[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV Proves the “Prophets of Doom” Correct: Has the Church Abandoned the Reign of Christ?

On September 2, Leo XIV began his series of catechism lessons on Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes. Oddly, he opened his catechesis by invoking John XXIII’s dismissal of the “prophets of doom”:

“Saint John XXIII, as early as his inaugural address of 11 October 1962, had sought to take issue with the ‘prophets of doom’ who, ‘though burning with zeal for religion […] go about saying that our times, when compared with past centuries, are entirely worse; and go so far as to behave as if they had nothing to learn from history’ (Address Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, 11 October 1962, 4.2). Hence the task entrusted to the Council Fathers: ‘In the present state of human events, in which humanity appears to be entering a new order of things, one must rather see the mysterious plans of Divine Providence, which are brought to fulfillment in due course through the work of men, and often beyond their expectations, and which, with wisdom, arrange everything, even adverse human affairs, for the good of the Church’ (Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, 4.4).”

There has been debate over the decades about John XXIII’s exact meaning, with some suggesting that he was rejecting the warnings of Our Lady of Fatima. Whatever John XXIII had in mind, though, Leo’s odd choice of this quotation is evidently directed against the prophets of doom today: the Traditional Catholics. Indeed, these words from John XXIII are far more applicable to Traditional Catholics today than to any of the “prophets of doom” prior to the Council, because our times are, in fact, “entirely worse” than past centuries.

Leo continued by introducing the concept that Our Lord’s sharing of our humanity is the inspiration behind the Gaudium et Spes call for the Church to share in the emotions of mankind, especially those who are poor and afflicted:

“Three years later, the promulgation of Gaudium et Spes recognized in this discernment an essential element of the nature of the Church, describing her pastoral character as constitutive; hence the definition of ‘pastoral Constitution.’ It is not a question of naïve optimism, but rather a renewed fidelity to the Mystery of Christ who, by becoming incarnate, chooses to share our life: He made Himself ‘like His brethren in every respect’ (Heb 2:17; cf. 4:15) and took upon Himself the consequences of sin, dying ‘as a ransom for all’ (1 Tim 2:6). This sharing in our humanity is the path that Christ calls the Church to follow; hence, the Conciliar Constitution Gaudium et Spes begins by declaring that the Church makes her own ‘the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted’ (GS 1).”

As with so many other aspects of Vatican II, there is a false implication that John XXIII and his Council had somehow discovered something new and essential about the Faith, as though past generations of Catholics had not understood the path that Christ calls the Church to follow. One would get the impression that the Church had hitherto ignored the lives of humans, but this rhetoric is as false as it is offensive.

Leo continued with a criticism of those who are passive and indifferent in the face of current events:

“It is a sharing that calls on us to leave behind all passivity and indifference in the face of current events, history and people’s lives, especially in the face of the rapid and profound changes we are experiencing today. We cannot remain as unengaged spectators; rather, we must listen with our hearts, allow ourselves to be challenged, and become involved. With Christ and sustained by the power of His Spirit, believers are called to take on the burdens of their brothers and sisters, especially those who are crushed by injustice, discrimination, and violence. Indeed, only in sharing and commitment is it possible to arrive at adequate responses, always supported by the certainty that ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us’ (Rm 8:18). In this regard, proximity towards humanity opens the way to a deeper understanding of events and of Revelation itself; and, in the same vein, Gaudium et Spes recalls that ‘the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel’ (GS 4).”

There is a subtle suggestion that Gaudium et Spes counteracts some tendency for Catholics to forget that the Church ought to pay attention to the cares of mankind. But this criticism is generally motivated by the supposition that care for the eternal salvation of souls is less important or pressing than providing for material needs. Thus, when Leo says that we must not “remain as unengaged spectators” in the face of “injustice, discrimination, and violence,” he truly means that stopping those evils is more important than spreading Catholic truth.

This approach radically departs from how the Church actually thinks about societal evils. As an example of true Catholic teaching, we can look to Pius XI’s 1937 encyclical on atheistic communism, Divini Redemptoris. After stating that this great evil “aims at upsetting the social order and at undermining the very foundations of Christian civilization,” Pius XI set forth the Catholic response:

“In the face of such a threat, the Catholic Church could not and does not remain silent. This Apostolic See, above all, has not refrained from raising its voice, for it knows that its proper and social mission is to defend truth, justice and all those eternal values which Communism ignores or attacks. Ever since the days when groups of ‘intellectuals’ were formed in an arrogant attempt to free civilization from the bonds of morality and religion, Our Predecessors overtly and explicitly drew the attention of the world to the consequences of the dechristianization of human society.”

Here we can see that the Church must combat the evils of every age by defending truth and opposing the dechristianization of society. If someone had suggested to Pius XI that the best way to address the evils of society was to simply encourage men to listen to each other, he likely would have reminded us that it would be gravely evil for the Catholic Church to offer purely natural remedies to spiritual problems.

So what does Leo offer today? His September prayer intention offers us a glimpse into the depth of his thinking and caring:

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord of Life, You have given us the gift of water, source of fruitfulness, freshness, and hope. It quenches thirst, nourishes the earth, and heals wounds. We thank You, because it is also a symbol of your grace and love that renews us through Baptism. Today we ask You to teach us to safeguard it with gratitude, justice, and responsibility. Forgive us for turning it into a commodity, forgetting that it is a universal gift, a right without borders, meant for all your children. We see with pain so many brothers and sisters who lack clean water, who walk for miles to find it, who become ill due to its scarcity. May your Spirit make us pilgrims of the essential, able to live with simplicity, denouncing waste and pollution, defending the right of every brother and sister to drink without fear and without inequality. May our care for water be a sign of love for the Creator and a commitment to the lives of the poor, educating new generations to value and protect the Earth’s resources. Amen.”

What About Christ the King?

The Church is facing mass apostasy — leading souls to hell and offending God immeasurably — and the ostensible successor of St. Peter is inviting all Catholics to implore God’s grace so that we can safeguard water with justice. Rather than combating the evils in the world, this public mockery of the Church’s moral authority only makes them worse.

Returning to Leo’s catechesis, we must acknowledge that he did not leave God out entirely. However, as we can see from his words below, his message puts the Gospel at the service of ameliorating material, rather than spiritual, evils:

“Christian solidarity commits us to engaging with reality and also to unmasking the contradictions that characterize personal and social life in the contemporary world: for example, scientific and technological progress, which constantly offers new possibilities, but only to some, and which human beings do not always succeed in ‘subjecting … to [their] own welfare’; or a clearer understanding of the ‘laws of society’, accompanied, however, by uncertainties ‘about the direction to give’ them; or, again, a greater abundance of ‘wealth, resources and economic power’, which, unfortunately, today as in the days of the Council, leaves ‘a huge proportion of the world’s citizens … still tormented by hunger and poverty’ (GS 4); or a shared awareness that the future of the planet is at stake, coupled with an inability to renounce selfish consumption and the illusion that war is an effective means of building peace.

“In a time marked by profound changes, giving rise to worrying imbalances, the Church is called to serve the human person, listening to and welcoming the deepest questions of their heart and the longings that dwell within them, pointing to Christ as ‘the key, the focal point and the goal of … all human history’ (GS 10). Therefore, in the Church, at every level and in every age, it is necessary to achieve the merciful kenosis of Christ, who ‘did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant … and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross’ (Phil 2:6–8).”

The overall notion is that Catholics ought to imitate the sacrifice of Our Lord so that they can better protect the planet and build godless peace, all without losing sight of the need to protect water purity.

As seen above, this is a complete inversion of the ideas of Pius XI’s Divini Redemptoris. It also fundamentally opposes the same pope’s 1925 encyclical on Christ the King, Quas Primas:

“In the first Encyclical Letter which We addressed at the beginning of Our Pontificate to the Bishops of the universal Church, We referred to the chief causes of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring. And We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and We said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord. We were led in the meantime to indulge the hope of a brighter future at the sight of a more widespread and keener interest evinced in Christ and his Church, the one Source of Salvation, a sign that men who had formerly spurned the rule of our Redeemer and had exiled themselves from his kingdom were preparing, and even hastening, to return to the duty of obedience.

If we want peace and an end to actual evils, we must restore the reign of Christ the King. By focusing instead on water cleanliness and availability, Leo tells us quite clearly that he has no interest in the reign of Christ the King.

The “prophets of doom” were correct

But it would be a mistake to blame Leo for all of this, for he is being a loyal son of the Vatican II revolution. To understand this, we need only consider the way in which Fr. Yves Congar described the Council, including Gaudium et Spes:

“By the Declaration on Religious Liberty, by the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, On the Church in the Modern World—a significant title, this!—the Church of Vatican II has openly placed herself in the pluralist world of today; and, without disowning anything great that there may have been, has cut the ropes which were mooring her to the banks of the Middle Ages. You cannot stay stuck at a particular moment in history. Mgr Lefebvre speaks of ‘the Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ over persons, over families and over civil societies’. One would have thought it was Pius X or Pius XI who was speaking.” (Congar, Challenge to the Church: The Case of Archbishop Lefebvre)

Congar wrote these words in opposition to Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who of course insisted on following the ideas of the pre-Vatican II popes, such as Pius XI. Indeed, with the last sentence, Congar was mocking Archbishop Lefebvre for the way in which he echoed St. Pius X and Pius XI.

This brings us back to the idea with which Leo began his catechesis. There was no real reason for him to cite John XXIII’s words about the “prophets of doom” in a message about Gaudium et Spes. Apparently, the entire point was to remind us of the same idea Congar emphasized five decades ago: “without disowning anything great that there may have been, [the Church] has cut the ropes which were mooring her to the banks of the Middle Ages.” In the eyes of Leo, it is best for the Church to be unmoored from Catholic Tradition, drifting further and further away from what St. Pius X and Pius XI said Catholics must believe. This is why Leo has nothing but kindness for heretics and censure for Archbishop Lefebvre’s Society of St. Pius X. The “prophets of doom” were correct, but in His loving mercy, God gave us men like Archbishop Lefebvre, who refused to cut ties with Catholic Tradition. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Pope Leo criticizes ‘prophets of doom,’ quoting John XXIII at Vatican II

Meanwhile, his synodal "church" is blessing sodomite couples (Fiducia Supplicans), giving Holy Communion to adulterers in the state of mortal sin (Amoris Laetitia), discussing holy orders for women and re-evaluating Humanae Vitae on artificial birth control.

To: Al Hitan; Fedora; irishjuggler; Jaded; kalee; markomalley; miele man; Mrs. Don-o; ...

2 posted on 09/05/2026 5:49:38 PM PDT by ebb tide (Our Lady, Co-Redemptrix and Mediatriax of All Graces pray for us.)

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