The visibility of the Church – WM Review on Kokx News
We discussed the visibility of the Church and our response to Fr Thomas Crean OP with Stephen Kokx from Kokx News.
We discussed the visibility of the Church and our response to Fr Thomas Crean OP with Stephen Kokx from Kokx News.
(WM Round-Up) – On Wednesday 25 February 2026, I appeared on Kokx News’s podcast with Stephen Kokx.
The conversation focused on the visibility of the Church, and the first part of my reply to Fr Thomas Crean OP’s article “The Perpetual Visibility of the Catholic Church Under the Pope.”
Topics included:
Why the Church is visible
How visibility must be distinguished in order to discuss the Church’s visibility
Why the claims of “sedevacantists” can only be superficially compared with those of Protestants
The importance of the four notes of the Church
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s comments about the four notes, and “the visible Church”
What great Catholic writers have written about the possibility of these notes being obscured
The difference between the obscuration of these notes and their absence
The Conciliar/Synodal Church – what it is, what we can assert about it, and what this means for its members.
You can find some of the articles discussed here:
‘Radically insufficient’ – Reply to Fr Crean on the Church’s visibility, Part I
‘No longer the same Church, if...’ – Frank Sheed’s red lines have all been crossed
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre: ‘The visibility of the Church and the current situation’
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre: ‘One Year after the Consecrations’
A clarification
In the course of the final topic, I made a comment which is very liable to be misleading. I stated something like the following: In my view, it is possible for someone to profess the faith integrally within the Conciliar/Synodal Church.
My comment needs to be clarified as follows:
“Profess the faith” – i.e., in the sense which is relevant for the question of membership of the Church.
You can read about this topic here:
Profession of Faith, Heresy and Separating Oneself from the Church – Canonist Fr Augustine OSB
Short essay: “Idolatry Passports” and objections on the profession of faith and membership
“Integrally” – i.e., it is possible for someone to “profess the faith” in a way that is sufficient for them to remain a member of the Church, and which is sufficient for them not to cease to be members of the Church – even if their profession may, in good faith, include errors or omissions.
By analogy, a confession is “integral” if all mortal sins of which one is conscious, and which can and must be confessed, are so confessed. The moral theologians McHugh and Callan explain:
2740. Integral Confession.—The completeness or integrity of confession is twofold.
(a) Material completeness consists in the declaration of all mortal sins committed and not yet confessed and absolved. This kind of completeness is sometimes impossible, and therefore unnecessary. For completeness is obligatory in virtue of a positive law of Christ, and positive laws do not bind in case of impossibility (361).
(b) Formal completeness consists in the declaration of all the mortal sins which here and now, all things considered, one can and should mention. This kind of completeness is necessary for a valid and fruitful confession, because the law of Christ calls for a complete confession, as far as possible, and formal completeness is possible. Since he who is obliged by a law is also obliged to use the means to keep the law, those who are going to confession should examine their consciences beforehand, unless this is impossible or unnecessary. The time and diligence to be given this examination depends on the person and his circumstances; but all should be careful about it, while avoiding scrupulosity, and should also remember that contrition is even more important than confession.
This is so even if the person is not conscious of some mortal sins which he needs to confess, or confesses something which is not a sin. As such, a quite imperfect profession of faith can be formally integral, and thus sufficient for membership, provided one is not professing any doctrine in evident defiance of the Catholic Church.
“In the Conciliar/Synodal Church”
By the Conciliar/Synodal Church, I mean: The body of men who recognise Leo XIV as their current spiritual leader, and who are recognised as being in good standing with him.
The authorities of the Conciliar/Synodal Church has historically tolerated a range of beliefs are tolerable amongst the laity and even the clergy, “permitting” its members to profess the Catholic faith, whilst manifestly failing to oblige them to do so.
This is a wholly different situation to those in false sects, because the men of whom we are speaking – those who profess the faith – mistakenly believe the Conciliar/Synodal hierarchy to be that of the specifically Roman Catholic Church, and not some vague notion of “the true Church.” Their mistake is different in kind to those whose rule of faith is Canterbury, Moscow, or Pastor Bob.
However, the following points must also be made:
There may be errors in the profession of faith which, once corrected, will not be tolerated by the Conciliar/Synodal Church.
The Conciliar/Synodal Church is not a safe environment for anyone. Everything about it is ordered towards the perversion of the faith, and as such everyone should flee from it as from an occasion of sin.
A “formally integral” profession of faith may be sufficient for membership; however, the person who is professing errors in good faith may become attached to his errors, whether through convenience, habit, human respect, or something else; when he becomes aware that his cherished doctrine is in fact erroneous, he may well choose to persevere in error over the truth.
As such, my comment should not be taken as any kind of encouragement for Catholics to remain in the orbit of the Conciliar/Synodal Church.
This topic is addressed in detail here:
Where is the Church today? Archbishop Lefebvre and the Conciliar Church
What is the state of a Catholic who submits to a “false magisterium”?
It was a good discussion, and I hope readers of The WM Review enjoy it – and give Kokx News a follow.
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In the article, it was noted that “moral diligence” is required to find the Church, especially so when its visibility is partially obscured in some elements, and/or to some degree, as today.
Holding that thought, this morning I’m reading through Jeremias, and came across this verse which recalled this fact to me:
“You shall seek me, and shall find me: when you shall seek me with all your heart.” (Ch. 29, v. 13).
Two thoughts on this passage:
1. God wants us to search for him. It shows our love for Him.
2. The diligence is commensurate with the object: The prize is so August that justice requires (de congruo) not just effort in the quest, but a dedication of life to the pursuit of Him.
In any case, I perceived a harmonization between this passage and what was said regarding moral diligence in seeking His Church, particularly as Jeremias was also speaking in a time of desolation, when the Jews had fallen into idolatry and away from the (then) true faith en masse, and were being punished for it, same as today.