Bishop Erik Varden urges truth over ambition in his Lenten retreat reflection for Pope Leo XIV and Vatican leaders.
Newsroom (25/02/2026 Gaudium Press ) At the Vatican’s annual Lenten Spiritual Exercises, Bishop Erik Varden delivered his fifth reflection on the theme “The Splendour of Truth.” Speaking before Pope Leo XIV, cardinals residing in Rome, and the heads of the Dicasteries, Bishop Varden offered a meditation that intertwined theological insight with practical discernment for life in the modern world.
Drawing on the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, he began with a disarming observation: temptation is an unavoidable part of human existence. Bernard warns, “No one lives on earth without temptation; if one is relieved of one, let him surely expect another.” For Bishop Varden, this reminder is not one of despair but of realism. Humanity’s trials, he said, are “useful,” not because they are pleasant, but because they strengthen fidelity to truth. By resisting falsehood—the “arrows of the Father of Lies”—believers grow resilient enough to “strengthen our brethren.”
The Shadow of Ambition
From this foundation, Bishop Varden turned towards a particular danger: ambition. He echoed Bernard’s vivid condemnation, calling ambition “a subtle ill, a secret virus, an occult pest… the mother of hypocrisy and the origin of vices.” In Bishop Varden’s reflection, ambition is not merely the desire to excel but a distortion of truth, “a madness that comes about when truth is forgotten.”
He pointed out the tragic irony of ambition within those called to selfless service. Literature and film, from Jane Austen’s obsequious parsons to Patrice Leconte’s Ridicule, have long mocked the ambitious clergyman. Yet for Bishop Varden, such portrayals signal something deeper—a warning that the abandonment of truth leads to absurdity and spiritual decay.
The Question of Truth in Modern Times
The bishop then addressed the haunting modern question: “What is truth?” Contemporary men and women, he noted, ask this question with sincerity, though often amid confusion and fear. To this search, he urged a renewed seriousness: “We cannot let it go unanswered.” For Christians, he said, there is no room to waste energy on fear, vanity, or ambition when the world demands authentic truth.
Truth, in Bishop Varden’s vision, is not abstract. It is personal—Christ himself, who “not only shields us; he renews us.” The Christian task, then, is to see the world in Christ’s light and to allow that truth to radiate through one’s life.
The Church’s Voice Amid Changing Times
Bishop Varden also addressed the temptation for the Church to chase cultural relevance. To “keep up with the world’s fashions,” he said, is a dubious undertaking. The Church, by nature, moves slowly and often appears “last-season” by secular standards. Yet this seeming slowness, he suggested, is a strength. If the Church remains faithful to “her own language”—that of Scripture, liturgy, and the wisdom of saints and poets—she will always be able to express ancient truths in ways that orient culture rather than echo it.
The Witness of Holiness
Quoting Cardinal Schuster’s deathbed words—“It seems that people no longer let themselves be convinced by our preaching, but in the presence of holiness, they still believe, they still kneel and pray”—Bishop Varden closed his reflection on a note of transformative hope. Holiness, he said, is the embodiment of truth, the most compelling answer to the world’s doubts.
He recalled that the universal call to holiness, proclaimed powerfully by the Second Vatican Council, was itself a call to make the splendour of truth visible in life and love. The Christian claim to truth, Bishop Varden concluded, “becomes compelling when its splendour is made personally evident with sacrificial love in sanctity, cleansed of temptations to temporise.”
In the quiet of the Vatican retreat, as bishops and cardinals pondered these words, the challenge hung unmistakably in the air: to live truth not as an idea, but as a radiant way of being.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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