‘Eternal Rome’: Pope Pius XII Against Recognize-and-Resist

On the true and false meaning of a concept…

‘Eternal Rome’:
Pope Pius XII Against Recognize-and-Resist

In a Novus Ordo Watch tweet of Oct. 23, 2025, reacting to this article headline by The Remnant, we stated: “Just a quick reminder to The Remnant that there is no such thing as ‘Eternal Rome’. That term was invented by Abp. Marcel Lefebvre to accommodate his position of recognizing Modernists as true Catholic Popes while resisting their heretical magisterium.”

It turns out that is not entirely correct. A reader made us aware that in 1949 the phrase “Eternal Rome” was actually used by Pope Pius XII (r. 1939-1958), and so it cannot be said that Abp. Lefebvre invented the term — that much is clear. Nevertheless, what Lefebvre did with the term ‘Eternal Rome’ is quite at odds with the teaching of Pope Pius XII, as we will now demonstrate.

The following are the words of the Holy Father Pius XII regarding “Rome the Eternal”:

If there should ever come a day—We say this as a matter of pure hypothesis—when the physical reality of Rome were to crumble; if ever this Vatican Basilica, the symbol of the one, invincible, and victorious Catholic Church, were to bury beneath its ruins the historical treasures and the sacred tombs it enshrines, even then the Church would not, by that fact, be overthrown or undermined; the promise of Christ to Peter would always remain true, the Papacy would continue unchanged, as well as the one, indestructible Church founded on the Pope alive at that time. Thus it is: Rome the Eternal in the Christian and supernatural sense, is superior to the Rome of history. Her nature and her truth are independent of the historic City.

(Pope Pius XII, Address Voi Avete Un Duplice, Jan. 30, 1949; English taken from Papal Teachings: The Church, n. 1248; italics given.)

If we take these solemn and august words of His Holiness Pope Pius XII and apply them to our own day, we find that they vindicate the sedevacantist position rather than the recognize-and-resist position, which they actually refute.

For what is the ‘Eternal Rome’ Pope Pius referred to, and with what did he contrast it?

Clearly, for Pope Pius XII, Eternal Rome is nothing other than the Papacy, the “Christian and supernatural” Rome: “…the promise of Christ to Peter would always remain true, the Papacy would continue unchanged, as well as the one, indestructible Church founded on the Pope alive at that time.” Lest there be any misunderstanding, the Sovereign Pontiff added that the Church’s “nature and her truth are independent of the historic City.” Natural cities, buildings, and populations may crumble and fall, but the Catholic Church, being the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15), will never be corrupted or be defeated, founded as she is on the rock of the Papacy (cf. Mt 7:24-25; 16:18) — not only St. Peter himself but in truth the “Pope alive at [any given] time”.

That has been the Catholic teaching from the beginning, and it is emphasized splendidly in the following words of Pope Pius IX (r. 1846-1878):

Now you know well that the most deadly foes of the Catholic religion have always waged a fierce war, but without success, against this Chair; they are by no means ignorant of the fact that religion itself can never totter and fall while this Chair remains intact, the Chair which rests on the rock which the proud gates of hell cannot overthrow and in which there is the whole and perfect solidity of the Christian religion. Therefore, because of your special faith in the Church and special piety toward the same Chair of Peter, We exhort you to direct your constant efforts so that the faithful people of France may avoid the crafty deceptions and errors of these plotters and develop a more filial affection and obedience to this Apostolic See. Be vigilant in act and word, so that the faithful may grow in love for this Holy See, venerate it, and accept it with complete obedience; they should execute whatever the See itself teaches, determines, and decrees.

(Pope Pius IX, Encyclical Inter Multiplices, n. 7)

Let us now look at how the recognize-and-resist traditionalists like to use the phrase ‘Eternal Rome’.

According to them, ‘Eternal Rome’ is Catholic Rome, that is, it refers to the Holy See when it is orthodox: when it teaches the true Faith, condemns heresies and other errors, promulgates salutary laws, issues pious liturgical directives, etc. This ‘Eternal Rome’ for the Lefebvrists and other resisters is contrasted with “the Rome of Neo-Modernist and Neo-Protestant tendencies” (Abp. Lefebvre, Declaration of Nov. 21, 1974); it is juxtaposed with “Masonic Rome” and “modernist Rome” (‘Bp.’ Salvador Lazo, Declaration of May 21, 1998) that undermines, attacks, and denies the Faith and issues corrupt and evil laws and liturgical rites.

That there is a Catholic Rome — that of Pope Pius XII and his predecessors — and an evil, heretical Rome of the present day is undeniable. What throws a monkey wrench into this common-sense observation, however, is to say that somehow both Romes are nevertheless the Apostolic See, held by a validly-reigning Pope, true Bishop of Rome and Vicar of Christ. Yet that is precisely what Lefebvrism — the position of the Archbishop’s Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) — and similar versions of the recognize-and-resist position not merely tolerate or suggest but actually insist upon.

In other words, for the recognize-and-resist traditionalists, Eternal Rome is not the Apostolic See itself, contrasted with the material city of Rome in which by Divine Providence it was established. Rather, the way it works for these semi-traditionalists is that the Apostolic See sometimes reflects the Eternal Rome of Catholic orthodoxy (for example, when it condemns women’s ordination, as John Paul II did in the 1994 ‘apostolic’ letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) and sometimes the Present-Day Rome of Heresy and Apostasy (for example, when it teaches the errors of ecumenism, as John Paul II did in the 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint).

What this would mean in the final analysis is that the mere pronouncement from the Church’s highest authority in Vatican City does not guarantee anything — one would first have to consult the SSPX or other self-appointed gatekeepers (think: Kennedy Hall, Peter Kwasniewski, Taylor Marshall, Eric Sammons, etc.) to determine whether the most recent pronouncement is ‘legit’ and Catholic (and therefore to be embraced under pain of sin), or whether it is an instruction, a teaching, or a law from the devil in disguise, leading Catholics to their spiritual ruin (and therefore to be rejected, lest one endanger one’s salvation). Far from submitting to Rome, being a true Catholic would become an exercise in constantly judging what comes from the Holy See, and each believer would essentially become his own Pope, so to speak, personally responsible for the Church’s orthodoxy.

This is directly contrary to the perennial teaching of the Church:

Union with the Roman See of Peter is … always the public criterion of a Catholic …. “You are not to be looked upon as holding the true Catholic faith if you do not teach that the faith of Rome is to be held.”

(Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Satis Cognitum, n. 13)

…[T]he first and greatest criterion of the faith, the ultimate and unassailable test of orthodoxy is obedience to the teaching authority of the Church, which is ever living and infallible, since she was established by Christ to be the columna et firmamentum veritatis, “the pillar and support of truth” (1 Tim 3:15).

(Pope Pius X, Address Con Vera Soddisfazione; May 10, 1909)

May no one deprive you of this reputation for sound doctrine and devoted obedience to the Vicar of Christ. May there never be room among you for that proud spirit of “free inquiry” which is more proper to a heterodox mentality than to a Catholic one, and which does not hesitate to submit to one’s own critical judgment even norms issued by the Apostolic See.

(Pope Pius XII to Jesuits, Allocution Vos Omnes; Sep. 10, 1957; English translation in The Pope Speaks, vol. 4, n. 4 [Spring, 1958], pp. 447-453.)

This is the true meaning of Eternal Rome. It is simply the Apostolic See, “the supreme seat of the prince of the apostles, the citadel and bulwark of the Catholic faith” (Pope Pius IX, Encyclical Qui Nuper, n. 3).

It is said to be eternal precisely because “[h]er nature and her truth will never change.”

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