Leo’s Silence: Rome Dances While the World Weeps

While Leo has drones form Francis’ face over a St. Peter’s rock concert, millions marched for Charlie Kirk. And in Germany, bishops called the Bible irrelevant and the priesthood open to women.

Rome as a Stage Set

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 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 U.S. 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.

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.

Update: 9/15

The Pope Respecter Reflex

If Mike Lewis offered cold detachment, the Pope Respecter brigade brought open contempt. Instead of mourning, their feeds filled with jeers: “You expect Rome to cancel a concert because some Protestant commentator was shot in the USA? Seriously?”

This is the Novus Ordo apologetics machine in action: defend the institution at all costs, dismiss a brutal political assassination as a distraction, and mock anyone who dares suggest that drones and Disney+ are not a higher priority than prayer for the slain.

It is a window into their hierarchy of values. The Vatican’s schedule is sacred. Human life is expendable. Fidelity to the papal brand trumps fidelity to the Gospel.

You know you are over the target when you get a hate storm from the Neo-Catholic troll brigade. This is what passes for intellectual dialogue and Christian charity among Leo’s supporters. Similar to the curses of the damned…