I had no desire to ferment division or to fuel the kind of angry traditionalist rhetoric that sometimes uses legitimate concerns as cover for disobedience or contempt.

But I also couldn’t escape the clear instruction Carlo had given me.

When you see the crisis developing, you need to make this warning public, directed explicitly to bishops and cardinals.

Throughout 2024, I felt a growing urgency.

The young bishop who had visited me was not alone.

I began hearing from other bishops, usually in private conversations, who expressed anguish about the pressure they faced to remain silent on certain issues.

One bishop from North America told me, “I know I should preach clearly about the sinfulness of living together before marriage, about the impossibility of same-sex marriage in God’s design.

But if I do, I’ll be denounced by half my priests, attacked in the media, possibly even investigated by the Vatican for being uncharitable.

The safest course is just to stay silent.

” “But safe for whom?” I asked him.

Not for the souls who need to hear the truth.

He nodded sadly.

I know, I know, but I’m afraid.

That conversation haunted me.

Here was a successor of the apostles, a man ordained to shepherd souls, paralyzed by fear of cultural rejection.

This was precisely the temptation of silence Carlo had warned about.

I decided that I needed to speak publicly and directly, not with anger or condemnation, but with the urgency of a mother warning shepherds that wolves are attacking their sheep while they remain silent.

I began preparing a public letter addressed specifically to bishops and cardinals, incorporating everything Carlo had told me in September 2006.

But before releasing it, I wanted one final confirmation that this was truly what God was asking of me.

I made a pilgrimage to Aisi in January 2025 to pray at Carlo’s tomb.

I spent hours there begging for clarity.

Carlo, if this message is truly from God through you, and if now is truly the time to direct it explicitly to the bishops, give me an unmistakable sign.

The sign came in a way I could never have anticipated.

As I knelt praying at Carlo’s tomb in Aisi, an elderly bishop I had never met before approached me.

He had recognized me from photos and he asked if we could speak privately.

We went to a quiet corner of the church.

He was visibly emotional.

Senora Salzano, he began.

I am 82 years old.

I have been a bishop for 40 years and I have failed.

his voice broke.

I have failed because for the last 20 years I have remained silent about difficult truths that my people needed to hear.

I told myself I was being pastoral, being merciful, avoiding unnecessary offense.

But the truth is I was a coward.

I listened, tears streaming down my face as this elderly bishop confessed his silent complicity in the crisis Carlo had predicted.

My priests don’t preach about sin anymore because I never taught them to.

My young people live together before marriage, use contraception, support abortion rights, and I never clearly explained why these things are incompatible with Catholic faith.

I thought I was building bridges.

Instead, I abandoned souls.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked gently.

He looked at me with eyes full of anguish.

because I read a transcript of one of your talks where you mentioned that Carlo warned about shepherds who would remain silent out of fear and I realized that’s exactly what I’ve been and I wanted you to know that your son was right.

The temptation is real.

The crisis is real and we bishops need to hear this warning directly explicitly before it’s too late for us to change course.

He took my hands.

Please, he said don’t soften the message.

Don’t be diplomatic.

Tell us bishops the truth that our silence is not mercy, it’s cowardice.

That we will answer to Christ for every soul that was lost because we were afraid to speak clearly.

Tell us before we die in our failure.

I embraced this elderly bishop as he wept.

And I knew with complete certainty that this was the sign I had prayed for.

God was confirming through this shepherd’s broken confession that the moment had come to deliver Carlo’s warning explicitly to those for whom it was truly intended.

After returning from Aisi, I spent February 2025 finalizing the public letter.

I showed drafts to trusted theologians to ensure I was being faithful to church teaching and respectful of legitimate episcopal authority while still being clear about the prophetic warning.

On March 1st, 2025, I published the letter on Carlo’s website and social media platforms.

The letter was titled, “A message from blessed Carlo Acutis to bishops and cardinals, the temptation of silence.

” It laid out everything Carlo had told me on September 23rd, 2006, but now explicitly directed to the shepherds.

He had warned about your excellencies, your eminences.

My son Carlo Autis 19 years before his beatatification was shown by God that in the decades of the 2010s, 2020s and 2030s, bishops and cardinals would face a specific temptation.

The temptation to remain silent about difficult gospel truths about sin, repentance, hell, the need for conversion, the moral absolutes regarding human sexuality out of fear of being rejected by secular culture, fear of being called intolerant or uncharitable, fear of losing whatever social respectability the church still possesses in Western societies.

Carlo warned that this silence, though it would be rationalized as pastoral mercy or accompanyment, is actually cowardice and it has devastating consequences.

Confused sheep who no longer know what the church truly teaches.

Souls abandoned to spiritual death in the name of not causing offense.

And ultimately, the withering of the church in regions where shepherds lack the courage to proclaim unpopular truths.

I was given this warning 19 years ago, but I only now understand that it was meant primarily for you, the shepherds, not primarily for the lay faithful.

And I am delivering it to you now because the crisis Carlo predicted is fully upon us.

And there is still time for those who have fallen into this temptation to repent and reclaim their prophetic voice.

Speak clearly about sin.

Preach about hell, real, eternal, the destiny of those who die in mortal sin unrepentant.

Teach the moral absolutes that govern human sexuality, marriage, the dignity of life from conception to natural death.

Do not confuse accompanying people with affirming them in lifestyles that lead to death.

have the courage to be unpopular, to be rejected by the culture, to be called harsh or unloving by those who want the church to conform to secular consensus.

The alternative cowardly silence that abandons souls to eternal death is a betrayal of your pastoral vocation and will bring upon you a judgment far more severe than any cultural rejection you fear now.

” The response was immediate and intense.

The publication of that letter in March 2025 divided Catholic opinion sharply.

Some bishops and cardinals publicly thanked me for the reminder of their prophetic duty.

Others criticized me, sometimes harshly, for presuming to instruct bishops as a lay woman.

But what transformed me personally wasn’t the public debate.

It was the private correspondence I received in the weeks and months following the letters publication.

Dozens of bishops wrote to me, some publicly, most privately, confessing that they had fallen into exactly the temptation Carlo had warned about.

They described the internal rationalizations.

I thought I was being prudent by not preaching about controversial issues.

I told myself I was building bridges by staying silent on divisive topics.

I convinced myself that accompaniment meant never calling people to repentance.

Many of these bishops expressed gratitude for being called back to fidelity.

One cardinal wrote, “Your son’s warning was a grace I didn’t know I needed.

I had become so focused on not offending anyone that I forgot my primary duty is to save souls.

Even if the truth I must speak offends their self-justifications, I am changing my preaching, my teaching, my pastoral practice.

Pray for me as I find courage to be faithful rather than popular.

But perhaps the most profound transformation was in my own understanding of prophetic witness.

For 19 years, I had shared Carlo’s teachings thinking of myself as a transmitter of information about a holy teenager’s spirituality.

Now I understood that I had been given a prophetic mission and that sometimes prophetic witness requires the courage to speak uncomfortable truths to those in authority.

Trusting that the Holy Spirit who gave the warning will also give it effectiveness.

I also realized something about the nature of Carlo’s sanctity that I had not fully grasped before.

His holiness wasn’t just personal piety or eucharistic devotion.

It included prophetic clarity about the church’s future struggles and pastoral boldness to name those struggles even when doing so risked being unpopular or misunderstood.

The transformation continues today.

I now structure my public ministry around helping bishops rediscover their prophetic voice.

I organize retreats where bishops can discuss together the pressures they face and encourage one another to fidelity.

I connect bishops who are preaching clearly with others who want to learn how to do so effectively.

Most importantly, I’ve learned to trust that when God gives a prophetic warning, he also provides the grace for it to be heard.

Even if it takes 19 years to identify the right audience and another period of intense opposition before the message finally penetrates the hearts that most need to hear it.

We are now in 2025 and the crisis Carlo predicted 19 years ago is fully manifested.

Across multiple continents, bishops and cardinals face daily the temptation to remain silent about gospel truths that are unpopular in secular culture.

The pressure to conform, to be accepted, to avoid being labeled as intolerant or uncharitable is immense.

But there is also a counter movement emerging.

Bishops who read Carlos’s warning, whether through my letter or through other channels by which God is speaking the same message, are finding courage to reclaim their prophetic voice.

They are preaching clearly about sin and repentance.

They are teaching without ambiguity about the church’s moral doctrine.

They are willing to suffer cultural rejection rather than abandon souls to confusion.

The warning Carlo gave is not a condemnation but an invitation to conversion.

Even shepherds who have fallen into the temptation of silence can change course.

They can begin preaching truth clearly.

They can stop rationalizing cowardice as compassion.

They can remember that their primary duty is not to be liked by the world but to save the souls entrusted to their care.

to the bishops and cardinals who may encounter this testimony.

My son saw you 19 years before the crisis fully developed.

He saw the specific temptation you would face.

The temptation to remain silent about difficult truths for fear of cultural rejection.

And he gave you a warning that silence is not mercy.

It is cowardice.

And it has eternal consequences for souls under your pastoral care.

You still have time to reclaim your prophetic voice.

To preach about sin, including the sexual sins that culture claims are not sins.

To teach about hell, real, eternal, the destiny of those who die in mortal sin.

To proclaim the need for conversion, not just accompaniment, but actual repentance and transformation.

to have courage to be unpopular, to be rejected by elite opinion, to be called harsh by those who want comfort rather than truth.

The alternative continued silence that abandons souls to spiritual death is a betrayal of the vocation you received at your episcopal ordination.

You were ordained to be a shepherd, to guard the flock from wolves, to lead souls to heaven.

You were not ordained to be popular, to win approval from secular culture, or to avoid difficult teachings that might cost you social respectability.

To the lay faithful, pray for your bishops.

Many of them are genuinely struggling under enormous pressure.

Support those bishops who are speaking clearly even when their clarity makes you uncomfortable.

And if your bishop is among those who has fallen into silence, don’t respond with contempt or disobedience, but pray for his conversion and gently encourage him toward greater fidelity.

Carlo’s warning, which I misunderstood for 19 years, is finally being delivered to its true audience.

The crisis he predicted is upon us.

The temptation he identified is fully active.

But his warning also contains hope that even shepherds who have been silent can find courage to speak.

That even a church confused by ambiguous leadership can be called back to clarity.

That even in times of widespread compromise, there are always those who remain faithful and whose fidelity becomes seed of renewal.

My son Carlo Acutis at 15 years old and dying of leukemia was shown the exact crisis of pastoral leadership we are living through in 2025.

He warned about bishops and cardinals who would remain silent about gospel truths out of fear of cultural rejection.

He instructed me to deliver that warning directly to them when I finally understood who the message was truly for.

That moment is now.

To every bishop and cardinal reading or hearing this, Carlos saw you.

He warned about you.

Not with condemnation, but with prophetic love that wants to save you from betraying your vocation.

The temptation of silence is real.

The consequences are eternal.

But there is still time to repent, to reclaim your voice, to fulfill the pastoral duty you were ordained to carry.

Speak truth.

Preach clearly.

Have courage to be rejected by the world rather than abandon souls to confusion.

Because the judgment you will face from Christ for cowardly silence will be far more terrible than any cultural rejection you fear now.

This is the warning a 15-year-old holy teenager gave 19 years ago.

This is the warning I carried for 19 years before understanding its true audience.

This is the warning that must be heard before it is too late for this generation of shepherds to change course.

May God grant you the grace of courage.

May the intercession of blessed Carlo Acutis strengthen your pastoral fidelity.

And may the souls entrusted to your care find in you shepherds who love them enough to speak the difficult truths that lead to eternal life.

Amen.

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