On the heels of Pope Leo XIII's appointment of Bishop Ronald Hicks of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois to become the new archbishop of New York City, the first American to be appointed to the post, we take a look at what this might mean for the Catholic Church in America.
00:03:25.000This guy is a spiritual son of Cardinal Bernardine Wright, ordained by him, I believe, back in the 90s.
00:03:33.000Now, why don't we have a voice of clarity from you, Frank Walker, to explain precisely what this first significant American appointment by the first American pope means for the church?
00:03:48.000Well, it sounds like terrible news to me really.
00:03:52.000It's, but you're right, they're saying that he's a moderate, some people are saying that he's a moderate.
00:03:58.000They're saying that he's open to different liturgical variations or something like that.
00:04:03.000But, and they're, you know, they have people on this, I see how this site, Tridenton Brewing is trad site saying, oh yeah, he was, you know, he was a part of our parish.
00:04:13.000But when I check, there's about, maybe there's several, maybe seven different counties in his diocese, which is right up against Chicago, Cardinal Supich's diocese.
00:04:23.000And I can't find more than a couple Latin masses there.
00:04:26.000If you only have that many already, you can't really destroy it that much.
00:04:30.000You know, that's the way it is where I live.
00:04:32.000There's only two that you can go to in my diocese.
00:04:35.000It's the places that have several parishes devoted to them that are being crushed.
00:04:40.000So I don't think they're going to be too happy with that.
00:04:43.000I don't think that they're going to find that he's, he's a conservative.
00:04:46.000In fact, there's a video out there of him speaking when Leo was just elected.
00:07:02.000But he, he was largely useless, um, in promoting the agenda that many thought he was going to provide, uh, leadership on.
00:07:11.000You know, it's, it's, it's, it's illustrative that under, um, under JP too.
00:07:16.000And as his career, as his ecclesiastical career progressed, Cardinal Dolan was pretty effective at holding the pro-life position.
00:07:23.000Um, when he was president of the, of the Catholic bishops conference, really what did it for him is when, uh, Benedict resigned and Francis came in and he just lost his mojo completely.
00:07:36.000And Frank, it's illustrative of the fact that this is true in so many institutions, but more so, uh, even in the Catholic church, like, like, like a fish, it rots from the head down.
00:07:47.000You get someone in who's bad at the top of the ecclesiastical apex, like Bergoglio.
00:07:53.000And then you even have under him bishops who had been reasonably good and reasonably effective, just become immediately useless and ineffective overnight, right?
00:08:03.000Right. They said that he was, it was rumored that he was instrumental in the card, in the Cardinal McCarrick takedown, which would began really at the New York times.
00:08:12.000And, uh, perhaps that was what finally did it for him with, with Francis.
00:08:15.000You know, there's a, there's a rivalry, a sort of rivalry.
00:08:18.000There were some good Cardinals in New York city, Cardinal Cook, Cardinal O'Connor, but Chicago is the source of everything bad.
00:08:25.000You know, this, this new Hicks, he's promoting all of this, uh, Leo's politics.
00:08:29.000He spent five years in Latin America, another bad sign.
00:09:10.000They have to sell these half a billion dollar property now.
00:09:13.000And, uh, they only have about 18 people trained to be priests for 300 parishes.
00:09:17.000I mean, it's entire collapse church-wide, but you know, this is, this is not, this is the bad side of the church, which is where Leo is from.
00:09:27.000The Lavender Mafia, even though it's Lavender all around, the Lavender Mafia bad side of the church coming to New York.
00:09:34.000Let's just wheel back a moment because you did say something interesting that too few people know about.
00:09:40.000Cardinal Bernadine did pay personally out of the diocese to ship a young Barack Obama over to LA, I think it was, for, for lessons in community organizing by, if I'm not mistaken, it was Saul Alinsky himself.
00:09:53.000Um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the author of rules, rules for radicals, which was dedicated.
00:10:00.000The first edition of that rules for radicals was dedicated to Satan himself.
00:10:05.000Um, that I think Elinsky said the, you know, the original rebel.
00:10:11.000Um, uh, so that, you know, that was Cardinal Bernadine, uh, and, and his spiritual heirs and successors are firmly entrenched now right throughout, um, Illinois, especially Chicago, obviously.
00:10:26.000Um, you mentioned that he spent five years in Latin America.
00:10:30.000Uh, I just want to pick up on that point.
00:10:33.000Uh, sort of running, uh, some kind of charity, I think, organization down there for, for orphans and what have you.
00:10:41.000It is an interesting parallel that these two kids, Bishop Hicks and, uh, Robert Prevost, now Pope, they, that they grew up side by side, basically, in these neighboring suburbs, right?
00:10:57.000And they both spent, they both spent a substantial period, obviously longer for, for, for, for Pope Leo, but they both spent substantial periods in Latin America as part of their formation.
00:11:36.000So they did that for many years down there, but with, with Benedict stepping down and Francis showing up also from Latin America, that became the Catholic religion.
00:11:45.000That was put down by JP to the more of a Cardinal Dolan type, uh, uh, Pope that was put down, but it was resurrected by Francis.
00:12:01.000Whenever they talk about the, uh, the, uh, uh, seamless garment, the, the pro-life is everything.
00:12:08.000As Leo mentioned that one of his castle Gandalf outbursts the other day, when he, she said that Dick Durbin really was very pro-life Senator in many ways.
00:12:16.000Leo just wanted to visit a pro-life, uh, a crutch in the Vatican where there's all sorts of ribbons for the government to give things to women to help them, uh, uh, you know, deal, uh, deal with pregnancies.
00:12:28.000But really that, that just balloons into a lot of, a lot of Democrat programs, a lot of really creating more, uh, unwanted pregnancies by supporting them all the time.
00:12:38.000It's just an example of, of what, what Bernardine who, and Alinsky and Obama is he, Obama was president when all this started.
00:12:48.000And Obama is still behind the scenes, very powerful.
00:12:52.000They say he's moving more to New York.
00:12:54.000He's a focus of, of Trump and these investigations.
00:12:57.000Um, I mean, moving more to London, I mean, New York, but he's moving more to London, moving perhaps out of Washington, but it just makes me think of how important he was and how, how, how integral he may be to this new modern church.
00:13:10.000And it's all really kind of goes together, the same kind of thing.
00:13:14.000So just give me a, a, a yes or no, uh, answer to this one then, Frank.
00:13:19.000So your analysis, then your reading of the situation of this appointment, it's very much confirms the thesis that we've been promoting on the show since the day he emerged on the, uh, that Cardinal, uh,
00:13:34.000uh, provost emerged on the, the loja, uh, elected Pope then that this is that someone who's more intelligent, more subtle, um, but absolutely, uh, a full, a fully signed up member of the Bergoglian revolution.
00:13:49.000This is the kind of appointment you would expect from Leo, right?
00:13:52.000Being more subtle, more intelligent, bedding down on the revolutionary principles that Bergoglio was trying to subvert the church with.
00:14:00.000But unlike Leo and Cupich, he does not have a very, a manly persona.
00:14:06.000I don't see how he's going to be able to even have a personality.
00:14:10.000It's more of a slap in the face because, because that, even though in normal life, you wouldn't make a big deal out of that.
00:14:15.000But when it comes to the church and the priests, after everything that they've been through, you know, people that, you know, was just, it's just reported that the, the people do not appreciate the Pope Leo's politics.
00:14:28.000And, and the polls are out saying that, you know, these negative polls coming on the Catholic church, the church is dying and collapsing in many ways to have a guy like this.
00:14:37.000Has this effect is going to have a terrible, a terrible effect on the church.
00:14:42.000Frank, on the point of the polls, we're going to come back to you later on in the show, because you've, you've been picking up on Canon 212.
00:14:49.000Some fan, this fantastic, I think it was a Pew Society poll, right?
00:14:54.000We'll be breaking that down in the second half of the show.
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00:16:21.000Jenny, if there's one thing that English Catholics have known for many, many decades, it's that there's only one thing worse than the pill, and that's the tablet.
00:16:35.000So when you flagged up this morning, this article, for Americans, the tablet, just to put the context behind the joke, the tablet is like the establishment liberal Catholic magazine that's been undermining the Catholic faith for many, many decades, read by all the priests, all the bishops, obviously.
00:16:57.820It's like basically, I don't know, how would you call it, the Guardian's version, probably worse than the Guardian, because the Guardian can actually be impartial at times.
00:17:08.920It's like the, it's establishment liberal, cultural, but not believing Catholicism.
00:17:18.780The tablet, so when you flagged up this article, that got my interest, Jenny, the West should be less fearful of Islam, says the Pope.
00:17:27.820The Pope went to the Middle East, to Turkey, and to Lebanon, to celebrate, I think, the one, how many years is this, 1,750 years since the Nicene Creed.
00:17:43.760So he went to Nicaea, which is now present-day Turkey.
00:17:47.560I think we just spoke about this on the show last week.
00:17:49.700Frank, I think you flagged up the fact that the people who weren't there in this great ecumenical get-together were the Russian Orthodox, which is by like 98% of world Orthodoxy.
00:18:03.480But he also, on the same trip, Leo went to Lebanon and took that as an opportunity, because Lebanon, historically, is 50% Christian, 50% Muslim, not anymore, not remotely anymore.
00:18:19.480And rather disingenuously, a great representative of syncretism went out there and held up Lebanon as an example for Catholics and, or Christians and Muslims to emulate.
00:19:13.740This article firmly put all of that optimism that I had momentarily to bed, because I have never read a more jaw-dropping article in my life, and that says a lot.
00:19:26.140I have also never heard a more ill-timed, poorly strategized, and poorly thought-out public pronouncement from any public figure of any time ever.
00:19:38.240And I'm going to have to read the quote in full, so forgive me for reading from my notes.
00:19:42.340But Pope Leo told assembled journalists, like you said, coming back from a trip to Lebanon, where he held a mass in Beirut.
00:19:49.960He said, one of the great lessons Lebanon can teach the world is showing a land where Islam and Christianity are both respected,
00:19:58.600and that there is a possibility to live together, to be friends.
00:20:58.920I mean, look, I think if this, to me, the best, putting the most sort of seal man argument on this,
00:21:05.360the best you could say is maybe this is a comment he would want to make in private meeting in a non-denominational or a multi-faith room,
00:21:15.220and you're trying to put a best foot forward in meeting a mufti or doing some sort of high-level kind of kid gloves diplomacy.
00:21:23.920However, to tell the poor, bedraggled, exhausted, and terrified people of Europe that they have nothing to fear from Islam.
00:21:32.560I mean, how many decades now have we been under attack from Islamists and under siege from large waves of sort of unvetted migrants coming from the Middle East?
00:21:45.360And how many years have we been subjected to storylines, Lebanon being the biggest one of all, of Hezbollah terrorism, kidnappings of missionaries, kidnappings of Western journalists?
00:21:57.120I mean, it's just been a never-ending onslaught, and he's making these blithe remarks as though none of that existed.
00:22:05.660So even if it is disingenuous, it's so tone-deaf that it just boggles the mind.
00:22:13.380Furthermore, this is the Christmas season, okay?
00:22:17.780And what happens in Europe during Christmas?
00:22:19.980We have these lovely Christmas markets, or as we now in the UK say, winter markets, because we don't want to offend certain of our religious neighbors here in the United Kingdom.
00:22:32.360And what is happening with the Christmas markets?
00:22:35.240They have become sort of fortified airport security military zones because of the high threat of Islamic terrorism.
00:22:44.860And this is the friendly success that we need to celebrate and open our hearts even more to, when the taxpayers of Europe have been paying in multiple ways to support these new communities arriving, and then been met with acts of terror by their co-religionists?
00:23:02.860Jenny, tis the season to be martyred, to adapt a popular hymn, to update a popular hymn, to present times.
00:23:16.120Yeah, it is, the lambs to the slaughter, according to Leo.
00:23:19.040So you mentioned the situation that he'd highlighted Lebanon as an example where Christians and Muslims can work together, and citing explicitly, as you pointed out, in Europe and the US.
00:23:35.820And he criticised, he took the opportunity, here's the stab in the back, he took the opportunity to criticise anti-migrant activists in Europe who stoke fears of Islam, claiming instead that Muslims and Christians can, and I quote, live together to be friends.
00:23:54.460Now, I wasn't, I wasn't intending to take this opportunity to promote myself on Geta, but I shall do, because I immediately, when I saw that, I responded, and I said this.
00:24:06.060Hey, hashtag not my Pope, you picked a poor example.
00:24:10.160The last official census in Lebanon, which was 1932, placed Christians in a majority to Muslims at 53 to 47 percent.
00:24:19.040An unofficial 2024 poll now put that at 15 to 85 percent, that is to say, Christianity has collapsed from 53 percent, it's now at 15, 1-5, and the Muslims are, went from the minority of 47 percent now to 85 percent.
00:24:38.520And I said, I concluded, that's what Let's All Be Friends gets you, no thanks.
00:24:44.920So look, just give me, just give me one minute, Jenny, give me one minute.
00:24:48.340What will continental Europe look like?
00:24:50.960Citing that the Christmas market sort of massacres that Islam is planning across continental Europe, right, what will continental Europe look like if it followed the Lebanese route?
00:25:06.680It would look like Lebanon, I suppose, which is not a good thing.
00:25:09.540I mean, using Lebanon as an example of successful interfaith integration is like saying you're like the tallest dwarf in Midgetown.
00:25:19.800I mean, there is no place in the Middle East where Christians are, you know, flourishing and, you know, leading the way, democratizing and being all friendly with their Muslim neighbors.
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00:33:17.020I can't tip my hat and bow sufficiently to that.
00:33:20.560And I very, very strongly recommend all of our wallroom posses that follow this show to go over to Rumble and to give your video a look through and a consideration.
00:33:33.700Now, as to the point of what you were talking about in today's video, we're going to break that down now in the next 5-10 minutes.
00:33:46.040I'm reading this straight from Canon 212.
00:33:48.92013% of Americans are former Catholics, most falling away because they no longer believe that crap, are tired of the perverts and or their bad politics.
00:34:00.360Of the adults who left the Catholic faith, 14% are now Protestant, compared with only 1% of Americans raised as Protestants, who are now Catholic.
00:34:13.500And the third statistic here, which I find is absolutely fascinating, is that in terms of permanence,
00:34:24.260Pew found that Hindus, 82% of Hindus claim to keep their childhood religion, Muslims at 77%, Jews are on 76%, Protestants on 70%, Catholics all the way down at 57%.
00:34:43.840That's the worst out of all the major world religions in the United States.
00:34:48.360Break the poll down for us, Frank, and give us your take on, really, you know, this is exactly, is it not,
00:34:58.740this is exactly the sort of thing that the institutional Catholic Church should be focused on,
00:35:04.080should have its beady, cynical eyes focused on this and make its episcopal appointments based on doing something about that.
00:35:11.680As we were just talking about earlier on the show, doesn't look as if that is particularly Leo's priority in anything other than words.
00:35:20.900Well, like you were talking about, Leo is sort of a performance.
00:35:24.920He's the, he's like a vicar of globalism.
00:35:28.080He's over there pushing extremely unpopular positions every week, and going into the Middle East, saying really unpopular things.
00:35:36.420Why? Because the people that are ruling the world, the power of people that are destroying Europe, they want him to do that.
00:35:46.260And, you know, that the real realities are seen on the ground.
00:35:51.800300 parishes in New York City and two priests, new priests, 18 priests in formation.
00:35:58.300Even, you know, the polls say one thing, but the reality on the ground is that things are going, are collapsing.
00:36:04.960You know, out of Chicago, Leo gives us New York City, somebody who's going to be very unpopular.
00:36:10.440You know, and the one statistic that really struck me in this is that 13% of Americans are former Catholics.
00:36:17.540I mean, most Americans never were Catholics in the first place.
00:36:21.780I mean, that's an awful lot of Catholic, of former Catholics.
00:36:25.420And then, of course, they never, ever talk about the difference between people who are practicing Catholics and people aren't.
00:36:31.060They're just anybody who'll say, well, what are you?
00:36:32.680Well, I don't know. I'm a Catholic, you know, so they count them.
00:36:36.200This poll is a combination of a poll from 23 and 24, and then a recent poll they added into it.
00:36:43.740And so, you know, there may be some distinction, may be some new things happening right now.
00:36:47.600Things are a lot more different this year than they were last year.
00:36:50.160And so, you know, and people are discussing, there's one story after another, which we've been discussing,
00:36:55.560that shows that there's this young people are growing and the churches are getting bigger and we keep racking our brains.
00:37:01.380Well, what's going to happen to them when they join those churches?
00:37:04.140Because everybody else is joining those churches and these are the hard results, you know, the major results.
00:37:09.420You know, people become Protestants all the time, but they don't go back and become Catholics.
00:37:16.560You know, other religions, Hindus and Muslims and Jews, they hold on to their religion.
00:37:21.440But the Catholics are the only ones that are dropping and collapsing because there's so much under the gun.
00:37:27.200Nobody becomes a religion to follow a political stunt, which is what they have, a political stunt.
00:37:34.520And one that's so, you know, not human, that's so, again, unnatural as men who are like, you know, like the guy that's going to take over New York.
00:37:44.080So I'm not saying that the new growth that we've been that we've been writing about isn't true.
00:37:48.620But in the register piece that I referred to in that in that daily update, which happens in the end of the day here, you're over on the other side of the pond.
00:37:56.420I wish it was in the morning, but in that that register piece is no, it's definite.
00:38:06.160We can't ignore the fact that there's a lot of propaganda out there and that there might be a push worldwide, globally to make it look like, you know, to go on with Leo Church, this new big growth.
00:38:19.120You know, they're even saying that this new bishop of New York is going to create this, fix all these problems.
00:38:24.480They're always saying that, you know, that's.
00:38:29.460Well, firstly, what you just said, we can break that down in a number of different ways.
00:38:33.780Jenny's saying every other week about how certain sectors of the church are growing.
00:38:40.800We hit this on the show last week, actually.
00:38:42.900I think the way of I think the correct way of interpreting these two trends, that is a general collapse going on across the universal church.
00:38:54.480But massive uptake amongst the youth, the 18 to 24 bracket of men, especially what have you, but not exclusively.
00:39:03.980The way to see that is the fact that, as you said, that most Catholics aren't Catholic anyway.
00:39:10.140They counted as Catholic, you know, because they were baptised.
00:39:13.200And that's about the degree of affinity, of practice or coherence that they have.
00:39:20.680What you have is a movement in opposite directions.
00:39:27.120You have, you know, and this wasn't the situation before the council, before the Second Vatican Council.
00:39:32.360The Catholic Church, they couldn't build churches fast enough.
00:39:35.500And it was the council that ruined everything.
00:39:39.200So you have like the third, you know what, the third, fourth generation post council.
00:39:44.560And people are just giving up even that notional connection to the Catholic Church.
00:39:50.080And I think that's what the polls are picking up on this 13 percent.
00:39:53.540You know, people who haven't had practicing Sunday, at the very least, attendance at mass for three or four generations now are simply not even bothering to identify themselves as Catholic.
00:40:40.400You have a falling away of people who were never Catholic in the first place.
00:40:45.200And then a growing intensity and relationship with Christ, with the sacraments, with the church in a smaller minority.
00:40:53.960But because of the intensity, they're making their presence felt and seen a lot more.
00:41:00.520But it's interesting, you know, there ought to be, if this wasn't happening by design, there ought to be that red light flashing on the dashboard, right, when they're looking at these statistics in the institutional church, in the chancerous, in the Vatican.
00:41:22.420And you think that we really ought to be changing course here.
00:41:25.460But of course, this isn't the falling away from the church isn't the book.