The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. One of the fundamental dividing lines within Christianity is marked by a disagreement about whether certain people (specifically men, within Catholicism) not only have a distinctive calling or vocation to serve the Church but are able to do so by means of ordination—that is, in a way that fundamentally or, to use philosophical language, ontologically distinguishes them from the flock they serve. Why do Catholics uphold this difference between what we call clergy and laity? Where does this distinction originate, and how can it respond to the critique that it is inegalitarian, elitist, and even sexist? Put more positively, what is it that bishops, priests, and deacons—the only ordained ministers within Catholicism—can contribute to the life of faith and the path toward salvation that no one else can? Here to explain the nature and meaning of ordination and the process by which it takes place, and to reflect on his recent experience ordaining new deacons into the Catholic Church at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, is Bishop Robert Barron. Topics Covered 00:00 | Introduction 01:32 | Bishop Barron visits the grave of Archibald "Moonlight" Graham 03:05 | Ordaining 18 deacons in St. Peter's Basilica 03:49 | The Mass of ordination 07:27 | The laying on of hands and its significance 10:28 | Ordination and ontological change 12:57 | The three degrees of clerical life 14:50 | Is ordination biblical? 18:00 | What about the priesthood of all believers? 19:15 | What about limiting the priesthood to men? 22:48 | Defining authentic preaching 24:53 | Three key ingredients for every sermon: logos, pathos, and ethos 28:01 | The state of preaching within the American church today 30:17 | The shared duty to proclaim the gospel 32:12 | Listener question: Given Matthew 23:9, how can we call priests "Father"? 33:52 | Join the Word on Fire Institute Links: Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/ NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. One of the biggest political stories of this year can be summed up in one word: fraud. Minnesota, where we are recording this show, has been an epicenter of the systematic theft of public dollars. But this is not only a problem for us. It's a national epidemic. From California to New York, Arizona to Florida, and even Texas, the US Government Accountability Office estimates that American taxpayers lose between—get this—$233 billion up to $521 billion to fraud per year. On the high end, that is almost double the annual budget of New York state and more than the entire yearly GDP of the country of Denmark. The sheer scope of this swindle is bad enough. The fact that so much of it is taken from those who need the funds most—through the defrauding of Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs meant to support vulnerable people—makes the issue a national crisis. How should we respond to this scourge of dishonesty from the standpoint of Catholic social thought? Why is fraud such a grave injustice, especially in its effects on the common good? And what does the Bible say about taking what does not rightly belong to you? Here to offer a distinctively Catholic account of why the plundering of the public coffers is one of the great social injustices of our time is Bishop Robert Barron. Topics Covered 00:00 | Introduction 01:40 | Traversing the western side of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester 03:05 | The staggering numbers regarding US fraud 06:03 | What law or moral principle is being violated? 08:16 | What about stealing from institutions? Isn't that victimless? 10:03 | Connecting fraud with questions of social justice 10:50 | Fraud prevention and the preferential option for the poor 11:43 | What the Bible says about exploiting the poor 12:50 | The contributions of negligence 14:43 | Considering the common good in relation to fraud 16:01 | How fraud erodes civic trust 17:00 | Catholic social teaching and differing ideologies 20:23 | Checks and balances: The response to our fallen nature 22:11 | Decreased churchgoing and its impact on moral guidance 24:35 | Argument #1: What we call fraud is actually common abroad 25:33 | Argument #2: Uncovering fraud is really picking on the poor 26:32 | Argument #3: Uncovering fraud is partisan politics and we ought not engage 27:19 | Bishop Barron's response to "Stay out of politics" 29:00 | Listener question: What guidance can you give to incoming college students? 31:18 | Join the Word on Fire Institute Links: Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/ NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. What does it mean to listen to your conscience, especially in a culture that scoffs at the existence of moral values? Does the concept of conscience still mean anything today? Or is it a relic of what the secular world would have us believe was a naïve and superstitious past—a time of cartoon crickets and buzz-killing angels perched on our shoulders, scolding us into acting against our desires? Was the atheist Sigmund Freud right that conscience is merely the internalized echo of a tyrannical father, seeking to keep our conduct in check? And even if we grant that conscience has some kind of objective existence, how can we account for the fact that people reach radically incompatible moral conclusions while all claiming to follow it? For example, one person says conscience leads them to support abortion; another says conscience requires them to stand against it. Through all of this, how can we say that the conscience is "free" if its primary function is to impose rules? Here to help us untangle these questions, and to make the case that recovering the biblical conception of the conscience is more important than ever, is Bishop Robert Barron. Topics Covered 00:00 | Introduction 01:24 | Bishop Barron in Nashville: Good News Conference, Dominicans, and Theo Von 02:29 | What is the conscience? 05:21 | Is conscience just a gut feeling? 07:14 | The "angel" and the "devil" on our shoulders 09:57 | Perceiving conscience as an external voice 11:30 | Freud's concept of the internalized voice of authority 16:04 | Both radically individual and universally shared 18:04 | How prudence interacts with the conscience 18:55 | Is the conscience free? 22:04 | What are the duties to the conscience? 24:57 | What about when poor judgment clouds the conscience? 28:02 | "My truth, your truth" 30:24 | Responding to the conflation of evil and good 32:22 | The liberating benefits of rules 34:01 | Listener question: How can I respond to "I'm spiritual but not religious"? 36:14 | Join the Word on Fire Institute Links: Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/ NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you, as always, for joining us. In this episode, we'll conclude our conversation with Dr. Tod Worner and Bishop Barron on modern Christian persecution. Topics Covered 00:00 | Introduction 00:23 | Lower than God, higher than us 05:58 | What do their deaths demand? 18:08 | No. 1—Pray for the persecuted 18:25 | No. 2—Stay informed 18:50 | No. 3—Persuade government to take action 19:35 | No. 4—Provide aid to the persecuted 19:50 | No. 5—Respect religious liberty at home 20:32 | No. 6—Resist soft religious persecution 22:09 | How the martyrs impacted Bishop Barron 25:03 | Join the Word on Fire Institute Links: Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/ NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. Recently, Dr. Tod Worner of The Evangelization & Culture Podcast sat down with Bishop Barron to discuss modern Christian persecution with Bishop Barron's new book, What Do Their Deaths Demand? Now, it's a topic we've explored here on this show, once before. In this new conversation, we'll take a deeper dive into that subject, exploring the specific witness of some of these martyrs, and examining this modern era which has seen more Christian persecution than any other in history. Here to discuss that with Dr. Tod Worner, is Bishop Robert Barron. Topics Covered 00:00 | Introduction 02:18 | The most persecuted religion 15:08 | Why the persecution of Christians? 25:44 | Join the Word on Fire Institute Links: Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/ NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.