When the trains stop running in Rome, it’s more than just an inconvenience. It’s a statement.
Throughout 2025, Italy has been gripped by waves of strikes that have brought public transport, healthcare, and education to a standstill. Workers are demanding fair wages, better conditions, and most importantly—respect. The strikes aren’t just about money. They’re about dignity, voice, and the realization that the systems they once trusted are no longer working in their favor.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the same questions driving workers into the streets apply far beyond politics. They echo through the halls of religious institutions, into our personal beliefs, and straight into the heart of what it means to have faith in uncertain times.
When the people we’re told to trust fail us—whether they’re politicians, employers, or religious leaders—what do we do? Do we keep the faith? Or do we walk away?
Why Rome’s Strikes Matter Beyond Politics
Rome is a city built on two pillars: political power and religious authority. The Vatican sits at its heart, a symbol of faith for over a billion Catholics worldwide. But just blocks away, everyday Romans are fighting for survival.
The irony is impossible to ignore.
While the Catholic Church controls billions in assets and wields immense global influence, Italian workers struggle to make ends meet. Public services crumble. Salaries stagnate. And the institutions that are supposed to serve the people—government, healthcare, education—fail to deliver.
Sound familiar?
Throughout history, we’ve seen this pattern repeat: institutions grow powerful, they become self-serving, and eventually, the people demand change. The Protestant Reformation. The fall of monarchies. The civil rights movement. And now, in 2025, the strikes across Italy.
But this isn’t just about labor disputes or political corruption. It’s about something deeper—trust. When the institutions we depend on stop serving us, when they prioritize self-preservation over people, we’re forced to ask: What else have we been trusting blindly?
The Crisis of Trust: From Government to God
In Joseph’s Letter, protagonist Michael Battersby grapples with this exact question. After losing his wife in a mysterious accident, he embarks on a dangerous quest to find historical proof of Jesus’s resurrection. But his journey isn’t driven by unwavering faith—it’s fueled by grief, doubt, and a desperate need for answers.
The Vatican, however, doesn’t want him to succeed.
Cardinal O’Grady, representing the Church’s institutional interests, actively works against Michael. Not because Michael’s search is heretical, but because truth is dangerous when you’ve built power on mystery. The Church thrives on faith without evidence. Proof would shift the balance. It would give people certainty—but it would also give them questions.
This mirrors what’s happening in Rome today. The strikes aren’t just about wages. They’re about people realizing that the systems they’ve trusted—government, employers, institutions—aren’t working for them. They’re working for themselves.
And when that realization hits, everything is up for reconsideration.
Including faith.
When Institutions Prioritize Power Over People
Let’s be honest: religious institutions aren’t immune to corruption.
The Catholic Church has a long history of prioritizing institutional power over individual well-being. The Crusades. The Inquisition. The systematic cover-up of abuse scandals. These aren’t ancient relics—some of these injustices are still being reckoned with today.
And while many Catholics maintain deep, personal faith, there’s growing skepticism about the institution itself. Can you trust an organization that has repeatedly chosen secrecy over transparency? That has protected abusers rather than victims? That holds billions in wealth while its followers struggle?
The same questions apply to governments. To corporations. To any institution that accumulates power.
When Italian workers strike, they’re saying: We trusted you to serve us. You didn’t. So we’re taking our power back.
When someone leaves the Church, they’re saying the same thing: I trusted you to guide me. You failed. So I’m finding my own way.
This isn’t about losing faith. It’s about redirecting it—away from institutions and back toward something more personal, more authentic.
The Intersection of Faith and Politics in Italy
Italy’s relationship with religion and politics has always been complicated.
For centuries, the Catholic Church held direct political power through the Papal States, controlling not just spiritual matters but land, law, and governance. Even after Italian unification in the 19th century, the Vatican retained significant influence over Italian politics and society.
Today, that influence persists in complex ways. Catholic values still shape Italian law, particularly around issues like abortion, marriage, and education. But younger Italians are increasingly secular, questioning traditions their grandparents accepted without hesitation.
The strikes of 2025 reflect this shift. They’re not explicitly anti-religious, but they are anti-authority. They represent a generation tired of being told what to accept, what to believe, and what to endure.
And that generational tension—between tradition and change, obedience and autonomy—is at the core of spiritual questioning today.
What Joseph’s Letter Teaches Us About Institutional Faith
Michael Battersby’s quest in Joseph’s Letter isn’t just about finding historical artifacts. It’s about wrestling with the same questions facing people today: Can we trust institutions to tell us the truth? And if not, where do we find it?
Throughout the novel, Michael encounters resistance from the Vatican at every turn. They have access to resources he needs. They control information he’s seeking. And they use that power to keep him from uncovering what might be the most important discovery in Christian history.
Why?
Because institutions—religious or otherwise—have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Change is destabilizing. Truth is unpredictable. And people who start questioning one thing often start questioning everything.
This is exactly what’s happening in Italy. Workers aren’t just striking for better pay. They’re questioning the entire system that told them to work hard, trust the process, and things would get better. They were lied to. And now they’re demanding accountability.
The same applies to faith. When you start questioning whether the Church is trustworthy, you start questioning everything it taught you. Not because you’ve lost your spirituality, but because you’re reclaiming it.
Can Faith Survive Without Institutions?
Here’s the paradox: many people who leave organized religion don’t lose their faith. They redirect it.
They stop trusting the institution but continue seeking spiritual meaning. They question doctrine but still pray. They reject the Church’s authority but embrace the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, or other spiritual figures on their own terms.
This is what makes institutional leaders nervous. Because if people realize they don’t need the institution to have faith, the institution loses its power.
And that’s why Michael’s search in Joseph’s Letter is so dangerous to the Vatican. Not because he might disprove the resurrection—but because he might prove it. And if proof exists outside the Church’s control, the Church loses its role as gatekeeper.
The same applies to any institution. When workers realize they can organize without permission, they strike. When believers realize they can seek truth without intermediaries, they question.
And in both cases, power shifts.
What Can We Learn from Rome’s Strikes?
The strikes in Italy offer lessons that extend far beyond labor rights. They’re a reminder that:
1. Trust must be earned, not demanded.
Institutions—political, religious, or otherwise—can’t expect blind loyalty. If they want people’s trust, they need to serve people’s interests.
2. Silence is complicity.
The Italian workers striking in 2025 aren’t just fighting for themselves. They’re refusing to accept broken systems on behalf of future generations. Sometimes, the most faithful thing you can do is speak up.
3. Questioning isn’t betrayal.
When Michael Battersby questions the Church in Joseph’s Letter, he’s not abandoning his faith—he’s deepening it. Real faith can withstand questions. Real leadership can handle scrutiny.
4. Institutions change when people demand it.
The Catholic Church has reformed before—slowly, reluctantly, but it has changed. The same is true for governments, schools, workplaces. But change doesn’t happen unless people push for it.
5. Faith and doubt can coexist.
You don’t have to choose between belief and skepticism. In fact, the most authentic faith often emerges from the tension between the two.
The Questions We’re All Asking
Whether you’re watching Italian workers strike, reading about Church scandals, or navigating your own spiritual journey, the questions are the same:
Who can I trust?
What do I believe, and why do I believe it?
Am I following my own convictions, or just repeating what I was taught?
If the institutions I trusted have failed, where do I go from here?
These aren’t easy questions. But they’re necessary ones.
In Joseph’s Letter, Michael Battersby doesn’t find easy answers. His search is messy, dangerous, and filled with setbacks. But he keeps going because the alternative—blindly accepting what he’s told—is worse than the uncertainty of seeking truth.
The same applies to our lives today. We can accept systems that don’t serve us, or we can question them. We can follow institutions that prioritize power over people, or we can seek our own understanding.
The choice is ours.
Reflection Questions: Where Do You Stand?
As you think about trust, institutions, and faith in your own life, consider these questions:
💭 What institution—religious, political, or otherwise—have you trusted without questioning? Is that trust still deserved?
💭 When was the last time you spoke up against something unjust? What held you back—or pushed you forward?
💭 If you’ve left a religious institution, did you lose your faith, or redirect it?
💭 What would it take for you to trust an institution again? Transparency? Accountability? Something else?
💭 Are there beliefs you hold simply because they were taught to you, or have you examined them for yourself?
Final Thoughts: Faith Beyond Institutions
The strikes in Rome remind us that people are waking up. They’re questioning systems they once accepted. They’re demanding better. And they’re refusing to stay silent.
The same shift is happening spiritually. People are leaving churches in record numbers—not because they’ve lost their spirituality, but because they’re seeking it in more authentic ways. They’re reading, questioning, and finding their own path.
This isn’t a crisis of faith. It’s an evolution of it.
And that evolution requires courage—the courage to question what we’ve been told, the courage to seek truth even when it’s uncomfortable, and the courage to trust ourselves when institutions have failed us.
Michael Battersby’s journey in Joseph’s Letter captures this struggle perfectly. He’s not trying to destroy faith—he’s trying to find what’s real beneath centuries of dogma and institutional control.
Maybe that’s what we all need to do.
Explore These Themes Further in Joseph’s Letter
If this post resonated with you, you’ll find even deeper explorations of faith, doubt, and institutional power in Joseph’s Letter. The novel follows a grieving professor’s dangerous quest to uncover historical proof of the resurrection—and the Church’s desperate attempts to stop him.
It’s a thriller that makes you think. A mystery that challenges your beliefs. And a story that asks: What if faith requires doubt?
Download the first chapter free and step into a narrative that will stay with you long after the last page.
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About the Author:
Robert Parsons is the author of Joseph’s Letter, a novel exploring faith, doubt, and the search for truth. After spending decades teaching religion to adolescents, Robert knows firsthand the questions that keep people up at night—and he’s not afraid to explore them. His mission is simple: encourage people to think outside the box about religion, belief, and what it means to live forever.
Robert Parsons 