The National Catholic Register, flagship organ of the neo-church in America, publishes a feature commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Masonic republic titled “The US Catholic History You (Probably) Didn’t Know.” The article strings together a series of anecdotes — papal visits by the usurpers Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis; St. Katharine Drexel praying for the Freemason George Washington; the first Continental Congress attending Mass at Old St. Mary’s; Fr. Marquette’s naming of the Mississippi; an astronaut receiving Novus Ordo “Communion” in space; John Wayne’s deathbed “conversion”; and a priest inventing a bulletproof vest — to construct a narrative of seamless Catholic integration into the American project. This compilation is not history; it is a hagiography of the heresy of Americanism, celebrating the subversion of the Social Kingship of Christ under the guise of patriotism.
The Legion of False Popes: Legitimizing the Usurpers
The article opens with a tally of “10 Papal Trips to America,” listing the visits of “Pope” Paul VI (1965), “Pope” John Paul II (1979, 1987, 1993, 1995, 1999), “Pope” Benedict XVI (2008), and “Pope” Francis (2015). By enumerating these visits as acts of legitimate “Popes,” the Register ratifies the great apostasy. As St. Robert Bellarmine teaches, “A manifest heretic, by that very fact, ceases to be Pope and head… he cannot be the head of something of which he is not a member” (De Romano Pontifice, Lib. II, Cap. 30). Paul VI promulgated the Novus Ordo Missae, a rite fabricated by Freemasons (Bugnini) which per se signifies a Protestantized theology; John Paul II assaulted the First Commandment at Assisi; Benedict XVI affirmed the “hermeneutic of continuity” to mask the rupture; Francis manifests formal heresy in Amoris Laetitia and the Abu Dhabi declaration. The current usurper, “Pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost), continues this occupation. The Register’s chronicle is a catalog of the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15), presented as pastoral triumph.
Americanism Condemned: The Masonic Republic as “Catholic History”
The centerpiece of the article is the celebration of Catholic participation in the founding of the United States. It notes that “Members of the first Continental Congress officially attended [Mass at Old St. Mary’s]… George Washington was present.” It recounts a Mass of thanksgiving for Cornwallis’s surrender. This is the heresy of Americanism, solemnly condemned by Leo XIII in Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae (1899): “The underlying principle of these new opinions is that… the Church should shape her teachings more in accord with the spirit of the age… and relax the strictness of her discipline.” The Syllabus of Errors (Pius IX, 1864) anathematizes the proposition: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55) and “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State” (Error 77). George Washington was a Freemason and a Deist; the Constitution he swore to uphold enshrines religious indifference (libertas perditionis). For the Register to present the attendance of the Continental Congress at Mass as a point of Catholic pride is to glorify the concordia discors of the City of Man usurping the City of God. Pius XI teaches in Quas Primas: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The Register builds its narrative on those destroyed foundations.
The Cult of False Saints: Drexel, Sheen, and the Invalid Canonization Factory
The article promotes “St.” Katharine Drexel (canonized 2000 by the antipope John Paul II) and “Blessed” Fulton Sheen (beatified 2012 by the antipope Benedict XVI). The canonizations and beatifications of the post-conciliar sect are null, void, and of no effect. Pope Paul IV’s Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio declares that a heretic elevated to the papacy has a promotion that is “null, void, and of no effect”; a fortiori, the acts of governance (canonizations) by manifest heretics lack all authority. Drexel’s alleged lifelong prayer for Washington — “Let perpetual light shine upon George Washington. May his soul rest in peace” — encapsulates the error: praying for the eternal repose of a non-Catholic Freemason who died outside the Church (extra Ecclesiam nulla salus). This is not sanctity; it is the sentimentalism of the new religion of man. Sheen, the media darling, was a precursor of the “new evangelization,” softening the extra Ecclesiam doctrine to accommodate the world. The Register presents these figures as heroes of the faith; they are icons of the counter-church.
Sacrilege in the Vacuum: Novus Ordo “Communion” as Idolatry
The article features astronaut Mike Hopkins receiving “Communion… every week” on the International Space Station in 2013, including before spacewalks and in the Cupola. “I was able to take the Eucharist up… I had Communion.” This is not the Most Holy Eucharist. The Novus Ordo “Mass” celebrated by invalidly ordained “priests” (post-1968 rites) lacks the form, intention, and priesthood necessary for Transubstantiation. What Hopkins received was a piece of bread — idolatry in orbit. The Council of Trent anathematizes those who deny the propitiatory nature of the Sacrifice (Sess. XXII, Can. 3). The Novus Ordo rite reduces the Sacrifice to a “memorial” and a “table of assembly.” To present this sacrilege as a consoling “special moment” is to mock the Precious Blood. Quas Primas reminds us Christ reigns “not by force but by essence and nature” (hypostatic union); the Register’s astronaut floats in a vacuum of grace, worshipping a false god.
Deathbed Deception: John Wayne and the Illusion of Valid Sacraments
The article notes: “John Wayne converted to the Catholic faith on his deathbed in 1979.” In 1979, the “priest” who administered the rites was almost certainly ordained in the invalid Paul VI rite (1968) or was a Novus Ordo presbyter. The sacraments of the neo-church — Baptism, Extreme Unction, “Communion” — are doubtful at best, invalid at worst, due to defect of form, matter, and intention in the new rites and the lack of valid orders. Wayne’s “conversion” was likely a Novus Ordo “reception” into a sect, not entry into the Ecclesia Catholica. The Register uses this as a celebrity endorsement; in reality, it is a tragic testament to the success of the Masonic operation to provide false sacraments for the dying. Salus extra Ecclesiam non est.
Naturalism Masquerading as Piety: The Bulletproof Vest and the Astronaut
The linguistic level of the article reveals its naturalistic soul. Fr. Casimir Zeglen is praised for inventing a “bulletproof vest” — a secular, technological achievement. The article highlights his study at “Warsaw University of Technology” and public demonstrations. Not a word of his spiritual fatherhood, his Masses, his souls saved. The astronaut is lauded for “Communion” as a psychological crutch: “It was really helpful for me to know that Jesus was with me.” This is religio naturalis — religion as therapy. The supernatural therapy. The Mississippi River named “River of the Immaculate Conception” by Fr. Marquette (a true Jesuit, validly ordained, pre-suppression) is the only genuinely Catholic note, yet it is stripped of its doctrinal implication: the Immaculate Conception as Patroness of a nation that legally enshrines abortion, sodomy, and religious liberty. The 1846 declaration by the US bishops (then valid) is cited not to condemn the nation’s apostasy, but to boast of a “Catholic connection.” This is the hermeneutic of continuity applied to history: whitewashing the chasm between the Catholic past and the Masonic present.
The Silence on the Social Kingship of Christ: Quas Primas Betrayed
The gravest accusation is the article’s total silence on the Social Kingship of Christ. Nowhere does it mention that nations are subject to Christ the King (Quas Primas: “His reign encompasses also all non-Christians… the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ”). Nowhere does it call for the conversion of the United States to the Catholic Faith as the sine qua non of salvation and temporal peace. Nowhere does it denounce the Masonic Constitution, the separation of Church and State, or the slaughter of the innocents. The Syllabus condemns the idea that “The civil government… has a right to an indirect negative power over religious affairs” (Error 41) and that “The best theory of civil society requires that popular schools… should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority” (Error 47). The Register’s “history” is a litany of capitulation to these very errors. It proves the thesis of Lamentabili Sane Exitu: “Christ did not proclaim any specific, all-encompassing doctrine suitable for all times and peoples, but rather initiated a certain religious movement” (Condemned Prop. 59) — this is the Modernist creed lived out in the Register’s pages. The article is not a record of Catholic history; it is an apology for the civitas diaboli masquerading as the Civitas Dei. Non praevalebunt (Matt. 16:18), but the Register has already surrendered.
Source:
The US Catholic History You (Probably) Didn’t Know (ncregister.com)
Date: 04.07.2026