(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Joseph Strickland is pushing back against comments made by the new head of the conservative-turned-liberal Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Matrimonial and Family Science.
Weeks after taking up his post as the new president, Monsignor Philippe Bordeyne made a remarkable statement in an interview with La Croix International, the unofficial daily of the French episcopate. He said that “we theologians cannot continue to assert certainties about the family when we see the transformations it is undergoing today.”
Many commentators have taken Bordeyn’s remarks in the interview, as well as other heterodox and pro-gay comments he has made on “different families” to mean he is attempting to introduce a novel definition of family in the Church.
Bishop Strickland re-iterated to Terry Barber of Virgin Most Powerful Radio that “marriage and family … are the building blocks that God has given us.” The “vast majority of the the issues that we see in society today … is because of the erosion of family and the lack of understanding of what marriage is. And to abandon that is really just more destructive to human society.”
Strickland further clarified that a false sense of mercy is leading priests to be overly “pastoral” and causing them to not uphold Church doctrine. “Compassion doesn’t mean trying to redefine what a family is. I believe what God has revealed to us is what we [should] always keep [as the] basic model.”
To watch all previous episodes of The Bishop Strickland Show, click here to visit LifeSite’s Rumble page dedicated to The Bishop Strickland Show.