The Purge at Sacred Heart: When Fidelity Gets You Fired and Flattery Gets You Tenure
How the Detroit Seminary Silenced Its Honest Professors and Gave the Chair of Dogmatic Theology to a Papal Spin Doctor
(Photo courtesy of Complicit Clergy)
In what should be a national scandal, but will likely be spun as “administrative restructuring,” two longtime theologians, Dr. Ralph Martin and Dr. Eduardo Echeverria, were abruptly fired on July 23 from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. No real explanation was given. One was silenced by a non-disclosure agreement. The other was told by Archbishop Edward Weisenburger that an explanation “wouldn’t be helpful.”
It was helpful enough, though, for the rest of us. The message is clear: in the Church of Pope Leo XIV, doctrinal fidelity is a fireable offense. Especially if you dare to say the problem might be coming from the top.
The Offense? Telling the Truth
Let’s be clear: Martin and Echeverria are not radicals. They’re not sedevacantists. They’re not even SSPX. They’re the kind of “conservative Catholics” who spent years trying to reconcile the contradictions of Vatican II with the faith of the ages. They affirmed the legitimacy of Pope Francis. They tried to make sense of Amoris Laetitia.
But eventually, they reached the only conclusion honesty permits: the confusion isn’t accidental. It’s systemic. And it’s coming from the top.
Martin, in A Church in Crisis, documented the rise of doctrinal ambiguity, the loss of moral clarity, and the infiltration of universalism, even noting the damaging effects of Francis’s infamous wish that Hell might be empty.
Echeverria, who had originally defended Francis in the first edition of The Legacy of Vatican II, reversed course in his expanded edition, writing:
“I have now come to accept that Francis has contributed to the current crisis in the Church — doctrinal, moral, and ecclesial — due to the lack of clarity, ambiguity of his words and actions, one-sidedness in formulating issues, and a tendency for demeaning Christian doctrine and the moral law.”
In other words: he told the truth. And so he was removed: quietly, efficiently, and under legal gag order.
Meanwhile, Fastiggi Thrives
While the orthodox are being expelled, Where Peter Is author, Dr. Robert Fastiggi, remains untouched. In fact, he holds the prestigious Bishop Kevin M. Britt Chair of Dogmatic Theology and Christology. Why? Because he does what the regime demands: he defends the indefensible.
Fastiggi has rationalized Amoris Laetitia, Fiducia Supplicans, the death penalty revision, and more. He denies Amoris contradicts prior teaching. He insists Francis hasn’t introduced novelty; even as footnote 351 detonates the moral theology of John Paul II and Trent. He calls Fiducia Supplicans a pastoral blessing of persons, not sin, parroting the same word games used to greenlight sacrilege.
As an example, here is a man who defends John Paul II kissing the Koran in clip one…
Yet in clip two he condescendingly yells at the Trads in the audience that they are in “schism” and in danger of eternal Hell for not being in communion with Koran kissing.1
By any objective account, Fastiggi is not a theologian. He’s a public relations asset; a spiritual bureaucrat tasked with laundering rupture into “development.”
This is who gets tenure in the Church of the New Pentecost.
Sacred Heart’s Pivot: From Tradition-Tolerant to Purge-Ready
National Catholic Reporter tried to warn us back in 2019. Their headline read:
“Pope Francis’ critics at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit are vocal online.”
The article painted a nightmare scene: professors who support Humanae Vitae, doubt the wisdom of Amoris Laetitia, and have concerns about doctrinal relativism. The horror! Janet Smith once joked about Viganò being pope. Ralph Martin dared suggest Francis may be promoting universalism. Edward Peters wrote that a pope who covers up abuse should resign.
Instead of praising such fidelity, NCR sounded the alarm and, in hindsight, drafted the hit list.
Fast forward to 2025. A new bishop takes over. Latin Masses are suppressed. Ad orientem is banned. Professors who criticize the Vatican are terminated. Faculty are silenced with NDAs. And the seminary’s orientation shifts fully toward the papacy of Francis and the continuation under Leo XIV.
The seminary’s course offerings now revolve around “missionary discipleship,” “synodality,” and the teachings of Evangelii Gaudium. The entire lay theology program is built on the New Evangelization, but only the “Francis version,” not the Benedict XVI version that still assumed objective truth.
Faculty like Mary Healy, Donald Wallenfang, and Matthew Gerlach are prominent in pushing Francis-aligned messaging. Healy serves on the Pontifical Biblical Commission by papal appointment. Wallenfang and Gerlach teach modules on Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis’s vision, and the so-called “field hospital Church.” They are functionaries of Vatican II’s pastoral revolution.
In other words, the purge is complete.
***Update! Ed Peters is now fired as well!***
Hiraeth readers had warning he was on the NCR “hit list.” Tomorrow’s news today!
The Real Clericalism
Progressives often accuse traditionalists of “clericalism.” But nothing is more clericalist than punishing theologians for telling the truth about a pope. Nothing reeks of papolatry more than firing two respected scholars for politely questioning Francis, while promoting a career sycophant who denies that truth and clarity even matter.
And what do we hear from the bishops? Silence. From the seminary? Silence. From the theologians still inside the system? More silence.
The rest have been silenced by force.
Final Verdict
This isn’t about liturgy or even about Francis anymore. It’s about a system that will not tolerate even the gentlest rebuke of doctrinal revolution.
Ralph Martin and Eduardo Echeverria were not punished for disobedience. They were punished for honesty. For fidelity. For quietly refusing to lie about the collapse of Catholic theology under Francis.
This is your Church, post-Vatican II:
Praise Francis/ Leo, keep your job.
Speak the truth, pack your things.
The rest of us had better take notes.
See the full debate between Dr. Fastiggi and Bishop Donald Sanborn here:
Ralph Martin is as Christ-centered a theologian as you can get. His “The Catholic Church at the End of an Age” helped me into the Church. Meanwhile James Martin teaches without supervision! Just wow.
This is the ugly face of the antichurch led by corrupt antipopes from the top down since 1958. Apparently, NOTHING has changed since I was forced to leave the seminary twenty five years ago. More of same heresy and apostasy. It all makes me want to puke.