11 Aug 2020 – Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] My name's Terry Barber with Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[2] I'm excited today because we're going to be talking on the Fourth Commandment.

[3] But before that, we're going to talk about some tweets that Bishop Strickland has tweeted this past week.

[4] And also we have a special guest, Father Frank Pavone, for Priest for Life.

[5] Bishop Strickland, thanks again for taking this one hour a week to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our listeners.

[6] Sure.

[7] Thanks, Terry.

[8] Thank you.

[9] Bishop, I have Father Frank Pavone.

[10] on the line from priests for life, and I know he's been very active for decades.

[11] I actually knew him when he was a seminarian, and Cardinal O 'Connell, Cardinal O 'Connor back in the 90s gave him permission to work exclusively in pro -life work, and I think it's great.

[12] Father Frank, do we have you on the line?

[13] Yes, I'm here.

[14] Hello, Bishop, and good to be with you, and hello again.

[15] A priest.

[16] I just want to reiterate what you've said in tweets about the sacredness of life, that it's very important that we as Catholics defend life from the very beginning of life to the very end.

[17] Isn't that a fair statement from you?

[18] Absolutely.

[19] Abortion is the preeminent issue, whether we want it to be or not.

[20] Yeah, it is.

[21] Father Frank, you've got a quick question to ask the bishop.

[22] Well, Bishop, thank you for your leadership.

[23] It really is encouraging priests and laity beyond the bounds of your own diocese as you know.

[24] And one of the things we do at Priest for Life, of course we think of ourselves as a ministry of encouragement to to help our brother priest to rise to the occasion and to to enunciate the beautiful teachings of the church to counsel those that might be tempted to abort or who have aborted and then of course to mobilize their people for action and I'm always asked by people you know how can I encourage my priest to do these things and to deal with this issue and of course we have a lot of things we say to them about that But I wanted to get your perspective as a bishop who's so committed to this issue.

[25] What is your advice, both for, well, primarily for laity and also for us as brother priests, to encourage other priests to carry out their role in this important cause?

[26] Well, I guess I've become a broken record on this, but I truly believe the best thing a priest can do for everything, really.

[27] But very specifically for the sanctity of life issue is to pray before the blessed sacrament.

[28] And in my prayer, that if you're really present there with Christ and praying in front of him, then you begin to reflect on the great mystery of life.

[29] And the fact that the son of God was incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I really am kind of on a crusade to emphasize the feast of the enunciation as the real incarnation of Jesus Christ.

[30] And if you think in those terms, with all the biological understanding we have, then to me, Christ and the Blessed sacrament is very connected to his presence in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is very connected to the sanctity of life.

[31] So if a priest is interested in really getting more vocal about the sanctity of life, I encourage him to spend time in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

[32] And for people laity that are wanting their priests to be more involved in the sanctity of life, I encourage them to spend time praying specifically for their priests by name.

[33] If he is spending time before the Blessed Sacrament, that's wonderful.

[34] But Jesus is the Lord of Life.

[35] And the more we're present to him, the more we're focused on the reality that he's really here, then the more we're going to guard the sanctity of life that Father, Son, and Spirit, author among us.

[36] It's so true, so true.

[37] It reminds me, Bishop, of something I often preach about.

[38] This is my body that the same four words that Jesus uses to give us the Eucharist are twisted by those who support abortion.

[39] They say, this is my body.

[40] I can do what I want.

[41] And Jesus says, this is my body given for you for life.

[42] And so I, yeah, I fully agree with what you said.

[43] This is the center of everything, the center of our church, of the pro -life effort.

[44] So thank you for those reflections.

[45] Thank you, Father Frank.

[46] And one more thing I just wanted to ask Bishop Strickland, I've been supporting Father Frank Pavon with priests for life for decades.

[47] I've seen him in all the pro -life rallies.

[48] I've seen him trying to get people engaged in defending life.

[49] I just wanted to ask the bishop, Strickland, if you would endorse what he's doing in generating people to have more interest in defending life.

[50] So I assume Bishop Strickland that you're real familiar with priests for life and the work they're doing.

[51] Cardinal O 'Connell, Cardinal, who's the Cardinal in 1993, Cardinal O 'Connell?

[52] No, Cardinal O 'Connor.

[53] John O 'Connor started your work.

[54] Bishop Strickland, my question is, is this something that you feel comfortable supporting as a bishop to tell people get involved with priests for life?

[55] That's my question.

[56] absolutely i mean everyone for life but certainly priest for life and the work that trying to remind priests that as we celebrate the euchrist we're celebrating the lord of life and uh we need to we need to be very on board that i mean every priest should be amen father frank pavone i want to thank you for joining us may god bless you and keep up the good work it's always good to talk to you and Bishop Strickland, God bless you.

[57] We're praying for you every day.

[58] Oh, boy, he needs it.

[59] God bless.

[60] We all need prayer.

[61] Bishop Strickland, thank you for talking to Father Frank about the sacredness of life, which we try to do every day on Virgin Most Powerful Radio, because without life, all the other issues aren't there.

[62] You've got to have life.

[63] Bishop Strickland, I watch and I listen to all of your tweets that you're tweeting out during the week, and I've got to tell you, you hit the ball out of the park on some of these tweets that got me really going.

[64] One of them you gave is on the work, actually on the guardian angel.

[65] You said many would call this an old -fashioned image, but I believe we need to turn to our angels more than ever in the 21st century.

[66] All right, I'm going to make you laugh.

[67] Bishop Strickland, the unemployment rate for guardian angels is way too high.

[68] Put them to work.

[69] And that's what I saw when I saw your tweet, I said, because I'm devoted to my guardian angel.

[70] I've consecrated my life to the guardian angels, just like I consecrated myself to the Blessed Mother.

[71] And what's so beautiful is that you're encouraging people to have that relationship, because that's his job, is to get you to heaven.

[72] And so many times people don't even think about asking their angel for help when it comes to living out their faith or fulfilling their duties in their state and life.

[73] So what made you want to give people this message about the angels, Bishop?

[74] I'm curious.

[75] What made you bring it up today?

[76] Well, I think it's all connected to my belief that everything we're going through in the church and in the world, in every aspect of human life, we're all the same children of God that we were 100 years ago and 100 years before that.

[77] I think there's a great loss of supernatural faith.

[78] We just don't think in supernatural terms.

[79] And too many people think of what we believe, the Catholic faith, if we really believe what the Catholic Church teaches, many people label that as superstition.

[80] And we simply know that it's the truth.

[81] And a lot of these things like the guardian angels are sort of not in, and they're not popular these days.

[82] I remember a few years back, I guess it was in the early 2000s, that angels were the big thing.

[83] And there were movies about angels and TV shows about angels.

[84] And I said to people, you know, this fad will fade, like all fads do.

[85] I guess fads are made to fade.

[86] Yep.

[87] But Guardian angels are not a fad.

[88] They are part of the wonder of God's love for us.

[89] What's a guardian angel's job?

[90] Their job is to guard each soul, to be there like a cheerleader, helping us to be the children of God that we're called to be.

[91] And so many people, I mean, like you said, I mean, it's kind of a joke or facetious to say the guardian angels are unemployed, but they're ignored by the vast majority of people.

[92] even people of faith would kind of think of a guardian angel and even the pictures, you know, the famous picture of the guardian angel helping the child across a bridge.

[93] I think we need to update that.

[94] I'm not an artist, but I'd like to see a guardian, and I have seen images of the guardian angel with an adult, helping guide them away from the strip club or, you know, whatever it might be.

[95] And I think that we need to take them seriously, and they're not just pretty little children's postcode.

[96] Absolutely.

[97] We come back from the break.

[98] We're going to talk also about another tweet about the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

[99] You're listening to the Terry, listening to Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Power.

[100] We'll be right now.

[101] Hi, this is Jesse Romero from the Terry and Jesse show, also from Jesus 9 -1 -1.

[102] Let's face it, we all need to use the internet, but we need screen again.

[103] accountability.

[104] Why?

[105] Pornography is a huge problem, especially on the internet.

[106] And every time we tap into the internet, we get bombarded with images and temptations that degrade our humanity.

[107] So we need covenant eyes to block these pornographic sites and advertisements from infiltrating our lives.

[108] Covenant eyes helps us take custody of our eyes and custody of our intellect.

[109] So I recommend you go to covenant eyes .com and type in the promo Code VMPR to support the network.

[110] Protect yourself and your family from the eminent threats on the internet.

[111] It's www .covenanteyes .com code VMPR, live porn free.

[112] Thank you for listening to Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[113] Thank you.

[114] God bless you.

[115] Keep the faith.

[116] This is Terry Barber.

[117] I want to thank you for your support here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[118] Here's an easy way to do it.

[119] If you're going to sell or buy a house, call real estate for life.

[120] 877 -543 -3871 because they're going to get you a Christ -centered agent to purchase your home or to sell your home.

[121] And at the close of Estro, a portion of his commission goes right back to Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[122] Call 877 -543 -3871.

[123] Thank you so much for your support.

[124] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[125] I'm Terry Barber.

[126] And we're talking about the commandments, the Fourth Commandments coming up.

[127] But before we do that, I love getting tweets from Bishop Strickland each week.

[128] And he tweeted something about our Blessed Mother, not only on the Guardian Angel, but I says, I renew my plea.

[129] I love it because he's constantly reaffirming the fundamental teachings of the Catholic faith.

[130] And Bishop Strickland, I'll read what you said, and then you can elaborate on it.

[131] I renew my plea that we all turn to the Immaculate Mary as we see corruption strangling the church, and the state.

[132] Mary's battle with Satan grows more intense as we see evil running rampart.

[133] Jesus, the son of God, has conquered evil, but human sin still opens the door to evil.

[134] And then you said pray.

[135] Bishop Strickland, this is so fundamental.

[136] What made you do that now?

[137] Is it because of the circumstances we're in in the church right now?

[138] Yes.

[139] And I truly believe Immaculate Mary, the Immaculate Virgin Mary, is we need to wake up as Catholics who believe in who she is.

[140] And really all Christians should embrace the mother of Jesus.

[141] The scriptures tell us that she is the mother of Jesus.

[142] But I think, you know, it's the Catholic faith really is very logical.

[143] Amen.

[144] And if she is immaculate Mary, if she's not, if she's not, the only human being that ever lived that is without original sin.

[145] Of course, we say, well, Jesus, and absolutely, Jesus is fully God and fully man, but he is the God man. Of course, he's sinless.

[146] But Mary is the only woman that is without sin.

[147] And it just goes to reason.

[148] It's reasonable that the one who has no sin is going to be the holiest and most powerful.

[149] I mean, she is called full of grace in sacred scripture.

[150] And the one who is full of grace, I mean, she's in the apparitions through the centuries, she's constantly calling us to prayer.

[151] That kind of makes sense for the one who knows the fullness of grace, knows the glory of God directly.

[152] She's the most powerful woman on the face of the earth, and she's still with us.

[153] She's not distant.

[154] She's very much, it's her mission to intercede for us, and she wants for us to turn to her.

[155] She changes hearts.

[156] She, as we earlier talked about the priest, praying before the blessed sacrament, praying before the blessed sacrament and praying the rosary and maybe praying the rosary in front of the blessed sacrament and that's a double whamming.

[157] Absolutely.

[158] But that's what priests need to do.

[159] Priests need the blessed Virgin Mary because she is there with us at the altar.

[160] She can guide us.

[161] I mean, you know, I can testify.

[162] Talk about endorsing.

[163] I can endorse what she has done in my life.

[164] as a priest, and especially as a bishop, as my responsibility grew exponentially as a bishop, her power in my life grew exponentially also.

[165] The rosaries that I pray now are powerful because I need them to be.

[166] And Mary urges especially every priest, but really every baptized person.

[167] Let me emphasize, and I try to emphasize this, I think a lot of times people think, oh, well, priests are supposed to be the holy ones.

[168] And we've certainly been heartbroken by the corruption, even within the priesthood.

[169] But priests, there are many holy priests.

[170] But if you remember your baptism, every one of us was anointed with chrism and baptized to be priest, prophet, and king.

[171] So we are all priestly people.

[172] So yes, the ordained priest, they have that much more responsibility and that much more grace to live as a priestly people.

[173] But all the baptized need Mary to help us be priestly because to be priest in our time, to be priest of Jesus Christ is to be like Jesus.

[174] And all of us are called to do that through our baptism.

[175] Well, said, Bishop, as I've always, said mariology true mariology brings us to jesus and so mary was the first one she was the first tabernacle of our lord right she gave birth to jesus so we go back to mary bishop strickland before we get to that fourth commandment the last tweet you did i mean i'm a soldier for christ that's one of our theme songs for the terry and jesse show and you tweeted a prayer a little prayer that i consider a prayer from st joan of arc and let me read it and then i want you to comment on that because that that that prayer that quote that you set out to everybody really got me excited it says may st joan of arc inspire all people of faith we must defend the deposit of faith amen to that defend our lord jesus and the blessed sacrament amen turn to the immaculate mary to share her strength which always flows he here flows from where the grace of god we are children of light battle the darkness those are marching orders as far as i could see tell me why you did that this week with your tweet well i think we're in a time um that st joan of arc faced yeah i mean she was a a teenage girl imagine a teenager probably 15 16 years old and she literally goes into battle um people thought she was crazy but she was full of the Holy Spirit, inspiring her to stand up against the evil of her day, to be in the image of Mary.

[176] Mary stands on the head of Satan, the snake, and St. Joan of Arc did the same in very real battle terms for her day.

[177] We need to be much stronger as Christians, not in a bellicose, violent way, but strong.

[178] We need to be strong as steel.

[179] We need to have backbones that can't be bent by the winds of society.

[180] And just what I think too many young people and too many older people, too many people, period, are swayed, just like, you know, the scripture is talking about reeds in the wind.

[181] And we're just blown by the latest fad, the latest fad, the latest.

[182] wind instead of standing strong for the truth.

[183] And I think we need saints like Joan of Arc, and there are really many of them.

[184] They didn't all put on battle armor, but they all battled evil.

[185] One of my favorite saints recently that's very significant to me is St. John Fisher, a bishop during the time of Henry VIII.

[186] I tweeted about him also because he gathered the people in a dark time where the church was falling apart in England.

[187] Imagine living in England in the time of Henry the 8th where most of the bishops just knuckled under Henry's authority and said, okay, you're the head of our church now.

[188] That is blasphemy as far as concerned.

[189] And St. John Fisher stood against that.

[190] He was just like St. John of Arc, being strong in standing for the truth.

[191] And we need that kind of strength in the world today.

[192] Well, Saddam, Bishop, I love what it said here about Joan of Arc. She says, I am not afraid I was born to do this.

[193] You know, St. Henry Newman said that God has given you a job that he hasn't given to anyone else.

[194] And when we understand that God has given us a duty to fulfill, whether it's a husband to be the leadership of his family or a priest or whoever it is, God's going to give you the graces to stand up and do the job that he's called you to do.

[195] Don't be afraid because you say, I'm just a little guy.

[196] I'm a little guy.

[197] And I think about that, and I say, look what God's done to this old man now.

[198] In 40 -some years, we've distributed, what, 40 million recordings through Lighthouse, St. Joseph's?

[199] I mean, we've put out millions of pamphlets through our lighthouse program.

[200] I mean, and I go to myself and I say, look, who was leading that?

[201] Well, he said, well, I'm going to put some knucklehead.

[202] to do it because I know everybody will know it's not him.

[203] It's got to be from God.

[204] And so when I tell people to get excited about the faith, it's because God will use you.

[205] Bishop Strickland, last week, you made a plea.

[206] I talked about vocations to the priesthood.

[207] And I said, if you want to become a priest that they could contact you, well, they contacted me. I gave them Father Mur, who's on our show a lot.

[208] They really liked Father Mer and they wanted to get some direction about becoming a priest.

[209] But he's listened to our shows and he said you know i've been hearing you say if you think god's calling you to be a priest uh you know call us well he did call us and we don't know what's going to happen there bishop strickland as you know but every show if you'll notice i'm making a plea that if individuals want if they know men thinking about becoming a priest contact us if you want to contact bishop strickland go to his website i'm sure he would be happy to give you advice on becoming a priest.

[210] Is that a fair statement, Bishop Strickland?

[211] Absolutely.

[212] And I would encourage any man listening or anyone who knows a man to that could be encouraged to just ask the question.

[213] As I talk to young men or older men, I mean, you know, you do reach an age where it's probably not going to happen.

[214] But just because you're not 20 anymore, the door is still open.

[215] And I would encourage men to really consider it.

[216] And as far as I'm concerned, I've said this to all of our seminarians and to anyone that I've talked to about considering a vocation.

[217] Just asking the question and just giving it some deep prayer and consideration, that's a blessing for the church.

[218] Because if every Catholic man really asked himself as he's getting started in life, if he just asked.

[219] ask the question, am I called to be a priest?

[220] I think we'd have a lot more priests.

[221] And even those who aren't called, certainly not everyone's called to be a priest.

[222] But if we have that perspective, to me again, Terry, it takes us back to being priestly men.

[223] Yes.

[224] You're called to be a priestly man to be a man of sacrifice, a man of the sacred, a man who draws others to Christ and his altar.

[225] It doesn't mean only ordination.

[226] but we are a priestly people, and we need priestly men from your baptism.

[227] And if you're really reflecting on that, if you're asking the question, am I called to ordain priesthood?

[228] You'll be a more priestly man. You'll be a better husband, father, single man, whatever your path in life, you'll be a better man if you've really considered.

[229] Am I called a priesthood?

[230] Thank you, Bishop Strickland.

[231] I also want to drive people to your institute.

[232] on your website over at the Diocese of Tyler, Texas.

[233] Could you give us your, let's say, the email address for the Institute?

[234] Sure.

[235] Well, the Institute website is St. Philip Institute.

[236] Just straight across, no dots or anything.

[237] St. Philip with 1L Institute .org.

[238] And you can always, there's a contact page there where you can leave your email address and we can contact you.

[239] There's a lot of great information there.

[240] The Institute is just developing because of COVID -19 for the diocese, an online ability to continue your faith formation.

[241] Awesome.

[242] For children, preparing for sacraments, for teenagers, and for adults who may be interested in the faith.

[243] Everyone from cradle to grave could get on the St. Philip Institute .org website and learn about their faith.

[244] Awesome.

[245] Last thing, and then we'll get to our Fourth Commandment, which I always, I love the Fourth Commandment because Jesus fulfilled all those commandments, especially about his mother, and I say that to a lot of my friends.

[246] But before I do that, you actually tweeted one more article from the National Catholic Register, and I've heard you talk about the importance of the issue with the former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

[247] It's articles called Eradicating the Macaric virus.

[248] In other words, getting the report out so that many of us can find out who was involved and knew what was going on with the McCarrick situation.

[249] And when we come back from the break, just briefly tell us why you think that's important that that report comes out to help heal the church at this time of where there's lots of woundedness because of infidelity.

[250] You're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Powerful radio.

[251] I always like to say I'm too blessed to be stressed.

[252] Too anointed to be disappointed.

[253] We'll be right back with Bishop Strickland after a short quick break.

[254] Welcome to Daniel.

[255] You're on the line.

[256] What's on your mind, brother?

[257] Hi, I just wanted to share a testimony about Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[258] I had a buddy at work who, you know, he looked warm Catholic guy, and I wanted him to start listening to the Terry and Jesse show.

[259] So I kept telling him to download the app and he kept putting me up.

[260] off until one day I grabbed his phone and I downloaded the app for him.

[261] I went on vacation and I kept telling him to listen to it.

[262] He was kind of put me off.

[263] I came back from vacation.

[264] He comes to my cubicle and he says to me, hey man, I've been listening to Terran Jesse show and it's great and it's made a big impact in his life.

[265] The guy, he's going a weekly adoration a couple times a week.

[266] He goes to the mass in the morning.

[267] He's on fire classic and he promotes the Taran Jesse show and the Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[268] Daniel, what a testimony.

[269] And I want to encourage our listeners to get those cards by going to virgin most powerful radio .org and do what Daniel's doing.

[270] Go out and spread the faith by inviting people to listen to Virgin Most Powerful.

[271] Daniel, thanks for your testimony, brother.

[272] God love you.

[273] You're welcome.

[274] This is Terry Barber.

[275] I want to thank you for supporting Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[276] And here's an easy way to support us by going to smile .com and type in Catholic Resource Center or Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[277] And when you log in your Amazon account and you purchase products, a portion of it will go right back in supporting Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[278] And it doesn't cost you a dime.

[279] I want to thank you ahead of time because that supports us year round.

[280] May God bless you and your family.

[281] This is Terry Barber.

[282] I want to thank you for your support here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[283] Here's an easy way to do it.

[284] If you're going to sell or buy a house, call real estate for life.

[285] 877 -543 -3871 because they're going to to get you a Christ -centered agent to purchase your home or to sell your home.

[286] And at the close of Estro, a portion of his commission goes right back to Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[287] Call 877 -543 -3871.

[288] Thank you so much for your support.

[289] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[290] I am so excited to be here to talk about Jesus with you and to help you fall deep in love with Jesus Christ because that's the whole point of Virgin Most Powerful Radio, and I'm so grateful that Bishop Strickland has been willing to come and talk about the sacraments or the commandments and also about issues in the church that are going to help the church heal.

[291] And Bishop Strickland, as I mentioned before the break, you tweeted the article from the National Catholic Register dealing with the McCarrick issue and saying that, you know, basically we're trying to get an understanding of what went wrong so that we can prevent it in the future.

[292] So why did you retweet that?

[293] article from the register?

[294] Well, I like the basic premise that it operated from that it talked about eradicating the mccarrick virus.

[295] I think it is, there is an analogy there that we need to consider because I hate to think how many people have lost their faith, have, you know, were on the edge of giving up on the church and they gave up because of the mccarrick scandal.

[296] Because it is truly a scandal, corruption in virtually every aspect of human society, much less in the church.

[297] And, you know, we need to bring, just like, you know, even they talked about the COVID -19, at one point there was a report that sunlight killed it.

[298] Light kills evil.

[299] I mean, that ultimately Jesus is the light of Christ, and he is the most powerful light in the universe.

[300] So we need light in that darkness of what happened with McCarrick, who was at one time at the very pinnacle of the church, one of the, not just a cardinal, but one of the best known and one of the most influential, and talk about plummeting to the depths of degradation.

[301] Because of sin.

[302] And we're all sinners.

[303] I mean, we don't point the finger and say, oh, he's the source of all evil, but he's a morality play for us to recognize there, but for the grace of God go all of us.

[304] We need to humbly rely on the grace of God.

[305] And that grace of God needs to help us renew and cleanse the church.

[306] I'm sure we've lost people that aren't going to come back.

[307] And sometimes, we're all human.

[308] Sometimes we use something like that as an excuse.

[309] I mean, really, there's no reason to leave the body of Christ, which is the church, because of broken members like McCarrick or anyone else.

[310] We're all sinners.

[311] We all need to, in great humility, approach the church.

[312] But I think it could do people who are hanging in there.

[313] And frankly, just if nothing else, in honor of the victims, the victims of McCarrick and the victims of so many others that have truly suffered, we need to honor those victims, those who have at times lost their lives or had their lives seriously damaged because of the evil of others.

[314] If that investigation could be fully offered to the public, it would really help people to say, you know, to honor the victims and to help people believe that the church really is about the light of Christ and always doing our best to eradicate the darkness.

[315] Well said, Bishop Strickland, I couldn't agree more with you.

[316] And I know you met with the Holy Father, I think a year ago, for your five -year visit six months ago that was six months ago what did you refresh my memory what you met the holy father what did you say to him or did you ask i just very respectfully asked i'd said i know it's a it's a difficult subject for all of us but some of us had talked about it prior to that last that meeting we had in the presence of the holy father um and many of the bishops it said, somebody needs to ask about the McCarrick report, and nobody was.

[317] I mean, it was five minutes before the meeting was over, so they said, any last question.

[318] And I honestly was a little nervous about it, but I said, well, we all agreed it needed to be asked, or many agreed that it needed to be asked.

[319] So I asked the question, and the Holy Father gave an answer, not great clarity.

[320] I mean, it didn't give us a date when it was going to be released, and I certainly understand that.

[321] But I did feel like it was important to ask the question, again, for the victims.

[322] And, you know, I imagine a lot of bishops have been contacted by victims.

[323] Thankfully, we haven't had numerous victims.

[324] We had a few cases to deal with here in the Diocese of Tyler.

[325] But most of the victims I've been contacted by were in other places just looking for.

[326] support and so I felt like it was important to at least ask the question.

[327] I did so with the greatest respect for the Holy Father, but to help him recognize, and we, some of us, you know, said that in other meetings that we had in the different congregations there in Rome, how important it is to the people of the United States in virtually every country, but certainly we know the United States.

[328] I know the people in this diocese, and it's important to them to get the answers to the McCarrick situation and understand how did that happen and how do we make sure that that history doesn't repeat itself in that ugly scenario with McCarrick.

[329] Well said Bishop Strick, and I couldn't agree more with you.

[330] Now I'd like to shift gears because, you know, we always say bishops are to teach, govern, and sanctify.

[331] That's what the catechism teaches in our faith, and you're going to be teaching us the Fourth Commandment, which is honor thy father and thy mother, and for those who own a catechism, I would highly recommend everyone owning a catechism.

[332] Mine's falling apart here in the studio because I have it all marked up.

[333] Why?

[334] Because I find it fascinating.

[335] And you know, Bishop Strickland, when I was a young man, and I was young at one time, I started picking up my old Baltimore Catechism, and then I would get other catechisms and I would study them and it really made me realize that how small I was in the sense that God was so big I learned about the that God is omnipotent and how I you know how I learn my relationship with why I'm here, where I'm going and it was so clear for me as a young man it really helped me and so I started teaching the catechism to students when I was in high school and students told me the same thing they said yeah I want clarity I want to understand why I'm here, where I'm going.

[336] I want to understand the commandments.

[337] And the fourth commandment, honor thy father and thy mother, is such a beautiful commandment.

[338] I remember Dr. Scott Hahn, who you know well, he's been on your institute.

[339] And I'm the one who recorded his conversion story 30 some years ago.

[340] He said that Jesus Christ, he fulfilled all 10 commandments perfectly.

[341] And if we're going to imitate Jesus Christ, one of those is the honor they father and thy mother.

[342] And so honoring the Blessed Mother is really fulfilling one of the commandments.

[343] And that's how we used to share that with his Protestant brothers.

[344] And they were like, I never thought of that.

[345] So Bishop Strickland, what is, what's the, you know, what would you like to teach us about that Fourth Commandment in 2020?

[346] How does this relate to us today?

[347] Well, I would say it's one of the most important commandments for our time.

[348] And really, for our lifetime, like we've talked before, we're children of the 60s and 70s.

[349] And in our lifetime, that commandment has been devastated, really.

[350] And what I'm getting at is, like all the commandments we've talked about, and all 10, there's a lot built in there.

[351] You might say, okay, if you just read the words, I mean, it's about.

[352] as simple as it gets.

[353] Honor your father and your mother.

[354] So he said, okay, no big deal.

[355] I'll honor my father and my mother.

[356] But what, as you really look into that and what God is teaching us through that fourth commandment is honor authority.

[357] Ultimately, honor God.

[358] I mean, it goes back to the first commandment to know God is the father that we honor.

[359] And certainly our earthly, mother and father.

[360] They're not perfect, but they are to be honored.

[361] And we lived through a time, and I think at the root of a lot of what we're dealing with in 2020 with this COVID -19 and all of that, I think a lot of the turmoil, a lot of the brokenness, a lot of the brokenness in families, a lot of the brokenness in society traces back to a lack of respect for authority.

[362] We both grew up through, I mean, you were a young man. I was in high school when Watergate happened.

[363] That's right.

[364] And that was a devastating blow, really, to the authority of the president and of government.

[365] Ever since then, you know, that it's eroded more and more.

[366] And it's like nobody has respect for whoever the president is or whoever the president is or whoever the leadership is.

[367] There's a lack of respect for authority.

[368] And I think it goes to the root of what is God teaching us as children when we hopefully as children begin to learn the commandments, that fourth commandment.

[369] Honor your father and your mother.

[370] If we can learn that as little children, then that will sustain us through life.

[371] We need to honor authority for our lives to be peaceful, to flourish, and to be fulfilled in this life.

[372] All of us have authorities that we have to honor.

[373] And the lack of respect for authority, and we could spend the rest of this segment talking about just directly the question of honoring your father and your mother, the brokenness of families is really rooted in a lack of honor father and mother, and of mothers and fathers really not honoring their role themselves.

[374] And so I think it's a critical commandment that we need to really instill in children.

[375] And then it begins to have repercussions.

[376] If you don't honor your boss, ultimately, it begins to erode the ability to do a good job at your work.

[377] If you don't, I mean, And, you know, I think we're caught up in a time where, ironically, people are less perfect than ever, but they're expected.

[378] They're held to this perfection standard that it's so unrealistic.

[379] And God didn't say in this commandment, honoring your father and mother, if they never make a mistake.

[380] It just simply says, honor your father and your mother.

[381] And I think as we get to be teenagers.

[382] I mean, both of us went through teenage years.

[383] It gets harder to honor your father and your mother.

[384] So I think this needs to be instilled in children.

[385] And then, like I said, it carries through with a basic respect for authority that in whatever form that authority takes, whether in the church or in government or in the police or any aspect of authority.

[386] And when we don't respect authority it gets us in trouble and god knows that well said when we come back bishop strickland i want to talk about paragraph 2201 the family and god's plan it's a beautiful paragraph on defining and i've read the constitution that you have on that st philip website about the family and it quotes this it's so beautiful we come back we'll be talking more about the fourth commandment here on the bishop strickland hour on virgin most powerful radio we'll be right back Help the Helpless, a Minnesota -St.

[387] Paul non -profit organization, chaired by Father of TIR and Volunteers, is humbly asking you for your kind support to help the poor and the handicapped children in India and Ecuador.

[388] Through financial support from the help of the helpless benefactors, the children are provided with clothing, food, education, shelter, and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

[389] The mission is to help children thrive and become self -sufficient young adults leading productive lives.

[390] We also provide aid to poor families in Ecuador with food baskets, medicines, medical assistance, and help with funeral needs for the deceased.

[391] The work in India is done by Father Antonio's organization, St. Mary's.

[392] In Ecuador, the work is being done by the servant -sisters of the home of mother.

[393] You can call us at 877 -762 -8857.

[394] To learn more, please visit.

[395] Visit our website, www.

[396] Helpthehelpless .org.

[397] God bless you.

[398] Jesus said in Luke 17, When you have done all that you were ordered to do, say we are unprofitable servants.

[399] We have only done our duty.

[400] According to St. John of the Cross, God is pleased with the little deeds we do in secret.

[401] He takes more pleasure in these than in a multitude of grand works that we may do out of the desire to be seen by others.

[402] May God help us to do the things that please him and not just to appear great in the eyes of others.

[403] This is Terry Barber.

[404] I want to thank you for your support here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[405] Here's an easy way to do it.

[406] If you're going to sell or buy a house, call real estate for life 877 -543 -3871 because they're going to get you a Christ -centered agent to purchase your home or to sell your home.

[407] And at the close of Estro, a portion of his commission goes right back to Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[408] Call 877 -543 -3871.

[409] Thank you so much for your support.

[410] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[411] It's interesting and also beautiful that we have a successor of the apostle.

[412] Bishop Strickland's lineage goes all the way back to Jesus Christ.

[413] And here he is teaching us, I use the term, the perennial.

[414] teachings of the church.

[415] This is not Bishop Strickland's personal opinion.

[416] Bishop Strickland, with all due respect, I don't want to hear your personal opinion.

[417] I want to hear what the church teaches.

[418] I mean, you know, if you laugh, but it's true, because that's what you were ordained to do.

[419] Give us the teachings of the church.

[420] Now, in paragraph 2201, it's about the nature of the family, the core of what we need to hear today in the church.

[421] It says the conjugal community is established upon the consent of the spouses, husband and wife, marriage and family are ordered to the good of spouses and to the procreation and education of children.

[422] The love of spouses and the beginning of children create among members the same family, personal relationships, and the primarial responsibilities.

[423] Can you kind of just, you know, explain, you kind of tear that apart and say, why is that so important today and right now the family's in shambles I'll be honest with you divorce is you know 50 % and the family is kind of like looking for direction and the church has got the answer so I want to hear your take on that absolutely well I think the way we can understand what the catechism talks about there is you could say that going back to what we believe that the church is the body of Christ, a body is made up of cells, your body, my body, millions of cells.

[424] A family is like a cell of the body of Christ in the world.

[425] That's how the church is built, family by family.

[426] And I love what the catechism says later on that this institution is prior to any recognition by public authority.

[427] That's in paragraph 22 .02.

[428] Okay, 02.

[429] This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority.

[430] And I think that the public authority of our day here in this great country need to read that and recognize that the family is of God.

[431] All the other institutions that are there should be supporting the family.

[432] And instead, too much of government is undermining the family at this point.

[433] There are even groups that have as their mission to set aside the nuclear family.

[434] Yes.

[435] And that word nuclear kind of goes back to what I said originally.

[436] It's because every cell has a nucleus.

[437] Yes.

[438] And the nuclear family is that cell of human life, a man. and a woman committed in marriage, open to children in procreation, and when those children come along, however many there are, or even if children don't come along, that is the nuclear family.

[439] And the catechism goes on to say that that is the relationship from which everything should be evaluated.

[440] And I think that our government leaders and even business leaders, everyone again going back to that authority needs to look at that to those original models of authority in people's lives and to respect that arrangement because it's of God it is God's plan for how the human endeavor works and when we ignore God's plan I just read something by the Archbishop of Portland that Sample.

[441] You know, he says, which is very true, I totally agree with him.

[442] When we turn from God, you get what's going on in Portland, a tragedy of destruction and just violence that has no meaning and no positive agenda toward anything.

[443] It's just, it's destructive.

[444] And that is not God's plan.

[445] We can always go back, but it takes the humility of going back to the original authority that is gods.

[446] And that nuclear family is that cell of how it all works.

[447] We know, I grew up in a family of six kids.

[448] I'm sure you grew up in a family, and that's where you learn how to be human.

[449] My mother used to tell us that.

[450] We laugh about it now, but she would say, I mean, that's a pretty large.

[451] bar for your kids.

[452] Yeah.

[453] She'd sometimes in exasperation say, could you just be human?

[454] That's funny.

[455] And, you know, that's how we, that's the school of how we learn to be human.

[456] As a baby that comes out of the womb, if they're lucky enough to be born in this world, they begin to grow and they look to their parents.

[457] And like for me, I had five brothers and sisters, will look to to see how do I navigate this life?

[458] How do I learn to share?

[459] How do I learn to overcome obstacles?

[460] How do I learn everything in the context of the family?

[461] And with the family broken, humanity's broken.

[462] Absolutely.

[463] St. John Paul II wrote a letter to families back in 1994 summarizing it, he said the way the family goes is the way the culture goes.

[464] Now, Bishop Strickland, we have, I'm just going to put words in your i don't want to get you in trouble but we have my understanding is as catholics we have to be committed to family values you called it god's design god's design is that marriage is from one man and one woman not two men or two women and so we have to even though our country has come up with this idea that same -sex marriage is a marriage we can never agree with that we have to continue to educate and share i'm my opinion tell me i'm all wet, but in other words, we can't let that go and say, oh, well, the government says it's okay, just like abortion.

[465] We can abort babies, but we can't agree with that.

[466] We can never go along with the world when it's at odds with God's plan.

[467] Is that a fair statement?

[468] Absolutely.

[469] And I think that in the culture that we're living in now, we're labeled, what you just said, people will label as bigotry, because they're so far from God, ultimately.

[470] They're so far from the ultimate authority that is our creator, that we, they just are totally off track.

[471] And we need to, we need to lovingly call people back to the truth.

[472] Amen.

[473] Two men can't be married.

[474] It's just like you can't just decide you're going to float out of that building right now.

[475] To me, it's as simple as that.

[476] And I know people probably laugh at me, but I think we need to get down to those simple terms.

[477] Gravity is reality.

[478] You can't just decide to float away.

[479] I'm going to ignore the law of gravity.

[480] And there are a lot of laws that people are ignoring.

[481] And the law of what a marriage is, it comes from God, just like gravity comes from God.

[482] Of course, for so many who don't believe in God, they've lost their moorings, they've lost their direction.

[483] And I guess it's at least logical that if you don't believe in God, then all of this is just up for grabs.

[484] And it's kind of like, you've got to write the human story all by yourself.

[485] And we're not very good authors when we start doing that.

[486] write a very good story.

[487] We need to be children who look to the father for his plan for us.

[488] And it's not bigotry to simply say this is the truth.

[489] People that have those kinds of attractions or confusions about their sexuality, absolutely.

[490] A lot of wrong has happened to people in those situations that should be corrected.

[491] But the correcting of it is to not say, not to say, well, just do whatever you feel like and ignore what the authority is said.

[492] Ignore what dad said, basically.

[493] Going back to the Fourth Commandment, honor your father and your mother.

[494] Bishop Strickland, we got about 90 seconds left in the show.

[495] I feel like it's important.

[496] You know, what you've been saying is touching my soul, but I would like to get your blessing for all the listeners.

[497] There's over 100 Catholic radio stations listening and on YouTube and on Facebook and all over.

[498] They're hurting right now.

[499] We need the graces to live out that life.

[500] And I'll just say that the greatest thing we can do as family members is I can love my wife and my wife can love me for my kids to see that.

[501] And I think that's going to be a witness of joy for people who see us happily married.

[502] I think that people are all wanting happiness.

[503] you've talked about this just last week about the need for being happy and about joyfulness and knowing the person of Christ and I think that that's so important that we go right back to that theme because I've heard you speak on it every time and that is to introduce people to Jesus Christ so could you give us your blessing please sure the Lord be with you and with your spirit Almighty God we ask your blessing for all who are listening that we might understand the power of your love for each of us.

[504] And when we come to understand your love, then we're more able to share love with others.

[505] Heavenly Father, help us to know that you love us as your children beyond our imagining.

[506] And we ask this blessing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[507] Amen.

[508] Thank you, Bishop Strickland.

[509] We're going to continue on the commandments and then we're going to go to the sacraments.

[510] And again, Bishop Strickland is teaching us not his opinion, but the teachings of the church.

[511] We're basing it on the catechism of the Catholic Church that came out in the early 90s and the perennial teachings of the church.

[512] What I like about this show is that I can come and listen and learn more about the person of Christ and his bride, the church.

[513] So I just want to say thank you for all those who have allowed us to do this, especially Bishop Strickland.

[514] He's a busy man. Here he is teaching the world.

[515] This is going all over the world about Jesus Christ.

[516] just fitting his charism as a bishop and i want to say thank you for doing that bishop strickland next week we're going to move on to the next commandment the fifth and we're going to continue to help you fall deeper in love with jesus christ and his bride the church and again if you like to contact bishop strickland go to the diocese of tyler if you like to contact me i give my cell number out on the air why i want to help you get to heaven 6 -61 972 7872 love to help you you know the person of Christ.

[517] May God richly bless you and your family in full sheen ahead at Virgin Most Powerful.

[518] St. Faustina's Prayer for priests.

[519] Oh my Jesus, I beg thee on behalf of the whole church, granteth love and the light of thy spirit, and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to thee, O Lord.

[520] Lord, give us holy priests.

[521] thou thyself maintain them in holiness o divine and great high priest may the power of thy mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil's traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests may the power of thy mercy o lord shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests for thou canst do all things amen Most Powerful, pray for us.

[522] Virgin Most Powerful Radio, sharing the gospel with clarity and charity.