Bannon's War Room - WarRoom Battleground EP 915： WarRoom's Ben Harnwell One On One With Interview With Bishop Strickland

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

00:07:59.220 of um of pope francis's

00:08:05.240 pontificate

00:08:07.880 do you think he was

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

00:08:15.760 um do you think he was

00:08:17.660 a valid pope

00:08:19.420 yes

00:08:21.460 from every indication

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

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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 0.75

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 0.75

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

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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

00:29:56.840 thank you

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 0.75

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 0.98

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

Bannon's War Room - December 30, 2025

WarRoom Battleground EP 915： WarRoom's Ben Harnwell One On One With Interview With Bishop Strickland

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