Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The publication of “Venite ad me, (Come to Me), Considerations on the Transmission of the Faith in an Epochal Change,” published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith today, calls for careful attention from the shepherds of the Church. The subject concerns the salvation of souls and our sacred responsibility to hand on faithfully what Jesus Christ entrusted to His Apostles.
The document contains affirmations Catholics should welcome: the centrality of Jesus Christ, His bodily Resurrection, the necessity of grace, the importance of the family, the sacramental life, holiness, and care for the poor. Its accounts of conversion include moving witnesses to the power of prayer and the sacraments.
Nevertheless, several aspects of its presentation require serious clarification. My concern is that the repeated contrasts between doctrine and experience, its abbreviated presentation of the Cross, and its treatment of the relationship between the first proclamation and the fullness of Catholic teaching can leave the faithful with an incomplete understanding of the Gospel.
These concerns must be addressed precisely. We should neither accuse the document of saying what it does not say nor overlook the consequences of language that can obscure essential truths.
Paragraph 8 explains that this is a set of pastoral “Considerations,” rather than a Doctrinal Note, and acknowledges its less precise terminology. That description helps identify its purpose. It also makes clarification particularly necessary wherever its language touches the foundations of faith. Pastoral writing must serve the truth upon which the salvation of souls depends.
Faith, doctrine, and personal encounter
Paragraph 5 distinguishes the personal act of believing, traditionally called fides qua, from the content believed, called fides quae. It places its principal emphasis on awakening the former.
That distinction is legitimate. A person may first be drawn toward Christ through friendship, beauty, an unexpected kindness, or the example of a holy life. No evangelist must present an entire theological course before speaking of God’s love.
But the act of faith and the truth believed belong together. We believe someone, and we believe what He reveals.
The First Vatican Council taught that supernatural faith involves believing God’s revelation because of the authority of God Himself, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Faith therefore cannot be adequately explained as an interior experience, however powerful, apart from assent to revealed truth. The Council also expressly rejected the claim that people should be moved to faith solely by private inspiration or internal experience. This establishes the doctrinal boundary within which every pastoral account of encounter must remain.
Paragraph 74 of “Venite ad me” acknowledges the connection between personal commitment and the truths believed. Paragraph 138 likewise rejects reducing the discussion to a purely subjective dimension. Those qualifications matter, and they should govern the document’s interpretation.
Yet paragraphs 29, 77, and 80 repeatedly caution against reducing faith to doctrinal content, information, or a cold exposition of concepts. Such cautions can be justified. Their cumulative effect, however, requires scrutiny; readers may begin to associate doctrine itself with spiritual coldness.
Dogma gives authoritative expression to the truth of the One whom we encounter. Teaching the Incarnation tells us who Jesus is. Teaching the Redemption explains why He died. Teaching the Eucharist tells us whom we receive.
The distinction between lifeless instruction and living faith must never become a separation between truth and love.
Paragraph 80’s grouping of “scholastic,” “dogmatic,” and “moralistic” language especially needs clarification. It does not explicitly prohibit dogmatic or scholastic teaching. Nevertheless, placing these terms together risks discrediting forms of thought and expression through which the Church has faithfully explained and defended divine revelation.
Scholastic theology can deepen understanding. Dogmatic precision protects the faithful from falsehood. Moral instruction teaches us how to live in friendship with God. Each should be communicated with charity, clarity, and pastoral wisdom.
The Cross must be proclaimed as the sacrifice for our sins
The document’s treatment of the Passion in paragraphs 18-21 emphasizes the conflict that led to Christ’s condemnation and the unconquerable love manifested in His death.
These are real aspects of the Gospel. Christ’s love extends even to His persecutors. His execution was a terrible injustice.
But a presentation of the heart of Christianity must explain clearly that Christ freely offered Himself to the Father for our sins. His death accomplished our redemption.
The Catechism teaches that Christ’s sacrifice is an offering of reconciliation, reparation, atonement, and satisfaction. It recalls the Council of Trent’s teaching that His Passion merited our justification. These truths explain the saving efficacy of the love revealed on Calvary.
St. Paul’s summary of the apostolic proclamation states that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures (I Corinthians 15:3-4). The words “for our sins” are indispensable.
Without that explanation, the Cross can be understood chiefly as the tragic fate of a teacher whose message disturbed the powerful, followed by a demonstration that love survives hatred. Such an account leaves the work of redemption inadequately expressed.
“Venite ad me” does refer elsewhere to Christ’s sacrifice and to His giving His life to save us. It would therefore be inaccurate to claim that the document simply denies redemption. The concern is that its foundational account of the Cross does not adequately unfold what those saving words mean.
People deserve to hear why they need a Savior, what He has done for them, and how they may receive the fruits of His sacrifice.
God’s unconditional love calls us to conversion
The document repeatedly proclaims that God loves everyone. This is a truth that should fill us with gratitude and hope. God’s grace precedes our response. We do not earn His initial offer of mercy.
But the universality of God’s love must be distinguished from the claim that everyone necessarily attains salvation. God’s love does not make our response irrelevant.
Paragraph 20’s assertion that God’s “yes” to humanity can never become a “no” should be explained with particular care. Understood as affirming the faithfulness of God’s saving love, it expresses a profound truth. Understood as excluding judgment or the possibility of final separation from God, it would contradict Catholic teaching.
The document does not explicitly teach that everyone is automatically saved. Nevertheless, pastors must prevent that interpretation.
The Church teaches that a person can freely reject God’s mercy and persist in grave sin. She affirms both the reality of hell and that God predestines no one to it. These teachings belong within the proclamation of divine love because they take seriously the freedom and eternal destiny of those whom God loves.
Jesus welcomed sinners and called them to repentance. The apostolic proclamation likewise summoned its hearers to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38).
We must therefore speak clearly about sin, contrition, forgiveness, amendment of life, and perseverance. The first movement of grace may reach someone in great confusion or moral disorder. Pastoral accompaniment should help that person respond to grace and grow in obedience to Christ.
A sinner needs to hear that God loves him and that, through grace, he can turn away from the sin that wounds his relationship with God.
The hierarchy of truths preserves the whole faith
Paragraph 84 is particularly concerning. In discussing the hierarchy of truths, it warns against becoming lost in the many areas of Catholic doctrine while losing sight of God’s love.
There is a legitimate pastoral principle here: instruction should reveal the unity of the faith and the relationship of its mysteries to their foundation in Christ.
But the hierarchy of truths never grants permission to set aside inconvenient teachings. It concerns their relationship to the foundation of the faith; it does not make revealed truths optional.
The very passage of Unitatis redintegratio invoked by the document insists that Catholic doctrine must be presented in its integrity and rejects a false reconciliation that compromises its meaning. Its teaching on the hierarchy of truths must be read within those safeguards.
The faithful should understand how the Church’s moral teaching, sacramental discipline, and confession of revealed truth flow from Christ and lead us toward Him.
An initial proclamation can be brief. Christian formation must lead toward the fullness of the faith. The need for an accessible beginning cannot justify permanent incompleteness.
What genuine renewal requires
The document rightly recognizes a grave crisis in the transmission of faith. Cultural changes, fractured families, and digital distractions deserve careful examination.
An honest examination must also ask whether Catholics have received adequate instruction, whether preaching has clearly addressed sin and salvation, and whether our worship and conduct have borne faithful witness to what the Church believes.
Paragraph 119 calls for investigation into the decline of Catholicism in formerly Catholic societies. That investigation should include the failures of shepherds and institutions alongside the pressures of the surrounding culture.
The response must unite what belongs together: clear doctrine, reverent worship, sacramental life, prayer, charity, and the call to holiness.
The Dicastery’s own 2007 Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization provides an important safeguard. It affirms the duty to proclaim Christ and invite conversion while respecting freedom. It rejects the suggestion that evangelization is adequately fulfilled by helping people become more humane or more faithful to their existing religion without seeking their conversion to Christ and the Catholic faith.
Our task is to help people receive the whole saving gift entrusted to the Church.
For that reason, I ask that the passages identified here be clarified so that the document’s pastoral proposals unmistakably serve the integrity of Catholic faith. Interpretations that separate encounter from revealed truth, divine love from repentance, or the Cross from the sacrifice that redeems us must be rejected and corrected.
Dear faithful, remain close to Jesus Christ. Learn what His Church teaches. Examine your conscience, repent of sin, make use of sacramental Confession, and participate faithfully in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Teach your children to pray and help them understand the faith they profess.
The invitation “Come to me” is spoken by the Savior who also tells us to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him (Matthew 11:28-30). His mercy welcomes us, His truth teaches us, and His grace transforms us.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary obtain for us the courage, humility, and charity to hand on faithfully everything her Son has entrusted to His Church.
May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Bishop Joseph E. Strickland
Bishop Emeritus
