Naturalism Disguised as Ecclesial Solidarity
The Catholic News Agency portal reports on Lebanese Catholics abroad expressing hope for the upcoming visit of the current Vatican figure Leo XIV to Lebanon from November 30 to December 2, 2025. Melkite Greek Catholic “Patriarch” Youssef Absi and “Father” Chihade Abboud are quoted promoting this event as an affirmation of Eastern Catholic identity. The article nostalgically recalls previous visits by antipopes John Paul II (1978-2005) and Benedict XVI (2005-2013), presenting them as moments of interreligious harmony and national healing.
This narrative constitutes a complete inversion of Catholic eschatology. Where the Church demands in necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas (unity in necessary things, liberty in doubtful things, charity in all things), the article promotes unity based on ethnic sentiment and geopolitical considerations. The “hope” described springs not from the supernatural virtue infused by grace, but from naturalistic expectations of social stability – a classic marker of Modernist ecclesiology condemned in Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane (1907), which rejected the proposition that “faith is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities” (Proposition 25).
Betrayal of the Kingship of Christ
Nowhere does the article mention Christ’s social reign, despite Lebanon’s historical Catholic identity. The antipopes’ visits are framed around abstract “dialogue” and “coexistence” rather than the regnum Christi proclaimed in Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925):
“When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”
The absence of any call for Lebanon’s submission to Christ’s authority exposes the conciliar sect’s fundamental heresy – the denial of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus and the reduction of Christianity to a social service organization.
The article’s claim that John Paul II called Lebanon “a message of freedom and an example of pluralism” reveals the depth of apostasy. Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors explicitly condemned the notion that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Proposition 55) and that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Proposition 15). True Catholic unity stems from shared submission to divine truth, not ethnic solidarity or geopolitical pluralism.
Pseudo-Catholic Identity and Invalid Ministry
The Maronite and Melkite communities cited participate fully in the conciliar sect’s apostasy. Their “full communion” with modernist Rome renders their liturgical practices spiritually void, regardless of external ritual continuity. As Pius XII established in Sacramentum Ordinis (1947), valid sacraments require right intention and form – both corrupted in post-conciliar “ordinations.” The Defense of Sedevacantism document clarifies:
“A manifest heretic cannot be Pope or a member of the Church… he who is not a Christian is not a member of the Church, and a manifest heretic is not a Christian” (St. Robert Bellarmine).
When the article describes “Father” Charbel Boustany as a “vocations director for the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate,” it obscures the tragic reality: this order was dismantled by Benedict XVI in 2013 for refusing to celebrate the invalid Novus Ordo service. Any current “Franciscans of the Immaculate” accepting Leo XIV’s authority operate in doctrinal rebellion.
Omission of Supernatural Finality
The article’s focus on Lebanon’s economic collapse (2020) and regional conflicts ignores the nation’s true crisis: abandonment of its Catholic heritage. While properly noting the 150,000 deaths during Lebanon’s civil war (1975-1990), the analysis remains purely sociological. There is no warning that receiving “Communion” in post-conciliar structures – where the Mass has been reduced to a communal meal and rubrics violate the theology of propitiatory sacrifice – constitutes sacrilege. The False Fatima Apparitions document warns of such distortions:
“The efficacy of Holy Mass is diminished in favor of spectacular acts… a tool to divert attention from modernism.”
Melkite Catholic Elie Bassila’s praise for an Orthodox neighbor displaying a Vatican flag epitomizes religious indifferentism condemned by Pius XI in Mortalium Animos (1928):
“The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it.”
True ecumenism requires conversion to Catholicism, not interfaith pageantry.
Conclusion: The Abandoned Flock
The Lebanese diaspora’s longing reflects authentic Catholic instincts for unity and transcendence, tragically misdirected toward counterfeit shepherds. Their hope should rest not in antipapal visits, but in the ecclesia supplet principle sustaining valid sacraments through true priests maintaining apostolic succession outside the conciliar sect. As Lebanon faces existential threats, only a return to integral Catholic tradition – not modernist pageantry – can fulfill Pius XI’s vision:
“When all men, both privately and publicly, will render to Christ as King the duties of piety, unheard-of prosperity will be the happy result.”
Source:
Lebanese Catholics abroad await Pope Leo XIV’s visit to their homeland with hope (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 17.11.2025