Bishop Strickland unpacks Pope Francis' new 'all religions are a path to God' agenda
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Summary
In this episode, Bishop Joseph Strickland and Deacon Keith Fournier join me to discuss Pope Francis and his pushback against the teachings of the Catholic Church. They talk about the need for clarity in the church, and why it is so important to have a clear vision for the future of the church.
Transcript
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Frankly, if that were God's will, he didn't need to send his son, and we don't need a church
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Hello, my friends, and welcome to the John Henry Weston Show. I've got a really special show for
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you today because I've got two guests who you know very well. We're going to be talking about
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what's going on in Rome because we've seen now three times Pope Francis pushing this idea of
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all religions are a path to God, and there's divine inspiration in all the religions.
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This is not the teaching of the church, and it's something that is very troubling, but it also
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seems there's an agenda. Despite the pushback, and there has been pushback among church leadership
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as well, this is being proposed again and again. What's that all about and why? And we do need the
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clarity that comes from church leadership, and we will have that today because there was great clarity
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in the Diocese of Tyler, Texas. You all remember that. Bishop Joseph Strickland, who in the words of
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the Babylon Bee was canceled for being too Catholic, was also a great sign of clarity, and it is today
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still a great sign of clarity for the whole of the Catholic world, sort of unleashed from Tyler and
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given to the world in an amazing way. Well, while he was in Tyler, Texas, he had a deacon who stayed by
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his side and what really was a disciple of his in putting forward that clarity of truth through the
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whole diocese. And he too has been unleashed and is also now still working with Bishop Strickland
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to bring clarity not only to the Diocese of Tyler now, but also to the whole wide world. And that
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is Bishop Joseph Strickland and Deacon Keith Fournier. Stay tuned to this episode.
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We are doing everything we can to help keep Christ in the election. So please, if you're a U.S.
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resident, text LIFE SITE, L-I-F-E-S-I-T-E, to 50155 and give what you can today. Let's proclaim
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Bishop Strickland, to be with you. Deacon Keith Fournier. I say good to be with you.
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Bishop, if you wouldn't mind starting us off at the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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Amen. So we've had a rocky time in the church of late. I mean, it's been rocky for like over
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a decade now, but even over the last week or two, we've seen really what is unbelievable.
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That's where things have really gone awry. The first statement, and I'll read part of it,
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every religion is a way to arrive at God. And he says, is that true? And then he says,
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there's only one God, and each of us is a language, so to speak, in order to arrive at God,
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Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian. They're all different paths. And there's a big pushback.
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There were people saying, wait a minute, that goes right against what Christ himself said in the Bible.
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But then it happens again. And then just recently, again, he's talking about imagined peace.
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We need to keep meeting to weave the bonds of fraternity and allow ourselves to be guided
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by the divine inspiration present in every faith. It seems like an agenda, despite the
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fraternal corrections from yourself, and even so other bishops, which was shocking for me,
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there's still this push. And if you could speak to that for us.
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The reality is, it is an agenda. I think that the whole Vatican presence now is, what are we hearing?
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Push back on the basic teachings of the faith. And then Pope Francis really continuing that agenda
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with really pushing back on Christ himself. I mean, to say that Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu are certainly
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every child, every person in the world, God wants to be his beloved children. But Jesus Christ, his son,
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truth incarnate, told us only through baptism. And so that was probably the most deeply troubling
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aspect of what Pope Francis said. To make equivalent Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, is totally,
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where does Jesus Christ fit into that? Because they don't believe in Jesus Christ. That's who he is,
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who we know he is. And so the great beauty of our Catholic faith, to know the Lord of the universe,
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is the one who established our church, is the one who established our church, to be moving away from
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that with a clear agenda to move away. We must speak up. Every baptized person must say, yes, God loves
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those who are not baptized. But what did Jesus say in the gospel? Very clearly, as his last words of the
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disciples, go out to all the world and teach every creature, the truth that he has delivered to us,
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revealed to us, the loving truth of God, and baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
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Holy Spirit. An effort to reach out to those who are not baptized, certainly that's what the great
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missionaries have done through the ages. But this doesn't sound like reaching out. And really,
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sadly, I have to say it sounds like what we're hearing in other facets of what others in the
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Vatican are saying. All are welcome, but stay in your sin. Basically, this is saying, oh, we want to
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welcome everyone. But don't worry about being baptized. Don't embrace Jesus Christ. And that for us is to
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say, don't believe, don't follow the one God so loved the world to send us, his own son. And it's terribly
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confusing. It's confusing the faithful. Not only that, it's confusing all of those people who the Lord wants
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to come into the church and to know his son, Jesus Christ, and to profess him as the Lord and Savior.
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I mean, from Acts chapter 4, Peter stood up and said very clearly, there is no other name in heaven or
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on earth by which men could be saved. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to
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the Father but through me. And for 2,000 years, the church has clearly proclaimed the Father sent his only
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son. That's the core, the kerygma of the gospel. That's what makes us Christian. Now, certainly,
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we want to collaborate, work with other people, and respect their traditions. But our goal is to
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bring them to acknowledge Jesus is Lord. I mean, there's a beautiful document in the year 2000 that
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came from the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, now dicastery. And it was signed by Joseph
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Cardinal Ratzinger, went on to become Pope Benedict XVI, and approved by Pope St. John Paul II called
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Dominus Iesus. Jesus is Lord. And it is crystal clear. It's clear in the documents of the last
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council of the church. It is eminently clear in the scriptures. So what's going on here? It sounds
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more like what's called indifferentism, that there are all kinds of paths to God, than it is Christianity.
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I'm a revert to the church over 50 years, and I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and the privilege I've
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had of sharing him with people. And we continue to have. That's the missionary mandate of the church.
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This is far from it. It sounds more like, and I'll be honest, I'm going to be 70 soon. I remember a song
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about John Lennon, Imagine. Remember that song? It sounds more like the words to imagine,
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that it does the words from the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
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You wonder if the Pope wasn't meaning that, because imagine the song is also all about peace,
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and world peace, and blah, blah, blah. And the Pope, in his, what he's saying, was talking imagine
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peace, imagine peace. He said twice. I think we were sort of given a hint. You and I, Deacon,
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we're talking about Pope Francis and his former statements, not that last one about imagine peace.
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And I'm not a big pop music fan, so I'd heard imagine before. I didn't know any of the lyrics,
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really. But you had mentioned to me the lyrics. And this was before the Pope's thing came out,
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because you were saying about imagine there's no religion, blah, blah, blah. And then this came out.
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That was stunning for me. It was like, the Lord had a little prep so that I would understand it
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better through your intervention. This is something scary, because it does sound nice.
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This sounds nice, you know, to say, hey, we're all headed to God in our own different way. And we just,
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you know, follow your path. Be sincere in what you're doing. And that's your truth. And I have
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my, and it's beautiful. We can come together and have peace because I value your truth and you value
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my truth. And we can wonderfully coexist peacefully. Those big signs coexist and everything else.
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Well, I think we answer it with Jesus Christ. And that's not what he said. And what, in reflecting
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on all this, I go back to John 3, 16, probably one of the best known scripture. Even people who don't
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know the Bible know John 3, 16, because you see it at football games and all over the place.
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God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son.
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That, this is denying the importance of that, denying that it's God's plan, that his son will
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bring us to him, the father. Jesus is the one who revealed the fullness of God, the Trinitarian God,
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father, son, and spirit. Sikhs and Hindus don't believe in a Trinitarian God. So it really is striking at the
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very root of what Christianity is. And I saw one of the bishops mention how devastating this would be
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to martyrs who died, literally gave their lives to say, no, I will not accept all these, this pantheon
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of gods. I won't accept a world where there are all these different paths. It is Jesus Christ. And many
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of them died saying his name and died because they were unwilling to stop saying his name,
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the name of the son of God. As a bishop, and it's been an honor to work with a deacon, a deacon and a
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bishop. There's something very ecclesial about that. A bishop being assisted by a deacon and a deacon
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inspiring a bishop. That's how the church is structured. Bishop, priest, and deacon, that's holy
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orders. And bishops and deacons especially. I think we're still figuring out what that means. But I'm
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grateful for this man of great faith, great knowledge, who assisted me for over five years
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as a bishop. We did make a great team because we love Jesus Christ. And I like to think that both of us
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know we would hope we would be willing to be martyred for his name rather than do anything
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that diminishes him as Lord of the world. And so we've got to speak up. We've got to be strong.
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We have to realize. And going back to, I remember, you know, I'm a little older than you. I'm closer to
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deacon's age. And I remember very well, imagine. I frankly like the melody. But if you look at the
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words, it's really horrifying. For us, it should be horrifying as Catholics and as profoundly Catholic
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people who are also deeply committed Christians, members of the body of Jesus Christ, to hear what,
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if you really look at what that song says, imagine no religion. So I think we have to really be
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very concerned because Jesus Christ did not proclaim a brotherhood of man. He proclaimed a gospel to change
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us to be who we are created to be, the children, sons and daughters of God. And Jesus has absolutely
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clearly, clearly, clearly. You cannot be sons and daughters of God without baptism. So I believe
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that that, and maybe that's what the Lord is doing in this time, the 21st century, is reminding us and
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reinvigorating those who know Jesus Christ and are baptized in the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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We've got to get back in that evangelical thrust of proclaiming who Jesus Christ is.
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In my lifetime, we've been too shy about that. We've been too reticent to really say,
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there is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and that is Jesus Christ. And for the Holy Father
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to definitely confuse that basic truth, it's deeply harmful. And all of us baptized need to say no
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to an agenda that says, it's all about a brotherhood of man. Frankly, if that were God's will,
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he didn't need to send his son. And we don't need a church if it's all about a brotherhood of man.
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Yeah, we don't need a savior. That's the whole point. We need a savior. We were separated from
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God because of sin. We couldn't overcome that ourselves. So God so loved the world, as Bishop said,
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he sent his only son who did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. And he shed every last drop of
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his blood to bridge that gulf when he hung on that cross. And then he defeated the last enemy,
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death. And then he was raised from the dead. And the church continues his redemptive mission.
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You know, you mentioned, John Henry, this notion that you have your truth, and I have my truth,
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and you have. That's St. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who issued that Dome initiation, wonderful letter,
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became Pope Benedict XVI. And before he assumed the chair, the homily before the day he was chosen,
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he warned of the dictatorship of relativism. And relativism says, you have your truth, I have my
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truth. Ultimately, there's no truth. And Christianity says, truth has been revealed. And his face is the
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face of Jesus Christ. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And we need that truth to be
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saved and then to be baptized into him. This is the core of Christianity that is being threatened.
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Now, either it was just confused words, but whatever it was, it needs to be clarified,
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because people need to know the only truth that will set them free.
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I'm reminded of another pop song, Wouldn't It Be Nice? And it seems to kind of go with
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imagine. It might be nice to have a brotherhood of man, but it would lose what Jesus Christ is about,
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the truth. And he brings us the good, the true, and the beautiful. After, I mean, as Deacon says,
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we need to be redeemed from a dark world where sin and death are suffocating us. We were without
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the option and the opportunity of salvation. And Jesus Christ brought us much more than nice.
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He brought us all that is good, all that is true and profoundly beautiful. He brought us the
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opportunity to live in the heart of God, to dwell in eternity in that wondrous heavenly banquet that the
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Catholic Mass directs us to and echoes and truly connects us with. Our Catholic faith isn't nice.
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It's beautiful. It's true. It's profoundly challenging. It's joyful. But nice is empty compared to the
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glorious gift. The glorious gift that Jesus Christ won for us when he died on the cross and rose from
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the dead and established a church to guide us in his way. The early church, the deacon and I constantly
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talk about, that was the first way it was spoken of, the way. Jesus Christ is the way. And to abandon him
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leaves humanity, lost, seeking this brotherhood of man, that according to God's loving plan,
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the plan of salvation, God knew that men would never get there without a savior.
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This October 17th and 18th, we are going to be running Rome Life Forum in Exile. We're doing that in
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Kansas City, Missouri. This fine bishop, Bishop Joseph Strickland, sort of in exile, is going to be
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joining us there, as well as Dr. Janet Smith, as well as prophecy expert Xavier Aral and many more,
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including a special guest. Hope to see you there.
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Let me take the devil's advocate side for a sec, because I think they've responded,
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no, no, no, no, no, no, no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're not saying abandon Jesus.
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We're saying, can't you say that he's a path and the Sikhs have a path and the Hindus have a path?
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They're all paths to God. What's wrong with that? It's not abandoning Jesus. We're not talking about
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abandoning, no. It's just saying, look, we all have paths. And it reminded me of something you said
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in the beginning. You were talking about how hopefully we would die to, if the choice wasn't
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to say, no, no, no, we're not asking you to abandon Jesus. No. We're just asking you to say,
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to admit that there are many different paths to God. Basically, what Francis just said,
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would you die rather than teach that? The martyrs did. They died because they were told,
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worship our gods. And according to this, he said, sure, we're brothers. We'll worship your God.
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We'll worship Jesus. The martyrs said, no, I will not worship a false God. And that really,
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again, as Deacon says, there's truth. It's not relative. It's not, oh, well, you're my God and
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that's their God and his God. There is one true God. If you believe that, then those who are not
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seeking his son are not seeking the true God. And so the idea that there are false religions,
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there may be some that don't want to admit that and that, oh, every religion brings you to
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this amorphous being that they're calling God. But we know God through his son. He gives us,
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gives God a face. You did a good job as devil's advocate because that's really what it's about.
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It's about a devilish plan to dismantle what Jesus Christ died to establish. It won't happen.
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And anyone listening, don't get fearful. Don't get upset that, oh, the church is going to collapse
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and disappear and fall to dust. It will not because Jesus Christ promised it will prevail against even the
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gates of hell. But we all individually. Really, John Henry, I think that in our time, that's what we
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need to remember, especially. God loves you as his son profoundly in ways you can't and we can't
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imagine. He loves each of us, sons and daughters. His love is unbelievably profound, deeper than we can
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express. But he calls us to him. So it's not to be fearful. It's to trust in the love of God and to
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be willing to do anything rather than abandon truth that is God. That's what it all comes down to. And
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it's supremely dangerous to humanity to act as if we can all choose our own because then ultimately we're
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lost, as too many people are, who have abandoned God, who scoff at the idea of our faith. And they're
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embracing this brotherhood of man, but it's taking them not into a glorious future, but into a darkness
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that is without God. The language of brotherhood of man is not unique to John Lennon's Imagine.
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Decidedness, all kinds of other false theories out there. The gospel speaks very, very clearly that truth
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can be known. And Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Yes, we want all men and women to be
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saved. And in fact, that's what the scripture says. The apostle Paul writes to Timothy, I would that all
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men be saved. But it continues, and come to a knowledge of the truth. And the truth has been revealed
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fully in Jesus. And there are not many truths and many paths and avatars. And when you deny that he is
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the Savior, the only Savior, you just make him another avatar, a new pantheon that leads to some
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brotherhood of man. And the bishops, right? It doesn't. It's a lie. It's a false utopianism. It's a
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counterfeit. And John Lennon's words, you know, imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try.
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No hell below us. Above us, only sky. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You who? You may say,
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I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Perhaps someday you'll join us, and the world will be as
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one. That will never bring peace. Jesus alone brings peace. Only Jesus. He's the prince of peace.
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And the world won't be one, because sin is separation. Separation from God. Separation
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within, as a result of our separation from God. Separation from one another. The only way to peace,
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Jesus said, my peace I give you, not as the world gives. So this is what we need to proclaim.
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And because we do love the Hindu and the Sikh and all of these people who are looking for something more
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than themselves, we want to give them the fullness of the revelation that has been given through Jesus
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Christ and help them to find him. That's the mission of the church. And if we lose that,
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we lose ourselves, and we lose God's loving plan for the whole human race.
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What you just said there is very interesting, because you talked about because we love them.
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Because I think Pope Francis is sitting there with representatives that was in front of a huge
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inter-religious crowd, but he was also sitting there with, the first time, with representatives
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from the different religions. There was a Hindu, a Sikh, and so on. And so it certainly sounded loving
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for him to say, hey, we all have one God. I didn't know what the Hindu thought of that, but anyway.
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Um, but we all have one God. It's the same God. We all have the same God. All of your paths are
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similar. That sounds pretty loving, you know? And yet, I'm always reminded of this stunning thing
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Mother Mary had said. She was sitting with Bishop Athanasius Schneider on one of her shows that we
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are at LifeSite every day, by the way. And she said the worst form of anti-Semitism, and she was
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concluding all the horrific anti-Semitism in the world, including the Holocaust. But she said the
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worst form of anti-Semitism is keeping Jesus from the Jews. And that's mindful, that really focuses
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back to what you said. If we really love the Hindu and the Sikh, we will make this uncomfortable,
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exclusionary, non-inclusive claim about no man comes to God except through Jesus Christ.
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And you know, Mother Miriam is just echoing the Apostle Paul, who was the rabbi Saul. And then the
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Lord used to preach to the Gentiles. And he had such deep love for his brothers and sisters, the Jewish
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people, he could not hold back from telling them about the Jewish Messiah. And, you know, we used to
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make a distinction in Catholic theology between what we would call inter-religious or inter-faith
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dialogue, which is a good thing. We share a common planet. We do have common interests. We don't want
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to kill each other. But we made a distinction between that and what was once called ecumenism.
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That referred to when we try to collaborate with other Christians and find a way back to full
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communion as Catholics. We believe that means coming into the full communion of the Catholic Church.
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Now it's all mucked up. And we're using words like ecumenism to talk about inter-religious
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dialogue. And what's getting lost in the midst of it? Jesus Christ. And that without him, there
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is no salvation. And the church is not just some nice organization. The church is this mystical
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body. And it's the Lord's plan for the whole human race through baptism to come into that mystical
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I'm reminded of, I guess it's pop song day, but I'm reminded of another song close to the era of
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Imagine, Joy to the World. Not the Catholic hymn, but the one that talks about Jeremiah was a bullfrog.
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Some people won't know that. But it's that same idea. And I think there's a great contrast there
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in a simple way. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. We sing that at
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Christmas. I think we should sing it every day. That's why I love the Angelus, because it basically
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proclaims what is joy to the world. That's joy to the world. Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Joy to you and me.
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The words of that song are, once again, empty of real joy. And I think that that's what it comes
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down to. I'm known for being joyful because I know Jesus Christ. I know the one who is our creator
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and our Lord and our Savior all at the same time, the Son of God. And we can know him through word
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and through sacrament, especially the Eucharist. We cannot allow the real joy to the world.
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The Lord has come to be diluted away into joy to the world because we're all brothers and sisters
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in this brotherhood of man. That is a poverty that it devastates what the future and the hope and the
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light of Jesus Christ brings to humanity. We all talk as people of faith, the triumph of the
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Immaculate Heart of Mary, all because of the Sacred Heart of her Son. That's joy to the world. And we need
00:29:11.360
to vigorously and lovingly and joyfully proclaim that truth. In a world where the confusion just seems to
00:29:20.760
get foggier and stranger all the time, certainly coming from the Vatican, but also coming from
00:29:29.000
many other corners of the human neighborhoods of just confusion and ideas that, frankly, as a man of
00:29:39.620
65 years old, soon to be 66, when I was 10 years old, I would have imagined a lot of these things.
00:29:46.340
That's about the time when imagined came out. But I think we need to remember, we are charged with,
00:29:54.540
as the baptized, to proclaim true joy to the world, always rooted in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
00:30:04.440
No matter who tells us it's not, we have to stay strong in what it means to be baptized
00:30:10.460
in our own joy and share that joy with others. One thing I have to ask you, and that's, where are
00:30:18.480
the successors of the apostles? It's the most stunning thing is the silence. Because we just had
00:30:26.840
triple, like it was, it once was just unbelievably bad. Twice was insane. Three times, I, that,
00:30:34.400
I, I, where are you from here? What is this? And yet, honestly, apart from a handful,
00:30:43.260
and compared to you, even the handful is pretty timid, there's just silence. And, but the rest of
00:30:49.320
the world is freaking out. Sky News, for crying out loud, had a little clip saying, whoa, this is weird.
00:30:56.080
Sky News, a secular news agency, because they were like, oh, okay, this doesn't make any sense.
00:31:00.220
And other, like Protestant leaders wondering what is happening here. Can you give us some insight to
00:31:08.420
the mindset there? Well, I think there are multiple reasons. I think there's some fear on the part of
00:31:15.340
bishops. I don't want to end up like me, losing the diocese. But as far as I'm concerned, what did I
00:31:21.700
lose? I mean, yeah, I, I don't, I, I miss that flock and that family that is the Diocese of Tyler,
00:31:29.740
but I still have Jesus Christ, and I can still proclaim his truth as the successor of the apostles.
00:31:36.960
So, I would say to my brother bishops, and I have, I urge them, I plead with them,
00:31:43.440
we must speak up out of love for Pope Francis, out of love for Jesus Christ. Pope Francis is another
00:31:51.000
son of Christ, as we all are. Sons and daughters, those who are baptized, we are sons and daughters
00:31:57.880
of God through baptism. We're called to live that and make it real more and more deeply. That's what
00:32:04.500
the saints show us, to grow in holiness so that we can truly be everlasting, eternal life, sons and
00:32:11.400
daughters. So, I would just continue to urge my brother bishops to, to, to go back to the basics
00:32:20.500
of their faith. Frankly, I think it's, it is fear, and I have to say, I think it's a lack of supernatural
00:32:28.740
faith of really believing, because in many ways, I was formed in a, in a version of the church that's
00:32:37.080
more corporate than ecclesial. And that's part of the whole, that's the issue for the church,
00:32:43.920
that it, why it's, it's weakened and not clear and not robustly saying no to some of these things,
00:32:52.000
because it's more like a, a huge business than it is an ecclesial body that is the mystical body of
00:33:02.880
Christ. I mean, that's my favorite image in these days of what is the church. It's the mystical body
00:33:09.180
of Christ. Each of us united to Christ through baptism and the other sacraments, and through the
00:33:15.540
anointing of the Holy Spirit, we're called to live that. And I think in words of encouragement, I would
00:33:22.760
give, even if people are living in a place where their bishop has to set a word, and that's most places,
00:33:28.020
look to the saints, look to the saintly bishops, look to, the saints are a wonderful cloud of
00:33:36.000
witnesses that strengthen all of us. Every person that's listening can find a saint that really is
00:33:43.580
close to their path in life. Maybe young, they're young saints for teenagers and 20-somethings that are
00:33:51.320
saying, oh, it's all these old people. They're young saints, vibrantly, beautifully young saints.
00:33:57.060
There are saints that had terrible illness and suffering, saints that were worldly successful
00:34:03.600
and gave it all away. There are saints of poverty. Saints fit every walk of life, and I think we need
00:34:10.660
to look to them and say, what did they do? What did they say? And they said, it's Jesus Christ that
00:34:19.140
they've fallen, and especially the martyrs. But really, all the saints made Jesus Christ Lord of their life.
00:34:25.340
That's why the church says they've completed the journey. They're with God in heaven. And we need to
00:34:32.140
be very strong in that and pray for our bishops. Pray for them to be men who deepen their faith. And
00:34:40.580
you know, the only secret for me is the Blessed Virgin Mary and our Lord in the Eucharist. I'll say it
00:34:49.340
again, what I've said in many different settings. Mary took me by the rosary and pulled me closer to the
00:34:56.820
sacred heart of her son. And I truly pray for that for every bishop and every priest, because that's
00:35:02.800
where Christ wants us, close to his Eucharistic heart. That should be the very center of every priest and
00:35:10.300
bishop's and deacon's life, is that focus in ministry, everything coming from that Eucharistic
00:35:19.600
altar where Christ is, and going back to the Eucharistic altar where Christ is, and spending
00:35:26.280
ample time there. That is what all of us need to do. And that's the only reason I have the strength to
00:35:34.620
speak more clearly and more boldly, as people say. The boldness is Christ. The clarity is Christ.
00:35:43.420
And because I've come to know him in a beautiful and deep way, I can't do anything else. No matter who
00:35:51.540
tells me to be quiet, in what position I get removed from, I can do nothing but my best, as weak as I am,
00:35:59.720
and as imperfect as I am, to proclaim Christ as my Lord, our Lord and Savior, Christ died for all of us.
00:36:11.460
That's what's devastating to me about saying that all religions are fine. What other religion
00:36:19.480
did their Lord and founder die for them and call us to follow him, even unto death?
00:36:27.760
You know, when I thought of the Apostle Paul, just as he was speaking, Paul said,
00:36:32.060
Lord, to me, if I do not preach the gospel, and as Paul continued his ministry, he grew closer and
00:36:39.500
closer to Jesus, and look at what the Lord did through him. And this is what we need today.
00:36:44.520
We need successors of the Apostles who are apostolic, and the Lord has given them to us. Yes, I agree with
00:36:51.480
Bishop. Pray for our bishops to really find that courage and to join together. But I'd also say,
00:36:57.400
and I'd end with this, just a sign of hope on the horizon to me. Look to Africa. Look to Africa.
00:37:04.320
We may not hear about those African bishops, but I'll tell you what, when I read about them,
00:37:09.620
they are in love with Jesus Christ, and they're not compromising. They're guarding the deposit of
00:37:15.440
faith. They're preaching the fullness of the truth. So, you know, look to Africa. Wouldn't it be
00:37:21.680
something if we watch and see what the Lord does in terms of the church? But anyway, this has been
00:37:29.800
great, and it really is an honor, I have to say, an honor for me to know this man, to be a deacon
00:37:35.920
and help him, and we need to pray for him. Indeed. Indeed. That's one thing we all need to do is pray
00:37:43.440
for Bishop Joseph Strickland. Speaking of that, would you mind closing us off with your blessing,
00:37:50.100
Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your Son, because you have so loved us and all the world.
00:37:56.600
Strengthen us in his light and grace. Keep us joyful and strong in the truth that he incarnates. May the
00:38:03.320
blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints intercede for each of us in powerful ways. And we ask this
00:38:09.140
blessing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you,
00:38:15.980
and God bless all of you, and we'll see you next time.