Mainstream and alternative media alike continue to share the narrative that the new Pope, Leo XIV, is going to turn the Church away from its chaotic, Bergoglian-era path and onto a more peaceful pathway. However, as the Pope begins to make his Curial appointments, it is clear that this is just a furphy designed to make the synodal Ape of the Church more palatable for traditionalists.

These three key appointments show that Pope Leo’s agenda is simply a continuation, rather than a break with the pontificate of Jorge Bergoglio. Yet these pale into insignificance compared with the great errors being perpetrated by Leo and which are thankfully starting to be called out by traditionalist commentators: Universalism and Indifferentism.

Appointment #1: a feminist nun

The first unworthy appointment is the new Secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Sr. Tiziana Merletti. This Dicastery oversees religious congregations and orders as well as secular institutes, including of course, many priests and brothers.

The feminist-driven International Union of Superiors General sent its official congratulations to Sr. Merletti, noting that she was a member of the Commission for Safeguarding operated jointly by the men’s and women’s unions of superiors. “Her contributions are a gift to our global network, promoting justice, care and integrity in consecrated life,” the statement said.

However, Sr. Merletti is yet to make her opinion known on the despicable case of Marko Rupnik, who has sexually abused dozens of nuns; it would appear that those traumatised women somehow fall outside the remit of the “safeguarding” Commission.

According to its website, the five heads of the Dicastery now include three women – in a direct violation of Scripture and canon law.

Appointment #2: a pro-contraception Prelate

Also in May, Pope Leo appointed Msgr. Renzo Pegoraro as the new President of the Pontifical Academy for Life. The position was formerly held by the evil Cardinal Vincenzo Paglia but unfortunately, Paglia’s replacement is little better. As Dr. Thomas Ward, of the National Association of Catholic Families in the UK, noted, there’s no record of Pegoraro “disassociating himself from any of the egregious positions and comments of Archbishop Paglia.”

Pegoraro is in favour of contraception and has made worrying remarks about assisted suicide. He told the Wall Street Journal in 2022 that artificial contraception is admissible “… in the case of a conflict between the need to avoid pregnancy for medical reasons and the preservation of a couple’s sex life.”

Regarding assisted suicide, Pegoraro noted in 2022 that this was a preferable alternative to euthanasia:

“We are in a specific context, with a choice to be made between two options, neither of which — assisted suicide or euthanasia — represents the Catholic position.” However, he stated that, of the two options, “assisted suicide is the one that most restricts abuses because it would be accompanied by four strict conditions: the person asking for help must be conscious and able to express it freely, have an irreversible illness, experience unbearable suffering and depend on life-sustaining treatment such as a respirator.”

Pegoraro and Paglia appointed pro-abortion members to the Academy, including the notorious Mariana Mazzucato. Mazzucato, an atheist, is promoted by the World Economic Forum; the WEF website reveals that “Pope Francis appointed her to the Pontifical Academy for Life for bringing ‘more humanity’ to the world.”

Pegoraro and Paglia explained their rationale in this way: “In this sense, it is important that the Pontifical Academy for Life include women and men with expertise in various disciplines and from different backgrounds, for a constant and fruitful interdisciplinary, intercultural and interreligious dialogue.”

So while Catholic media continue to claim that by replacing Paglia, Pope Leo is exhibiting signs of orthodoxy, the truth is that the deckchairs are merely being reshuffled and that Paglia, rather than being kicked out was resigning due to his age – a ripe old 80.

Appointment #3 – an anti-Catholic Bishop

One of Pope Leo’s first alarming moves was to appoint a progressive bishop to Saint Gall in Switzerland. Many put that down to his ignorance of the man (unlikely since as Cardinal Prevost, he was in charge of the Dicastery for Bishops) or to the unique relationship between Church and state in Switzerland. (That situation is above my pay-grade.)

But there is a more recent appointment that is also raising alarm bells: Pope Leo has appointed Monsignor Raúl Martín as Archbishop of Paraná, Argentina. Martín is known for banning parishioners from receiving Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue, for some minor liturgical abuses, and also for his persecution of orthodox priests.

While some say that due to Bergoglio’s activity, there are no decent bishops from whom to select, I can only compare it with the state of affairs here in Australia. While the majority of our prelates are progressive, here and there, some relatively decent ones exist. So it seems highly unlikely that there is absolutely no one else from whom to choose in Argentina.

Leo’s Universalism & Indifferentism

Universalism is the belief that all souls will ultimately be saved, while a related heresy is Indifferentism: the belief that all religions are equal or that all paths lead to heaven. Unfortunately, despite his Latin and lace, Pope Leo is a proponent of both of these errors, which are unsurprisingly, fundamental principles of Freemasonry.

Chris Jackson has done a great job of laying out Pope Leo’s recurring Universalist theme, so I recommend that you read the entire thing at his Substack. Here are a couple of pertinent excerpts:

This phrase, “for all,” was the defining liturgical lie of the Novus Ordo for nearly four decades. It misrepresented the Latin pro multis as a universalist formula, contradicting the teaching of Christ and the explicit theology of the Church. It was corrected under Benedict XVI, who ordered all vernacular translations to finally conform to pro multis: “for many.” But Leo XIV has now restored the deception in the most public and solemn setting possible, consecrating new priests under a cloud of doctrinal subversion.

Chris Jackson, Leo’s “For All”: The Resurrection of a Lie and the March to Universal Salvation

On May 14, Leo XIV gave an address during the Jubilee of Oriental Churches. In it, he approvingly cited Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh-century Nestorian bishop who died outside communion with Rome. Isaac belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East, rejected the Council of Chalcedon, and taught a form of mystical universalism. He has long been associated with the belief that Hell is not eternal, but rather a purgative experience that ultimately leads all souls, including demons, toward healing and reconciliation.

Chris Jackson, Leo’s “For All”: The Resurrection of a Lie and the March to Universal Salvation

One instance of Pope Leo’s promotion of religious indifferentism can be found in his address to participants at a conference on pursuing Catholic-Orthodox unity: he said that “what unites us is greater than what divides.”

Pope Leo said he saw the conference as “an invaluable opportunity to emphasise that, what we have in common is much stronger, quantitatively and qualitatively, than what divides us.”

For a start, there’s a thousand-year schism shows this is patently untrue. And “what divides us” includes the Orthodox rejection of papal authority, not to mention its leniency towards divorce and remarriage and also contraception.

Then compare Leo’s words with those of Pope Pius XII: “They shall also be on guard lest, on the false pretext that more attention should be paid to the points on which we agree than to those on which we differ, a dangerous indifferentism be encouraged…” (On the Ecumenical Movement, 1949.)

It certainly appears that ‘a dangerous indifferentism’ is being encouraged by the current pontiff. Although he has the power to rescind, or at he very least ignore, his predecessor’s indifferentist manifesto, the Abu Dhabi Document, he actually quoted from it in an address to non-Catholic representatives on May 15.

None of this bodes well for the trajectory of the apparent Pax Romana for which Leo is responsible. Rather, it reminds one of the Scripture verse: And it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God, but whereas they lived in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and so great evils peace. (Wisdom 14: 22)