diff --git a/internal/check-packet-render.mjs b/internal/check-packet-render.mjs
index bc480df32..a43e56bff 100644
--- a/internal/check-packet-render.mjs
+++ b/internal/check-packet-render.mjs
@@ -244,6 +244,25 @@ if (translated === 0) {
   fails.push(`lang="${lang}" but no string differs from English — `
     + 'the language block is missing, mis-keyed, or the renderer ignored it')
 }
+// ── "N strings translated" WAS PRINTED, AND ONLY ZERO WAS ASSERTED ──────────
+// A locale regressing from 19 translated keys to 1 passed silently: the only check
+// was `=== 0`. But the count CANNOT be pinned — measured 2026-09-24, de translates
+// 18 of the same 19 keys and fr 17, because a word or two legitimately matches
+// English. Hardcoding 19 would fail two correct catalogs.
+// So assert a FLOOR derived from the catalog itself: most of what a block carries
+// must actually differ from English. Two-thirds leaves generous room for shared
+// proper nouns while still catching a block that has quietly emptied out.
+// The structural half of this — every key PRESENT, all 12 points, all 12 rhythms —
+// is check:packet-strings-parity, which does not need a rendered packet to run.
+if (translated !== null && translated > 0) {
+  const present = Object.keys(catalog.en).filter((k) => typeof catalog.en[k] === 'string'
+    && typeof (catalog[lang] || {})[k] === 'string').length
+  const floor = Math.ceil(present * 2 / 3)
+  if (present && translated < floor) {
+    fails.push(`lang="${lang}" carries ${present} string(s) but only ${translated} differ from `
+      + `English (floor ${floor}) — most of this block has reverted to English text`)
+  }
+}
 if (errs.length) fails.push(`${errs.length} page error(s): ${errs[0]}`)
 if (landscape) fails.push(`${landscape} landscape page(s) — the packet must be portrait`)
 if (pages !== r.sheets) fails.push(`${pages} PDF pages for ${r.sheets} sheets — one sheet must be exactly one page`)
diff --git a/internal/check-packet-strings-parity.mjs b/internal/check-packet-strings-parity.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ca3080b34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/check-packet-strings-parity.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,133 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+// check-packet-strings-parity — the PACKET catalog must be whole in every language.
+//
+// ★ THE GAP THIS CLOSES. check:i18n-parity guards library/i18n/locales — the APP
+// catalogs — and nothing guarded library/scripts/posters/packet-strings.json, which
+// is a separate file with its own shape. Six gates READ it (check-packet-render,
+// check-card-deck, check-print-geometry, check-packet-browser, check-locale-reachable,
+// check-poster-prints) and not one checks that a language block is complete.
+//
+// That matters because the packet is where the 12 PRAYER POINTS and the PRAYER WHEEL
+// live, and those are a stated requirement: they must be translatable into every
+// locale doxa-life needs. A point silently dropped from one block renders that slot
+// through the per-key English fallback — correct runtime behaviour, invisible defect.
+//
+// ⚠ IT ASSERTS PRESENCE, NOT TRANSLATEDNESS, and that distinction is load-bearing.
+// check-packet-render prints "19 strings translated" and only ever asserted
+// `translated === 0`, so a locale regressing from 19 to 1 passed silently. The fix is
+// NOT to pin 19: measured 2026-09-24, de translates 18 and fr 17 of the same 19 keys
+// because a word or two legitimately matches English ("Metacamp", "Status"). Pinning a
+// count fails correct catalogs. What DOES hold for every locale is that every English
+// key EXISTS in every block — a structural fact no translation choice can change.
+//
+// THE ONE DECLARED EXCEPTION is point4_passage + point4_passage_credit: Mark 5:1-20 in
+// full, absent from all ten non-English blocks. That is a LICENSING decision, not an
+// oversight — the English is deliberately public-domain (World English Bible) and most
+// major translations are copyrighted, so it is tracked as
+// DECIDE-MARK5-SCRIPTURE-IS-ENGLISH-IN-EVERY-TRANSLATED-PACKET. It is named here
+// rather than silently tolerated, so the day someone lands a licensed translation the
+// exception can be deleted and the gate tightens by itself.
+import { readFileSync, existsSync } from 'node:fs'
+import { resolve, dirname, join } from 'node:path'
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url'
+
+const REPO = process.env.DOXA_REPO
+  || resolve(dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)), '..')
+const CATALOG = process.env.PACKET_STRINGS
+  || join(REPO, 'library/scripts/posters/packet-strings.json')
+
+if (!existsSync(CATALOG)) {
+  console.error(`PACKET-STRINGS-PARITY: FAIL — no catalog at ${CATALOG}`)
+  process.exit(1)
+}
+const cat = JSON.parse(readFileSync(CATALOG, 'utf8'))
+const en = cat.en
+if (!en) { console.error('PACKET-STRINGS-PARITY: FAIL — no English block to compare against'); process.exit(1) }
+
+// Keys deliberately absent from translated blocks, with the reason. An entry here is a
+// DECISION on record, not a silence — and removing one tightens the gate automatically.
+const DECLARED_ABSENT = {
+  point4_passage: 'Mark 5:1-20 in full — public-domain licensing per language (DECIDE-MARK5-…)',
+  point4_passage_credit: 'the attribution line for the passage above',
+}
+
+// Language blocks are the short keys; anything longer is metadata, not a locale.
+const locales = Object.keys(cat).filter((k) => k !== 'en' && k.length <= 3)
+const strKeys = Object.keys(en).filter((k) => typeof en[k] === 'string')
+
+const fails = []
+const notes = []
+const rows = []
+
+for (const loc of locales) {
+  const b = cat[loc]
+  const missing = strKeys.filter((k) => typeof b[k] !== 'string' && !(k in DECLARED_ABSENT))
+  const absentOk = strKeys.filter((k) => typeof b[k] !== 'string' && (k in DECLARED_ABSENT))
+  if (missing.length) {
+    fails.push(`${loc} is missing ${missing.length} string key(s): ${missing.slice(0, 4).join(', ')}`)
+  }
+
+  // ── THE 12 PRAYER POINTS ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  // Structure, not prose: twelve of them, each carrying every field the renderer
+  // reads. A point with no `text` prints an empty block on a page the reader is
+  // meant to pray through.
+  const pts = b.points
+  if (!Array.isArray(pts)) {
+    fails.push(`${loc} has no points array — the 12 prayer points would fall back wholesale to English`)
+  } else if (pts.length !== en.points.length) {
+    fails.push(`${loc} has ${pts.length} prayer points, expected ${en.points.length}`)
+  } else {
+    for (let i = 0; i < pts.length; i++) {
+      const missF = Object.keys(en.points[i]).filter((f) => pts[i][f] === undefined)
+      if (missF.length) fails.push(`${loc} point ${i + 1} is missing ${missF.join(', ')}`)
+      if (typeof pts[i].text === 'string' && !pts[i].text.trim()) {
+        fails.push(`${loc} point ${i + 1} has an EMPTY text — a blank prayer point is worse than an English one`)
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  // ── THE PRAYER WHEEL ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+  // Twelve rhythms, keyed the same as English. check-packet-render already asserts
+  // all twelve RENDER; this asserts the catalog can supply them in the first place.
+  const rh = b.rhythms
+  if (!rh || typeof rh !== 'object') {
+    fails.push(`${loc} has no rhythms block — the prayer wheel would be English in a ${loc} packet`)
+  } else {
+    const missR = Object.keys(en.rhythms).filter((k) => typeof rh[k] !== 'string')
+    if (missR.length) fails.push(`${loc} is missing ${missR.length} wheel rhythm(s): ${missR.slice(0, 4).join(', ')}`)
+  }
+
+  const translated = strKeys.filter((k) => typeof b[k] === 'string' && b[k] !== en[k]).length
+  const present = strKeys.filter((k) => typeof b[k] === 'string').length
+  rows.push({ loc, present, translated, absentOk: absentOk.length })
+  // Reported, never failed: a locale sharing a word with English is normal, but a
+  // locale sharing ALL of them is indistinguishable from an untranslated block.
+  if (present && translated === 0) {
+    fails.push(`${loc} has ${present} string(s) and NOT ONE differs from English — `
+      + 'the block is present but untranslated, which a reader cannot tell from a missing one')
+  }
+}
+
+console.log('PACKET-STRINGS-PARITY')
+console.log(`  catalog : ${CATALOG.replace(REPO + '/', '')}`)
+console.log(`  locales : ${locales.length} (${locales.join(' ')})`)
+console.log(`  shape   : ${strKeys.length} string key(s) + ${en.points.length} prayer points + `
+  + `${Object.keys(en.rhythms).length} wheel rhythms`)
+for (const r of rows) {
+  console.log(`  ${r.loc.padEnd(3)} ${String(r.present).padStart(2)}/${strKeys.length} present`
+    + `  ${String(r.translated).padStart(2)} translated`
+    + (r.absentOk ? `  (${r.absentOk} declared-absent)` : ''))
+}
+if (Object.keys(DECLARED_ABSENT).length) {
+  console.log('\n  declared absent from every translated block, on record:')
+  for (const [k, why] of Object.entries(DECLARED_ABSENT)) console.log(`    ${k} — ${why}`)
+}
+for (const n of notes) console.log('  ' + n)
+
+if (fails.length) {
+  console.error(`\nPACKET-STRINGS-PARITY: FAIL — ${fails.length} problem(s)`)
+  for (const f of fails) console.error('  - ' + f)
+  process.exit(1)
+}
+console.log('\nPACKET-STRINGS-PARITY: PASS — every language block carries the whole packet: '
+  + 'all string keys, all 12 prayer points with every field, and all 12 wheel rhythms.')
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 48c1d2f59..8471ce672 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -141,12 +141,13 @@
     "check:doc-scripts:self-test": "node internal/check-doc-quotes-scripts.mjs --self-test",
     "check:legend-source": "node internal/check-legend-matches-source.mjs   # the numbers the maps SHOW must match the numbers the live SOURCE has. Every other gate checks INTERNAL consistency — a page can agree with itself perfectly while its legend has stopped describing reality. Offline SKIPs (exit 0); only a reachable endpoint that disagrees fails.",
     "gates:pre": "node internal/run-parallel.mjs --label=pre -- check:template-literal check:mjs-parse check:sfc-parse check:tab-radius check:synced-css check:wp-embed check:doc-scripts",
-    "gates:post": "node internal/run-parallel.mjs --label=post -- check:drop check:parse verify check:sri check:public-hygiene check:label-joins check:facet-cascade check:facet-one-field check:heartbeat check:kpi-unit check:composite-reg check:descriptions check:no-abs-paths check:no-codename check:dep-names check:composite-srcs check:embed-targets check:nested-token check:i18n-parity check:tabs-localized check:packets-all",
+    "gates:post": "node internal/run-parallel.mjs --label=post -- check:drop check:parse verify check:sri check:public-hygiene check:label-joins check:facet-cascade check:facet-one-field check:heartbeat check:kpi-unit check:composite-reg check:descriptions check:no-abs-paths check:no-codename check:dep-names check:composite-srcs check:embed-targets check:nested-token check:i18n-parity check:tabs-localized check:packets-all check:packet-strings-parity",
     "build:bundles": "node internal/run-parallel.mjs --bundles",
     "check:maplibre-drops": "node internal/check-maplibre-layer-drops.mjs",
     "check:tabs-localized": "node internal/check-tabs-localized.mjs   # a chosen locale must CHANGE the rendered tab text. check:i18n-parity compares catalogs to each OTHER, so it cannot tell a shipped translation from a dead one; tabs.json is reached only via a DYNAMIC key (SemanticTreeLegend.vue:40), invisible to any grep. Renders it and reads the result.",
     "check:packets-all": "node internal/check-packets-all.mjs   # runs check:packet-render over EVERY generated packet, not one hand-named file. The single-file gate SKIPs with no argument, so it was in package.json, passing in all 11 locales, and in neither gates:pre nor gates:post — it only ran when someone typed a filename. SKIPs when no packets are generated.",
-    "check:poster-print-fallback": "node internal/check-poster-print-fallback.mjs   # clicks the REAL poster print control with every posters/*.webp aborted, and asserts the preview RASTERISES from posters/<id>.html instead of opening on \"Poster not available yet\". Needs a served tree built with posterSources:true; SKIPs otherwise."
+    "check:poster-print-fallback": "node internal/check-poster-print-fallback.mjs   # clicks the REAL poster print control with every posters/*.webp aborted, and asserts the preview RASTERISES from posters/<id>.html instead of opening on \"Poster not available yet\". Needs a served tree built with posterSources:true; SKIPs otherwise.",
+    "check:packet-strings-parity": "node internal/check-packet-strings-parity.mjs   # the PACKET catalog (packet-strings.json) must be whole in every language: all string keys, all 12 prayer points with every field, all 12 wheel rhythms. check:i18n-parity covers library/i18n/locales only — six gates READ this file and none checked it. Asserts PRESENCE, not translatedness, with point4_passage declared-absent on record."
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "@capacitor/android": "^7.6.9",