Bishop Strickland calls out Leo-Vatican document on interreligious dialogue
Bishop Joseph Strickland said that 'A Journey of Hope,' marking 60 years of Nostra Aetate, includes ambiguous language and asks whether 'dialogue has been placed above evangelization.'
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StricklandBishop Joseph E. Strickland / YouTube
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Thu Sep 17, 2026 - 2:29 pm EDT
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(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Joseph Strickland, the former bishop of Tyler, Texas, who was removed by Pope Francis after refusing to curtail the Traditional Latin Mass, warned that a new Pope Leo XIV approved-Vatican note on interreligious dialogue “can give rise to grave confusion.”
On September 16, the Dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith, Promoting Christian Unity, and Interreligious Dialogue published “A Journey of Hope,” marking 60 years of Nostra Aetate. Pointing to the document’s ambiguous language, Strickland said, “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.”
“As a bishop, charged before God with guarding the deposit of faith and confirming the faithful in the truth,” Strickland offers corrections noting: (all direct quotations)
· Salvation is not produced independently by different religions.
· The fact that the world has become an interconnected “global village” does not render the missionary mandate obsolete.
· Salvation is not produced independently by different religions
· We cannot affirm that religious systems which deny Christ are parallel paths of revealed truth.
Strickland rejected the notion in the Vatican document, saying that the missionary, after witnessing to the love of Christ, “simply waits” for others to inquire about that love. Rather, he said, “The Apostles did not wait for the nations to approach them” before quoting St. Paul: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (I Corinthians 9:16).
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- 'a journey of hope'
- Bishop Joseph Strickland
- Deposit Of Faith
- Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue
- Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity
- Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
- Evangelization
- missionary mandate
- non-christian religions
- Nostra Aetate
- Pope Francis
- Pope Leo XIV
- Salvation
