Sunday Night Live - Jesus of Nazareth - Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R. - 04-17-2011

good evening and welcome to Sunday night prime and were delighted that you joined us and of the going as you know now if you want to send us some questions Sunday night prime had ewtn.com and very shortly in May we're gonna have a whole broadcast just with questions and formal intial beyond so start sending things in to me now I'm here today with one of my very very good friends to whom I have great esteem father Joseph SEO welcome father Joe thank you father Benedict and are you all of course no father Joe faccio is a Jesuit of the California province but many many other things tell us a little bit what do you do for a living well for a living I celebrate Mass every morning without pay without pay but in the editor of ignition press that's my main activity we published Catholic books religious books many of them in the EDB 10 catalog and we do some videos and sell DVDs did you start Ignatius press I did started press 1978 when you were a young man yes so was i oh yes and I went to visit you there what it was just getting started that's right yes he moved out of those offices two years ago into a firehouse oh yes well Ignatius press has done tremendous goodness good for the Catholic Church not only in this country but in the entire English speaking world great books and the one that we want to look at particularly today is Joseph Ratzinger Benedict the 16th the second edition or the second of his Jesus of Nazareth what a marvelous I've been reading it and just enjoying it immensely they also look at this companion volume here for the Benedict which you'll see is I am with you always which is a history of devotion to Jesus of Nazareth written by father Benedict Groeschel also published by Ignatius press the to make a good companion set because this is the Holy Father speaking about the life death and resurrection Jesus and here we have the whole history of devotion of Jesus after well in fact this book was a response to what the Holy Father himself personally said that we that he was critical of some scholars undermining the divinity of Christ and he went really after them and he said that we study the divinity of Christ and so in response to that I wrote this book which is really a history of devotion to Christ from the time of Saint Paul right up to the present day and including not just Catholics but also Orthodox and and Protestants and I've been so pleased that Orthodox and Protestant writers have written to me evangelical Protestants because when it comes to devotion we all agree yeah some theologically we don't but they were and and unfortunately devotion kind of died out there for a while everybody was talking about Jesus and not praying to help so one of the strengths of this book by the Holy Father is that he specifically says he's writing it so we can have a personal encounter with Jesus and have a certitude in our faith but he's aware of all the scholarship and he uses it where we'll help but he also is critical of it when it gets excessive so he is trying to show you can have devotion and still have a scholarly understanding a elevated understanding of Jesus unfortunately I'm sure you could comment on this father in the 70s and 80s in the world of Scripture scholarship there was a sect particularly of Protestant theologians both Hmong and others there was a kind of erosion of the belief in Christ and even Catholics asking the question did Jesus know who we want right for heaven's sakes well there was this so-called search for the historical Jesus yes what I really know about him from the point of view historical scholarship and of course Jesus became smaller and smaller and smaller and then he reflected the personality and the person and the views of the person searching for him he was either a revolutionary for those who want to come that or he was a social reformer or he was an eschatological preacher but the live flesh and blood Jesus the Gospels disappeared and he specifically says in this that Jesus which they allegedly found will not impress anybody nor anyone follow him no but he's trying to use the legitimate findings of scholarship and show that they do not detract from but they can help our devotion of Jesus but devotion is from the heart you know people can be convinced it can be enthusiastic but they have to speak they have to pray to Christ that's true but I want to compliment the kind Capuchin here the the order of the reformers there with the Jesuit mind that we have to have truth yeah our devotion to we can't just have feeling you know of course but you know when the Jesuits and the Commission's were getting started they got along very very well they were they were in the same ballpark that's right Catherine said that the the Commission's were more less educated vast majority of the Commission's were lay brothers about 3/4 of the brothers and many of them canonized saints the first kappa should sate could read or write say felix of can't delete really well what a shop ok he was walking around the city of Rome and I had to write at the same time as the early Jesuits and well in case there was no scholar he went back to school when he was an old man to learn Latin oh yes after his conversion incident at entrance but he produced a lot of scholars yes so we certainly did and and thanks be to God and I must say I have for the last couple of decades disappointed in some of the Jesuit universities putting that right nicely however that uh things are getting better I was at the funeral of Cardinal O'Connor and three young men in black Kasich's and white services very clean looking men they came up and they had a kind of funny little smile and they said father you might be interested to know that were Jesuits scholastics so I said oh that's wonderful tell me what kind of Jesuits are you so what do England I said forget the wait what are you a real Jesuit or a phony Joshua because we don't need any more phony Jesuits or any more Franciscans phony Francis and well they were fine young men and they they really we spoke to them and I think two of them belong to the New Orleans province and but things are moving in the right direction well you and I lived through the dry years 70s and 80s especially honestly I see real growth real hope both of the church in general and for the Jesuit Order these days yeah and of course john paul ii was a big factor there and I think benefit of 16th is also a tremendous influence for the good of the church well having I had a half an hour talk with Benedict the 16th when he was a cardinal in New York was a great honor two of us he was there speaking in something and and we sat there and talked and I have to say a braid at three quarters not a branded a half but and but also gentle gentleman very and humble you know it was a very brilliant Cardinal and he was very very easy to talk to well I had the great blessing of being his student back in the 70s for my doctoral studies and all of his students revered him admired his intellect put his person as well and when he was made Pope in 2005 we rejoiced not just because we could say you know our teacher is now Pope but because we knew that the world would find out what kind of person he was you know he had the image of being the enforcer the planter Cardinal and within a week the journalist was saying well he's changed house indeed I said no no but now you know what he's really like and and of course he being Pope he can still write books I mean that's an amazing thing that that he could keep up that intellectual activity it's also very fascinating that the books are not reading in the form of Pontifical no you know a pope pius others even rather formal latin books articles or encyclicals and you know you know that you're reading it from about balcony this is let me say something about some of the characteristics not just the content I've been so impressed by this book in his other books I've been rereading them and we're actually going to start an online college credit series of courses based on these books it's a st. Thomas More College online yes you know we're gonna have eventually a full undergraduate degree for a Catholic University fully accredited online for students who can't afford to go to a campus but I'm going to do four courses in theology three of which will take books by the Holy Father we're going to take his two books on Jesus he's broke on the liturgy and then his book on introduction to Christianity which is a wonderful introduction of the faith but I've been rereading these books now the last few weeks and I've noticed some characteristics one he's a wonderful teacher but he's always asking questions that you have the hard questions and then answering them so question and answer like that secondly we speaks about Jesus he says this is not his historical figure he's present now we need a relation with him yeah right now isn't that nice wonderful have you tested in that book yes and then also he's always referred to the Old Testament with great respect for the Jews yes and saying you can't understand Jesus unless you put him in the context of the preparation for him which came to the Jewish people so that that's a constant in his writing there yes it's been quite remarkable that because I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood Irish Jewish neighborhood and that's what we grew up with that's what we do and we do the Jewish holidays and the Catholic all right and I must say that he shows great deference to the Jews and a couple of rabbi's have pointed this out to me yes yes they like him well he says in this book that there's a mission for the Jews in fact he he makes a big thing about the destruction of the temple the end of the temple in which he says the end of the temple meant that Jews also had to rethink faith because the temple was so central to Jewish faith and the Judaism began to be a religion of the Torah of the law of God's commands to us for Christians we realized that Jesus is the new Torah he used the law he's the way the truth in the life but he says these two divergent paths of rereading the Old Testament need to be in dialogue with each other so he's open to dialogue with the Jews and it's very clear in this book yes I'm so delighted by that having grown up in a Jewish neighborhood a Catholic a Jewish neighborhood and this was jersey city a great theological center where you're not from New York go across the river oh oh my goodness yes we looked over the shoulder an immigrant yes I looked over the shoulder of the Statue of Liberty out the window of my house I said but the mother Joseph we want to be back and have a little break here because I want to more go into the idea that we've been speaking about about Jesus and I think many of our audience need need to do this not only Catholics but who are we talking about we're talking about Jesus we'll be back in two minutes father Joseph the second volume here of Jesus of Nazareth is kind of a great work of the Holy Father and will live on many years after him and it was an important thing to do because unfortunately the historical Jesus got in the way of the personal Jesus and the Holy Father beautifully well I was reading the first volume of this and the introduction I was setting up shouting you know yes I'm waiting all my life to read this beautifully where do you think we're gonna go in the Catholic situation now Catholic colleges Catholic universities well that depends on a lot of factors but I think the writings of Pope John Paul the second and now Benedict are certainly helping to educate younger people as you know we're getting more homeschooling students we're getting smaller Catholic schools now being started by families the traditional Catholic schools are becoming more traditional yes we're getting more vocations to the priesthood and stronger vocations it seems to me so I think that's got to have an effect on the college but the COS would be the last to change because it's the the pride of intellect is very hard to overcome and then through sorry to say the one of the things that I have noticed that there is somehow or other there is a change in the comic the the weather among young adults and even older teenagers they seem to be more serious you could use the word more orthodox they they're taking things more seriously and sometimes they don't hear this from older people but they come back on their own I've been talking to students some of them at Fordham some another at Columbia and I'm around the edges of things and I'm just delighted by a growth of a certain seriousness of life well I can say this father Benedict that they're buying more and more books I mean Ignatius press hasn't peaked yet we keep selling more books made almost two million last year Wow so people are buying books also I'm sure you've had this this phenomenon yourself is that young people who want to get an education can't afford it generous Catholic families with large families they can't afford 25 30 thousand dollars a year for a Catholic college this is why Ignatius presses now as I mentioned earlier working with st. Thomas More we're going to have a fully online Catholic college so at least for the first two years if not all four you can have a serious solid Catholic education but Asaf not cost very much and there's a Rome program there's an Oxford program there's a Greece program so we're very excited about that's a new thing with another diploma and a diploma yeah degree that's this degree yeah isn't that way ahead of the time but also omits in the yellow book okay yes I was wondering about that with a strange name called UK UK but it's got a strange history Karlis unborn was my classmate with father Ratzinger back in the 70s in right in Germany is now the Archbishop Cardinal of Vienna and he was the one whom Ratzinger put in charge of the Catechism of the Catholic Church back in the early 90s which i think is a marvelous work of the 20th century it's just a more great compendium of the faith and beautifully done but about three years ago some young people came to Carlesimo in Vienna so we love the Catechism but you know many people our age can't get that deep into it we need something adapted to us as a karma service once you help write it then so they agreed and they got 50 young students kind of older high school younger Kyle students and they work with some priests and some youth ministers they had to full summer camps with 50 students for the whole summer and they too thick a dip in the Catholic Church and they abridged it they put it in question and an answer but with commentary for catechism then they have they have graphics they took their own pictures they have quotes from the Saints and from other people on the side it's really a fascinating book and the Pope was absolutely enthusiastic he said let's make this the official catting of the World Youth Day and so World Youth Day 2011 every participant will have this catechism in his pack and on the the pope wrote an introduction to it and here's what he says how is this for enthusiasm the Pope is saying this study this catechism this is my heartfelt desire study this catechism with passion and perseverance set into the quietiy of your room read it with a friend form study groups and networks share with each other on the internet you need you'll love this father Benedict you need to be more deeply rooted in the faith than the generation of your parents you need to be more deeply rooted in the faith than the generation repressed that's Benedict the sixteenth so we're very happy to be the english-language publisher of this how do we get it ordered well I'm sure you can get it to you divyam i got it if not immediately yes soon after but Ignatius calm that's you on the web Ignatius calm don't forget that I'll forget that yes and get it ordered you got but it's it's really well done I'm just impressed by what these young people did with the help of you know these youth ministers and priests but I do think this will be the the central work now for young people in preparation for confirmation for learning their faith a sad point here when I grew up and maybe even you're a little younger not much we grew up with nuns wonderful nuns I went to school for 12 years Sisters of Charity Dominicans Joseph ight before high school for grammar school are I kidding and wonderful sisters yeah a couple of the crowd grouchy but extraordinarily divine people and they were filled with the love of God loved the church the love of the Eucharist that they they taught us to make the Eucharist the center of all lives and unfortunately most of these communities have fallen apart I'm but not all not all and interestingly enough coming back yes yesterday I was at the sisters of life 90 sisters and yeah our own community our own sisters 40 sisters all in a habit and I think a habit isn't essential it's part of anthropologically part of the art look at the National Dominicans the other Dominicans my good friend uh they're flourishing yes why because not just you can save habits but that's the outward sign of a fidelity to the church into tradition you know and both communities of Dominican Sisters are exemplary let's see and I saw some smaller communities that have made up the Silesian Sisters you run into here or there other a small community let's what California my grandma is a the Sacred Heart said an example the Sacred Heart retreat house yes all those very very good sisters and then the wonderful sisters in Nebraska of uprising oh oh yes I mean they already have had it due to another foundation yeah they have huge numbers of occasions and let's pray that this is going to spread but in the meantime this kind of book you can it puts in what we would we would have been getting from sister but let's not forget we're met on the topic of good nuns to remember our dear friend in Franciscan nun mother Mary Claire oh yes of rasam that Mexico died two years ago yes what an incredible person she was and what a convent you've been to Ross well I presume yes I mean there's nothing in Roswell except UFOs that's reported but there is this convent our leading Olympic convent 30 nuns in it but they've had five foundations in the last 25 years you know crowd of new foundations and of course you and I have a mutual friend and Miller oh yes Mary Joseph let's say sweet father Benetti and I met that's for this animal a mother of 11 children who when a youngest child Fani went to college and her husband had died into the Carmelite nuns in the plane this plane says Illinois in Chicago as a matter of fact I came out of the plane with our and father oh that's right yeah and we brought it to the condo door and say Theresa said only your mother can bring you to the door so for the Regis and I had to stand on the sidewalk wave goodbye she's still rice doesn't show yeah come here flourishing flowery letters and yeah lots of them yeah lots of them yeah but I think father Cardinal Newman used a special way phrase a second spring yes are we beginning to see a second spring I can coming in for a landing here fairly soon and I'm looking forward to purgatory I'm from Jersey City and that's just like purgatory but the ìiî I think when I'm saying goodbye things are much better than they would have been 1980 they are but I also think we'll Benedict has a more realistic view of the near-term future and midterm preacher the church then Pope John Paul the second well telling us it was a great enthused and he would encourage people but I think things were painted a little rosier than then maybe they're going to become where as he speaks about what he calls creative minorities that that faithful Christians faithful Catholics will be part of communities which will be eleven in the world but he does not expect to see a transformation of culture anytime soon it may happen but we definitely are seeing though a renewal yes in the and John Paul started the ball roll he did in fact John and 23rd gave it the push in the right direction right you think we have been I'd like to hear this father Joseph we have lived in all lives the times of great Pope's great we have the centuries well well the 20s we'll begin is Pius the tenth or even later the thirteenth I mean I think that the 20th in late 19th century seeing a succession of extraordinary popes very blessed and you think we don't think of it much pius xi stood against the worst in in modern history Hitler Mussolini and and he just stood right up to them and I still like his mode of expression better than what came after him I mean caste canoe be about marriage is still worth reading yeah but he doesn't mince words no Dada Bobby sogno I have no intention this of changing my place to twelve almost the mystic and faced with that horrible thing on out there in the stage of history with Hitler Stalin and he stood is he stood his place you did when I was a boy pius 212 died and I remember at the time of his death there was a everybody spoke about piasa to me he was very well respected you know speaking of the role popes have had another book were coming out with we just signed a condo because Newt and Callista Gingrich newts a convert to the Catholic Church they did a video on nine days that changed the world which is John Paul the second trip to Poland and how that changed history yes and now they're writing a book about it which will publish probably early in the spring of 2012 but again what one man can do in one trip of a few days to a country I mean he and Reagan I think and Thatcher were the three key persons who brought down the evil empire yes and you know that's he was and I think and they have said that the Pope had meant a very important part of the whole thing oh no question about a question about that trip to Poland was a catalyst yes you know what it was the devotion of the Polish people through the hard times which has kept my other good polish priests in post Bishop yeah wyszynski especially they're the ones that really held the faith and so when john paul ii came could ignite it well I told you I grew up in Jersey City and what they learned to tell me that yes we should be ashamed of that was why'd you learn right and growing up in Jersey City as the polls don't move Our Lady of channel 9 oh no yeah you know exactly where we're going with the polls I grew up lots of Jewish people and Polish people and I appreciated both of those battalions to all Lots Irish with a Irish Jersey City I despite my name my family is Irish we have a little break here now so we'll be right back and I'm sure you're not being bored we'll be right back well father Joseph what are we gonna tell about now well I've been saving this for the last segment minute because it's the most exciting thing of all watch out for Jesuits you know your favorite newspaper has put this book on its bestseller list now for the last three weeks this one oh this this one yes so this been a New York Times bestseller up to number five and it's not finished yet so we're happy as a publisher that people are buying the book where happened the New York Times is helping us to sell a book on Jesus Christ by the Pope but the the best part of all is that the message is getting out and Pope Benedict says the beginning of the book he's got a single purpose in this book is to present the message and the person of Jesus the message and the person of Jesus that's what the book is about but in the next paragraph he says why am i doing that just because I want people to see Jesus in such a way that they can have a personal encounter with him and know that their faith stands on solid ground so that's just whole purpose in the book so if the New York Times will help us sell that book sure I'm all for it if someone would read the book I like it even more well you know there are good days on the times there are good articles my neighbors read it for me because I won't buy one and they cut out interesting articles I see and it's a mixed bag you know the writers and things like that it has a consistent project prejudice against the Catholic Church I would think it has a consistent prejudice against religion but and that they try to show a cup of that up but they're not getting me well you know when the Pope with a surprise booked in November of 2010 light of the world there was one small section in that where he mentioned condom use in Africa and how there may be circumstances where it could be not a moral good but could he understood why it might be used to prevent disease and so on and of course that was the one paragraph in the whole book that was in the papers for for once but Laurie Goodstein who writes with New York Times here and Rachel Don idea who is a Rome correspondent contacted me because we're the publishers of that book and by the way it's another one of a book by this Holy Father I mean the what Holy Father would expose himself to one hour a day for six days to a journalist to answer any question to holds barred but this Pope did that but I want to see this about the area times even though the coverage I still think was slanted they made a sincere effort we talked for four long periods of time I said had to explain to them what the Pope actually said what he meant what he didn't say and what the Church's teaching is and you know even with the best of will there's a kind of blindness there but I honestly think they made an effort and mmin worse if they had been willing to listen so I do think the professional and the extent that we can help educate them in the faith we're doing a good service because that's needed but by the way on that netbook I actually thought that this book light of the world be more popular than Jesus of Nazareth because this is pretty deep it's readable I think anybody who's well educated you know normally can read this book and profit from it but light of the world is an interview where the Pope was questioned about everything about the church about the world about the view scandal about bishops about priests you name it about his personal life as prayer what he watched for television does she play the piano but this book is actually already more popular than that wide of the world well I must say that you know when I'm critical of the times which I and because I was very disappointed for 50 years I read the New York Times I grew up with it and as a young priest we always read the times that's what you read you read the time yeah but in recent years they became noticeably suddenly but after all not to something anti-catholic and anti religious and there were articles that were not but right in the middle of something I don't know what was going frontpage Center with a color picture of the New York Times about a priest in a scandal out in the Midwest quite some time ago what is it doing in the middle right I mean this is not news it's s3 and the you would also have the impression that the only people who ever get into trouble are Catholic priests you know yes you know it's a one rabbi no was a minister taught so nice is what we we had a scandal it made page 44 of the Newsday didn't make the mail on time so they're they're purposely shooting at the Catholic Church and they have their reasons were opposed to abortion we're both to eat euthanasia you know we're almost sexual unions yes an activity you know and that's part of the whole situation and so that's where all right you know that's something which becomes clear in the book of the Holy Father both volume 1 and volume who is that he doesn't come as a powerful Messiah who's going to try and have a liberation in the political order and it in this book of the Rebbe Guinea he talks about how Jesus comes into Jerusalem on a donkey and it's true the donkey was a sign of the Messiah but the Pope goes back to Zachariah chapter 9 verse 9 I think this were that's prophesied prophesied and it shows that the the king the Messiah was going to come on the donkey in Zechariah was a king who did away with war a king of peace and one who was humble and by the time of Jesus the Pope brings out the donkey was no longer symbol of royal authority the horse was so that even in the very beginning of this book the Pope is showing that the way of Jesus is not the way of violence it's not the way of power it's the way of submission but when Jesus taught the way he did saying the hard sayings no divorce no adultery he aroused resistance people turned against him and he did not fight back he did not resist in a violent way he accepted it and I think that's the case in the church today I mean we're going to have people who accept abortion who accept homosexual unions resisting the church and being hostile to it and trying to criticize it and trying to find fault with it and of course there's fault because people like you and me are part of it yeah but the the the response of Jesus's response of accepting that in love and loving one's enemies and suffering by the way this beautiful passenger was paper which the press did pick up on because you know the Catholic Church has been criticized by the New York Times and others as being responsive anti-semitism in history and there's some truth to that but fundamentally it's not true and one of the texts which has been used to show the Catholic Church's anti-semitic is in Matthew's Gospel where the people say his blood be upon us and on our descendants you know well this is the blood curse the Jewish people are cursed what does the Pope say about that this is fent fantastic he says first of all who are jesus' accusers again he's a great teacher he always has a question who are his accusers well mark says this is me starts with John first John says just the Jews but if you read John's Gospel you realize when John says the Jews he's not referring to the Jewish people he's referring to the temple aristocracy so right away is not the Jews that are in question it's the temple aristocracy which has gone bad he says though that in Mark's Gospel it becomes the crowd it was a crowd who wanted to crucify Jesus but who was the crowd every year at Passover time the Romans would give amnesty to one of the prisoners and so there was a prisoner there who was a rebel named Barabbas and his friends came they wanted him out so that crowd was a rabble of the supporters of Barabbas they didn't know Jesus was most of of any of them and so there was give us Barabbas give us Barabbas so the crowd that really did not want to accept the release of Jesus was not the Jewish people it was a very particular group who are supporting this rebel but then the Pope says however Saint Matthew says and the whole people shouted out well what does the Pope say well first voice is you couldn't get the old people all there together so that he didn't mean that but he says that Matthew's Gospel does not mean therefore that the whole Jewish people are responsible and then the best part father Benedict he takes the passage where the people say his blood be upon us and on our children and the Pope says that's not a call for vengeance the blood of Jesus is not the same as the blood of Abel who is killed by his brother does not call vengeance the blood of Jesus is redemptive blood and we all need Redemption and that call down of the blood on upon us is the kind of prophecy saying this is what we all need but it is not something which is meant to condemn the Jewish people so just in a few pages he takes that very controversial issue in a very scholarly way but a way that you can understand and appreciate and dissipates all the clouds it's really beautiful the other group of people that would kind of forget the Galilee and women they you know they don't get much of a voice but they're stood by the cross and he ought to cross but not the trial at the cross yes the women web came up from Galilee and they were on his side when we celebrate that anyway the Stations of the Cross the holy women of Jerusalem they were women from Galilee and the full brings that out too he says that there's two kinds of of accounts of the resurrection there's the confessional kind and there's a narrative kind and the confessional kind work short statements made by men to testify the Jesus had risen because in the Jewish tradition of the time a woman couldn't testify her testimony wasn't counted as valuable but in the other accounts the narrative account is two women and so there's already a transition there in the Gospels to recognize the value of women oh yeah I give you the three women and then of course Mary Magdalene yes our old friend no very III think is one of the favorite people I read about in the New Testament that very back dollar might in that scene is so beautiful you know she thinks he's the gardener and of course his chest and says you he is a gardener you know she wasn't wrong about that because God walked with Adam Eve in the garden in the evening of the day and now God again is in the garden in the morning of the day and she ran to the apostles yes yeah that's a marvelous scene of course in Paris there is that chariot that marvelous Church Madeleine yes built by Napoleon I think it's the most beautiful Church in the world no no I'm sorry North there DOM is better well it's a different style yes I would say Notre Dame is beautiful Church the Madeleine is a beautiful building it's okay I'll give you that it's not a church building yeah no yeah well and we're getting there father Joseph now I were I'm gonna ask you a tough question the two of us are getting old yes you have noticed and I've known you for 30 or 40 years where are we going we're good where you're not going well of course but where is where's the church where is the country where is the world is it hope a hopeful time well let me tell you some reasons for hope that I have I'm gonna get in trouble for this because there's even a broadcast but we're both old enough now that doesn't do much damage so if I get in trouble does it there's not much time left no matter how great a Pope is no Pope can run the church I mean basically where do people contact the church their parish priest you know sometimes a bishop but if you don't have priests who are good and strive for holding then any rule in the church I think is you know gonna be difficult so what's happening now first of all we're getting young men who are better educated I love the home school family kids I mean they are just extraordinary young people and more Catholic couples having large families because you can't have vocation without large families you have some but it's basically the large Catholic family which is the source of vocation so that's happening but there's been a key element missing seminaries are critical in the formation of priests and when you have bishops who are uncertain about the faith or afraid to proclaim the faith you know in a strong and manly way then you got seminaries who do not get what should not give proper formation we had a whole generation of bishops I call them the Genoa bishops the profile was we want reconciler 's meaning we want someone who's never stood up and taking some shots you know so they wanted nice people nice yes yeah this year a and but these people were not capable of meeting the crisis after the council with the confusion and the sexual revolution and so in our seminaries we had a rejection of whom on TV a rejection of the church's moral teaching on all sexual issues we had dissent when students allowed to enter the seminary who were not really qualified or had effective disorders as they call them euphemistically and bishops were not strong enough to correct that I lived through that I saw that again and again what's happening now I mean we are getting more and more good bishops being appointed in the United States yes yes and around the world too but I know here in this country California I mean we've just had a string of good appointments we hope this thing continues because some retirements coming up this year but okay so that's good but here's something even better I have had the privilege of knowing important people like you and like the Pope and like Cardinal schönborn but there's another one a friend of mine a priest named father Marco well that he was a soul patient priest he was a seminary rector in South America for many years and he taught up into Canada's Canadian french-canadian anyway father will and I've known for years as a wonderful priest very intelligent he did his doctorate unconscious when Balthazar as I did mine very personable and he was made bishop in years ago and it was made our Archbishop and Cardinal of Quebec well last summer the Pope appointed him as prefect of the Congregation for bishops that means he is the one in charge of the congregation that makes the appointments and one of the key members of that congregation is Cardinal Burke yes from st. former st. Louis and Cardinal Burke is just outstanding I mean mild gentle but a great scholar and absolutely on unafraid to speak the truth you know wherever it's called the do so so I I see that we're going to have a continuing succession of bishops who are strong in the faith and who believe in formation of the priests who will help the seminaries improve even more and therefore father Benedict I although I have my I'm a card-carrying cynic okay and I've been through a lot of you know talk about how things are getting better but I really think that that we are in a period where the Pope can do more because he's gonna have better bishops supporting better pre supporting the bishops and EWTN is a big factor in this spreading that word I believe Ignatius press is doing that too we're trying to make the work of this this Pope and the previous Pope and those whom they so admired like von Balthasar to do Bach more disseminated in the world I've been teaching for 46 years of Dunwoody 46 years a great seminary solid it is it remained great even through the times of trial and we have a great Archbishop Timothy Dolan yeah a man among men and we are very very grateful well Joseph thank you for being us O Lord be with us all and help us each of us to live up to the faith and to the service of Jesus Christ in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and please keep us going here at EWTN don't forget Mother Angelica and said your things into keep us going and because we have to keep the the machines going and the electricity coming on god bless

Channel: EWTN

Views: 15,762

Rating: 4.8486485 out of 5

Keywords: Fr. Benedict Groeschel, Fr. Joseph Fessio, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Narareth, Catholic

Id: 2HkteiFcGmQ

Length: 53min 17sec (3197 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 18 2011