Following the events of last September 6th, when nearly a thousand LGBT activists crossed St. Peter's Basilica displaying rainbow crosses and protest slogans, four Catholic bishops have united to respond with a solemn act of reparation. This prayer event, both spiritual and symbolic, will take place from October 3rd to 5th in Pittsburgh, USA, as part of the Catholic Identity Conference, and will be broadcast live worldwide.
An Act of Reparation in the Face of Public Desecration
Led by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, alongside Bishop Marian Eleganti, Bishop Emeritus of Chur (Switzerland), Bishop Robert Mutsaerts, Auxiliary Bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands), and Bishop Joseph Strickland, Bishop Emeritus of Tyler (USA), this act aims to repair the offenses committed against God in the most sacred place in Christendom.
According to Edward Pentin, a Catholic journalist present at the conference, the ceremony will be called the "Global Act of Reparation for the LGBTQ+ Abomination of Desolation in St. Peter's". It will include prayers of penance followed by the Holy Rosary, in order to restore to the basilica the honor and holiness due to it.
Catholic theology reminds us that an act of reparation seeks to spiritually compensate for offenses committed against the Lord, His saints, or consecrated places. It is a gesture of love and justice, intended to repair the sacrilege and to recall the gravity of sin when it is publicly displayed without repentance.
The Scandal of September 6th
On September 6th, approximately one thousand LGBT activists, presenting themselves as "Catholic", participated in a Jubilee pilgrimage in Rome. They passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, a symbol of pardon and conversion, while displaying rainbow flags and slogans of the homosexual cause.
This initiative was officially listed on the Jubilee calendar, with the prior agreement of Vatican officials. No statement has been issued by the Holy See, despite numerous requests from the faithful and priests calling for a reconsecration of the sanctuary after what is perceived by many as a veritable desecration.
In an interview given on September 10th, Bishop Schneider denounced this episode as an "unprecedented act", recalling the words of the Gospel concerning "the abomination of desolation in the holy place". The prelate emphasized the total absence of repentance among the participants and warned that this passage through the Holy Door, in a militant spirit contrary to Christian morality, constituted "a kind of profanation".
For his part, Professor John Rist, a specialist on St. Augustine, recalled that the Doctor of the Church firmly condemned the sin of Sodom as an abomination. According to him, St. Augustine would have seen in this event a betrayal of Christ and a deep wound inflicted upon the faith.
Faced with the indifference or silence of institutions, these four bishops embody the resistance of authentic faith, the faith that does not compromise with the world and refuses to disguise divine mercy as tolerance for sin. Their initiative is not a political gesture, but an act of love towards God and a call for the conversion of souls.
The Church, faithful to its bimillennial teaching, has always distinguished between the respect owed to every person and the condemnation of acts contrary to natural law. It therefore cannot bless or approve what God Himself has called an abomination in Scripture.
Thus, while some would like to transform the Church into an ideological showcase, these bishops humbly remind us that the house of God is not a place for protest, but a sanctuary of penance and prayer. Their act of reparation follows in the footsteps of the saints who, faced with offenses against the Lord, responded not with the anger of the world, but with reparatory prayer and fidelity to the crucified Christ.