(LifeSiteNews) — In the first episode of The Bishop Strickland Show in 2024, Bishop Joseph Strickland gives further comment on Fiducia Supplicans and discusses a letter to priests he released earlier this month discussing Eucharistic devotion.
Strickland discusses Fiducia Supplicans in the context of a tweet he posted on January 5, saying about Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) Cardinal Victor Fernández: “Instead his Eminence [sic] should be banned from confusing the issue even more,” referencing a press release by Fernández that said that bishops could not say “no” to the December declaration of the DDF allowing for same-sex blessings.
“Please your Eminence, rewind to 2021 and simply clarify, WE CANNOT BLESS SIN,” the tweet continued. “Then no further confusing statements will be necessary.”
Commenting on the tweet, Strickland says that everyone who knows the truth has a duty to speak out against the DDF’s declaration, voicing thankfulness for the multiple bishops who have done so. Speaking to Fernández’s press release, Strickland says “you have to twist yourself into a pretzel to try to make this right, to make it reasonable, to make it anything that even a basically catechized person is going to know.”
Strickland further asserted a need for clarity on the subject of “irregular” situations, forcefully observing: “These people are in sinful situations! Be clear!” While observing that he himself is a sinner, and that he needs to go to confession often, Strickland also notes that no blessing will “penetrate” a person’s heart unless the person already has contrition for sin, and says “it is ridiculous what is coming out of the Vatican.” In his opinion, people need to “rise up” and say “more clearly and more distinctly ‘no’” to the declaration.
Addressing Fernández directly, Strickland says, “You are not going to tell me, as a bishop, that I must follow your dictate to bless sin. No, I don’t. I don’t have to do that, I’m not going to do that, and I’m sure that these African bishops that spoke up so clearly, they’re not going to do it either.”
Referencing a Christmas Eve homily by Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Karonga, Malawi, who observed that the people seeking blessings as a couple go home as a couple and share a bed as a couple, Strickland observed that the couple is presumably doing other things in the bed as a couple; “to pretend anything else is just a mind game that isn’t even respectful of the human person or of just common sense.”
“What’s coming out of the Vatican is schismatic,” Strickland observes. “And I’ll say it – they’re the ones creating this schism, because faithful bishops are obligated to say no.” Strickland adds that the situation the Church finds Herself in is indeed a sad one, returning to the sadness found in Mtumbuka’s homily, but that the sadness should not “keep us quiet.”
Explaining the obligation to reject the declaration, Strickland says that it is for the sake of the Church, in honor of Christ, his duty as a pastor of souls, and in honor of anyone who would seek such a blessing as described therein, to say no and offer a call to repentance.
“It’s basically, ‘Ignore the Gospel and ask for a blessing,’ and that’s meaningless,” he says about the declaration.
Strickland concludes his comments on Fiducia Supplicans by addressing Pope Francis directly: “Holy Father, you need to rethink signing off on this, because it’s contrary to his responsibility as the successor of Peter. That’s just flat out the truth. And if it gets me in more trouble, so be it. I’d rather be in trouble with the powers of this world than with the power of God.”
In the second half of the episode, Strickland discusses a letter he addressed to priests about Eucharistic devotion.
Strickland recalls that after reading a recent document, he wondered what the solution to the crises in the Church would be. He came to the realization that the solution is for priests to live holy lives and become holy. The aim of the letter, he says, is to encourage priests to live out their priesthood and live the faith as fully as possible, and especially to become men of the Eucharist.
“To me, that’s the answer to everything,” he says. “That’s the answer to the lack of catechesis, that’s the answer to the confusion, the moral corruption, the financial corruption.”
“All the problems come down to parish priests and religious order priests, every priest becoming holier, becoming more connected, not just saying Mass daily, which is significant, needs to happen, but living Eucharistically,” he continues. He also hopes that the letter will lead priests to make the celebration of Holy Mass “the very beginning of everything they do,” allowing everything they do to “flow” to and from Mass.
According to Strickland, Eucharistic priests are not overwhelmed by administrative duties such that they forget to pray. Strickland observes that those truly close to Christ are guaranteed to remain close to Him, whatever it is that they are doing. He connects this observation with the scriptural mandate to pray without ceasing, something “more attainable the closer we are to the Lord.”
“To know that His Sacred Heart is a Real Presence, that It’s with us always, especially and beautifully in the Mass and in Eucharistic adoration, but we can carry Him with us,” Strickland says.
“His love and His Sacred Heart doesn’t [sic] leave us,” he continues. “Even when we leave the altar, He’s still with us. He dwells in us. That’s one reason, I believe, that the Lord chose the way that He was going to remain with us, is that He would become our Food, that He would actually feed us. It doesn’t get more intimate than that. The sharing of a life to actually [consume] the Lord.”
“For priests, there can’t be too much emphasis on the Eucharist.”
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