“A master plan of the devil is underway and is of such an insidious and deceitful nature that those who deliver it will proclaim they have brought flowers, and those who receive it will inhale the fragrance and proclaim it a pleasant smell, although the stench is overpowering.” 

My dear sons and daughters in Christ, 

In recent days, the faithful around the world have been shaken by the Holy Father’s words in Martyrs’ Square in Beirut, where Pope Leo XIV proclaimed, “May every bell toll, every adhan, every call to prayer blend into a single, soaring hymn.” Such language does not merely confuse the faithful. It wounds the Truth. It obscures the very identity of the Triune God. And it risks leading souls into error when clarity is a matter of eternal consequence. 

Let us speak plainly: Catholics do not worship the same God as those who deny the Trinity, reject the Incarnation, and refuse the Cross. To blur this truth is not charity; it is a distortion of Revelation. 

Martyrs’ Square is sacred ground, sanctified by those who shed their blood because they refused to confess another god. Our faith is not one voice among many. It is the voice of God Incarnate, the only Redeemer, the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life. 

When a pope suggests otherwise – even poetically – he leads souls toward a fragrance that deceives. The appearance is gentle; the words are wrapped in sentiment; but beneath the flowers lies the age-old temptation to dissolve Christ into a vague universal spirituality. This is not the Gospel. This is not Catholicism This is not the mission Christ gave His Church. 

We must remember what the Church has always taught: 

• God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Any doctrine that denies this is not the same faith. 

• Jesus Christ is true God and true Man. No other prophet, figure, or teacher stands beside Him. 

• The Church exists to evangelize, not to blend the Truth with error. 

• Peace that ignores truth is not peace – it is surrender. 
  
  

As a bishop and a successor of the Apostles, I cannot remain silent when the identity of God is obscured from the Chair of Peter itself. Silence would be a betrayal of the souls entrusted to me. With reverence for the papal office and sorrow for the present confusion, I must state clearly: To imply that contradictory doctrines about God form a “single hymn” is false, misleading, and dangerous. 

We pray for the Holy Father – fervently and without ceasing. But we also stand firm in the faith handed down to us, the faith that sanctified our martyrs, the faith that alone saves. 

Let the bells ring – clearly, faithfully, and without compromise. Let them proclaim the worship of the Father, through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Ghost. Not as one sound among many, but as the voice of the one true faith in a world desperate for truth.  

In Christ Our King, 

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland