08 Dec 2020 – Bishop Strickland’s Response to the McCarrick Report

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] I'm honored to be here.

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

[3] And each week we ask Bishop Strickland to come and teach us, the Catholic faith, talk about some of the issues of the day.

[4] And today we're going to be talking about sin, what it is, what it isn't, and the deadly sins.

[5] And this fits right in, we do this the second half of the show, but it fits right into your first tweet that I'm going to quote, because you actually spoke about this at the bishop.

[6] Conference, I think it was a virtual conference a week ago or two, and you tweeted that you wholeheartedly support Bishop Paraki's support of St. John Paul II.

[7] He's yet another victim of the McCarrick's evil manipulation.

[8] McCarrick lied directly to the Holy Father.

[9] The Pope's advisors failed to give allegations the attention they should have received.

[10] Now, Bishop Strickland, you spoke at the conference, I saw a part of what you had to say about sin and deadly sin.

[11] Can you share with our listeners?

[12] Take your time because I think this is important.

[13] What did you share with your brother bishops about the McCarrick case?

[14] Well, I basically said that it's a morality tale.

[15] All seven of the deadly sins are represented there, either by McCarrick himself or those who were woven into the whole scandal with him.

[16] So we really, we live in a world that likes to deny the reality of sin, but Christ made it very clear.

[17] The Blessed Virgin Mary has made it very clear in her messages, in Fatima and in other places that we are called away from sin.

[18] That's the first step toward Christ.

[19] We have to repent of our sins.

[20] that's what we'll start hearing from during advent one of my favorite figures john the baptist and he will be telling us to repent of our sins and follow in the way of jesus christ well said and bishop strickland there's an article on life site news i'd like to read that just recommend people to listen or to watch it or read it on life site dot lifesite news dot org and i think it's a very good chronological report on this.

[21] And to be honest with the Bishop Strickland, I'm going to be brutally honest.

[22] As a layman, I'm embarrassed.

[23] I'm going to be honest with you.

[24] I'm embarrassed by the report that came out from the Vatican because it seemed like they were just pointing fingers at prelates that are dead.

[25] And one of the questions that comes up in my mind was, wait a minute, this man used to give cash to lots of bishops for favors.

[26] I want to know who they are so that we can investigate if they knew what was going on.

[27] they got to be held accountable.

[28] And I didn't see that in the report.

[29] Yeah, I think that it's not in the report from my understanding.

[30] And we need that kind of detail.

[31] We need that kind of information.

[32] Because it just until we really acknowledge the reality of who benefited from some of the evil, actions of McCarrick, and who was getting money so that maybe made them quiet about the moral issues that maybe they were aware of, maybe they weren't.

[33] But it all gets woven into this web of corruption that is scandalous.

[34] Even if the Vatican were just a large business, all of that would be scandalous.

[35] And the fact that it's the body of Christ and represent the Holy Catholic Church that continues to be holy because God is with us.

[36] But for all the more reason, I mean, businesses have standards that would not allow this kind of action and this kind of activity to go uncorrected.

[37] And the church has a moral obligation well above any corporation in the world to to live the model of Jesus Christ and to live the truth.

[38] So the challenge of the McCarrick scandal remains a challenge for the church.

[39] This report did not end that challenge.

[40] It answered some questions, and we can be grateful that it was a step in the right direction.

[41] We know more than we did, but as far as the real accountability, it's still not there.

[42] Thank you, Bishop Strickland.

[43] Yes, we are held to a higher moral code as Christians.

[44] Bishop Strickland, you also tweeted again regarding a vaccine for COVID -19.

[45] You said, Moderna vaccine is not morally produced.

[46] Unborn children die in abortions, and then their bodies were used as a laboratory specimen.

[47] I urge all who believe in the sanctity of life to reject.

[48] the vaccine, which has been produced immorally.

[49] Now, Bishop Strickland, you're giving direction.

[50] What made you do that?

[51] But also, what about people who have jobs like in the medical profession?

[52] Are you just going to tell them, you know, they say, look, you don't have a job unless you get vaccinated.

[53] How do you handle that situation?

[54] Well, I believe we've got to push for in demand ethically produced vaccines.

[55] There's a lot, it gets into very complex science and it is complicated, but the bottom line for me, as I've said before, is that I will refuse any vaccine that is clearly connected to using unborn children to produce that vaccine.

[56] Right.

[57] I mean, some people will argue, and you have to be careful about the language because it gets into precise scientific language.

[58] But we have to, to me, the whole abortion industry, and it is an industry.

[59] There's a lot of money bound up in that.

[60] And now we're threatened with a government saying that our tax dollars will even more be used.

[61] Certainly, there have been in direct ways that tax dollars have been used to support Planned Parenthood or abortion in other ways, but that it's being pushed that those tax dollars will be more used.

[62] And getting aside from the money and all the complex science as a simple guy, I just want to say we need to demand that vaccines are not produced by using the bodies of unborn children that have been murdered.

[63] And people will even say, well, they're dead anyway.

[64] We might as well use their body parts.

[65] But I just refuse that.

[66] And I think if we really believe in the sanctity of life, how can we use unborn children that have been killed in the womb, how can we use them as spare parts for what we need?

[67] And I believe in the coming months we're going to see more of the ways that the parts of unborn children are used in industry, in medicine especially, but in other ways as well.

[68] And we need to, we need to wake up to that for those of us who believe in the sanctity of life.

[69] And hopefully it wakes up more people that may not even believe at this point, but there's, it's really horrific when you start looking into the ways that the bodies of unborn children are used in science, children that have been aborted.

[70] And we need to up to that as believers.

[71] Well, said Bishop Strickland, I know that if the end of the election gets counted by next month, it looks like Vice President Biden will be our next president of the United States, and he's already mandated that when he gets into office, he's going to make it a mandatory thing that we as taxpayers are going to be paying for foreign abortions.

[72] Usually the other side says no. The Democratic Party for years has been always, if 30, in power, they want us to pay for those abortions outside the country.

[73] And, you know, in that case, we don't really have a, we don't really have a choice as a taxpayer to support that, but we can the next time we vote, vote for a pro -life, you know, particular person who's going to be in the oval office.

[74] But my question to you is lots of things are going to be taking place if Vice President Biden is now our next president in January.

[75] And a couple of things, things are going to come across, and that's the Roe versus Wade.

[76] He's wanting to codify that so that all this work that we as pro -lifers, yourself included, we've been trying to defend the life of unborn babies, and it looks like he's going to do whatever he can to make it so it's enshrined and that we won't be able to overcome that.

[77] What advice would you give us as committed Christians, not just Catholics, but people of goodwill to continue to fight for the unborn no matter what?

[78] Well, certainly I truly believe the best weapon we have is prayer.

[79] Amen.

[80] But prayer with action, as the scriptures say, it's not just prayer, but with action.

[81] And the appropriate action is to really work on the local level and the district level from all the different levels of government.

[82] Certainly, the president has power, the Congress has power, the Supreme Court has power, but that's not the only place where we can appeal.

[83] And I guess the main thing I would say, Terry, is we can't give up on the sanctity of life.

[84] Many nations have gone further into making abortion legal, even than the United States has, with laws and with a different, maybe a slightly different system of government.

[85] We've got to continue to speak for the poorest of the poor, like St. Teresa of Calcutta reminds us, an unborn child is the poorest of the poor.

[86] We're going to come right back with Bishop Strickland on the Bishop Strickland.

[87] I'll turn that down.

[88] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[89] We were just talking about the unborn baby before we had to break.

[90] And I don't know if our listeners know this, but last week marked the 100th anniversary of the first nation to allow abortion to take place.

[91] That was in Russia, 1920.

[92] And the millions of babies that have been aborted in Russia over the last 100 years, years are in the tens of millions of babies.

[93] And it's interesting that country today is paying the women to actually have babies because they know that the demographics, they can't support themselves without new life.

[94] And their population is getting old and they don't have young people to take up the rank.

[95] So this is happening not just in Russia and Japan and other large countries, they're realizing now decades later that huge, oh my gosh, what are we going to do for the economy?

[96] What are we going to do to have jobs if they're not there?

[97] And that's not the reason we're against abortion, but it's, again, shows people that when you take life away, the consequences are devastating, not only morally, but just to the country.

[98] They're going to be all a bunch of old people and nobody to take care of them.

[99] So I just wanted to bring that up.

[100] Bishop Strickland, I love the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and you sent a tweet out.

[101] We just, just so you know today, Jesse and I, and the Terry and Jesse show people can get that on Virgin Most Powerful.

[102] We did the historical setting for the 1925 document on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and what was going on with the Holy Father, Pope Pius the 11th at that, no, I'm sorry, Pope Benedict the 15th at that time in the church.

[103] And he did it because of secularism.

[104] And he, When you read what he said about the culture, leaving God out of the, you know, the picture and in countries not giving God his rights, that's why he did it.

[105] I thought a hundred years later, we're still going at it.

[106] So you said this in your tweet, draw closer to Jesus, make his sacred heart the center of your life, serve the poor, remembering the greatest poverty in life with, I'm sorry, the greatest poverty is life without God.

[107] care for our world remembering this is only a path precious but still only a path our destination is eternity with god seek him bishop strickland thank you this is what i'm looking for my bishops to tell me about eternal life you know bishop strickland if you ever told me to go wash my hands and wear a mask i'd say that's not your job bishop strickland please tell me about jesus tell me about heaven And let the medical guys tell me about that.

[108] So what made you tweet this about your love for the sacred heart and telling people to really entrust your life to Jesus?

[109] Why did you do that at this time?

[110] Well, I think it was probably on a Friday.

[111] I love to call people to focus on the sacred heart every Friday, really all the time.

[112] And devotion to the sacred heart has been in a lifetime reality for me. and if you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the beauty of his sacred heart just naturally flows from believing who he is from the cross.

[113] His side was pierced and the scriptures tell us the blood and water flowed from the in medically they know that that was the the cardiac sac that surrounds the heart with every human being.

[114] That's what was pierced, and that's why blood and water flowed out.

[115] I think the beauty of the sacred heart is that it really is a reminder of who Jesus is, fully God and fully man. I think we've talked about it before, but the Eucharistic miracles, at least the ones that I'm aware of, scientifically investigated.

[116] there's some of them that very clearly, this is cardiac tissue of a man in his, you know, mid -30s that had been under extreme stress.

[117] And, I mean, it just, it shows us that the Eucharist is the sacred heart of Christ.

[118] And that's why I called people to come to know Jesus, to embrace him, to, develop a devotion to his sacred heart, then absolutely care for the poor, but remembering that the poorest, like I already said, St. Teresa of Calcutta reminds us, the poorest.

[119] If you think about it, it's just logical.

[120] Who are the most naked, the most powerless, those who have nothing?

[121] The unborn.

[122] they are there in the womb, and unless we choose to value them, they have no voice, they have no ability to do anything.

[123] Yes, we care for the poor, but when we neglect those in the womb and worry about children and poverty, absolutely, those are tragic realities in many different ways on many different levels.

[124] But I believe we've got to wake up.

[125] up to the life in the womb as the first place where we have to work against poverty.

[126] Because as long as they're disposed of, murdered in the womb, then everything's undermined that we're trying to do for the poor in the world.

[127] And there are a lot of things in government organizations and in global organizations where they talk about reproductive health, and that's code for promoting abortion and promoting contraception.

[128] And like you were talking about in Russia, and in any of the cultures, we outsmart ourselves when we think we're smarter than God and we've somehow, we've become God, we don't do a very good job of it.

[129] And in the long term, we undermine everything that we're trying to support.

[130] Bishop Strickland, I have to tell you when I was a young man, we used to do Sacred Heart enthronements as part of our Legion of Mary and the Knights of the Maculata work.

[131] And I loved showing men the father of the house leading the prayers and enthroning Jesus Christ in their home.

[132] And all the kids would sign the little document like I did in 1972 June when I was a little boy.

[133] My mom and dad had their house enthroned.

[134] now we had mass at our house you don't have to have mass I mean it's great if you can get a priest to say mass and do the enthronement but what I noticed about the enthronements Bishop Strickland is it got men involved in saying our house is enthroned to the sacred heart the kids are signing that document mom signing it and we're entrusting ourselves to the sacred heart and we always had the immaculate heart and the sacred heart together just like liturgically in our church's calendar so the hearts beat together so to speak.

[135] So I just I get excited when you talk about the sacred heart of Jesus because it really now what did I do when my when I started our wife and I started our family even before we had children.

[136] I think it was like a week when we got back from our honeymoon we enthroned our house to the sacred heart and as the kids came along we said this is where you know we had them sign the petition and be part of that.

[137] And so I just want to encourage our listeners go online and just type in enthronement of the sacred heart they have a kit you can just download right online to do that for your own home the blessings are out of this world bishop strickland another tweet that you did is well scott hon my you know terry i'm i'm i'm the guy that recorded his original conversion story he tells me last month it was i know the month of november yeah it was 31 years ago we did that and obviously dr scott hans got a big name now and we are glad to be a link in the chain.

[138] He said this in a book that he wrote Reasons to Believe, and you quoted it, the church, like the incarnation, is not merely spiritual and certainly not just theoretical or ideal.

[139] The church is God's visible body.

[140] God is now our temple, our bread, our bath, and our anointing.

[141] He is present in the word we hear proclaimed from the sanctuary.

[142] break that all up because you quote right from his book what what made you want to quote from is it the liturgical time of year because i this is all about ecclesiology it's a big word but meaning the church how do we see the church tell me about it well um yeah dr han i'm reading another great book of his just started it uh and he believes in the truth yeah and that really terry is what the church is about.

[143] I've constantly reminded of the question of Punches Pilate recorded in the gospel as he stands before truth incarnate.

[144] He says, what is the truth?

[145] The world is asking that question now.

[146] Exactly.

[147] And the church is the font of that truth because Jesus Christ is truth incarnate.

[148] He is the word.

[149] He is the life.

[150] He is the way.

[151] and so I think we tend to think of the church even within the church sometimes it's one of many clubs that you can belong to get out of here but the church is something much more essential than that yes and it the world desperately needs the Catholic church and there I think we have to be wide -eyed and and clearly aware that there are forces that hate the church as they hated Christ himself.

[152] They hate his body as the world hated Christ when he walked this earth.

[153] They crucified him.

[154] And I've even heard people and read some things that talk about, as we know, the passion of Christ that we acknowledge and we commemorate during Holy Week and really prayerfully focus on the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

[155] People have said that the church herself is going through a passion.

[156] And I believe we are seeing that in many ways.

[157] A loss of the truth, a loss of fidelity to Christ, even within the church in an attempt to accommodate so much to the world, certainly we need to reach out to the world, but the world is hungry for truth.

[158] And when we diminish that truth and water it down and accommodate it to what the world wants, the church loses her meaning because as Jesus stood before Pilate and refused to deny that he was king.

[159] And we too often, we just celebrate the feast of Christ the king, we need to acknowledge Jesus Christ as king and to urge others to believe the truth That is the mission of the church.

[160] And in recent years, it's been diminished because it's like, well, if you want to believe this, that's fine, but don't push people to believe in Jesus Christ and everybody just can believe in their own thing.

[161] It's the truth or not.

[162] And I believe that he is the truth incarnate.

[163] His church is the font of truth for the world.

[164] And we need to really embrace that joyfully.

[165] and boldly and courageously and share with the world the truth of Jesus Christ.

[166] That's the mission of the church.

[167] Well, said, I want to recommend another book, the Cardinal Ratzinger Report in 1985, and that would be a good book for people to read because it's all about the church being the bride of Christ and our ecclesiology being so low, we don't see it that way.

[168] Hey, when we come back with Bishop Strickland, we're going to dive right into the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[169] We're going to talk about sin and what it is.

[170] what it isn't.

[171] We'll bring that dial.

[172] We'll be right back.

[173] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[174] My name's Terry Barbara.

[175] I'm with Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

[176] We've got lots of other programs if you'd like to listen to them.

[177] Just go to virgin most powerful radio .org.

[178] And if you're listening on an AM station, you want to hear it, you can get our app.

[179] We have a free app that can go anywhere in the world.

[180] So that would be one thing.

[181] Before I get into paragraph 1846, I know and I see it in Bishop Stryck.

[182] He likes to teach the faith, and he's got an institute at his diocese that I would love for him to just reaffirm because we have over 1 ,000 to 2 ,000 new YouTube listeners alone every week coming in.

[183] Bishop Strickland, can you tell us a little bit about the Institute at your diocese and what is there for the asking there?

[184] Sure, Terry.

[185] I'm always glad to talk about the Institute, and I do love to talk about the truth of the faith.

[186] Because it's beautiful.

[187] It's joyful.

[188] The church is interesting.

[189] It's life -giving.

[190] It is, it's a source of meaning for humanity.

[191] And so I'm always glad to talk about the church and the truth that she is the font of.

[192] The institute, St .Philip Institute .org, Philip with one L, is the whole purpose of the institute is to share the truth.

[193] we work with couples that are in formation for marriage to teach them the truth of marriage marriage is between a man and a woman for life open to children and there's a whole lot packed into that simple description of marriage that the culture in our nation and around the world these days is rejecting that basic definition of marriage at our peril as we were talking earlier, we are outsmarting ourselves to pretend that we can redefine something as basic as marriage.

[194] It's between one man and one woman for life, open to children.

[195] And the church is accused of being bigoted and opposing people and not valuing people and not giving people their freedom.

[196] but real freedom is always rooted in the truth.

[197] It's not truly free, ultimately, if that freedom is taking us away from the truth.

[198] So the church is challenged to joyfully and boldly, charitably teach what the truth is.

[199] That's what the St. Philip Institute exists to do.

[200] And it's doing a great job.

[201] Great, Bishop Strickland.

[202] Well, now I want to talk about sin.

[203] I remember Bishop Sheen said that one of the big problems in the church is we've lost a sense of sin.

[204] St. John Paul II said that.

[205] Pope Pius X. 11 said that.

[206] It seems like all the Holy fathers have talked about the loss of the sense of sin.

[207] So I wanted to go right into paragraph 1846 where it says mercy and sin.

[208] And for those who don't have a catechism, please invest in a catechism.

[209] And I'm going to say this right now.

[210] If you can't afford a catechism, I'll buy you.

[211] I mean that.

[212] You call me at my cell number, 661, 972, 7872, 7872.

[213] And I truly will send you a catechism because, you know what, the benefits are out of this world.

[214] I really believe Bishop Strickland that St. John Paul II's greatest contribution to his pontificate of 25 years is this catechism.

[215] I don't even think the canon law that he got in is as big as the catechism.

[216] Yeah.

[217] I agree.

[218] If you need funds to help you buy those catechisms, just let me know.

[219] I'll make a contribution because people, it is the truth for humanity.

[220] Yeah.

[221] And like we're talking about the nature of the church, the catechism isn't for the Catholic club.

[222] It's for all humanity.

[223] Amen.

[224] It speaks of basic, certainly, it gets into certain things that are about the Catholic liturgy and that everyone's invited to be a part of.

[225] but there's certainly specifically Catholic things about the sacraments that we believe all fits together into proclaiming the truth.

[226] But there's an awful lot in the catechism that really has little to do with religion.

[227] It's just talking about who we are as men and women, how God put this world together.

[228] And that basic idea that God did put the world together, as we talk about sin, I love to think of, you know, that God is revealed to us an owner's manual for humanity.

[229] There you go.

[230] Part of that is the Bible.

[231] Part of it is the catechism and the traditions of the church.

[232] The whole deposit of faith as we speak, both of us probably love cars.

[233] I know I do.

[234] I never had the dream model cars that I always would have liked to have had.

[235] But a Corvette Stingray has an owner's manual.

[236] Yep.

[237] You don't say, oh, I think I'll pour some molasses into the motor, into the engine instead of motor oil.

[238] I think I'll just choose to use molasses.

[239] Yeah, it doesn't work.

[240] You're going to destroy that beautiful car.

[241] It's the same thing we do with humanity.

[242] If we just decide we're going to do it our way, like you've said many times, then you're not going to get very far down the road with a Corvette Stingray that has molasses where the oil should be.

[243] Humanity is not going to get very far down the road of life, ignoring God's owner's manual of truth that he's revealed to us.

[244] it comes down to things as basic as that.

[245] That's what sin is.

[246] I think we'd agree a beautiful Corvette Stingray to pour molasses in where the oil should be.

[247] That would be a sin.

[248] That would be a violation of that beautiful piece of machinery.

[249] When we sin, we are ignoring God's plan for us.

[250] Sometimes in what we call venial sins in smaller ways, they're dangerous because they begin to eat away at the basics and become mortal sins if we allow it to continue to grow and to get into those seven deadly sins that are deadly, mortal, mortally devastating because they can suck the life right out of us.

[251] so to avoid sin is to embrace life well said bishop strickland i just spoke with a gentleman who spent 15 years in prison he's out of prison and he came to know our lord through when we sent him a lot of cassette tapes back then that was scott hon and bishop sheen and he told me it was the catechism of the catholic church he read it through three times in prison and he said it just made so much sense to him And he really did understand sin, Bishop Strickland, because he had been on that side of the fence.

[252] And I'll never forget, Fulton Sheen, he spoke to 2 ,150 inmates up in San Quentin, and he started his retreat off.

[253] He said, gentlemen, there's only one difference between you and me. You got caught.

[254] We're all sinners.

[255] And I say that, I'm a sinner.

[256] Bishop Strickland, you're a sinner.

[257] We all need to repent and believe in the gospel.

[258] So let's read this paragraph, 1840.

[259] because this is the good news of the gospel.

[260] The gospel is a revelation in Jesus Christ of God's mercy to sinners.

[261] Like me!

[262] The angel announced to Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

[263] The same is true of the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of Redemption.

[264] This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

[265] Why do you think we want to have Masses offered for the redemption?

[266] Why do you think we want to have Masses pose of our souls of our relatives and friends folks when we go to mass we're present at calvary so bishop strickland the question i have from this paragraph is it really does say that you know christ is here to redeem us and that we're all sinners and we need it we can't get to heaven without jesus christ absolutely it goes back to the original sin of adam and eve and really all sin is basically rooted in what Adam and Eve did is to embrace our way instead of God's way in whatever dimension of life, however serious or however apparently minor, when we sin, we are choosing to ignore God and take our own path, and we can get away with it for a certain amount of time, but ultimately it's going to catch up with us.

[267] And so what the church, what Jesus came to do is to free us from that tendency that we all have and the tendency that we fall into of being sinners.

[268] As we know, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the only human being who didn't sin.

[269] And that wasn't her power.

[270] That was the power of the Holy Spirit.

[271] She was the, she is the immaculate conception, conceived without original sin.

[272] God gave us a prototype of discipleship to live the way her son makes possible for all of us if we will turn from sin and live the gospel.

[273] Paragraph, good.

[274] Paragraph 1848 from St. Paul, he's affirming, he says, where sin increased, grace abounds all the more.

[275] Boy, I'm sure glad of that.

[276] But to do its work, grace must uncover sin so as to convert our hearts and besieming.

[277] bestow on us righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and it says like a physician who probes the wound before treating it.

[278] God by his word and by his spirit casts a living light on sin.

[279] We get convicted but I want you to unpack that paragraph.

[280] To me that's a powerful statement from St. Paul's teaching on where sin increases grace abounded all the more.

[281] Wow.

[282] Well and I think what it it uses the analogies of a wound in the body.

[283] And once that, I mean, probably you've got scars, I do.

[284] I do too.

[285] And they say that scar tissue is really tougher than, you know, just skin or other tissue that hasn't ever suffered a wound.

[286] The body is marvelous and the body of Christ is marvelous.

[287] When, if a wound is undetected, and uncared for, it can kill us, just like the wounds of sin for us personally and for the body of Christ.

[288] But what I think that paragraph is alluding to is when we allow God's light to penetrate that sinful darkness, we grow stronger than ever before.

[289] The saints were sinners.

[290] Some of them were notorious sinners before they converted.

[291] And they remained prone to sin and temptation throughout their lives.

[292] No saint was sinless.

[293] But they did the right thing and used the light of Christ on those sin.

[294] We'll be back with more talking about mercy and sin on Bishop Strickland Hour.

[295] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[296] Isn't this beautiful to hear a bishop teach the fundamental teachings of the church?

[297] I find it very uplifting.

[298] because I'll tell you, I played ball, I wrestled.

[299] I always found out in sports that if you worked on the fundamentals, then you'd be good at what you do.

[300] And in the Catholic faith, we need to go back to the fundamentals because I think many of us in the church have forgotten what sin is.

[301] And I remember reading and you're listening to Bishop Sheen, he said, Carl Menninger wrote a book, whatever happened to sin in the 1970s.

[302] And Bishop Strickland, it seems to me, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a mentality that we have to get rid of in the Catholic Church that you have universal salvation that, hey, you don't have to repent.

[303] Some people just love God and do what you want and don't worry too much about sin because, you know, everybody goes to heaven.

[304] It's called universal salvation.

[305] And I find it very unattractive and I also find it very bad for people because they have this assumption that repent.

[306] sentence, is it necessary for heaven?

[307] What's your take on that?

[308] Do I, am I on to something?

[309] I think you are, Terry, and I really like to frame it in terms of just this life.

[310] If we just really take ignoring sin to the limit, then for one thing, why did Christ die?

[311] Why did he offer his life if sin's not something we need to worry about?

[312] And the reality is, even if you don't call it sin, which we know it is sin, but if you look at the problems in the world, let's just take the sin of greed.

[313] Look at how many issues there are worldwide in this nation, in every state, in every state, city in every community because of the sin of greed.

[314] If you say, well, sin isn't real and there is no sin, then there's a whole lot of injustice that happens just in this world.

[315] Even if we didn't believe that we're destined for another life, for everlasting life with God, to to just in terms of this world, ignore the reality of sin, it just leaves us really inhuman.

[316] Because if, you know, if there's no sin, then you can do whatever you want and you can take whatever you want.

[317] And it just becomes the most powerful, the ones that have the greatest strength and the greatest resources can dominate everyone else.

[318] So we really don't ignore sin except selectively.

[319] I see.

[320] If everyone just said sin isn't real, then it would be chaos.

[321] It truly would.

[322] I would imagine even the most vigorous atheist that you could talk to would say, that if you just said, okay, I'm going to take your car, and there's no sins.

[323] So, and they say, oh, well, that's not just.

[324] Well, why not?

[325] If there's no morality, there's nothing sinful or wrong, then it just begins to unravel the very fabric of civilization.

[326] And I think that's what we're seeing in many ways.

[327] But I think even for those who claim that, you know, sin is not something we need to pay any attention to, it really is only selectively the things that they don't want to be sins.

[328] But, you know, if we all decide my favorite sin is no longer sinful, then we've got a world of chaos.

[329] And too much of that is already going on.

[330] We've got to live ethically, and for us in the Judeo -Christian tradition, those ethics are based on commandments, on what God is revealed to us, and that always brings us.

[331] I mean, what is sin?

[332] One definition is living contrary to the commandments of God.

[333] and and so chaos is what we get if we ignore sin individually, corporately as the body of God's people and the world.

[334] Right.

[335] Well, Bishop Strickland, I just spoke with Ralph Martin, who's a good friend of our station, and he wrote a book that you tweeted weeks ago about crisis in the church.

[336] And that was one of the themes he said is that we're allowing, people dressed like you, Bishop Strickland, not you, but there are priests and bishops who are letting people run around the church, even in the Vatican, he said, and not correcting them when they teach things that are contrary to the, I call perennial teachings of the church, whether it's like homosexuality, James Martin, the Jesuit priest.

[337] He doesn't get reprimanded for saying, and as he said in the book about, you know, bishops who have even said, well, the Jesuit provincial said this.

[338] He said, well, the Bible condemns homosexuality, but, you know, is the Bible correct?

[339] See, he undermines authority of what we teach for 2 ,000 years about scripture.

[340] See, and Bishop Strickland, I don't mean to be pointing the finger, but I think this is why this is important that we study what sin is.

[341] And when we come back next week, we'll continue on this.

[342] But maybe we can get this definition, paragraph 1849.

[343] Why don't you read 1849?

[344] because this really gets to the core of a definition of what the church teaches about sin.

[345] 1849.

[346] Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience.

[347] It is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor, caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods.

[348] It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity.

[349] It has been defined.

[350] as an utterance, a deed, or desire contrary to the eternal law.

[351] And as always, the catechism says it much more beautifully than I have, but it basically is saying the same thing.

[352] It's a perverse attachment to certain goods that distorts those goods and causes them to be bad, causes them to be destructive rather than life -giving and supporting the flourishing of the individual or the human community.

[353] Very good.

[354] And paragraph 1850 also says sin is an offense against God, against you and you alone have I sinned and done that which is evil in your sight.

[355] The paragraph 1850 says, sin sets itself against God's love for us, turns our hearts away from it.

[356] Like the first thing, it is disobedience, a revolt against.

[357] God through the will to become like God's knowing and determining good and evil sin is thus love of oneself even to the contempt of God it is this proud self exaltation sin is geometrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus which achieves our salvation now Bishop strickland that's a lot there but I also want to say that when we sin like for example let's give an example everybody most people are married not like you know you're celibate most people are married let's say we talked about the 10 commandments months ago we get that that's all on podcast but the sixth commandment says thou shall not commit adultery okay that's a serious sin committing adultery not only is it offensive to god but it's offensive to your spouse so sin wounds the mystical body of christ and i just want to make one comment that uh a priest shared with me that when someone sins halfway around the world that I don't even know that that's an effect on the mystical body of Christ.

[358] And I think of that when I say, wow, look at the world right now.

[359] More people are watching pornography today in 2020 than there were alive, than there were people alive in 1917, when our lady said certain fashions are going to come and corrupt people.

[360] That tells me something that we don't have an understanding of what sin really.

[361] really does against God and the effect of neighbor.

[362] I had to say that because while I was reading that paragraph, I was thinking, yes, it offends God, but sin affects the whole body of Christ.

[363] And I'm just going to ask you this question, Bishop Strickland, do you see that maybe that because we've lost the sense of sin, that that's one of the reasons the church is so wounded is that we haven't been teaching people you know, really clearly what sin is.

[364] Do you think that that's an effect by not a sin?

[365] I mean, it's an omission on our part that people really don't have a good grasp of what sin is.

[366] I get this all the time and I'm a layman.

[367] Yeah, I think that's absolutely one of the root issues that we need to deal with.

[368] Sin is real, whether we acknowledge it or not.

[369] Yeah.

[370] Sin destroys us whether we acknowledge it or not.

[371] And certainly it goes even deeper, like we've talked about before, it's when we sin and don't acknowledge it, we're really ignoring God.

[372] And that is an even deeper issue that we're facing.

[373] Many people proudly proclaim themselves to have declared their independence from this God myth, and that again, going back to the truth, when we do that as creatures who really, it always mystifies me the mercy of God.

[374] Amen.

[375] Because he gives the person that is vehemently, you know, striking out and saying all this faith and all religion is evil, and there is no God.

[376] God is literally giving them the breath and the life to say that, to deny him.

[377] And that is God's mysterious ways.

[378] He loves us and he wants to give us the opportunity to convert and to turn to him, our creator, our loving father, who has sent us a Savior.

[379] But he doesn't force us.

[380] And he allows us, even he gives us life and breath to deny him, if that's what we choose to do with our free will.

[381] Well, said, I want to just remind, if you're listening for the first time and you go, wow, this is pretty a high bar, God can forgive any sin.

[382] We do it through the sacrament of penance, the confession.

[383] So if you haven't been to confession in a long time, get to confession.

[384] And let's continue to get closer to Christ every day.

[385] Bishop Strickland, we have a minute left.

[386] Can you give our listeners a blessing?

[387] And we have just a minute left for that.

[388] The Lord be with you.

[389] And with your spirit.

[390] Almighty God, we ask your blessing for Terry Barber and all who are with him in this radio program, all of those who help and assistance.

[391] And we pray for all of those.

[392] Ask your blessing for all of those who are listening.

[393] That we all may grow to know you as our loving Father, to know your son more deeply, to be guided by your Holy Spirit, and that the Blessed Virgin Mary may intercede for us powerfully.

[394] In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

[395] Thank you, Bishop Strickland is an honor to be here today.

[396] I hope that this has helped you fall deeper in love with Jesus Christ and his bride, the church.

[397] May God bless you and tell your friends about the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[398] That's how we grow the program.

[399] God love you and your family.