Leo XIV: ‘This Is Not the Time For Opposition Between One Church and Another’!

Unless it’s the SSPX, maybe?

Leo XIV: ‘This Is Not the Time For Opposition Between One Church and Another’!

Robert Prevost, aka ‘Pope’ Leo XIV, on March 8, 2026
(image: Copyright 2026, PubliKath GmbH, www.kna.de, All Rights Reserved)

In his Angelus address of this past Sunday, Mar. 8, 2026, Robert Francis Prevost (‘Pope Leo XIV’) reflected on Christ’s encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (see John 4).

After telling his listeners that the Lord Jesus wants them to “recognize God’s surprises!” and that “Jesus was so spiritually nourished by God’s desire to reach people on the deepest levels that he even forgot to eat…” (italics added), the ‘Pope’ from Chicago informed the public:

This is not the time for opposition between one church and another, between “us” and “them”: those who worship God seek to be men and women of peace, who worship him in Spirit and in truth (cf. Jn 4:23-24).

What may sound reasonably conciliatory to contemporary man’s ears, is incredibly dangerous to souls. Prevost’s comment betrays a typical post-Vatican II attitude towards supernatural matters of Faith, Church, and salvation, namely, that they are readily to be subordinated to other, supposedly greater even though merely natural, concerns.

This gives the impression that matters of Faith are ultimately just matters of opinion. But this they are most certainly not, for, as the First Vatican Council taught, Faith “is a supernatural virtue by which we, with the aid and inspiration of the grace of God, believe that the things revealed by Him are true, not because the intrinsic truth of the revealed things has been perceived by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God Himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived” (Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius, Chapter 3; Denz. 1789).

Even if the goal is peace, which is in itself a lofty one and much to be desired, this cannot be pursued by using evil means. After all, the end does not justify the means. If the means is intrinsically evil, it is always forbidden to be employed. We must never compromise on the Gospel, for doing so distorts it. Not even for a goal as noble and important as peace could this be allowed; and here we can leave aside the question whether Prevost’s gratuitous assertion that “those who worship God seek to be men and women of peace” is even true.

This does not mean that some evil can never be prudently tolerated for a greater good, for sometimes this is indeed necessary or advisable; but it does mean that we cannot act as if heretical sects are also part of the true Church of Christ, as if they, too, speak in the name of Christ and preach His Gospel, or as if their doctrines or practices could give access to salvation. But for Prevost, all this appears to be yet another one of those outdated “theological controversies” he has said in his ‘Apostolic’ Letter In Unitate Fidei we ought to “leave behind” (n. 12).

Peace, as important and desirable as it is, is not the highest good. Christ Himself made this clear when He pointed out that being a truly loyal follower of His may lead to conflict and confusion, even within one’s own family:

Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:34-38)

He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth. (Matthew 12:30)

These holy words of Our Blessed Lord may be difficult to hear, but they are the divinely-revealed Truth nonetheless, “and the truth shall make you free” (Jn 8:32). Our Blessed Lord Himself put His words into practice when, in order to attend to His Father’s business, He grieved His holy mother and foster father by secretly staying behind in Jerusalem: “And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? did you not know, that I must be about my father’s business? And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them” (Lk 2:48b-50).

The Gospel is not all sugar and sweetness. Shortly after the joyful Nativity there was the painful Circumcision; the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor was followed by His disfigurement on Mount Calvary; the rejoicing of Palm Sunday quickly gave way to the cries for crucifixion on Good Friday; and along with the Eight Beatitudes (see Mt 5:3-10) Christ also preached the four curses or woes:

But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation. Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets.

(Luke 6:24-26)

The meek and merciful “Lamb of God” (Jn 1:36) is also “the lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David” (Apoc 5:5; cf. Gen 49:9-10). He who promises that “to him that knocketh, it shall be opened” (Lk 11:10) also assures us that there is no more entering once the time of mercy is over: “But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: Lord, open to us. And he answering, shall say to you: I know you not, whence you are” (Lk 13:25).

It will be instructive to contrast Leo XIV’s carefree attitude with that of a real Pope Leo, namely Leo XIII (r. 1878-1903). Confronted with the problem of proselytism by Protestants in Rome, Leo XIII didn’t suggest that we should refrain from pitting one church against another and just work together to make a better world. Instead, deploring the “ardent proselytism of heresy and, consequently, the peril which the Faith of Our people was exposed to”, he wrote to his Vicar General of the diocese of Rome:

For everyone, may the principal worry be to strengthen the character of the Catholic people, inspiring noble and holy intentions, at the same time preventing carelessness in which, under the guise of innocent assemblies for young people, conferences for young girls, foreign-language courses, growth of culture, and subsidies to poor families, lies hidden a criminal purpose to insinuate in the minds and hearts the reprobate maxims of heresy.

May all the faithful be thoroughly imbued with this truth that nothing can be more precious to them than this treasure that is their Faith, for which their forefathers confronted without fear, not only miseries and deprivations, but also often violent persecutions and even death. Such a sense of strength cannot but be natural and profound in our population that knows all too well that, not only does the Catholic Church possess the divine seal that distinguishes it as the only true one, the only one which received the promises of life immortal, but has spread again at all times her incomparable blessings on Rome, on Italy, and on all the world….

(Pope Leo XIII, Letter to Cardinal Pietro Respighi, Aug. 19, 1900)

Elsewhere in his letter, Pope Leo XIII accurately referred to the Protestant proselytizers as “enemies of the Catholic religion”, for such they are objectively; and the damage they do is the same, regardless of their interior dispositions (cf. Pope Pius X, Encyclical Pascendi, n. 3).

Returning now to the false Leo, Bob Prevost, we note his audacity — not only in denying the necessary opposition between the Catholic Church and heretical sects but also in doing so precisely with reference to Christ’s words that “they that adore [God], must adore him in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:24). In other words, just as Christ emphasizes the importance of supernatural truth, Prevost suggests that it really isn’t that big of a deal, that right now “is not the time for opposition” between truth and error, between Him who is the Truth (see Jn 14:6) and the father of lies (see Jn 8:44).

Thus, Prevost is essentially arguing that when the goal is peace, there need be no opposition between Christ and the devil, between Light and darkness, between Heaven and hell (cf. 2 Cor 6:14-16). This is the same rotten theology that ultimately leads to joint prayer services for peace with members of all religions, of which John Paul II’s infamous 1986 Assisi gathering was the prototype. Is it any surprise that Leo XIV has explicitly endorsed this event? “The historic gathering of religious leaders for prayer in Assisi in 1986, convened by Pope John Paul II, demonstrated that there can be no peace among nations without peace among religions”, Leo wrote in a Sep. 14, 2025 message to participants in the 8th Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions held in Astana, Kazakhstan.

There can never be a time when the Gospel of Jesus Christ admits of compromise, when Catholics can pretend that the Truth of Christ is found also in heretical sects, at least sufficiently so for salvation; or that matters of salvation aren’t all that important, allegedly because there is some issue of greater importance to which these supernatural considerations must take a back seat.

Souls can still be saved even when there is no peace; but souls cannot be saved without the Gospel. As Our Blessed Lord warned us: “And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him” (Lk 12:4-5).

With his remarks, Leo XIV is confirming that at least in practice the Vatican II Church inculcates in its followers that it ultimately doesn’t matter what religion you follow, as all religions are good enough for salvation, as long as you are sincere. This is the soul-destroying heresy of Indifferentism, of which Bob Prevost is now the most prominent advocate.

It remains to be seen if Leo XIV means for his conciliatory stance to apply also to the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), but this is unlikely. The Lefebvrists have made known their plan to consecrate bishops on July 1 even without the required ‘papal’ mandate, to which the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, ‘Cardinal’ Victor Manuel Fernandez, reacted by warning that this would “constitute a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism), with serious consequences for the Fraternity as a whole” (source).

In other words, when it comes to the SSPX, for the Vatican this is very much an “us” versus “them” scenario, with genuine “opposition” between both sides. Since Fernandez is not acting on his own authority but at the direction of Leo XIV, on whose behalf he carries out his ministry, it seems clear that the ‘Pope’ has no intention of sharing his peace pipe also with the Lefebvrists.

Image source: Vatican Media (Romano Siciliani) via KNA
License: rights-managed