Bishop Strickland: Catholics Must Reject Vatican’s View Against Proselytism

The Vatican has abandoned Christ's command to "Teach ye all nations; baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost". Matthew 28:19

From LifeSiteNews

By LNS Staff

‘Truth is not constantly evolving,’ declared Bishop Strickland. ‘Truth is Jesus Christ present with us in the world and His Church is the vehicle for our salvation.’

Bishop Joseph Strickland has issued a searing criticism of the Vatican’s new document on inter-religious dialogue downplaying the need for all people to be evangelized by the Catholic Church.  He has also written a pastoral letter on the topic. (See below.) 

Strickland zeroed in on this troubling line:  

The defensive entrenchment in one’s own position and the view that proselytism is the only way to engage with the other no longer make sense in a world that increasingly resembles an interconnected and constantly evolving global village.

“This statement from the Vatican must be rejected and repudiated by all who hold Jesus Christ and His Church as the only way to the Father,” declared the former bishop of Tyler, Texas.

“Truth is not constantly evolving,” Strickland stressed. “Truth is Jesus Christ present with us in the world and His Church is the vehicle for our salvation.”

Entitled “A Journey of Hope: Sixty Years of Interreligious Dialogue and Fraternity in the Light of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate,” the text discourages “proselytism,” to wit, attempts to convert people of other religions.

The document upholds “inter-religious dialogue” and “fraternity” with other religions as an ideal, framing these as means toward “peace” and “understanding,” as opposed to evangelization.

Read more about the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s document here.

Jesus Christ, The Only Savior of the World

A Pastoral Letter on Interreligious Dialogue and the Church’s Missionary Mandate

On September 16, 2026, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue published the note, “A Journey of Hope: Sixty Years of Interreligious Dialogue and Fraternity in the Light of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate.”

The document contains much that every Catholic should affirm. It condemns religious violence, antisemitism, coercion, hatred, contempt, and violations of religious freedom. It recalls that every person possesses an inviolable dignity because every person is created in the image of God. It affirms the importance of peaceful relations among peoples and insists that interreligious dialogue must not descend into relativism or syncretism.

The note also explicitly declares that there are not two parallel ways of salvation, that Christ is “the one and only Redeemer,” and that fidelity to Jesus Christ – “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” – is inseparable from authentic dialogue.

These affirmations are true and necessary.

Nevertheless, other passages employ language which, if read without the controlling light of Sacred Scripture and the Church’s perennial doctrine, can give rise to grave confusion. The faithful may reasonably ask whether dialogue has been placed above evangelization; whether adherents of non-Christian religions are to be regarded as already traveling along authentic paths to God; whether the Church should still seek their conversion; and whether the missionary mandate entrusted by Christ to His Church remains binding in its fullness.

The note’s extensive and necessary condemnation of antisemitism also raises a related question: How can the Church affirm the enduring mystery of Israel without allowing that affirmation to become a theological endorsement of political Zionism or an uncritical defense of the modern State of Israel?

Because these questions touch the heart of the Catholic faith, the moral witness of the Church, and the eternal salvation of souls, they cannot be dismissed as mere resistance to dialogue. They require clear distinctions and the fullness of Catholic doctrine.

As a bishop, charged before God with guarding the deposit of faith and confirming the faithful in the truth, I offer the following teaching:

1. The Missionary Mandate Has Not Been Revoked

The mission of the Church does not originate in changing historical circumstances, sociological needs, or ecclesiastical strategies. It originates in Jesus Christ.

After His Resurrection, Our Lord commanded the Apostles: “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew 28:18-20).

St. Mark records the command in equally direct terms: “Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).

The Church did not invent this mission, and therefore the Church possesses no authority to abandon it. No dicastery, episcopal conference, theological school, or pastoral program can dispense the Church from a command given by the Lord Himself.

The fact that the world has become an interconnected “global village” does not render the missionary mandate obsolete. It makes the nations more immediately present to one another and therefore places the missionary responsibility of the Church more urgently before us.

Cultural pluralism does not cancel divine revelation. Proximity among religions does not make their contradictory claims equally true. The demands of peaceful coexistence do not permit the Church to conceal the identity of the One through whom true peace is given.

The Second Vatican Council teaches: “The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin” (Ad Gentes, 2).

The Church is not occasionally missionary. She is missionary by her very nature. If she ceases to evangelize, she does not merely abandon one activity among others, she acts against her own identity.

Any account of interreligious dialogue that does not preserve this missionary identity is incomplete. Any interpretation of dialogue that suppresses the call to faith, repentance, baptism, and communion with Christ contradicts the mandate of the Lord.

2. Jesus Christ is Not One Religious Teacher Among Many

At the center of the Christian faith stands not a theory of religion but the Person of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord does not say merely that He teaches a way, communicates a portion of truth, or offers one possible form of spiritual life. He declares: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

St. Peter proclaims: “Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

St. Paul teaches: “For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave himself a redemption for all, a testimony in due times” (I Timothy 2:5-6).

These are not peripheral or negotiable assertions. They belong to the foundation of Christianity.

Jesus Christ is the eternal Word made flesh. He is true God and true man. He is the fullness and completion of divine revelation. His Cross is the one sacrifice by which the world is redeemed. His Resurrection is the victory over sin and death. Every grace given to any human being is given through Him.

The declaration Dominus lesus reaffirmed this doctrine against theories that would place Christianity alongside other religions as one limited expression of a universal religious mystery.

“It must therefore be firmly believed as a truth of Catholic faith that the universal salvific will of the One and Triune God is offered and accomplished once for all in the mystery of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God” (Dominus lesus, 14).

Salvation is not produced independently by different religions. God may act in the hearts of those who do not visibly belong to the Church, and elements of truth and goodness may be found within their traditions. But wherever grace is present, it is the grace of Jesus Christ. Wherever salvation is given, it is given through His Paschal Mystery. Wherever truth is found, it participates in Him who is Truth Incarnate.

The Church therefore cannot speak as if Christ were merely the Christian contribution to a larger religious conversation. He is not one manifestation of a divine mystery equally accessible through mutually contradictory religions. He is the Incarnate Son in whom the mystery of God has been definitively revealed.

3. What It Means to “Esteem” Other Religions

The statement of Nostra Aetate that the Church “rejects nothing that is true and holy” in other religions must be read with precision.

The object of the Church’s affirmation is whatever is genuinely true and holy – not error as error, idolatry as idolatry, or false teaching as false teaching. Truth is to be recognized because all truth ultimately comes from God. Moral goodness is to be honored because every genuine good reflects the goodness of the Creator.

But the presence of some truth within a religion does not render the religion true in its entirety.

A religious system may preserve natural truths concerning God, prayer, fasting, sacrifice, family, justice, or the moral life while simultaneously denying the Trinity, the Incarnation, the divinity of Christ, His redemptive death, His bodily Resurrection, or the sacramental order He established.

Contradictory claims cannot be true in the same sense at the same time. Jesus Christ cannot both be and not be the divine Son of God. He cannot both have risen bodily from the dead and not have risen. The Eucharist cannot both be and not be His Body and Blood. God cannot both be the Holy Trinity and not be the Holy Trinity.

Charity does not require us to pretend that such contradictions are insignificant. Genuine respect for another person requires honesty about the truth. We must therefore distinguish carefully among three things:

First, every human person must be treated with love and reverence for his or her God-given dignity.

Second, whatever is true and good in another religious tradition may be recognized and esteemed.

Third, errors about God and salvation cannot be praised, preserved, or treated as alternative revelations given by God.

We respect all persons unconditionally. We affirm truth wherever it is found. We reject error because error cannot save, and because love desires for every person the fullness of truth.

4. Are Other Religions “Paths of Truth”?

The note recalls language describing followers of other religions as “traveling companions on the path of truth” and as “pilgrims of truth” with whom Christians share part of the journey. This language requires an essential distinction.

A person may be searching for truth without yet possessing the fullness of revealed truth. A person may respond sincerely to the light of conscience and to the grace God gives while remaining  mistaken about serious religious questions. In this subjective sense, we may recognize another human being as a fellow seeker or pilgrim.

But it does not follow that every religion is itself an authentic path established by God and leading toward salvation. The person and the religious system must not be conflated.

A person may be moved by grace while adhering to beliefs containing serous errors. God may employ fragments of truth, natural moral insight, or genuine prayer as preparations for receiving the Gospel. But it is Christ who acts through such grace – not the religious error itself.

The Church teaches that those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ or His Church may attain salvation if they sincerely seek God and respond to grace. Yet this possibility does not make religious ignorance a saving good. Nor does it make evangelization unnecessary.

The Catechism teaches: “Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men” (CCC 848).

We may therefore walk beside persons of other religions in civic friendship, works of mercy, the defense of human dignity, and the pursuit of peace. We may listen to them and seek mutual understanding. But we cannot affirm that religious systems which deny Christ are parallel paths of revealed truth.

We walk beside others not because Christ is unnecessary, but in the hope that every person may encounter Him.

5. Dialogue and Proclamation Must Not Be Separated

The note rightly observes that dialogue and proclamation belong to the Church’s mission. It also says that they are inseparable.

Yet some of its expressions risk obscuring that inseparability. In particular, paragraph 46 says that the missionary, after witnessing to the love of Christ, “simply waits” for others to inquire about that love.

Patience and respect for freedom are indispensable. Conversion must never be coerced. Faith cannot be produced by manipulation. Nevertheless, merely waiting for an inquiry is not an adequate account of the apostolic mission. The Apostles did not wait for the nations to approach them.

St. Peter stood publicly and proclaimed the crucified and risen Christ, calling his hearers to repentance and baptism (Acts 2:22-41). St. Paul entered synagogues and public places, reasoning and preaching. He announced Christ in Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome. He pleaded with his hearers to be reconciled to God.

He did so because: “The love of Christ controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

And again: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (I Corinthians 9:16).

Dialogue may precede proclamation, accompany proclamation, remove obstacles to proclamation, or help Christians understand how best to proclaim. It cannot permanently replace proclamation.

Pope St. John Paul II taught: “Interreligious dialogue is a part of the Church’s evangelizing mission. Understood as a method and means of mutual knowledge and enrichment, dialogue is not in opposition to the mission ad gentes; indeed, it has special links with that mission and is one of its expressions” (Redemptoris Missio, 55)_. 

The same pontiff warned that dialogue does not dispense the Church from proclaiming Jesus Christ and inviting others to receive the fullness of revelation.

Dialogue has become distorted when peace among religions is purchased by silence about Christ. A dialogue in which Christians are free to discuss fraternity, ecology, migration, or social justice but are implicitly forbidden to call others to faith in Christ is not fully Christian dialogue. It is the containment of Christianity within boundaries established by religious pluralism.

The Church enters dialogue as the Church of Jesus Christ. She cannot place her identity in parentheses.

6. Proselytism is Not the Same as Evangelization

Much confusion arises from the word “proselytism.”

If proselytism means seeking adherents through coercion, deception, political pressure, threats, material inducements, exploitation of poverty, or disrespect for conscience, it must be rejected.

No person may be forced to accept the faith. God desires a free act of faith, and the Church defends the religious freedom of every person. But in contemporary usage, “proselytism” is sometimes employed so broadly that it appears to include any deliberate effort to persuade another person of the truth of the Catholic faith or to invite that person to conversion.

Such a usage is unacceptable.

It is not wrongful proselytism to:

• Proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord;
• Explain why the Catholic faith is true;
• Defend the faith against objections;
• Invite a person to repent and believe the Gospel;
• Encourage attendance at Mass or participation in Christian instruction;
• Invite an unbaptized person to receive baptism;
• Invite a baptized non-Catholic to enter full communion with the Catholic Church;
• Pray and sacrifice for the conversion of those who do not know Christ.

These activities belong to evangelization when conducted truthfully, charitably, and without coercion.

The statement in paragraph 54 that viewing proselytism as “the only way to engage with the other” no longer makes sense may reasonably be understood as rejecting an aggressive or manipulative mode of interaction. It cannot be understood as declaring that conversion is no longer a proper hope or purpose of Christian mission.

The Church does not seek converts as trophies, political assets, or evidence of institutional power. She seeks the conversion of souls because she desires every person to share in the life of Christ.

To desire another person’s conversion is not an act of aggression. Properly understood, it is an act of supernatural charity.

7. Religious Freedom Does Not Mean Religious Indifferentism

The Church defends religious freedom because human beings must be free from coercion in religious matters. Religious freedom concerns immunity from compulsion by individuals, social groups, or the state. It does not mean that all religions are equally true.

The right of a person to be free from coercion does not establish the truth of everything that person believes. A Catholic may defend the civil freedom of a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, atheist, or member of another religion while continuing to profess that Jesus Christ is the unique Savior and that the fullness of revealed truth subsists in the Catholic Church.

Freedom concerns the manner in which faith is embraced. It does not abolish the moral obligation to seek and adhere to religious truth.

Dignitatis humanae teaches that all people are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and His Church, and, once the truth is known, “to embrace it and hold fast to it” (Dignitatis humanae, 1).

Religious freedom and missionary proclamation are therefore not enemies. Coercion violates human dignity; proclamation addresses human freedom and calls it toward the truth.

8. The Holy Spirit and Non-Christian Religions

The note states that the Holy Spirit is at work in human history and within the diverse cultures and religions of peoples. This, too, must be understood carefully.

The Holy Spirit can work in every human heart. He may awaken questions, expose the emptiness of sin, inspire repentance, strengthen a desire for truth, and prepare a person to receive Christ. He is not limited by visible ecclesial boundaries.

But the Holy Spirit never contradicts the Son.

The Spirit does not inspire the denial of Christ’s divinity, the rejection of the Incarnation, the repudiation of the Cross, or the refusal of the Gospel. He may work within a person despite such errors, drawing that person toward a fuller truth. It does not follow that He positively wills the errors themselves.

The Spirit’s presence among the nations is missionary and Christological. He prepares humanity for Christ, conforms souls to Christ, and incorporates believers into the Body of Christ. As Our Lord teaches: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth … He will glorify me” (John 16 :13-14).

Any appeal to the Holy Spirit that makes Christ unnecessary is contrary to the revealed mission of the Spirit.

9. Antisemitism, Zionism, and the Modern State of Israel

The Church’s unequivocal condemnation of antisemitism must be affirmed without reservation. Hatred, persecution, or suspicion directed against Jewish people because they are Jewish is a grave violation of human dignity and a sin against charity and justice. The terrible history of antisemitic violence, culminating in the Shoah, must never be forgotten, minimized, or repeated.

Nevertheless, the condemnation of antisemitism must not be manipulated into an endorsement of political Zionism or an unconditional defense of the modern State of Israel.

Several realities must be carefully distinguished: the Jewish people, the Jewish religion, the Israel of biblical revelation, various forms of political Zionism, and the contemporary State of Israel. These realities are historically related, but they are not identical. Confusing them produces serious theological and moral errors.

The modern State of Israel is a political state. It must be judged by the same principles of natural moral law, justice, human dignity, legitimate defense, and the protection of innocent life that apply to every other state. It possesses no divine exemption from moral judgement.

The biblical promises made to Israel cannot be invoked as a blanket theological authorization for the policies, territorial claims, military actions, or treatment of other peoples undertaken by a modern government. No contemporary state may claim that its actions are beyond moral scrutiny because of a privileged religious status.

The Church recognizes the unique and enduring relationship of the Jewish people to the history of salvation. St. Paul teaches that they remain beloved on account of the patriarchs and that “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29). This mystery must be approached with humility, reverence, and careful attention to the whole of Sacred Scripture.

But the irrevocable character of God’s gifts does not establish two parallel covenants of salvation, one through Jesus Christ and another apart from Him. Nor does it identify the modern State of Israel with the Church or confer upon that state the theological status of the messianic People of God.

Jesus Christ inaugurated the New Covenant in His Blood. In Him, the promises made to Israel reach their fulfillment and are opened to all nations. Those who belong to Christ – whether Jew or Gentile – are gathered into one Body.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek … for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:28-29).

The Church is the new and universal People of God, composed not according to race, nationality, or political citizenship, but through incorporation into Christ. As St. Peter writes to the baptized: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” (I Peter 2:9).

This fulfillment must not be expressed as contempt for the Jewish people or as though God had become faithless to His promises. But neither may the continuing mystery of Israel be transformed into a political theology that treats a modern nation-state as sacred, beyond criticism, or automatically justified in everything it does.

No government is above the law of God.

Israelis possess an inviolable human dignity. Palestinians possess the same inviolable human dignity. Jewish civilians may never be treated as legitimate targets because of the conduct of their government. Palestinian civilians may never be treated as expendable because of the conduct of terrorist organizations.

The murder of civilians, terrorism, hostage-taking, indiscriminate violence, collective punishment, forced displacement, and deliberate deprivation of the necessities of life cannot be justified by ethnicity, religion, historical suffering, territorial claims, or assertions of national security.

A people’s past suffering does not grant its government permission to inflict injustice upon another people. Nor does the injustice suffered by Palestinians justify antisemitism or violence against Jews.

Catholics  must therefore reject two opposing distortions: antisemitism, which attributes collective guilt or malice to Jewish people, and an uncritical Christian Zionism, which converts political allegiance to the State of Israel into a supposed requirement of biblical faith.

Criticism of particular policies or military actions of the Israeli government is not, in itself, antisemitism. It becomes antisemitic when it assigns collective guilt to Jews, employs hatred or racial stereotypes, denies Jewish people their human dignity, or excuses violence against them.

The same moral standard must be applied to anti-Palestinian hatred and to rhetoric that dismisses the lives, rights, or sufferings of Palestinians. Neither Jewish nor Palestinian suffering may be treated as morally insignificant.

The Church must not allow the necessary fight against antisemitism to silence legitimate moral judgment. Authentic friendship does not require moral blindness. Respect for every people requires that the same moral law be applied to all.

The Church stands neither with ethnic hatred nor with political idolatry. She stands with truth, justice, the innocent, and the peace that can be founded only upon recognition of the dignity of every human person.

10. The Authority of a Vatican Note

The faithful should also understand the nature of the document under discussion.

A note issued by dicasteries and approved for publication by the Roman Pontiff deserves serious and respectful attention. It must not be treated with contempt. At the same time, such a note is not identical in authority to Sacred Scripture, an infallible definition, a solemn conciliar constitution, or the constant and universal teaching of the Church.

The Church’s documents must be interpreted according to the hierarchy of truths and in continuity with the deposit of faith.

No isolated sentence may be interpreted as overturning:

• Christ’s missionary mandate;
• The dogma that Jesus Christ is the unique and universal Savior;
• The necessity of faith and baptism;
• The divine institution of the Church;
• The missionary nature of the Church;
• Or the obligation to evangelize all peoples.

Where a later text is capable of an orthodox interpretation, Catholics should read it in harmony with Scripture and Tradition. Where wording is ambiguous, the ambiguity must be clarified by what the Church has consistently taught.

An expression cannot acquire an orthodox meaning merely because it appears in an ecclesiastical document. Its meaning must conform to the faith once delivered to the saints.

11. Pastoral Principles for Faithful Catholic Witness

Since a bishop must never regard himself as released from the duty to teach the truth, defend the deposit of faith, warn against errors that endanger souls, and encourage the faithful to remain steadfast in Christ, I therefore offer the following pastoral principles as an episcopal exhortation to Catholics throughout our nation and to all who desire to remain faithful to the missionary mandate of Jesus Christ:

• Every Catholic effort at interreligious dialogue must be grounded in the unambiguous confession that Jesus Christ is the unique and universal Savior of humanity.
• Other religions must not be presented as parallel paths of salvation or as alternative revelations possessing equal divine authority.
• Genuine elements of truth and goodness found in other religious traditions may be recognized. At the same time, beliefs that contradict divine revelation must not be affirmed, treated as salvific in themselves, or deliberately concealed when clarity is required.
• Dialogue must never be used to discourage conversion, baptism, reception into the Catholic Church, apologetics, catechesis, or the explicit proclamation of the Gospel.
• Catholics who participate in interreligious dialogue should be deeply formed in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the authoritative teaching of the Church. Ignorance of the Catholic faith is not openness, and doctrinal uncertainty is not humility.
• Cooperation of people with other religions in defending human dignity, assisting the poor, pursuing justice, and working for authentic peace is praiseworthy when it does not require doctrinal compromise or create religious confusion.
• Catholics must exercise particular prudence regarding common prayer and participation in non-Christian religious rites. Nothing should be done that creates the appearance that all religions worship God in an equivalent manner or that their rites possess equal truth or salvific value.
• Bishops, priests, deacons, religious, catechists, educators, and parents should explain clearly the essential difference between coercive proselytism and authentic evangelization.
• Catholic institutions must never portray conversion as an embarrassment, an act of hostility, a form of cultural aggression, or a relic of an earlier age. To invite another person freely and lovingly to know Jesus Christ is an act of charity.
• Catholics should pray explicitly for the conversion of the world, the spread of the Gospel, the salvation of souls, and the gathering of all peoples into the unity of Christ’s Church.
• The Church’s necessary condemnation of antisemitism must never be used to prevent legitimate moral criticism of the policies or actions of the State of Israel.
• Criticism of the State of Israel must never attribute collective guilt to Jewish people, deny their human dignity and legitimate security, employ antisemitic stereotypes, or become a pretext for hate or violence.
• The same Christian concern for justice must defend the dignity, safety, and legitimate rights of both Israelis and Palestinians. The suffering of one people must never be invoked to excuse indifference toward the suffering of another.
• No political ideology, nation, government, or military force may be treated as exempt from the natural moral law. Every state and every political authority stands under the judgment of God.
• Catholics must resist every attempt – whether ecclesiastical, cultural, or political – to separate charity from truth. Charity without truth becomes sentimentality; truth without charity becomes a weapon. Authentic Christian witness requires both.

I offer these principles in fulfillment of the responsibility placed upon every bishop to guard the apostolic faith and proclaim the word “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). I urge the faithful to examine every contemporary proposal concerning religious dialogue in the light of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the perennial teaching of the Church.

No Catholic should permit a misplaced desire for social acceptance to silence the name of Jesus Christ. No priest, teacher, or parent should leave those entrusted to his or her care uncertain about the necessity of Christ, the missionary nature of the Church, or the supreme duty to seek the salvation of souls.

We must speak with charity, patience, and humility. But we must speak.

12. Truth and Charity Cannot Be Divided 

The Church rejects two opposing errors in her relations with other religions.

The first is hostility: contempt for those who believe differently, coercion, mockery, discrimination, or violence. Such conduct contradicts the dignity of the human person and the charity of Christ.

The second is indifferentism: the claim that religious differences are ultimately unimportant, that all religions are equally willed by God as paths of salvation, or that inviting others to conversion is unnecessary or offensive.

The Catholic path is neither hostility nor indifferentism. It is truth in charity.

We will respect those who believe differently. We will defend their human dignity and legitimate freedom. We will listen patiently, cooperate in just causes, correct falsehood without contempt, and refuse every form of coercion. But we will not be silent about Jesus Christ.

We will not conceal His divinity in order to make dialogue easier. We will not speak as though the Cross were merely a Christian symbol among many. We will not reduce evangelization to good example without proclamation. We will not treat baptism as unnecessary, the Church as optional, or conversion as a violation of fraternity.

The deepest fraternity is not achieved by withholding the truth that saves.

Neither will we permit religious dialogue to become an instrument of political favoritism. We will condemn antisemitism without surrendering the right and duty to judge the actions of the State of Israel according to the moral law. We will defend Jewish people against hatred while also defending the dignity and lives of Palestinians. We will not allow the suffering of one people to render us blind to the suffering of another.

The Apostles did not surrender their lives for the proposition that all religions are different expressions of the same search. The martyrs died because they confessed one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one saving name: Jesus Christ.

The world does not need a Church ashamed of the Gospel. It needs a Church consumed by love for Christ and therefore consumed by love for souls.

Let us hear again the words of St. Paul: “For Christ therefore we are ambassadors, God, as it were exhorting by us. For Christ, we beseech you, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

This appeal remains the mission of the Church. It will remain so until Christ returns in glory.

Entrusting all nations to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of Evangelization, and to the protection of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, I remain

In Christ,

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland