The American Bishop Joseph Strickland, until late the average of the American Diocese of Tyler, in a recording directed to the hierarchs, clergy and faithful called for a clear teaching of the truths of faith, courage and clarity in her confession, and prayers for the shepherds of the Church—especially those who have strayed.
We print below the evidence of the full recording in the first on the site Pillars of Faith.
When silence of shepherds, confusion and failure of holiness threatens souls
My brothers and sisters in Christ,
There are moments in the life of the Church erstwhile a shepherd feels a burden that cannot be ignored. It's not about political force or a media storm. I mean a quiet, persistent sense of work to God. The feeling that silence, nevertheless convenient it may seem, is no longer faithful.
That's the minute we live.
The church is not abandoned. Christ remains his Head. He is present in the Eucharist, faithful to his promises. Yet many believers feel uncomfortable and confused. They find it hard to describe the condition, but they feel that something precious has been weakened and something crucial has been dimmed.
Believers see confusion – not only in the world, but besides in the Church itself. And confusion is never indifferent.
In the Scriptures, the Lord speaks to the prophet Ezekiel and entrusts him with large responsibility. He calls him a guard. The Guardian is not to preach danger or make threats. He is commanded only to keep awake, to see problems coming, and to inform against them. If he doesn't, the Lord says the blood of the wounded will be on his hands.
This image has been in my head for any time. For Bishops are not only called to manage institutions or to keep peace. We are called to watch, to watch and, if necessary, to talk – even if it is costly.
The top threat facing the Church present is not external persecution. The church survived emperors, revolutions, prisons and martyrdom. He survived far worse than criticism or hostility.
Deeper danger present is interior confusion. The ambiguity of what the Church teaches. Unclearness to what can change or not. Unclearness about the nature of mercy, obedience, worship, sin, even God himself.
Most faithful Catholics do not rebel. He's not angry. He simply tries to be faithful – and asks for clarity.
Believers wonder why clear teaching is frequently replaced by cautious ambiguity. They consider why speaking is treated straight as something that divides, and silence is praised as “pastoral.” They wonder why what erstwhile seemed permanent now seems to be negotiable.
This confusion is omnipresent, but nowhere is it felt deeper than in the worship of the Church – in the Holy Spirit.
The liturgy, however, is not only 1 of many aspects of the life of the Church. It's a heart. This is where the Church learns, who is God and who he is in relation to Him. Worship shapes faith. How we pray forms our thinking, life and knowing of truth.
Over the years, many of the faithful felt a failure of holiness in the liturgy. A failure of worship. The failure of verticality – the feeling that we are aiming for the mountain, towards God, not that we are turning towards ourselves.
The faithful see that silence is almost gone. The admiration gave way to informality. The altar may match the convention table alternatively than the place of the sacrifice. God doesn't seem to be in the center anymore.
This isn't about nostalgia. It is not about rejecting the Holy Mass or denying the validity of the sacraments. Rather, it is to see the spiritual consequences: erstwhile the feeling fades sacrumThe religion is weakening. erstwhile worship becomes horizontal, the soul slow forgets heaven.
It didn't happen overnight. And it didn't come out of nowhere.
The Second Vatican Council itself called for continuity, for improvement in an organic way, for faithfulness to traditions. He clearly warned against unnecessary innovation and breaking up with tradition.
Yet, in the years following the Council, changes were introduced far beyond what his Fathers predicted. The experimental liturgical projects, which did not receive clear acceptance, had an impact on later development. Practices that the Council never ordered have spread. In time, the form gave way to shapeless, discipline – improvisation, and transcendence – to its ownness.
I'm not talking about this to condemn, but to admit reality. You can't cure something you don't want to call yourself.
When worship loses its appropriate meaning, everything else begins to drift. The doctrine is more hard to formulate. Moral teachings become uncomfortable. The call to repentance is weakening. And mercy quietly separates from truth.
Today we hear much about mercy – and rightly so. Without mercy, no of us would survive. But mercy has been redefined. besides frequently they are presented as affirmation without conversion, companionship without direction and compassion without truth.
This is not the mercy of Christ.
Christ forgives sins, but always called upon souls to repent. He healed, but he warned. He comforted, but spoke openly of sin, judgment, and eternal life.
The church that refuses to inform against the danger of the souls entrusted to it is not merciful. He's abandoning them.
In fresh months, the Church has witnessed the consistory of cardinals, and further specified meetings are planned. For many Catholics, these events seem distant and abstract. However, they are not meaningless. They form the future leadership of the Church. They uncover priorities. They influence the way the Church will teach, worship and regulation for decades to come.
That's why this minute is so important.
Decisions taken without a fair knowing of history, without a clear diagnosis of the wounds of the Church, endanger to deepen confusion, alternatively of healing it. Silence doesn't defend unity. Letting go doesn't defend communion. Proclaimed with love fact – yes.
Many Catholics present conflict with the painful question of how to stay obedient without betraying the truth. How to stay faithful, not silent. How to love the Church while acknowledging its wounds.
True obedience does not mean blind submission to confusion. It is faithfulness to Christ and the Church, as he has always taught. The saints understood that. They stayed in the Church. They suffered a misunderstanding. They spoke with respect – and courage.
True obedience never requires us to deny reality. Never requires silence in the face of error. He never makes us pretend that confusion is transparency.
But this is not the time for despair – Christ has not left his Church. But the time has come to be vigilant. It's time for courage. It is time for bishops to teach clearly, priests to honor God with respect, and the faithful to stay in the faith, to pray and to be steadfast.
The church will not renew itself with fear. He won't be cured by ambiguity. He won't be strengthened by passive silence.
It will be renewed by truth, strengthened by appropriate worship, healed by faithfulness to Christ.
The crisis in the Church is no longer explained by the deficiency of information. The facts are not hidden. past is not available. The fruit can be seen in all diocese – in empty seminars, chaotic catechism and Catholics who no longer know what the Church truly teaches.
This is what we're dealing with now, and it's not a crisis of knowing things. It's a crisis of will.
For more than half a century bishops, theologians and leaders of the Church had plenty of time to research what had happened – what was intended, what was implemented, what brought good fruit and what was not. The failure of worship was not unnoticed. The decline of religion in Real Presence was documented decades ago. Cult analysis, trivialization sacrum, the failure of silence in the liturgy – this is not a surprise.
Yet small has been done to improve the situation. Not due to the fact that it could not be changed, but due to the fact that correction is expensive.
It is much easier to talk in general than to indicate the causes. It is much safer to strengthen intentions than to justice results. It is much more convenient to repeat the phrase about "a common journey" than to openly say that it failed, and souls pay the price for it.
At any point, repeating specified a language becomes a form of dishonesty. And this is where we are now.
When cardinals meet and erstwhile bishops gather, they don't just participate in ceremonial events. They have real power. They form the future of the Church. And erstwhile these moments pass without a fair settlement, the message is clear, even if unspoken: we know there is simply a problem, but we do not want to face it.
This silence is meaningful.
Priests say that honor [to God] is not a necessity. The seminarians say clarity is dangerous. Faithful indicates that what they feel in their hearts should be ignored. The Church thus learns to lower the requirements – towards worship, doctrine, and even holiness itself.
That's why this minute is so important.
Another consistor. Another leadership reorganization. Another chance to face reality – or ignore it again.
Not knowing always has consequences.
When leaders refuse to act, work falls lower. The parishioners must meet unrealistic expectations. Faithful Catholics are forced to choose between silence and suspicion. Young people conclude that the Church does not truly believe what she is expected to teach.
There's no unity here. It's slow erosion.
It must be made clear: the problem is no longer that cardinals and bishops do not know what is happening. The problem is that many felt it was safer not to act.
It's safer not to correct liturgical abuse. It's safer not to reconstruct worship. Safer not to defend unpopular truths. It is safer not to hazard being called ‘rigid’ or ‘causing divisions’.
However, a shepherd who puts safety ahead of the fact does not defend the flock. He leaves her vulnerable. Obedience was understood in this respect in a manner of evil and perilous.
Obedience does not mean pretending that wounds are not wounds. It does not mean to glorify confusion as complexity. It does not mean to submit to the worship and teaching of the Church to the spirit of time.
True obedience is faithfulness to Christ – even if it brings suffering.
The saints were not silent erstwhile religion was suppressed. They did not wait for approval to defend what the Church has always taught. They spoke with respect, yes – but they did!
And many paid the price.
Many present fear the price to be paid for honesty. Not persecution, but failure of position. Not martyrdom, but marginalization. Not death, but silent rejection.
However, the church was not built on career security. It was built on sacrifice.
Therefore, failure sacrum cannot be considered as a secondary issue. It's not an aesthetic issue. This isn't a generation thing. It's a theological issue.
When the cult ceases to express clearly the consecration, transcendence and primacy of God, the Church itself begins to forget what she is. And erstwhile leaders refuse to correct this direction – not due to the fact that they do not see it, but due to the fact that they do not want to face it – the harm is getting worse.
At any point love for the Church must be stronger than fear of consequences. At any point, bishops and cardinals must decide whether they agree with the function of bankruptcy managers, or whether they are willing to endure for renewal. This is not a call for rebellion. It's a subpoena.
Because a defender is not judged by whether people perceive to him. He's judging by his warning. And it's not like the hr of informing is just coming. She's here!
I want to be clear. First I tell God, then I tell you.
I can't be silent.
Not due to the fact that I think I'm smarter than everyone else. Not due to the fact that I consider myself taller than the Church. But due to the fact that I am a bishop – and the bishop does not belong to himself.
I was ordained to defender what I did not create; to convey what I did not invent; to inform erstwhile souls are in danger—even erstwhile this informing is undesirable.
There comes a time erstwhile repeating careful words becomes a way of avoiding responsibility; erstwhile patience is tantamount to slowness; erstwhile restraint becomes denial.
I think this minute is over.
So as long as God sustains my life and service, I will inform you. I'll talk, though it would be easier to keep quiet. I'll call the confusion by name erstwhile it takes on the robes of complexity. I will defend what is sacred erstwhile it is treated as only 1 option. I will insist that our cult should give the central place to God – not to ourselves.
I'm not saying that with anger. I say it with sadness. And with determination.
Because 1 day the bishop will stand before Christ and study the matter—not from how he avoided conflict, but from whether he protected the flock entrusted to him.
If they ignore me, so be it. If they criticize me, so be it. If they skip me, so be it.
But I will not stand before the Lord saying that erstwhile I saw danger, I chose silence.
To my bishops' brothers, and I say this with respect and firmness: we do not request any more studies, more trials or more carefully formulated statements. We request courage. We request honesty. We request to regain our sacred fear of God.
I say to the priests, defender the altar. Love the liturgy. Teach the truth, even if it costs you a lot.
I say to the believers, do not lose your spirit. Christ did not leave his Church. Stay rooted. stay in full honor [to God]. Stay faithful. Pray for your shepherds – especially erstwhile they fail.
And to all of us I say this:
The defender is not liable for how they respond to his admonitions. He's liable for his warning.
In the coming days, I intend to inform with even greater determination, with even greater courage and with even greater enthusiasm.
May God grant me grace so that I may do so with humility, faithfulness, and endurance--until the day he calls me to pass the substance [of my life].
And now, to conclude, I ask you to halt for a minute and stand in silence before the Lord.
May Almighty God look with mercy upon his Church: wounded, yet beloved.
May God strengthen all those who are confused, troubled and frightened.
Let him cleanse our faith, reconstruct worship to our altars, and reconstruct our hearts to the everlasting.
May the Lord give courage to his bishops, faithfulness to his priests and perseverance to all the faithful who search him in the truth.
May God defend you from discouragement, defend you from errors, and keep you firmly in the religion of the apostles.
May God Almighty bless you and keep you, in the name of the Father and of the boy and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Bishop Joseph E. Strickland
Retired Bishop
The work of bishops for the Church in times of confusion. fresh initiative of secular Catholics
Pro Ecclesia Universali – an initiative of secular Catholics who want to defend the unity of the Catholic Church in the face of the synodical process of its disintegration. A number of organisations from respective countries have already joined the initiative that came out of Poland.
The main component of the Pro Ecclesia Universali initiative run is the dissemination of a brochure on the function of bishops in the Church.
The brochure is entitled “The work of bishops for the universal Church in times of confusion”.
More information on the initiative and the anticipation to download a brochure on the work of bishops for the universal Church – at proecclesiauniversali.org.
PRO ECCLESIA UNIVERSALI, or who truly is the bishop? What should he do for the universal Church?
