The radiophonic message of John XXIII to the Marian Congress in Saigon (1959) praises Vietnamese Catholic fidelity, exalts Marian devotion linked to Lourdes, recalls three centuries since the appointment of the first Apostolic Vicars in Vietnam, highlights the growth of the indigenous clergy and laity, promises spiritual favors, and appoints Cardinal Agagianian as papal legate to preside over the celebrations. The text wraps all this in sentimental rhetoric of gratitude, unity with the Roman See, and hope for peace, carefully avoiding any mention of the looming conciliar revolution which this very usurper was already preparing; it is a polished prelude to the subversion of the Catholic missions in Asia and an early specimen of the pious mask covering the metastasis of Modernism.
Marian Rhetoric as the Perfume Masking Conciliar Subversion
Historical Data Manipulated: Missions as a Platform for Future Betrayal
On the factual plane, the message appears, at first glance, traditionally pious:
– It recalls the centenary of Lourdes.
– It commemorates three centuries since the first Apostolic Vicars for Tonkin and Cochinchina (Francis Pallu, Pierre Lambert de la Motte).
– It notes the blood of Vietnamese martyrs and the flourishing of a large Catholic population.
– It praises the growth of an indigenous clergy assuming the governance of apostolic vicariates.
– It sends a papal legate, Gregory Peter Agagianian, Prefect of Propaganda Fide, to give solemnity and “spiritual favors” to the Marian Congress.
All these elements, considered in isolation, echo the Catholic language of the pre-1958 magisterium: missionary zeal, veneration of martyrs, Marian devotion, visible communion with Rome. But precisely here lies the most insidious mechanism: what is stated is instrumentalized to conceal what is rigorously omitted.
The message stands in 1959: John XXIII had already convoked the aggiornamento mentality that would explode in the so‑called “Second Vatican Council.” The same paramasonic structure that within a few years would:
– Deconstruct missionary theology, abandoning the explicit call to conversion to the one true Church.
– Replace the dogma “outside the Church there is no salvation” with a vague recognition of “elements” of grace in false religions.
– Transform Propaganda Fide from an organ of supernatural evangelization into a diplomatic agency of religious pluralism.
– Subject suffering Catholics (including Vietnamese) to coexistence with Communism and paganism in the name of dialogue.
Not a single line of this message warns the Vietnamese hierarchy and faithful against Communism as an anti-Christian, anti-theistic system condemned by Pius XI and Pius XII; nor against Freemasonry, denounced by Pius IX as the “synagogue of Satan” warring against the Church; nor against Modernism, anathematized as the “synthesis of all heresies” by St. Pius X in Pascendi and Lamentabili sane exitu.
Instead, the usurper cloaks himself in the memory of martyrs and of pre-conciliar missionaries while silently preparing the betrayal of their blood. This is not mere omission; it is the calculated instrumental use of Catholic symbols to legitimize an incipient apostasy.
Soft, Sentimental Language as Symptom of Doctrinal Dilution
The linguistic texture of the message betrays the deformation:
– Vocabulary of effusive sentiment: “singularis oblectamenti causa,” “ingens multitudo,” “fiduciae plenos,” “nobilem cum utilitate decorem.”
– Emphasis on “consolation,” “joy,” “solemnities,” “festivities,” without corresponding insistence on sin, error, penance, hell, or the necessity of belonging to the one Church for salvation.
– Marian devotion is invoked almost exclusively in affective, therapeutic terms—source of “new heavenly benefits,” “most desired peace”—not as the militant Queenship of Mary working inseparably with Christ the King for the overthrow of idols and false religions.
This style is not accidental. Pre-1958 papal teaching, while often eloquent, is crystal-clear, virile, juridical, doctrinally precise. Consider Pius XI in Quas primas (1925): he denounces laicism and proclaims that peace is possible only in the social reign of Christ, that states have the duty to recognize His law, and that the Church must be free and supreme in her own order. He does not hide behind sugary abstractions; he names the evil and calls for subjection of nations to Christ the King.
Here, by contrast, “peace” is invoked in a purely horizontal, pacifist sense, detached from the kingship of Christ over society and from the duty of rulers in Vietnam to bow publicly to the Catholic faith. The text speaks of “solid peace restored” without a syllable about:
– the public recognition of the true religion;
– the rejection of atheistic Communism and pagan cults as intrinsic enemies of Christ;
– the necessity of Catholic moral law as the only stable foundation of social order (Pius IX, Syllabus, esp. 55, condemning separation of Church and State).
The rhetoric is deliberately irenic, deliberately vague, deliberately emptied of that polemical clarity which the authentic Magisterium always displayed when addressing nations surrounded by idolatry or error. The very choice of tone exposes the Modernist habitus: religion as comfort, Marian devotions as decorative, the Church as an NGO of spiritual consolation amidst political tension.
Theological Evasion: Missions Without Conversion, Martyrs Without Confession of the One Church
We must confront the theological omissions with the immovable doctrine taught before 1958.
1. The nature of the Church and missions
– The message praises three centuries of evangelization but never once reiterates that the Catholic Church is the only ark of salvation, nor that Vietnamese pagans and adherents of other sects must convert under pain of eternal loss.
– Pius IX, in the Syllabus (prop. 15–18), rejects the idea that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” and that salvation can be found “in any religion whatever” or that Protestantism is a legitimate form of Christianity. This non-negotiable exclusivity is entirely absent.
– The authentic pre-conciliar theology of Propaganda Fide was ordered to one end: conversion to the Catholic Church, uprooting of idols, destruction of superstition, submission to Christ’s doctrine and to the Roman Pontiff.
John XXIII’s message retains the external vocabulary of “missions,” but drains it of its hard supernatural content. The stress falls on:
– numbers (“about 1.5 million Catholics”);
– gratitude for historical fruits;
– admiration for indigenous hierarchy.
Yet he does not command them to wage doctrinal war against false religions. Instead, he wants them to be a “shining light” among those “ignorant of the true God,” but the phrase is left in the air, unarmed, de-dogmatized, and ready to be reinterpreted in the conciliarist style as mere witness “among many paths.”
2. Martyrs invoked without their doctrinal testimony
The message cites the blood of Vietnamese martyrs as sanctifying the nation’s faith. But what did those martyrs confess and die for?
– They professed the exclusivity of the Catholic religion.
– They refused participation in pagan rites even at cost of life.
– They submitted unconditionally to the Roman Pontiff who taught the Syllabus, not “dialogue” with idols.
To parade their memory while preparing an ecclesial revolution that would relativize the dogmas they died for is spiritual fraud. Contradictio in adiecto (contradiction in terms): the conciliar sect exploits martyrs as moral capital while subverting the faith for which they shed blood.
3. Mary invoked without her relation to Christ the King
The message links the congress to Lourdes and calls Mary “Queen of the missions,” which, in itself, aligns verbally with tradition. But note:
– The text does not explicitly present Mary as the terror of heresies, destroyer of idols, mother of the one Church.
– Her Queenship is psychologized: she is approached to gain “heavenly favors” and “peace,” not victory over error, sin, Freemasonry, Communism, Modernism.
This contrasts with the pre-1958 popes who always connect Marian devotion with militant fidelity to doctrine and moral law. Pius XI in Quas primas binds peace to the public recognition of Christ’s reign; Pius X binds Marian piety to the rejection of Modernism. Here Mary is a sentimental banner over an assembly that is being prepared to receive the conciliar betrayal.
Systemic Apostasy: The Message as Proto-Manifesto of the Conciliar Sect
Seen symptomatically, this radiophonic text is not an isolated devotional piece; it is a microcosm of the coming systemic apostasy.
1. The usurper’s position
John XXIII, the first in the line of conciliar usurpers, appears here as “Supreme Pontiff” blessing missions and Marian devotions. From the perspective of unchanging Catholic doctrine and the principles recalled in the pre-1958 theologians:
– A manifest promoter of Modernist tendencies—who convokes a council to reconcile with “modern civilization” condemned by Pius IX (Syllabus, 80)—cannot be regarded as a true Vicar of Christ.
– The doctrine of St. Robert Bellarmine and others, synthesized in the rejection of a manifest heretic as head of the Church, exposes the contradiction: non potest caput Ecclesiae esse qui membrum non est (he who is not a member cannot be the head).
Thus every act in which he uses apparently Catholic language must be read as the speech of one who, lacking the mandate of Christ, manipulates the faithful to accept a new religion disguised as continuity.
2. The deployment of Marian congresses as propaganda
The Marian Congress in Saigon is celebrated as a national Catholic festivity:
– But it functions simultaneously as a liturgical-political theatre to anchor in the Catholic imagination the authority of the usurper and of Propaganda Fide in its new orientation.
– Cardinal Agagianian is sent as legate to symbolize this tie; later, the same paramasonic structure will embrace religious liberty, ecumenism, false collegiality—directly contradicting the Syllabus, Quanta cura, Quas primas, and the entire pre-1958 magisterium.
The text’s silence about Modernism is thunderous. In 1959, after decades of explicit condemnations by St. Pius X and his successors, a genuine successor of Peter addressing bishops in a region of intense ideological and religious conflict would:
– Explicitly warn against Modernist exegesis and doctrinal relativism (cf. Lamentabili sane exitu, which rejects notion of evolving dogmas and denies that Scripture can be reinterpreted independently of the Magisterium).
– Reaffirm that truths defined by the Church do not change with time, that progress does not mean transforming Catholicism into a dogmaless religiosity.
Instead, the message is perfectly compatible with the coming conciliar narrative: celebrate history, speak of openness, omit all warnings against the very poisons about to be injected.
3. Substitution of supernatural combat with humanitarian “peace”
Most revealing is the way “peace” is treated:
– It is invoked as “solid peace restored,” as an “optatissimum et auspicatissimum” grace to be asked from Mary.
– But the condition for authentic peace is never stated: submission of individuals and nations to the law of Christ the King, rejection of doctrinal error, cleansing of public life from offenses against God.
Pius XI teaches clearly: peace will not shine upon nations “as long as individuals and states reject the reign of our Savior.” He explicitly condemns laicism and religious indifferentism as causes of social ruin. Here, the usurper asks for peace without demanding the integral kingship of Christ; this is humanitarian pacifism, not Catholic theology.
Such naturalistic language is the embryo of the post-conciliar cult of “human rights,” “dialogue,” and “tolerance” raised above the first three Commandments. Once peace is detached from the rights of God and from the exclusive truth of the Catholic Church, it becomes a slogan serving the globalist and Masonic agenda which Pius IX already discerned behind the onslaught against the Church.
Abandonment of Persecuted Catholics: Pious Words, No Supernatural Militancy
The message briefly alludes to Catholics in North Vietnam, “in difficulties not depending on their will,” and assures them of spiritual closeness, praise for their fidelity, and hope that God will soon reward their virtues.
Notice what is absent:
– No explicit condemnation of Communist persecution as intrinsically anti-Christian and unjust.
– No exhortation to political authorities to cease violating the rights of the Church, contrary to the robust protests of Pius IX and Leo XIII whenever the liberty and hierarchy of the Church were constrained.
– No call to the Catholic world to defend, by lawful measures, their brethren, nor to recognize in Communism the revolutionary spearhead of the paramasonic forces.
Pius IX, when confronting the Prussian Kulturkampf, declared such laws “null and void because absolutely contrary to the divine constitution of the Church.” He spoke in juridical, absolute terms, defending the rights of Christ and His Bride. John XXIII’s message, in contrast, is evasive, consolatory, carefully non-confrontational—a pastoral anesthesia preparing souls to accept coexistence with Communist regimes and with religious pluralism under the watchword of dialogue.
This betrayal is not only political but supernatural: shepherds are obligated to proclaim the incompatibility of atheistic regimes and false cults with the law of God, not merely to murmur spiritual platitudes while reorganizing the Church’s doctrine to fit them.
From Integral Mission to Conciliar Relativism: The Inherent Logic of the Text
When one reads this message with the light of the pre-1958 magisterium, the logic unfolds inexorably:
– The text uses orthodox elements (Scripture, martyrs, Marian devotion, mission history).
– It surgically omits the hard edges of Catholic doctrine: exclusivity of salvation, condemnation of false religions, demand for Christ’s social kingship, denunciation of laicism, Freemasonry, and Modernism.
– It exalts “national” Catholic life and indigenous clergy without reaffirming the immutable subordination of local churches to Roman orthodoxy as always understood.
– It proposes “peace” as a highest grace, but detached from the Syllabus’ rejection of religious indifferentism and from Quas primas’ demand that laws and states be subject to Christ.
This combination is precisely the modus operandi of Modernism: retain forms, empty them of content, fill them with a new naturalistic, humanitarian, and historicist meaning.
Lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of prayer is the law of belief). By allowing Marian congresses, missionary rhetoric, and papal benedictions to be imbued with this diluted vocabulary, the conciliar sect re-educates consciences. Vietnamese Catholics were encouraged to feel profoundly Roman and Marian, while the very concept of Rome and Marian fidelity was being redefined against the doctrine of Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII.
Conclusion: A Pious Veil Over the Coming Abomination
This radiophonic message is not neutral. It is a crafted tool. It serves to:
– Legitimize the usurper as father of missions and Marian devotion.
– Bind missionary churches emotionally to a Roman center already overrun by the conciliar project.
– Normalize a language of sentimental devotion and horizontal peace, devoid of militant doctrinal clarity.
– Prepare souls to accept the post-1958 revolution as a “renewal” in continuity with their history and martyrs, when in truth it is a rupture and a betrayal.
Measured by the only legitimate criterion—unchanging Catholic theology and magisterium before 1958—this text is theologically and spiritually bankrupt:
– It neither teaches nor defends the rights of Christ the King over Vietnam.
– It neither confronts nor unmasks the enemies of the Church attacking that land.
– It turns Marian piety into a soothing background music for an ecclesial coup.
– It canonizes ambiguity, which the pre-conciliar Church always recognized as the privileged weapon of heresy.
The faithful who cling to the integral Catholic faith must see through the veil: such documents are not harmless. They are the sugar coating on the dagger aimed at the heart of the missions and of Marian devotion. The only remedy is to return without compromise to the doctrine of the perennial Magisterium—Pius IX’s Syllabus, St. Pius X’s Lamentabili and Pascendi, Pius XI’s Quas primas—and to reject the conciliar sect’s appropriation of Catholic language as the propaganda of a counterfeit church.
Source:
Radiomessaggio al Congresso Mariamo del Vietnam. 19 febbraio 1959, Giovanni XXIII (vatican.va)
Date: 11.11.2025