My dear brothers and sisters,

Today I want to speak to you about something that lies at the very heart of the confusion in our times – something subtle, something seductive, something that touches not only the world but the Church herself.

There’s a familiar line from Shakespeare: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

The idea is simple: reality does not change because we call it something else. A rose is a rose, no matter the label.

But today, I want to look at this from the other side: What happens when something looks like a rose … but isn’t one at all?

In our time, especially in our beloved Church, this question has become urgent. Because never before have we lived in an age where the appearance of tradition, the optics of fidelity, and the symbols of continuity can mask a very different reality underneath.

And so today I want to proclaim with clarity: A rose that isn’t a rose does not become one simply by wearing rose-colored petals. And a message is not Catholic simply because it is delivered with traditional aesthetics.

For decades, the world has played the game of renaming:

• Abortion becomes “healthcare.”
• Euthanasia becomes “compassion.”
• Immorality becomes “identity.”
• Dissent becomes “dialogue.”
• Blasphemy becomes “art.”
• Indifference becomes “openness.”
  
  

Changing the label does not change the truth. We know this. Deep down, humanity knows this. But now we face something more dangerous: inside the Church, there is a tremendous pressure to rename things God has already named.

The temptation is to soften, to blur, to create ambiguity where the Lord has spoken with clarity. This is the environment in which the Watchman must stand on the wall and speak.

In recent months, many Catholics have expressed a strange mixture of comfort and unease. On the one hand, Pope Leo XIV presents a familiar, even nostalgic image – traditional vestments, classical styles, gestures reminiscent of earlier popes. Externally, it feels like a return to form. A rose-colored picture. But the essence, the fragrance, does not match the petals.

This is the heart of the matter: Tradition in appearance is not the same as fidelity in doctrine. Symbolism without substance is just stage scenery. A rose costume is not a rose. And many faithful Catholics are now discerning this painful disconnect.

Because while the image is traditional:

• The message often is not.
• The appointments are not.
• The silence in the face of error is not.
• The persistence of heterodox voices in positions of power is not.
• The ambiguity in moral teaching is not.
  
  

A rose that isn’t a rose doesn’t smell like one. And the faithful are noticing the lack of fragrance. This is where honesty is essential. We must speak plainly, with reverence for the papal office, but clarity about the man who occupies it.

And we must note that, despite traditional appearances:

• Cardinal Fernandez remains at the DDF, continuing the theological trajectory that confuses the faithful and weakens the Church’s witness.
• Father James Martin continues to spread ambiguity, yet receives no correction, no boundaries, no clarity from Rome.
• Bishops who openly support women’s ordination and doctrinal “development” continue to receive appointments.
• Synodal language and structure remain active, creating a platform for dissenters worldwide.
• Statements from the Pope himself often hint at doctrinal elasticity, especially around moral questions where the Church has always spoken with precision.
• And perhaps most troubling: there is a repeated emphasis on “unity” over “truth.” Unity divorced from truth is not unity at all – it is surrender.
  
  

This is not the fragrance of a rose that grew from the soil of the Apostles. This is the gloss of a rose that has been manufactured, painted, and posed.

However, what consoles me – and what should console every listener – is that the sense of the faithful is alive. People know instinctively that something is off. They see the vestments, the gestures, the style – and yet their hearts whisper: “Something is missing. The substance is not there.” Because the people of God can tell the difference between beauty and imitation, tradition and theatrics, continuity and costume, and authenticity and optics. The faithful know that a truly traditional pope is not defined by vesture … but by fidelity. And fidelity cannot be faked. It has a fragrance that reaches the very soul. When that fragrance is absent, no amount of lace can replace it.

The enemy has tried for decades to eliminate tradition outright. He has failed. Now, a more cunning strategy emerges: If you cannot crush tradition, cloak error in traditional garments. Give dissent a classical frame. Give novelty an old smell. Give confusion a familiar silhouette. This is why we must be vigilant. This is why the Church needs watchmen. Because when error comes dressed as a rose, it becomes easier for the faithful to inhale poison.

My brothers and sisters, my duty as a bishop – especially as one who has been pushed to the margins for refusing silence – is to name reality as God sees it, not as the world packages it.

I will not call confusion “renewal.”

I will not call dissent “pastoral.”

I will not call betrayal “listening.”

I will not call false teaching “development.”

I will not call moral elasticity “mercy.”

And I will not call a rose what is not a rose.

We have had enough illusion. We have had enough spin. We have had enough pretending that clarity is uncharitable and ambiguity is compassionate. The sheep deserve better. To speak plainly is not an act of rebellion. It is an act of fidelity.

We cannot change the Vatican. We cannot force correction from Rome. But we can do something even more powerful: We can remain faithful to the truth no matter how it is mislabeled.

We can refuse to inhale the manufactured fragrance of artificial roses. We can refuse to be deceived by cosmetics. And we can refuse to surrender doctrine for “unity” in order to follow ambiguity. And we must pray – pray fervently – that the Holy Spirit will purify the Church from the inside out.

In every age of the Church, the Lord has raised up watchmen – men who stand on the walls and call out what they see.

Today, the warning is simple: Not every rose you see is a rose. Not every tradition you observe is authentic tradition. Not every appearance of fidelity is truly fidelity.

Test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Do not surrender clarity for the comfort of familiar imagery. Do not breathe in the fragrance of something that only looks like a rose.

And above all – remain faithful to Christ, faithful to His Church, faithful to the truth that does not change, and faithful to the Gospel that no image, no garment, and no rhetoric can replace.

This is the task of the Watchman. This is the call of the faithful Church. This is the light we must hold up in these confusing days.

A rose that isn’t a rose will never smell like one. But truth – even when rejected – never loses its fragrance.

My dear brothers and sisters, as we come to the end of this reflection, let us return once more to that familiar line, “That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” A rose is a rose not because we label it so, but because its Creator has placed its beauty within it. So it is with us. And so it is with the Church. And so it is with truth.

The world may rename sin as freedom, confusion as compassion, darkness as progress. It may try to disguise what is holy, or soften what is hard. But a lie by any other name is still a lie, and truth by any other name is still the fragrance of Christ.

And if the world sleeps to this truth – if it grows numb, weary, or forgetful – we do not. We remain awake. We stand guard. We keep the lamp trimmed and burning. For even if the world forgets the fragrance of the rose, the rose still holds its sweetness.

Now, as we close, I offer you my blessing:

May the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word, who calls you by name and writes your identity in His pierced Heart, keep you steadfast in truth, joyful in hope, and faithful in love. May His Mother wrap you in her mantle, and may the Holy Ghost strengthen you to stand firm in a world that has forgotten its own name.

And may Almighty God bless you,

The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Amen.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

Bishop Emeritus