WORLD WEEPS FOR ERIKA BUT ROME ROCKS

 

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Charlie Kirk's assassination was an unspeakably foul deed. He was a good and gifted man who used his talents to glorify God and His love, travelling America with Turning Point USA in defence of unborn children, marriage and families, opposing abortion, drag queens, homophobia and transgenderism, and for that he was shot dead. In front of his  wife, who's likely pregnant.

But God is a Past Master at drawing good out of evil. Charlie Kirk's shooting by Tyler Robinson, an indoctrinated Antifan whose partner was transgender, brought out the worst in the denizens of the Left who revealed their evil in sheer glee at the loss of a husband and father. But decent people worldwide turned from that darkness of Communism towards the light of Christ. They marched by the million to celebrate the goodness of Charlie Kirk. His death might truly be the Turning Point for the USA.

At the same time, the light of Christ was dimmed dramatically in Rome by the weaponizing of St Peter's sacred space to popularise not His One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church but its Ape, the conciliar cult of the Vatican, in a rock concert starring Antipope Francis the demagogue by drone.

 From Chris Jackson at Hiraeth in Exile (yes, again!):

On Saturday night the Vatican turned itself into a concert hall. St. Peter’s Square was lit up not by candles or torches of penitents, but by drones choreographed into the face of Francis, leering above the basilica like a techno-idol.

 

Down below, Pharrell Williams and John Legend crooned alongside the hip hop group Clipse, while Jelly Roll belted “Amazing Grace” with Andrea Bocelli, all of it broadcast by Disney+.

 

 

 

The event was called Grace for the World, but it was more like spectacle for the world. The Church of Human Fraternity unveiled itself fully: St. Peter’s transformed into a light show, the See of Rome conscripted into the service of pop culture, theology outsourced to entertainment. Pentecost once gave the world tongues of fire. Now the Vatican offers synchronized drones, programmed pixels in the night sky.

 

The message is unmistakable: this is not the Bride of Christ, but a franchise. The liturgy of salvation has been replaced with the liturgy of brand partnerships.

 

A Man Mourned by the Nations

 

Meanwhile, outside Rome’s bubble, another story was unfolding. Charlie Kirk was gunned down in cold blood, and the world erupted, not in apathy, but in mourning.

 

London bridges filled with seas of people carrying his image. Vigils in Seoul, Auckland, and Sydney stretched for blocks. On Long Island, thousands lifted candles into the night, their lights forming an uncoordinated but far more authentic constellation than Rome’s drone choreography.

 

 

Leaders spoke plainly. Giorgia Meloni called it what it was: murder born of fear. Kevin Wells compared Kirk to John the Baptist, slain for daring to name sin. Even Bishop Barron, often cautious to a fault, said Kirk was an apostle of civil discourse and a man who loved Christ.

 

 

And Leo? On the very day of the assassination he tweeted not about Kirk, not about truth, not about martyrdom, but about migrants at Lampedusa.

 

His only mention of Kirk came two days later in a private conversation with the US ambassador, where he warned that “political differences must never be resolved with violence.” A diplomatic platitude, whispered in private, while the nations chanted in the streets.

 

The silence was deafening. The Vicar of Christ, whose task is to confirm the brethren, chose instead to confirm a UN talking point.

 

The Cold Comfort of “Dignity”

 

Not everyone joined the outpouring of grief. Some, like Mike Lewis of Where Peter Is, managed to turn Kirk’s murder into a teachable moment about “reprehensible views” and the abstract notion of dignity. His thread read like a catechism lesson delivered at a funeral: “I was only vaguely aware of Charlie Kirk before yesterday… I’ve learned in the past 30 hours that he held many reprehensible views.”

 

 

Imagine saying this while a man’s widow and children are burying him. Lewis then pivoted into dignity talk—“not even a murderer loses his dignity;” as though Kirk were already on trial in death.

This is the Novus Ordo instinct distilled: reduce martyrdom to sociology, flatten tragedy into abstractions, and make sure the real headline is “don’t forget, we disagreed with him.” It is the same voice that silences itself in Rome while drones blaze the face of Francis in the sky: a voice allergic to witness, terrified of clarity, and quick to replace grief with jargon.

The German Revolt

 

As Rome danced and the nations mourned, Germany once again declared open rebellion. Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz went on state television to announce that the Bible cannot be used to oppose sodomy. The Scriptures, he said, contain no timeless truths, only culturally conditioned fragments to be sifted by modern social science. Leviticus and Romans are dismissed as products of patriarchy, no more binding than dietary laws.

 

At nearly the same time, Bishop Georg Bätzing repeated his demand for women’s ordination, openly defying Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. He admitted he will likely not live to see women at the altar, but added that he hopes to at least see women in the diaconate. Translation: the revolution may be slow, but it will not be stopped.

This is not dissent at the margins. It is the head of the German episcopate and one of its most prominent theologians flatly rejecting the Word of God and Apostolic Tradition. Their rebellion is public, sustained, and unpunished; because Rome no longer punishes, it only dialogues.

An eagle-eyed reader points out that Rome certainly does punish, but 'only' those few clerics who are faithful to the Magisterium and dare to say it out loud, and the millions of Traditional Latin Massgoers denied their unabrogated right to the Eucharist as It should be celebrated. See the comments below.  

The Two Cities Revealed

Here we have the contrast laid bare. In Rome: drones in the sky, Pharrell on the stage, a papacy that prefers entertainment and diplomatic soundbites to the defense of truth. In Germany: bishops dismantling Scripture and Tradition with impunity, smiling as they shepherd their flocks into apostasy.

And in the streets of the world: millions of ordinary men and women, uncoordinated but united, lighting candles for a man slain for speaking what was true. Whatever one thinks of Kirk, the instinct was Catholic: to honor truth, to recognize martyrdom, to grieve as though a prophet had fallen.

The spectacle in St. Peter’s and the vigils on London Bridge were not two unrelated events. They were the two cities that Augustine wrote of: the city of man, dressing itself in lights and drones and sentimentality, and the city of God, gathering in mourning, instinctively reaching upward to heaven.

The faithful should take note. Do not be distracted by the lasers in the sky. Do not be deceived by bishops who tell you the Bible no longer binds. Remember that the true Shepherd does not speak through drones or concerts, but through His Cross and through those willing to suffer for His truth.

WATCH: https://youtu.be/lzR1hXnY7Y4  Leo’s Silence: Rome Dances While the World Weeps

St Helena, pray for us!