Pledge your prayers for Bp. Strickland HERE
(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland calls on listeners to cling to the truth of Christ and hope in Him while war breaks out, discusses the development of doctrine, and touches upon Britney Spears’ remarks about regretting an abortion.
Strickland begins the show commenting on a quote by Archbishop Ven. Fulton Sheen he posted on X, formerly Twitter, discussing how the truth cannot lose in battle, despite what the future may hold.
“I think that’s essential for right now, for all the turmoil in the Church in the world with these multiple wars that people are worried about, [to] just cling to the truth that is Christ,” he remarks. Continuing the thought, Strickland says that we ought to inspire each other and remind ourselves that we ought to cling to Christ, because we can get “dragged down” by headlines and fall into despair.
“We should be joyful and hopeful because Jesus Christ has conquered the evil that we face,” he states.
His Excellency also ties into the conversation the saints of the day, Sts. Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brebeuf, and companions, as well as the recently commemorated St. Ignatius of Antioch. “We need to remember that glorious history that is really the glory of Jesus Christ, because all of these martyrs, the thing that they would tell us in 2023 is, ‘Stay with Christ, carry your cross with Him, be willing to die for Him.’”
“Many of the saints aren’t martyrs, many are,” the bishop continues. “We are called to be saints. So we’re either going to be the white martyrs that all the saints are, or the red martyrs giving their blood, like Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, Ignatius of Antioch, and so many others. But we’re called to do that. We need to just acknowledge it and get about the business of being saints.”
Strickland also offers his thoughts on the development of doctrine, commenting on an excerpt from St. Vincent of Lerins’ Commonitory, an excerpt of which Strickland posted on his website.
Strickland offers two ways to look at the development of doctrine.
First, he offers that the development is that the members of the Church must themselves change and “go deeper” into the faith.
“The Church needs to change in that sense, in the way that all of us need to collectively know the truth more deeply, embrace it more fully into our lives, but that is us changing, not the truth that we’ve received changing,” he says.
In the second way, Strickland uses the analogy that St. Vincent uses in the work, comparing the data of revelation with a boy growing into a man. “It’s not that we turn into a different person, that we change that drastically,” heobserves. “It’s just… a deepening and maturing of what is already there.” He also notes that doctrine is what God revealed to us as truth, and that Christ is the Truth. As such, the development of doctrine is not the change in what is revealed, but a further understanding of Christ.
Later in the episode, His Excellency also comments on Britney Spears saying she regrets having an abortion.
Strickland observes that Spears is a “beloved daughter of God,” and that God didn’t stop loving her when she had the abortion. He also observes that while the sin of abortion is condemned, those involved in an abortion are not, but are instead called to repentance.
To watch all previous episodes of The Bishop Strickland Show, click here to visit LifeSite’s Rumble page dedicated to The Bishop Strickland Show.
Pledge your prayers for Bp. Strickland HERE