VaticanNews portal reports (June 18, 2026) that the current usurper of Peter’s throne, Leo XIV (Robert Prevost), has authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate decrees recognizing the “martyrdom” of 20 diocesan priests from Ibiza and Formentera killed during the Spanish Civil War, while also declaring five other individuals “Venerable” for their supposed “heroic virtues.” The article presents these decrees as acts of authentic Catholic devotion, praising the “humility,” “generosity,” “missionary zeal,” and “charity” of these candidates. Yet beneath this veneer of piety lies the same old machinery of the conciliar revolution — a factory of manufactured saints designed to legitimize the apostate structures occupying the Vatican and to divert the faithful from the true crisis of the age: the systematic destruction of the Catholic Faith from within.
The Beatification Mill: A Perpetual Machine of Legitimation
The conciliar sect has, since its inception under the usurper John XXIII, operated a relentless beatification and canonization factory. This is not an accident but a deliberate strategy. Every new “saint” and “blessed” produced by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints serves a singular purpose: to confer an aura of holiness and continuity upon structures that are, in reality, the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15). The faithful are meant to look at these decrees and conclude that the Church is alive, thriving, and producing saints — when in fact the entire edifice is a paramasonic structure dedicated to the demolition of the Catholic Church and its replacement with a naturalistic, humanitarian, and ecumenical counterfeit.
Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), condemned the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Proposition 80). This is precisely what every post-conciliar “pontificate” has done. The beatification factory is one of the principal instruments of this reconciliation with the world. By producing a constant stream of “saints” who embody the conciliar values of dialogue, charity toward all (without the requirement of conversion to the Catholic Faith), missionary “zeal” (stripped of the mandate to teach all nations the fullness of revealed truth), and “service to the poor” (divorced from the supernatural end of eternal salvation), the neo-church constructs a counterfeit hagiography that serves its revolutionary agenda.
The “Martyrs” of the Spanish Civil War: A Theological and Historical Minefield
The article announces the recognition of 20 priests from Ibiza and Formentera as martyrs “killed in hatred of the faith” during the Spanish Civil War. The language is carefully chosen: “hatred of the faith” (in odium fidei) is the canonical requirement for martyrdom. But let us examine this claim with the rigor it demands.
First, the Spanish Civil War was not a simple case of Catholic versus atheist. It was a complex conflict involving multiple factions, including anarchists, communists, socialists, and also factions within the Church itself. The Republican side included not only anti-clericals but also many Catholics who supported the Republic for legitimate political reasons. The Nationalist side, while claiming to defend Catholicism, was allied with fascist forces whose ideology was itself condemned by the Church. As Pope Pius XI warned in Quas Primas (1925), the reign of Christ the King extends over all nations and all aspects of civil society — not merely over one political faction in a civil war.
Second, and more critically, the question of martyrdom requires that the victim be killed in odium fidei — specifically because of the Catholic Faith. The article states that the priests were killed “amid the anti-religious persecution that accompanied the Spanish Civil War” and that “the persecution intensified through acts of violence and desecration and sought to eradicate the Catholic identity of the islands.” But this is precisely the kind of vague, emotionally charged language that the conciliar sect employs to bypass genuine theological scrutiny. Were these priests killed specifically for professing the Catholic Faith — for refusing to deny the divinity of Christ, the authority of the Pope, the Real Presence in the Eucharist, or any defined dogma? Or were they killed because they were perceived as representatives of a social and political order that the revolutionaries sought to overthrow?
The distinction is not academic. It is the difference between martyrdom and political assassination. The Church has always been rigorous on this point. As St. Augustine taught, the cause of death, not merely the fact of death, makes the martyr: Non poena sed causa (not the punishment but the cause). If these priests were killed because they were seen as allies of a particular political faction, or because of social tensions unrelated to the Faith, then they are not martyrs, no matter how tragic their deaths.
Furthermore, the article notes that “increasing restrictions on religious worship had already forced the diocese to suspend public processions for security reasons.” This admission reveals that the situation was one of political conflict and civil unrest, not purely religious persecution. The conciliar sect, however, has systematically lowered the bar for martyrdom in order to produce as many “blessed” as possible, thereby flooding the calendar with figures who serve the narrative of a Church perpetually under attack from the world — a narrative that conveniently distracts from the far more devastating attack being carried out from within by the conciliar revolution itself.
The “Venerables”: A Gallery of Conciliar Virtues
The five individuals declared “Venerable” are even more revealing of the conciliar sect’s priorities.
Mother Clara Andreu y Malferit (1596–?), described as a 17th-century Mallorcan religious known for “profound mystical experiences” that were examined by Church authorities. The article praises her “exemplary obedience and humility.” Note the emphasis on obedience — not to the immutable Catholic Faith, but to “Church authorities,” whoever they may be and whatever they may teach. In the conciliar context, this is a virtue that serves the revolution: obedience to the living Magisterium, which has been used to impose the very errors condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium.
Father Júlio Emílio Alberto De Lombaerde (1878–1944), a Belgian missionary who worked in Brazil and founded three religious congregations. The article praises his “missionary zeal” and “unwavering trust in God.” But what was the content of his missionary work? Was it the preaching of the full Catholic Faith, including the dogma extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation)? Or was it the kind of “inculturated” missionary work that the conciliar sect has promoted — work that accommodates local cultures and religions rather than demanding their conversion to the Catholic Faith? The article gives us no reason to believe it was the former, and every reason to suspect the latter, given the era and the congregations he founded.
Sister Maria Petra Giordano (1912–2006), a Dominican nun who died as recently as 2006. The article notes that “her cause benefits from numerous eyewitness testimonies.” This is significant: she lived and died entirely within the conciar era. Her entire religious formation, her entire life as a Dominican, her entire understanding of “Gospel living” and “formation of religious sisters” took place under the auspices of the post-conciliar revolution. To declare such a person “Venerable” is to declare that the conciar sect is capable of producing holiness — a claim that is, on its face, absurd. The conciliar sect, by its own admission (and by the admission of its own “popes”), has produced a “crisis” in religious life, a collapse in vocations, a loss of faith among the faithful, and a catastrophic decline in sacramental practice. To claim that it has simultaneously produced individuals of “heroic virtue” is a contradiction that exposes the hollowness of the entire process.
Mother Maria Teresa Tallon (1867–?), founder of the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate in the United States. The article praises her work of “bringing Christ’s presence into homes and neighbourhoods” and her dedication to “the education and care of those most in need.” This is the language of the conciar sect’s preferred form of “apostolate”: social work, community service, and humanitarian outreach, all stripped of the supernatural mandate to convert souls to the Catholic Faith. The Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate — what is their mission? Is it to preach the necessity of baptism, the reality of hell, the obligation to attend the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the duty of submission to the Roman Pontiff? Or is it to “bring Christ’s presence” in the vague, sentimental, and ultimately naturalistic sense that the conciar sect favors? The article gives us every reason to believe it is the latter.
Mother Maria Agnese Tribbioli (1879–1965), founder of the Pious Workers of Saint Joseph, who sheltered Jews during the Second World War and was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. This is perhaps the most revealing case of all. The article explicitly praises her for sheltering Jews “despite the dangers involved” and for being recognized by the State of Israel — a state whose very existence is a rejection of the Kingship of Christ. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, taught that Christ’s reign extends over all nations and that states have a duty to publicly honor Him. The recognition of a Catholic religious by the Jewish state as “Righteous Among the Nations” is not a Catholic honor; it is a badge of participation in the very religious indifferentism that the Church has always condemned. The Syllabus of Errors explicitly condemns the proposition that “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” (Proposition 17) and that “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion” (Proposition 18). By sheltering Jews without any mention of evangelization or conversion, and by being honored by a non-Catholic entity for doing so, Mother Tribbioli’s cause embodies the very indifferentism that the pre-conciliar Church condemned as heresy.
The Omission That Condemns: Silence on the True Crisis
The most damning aspect of this article is not what it says, but what it omits. There is no mention whatsoever of the true crisis facing the Catholic faithful: the systematic destruction of the Faith by the conciliar sect itself. There is no mention of the fact that the post-conciliar “Mass” is a Protestantized assembly that has stripped away the theology of the propitiatory sacrifice. There is no mention of the fact that the post-conciliar “catechism” has diluted or denied defined dogmas. There is no mention of the fact that the post-conciliar “ecumenism” has led to the adoration of false religions in the Vatican itself — most notoriously in Assisi in 1986 and in Abu Dhabi in 2019.
There is no mention of the fact that the true martyrs of our age are not those who died in the Spanish Civil War eighty years ago, but those who are being spiritually massacred today by the conciliar sect’s suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass, its persecution of those pretending to be traditional Catholics who refuse to accept the novelties of the Council, and its systematic replacement of the Catholic Faith with a naturalistic humanitarianism that is indistinguishable from secular liberalism.
Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition that “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” (Proposition 19). The conciliar sect, by its very existence, embodies this error. It has surrendered the Church’s independence to the world, subjected her teaching to the judgment of secular powers, and reduced her mission to one of social service and interreligious dialogue. The beatification of individuals who exemplify this surrender is not an act of Catholic piety; it is an act of apostasy.
The Indultist and Pseudo-Trad Complicity
It is necessary to note that those pretending to be traditional Catholics — including the FSSPX, the indultists, and other pseudo-trad groups — will receive this news with enthusiasm. They will rejoice at the “beatification of martyrs” and the “recognition of heroic virtues,” seeing in these decrees a validation of their own compromised position. They will say: “See, the Church is still producing saints! The conciliar reforms are compatible with holiness! We can remain within the structures of the neo-church and still be faithful Catholics!”
This is the very trap that the conciar sect has set. By producing a counterfeit holiness, it lulls the faithful into complacency and prevents them from recognizing the full extent of the crisis. The pseudo-trads, by accepting these beatifications and canonizations as legitimate, reveal themselves as what they are: participants in the conciliar revolution, not opponents of it. As the Defense of Sedevacantism file makes clear, a manifest heretic cannot be the head of the Church, and all acts performed by a non-pope are null and void. The beatifications and canonizations of the conciar sect are, therefore, juridically null and spiritually meaningless. They are acts of a non-authority, performed by a non-pope, within a non-Church.
The Primacy of Christ the King Demands Rejection
Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, taught with unmistakable clarity that “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.” He further taught that “rulers of states therefore [should] not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ, but let them 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.”
The conciliar sect, by contrast, has consistently refused this public veneration. It has entered into dialogue with false religions, signed declarations that imply the equality of religions, and promoted a vision of the Church that is fundamentally naturalistic and humanitarian rather than supernatural and Catholic. The beatification of individuals who embody this vision — missionaries who do not preach conversion, religious who serve the poor without demanding faith, founders who are honored by non-Catholic entities — is not an act of Catholic worship. It is an act of rebellion against the Kingship of Christ.
The faithful who desire to remain loyal to the integral Catholic Faith must reject these beatifications and canonizations as null, void, and spiritually dangerous. They must recognize the conciar sect for what it is: not the Catholic Church, but the synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9, 3:9) that has usurped her structures, corrupted her sacraments, and replaced her Gospel with the gospel of man. The true Church endures — in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic Faith, in the priests who offer the Most Holy Sacrifice according to the immemorial rite, and in the bishops who have not bowed the knee to the Baal of the conciliar revolution. To them, and to them alone, belongs the promise of Christ: Ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem saeculi (I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world — Matt. 28:20).
Source:
Pope authorises beatification of 20 Spanish martyrs (vaticannews.va)
Date: 18.06.2026