(LifeSiteNews) – On this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland comments on a statement he made regarding the German Synodal Way, explaining what the “development of doctrine” really means.
Called “The German Bishops Error and the True Understanding of the Development of Doctrine,” the document explains the true Catholic understanding of the development of doctrine and how any doctrinal development is really a fuller knowledge of the truth that is Jesus Christ.
His Excellency noted that the truth can be “challenging” because it calls us to conform to it. He further explained that the truth cannot change. “The truth has been revealed to us once for all. Just literally taking those words ‘once for all.’ For all of humanity. For all time. It’s been revealed. And that’s not what we’re hearing today.”
“And hopefully people will read this and understand that the truth of our Catholic faith is once and for all stated by God, as he revealed in Sacred Scripture and through His own divine Son incarnate among us,” he continued. “The deposit of faith – [bishops] promise to maintain and guard it to make sure that it’s passed on, that we live it to the best of our ability. No generation has lived it perfectly. We’re all sinners. But to say that we can change it, it’s letting go of the true Gospel.”
“Truth has a face,” Bishop Strickland explained. “It’s the face of Jesus Christ … He is with us in the truth. So a betrayal of the truth is a betrayal of Jesus Christ Himself. That’s why it’s so important for his apostles, for me as successor of the apostles, to guard the truth, to guard the deposit of faith. It’s guarding Christ Himself.”
Further comparing doctrine to a personal relationship with Christ, His Excellency stated: “All of these efforts to change the truth and say, ‘Oh, this Scripture passage, it needs to be changed, or this part of the catechism. We need to change this word.’ To change the truth is to deny Jesus Christ. He’s Truth Incarnate.”
“So it’s very dangerous and it’s blasphemous to our Lord and Savior who promises to be with us,” he continued. “‘I will be with you always until the end of the world.’ That’s Him. And that’s one of the ways He’s with us. In the living word that is the deposit of faith. We’ve got to be vigorous about protecting it and passing it on now and in the next generation.”
Commenting on the development of doctrine, Bishop Strickland said that “if all of the body of truth is Jesus Christ … then a proper development of doctrine is knowing Him more deeply.”
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