Shortly after his election, John XXIII issues the encyclical “Ad Petri Cathedram” (June 29, 1959), presenting his program under three slogans: “truth, unity, peace,” in the context of announcing an ecumenical council, a Roman synod, and a “renewal” of canon law for East and West. He denounces relativism and indifferentism in words borrowed largely from Leo XIII and Pius XII, extols the social harmony of classes and the dignity of labor, calls for concord within families and nations, and addresses “separated brethren” with an invitation to unity centered on the Roman See. He ends with paternal exhortations to bishops, clergy, religious, laity, emigrants, the suffering, and those under persecution. Behind this apparently orthodox language, the text functions as the foundational manifesto of the conciliar revolution, where the vocabulary of Catholic Tradition is subtly retooled to inaugurate a new, human-centered, ecumenical and naturalistic project opposed to the integral doctrine of the Church before 1958.
Programmatic Inversion: How “Truth, Unity, Peace” Became the Charter of Revolution
Foundational Fraud: Usurped Authority Speaking in Borrowed Catholicism
The entire document must first be located in its concrete historical-theological reality.
1. John XXIII appears here as if seamlessly continuing the magisterial line of Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII. He cites them frequently and in detail. Formally, the encyclical’s language on:
– the divinity of Christ,
– the necessity of Revelation,
– the condemnation of indifferentism,
– the social kingship logic (traces from Leo XIII, Pius XI),
is largely orthodox when read in isolation.
2. Yet precisely here lies the decisive deceit:
– The text is the first major programmatic piece after his election and explicitly links itself to:
– the convocation of an “Ecumenical Council”;
– the adaptation of canon law to “modern needs”;
– a parallel new Eastern Code;
– a universal “opening” to “separated brethren.”
– These are not accidental appendices. They are the axis of the entire letter: the future council and juridical transformation are proposed as instruments to realize the three terms “veritas–unitas–pax.”
3. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, formed by the pre‑1958 magisterium:
– A claimant lacking doctrinal integrity who announces, prepares, and then presides over a council that dismantles the practical rejection of condemned errors cannot be received as a faithful continuator of the papal office.
– The encyclical therefore must be read as a tactical deployment of orthodox formulas in the service of a pre-announced break: a “Catholic” vocabulary emptied and inverted, immediately destined to authorize what Pius IX in the Syllabus and St. Pius X in Lamentabili and Pascendi had anathematized.
In other words: the wolf is speaking fluent patristic Latin while marking out the path by which the flock will be handed over.
Manipulation of Truth: Orthodoxy in Words, Relativism in Praxis
On the surface, large sections would pass scrutiny in a manual of doctrine before 1958:
– He affirms:
– the existence of objective truth;
– the necessity of Revelation and the Gospel for salvation;
– the condemnation of religious indifferentism;
– the duty of Catholic writers to avoid error and immorality;
– the danger of false “equality of religions.”
These affirmations echo the genuine magisterium:
– Pius IX’s Syllabus, especially the errors 15–18 and 55 on indifferentism and separation of Church and State.
– Leo XIII on the moral duties of press and authority.
– Pius XI in Quas Primas and Mortalium animos, insisting that peace and unity are only in the reign of Christ and in the one Church, and explicitly condemning ecumenical relativism.
However, several structural perversions must be exposed:
1. Instrumentalization of “Truth” for a New Agenda:
– While speaking of revealed truth, John XXIII silently prepares to place that very dogmatic body into the laboratory of “aggiornamento” via a new council and new codes.
– Where previous popes reaffirmed truth in order to condemn modern errors by name (liberalism, socialism, “human rights” as autonomous, religious liberty as an absolute, Freemasonry), “Ad Petri Cathedram” avoids those precise condemnations in its programmatic parts and moves instead toward “dialogue,” “concord,” “collaboration” – all notions which Pius IX and Leo XIII had either explicitly restricted or warned against in relation to the sects of the age.
2. Silence That Screams:
– Not once is the binding Syllabus of Errors recalled as a living rule of action for the upcoming Council.
– Not once is Modernism named as “the synthesis of all heresies” (St. Pius X), despite this having been the central doctrinal battlefield of the first half of the 20th century.
– Not once are the concrete post‑1789 revolutionary principles (secularism, religious liberty, democratic sovereignty of the people as the “source of all rights”) denounced as the structural enemies of Christ’s social reign, even though Quas Primas — quoted in the provided file — had just defined that peace is only possible under the Kingship of Christ over individuals, families, and states.
This systematic omission is not innocent. Given the context (1959), the refusal to arm the faithful explicitly with Syllabus + Pascendi + Quas Primas against the modern world, while preparing a global council, is a strategic disarming of Catholic conscience.
Silentium de maximis est maxima accusatio (silence on the highest matters is the gravest indictment).
3. Use of Pre-Conciliar Quotes as Cosmetic Legitimization:
– The document drapes itself in Leo XIII, Pius XI, Pius XII to create continuity of tone, while preparing a council that will:
– reverse Mortalium animos (by practicing exactly the condemned inter-confessional ecumenism);
– relativize the Syllabus (by promoting religious liberty as a civil right of all religions);
– neutralize Quas Primas (by accepting secular states without insisting on the juridical rights of Christ the King).
Thus “truth” is invoked, but its dogmatic sharpness is preemptively blunted. The text is not yet openly heretical; it is preparatory: it anesthetizes vigilance.
Linguistic Engineering: Sentimental Humanism Masking Doctrinal Demolition
The rhetoric is revealing.
1. Sentimental Voluntarism:
– The text abounds in affective formulas:
– “paternal exhortations,”
– “dulcissima spes,”
– “fratres et filios dulci vos desiderio,”
– “Ego sum … Ioseph, frater vester”.
– This pious sweetness functions to soften the objective, juridical nature of the Church. Instead of speaking as the supreme judge who defines, commands, and condemns, John XXIII speaks as a consoling, inclusive “father-brother,” shifting emphasis from law to emotion.
This stands in tension with the authoritative style of Pius IX and St. Pius X, who, while paternal, never allowed sentimentality to obscure the hard edges of dogma and anathema.
2. Ambiguous Appeals to “Unitas”:
– The language on unity seems Catholic at first: one faith, one government, one worship, Peter’s primacy.
– Yet the key move is the way unity is proposed to “separated brethren”:
– No explicit demand for unconditional submission to defined dogmas they reject (e.g. Vatican I on papal infallibility and jurisdiction, Immaculate Conception).
– No clear repetition of Mortalium animos: that true unity can only be by return of dissidents to the one true Church, abandoning their communities.
– Instead, unity is wrapped in affective invitations, with strong emphasis on shared desires, prayer “together,” and admiration for their saints and writers.
This is the embryo of post-conciliar false ecumenism: the shift from the call to conversion to a call to “seek unity” as a common journey. Pius XI had already condemned the notion of a unity negotiated among equal confessions as a betrayal of the unique Church; John XXIII’s tone and omissions prepare precisely that betrayal.
3. Euphemistic Treatment of the Enemies of the Church:
– Masonic and revolutionary forces, explicitly exposed in the Syllabus and in the texts cited at the end of that file, vanish under generalized references to “those who limit liberty,” “those who persecute.”
– The systemic paramasonic assault on the Church’s temporal and spiritual rights is not named; thus the faithful are deprived of the concrete discernment demanded by Pius IX: these sects are “the synagogue of Satan.”
When the shepherd ceases to name the wolf, he collaborates in the slaughter.
Doctrinal Subversion through the Ecumenical Council Project
The most dangerous passages are those presenting the future council:
– John XXIII insists that the council will:
– promote a deeper understanding of truth,
– renew Christian morals,
– restore unity, concord, and peace,
– adapt discipline to “modern needs.”
On the surface, such aims would be legitimate, if subordinated to the fixed dogmatic framework. But here:
1. The Council is Proposed Without the Necessary Dogmatic Premises:
– No insistence that all its work must be strictly governed by the Syllabus, by Lamentabili, by Pascendi, by Mortalium animos, by Quas Primas, by the unchangeability of prior definitions.
– No warning that any accommodation to religious liberty or ecumenism of a liberal type is intrinsically incompatible with Catholic doctrine.
2. The Language of Adaptation:
– “Codicem iuris canonici … hodiernis necessitatibus accommodatum apparare”:
– A new code “adapted to modern necessities” —
but the 1917 Code was precisely the juridical expression of the anti‑liberal, anti‑modernist magisterium.
– To “adapt” here inevitably means to relax the Church’s protective walls, to harmonize her visible legislation with the world she had always condemned.
Thus, “Ad Petri Cathedram” is the ideological prologue of the conciliar sect: it prepares the mental shift from immutable law and doctrine to a historically plastic ecclesial system.
Lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of prayer is the law of belief):
– Once doctrine is treated as something to be “adapted” at the level of canonical structure and practical life, the next step — realized in post‑conciliarism — is to subject belief itself to evolution.
Ecumenical Deformation: From Return to Fusion
A key section invites “separated brethren” to unity.
Positive elements:
– He states:
– Christ founded one Church;
– unity is in that one body;
– the Catholic Church possesses unity of doctrine, government, worship.
However:
1. The Invitation is Not a Clear Call to Abjure Errors:
– Traditional teaching (cf. Pius XI, Mortalium animos) demands:
– explicit renunciation of heresies;
– return to the one fold under the Roman Pontiff as a condition of unity.
– John XXIII instead emphasizes:
– sympathy for their spiritual heritage;
– common prayer intentions;
– hope that they “seek unity” prompted by his council.
2. Rhetorical Strategy:
– He quotes Augustine on loving separated brethren as brothers insofar as they still say “Pater noster.”
– But he omits Augustine’s equally strong insistence on their objective state outside the visible unity and their duty to return by submitting to the Catholic Church.
3. Practical Horizon:
– This language opens the door to the post‑conciliar ecumenical project:
– joint prayers;
– recognition of “elements of sanctification” in sects;
– treating schismatic/Protestant communities not simply as errors to be rejected but as “partners.”
This contradicts the clear line:
– Pius IX (Syllabus 18): it is an error to say Protestantism is merely a form of the same true Christian religion.
– Pius XI: all forms of pan-Christianity seeking unity of churches are to be condemned; only a return to the Catholic Church suffices.
“Ad Petri Cathedram” sows precisely the seeds condemned by Mortalium animos, while carefully avoiding explicit collision with its letter.
Humanistic Peace versus the Kingship of Christ
The encyclical dedicates extensive sections to:
– peace among nations;
– brotherhood of peoples;
– social justice;
– concord between classes;
– care for migrants, poor, suffering, persecuted.
These themes, in themselves, are not false. Popes from Leo XIII to Pius XII treated them at length. The betrayal lies in the relocation of their supernatural foundation.
1. Shift in Emphasis:
– Here peace and unity are constructed primarily through:
– recognition of common human dignity,
– collaboration among nations,
– avoidance of war,
– balanced social relations.
2. What is Missing:
– The explicit doctrinal principle of Pius XI (Quas Primas):
– That true, stable peace is impossible where the public reign of Christ the King is denied;
– That states must recognize the Catholic religion as the only true one and submit laws, education, public life to His law;
– That laicism (“secularism”) is the root of social dissolution, to be rejected.
Instead, “Ad Petri Cathedram”:
– speaks generically against “injustice,” “oppression,” “lack of liberty,”
– but does not reaffirm the non-negotiable duty of civil powers to honor Christ and His Church as the one true religion.
This omission harmonizes perfectly with the future conciliar exaltation of “religious liberty” in the civil order, condemned already in Syllabus 77–80. The encyclical thus recasts peace in a semi-naturalistic key:
– Christ is mentioned;
– but the political conclusion—Christ’s juridical kingship over nations—is veiled.
The result: a program easily translatable into the humanistic, Masonic-compatible “peace, human rights, dialogue” agenda of the neo‑church.
Systemic Apostasy: Symptom of the Conciliar Sect’s Mentality
When viewed as a whole, the encyclical manifests four symptomatic traits that reveal its belonging to the conciliar sect’s logic:
1. Appropriation without Anathema:
– It quotes and appropriates the greatest anti-liberal, anti-modernist popes but:
– refuses their condemnatory edge,
– neutralizes their binding applications.
– This is pure Modernism as analyzed by St. Pius X:
– use traditional terms,
– change their context and practical orientation,
– let dogmas “evolve” in consciousness and discipline.
2. Sentimental Universalism:
– Humanity, fraternity, universal collaboration dominate the horizon.
– Sin, divine justice, necessity of conversion, danger of hell, the Four Last Things scarcely shape the strategy.
– The supernatural is acknowledged but psychologized; grace is invoked but subordinated to a rhetoric of universal benevolence.
Silence on final judgment and on the strict necessity of the state of grace is lethal: it shifts focus from salvation of souls to improvement of temporal coexistence.
3. Ecclesial Democratization in Nuce:
– Though formally reaffirming hierarchical structure, the letter:
– insists on wide consultation,
– magnifies the role of laity in apostolate as a quasi-co-governing force (under the label of Catholic Action),
– prepares the mentality for the later democratizing of ecclesial life:
synods, conferences, collegial obscuring of papal monarchy.
Integral doctrine recognizes:
– The Church is a *perfect society* with divinely fixed constitution;
– Authority descends from Christ through the hierarchy, not from below.
By blurring this, “Ad Petri Cathedram” helps incubate the later de facto dissolution of jurisdiction and the cult of “the people of God.”
4. Practical Recognition of the Post-1958 Structure as the Church:
– The encyclical presents the new agenda as the natural act of the same Roman Church.
– Acceptance of this premise leads straight to:
– acceptance of the later council and its destructive decrees as binding;
– acceptance of the new “Mass,” the new doctrines on religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality.
From the standpoint of the integral Catholic faith, this is impossible:
– Non datur (there is not) an authority that can bind the Church to what contradicts previous solemn teaching.
– A “magisterium” that sets itself on a collision course with Syllabus, Lamentabili, Pascendi, Quas Primas, Mortalium animos cannot be the same organ of Christ; it self-disqualifies.
Thus “Ad Petri Cathedram” is not a harmless transitional encyclical; it is the opening manifesto of the paramasonic “Church of the New Advent.”
Conclusion: Ad Petri Cathedram as Blueprint of Theological Bankruptcy
Summarizing the doctrinal exposure:
– The encyclical:
– uses correct statements about truth, Revelation, the Church’s unity, the dangers of indifferentism;
– multiplies paternal appeals and quotations from pre‑1958 popes;
– condemns certain abuses of media and morality.
But simultaneously:
– It:
– announces and legitimizes a council and canonical “adaptation” that will institutionalize condemned errors;
– disarms Catholics by omitting explicit reaffirmation of the Syllabus, Lamentabili, Pascendi, Quas Primas, Mortalium animos as non-negotiable norms;
– shifts the center from the militant defense of dogma to a soft humanistic “dialogue” and “fraternal unity”;
– reframes peace and unity in terms compatible with liberal and Masonic ideology;
– inaugurates the ecumenical method that treats schism and heresy as partial communions rather than mortal ruptures requiring conversion.
Under a thin varnish of orthodoxy, “Ad Petri Cathedram” replaces the inexorable logic of:
– one Truth,
– one Church,
– one necessary submission of nations to Christ the King,
with a program of controlled dilution that leads directly to:
– the conciliar sect’s dogmatic relativism,
– the cult of man,
– the political religion of “rights,”
– the destruction of the Most Holy Sacrifice in practice,
– and the enthronement of the “abomination of desolation” in the holy place.
An encyclical that prepares and justifies that process does not stand within the living continuity of the Catholic Magisterium; it stands condemned by that Magisterium.
Source:
Ad Petri Cathedram (vatican.va)
Date: 08.11.2025