A cardinal once told a room of donors that teaching the faith is not his first job. Bishop Strickland heard the story on air — and answered it with the sentence that got him in trouble ten years ago.

"They had nothing to manage. There was no huge institution. In the lifetime of the apostles they were all in on teaching the faith." — Bishop Joseph Strickland

Bishop Strickland has just launched a study of the documents of the Second Vatican Council at Pillars of Faith, starting with Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. He does not throw the Council out. He starts from the premise that it is the valid 21st Ecumenical Council of the Church — and then says plainly what he found: a great deal of solid, beautiful Catholic truth, and enough landmines for men to ignore what the document actually said and decide what they wanted it to say.

From there the conversation turns to the bishops. Joe McClane puts it bluntly: bishops treated as CEOs, priests as branch managers, and the laity as customers. Bishop Strickland answers with the choice he made a decade ago, the letter he read to the American bishops, and the line he delivered to his brother bishops behind closed doors.

Part 1 of 2.

CHAPTERS
00:00 "I'm not going to be the manager bishop"
00:47 Welcome to A Catholic Take
01:00 Bishop Strickland's new podcast: Opening the Scriptures to the Flock
01:14 A traditional Catholic's love-hate relationship with Vatican II
01:34 "Landmines" in Dei Verbum — and the truth he did not expect to find
03:29 The historical-critical method and reading Scripture without faith
04:22 "Don't separate it from the 2,000-year tradition of the Church"
05:12 St. Athanasius, and how the course gets corrected
05:47 Seminary, 1977 to 1985: when the Resurrection became a maybe
07:07 "The spirit of Vatican II" versus what the document actually says
08:09 Bishops as CEOs, priests as branch managers, laity as customers
09:14 The cardinal who told donors that teaching the faith is not his first job
09:58 The choice Bishop Strickland made ten years ago
10:42 "Brothers, I know there's a Strickland problem"
12:30 "What will it take?" — the letter to the American bishops
13:34 "Forget the management" — the churches are closing anyway
14:30 What he wishes he had taught in Tyler

SCRIPTURE (Douay-Rheims)
Acts 6:2 — "It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables."
2 Thessalonians 2:14 — "Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle."
2 Timothy 4:2-3 — "Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine."
Ezechiel 34:2 — "Woe to the shepherds of Israel, that fed themselves: should not the flocks be fed by the shepherds?"

REFERENCED
Dei Verbum — Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Second Vatican Council, promulgated by Pope Paul VI, 18 November 1965.
"What Will It Take?" — Bishop Strickland's open letter to the bishops of the United States, November 2024.
The Watchman's Lamp — Bishop Strickland's weekly podcast at Pillars of Faith; the episode discussed here is "Opening the Scriptures to the Flock."

BISHOP STRICKLAND
Pillars of Faith: https://pillarsoffaith.net/

A CATHOLIC TAKE
Show page: https://thestationofthecross.com/act/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@josephmcclane
Books and pilgrimage: https://joemcclane.com/
Chi Rho Impact Media: https://chirhoimpactmedia.com/

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