On 16 February 1959, a few months after his usurpation of the Apostolic See, John XXIII delivered a brief Latin radio message to the Catholics of Japan to mark the inauguration of Japanese-language broadcasts from Vatican Radio. He greets the hierarchy and faithful, praises Japanese cultural virtues—ancient refinement, strength, patient endurance, artistic brilliance—and exhorts Catholics to let their faith shine through mildness and moral uprightness. He assures them of his prayers through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, invoking Christ as “O Oriens, splendor of eternal light and sun of justice,” that the Japanese may be enlightened and enabled to embrace the riches of the Gospel and be preserved from evils, granted prosperity and blessings in time and eternity. This apparently pious address, however, is an early and symptomatic manifesto of the horizontal, humanistic, and irenic religion that will soon explode in the conciliar revolution, subtly replacing the militant, exclusive Kingship of Christ with a saccharine naturalism and vague benevolence.
Conciliar Flattery in Place of the Militant Kingship of Christ
Superficial Praise and Diplomatic Tone as a Program of Dilution
From the first lines, the usurper’s rhetoric manifests the new cult of humanism:
“May blessing, peace, the solace of good hope, the joy of the Holy Ghost be yours and remain with you.”
On its face, these are legitimate words. Yet what is systematically absent is more revealing than what is present:
– No mention of the necessity of belonging to the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church as the only ark of salvation.
– No explicit proclamation that outside this Church there is no salvation (*extra Ecclesiam nulla salus*).
– No warning against the false religions and sects that dominate Japan, especially Buddhism and Shinto, which enslave souls in idolatry and superstition.
– No call to conversion addressed to the Japanese nation as such, no affirmation of the duty of public recognition of Christ the King, condemned implicitly by the later cult of religious liberty.
Instead, we find cultural flattery:
“Let the Japanese nation, renowned for ancient human refinement, strength of courage, tranquil endurance of evils, brilliance of arts…”
The virtues listed—“humanity,” fortitude, endurance, artistic brilliance—are praised as such, without being clearly subordinated to the supernatural order, to sanctifying grace, to the obedience owed to the true Faith. This is not accidental style; it is programmatic. It reduces the Church’s mission to confirming and sprinkling holy water upon natural, national virtues.
In contrast, Pius XI in *Quas primas* does not bless nations for their “culture” but denounces secularist apostasy and demands that states recognize and submit to the social reign of Christ. He affirms that true peace and order are impossible unless individuals and nations acknowledge Christ’s royal rights and shape laws, education, and public life according to His commandments. Here, by contrast, the usurper blesses a non-Catholic nation in neutral terms, as if its natural brilliance were already an adequate platform for divine favor, silently bypassing the scandal of centuries of paganism. This benevolent minimalism is the nascent *cultus hominis* that will be solemnized by the later conciliar sect.
Reduction of Apostolic Mission to Harmless Moralism
John XXIII addresses bishops, priests, religious, and laity:
“Strive so that your Christian faith may shine ever more splendidly from the kindness of your speech and from complete uprightness of your works: ‘Let your modesty be known to all men… whatever things are holy, whatever are lovable… think on these things. What you have learned… do these’.”
The Scripture citation (Phil 4:5–9) is true; the distortion lies in isolation and selection. The integral Catholic Faith teaches:
– The Church’s mission is to preach, to baptize, to teach all nations “to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19–20).
– Evangelization includes denunciation of idols, false worship, and the kingdom of Satan; conversion is not embellishment but rupture: *abnegare seipsum*, to deny oneself and abandon false cults.
By restricting exhortation to “kindness of speech” and “uprightness of works,” the usurper offers a message perfectly compatible with naturalistic ethics, respectable in the eyes of pagans and liberal governments. There is no mention of:
– the Most Holy Sacrifice as propitiatory,
– the necessity of the state of grace,
– the danger of hell,
– the obligation of public confession of the Catholic Faith,
– the royal rights of Christ over Japanese society.
Such omissions are not “prudential”; they are the signature of the conciliar reprogramming: the mission of the Church becomes witness by gentle morality and dialogue, not a call to abandon darkness. Pius IX in the *Syllabus of Errors* condemns precisely the notion that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” and that “man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation.” Yet the tone and content here slide towards exactly that indifferentist atmosphere: Christian faith is presented as an ornament of already admirable Japanese virtues, not as the exclusive path that judges and purifies nations.
Pious Vocabulary Masking a Naturalistic Core
The message concludes with a solemn invocation:
“O Orient, splendor of eternal light and sun of justice, illumine the Japanese with the fullness of your light; incline their wills, by the help of your grace, to embrace the pious riches of your Gospel; grant them protection from evils, the abundance of your providence, happy outcomes of undertakings, and every good and beauty now and forever.”
Amidst the pious phrases, two decisive deviations emerge:
1. The “pious riches of the Gospel” are presented as something to be “embraced” in a voluntaristic, sentimental register, without:
– the assertion that refusal is damnation,
– the assertion that the Gospel entails repudiation of all non-Catholic cults.
2. The request for “happy outcomes,” prosperity, and temporal goods is foregrounded in a way congruent with the post-conciliar cult of terrestrial well-being, later to be institutionalized as “development,” “peace,” “human rights,” and other slogans, all detached from the absolute demands of Christ’s Kingship.
Pius XI, teaching on Christ the King, precisely condemns such neutral or purely temporal language. He affirms that the defection from Christ and His law in public affairs leads to social ruin and that the Church must demand from states public worship and obedience. This radiophonic benediction does the opposite: it blesses a nation as such, without condition of conversion or subjection to Christ’s law, as if geography and culture were quasi-sacraments.
The strategy is subtle: supernatural vocabulary is retained, but its sharpness is blunted. The words “grace” and “Gospel” float in an atmosphere where the exclusive necessity of the Catholic Church is never declared. This is precisely the modernist method condemned by St. Pius X in *Pascendi* and reaffirmed in *Lamentabili sane exitu*: wrapping naturalistic religion in traditional formulas, emptying them from within.
The Linguistic Symptoms of Ecumenical Relativism
The linguistic fabric of this message displays the core traits of the emerging conciliar sect:
– Soft, emotive expressions: “dearest,” “joy,” “good hope,” “splendour,” “beauty.”
– Absence of juridical and dogmatic language: no “obligation,” no “anathema,” no “heresy,” no “idol,” no “error.”
– National-cultural praise instead of doctrinal clarity: Japan is “renowned” for human virtues, as if such virtues, detached from the true Faith, were a secure foundation of divine benevolence.
Such rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to:
– Pius IX, who unmasks Masonic and liberal plots and solemnly condemns religious indifferentism, state absolutism, and the separation of Church and State.
– Pius X, who denounces Modernism as the “synthesis of all heresies” and insists that the Magisterium must judge and reject novel doctrines, not adapt to them.
– Pius XI, who demands public recognition of Christ’s rights over nations, explicitly rejecting laicism and the relegation of religion to private sentiment.
The shift is not accidental: the language of John XXIII is the seedbed of the false ecumenism and interreligious relativism that the conciliar sect will institutionalize. The Japanese are not called to abandon false cults and submit to the one true Church; they are caressed as noble bearers of ancient culture, invited sentimentally to “embrace riches” without judgment of their existing beliefs. This is implicitly to deny that false religions are objectively sins against the First Commandment.
Theological Diagnosis: From the Church of Christ to the Religion of Humanity
Measured by the unchanging Catholic doctrine prior to 1958, the spiritual content of this message is gravely deficient.
1. Silencing the Absoluteness of the Catholic Church:
– No affirmation that the Church is a *perfect society* with divine rights over nations, as Pius IX insists.
– No assertion that salvation is uniquely through the Catholic Church.
– No demand for the public subjection of civil authority to Christ and His Church.
This silence, precisely in an official address to a non-Catholic nation, is itself a betrayal. The omission of the Church’s exclusive claims where they are most needed is a practical denial of them.
2. Naturalization of Evangelization:
– Faith is reduced to moral decency and gentle conversation.
– The missionary spirit is tamed; the scandal of the Cross is eclipsed.
Pius XI teaches that the Church must subject public and private life to Christ; here, the usurper encourages Catholics merely to be well-mannered and upright, leaving untouched the idols governing the nation.
3. Implicit Acceptance of Religious Pluralism:
– Praise of Japanese “humanity” and “virtue” in abstraction from the Church suggests that a nation may be pleasing to God through its natural qualities irrespective of its religious submission to Christ.
– The tone anticipates the later condemned proposition that all religions are acceptable paths to God, condemned already by the *Syllabus* and by the constant Magisterium.
4. Lack of Combat against Modern Errors:
– No rebuke of Masonic and secular forces.
– No mention of the dangers of socialism, communism, or liberalism.
– No warning of modernist falsehoods gnawing from within “Catholic” institutions.
At the very moment when Pius XII’s pontificate had already been infiltrated by Modernist cadres, this address confirms, not resists, the advance of that poison by its silence and sentimentalism. Where St. Pius X raises the sword of doctrinal condemnation, John XXIII offers only velvety words.
Systemic Fruits: How This Message Prefigures the Conciliar Sect
This short radio address must be read as a micro-manifesto of the coming conciliar religion:
– The attempt to appear universal and welcoming to all cultures without confronting their errors.
– The refusal to speak with the authoritative, juridical clarity of true Roman Pontiffs.
– The preference for horizontal, diplomatic, pacifying rhetoric over the uncompromising proclamation of dogma.
These traits will mature into:
– The cult of “religious liberty” against the teaching of Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius XI.
– The “dialogue” with false religions, culminating in interreligious gatherings and public acts that trample upon the First Commandment.
– The practical denial of the social Kingship of Christ, replaced by humanistic declarations and UN-compatible slogans.
– The transformation of “mission” into “encounter,” “witness,” and “listening,” emptying the notion of conversion.
The Japanese radio message is thus not a harmless devotional note. It is an inaugural gesture: the usurper speaking over the airwaves not as Vicar of Christ demanding obedience to the one true Church, but as humanitarian patriarch praising cultures and inviting them to a non-threatening Gospel of moral dignity. This aligns with what St. Pius X in *Lamentabili sane exitu* condemns: the idea that the Church must adapt dogma and language to the “civilization” of the age, abandon its claims to judge philosophies, and renounce its divine authority.
Perfidious Silence on Judgment, Hell, and the Cross
The gravest accusation is the silence about the last things and about the cost of discipleship. A message allegedly pastoral to a pagan land never mentions:
– eternal punishment for unbelief,
– the necessity of conversion and baptism for salvation,
– the reality that adherence to false religions is objectively mortally sinful,
– the demand to confess Christ before men whatever the cost.
Instead, temporal “felicities of success” are requested. This is precisely the naturalistic infiltration condemned by the pre-1958 Magisterium. The supernatural order is acknowledged verbally but functionally subordinated to earthly concerns and humanistic respectability. The “Gospel” becomes a gentle enhancer of pre-existing values; the Cross as scandal and sword (Mt 10:34) disappears.
Such omissions, repeated and codified, constitute the architecture of the “Church of the New Advent”—a paramasonic structure which occupies Rome and uses Catholic symbols to preach another religion, centered on man and dialogue rather than on the absolute sovereignty of Christ the King and the horror of sin.
Conclusion: Exposure of a Programmatic Pious Naturalism
When measured solely by the unaltered Catholic doctrine taught consistently up to Pius XII:
– This 1959 radiophonic message is not an act of true papal magisterium, but an early public manifestation of the conciliar mentality.
– Its omissions speak louder than its phrases. Where a true Pope would affirm:
– the exclusivity of the Catholic Church,
– the duty of nations to submit to Christ’s reign,
– the urgency of rejecting pagan and Masonic systems,
– the reality of judgment and hell,
John XXIII offers instead:
– cultural flattery,
– moralistic exhortation,
– a neutered “Gospel” of benign virtues and temporal prosperity.
This is theological and spiritual bankruptcy clothed in liturgical Latin: a betrayal not by crude denial, but by affectionate silence, which, if accepted as normal, disintegrates the Catholic sense and prepares souls to embrace the forthcoming revolution against the Faith. To those who still hold the integral Catholic Faith, such texts serve as a warning: behind the sweet tone lies the systematic dismantling of the doctrine solemnly reaffirmed by Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII.
Ubi Christus Rex non regnat socialiter et publice, ibi regnat homo, error, et tandem Antichristus (where Christ the King does not reign socially and publicly, there reign man, error, and finally Antichrist). This radiophonic “blessing” is one of the first chords of that usurping hymn.
Source:
Nuntius Radiophonicus dato Christifidelibus Japoniae, cum primum Statio Radiophonica Urbis Vaticanae aetherias undas, certis diebus eliciendas, Japonico Sermone emittere coepit. (die XVI m. Februarii,… (vatican.va)
Date: 08.11.2025