By: Unknown Centurion
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7).
A Lone Ranger
The great Cardinal George not long ago said “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square”. While some have called this statement apocalyptic or prophetic, given the almost unrestricted access of the spirit of the age into the realm of the Body of Christ, its fulfillment rests upon a presumption that his successors would be both faithful and courageous in opposing this gathering spiritual storm.
While it is not impossible that Cardinal George’s successor dies in prison, if he does, it will likely not be due to his outspoken orthodoxy in marshalling a full-throated defense of the Deposit of Faith. If not even the disgraced former Cardinal McCarrick will die in prison, the prediction of the former Chicago Cardinal seems farfetched, if for no other reason than having greatly overestimated the current and future crop of U.S. Cardinals. For if there is radio silence from almost every chancery in the nation in response to the exponential advance of evil and the visible and invisible enemies within and without the Church, who would wager that one of the chestless cardinals or butter-handed bishops would actually lay down their lives in the public square like so many of their courageous, faithful forefathers had willingly done?
Bishop Strickland
Yet there is one notable exception – a true ecclesial model of masculinity, fidelity and fortitude. In issuing not one but two pastoral letters immediately following an Apostolic Visitation to his diocese of Tyler, Bishop Strickland showed himself to be a courageous father of the house who defiantly fired both barrels of his spiritual shotgun in the direction of those armed invaders who came to remove his authority, plunder his home, ravage his family, divide and devour his flock, defiantly clinging to the creed of Christ and reciting the motto of Texas “Come and Take it”. But for this one outspoken outlier, this courageous man of God, there was and will be no circling of Church wagons, no religious reinforcements to the rescue, and no Catholic cavalry, only an empty calvary for this lone Texas ranger and modern-day martyr. When the powers of Rome came for this beleaguered bishop, there were no watchmen, no sentries, and no defenders rushing to his aid from the Kingdom of God. Rather, he resembles the tragic hero from the best Western movies, (eg. High Noon) who alone stands up to evil, willing to sacrifice himself and face the ultimate price, when no one else will.
Why is he alone? Is it because the winds of the world and of the Vatican continue to blow only against orthodoxy and in favor of catechetical confusion and chaos? Or could it be because the Pope on a recent flight called out the U.S. Church as too right-wing, ideologically rigid, and resistant to change? Or is it because Bishop Strickland had the courage to enter the dioceses of Los Angeles and Cincinnati to pray in opposition of and reparation for the “sisters” of perpetual indulgence in L.A. and abortion and genital mutilation in Ohio, when the appointed shepherds of those dioceses failed to do so?
A Culture of Cowardice
Do these minor offenses to clerical sensibilities explain the absence of public words of support and acts of encouragement from his brother bishops? Does their collective silence indicate a tacit approval of his ouster, whether out of annoyance, envy or because such a scion of sacrifice serves as an unwanted icon of what a bishop should be, as opposed to the soft, worldly, middle manager on the ceremonial circuit which too many of them have become? Is it too much to ask that these successors to the apostles speak out in favor of orthodoxy and against partisan papal punishments which demonize the most faithful among us and refuse to even lift a finger against a single heterodox or heretical prelate in Germany on the verge of injecting real scandal and schism into the bloodstream of the Body of Christ? Such silent shepherds aware and afraid of such one-way reprisals from the current regime (and certain dioceses) in this instance, or the next, or the one thereafter will likely not find their voice.
Unlike such cowardly, comfortable clerics, the Bishop of Tyler doesn’t care – he even doubled down in the face of such seemingly political, papal, persecution with two salvos across the Barque of Peter as a warning to those controlling the October Synod. Such are definitely not the groveling acts of self-preservation by one singularly focused on maintaining his position, prestige and power. He knows this war is much larger than whether he remains a bishop or not, so he fights this two-realm war with the soul of a monk in Adoration and at Mass and the heart of a warrior in the public square as an outspoken, orthodox model to the faithful.
If we as a Church don’t fight for the Faith when the Enemy and his visible and invisible allies are amassed against it, how do we expect to protect and preserve it? If we don’t fight alongside our most powerful spiritual warriors who are drawing all the fire, they will be gone and we will be next. In times of peace and prosperity of comfort and complacency, perhaps the Texas bishop’s brash style and breach of collegial protocol might be a problem, but in times of all-out spiritual warfare where we’re taking it on the chin in every area by every metric, we can’t afford to lose one of our best generals, one of the few who even realize we’re at war, and one who has the courage to fight it.
We appear to be at a literal tipping point, a spiritual Archduke Ferdinand moment, and the one good shepherd willing to risk everything for his sheep seems to be the only one among many brothers with the spiritual acuity to appreciate the moment and the fortitude to stand and not be silent. Sadly, however, again due to abdication at the upper levels, it will likely fall to us, and to faithful priests and religious, to pray for this good prelate, demonstrate our support and encouragement, gird our loins in advance of the Synod, and otherwise make up for what is lacking within the Body of Christ (Colossians 1:24).
Why should we be surprised? Becoming a bishop unfortunately isn’t a badge of holiness. In fact, many of the Church hierarchy were educated and eventually elevated within systems where holiness wasn’t a prerequisite, authentic manliness was discouraged, and those who had that combination of holiness and manliness were driven from the seminaries or eventually cancelled from parishes. Sadly, unlike most younger priests and seminarians today, many priests of an older bishop’s age, who either entered the priesthood for the wrong reasons, or were compromised and caught up in the nonsense, corruption, and laxity along the way, were not properly formed, or were conditioned to keep their heads down and remain silent.
A similar disordered culture of yesteryear’s seminaries now reigns in too many chanceries, with a cowardly clerical culture which divides the Body of Christ as us versus them, protects clerics, conceals their misdeeds, and maintains a clerical ruling class that refuses to take risks, speak out, or seek the meaningful input of those without collars. This dysfunctional bureaucratic culture where the only voices heard by a bishop are in tune with him, be it from the cadre of cowardly clerics or the effeminate episcopal echo chamber, are structures which stifle the Holy Spirit and systemic impediments to the courageous, countercultural action that is necessary.
Courage is Needed
Maybe there are some like-minded bishops who send him anonymous emails of support or their prayers from their private email address. Yet such unseen expressions are too little and perhaps too late, especially when a public, united front of many within the body of U.S. Bishops could make all the difference. Granted, it is too much to expect that the USCCB would have the courage to lead such an effort, but if only dozens or hundreds of bishops followed his lead, collectively unleashing an array of pre-emptive strikes against those who seek to destroy and remake the Church at the upcoming Synod, perhaps the powers of darkness would be restrained along with the petulant papal hands who seem poised to remove the Bishop of Tyler.
A call for true unity, not contrived collegiality, is needed when facing this existential and spiritual threat. Each so-called right-wing, ideological bishop should respond to such raw Roman authoritarian power as did Spartacus, standing shoulder to shoulder to form an impenetrable wall to shield their flocks from the coming cloud of catechetical chaos and give cover to the man the empire seeks to take out.
Particularly, in the most pressing Church crisis, aka, the Synod on Synodality, such public acts of solidarity and support could be as simple, yet significant, as letting their flocks know that the Deposit of Faith to which they have been entrusted will not change or fall away on their watch, according to the spirit of the age, the whims of the worldly, or the revolutionaries in Rome who might orchestrate the process and manipulate the results. Such preventative measures, like those taken by the courageous Cardinal Sarah (and Pope Benedict) defending priestly celibacy in advance of the Amazon Synod, can have far more powerful effects in advance, rather than sitting back and saying nothing until after all the horses have left the barn, as most bishops seem resigned to do.
Such a bold, desperate, and likely inspired move by Cardinal Sarah forced the hand of the revolutionaries within and just may have preserved priestly celibacy in our Church. One marginalized, demonized, firebrand bishop is easy to ignore and to remove, but ten, twenty, thirty or fifty good men might be enough to save the Church, as it was enough to save Sodom. For those fearful of a backlash, it doesn’t have to be an endorsement of Bishop Strickland, and those who don’t have time, it doesn’t have to be a lengthy pastoral letter – a simple straightforward statement to the effect that regardless of what happens or doesn’t happen at the Synod on Synodality, as the one given the authority to teach the Faith, the immutable, unadulterated, apostolic teaching will be preserved and protected in this diocese. Period.
It’s no coincidence that parallels abound between the selective prosecution by the deep state of those who wish to conserve our Christian values and civilization while ignoring the egregious acts of those who work to fundamentally transform them, and the selective persecution by the deep church of those who wish to preserve our doctrines, faith and morals while ignoring the outrageous acts of those who work to revise, replace and remake them. That’s because it’s the same devil’s playbook, and the unseen powers and principalities behind such attacks and upheavals are finding they’re incredibly successful, with no shortage of unwitting allies, cowards, and enemies within who make it all possible.
If we’ve noticed anything in the Church these days, is that many who run it are worldly, cowardly, and risk-averse, without a sense of urgency or an awareness of spiritual warfare, yet valuing the modern “values” of safety, tolerance, and the status-quo above the actual cardinal virtues. Most of these men likely mistakenly view their role in the Church established by Christ as opulent overseers as opposed to courageous defenders of the Kingdom of God.
It has been said that courage is perhaps the rarest of all virtues. Given the high number of effeminate (meaning, according to Aquinas, an unwillingness to pursue what is difficult) clerics, it seems to be even more true in the Church than in the culture at large. C.S. Lewis once said that “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point”. The Bishop of Tyler has faced and presumably passed all such tests, while apparently the rest of his brothers have failed or refused to even take them.
Yet a shepherd who remains silent in the face of evil or injustice out of fear or cowardice is complicit with such evil and injustice. Whether they believe it or not, one day all bishops, like all of us, will get their final exam results, and not from the world, or their sycophants, but from Jesus Himself. If the last book of the Bible is accurate, which of course it is, a lack of courage in matters of faith will be judged severely, as cowards are the first of those mentioned who will be sent into the lake of fire. (Revelation 21:8).
Bishop Strickland, out of our over 400 bishops (many of whom are orthodox and holy men), seems to be the lone voice in the vast American wilderness answering the call to take bold, courageous, table-turning action, to expose and oppose those enemies within who so scandalize the faithful, destroy their faith, lead many astray, and wound the Heart of Christ. He singularly has shown a willingness to sacrifice, take risks, fraternally correct, do what is hard, be unpopular, suffer persecution and perhaps even die to defend, preserve, and safeguard the true, unadulterated, undiluted apostolic faith for the glory of God and salvation of souls. Perhaps if Bishop Strickland were to survive the current curial onslaught and become the next archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the prophecy of Cardinal George might have a chance, in part, of coming true. Please pray and sacrifice for Bishop Strickland. Ask your bishop to defend the Deposit of Faith.
13 thoughts on “ The Last Warrior-Monk?”
This article says it all. Our bishops have failed us by their silence. “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Bonhoeffer hit the proverbial nail on the head.
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Re the allusion to Texas : It took 13 days for the Alamo to fall but it birthed Texas. There were subsequently two battles at Adobe Wells where outnumbered Texans subsequently held out and won, the second fight against the famed Quanah Parker. The lesson is that a loss of one battle is not necessarily a defeat.
I have close friendships with many priests within the Diocese of Tyler who have a great filial affection for Bishop Strickland. Those priests see Bishop Strickland as a spiritual father they expect in their bishop. To say “there are NO priests in the Diocese of Tyler that support him” is patently false. Either that statement is up on your own or you are being given bad information. Either way, the statement is simply dishonest.
We are entitled to our opinions. I believe Mother Teresa, as a warrior for the faith and her adherence to the faith, would support Bishop Strickland’s defense of the Deposit of Faith. If it is his tweeting you are taking offense to then it is time to get off of social media, read his blog and learn more about the truths of the faith. You can expect to see at least four more letters explaining each of his six points in his original pastoral letter.
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I read the above column and agree or disagree, it certainly is fascinating. I seem to recall the movie, “A Man for All Seasons” upon reflecting on this article. As for me, I’m a spectator at this point but good food for thought. I wish not to be offensive, I am sorry to say that the detractor here to me, comes off sounding a bit like a disgruntled employee but for all I know, he/she may be right. We all need to pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance. I know my faith but I am not so learned as to understand some of the intricacies involved. As I am weary of progressives, likewise, I sometimes do not find the opposite end of the spectrum proper at times neither.
Thanks Faithful – I appreciate your thoughtful, down the middle take. I guess I should have included “A Man for All Seasons” along with my other 1950’s-1960″s cinematic allusions (High Noon, Lone Ranger, Spartacus), as it seems particularly apt to Bishop Strickland’s unwavering fidelity during this period of religious persecution. No matter the outcome in his case, I believe that the globalist, modernist revolutionaries will go too far, and enough of a faithful remnant will stand up to them, and God, who is in charge of His Church, will bring forth the greatest good for His glory and our salvation.
Joe,
The supernatural reality of this confluence of events which seems poised to change Church teaching (Synod) and take out/silence their most vocal opponents (Strickland) is so much more important than whether this particular bishop is liked by those with whom he worked, and perhaps replaced, especially given the state of the bureaucratic church and some priests of a certain age and ideology. I did see however that the Tyler diocese is doing comparatively well for priestly vocations, which is likely because there is a courageous model of manhood leading it. He is one of a handful of prelates who stands up and speaks out against the revolutionary spirit of the age, and the sole one I know of who does so with his head on the chopping block. This doesn’t sound like a “cowardly twitter warrior” to me, especially compared to the rest of his brother bishops. And you don’t have to try to channel a saintly women to chastise him – if you know him, and work with him, why don’t you do it to his face, like, as you say, a “true man”.
The same argument was given to validate the Legion of Christ. “Look at them the fastest growing order in the Church, look at all the vocations, look at how good their priests do this or that!” “It must be from God!” Time will reveal the truth. People’s hate for Pope Francis are blinding them to reality. What you and those on the outside don’t understand is that there is an appearance of strength on twitter but internally the weakest leader. He is like a father who cannot lead his family so he stays at work leading a company. Besides being vocal on twitter what else can you point to as a sign of his effectiveness as a Shepherd in his own diocese? Vocations and money are not proof of anything, just see the Legion of Christ. You want to know who someone really is? Look at those who are closest to him? Why does everyone run away from the Tyler chancery after working there for a short amount of time? Have you ever talked to the lay people who worked close to him and priests who have left the diocese? You might be shocked at what you discover.
Centurion,
Maybe I have challenged him face to face. And it’s interesting but Bishop Strickland has not done the same to the people he criticizes but takes to the internet like keyboard warrior.
If a priest in his diocese went to the internet to criticize him and his decisions, what do you think would happen to that priest? He would be removed just like Bishop Strickland will be, he is a self made martyr. What a joke!
I feel sorry about how bad you have been duped. I work closely with Bishop and it’s “The Wizard of Oz.” Do you notice how no priest in the diocese of Tyler supports their own Bishop? You can judge and say, “Oh the priests of Tyler are bad too!” Maybe they see and know the truth? You back a cowardly twitter warrior but not a true man. I wish Mother Teresa were still around because she would put everyone in their place and say something like “Stop all your twitting and do something!”
This is not my experience of the man.
And I know several priests in the Tyler Diocese who support bishop.
Um, no priests in his diocese support him? As someone once said, you’re entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. I’m sorry if I sound disrespectful toward you, but frankly, you’re either misinformed or dishonest.