what is chasity? chasity in one's state in life. contraception, homosexual acts, homosexual orientation versus acts. it calls to everyone in marriage. the institution, the sacrament, the covenant, what we believe as catholics about marriage and civil law. finally reproductive technology and cloning, things like that. this is probably about for a series of 13 shows. we're going to be ambitious in a few words. one holy, catholic, apostolic. apostolic means the bishops who are functioning as bishops today are connected to the apostles. there's an unbroken line that goes back to them. we believe even the scriptures and interpretation is

linked to tradition. the bishops are the guarantors of that tradition. >> that leads us to the next. that refers to leadership of the church. usually that refers to bishops led by the holy father and teaching and often times an aauthoritative way. that's our teaching. it's part of the gift given to the church. >> an example of an essential teaching that the they may come out and declare? >> they've done it in the past. it would be possible to declare sanctity of life and against that to abortion that it is evil. the church teaches that but hasn't chose ton define

that. they have not but not an infallible way. >> the true presence of jesus and the eucarist. you've got tomorrow to be focused on christ. sit the body and blood of christ, ancient and current teaching of the church. >> we'll give the website to read more about all these things. hell and purgatory. >> the church always said hell exists. it never said anyone is in hell. the presumption is they're in h ell. the reason they don't say that,

in the new testament, jesus says who's you to say. that is god's decision alone. the reason it's so important is hell means i have free choice. i can choose not to love god. purgatory means if you're going to be in heaven, you can't have all these faults. you've got to be a completely national rifle association guy. purgatory is the take ago way of that, pure guying us to become part of the saints in heaven. >> the priest hood. the priest hood. people get a little confused with this. there's two types. most think me i'm a priest. we refer to that as the ministerial priesthood.

this has been taught by the church. in baptism, after you pour the water on the baby's or adult's head, you do the priest, prophet, king. we all offer sacrifice. everyone participates in the sacrifice. >> beautifulfulbeautiful. >> the church is supported by science. once you have the dna -- the church's position is once a woman conceives, if you don't intervene and there are no unusual events, that's going to result in human life.

everything is programmed by god chasity applies to you and me and celebratory. >> chase means you look at the other person as a child of god, complete not just how pretty she is or whether the guy is handsome or what type of clothes they wear. this is a child of god made in the image and likeness of god. that we have all these sexual abilities. we don't use them until the appropriate moment like in marriage. for someone who is single. then they don't use them at all. when they interact with another man or woman, all of that comes into play. chasity is living out the

belief and dignity of each human treating each other with respect. wonderful. we're going to take a break and be right back to talk to father john. we're cruising right through the basic essential teachings of the catholic faith. you're watching mosaic. we'll be right back.

welcome back to mosaic. i'm here today talking to father john, the bishop of archdiocese of san francisco. we're talking about touching on the essence of some of the basic catholic teachings. we've gone through a lot, father. there's other ones having to do with sexuality. they're often misunderstood. maybe just a brief

understanding to help us understand more concept of what the church beliefs about contraception. >> the basic notion is 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 up for part of the marriages, open to that. yes they can be intimate with one another at times where it's less likely the woman will get pregnant. still even in that situation, sometimes you have to be open to life. it's openness we emphasize. >> that's a great emphasis. there's so much to talk about. >> here's one. homosexual acts. what the church believes about homosexual acts? >> first of all, acts always belong in a certain context. so regular heterosexual acts are the church that should only occur in marriage.

homosexual acts should not occur. the reason is that that's 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.

let's talk about the church's ministry on homosexual orientation and acts. >> the church accepts whatever orientation a person has. that can be disordered. i'm going to say more on that in a minute. the church is accepting the person as a child of god and a full member of the church. there's no attempt to push the person outside. what the church says is that you can't act on that. of course many of our gay and lesbian, gay brothers and lesbian sisters, they want inclination, the attraction same-sex attraction should be bound to action. that's what they want to say. the church says no, we call to chasity. that is not the inclination is quite distinct from the act itself. i wanted to speak about the inclination and the church says that's disorder. i would say for our modern

society, for most young people maybe not everyone. most young people, their attitude toward homosexuality are all disordered. they're always thinking of the sexual component, why is she attracted to me, why am i attracted to him. it's going for one small component of the other person. the church says no, we have to look at ourselves as complete people as complicated individuals. when we have to explore. i shouldn't really identify myself as gay. i shouldn't identify as heterosexual. i'm a human person trying to get to know other people. >> the catholic perspective is a healing remedy to

oversexual xized nature of our economy. that is good. leading to the next one, we're all called to chasity no matter what our state in life. >> i think this is a challenge for many people. married people as well. we always have to look at the other person as someone who is indowed with gifts, whom we can relate to. when we don't think of or acting initially or ultimately in a way that's inappropriate with their commitment. even for a wife or husband, they can't look at --

a man can't be married and looking at women up and down. >> jesus says if you look with lust, you committed adultery have been to do with marriage. again looking with a positive regard and wishing the best for the other person rather than taking which is sort of a love versus lust. >> this isn't even going into the area of pornography. we're just talking about people who are married who then the guy is interested in this other woman. she's really cute. i like her, talking to his friends about that. you're already against chasity by engaging in something like that. >> that's great. we're going to take a break. we're on the home stretch. we're talking basic catholic teachings with father john. we'll be right back.

watch cbs in bay area with the kpix 5 news app. welcome back to mosaic. i'm chris here with father john. we're going through the basic catholic teachings essential to our faith. we've gone through quite a few. we're doing pretty well. the next segment, we're going to talk about marriage as an institution, covenant sacrament. the head of the church and loving the church his body.

that's imaged in the love of a man and woman. that love of a man and woman is supposed to remind us of love of christ for his church. it is also an agreement, sort of contract. that's the way the church understands it. the reason why is in order for it to be a true contract, you fully intend to promise to be married to this man or woman until death parts us. you have to do that freely. you can't do it with a gun to your head or you think unless i do this, the baby is not going to be -- it has freedom. it is important. >> wonderful the covenant aspect of marriage. 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. it is assigned, sent in, and they get the official marriage certificate. he's a church witness but also a witness for the state. now because there are so many people who are changing their understanding of marriage and 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 as it happens in europe. there's a number of catholic countries in europe. 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're now officially married. as far as the church is concerned, you're not married. in the afternoon, you go to the church n. the afternoon, you go to the church. you're not intimate with one another. until the church. so the church is -- the church wedding is distinct from it. the good thing is our concept of marriage, traditional marriage is very different from what civil unions are becoming now days. >> that makes a lot of sense. something to look into there. last topic, reproductive technology and what the church believes about that and human cloning. >> the church is certainly very sympathetic. there are many women who want to have children and they have tried and it's not working. they're inclined to think oh well i've got to do -- i'm going to get the baby and

inseminate outside the wound. first of all, the way that happens is usually there's many eggs that are inseminated and only one is used. that's the primary reason. a secondary reason they're against it is you can think of it as a medical procedure. in general, this should be happy as a result of a loving act not of a surgical act or a medical act. the church insists on that. you can see how important that is in our society. >> yeah. thank you. >> what a great explanation for such a huge topic. i'm going to ask you folks if you want to hear or see what the church believes. just a segment about cloning. go our website where all of these are listed. sfarchdiocese.org /whatwebelieve. we'll develop that as the weeks

go by. we appreciate that as such pace to go through and get an anecdote about each of these. thank you so. >> i'm delighted we have so much on the website and will be expanding that. >> all right. you've been watching mosaic. thank you very much. my name is chris lightford. go to our website. until next time, god bless.

the fire jumps highway 50. new evacuation orders underway this morning. good morning, it is sunday, august 22nd. let's start with a quick check of our weather. >> the majority of smoke is still heading toward taco. air quality is good in comparison to where we