Baltimore, Maryland, November 11, 2025
I thank His Eminence Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, for his words to the bishops gathered in Baltimore. I recognize the zeal with which he speaks of discernment, missionary spirit, and the challenges facing the Church in our time. I also acknowledge the sincere desire that his address expresses for unity and renewal.
However, unity cannot be built upon selective memory, nor can renewal arise from an incomplete vision of the Church’s life. The Catholic Church did not begin with the Second Vatican Council. Her faith is the same faith professed by the Apostles, defined by the Fathers, defended by the martyrs, clarified by Trent, and reaffirmed by Vatican I. The Church’s true continuity is not measured by the spirit of the age, but by fidelity to the Deposit of Faith.
Every council of the Church, righty understood, serves this one mission: to guard and hand on what Christ revealed. No council exists in isolation, and none may be treated as a charter for reinvention. To speak of the Second Vatican Council as though it were the “self-description” of the Church, or the sole map for her journey, risks obscuring the unbroken line of faith that preceded it and the unchanging truths that must guide all interpretation.
The Church’s identity is not conciliar but Christocentric. She is not born of any document or decade but from the pierced Heart of her Savior, from whose side flowed blood and water. Her mission does not shift with cultural winds, nor can she redefine herself to win the world’s favor. The medicine of mercy must never be confused with the neglect of truth. Mercy without clarity becomes sentiment; clarity without charity becomes cold. The Catholic heart must hold both together, as did the Sacred Heart from which all truth and mercy flow.
It is right that the Nuncio calls us to discernment – distinguishing truth from error, fidelity from innovation. Our times demand such testing. The confusion and division that afflict the Church are not healed by repeating slogans about “synodality” or “journeying together,” but by returning to the firm ground of revelation and the perennial Magisterium.
But discernment is not the same as dialogue. Dialogue listens to man; discernment listens to God. Dialogue may have its place in human exchange, but discernment demands prayer, silence, and the light of grace. If we replace communion with conversation, we risk mistaking agreement for truth. Authentic discernment must lead us to the will of God, not to consensus among men.
It is important to note also that true unity cannot be built by silencing what is sacred. Many of the most faithful communities in the Church – those nourished by the Traditional Latin Mass – have suffered restrictions, closures, or marginalization in the name of unity. Yet unity that excludes these communities is not unity at all; it is uniformity imposed by power rather than communion born of faith. The faithful who cling to the ancient liturgy do not divide the Church – they reveal her continuity. To wound them is to wound the Body itself. A Church that speaks of inclusivity while suppressing her own tradition deepens the very polarization she laments.
True renewal in the Church has always sprung from saints – from fidelity to prayer, the sacraments, and the Cross – not from new vocabularies or committees. The crises we face today, moral and doctrinal, will not be resolved by institutional reorganization but by conversion. The light of Vatican II, where it exists, must shine through the lens of all that came before it, and never against it. The same Holy Ghost who guided the Council also inspired the Councils that preceded it. He cannot contradict Himself.
To my brother bishops, I say this: let us be pastors of truth. Let us walk with our people, not toward the mirage of worldly acceptance, but toward the mountain of God where the Lamb reigns. Let us teach the faith in its fullness, celebrate the liturgy with reverence, and guard the deposit entrusted to us, for one day we will render an account before the Chief Shepherd.
To the faithful, I say: do not lose heart. The Lord is still with His Church. The storms of our time will not prevail against the Rock of Peter, nor will confusion drown the Bride of Christ. The same Lord who said, “Heaven and earth shall pass, but My words shall not pass” (Matt. 24:35), will sustain His truth until the end.
We are indeed on a journey – but it is not toward a new Church. It is toward eternal life. Our task is not to draw new maps of hope but to follow the map Christ Himself has drawn: the way of the Cross, the truth of the Gospel, and the life of grace.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, keep us steadfast in the faith of her Son. May the bishops of the United States, united in truth and charity, guard that faith with courage. And may every priest, deacon, and lay faithful hear anew the Lord’s command: “ … Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life” (Apoc. 2:10).
Bishop Joseph E. Strickland
