Bishop Strickland supports Bischop Schneider about SSPX and heresies within the hierarchy
Because we are living in an age filled with noise. Endless talking. Endless commentary. Endless statements. Endless meetings. Endless documents. Endless discussions. And yet beneath all the noise, there is a terrible silence growing in the world and even within parts of the Church.
Not the holy silence of prayer. Not the silence of a soul kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament. Not the silence of monks or cloistered religious listening for the whisper of God. But the silence that comes when men stop listening to the Holy Ghost.
This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles as tongues of fire. The frightened men hiding behind locked doors became fearless witnesses of Jesus Christ. They did not emerge from the Upper Room uncertain. They did not emerge speaking ambiguously. They did not emerge trying to accommodate the spirit of the age. They emerged proclaiming truth boldly, even when it would cost them their lives.
That is what Pentecost does.
The Holy Ghost is not the spirit of confusion. He is the Spirit of Truth.
Our Lord said in the Gospel of St. John, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth …” (John 16:13).
The Holy Ghost does not contradict Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost does not reverse divine revelation. The Holy Ghost does not erase Sacred Scripture. The Holy Ghost does not bless what God has called sin. The Holy Ghost does not spend two thousand years teaching one thing through the Church and then suddenly inspire the opposite in modern times.
And yet we are living through a moment in the Church where confusion is spreading from places entrusted with guarding the Deposit of Faith itself.
We now see discussions and study groups emerging from the Vatican that speak about homosexuality in ways that create grave confusion among the faithful. Bishop Athanasius Schneider recently referred to some of these proposals as heresy. That word should shake us. Heresy is not a small disagreement. Heresy is the corruption of revealed truth.
And the faithful have a right to ask: How can these things even be discussed within the Church founded by Jesus Christ? How can confusion about grave sin become normal? How can ambiguity replace clarity? How can shepherds speak endlessly about inclusion while remaining strangely silent about repentance, conversion, holiness, judgment, and salvation?
Brothers and sisters, these things could not happen if men were truly listening to the Holy Spirit.
The tragedy of our age is not that the Holy Ghost has stopped speaking. The tragedy is that many no longer wish to hear Him.
St. Paul warned us plainly: “Quench not the Spirit” (I Thessalonians 5:19).
But we have spent decades quenching the Spirit in countless ways. We quench the Spirit when truth is softened so the world will not be offended. We quench the Spirit when shepherds fear headlines more than they fear God. We quench the Spirit when sin is renamed accompaniment. We quench the Spirit when Catholic identity is surrendered to worldly approval. We quench the Spirit when silence falls where warning should be heard.
And that silence has consequences.
Because if men continually resist the voice of God, their consciences grow numb. Hearts become hardened. Souls become deaf. The world praises the deafness as tolerance or progress, but spiritually it is a catastrophe.
The silence we face today is not peaceful silence. It is the silence of compromised conscience. It is the silence of shepherds afraid to speak clearly. It is the silence that comes when the spirit of the world grows louder than the Spirit of God.
And nowhere is this conflict more visible than in the attacks against Catholic tradition itself.
We are now hearing increasing threats and pressure surrounding the Society of St. Pius X, the SSPX, and the Traditional Latin Mass. Think carefully about what this means. Catholics who cling to ancient liturgy, reverence, doctrine, and continuity with the past are treated as dangerous or offensive, while voices openly challenging settled moral teaching are welcomed into dialogue and positions of influence.
What kind of inversion is this?
The faithful are watching this unfold with confusion and sorrow. Those attached to tradition are scrutinized. Those creating doctrinal confusion are celebrated as pastoral. Those defending what Catholics always believed are labeled rigid. Those adapting the Faith to modern culture are praised as prophetic.
Does this sound like Pentecost? Does this sound like the Apostles filled with the fire of the Holy Ghost? Or does it sound like a Church increasingly afraid to proclaim difficult truths?
At the first Pentecost, St. Peter stood before the crowd and called sinners to repentance. He did not apologize for truth. He did not soften divine revelation. He did not try to harmonize Christianity with pagan culture. Empowered by the Holy Ghost, he preached Christ crucified and risen.
And what was the result?
Three thousand souls were converted.
The modern world tells us that clarity drives people away. Pentecost proves the opposite. Truth spoken in the Holy Ghost pierces hearts.
The Church does not need less truth today. She needs more saints willing to speak it with courage and charity.
There is another kind of silence growing today as well. It is the silence of Catholics who know something is terribly wrong but are afraid to say so. Many faithful priests remain silent because they fear punishment. Many bishops remain silent because they fear isolation. Many lay Catholics remain silent because they fear ridicule. Parents remain silent while their children are catechized by the world. Good men remain silent while wolves roam freely among the flock.
But silence in the face of confusion is not charity. There are moments in history when silence becomes cooperation. And this is such a moment.
St. Catherine of Siena did not remain silent when corruption spread through the Church. St. Athanasius did not remain silent when much of the hierarchy embraced error.
St. Pope Pius X warned against modernism because he recognized it as a poison attacking the Faith from within. And we are living in that age – an age when clarity is demanded of faithful Catholics. Not hatred. Not bitterness. Not despair. But clarity.
The Holy Ghost is not ambiguous about truth. The Holy Ghost is not modernist. The Holy Ghost is not confused about marriage, sexuality, the priesthood, or the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Ghost does not inspire interreligious confusion that treats all religions as equally pleasing to God. Jesus Christ is not one path among many. He is the Eternal Son of God, the only Savior of the world. The Church has always taught this clearly.
Yet increasingly we hear language suggesting that doctrinal certainty itself is somehow dangerous. We are told that insisting upon clarity is divisive. We are told that preserving tradition is rigidity. We are told that questioning confusion is disobedience. But authentic obedience can never require silence before error.
The saints understood this.
True obedience is obedience to Jesus Christ and the perennial Faith handed down through the Apostles. And that Faith was not invented yesterday by committees, synods, or study groups, and it was sealed by the blood of the martyrs. This is why Pentecost matters so much right now.
Because Pentecost reminds us what the Church actually looks like when she listens to the Holy Ghost.
She is fearless. She is clear. She is holy. She speaks truth even when the world rages against her.
The Apostles after Pentecost were not seeking acceptance from the Roman Empire. They were seeking fidelity to Jesus Christ. And because of that fidelity, they were hated by the world. Nearly all of them died martyrs.
Today many within the Church seem desperate to avoid the hatred of the world. But Our Lord never promised us worldly approval. In fact, He warned us of the opposite.
“If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you” (John 15:18).
Perhaps part of the silence we hear today comes from fear. Fear of being labeled intolerant. Fear of losing status. Fear of criticism. Fear of punishment. Fear of isolation.
But Pentecost was the death of fear!
The Holy Ghost did not descend upon the Apostles to make them more acceptable to the world. He descended to make them witnesses. And the Church desperately needs witnesses again. Not celebrities. Not managers. Not public relations experts. Witnesses.
Priests willing to preach difficult truths. Bishops willing to defend the Faith no matter the cost. Parents willing to protect their children from spiritual poison. Religious willing to live visibly holy lives. Young people willing to reject the emptiness of modern culture. Faithful Catholics willing to stand with Christ even when standing with Him becomes costly.
The sound of silence is growing louder in our world.
But Pentecost is heaven’s answer to that silence!
Pentecost is the fire of divine truth breaking into darkness. Pentecost is the Holy Ghost calling sleeping souls awake. Pentecost is courage overcoming fear. Pentecost is clarity overcoming confusion. Pentecost is truth overcoming compromise. And Pentecost forms a certain kind of man.
Look at the Apostles before Pentecost. They hid behind locked doors. They were fearful, uncertain, intimidated by the world around them. Then the Holy Ghost descended. And suddenly weak men became fearless witnesses to Jesus Christ.
Peter, who trembled before a servant girl, stood before rulers and crowds and proclaimed Christ crucified without fear of prison or death.
That is what the Holy Ghost does. The Holy Ghost does not create weak shepherds who apologize for truth. The Holy Ghost does not form men who speak endlessly in ambiguity. The Holy Ghost does not create leaders who blur the lines between holiness and sin, truth and error, the Gospel and the spirit of the age.
The Holy Ghost forms men like St. Peter after Pentecost. The Holy Ghost forms men like St. Athanasius who stood nearly alone against widespread error within the hierarchy. The Holy Ghost forms men willing to lose everything rather than betray Jesus Christ.
But we are now in a time when the voices rising to power do not sound like Pentecost.
When Bishop Athanasius Schneider recently warned openly that certain proposals emerging from Vatican study groups amount to heresy, Catholics should pay attention. That is not a small statement. That is a bishop sounding an alarm because revealed truth itself is endangered.
And yet instead of clarity, the faithful are given more ambiguity. Instead of strong correction, confusion is tolerated. Instead of defending settled Catholic teaching boldly, Church leaders continue elevating voices that openly undermine confidence in the Faith.
Why are bishops continually appointed who weaken Catholic doctrine rather than defend it courageously? Why are men promoted who speak more like the modern world than like the Apostles? Why does Father James Martin continue to flourish publicly while creating continual confusion regarding homosexuality and Catholic moral teaching?
Why does Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez remain at the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith despite scandals, confusion, and writings that have deeply disturbed faithful Catholics throughout the world?
These are not small matters.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith exists to defend truth, to guard the Deposit of Faith handed down from the Apostles.
Catholics are watching men placed into positions of enormous influence who often seem more interested in adapting the Church to modern culture than proclaiming eternal truth clearly and without compromise.
The faithful are not confused because Catholic doctrine is unclear. Catholic doctrine has been clear for two thousand years. The confusion comes because too many shepherds no longer speak with the unmistakable clarity that Pentecost produces.
The Holy Ghost is not confused. The Holy Ghost does not inspire contradiction of Sacred Scripture or Apostolic Tradition. And yes, souls can dull themselves spiritually to the voice of the Holy Ghost.
A man immersed in impurity, worldliness, moral compromise, or rebellion against divine order does not hear clearly. A Church leadership consumed with pleasing the modern world will not hear clearly either. The spirit of the age drowns out the Spirit of God in those circumstances.
That is what we are watching happen now.
At this very moment, doctrinal innovators are welcomed and protected, while faithful Catholics devoted to tradition face continual pressure and scrutiny. Faithful Catholics look at this inversion and ask themselves: what spirit is driving this? Because it does not resemble the fearless clarity born at Pentecost.
The first Pentecost did not produce compromise with the world. It produced martyrs. It produced saints. It produced bishops who defended truth even at great personal cost. It produced missionaries who converted nations. It produced men who feared God more than emperors, mobs, governments, or public opinion. And the Church desperately needs that spirit again today.
Not endless committees. Not endless ambiguity. Not endless dialogue detached from truth.
The Church needs bishops who speak clearly again. The Church needs priests who preach repentance again. The Church needs shepherds formed by the fire of Pentecost rather than the approval of the modern world.
Because the sound of silence growing within the Church today is not holy silence. It is the silence that falls when too many shepherds stop listening to the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is still speaking. He speaks through Sacred Scripture. He speaks through Sacred Tradition. He speaks through the saints, the martyrs, the faithful shepherds who refuse to compromise with the spirit of the age. He speaks through bishops willing to stand almost alone and still proclaim the truth clearly. He speaks through every priest who still preaches repentance, holiness, and fidelity to Jesus Christ without fear.
But ours is becoming a world that no longer wishes to listen. We are surrounded by noise, yet starving for truth. We are drowning in endless discussion while clarity disappears.
And increasingly, even within the Church, those who defend what Catholics have always believed are treated as the problem … while those sowing confusion are protected, promoted, and applauded.
Pentecost did not produce that spirit.
And that is why the silence spreading across the Church today is so dangerous. It is not the silence of prayer. It is the silence that comes when men stop listening to the Holy Ghost. It is the silence that falls when the spirit of the world grows louder than the Spirit of God.
And perhaps that is why those old words still echo so hauntingly today …
“And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made …”
“And the sign said, ‘The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls, and whispered in the sounds of silence.”
May Almighty God bless you and keep you faithful to Jesus Christ and His Holy Church, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Bishop Joseph Strickland
Bishop Emeritus
The Sound of Silence: Silencing the Holy Ghost - …