(LifeSiteNews) — Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
There are moments in the Church’s history when the sheep must look up – not because of storms from the world, but because the shepherds themselves have fallen silent … or worse, have joined the wolves.
St Paul once warned the Church in Ephesus with piercing clarity:
“I know that, after my departure, ravening wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29).
And those wolves have come. They wear vestments. They speak of mercy, but they mock truth. They preach inclusion, but they exclude fidelity to the Deposit of Faith. They bless what God has called sin.
We are living through a siege – not from without, but from within. This is the hour of betrayal not unlike the garden of Gethsemane. But this time the betrayers wear miters and carry croziers.
The Cross is still here. The Eucharist is still here. But we are surrounded by hired men who abandon the sheep – or even worse, mislead them into the thorns.
Let me be clear. This crisis is not simply confusion – it is a calculated revolution. A revolution against doctrine. Against order. Against the very nature of the Church as divinely instituted by Christ.
And so today, I want to take you on a three-part journey through this reality.
Part I: The wolves within the walls
M. Scott Peck began his famous book, “The Road Less Traveled,” with three words: “Life is difficult.” But even this simple truth is now rejected – not only by the world, but within the Church. We are told the Cross is optional. That holiness is oppressive. That doctrine divides, while dialogue unites.
But Christ did not offer dialogue. He offered His wounds. He did not build a community center – He founded a Church, “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20).
And He said plainly: “ … If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
Where are those words now?
Instead, we hear sermons about ecosystems and human fraternity. We are given synodal slogans, but no call to repentance. We are handed documents, not doctrine – consultations, not commandments.
Blessed Pope Pius XII warned:
“The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin” (Radio Message to the U.S. National Catechetical Congress in Boston, Oct. 26, 1946).
And now, sin is no longer even mentioned. It is rebranded. It is “accompanied.” It is “pastorally blessed.” But never denounced.
Fr. James Martin continues to bless homosexual unions. Cardinal McElroy downplays sexual sin in the name of “radical inclusion.”
The Traditional Latin Mass – the Mass of the saints – is suppressed. And the very Deposit of Faith is treated like a museum piece to be remodeled.
But as Pope Benedict XVI declared: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too” (Letter to Bishops, July 7, 2007).
And Pope St. Pius V solemnly proclaimed: “This present Constitution can never be revoked or modified, but shall forever remain valid and have the force of law” (Quo Primum, July 14, 1570).
Do we believe them? Or do we follow the “new path” promoted by the so-called Synod on Syondality?
The prophet Isaiah saw this day and cried out: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20).
And Pope St. Pius X warned: “The partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church’s open enemies, but … in her very bosom, and are the more mischievous the less they appear such” (Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Sept. 8, 1907).
We are living that prophecy.
The Synod on Synodality has become a smoke screen for ecclesial transformation. Not renewal, but reinvention. Not Pentecost, but Babel.
We are told to “listen to the People of God.” But not when those people kneel for the Latin Mass. Not when they call for reverence, penance, or purity. No – then those voices are dismissed as too rigid, too traditional.
But the voice of Christ still speaks – through Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium of the Church rightly handed down.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7).
Dear friends, this completes the first stage of our journey. We have named the wounds.
In Part II, we will examine the machinery of revolution; the Synodal Structure itself – its language, its goals, and its grave dangers. We must know how the enemy moves if we are to guard the flock.
And yet we must not despair. Because when the wolves circle, the Shepherd remains. While the hirelings flee, the saints arise. While the altars are mocked, the Sanctuary Lamp still burns because the Tabernacle is not empty.
Hold fast.
“In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Part II: The synodal siege
We now enter the second phase of this warning:
The wolves have names. Their tactics have a name too: Synodality.
Not synodality as the Church has always understood it – collegial consultation under the authority of the pope – but a redefinition. A “new way of being Church,” as they now call it.
But let us be clear: what is being proposed under the banner of Synodality is nothing less than the deconstruction of the hierarchical, sacramental, apostolic Church and the rise of something new, undefined, and dangerous.
According to the Vatican’s official rollout, the Synod on Synodality is described as a “process of listening and discernment.” But what it listens to are feelings, and what it discerns is compromise.
Instead of proclaiming the Gospel, this Synod seeks to remake the Gospel in the image of fallen man.
The Synod’s preparatory documents speak of “inclusion” and “journeying together.” But toward what?
- Toward acceptance of same-sex relationships
- Toward blessings for the divorced and remarried
- Toward the inversion of the male priesthood through a push for women deacons
- Toward the suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass, under the illusion that it is a threat to unity
This is not pastoral sensitivity. This is spiritual subversion. As Cardinal Raymond Burke warned: “The idea that the doctrine of the Church should conform itself to the voices of the faithful is a grave error” (Interview with Cardinal Raymond Burke, The Wanderer, July 2023).
The Church is not a democracy. It is a monarchy – with Christ as King.
“A New Way of Being Church” – this phrase appears repeatedly in the Synod’s documents. But a new way implies that the old way is broken. This is false. The Church founded by Christ is not broken. Her betrayers are broken. Her wolves are blind.
Pope Leo XIII reminded us: “There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who, while retaining the name of Christians, with subtle craft introduce erroneous doctrine” (Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, June 29, 1896).
And today’s Synodal revolutionaries fit that warning perfectly. In the Synod’s working document, paragraph 60 states: “A synodal Church is a listening Church … ready to be questioned by the discourses of our time” (Instrumentum Laboris for the Synod on Synodality, 2023).
But the Gospel is not questioned by the world. It questions the world.
The saints did not listen to the times – they shouted into them. St. Catherine of Siena, the great reformer of the papacy, once wrote: “Proclaim the truth and do not be silent through fear” (Letter to Pope Gregory XI, 1376).
And now, we are silent – in the name of dialogue.
The Synodal path is paved with the language of inclusion, but it leads to exclusion – exclusion of Tradition, of sacrifice, of objective truth.
Its architects invoke “spiritual discernment,” but reject every moral absolute that Christ taught. Its apologists call for “unity,” but fracture the flock by alienating faithful Catholics.
We are being told by Church authorities:
- That the Church must listen to the people more than proclaim to them
- That doctrine must develop by absorbing the voice of culture
- That liturgy must evolve to suit ecological and indigenous expressions
This is not Catholicism. It is clericalized relativism.
And the Apostles themselves give us the antidote: “We ought to obey God, rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
“Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today; and the same forever. Be not led away with various and strange doctrines” (Hebrews 13:8-9).
Strange doctrines now come from strange lips – in Roman collars.
As the Synod pushes forward, it tramples over what nourished the saints:
- The Mass of the Ages is labeled divisive
- The clear teaching on sexual sin is called unmerciful
- The priesthood of Christ is flattened into bureaucracy
- And the Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration are barely mentioned
This is not renewal. It is a controlled demolition.
But the Lord is not mocked. He sees. He waits. And He will cleanse His Temple.
St. Athanasius once declared during the Arian heresy: “They have the buildings, but we have the faith” (St. Athanasius, Letter to His Flock during the Arian Crisis).
And today, though the synodal wolves may occupy the halls of Rome, the Faith remains – wherever Christ is adored, wherever the Blessed Virgin Mary is honored, wherever the Catechism is taught with clarity and courage.
And our mission remains the same:
To stand.
To speak.
To stay faithful.
Because as St. Paul wrote to Timothy: “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2-3).
That time is now.
In Part III, we will turn from warnings to weapons. Spiritual weapons. We will lay out how the faithful can resist this revolution – not with bitterness, but with the Holy Rosary, Eucharistic reparation, acts of fidelity, and the courage of the saints.
We are not orphans.
We are soldiers of Christ.
And the gates of hell shall not prevail.
Part III: The weapons of the faithful
We have named the wolves. We have exposed the synodal siege. Now we must fight – not with anger, not with rebellion, but with truth, sacrifice, and love that is rooted in Christ.
This is the hour for battle. Not against men, but against the darkness – within ourselves, within our Church, within this synodal masquerade that cloaks heresy in the garments of mercy.
It is time to take up the weapons of the faithful. Spiritual weapons that saints have wielded, martyrs have embraced, and Our Lady has placed in our hands.
1. The Holy Rosary
When Our Lady appeared at Fatima in 1917, she gave a clear command: “Pray the Rosary every day, to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.”
Sister Lucia of Fatima later said: “There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is … that cannot be resolved by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.”
This is no small devotion. This is a sling in the hands of the new Davids.
While the wolves gather at the gates, and while synodal documents pour like poisoned ink across the globe, we respond with beads in hand, with Ave Marias whispered by the old and the young, in Latin and in English, in homes and in battlefields.
2. The Holy Eucharist
This is the hour of Eucharistic reparation. We must weep at the tabernacle. We must kneel where so many now walk casually. We must offer Him love where He is wounded most.
St. Padre Pio said: “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”
And yet what has the Synod done?
- Suppressed the Latin Mass
- Marginalized Eucharistic Adoration
- Replaced awe with applause
So we must go to Him – frequently, reverently, and with reparation in our hearts. Every Holy Hour is a blow against the synodal revolution. Every whispered, “My Lord and My God,” is a shield for the Church.
“O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet; blessed is the man that hopeth in him” (Psalm 33:9).
3. Fasting and Penance
The demons we face are not merely ideological. They are infernal. And Our Lord told us clearly: “This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:28).
The wolves feast on luxury, on conferences, on applause. Let us fast – for the glory of Christ and the purification of His Church.
Imitate Nineveh. Imitate St. Francis. Imitate Our Lady of Sorrows.
Let us make reparation Fridays a norm in our lives. Let us take up First Saturdays, many visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and offer sacrifices no one sees.
Our Lord sees.
And the Immaculate Heart of Mary awaits our response.
4. Clear Speech
We must not be silent. Not now.
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches: “It is better to be cast into the sea with a millstone around one’s neck than to scandalize one of these little ones” (cf. Summa Theologiae; based on Luke 17:2).
We are watching missions be scandalized by shepherds in synodal vestments – confused, manipulated, deceived.
So we must speak clearly:
- Same-sex blessings are blasphemy.
- Male and female He created them.
- The Latin Mass is not a threat – it is a treasure.
- Mercy without repentance is a lie.
Pope St. Pius X thundered: “The true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries nor innovators, but traditionalists” (Notre Charge Apostolique, Aug. 25, 1910).
If we are called rigid, so be it. Truth is rigid. And the spines of the saints were held rigid by the grace of God.
Let them call us Pharisees, fundamentalists, relics of a past age. We are relics – because we are heirs. We are not museum pieces – we are the guardians of the treasure.
5. Faithful Communities
This battle will not be won alone. We must form strong communities – families, parishes, apostolates, Catholic schools, and homesteads.
Let there be Eucharistic processions in the streets.
Let there be Marian altars in every home.
Let Catholic parents be Catholic first, not worldly first.
Let our children be catechized by saints, not screens.
St. John Bosco said: “Only two things can save us in this present crisis: devotion to Mary and frequent Communion” (St. John Bosco, Letters to Youth).
My beloved flock, we were not born for comfort. We were born for combat. The wolves wear vestments. The synod speaks with honeyed heresy. But Christ still reigns.
His Sacred Heart still beats.
The Immaculate Heart still triumphs.
And the truth is still true – unchanged and unchangeable.
“Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today; and the same forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
In summary, with the voice of a shepherd, I tell you this:
DO NOT LEAVE THE CHURCH.
Do not run from the battle.
Stand in the breach.
Kneel in Adoration.
Pray with tears.
Speak without fear.
And fight with love.
The wolves are real.
But the Lamb is on the throne.
And the gates of hell shall not prevail.
Stay faithful.
Stay watchful.
And stay in the Heart of Christ.
May Almighty God bless you – in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
+Bishop Joseph E. Strickland
Bishop Emeritus of Tyler
This article was originally published on Bishop Strickland’s Substack page.
