I am very happy to be able to speak at this conference, organized by Regan Long, Craig Hudgins and Christine Bacon: you all know what great admiration I have for American Catholics, and what confidence I have in the success of your commitment to a Great Awakening that restores dignity and prosperity to your great country: One Nation Under God. I therefore thank the organizers of the Disrupting the Culture with Truth Conference and all those who are supporting this important initiative by their presence here today.

Four hundred and fifty-one years ago, on October 7, 1571, in the Gulf of Patras, an epochal battle was fought between the fleet of the Holy League and the fleet of the Ottoman Empire. On one side, under the insignia of the papacy, was the Republic of Venice, the Spanish Empire, the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa, the Knights of Malta, the Duchy of Savoy, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Urbino, the Republic of Lucca, the Duchy of Ferrara, and the Duchy of Mantua, with a total of 40,000 sailors and oarsmen and 20,000 regular soldiers. On the other side, France was allied with the Turks, as also happened at the time of the Battle of Vienna in 1683: that scarring of the unity of Catholic Europe resulted in the horrors of the French Revolution and the Terror, and with them the fall of the Capetian Monarchy. The Holy League, led by Don Juan of Austria, won a resounding victory that prevented Europe from falling into the hands of the Mohammedans. St. Pius V – the Pope of the Council of Trent, who codified the Roman Mass – proclaimed the Blessed Virgin as Queen of Victories, and he instituted the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary on October 7 to honor She who had interceded from Heaven on behalf of the victory of the Christian armada.

Why, you may ask, am I talking about the Battle of Lepanto? Because I think that the present crisis – which is a crisis both in the Church as well as in the civil sphere – can be understood in the light of how the Catholic Princes and the Roman Pontiff behaved on that occasion, and by seeing how profound a difference there is between the heroes of Lepanto and the current rulers of nations and leaders of the Church. It is a difference that we can make more explicit, if we simply apply the current ideology to the context of the Battle of Lepanto, engaging in a simulation that I think is very instructive.

Let us try to imagine, dear friends, a Saint Pius V who becomes ensnared by the conciliar mentality – I am referring to the mentality of Vatican II, of course. Imagine that he condemns the war to stop the Turks, and goes with a small retinue of bishops to Constantinople – which by 1571 has already been renamed Istanbul –to preside over an ecumenical prayer meeting in the mosque of Αγία Σοφία [Hagia Sophia], which was once the most splendid and famous basilica of Christianity. Let us imagine him dressed only in the white robe, accompanied by secretaries in civilian clothes and prelates who hide the pectoral cross in their pockets. Imagine that we see him taking off his shoes and entering the mosque under the gaze of the Ottoman dignitaries, or addressing the Sultan and greeting him “in the name of the merciful God,” deliberately omitting any mention of the Catholic Religion, the divinity of Jesus Christ, or the salvific role of the Church. Let us listen to him as he recalls “our common father Abraham” and expresses his good wishes for the imminent celebration of Ramadán.

And as if that were not enough, let’s try to imagine Pope Ghislieri expressing himself off the cuff, praising the Koran a little bit and doing a little mocking or discrediting of the Doge of Venice, the King of Spain, the Princes, the Dukes and Grand Dukes, the Captains and the other members of the Holy League, calling them rigid, integralists, neo-pelagians, museum mummies, and fundamentalists. Imagine these sovereigns and dignitaries who hear St. Pius V exhorting them to crossbreed, to welcome the Mohammedans, to build mosques in Christian lands, and not to make a state case against the massacres and brutalities to which the Turks are subjecting the Christians of Cyprus and those who live under the authority of the Ottoman Empire. Let’s imagine – with a further effort – that while the leaders of Catholic nations are allocating funds for inclusion, which benefit ecclesiastical bodies and non-profit associations and those who charge money to bring hordes of Mohammedans to Europe onboard galleys and ships, who are promptly recovered at sea and hosted at the expense of the Republic of Venice or the Knights of Malta. Let us go further, and imagine a muezzìn who intones the suras of the Koran beneath the mosaics of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, presents the Doge Alvise Mocenigo and the members of the Grand Council, “in the name of dialogue, brotherhood among believers in the one God, and the secularity of the State.”

Now I ask you: do you think that St. Pius V, the Cardinals, Bishops and Prelates of that time could ever have gone this far? Wouldn’t even the most lukewarm Catholics have revolted? Do you believe that the civil authorities, the sovereigns, and the magistrates would have accepted that the Hierarchy apostatized the Faith and betrayed the mandate received from Christ, exposing their subjects and the whole of Christianity to the Mohammedan invasion to the cancellation of their own identity? The followers of Islam themselves would have considered this dismissive attitude as an act of submission, and they would not have hesitated to kill the Christians with the sword, considering them traitors, fearful and disgusting.

Today, four hundred fifty-one years later, this is the reality we have before our eyes. An apostate Hierarchy, subservient to the power of the subversive elite that governs the world and the nations, that is a traitor to Christ and the people. A civil power that does not recognize the Kingship of Christ, that refuses to obey the Commandments, that raises vice and sin to norm and model, while criminalizing or mocking virtue, honesty, righteousness. A shapeless mass of servants without Faith and without ideals that accepts everything from both the religious and civil leaders, concerned only with being able to take a selfie to be shared on Facebook or to post a story on Instagram; deprived of work, goods, home, freedom, independence, and a future. A host of courtiers paid to spread false news and censor the truth, in defiance of professional ethics and the evidence of facts.

Let us not be surprised if, in this society which is rebellious against both God and reason, State and Church have been eclipsed by the deep state and the deep church. And let us not be surprised by the wars, famines, poverty and destruction that the globalist elite creates and supports in order to preserve power and continue to enrich themselves immeasurably.

Let us rather be amazed that there is a reaction, however disorganized and in the minority it may be. This world does not deserve it, but Providence will save this world thanks to the good, to the children of the Light, to those who welcome Christ and want Him to reign above all in their hearts. And it will be this pusillus grex, animated by the same ideals of Lepanto, that will be the salt of the earth and the yeast that leavens the dough. And it will once again be the Blessed Virgin, the Nikopéia, the bearer of victories, who will ensure victory, no longer over the Crescent, but over the conspirators of the Great Reset, over the ruthless executors of the Agenda 2030, the World Economic Forum of Davos, the UN, the Bilderberg Club, and Freemasonry.

Therefore, take up the Rosary, just as our fathers took it up, moving Our Lady and Her Divine Son to compassion.

This is my wish for all of you, for people of good will, and for all American patriots, to whom I cordially impart my most abundant Blessing.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop,
Former Nuncio to the United States of America

7 October 2022
Feast of the Most Holy Rosary
451st Anniversary of the Victory of Lepanto