Vatican News Promotes Naturalistic Distortion of Religious Life
The VaticanNews portal (November 19, 2025) profiles Sr. Angela Sinopoli, a 93-year-old member of the Sisters Helpers of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, portraying her street ministry in Matera as exemplary Christian service. The article extols her “pastoral ministry of closeness” involving listening to the lonely and distressed, framed by a quote attributed to antipope Bergoglio: “No one is so poor as to have nothing to give, and no one is so rich as not to need something to receive.” Sr. Angela’s work is described through secular psychologized terms—”therapeutic moment,” “crisis of presence” (citing anthropologist Ernesto De Martino)—while her congregation’s charism of suffrages for souls in Purgatory is conspicuously absent.
Erasure of Supernatural Purpose in Religious Life
The article reduces the Sisters Helpers’ mission—founded by Blessed Eugénie Smet in 1856 specifically to “console the Church suffering in Purgatory by prayers, sacrifices, and the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass” (Pope Pius IX, Approbatio, 1857)—to a secularized social work program. Not once does the text mention the sisters’ primary duty: to offer reparation for souls through penance, Eucharistic adoration, and recitation of the Office of the Dead. This omission aligns with the modernist heresy condemned by Pope St. Pius X: “The Church has no right to interfere with social activities… her sole purpose is to benefit souls in things spiritual” (Encyclical Lamentabili, 1907, Proposition 52).
Naturalism Masquerading as Charity
Sr. Angela’s described activities—street encounters, phone calls to comfort distressed mothers, and undefined “pastoral accompaniment”—constitute a complete inversion of the contemplative-active balance proper to her institute. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 593) mandates that religious institutes adhere strictly to their approved constitutions, which for the Helpers prioritize “prayer for the dead [as] the foremost work of mercy” (Constitutions, 1929 ed.). By contrast, the article celebrates a ministry devoid of sacramental or eschatological dimensions, reducing religious life to what Pius XI condemned as “a philanthropy which is purely natural” (Encyclical Quas Primas, §18).
Bergoglian Heresies Permeate Narrative
The piece employs antipope Bergoglio’s signature distortions:
- “Accompaniment” replaces conversion, echoing the modernist error that “faith is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities” (Lamentabili, Proposition 25).
- “Going to the peripheries” serves as code for abandoning hierarchical and doctrinal clarity, contradicting Pius X’s warning against those who “falsify the unchanging meaning of dogma” (Encyclical Pascendi, §26).
- The anthropologist De Martino’s “crisis of presence” theory substitutes the Catholic understanding of original sin as the root of existential despair.
Silence on the Church’s True Mission
Nowhere does the article acknowledge Christ’s Kingship over nations (Pius XI, Quas Primas, §18) or the duty of religious to “fight valiantly as athletes of Christ” (Pontificale Romanum, Rite of Religious Profession). Sr. Angela’s alleged motto—“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you”—is stripped of its apostolic context: St. Peter healed the lame man in Christ’s name (Acts 3:6), whereas the article advocates a faith without miracles or dogma.
Conclusion: A Case Study in Apostasy
This profile epitomizes the conciliar sect’s destruction of religious life. By erasing suffrages for the dead—the Sisters Helpers’ raison d’être—and promoting a horizontal “ministry of presence,” VaticanNews advances the modernist program condemned by Pope St. Pius X: “The Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics because it steadfastly adheres to its views” (Lamentabili, Proposition 63). True Catholic sisters pray for the Church Suffering; neo-church “helpers” peddle psychological palliatives while souls perish.
Source:
Listening to others out of love: Age is no barrier for religious sisters (vaticannews.va)
Date: 19.11.2025