Archbishop ViganĂ² endorses LifeSite journalist's book on the crisis in the Church
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Summary
On this episode of the John Henry Weston Show, LifeSite's own journalist Stephen Cox joins us to talk about his new book, Navigating the Crisis in the Church: How Pope Francis and the Catholic Church are in crisis.
Transcript
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Martin Luther, the heretic, he led souls to hell, and there's been visions of him in hell.
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He's worse than any natural so-called genocidal dictator.
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On this episode of the John Henry Weston Show, I am very pleased to bring to you one of LifeSite's
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own journalists who's been with us for seven years, but he's been a Catholic reporter before
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That's the whole of the pontificate of Pope Francis, and he's just come out with a new
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book called Navigating the Crisis in the Church, and it's going to be a fascinating conversation
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for this journalist who has followed Francis from his beginning and followed, therefore,
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the crisis of the church from the beginning as a traditional Catholic.
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Stay tuned for this episode of the John Henry Weston Show with guest Stephen Cox.
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For U.S. residents, creating Will has never been easier.
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Thanks to My Legacy Will, an online platform free of charge, you can now create your own
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Will and choose to include LifeSite News in it.
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Specify where your funeral will take place, the number of masses to be offered for your
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We would be deeply grateful if you remembered LifeSite News in your Will.
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Thank you for your support, and may God bless you.
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Let's begin as we always do, with the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
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Now, Stephen, this is a great thing you have, because not only have you charted what's going
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on in the church in her most, you might say, the most crisis the church has ever had, but
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You've got a foreword from none other than Archbishop Carlo Maria ViganĂ².
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As you mentioned in the introduction there, I began really writing as a public journalist
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around 2011, 2012, 2013, and one of my first articles I wrote publicly ever.
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I was in my late 20s and still finding my way in this world, and I wrote about Pope Benedict's
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I remember at the time, I'd already been going to Latin Mass and thinking, wow, this is unprecedented.
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And I recall talking with some friends, and they said, this is really bad.
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It took a while to kind of get a handle on that, but that was my first foray, this earth-shattering
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And so it's been a whirlwind ever since, as you know.
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When did you know, uh-oh, something's really wrong?
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Which just with regard to Francis himself, we'll go past the Benedict thing.
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I was, like many other journalists at the time, uh, you know, trying to get the benefit
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You know, we hear that still, uh, after 11 years of just absolute madness.
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And, you know, I was writing for various websites at the time, uh, Catholic Vote, uh, other
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And I was finding myself increasingly, over just a matter of a couple months, uh, disagreeing
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That Francis is being misconstrued by his critics, who are always trying to see the worst
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And, in fact, I, I wrote, uh, an article titled, What Pope Francis Really Said About Atheists,
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Just a couple months, he said, atheists can do good works.
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Uh, they can get to heaven, basically, is what he was saying.
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Uh, and I said, well, no, I don't know if he's saying that.
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So, you know, after four months, I think, of mental gymnastics, I just said, look, uh,
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So, I wrote an article, I said, putting Pope Francis in context.
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It was about 4,000 words, and I just let it rip.
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This is not the media trying to criticize Francis.
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Uh, this is not someone, um, who is defending the faith of our fathers.
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And so, I was very fortunate in that, to not get caught up in all the excuses that
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we, again, still hear 11 years later, Catholic Inc., you know, that it's the term we use for
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And, uh, so I was very fortunate and, and, um, uh, to see quite early on, uh, and again,
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I had just come to sort of tradition, Latin Mass, just two or three years earlier.
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So, that conversion was pretty rapid, if you will, to the truth.
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And, um, fortunately, I was able to see through, um, a lot of the lies that were being told back
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So, if we go back in time, it, these things are etched in my mind, so I can't lose them.
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You know, uh, I remember day one, um, it was Rorate Celi that came out day one with this
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And it was funny because I didn't watch the announcement.
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I know a lot of people, they saw he didn't have the red shoes.
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They saw the, the, that Daniel's was on the balcony and they were already freaking out.
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Day three, when Casper said, when he said he praised Cardinal Casper as a theologian that
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Cause he, you know, under JP2 and Benedict, he was always, well, for those of us calling
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him such, he was Casper, the friendly ecumenist and, and a real problem.
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So day three is when I went, oh, this is, this is really, really a problem.
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Well, see, I didn't know all the players even back then, John Henry.
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I didn't know the Cardinals and all these players, but I, I had that same instinct.
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I think all of us, um, sort of knew, you know, he's standing on that balcony.
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He, he put on the, um, uh, papal stool, uh, for five seconds.
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I believe later he said, carnival time is over.
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And so I had a pretty bad taste in my mouth early on, but you know, like again, you know,
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you tell yourself, okay, maybe things aren't as bad.
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And by the way, the media was saying, oh, he's a humble, uh, man.
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He rode the subway in Argentina, blah, blah, blah.
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Uh, who cares if someone rises to the bit, to the chancellor and the subway or
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Um, but you know, so all of that, Francis, the humble, et cetera, it was pretty quickly,
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at least to a newcomer, uh, quite evident as well.
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Well, when the testimonies came out later about those subway rides, like he, he rides
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in a limo all the way there and just before a block or two before, let me out here so I
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But what really struck me is when he did the suitcase incident, do you remember that?
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One of the aides had went on the papal plane already and put his bag there and he was so
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angry, he was like, go back and get it to me so I can carry it on the plane myself.
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Checking in hotels on his own, you know, riding in the, the, the, I think it was like
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a Fiat or something, you know, Pope Francis, it's like, oh gosh.
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So they definitely tried to get people wrapped into that thinking very early on.
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And one of the stunning things I interviewed once, one of the guys who was inside the
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Vatican machinery who was helping behind the scenes and they did this one, you know, little
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special on the Pope where he went to eat with and greet the Vatican workers in the cafeteria
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And one of the guys who was involved, he told me that, you know, they were all told, don't
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you dare speak to him unless you are specifically indicated you're to speak to him because it's
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But at the time, you know, nobody, nobody knew about that.
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Navigating the Crisis in the Church, Essays in Defense of Traditional Catholicism.
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We hear all sorts of flavors of Catholicism today, but tradition is the true one.
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So tell us a little bit about the book and why are you publishing it now?
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Well, like you said, it's been 11 years since I've been in this business, if you want to
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I find it more of a sort of apostolate, a vocation.
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And there's a lot that has changed, John Henry, not just since over the last 11 years,
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It's a collection of all my old articles from various websites I've written for over the
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As you mentioned, I've been at LifeSite for seven years now, but I was involved in journalism
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And John Henry, you might even remember, I interviewed you before I worked at LifeSite
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I think we talked about Amoris Laetitia way back then.
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We were commiserating over the destruction in the church.
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But the book is divided into two parts, church is the first part, and state is the second
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The second chapter is on wayward clergy, where I talk about, among others, James Martin,
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Cupich is featured prominently in that chapter.
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Chapter three is Latin Mass, and chapter four is traditional Catholicism, and five is
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And then the second part of the book on politics begins with a chapter on Catholic social teaching,
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U.S. politics, international relations, culture, and family life.
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So in total, if you could ever stomach reading my stuff, I have a hundred essays in this.
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So I really kind of wanted to write it, John Henry, to answer your second question.
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Because, you know, people, when they find out, oh, I'm at LifeSite News, you know, they
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say, oh, you guys are doing amazing, amazing work.
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Tell John Henry, I send my regards, and I usually say, well, can you send some money
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But I also say, you know, here's what I've done.
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I wanted to say to people, like, well, yes, but we've been in this crisis for a much longer
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And in case you're interested in reading more about the entirety of the situation of
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the past 10 years, but also the past 60 years, here's a good book for you.
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So I really wanted to reach people where they are.
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And I think a lot of my writing is very simple and direct.
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So most people who, you know, aren't really tuned in can understand it.
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So that's really the purpose and what you'll find in this book.
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And it's because our concept of writing is the same as yours.
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It's actually a work more of evangelization than it is of news.
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So we're really trying to get people to the truth, the fullness of the truth, Jesus Christ.
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And what you mentioned there about easy to read is so important in that aspect.
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I remember I went once to Pontifical Academy for Life and all these highfalutin speakers
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were there and they spoke in a language that was so inaccessible.
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And, you know, it was hard, literally hard to understand anything they were saying.
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And I went out of the room thinking, sheesh, this is like impossible to comprehend.
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You know, there was a professor from CUA in the lunchroom there.
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And I said, you know, I'm just not cut out for that.
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This is meant to be a showcase for people's talents and smarts or whatever.
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I was at a very deep level disgusted because that's the total opposite of what you should
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That's the labor of love that true academics, that true genius is, is translating the hard
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work of study into what people can receive and take it and therefore appreciate.
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We were in Rome at the, it was 2019, right before COVID hit for the Rome March for Life
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And I remember going into that and you were the MC completely blind.
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Dr. Paul Byrne, who I've actually gotten to know and interact with very recently and write
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about what he was saying and I was someone who had on my driver's license, I'm an organ
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And then you get into this conference and you realize in very, again, simple terms, all
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these very academic, really just powerhouses of an intellect sitting here and saying, look,
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The body organs decay the second the heart stops beating and the body stops breathing.
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So, uh, I fortunately, um, when my sister passed in February, I had this knowledge, uh, she
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And I said to them, look, um, we don't want this for my sister.
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And, uh, by the grace of God, uh, he allowed her to have a natural death.
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And, uh, but it's, you know, like you said, if it wasn't for that conference and for those
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efforts to simplify the truth, uh, who knows what might've happened, especially to my sister.
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So you're, you're speaking absolutely very, very clearly and truthfully at the time.
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Tell us, Stephen, from your take of things, having basically sat through this and been
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forced in a way to pay attention to it, um, what to you is the crisis in the church today?
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Well, the short end of it is that we have, uh, men and women, uh, in clerical garb wearing
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investments reserved for bishops, priests, uh, popes, um, and they're walking around,
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uh, not defending or handing on the Catholic faith.
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They're giving a imposter version, if you will, a neo-modernist, uh, variant, uh, what
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I use, I call in the book a decaffeinated Catholicism, if you will.
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Um, and, uh, the real Catholic, uh, clergy are those not occupying the offices in, in
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Rome, uh, in, uh, the hierarchy, uh, in the clerk, in the curia or the seminary rectorships,
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they're dismissed, uh, as we saw with various clergy in the U.S., uh, but especially most
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recently, uh, and others who have faith and they are being excommunicated, uh, being accused
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And so we have a complete inversion, John Henry, uh, where the occupying powers in the
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church, the authorities in the church, if you will, have created a new, uh, religion,
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uh, one that, as our church at Vigano says, uh, often and writes in the book is the religion
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of, uh, arguably the antichrist, but especially the new world order.
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And it's a humanistic religion and Catholics, when they walk into Catholic lay people, when
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they walk into Catholic churches today, or ones that say they're Catholic, they're not
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getting the faith, they're getting, uh, something that their ancestors would have been found
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entirely, uh, heretical, uh, something that isn't completely at odds with Tritium.
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And so we have here a conciliar pseudo-impostor church, uh, eclipsing, uh, as has been told,
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uh, through Marian apparitions, the real church, which at this time is dispersed throughout the
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world in small pockets of faithful clergy and others who are, uh, again, deemed outcasts,
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And really this began at Vatican II, which we can, I'm sure, talk about throughout this
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But that's really, I think the short end of it is that we have, uh, uh, again, a deep
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church, a deep state, uh, coinciding and collaborating with, with one another.
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What do you make of the other bishops, the good bishops?
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Because surely Strickland, uh, has counterparts even in the U.S.
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Uh, but elsewhere in the world, surely Burke does, surely Schneider does.
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This handful that is always speaking up, surely there's more than that.
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And the silence sure seems deafening from my seat.
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We have to remember that in any sort of system, if you will, in any sort of hierarchy, even
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outside the church, there's a handful of establishment individuals, uh, those who are challenging the
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establishment, those who are near the bottom, uh, and who want to buddy up to those who are
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I mean, there's virtuous signaling right now as to who can be the strongest ally of Benjamin
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Um, this gets you a lot of currency in this world.
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Uh, the powerful and elite can give rewards and benefit you in many ways, give you platforms,
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We have clergy who are not, um, you know, the cardinals, they wear red because there's
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supposed to be willing to be martyrs for the faith.
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They follow a syncretistic, um, again, humanistic religion.
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Some of them are, I think, of goodwill, uh, in, in, in, in the institutions.
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They want to ensure that traditional leaning groups, you could say, are seen in a positive
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But I think the ultimate end is that it's, it's a lack of faith and courage.
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I mean, the graces that I personally see, I know not everyone agrees with me in Archbishop
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Vigano, uh, and others who've been treated in his manner.
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That's the mark of a, of a, of a, of a true Catholic clergyman who's willing to go to the
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greatest lengths to speak the truth and not just here and there, but to really, you know,
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when the lights are on, uh, state what needs to be said.
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There's a lot of politics being played and to an extent there is prudence that needs to
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But I think in this time, I mean, I write in my book, uh, you know, Martin Luther, the
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heretic, uh, he led souls to hell, uh, and there's been visions of him in hell.
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Um, he's worse than any natural so-called genocidal dictator.
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Francis, uh, is leading souls in a similar way with his daily remarks, the changing of
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So why is it that those who are entrusted to hand on the faith, to be followers of the
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apostles, all of whom were martyred, why are they not speaking up?
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Only, uh, you know, they should follow in the footsteps of those who've gone before them,
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like Archbishop Lefebvre and others, uh, and speak up, um, and be willing to be excommunicated.
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Because as far as my own personal conviction, uh, these excommunications, they mean nothing.
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It's a badge of honor to be excommunicated from someone who thinks, um, you know, there
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should be blessings for gay couples or communion can be given to, uh, persons living in adultery
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or all the litany of, uh, of, of evil doctrines that have come out of the Vatican.
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And so, you know, uh, I've sort of moved into the traditional world over the past 10 years.
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And, um, so I wish more of these clergymen would.
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I don't have an exact answer, but, um, that's kind of what I'm seeing.
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While all this is going on, the laity kind of feel lost.
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We're going to be continued to feel lost and be lost to an extent because we don't have
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The Pope is there to confirm his brethren in the faith.
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St. Alphonsus says, and I wrote a book on St. Alphonsus, he says, if, if the priest is
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If the priest is holy, the laity will be, uh, okay.
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Uh, if the priest is okay, the laity will be bad.
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So, well, if we have a bad, we have bad priest, we have bad laity.
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If we have a bad Pope, you consider Francis the Pope, uh, we're going to have a bad messed
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So, uh, there are many efforts today to find common ground among different traditionalists,
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Uh, you know that well, but we're not really going to have unity until there's
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And until the Pope is confirming us in our, in our faith, until then, the best we can
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do, uh, John Henry, in my many years of traveling and meeting different clergymen who are ostracized,
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we're going to just have to live through this and grin and bear our teeth and cling to those
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clergy, uh, who have, uh, not understanding of the crisis to keep us away from and not collaborate
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with these imposters and usurpers in the Vatican, but have the moral and doctrinal understanding
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to keep us out of sin, to apply and to recommend spiritual guidance, um, that, that will keep
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And I think in, in many ways it's, um, I, I, it may be a dark or, or, or, or, uh, negative
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It's sort of like after the Titanic went down, right?
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Uh, you have some lifeboats nearby, uh, you have some people kicking and in, in, in the,
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in the freezing water, they have their, their vests on, they're doing their best.
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Um, you know, those who are in the lifeboats with bigger institutions and bigger followers,
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they might, they might be able to survive, yeah, but that doesn't mean holes can't appear
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So my point is we won't get out of this, uh, chaos, this disunity, uh, until we have a
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And until then we have to provide financial, material, spiritual, uh, support for our clergy,
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especially that's the big thing because we can't, we can't have a church without clergy.
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We can't have a church with two or laity that's happened in many times, but the, the anemic
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level of priests and clergy that are sound today, that's a state of emergency because
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Padre Pio said, uh, you might as well be without the sun.
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I mean, the world's not going to exist if we don't have priests saying the mass and
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So, so maybe this is an appeal to young men, John Henry.
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Um, I know you have some sons out there, uh, to become priests because that's the biggest
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And that's stunningly difficult because most, uh, and I think moms seem to appreciate this
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more, they are like, yeah, we need priests, but, um, we don't want to send you over to
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Look, we're going to have to adapt to the times.
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I mean, uh, you might be, if you want to be a priest today, you might have to go through
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some pretty rough waters, you know, maybe biblical times, you know, you might have to follow
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around one or two clergymen and just get trained privately.
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Like they used to, again, in the centuries after, uh, of the apostles.
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And, um, uh, for, for certain souls who are able to take it, I think, you know, God's going
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to give it to them and hopefully they'll make it through.
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We, we had some stunning things happen of late.
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You had Bishop Schneider, who is like the most conservative conservative.
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He's probably the most, uh, uh, the prelate that insists on that the most yet.
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Um, one of the ones that he did that I found so shocking was that he gave a blessing to an
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So a bunch of nuns who, who are outside the normal structure of the Bishop, Bishop Schneider
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So, um, I, I'd love your take on that because that's some of that messy stuff that you were
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There's an essay I wrote for Kelly Family News about four years ago, uh, when, you know,
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George Weigel, Robert Barron were coming after Archbishop Vigano, who was attacking Vatican
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to, and I basically said, look, everyone's going to be given a chance to, um, get off
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Are you on the, do you want to have one foot in the conciliar structure?
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Do you want to have one foot in traditional Catholic world where I think that's, that's
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Um, and that's going to look very un-Catholic, as you said, giving a blessing to independent
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nuns, uh, maybe having the Vatican look askance at you or say you can't say public masses.
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This is, this happened in, um, uh, Southern, uh, Ohio with Father Kopczynski and, uh, Father
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I think that's what God's asking people to do, asking clergy to do, especially to say,
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look, um, the, the, what scripture says to those who do not listen to the gospel, it
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doesn't say if it, if that's a, if that's a Pope or a Cardinal, it says, kick the dust
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It says also the blind who follow the blind, this is in Matthew, both will fall into the
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We have to do things in these times that, again, may on the surface seem un-Catholic because
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who wants to disobey who you think is the Pope, right?
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Um, uh, but we are in such a situation where the, and we always know this, the, the, the
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faith comes first, uh, salvation of souls comes first.
00:25:27.880
So, you know, this is the concept of supply jurisdiction, uh, that the church supplies those
00:25:34.080
clergymen with this great, uh, power to, uh, do what would be otherwise done in normal
00:25:40.240
And it's, again, it's, so again, the situation is analogous to the Titanic's gone down.
00:25:45.880
We have a couple boats floating around and on those boats, there's some staff, uh, Titanic
00:25:52.180
RMS staff who had light, flashlights looking around for survivors and they tried to tie
00:25:58.080
together with others, uh, that were close to them.
00:26:01.440
It's a very similar situation that, you know, we need to have our clergymen look out for these
00:26:06.100
survivors who, in good conscience, John Henry, I know there's plenty of division over these
00:26:10.880
questions, but we have to respect, I think, people's consciences because there is no one
00:26:15.360
who can bind, I think, consciences in this time.
00:26:17.480
You're looking at ordinary bishops, so-called, in the Novus Ordo church that are promoting,
00:26:22.980
you know, uh, pagan rituals in their cathedrals.
00:26:26.660
This happened with Bishop Powers over in, uh, Wisconsin just a couple months ago.
00:26:40.680
How can we put ourselves under these, these, these men who elevate, uh, pagan idols and, uh,
00:26:49.280
I mean, the prudential and practical thing to do after much prayer and practice for many
00:26:53.980
people, prayer and penance and, um, reflection, I know of many, many priests who are so-called
00:26:59.160
on the outskirts of, um, the dioceses and things, this is, uh, the future for this foreseeable
00:27:06.440
And, you know, this is going to happen very soon here with, um, the passing of Bishop
00:27:12.940
They will need more bishops and what they will do, uh, is, is it might be a hard decision,
00:27:18.500
uh, cause that's going to have, um, many in the media, maybe even many clerical allies,
00:27:25.020
uh, distance themselves if they do or don't get approval from the Vatican for that, uh,
00:27:30.720
But, uh, we're, we are in some times where it is, um, increasingly, uh, necessary to do
00:27:45.080
I mean, um, that's the kudos to Bishop Schneider for doing that.
00:27:48.120
Pope Pius XI said men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.
00:27:55.740
And he urged that the faithful give public honor to Christ the King so that individuals
00:28:00.280
and states would submit once more to the rule of their savior.
00:28:04.100
And that is why LifeSite News is raising up the image of Christ the King across the United
00:28:13.280
Please pledge your support today for these billboards at lifefunder.com slash Christ is
00:28:20.560
I asked the same question to Peter Kuzniewski because, you know, we were talking about the
00:28:25.620
Latin mass inaccessibility, the Latin mass over tritiziones custodas and things like that.
00:28:29.840
And, and, uh, we talked about doing things underground.
00:28:40.200
You've been with LifeSite now for, for, uh, seven years, excuse me.
00:28:44.100
And what do you think the role that LifeSite plays in, in all of this?
00:28:48.920
I mean, there's not one issue that we haven't, I think, tackled in the right way.
00:28:55.040
You know, people will besmirch LifeSite as conspiracy theorists, as all sorts of names, uh,
00:29:01.700
especially in light of our recent coverage of, uh, the Gaza and Israeli conflict, uh, in light
00:29:06.720
of our coverage of COVID-19, uh, in light of our coverage of, of, of, of a lot of things.
00:29:14.720
Uh, if you've read a positive story about that, you're called the Kremlin apologist, right?
00:29:22.220
Harsby, the vegano himself was a lightning rod.
00:29:23.800
Um, um, uh, LifeSite is a great beacon, uh, and light, uh, uh, of truth in this very dark sky.
00:29:33.520
And LifeSite continues to shine, uh, amid other stars that are, uh, going dark and opting out
00:29:41.920
I just unfortunately saw on Twitter certain persons in the Catholic world who said,
00:29:50.360
Well, I mean, that's about as much sense as a weatherman saying, I will tell you the weather,
00:29:56.520
but I'm not going to talk about the sun anymore.
00:29:58.320
Or, you know, what's the point of doing the weather?
00:30:02.260
So unfortunately, um, we do have to get gritty and tell the truth about what sometimes might
00:30:09.640
depress people or, you know, say, oh, this is all bad news.
00:30:13.020
Um, it's a necessity to fight, to fight evil, uh, but that doesn't preclude us as we've done
00:30:20.380
There's been so many instances of, of LifeSite in the past, uh, shining lights on the growth
00:30:26.160
of classical education, for instance, homeschooling mothers and children, uh, back to the land movements
00:30:32.580
and all these sorts of really unique things that are popping up amid this crisis that God
00:30:36.760
is allowing to flourish because he never allows, uh, evil to, to win.
00:30:42.800
And I think we've, LifeSite has struck that, that great balance.
00:30:46.960
And those who criticize us, uh, for being way too far to one side, I'm sure they've given
00:30:53.860
So they don't see our, our, our balance and our, our great piercing insights to all these
00:30:58.340
things and are just unabashed truth of everything.
00:31:03.560
I think that's the last thing I would say about it is pray for enlightenment, pray for
00:31:09.120
wisdom, pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you and say, what is the truth about this matter?
00:31:12.740
And more often than not, when you read a LifeSite article, it's, that's, that's what it is.
00:31:16.920
It's really funny because LifeSite, we've, we've tried to be so open to the truth.
00:31:24.180
We are an amalgamation of people on all sort of the spectrum of Catholicism.
00:31:29.880
We, we have your, your charismatic Catholics to your, your ultra traditionalists, whatever
00:31:35.960
you want to call them, um, and everything in between.
00:31:39.320
But there's one quality that everyone has and it's orthodoxy.
00:31:44.380
And I, with a small O, love for our Lord Jesus Christ, acknowledgement of him as King,
00:31:50.180
the whole purpose of life being to come to Christ through his one holy Catholic and apostolic
00:32:01.900
And within that zone, if you will, there's a lot of room to play.
00:32:08.160
Um, there, there's, you know, uh, there, there's basic rules and then we're very broad.
00:32:15.640
And I, that broadness sometimes costs us a lot.
00:32:23.600
We have a deacon who leads us in our prayers, uh, every day.
00:32:28.040
And he always talks about the circular firing squad on the inside of this small group of
00:32:35.200
I mean, you know, we talk about 1.2 or 1.5 billion Catholics in the world.
00:32:39.440
Then you talk about the Orthodox community that still loves the faith and wants to practice
00:32:44.360
the faith in all of the commandments, particularly around sexuality and stuff like that.
00:32:52.440
And then when you recognize the, the, the, the, the problems of Francis and what all that
00:32:58.820
is, now you're talking about an infinitely smaller group.
00:33:01.920
And yet in that infinitely small group, it's a circular firing squad.
00:33:09.480
And so by attempting to still play with all sides, if you will, to still reach out and
00:33:17.000
acknowledge Archbishop Vigano, uh, to work with the canceled Bishop Strickland to, to reach
00:33:28.120
You, the, the condemnation that comes, the exclusion that they receive ridiculous, but nonetheless,
00:33:36.180
Um, let me ask you, you've, you've witnessed a lot of things, especially in the church.
00:33:42.700
Uh, you cover politics a lot for LifeSite as well, U.S. politics, especially, but what,
00:33:47.240
what in terms of political changes in the church have you seen that's been massive since 2012?
00:33:54.120
COVID-19 showed the almost entire hierarchy, um, uh, of the conciliar church, uh, bowed before
00:34:02.360
Uh, it wasn't just kind of a super true I was writing about back then, closing churches.
00:34:08.380
There was a, there was several weeks, maybe, maybe more.
00:34:10.840
I can't recall during COVID, um, when you couldn't go to, um, uh, a mass anywhere, even
00:34:17.640
land masses, uh, other than, you know, the unapproved ones, SSPX, et cetera.
00:34:21.440
And so that was a really, um, uh, telling moment, I think, um, also during the, the Trump
00:34:29.860
presidency, you saw the bishops take almost universal, uh, and again, they're taking their
00:34:37.100
Demonization of Trump and his policies on migration.
00:34:39.900
Um, there were times when the USCCB, as well as US and Mexican bishops wrote co-statements
00:34:46.560
and not only remember, do you remember when Pope Francis said, um, those who only talk
00:34:54.400
Only, only, they're not talking about building bridges.
00:34:56.420
Again, that exposed the walls, um, and the cowardice of them and really just on, on, um,
00:35:03.640
I would say, uh, unfamiliarity with church teaching.
00:35:12.920
It does not oppose not allowing in migrants who are overrunning your country.
00:35:18.580
Uh, and I heard this from someone a priest the other day.
00:35:23.140
He said, uh, a clergyman told him that for every abortion that, that takes place in a given
00:35:29.240
country, God sends a hostile immigrant to that country to take their place.
00:35:36.380
And when I thought of that, everything made sense because what's happening in the West,
00:35:40.820
we're completely being inundated, uh, with, with, with, with mostly young men, uh, who
00:35:46.320
are very much not Catholic, uh, who are very much against assimilation, uh, et cetera.
00:35:54.340
It's fueling the de-Christianization of the West.
00:35:57.700
So that I don't think had happened before, uh, in the early 2010s, uh, even before that,
00:36:03.840
you would know John, more, more John Henry about the, the Benedict era, but, um, those
00:36:11.440
And I think it is revealing again, as many Catholics at the time said that the church
00:36:17.420
is putting away its sacraments and we have liquor stores and Costco and casinos open,
00:36:21.820
uh, that shows you everything to know about those who are in control of the pseudo institution.
00:36:30.460
And, uh, they even closed Lourdes, if you can believe it, in a time when you apparently
00:36:34.700
need healings, they shut down the healing shrine.
00:36:39.100
And then it, of course, it followed in suit and, and really, uh, no one balked, uh, by
00:36:45.420
and large, there, there were places obviously, and then there was some underground thanks
00:36:49.220
But then you're right with regard to the, you might say interference in U.S. politics
00:36:54.860
in such a grandiose way that was based on falsehood.
00:37:01.640
But Francis actually had designs on that more than with U.S. politics because he made it
00:37:09.560
That's one thing that's so stunning to me is very few people realize Godetia da Exaltate
00:37:13.960
teaches the equality of abortion immigration in terms of voting issues to consider as Catholics,
00:37:21.600
which is stunningly false, uh, contravenes all of JP2 and Benedict's teachings and all
00:37:28.340
But wow, abortion, the preeminent issue, not, no longer.
00:37:33.000
And for those who still talk about that, they need to reread Godetia da Exaltate or disregard
00:37:40.320
it, which they should do, um, because it's false.
00:37:46.740
In fact, insultingly so, uh, if you, you're interested, go get Godetia da Exaltate paragraphs
00:37:54.720
It's, he even uses grave bioethical issues, grave in scare quotes.
00:37:58.320
Even I recall the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, right?
00:38:00.720
I think that was released during the 2020 summer.
00:38:04.640
And, you know, it talked about, uh, caring for the migrants, sustainability, environmentalism,
00:38:10.020
and all the campaign issues, Joe Biden was, it wasn't running on them.
00:38:14.740
He was just, you know, standing outside and waving to people.
00:38:19.540
So obviously the bishops, you know, they gave him a boost as much as they could, a Francis
00:38:28.180
So over the 11 years that you've been reporting on this, what have been some of your most enjoyable
00:38:35.180
One was, I wrote an article about why Catholics should avoid fast food.
00:38:43.800
Like, I don't know how I got inspired to do that.
00:38:45.440
Maybe it was after like a bad meal or something.
00:38:51.620
So I, you know, I wrote about how, you know, it's, it's junk food, you know, we're meant
00:38:55.300
to have meals with each other at home as a family, not microwaved in an oven.
00:39:01.760
And then, um, I, along with a co, uh, author, a friend of mine named Daniel Vasco, we wrote
00:39:08.280
a book, uh, we're potentially writing a book in the future, uh, called Catholic Race Theory.
00:39:13.340
And Daniel and I kind of came up with this term.
00:39:15.760
Uh, we wrote five articles, uh, about 3000 words long each.
00:39:20.320
And because, you know, the church, you know, has a teaching on this, uh, critical race
00:39:26.220
Um, but the Catholic response to it was, was not very impressive when that first came out.
00:39:31.280
So we came up with that term and went through the biblical understanding of race and genealogy
00:39:36.680
and Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
00:39:39.520
And that was really interesting for me as someone who's not much of a biblical scholar to get into
00:39:45.260
I suppose, um, writing about, uh, sports has been sort of fun to me.
00:39:50.000
You know, I'm a former athlete, uh, played in high school and I know you have as well,
00:39:53.140
John Henry, and it's always been sort of a desire that, uh, the sports, I wish the sports
00:40:03.900
I don't watch sports much all these days anymore, but, um, I think people kind of deserve
00:40:08.520
a non-woke, you know, thing, especially with all these transgender athletes so-called coming
00:40:15.500
And so I always like, uh, keeping the, that industry accountable, if you will.
00:40:20.560
And, uh, so those are some of the most memorable, I think.
00:40:22.900
Those are, are, are ones that I, that kind of stand out.
00:40:25.660
One of the advantages of having this all go so crazy is that when you do have a faithful
00:40:32.520
sportsman like Novak Djokovic, they stand out so much.
00:40:37.560
And when the U.S. was forbidding him to come to the open for him to win again, and I was
00:40:49.640
He first, of course, got hit by the whole COVID nightmare and, uh, you know, unwillingness
00:40:56.320
to bend the knee to the, the authorities and then later about God.
00:41:03.260
And our Lord was so faithful to him too, you know, um, that just to show a little bit of,
00:41:10.960
he's a, he's a man of great talents, don't get me wrong, but our Lord gets to, and he's
00:41:16.040
happy to be used by our Lord to, to showcase Jesus Christ.
00:41:22.420
And that's been for me really beautiful, uh, that, that aspect of things that go, and it's
00:41:27.580
particularly in the crazy times because it's, you know, when the lights go out, the, the
00:41:33.240
One of the things we get asked all the time is, you know, uh, I have a friend of mine, uh,
00:41:38.640
Michael O'Brien, who says, you know, your job is to swim through the muck every day.
00:41:53.400
It certainly involves the amount of de-plugging, if you will, or unplugging, uh, after, you
00:41:57.760
know, work's over, um, and using those, those spare moments that we have throughout the
00:42:02.000
day for immense quiet and solitude and prayer and reflection.
00:42:06.220
Because yeah, as you mentioned, I don't think everyone's really cut off with this, John
00:42:09.640
And I think there are certain natural temperaments.
00:42:12.200
I mean, I'm a melancholic, uh, cleric, uh, tendencies and, uh, not everyone, you know, I can
00:42:21.560
I, I, but there's obviously mixes of temperaments, but I think sometimes it just suits people.
00:42:26.200
And, you know, for me, I think it's always been a desire to meet the enemy, uh, where
00:42:36.340
That's in the church, that's in the state, that's in daily news.
00:42:39.720
And for whatever reason, I've always been able to balance that, uh, with, you know,
00:42:44.980
I go to cemeteries quite often and pray for the dead.
00:42:47.500
I go to adoration chapels and, you know, start my morning, uh, with 50, 50 minutes of
00:42:54.440
Alphonsus says is open the light of, of, of God, the window of God.
00:43:02.460
And, you know, so there's just some, I think things that I've been able to do personally.
00:43:08.800
Is it healthy for everybody to, to always read about this stuff?
00:43:12.720
But, um, you know, I've done plenty of things of good news in, in years past.
00:43:17.220
Uh, I've gone to many conferences and it's, it's always fun to do those things as well,
00:43:22.040
but it's not as I think difficult as, as most people might imagine.
00:43:25.220
Uh, at least for me, I've never had a hard time saying, look, this is the battle we're
00:43:32.760
If he's going through it, why can't I and keep my sanity?
00:43:37.720
So fortunately, some people may disagree with that, that last statement, sanity, but, um,
00:43:42.380
uh, I, I think I've, I, I think I've been pretty, been able to, to live through this,
00:43:53.600
If I didn't have daily mass, I don't know what I'd do.
00:43:56.020
I always used to be able to say when the kids were little, yeah, I, I, I survived the
00:44:00.340
muck by doing more muck, cleaning diapers every day.
00:44:03.320
But it is very grounding to, to be with your family.
00:44:05.980
And, and so that's been a great grace in my life.
00:44:08.040
Let's talk about the future because, um, a lot of people wondering what's going to happen.
00:44:13.560
And, you know, this, this Francis thing's going to end soon because he's getting older.
00:44:22.040
I mean, but people have been saying that for the last, oh, I don't know, 10 years or so.
00:44:26.120
Well, there's lots to worry about, but what do you see, uh, in, in the future here?
00:44:34.960
You know, the four sins that created Evan for vengeance are enshrined in almost every country
00:44:39.320
in the entire, almost entire world, other than pockets of Africa, where they still defend
00:44:44.140
traditional marriage, you know, they fight back against abortion, et cetera.
00:44:47.060
First things first is that we deserve worse than what we have right now.
00:44:51.580
I do think the weapon God will be using for our chastisement is in many ways, these individuals
00:44:58.660
who are coming into Europe and America who do not have the faith, who are hostile to Western
00:45:04.520
Um, we see that in church burnings and, um, and other riotings and things like this.
00:45:10.080
I just saw a video there a day of, uh, someone who was, uh, I think it was in Spain.
00:45:22.380
Um, I think it's divine punishment for turning our backs, uh, on God.
00:45:26.600
I mean, our churches are empty in Europe and the U S.
00:45:30.580
Alfonso says, those who are not generous to God do not expect God.
00:45:40.280
I do suspect in the West, on the United States, especially, um, you know, we're living through,
00:45:46.120
um, a time when we have the election coming up.
00:45:53.800
Um, but I've always said to others, you know, I think if, if Trump does get in, it's not unreasonable
00:45:58.400
to expect, uh, energy grid attacks, um, false flags, financial sector collapse.
00:46:04.780
Um, I, I, I would not be surprised if the country, if they, if they try to collapse the
00:46:09.920
country under his watch, I mean, they've, they've tried to, tried to kill him.
00:46:16.940
What's the next step you could do to someone to destroy their legacy?
00:46:21.540
I mean, you, you destroy the country underneath them.
00:46:25.540
Obviously it can be a version with fit with penance and, and, and sacrifice, but it's
00:46:29.580
not unreasonable for me to think that could happen in the country, in the U S it could
00:46:47.760
Uh, there's always been talk of Cardinal Tegel in the Philippines.
00:46:56.340
So what would be 30 more years of a Card, uh, Card, uh, Pope Tegel?
00:47:00.920
I've, I mean, um, you're going to have a lot of excommunications happening because you're
00:47:06.120
At least one would hope do what would incur that from the conciliar authorities being,
00:47:11.140
being Catholic essentially in the future, John Henry is going to get you, um, kicked out
00:47:16.320
of otherwise what's called the Catholic diocesan churches, I think.
00:47:21.640
I mean, there's obviously a lot of prophecies involved, right?
00:47:26.500
I don't have any strong views on, on, on any of them.
00:47:33.340
I think there's one, I'll mention two sort of possibilities because I could go on forever.
00:47:38.480
Um, the last time Mary appeared to Lucia was I think 1927, right?
00:47:50.420
So God's, let's say, giving us a hundred years.
00:47:53.420
Well, um, and we know typically a hundred years, that's when the French revolution occurred,
00:48:02.240
Uh, that was a hundred years after our Lord asked through St. Mark and Mary for the consecration.
00:48:10.700
People of the Old Testament were in captivity, the Babylonian captivity for 70 years.
00:48:16.360
Well, 70 years since Vatican II, which ended in 65, is 2035.
00:48:21.040
So you have there a six-year period, 2029 to 2035.
00:48:28.680
Now six is the devil, the devil's number, the number of the Antichrist.
00:48:31.840
Is it possible that that's ultimately when he'll appear and unleash fury on the rest of us?
00:48:38.880
Is it possible that, you know, some other cataclysmic event could happen before then,
00:48:49.200
I just think it's increasingly going to be the case that those who have, God has given
00:48:55.360
the graces to see this crisis for what it is, is going to ask a lot more of them.
00:48:59.520
And I, and I, and I, here's the second thing I would like to add to mention.
00:49:02.680
For those who are on this front line of this crisis, those priests in small chapels in the
00:49:08.680
middle of nowhere, tending to 15, 20 people with the Latin mass, unseen by the world, but
00:49:14.220
seen obviously by God, those clergymen who are going to have to consecrate bishops and
00:49:19.060
make priests without Vatican authority, Vatican approval, I think it's very possible that God
00:49:24.920
may ask them to be martyrs to, before he restores the church.
00:49:28.840
As I think he's, to the most, to those who have been given the most, God's going to ask
00:49:34.060
So I don't think it's, I think it's quite logical that that could happen at some point.
00:49:38.960
Whether or not any of this lines up at all with prophecies for the church, whatnot,
00:49:44.380
I don't have, again, particularly strong views on any of them, but I think those two
00:49:50.220
And I think the ultimate thing that we all need to do is to continue to go to confession
00:49:54.920
weekly, if not bi-weekly basis, just keep going to mass and say in many ways, Lord, let
00:50:05.600
God grant me the serenity to accept the things that cannot change, courage to change things
00:50:09.440
So there's things that you and I can't do, John Henry, in the church.
00:50:13.580
We can be a voice, but we can't consecrate bishops, ordained priests.
00:50:18.420
We pray that God will raise them up and they'll restore the church.
00:50:26.080
With such a picture, where do you maintain hope?
00:50:33.360
And I think in the rosary, especially, I recently just started praying the Our Lady of Sorrow
00:50:44.340
That's a complete gift because I had never, through my 38 years of being on this planet,
00:50:53.600
You know, there's a lot of things, you know, I'm still discovering about the faith.
00:50:57.320
And that, in particular, has been a great gift.
00:51:01.920
And I think Our Lady said, you know, in the end, she did say, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.
00:51:08.180
So everything in between, this world's passing away, you know, creation groans because of
00:51:20.760
We're here today, gone tomorrow, as the psalmist says, like a flower that comes up in the
00:51:34.180
Stephen Cox, your book, Navigating the Crisis in the Church.
00:51:41.520
You can follow me on Twitter, at Stephen Cox, or obviously tune in to LifeSite News.
00:51:46.760
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00:52:05.640
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