Is Bishop Strickland’s Appeal a Dead Letter or a Call to Action? by William Kilpatrick

A few weeks ago, Bishop Joseph Strickland sent an open letter to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as the group met in Baltimore for its fall plenary assembly.

It was a remarkable letter in which Strickland accused his fellow bishops of silence in the face of “the false messages constantly flowing from the Vatican under the leadership of Pope Francis,” essentially accusing the Vatican of promoting heresy.

But even more remarkable was the bishops’ response: silence.

Granted, I may have missed an objection here or there, but Strickland’s charges are so grave and so sweeping that one would expect not just a few objections, but a whole boatload of them. For example, he refers to the bishops as “silent shepherds, unwilling to risk speaking up in the face of evil and destructive forces that threaten the Church.” He suggests, in addition, that their actions are reminiscent of Judas’s betrayal of Christ. …

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