22 Dec 2020 – Bishop Strickland Speaks Out on Bishop Sheen

[0] Welcome to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[1] This is Terry Barber, and I'm honored to be here to talk with the bishop about our Catholic faith.

[2] Just for those who are brand new, what we normally do is talk about some of the tweets, some of the actions that are going on in the church, and then we get right into the second half of the show with the catechism of the Catholic Church.

[3] Bishop Strickland, do you have your seatbelt on?

[4] I do.

[5] Oh, good, because I'm going to ask you some tough questions.

[6] Right away, Bishop Strickland, one of our shows was put on well every week life site news puts on the bishop strickland hour and we appreciate them doing that but just recently youtube banned the your youtube channel because of what you said about refusing to take a corona vaccine i thought it was kind of i mean like really and it and i looked into it and it was true bishop strickland that they thought that that was like fake news or something that for you to say that was reprehensible.

[7] And I'm, what are your thoughts about that?

[8] I mean, are you surprised?

[9] Not really.

[10] But I stand by what I, what they censored, that what I have encouraged people, and I've put a statement out to the Diocese of Tyler, all 1 .5 million people, very few Catholics, but a lot of good, faithful people.

[11] Certainly, to me, one of the main issues is the morality.

[12] of the vaccines, but if we could just say, okay, they're totally clear of any association with aborted children, great, that's wonderful, and I would love for us to be able to reach that point.

[13] We need to work toward that point.

[14] But even beyond that, there's so much confusion around this virus, and let me say very clearly, I know that it can be deadly, I know that it's very serious.

[15] You know, there's still people that say it's all a hoax.

[16] Hoaxes don't kill people.

[17] And certainly, the complexities of even knowing exactly how did a person die, it's a, it's a sadness when anyone dies short of the natural course of their lives, through accident, through disease.

[18] God's plan would be without sin would be for us to simply, returned to him.

[19] But, you know, we live in a broken world where death is a reality.

[20] And it's always a sadness.

[21] It's always a sadness because that person will never be repeated.

[22] It will never, we will never have that individual again.

[23] So keeping that in mind that every death is significant.

[24] Yeah.

[25] From what I understand, the death rate is less than 1%.

[26] And that has to be factored in.

[27] And again, we don't discount any of those debts.

[28] And around the world, that becomes many, many thousands of people.

[29] But still, you have to keep that in perspective.

[30] From what I understand, a vaccine like for COVID -19 usually takes multiple years to develop in not just a few months.

[31] It's already been reported.

[32] There have been deaths of people, even one priest died.

[33] That's right.

[34] that had volunteered to take one of the vaccines that's under development.

[35] Then I heard a couple of other people died, I think, with different vaccines.

[36] So there are just many questions that, in some of them, are probably not well -founded questions, but there are some well -founded questions about these vaccines.

[37] What I've said is, on the morality issue, I'm not.

[38] going to accept a vaccine for myself that is, has the involvement of using, using unborn children that were aborted elective abortions and they use their bodies.

[39] I'm just not going to accept that.

[40] Well, like I said, if we can get past that issue, there's still other issues.

[41] And what I'm encouraged is that people just wait.

[42] Yes, there's a risk of infection.

[43] There's a risk of death.

[44] And certainly, if you're in the more risky category, that certainly needs to be weight.

[45] But I think I would encourage for people not to be, as I read an article today, and it's pretty strong language, but not to be guinea pigs, not to be the experimented on to see.

[46] I mean, we could be in a few months from now, sadly, mourning the reality that many people have died that we're using these experimental vaccines.

[47] I mean, I think we have to recognize that.

[48] We all need well -developed vaccines that are ethically produced.

[49] But sadly, I think we're still a distance from that, hopefully not years, but at least probably months.

[50] And I'm no scientist, but I think we've got to be, it goes back to something we've talked about, Terry.

[51] the word subsidiarity every man and every woman whatever age if they're of age if they're adults certainly the children they have to be guided by their parents and they should be but adults need to make their own decisions about what their risks are and what their needs are and that and that's one thing I think that we need to really emphasize with faithful people with all people any of these mandates that people talk about, we need to be very careful in a free society of mandating things that there are all these questions about.

[52] Give the real data to people, allow them to have a well -formed conscience on the moral issues, and a well -informed decision just on all of the issues about what the risks are, what the benefits are.

[53] I don't think we're anywhere close to the of clarity that I think we should be at before people start lining up to receive these vaccines.

[54] Well said, Bishop Strickland, and how can people get that statement of yours on the issue of vaccine?

[55] Because I'd like to recommend it at your website, or how can they get that?

[56] It's on the, for sure, it's on the St. Philip Institute website, St. Philip Institute .org, Philip with one out.

[57] It's available there.

[58] You scroll down a bit on the website, and there's one specific news updates, and it's right there.

[59] One more thing I read yesterday, Bishop Strickland, is in New York, there's legislation being put foot right now that it would be mandatory for every person, 20 million people living in the state of New York.

[60] They wouldn't have a choice for the vaccine.

[61] And, you know, that's really sad.

[62] Now, a lot of times things that happen in New York are.

[63] California seem to spread to other states.

[64] Yeah.

[65] Well, I would urge those leading governmental, I mean, that make those kind of decisions to really rethink that and be very cautious about overriding people's subsidiarity.

[66] They need to make, people need to be given the proper information and trusted to make decisions.

[67] We're all children of God.

[68] And to take that freedom away, I think would be a serious step in the wrong direction.

[69] Well, said.

[70] Bishop Strickland, today marks the 41st year since Archbishop Fulton Sheen had passed away.

[71] December 9th, 1979.

[72] I had the honor and a privilege of going to his funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

[73] And I'll never forget how I met hundreds of people in line waiting to go into the cathedral for the Mass. they were just telling me so many stories about how Bishop Sheen helped them understand the meaning and purpose of life.

[74] Well, the Sunday visitor newspaper came out yesterday with an article.

[75] A year later, still no answers on the delay of Fulton Sheen's beatification.

[76] Just to bring everybody up to speed, last year, we had a beatification date set for Archbishop Sheen.

[77] And, you know, I'm sorry, Bishop Strickland, but a bishop of New York, wrote a lady.

[78] letter to the Vatican saying we probably should postpone this because you never know with all the sexual abuses going on in this country, especially in our New York, that maybe Bishop Sheen had some problems and it would be embarrassing to the church.

[79] Well, you know, they already did all their investigations for the beatification, the miracle, the investigation of sexual abuse.

[80] And it was completely clean was Bishop Sheen.

[81] Now, Bishop Strickland, here's my concern as a layman.

[82] And I'm not in management.

[83] I'm in sales.

[84] So I just, I want to see Bishop Sheen beatified because I could see right now in the church that there's a great need for clarity with charity.

[85] And Bishop Sheen's writings are just what the church needs.

[86] In my opinion, I'm trying to encourage the Holy See out of due respect.

[87] Please respond.

[88] It's been a full year and nothing has come out of the Vatican about the beatification date set for Archbishop Sheen.

[89] Am I overstepping?

[90] my place, Bishop Strickland, or do I have a right to ask the Holy See to respond to us?

[91] No, I think you have a right to that information.

[92] It's a reasonable request.

[93] Whatever the information is, to just give people an update.

[94] I think it's a reasonable request that I hope that they will respond to.

[95] Let me ask you this.

[96] Would you agree that the writings of Fulton J. Sheen and his audio recordings, his YouTube videos are something the church needs desperately today?

[97] Absolutely.

[98] It's amazing.

[99] I'm sure you would share the same feeling.

[100] What amazes me is, and there's much of his work that I haven't read and videos that I haven't watched, but what I have seen, it what strikes me over and over again, it's he could be speaking in 2020.

[101] that's right because for one thing he's talking about truth that doesn't change and he's talking about a world that is losing its moorings losing its foundations and we've we've we've lost a lot since the time of archbishop sheen when he was on television and then later on even into the early 70s but he was prophetic yeah and his writings, his clarity, his humor, his ability to hit the nail on the head.

[102] I've quoted him many times.

[103] And you read a book of his, and it's full of things that can be quoted as if you're talking about the headlines today.

[104] So he's a treasure.

[105] Amen.

[106] We're talking to Bishop Strickland on Bishop Strickland.

[107] We'll come back with more after we take a quick break.

[108] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

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

[110] I wanted to bring up another topic with the bishop.

[111] He's close to, and he'll tell us about.

[112] There are many hundreds of thousands of faithful Christians, Catholic and Protestant, are doing these Jericho marches.

[113] And the big ones coming up this Saturday at the nation's capital to pray against the election fraud.

[114] That's what they're doing.

[115] but they're really trying to flood the streets of Washington, D .C. on the 12th of December, and the movement is named after the biblical story of the city of Jericho, which the group notes was a city of false gods and corruption, around which Joshua was instructed to march around the walls seven times.

[116] Bishop Strickland, I know you're involved in this, but over 700 ,000 Christians have already participated in this.

[117] And that gets me excited.

[118] I love the title of the conference.

[119] Let the church roar.

[120] I always think of us sometimes as a sleeping lion.

[121] So let us roar with the teachings of Christ.

[122] So tell us a little bit about your thoughts about this idea of going and, you know, putting this Jericho march on.

[123] Well, I certainly support any efforts of prayer and turning to God as a nation.

[124] Great.

[125] As you said, I can't be there.

[126] The one in Washington, D .C. is December 12th.

[127] And I've provided just a brief video prayer that they requested.

[128] And I know some people are partisan with this, and that's fine, but I'm not.

[129] I just am praying for the nation and for clarity about this recent election on national, state, and local levels.

[130] I think there are lots of confusion as there's so much confusion about so many things.

[131] So we should always pray together and the Catholic Church needs to be clearly represented as part of that prayer community because we believe in Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of all humanity.

[132] Well said, now I'd like to go to one of your tweets that you tweeted earlier this month and this is a tweet about St. Francis Xavier who had a great zeal for spreading the Catholic faith and I thought your comment about him how does it fit us?

[133] It seems like it's profound but here's what you said let us seek this kind of faith from the saints obviously many many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only there's nobody to make them Christians what a tragedy how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell thanks to you and this was saint francis saviour this was said hundreds of years ago why did you write that for 2020 well we were celebrating saint francis saviour he was a disciple of st ignatius of loyola the founder of the jesuits and reminds us that through history they've done tremendous missionary work many martyrs in the Jesuit community over the years.

[134] And St. Francis Xavier just has that zeal for souls that has sort of been cold water's been thrown on it.

[135] And there are ideas that, oh, we shouldn't evangelize, really.

[136] We shouldn't try to bring anyone to conversion.

[137] And that troubles me because if we really believe in Jesus Christ, he's the only son of God.

[138] He's the only Lord of the universe.

[139] He's the second person of the Trinity.

[140] And he tells us that he established a church and sent the apostles out to all nations to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

[141] To somehow say, well, that's old church, and that no longer applies in the year 2020 or beyond in the third.

[142] third millennium, nobody that I know of can claim a divine update that has changed that and said, okay, quit bringing the gospel to others and just let people walk their own path and just sort of be all a community here in this world, but not really focusing on what Jesus Christ focused on is the kingdom that is not of this world.

[143] And that's exactly what St. Francis Xavier is reminding people through baptism.

[144] The old language is, the present language, is that we, there's an indelible character, a change of the person.

[145] We are opened up, we are forgiven our sins, original sin if we're an infant, original and personal sin, if we're old enough to have sin, we are forgiven our sins at baptism and given the life of God.

[146] And so St. Francis Xavier is on fire with the zeal for souls.

[147] The zeal for the Lord's house consumes him, as they referred to Christ himself in the gospel, saying zeal for his house.

[148] And that's a beautiful thing that St. Francis Xavier reflects that we need to hear in the year 2020.

[149] and beyond.

[150] Bishop Strickland, you make me, make my, I'm so happy to hear you say that.

[151] I'll never forget, I wrote a book called How to Share Your Faith with Anyone.

[152] Dr. Scott Hahn wrote my introduction.

[153] Archbishop Gomez has endorsed my book and many others.

[154] And I read, I quote Vatican 2 and I hear people say that they go, well, it was the spirit of Vatican 2 that said, we're not going to go ahead and evangelize people like this Franciscan group out in the Amazon for 50 years, never made.

[155] one convert for 50 years.

[156] See, they missed reading the documents of Vatican II because I've read them as a layman and it doesn't say, don't go out and evangelize.

[157] It's just the opposite.

[158] So the spirit of Vatican II, in my humble opinion, has infected the church.

[159] And what I love about what you're doing with your St. Philip Institute is I've read that documents that you're putting out on Vatican 2.

[160] And I'm going, praise the Lord, because I go, look, it's right there.

[161] He's quoting the documents.

[162] This is not Spirit of Vatican 2.

[163] This is Vatican 2.

[164] And so I have a joke to say, I always say, well, the real Vatican 2, please stand up.

[165] And I can tell people with your work on the Institute, the St. Philip Institute, I recommend people to go there a lot because you're teaching really the documents of Vatican 2 and not the spirit.

[166] So I just want to thank you for that.

[167] And I think that St. Francis Xavier, yeah, Bishop Sheen said our fires have gone out and we need to relight them.

[168] And these are the kinds of saints that will help us do just that.

[169] So thank you for that quote.

[170] Bishop Strickland, one other thought, because this ties right into the Jericho march.

[171] And that is, you quote about a film, I don't know much about the film because I've never heard of it, never watched it, but you said, we were made for this fight.

[172] You had it in Crisis Magazine.

[173] In the film Full Metal Jacket, which is a setting during the Vietnam War, there's a scene where the platoon of, I don't, I'm just saying, what are we talking about was this movie?

[174] What inspired you in that movie to tie it into your faith?

[175] Well, it was something I read, you know, just quoting that movie, a line of one of the characters, and he said, we have to accept our situation.

[176] I guess.

[177] And the gist of what was quoted is that later on, another of the soldiers, what the situation was, two men are mortally wounded out in the field, and these men are basically in a bunker or down in a trench.

[178] They're sort of shielded, and the men are anxious to run out and try to rescue their injured brothers and one of the the leader says we have to accept our situation and then some you know kind of Rambo character in the movie says forget that I'm going to run out and bullets are flying but he goes out to try to save his comrades wow I don't know the rest of the movie I probably saw it years ago but I don't know if he got killed also or whatever but what's me is, and what was in the article, as it was quoting, is, no, we don't accept our situation.

[179] We fight for the truth.

[180] Amen.

[181] We live for the light of Christ.

[182] We say no to all the foolishness and all the watering down of faith and all the bracketing of scripture and all the things that are happening.

[183] We don't just accept it.

[184] And there's too much of that.

[185] I think the idea of accepting is the same idea of, you know, just going along and getting along and letting everyone, you know, sort of have their own ideas.

[186] If we believe there is a truth, then we can't just sit back and accept it when people that God loves and that we should love are harming themselves because they're ignoring the truth.

[187] We can't just accept it.

[188] We have to lovingly impatiently but strongly and clearly teach the truth well said well there's now that you mentioned that there are two bishops um that came out and with clarity and charity i think it's charity to tell someone who's living in mortal sin objectively to knock it off and to get back with the lord and repent and go you know get back archbishop aquila who is the archbishop of denver uh he backs a call for pro abortion catholic joe biden to be denied Holy Communion, and the article just says that you're living a life contrary to the gospel with what you're teaching about abortion or same -sex, so -called same -sex of marriage, and you need to repent and believe in the gospel, and you can't be receiving Holy Communion.

[189] Now, Archbishop Charles Chappu retired Archbishop of Philadelphia said a very similar thing about it.

[190] It's a pastoral thing.

[191] It has nothing to do with politics, Bishop Strickland.

[192] It happens to do with this soul.

[193] So why are you supporting these bishops?

[194] Do you agree with them?

[195] Absolutely.

[196] And I tweeted support for Archbishop Shepu's article and said, thank you for sounding like a pastor.

[197] Yeah, really.

[198] We need to sound like pastors of Jesus Christ, lovingly calling everyone.

[199] We're all sinners.

[200] I need to be called from sin.

[201] You need to be called from sin.

[202] All of us do.

[203] And to ignore that and to condone, the sin by saying, oh, well, we'll allow him to receive communion.

[204] It's the least.

[205] It is not charity.

[206] It is simply not charity to allow someone to do themselves harm, possibly eternal harm.

[207] And certainly, and I know both Archbishop Chappew and Archbishop Aquila would have gone on to say, let's teach him.

[208] And that's what I've tried to say.

[209] That's what's so disappointing to me. Instead of endorsing or exonerating or ignoring the fact that his proclamation of being Catholic doesn't line up with the Catholic catechism that we talk about every week.

[210] Not to just say, okay, you can't have communion.

[211] Absolutely to say, Mr. Biden, no to communion, but reach out to him.

[212] with the truth.

[213] Then certainly we go back to that subsidiarity idea that we've talked about.

[214] He's got to make his own decisions.

[215] We live in a free country.

[216] God has given us free will.

[217] We need to make our own decisions.

[218] But it's our job as pastors to guide people to that good conscience decision about everything.

[219] And that's how we should love Mr. Biden and every person is to call them from sin into the light of Christ.

[220] Well, said, you're listening to the Bishop Strickland Hour on Virgin Most Powerful.

[221] We're going to run into the catechism now about mortal and venial sin and be back with much more on the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[222] Welcome back to the Bishop Strickland Hour.

[223] I wanted to comment one more thing before we get into the catechism that should build your faith up.

[224] Because Bishop Strickland's been quoting a Benedictine monk who's I would recommend I have the book, but somebody gave it to me, but it's such a beautiful book.

[225] I'll let Bishop Strickland talk a little bit about it.

[226] But Bishop Strickland, you really inspired me with this quote about trusting God.

[227] And we live in a culture right now.

[228] There's fear is all over the country right now about COVID -19.

[229] And I agree, you know, less than 1 % of the people are going to die who get it.

[230] I actually believe I had COVID -19.

[231] when I was, it took me about seven or eight days to get back on my feet, and I thank God, I'm healthy, but there's, you know, there's no guarantee any of us are going to survive the flu at my age, you know, so, I mean, you know, life is short, eternity is forever.

[232] But here's the quote that you quoted on your tweet, be faithful and be courageous.

[233] I love this next line.

[234] You have nothing to fear.

[235] I'll repeat that.

[236] You have nothing to fear.

[237] Go forward and believe in love.

[238] For you are greatly loved and nothing will be able to rescue from my love, which possesses you and has marked you with his seal.

[239] This is a Benedictine monk, Bishop Strickland.

[240] It seems so appropriate that you would quote that today when the whole country right now is afraid to live and many of us are just hiding in corners right now.

[241] Is that why you put that quote out today?

[242] Absolutely.

[243] I think in so many different context of our lives, that's what we need to remember.

[244] It calls to mind the words of St. John Paul II.

[245] Be not afraid because you have Jesus.

[246] Too often, even his words are, you know, you leave out the part.

[247] Why not be afraid?

[248] Because we have Jesus Christ, the son of God, the king of the universe.

[249] So we all need to hear that.

[250] You know, I have rough days and confusion and people upset with different things that I've said and people pushing back.

[251] And I needed to read that.

[252] And in Sinu Yesu, as we've talked about before, I would urge anyone, certainly bishops and priests, I would hope that every bishop and every priest would make it a part of their prayer.

[253] and reading.

[254] And if you've read any of Encinu Yesu, you know that it's episodic.

[255] It's a few paragraphs on a day, and then it skipped several days.

[256] But the gist of it is reminding us, especially for bishops and priests and deacons, those who are ordained.

[257] What we're ordained for?

[258] I mean, the book constantly repeats that.

[259] But it's certainly valuable for you as a husband and father and grandfather to also be reminded.

[260] The most important thing we do is reconnect to our creator, to God, through his son, and the power of his spirit.

[261] So that's what Insinu Yesu was all about.

[262] And one of those connections reminds us, there's really nothing to fear if we remember, like that says, that we are in the heart of Christ.

[263] We can choose not to be through our sinfulness, and we all do to some, degree, but repent of the sin and keep going back.

[264] And thankfully, we have a loving God, father, son, and spirit who will always welcome us back.

[265] There's anybody listening that says, oh, I listen to this, but my sins are unforgivable.

[266] That's simply not true.

[267] Our hearts have to be open to that forgiveness.

[268] But if we humbly confess and ask God's forgiveness, he's ready to forgive us, that's why he sent his son.

[269] That's why his son, the son and the father, sent the whole Spirit that guides us and guides the church.

[270] Well said, Bishop Strickland, we've been going through the catechism.

[271] For those who are brand new, we did the Ten Commandments a month or two ago.

[272] They can always get them on our podcast at virgin most powerful radio .org.

[273] But Bishop Strickland, we're talking about mortal sin, venal sin.

[274] Before we get into that, why is it so important that committed Christians understand the severity of sin in one's life?

[275] Well, because I, I, I, I'm asking this question because it seems that we've lost this sense of sin in our culture.

[276] Absolutely.

[277] And I think that's one of the devastating threads of what we're dealing with, a loss of sense of sin, a, I was just reading this morning, a tendency for many, including in the church, to say, oh, God's merciful.

[278] Most people go to heaven.

[279] I hate to say, but if you read the gospel, Jesus really says the opposite.

[280] It says, narrow is the way to the Father, and he is the way.

[281] And that narrowness is it challenges me and you in our human nature as sinful men and challenges every man, every woman, every human being to not just do what comes naturally, what comes easily.

[282] If it comes easily and it's not a challenge, we probably need a good examination of conscience to ask ourselves, am I allowing my day -to -day routines to be caught up in sinfulness without maybe even directly realizing it?

[283] But we need to constantly have that examination of conscience for the sake of really, I would say it this way, Terry.

[284] of really being alive.

[285] Yeah, that's right.

[286] Sin is a little dose of death.

[287] And when, you know, you let anger get your heart and you just can't stand that person who took the job you wanted or did something, maybe something devastating.

[288] But when we develop anger or any of the sins, wrath can eat us alive and all the deadly sins.

[289] So every time we sin, it's like we diminish by.

[290] a little bit, the brightness of the life of God's loving grace that's available to us through our own choice.

[291] And we can choose to turn that around.

[292] I think we've talked about, you know, when you go to confession, especially if you're confessing something that you really are ashamed of, that really you know clearly was a bad decision and a big mistake in your life, when you confess that, you walk out of the confessional on the clouds.

[293] I mean, it's like you've got.

[294] got a bounce in your step that you didn't have before.

[295] That's a reminder to us.

[296] We need to pay attention to that.

[297] Those of us who try to go to confession often to, even if they're just venial sins we're confessing, when we're freed of that burden, there's a lightness in her step, there's a joy in our hearts that we need to remind ourselves of the next time we're tempted, and we all are, especially in this world, to, you know, take a little something that isn't ours because nobody's going to know.

[298] I mean, and that can take so many different forms from pirated videos to, you know, stealing a little bit, a little bit of this or that, or fudging on our income tax or on the reports to our bosses about, you know, padding the income or the reimbursements that we deserve for expending things.

[299] They'll never notice if I had about 20 bucks now and then.

[300] You know, we do that incremental.

[301] and it becomes, it continues to grow.

[302] It's like a disease.

[303] It's like an infection that is going to get worse if we don't pay attention to it.

[304] And the estringence is the forgiveness of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confession.

[305] Bishop Strickland, before we get in here, I want to ask, we talk about an informed conscience.

[306] So many times people say, my conscience tells me it's okay to steal X, Y, or Z, because I'm not, I don't have that.

[307] informed conscience.

[308] Can you recommend, was it the catechism, the Bible?

[309] What can you recommend to someone who's listening and saying, well, my conscience is, I've really never been taught, you know, a real, a good understanding.

[310] Would it be the Ten Commandments?

[311] How do they get an informed conscience is the question I want to ask you?

[312] Well, a good place to start is the Ten Commandments and really reading that section in the Catechism.

[313] And if you're really serious about forming your conscience, That's a good first step to understand what is right according to God, what is wrong.

[314] I think we all, and one thing is through prayer, I think we all have an innate sense of, for the most part, what really is wrong to, you know, I think most of us have a just a natural understanding that mistreating a, helpless animal is there's something wrong about that it's just not the right thing to do um and i think we have a natural understanding that even little kids that taking something that isn't ours why do we sneak around why do we try to make sure nobody watches us or sees it i think certainly we're afraid of getting in trouble but i think there's an innate sense of conscience of that we understand that certain things are wrong, that's probably a good place to start, is to just quiet your heart and ask yourself, what am I doing that I really know is not the right thing to do?

[315] And especially the habitual sins that all of us can fall into, that can tend to be a little bit and then get a little bit bigger.

[316] And maybe it's something as simple as we're paid to be at work from eight to five.

[317] and we get a little bit later and the boss isn't there yet or nobody knows we're you know self accountable for it and we go ahead and fill out our time card that we were there from 8 to 5 when really we were there from only 830 and then it becomes 840 and maybe it's 9 o 'clock some days that's a form of theft that we might don't even think about because everything was just on the computer and I just check in with my iPhone or you know It can get so remote from us that we forget that there's something not correct here.

[318] There's something sinful here.

[319] And paying attention to those smaller things gives us the practice of avoiding the bigger temptations and the ways that we can sin in mortal or deadly ways.

[320] Well, said, that's what we're going to get into, the mortal sin, venial sin.

[321] What's the difference here?

[322] I want to recommend that everybody get a catechism of the Catholic Church.

[323] We're going to be looking at paragraph 1854.

[324] The title is The Gravity of Sin, Mortal and Vinyl Sin.

[325] And this is really an eye -opener for most of us because we don't hear a lot about mortal and venial sin on the altar.

[326] Excuse me, Bishop Strickland, but I wish I could say I'm here in Los Angeles.

[327] People tell me that we don't get enough of this instruction from the altar, so that's why we're asking you to do this with the catechism and teaching us these fundamental teachings of the faith so when we come back we're going to cover paragraph 1854 and we'll continue on with the other paragraphs that talk about mortal sin venial sin and why is it important to know the difference you're listening to the bishop strickland hour on virgin most powerful radio welcome back to the bishop strickland hour we're talking from the Catechism to the Catholic Church about the gravity of sin, mortal and venial sin.

[328] Bishop Strickland, you just covered this paragraph 1854, just before we broke.

[329] It says sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity.

[330] The distinction between mortal and venial sin already evident in Scripture became part of the tradition of the church and collaborated by the human experience.

[331] So we know down, I want to call like natural law.

[332] says you know you don't steal you just we have that inside of us but I wanted to get your take on paragraph 1855 where it says mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law it turns man away from God who is his ultimate end and his beatitude by preferring an inferior good to him can you kind of break that up for us yeah I think what 1855 really reminds us of is mortal sin is a big deal, and it really is a dramatic turning away from God.

[333] And I think that what the paragraph reminds me of is by preferring an inferior good to him, we make something else God, whether it's money or pleasure or power or influence or popularity, when something grabs hold of us and it becomes our driving force, then we're in trouble.

[334] And it becomes deadly, mainly because it's replacing God.

[335] And it reminds us to always be examining our conscience, are we really looking to our creator and remembering that's where our ultimate happiness in this life and in the next is going to flourish, is when we are true to the one who created us in his image and likeness.

[336] And so mortal sin, whatever form it takes is mortal because it really is seriously replacing God with something or even someone else and saying, this is the driving force in my life instead of recognizing the truth that we exist because God loves us and he's the driving force in our lives.

[337] Man, clarity with charity.

[338] Thank you, Bishop Strickland.

[339] Now talking about venial sin allow it says it allows charity to subsist even though it offends and wounds it.

[340] You said earlier in the show about how venial sin can lead to mortal sin.

[341] Can you share a little bit more about why that is?

[342] Well, it's an incremental.

[343] It's not the big step away from God.

[344] But it's sort of, you know, we can all be distracted.

[345] Yeah.

[346] And we become distracted easily by the bright, shiny thing or something that's noisy or something, you know, in the culture.

[347] And I think a venial sin is a small distraction that if we just ignore it, it's kind of like, you know, getting a splendor in your foot, you know, you can, I mean, it doesn't kill you.

[348] It's not going to make you to have to have your foot amputated unless you ignore it.

[349] Exactly.

[350] And if you ignore that splinter, it can get infected and become more and more serious to the point you might actually lose your foot or it could kill you.

[351] And I think that's similar.

[352] It's like venial sin is a little infection of a little voice saying, this is better than God.

[353] This is better than what God's told you to do.

[354] And if you let that grow, it can become a big voice that says, I'm God in your life.

[355] And it causes you to not be able to I mean and that's what I think people need to realize grace allows us to be more and more open to the voice of God many times people will struggle with prayer and it may not always be I mean there are kinds of reasons people struggle with prayer because we live in such a saturated world with saturated with distraction it's hard to quiet our hearts but I think a lot of times also people are afraid to pray and they don't want their heart to get quiet because I'll tell you when I'm quiet in prayer sometimes sins even sins that I've confessed and I know have been forgiven but the memories come back and the best spiritual thing to do is say Lord I know you've forgiven me thank you for that mercy but I repent of that sin again if it comes to mind some, you know, some bad act from the past.

[356] But if you're in a place where you're not open to that voice, then if you, you know, people are scared of prayer very often because they don't want to get quiet because they know they're going to start hearing their conscience accusing them and calling them away from the darkness back into the light.

[357] And if people have already gone far enough down a path, they don't want to hear that voice.

[358] But thankfully, and I'd encourage everyone to realize the voice is always there.

[359] And that's part of the reason we need to pray, certainly to worship God and to be more in communion with God.

[360] But also, we need the quiet of our hearts to be able to honestly ask ourselves, where am I with God?

[361] And how can I overcome those obstacles that are preventing me from feeling closer and closer to my creator?

[362] Wow.

[363] 1857, I've shared this with people and they're like, does the church really teach this?

[364] It was in my Baltimore Catholicism.

[365] It's 1857, it says, for a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met.

[366] mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent what clarity in that paragraph bishop strickland i mean we need to know that absolutely so beautiful and i think it's it reminds me that um you know i need to be mainly focused on my sin and and doing my best to overcome it.

[367] Because for me to look at something you did and say, oh, it's a sinful act.

[368] Objectively, it may be.

[369] You know, what you did may be a sinful act.

[370] But, you know, you've got to allow that person to look into their own heart to see if these three conditions have been met.

[371] That's right.

[372] It certainly can be immoral, but that person may not have committed a mortal sin.

[373] And that's where, you know, that can be, you know, misinterpreted in very easily.

[374] Yes.

[375] But I think we need to just be very conscious for our own selves.

[376] I mean, the gospel says, judge not lest ye be judged.

[377] And so we're not to judge each other.

[378] And, you know, as a bishop, sometimes I get accused of judging the other person.

[379] But, and there is a fine line there, but there are objectively intrinsically evil acts.

[380] that we know are wrong and are immoral.

[381] Whether that person has committed the actual sin that corresponds with that act, that's for God and that person to sort out.

[382] And if some of these conditions are not met, then, I mean, for one thing, just as an example, a scrupulous person can be very concerned about something that isn't grave matter.

[383] Right.

[384] I mean, if a little kid is afraid they're going to hell because they stole a pencil, you know, we need to help that child understand it's not grave matter.

[385] It's not a mortal sin.

[386] Yes, it's wrong.

[387] And the child needs to be taught that.

[388] But, you know, and it probably is not that common in our society today.

[389] Most people just ignore sin.

[390] but there's still personalities that contend toward what we call scrupulosity and they can amplify it so that everything becomes grave matter and a mortal sin and that's that's not healthy that's not what the church teaches we need to understand is it grave matter is it something very important and both basically the the 10 commandments that we went through that becomes a basic gauge for is this grave matter now shalt not steal can be grave matter absolutely but stealing one piece of candy is probably not grave matter but like i've said if you allow that to just be overlooked it can become the the bank robber later on in life bishop strickland you just quoted paragraph 1858 about what grave matter specified by the ten commandments the next paragraph is going to also explain 1859.

[391] Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent of the will.

[392] It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act.

[393] It's opposition to God's law.

[394] It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice.

[395] Bishop Strickland, this paragraph breaks it down.

[396] I don't know if I've ever heard a priest on a homil.

[397] explain this, and it's so important.

[398] So could you kind of share that paragraph 1859 and break that up?

[399] Because to me, that really will help with clarity in this issue of mortal sin.

[400] Absolutely.

[401] And I think the consoling part of this paragraph is that, you know, you're not just walking down the street, committing mortal sin one after the other.

[402] right um but it i think the main thing that these two paragraphs or basically all of these on the issue of sin mortal and venial yeah it means we need to be reflecting that's it we need to be asking ourselves is it grave matter am i fully aware of what i'm doing am i saying i want this even though i know clearly that this is something God has commanded we shouldn't do.

[403] I mean, you've got to really, and I think probably one of the main maladies of our time is people aren't reflective.

[404] Right.

[405] People just go with what they're feeling, go with the flow, just do what their friends are doing instead of being that reflective person.

[406] Because what these paragraphs talk about, if you really pay attention, again, it goes back to having some silence, having a quiet heart that is able to ask these questions.

[407] And we live in such a fast -paced world with so much noise.

[408] I think there are a lot of people that never ask the questions.

[409] I mean, you have to be careful, as the catechism reminds us, to just say, well, I'm off the hook because I just don't ask the questions.

[410] When you begin down that path, You've started down a path of sinfulness by not forming your conscience well.

[411] So it really is something it is about being a man or a woman that reflects on who I am and who God calls me to be.

[412] Well said.

[413] Well said.

[414] Next week will continue on Mortal Sin out of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

[415] If you'd like to listen to the previous shows, go to Virgin Most Powerful Radio .org, where you can download any of the other previous shows.

[416] I want to thank Bishop Strickland for helping us understand our Catholic faith much better.

[417] And God richly bless all of you for our listening.