Introducing Bishop's New Podcast

A Shepherd's Voice (Transcript - Episode 1)

The following is a transcript of the first episode of my new podcast, A Shepherd’s Voice. Here is a link to listen to the first episode.

Let us begin in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Thank you for joining me for this first episode of “A Shepherd’s Voice.” I thought it was good to begin with the “Glory Be” - a simple but beautiful prayer that reminds us of what we are here for, what our life is about – to give glory to God. Probably many of us are familiar with the initials “AMDG.” It stands for “Ad majorem Dei gloriam” (“For the greater glory of God”). I would like to dedicate this small work as a shepherd to exactly that - that we will learn and seek to give glory to God in all that we do.

I have prepared some written thoughts. I thought it would be the most appropriate way to begin this presentation of “A Shepherd’s Voice” that I plan to do weekly to help us all to rejoice and to live in the Lord in difficult and challenging times. So, I will turn now to more or less reading this written script to hopefully clearly say why I am here – why I am doing this – as a shepherd – and hopefully helping all of us to give glory to God in greater ways.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today I come to you with the first episode in a web series that I am calling “A Shepherd’s Voice.”

On March 12, 1933, our country was in a time of crisis, and the 32^nd President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, began what came to be known as The Fireside Chats in which he talked to the people of the United States as though he was sitting in their living room having a chat with them. These fireside chats served as the means for the president to directly communicate with the American people during a time of crisis, particularly the Great Depression and World War II. It was a way to reassure and comfort the people in a time of great hardship and uncertainty.

So that idea of the fireside chat is part of what I hope, informally but clearly founded on the truth that is our Catholic faith, on Jesus Christ who is Truth Incarnate, to chat with you on a weekly basis, to just help all of us, myself included, to be stronger in faith, and to recognize that I am simply a shepherd, but I joyfully embrace this challenge and this call to be a shepherd’s voice.

Today we find ourselves in the midst of a very great crisis in our Lord’s Church. You have no doubt heard the saying, “As goes the Church, so goes the World.” This saying is very true when we are talking about the Catholic Church because we know that she is indeed the Church that Christ instituted, and therefore everything that happens involving the Church has great eternal significance. We can better understand this if we realize that the sacraments found within the Church were instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church as efficacious signs of grace, and that they are indeed necessary for salvation as they are the means by which divine life is dispensed to the faithful. (CCC 1131). Therefore, the crisis we find ourselves immersed in within the Church is not only a crisis of the Church, and not only a crisis in our own nation, but is indeed a crisis within the entire world.

As I prayed about this series that I was to begin, I was prompted to read the transcript of the first fireside chat Roosevelt gave which was about the banking crisis that was currently occurring in the country. Towards the end of that first chat, he said, “We had a bad banking situation. Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people’s funds. …” And he talked about how these actions had shocked the people for a time into a sense of insecurity. He said, “You people must have faith”…. and he concluded with these words, “It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail.”

I come to you today, my beloved brothers and sisters, to tell you that we have a bad situation in Our Lord’s Church, and that some of the shepherds have shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest, and this has shocked a lot of you into a sense of insecurity. But I can echo President Roosevelt when I say that this is indeed your problem no less than it is mine. Roosevelt promised the people “we cannot fail,” but he had nothing really with which to back up that claim because governments can and do fail. But I can tell you unequivocally today, brothers and sisters, that Our Lord’s Church indeed cannot and will not fail, and we have our Lord’s own words to confirm this. He said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matt 16:18).

We are all very familiar with that verse from Sacred Scripture. St. Peter also says when the Lord asks him if he will leave like so many others are leaving at the challenging words of the Son of God, of Jesus Christ - “Lord, to whom shall we go?” I emphasize that, from my own shepherd’s heart, because we must remember St. Peter’s words. We must be strong – in staying close to Christ and His Church no matter what storms may embattle us because there is no other place to go – this is the Church that Christ established - with all her flaws and human failings - she is the Church that Christ ordained for all time, and we cling to her, as we cling to Christ.

Therefore, I begin this weekly series, “A Shepherd’s Voice,” for two reasons. The first reason is to reassure you brothers and sisters that, despite all that is occurring within the Church at this time, she will not fail. We must remember that we have the ultimate Good Shepherd, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who lays down His life for the sheep as Our Head.

And the second reason is to bring the words of a bishop (a shepherd) to you, the faithful. Pope John Paul II, in his apostolic exhortation Pastores Gregis (“Shepherds of the Flock”) highlighted the bishop’s duty to emulate Christ the Good Shepherd. He stated that bishops are “called to be living images of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.” I have a long way to go to meet that standard, but I strive daily to move more into the Sacred Heart of Christ that I might indeed serve as the shepherd I am called to be.

I am just a shepherd, but because I have been consecrated as a bishop in the Church that Christ established, a successor of the apostles, I take on this tremendous responsibility in all my frailty and weakness and sinfulness because I must be a shepherd’s voice to the best of my ability. And so I do so with great recognition that I must do so humbly, as one of the humblest voices of shepherds, but I know Christ and I know His Church, and I know that He is Truth Incarnate.

St. John Chrysostom frequently wrote about the responsibilities of bishops as shepherds. In one of his homilies he said: “The care of the shepherd is great and continuous. He must oversee, warn, and lead his flock with wisdom, for if one sheep strays, the whole flock is at risk.” Therefore, this is my attempt, at heaven’s prompting, to fulfill that role.

During these chats, brothers and sisters, I want to discuss with you the nature of this crisis, and to call you to stand firm, and to help you walk through it without being scathed by the fire. To the best of my ability, I want to be the shepherd that Christ has called me to be.

I will be having a “chat” with you every Monday about things that are of extreme importance, and we will walk through this together. I am going to use the framework of the Ten Commandments to start with as I cannot think of a better framework to discuss what is now going on in Our Lord’s Church and in the world.

Let me emphasize how important it is to go back to the basics, to the fundamentals of our faith. When things are shaking, we go back to the foundation. Of course, Jesus Christ is the foundation, the cornerstone of our Catholic faith. But the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, coming from the Old Testament Scriptures, described how Moses received them, they are foundation to life in Christ. He makes it clear that He came not to eliminate the commandments, but to fulfill them and to help us see more deeply how important they are. So hopefully focusing on the Ten Commandments will help all of us to go back to these basics, to these fundamentals, that are essential for navigating the confusing time in our world and in our Church.

Let’s start, therefore, with the first commandment:

“I am the Lord your God. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”

Let me repeat those familiar words: “I am the Lord your God. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”

As we look at this first commandment, some might ask the question – is not the Trinity a belief in three gods? No, the Catholic faith is monotheistic, affirming that there is only one God. God’s divine nature is indivisible and eternal. There are three crucial truths we must understand: (1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, and (3) there is only one God. We can better understand this if we understand that the three persons are not each a part of God – they are each fully and equally God. They are in fact the unfolding of the essence of God, who is undivided.

I love that phrase – “the unfolding of the essence of God.” Hopefully it reminds us that we will never fully fathom the wonder of God – the majesty and the mystery that is our God – and that hopefully that enlivens us and makes our hearts burn with joy and hope in this wondrous God whose essence is constantly unfolding for us in our weak humanity – that He has revealed Himself to us ultimately in His Son who is the revelation of God – the revelation of Truth Incarnate.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 253) states: “The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three Persons, the ‘consubstantial Trinity.’” The Trinity is in many ways a mystery – but we accept it through faith, guided by God’s revelation through Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the teaching authority of the Church (Magisterium).

Indifferentism, the belief that all religions are equally valid paths to God, is a violation of this commandment for it states that any religion, even if the religion is a denial of what we know to be the truth, is still a path to the one true God. At one time, no Catholic would have even entertained the idea that other religions besides Catholicism were equally valid paths to God because we had been taught the truth through Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Church Magisterium. However, in more recent times, somehow that truth has been pushed aside, and now we have even those in the Church hierarchy, in fact even the Holy Father himself, telling us that indeed all religions are equally valid paths. However, that does not make it true – for Truth does not change.

I know these times have been very confusing, as many of us have been reared in the idea that the Holy Father, and indeed all those in the Church hierarchy, will never lead us astray. However, it is important for us to realize, first of all, that it is not any mortal man who ensures that we have the authority of Christ on earth. It is instead Christ’s continuing presence in the Church that ensures His authority on earth.

It is true, however, that because of Christ’s continued presence, we believe that the Church cannot lead people astray with its “official” teachings (which are not to be confused with the individual opinions of its laypeople, priests, or even its popes). Christ appointed apostles, and the apostles appointed successors so that the Truth would be handed down faithfully. Tradition is the full, living faith of the apostles which they received from Christ. However, as I have stated, individual opinions, even of the Holy Father, can and sometimes do contain error.

Let us return then to this first commandment:

“I am the Lord your God. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”

This commandment is not telling us that any path is okay! There is one path and one God – and that is the path we must walk!

There are many things that have happened in recent years in the Church that have made this path confusing to many, and I have a great sadness about that because shepherds were given by Christ to His people so that they would have leaders who point them to Truth. Instead, a great travesty has occurred as many of the shepherds, in fact most, have shown themselves to be cowardly hirelings instead, or even worse, wolves who actively endanger the sheep and lead them astray. And these wicked things that have happened at the hands of these so-called shepherds, or their great silence in the face of evil things that have happened, have sowed confusion and despair instead of light on this path.

St. Augustine of Hippo said in a sermon, “The bishops are shepherds, but let them be shepherds, not wolves. Let them be feeders, not robbers.”

During the Amazon Synod in 2019, for example, statues that were identified as Pachamama (an indigenous pagan god idol) were displayed in a Vatican ceremony in the Vatican gardens and in Santa Maria in Transpontina, a beautiful 16^th Century Catholic Church near Vatican City. The Pachamama is a pagan figure associated with fertility and nature in the indigenous traditions of the Andes region. This figure being placed in Christ’s Church, and participants singing and praying around this idol as it sat in a canoe with the participants’ backs to the altar in this church; and the presence of this figure at a ceremony in the Vatican Gardens could be seen as giving reverence to a pagan god. Those responsible for this stated that the statues represented respect for indigenous cultures and their connection to creation. However, this served to blur the line between Catholicism and paganism and what god we are commanded to worship. Let me be very clear, then, when I say with a shepherd’s voice - this is a violation of the first commandment and an abomination in the sight of the One True God!

This is critically important for all of us as people of faith, as disciples of Jesus Christ in the 21^st century, to know very clearly that the display of this pagan idol is a violation of the first commandment and an abomination in the sight of the One True God!

Also, there was the 2019 Abu Dhabi document on human fraternity. In this document, it was stated that the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God,” which would seem to contradict Catholic teaching that Christ is the sole path to salvation. Remember what I said though about truth - Truth does not change – and let me say with a shepherd’s voice – Christ is the One and Only path to salvation!

Let me emphasize this – only Jesus Christ! He is the only Son of God – He is the second person of the Trinity! The wondrous blessing that He is Incarnate among us and remains with us as He promised, in His Church, especially in His Eucharistic Face, but really in all of the Sacraments and in the Word and in the life of the Church – Christ is present! He is the One Lord, and there is one faith, one baptism, that we must follow. Let us be very clear that these ambiguities or confusion that guide us away from the truth must be resisted and pushed aside as false. Christ is the one and only path to salvation – as He Himself has clearly told us!

Also, the Holy Father has made many ambiguous statements about whether non-Christians need to convert to achieve salvation, and he has emphasized “accompanying” people of other faiths instead of emphasizing evangelization, which is rooted in the First Commandment’s demand for fidelity to God.

In 2016, Pope Francis received a statue of Martin Luther during a commemoration of the Reformation. Given Luther’s role in breaking from the Catholic Church and causing so many others to break away, this could also be seen as compromising the Church’s fidelity to God.

Also, in many events there has been an excessive emphasis from the Vatican for reverence to “Mother Earth,” which seems to border on pantheism, where the earth is treated as divine. In his encyclical Laudato Si, the Holy Father seemed to emphasize creation over the Creator, reducing God to a secondary role.

All of these things have served to undermine the clarity of the Church’s teaching on the First Commandment.

St. Ambrose of Milan described bishops as shepherds who must protect their flock against wolves (heresies or sin). He said in his writing On the Duties of the Clergy: “The bishop’s role is to stand as a sentinel, keeping watch over the flock and ensuring that none are lost to error or vice.”

Therefore, I want to say to you today, brothers and sisters, with a shepherd’s voice:

The First Commandment has not changed!

As St. Paul wrote, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. For I give you to understand, brethren that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn it; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:8-12).

Brothers and sisters, let us go forth today as servants of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior! He is indeed Truth incarnate. And regardless of who it is – let us not believe any man who preaches a gospel to us that is in contradiction to the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Let me return, as I come to the conclusion of this, to those beautiful and challenging words of St. Ambrose of Milan: “The bishop’s role is to stand as a sentinel, keeping watch over the flock and ensuring that none are lost to error or vice.”

This charge I take as a tremendous responsibility placed on my shoulders when I became a bishop. I am just one among many, and that is why I like the title that I am using for these chats – A Shepherd’s Voice. Ultimately, it is Christ’s voice – the Good Shepherd – that we must listen to – that I must listen to – that all of us may turn to. As we just heard in these beautiful words of St. Paul, “For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn it; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

We must constantly, daily, all of us, seek to know Christ more deeply. Pray for me and all of the bishops to make this our primary effort and task of our lives – to know Jesus Christ – to dwell more deeply in His Sacred Heart – to proclaim His truth more clearly and boldly – because He died and rose for us all! Jesus Christ – the one Lord – the one Son of God – we must follow Him! He came to save all of humanity for all time.

I thank you for joining me today as we begin this web series, “A Shepherd’s Voice.” I hope you will join me next Monday for another chat.

Your shepherd,

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

Bishop Emeritus