# Why Remain Catholic When There’s So Much Scandal? - Bishop Robert Barron Sermons

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 5 Sep 2026, 8:12.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74728379/why_remain_catholic_with_so_much_scandal.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Hey everybody, this is Bishop Barron. I want to speak
[0:02] Speaker 1: to you again about this terrible crisis we're passing through
[0:05] Speaker 1: in the church, this crisis of sexual abuse and the
[0:08] Speaker 1: countenancing of it by some bishops. I know I spoke
[0:12] Speaker 1: to you a couple days ago, but what's been striking
[0:14] Speaker 1: me recently is the number of people who seem to
[0:16] Speaker 1: be calling for the abandonment of the church. Like, because
[0:20] Speaker 1: of this crisis, it's time for us to leave the church.
[0:23] Speaker 1: We simply had enough. Now, can I just say this?
[0:26] Speaker 1: I totally understand people's feelings. I share them, the feelings
[0:31] Speaker 1: of anger and frustration. I get it. I get it.
[0:36] Speaker 1: But can I also suggest, I think this is precisely
[0:39] Speaker 1: the wrong strategy at this moment in the church's life.
[0:43] Speaker 1: Leaving is not what we ought to be doing. What
[0:45] Speaker 1: we ought to be doing is fighting. Now, let me
[0:48] Speaker 1: explain that with a little historical reference. Uh, one of
[0:52] Speaker 1: my great heroes is Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln, of course, uh,
[0:56] Speaker 1: operated politically at one of the most convulsive times in
[1:00] Speaker 1: our national history, when slavery was threatening the very foundations
[1:05] Speaker 1: of American democracy. I mean, Lincoln knew from the beginning
[1:08] Speaker 1: of his career that the nation, as he put it,
[1:10] Speaker 1: couldn't survive half slave and half free. But he saw
[1:14] Speaker 1: more profoundly, too, that slavery as an institution was repugnant
[1:19] Speaker 1: to the very principles of American democracy. Now, we can
[1:23] Speaker 1: hear that. In the Gettysburg Address. And in a way,
[1:27] Speaker 1: it's sad that that's become so cliche that we all,
[1:30] Speaker 1: you know, memorize it in high school. But let's go
[1:32] Speaker 1: back to those words. Four score and seven years ago,
[1:37] Speaker 1: our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation
[1:40] Speaker 1: conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all
[1:44] Speaker 1: men are created equal. Notice he's articulating the principles that
[1:48] Speaker 1: define American democracy, freedom and equality. Then he says, now
[1:53] Speaker 1: we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether
[1:56] Speaker 1: that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated
[1:59] Speaker 1: can long endure. He knew what was at stake in
[2:03] Speaker 1: the war was American democracy itself. He knew that slavery
[2:08] Speaker 1: was a kind of cancer that would undermine American ideals. Now,
[2:13] Speaker 1: I suppose at the time an option would have been
[2:17] Speaker 1: simply to give up on the American experiment. I'm leaving
[2:20] Speaker 1: the country. I've had it. this thing is a disaster,
[2:24] Speaker 1: I'm giving up. But Lincoln wouldn't take that option. In fact,
[2:27] Speaker 1: he led the country down the other path toward fighting,
[2:32] Speaker 1: fighting for the ideals of American democracy. Now, can I
[2:37] Speaker 1: suggest to everybody, I think something similar is at stake
[2:40] Speaker 1: right now. The Catholic Church, its great principles and ideals,
[2:47] Speaker 1: the Catholic Church grounded in Jesus Christ, the love of
[2:50] Speaker 1: God made manifest in him in his dying and his rising,
[2:54] Speaker 1: the Catholic Church, in all of its power and beauty
[2:57] Speaker 1: and perfection, is indeed threatened by this terrible scourge of
[3:03] Speaker 1: sexual abuse. It is indeed a blight upon the Church.
[3:09] Speaker 1: It is appropriate that people feel anger, frustration. I suppose
[3:16] Speaker 1: the option's on the table. Leave. I've had it. The
[3:20] Speaker 1: thing is just too corrupt. I'm out of here. But see,
[3:24] Speaker 1: I want to suggest, everybody, that is not what it's
[3:27] Speaker 1: called for. Rather, what's called for is the Lincoln option.
[3:32] Speaker 1: Fighting for the church that we believe in so powerfully.
[3:38] Speaker 1: Seeing this blight, naming it clearly, unambiguously, but then fighting
[3:44] Speaker 1: to set things right. It's not the moment for cutting
[3:48] Speaker 1: and running. It's the moment for getting into the fight.
[3:52] Speaker 1: And you say, well, okay, Bishop, I get it. But
[3:55] Speaker 1: I mean, how do I fight? Look, you fight through
[3:59] Speaker 1: your own righteous anger. You fight by writing a letter
[4:04] Speaker 1: to your bishop, write a letter to the Pope. You
[4:06] Speaker 1: fight by your very presence at Mass. You fight by
[4:10] Speaker 1: keeping people's feet to the fire. You fight by organizing
[4:15] Speaker 1: your fellow Catholics. Fight any way you can. But you
[4:21] Speaker 1: fight because you believe in the church. You love the church.
[4:26] Speaker 1: And you realize that despite this terrible blight, it's worth
[4:29] Speaker 1: fighting for. You know, keep in mind, everybody, we are
[4:34] Speaker 1: not Catholics because of the moral excellence of our leaders.
[4:38] Speaker 1: I mean, God help us if we were. We want
[4:41] Speaker 1: our leaders. Indeed, we expect our leader to be morally excellent.
[4:45] Speaker 1: But we are not Catholics because of that moral excellence.
[4:50] Speaker 1: Were Catholics because of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from
[4:54] Speaker 1: the dead? Were Catholics because of the Trinitarian love of God?
[4:59] Speaker 1: Were Catholics because of the mystical body of Christ? Were
[5:03] Speaker 1: Catholics because of the sacraments? Were Catholics especially because of
[5:06] Speaker 1: the Eucharist? Were Catholics because of the Blessed Mother? Were
[5:09] Speaker 1: Catholics because of the saints? Even as leaders in the
[5:16] Speaker 1: Church fail morally, The Catholic Church remains the mystical body
[5:23] Speaker 1: of Christ, the bride of Christ, and she's worth fighting for.
[5:31] Speaker 1: Keep this in mind too, everybody. Every baptized person is priest, prophet,
[5:38] Speaker 1: and king. A couple days ago I talked about the
[5:41] Speaker 1: kingly office. Can I talk now about the prophetic office?
[5:46] Speaker 1: When Israel got off the rails, Read the Old Testament.
[5:50] Speaker 1: It happened on a regular basis. So this community meant
[5:55] Speaker 1: to reflect the will of God into the world, Israel,
[5:57] Speaker 1: the chosen people of God. But frequently its leaders failed.
[6:02] Speaker 1: Frequently its people fell into sin. Frequently it fell away
[6:04] Speaker 1: from the Torah and the temple. What did God do?
[6:10] Speaker 1: Is he called forth prophets? People like Jeremiah, people like Isaiah,
[6:15] Speaker 1: people like Amos and Ezekiel. people like Zechariah. And they
[6:21] Speaker 1: raised their voices, sometimes, yes, in very angry protest about
[6:26] Speaker 1: these corruptions within Israel. You're a prophet. Every one of
[6:32] Speaker 1: you listening to me right now who is baptized into
[6:34] Speaker 1: Jesus Christ is a prophet. Raise your voice. Prophets didn't
[6:39] Speaker 1: cut and run when Israel was in trouble. The prophets
[6:42] Speaker 1: spoke out. That's all of our responsibility, all of us,
[6:47] Speaker 1: who bear the prophetic charism. You know, perhaps a last
[6:51] Speaker 1: thought here. I said it a couple days ago, I'll
[6:54] Speaker 1: say it again. Whom are we fighting for? We're not
[6:58] Speaker 1: fighting primarily to save our institutions. See, I'm with my
[7:02] Speaker 1: old mentor, Cardinal George, of happy memory. In the last
[7:05] Speaker 1: talk he ever gave to all the priests of Chicago,
[7:07] Speaker 1: he said, remember, at the beginning of the church, there
[7:10] Speaker 1: were no parishes, there were no schools, hospitals, institutions. There
[7:14] Speaker 1: were evangelists, he reminded us. There were proclaimers of the word.
[7:18] Speaker 1: But the point was the church does not depend ultimately
[7:21] Speaker 1: on institutions. We're not fighting primarily for that aspect of
[7:27] Speaker 1: the church's life. We are fighting for the victims of
[7:31] Speaker 1: these terrible crimes. We're fighting for people who were sexually assaulted,
[7:36] Speaker 1: sexually abused. If we cut and run precisely at this
[7:42] Speaker 1: challenging time, Who will be the prophetic voice on behalf
[7:46] Speaker 1: of these victims? So it's my little cri de coeur, everybody,
[7:52] Speaker 1: my cry from the heart. I get it. I get
[7:56] Speaker 1: the frustration people feel. I share it. But this is
[8:01] Speaker 1: not the moment to abandon the church. This is the
[8:06] Speaker 1: moment to fight for the church. And God bless you all.

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