The deepest wounds to the Church do not come from outside her walls. 

The Roman Empire could persecute Christians. Tyrants could imprison saints. Governments could try to silence the Gospel. But the wounds that cut most deeply into the Mystical Body of Christ are the wounds inflicted from within – when truth is obscured, when shepherds grow silent, and when the faithful begin to wonder whether anyone will still speak clearly. 

And many faithful Catholics today are carrying that grief. 

They look at the Church they love and barely recognize what is happening. They hear voices within the Church speaking ambiguously about sins that Sacred Scripture speaks of plainly. They watch Catholic teaching treated as though it were something flexible, something evolving, something to be reshaped according to the demands of modern culture. They watch confusion spread while those who defend what the Church has always taught are dismissed as rigid, divisive, or uncharitable.  

And many faithful souls are quietly asking themselves: “What is happening to the Church?” 

My brothers and sisters, you are not imagining the confusion. 

When bishops, theologians, priests, or Church leaders speak in ways that blur the difference between holiness and sin, the flock suffers. Souls suffer. Young people suffer. Families suffer. Because confusion about truth is never mercy. 

The Church cannot bless what God calls sinful. She cannot declare holy what Sacred Scripture condemns. She cannot abandon the truth handed down through the Apostles in order to gain the approval of a world already collapsing beneath the weight of rebellion against God. 

And yet more and more we hear the language of accommodation. More and more we hear the language of compromise. More and more we hear voices implying that the Church must “move forward” beyond moral teachings that Christians have believed for two thousand years. 

And perhaps nowhere is this confusion more visible than in the growing refusal to speak clearly about sexual sin.  

My brothers and sisters, homosexuality is not a new issue. Sin has existed in every age. But what is new is the pressure being placed upon the Church herself to stop calling sin by its name.  

We are told that clarity is cruelty. We are told that truth wounds people. We are told that fidelity to Catholic doctrine lacks compassion.  

But Our Lord Jesus Christ did not die upon the Cross to affirm men in their sins. He died to call sinners – all sinners – to repentance, forgiveness, holiness, and eternal life.  

The Gospel is not hatred because it calls men away from destruction. The greatest cruelty is not warning souls. The greatest cruelty is watching souls walk toward eternal danger while remaining silent out of fear. And many Catholics today remain silent because they are afraid. Afraid of being labeled hateful. Afraid of being labeled divisive. Afraid of losing friendships, positions, reputations, or comfort. Afraid of standing alone. But the saints often stood almost entirely alone. 

There was once a bishop who defended the truth while much of the Christian world collapsed into confusion around him. His name was Athanasius of Alexandria.  

During the Arian crisis, countless bishops wavered. Clergy compromised. Ambiguity spread throughout the Church. The very truth about Jesus Christ – His divinity – was obscured by men who wanted peace more than fidelity. But Athanasius refused to bend. 

He was exiled repeatedly. Mocked. Condemned. Treated as troublesome. Treated as dangerous to unity. And yet history remembers him not as the destroyer of unity, but as one of the greatest defenders of truth the Church has ever known. 

“Athanasius contra mundum.”  

“Athanasius against the world.” 

Think about that phrase. Against the world. Not because he loved conflict. Not because he desired division. But because there are moments when silence becomes participation in error. There are moments when a shepherd must either speak clearly or watch wolves devour the flock. And my brothers and sisters, we are living in such a moment now.  

Faithful Catholics know it. Faithful priests know it. Faithful families know it. 

There is a growing attempt to reshape Catholicism into something softer, safer, more acceptable to the modern world – a Christianity emptied of sacrifice, emptied of repentance, emptied of the Cross. A Church that speaks constantly about inclusion but rarely about conversion. A church embarrassed by moral clarity. A church embarrassed by martyrdom. A church embarrassed by the very teachings that saints died defending.  

And the world applauds such a church because the world does not fear a Christianity that no longer challenges sin. The world does not hate a church that blesses rebellion. The world hates a Church that still proclaims repentance. 

That is why faithful Catholics are increasingly mocked. That is why priests who preach clearly are punished. That is why reverence is treated as extremism. That is why Catholics attached to tradition are treated as threats rather than sons and daughters of the Church.  

But truth does not become false because many abandon it. And error does not become true because many repeat it. The saints understood this. 

St. John Fisher stood nearly alone among the bishops of England while the machinery of power demanded compromise. St. Thomas More lost his position, his freedom, and eventually his life rather than betray the truth. St. Catherine of Siena spoke with holy boldness to corruption within the Church while remaining fiercely devoted to Christ and His Mystical Body. The saints did not preserve the Church through silence. They preserved the Church through fidelity. 

And in our own times, one of the few bishops speaking with clarity and courage has been Bishop Athanasius Schneider. How striking that once again, in an age of confusion, the name Athanasius rises in defense of truth. History has a way of repeating the same spiritual battle.  

And my brothers and sisters, compromise has always been the language of spiritual collapse. The enemy does not usually begin by demanding that the Church openly deny Christ. He begins by asking the Church to soften. To blur. To hesitate. To apologize for truth. To place human approval above divine revelation.  

And so the crisis we are facing is far greater than one issue alone.  

Yes, there is confusion regarding sexuality and marriage. But there is also confusion about the Holy Eucharist, confusion about repentance, confusion about the uniqueness of Christ, confusion about the priesthood, confusion about the Sacred Liturgy, confusion about whether the Church even possesses the authority to proclaim unchanging truth anymore. 

We are watching reverence disappear. We are watching churches become casual. We are watching the supernatural reduced to the psychological. We are watching sin renamed as brokenness while personal responsibility disappears. 

We are watching Catholicism increasingly presented not as the narrow road to salvation, but as a vague humanitarian project designed to offend no one. And this confusion reaches even deeper.  

Many Catholics no longer hear about: 

• Judgment 
• Hell 
• Sacrifice
• Penance
• Chastity
• Mortification 
• The necessity of confession 
• The reality of spiritual warfare 
• Or the eternal consequences of sin. 
  
  

Instead, too often they hear a gospel of perpetual affirmation. But a gospel without repentance is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our Lord did not say, “Remain as you are.” He said: “Go, and now sin no more.”  

And faithful Catholics know something is terribly wrong when ancient truths suddenly become controversial inside the Church herself.  

Something is wrong when reverence for the Blessed Sacrament is treated as rigidity. Something is wrong when the Traditional Latin Mass is treated as suspicious while irreverence flourishes unchecked. Something is wrong when Catholics who simply repeat what the Church taught for centuries are treated as extremists. Something is wrong when bishops speak more clearly about climate policy or political migration than about mortal sin and salvation. 

And many faithful Catholics feel abandoned because they keep waiting for shepherds to speak plainly while ambiguity continues to spread. 

My brothers and sisters, the saints did not survive ages of corruption by pretending darkness was light. They endured because they clung to Christ even when the world – and at times much of the visible Church around them – drifted into confusion. And that is why the witness of St. Athanasius matters so much right now. 

Because he reminds us that fidelity is not measured by numbers. Truth is not determined by popularity. And courage is often loneliest precisely when it is most necessary.  

My brothers and sisters, I do not say these things to lead you into fear. I say them because truth spoken clearly is an act of love. And because I believe many faithful Catholics today feel isolated, confused, and abandoned. They wonder if remaining faithful still matters. They wonder if clarity is even welcome in the Church anymore. They wonder if the faith of their fathers is slowly disappearing before their eyes.  

But hear me clearly. Jesus Christ has not abandoned His Church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against her. 

The truth has not changed. The Gospel has not changed. The Sacraments have not changed. And holiness has not changed. The darkness of an age does not erase the light of Christ.  

But every generation must decide whether it will remain faithful when fidelity becomes costly. That is the hour we are entering now. An hour when Catholics will increasingly be pressured to compromise. An hour when silence will be rewarded more than courage. An hour when many will confuse diplomacy with charity and confusion with mercy.  

But the saints remind us that there are moments when fidelity requires holy resistance. Not rebellion against the Church. But resistance against confusion, corruption, cowardice, and compromise. 

St. Athanasius stood nearly alone because he understood that truth belongs to God, not to majorities. St. John Fisher stood nearly alone because he understood that the soul is worth more than earthly approval. St. Thomas More went to martyrdom because he understood that no earthly power can change eternal truth.  

And perhaps now God is asking ordinary faithful Catholics to show that same courage in quieter ways: 

• Fathers defending the faith in their homes 
• Mothers teaching truth to their children 
• Priests preaching clearly despite pressure 
• Young people refusing the lies of the culture 
• Faithful souls, remaining reverent, prayerful, and steadfast even while confusion spreads around them. 
  
  

Do not surrender your soul to the spirit of the age. Do not allow the world to convince you that fidelity is hatred. Do not call darkness light because powerful voices demand it.  

Stand with Christ. Stand with the saints. Stand with the truth even if your voice shakes.  

Better to stand with Athanasius in exile than with the crowd in apostasy! 

And remember this, dear faithful: 

The Church has endured corrupt bishops before. 
She has endured cowardly shepherds before. 
She has endured confusion before. 
Empires have risen and fallen. 
Heresies have risen and fallen. 

But Jesus Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

Remain close to Him.  
Remain close to the Eucharist. 
Remain close to Our Lady.  

Pray the Rosary. 
Go to confession.  
Cling to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  
Teach your children the faith without compromise. 
And never be ashamed of the truth.  

Because in every age of darkness, God raises up souls willing to carry the lamp when others allow it to go out.  

May we be among those souls.  

And may Almighty God bless you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost. Amen. 

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland 

Bishop Emeritus