(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Joseph Strickland has issued a stinging rebuke of the Synod on Synodality while calling on Catholics to oppose those who follow in the footsteps of Judas Iscariot.
“There are threats on the horizon. This Synod on Synodality, I reject, because it’s not Catholic. Many voices have already said this is not the Catholic Church,” His Excellency remarked during LifeSite’s election night coverage Tuesday evening. “We’re in a time when Judas Iscariot is raising his ugly head.”
While urging Catholics across the U.S. to “to be strong and joyful in the truth,” Stickland further told host John-Henry Westen that this is a “critical time in this nation and … the universal Church” as there are “threats to that universality that are coming sadly from Rome itself, from the Vatican.”
“We’re in dangerous territory for this nation, but more importantly, and more critically, I believe, for the Catholic faith,” he continued. “The Catholic faith, the Catholic Church, will not collapse. Christ has promised it will prevail against the gates of hell until the end of the age.” But, “if it comes to opposing a priest or bishop or someone from the Vatican that is proclaiming a false message, we have to be strong enough disciples of Jesus Christ to say, ‘No. We live the truth that is Christ. He’s truth incarnate.’”
Strickland has maintained an active public profile since being unceremoniously dismissed by Pope Francis from his post as the Bishop of Tyler, Texas for his support for the Latin Mass, among other things. He spoke at this year’s Rome Life Forum and has continued to provide pastoral guidance for Catholics seeking reliable guidance on an array of issues. In August, he issued a forceful statement recalling the alleged words of Our Lady of Fatima about there being “an apostasy which would begin at the top” of the Church.
Strickland additionally told Westen that Judas Iscariot wanted “a global brotherhood of man” but that such a “kingdom on earth” was “contrary to what Jesus Christ proclaimed.”
“We have an opportunity to fight back the darkness and the evil and the false messages that are even affecting, infecting the church,” he explained. “We need to get strong. We need to be clear. We need to speak up and not allow anyone in office or in a pulpit to say something that isn’t true to Christ and let it go.”
Strickland further called Catholics to pray before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and to “stop compromising” with those who are sowing error and “clearly proclaim what that truth is because too many are deluded.”