“If I Were the Bishop”, by Mark Rose
The Trump Doctrine, by Srdja Trifkovic
January 5, 2026
Founder’s Quote
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Andrew Ridley. Ruins. Unsplash
By Mark Rose, Rorate Caeli, Jan. 2026
Mark Rose is the founder and executive director for Heed, a nonprofit, formed to support contemplative and eremitical vocations. Hermits are not the same as established religious and can lack the security found in other forms of consecrated life. For this reason, they need your support more than ever. Their needs range from financial support to spiritual support. How can you help? Your prayers first and foremost. Secondly, these hermits need assistance in covering the costs of daily necessities, such as rent, food, and supplies. Please prayerfully discern if you are able to contribute. For more information or to donate, please visit www.heedhiscall.org.
The following op-ed, by guest writer Mark Rose, is in the style of Paul Harvey’s “If I were the Devil.”
If I were the Bishop—if I were the successor to the Apostles, charged with the care of souls in the United States—I’d want to make the Church irrelevant. I wouldn’t do it with persecution; that only makes the faithful stronger. I’d do it with “modernization.
I’d begin by whispering that the old ways are dead. I’d convince you that we need to “update” the Church, not to convert the world, but to be liked by it. I would invoke the “Spirit of Vatican II” to dismantle the structures that held the faith together for centuries, taking into account the data showing that the Council’s implementation triggered a worldwide collapse in Mass attendance.1 I would replace dogmatic certainty with “Synodal Listening,” ensuring we spend years talking about ourselves rather than listening to God. …
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