In Season and Out of Season

Guest (Male): This is In Season and Out of Season, a Bible teaching ministry with Father Tom DiLorenzo.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: Good day. It's Father Tom. We do this broadcast live and I'm reading an article from yesterday's paper from The Globe. I wouldn't buy it, but it was given to me. It's New York. The mood among many United States Roman Catholic bishops was captured in a recent speech by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia. His talk called Catholics in the Next America painted a bleak picture of a nation increasingly intolerant of Christianity. Yes, let me just tell you this. I'll give you some things. A nation intolerant of Christianity. Do you know that 1/3 of the Catholic hospitals make 1/3 of the hospitals in the United States are Catholic?

Do you know that if they get money from the state or from the federal government, they're going to be forced to do abortions, which means they will have to close? Do you know that? Do you know that we have sold our Catholic hospitals in the Archdiocese of Boston? I'll read it again. He painted a bleak picture of a nation increasingly intolerant of Christianity. The America emerging in the next several decades he's very optimistic. I don't think it's the next several decades. I think it's now is likely to be much less friendly to Christian faith than anything in our country's past.

Chaput told students last week at Assumption College, which is an Augustinian College in Worcester. It's not a question of when or if it might happen. It is happening today. Yes, it is happening today. That's for sure. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops meets today in Baltimore for its national summit. They feel that they are under siege. They are more than under siege. The state hates Jesus Christ. The state hates the church that Jesus founded. Notice it's not about every other church. It's about the Catholic Church. One holy Catholic and apostolic. They feel that they're under siege from a broader culture moving toward accepting gay marriage.

A White House they often condemn as hostile to Catholic teaching and a state legislature that church leaders say are chipping away at religious liberty. Many Catholic academics and activists and parishioners say the bishops are overreacting. I'll read it again. Many Catholic academics and activists and parishioners are saying the bishops are overreacting. Let me just tell you this. Why do they say they're overreacting? I'm going to tell you cuz they're not Christian. They're not Christian. Yes, many Catholics have accepted gay marriage. Many Catholics have accepted abortion. Many Catholics have accepted that this is a symbol in the Eucharist.

Many Catholics have accepted birth control. And you want to know why? Because I'm going to tell you what Augustine says. Everyone the church has Christ doesn't have because Christ doesn't have these people. People who are pro-abortion and they are Catholic they Christ doesn't have these people. You cannot be pro-abortion and say Christ has me. Thou shalt not kill. Do you understand what I'm saying? So what is the big problem? I'm going to tell you why Catholics are pro-abortion because they have not been converted. They have not been converted. They have been converted by the media.

They have been converted by the globe. They have been converted by what they hear on television. They have not been converted by the cross of Jesus Christ. Yes, many Catholic academics, activists and parishioners say that the bishops are overreacting. But you see the bishops are warning us that these things are happening today and they will increase. The only way to get Catholics on board with Catholic teaching is conversion. Saint Ignatius in his retreat brings his retreatants to two places, two mountains. One mountain where Jesus Christ is on the cross as the meek lamb of God and the other mountain where Satan is reigning.

And he says to his retreatants make a choice. Choose Jesus or choose the devil. You see the people in the pews, Catholic Church, we need to be converted. We need to have our hearts changed. We need that the cross of Jesus Christ would work in our hearts. And I'm going to tell you why so many Catholics are not Christians, so many Protestants are not Christians. You see faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If people are not hearing God's word being proclaimed, there is not going to be faith. We need heart transplants.

Everyone that is a Catholic is not a Christian. Everyone that is a Protestant is not a Christian. How can they live a Christian morality if they have not been changed by Jesus Christ? Anyone in Christ Jesus is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold the new has come. Saint Paul says it is not circumcision or uncircumcision, but it's becoming a new creation. What is the big problem in the Catholic Church? The big problem is conversion. And last week I did a talk that the cardinal from the Vatican said that our homilies are boring and they need to be spiced up.

You don't have to spice them up. You only have to preach Jesus and preach the cross and tell people make a decision. You're either for Jesus or against Jesus. You give your life to Jesus or you give your life to the devil. It's as simple as that. You know who said that? Saint Ignatius. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, not Father Tom. I'm only telling you what Saint Ignatius says. You either give your life to Jesus or you give your life to the world. And you know who the the ruler of the world is? His name is is Satan.

That's who he is. Yeah, I'll tell you. They are going to stop public funding of Catholic hospitals. You know why? Because abortion will be demanded. Imagine that. We sold our hospitals, which I think is very sad. That's my opinion. I think it's very sad that we sold our Catholic identity, our Catholic hospitals. We sold them. Let me continue. John Gering, of Faith in Public Life and Advocacy Network for more liberal religious voters, unconverted voters, okay, has argued that in a pluralistic society government officials can choose policies that differ from church teaching without prejudice being a factor.

Church teaching, thou shalt not kill. Can I take a gun and go out and shoot people? No. No more than I can go after a baby in the womb and kill that child. Church teaching marriage has always been between a man and a woman. We call it mommy and daddy from the beginning. No one ever says daddy and daddy or mommy and mommy. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is not church teaching alone. This is reality. Gay marriage it's ridiculous. That's not a marriage. A marriage is between a man and a woman. Even a baby knows that that's 3 years old.

Still the bishops see themselves as more and more on the losing side of these disagreements and they are taking steps they hope that will protect the church. I don't know what steps they're going to take because you know what? The state hates Jesus Christ and the state hates the church that Jesus founded. What we need to do as bishops and priests and deacons and catechists is to get our people converted so that they'll start believing again that Jesus is truly present as Eucharist so that they will go to confession so that they will know that marriage is between a man and a woman.

And you don't have to brainwash them because the Holy Spirit will convict them of the truth. Jesus says I will send you the Holy Spirit who will convict you of the truth. I'll give you an example. When Maria Vadia went to her first prayer meeting, she went dressed up in a mini skirt. She was completely converted. No one had to tell her in the next 3 months that a mini skirt was not the kind of dress that she should be wearing. No one had to write her a letter. The Spirit of God convicted her that you don't dress like whatever like a pig.

You belong to Jesus. You see get people converted. Get people to experience Jesus Christ. Get people to know the presence of God. And the Spirit of God will convict them of the truth. Our big problem in the church is that people are not converted. Many people are not converted. We think that just because people go to church they are converted. It's wrong. A friend of mine was talking to a group of men and women and it was a Catholic group and she talked about the power of the Holy Ghost. They looked at her as if she was crazy.

This person also talked about the power of the Eucharist. And they looked at her as if she were crazy. This is in a suburb of Boston about 30 miles away. The people said that's just a symbol. That's just a symbol. Jesus as Eucharist is not a symbol. Jesus as Eucharist is the true body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord. But you see unless these people are converted, nothing's going to happen. Yeah, we have people that are Catholics that say you know I'm a I have gay friends and they're married and they do beautiful people.

They even have children. They have adopted children. This is you know it's not of my business. A child deserves a mother and a father. That's the way God ordained it. Still the bishops see themselves as more and more on the losing side of these disagreements and they are taking steps they hope that will protect the church. Can I tell you something, bishops? I'm going to tell you I'm going to tell you a secret. It is Jesus Christ who protects the church. We need the lordship of Jesus to be proclaimed in our midst. We need the presence of the Holy Spirit to be felt in our midst.

We need that Christ be exalted in our midst. And then things will happen. We don't need the bishops to protect the church. Listen, Jesus Christ is the head of the church. If we do our job in the proclamation of the gospel and caring for the sheep, Jesus will do his job. I don't have to keep the church afloat. I know someone who died for the church, who shed his blood for the church. But you see they feel they have to protect the church. No, you don't have to protect the church. I need to preach to the people.

I need to be pastoral to the people. I need to pray with the people. I need to hear the confessions of the people. I need to instruct the people. I need to bring people in the church to Jesus Christ. That's what I need to do. And Jesus will protect the church. In September the conference formed a community of religious liberty that will meet for the first time this week in Baltimore. Anthony Picarello, General Counsel of the Conference, will oversee that work which will include hiring a lobbyist a lobbyist. The greatest lobbyist we have is called prayer.

You know what I'm saying? The greatest lobbyist we have is called prayer. And putting our hearts and heads and lives together. Among the bishops tops concerned are religious exemptions in states that legalize same-sex marriage. In Illinois government officials stopped working with Catholic charities also in Boston on adoptions and foster care placements after 40 years because the agency refused to recognize the new civil union law. Illinois's bishops are suing the state. Let me just tell you this, my friends. This is a simple thing simple but yet the most difficult thing in the world that the bishops need to come together and they need to give their lives to Jesus Christ.

They need to pray over each other and pray with each other that they would be shepherds after the heart of God. They need to admit that many of them, according to John Paul II, have become CEOs rather than pastors. They need to repent because repentance begins with the house of God that they have taken their power structure from the world rather than from the Gospels. You know bishops need to be converted just like Father Tom needs to be converted. Bishops need to be converted just like the people need to be converted. Just because Father Tom has a collar it doesn't mean he knows Jesus.

I want to thank God that I know Jesus by grace, not because I wear a collar. I want to thank God that God has placed in my heart that the state means nothing to me and Jesus means everything to me. I want to thank God that I don't need the state to keep me going. It's a matter of the heart. And we have forgotten that. And because we have forgotten that, we have forgotten the key. And the key is Paul VI tells us that evangelization, conversion must begin with the house of God. Oh, yes. Our people are pro-abortion.

So many of them. So many of them. Our people are pro-gay marriage. So many of them. Our people are pro-birth control. So many of them. Our people so many of them don't go to confession. Our people so many of them don't believe this is truly Jesus. I'm talking about the ones that are sitting in the pews, not the ones that are staying home. But you know what? The problem is conversion, evangelization, having a heart transplant. That's the problem. And until we meet that problem the state will usurp everything we believe. And there is going to be a remnant left of the church.

You know who said that? Benedict XVI when he was Cardinal Ratzinger and Father Ratzinger. We are headed into the great persecution of the church. We are headed into it. Bishop Chaput says in several decades Oh, no. I think he's wrong. I believe it's begun now and it will intensify every year. So let's have lobbyists in Washington, lobbyists lobbying for the church. Well, I guess that's a worldly way of looking at it. And you know maybe you need to do that. But maybe you need to get the billion Catholics that there are throughout the world on our knees praying that God would convert us and cause us to love him above all else and above all others that Jesus Christ again would be Lord of Lords and King of Kings in the preacher, in the people, in the catechist, in the bishop, in all Catholics.

Let me tell you, friends. The Protestant Reformation took place because there was a reason. Unfortunately, they went the wrong way. They didn't want to suffer persecution within the church. No prophet leaves the church. No prophet leaves the church. Jeremiah was persecuted by the Jews. He didn't become a Protestant Jew. Isaiah was persecuted. Zechariah was persecuted. Hosea was persecuted. Amos was persecuted. Luther was persecuted, but unfortunately went the wrong way. We need conversion. Luther was right about that. Luther said grace alone 0:00.000 0:00.000 which produces faith. He was right about that. But the action that he took was wrong.

Why? Because no Old Testament prophet left because of persecution. They stayed in the church and even died as martyrs. Heavenly Father I ask you to bless the bishops. I ask you to cause them to become mystics, men who have vision into the heavens, men who see the heart of Jesus and have been converted by the blood. I ask you, Lord, that they who have the fullness of the priesthood would preach the gospel in season and out of season. I pray for priests that have become so lukewarm that they too believe in abortion. They too believe in there's no confession.

They too believe in gay marriage. I pray for conversion in the hearts of your people, your priests, your bishops, your catechists and this man who speaks on the radio. Change my heart, oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart, oh God that I may be like you. I thank you for listening. I'm on every day at this time proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. I want to tell you we have a website that if you would like to donate to PayPal www.inseason.net www.inseason.net there is a link to PayPal. But there are also hundreds of talks and hundreds of videos www.inseason.net www.inseason.net www.inseason.net You know I'd be very grateful if you click on to the PayPal link and that you give a donation so that we can be on in your area.

I need to hear from people if you really want me in your area. I need to hear. Father Tom, Post Office Box 602, East Boston, Mass 02128. That's Father Tom, Post Office Box 602, East Boston, Mass 02128. It's all a matter of the heart. Unless our hearts be changed we will listen to the news and become just like everybody else. But we were never called to be like everybody else. We were called to be God's holy, chosen, called out people that are a light to a world that is filled with darkness. How do I know the world is filled with darkness?

Cuz it's pro-abortion, pro-killing, pro-gay marriage. How do I know? Because it kills at the end of life. We need to have a heart transplant, a change of heart by the blood of Jesus.

Guest (Female): The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary and she conceived of the Holy Spirit. Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to your word. And the word became flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and dwelt among us. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: God bless you.

Guest (Male): This has been In Season and Out of Season with Father Tom DiLorenzo. And remember that this ministry is supported only by the donations of listeners. So please help as the Lord leads you. Father Tom DiLorenzo, PO Box 602, East Boston, Mass 02128. In season and out of season.