The John-Henry Westen Show - January 05, 2024


African archbishop describes resistance to LGBT tyranny from the West


Episode Stats


Length

25 minutes

Words per minute

142.14354

Word count

3,557

Sentence count

232

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

11

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Why is the Catholic faith maintained in Africa where it seems in all the rest of the world, it is just gone? Especially fidelity to Christ's own teachings on marriage and the family? What values do we give to our coming generation to sustain the Catholic identity?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 If today we declare and announce it, well, from now onwards, we have to rewrite the Bible, for instance.
00:00:07.340 We have to change the way of celebrating the liturgy.
00:00:10.340 What values do we give to our coming generation to sustain the reality of the Catholic identity?
00:00:24.820 Hey, my friends, I'm just back from Africa.
00:00:27.040 And while there, we spoke with several bishops and the faithful, of course, many, many priests and religious communities.
00:00:33.640 And it was really fantastic.
00:00:34.940 One of the things I did was speak with the Archbishop of Arusha in Tanzania.
00:00:39.420 We were in Tanzania as one of the four African countries that we visited.
00:00:43.240 We visited Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
00:00:47.140 And in Tanzania, I got to speak with the Archbishop of Arusha.
00:00:50.740 And I asked him something really interesting because I wondered, how is Africa the last man standing on the planet?
00:00:58.980 Why is the faith maintained in Africa where it seems in all the rest of the world, it is just gone, is dissipated?
00:01:07.760 Especially fidelity to Christ's own teachings on marriage and the family.
00:01:11.840 Now, remember, Our Lady of Fatima did warn through Sister Lucy and her letter to Cardinal Kefara that the final battle between our Lord and the reign of Satan will be over marriage and the family.
00:01:22.100 And it is precisely in this area which you see the devolution happening, particularly this last little while with the unbelievable permission from Pope Francis for blessing of homosexual couples. 0.99
00:01:36.520 So, why Africa? 0.96
00:01:38.780 Please stay tuned to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show with Archbishop Isaac Aman of the Archdiocese of Arusha in Tanzania.
00:01:48.520 Good morning, good afternoon.
00:01:51.040 My name is Isaac Amani, Archbishop of Arusha in Tanzania.
00:01:56.860 It has been really great for this short talk.
00:02:00.280 We are just sharing our faith and what is going on in our universe as far as the witnessing side of our faith is concerned.
00:02:11.500 I'm happy to hear that we have been around, we have seen many people, and we have experienced the differences in the way we witness to the role of the Christian in the community.
00:02:25.300 We are supposed to be salt and, you know, to bring light to the communities.
00:02:32.080 Now, how do we do that?
00:02:33.420 It is through our sharing the values that Christ has brought to us.
00:02:37.960 Life being one of the utmost one.
00:02:40.520 So, to bring life within the community, the family especially, where the father and the mother will take care of the child as a gift from God and prepare this child to witness on its path and share what God has put into their talents, where they will have the time to share the faith through touching other people's lives.
00:03:05.140 One of the things that we notice here, as opposed to where we come from in the West, in America and Canada and Europe, is very, very different here.
00:03:15.600 It seems the faith is maintained here, particularly in the issues which now the woke world doesn't like, the truths about life, pro-life, and then the family.
00:03:27.080 How do you think the faith has been maintained here when it couldn't be in all the rest of the world?
00:03:33.100 So, faith is in the hearts of the people.
00:03:37.500 So, even to preserve faith, it's not in the books, not in buildings, it's in the hearts of the people.
00:03:45.480 So, traditionally, or in the traditional way of life, the parents would share their faith to their children.
00:03:56.540 And this would take this to their children, and that goes on and on and on.
00:04:01.720 So, what puts us together is the values that we believe in.
00:04:06.520 For instance, for the African, I am because we are.
00:04:10.880 I grew up in the hearts of my father, my mother, neighbors, but then the relatives like her, grandparents, and the rest of the people.
00:04:21.280 So, so long as these are there, then I'm there.
00:04:24.860 I'm not somebody if I'm outside that circle.
00:04:28.720 So, I define myself.
00:04:30.800 Of course, people can argue about that, but then the point is that faith is shared among people.
00:04:39.180 Faith is something which is insight, but then when we express it, we live real lives.
00:04:47.700 Because we have faith, even with God.
00:04:50.120 When you have faith in God, then you care what He is telling you or what He expresses of you.
00:04:56.660 Now, what holds us together is the faith that we have in the church, first of all, in God, in Christ Himself, and His church.
00:05:07.620 When you go to the priests, they tell us some things, and we believe them, we follow them.
00:05:13.820 When the catechists or the teachers or the teacher, religious teacher, or the deep informers or guide us, then we listen to Him.
00:05:21.240 Respect for authority is mandatory for faith.
00:05:25.260 Otherwise, people just invent their own ways of living and think that, well, I'm independent.
00:05:31.800 Nobody's going to touch me.
00:05:33.580 It's not in the Bible.
00:05:35.260 God, from the very beginning, when He put Adam and Eve in the garden, He gave them instructions on how to live in the garden.
00:05:44.620 Now, things change because they didn't follow what God had instructed.
00:05:50.180 That's the whole issue of sin.
00:05:53.800 So, He sent His Son to put us back through a sufficient and a clean knowledge to go back to God.
00:06:03.360 So, we have to really realize that, well, we are creatures.
00:06:09.540 There is a Creator who has put order in His order in our lives.
00:06:16.000 Indeed.
00:06:17.360 And what do you think is particular to Africa, that it seems the strength to continue the faith, even despite the pressure of the world to be woke on these issues, why is Africa spared when the rest of the world is not?
00:06:33.240 The hope is inside the human heart.
00:06:37.800 We realize we realize we are not really meant to live in this world and then everything is finished here.
00:06:45.680 We believe in the afterlife.
00:06:48.260 Now, that belief makes us hold on to the truths that have been given to us.
00:06:53.720 Our Lord told us that, well, He has gone to prepare a place for us.
00:07:00.600 And when it is ready, He'll come back to take us.
00:07:03.940 So, that kind of is a promise from God.
00:07:06.860 So, that helps us to prepare, at least to care for what He has said.
00:07:11.260 He's going to prepare some place.
00:07:14.000 So, we are not living here forever.
00:07:17.120 We shall live one day.
00:07:19.020 Now, there's another home more than what we have here.
00:07:22.560 We have to make this a pleasant home and beautiful.
00:07:25.720 But we know one day we shall live.
00:07:28.540 Now, when we live, where do we go?
00:07:30.740 God has told us there's somewhere to go.
00:07:33.660 Our Lord has gone there, Himself.
00:07:35.900 The Virgin Mary has gone there.
00:07:37.300 All the saints have gone there.
00:07:39.040 So, if we are really sensitive to what God is telling us, we better prepare ourselves to go to heaven.
00:07:46.020 And it's by directing our lives according to His principles, values, and how to change our attitudes in order to live with their love with our neighbors.
00:07:57.800 And also to cast our eyes on God who is always loving us, taking care of us, and also pulling us to Him through His love.
00:08:09.860 Now, next year you're going to be celebrating the 50th, 5-0, 50th anniversary of something called the Small Christian Communities, which is kind of unique to Africa.
00:08:20.500 I've never heard about this, at least in the churches in America.
00:08:26.620 If you can explain what is a small Christian community and how do you believe that's affected the ability of Africa and African Catholics to maintain the faith?
00:08:37.800 Now, this is an association of the bishops living in the Eastern Africa section.
00:08:46.360 Now, in 1961, they formed this association and they're listening to the call of Vatican II that we have to have our church having the forming family of God.
00:09:01.620 So, following that call from the Vatican Council, the second Vatican Council, the bishops of Amesia decided to have the small Christian community as a format of taking care of our people.
00:09:20.980 So, pastoral care of the Christians should be formed along that line of having small Christian communities, which would form 10 to 15 families staying together.
00:09:32.500 This one must be living nearby.
00:09:35.320 So, they will form a small Christian community whereby they have their leaders, they have meetings, they meet every week on a particular day that they choose for themselves, which will be convenient for them to pray.
00:09:53.080 But then, apart from that, they'll have other meetings to discuss their affairs and so forth.
00:09:58.520 So, this has put the Christians together, the Catholic family, throughout the Amesia countries, when we meet, we give reports on this.
00:10:08.600 How are we fairing with that?
00:10:11.060 What needs to be improved?
00:10:13.300 And the laity taking good part in that.
00:10:16.860 Or are there any challenges that we need to improve?
00:10:19.720 So, in our evaluation this year, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary, we thank God for the strength that we have gained from these small Christian communities.
00:10:33.040 Through them, we teach, through them, we engage them to sustain, to take care of their parishes, from their parish, from their small Christian communities.
00:10:42.760 At the same time, we are now able to think of improving the small Christian communities and make them instruments of even social development and other progress that will help their community.
00:11:00.280 So, that's the formation of the small Christian communities.
00:11:03.840 And how do you think that this concept of this practice has helped maintain faith?
00:11:09.120 It's origins from the small, from the African traditional way of life.
00:11:15.720 The family is sacred.
00:11:18.700 At the same time, we do this from the bishops.
00:11:22.940 They learn this from the small, from the first Christian communities. 1.00
00:11:27.580 They lived together.
00:11:28.980 They shared their property.
00:11:31.240 And the most needy were also thought of.
00:11:34.560 They were supported.
00:11:35.360 But most of all, the first Christians would meet in the synagogue for teachings.
00:11:41.040 But then, they would go from house to house, celebrating the Eucharist. 0.92
00:11:46.440 Now, that made the Christians come together, become a family, and then they shared love.
00:11:53.520 They shared life.
00:11:54.960 They shared faith.
00:11:56.200 And that made people increase in number.
00:11:59.580 And people are very fascinated by this way of life, of being together.
00:12:03.680 That's the purpose of it.
00:12:05.660 One of the teachings probably most lacking in America and Europe is the role of the father in the household.
00:12:16.300 How do you explain it here to the Catholic people, to the young people preparing for marriage, and to your Christian communities?
00:12:24.140 The role of the father really is well explained by God himself.
00:12:28.340 Because when he created human beings, he started with Adam, and he gave him the authority to name all the animals.
00:12:38.780 Then time came when Adam felt very lonely.
00:12:42.140 So God gave him, well, a companion, that's Eve.
00:12:47.000 Now, from this dynamics, we realize that God put man first, because this man has the authority to take care of the wife and the children. 0.65
00:12:58.960 That is wrong.
00:13:00.520 And that is really the thing, the status is quite unique.
00:13:04.200 The vocation of man is to take care, to direct, to monitor, and to guide.
00:13:10.760 That's the role of man.
00:13:11.760 So, when we think of the vocation of man, we look at St. Joseph, that God entrusted his son to Joseph.
00:13:24.640 He entrusted his mother, Mary, to Joseph, to take care of this.
00:13:30.140 And that's why Joseph and Mary had to run to Egypt, to save their child from Herod.
00:13:36.620 And when it was a convenient time, he went back.
00:13:39.880 On hearing that while the son of Herod was at the throne, he changed direction.
00:13:47.220 Instead of going to Bethlehem, near Jerusalem, where it was to be dangerous for the child,
00:13:53.740 he went to Nazareth to hide and to protect his family, to take care of them.
00:13:58.360 He did his carpentry there, he taught his child carpentry, and his wife, Mary, was supportive.
00:14:07.200 Now, that kind of direction, the role of Joseph, pushed before us the role of man,
00:14:13.540 to take care of the family, to take pride in working hard to support the family.
00:14:20.400 So, abandoning the family is a serious crime for any man.
00:14:23.520 And then, the wife also has to understand that they should not compete. 0.99
00:14:29.060 They have to work together for the sake of the family and the growth of the child.
00:14:34.000 Because the child Jesus learned from his mother, in the midst of himself, how to work hard, to love work.
00:14:41.960 But then, to realize that work is for development, to change things for the better, not for selfish motives.
00:14:48.520 So, this kind of arrangement was first put and placed by God himself.
00:14:54.700 And we human beings have to learn from God how to plan our lives according to the wishes and directives of God.
00:15:02.540 Beautiful.
00:15:03.560 One more question for you.
00:15:05.080 It's because Africa is the subject now of a lot of pressure, trying to get Africa to change your ways, 1.00
00:15:12.460 trying to get the people of Africa, particularly the Catholics, the Christians, to change their stance with regard to the family, with regard to pro-life.
00:15:24.220 And it's causing suffering because they're removing aid.
00:15:29.280 World Bank is pulling for aid, even for aid victims.
00:15:33.180 All of this is being removed because you won't give in on these things.
00:15:38.400 What are your thoughts about that and about Africa being able to withstand the pressure?
00:15:47.080 I think Africa is very rich.
00:15:49.900 Very rich.
00:15:50.840 But then we were made to think and feel that we have nothing.
00:15:56.580 But then we have the values of life.
00:16:00.100 We have the values of hospitality.
00:16:03.360 We have the values of appreciating each other.
00:16:06.740 Now, that by themselves are very strong.
00:16:10.740 Now, whoever is drifting us away, it is for their own benefits, not for us.
00:16:17.480 So Africa should stand on its own and say no to whatever is against God's will for human beings 0.98
00:16:24.560 and to go against what is disrupting or destroying what is beautiful in Africa.
00:16:31.460 So we are losing our values if we are not careful.
00:16:34.340 So, for instance, hospitality, that's a value which has been treasured.
00:16:41.120 How can we love without taking good care of each other?
00:16:45.880 It is by taking care of each other, be concerned.
00:16:49.220 Now, Cain killed his brother.
00:16:54.560 He was angry with him and he killed him.
00:16:56.500 Now, that feeling is inhuman beings.
00:17:03.180 You have to really fight against it.
00:17:06.300 And God won't claim, if you don't take care of your anger, you'll end up in a mess.
00:17:13.960 So he ended up in a mess because he didn't listen to God.
00:17:18.280 So we should tell the Western world, whoever is helping us, thank you for your support and aids and policies.
00:17:25.080 But please, listen to us too.
00:17:26.920 We have something to contribute.
00:17:28.820 We may be poor in some things, but we are not poor in everything.
00:17:32.860 So the wealth of Africa should also, if it's welcome, can also save the rest of the world.
00:17:41.780 So whoever is ready to listen and learn what is good in Africa may also benefit the rest of the world.
00:17:49.020 There was this synod on synodality that went on, and the bishops of Africa contributed in that they wanted to maintain the traditional faith,
00:17:59.640 whereas a lot of your brother bishops, cardinals even, are suggesting a different way,
00:18:06.040 a path that seems at least to Catholics who practice the faith from the catechism, it seems strange.
00:18:12.820 And how did you as a bishop feel about this happening?
00:18:19.080 And for us, the laity, we're confused.
00:18:22.340 What was it like for the bishops themselves to see this?
00:18:28.140 Now, you know, it depends why one is speaking.
00:18:32.380 If you are traditional, I like tradition, because tradition gives you roots.
00:18:40.440 Tradition tells you where you're coming from.
00:18:43.620 When you move from the foundation, look at the other, put an example like a building.
00:18:49.780 A building stands upon the foundation.
00:18:51.920 When you remove the building from the foundation, where do you take it?
00:18:55.620 How does it survive?
00:18:58.120 Christ is our foundation.
00:19:01.980 God has instructed that way.
00:19:05.100 So the values that we get from Christ should be treasured to the end of the world.
00:19:09.080 Now, when we come with these fancy ideas, we call them development and progress and so forth.
00:19:16.760 Now, where do they come from?
00:19:18.320 They don't come from God.
00:19:20.360 They may be coming from some laboratories or coming from some experiments
00:19:25.180 or some ideas that are really against our foundation, which is God.
00:19:31.600 God takes away everything.
00:19:32.720 So for the African bishops or even leaders, if they have that courage, to say no, we can't remove ourselves from our roots.
00:19:45.520 Our foundation is God, his commandments.
00:19:48.120 And our mother is the church.
00:19:52.300 The church has been there.
00:19:53.440 The apostles have given us what they experienced from Christ himself.
00:19:59.960 Now, we are carrying all those values because we believe.
00:20:03.320 These are the tenets that really put us together.
00:20:06.260 We call ourselves Catholics because we have been Catholics from the very beginning.
00:20:10.680 If today we declare and announce that, well, from now onwards, we have to rewrite the Bible, for instance.
00:20:18.400 We have to change the way of celebrating the liturgy.
00:20:21.340 For some reasons, if it makes it possible and the people mature better for changing,
00:20:27.580 but they have to be really careful.
00:20:31.700 What values do we give to our coming generation to sustain the reality of the Catholic identity?
00:20:39.760 If you have any closing thoughts for us, we'll take them.
00:20:43.000 And then, if you wouldn't mind, we have very many viewers who would love to receive your blessing as well.
00:20:48.480 Okay.
00:20:49.260 Well, what I have to say is that let us realize that, well, things are changing.
00:20:54.960 In the past, we had fewer coming churches.
00:20:59.980 They are springing from Pentecostal movements and other sources.
00:21:05.740 Now, in the past, the Catholic faith had particular areas and, you know, some strong designs.
00:21:13.200 And, you know, it was very respected.
00:21:15.620 Now, we are coming into a kind of competition, competing with the same Christians. 0.98
00:21:20.200 And some of them are drifting from the faith, from the Catholic faith, other religions.
00:21:24.700 People are intermarrying each other.
00:21:26.600 They don't care where they're coming from. 0.94
00:21:28.940 So, this will also affect the way we plan our growth.
00:21:34.040 But, all in all, we are sure that, well, Christ is in the boat.
00:21:39.900 So long as he is in our boat, we are safe.
00:21:43.260 So, let us pray that we stay together, realize that, well, there's no competition,
00:21:49.700 and which is okay also.
00:21:51.980 But, also, it will strengthen us, realize that while we are now competing, let us improve
00:22:00.060 our families, let us improve our faith, let us go back to the sacraments, let us go back
00:22:06.100 to the Bible with zeal, and also learn from the successful stories, whatever they are.
00:22:12.340 For instance, this one in America, in Africa, or wherever.
00:22:17.580 However, if we have successful stories anywhere, let us make them as a pattern and examples
00:22:23.480 of following, which is good.
00:22:26.340 So, we pray, God, that we really remain steadfast in faith, and we send a message that, well,
00:22:34.140 we thank God for sending his son to us to redeem us.
00:22:38.880 Now, let us stay together as a redeemed people of God, a family that stays together, we pray
00:22:44.240 together, we work together, and we hope one day we shall be together in heaven through
00:22:49.680 this way, who told us he's the way, he's the truth, he's life.
00:22:55.100 So, let us not shake ourselves, we'll be shaken from that by whoever has glittering promises
00:23:02.460 while we know what the reality is.
00:23:05.880 Yeah.
00:23:06.120 So, we close with a prayer.
00:23:08.360 Almighty Father, we thank you very much for really giving us this opportunity to hear
00:23:13.680 from each other how we experience life in different parts of the world.
00:23:18.400 We thank you for the good Christians that are really working hard to witness their faith
00:23:23.300 through different encounters.
00:23:25.520 In a special way, we pray for the Christians who are suffering because they are Christians. 1.00
00:23:29.260 We pray for those who are courageous enough to say no to what needs to be addressed in that
00:23:37.300 way.
00:23:38.220 We pray that we have peace in the world.
00:23:41.900 We pray for the suffering children, women, and families.
00:23:45.880 We pray for our experts that they can use the expertise to change lives for the better.
00:23:53.200 Father, and Lord, as we celebrate these 50 years of the small Christian communities in 1.00
00:23:59.560 the Western, in the Amesia countries, may our families grow in faith, stay together in
00:24:07.800 faith, and bring much fruit in the families, and give true witness to what really means being
00:24:16.900 a child of God in the modern times.
00:24:20.440 We ask this in Jesus' name.
00:24:22.660 Amen.
00:24:23.200 Amen.
00:24:23.720 We pray for the Son and the Holy Spirit.
00:24:26.840 Amen.
00:24:27.820 Thank you, Henry.
00:24:28.980 Thank you, Lex.
00:24:30.420 God bless you.
00:24:31.520 Thanks.
00:24:42.280 Hi, everyone.
00:24:43.080 This is John Henry Weston.
00:24:44.200 We hope you enjoyed this program.
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