WarRoom Battleground EP 915： WarRoom's Ben Harnwell One On One With Interview With Bishop Strickland
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
137.37193
Summary
In this episode, Bishop Joseph Stickland joins me to talk about his life as a priest and a bishop, and how he became the first American catholic bishop to become a martyr to the faith. He also shares his story of how he was removed from the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of the 20th century for his opposition to the papal election of Pope Francis, and why he believes Francis was a usurper.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
this is the primal scream of a dying regime pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on
00:00:11.120
these people here's not got a free shot all these networks lying about the people the people have
00:00:17.720
had a belly full of it i know you don't like hearing that i know you try to do everything
00:00:21.480
the world to stop that but you're not going to stop it it's going to happen and where do people
00:00:25.080
like that go to share the big line mega media i wish in my soul i wish that any of these people
00:00:32.900
had a conscience ask yourself what is my task and what is my purpose if that answer is to save my
00:00:40.820
country this country will be saved war room here's your host stephen k bann
00:00:48.000
harnwell here at the helm on steve bannon's war room welcome to this show uh a very important
00:01:03.160
show today over the christmas new year holiday period guests that i've long admired uh i think
00:01:11.800
to my to my mind to many people's mind the most courageous american catholic bishop heroic witness
00:01:19.620
to the faith heroic witness to what a pastor of souls should be not abandoning the flock to the
00:01:27.560
wolves i am of course talking about bishop joseph strickland bishop strickland welcome on to the show
00:01:33.700
thanks for coming on today over over this period you were 10 11 years bishop of tyler in texas you're
00:01:40.420
born and raised um and i think some of the texan fire um is is evident in your charism and how you
00:01:52.620
approach being both a priest and a bishop i would say that you're so heroic as a bishop because you are
00:01:59.840
well formed as a priest and that is the bedrock i think of your um of how you approach
00:02:06.540
the the speaking truth with charity let me ask you if i may start off with this question because i know
00:02:16.020
a lot of people uh were commenting on it you read a letter out at a conference in which you quoted
00:02:24.260
the view that pope francis was a usurper that he had usurped
00:02:32.060
the throne the chair of saint peter can i ask you to explain to the audience um what you meant by
00:02:43.280
reading that out and whether the reaction to that was what you had expected it to be
00:02:49.420
well thank you ben um that was i guess two years ago uh approximately the end of october in 2023
00:03:00.840
really shortly before i was removed some people pointed to that and said oh that's why they removed
00:03:07.040
them but you know long before that the decision had been made that i was a disruptor and that you
00:03:14.000
know they needed to silence me but i've done my best to not be silent to still joyfully proclaim christ
00:03:21.060
and his truth he is truth but um using that word usurper that was actually quoting a letter that i
00:03:30.280
received from a dear friend that i deeply respect um so i believe what this friend meant and the reason i
00:03:40.360
quoted it is not some not to get in the question of was pope francis a valid pope um but really the
00:03:49.980
deeper question i believe was he validly and responsibly acting as speaking as living as the
00:04:00.700
vicar of christ we're talking about now a man who is deceased so as catholics we pray for the dead i pray
00:04:07.680
for pope francis we should pray for all who have died whether they're believers or not whatever they
00:04:14.020
did in life we all end in death and that is the church's mission the salvation of souls so i pray for
00:04:22.120
pope francis but i use that word because the pope is the vicar of christ christ is king the church is about
00:04:32.180
jesus christ it's not about any worldly agenda and i saw too much of what pope francis was promoting
00:04:40.520
um that was not the message of jesus christ it was either outright contradicting christ's message
00:04:48.280
or it was making it confusing and muddled and unclear if you read the gospels christ uh is very clear
00:05:01.020
beautiful language at times that is something that you really have to pray over and focus on
00:05:08.020
but especially when it comes to calling out evil calling out sin and speaking truth
00:05:18.140
jesus christ is very clear and his church has been clear that clarity has been hard won through 20
00:05:26.640
centuries before um pope francis became pope and before i was a bishop for 20 centuries the church had
00:05:35.380
been proclaiming the truth that is jesus christ more and more in my lifetime i was born in 1958 toward the
00:05:44.100
the second half of the 20th century and since my birth really um certainly their issues have started
00:05:52.940
earlier but things began to truly unravel and i think the unraveling is because we haven't been
00:06:01.700
as clear and as strong in proclaiming christ as the church of the ages through the ages was
00:06:08.980
there were difficult times there were popes that were on the wrong path but the church always corrected
00:06:16.280
that path and so here we are two years later that word usurper is not really what i meant and i believe
00:06:26.500
what the the friend that first shared that message with me was getting at was usurper in the sense that
00:06:33.780
he's not being faithful to christ not getting into the whether the proper election happened and all of that
00:06:42.280
that that is really another issue for history um that in many ways was not the most critical issue
00:06:50.440
are we being true to jesus christ and i've become known for being willing to speak up and you talked
00:07:01.200
about being a texan plain spoken is what we need and texans tend to be fairly plain spoken um not
00:07:11.200
and sophisticated sort of sort of obscure language but you know call a spade a spade speak the truth
00:07:20.360
clearly and that is something i believe we're desperate for in the nation in the world and in the church
00:07:29.560
jesus christ is truth incarnate so we need to speak of him clearly and the greatest love is to speak
00:07:38.880
christ clearly in charity in the truth in charity so bishop strickland let me ask you this because i know
00:07:46.440
it's an issue that has exercised and is exercising catholics um not necessarily traditionalist but
00:07:53.940
certainly traditionalist because you mentioned it uh about the the validity
00:08:10.080
i'm gonna ask you shades of question on this i'll start off with one and then i'll follow it up
00:08:23.360
do you think okay do you think that there how convinced are you in your response to that
00:08:31.220
is that a sort of you tend towards that response but there's room for doubt or in your mind
00:08:38.400
in bishop strickland's mind there's no room for doubt whatsoever on that issue
00:08:42.540
well um i think there is room for doubt just because there there have been so much confusion
00:08:50.740
um but every indication is uh you know i i would have to say plainly it's above my pay grade to make
00:09:02.500
that assessment the cardinals that were there that elected pope francis are the ones that would would
00:09:10.900
have to raise a question and there was no question about that raise so as a catholic bishop
00:09:18.820
and as a catholic faithful a disciple of jesus christ in his church today i accept the what the church
00:09:28.140
said they said this okay this is the pope um and again i think the question really goes deeper what is
00:09:36.840
the job of the pope to guard the deposit of faith to promote the message of jesus christ to proclaim
00:09:44.700
the gospel and so when a duly elected pope and there have been popes in the past not so much
00:09:53.260
being unclear about the the dogma and the doctrine of the church but popes in the past there were many that
00:10:00.740
were were deeply sinful men living lives that were duplicitous and immoral and so in that way they were
00:10:11.860
failing to be the what the pope is um certainly we're all sinners and the pope needs to be the first to
00:10:21.040
acknowledge that we all need repentance we all need to grow closer to the sacred heart of christ
00:10:28.740
but we have to proclaim the truth that is christ i think well one thing that we need to be very clear on
00:10:37.920
is the pope is the earthly representative of jesus christ jesus christ is head of the church
00:10:45.520
he is king of the universe head of the church it's his church we it's not ours to to to mold and shape
00:10:54.620
according to our desires it is to be faithful to christ because it's his church um so that is what
00:11:06.040
every pope is calling to do and yet bishop strickland pope francis acted as if the church belonged to him
00:11:17.020
the change according to his private political uh viewpoints and that ontologically is such a great
00:11:23.780
change in the history of the church and as you point out you know we've had bad popes before
00:11:28.080
but pope francis is bad in a very different a very different way a different quality of being bad
00:11:34.120
as a pope um i just want to pick up one thing that you said here um because we have a lot of you know
00:11:39.680
our audience is primarily evangelical um and from the from the protestant community from the
00:11:46.200
evangelicals they they there is a misunderstanding of as to what the role of the papacy is um but it's
00:11:53.840
not only a misunderstanding held by protestants 99 of the catholic church seems to be unaware of this
00:12:00.180
the role of the pope is simply the charism of bishop of rome is very simply to protect the integrity
00:12:07.420
of what has come down to us via christ and the apostles and say this belongs to the authentic
00:12:14.500
teaching that does not and that's how the pope exercises infallibility he doesn't just make up
00:12:20.720
dogmas uh according to you know to the whim and then sort of oblige hapless faithful to believe it
00:12:29.480
we're not a cult right that's the reason the catholic church is a is a faith divinely inspired faith
00:12:36.240
um rather than a cult because we don't believe what a single man um imposes that we what the
00:12:44.020
substance of what we believe comes down from christ and the apostles and yet this you know you said you
00:12:50.380
were born in 1958 that's a rather key year um for traditional for traditional catholics um certainly
00:12:57.940
those of a more militant disposition because from 58 onwards there's been an increasing tendency
00:13:05.560
in in in the popes from john the 23rd down to the present day to to invert that role basically and
00:13:13.440
to use the authority they have as pope not to defend the integrity of what has come down to us the
00:13:20.220
deposit of the faith but to undermine it and replace it with novelties give me uh one minute if you
00:13:26.500
wouldn't mind as your response to that and then we'll go to the break well um i think you said it
00:13:34.060
very well then that the uh the the work of the pope is to proclaim jesus christ faithfully
00:13:42.220
uh they are not the head of the church in a spiritual sense they're the earthly vicar of christ
00:13:50.220
and to proclaim the truth of christ always and calling all of us to repentance as christ did
00:13:57.860
repent and believe the gospel that's what we're called to
00:14:01.780
can you just just give me 30 seconds and say what would your word be to confused catholics right now
00:14:11.880
on this question mark that doesn't seem to go away as to whether the pope is really the pope
00:14:17.380
if you can answer that in 30 seconds well i would say look to christ and his teachings learn those
00:14:27.080
teachings well and pray for the pope whoever the pope is to faithfully be the vicar of christ and
00:14:36.000
proclaim that truth but we need to know our faith and people aren't well catechized we need to be
00:14:43.680
better catechized and know what the truth actually is we'll be back on the catechism in just a short
00:14:51.180
moment after this two-minute break with catholic hero bishop joseph strickland
00:14:57.300
america's voice family are you on getter yet no what are you waiting for it's free it's uncensored
00:15:07.200
and it's where all the biggest voices in conservative media are speaking out
00:15:11.020
download the getter app right now it's totally free it's where i put up exclusively all of my content
00:15:17.200
24 hours a day you want to know what steve bannon's thinking go together that's right you can follow
00:15:22.080
all of your favorites steve bannon charlie kirk jack the sober and so many more download the
00:15:27.580
getter app now sign up for free and be part of the movement welcome back well talking to bishop
00:15:34.520
strickland just before the break we mentioned the catechism in the next segment we're going to be
00:15:39.160
talking about one particular area of the catechism that causes so much discussion in the catholic
00:15:46.780
church and that's the church's teaching on homosexuality but before we do that bishop
00:15:52.720
strickland i'd like to ask you for your account of what actually happened when you were removed after
00:16:00.380
i think 11 years right uh from from the diocese of tyler in texas how did that that you say that it
00:16:06.600
followed on from the conference address you gave uh where you quoted a friend of yours saying that
00:16:15.140
pope francis had usurped the chair of saint peter um but that that was the the the desire the
00:16:23.120
mechanism momentum to remove you was already long um long set before that tell us how it happened
00:16:31.160
how did you find out about it well um i was called by the nuncio the representative of the pope in
00:16:39.820
washington dc um now a cardinal he was archbishop at the time uh christophe pierre he called me in to
00:16:49.020
come to washington which i did on a thursday i flew up there we met briefly about an hour a little less
00:16:56.880
i think and i really wasn't surprised to get the message from conveyed by the nuncio that pope francis
00:17:07.080
wanted me to resign as bishop of tyler and i had made it clear because it like i said it had been
00:17:14.360
developing for months the uh apostolic visitation happened in june of that year and ever since then
00:17:23.100
there'd been sort of this question mark hanging over me are they going to remove strickland or not
00:17:29.340
um so all of that had been developing so it wasn't a big surprise but i had made it clear that i
00:17:36.600
i couldn't resign because i saw that as my personal choice to abandon my flock and i wasn't going to do
00:17:47.360
that but when and immediately um the nuncio said the pope has asked you to resign i said as you know
00:17:55.980
archbishop i have said i cannot i will not resign and he said well then you are removed and so that's
00:18:04.320
uh basically what was uh delivered to me the message that i would be removed as bishop of tyler
00:18:11.560
i flew back to texas um after that meeting and uh was in the office there on friday received an email
00:18:21.380
with an attachment i i never actually got a letter in the mail a hard copy you could say of the very
00:18:30.440
brief um message that said i was relieved of my position as bishop of tyler i always thought that
00:18:40.000
word relieved was an interesting word to use but that's what i got an attachment to an email
00:18:46.340
uh signed by the nuncio archbishop at that time uh christophe pierre and then it was announced rome
00:18:54.520
time noon the next day that saturday uh which was 5 a.m i believe at that time uh this was of course in
00:19:03.360
november november 11th when it was announced um and as i said ben it wasn't a surprise i certainly
00:19:11.320
didn't want to leave i mean i'd been i was born in texas and i my family moved to what became
00:19:20.000
the diocese of tyler when i was four years old so it was my home it is my home i still spend a lot
00:19:27.000
of time there in the tyler area and also in the dallas area but still here in texas and so that's what
00:19:35.560
happened i was removed and there was never any um document any written explanation for that removal
00:19:45.420
and there's been a lot of speculation people said oh there had to be something that they're just not
00:19:50.500
mentioning really ben as i understand it i was removed because i wasn't going with the program
00:19:58.580
that pope francis was promoting whether it be synodality or really loosening up the moral
00:20:06.500
sexual moral teachings of the church or whatever the the part of the agenda if it wasn't according
00:20:14.720
to jesus christ yes i was opposed to it and i feel i will remain opposed to any agenda that isn't clearly
00:20:24.860
faithful to what the catholic church teaches about jesus christ so um that's a brief summary in a
00:20:34.960
nutshell of of how it all happened and since then i have continued to speak up when i saw something
00:20:42.480
when about a month after fiducia suplicans which gets into the whole question that you raise the
00:20:51.100
catholic church teaches that acting on uh homosexual um desires is disordered and wrong that again it's
00:21:06.300
acting on not having the inclinations every human being has various inclinations temptations of
00:21:14.320
sinfulness in various ways but when we act on it when we sin that is where the problem is and the the
00:21:24.360
church teaches clearly that acting living in a homosexual relationship acting on that homosexual
00:21:32.160
activity as really any activity any sexual activity outside marriage and i think that that's one thing
00:21:40.220
that we need to focus on more it's not just uh homosexual activity because it's by definition outside
00:21:49.300
marriage any sexual activity outside marriage is immoral and we need to call people away from those sense
00:21:57.640
bishop strickland i i do want to dig down on this after the break um whilst we're on in this part of the
00:22:06.740
i really wanted to ask you about your removal as tyler um can you just confirm for me please
00:22:13.660
that the actual mechanism was the vatican it's the the papal ambassador papal nuncio to the united states
00:22:21.160
removed you you did not resign the reason i want you to confirm that is because and i have written about
00:22:27.140
this in in the past the vatican the holy see um argued in u.s court successfully to escape the um
00:22:38.180
clutches a very large claim on behalf of of the the the child sex abuse scandal and it argued in court
00:22:47.100
that actually there is a sort of big misunderstanding the vatican has no power the pope has no power to
00:22:54.060
remove a bishop uh it was not right lie but it said um they argued the point that the the the church has
00:23:01.700
no power the pope has no power to remove a bishop but they're basically franchise operations uh and it
00:23:07.800
needed to argue that argument to say that bishops aren't employees uh either that there's not that
00:23:13.460
hierarchy of of authority to step back and say so what went on therefore and to do with the move
00:23:21.440
moving of priests and what have you that is the bishop in the diocese the vatican should not be
00:23:25.980
able to be sued in the u.s court um because of that as i say it was an outright lie there is very clear
00:23:33.060
um that there is in canon law um the vatican does do this the pope does do this the pope's name
00:23:39.280
if this is done from time to time i think there are consequences uh for for for this for for the uh for
00:23:48.060
the fact that the holy see uh has argued that in u.s court i mean these like we're talking about legal
00:23:54.720
actions that that came to many hundreds of millions of dollars i think there are consequences for the
00:23:59.900
vatican on that it can either as far as i'm concerned it can either continue to to argue that
00:24:06.960
but it must actually do so in practice um or it should cough up its money um to to the victims it can't
00:24:16.060
and i think it's actually very it's very scandalous i think for the vatican to say something which is
00:24:21.220
not true to to to to eliminate itself from legal responsibility when we're talking about kids who've
00:24:28.440
been abused um and to say something that's literally not the case and and you yourself sir are the test
00:24:36.140
you know a walking testimony of the fact that uh what the vatican has the holy see excuse me
00:24:42.200
has argued in court is literally not true well it's it is a a convoluted um situation we're in
00:24:53.500
because i think one of the the problems we have in the church is that bishops are not acting
00:25:01.800
as successors of apostles they are not acting as independent um bishops
00:25:11.960
apostle modern day apostles serving the church uh where they serve certainly always with with respect to
00:25:21.800
the patrion office the papacy but it it's interesting there because theologically um the what the argument is
00:25:35.140
uh trying to not be um caught up in financial issues there's there's some truth there there's more truth
00:25:45.380
in the uh independence of the bishop than that is and then it's presently operating the the the bishops of
00:25:57.220
the world really operate more in the context of episcopal conferences now um individual bishops
00:26:06.340
seem to have forgotten that they're successors of the apostles those 33 counties that i was bishop for
00:26:14.660
i had responsibility to proclaim jesus christ just like the pope has the responsibility as bishop of rome
00:26:24.080
and the pope overseeing all of the world it's all about proclaiming jesus christ and too many times
00:26:33.080
the bishops act as if they are branch managers of a huge global um organization
00:26:40.920
i know i think you've put that perfectly um but it would also offer the catholic church against its
00:26:48.220
will i think a corrective mechanism on on terms of its overreaching and its authority we'll be back
00:26:54.700
bishop strickland in two minutes after this short break
00:26:57.620
if you could make one holiday wish would you wish to be free from your credit card and other debt
00:27:05.880
let's see if we can help you with that if we could give yourself one gift this holiday season
00:27:12.520
would it be finally to get some relief from your credit card and other debt i might have a solution
00:27:17.800
here's why now is the time to make a move this time of year credit card and loan companies close out
00:27:24.420
their books they clean up past due accounts they sell a write off the debt to clear their books
00:27:30.900
that means if you have credit card debt and unpaid bills lenders may be more open to negotiating and
00:27:37.360
settling your account before you're in that means right now and i mean right now you may actually have
00:27:44.720
leverage and done with that knows how to use this to your advantage they monitor lender trends and
00:27:51.400
understand the year-end pressure on creditors they use that timing to negotiate hard on your behalf
00:27:57.720
now's the time to get out from under crushing debt and interest payments without bankruptcy
00:28:03.380
or taking on new loans done with that goes to work for you month one with one clear goal to reduce
00:28:11.980
your total debt and leave you with more money every month get started now because your leverage may
00:28:19.480
disappear at the end of the year chat with a done with that specialist at done with that.com
00:28:26.140
that's done with that.com done with that.com do it today war room here's your host stephen k van
00:28:36.280
welcome back well before the break we were just talking with bishop strickland about the difference
00:28:48.940
between being a bishop and the responsibilities proper to a bishop and if i might use the word
00:28:56.080
the usurpation by bishops conferences to take over that responsibility and there's no better
00:29:03.940
illustration of that than what we're going to see now which is bishop strickland's intervention
00:29:10.820
at the bishops conference a couple of months ago i don't know how many of us have seen
00:29:18.640
on the social media priest and others gathered celebrating the confirmation of a man living with
00:29:30.980
a man openly and it just needs to be addressed uh father james martin once again involved great pictures
00:29:40.620
of all of them smiling here we are talking about doctrine i just thought i need to raise that issue
00:29:47.620
i know it's not part of any agenda but this body gathered we need to address it thank you thank you bishop
00:30:03.200
there you go and the most the most surprising thing about that intervention
00:30:08.780
was the fact that it got no response whatsoever bishop strickland tell us the background to this because
00:30:17.080
this went absolutely viral yes it did ben um and i think it is a sad illustration of where things are
00:30:26.260
um between 250 and 300 bishops in that room and it's like oh well don't bring up something like this
00:30:38.900
we've got our agenda to take care of and this isn't on the agenda and what what else is the agenda but then
00:30:47.740
we've been publicly flaunting a contradiction of the teaching of the catholic faith and really ben one of
00:30:58.980
the things that bothered me about it is the two men these are two sons of god we're all beloved of god
00:31:06.920
we believe that that is what christ has told us we come from love god is love and these two men
00:31:14.840
that are living in a disordered relationship according to the catholic church's teaching
00:31:20.360
and then going through the motions of celebrating the sacrament of confirmation
00:31:26.420
when there's no sign of repentance no sign of truly embracing what the church teaches
00:31:32.740
when an adult is confirmed that's already been baptized and i presume this man had been baptized
00:31:39.560
when an adult is confirmed they are asked to make a clear profession of faith do you believe what the
00:31:47.880
catholic church teaches and to stand there living a lifestyle that contradicts that important teaching of
00:31:56.900
the church it as i said uh very simply it needed to be addressed and it hasn't been even since
00:32:08.560
then that was mid-november there was silence and that's the only response that i've seen
00:32:15.140
to that whole event which is scandalous to catholics around the world and the deafening silence
00:32:24.700
is is what truly bothered me about that whole situation it was deafening silence now here is my
00:32:35.280
question to you bishop strickland we're not living in 1925 2025 is very different um and i picked 1925 just
00:32:44.340
for poetic comparison um everybody everybody in the west everyone i'm here in italy everyone in italy
00:32:52.700
uk united states now will be um familiar on direct personal in terms of friends family with homosexual
00:33:04.660
practice all right that's very much different from from say the church just simply 100 years ago
00:33:10.900
bishop strickland how can lay catholics look there you know people that they love most in the world
00:33:20.180
friends family and tell them that what they're doing is against the gospel
00:33:25.860
when as we saw from that clip america's bishops didn't even have the courage
00:33:35.480
to applaud one of their fellow bishops simply restating catholic doctrine
00:33:41.800
well that is that's where where the rubber hits the road ben it does make it
00:33:51.620
deeply challenging for people to simply share the truth with a son or daughter or other loved one
00:34:01.600
or a member of their community and and again it's we have an agenda going i mean i'm glad that you brought
00:34:12.380
up a hundred years ago because we are in a very different place it's as if the truth has changed
00:34:20.560
hasn't it hasn't it hasn't and just the there's so many dimensions of that truth that people pretend
00:34:30.200
have changed but it hasn't changed the same message of the church was there as it is now in 1925 2025
00:34:40.340
it's interesting i mean we could go into a lengthy discussion of all of this but about a thousand years ago
00:34:50.120
saint peter damien fought the churches the a similar battle where the hierarchy of the church
00:35:01.580
was entering into flagrantly entering into the practice of living a homosexual life saint peter damien
00:35:12.680
wrote a book uh wrote a book uh titled uh the book of gomorrah referring to sodom and gomorrah and the bible
00:35:21.580
and that is classically pointed to what what was that a consequence of the disordered living of
00:35:30.960
of those communities in tolerating sexual deviancy in homosexual uh acts again ben it is so important
00:35:45.600
that we never condemn the individual we never hate anyone hopefully and there has been inappropriate
00:35:55.500
hatred hatred of people of that have had the inclinations of same-sex uh attraction and homosexuality
00:36:06.840
hatred is never of jesus christ but it really becomes hatred to allow people to just continue down
00:36:17.940
what the church says is a sinful path and ignore that sin because it's not the popular thing to do in
00:36:26.220
the world of 2025 that becomes hatred i believe in itself love is calling to the truth willing the good
00:36:35.980
of the other if you believe i mean and you could take it out of the context of the sexual world which
00:36:42.880
is so overwhelming in our world today but if someone is is actively taking poison do you just say well
00:36:52.860
that's your choice and that's okay and a little arsenic if that's what you want to do who am i to judge
00:36:58.800
you don't say this is going to kill you well sadly even that in the world where assisted suicide is
00:37:09.200
taking the stage more and more i mean just in in new york they just did that said you can assist people
00:37:18.000
in killing themselves it's it comes down to the same basic reality it's well if you feel like it then the
00:37:26.880
church the truth goes away do what you feel and the truth be damned that is destructive to the human
00:37:37.240
community let me ask you this bishop strickland um it seemed it would seem from the bishop's silence
00:37:48.220
to your simple restatement of catholic teaching of the catechism 101 right it would seem that the
00:37:59.140
bishops now almost universally are wholly formed by the values of this world rather than the
00:38:07.160
values of the gospel um do you see um in four minutes we have before we head to this break
00:38:16.400
in four minutes do you think that there is an eschatological dimension to this falling away clear
00:38:24.980
falling away from the catholic faith of its pastors of its principal pastors of the successors to the
00:38:33.380
apostles is there an eschatological dimension do you think to this well uh ben i make no claim to know
00:38:43.580
when the world will end and christ has made it very clear that only the father knows but as you
00:38:49.860
mentioned uh eschatological dimension what what i would point to is the reality that we need to recognize
00:38:59.900
and we don't tend to focus on that whether as church or as society this life is a finite journey
00:39:08.460
all of us will end in death and that sounds like a dark message it's just reality
00:39:15.920
in the church her saints through the ages were people there's a phrase in latin memento mori
00:39:24.540
remember death we need to remember that this is only a passing journey this is not eternity this isn't
00:39:34.340
a place where we build heaven on earth and collectively as humanity we seem to have really
00:39:42.140
forgotten that people are always after the thing that to keep them young to keep them looking young to
00:39:49.420
keep them physically healthy and no matter what they do we will all die and the church's mission is to
00:39:58.920
address what happens to us when we die if we believe if we follow jesus christ and repent of our sins and
00:40:09.180
i'm a sinner i have to keep repenting and going to confession and working at it that's what the church
00:40:15.360
needs to be telling people work out your salvation it's by the grace of god that any of us are saved
00:40:22.460
but we have to work at it in the sense of repenting of sin and living the commandments more fully more
00:40:30.220
completely hopefully more joyfully more recognizing that living the truth that god has commanded us to live
00:40:38.900
is our ultimate happiness our ultimate fulfillment it doesn't make it easy along the way christ said
00:40:47.040
take up your cross and follow me but where are we following him to eternal life in the kingdom of his father
00:40:55.220
and we don't hear the church speaking in those terms really in any dimension today that's what we need to
00:41:02.680
return to and that i see ben a lot of people are returning to young people young priests are saying
00:41:12.540
forget all of this modernist approach in adapting the church to the world let's remember what christ and
00:41:23.060
his church have taught through the ages the church is to be in the world but not of the world and in all of
00:41:31.060
these issues it comes down to that basic truth are we looking to dwell in eternity with god the salvation of
00:41:41.360
our souls are we always focusing on that or are we trying to build some sort of brotherhood of man
00:41:50.600
that makes a utopia out of this world many people through the ages have attempted to make this world utopia
00:41:58.840
and it's always collapsed because it wasn't based on the truth the truth is we're called somewhere else
00:42:06.640
and real love reminds us that we are called to eternity with god
00:42:12.840
beautiful don't forget philip even though we're in the holiday series season philip patrick and his team
00:42:21.680
are awaiting your call if you want to learn more about how you can roll over an ira or 401k into an ira in gold
00:42:31.500
and i think their offer is still open right now which is that special offer if you buy five thousand dollars
00:42:39.140
worth of gold at this moment they will throw in a free seasonal one ounce of silver one ounce of silver
00:42:48.420
for every thousand five thousand dollars you spend don't forget as you can see from the newspapers and the
00:42:53.920
financial press right now silver is at rocketing record
00:42:58.280
prices um that so text bannon that's b a double n o n to nine eight nine eight nine eight
00:43:07.540
that's bannon to nine eight nine eight philip patrick and his team standing by awaiting your call
00:43:16.920
back now to bishop strickland as we approach the the final few minutes of this show um we only have five minutes
00:43:27.620
bishop i'd like if you wouldn't mind just to say a few words about pillars of faith
00:43:34.220
uh which is the project your postulate which you're working on now just if you wouldn't mind
00:43:40.660
to say a few words what that is um and how people might get involved
00:43:45.100
thank you ben uh yes it's pillars of faith.net a website that my team and i established august 15th
00:43:58.060
the feast of the assumption so it's just a few months old but already making progress and proclaiming
00:44:05.040
everything we've talked about the beautiful we need to remember the message of jesus christ is joy
00:44:11.600
to the world the beautiful message of god's son teaching us the truth and that's what pillars of
00:44:18.660
faith is all about it has podcasts that i put on once a week writings that i post a great team that
00:44:26.900
is supporting people that have already joined our um fraternity for laity for priest uh for religious
00:44:36.220
um a fraternity that is supportive and offering prayers and letting us all know that we're not alone
00:44:45.340
in seeking to be faithful to jesus christ even when the hierarchy of the church is confused
00:44:53.240
even when politicians are doing things that are totally um detrimental to the truth that is jesus christ
00:45:02.660
we need to strengthen each other and joyfully live the truth that's what pillars of faith.net
00:45:10.720
is all about and i thank you for taking some time to give me a chance to speak about it a bit
00:45:17.420
um all we're doing is proclaiming jesus christ the ancient and beautiful truth of the catholic faith
00:45:25.900
and to strengthen people the individuals that are listening to this program that are worried about
00:45:31.980
our world worried about our nation worried about the church to know that we are not alone in the truth
00:45:39.420
is what gives us strength because the truth is jesus christ himself no i was absolutely delighted to have the
00:45:47.880
opportunity to give a platform to what you're doing i i mentioned at the beginning of the show that i think
00:45:53.900
many people think you are a hero of catholic witness um singular amongst the u.s catholic bishops
00:46:03.580
um in your courage and your steadfastness i know it's a great privilege to have this opportunity to give you that platform
00:46:10.140
and anyone who's been following the show of the past hour will see that the clarity
00:46:14.380
which you said earlier was lacking from some quarters of the church certainly isn't lacking in your own expositions
00:46:22.640
of what the church believes and why it believes it um in the final two minutes of this show
00:46:29.160
can i just ask you because this is the christmas new year season can i just ask you just to give
00:46:35.400
a quick moment you mentioned joy the joy to the world that is jesus christ our lord and savior would
00:46:41.260
you just say in two minutes if you can um to share the the joy of the christmas message
00:46:48.900
to the war impossible and if i may ask you for a christmas blessing at the end of that
00:46:54.440
i'm honored to ben um really the christmas message is the the message of jesus christ the son of god
00:47:05.660
incarnate in the world conceived in the womb of a woman the blessed virgin mary and born in bethlehem
00:47:13.640
uh our calendar begins we talked about 1925 2025 that is a measurement since the time of the birth of
00:47:23.140
jesus christ yes there may be some historical questions about was it exactly the beginning of
00:47:30.640
you know that year 20 2025 years ago but that is how we operate that is the date that we are using
00:47:40.340
as the year that we are living in and i think that that's significant it should remind us of the world
00:47:47.620
transformed when god's son is incarnate among us and we believe as catholics that he remains with us
00:47:56.460
in in his church and especially in the sacraments and most specifically in his eucharistic face he is
00:48:04.080
with us as he promised until the end of this world we talked about eschatology a bit we don't know when
00:48:11.040
the world ends but we know christ is with us and he came to us conceived in the womb of a woman
00:48:17.720
developing in that womb like we did for nine months before he was born god so loved the world that he gave
00:48:26.560
us his son and his son so loved us that he lowered himself to become a newly conceived child a child born
00:48:35.960
in a manger in bethlehem and a little boy growing up and a man who came to save the world jesus entered
00:48:44.440
into our existence into our world the timeless divine son of god became one of us what a beautiful
00:48:53.920
statement of love that's what christmas is about so it's not to keep christ at the center of christmas
00:49:01.660
but to remember there is no christmas without christ and the blessing almighty god we ask your
00:49:10.580
blessing for all of those listening that we may trust that you are truth that you have sent your son
00:49:16.800
our savior following him is our salvation may we all grow closer to his sacred heart through the
00:49:24.700
immaculate heart of mary and we ask this in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy
00:49:30.700
spirit amen bishop joseph strickland thank you so much for joining us on the show today one hour
00:49:38.500
doesn't do justice for all that you have to say therefore i will ask you to come back on the show
00:49:43.360
at a future point and and share your reflections and analysis with us that's all we have time for
00:49:50.080
today thanks very much to victorio franco for putting this show together for cameron wallace our
00:49:55.940
producer for will his crack team in denver and real america's voice and god bless you all