The Catholic Church has existed for 2000 years only because I have held her in my heart. This happened from the very beginning because I was with the disciples on Pentecost Day.

Now, I must place the Church even more deeply in my heart because of all the events that will take place. The Synod of Bishops looms on the horizon. This Synod does not result from great fervor or a pouring out of the Spirit. It results from the breakdown in morality, the walking away from Church teaching, the new pressures of modern life and the growing secularism even within the Church.

In many areas, the Church is crumbling. Even the foundations are weak. The Synod will be an attempt to patch the Church together, to stop the exodus of its many members, and to usher in a time of return, a welcome-back. This will be the spirit of the Synod just as “opening the windows” was the spirit of Vatican II.

But what will result from the discussions at the Synod? Such discussions, although animated by sincere desires, carry within themselves great dangers. They carry seeds that are not always seeds of new life but of darkness. Such seeds will be present and that is why I must protect the Church from now until the Synod is completed.