At this secret consistory allocution of 28 March 1960, Angelo Roncalli (“John XXIII”) extols the Roman Curia, laments persecutions (notably recalling Alojzije Stepinac), praises the recently concluded Roman diocesan synod, announces new members of the College of “Cardinals” from various continents as a sign of geographic expansion, and links this internationalization of the Sacred College to the coming “Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,” presented as an instrument to respond to contemporary needs, foster unity, and promote peace among nations. The whole discourse is framed as serene optimism in the face of global tensions and culminates in the creation and publication of several “cardinals,” including Laurian Rugambwa, as emblematic of a universal, inclusive Church.
This apparently pious and orderly allocution is in reality a programmatic manifesto of conciliar revolution, naturalistic optimism, and ecclesiological subversion, preparing the paramasonic neo-church that will eclipse the visible structures of the true Catholic Church.
Programmatic Optimism for a New Religion under the Mask of Tradition
From Catholic Roman Consistory to Platform of the Conciliar Sect
Already from the opening lines, Roncalli’s allocution reveals a calculated, curated self-portrait: harmonious Curia, nothing “extra ordinem,” a calm governance free of internal doctrinal crisis, while merely noting external persecutions. The Latin is ecclesiastical, but the spirit is bureaucratic and horizontal.
He insists that in the Curia’s work up to that time there was:
“nihil extra ordinem habitum esse, ad illud opus quod attinet”
(“nothing out of order has occurred with respect to that work”).
This is not an innocent remark. On the factual level, by 1960 the errors condemned by Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Benedict XV and Pius XI—liberalism, laicism, ecumenism, Modernism—were festering in seminaries, institutes, and episcopates. To present the situation as orderly tranquillity is:
– A denial of the modernist infiltration unmasked by St. Pius X in Pascendi and Lamentabili sane exitu, which explicitly warn that the most dangerous enemies operate inside the Church, not merely in hostile regimes.
– An open contradiction to the gravity of the doctrinal crisis perceived and denounced by prior pontiffs: the same currents that Roncalli now prepared to enthrone at the so‑called Vatican II.
Thus, the allocution’s optimism is not supernatural confidence in Christ the King; it is the complacency of a man who has chosen to collaborate with those very forces condemned by the Magisterium.
Selective Compassion: Silence on Modernist Apostasy, Tears for Political Persecution
Roncalli evokes with genuine pathos the sufferings of Stepinac and persecuted Catholics:
“vexationes crudeles pluribus in locis ingravescere… contra religionem, christianum civilem cultum, debitamque libertatem”
(“cruel vexations are worsening in many places… against religion, Christian civil culture, and the due liberty with which individuals and all together ought to be endowed”).
Factual and theological problems:
– He speaks of “Christian civil culture” and “due liberty” in generic terms, echoing liberal vocabulary, without reaffirming the solemnly taught duty of States to recognize and submit to the social Kingship of Christ (Pius XI, Quas Primas).
– There is no word about the deeper, far more lethal treachery within: the modernist enemies described by St. Pius X as the worst foes of the Church precisely because they dwell within Her walls.
– He weeps over external persecutions but remains silent on the apostasy of theologians, bishops, and entire episcopates preparing to overturn doctrine on religious liberty, ecumenism, Scripture, liturgy, and the nature of the Church.
This silence is not accidental. It is symptomatic. A man preparing to legitimize modernist theses at an upcoming “council” cannot simultaneously unmask the internal revolutionaries. He must redirect the gaze solely to safe enemies (atheistic regimes) while masking those who are transforming doctrine from within. It is the same inversion condemned by St. Pius X: Modernists flatter the world, undermine dogma, and lament “persecutions,” yet their real war is against Tradition.
Liturgical Language Employed as Camouflage
Roncalli speaks movingly of the Most Holy Sacrifice, citing the Canon’s petition that God deign:
“pacificare, custodire, adunare et regere… toto orbe terrarum”
(“to pacify, guard, unite, and rule… throughout the whole world”).
He presents these words as a kind of theological justification for his program of Curial expansion and global representation in the College of “Cardinals.” Yet:
– The Canon refers to the unity, peace, and governance of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in fidelity to the deposit of faith, not the democratization or parliamentarization of ecclesiastical government according to geopolitical quotas.
– The peace and unity intended are supernatural, grounded in common faith and sacramental life, not a vague humanistic agreement among national “representatives” shaped by twentieth‑century diplomacy.
Here, sacred phrases are emptied of their precise doctrinal content and subtly repurposed to endorse structural and political innovations. It is a classic modernist tactic: retain words, change their operative meaning; quote the liturgy, but bend its import towards horizontal, institutional reforms and sentimental pacifism.
Such instrumentalization of liturgical language is an abuse of what the Syllabus of Errors defends: that the Church is a perfect society with divine constitution, not an adaptable NGO to be managed by international balancing.
Universalism Without Conversion: The Seeds of False Ecumenism
The central gesture of this allocution is the internationalization of the College of “Cardinals”:
– Inclusion of figures from Japan, the Philippines, Tanganyika, etc.
– Emphasis that peoples are called “without distinction of language, race, color” to receive the Gospel.
He ties this to the missionary mandate:
“Euntes in mundum universum praedicate evangelium omni creaturae: docete omnes gentes” (Mk 16:15; Mt 28:19).
In itself, the universality of the call to salvation is Catholic and perennial. But the way Roncalli frames it discloses a shift:
1. He highlights sociological representation rather than doctrinal confession.
2. There is no insistence that these “cardinals” must be uncompromising defenders of the integral faith and the social Kingship of Christ against liberal and syncretic errors.
3. The language of “no distinction of language, race, color” is used as a quasi-political slogan, anticipating the conciliar sect’s anthropocentric rhetoric, where the supernatural order is subordinated to egalitarian categories.
Pre‑1958 Magisterium (e.g., Pius IX’s Syllabus, Leo XIII, Pius XI) insists:
– There is one true Church, outside of which error and schism must be converted, not flattered.
– Nations and rulers are bound to publicly acknowledge the reign of Christ.
Roncalli’s tone shifts from “all nations must submit to Christ and His Church” to “all peoples already embraced in a broad, inclusive structure symbolized by our globalized College.” The language of mission is emptied of the sharp edge of conversion and replaced by a gentle universalism—that will soon materialize in the false ecumenism and interreligious “dialogue” of the conciliar revolution.
This is precisely the trajectory condemned by Pius IX: the idea that all religions or all forms of “Christianity” stand more or less on equal footing, and that dogmatic exclusivity is to be softened. The allocution, by its omissions, prepares that betrayal.
The Coming “Council”: Platform for Doctrinal Subversion
The most revealing passage concerns the announced “Alterum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum.” Roncalli writes that its preparation:
“tertia haec Patrum Cardinalium creatio… magnopere suadet eique non leve tribuit momentum”
(“this third creation of Cardinals… strongly recommends it and gives it no small importance”).
And he describes what this “council” should achieve:
– Better manifestation of “diversae locorum necessitates” (the diverse needs of places),
– Clearer explanation of doctrine and discipline,
– More efficacious promotion of “christianae vitae christianique apostolatus incrementum.”
On the surface, this is orthodox in phrasing. But several symptoms expose a divergent intention:
1. The reason for the council is not the defence of the faith against concrete, named errors (as at Nicaea, Trent, Vatican I), but an elastic response to “needs,” “various disciplines,” “apostolate.” This functional, pastoral language is the hallmark of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X: doctrine is pushed into the background, “pastoral” adaptation to the modern world to the foreground.
2. The emphasis on participation “ex variis Nationibus” (from various nations) in the College of “Cardinals” as a qualification to shape an ecumenical council betrays a confusion between supernatural authority (grounded in apostolic succession and adherence to Tradition) and representational geo-politics. This is an ecclesiological modernism: the Church as global assembly of opinions.
3. There is absolute silence about the Syllabus of Errors, Pascendi, Lamentabili, Quas Primas, and all the pre‑existing magisterial condemnations that set immovable boundaries. Instead, the tone is ingenuous confidence that a large, diverse assembly will “clarify” matters—precisely the mechanism by which dogma will soon be diluted under ambiguous formulas.
This fulfills the modernist method anathematized by St. Pius X: to convoke structures of apparent continuity in order to introduce novelty under “pastoral” guise. Far from being an organic continuation of Vatican I, this planned “council” is advertised in this allocution as a new event, tailored to the world’s expectations and the ideological aims of the conciliar sect.
Naturalistic Serenity: The Counterfeit “Peace” of the Neo-Church
Roncalli repeatedly exudes:
“pace quadam sancta et placidissima… serena fiducia futurum prospiciamus aevum”
(“a certain holy and most placid peace… a serene confidence as we look toward the future age”).
This pseudo-mystical serenity is invoked:
– After describing persecutions and international tensions;
– After celebrating the Roman Synod and the consultation of bishops and universities for the Council;
– After praising the deference, “observantiae testimonia,” rendered to his person.
But this “peace” is not the supernatural peace of Christ reigning through the triumph of dogma over error; it is the complacency of a leadership aligning itself with the world’s categories:
– The frequent mention of consultations with universities and institutes—many already infected with modernist exegesis and theology—signals an openness to the very tendencies condemned by Lamentabili and Pascendi, now rebranded as constructive input for a council.
– He interprets growing deference to his person as confirmation of divine blessing, a dangerous self-referentiality: the cult of the “pope” as charismatic unifier is precisely the psychological instrument later exploited to impose doctrinal novelties.
This naturalistic optimism flatly contradicts pre‑1958 warnings:
– Pius IX exposes in the Syllabus the criminal illusion that the Roman Pontiff must reconcile himself with “progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Syllabus, 80).
– St. Pius X denounces illusions about harmonizing Church and modernist thought; he instead commands vigilant warfare against internal apostasy.
In Roncalli’s allocution, no trace of such militant lucidity appears. Instead, we find the embryo of that very error: welcoming modern “needs,” flattering worldly optimism, and disguising capitulation as “peaceful confidence.”
Misuse of Authority: Manufacturing a New “College” for a New Religion
A crucial section is the creation and publication of new “Cardinals,” including those reserved “in pectore,” decreed:
“auctoritate Omnipotentis Dei, Sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli ac Nostra creamus et publicamus Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinales…”
(“by the authority of Almighty God, of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and Our own, We create and publish as Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church…”)
Here the allocution reaches its apex of presumption:
– The same mouth that prepares to bless a council contrary to the previous Magisterium, to enthrone religious liberty and false ecumenism, and to neutralize the Syllabus, dares to invoke the authority of God and the Apostles to configure the very senate that will approve these betrayals.
– The internationalization of this “College” is not an accident; it is the deliberate construction of a governing class for the Church of the New Advent, a paramasonic structure that will usurp the visible organs of the Catholic Church.
From the perspective of immutable doctrine, two points emerge:
1. Non datur hereticus manifestus caput Ecclesiae. (A manifest heretic cannot be head of the Church.) Classical theologians (Bellarmine et al., as summarized in the Defense of Sedevacantism file) affirm that a manifest heretic cannot hold papal jurisdiction. A structure whose “pope” announces and carries out a program objectively opposed to prior solemn teaching is thereby deprived of the divine guarantees attached to the Papacy.
2. If the root is illegitimate, the fruits—new “cardinals,” new bishops, new doctrinal directions—are infected. This consistory is not a normal act of Catholic governance; it is the self-replication of a revolutionary oligarchy under sacramental appearances.
Roncalli’s confident intonation of traditional formulas cannot mask the subversive content; indeed, it aggravates it. He seeks to clothe a new religion in the garments of the old, employing the names of Peter and Paul to enthrone those who will dismantle Peter’s faith and Paul’s doctrine.
Marked Omissions: No Social Kingship, No Condemnation of Liberalism, No Call to Penance
The gravest indictment of this allocution lies not only in what it says, but in what it conspicuously refuses to say.
Absent are:
– Any reaffirmation that States must recognize and publicly honor Christ the King, as Pius XI teaches in Quas Primas, where true peace is explicitly tied to the return of individuals and nations under His reign.
– Any explicit re‑assertion of the Syllabus of Errors and its condemnation of religious indifferentism, laicism, and liberalism. Instead of insisting that liberal principles are intrinsically opposed to the divine constitution of Church and society, Roncalli drifts in the opposite direction: preparing a council that will baptize those very principles.
– Any serious warning about the dangers of Modernism already condemned with excommunication by St. Pius X in Pascendi and Lamentabili. There is no trace of militant doctrinal vigilance; universities and institutes are blandly invited to “respond” and “contribute,” regardless of whether they are steeped in condemned errors.
– Any robust call to penance, reparation, and return to Tradition as the remedy for crises. The only remedy he offers is more structures, more representation, more “dialogue” in the future council.
Silence here is not neutral. It functions as practical repudiation of prior Magisterium. Qui tacet consentire videtur (he who is silent is seen to consent) when entrusted with defending the deposit. By omitting what prior popes elevated as non‑negotiable, Roncalli implicitly announces a change of religion while pretending continuity.
Transformation of the Hierarchy into an Instrument of Worldly Powers
The allocution indulges in sentimental appeals that the examples of the “Cardinals” and “bishops” may:
“populis eorumque ductoribus animum ad bene vivendum recteque agendum addant, eosque amabiliter inducant ad consilia inceptaque arcto foedere socianda, quae laetam concordemque pacem praestent.”
(“give to peoples and their leaders encouragement to live well and act rightly, and gently lead them to join plans and undertakings in close union, which may provide joyful and harmonious peace.”)
The hierarchy is presented primarily as:
– Moral influencer of nations,
– Mediator of social and political concord,
– Facilitator of human peace.
Yet pre‑1958 doctrine, as reiterated in the Syllabus and Quas Primas, teaches:
– The Church’s primary mission is supernatural: to transmit the faith, administer the sacraments, lead souls to eternal life.
– Public peace is authentic only when founded on the truth and law of Christ, which includes the rejection of error and false religions, not their coexistence under neutral “peace” formulas.
Roncalli’s rhetoric inverts this order:
– Natural peace and inter‑national cooperation are placed at the forefront;
– The clear assertion that rulers must recognize the rights of the Church and of Christ the King is absent;
– The hierarchy is reconceived as chaplaincy to the community of nations, rather than authoritative teacher of revealed truth.
This naturalistic reduction is intrinsic to the conciliar sect’s later praxis: diplomacy over dogma, treaties over anathemas, photo-op “dialogues” over evangelization. The allocution reveals the seeds of that perverse orientation.
Systemic Apostasy Foreshadowed: From This Consistory to the Abomination of Desolation
This 1960 secret consistory speech stands historically:
– On the eve of the so‑called Vatican II,
– At the moment of large-scale engineering of a new “College of Cardinals,”
– As a connective tissue between condemned modernist currents and the soon-to-be-official new theology.
From the perspective of immutable Catholic doctrine:
– The serene tone masking doctrinal battlefield;
– The internationalization for representational, not doctrinal reasons;
– The preparation of a “council” framed as adaptation to “needs” instead of defence against error;
– The omission of Christ’s social Kingship, the Syllabus, and anti-modernist teaching;
– The transformation of the hierarchy into a facilitator of worldly peace—
all these elements are not random stylistic choices. They are coherent symptoms of a new religion gestating within the structures occupying Rome.
The subsequent decades—destruction of the Roman Rite, promulgation of religious liberty and false ecumenism, glorification of human rights without Christ’s rights, enthronement of dialogue with heretics, schismatics, infidels and even open idolaters—simply unfold the program whose spirit is already evident here.
Lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of prayer is the law of belief): when those who preside over Rome pray, speak, and legislate as Roncalli does in this allocution—naturalistically, optimistically, diplomatically, without condemning modern errors and without exalting the exclusive rights of Christ and His Church—they manifest that they no longer serve the same faith transmitted by Pius IX and St. Pius X. The subsequent conciliar decrees and post‑conciliar sacrileges confirm the diagnosis.
In sum:
– This allocution is not a benign administrative speech.
– It is a carefully constructed rhetorical facade for a radical redirection: away from the integral Catholic faith, toward the conciliar ideology of the Church of the New Advent.
– It uses traditional formulas as cover for dismantling the very doctrinal and disciplinary edifice those formulas once served.
A Catholic faithful to the pre‑1958 Magisterium must therefore read this text not as an edifying document of the Church, but as an early and chilling self-revelation of the conciliar sect’s agenda—an agenda that would lead to the abomination of desolation within the once-holy places and the near-total eclipse of the visible institutional Church by a counterfeit structure.
Source:
Consistorium Secretum, Allocutio Ioannis PP. XXIII, d. 28 mensis Martii anno 1960 (vatican.va)
Date: 11.11.2025