The Gravest Moment: Econe 2026.

 

I will venture that the events which occurred in Econe yesterday and the response by the Vatican to them, were the gravest event to happen to the Catholic Church since Pentecost. This statement is not put forward as hyperbole. There are few moments in a lifetime that can be described by any man as of great historical significance. The consecrations which occurred in Econe, Switzerland on the Feast of the Precious Blood, July 1, 2026, were certainly one of those events. I was present at the ceremony of consecration, punctuated as it was by intense sunshine, overwhelming heat, thunderstorm, hail, driving rain, and then perfect warm placidity. Being that the ceremony was taking place with the stunning Alpine Mountains as background, it often seemed as if God Himself was present on Mount Sinai. The ceremony itself was a gorgeous presentation of the most complex rendition of the ancient Roman Liturgy. At the beginning of the ceremony there were two validly consecrated bishops present. At the end of the ceremony there were six validly consecrated bishops present. 

These events, in themselves, are not seemingly unique. There have been such episcopal consecrations, within the Roman Rite, since the earliest centuries of the Catholic Church. The event, as are all such events, dealt with the gravest of matters, the perpetuation of the Church and the continuance of the movement of supernatural sacramental grace through Her ministers to those to whom they were intended for, the Catholic Faithful and to all of those who would choose to join Her ranks. Through such events, the Catholic Church continues, until the end of time to feed the supernatural life, won for Her by Her Divine Spouse, to those who would partake of the established sources of that supernatural grace. All of this is meant to culminate in an act that is beyond the natural power of man to achieve, a perpetual possession of the Beatific Vision of God Himself. 

So, if the event, in itself, is so historically common, why speak of it as the gravest event to happen to the Catholic Church since Pentecost. How can we say this when, not only did Archbishop Lefebvre consecrate bishops "without papal mandate" in 1988, but Sedevacantist Catholic groups have been consecrating bishops, to continue a valid Catholic priesthood, for over 45 years? I say this because of the response of the current claimant of the Chair of Peter to this event and the inclusivity of his condemnation of those involved and those associated. Since the occupants of the Vatican, since the early 1980s, have ignored such episcopal consecrations or excommunicated only those doing or accepting the consecration, the implications of each individual event of consecration, even though profoundly significant, did not have the same publicity and the same level of reaction as did the events of yesterday in Econe, Switzerland. In these profoundly significant, yet, with implications not as grave, we would place the 1988 consecrations of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.  John Paul II excommunicated the consecrating and co-consecrating bishops, along with those who received consecration. The attached faithful, even though scolded, frightened, and demeaned by the the occupants of the Vatican, were not "thrown out of the Church." This was proven when Francis I extended "ordinary jurisdiction" to SSPX priests to hear confessions so that the faithful who go to an SSPX would not have a troubled conscience. There was never any need to "lift the excommunication" of the SSPX faithful. To my knowledge, there was never any talk about "lifting an excommunication" of the Sedevacantist faithful. There was constant talk of those who rejected the innovations of the post-Vatican II period as being "outside of the Church," but they were never officially declared to be. By rejecting the new religion, theology, practice, and doctrine that came out of post-Vatican II churchmen and theologians, one was not officially "outside of the Church." 

So in this year of 2026, 60 years since the beginning of the post-Vatican II period, de facto those who refuse to accept teachings and worship and practice and discipline that contradicts in letter and intent the letter and intent of popes, ecumenical councils, fathers, and doctors over the course of almost 2,000 years, and express this by associating with clergy which do the same, they are the one's who are outside of the Church. Those, however, who have gone alone and tacitly or explicitly accepted such heresies and apostatical ideas and teachings as  the rejection of sanctifying grace, the teaching of universal salvation, the doctrine that all men are united to Christ by the very fact that they are human, transignification, the opening of the sacrament of holy orders to women, the idea that we should not convert people to the Catholic Faith, that all religions are just like different languages being spoken by diverse peoples to God --- hence there is not one sole revealed religion, that the Holy Ghost does not proceed from both the Father and the Son, that Christ's soul did not descend into Hades, that there is more to the Church of Christ than the Holy Roman Catholic Church, that not Christ the King, but rather the United Nations is the greatest hope for the peace of man, that there is not one divine substance but only three persons, need I go one, even though I can. These are never condemned, in fact, they are often the ones condemning the orthodox. 

The moment we live in as Catholics is truly grave. If we, for a rare moment, pull up and look at the forest instead of the sap on the trees, we can see that it appears to be the first time in history that those who hold the Catholic Faith of All the Centuries are being officially excluded from the institutional organization of the Catholic Church. Paradoxically, the "Catholic Church" is booting the Catholic Religion. Unless there is a direct miracle from Almighty God, this will not change in my life time, perhaps many life-times if the world should last that long. 

But there is, also, another side to this coin. Bishop Michael Goldade has stated, on the day of his ordination, that "The Modernist Church is a desert that kills whatever it touches." The Catholic Church, the real Catholic Church established by Jesus Christ cannot kill whatever it touches. It can only give life and, even, life eternal. So what are we to conclude. The Modernist Church is not the Catholic Church. This "excommunication" makes that all too clear.