Robert Morrison's article, "Only the Spirit of St. Pius X Can Break the Spirit of Francis Hovering Over the Vatican," presents a sharp critique of an event that took place in September 2025 under the pontificate of a "Pope Leo XIV." The event, a "World Meeting on Human Fraternity," celebrates the legacy of Pope Francis, especially his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, and culminates in a spectacle in St. Peter's Square featuring secular and non-Catholic artists, such as the singer Jelly Roll, as well as a drone display forming the face of Francis over the basilica. Morrison argues that such a spectacle is the manifestation of a spirit that, while prominent under Francis, is not an aberration but the logical consequence of the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent post-conciliar orientation. He contrasts this mentality with the doctrinal clarity of St. Pius X, particularly in his apostolic letter Notre Charge Apostolique, which condemned a "human fraternity" divorced from Christian charity and false ecumenism. Morrison's central thesis is that one cannot reject the "spirit of Francis" without repudiating the "spirit of Vatican II," as they represent a rupture with the unadulterated Catholic faith that previously reigned in Rome.
🔄The Inversion of Ends: The Triumph of Secondary ChristianityThe analysis of the events of September 2025 reveals an acute symptom of a condition that has afflicted the Church for decades: the prevalence of what can be termed secondary Christianity. This error consists in judging religion by its secondary and subordinate effects in the order of civilization, making them prevail over the supernatural ends that essentially characterize it (Amerio, 2011). The "World Meeting on Human Fraternity," with its focus on "social friendship" and the "recognition of the worth of every human person" in an abstract sense, and with the participation of artists whose message centers on a purely earthly "redemption" and "healing," perfectly exemplifies this inversion.
Religion is evaluated not by its capacity to lead souls to God through revealed truth and sacramental grace, but by its utility in promoting peace, tolerance, and universal fraternity on a merely natural plane. Christian charity, whose end is God, is replaced by a humanitarian philanthropy, whose end is man. Consequently, the described event is not an expression of the Catholic faith, but rather a manifestation of its disfigurement, where the primary (eternal salvation) is obscured and supplanted by the secondary (temporal well-being).
🤝The Dissolution of Antithesis: Fraternity Without Charity
The perennial Magisterium, as recalled in the article under analysis through St. Pius X, teaches that "there is no genuine fraternity outside Christian charity" (Morrison, 2025). Christian charity flows from the love of God and unites men in Christ, leading them to the same faith and the same heavenly happiness. Any other form of fraternity, based on the "mere notion of humanity," is "sheer illusion, sterile and fleeting."
The crisis manifested in the 2025 event lies precisely in the dissolution of the fundamental antithesis between the Church and the world in maligno positus (I John 5:19) (Amerio, 2011, p. 2). The law of the Church is not to conform to the world (nolite conformari huic seculo), but rather to model its opposition to it according to historical circumstances (Amerio, 2011, p. 3). The spectacle described, however, represents a capitulation. By embracing a naturalistic fraternity and an ecumenism that silences the truths of the faith to promote unity in secular values, the Church ceases to be the leaven that ferments the world and becomes a mass that is conformed by it. The essential distinction between the city of God and the city of man is blurred in favor of a "humanitarian ecumene" that obscures eschatology (Amerio, 2011, p. 584).
🎭The Cult of Ambiguity and the Degradation of the Sacred
St. Pius X, in his condemnation of the Sillon, warned against "dynamic language which, concealing vague notions and ambiguous expressions with emotional and high-sounding words, is likely to set ablaze the hearts of men" (Morrison, 2025). This critique resonates deeply with the analysis of post-conciliar discourse, which often employs a textual polysemy, allowing for divergent interpretations and weakening dogmatic clarity (Amerio, 2011, p. 62). "Human fraternity," as promoted in the event, is one of these vague concepts, capable of meaning everything and, therefore, nothing specific from a Catholic viewpoint.
This doctrinal ambiguity finds its visible expression in the degradation of the sacred. A spectacle with pop artists and drone displays over St. Peter's Basilica represents the transition from the sacred to the theatrical, from the venerandum and tremendum of the liturgy to profane entertainment (Amerio, 2011, p. 502). The sacred space, intended for the worship of God, is transformed into a stage for the celebration of man and a purely human ideal. This phenomenon is the logical consequence of a theology that has shifted its center from God to man, manifesting on the aesthetic and cultural plane the same inversion of ends that occurs on the doctrinal plane.
⚖️Conclusion
The thesis presented by Morrison, that the spirit manifested in the events of 2025 is the inevitable result of the spirit that has animated the Church since the Second Vatican Council, finds strong corroboration in a systematic analysis of the contemporary crisis. The phenomena described—the primacy of secular values, the dissolution of the antithesis between the Church and the world, and the degradation of the sacred—are not isolated incidents but consistent symptoms of a profound transformation (Amerio, 2011, p. 1).
The choice, therefore, is not merely between the style of one pontiff and another, but between two fundamentally opposed systems of thought. On one side, the Catholic system, founded on divine authority, oriented towards supernatural ends, and expressed in clear dogmas. On the other, a new system, which under the pretext of "fraternity," "dialogue," and "openness to the world," promotes the principle of human independence and dissolves the substance of the faith into a vague humanitarianism. The crisis will not be overcome by compromises, but only by an unequivocal return to the Catholic principle of authority and to the purity of doctrine that St. Pius X defended.
📚References
Amerio, Romano. Iota Unum: Estudio sobre las transformaciones en la Iglesia en el siglo XX. Corrected version. September 2011.
Morrison, Robert. Only the Spirit of St. Pius X Can Break the Spirit of Francis Hovering Over the Vatican. The Remnant Newspaper, Sep. 17, 2025.