Bishop Strickland : "Rome in many cases moving against those who cling to Sacred Tradition...
... while leaving untouched those who proclaim a worldview that is totally incompatible with the Sacred Tradition of the Church.For many years there has been an effort to redefine the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Some have claimed that the cities were destroyed merely because they lacked hospitality. Certainly, hospitality was a sacred duty in the ancient world, but that explanation simply does not do justice to what the Scriptures actually tell us.
When the angels came to Sodom and entered Lot’s home, the men of the city surrounded the house and demanded that the visitors be brought out to them so that they could sexually abuse them. This was not a misunderstanding. It was not simply rude behavior. It was a society that had so rejected God’s design that grave sexual sin had become open, aggressive, and celebrated. The moral order established by God in creation had been abandoned.
The Scriptures do reveal, however, that this corruption reached far beyond one particular sin. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of the pride of Sodom, its arrogance, its excess, and its neglect of the poor. Those sins did not replace the sexual sins; they accompanied them. When a people turn away from God, the disorder never remains confined to one corner of life. It spreads. Pride replaces humility. Self-indulgence replaces self-sacrifice. The vulnerable are neglected. Truth is exchanged for lies. What was once recognized as sinful is praised as good, while those who remain faithful are often ridiculed or condemned.
That pattern should sound familiar. We are witnessing it in our own generation. We are told that God’s design for marriage is outdated. We are told that the differences between man and woman are insignificant. Children are increasingly taught that they may define themselves apart from the God who created them. The family, which God established as the foundation of society, is weakened, and when the family is weakened, the entire culture begins to crumble.
This is why the message of Fatima is so important. The Blessed Mother was not simply predicting difficult times. She was preparing us for a spiritual battle. Satan knows that if he can wound marriage, he can wound the family. If he wounds the family, he wounds the Church, because it is in the family that children first learn to pray, first encounter love, first discover sacrifice, and first hear the name of Jesus.
But there is one more thing that must be said. If we are going to speak honestly about the battle over marriage and the family, then we must also speak honestly about Sodom and Gomorrah. There is one aspect of that account that our modern world – and, sadly, even many within the Church – seem determined to avoid.
For years, as I mentioned, we have heard attempts to explain away the destruction of Sodom as though it were merely about a lack of hospitality. Certainly, Scripture condemns pride, injustice, and the neglect of the poor. The prophets make that abundantly clear. But Sacred Scripture also plainly presents Sodom as a city that had rejected God’s design for human sexuality and had embraced grave sexual immorality. For two thousand years, the Church has understood that lesson.
The word “sodomy” comes from the city of Sodom and the story in the Book of Genesis. In the story, two angels visit Lot who is in Sodom, and when the men surround Lot’s house and demand that he handover the male visitors, it is made clear that they wish to sexually violate them. For this, God destroys Sodom and the neighboring city of Gomorrah with fire and sulfur.
Why, then, is there such hesitation to say so today? Why do many in the Church, even in the highest offices, refuse to name this sin, instead dressing it up in words like “hospitality?” And why does the Church today especially avoid speaking plainly about homosexual acts?
The Church has never taught that God’s moral law changes with the culture. She has consistently proclaimed that marriage is the sacred union of one man and one woman and that every form of sexual activity outside that covenant is contrary to God’s plan. Those teachings are not ours to rewrite. They belong to Christ.
Yet today we see growing confusion within the Church herself. We see voices in the Church associating themselves more and more with LGBTQ advocacy. We hear voices that seem to speak with uncertainty where the Church has always spoken with clarity.
These concerns cannot simply be ignored. Shepherds have a sacred duty to teach with clarity. The faithful have a right to hear the Gospel in its fullness – not a Gospel reshaped by the preferences of the culture, but the Gospel handed down by Christ through His Church.
This is not about pointing to one particular group of sinners. Every one of us must stand before the Cross and acknowledge our own sins. Pride, greed, lust, adultery, pornography, contraception, fornication, homosexual acts – every grave sin separates us from God if we knowingly and deliberately embrace it without repentance. The Church does not name these sins because she hates sinners. She names them because she loves souls.
If a physician refused to name a deadly disease for fear of offending the patient, we would call that negligence, not compassion. The Church is called to something far greater. She is called to speak the truth in love, even when that truth is difficult to hear.
What makes this moment especially alarming is that much of the confusion is no longer coming only from the culture. It is now coming from within the Church herself.
Instead of hearing a clear proclamation of the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage and sexual morality, we encounter messages and actions that appear to suggest something very different. For example, we now have a document permitting certain blessings for couples in irregular situations, including same-sex couples. There have been Masses and ministries associated with LGBTQ identity that create confusion rather than clarity. Prominent voices within the Church have urged new pastoral approaches that blur the distinction between welcoming every person and affirming conduct that the Church has consistently taught is contrary to God’s plan.
These developments have left many Catholics asking a painful question: Has the Church changed her teaching? The answer must be no. The Church does not have the authority to change what God has revealed. Divine truth does not evolve with public opinion. Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What the Church has always taught about marriage and sexual morality remains true today because it comes not from changing human opinion, but from the unchanging wisdom of God.
That is why clarity is so important. When souls are at stake, ambiguity is not an act of charity. People deserve to hear the truth in its fullness, because only the truth sets us free. Every one of us is called to conversion. Every one of us is called to holiness. And every one of us needs both the mercy of Christ and the courage to turn away from whatever separates us from Him.
What makes this moment so very troubling is that this confusion has arisen at the very time when faithful Catholics have seen a push by the hierarchy of the Church away from the Church’s own traditions. For some time now, Catholics attached to the Church’s traditional liturgy, devotions, and perennial teaching have watched increasing restrictions being placed upon the Traditional Latin Mass. They have witnessed repeated calls to embrace a new ecclesial vision, a synodal Church, which has led to those who simply desire to preserve what generations of Catholics believed and practiced viewed as suspicious. Many faithful Catholics ask why such energy is devoted to limiting traditional expressions of the Faith while so much confusion surrounding fundamental moral teachings appears to go uncorrected.
This is why this is all so alarming. At the very time when our culture most desperately needs an unmistakable proclamation of God’s plan for marriage, the family, and sexual morality, the faithful see only uncertainty where they long for conviction, and ambiguity where they long for truth.
Having just come back from Quito, Ecuador, the site of the messages from Our Lady of Good Success, I am reminded of what she said in these messages. Speaking to Mother Mariana centuries ago, Our Lady warned of a future age, beginning in our time, when faith would grow weak, confusion would enter the Church, and impurity would be rampant. She spoke of a time when many souls would be in danger because error would become widespread and courage would be in short supply.
Yet hers was a message of hope. She promised that when the darkness seemed deepest, renewal would come about, not by abandoning the Faith once delivered to the saints, but by returning to it with greater fervor, greater purity, and greater trust in His grace.
But the Church has never renewed herself by becoming more like the world. Every great renewal in her history has come through a return to Christ, a return to holiness, and a return to the fullness of the Faith handed down by the apostles. If this truly is the final battle over marriage and the family, then now is not the time to soften the Gospel. Now is the time to proclaim it with greater clarity and greater fidelity than ever before.
And yet we see Rome in many cases moving against those who cling to Sacred Tradition while leaving untouched those who proclaim a worldview that is totally incompatible with the Sacred Tradition of the Church.
This is not simply a question of liturgy or pastoral style. It is a question of whether the Church will continue to proclaim, without hesitation or apology, the truths that Christ entrusted to her. Every age has its defining battle. If the Blessed Mother warned that the final battle would concern marriage and the family, then surely this is not the time for uncertainty. It is the time for courage.
The world does not need a Church that echoes its own opinions. The world needs a Church willing to proclaim the truth that sets souls free. It needs shepherds who love their people enough to speak the truth, even when that truth is difficult, even when it is unpopular, and even when it demands conversion. The salvation of souls has always been, and must always remain, the supreme law of the Church.
That is why the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is so important today. It is not merely the story of an ancient civilization. It is a warning for every civilization that believes it can redefine good and evil, rewrite God’s law, and reject His design without consequence.
God is infinitely merciful. Throughout salvation history, He has always called His people to repentance before judgment. Noah preached before the flood. The prophets warned Israel again and again. Jonah was sent to Nineveh, and when the people humbled themselves, fasted, and repented, God’s judgment was withheld. His first desire has never been punishment. His first desire has always been conversion.
That is why we must never read the account of Sodom simply as a story about hospitality. We must read it as a proclamation about sexual immorality. We must read it as a call to examine ourselves. Have we as individuals? – Have we as families? – Have we as a Church? – Have we as a nation? – Remained faithful to what God has revealed? Or have we begun to call good what He has called sinful, and dismiss what He has called holy?
These are not comfortable questions. But love requires us to ask them. A shepherd who never warns of danger is not protecting the flock. Parents who never correct their children do not truly love them. The Church must do no less. She must continue to proclaim both the infinite mercy of God and the necessity of repentance, because one without the other is not the fullness of the Gospel.
When we look at the confusion surrounding marriage and the family, when we witness the rejection of God’s plan for human life and human sexuality, we should not respond with anger or despair. We should respond as the saints did – with prayer, fasting, penance, and renewed fidelity to Christ. Every Rosary prayed, every worthy Confession made, every faithful Catholic family living the Gospel becomes a light in an increasingly dark world.
Therefore, before I close, allow me to speak simply as a bishop and as a shepherd of souls. My duty is not to tell you what is popular. My duty is to tell you what the Church has received from Jesus Christ and has faithfully taught throughout the centuries.
The Church teaches that God created us male and female in His image and likeness. He established marriage as the lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, ordered toward the good of the spouses and the gift of new life. That truth is not ours to redefine, because it comes from God Himself.
The Church also teaches that every human person possesses an inviolable dignity and must always be treated with respect, compassion, and authentic Christian charity. No one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy, and every person is called to holiness.
At the same time, the Church teaches that every sexual act outside the bond of marriage between one man and one woman is gravely contrary to God’s plan. That includes adultery, fornication, pornography, and homosexual acts.
The Church further teaches that experiencing same-sex attraction is not, in itself, a sin. Like every Christian, those who experience these attractions are called to holiness and to the virtue of chastity. At the same time, the Church has consistently taught that homosexual acts, like every sexual act outside the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, are gravely contrary to God’s plan. That same moral law applies equally to every other misuse of the gift of human sexuality.
Those teachings are not expressions of hatred or exclusion. They are expressions of love because they point us toward the freedom and joy that come from living according to God’s design.
If I were to remain silent because these truths are unpopular, I would fail in my duty as a shepherd. A shepherd who truly loves his flock does not hide the truth when eternal souls are at stake. He proclaims it with humility, with compassion, and with courage, trusting that God’s grace is sufficient for every person who sincerely seeks Him.
So today I ask each of us to examine our own hearts. Where is God calling me to repentance? Where is He asking me to trust Him more completely? Let us not be afraid of His truth, because His truth always leads us to His mercy.
And may we never be counted among those who knew the truth but were afraid to proclaim it. May we have the courage to stand with Christ, to defend marriage and the family, to love every person enough to speak the truth in charity, and to entrust ourselves completely to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, confident that in the end, as she promised at Fatima, her Immaculate Heart will triumph.
May Almighty God strengthen every husband and wife in fidelity to their marriage vows. May He protect every family, every child, and every home from the attacks of the evil one. May He grant courage to our priests, wisdom to our bishops, perseverance to all who strive to remain faithful, and repentance to every sinner, beginning with each one of us.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Good Success, wrap you in her maternal mantle, lead you ever closer to her Divine Son, and obtain for you the grace to persevere in the truth with both courage and charity.
And May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Amen.
Bishop Joseph E. Strickland
Bishop Emeritus
The Final Battle: Sodom, Fatima, and Our Times - …