The Great America Show - December 23, 2022


FR. FRANK PAVONE SAYS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS IN UPHEAVAL OVER THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PRO-LIFE AND PRO-ABORTION


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

161.46542

Word Count

5,255

Sentence Count

313

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

11


Summary

On today's show, Lou Dobbs is joined by Father Frank Pavone, who was recently defrocked by the Vatican for what they called "persistent disobedience" to Church doctrine. He explains why this is a symptom of a larger problem within the Catholic Church, which is that pro-life Catholics and other Catholics find it hard to get their minds around the teachings of the Church.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs, and Merry Christmas, everybody. Happy holidays. Happy New
00:00:05.140 Year. Welcome to The Great America Show, and it is great to have you with us. Hope you didn't miss
00:00:10.540 the festivities at the White House when Ukraine's Zelensky went there to meet with America's Biden,
00:00:16.800 both comedians of a sort, and both have very expensive tastes. Biden, of course, spending
00:00:22.280 trillions of dollars like it wasn't his money. But wait, it isn't his money. It's our money.
00:00:28.260 It's taxpayer money, and that would be amusing if you and I weren't the ones paying taxes.
00:00:34.800 And Biden's given Zelensky $110 billion to fight Putin. $110 billion. And Zelensky doesn't just
00:00:43.500 ask Biden for money. He demands that money, and lots of it. You'd think Zelensky had some dark,
00:00:50.380 dark dirt on Biden to talk that way. And Biden, well, he pays up. So there you are,
00:00:56.660 again, with our money. Donald Trump Jr. calls Zelensky a, quote, ungrateful international
00:01:03.040 welfare queen. Humor, they say, is built on truth. And wow, the Marxist left went berserk
00:01:10.220 on Don Jr. They even researched the expression welfare queen and tied it to the great Ronald
00:01:16.300 Reagan, which in left land is sure to agitate the Marxist darlings into an elevated level of
00:01:22.820 derangement. And deranged they were. And get ready for a whopper of a storm, folks. The White House
00:01:29.540 telling 26 governors the impending super blizzard called a bomb cyclone that's about to cross much of
00:01:36.820 the country could become life-threatening. The president saying, pick up, the president saying
00:01:42.680 helpfully that it's, quote, not like a snow day. No, Mr. President, it certainly doesn't sound like it.
00:01:49.200 To be frank, when Biden understates things, it makes me a little nervous. So be careful if you
00:01:55.020 have to travel. It sounds like it could be a mess on the roads and in the air through Christmas.
00:02:00.380 We're now about a week and a half from the Republicans taking over the House of Representatives.
00:02:05.360 Still uncertain who will be Speaker of the House, but I'm absolutely certain if the outcome is the
00:02:10.960 status quo, unreformed, and the same old blather from the same old GOP, we'll be in for lean times
00:02:18.760 indeed. There's just too much corruption, too much cronyism, too little original thought and energy
00:02:25.200 in the grand old party leadership to successfully defend the republic, truth, justice, and our
00:02:32.380 American way of life. No hyperbole, just the reality of an existential moment in our history
00:02:38.180 in the here and now. And joining us today, a great patriot and also an important, very important voice
00:02:46.520 for the right-to-life movement in America and indeed around the world. Our guest today is Father Frank
00:02:53.460 Pavone. He's just been defrocked by the Vatican for what they called, quote, persistent disobedience,
00:03:00.960 as he is, in point of fact, supporting church doctrine and following the sanctity of life
00:03:07.620 preachings of the gospel. Father, I just want to say thanks so much for being with us.
00:03:13.680 And I have to say, at the outset, Merry Christmas!
00:03:18.880 Merry Christmas, Lou! It's a pleasure to be with you.
00:03:22.060 And this season is in rich, some might say even dark contrast, to all the events that are taking
00:03:31.760 place in Washington, D.C., or indeed in Rome. We're a troubled world, and we're a troubled nation.
00:03:41.200 And I'd like to move, if we may, to your troubles, and that is effectively the sanctioning
00:03:48.700 by the pope. Explain to us what all of that means.
00:03:54.520 It means there's a cancel culture in the church. It means that just like we see in our government,
00:04:00.960 attacks launched against President Trump, for example, by the weaponizing of procedures
00:04:07.820 and institutions that otherwise have a legitimate purpose, but are being used against political
00:04:13.580 enemies. This is happening also within the Catholic Church. We see that the battle between pro-life and
00:04:22.480 pro-abortion is also within the church. And this is what is the bigger picture. Sometimes people are
00:04:30.220 seeing this story, oh, the pope has said I'm dismissed for the priesthood. Okay, but that's
00:04:35.480 not just a story about me. This is the symptom of a problem that a lot of Catholics and other
00:04:41.940 Christians and other citizens find it really hard to get their minds around, because they presume
00:04:46.940 the church must be united. And my group, Priests for Life, the most common question, Lou, that I get
00:04:52.940 is, well, isn't every priest for life? And my response is, well, we just helped them to say so.
00:04:57.440 So even within the church, there is this tension, and that's what my particular case now is bringing
00:05:04.000 to light more and more. Indeed it is. And the right to life is, to me, a hallmark of the Catholic
00:05:15.580 religion, a hallmark of the teachings of the church for centuries. And almost in stealth,
00:05:27.500 the church, the leadership of the church has moved away from those teachings, and to the point where
00:05:35.180 you, because you are pro-life and speak out as such, which is within the belief system of the church,
00:05:45.280 it boggles a mind of, I'm a Christian, but not a Catholic. I can't comprehend that kind of dissonance
00:05:55.500 in a structure that is as old, a traditional, and just, one would think, vibrant with discussion
00:06:05.300 on issues, rather than wanting to stultify or utterly suppress thinking like yours.
00:06:13.700 Well, let me try to clarify it a little bit. First of all, what has just happened with this
00:06:18.680 notification from the Vatican is the result of our 21 years, where we've had to, I've been doing the
00:06:25.240 ministry full-time for 30 years, but for the last 21, I've had to actually fight within the Catholic
00:06:30.780 church for the right to keep doing it. And what is causing this? Not so much a direct denial of the
00:06:38.620 teaching, but it's the politics of it. Priests for Life has become the largest and most influential
00:06:45.300 pro-life group within the Catholic community, and the bishops feel, some bishops feel threatened by
00:06:50.660 that. Oh, they're not controlling, you know, what we're doing, what we're saying, even though
00:06:55.480 everything we're saying and doing is in line with the church, they're not in control. They're not in
00:06:59.640 control of our funding, which just comes from ordinary donors. They're not in control of our
00:07:05.220 messaging. And so some of them are, and what they're really uncomfortable about is this. Okay, so we know
00:07:10.140 the church's teaching on abortion is clear, but then I come along and I say, well, wait a minute,
00:07:14.340 we've got now a president who claims to be Catholic, we've got a speaker of the house who
00:07:19.560 claims to be Catholic, and no two people in America are doing more to make sure that more
00:07:23.440 babies get killed than those two. Aren't we in the church supposed to be more vocal about this?
00:07:30.640 It seems to me when the church steps up and challenges people like that, that's not the church
00:07:36.160 being political, that's the church being the church. And a lot of Catholics will rise up, and not
00:07:41.740 just Catholics, but Christians across the body of Christ. They will rise up when they hear me say
00:07:46.080 that, and they will say, amen, this is exactly the kind of leadership we need. And that, Lou, is
00:07:51.920 getting some of the bishops very, very nervous, because they're allied with Democrats. And this is
00:07:59.100 part of the problem that I'm running up against.
00:08:02.620 And have been running up against for better than two decades, we learned. You essentially, I was going
00:08:10.080 to say essentially, you were defrocked by the Vatican's belief that you were in, quote-unquote,
00:08:17.340 persistent disobedience. So as an outsider looking into the church, I ask, well, wait a minute,
00:08:25.840 the church is pro-life. Abortion is a sin, is it not?
00:08:31.340 It sure is.
00:08:33.700 So who is disobeying whom here?
00:08:37.600 Yeah, well, let me give you an example of this. The only time that the bishops can identify
00:08:43.560 me having not just carried out exactly what they've asked me to do, because I have done so as part of
00:08:50.300 the life of a priest, you know, you obey your bishop, is when they have tried, without reason,
00:08:56.940 without explanation, without justification, they've tried to get me to stop doing this pro-life work.
00:09:03.360 Now, here's, to add to the cognitive dissonance here, we're working in union with the pope.
00:09:10.440 What I mean is, Priests for Life is actually, on a very practical level, assisting Pope Francis'
00:09:17.300 mission to the United Nations when the United Nations deals with abortion. Priests for Life is
00:09:22.780 like right in there with them, assisting the Holy See mission. We are assisting the Secretary of State
00:09:28.900 at the Vatican. We just, a few days ago, finished helping to organize a conference at which the
00:09:35.680 Secretary of State spoke of Catholic, non-governmental organizations. It's like, we run the largest
00:09:42.220 ministry in the church for healing after abortion, a key priority of Pope Francis. And I've talked with
00:09:48.400 Pope Francis four or five times, personally, and he's encouraged my work. So like, how in the world
00:09:54.740 now does he issue a decree saying you can't even be a priest? It's a bundle of contradictions. So it
00:10:01.120 doesn't so much show them against me, as it shows them against themselves. There's a serious division
00:10:08.200 among the cardinals, among the bishops, about how are we going to deal with this issue of abortion.
00:10:15.920 And this is what, they can't seem to get their own story straight.
00:10:20.160 Well, there's a lot of confusion here. And most of the confusion I have, I will speak just in turn,
00:10:26.260 let's leave this at the secular level, me speaking as a professional communicator,
00:10:32.400 the Vatican is very confusing. The Pope is confusing. And if you're in persistent disobedience
00:10:41.420 for obeying your beliefs and that of the preachings of the church, I find the disobedience to be
00:10:50.700 systemic within the church itself, and in particular, the Vatican.
00:10:55.900 Well, I'm going to give an example here that's really going to, well, it's going to surprise
00:11:01.020 some people, it's going to put this whole problem in perspective. It's my bishop who has been
00:11:05.240 disobedient. And I may give you the example of what I'm saying. Back about a decade ago, he
00:11:12.020 said to me, I was in the midst of, as many of our viewers know, traveling around, I make four or five
00:11:19.880 trips a week on this pro-life mission across America, been doing it for 30 years. And he
00:11:25.720 abruptly says publicly, you've got to come back to the diocese of Amarillo. I want you back here
00:11:31.300 for a period of prayer and reflection. So I have concerns, you know. Okay, so I obeyed, I went there,
00:11:38.380 right? And I appealed, however, to the Vatican. I said, listen, there's no, I haven't done anything
00:11:43.860 wrong. There's no reason to restrict my ministry, but the bishop has restricted my ministry. Well,
00:11:48.960 a few months went by, Lou, ultimately the Vatican ruled in my favor. And they said to the bishop,
00:11:54.020 let Fr. Frank do his pro-life work, as we're discussing right now. It's good work, it's the
00:11:57.840 work of the church, it's saving lives, it's healing wounds. You know what the bishop said to me? He
00:12:02.880 said, the Vatican told me I could not restore you to your pro-life work. But the bishop, they told me
00:12:10.660 that I was restored to my pro-life work. He said, no, no, no, this particular archbishop told me no.
00:12:15.380 So I flew to Rome to ask that archbishop one question. Did you say I couldn't do this work?
00:12:20.860 And you know what he told me? He said, no, I did not say you couldn't do it. I told your bishop to
00:12:24.940 be generous in giving you permission to do this work. And now I get accused of disobedience. It's
00:12:30.040 the bishop who wasn't following the instructions of the Vatican. And I mean, this is just, again,
00:12:35.840 I've been dealing with this. I consider this an abuse of authority. I respect authority. I don't
00:12:41.740 respect the abuse of authority. And we're just simply trying to save lives and heal minds and
00:12:47.540 hearts and elect pro-life candidates. But this is kind of a good example of what I've been dealing
00:12:53.160 with. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the issue of abortion to the states,
00:13:02.880 for each state to make that political decision about what their laws would be, what they would
00:13:08.500 permit, what they would not, that is fundamental to our federalist system of government. And it marks
00:13:16.420 such an advance against the tyranny of relativism in law and in our politics and our society in the
00:13:27.420 United States. Yes. At the same time, the Bible says it does not permit abortion. It just does not.
00:13:37.160 And to hear the church say it's persistent disobedience on your part, when in point of fact,
00:13:44.820 there is something afoot within the Vatican that makes no sense at all. When an archbishop is telling
00:13:51.940 a bishop to do something and that bishop is the one who is being disobedient, there's a mess. And when
00:14:00.400 the church itself can't acknowledge that it's following the scripture of the Holy Bible,
00:14:09.420 the church has to be in upheaval. It's in upheaval. I can't tell you how many messages I've been getting
00:14:17.680 these days from distraught Catholics and evangelicals, Protestants, and, Lou, from atheists.
00:14:26.560 Some of our audience might be familiar with this new group, the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising,
00:14:33.480 a bunch of left-leaning feminists, Democrats, atheists, agnostics, LGBTQ. But these are friends of
00:14:44.180 mine. These are allies of mine. These are colleagues of mine. They've been in my office in strategy
00:14:49.860 meetings. And they're giving me more support than some of these bishops are. It is truly,
00:14:55.560 in some ways, if you take the tragedy out of the whole thing, it's truly amusing. But that's the
00:15:01.880 thing about the pro-life movement. And this is one of the reasons we've come to the point where Roe v.
00:15:05.220 Wade has been reversed. Because this is a movement that is not called together by the Pope. It's not
00:15:10.760 called together by any religious leader. It's not called together by any political leader,
00:15:15.180 even the best that we've had. And we have had the best in President Trump in terms of so many things,
00:15:21.100 but including pro-life. And yet the pro-life movement does not arise from the edict of a
00:15:26.160 leader. It arises from our very humanity. People sitting around their kitchen table, around their
00:15:31.200 living room, realizing and talking about the fact that babies are being killed, and responding to the
00:15:36.580 basic human instinct, we have to protect our children. And then responding to the basic
00:15:40.860 Christian instinct, that whatever we do to the least of our brothers, we do to Christ,
00:15:45.220 this is the movement. Now, this is why the movement is so diverse, because it's based on
00:15:49.740 something so fundamental and common as our humanity. And this is why the movement can't be stopped.
00:15:55.620 It does not start by a religious leader, and it can't be stopped by a religious leader. So when
00:16:00.700 something like this happens, they take one of the most visible pro-life leaders and say,
00:16:05.400 you know, you can't be a priest, they are creating such a scandal and such a disillusionment. But
00:16:12.200 that's not going to stop the people from supporting the kind of work we're doing, being
00:16:15.780 involved in the pro-life movement. And so this is the moment at which we are right now. And I hope that
00:16:20.120 the reaction that has been generated here, and that I see only as growing, will make some of these
00:16:28.360 leaders think twice about what's happened. Well, you are also confronting the Council of Bishops,
00:16:35.280 the Catholic Charities, that are immensely political. And I'm not talking about merely
00:16:42.200 in discussion. We're talking about some of the most effective and active arms of the Church
00:16:49.900 in those two organizations aligned against our laws and our national security and sovereignty because
00:17:00.060 they support a wide open border. They support the cartels, in point of fact, because they are the ones
00:17:08.540 who are now in control of the border in large measure because of many of the activities of the
00:17:17.420 NGOs, the Catholic Charities, the National Council of Bishops, who are supportive of illegal immigration
00:17:26.240 in direct contravention of American law and direct contravention of our Constitution and the
00:17:32.640 constitutional responsibilities of our political leaders. I mean, this gets inordinately complex.
00:17:38.000 And most people can't even begin to comprehend the huge, the mammoth, massive involvement of the
00:17:46.500 Church in that issue of that southern border. Now, there are other forces at work and just as
00:17:51.440 powerful, but it's extraordinary what the Church has done here as well, isn't it?
00:17:55.740 And you know, Lou, it's also, besides everything you just said in contradiction to the American
00:18:00.660 Constitution and laws, it's also in contradiction to the Catholic Catechism. Because if we look in the
00:18:06.000 catechism at the section that deals with immigration, it's not simply an assertion, oh, these are our
00:18:12.120 brothers and sisters, we have to welcome them. No, it's an assertion that those who seek to come into
00:18:19.000 another country have to respect its values and traditions and have to obey its laws. That section
00:18:26.980 on immigration and the catechism likewise affirms that the duty of the welcoming country is limited. It's common
00:18:36.300 sense that it's limited, because they first and foremost, that nation has to take care of the people
00:18:42.100 already within its borders, and then have a system of welcoming people that makes sense for the citizens who are
00:18:50.880 already there and for the ones that want to come, become citizens, that you can't give what you don't
00:18:58.240 have. You have to do this in a way that makes sense, and therefore that is orderly and is limited,
00:19:06.000 frankly, is limited. You can't be everything to everybody. So those within the Church and those
00:19:11.400 who use religious language, Lou, to cover open border philosophies, you know, let's just dress it up in
00:19:19.200 religious language, and people will be persuaded, oh, they're all our brothers and sisters, let's
00:19:23.180 welcome them. No, it's not that simple, even according to the catechism.
00:19:29.480 It is, as you say, not that simple. When we are watching all the dissent folding, right now we're
00:19:37.120 watching the largest gatherings of illegal immigrants in northern Mexico preparing to cross our borders when
00:19:44.780 the so-called Title 42 is rescinded by President Biden if the Supreme Court does not intervene,
00:19:51.600 and I'm actually beginning to become somewhat optimistic that they just might, and some rationality
00:19:57.720 might actually appear in judicial proceedings in this country. But we're watching a country that is,
00:20:05.760 in my opinion, in an existential moment of our history. And one of the worst moments,
00:20:12.840 of course, is always in that description. It would be the here and now, and we're at the here and now.
00:20:19.680 Yeah.
00:20:19.860 I truly believe that we have forces at work. The Marxist Dems run the Democratic Party.
00:20:28.360 The Marxist Dems are the masters of this puppet president. We are watching the deep state and the
00:20:34.740 Marxist Dems take control of the Department of Justice. The FBI, we're witnessing it. Of course,
00:20:40.940 they don't want us to believe our lying eyes as we witness all of this and read all of this. But
00:20:47.340 nowhere is there, has there been, in recent history certainly, a more clear-cut case of evil versus
00:20:56.400 good. And so there is, in all of this, that blessing, which is more Americans now understand
00:21:04.840 that the forces of evil are arrayed against this great nation. Your thoughts?
00:21:10.400 Yeah. You know, one of the reasons that, I mean, we did much better in the midterms than
00:21:16.600 might meet the eye. And, you know, as you know, you analyze it a little bit and you see that
00:21:21.600 the momentum is on our side. But the reason we didn't do even better, as so many had predicted,
00:21:28.300 is that not enough citizens have, it hasn't gotten bad enough yet for enough of the citizens.
00:21:34.120 And unfortunately, it's going to get worse. And we have to hope that those who are putting these
00:21:39.940 people, these Democrats into power, will realize that once it hits home a little bit more than it
00:21:45.520 is so far, that they realize the problems they're bringing upon themselves by electing these people
00:21:50.640 who are causing the problems. And in that context, why and how should the church be neutral when,
00:21:57.800 as you accurately say, we're dealing with good and evil? We're no longer dealing with
00:22:03.620 ordinary political divisions. There was a time in our American history where, you know,
00:22:07.920 the differences between the Republicans and Democrats were, well, you know, we're all pursuing
00:22:11.520 the same goal. We've got the same principles. We believe in freedom. We believe in America.
00:22:16.460 We just have different ideas of how to get there. Okay, well, have a debate. And, you know,
00:22:20.640 trial and error, and you try a policy, it doesn't work, you can change the policy.
00:22:24.620 But now it's not that. It's not just a debate about different policies. This is a conflict over
00:22:31.480 fundamental principles. Such a difference between those two things. Policies, yes. Well, how do we
00:22:37.600 reduce crime? Well, I have this idea, you have that idea. But now it's like at the level of principle,
00:22:44.100 it's like, well, should we reduce crime? Is crime really a bad thing? You know, how do we advance
00:22:48.600 freedom? Well, now it's at the issue of, well, do we even believe in freedom? How do we protect
00:22:53.520 America? Do we even want to protect America? So the difference is on the level of principles,
00:22:58.820 of course, most fundamental of which is the issue I'm dealing with, are we going to protect human
00:23:03.960 life? Because that right, if that right isn't secure, you can't have any of the other rights.
00:23:08.100 And for the church, there's an argument to be made that when it comes to political discrepancies
00:23:15.440 or affiliations per se, yes, the church is neutral. The church has a religious mission,
00:23:21.700 not a political one. We give witness to the kingdom of God, not a political party. And our platform is
00:23:27.500 not the Democrat or Republican platform. It's the platform of Jesus Christ and his gospel. Fair enough.
00:23:32.800 But what if a political party is directly attacking that gospel, denying the freedom of the church,
00:23:41.380 denying the role of God in public life, attacking human life? You can't be neutral anymore. And I
00:23:48.160 think, Lou, that this is part of what the church is wrestling with and somewhat reflected, you know,
00:23:57.300 on a small scale, in my particular case that I'm facing right now. The church is wrestling with this.
00:24:05.260 How, when a political party is so directly attacking the principles of the church,
00:24:13.000 do we remain neutral? How do we remain neutral? Or how do we maintain our own identity while
00:24:19.180 maintaining our friendships within the party that has gone astray?
00:24:22.920 Yeah. As I said, I'm a Christian, I'm a Protestant, and I am one of those people who want,
00:24:31.720 I want religion in the public square. I want it mightily. And it's one of the things I cheered,
00:24:37.920 one of the many things I cheered about President Trump is he returned. People, many people just do
00:24:43.300 not, I mean, I know you're aware, but he played an instrumental role in bringing the church back to the
00:24:51.140 public square, much to the discomfort of the left and to the, to atheists and to, you know, the Marxist
00:24:58.820 left, which are by definition, atheists. Right. And they are the enemy. This is not just a fifth
00:25:06.420 column within the United States that we're talking about. This is the march of Marxism into American
00:25:14.660 society as we never dreamed possible. Not even 10 years ago, we would have said that it's impossible
00:25:21.140 that this would, this would occur. It's here. The threat is now the danger is present. And, you know,
00:25:29.680 I just go ahead, please. You're what you're saying here is reminding me of something Marco Rubio said
00:25:36.540 not long ago in a speech. He said, look, this is a battle between good and evil. And it's also a battle
00:25:41.560 between common sense and insanity. And what this, this, this left is, is, is, is displaying today
00:25:50.640 really is insanity. You know, I make a point in my, in my talks that why is it today that we can't say
00:25:57.700 a man is a man or a woman is a woman? Maybe it's because for 50 years, we've been saying a baby's not
00:26:03.820 a baby. When we brought portion on demand into America and pretended that we didn't know if that
00:26:10.460 was a baby, that was the break with reality. That was the break with biology. People say, oh,
00:26:15.480 well, you know, if you're a man, that that's, that's genetics. It's biological truth. Yes,
00:26:20.420 it is. It's just as much biological truth as that the baby in the womb is a baby right from
00:26:25.380 conception. And it's like, oh no, if we can pretend that that's not true, then saying a man is not a
00:26:32.240 man or a woman is not a woman or whatever you are, whatever you choose to be is the same error as
00:26:38.200 that's a baby. Only if you choose to accept it. And, and this is, we've got to stop breaking
00:26:43.780 with reality because after a while, um, well, the only solution, uh, Lou, is that you hit up against
00:26:49.580 the brick wall. Uh, I believe in the dead end rule. If you go down a dead end road and you don't look at
00:26:54.520 this, you don't pay attention to the signs that say it's a dead end, you will soon learn by personal
00:26:59.040 experience that it's a dead end. Hopefully you won't fall off a cliff, but if you survive, you turn around,
00:27:04.700 you walk the other way, and then you become the living sign that that's not the right way to go.
00:27:11.400 Now we're seeing that with abortion. We have the silent no more campaign where those who've actually
00:27:16.380 done it are coming back saying, Hey, that hurt. That was bad. We're going to see this more and
00:27:21.640 more with the transgender. We already see examples of it, of course, but the gay lifestyle, LGBTQ and
00:27:27.080 all this stuff, it's going to start. It is hurting people really bad. Give it a few more years,
00:27:33.420 give it a decade or two, and there's going to be a massive, massive pain from hitting up against
00:27:39.900 that brick wall, brick wall of human nature, brick wall of just the truth that is written into our
00:27:45.380 human nature as the scriptures tell us. So, um, that's, um, uh, the, the sooner we, we all realize
00:27:52.660 that the better off we'll be. I think that's a wonderful point. And I, I had not considered that.
00:27:58.400 I, I, the idea that we could deny, uh, science, uh, in describing life, particularly in, as it begins
00:28:07.840 in the womb, uh, if we could pretend that that embryo is not a baby, uh, is not, uh, with, with the first
00:28:16.680 spark of life living, uh, we can, uh, there is nothing we can't, uh, wish away, uh, disassociate
00:28:24.460 with, uh, or, or deny. I think that's a wonderful point. And I, and it just, it, it, it cuts very
00:28:31.880 close to the bone. So it has to be, uh, I think absolutely true. Uh, I, I think it's interesting
00:28:38.960 that we wanted to, our, our Marxist leaders wanted us to believe in the science, uh, when,
00:28:45.060 when COVID was, uh, raging through the society, uh, but then they denied the science that showed
00:28:52.220 that what they were doing was ineffective and was not what they had promised. Uh, they do so
00:28:58.120 when it comes to the right to life, uh, and being, uh, anti-abortion in this country. They try to change
00:29:06.900 the language as they always do. Uh, if you can change the language, you can change the thought,
00:29:11.900 you change the thought, and you change the position. Uh, I, I, I really have enjoyed talking
00:29:17.220 with you. I, I just, you're a fascinating fellow and I wish you all the very best. Uh, what are your
00:29:25.360 immediate plans? Uh, well, we are, in terms of my situation, you know, what the Pope does, the Pope
00:29:31.200 can undo. And, uh, we're, we're asking Pope Francis to just reconsider reinstating my, my priestly,
00:29:38.260 uh, faculties, but that aside, our plans now are, we're working, as you said, with the abortion issue
00:29:44.760 in the States. Now priests for life is, uh, is, is, is just mobilizing people in every one of the
00:29:50.320 States. We invite everybody to get involved with our work at end abortion.us. And, and we've got,
00:29:55.840 we've got great plans for us to see in 2023, more pro-life laws than ever compassionate laws,
00:30:02.940 helping both the baby and that mom and dad. Uh, and we just look forward to, uh, a lot of great
00:30:08.120 progress in the new year. Father, if I may, we always give our guests the last word. Uh, I'm
00:30:14.660 wondering in the spirit of the season, we could ask you, uh, to share with us, uh, your, your Christmas
00:30:21.260 message. Yes. Uh, Christmas really is, uh, at the heart of our system of government because in the
00:30:30.760 pagan governments, uh, law came from the mouth of the King and the input, and they didn't have any
00:30:38.040 appeal against it. Um, Christ came at Christmas and it's not just the birth of the baby in the manger.
00:30:44.780 It's the birth of the baby in us. We become sons and daughters of God. And if we're sons and daughters
00:30:50.320 of God, our voice matters. And because our voice matters, our vote matters. And we have a
00:30:55.640 representative form of government now where the sovereignty, and this is the greatness of America,
00:31:00.360 the sovereignty resides in the people. We were the first ones to say, Hey, forget about sovereignty
00:31:05.860 in the King it's in the people. And then we will consent to give individuals certain powers in
00:31:12.460 government. This really is rooted in Christmas. This really is rooted in the coming of the child who
00:31:18.260 makes us children of God. So Merry Christmas to everyone. And let's live out that new life that
00:31:23.560 Christ gives us by living out our citizenship more ardently than, uh, than ever before.
00:31:31.180 A wonderful message indeed. Father, we thank you very much for being with us here. Uh, we wish you a
00:31:36.940 Merry Christmas. We wish you a success and victory in all that, uh, all the challenges you're facing right
00:31:44.180 now. We appreciate everything you're doing for this great country as well. Thank you, Father.
00:31:49.520 Thanks Lou. Thank you. God bless you. Father, Frank Pavone. Thanks for being with us. Thank you
00:31:55.100 everybody for listening in. And I wish you a Merry Christmas. Please follow me on Twitter and truth
00:32:00.940 social at Lou Dobbs. That's at Lou Dobbs on Twitter and truth social. Our guest Monday is Senator Marsha
00:32:08.840 Blackburn. We'll be talking about her work to have the U S military abandoned those mandated
00:32:16.300 vaccinations for our troops. One of the important contributions of a Senator who makes a real
00:32:23.060 difference in Washington, DC. That's Marsha Blackburn. Please join us Monday till then. God bless you
00:32:29.320 and may God bless America. Merry Christmas.