The Deacon Frederick Bartels Show

Is the earth flat? Well … there is only a very small minority of people who think that it is. Based on tons of scientific evidence, the vast majority of people believe the earth is a sphere. I’m not going to go through the overwhelming scientific evidence for the roundness of the earth, or that it orbits the Sun, etc. I don’t think most people need to hear about that. But I am going to talk about interpreting the Bible correctly. Because, believe it or not, there are Christians who believe the Bible teaches that the earth is a flat disc supported by pillars. And, since the Bible is the inerrant word of God, it must be true that the earth is flat, they say.
So, stay tuned. By the way, if you like this content please subscribe, leave a review and some comments, and share it with family and friends. Thanks!

It’s Friday in the Octave of Easter in the Year of our Lord 2026.
In this episode, we’ll discuss the resurrection of Christ and what it means for our future as Christians, namely, the resurrection of the dead at the end of time when Christ returns.
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It’s Friday of the Lord’s Passion. On this sacred day we remember our Lord’s passion and death on the cross. In this episode, we’ll explore the Roman practice of crucifixion as an exercise of capital punishment. We’ll look at what it entailed and some of the reasons why the Romans engaged in this form of executing criminals. And we’ll briefly reflect on what Jesus’s crucifixion means for us.
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The Virtue of Temperance
In episodes 9 and 13 the cardinal virtues of prudence and justice were discussed. If you missed those, consider listening to them first. In this episode, we’ll look at the cardinal virtue of temperance. It’s often the case that temperance is associated only with drinking alcohol in moderation, but it actually has to do with moderating the use of all created things. So, what is this virtue about, what does it mean to practice it, and why is it important in our lives? These are some of the topics we’ll address in this episode.
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What is the virtue of justice?
In this episode, we’re going to look at the virtue of justice, which is one of the four cardinal virtues. If you like this content, please leave a review and some comments, and share it with others. Thanks!

Are UAPs and Aliens Demons?
That’s a question some people are asking, especially as official military footage and congressional testimony have brought unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs, as they are called today) back into the public spotlight.
Some Christians and others are convinced these sightings must be fallen angels or demons masquerading as strange craft flying or hovering in the sky. But does the evidence actually support that conclusion? And does Catholic and Christian theology require us to believe that? More to the point, is it reasonable to hold that position?
That’s what we’ll be discussing in this episode. And we might drill down further into the UAP question in future episodes. If you like this content, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with family and friends. Thanks!

The novelist Flannery O’Connor once made this comment at a dinner party about the Eucharist: “Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.” Is the Eucharist merely a symbol or is it something far greater? What has the Catholic Church always believed about it? And how should we interpret Jesus’s teaching in John’s gospel, chapter six?
In this episode we’ll explore those questions and more. By the way, if you like this content please leave a review, some comments and share it with others. Thanks!

We’re now in the season of Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday. The whole point of Lent is to orient our lives to Christ and foster greater love of God and neighbor. Lent is also a penitential season in which we practice the Lenten disciples of fasting and abstinence from flesh meat.
 
With that in mind, in this episode we’ll talk about the Church’s fasting and abstinence laws. By the way, I’m trying to grow this podcast. So, if you like this content, please leave a review and some comments and share it with family and friends. Thanks!

The cardinal virtues are essential for building self-mastery and living a life of excellence in freedom. In the Catholic tradition, four cardinal virtues are identified. These virtues are called “cardinal” because they serve as a “hinge” for the other human moral virtues. In this episode, we’ll explore the cardinal virtue of prudence.
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Is the Catholic Church important? Is it necessary? Is it the plan of God and willed by God? Is it founded by Christ himself? On the other hand, are Catholics merely one group of Christians among hundreds or thousands of others who all have equal claims on the truth about what God has revealed?
These are some of the topics we’ll explore in this episode. If you like this content, I’d really appreciate it if you leave a review and some comments, and share it with friends and family. Thanks!