That says what we believe and a list of these things if you want to follow up so go to the page itself to find out more. But here we go. Id like to introduce you to father john the priest who is the victor for the administration here in San Francisco. First of all father john welcome. Great to be here again with you chris. You are back. Youve recently written an article that will be published in the catholic San Francisco newspaper. Its a great introduction to what we are going to talk about. Let us know the gist of that. Sure. I just point out that in society we get a lot of our views from society a lot of people do and they tend to follow different trends. And the culture does not believe that everyone believes it and there are always different ethnic groups and things like that but over time they have an influence and can have an influence on institutions which could be positive or sometimes negative. And i have a little example that i use which i think is good. And it involves ice cream shops. So over the past 40 or 50 years if you like ice cream you know when you go into one of these shops they have lots of toppings. Brownies, cookies, other little sweet things that you can have. And thats been the trend. Well you can imagine that there would be one ice cream shop who said you know we make good ice cream and thats what we want to stick to. We are going toall these 40 years they havent really been popular. Its a small chain and somehow they make it through and now they feel its time to really emphasize the fact that theyve stuck to the basics. That this is just pure good ice cream. And so they rename their chain and they call it nothing but ice cream. Nothing but ice cream so its all emphasis on ice cream. And people hear about it and they think oh my gosh thats something completely new. Thats different. What a novel idea. And yet theyve been doing the same thing for 40 years. You can make an application to the church like that. A lot of things are changing in society and some catholics sort of drift away a little bit and things but as far as institutions are concerned or Catholic Schools its pretty important to let people know that the institution believes the same thing that it did 40 years, 400 years ago, 2 this side years ago. It hasnt changed. Thats a great analogy. We are going to talk about some of those things. Weve got a list of the main tenants of the faith and well talk about that. What does it mean when we believe in the true presence of jesus, big topic. Its an ultimate big topic. Hell, heaven, persian gulf tory, the priesthood. People often have questions about the priesthood. And then life. What is our belief in life and things of how to live out a chased life. And all of the things that are connected to the essential teachings of the church and how do we live them out and why do we stand up for example this past weekend 50,000 people walking down the street of San FranciscoMarket Street standing up for life all based on one essential issue or belief in life. And so we are going to be talking about some of the details of those when we come back. My name is chris and you are watching mosaic and well be right back. [ music ] welcome back. Today is father john the administration of the ashch dice seize in San Francisco and i want to go through this list we started reading before the break and the essential teachings of the church that are often sometimes confused im going to read through the rest of them and we are going to go back and you could say a few things about each one. The priesthood, belief in life, chasmty in one state in life, could not exception, homo sexual acts, orientation versus acts and the call to chastity for everyone and marriage. The institution, the sackment, the covenant and what we believe about marriage and the civil law. And finally Reproductive Technology and cloning, things like that. This is enough for a series of 13 shows but we are going to be quick. For example the four parts of the church. I would focus on the apestalic. It means that the bishops that are functioning as bishops today are connected to the appostels. Theres an unbroken line that goes back to them and the reason thats important is that we believe even the scriptures and interpretation is linked. That leads us right to the next one. Refers to the leadership of the church and usually that refers to the bishops led by the holy father. And teaching and often times an aauthorititive way. Thats our teaching. Its part of the gift given to the church. An essential teach taking they may come out and declare. Theyve already conception was one. It would be possible to declare the sankty of life and being against that through abortion that that is evil. Now the Church Already teaches that but it hasnt chosen to define that. Correct. So they have taught but not in an infallible way. Got you and again this is a topic we could talk about for a long time. The true presence of jesus in the eucharist. It means jesus is truly present body and blood soul and divinity. I think this is an enormous challenge in american society. I see many, many young people who are good i think part of it is you kneel down and be. Hell and persian gulf tory. The church has always said hell exists. Its never said anyone is in hell. The presumption is that they are in hell but the reason they dont say that is in the decision alone but the reason why its so important i truly have a choice im not compelled thats the way he made it means that if you are going to be in heaven you cant have all of these faults. Youve got to be a nice guy, completely nice guy. I like chris but a lot of problems there. Its the taking away of that. Pure fiscal yearing us to become part of the saints in heaven. The priesthood. People get confused on this. There are two types of priesthood. Me im a priest and you preserving others but there is also the priesthood which has always been talked about the church and in fact right after you pour the water on the babys head or the adults head you do with the criticism and you say to the person you are now priest, profit and king. And its that priest which is the priest that we all offer the sacrifice. It cant be done without the priest but everyone participates in that sacrifice. Beautiful, thank you. That was a good one. We talked about life but just the belief of life begins at conception. Right. The church hasi mean all of this is now supported by science. Once you have the dna. The churchs position is once a woman conceives if you dont intervene and there are no unusual events thats going to result in a human life. So everything is programmed by god from then on saying this is going to be a human person that is going to develop into a baby and we have to respect that. Yeah. Last one before the break. Chasmty. It applies to both you and me. People confuse it with celibacy i think. Right. So a chased person means essentially that you look at the other person as a child of god complete so not just how pretty she is or whether the guy is handsome or what type of clothes that they wear but this is a child of god made in the image and likeness of god and that we have all of these sexual abilities. We dont use them until the appropriate moment like in marriage and for someone who is single then they dont use them at all. But they still whenever they interact with another man or woman all of that comes into play. Sure and its just living out the belief in the dignity of each human and treating each other with respect. Wonderful. Well we are going to take a break and we will be right back. We are going to talk more with father john. We are cruising right through some of the teachings of the catholic faith. You are watching mosaic. Well be right back. Welcome back to mosaic. Im here today talking with father john who is the victor for administration for San Francisco and we are talking about just briefly touching on the essence of some of the basic catholic teachings so weve gone through a lot father and theres some other ones having to do with sexuality. They are often misunderstood so help us understand it a little more the concept about what the Church Believes about could not exception. The basic notion is that a man and woman coming together in marriage should be open to the gift of life so it is something given by god and they should be open to part of the marriage to be open to that. Now, yes they can be intimate with one another at times where its less likely that the woman will get pregnant but still even in that situation sometimes you have to be open to life so its this openness we emphasize. Thats a great emphasis thank you. Theres so much we could talk about again. Right. Heres one, homo sexual acts. What does the Church Believe about that . First of all acts always belong in a certain context. So regular health roe sexual acts the church says should only occur in marriage. Homo sexual acts should not occur and the reason is that thats not the way our bodies are made for that. One can easily understand a man having an attraction for another man and wanting to become in some way intimate but just the way our bodies are built its not possible that you can be intimate in the way a couple can be in a health roe sexualour bodies are made male and female. On a natural level. And then of course through revelation of the church and the pro creative aspect of the gift of human sexuality and what we believe as catholics. Certainly again more of what we could talk about here. I urge you to study the body if you want to find out more about the why of many of these things. Lets talk about the churchs ministry and the concept of the difference between homo Sexual Orientation and acts. Right. The church accepts whatever orientation a person has. That orientation can be distorted and im going to say it in a minute something more about it but the church is still accepting the person as a child of god and a full member of the church. Theres no attempt to push the person outside. What the church says is though that you cant act on that and of course many unfortunately many of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters what they want to associate is that the attraction should be bound to action. Thats what we want to say and the church says we are all called to chastity. That is notthe inclinings is quite different from the act itself. I wanted to speak about that the church saying its distorted. I would say for our modern society for most people anyway maybe not everyone but most young people their attitudes towards hetero sexuality or homo are all distorted. They are always thinking of the sexual component, the physical part. Why is she so attracted to me . Why am i attracted to him . And its going for one very small component and the church is saying no, no, we have to look at ourselves as complete and other people as these complicated individuals for whom we have to explore. So i shouldnt really identify myself as gay. I shouldnt identify myself as straight. Im a human person. Im trying to get to know other people. So the catholic perspective is really a healing remedy to the over sexualized nature of our culture. Exactly. Thats great. Thank you. So again leading to the next one we are all called to chastity no matter what our state in life. Right and that goes back to before. Its a challenge for many people married people as well we always have to look at the other person as someone who is endowed with difficulties who we can relate to and who we dont think of or act in initially or ultimately in a way thats inappropriate with their commitment. Now if its my wife or husband or anything then a sexual component is appropriate, acting on it. Otherwisebut even for a wife or a husband they cant be looking ata guy cant be married and looking at all of the women up and down and looking at photos and things like that. That would be against chastity for a married man or woman. Yeah and even jesus said if you look with lust you committed adultery which is having to do with marriage. And again looking with a positive regard and wishing the best for the other person rather than taking which is sort of the love versus lust. Right and this isnt even going into the area of pornography. We are just talking about people who are married who then the guy is interested in this other woman. Oh shes really cute i like her and talking to his friends about that. You are already against chstity by engaging in Something Like that. Thats great. We are going to take a break on the home stretch actually talking about basic catholic teachings with father john. My name is chris lyford. Well be right back. [ music ] [music] and i cant change, even if i tried even if i wanted to. My love my love my love she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, we are neighbors and best friends. I love my sister. My heart doesnt see race. Love is love. Our family is no less than any other family. Welcome back to mosaic. Father john and i are going through some of the basic catholic teachings essential to our faith and weve gone through quite a few at a rapid face pace and we are doing pretty well but the next segment we are going to talk about marriage as an institution covenant and sackment. The covenant is marriage is an image of christ loving the church so christ the head of the church loving the church, his body and thats imaged in the love of a man and woman. And that love of a man and woman is supposed to remind us of a love of christ for his church. And it is also aan agreement, a sort of contract. Thats the way the church understands it is that in order toand the reason why in order for it to be a true contract you have to fully intend to promise to be married to this man or woman until death parts us. And you have to do that freely. You cant do it with a gun to your head or you think that unless i do this the baby is not going to bebut freedom is important. Yeah. Wonderful that the covenant aspect of marriage. Now marriage and civil law why the church is strong about the perspective there. Well in the United States now every minister or Catholic Priest acts on behalf of the government. You register with the government and as you know the married couple brings a marriage certificate with them. The priest has to sign that send it in and they get the official marriage certificate back again. So the church is the official Church Witness but hes also a witness for the state. Now, because there are so many people who are changing their understanding event of the definition of marriage there are priests and ministers who are saying we should change this. We should get out of the business of being officials of the state. We should just separate the things and it has happened in europe. There are a number of catholic countries in europe and this has been true for decades you want to get married you go to city hall first you get them to stamp the thing as far as the government is concerned you are now officially married. As far as the church is concerned you are not married so in the afternoon you go to the church or the following day you go to the church and of course you are not intimate with one another. You dont consummate your marriage. Right yeah until the church and the Church Wedding is distinct from it and the good thing about that is our concept of marriage traditional marriage is very different from what civil unions are becoming now a days. That makes a lot of sense. Something to really look into there. Thats a great topic. Thank you. Last topics Reproductive Technology and what the Church Believes about that and human cloning. The church is certainly very simple net quick. There are many women who want to have children and they have tried and its not working so they are inkleined to think oh well im going to get the baby and have it insemi finals nateed outside the womb. First of all the way that happens is usually there are many eggs that are put in and only one is used. Thats the primary reason. A secondary reason why they are against it is you could think of it as a medical procedure but in general this should be happening as a result of a loving act, not of a surgical act or a medical act. Yeah. And the church insists on that and you can see how important it is in our society. Yeah thank you and what a great explanation for such a huge topic. Now im going to ask you folks to if you want to hear or see what the Church Believes just a little segment about cloning you can go to our website where all of these are listed sf arch diases. Org what we believe and well be developing that as weeks go by. I really appreciate you at such pace to be able to go through and give a little about each one of those things. Thank you so much. Good and im delighted we have so much on the website and well be expanding that. All right well youve been watching mosaic. Again go to our website. Until next time god bless. [ music ] welcome im your host frank. We begin with our weekly pitch. If you got a show go to our Facebook Page and hopefully we can hook up. Show time now more focus less stress. A sense of calm. How would you like to incorporate that into your lives . Our next guest has just the plan by integrating mindfulness into education and life. The benefits are limitless. Hes the Program Director of mindful schools to give children an inner compass. How are you. Great to have you here. Thank you frank. Weve been