost, which is the sole authentic interpreter of the natural law and divine law. The Church does not seek guidance from secular institutions — she provides guidance to them, when they are willing to listen. The very idea that the EU should “guide humanity” in space governance is a reversal of the proper order and a practical denial of the Church’s divine mission.
Subsidiarity Without God: A Hollow Shell
Archbishop Balestrero invoked the principle of “subsidiarity” — but in the conciliar context, this principle has been emptied of its Catholic content. In authentic Catholic social teaching, subsidiarity is a principle of social order that operates within the framework of the natural law and divine law, always subordinate to the common good as defined by the Church. Pope Pius XI taught in Quas Primas that the common good requires that “all relations in the state be ordered on the basis of God’s commandments and Christian principles, both in the issuing of laws and in the administration of justice, as well as in the education and formation of youth in sound doctrine and purity of morals.”
But when Balestrero speaks of subsidiarity without mentioning God, without mentioning Christ the King, without mentioning the natural law as defined by the Church, he is using the word while gutting it of its meaning. This is the Modernist method condemned by Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis: using Catholic terminology to express non-Catholic ideas. It is the evolution of dogma in action — the very error condemned in Proposition 58 of Lamentabili: “Truth changes with man, because it develops with him, in him, and through him.”
The Caritas in Veritate Foundation: Benedict XVI’s Modernist Legacy
The conference was co-organized by the Caritas in Veritate Foundation, named after the 2009 encyclical of the same name by Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger). This encyclical, while containing some passages that echo pre-conciliar teaching, is fundamentally a Modernist document that promotes the idea of a “world political authority” to manage global challenges — an idea that is incompatible with the Catholic teaching on the sovereignty of Christ the King and the independence of the Church from secular authority.
The very name of the foundation — “Charity in Truth” — is ironic, given that the conference it organized was characterized by a conspicuous absence of both charity and truth. There was no charity because there was no call to conversion, no mention of the necessity of the Catholic faith for salvation, no warning about the dangers of mortal sin. There was no truth because there was no mention of Christ the King, no mention of the supernatural mission of the Church, no mention of the final judgment. What remained was a sterile, naturalistic, humanitarian discourse that could have been produced by any secular think tank.
The Militarization of Space: A Distraction from the Real War
The conference addressed “the risk of the militarization of space” and “space debris” as emerging challenges. While these are legitimate practical concerns, the framing of these issues reveals the conciliar sect’s fundamental disconnection from reality. The real “militarization” that threatens humanity is not the placement of weapons in orbit — it is the militant apostasy of the conciliar structures themselves, which have waged war against the Catholic faith for over six decades.
Pope Pius X warned in Lamentabili that the Modernists are “enemies within” the Church who are more dangerous than any external persecutor. The real “space debris” clogging the life of the Church is not physical debris in low-Earth orbit — it is the theological debris of Vatican II, the liturgical debris of the Novus Ordo Missae, the doctrinal debris of religious liberty and ecumenism, and the moral debris of the conciliar sect’s capitulation to the sexual revolution.
The conference participants, while gazing at the stars, are blind to the abomination of desolation that occupies the Vatican. They speak of “peace” while the conciliar sect wages perpetual war against the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, against the traditional catechism, against the immutable moral law. They speak of “safeguarding the common good for present and future generations” while the conciliar structures lead millions of souls to perdition through their heretical teachings and sacrilegious liturgies.
Conclusion: The Kingdom of Christ or the Kingdom of Man
This conference on outer space governance is a microcosm of the entire post-conciliar apostasy. It demonstrates, with crystalline clarity, that the conciliar sect has:
1. Abandoned the kingship of Christ over all creation, replacing it with the naturalistic concept of “common heritage of humanity”;
2. Abandoned the supernatural mission of the Church, replacing it with a horizontal, humanitarian agenda indistinguishable from secular NGOs;
3. Adopted the cult of man, promoting a “human-centered approach” that places humanity — not God — at the center of all activity;
4. Submitted to secular authority, seeking guidance from the European Union rather than providing it;
5. Emptied Catholic principles of their content, using terms like “subsidiarity” while stripping them of their theological foundation.
Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, issued a prophetic warning that applies with full force to this conference:
> “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… As for the benefits of concord and peace, it is clear that the wider the kingdom expands and encompasses all men, the more aware people become of the unity that binds them.”
The conciliar sect has rejected this teaching. It has chosen the kingdom of man over the Kingdom of Christ. It has chosen the “jungle” of secular governance over the sweet yoke of Christ the King. And in doing so, it has demonstrated — once again — that it is not the Catholic Church, but the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matthew 24:15).
The faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith must reject this conference and all its works. They must reaffirm, with Pius XI, that Christus Rex — Christ the King — reigns over all creation, including outer space, and that no human authority, no international treaty, and no “human-centered approach” can substitute for His sovereign dominion. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam — to the greater glory of God alone.
Source:
Church in European Union calls for preserving outer space as the common heritage of humanity (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 16.06.2026