04 Jul 23 – 8 Modern Errors Every Catholic Should Know and Avoid

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour here on Virgin Most Powerful radio.

[1] We take the tweets from Bishop Strickland, also talk about the catechism, and just teach people the faith.

[2] We have something special.

[3] This is a special edition.

[4] Bishop Strickland, thanks for taking the time again for our busy schedule, especially this time of the year with all the confirmations.

[5] Sure, Terry.

[6] Thank you.

[7] God love you.

[8] Hey, Bishop Strickland, you sent something to me, and it really caught my attention, and you tweeted this about an article from Monsignor Charles Pope, and of anything he ever writes, I want to read, because the guy is as solid as a rock.

[9] But there's an article here called Eight Modern Errors Every Catholic Should Know and Avoid, and he said that this list is common, even in the church.

[10] He sounds like you, I mean, in a sense of, you know, error and truth.

[11] He seems like he, he says, there are many errors in our time that masquerade as wisdom and balance.

[12] Oh, yeah.

[13] But there are no such thing.

[14] He said, I have written before on many errors of our time, and they've been philosophical in nature.

[15] The following list that I compile is more phenomenological than philosophical.

[16] Now, he says this.

[17] to say that something is phenomenal logical is to indicate that it is more descriptive of the thing as experienced than of an exact philosophical or scientific matter.

[18] He goes in to just set the stage.

[19] He says, but these errors are common in the world today that I'm going to talk about.

[20] He said, I present them here, especially they're problematic because we too often find them, as he said, in the Catholic Church today.

[21] Now, he's speaking on a limb there, but I happen to agree with him.

[22] He said, they are sadly and commonly expressed by Catholics and represent a kind of infection that is set in, which reflects worldly and secular thinking, not godly and spiritual thinking.

[23] Bishop Strickland, you could have written this.

[24] Those are your words.

[25] I've heard you say that, that we can't be having a worldly view.

[26] We have to have the supernatural grace and the fullness of the truth and the deposit of faith that we need to go to, not the worldview.

[27] said there's only eight, but Bishop Strickland, before I go to these eight things, eight points that he makes, I want to ask you, isn't Monsignor Pope doing us all a favor by writing this?

[28] I mean, really?

[29] Absolutely.

[30] That's why I said, let's focus on it for this program, because the eight points that he makes, I would, if I had the power, I would have them proclaim from every thing.

[31] pulpit at every homily in the coming on Corpus Christi Sunday what a beautiful way to celebrate Corpus.

[32] We are the body of Christ.

[33] We are the church as the mystical body of Christ so on Corpus Christi Sunday to remember these eight points talking about how we live as the body of Christ and they're just essential, not complex.

[34] I mean, there's words here that we'll have to work through, phenomenological and all that.

[35] But it's really the revealed truth plus natural law and common sense that Monsignor Pope is really just helping us to really focus on.

[36] I'd like to go through each of these points.

[37] Take our time a whole thing.

[38] Just talk about I agree.

[39] And the first one, just he nailed it.

[40] I mean, when I read that, I said, oh, please make him the next bishop of wherever he's he needs to be in a position to preach this everywhere he says number one mercy without reference to repentance yep that's going on in the church today i'm sad he said far too many today mercy has become to mean god is fine with that what i'm doing yeah in other words i'll give you an example fornication adultery you know active homosexuality come on god he understands okay he loves you so don't worry about but but the Monsignor said, but true mercy does not overlook sin.

[41] Bishop Strickland, you've said that.

[42] Those are your words.

[43] Absolutely.

[44] I guess that's why I like what Monsignor Pope says.

[45] He says it succinctly and he says it clearly.

[46] He says it like the theme of your shows with charity and clarity.

[47] He's speaking the truth.

[48] Well, let's go through what he's saying because he said this that.

[49] that repentance is the key that unlocks mercy.

[50] So my guess on that, just reading it as clear as it is, is that if you don't repent, then you can't have your sin absolve.

[51] Is it true that when you go to the confessional and isn't a truth as a priest and as a bishop, if someone comes in there to go to confession and doesn't repent of the sin that he just confessed, he's not getting absolution.

[52] Am I on to something?

[53] Absolutely.

[54] And each of these points, as we go through them, they bring in other points as well.

[55] I mean, mercy without reference to repentance, which mercy without acknowledging that sin is real, and that's another way of saying it.

[56] And if you aren't saying, I'm going to change from the sin, I mean, exactly what a good understanding of the sacrament is.

[57] A firm purpose.

[58] some amendment.

[59] There you go.

[60] You don't just go in and say, yeah, I did this, but it's no big deal.

[61] It means you've had a change of heart.

[62] And mercy without that isn't mercy at all.

[63] It's just fake.

[64] Well, the Mod Sr. said this, and I think you would agree, I sure do.

[65] He said, one of the chief errors today is the proclamation of mercy without reference to repentant.

[66] And sadly, he said, this is common.

[67] even in the church, and it's far too common to hear sermons on mercy with no reference to repentance.

[68] And I have heard that most of my adult life, to be quite frank, Bishop Strickland, I've heard homilies that say, it doesn't matter.

[69] You know, God loves you despite, yes, but he loves you too much to stay as a sinner, repent and believe.

[70] So my question to you is, you grew up pretty much in the same era.

[71] but we're in our mid -60s.

[72] Didn't you run into that as a young man where you heard this message that said, you know, oh, don't worry about this.

[73] I mean, I even had it in the confessional when I would confess sins.

[74] And the priest would say, oh, no, don't, don't.

[75] That used to be a sin.

[76] It's no, no problem now.

[77] We've come a long ways, baby.

[78] What?

[79] Yeah, absolutely.

[80] And really, Terry, what you're highlighting and what Monson, your Pope highlights, is it's a it's a misunderstanding of sin yeah i think the mercy that we hear so much about today in the church and in the world is rooted in an idea of sin as just some arbitrary rules that somebody made up it's got nothing to do with existence or or what's going to really make us happy it's it's just the any sin that we have is just an arbitrary rule that we just need to change because it doesn't fit anymore.

[81] Sin is basically labeling those things that the way I would put it, dismantle the human person, peace by piece.

[82] If we just say, I'm going to embrace the seven deadly sins, every single one of the lust, greed, gluttony, wrath, sloths, envy, pride, I'm just going to embrace them fully.

[83] You're going to destroy yourself.

[84] That's what sin does.

[85] So sin is not just a bunch of arbitrary rules.

[86] Sin points to what harms the human person and what harms human society.

[87] And that misunderstanding is a lot of the misunderstanding of mercy.

[88] And you know, Bishop Strickland, you're in management.

[89] I'm in sales for the Catholic Church.

[90] But it bothers me, I'm going to be, and I'm sure it bothers you too.

[91] But down in San Diego just south of me, about an hour and a half, there's a conference going on what I call wayward priests it's an organization of Catholic priests that the Cardinal of San Diego is down there participating in and they all are dissenters on the church teachings on sexuality, women's ordination and so all these things that they're promoting are contrary to the teachings of the church I'm not expecting you to solve any problem but I'm just telling you this undermines the deposit of faith when people dressed like you don't teach the teachings of the church.

[92] And I'm convinced that until we have clear teachings from people dressed like you as a priest and the bishop and even the pope, when we don't have clear teachings, this message is not clear for us lay people.

[93] And I just want to urge our listeners to pray for our leaders in our church that they will clearly say when a priest is teaching something, Whether it's, I mean, Father James Martin saying, you know, this point about that the sacred heart and homosexual activity is a similar love of God.

[94] I mean, making the connection, it's sacrilegious, but we're waiting for someone to just call him out so that we can say, well, that's what I thought.

[95] But, you know, when I don't hear anybody speaking clearly on these issues, we lay people start wondering, what are we believing in?

[96] Am I onto something?

[97] Absolutely.

[98] That's why you're seeing so much confusion.

[99] I think Monsignor Pope in the last part on that mercy and repentance, the last line really is very significant.

[100] What is that now?

[101] This error of mercy without reference to repentance is widespread in the church today and leads to the sin of presumption, a sin against hope.

[102] It's a presumption that none of it really matters.

[103] And what God is revealed to us is it matters very deeply, very significantly.

[104] And we've got to continue to teach the truth.

[105] That group of priests that you're talking about meeting, it reminds me, I mean, I think it's being conducted in English.

[106] It is.

[107] But it probably should be in German because it's that whole agenda of the German Senate, which is contrary to the teachings of the church.

[108] well said we come back we'll continue with my senior charles pope's article eight modern errors every catholic should know i might add avoid yeah we're you know i'm not homophobic you know what i am i'm sinphobic i want to avoid mortal sin in my life i want to live in the state of grace and i know you do too folks stay with us we'll be back after a quick break on the bishop strickland hour and now back to the bishop strickland hour welcome back to the bishop strickland hour.

[109] Terry Barber on Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[110] Again, we're just covering, I think, one of the most important articles I've read in a long time called Eight Modern Errors that Every Catholic should know and avoid by Monsignor Charles Pope.

[111] Wow, good stuff.

[112] Now, Starophobia, that's the term from the Greek word, refers to the fear of the cross.

[113] I love what Bishop Sheen calls.

[114] He says, without good Friday, there's no Easter Sunday.

[115] So we can't fear the cross.

[116] We can't fear the cross.

[117] We're And I'm going to say something, Bishop Strickland.

[118] I know you're coming out next week.

[119] By the time this show is on that week, you're coming out to lead us in prayer of reparation for what's going on at Dodger Stadium right outside the cathedral in Los Angeles.

[120] And this is not political, this is all about reparation.

[121] This is all about calling people to repentance.

[122] And so we're all going to have a cross to carry with that because it's not politically correct or it's not even polite to go out and say something is wrong because we don't see black and white.

[123] We see things as your truth and my truth.

[124] So here's it.

[125] He says, within the church, this error emerges from Catholics who frankly discussed the demands of discipleship.

[126] It reveals a strong hesitation to insist that even hard things are often best and proper thing to do.

[127] Give me an example.

[128] Is it hard to go and pray in front of an abortion clinic?

[129] Yeah.

[130] I mean, I've been attacked at an abortion clinic.

[131] Okay.

[132] I've had verbal attacks.

[133] Okay.

[134] But, you know, I offer that up.

[135] And for Jesus, I try to unite that with the sufferings of Christ.

[136] So he's saying this, many Catholics, like myself, including priests and bishops.

[137] Yeah, they're downright fearful when pointing to the demands of the cross.

[138] When the world protests and says, are you saying that those with same -sex attraction cannot get married or be sexually intimate but must live a kind of celibacy give me a break the world is telling you the honest answer is yes and bishop strickland you get persecuted because you've been saying that for a long time that you're holding the line that what church is perennial teaching as that homosexuality active homosexuality is against the laws of god and you need to tell people the truth and even when people are upset at you, you still have to say yes.

[139] He says, but since the answer is hard and rooted in the cross, many Catholics are dreadfully afraid of the straightforward, honest answer.

[140] And the same is true for other difficult moral situations like euthanasia.

[141] And he goes on to talk about abortion.

[142] You mean to tell me that my daughter got raped and my daughter can't abort that baby?

[143] Yes, the baby had nothing to do with that violence.

[144] act.

[145] Why are you persecuting the baby?

[146] Now, again, I believe Bishop Strickland, it's how you say it to.

[147] It's lovingly saying, look, I love you enough to tell you the truth.

[148] The most merciless thing for me to do is let you wallow in a sin.

[149] I love you enough to say, knock it off and embrace the truth.

[150] Now, I ask you, Bishop Strickland, because lately you've been carrying a cross because, let's just be honest, you've openly said some really strong statements about the deposit of faith for years now.

[151] And people look at you and they go, oh, he's a trouble -making, oh, that's Strickland again.

[152] I'm sorry, I'll do respect, but Strickland, here he goes again.

[153] He's, you know, addressing this issue.

[154] Can he just leave it alone like the abortion issue?

[155] No, you can't.

[156] So tell me about the fear of the cross.

[157] Well, I think again, Monsignor Pope really hits the nail on the head because, and what's interesting, Terry, each one of these is linked to other issues.

[158] And what I see with this starophobia, fear of the cross, is the reality that we don't understand love.

[159] And he gets into that as well.

[160] Because like, you know, you often quote Archbishop Sheen saying, without Good Friday, you don't get Easter Sunday.

[161] Really, the principle there, fits into each of our lives without loving sacrifice you don't get love you don't get the reality of love without sacrifice that's true for me and my priesthood that's true for you as a husband and a father that's true in your marriage even if you were a childless couple for you to really love it means you sacrifice that's what the cross is about Jesus Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice of the life of the Son of God when he died and a cross.

[162] And he taught us.

[163] That's how we're made.

[164] That's the fabric of our humanity is that real love includes sacrificial love, love that is willing to lay down your life for the other.

[165] And when you leave that out, you don't have real love.

[166] And Monsignor Pope gets into that later on.

[167] But we've, I mean, look, just, if you just sat down, watch any channel, an hour's worth of television, you would see constant advertisements trying to get rid of pain, trying to get rid of discomfort.

[168] I mean, we live in, as Pope Benedict, the 16th said, we, you know, we have so much comfort in the world, and people like comfort.

[169] We're not, we're made for something stronger than comfort.

[170] We're made for greatness.

[171] We're made in the image and likeness of God, but we've been lulled into such a attitude that we don't want to suffer.

[172] And we don't want, and without suffering, you don't have real love.

[173] And that's later on he'll talk about that.

[174] Love masquerading is just, well, if it feels good, do it.

[175] And if it feels good with somebody else, you can do it together.

[176] But that's not real love.

[177] The thing is, it doesn't take you anywhere.

[178] The cross is difficult.

[179] And all of us would rather get to the reality of love without going to the cross, even Christ himself in the Garden of Gitsmeny.

[180] He said, Father, if this cup can pass me by, then please.

[181] But he ultimately said, not my will, but thy will be done.

[182] And the will of God is to take us through.

[183] suffering to the glorious gift of true love, which always is woven into that reality of sacrificial life, of sacrificing so that we can know the reality of love.

[184] That's what the cross is about.

[185] Wow.

[186] As the scripture says, it's a scandal.

[187] It's thought to be ridiculous.

[188] And we see all of that in the world today.

[189] People see the cross is something to be mocked.

[190] something to be laughed at, something that is ridiculous, something to be just disposed of completely.

[191] And when they do that, they don't realize they're disposing of a component of love that is essential.

[192] Wow.

[193] I was thinking of what Fulton Sheen said in one of his tapes.

[194] He said that sacrifice is the language of love.

[195] Absolutely.

[196] Now, he also quotes St. Paul, which you do a lot.

[197] which is good.

[198] St. Paul says, but far be it for me to boast except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

[199] And then Galatians chapter 6, verse 14.

[200] For too many Catholics, the Montsenor says, Catholics today, the cross and its demands make them cringe and even feel embarrassment.

[201] Instead of boasting in the power of, of the cross, the thinking seems more to be, how dare we, or the church, point to it, and actually insist that it's better than the comfort of a false compassion?

[202] That's saying, I mean, he says, St. Paul, I'll read the lesson, and then I'll give you your thought.

[203] St. Paul understood that Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews and the fullness and foolishness to the Gentiles.

[204] But he goes on to say, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power and God, and of the wisdom of God, 1 Corinthians, but try to tell this to someone who fears the cross.

[205] And sadly, there are legion in the church.

[206] Your thoughts?

[207] Because, I mean, yeah, that's a mouthful there, what he just said.

[208] Wow.

[209] Yeah.

[210] Yeah, and I think it's very important that people realize that it really, it takes out the essential reality of what real love is to sacrifice and to ignore the cross.

[211] And many, I mean, as St. Paul makes it clear.

[212] Yes.

[213] I mean, he's talking first century Christians, and it was a stumbling block, foolishness.

[214] That's exactly what it is now.

[215] And we've got to stand by the cross and help people embrace it as the path to everlasting life, to the resurrection.

[216] You know, Bishop Strickland, while I'm hearing you speak, I'm thinking of the wasted pain that's in hospitals around the world, where people haven't got a clue that they can unite their sufferings with the sufferings of Christ to help redeem the world.

[217] I'm convinced, I really am.

[218] that if they understood their suffering in light of the cross, the whole world would be converted because their prayers would be so powerful.

[219] Am I onto something with that?

[220] Do you think I'm right?

[221] Oh, absolutely, because our society says, medicate the pain away.

[222] At all costs, get rid of pain.

[223] And that's all you're saying.

[224] If you watch some television, you're going to be seeing all kinds of pain medications and take this and you won't have joint pain and whatever.

[225] And, you know, certainly some of that can be helpful if it's really helping a person get past a dramatic, painful episode and continue their life.

[226] But we're too many people in hospitals and in hospices and in nursing homes are medicated into oblivion.

[227] Yeah.

[228] And their death is sped up by the pain medication.

[229] Right.

[230] And, you know, that whole attitude that pain is evil, we've got to get rid of pain at all cost, it just doesn't fit.

[231] I mean, think about your family situation.

[232] I mean, I'm not talking about super pain, but things that are a little bit of an annoyance or a nuisance, you just have to learn to put up with it and to get through it to the good that, I mean, what is work?

[233] I mean, to dig a flower bed means a little pain.

[234] It means a little exhaustion, but good things develop from it.

[235] But we don't want any of the pain.

[236] We just want the good things, and the good things diminish when they're not earned with pain.

[237] I mean, people don't like it, but that's reality.

[238] The next one he has is on universalism, universal salvation.

[239] And Bishop Strickland, you can correct me right on the air.

[240] Please do if I'm wrong on this.

[241] But I read the Vatican II documents and they're beautiful documents.

[242] And what I read, what I saw, and I talked to missionaries that right after the council, they got the impression falsely, and I call it the spirit of Vatican II, that the missionaries are no longer needed because everybody's going to go to heaven.

[243] And it was a false interpretation of Vatican II.

[244] And this is still going on.

[245] And Monsignor talks about this when he said that it's a belief that most people think, think we're all going to be saved at the end.

[246] This is, he said, directly contrary to our Lord's own words.

[247] And when we come back, we'll talk about those things.

[248] And you correct me if that spirit of Vatican 2, which is false of Vatican 2, really, I saw it in my own life where they were saying, everybody's going to get to heaven.

[249] Don't go and evangelize them.

[250] Let them go.

[251] No, that's not what the church says.

[252] We'll be back with more on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[253] Stay with us, family.

[254] And now back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[255] Welcome back indeed.

[256] Boy, what a show today.

[257] I just love Monsignor Charles Pope's article, The Eight Modern Errors Every Catholic Should Know and Avoid.

[258] It's at the National Catholic Register, great newspaper.

[259] I encourage people to read that article.

[260] I was just mentioning before the end of the break about universal salvation, that everybody seems to get this impression.

[261] Falsely, after the Second Vatican Council, many of the missionary efforts of the church stalled, and people were coming home, this is just history.

[262] And I thought, well, how did we get that message?

[263] Because the church, it doesn't say that in the Constitution of the church.

[264] I mean, it's just how did this false teaching come along?

[265] And now we're 60 years later, and we're still feeling that effect that says, don't worry about anybody.

[266] They're all going to get to heaven.

[267] So just sit, relaxed.

[268] And it makes us feel more comfortable that we don't have to go out and do the work.

[269] But Monsignor says that that that's sad.

[270] Sadly, not what the church teaches, he quotes Luke chapter 13 and Matthew 7, dozens, he says, of parables and other warnings come from our Lord in this regard with straightforward teachings that make it clear that we must be soberly and accept that many and not a few, and that not a few are going to be lost unless we, by God's grace, urgently summon them to Christ and to authentic discipleship.

[271] boy we need that your thoughts on that bishop strickland well again it's very important to to talk about this universalism and the idea that oh the vast majority of people will be saved because again that's contrary to what the church teaches and it's simply not reality that's what the church teaches is what is true and it reminds me of something that a lot of people don't talk about much anymore but we need to bring it back, the four last things.

[272] Death, judgment, heaven, and hell.

[273] That's, to me, that's the greatest counteracting universalism is to just remind ourselves.

[274] And some of the greatest saints, they're even depicted in art holding a skull or with a skull on their desk.

[275] And people say, oh, why do they have a skull?

[276] It's to remind them, this life is passing quickly.

[277] And we need to be aware of those four last things, death, judgment, heaven, and hell.

[278] Instead of worried about what will the neighbors say or will I get some flag from upstairs if I say something that is the truth, but it's not politically correct.

[279] All of that is an attitude that forgets what our destiny is and assumes that what Jesus did doesn't really matter.

[280] I mean, that's what is at the heart of universalism, if that were really the message, and then he didn't need to die on the cross.

[281] He just needed to come and wave at everybody and say, come on, guys, let's go to heaven.

[282] That's not what happened.

[283] Jesus Christ sacrificed in just being incarnate in this world.

[284] And throughout his life was a sacrificial giving of love with the ultimate sacrifice of his own life on the cross.

[285] So this was hard earned.

[286] And that's what some of our evangelical brothers and sisters really emphasize.

[287] And I think we need to emphasize that, that our salvation was earned by Jesus Christ when he died on the cross.

[288] And we need to be very clear of that.

[289] And we need to avoid this tendency of universalism and really kind of be alert and awake to the reality that we want to work our rear ends off.

[290] So that we don't end up on the wrong side of the choice.

[291] Amen.

[292] We don't want to end up with the goats when it should be with the flock of sheep.

[293] Well said.

[294] I'm going to move on because we got a few more.

[295] Number four, deformed dialogue.

[296] The term dialogue has come to mean an almost endless conversation.

[297] As such, it lacks a clear goal to convince the other.

[298] It usually means talk.

[299] In our culture, merely talking is given a lot.

[300] of credit.

[301] So why did you share a little bit what he's hitting at?

[302] Because I'm sure you and I both have had that situation come up.

[303] Well, what that calls to mind is point number four to form dialogue.

[304] It's just endless conversation.

[305] It's all this, oh, let's commune with each other.

[306] Yeah.

[307] But it's forgetting that there's truth.

[308] Yes.

[309] You know, if you, the dialogue is great to bring people to the truth.

[310] Yeah.

[311] But if you don't really believe that the truth is there and that it's something that is offered to everyone, then you end up just in this kind of circular, never -ending conversation that doesn't get anyone anywhere.

[312] Dialogue is meeting people.

[313] I mean, as we're told to go out to peripheries, that's great.

[314] But bring the truth.

[315] Don't just go out there and say, oh, I'll listen to you, Luke, you listen to me, and we'll just keep having this conversation, it doesn't get anywhere.

[316] It doesn't get to salvation in Jesus Christ.

[317] And that's, I think it's an excellent point that he makes that endless dialogue is not what it's about.

[318] And if people, what does Jesus say?

[319] If you enter into that dialogue, if you present the good news of the gospel and the people outright reject it, he says, shake the dust of their town from your feet, move on.

[320] Don't just keep talking and just having a conversation.

[321] That's not the gospel.

[322] That's not evangelizing.

[323] And I think that's an important point for our time, because as he indicates, you know, evangelization has really fallen apart because we don't have a solid belief in the truth and positive faith.

[324] These are essential, eternal truths that have to be transmitted to the next generation.

[325] And we need to really do the work of just getting it to this generation.

[326] Because if we don't get it to the people that are here now, it's not going to be passed on to the next generation.

[327] And humanity just continues to devolve into a mess of anti -civilization without the truth.

[328] And we've got to get past the dialogue.

[329] Yes, we need to reach out.

[330] But you've got to reach out with the gift of the truth.

[331] Well, said, this next one I think is excellent, too.

[332] equating love with kindness.

[333] He says, kindness is an aspect of love, yeah, but so is rebuke.

[334] You see, that's the part we don't want to tell people.

[335] Yeah, I love you so much.

[336] I don't want to tell you to stop fornicate.

[337] No, we got to tell them.

[338] So it is punishment as a praise.

[339] Yet today, many, even in the church, Matzinger says, think of love only as kindness and affirmation, approval, encouragement, and other positive attributes.

[340] Here it comes, he says, but true love is, at times willing to punish, to insist on change, and to rebuke error.

[341] Father Bishop Strickland, that last part, rebuke error.

[342] We need to do more of that because there's so much error in our culture.

[343] And even, like I said, even in our church, someone needs to say this is wrong.

[344] Absolutely.

[345] And that last line, it's a good definition of what a parent's call it.

[346] True love is at times willing to.

[347] to punish, to insist on change, and to rebuke error.

[348] And that's what pastors and parents need to remember.

[349] Because if we're not doing those, it's tough.

[350] I mean, it's a cross sometimes with the person, the parent, or the pastor who's having to do that.

[351] But it's real love.

[352] And that, again, it ties into what we talked about earlier.

[353] It's a lack of understanding that love is sacrificial and love is.

[354] about living the truth.

[355] It's all tied together.

[356] But I think when love, people say, oh, well, they love each other, if your life is being destroyed and mortal sin, that's not loving each other.

[357] I don't care what form it takes.

[358] If you're living in a relationship that is celebrating mortal sin for both of you, it's not luck.

[359] And that's what people have to wake up to.

[360] And that's when you love somebody, when you tell them the truth.

[361] Absolutely.

[362] This is a good one.

[363] I want to move on, if I can, to number six, misconstructing the nature of tolerance.

[364] Can I have something here that you tweeted from the Holy Father, Pope, I think it was Pius the 10th.

[365] He's a saint.

[366] And he said, the primary duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of false ideas.

[367] It seems that's exactly what we're doing with right now.

[368] We're saying, oh, that's okay.

[369] So what does Monsignor have to say about that?

[370] He says, most people today equate tolerance with approval.

[371] Therefore, when many demand or ask for tolerance, what they really mean demand is approval.

[372] And we see that today in our culture, big time.

[373] But he says this, but tolerance is from a Latin word, tolerate, to put up with continents or suffer.

[374] as such it refers to the conditional endurance of or at least non -interference with beliefs, actions, or practices that one considers to be wrong.

[375] One might tolerate them to some degree to prevent, for example, a severe enforcement are draconian penalties, unnecessary intrusion into privacy, but if the object component is missing, we are not speaking of toleration, but if indifference are affirmation.

[376] He's really kind of, you know, caving it all up to show, he's cutting it all up to show that this lies in the heart of the error for Catholics who embrace this toleration as basically approving error.

[377] We see that right in our church today, Bishop Strickland.

[378] Yeah, and that kind of tolerance is really the opposite of love because it's tolerating something that's false for the same.

[379] of just keeping everything cozy and calm instead of saying, no, that's wrong and that's harming you.

[380] That kind of tolerance.

[381] What really strikes me in this, Terry, is what God wants for us is eternal life and everlasting life with him.

[382] This kind of tolerance doesn't even allow us to have a content and happy life in this world, because it allows evil, it allows falsehood to flourish, which ultimately brings destruction.

[383] Again, it goes back to, I mean, each of these ties into all the others, because if you don't believe in real objective truth, and if it's all relative, then this tolerance that Monsignor Pope is talking about, it makes sense.

[384] You just put up with each other, nothing's true, nothing's wrong, nothing's evil, nothing's good.

[385] But that's not the world we live in.

[386] And when we start operating that way, it begins to harm the good.

[387] And it goes on to talk about that.

[388] Wow.

[389] Well, when we come back from our break, we've got one more segment to talk about the eight modern errors every Catholic should know and avoid like the plague.

[390] You're listening to the Terry Skull, you're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Powerful radio.

[391] Stay with us, family.

[392] We'll be right back.

[393] And now back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[394] Welcome back, indeed.

[395] I'm kind of running through these eight points of Monsignor Charles Pope with Bishop Strickland.

[396] Eight modern errors every Catholic should know and avoid.

[397] I would recommend you go to the National Catholic Register and print up this, article and study it because it really speaks to the modern church.

[398] I really think my opinion is every Catholic around the world should read this, whether it's the bishop or a pope or a layman, because it all applies to the important aspects of our Catholic faith.

[399] Number seven, anthropocentric, that term refers to the modern tendency to have man as the center and not God.

[400] I call it the unholy trinity, me myself and I. But it has been a long tendency in the world ever since the Renaissance, sadly, he says, though it has deeply infected the Catholic Church in recent decades.

[401] Wow.

[402] That's a real indictment that the Montsignor sang.

[403] God bless him for speaking like that.

[404] He says, this is especially evident in the liturgy, not intrinsically, but in practicality, widely celebrated.

[405] Our architecture, songs, and gestures, instant announcements, congratulatory rituals are self -referential and inwardly focused.

[406] Boy, he's saying some things that not many guys will speak like that.

[407] I love, he's right.

[408] The liturgy, as commonly celebrated seems more about us than God.

[409] Even the Eucharistic prayer, which is directed entirely to God, is usually celebrated facing the people.

[410] to agree with ad orientum bishop strickland as a layman i don't really want to see you i i really want to see us praying to god but i mean i realize the document on vatican too implies that the priest turns around and says the lord be with you that's implying that his back was towards you i'm not in i'm not a liturgist but what monseigneur is saying really reaches me how about you absolutely and you know the the the issues in the liturgy the the issues in the culture the last line of this section number seven God must be central if man is to be truly elevated you've said that so much that's what it comes down to the glory of God is man fully alive I think that was Ironaeus yeah but this is one of the key issues that goes really a lot of these are connected to like truth and real love but this man focus instead of a God focus.

[411] And it's just logically makes sense that it gets us on the wrong track.

[412] It's, I mean, think about if we believe that we're created in the image and likeness of God, that we come from God.

[413] For us to reverse things and look to ourselves as the end all and be all and basically leave God out of the picture, that leaves us where we are.

[414] I mean, we see this anthropocentrism unfolding in our world with more and more focus.

[415] And the more and more we focus on just humanity and forget about God, the more broken humanity becomes, the more distorted it is.

[416] And that comes down to just each of us as individuals.

[417] What is a family?

[418] A family is a place where you realize you're not the center of the universe.

[419] Other people are there that have value and that you should care for and that you should respect.

[420] The larger the family is, the more you see that reality.

[421] But even the smallest family, and that's the model that God has given us.

[422] Family, I would say, is the best antidote to the plague of anthropocentrism that the world is in.

[423] Because when we grew up in families, you have children of your own.

[424] Everybody's an individual.

[425] Everybody's a beautiful individual gift.

[426] But that gift flourishes when they recognize that maybe little brother needs a piece of this pie as well.

[427] Maybe older sister needs some time to herself.

[428] know, we share, we're concerned, we care about others, we share what we have, we take the time to provide something that we don't need or want, but somebody else wants.

[429] That's what happens in a family, and in a very, you could say in a microcosm of just one person, it makes you realize you're not the center of things.

[430] It's not all about you.

[431] You're not the center of the universe but anthropocentrism if you carry that to the extreme then each person and that's how we see people operating right you know it's like all that matters is me and they and they focus so much on themselves they begin to harm themselves and distort their own bodies and it's just a plague of false message that we've got to be aware of and the way that god has built the world it always pulls us away from that.

[432] To live in community of any kind is to recognize that I'm not the center of things.

[433] God is.

[434] And when we forget that, whether it's the whole human civilization or the individual, we got on a path that's destructive rather than life giving.

[435] Wow.

[436] Last one, roll reversal.

[437] I'm going to let you, because we just have a few minutes left on our hour.

[438] The eighth one role reversal, I'll just say this.

[439] Jesus, he said, said that the Holy Spirit whom he would send to us would convict the world.

[440] That's John 16.

[441] And thus, the proper relationship of a Catholic to the world is to have the world on trial.

[442] I haven't heard anybody say that in years by Bishop Strickland.

[443] He says, St. Paul, and this is a biblical worldview.

[444] The St. Paul says, test all things, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

[445] Thessalonians.

[446] So again, the world is to be on trial based on the light of the gospel.

[447] We don't hear enough of that, Bishop Strickland.

[448] Absolutely.

[449] And I think that's an essential point that Monsignor Pope makes, that we've got to realize that the world, I mean, what does Jesus tell us?

[450] We are to be in the world, but not of the world.

[451] He says that he's conquered the world.

[452] That tells us the world.

[453] That tells us the world.

[454] needs to be conquered.

[455] And just like we were talking about the anthropocentrism, it comes down to the individual.

[456] We're called to look at the world and how are we tempted to be distorted by the world and to counteract that with the message of the gospel and to remember what we're called to be true to.

[457] And I think that that's an essential point.

[458] And it's a good one for him to end his article on because when we forget that and when we are always saying, oh, well, the scriptures, this is the way we want it, so the scriptures have to conform to what we think the world should be.

[459] We're constantly judging revelation and judging God's message to us against the world.

[460] And it's backwards, and it leads us backwards.

[461] It leads us away from our fulfillment.

[462] even on the most natural level.

[463] I mean, a lot of the things going on in the world are, you would say, well, I know it's nothing to do with faith, but this reminds us that ultimately everything has to do with faith because when the world is what we're conforming ourselves to, rather than saying the world needs to be tested, just like St. Paul, so often St. Paul says it in the first century, we can't improve on.

[464] Test all things.

[465] Hold fast to what is good.

[466] Abstain from every form of evil.

[467] That needs to be ingrained in each of our hearts, taught to our children, passed on to every person.

[468] Test all things.

[469] Is this really good?

[470] Is it going to bring me more fulfillment in God?

[471] Hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

[472] That is.

[473] is a basic code of conduct that we've forgotten.

[474] And instead, it's like, oh, well, you know, the commandments, they don't apply because that's not what the world says feels good.

[475] And it distorts us and distorts human society.

[476] What I see today was a world biblical view of salvation.

[477] In other words, Montsener quoted scripture all along on these eight points.

[478] and it seems to me that we need to go back to basics and this is one of the reasons Bishop Strickland you teach from the catechism every week here on your show because people need to know the fundamentals of the faith absolutely I want to read a line he's quoting Jesus from Mark's gospel but this we need to hear this has spoken to each and every one of us in the world today if anyone is ashamed in Jesus is speaking, if anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, and he's talking two thousand years ago.

[479] Wow, it sounds like today.

[480] He's talking to us.

[481] Yes.

[482] The son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his father's glory with the holy angels.

[483] We need to, that should be on billboards throughout the world, reminding people in every language.

[484] We need to wake up because shame on us.

[485] if we continue to live in a world where the son of man will be ashamed of them and basically condemn us because we've condemned ourselves.

[486] And I'm, I'm, yeah, I'm stunned.

[487] You know, that scripture verse, I am going to put, I'm going to mark chapter 8, verse 38, folks, memorize it.

[488] And that, you know, that ties us right into what we're doing next week at Dodgers Stadium.

[489] Yeah.

[490] We're willing to stand up to this adult.

[491] and sinful generation and proclaim the son of man and that again bishop strickland is the same thing we do when we protect the unborn babies we never go without talking about protecting the unborn because what that is the sacredness of life and then bishop strickland before we ask for a blessing i think we're a minute or two out could you talk a little bit about corpus christian what a great celebration this is for this coming weekend for us?

[492] Absolutely.

[493] The Feast of Corpus Christi traditionally celebrate on Thursday, now in most places on Corpus Christi Sunday.

[494] But the point is to celebrate the body of Christ, the Eucharist.

[495] It was instituted to help us to really focus on the wonder that as Christ has told us, he's with us into the end of the age, at every altar in the Catholic faith, bread and wine becomes the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ, we need to be woven more and more deeply into His Eucharistic presence into His Sacred Heart.

[496] Wow.

[497] How about a blessing for us, please?

[498] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for all of us as we continue our journey of faith.

[499] Help us to continue to learn and open our hearts in humility, acknowledge that we are sinners and all of us need to be reformed and guided closer to the truth.

[500] truth.

[501] We prayed for the saints to ask for in their intercession in the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[502] And we ask this in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit.

[503] Amen.

[504] Thanks so much, folks.

[505] You can listen to all the Bishop Strickland shows by going to VMPR .org.

[506] Download the free app and all the other shows that we produce are there at your fingertips.

[507] Thanks for supporting us here at Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[508] With clarity and charity, we proclaim the teachings of Jesus Christ.

[509] In season and out.

[510] Thanks again for taking the time to join us each week here on the Bishop Bickman Hour.

[511] God bless you and your family.