The document “Botucatuensis,” issued in 1959 by antipope John XXIII, purports to erect a chapter of canons in the metropolitan church of Botucatu (Brazil), specifying its dignities, number of canons, vesture, internal regulation, and procedural clauses, while abolishing the diocesan consultors concomitantly. It dresses this act in traditional canonical and liturgical vocabulary, claiming to promote the external honour of God through solemnity and collegiate structure.
In reality, this text is an early, concentrated example of the pseudo-traditional cosmetic of the nascent conciliar revolution: a juridical shell mimicking pre-1958 forms while silently detaching from the substance of the Catholic Church and preparing the terrain for the paramasonic neo-church.
Simulation of Catholic Authority by an Usurper
AD mode: from the first word this constitution is null.
The heading “IOANNES PP. XXIII SERVUS SERVORUM DEI” claims for Angelo Roncalli the title and authority of the Roman Pontiff. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, this is the fundamental, incurable defect of the entire text.
– A non-Catholic, manifestly modernist usurper cannot be head of the Church, because, as the pre-conciliar theologians summarized the Fathers: non potest esse caput Ecclesiae qui non est membrum eius (“he cannot be head of the Church who is not a member of it”). This is precisely the principle articulated and defended by St. Robert Bellarmine and others (see Defense of Sedevacantism file).
– Canon 188.4 CIC 1917 affirms that public defection from the faith vacates ecclesiastical office ipso facto. An apostate architect of aggiornamento, advocate of religious liberty and ecumenism against the Syllabus of Pius IX and Quanta Cura, falls under this principle; his alleged “pontificate” is a juridical fiction.
– Paul IV’s bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio declares null and void any “elevation” of one who has deviated from the faith to the papacy, even if accepted unanimously. This stands as a juridical and doctrinal axe at the root of John XXIII’s claim.
Therefore every subsequent clause – “we decree,” “we erect,” “we abolish diocesan consultors,” “we impose penalties” – is deprived of pontifical character. The text is an edict of the conciliar sect usurping papal forms to anchor itself in the structures it will soon pervert.
External Splendour without Doctrinal Substance: Liturgical Cosmetics as Cover
The constitution opens with a seemingly venerable principle:
“Quoniam nullum est dubium quin externus Dei honor et gloria per templorum quoque et caerimoniarum splendorem augeatur…”
(“Since there is no doubt that the external honour and glory of God are increased also by the splendour of churches and ceremonies…”)
Taken in isolation, pre-1958 theology affirms that the external cult, the beauty of temples and rites, serves the glory of God and the edification of the faithful. But here it functions differently:
1. Instrumentalization of Tradition:
– The appeal to splendour, canons, dignities, choir dress, and collegiate structure is deployed while the same usurper prepares the most radical subversion of doctrine and liturgy in history.
– It is a classic tactic of the synagoga Satanae described by earlier popes: preserve forms as long as they can be hollowed out and turned to the service of a new religion.
2. Silent Apostasy by Omission:
– Nowhere does the document recall:
– the necessity of *integral* Catholic faith for those who are to be canons;
– the obligation to defend the dogmas condemned in the Syllabus against liberalism, indifferentism, and the masonic state;
– the primacy of the Most Holy Sacrifice as propitiatory, as defined by Trent;
– the duty of public witness to the reign of Christ the King as Pius XI demands in Quas Primas.
– The entire argument is aesthetic and formal, not doctrinal. The gravest accusation: a liturgical-clerical mechanism is constructed without one explicit word about guarding the flock from modernist heresy.
3. Naturalistic Subtext:
– By tying “external honour” simply to “splendour,” detached from explicit confession of truth, the text implicitly accepts the naturalistic idea that decorum itself suffices.
– True Catholic doctrine: external splendour has value quatenus (“insofar as”) it expresses and protects the *unchanged faith*. Severed from faith, it becomes theatricality, a cultic mask for error.
Factual and Structural Level: A Real Chapter for an Unreal Church
The document decrees:
– Creation of a chapter: archpriest, archdeacon, six canons (with offices such as theologian and penitentiary).
– Regulation of benefices: allows dignities to be conferred even on priests already holding another benefice until stable endowments are provided.
– Mitigation of canonical obligations: capitular divine office in common only once a month (on the 26th), other days according to future constitutions.
– Determination of choir dress: black cassock with violet piping, violet sash, rochet with red trimming, black mozetta with red fringes.
– Transfer of diocesan consultors’ role to the new chapter.
– Strong juridical language: universal derogation of contrary norms, threats of canonical penalties for disobedience.
On the factual plane, several elements betray the imposture:
1. Continuity in Shell Only:
– The structure imitates classical cathedral chapters, but is promulgated by one simultaneously preparing a council that will:
– democratize governance;
– marginalize such chapters;
– dissolve clear hierarchical authority into conferences and bureaucratic committees;
– undermine the theology these canons were once charged to defend.
– We see the paradox: a “restoration” gesture by the very man who initiates the process of destruction. This is simulation, not continuity.
2. Minimalization of Liturgical Duty:
– Allowing proper capitular office only once a month is a substantial departure from the traditional expectation of daily choral office by canons.
– The text normalizes an attenuated notion of canonical life while decorating it with impressive vesture.
– Lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of prayer is the law of belief): by weakening common office, it weakens the daily liturgical proclamation of doctrine—precisely what the conciliar sect aims at.
3. Juridical Absolutism without True Jurisdiction:
– The constitution claims:
– to supply consent of any who might have rights;
– to derogate all contrary norms;
– to bind under penalties those who “despise or resist” its decrees.
– This is the language of a true pope; but in the mouth of an antipope it becomes arrogance built on void. Actus nullus nullum producit effectum (“a null act produces no effect”).
– From the perspective of the faithful who maintain the integral Catholic faith: the supposed chapter is canonically non-existent within the Mystical Body, no matter how many signatures and seals are appended.
Linguistic Level: Rhetoric as Anaesthetic
The Latin of the document is smooth, classically curial, apparently indistinguishable from genuine pre-1958 acts. This is not accidental; it is instrumental.
Key features:
1. Traditional Vocabulary Used as Incantation:
– Constant recurrence of:
– “de Nostra summa et apostolica potestate” (“by our supreme and apostolic power”);
– “ad normam iuris” (“according to the norm of law”);
– “mandata iussaque Nostra” (“our mandates and orders”).
– The aim is psychological: to habituate clergy and laity to accept Roncalli as legitimate by overlaying his revolutionary program with familiar formulae.
2. Total Silence about the Doctrinal Crisis:
– Not one allusion to modernist errors, to the need to guard doctrine, to the snares already condemned by Pius X in Lamentabili sane and Pascendi.
– The chapter’s role is framed administratively and ceremonially, not as a bulwark against heresy.
– This bureaucratic, irenic tone in 1959, on the eve of the council that will enthrone the very doctrines condemned in Lamentabili and the Syllabus, is itself a sign of programmatic apostasy.
3. Penal Threats Emptied of Catholic Content:
– The text ends by threatening canonical penalties for those not observing “the orders of the Supreme Pontiffs.”
– But the same environment will, within a few years, reward those who disobey the perennial Magisterium and persecute those who defend it.
– The rhetoric of obedience is inverted: from obedience to Tradition, to obedience to the conciliar revolution.
This is the essence of modernist duplicity condemned by St. Pius X: retain the words, empty or invert their meaning. Verba manent, fides tollitur (“the words remain, the faith is removed”).
Theological Level: Vacancy of Supernatural Content
Measured against the immutable pre-1958 doctrine (our sole criterion), the constitution is theologically bankrupt not because it directly proclaims heresy, but because it embodies the modernist method: constructing ecclesial life on pure juridical and ceremonial formalism, severed from clear supernatural ends.
1. Absence of the Central Ends of the Church:
– No mention of:
– the salvation of souls as the supreme law (*salus animarum suprema lex*);
– the defense of the true faith against errors condemned in the Syllabus of Errors;
– the duty to recognize and promote the social kingship of Christ as taught in Quas Primas;
– the danger of masonic sects explicitly denounced by Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X.
– A true apostolic constitution, even when treating structural matters, traditionally situates them within these supernatural ends. The omission is not neutral; it displays a church reduced to institutional self-management.
2. Capitular Theology Hollowed Out:
– Historically, cathedral chapters were:
– stable communities of clergy bound to solemn recitation of the divine office;
– advisers of the bishop in governing according to Tradition;
– guardians of doctrine, discipline, and the dignity of the liturgy.
– Here:
– common office is reduced;
– their advisory role is formal, in a system already sliding toward democratic episcopal conferences and “pastoral” ambiguities;
– no doctrinal charge is articulated.
– Without guarding the deposit of faith (*depositum fidei*), the “theologian canon” is an empty title; the “penitentiary” is inserted into a system that will soon trivialize sin, confession, and penance.
3. Contradiction with Precedent Magisterium on Liberalism and Secularism:
– Pius IX in the Syllabus and Pius X in Pascendi command pastors to unmask liberal and modernist errors and resist state and masonic intrusion.
– The Brazilian environment was already permeated by liberal secularism; any true apostolic act would arm the chapter against it.
– Instead, “Botucatuensis” says nothing. This selective mutism is a betrayal of duty, aligning practically with the very errors previously condemned.
4. The Usurper’s Implicit Self-Deification:
– The closing claim that to resist these decrees is to incur penalties attached to disobedience to “Supreme Pontiffs” implicitly identifies Roncalli with the line of true popes.
– Yet according to pre-1958 principles cited in the Defense of Sedevacantism file, a manifestly heterodox claimant is *ipso facto* outside office.
– Thus:
– either one accepts contradiction (which is impossible in Catholic theology),
– or one recognizes that such texts are part of a parallel juridical edifice of the conciliar sect.
Symptomatic Level: Early Symptom of the Conciliar Sect’s Method
This document must be read as a symptom of a broader pathology.
1. Gradualism: Revolution in Cassock and Rochet
– Before openly subverting catechism, liturgy, and canon law, the conciliar sect moves within established forms:
– creating new structures;
– adjusting obligations;
– appointing compliant clergy;
– fixing jurisdictions that can be easily seized once doctrine shifts.
– “Botucatuensis” positions a collegiate body precisely as a future transmission belt of the new religion, under the illusion of tradition.
2. Institutional Capture: Chapters Turned into Organs of the Neo-Church
– Once Vatican II and the post-1960s reforms explode:
– such chapters, already used to mere formalism, do not resist;
– they rubber-stamp the new rites, the ecumenical betrayals, religious liberty, and the cult of man.
– What looks like a strengthening of traditional structure in 1959 is, in fact, creating chassis for the coming doctrinal engine of apostasy.
3. Apostolic Forms as Paramasonic Strategy
– As the Syllabus text in the file explains, the Popes identified the masonic method: work “through sinuous caverns,” infiltrating institutions, exploiting political and juridical forms to suffocate the Church.
– John XXIII’s regime:
– employs classical curial language;
– issues solemn constitutions;
– pays homage to “external honour”:
– all while preparing the Council that will reconcile with “progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (precisely condemned in proposition 80 of the Syllabus).
– “Botucatuensis” is entirely consistent with this paramasonic methodology: it says nothing explicitly evil, yet everything in its omissions and timing serves the larger design.
4. Silencing of True Authority and Justice
– The text superficially affirms authority and penalties, but in practice the conciliar sect:
– punishes defenders of Tradition;
– promotes heretics and innovators;
– replaces canonical sanity with brute institutional power.
– We must emphasize: justice and authority belong to the true Church—those bishops and priests who preserve valid orders and integral doctrine. No lay-driven self-judgment, no liberal clerico-democracy, and certainly no neo-church bureaucracy has any divine right. But neither does an antipope and his collaborators.
Exposure of the Document’s Spiritual Bankruptcy
Bringing all levels together:
– The constitution:
– assumes a papal authority that, measured by pre-1958 principles, Roncalli does not possess;
– uses venerable language to mask its insertion into a revolutionary trajectory;
– constructs a chapter that is:
– liturgically enfeebled,
– doctrinally undefined,
– spiritually directionless;
– threatens penalties in the name of obedience while silently abandoning the solemn condemnations of modernism, liberalism, and masonry.
In terms of the integral Catholic criterion:
– No explicit heresy in the text does not mean orthodoxy.
– The decisive mark is the inversion of ends:
– from guarding the *depositum fidei* and promoting the reign of Christ the King in society,
– to maintaining ecclesiastical appearances within a system that will shortly enthrone religious freedom, false ecumenism, and the cult of man.
This is theological and spiritual bankruptcy:
– A constitution preoccupied with rochets and mozzettas, silent about the wolves devouring the flock.
– A “chapter” instituted not to defend the pre-conciliar faith, but to be absorbed by the new religion.
– A juridical act of a pseudo-pontiff who, by the very principles of the classical theologians and canonists, cannot bind consciences in the name of Christ.
Conclusio: For those who hold fast to the unchanging Catholic faith, “Botucatuensis” is not an act of the Church but a polished administrative gesture of the conciliar sect, an early brick in the architecture of the abomination of desolation. It deserves not reverence, but repudiation—together with the entire line of usurpers beginning with John XXIII—and a return to the true, pre-1958 Magisterium, wherein chapters, canons, and all ecclesiastical structures exist solely to guard, confess, and apply the integral Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the immutable doctrine of His Church.
Source:
Botucatuensis (vatican.va)
Date: 08.11.2025