The John-Henry Westen Show - Archbishop Viganò endorses LifeSite journalist's book on the crisis in the Church

00:00:00.000 Martin Luther, the heretic, he led souls to hell, and there's been visions of him in hell. 0.52

00:00:04.960 He's worse than any natural so-called genocidal dictator.

00:00:07.880 Now, what does that make Francis?

00:00:09.180 Francis is leading souls in a similar way.

00:00:19.860 On this episode of the John Henry Weston Show, I am very pleased to bring to you one of LifeSite's

00:00:24.800 own journalists who's been with us for seven years, but he's been a Catholic reporter before

00:00:29.640 LifeSite for four years.

00:00:31.720 You'll notice that's 11 years.

00:00:33.040 That's the whole of the pontificate of Pope Francis, and he's just come out with a new

00:00:37.680 book called Navigating the Crisis in the Church, and it's going to be a fascinating conversation

00:00:43.980 for this journalist who has followed Francis from his beginning and followed, therefore,

00:00:49.920 the crisis of the church from the beginning as a traditional Catholic.

00:00:53.240 Stay tuned for this episode of the John Henry Weston Show with guest Stephen Cox.

00:00:57.180 For U.S. residents, creating Will has never been easier.

00:01:01.760 Thanks to My Legacy Will, an online platform free of charge, you can now create your own

00:01:07.720 Will and choose to include LifeSite News in it.

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00:01:22.260 Visit MyLegacyWill.com slash LifeSite News.

00:01:26.840 Thank you for your support, and may God bless you.

00:01:29.960 Stephen, so good to be with you.

00:01:31.640 Thank you for having me, John Henry.

00:01:32.740 Let's begin as we always do, with the sign of the cross.

00:01:35.440 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

00:01:40.400 Amen.

00:01:40.660 Now, Stephen, this is a great thing you have, because not only have you charted what's going

00:01:46.440 on in the church in her most, you might say, the most crisis the church has ever had, but

00:01:52.340 this book has already been recognized.

00:01:54.560 You've got a foreword from none other than Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

00:01:58.960 Really good job there.

00:02:00.280 Thank you for that.

00:02:01.100 As you mentioned in the introduction there, I began really writing as a public journalist

00:02:06.620 around 2011, 2012, 2013, and one of my first articles I wrote publicly ever.

00:02:13.060 I was in my late 20s and still finding my way in this world, and I wrote about Pope Benedict's

00:02:18.380 resignation.

00:02:20.020 I remember at the time, I'd already been going to Latin Mass and thinking, wow, this is unprecedented.

00:02:26.020 What do you think of this?

00:02:27.100 And I recall talking with some friends, and they said, this is really bad.

00:02:31.180 You know, what's really going on?

00:02:32.940 It took a while to kind of get a handle on that, but that was my first foray, this earth-shattering

00:02:39.740 first in a 600-year event.

00:02:42.440 And so it's been a whirlwind ever since, as you know.

00:02:45.780 Post-resignation, Francis gets elected.

00:02:49.080 When did you know, uh-oh, something's really wrong?

00:02:52.840 Which just with regard to Francis himself, we'll go past the Benedict thing.

00:02:57.100 It hit me pretty early on.

00:02:58.700 I was, like many other journalists at the time, uh, you know, trying to get the benefit

00:03:03.360 of the doubt.

00:03:04.020 You know, we hear that still, uh, after 11 years of just absolute madness.

00:03:07.720 And, you know, I was writing for various websites at the time, uh, Catholic Vote, uh, other

00:03:12.460 websites.

00:03:13.240 And I was finding myself increasingly, over just a matter of a couple months, uh, disagreeing

00:03:19.000 with the prevailing narrative, if you will.

00:03:20.980 That the media is just biased.

00:03:23.140 That Francis is being misconstrued by his critics, who are always trying to see the worst

00:03:27.600 of him.

00:03:28.640 And, in fact, I, I wrote, uh, an article titled, What Pope Francis Really Said About Atheists,

00:03:34.480 because there was a big row in 2013.

00:03:36.700 Just a couple months, he said, atheists can do good works.

00:03:39.280 Uh, they can get to heaven, basically, is what he was saying.

00:03:42.100 Uh, and I said, well, no, I don't know if he's saying that.

00:03:44.760 So, you know, after four months, I think, of mental gymnastics, I just said, look, uh,

00:03:50.900 this is not good.

00:03:51.820 So, I wrote an article, I said, putting Pope Francis in context.

00:03:54.500 It was about 4,000 words, and I just let it rip.

00:03:57.860 I said, look, this is not translation issues.

00:04:00.660 This is not the media trying to criticize Francis.

00:04:04.520 Uh, this is not someone, um, who is defending the faith of our fathers.

00:04:09.400 And so, I was very fortunate in that, to not get caught up in all the excuses that

00:04:14.160 we, again, still hear 11 years later, Catholic Inc., you know, that it's the term we use for

00:04:18.420 it.

00:04:18.740 And, uh, so I was very fortunate and, and, um, uh, to see quite early on, uh, and again,

00:04:25.040 I had just come to sort of tradition, Latin Mass, just two or three years earlier.

00:04:27.980 So, that conversion was pretty rapid, if you will, to the truth.

00:04:32.120 And, um, fortunately, I was able to see through, um, a lot of the lies that were being told back

00:04:36.120 then.

00:04:36.960 Indeed, indeed.

00:04:37.380 So, if we go back in time, it, these things are etched in my mind, so I can't lose them.

00:04:43.020 You know, uh, I remember day one, um, it was Rorate Celi that came out day one with this

00:04:50.020 essay on him that was so condemning.

00:04:51.960 And I was like, what?

00:04:53.320 You know, gosh, give the guy a break.

00:04:54.860 And it was funny because I didn't watch the announcement.

00:04:59.040 I listened to it on radio.

00:05:01.360 And so, I missed Daniel's on the balcony.

00:05:03.900 I know a lot of people, they saw he didn't have the red shoes.

00:05:06.900 They saw the, the, that Daniel's was on the balcony and they were already freaking out.

00:05:10.740 I wasn't there.

00:05:12.040 Day three, when Casper said, when he said he praised Cardinal Casper as a theologian that

00:05:17.720 does theology on the knees.

00:05:19.340 That's when I, all the alarm bells went off.

00:05:21.000 And I went, oh no, oh, that's so bad.

00:05:22.820 Cause he, you know, under JP2 and Benedict, he was always, well, for those of us calling

00:05:27.760 him such, he was Casper, the friendly ecumenist and, and a real problem.

00:05:32.740 So day three is when I went, oh, this is, this is really, really a problem.

00:05:37.360 Well, see, I didn't know all the players even back then, John Henry.

00:05:39.940 I didn't know the Cardinals and all these players, but I, I had that same instinct.

00:05:43.560 I think all of us, um, sort of knew, you know, he's standing on that balcony.

00:05:47.380 He, he put on the, um, uh, papal stool, uh, for five seconds.

00:05:51.340 I believe later he said, carnival time is over.

00:05:53.740 And so I had a pretty bad taste in my mouth early on, but you know, like again, you know,

00:05:57.820 you tell yourself, okay, maybe things aren't as bad.

00:05:59.760 And by the way, the media was saying, oh, he's a humble, uh, man.

00:06:03.020 He rode the subway in Argentina, blah, blah, blah.

00:06:05.780 I never bought those arguments.

00:06:07.160 That was just complete nonsense.

00:06:08.820 Uh, who cares if someone rises to the bit, to the chancellor and the subway or

00:06:13.400 something, you know?

00:06:14.280 Um, but you know, so all of that, Francis, the humble, et cetera, it was pretty quickly,

00:06:19.040 at least to a newcomer, uh, quite evident as well.

00:06:22.100 Well, when the testimonies came out later about those subway rides, like he, he rides

00:06:27.540 in a limo all the way there and just before a block or two before, let me out here so I

00:06:31.700 can walk the rest of the way.

00:06:33.020 But what really struck me is when he did the suitcase incident, do you remember that?

00:06:38.200 One of the aides had went on the papal plane already and put his bag there and he was so

00:06:42.360 angry, he was like, go back and get it to me so I can carry it on the plane myself.

00:06:46.120 It was like, oh my gosh, it's a show.

00:06:48.780 Checking in hotels on his own, you know, riding in the, the, the, I think it was like

00:06:52.340 a Fiat or something, you know, Pope Francis, it's like, oh gosh.

00:06:55.600 So they definitely tried to get people wrapped into that thinking very early on.

00:06:59.980 It was.

00:07:00.700 And one of the stunning things I interviewed once, one of the guys who was inside the

00:07:06.080 Vatican machinery who was helping behind the scenes and they did this one, you know, little

00:07:12.800 special on the Pope where he went to eat with and greet the Vatican workers in the cafeteria

00:07:19.120 and it was all completely staged.

00:07:23.680 And one of the guys who was involved, he told me that, you know, they were all told, don't

00:07:30.320 you dare speak to him unless you are specifically indicated you're to speak to him because it's

00:07:35.920 all being filmed.

00:07:36.780 I mean, it's all a show.

00:07:38.840 Unbelievable.

00:07:39.560 But at the time, you know, nobody, nobody knew about that.

00:07:42.620 Well, let's get, let's get into your book.

00:07:45.740 Navigating the Crisis in the Church.

00:07:47.680 What's your, what's your subtitle there?

00:07:50.120 Navigating the Crisis in the Church, Essays in Defense of Traditional Catholicism.

00:07:54.420 So that's the title.

00:07:55.820 We hear all sorts of flavors of Catholicism today, but tradition is the true one. 0.62

00:08:00.400 Exactly.

00:08:00.920 So tell us a little bit about the book and why are you publishing it now?

00:08:05.500 Yeah.

00:08:05.800 Well, like you said, it's been 11 years since I've been in this business, if you want to

00:08:10.380 call it that.

00:08:10.940 I find it more of a sort of apostolate, a vocation.

00:08:14.520 And there's a lot that has changed, John Henry, not just since over the last 11 years,

00:08:21.200 but even before that.

00:08:22.260 And so the book is divided into two parts.

00:08:25.620 It's a collection of all my old articles from various websites I've written for over the

00:08:29.800 past seven years.

00:08:30.400 As you mentioned, I've been at LifeSite for seven years now, but I was involved in journalism

00:08:33.760 before that.

00:08:34.720 And John Henry, you might even remember, I interviewed you before I worked at LifeSite

00:08:37.440 for a little show called Magnifica Media.

00:08:40.780 My show is Church and State with Stephen Cox.

00:08:42.800 I think we talked about Amoris Laetitia way back then.

00:08:45.220 We were commiserating over the destruction in the church.

00:08:48.840 But the book is divided into two parts, church is the first part, and state is the second

00:08:54.140 part.

00:08:54.580 Ten chapters in total.

00:08:56.500 The first chapter is on Pope Francis.

00:08:59.660 The second chapter is on wayward clergy, where I talk about, among others, James Martin,

00:09:04.940 Cardinal Casper.

00:09:08.080 Cupich is featured prominently in that chapter.

00:09:10.720 Chapter three is Latin Mass, and chapter four is traditional Catholicism, and five is

00:09:14.080 Vatican II.

00:09:14.680 And then the second part of the book on politics begins with a chapter on Catholic social teaching,

00:09:20.360 U.S. politics, international relations, culture, and family life.

00:09:24.580 So in total, if you could ever stomach reading my stuff, I have a hundred essays in this.

00:09:29.420 It's 11 years of work.

00:09:30.960 So I really kind of wanted to write it, John Henry, to answer your second question.

00:09:35.720 Because, you know, people, when they find out, oh, I'm at LifeSite News, you know, they

00:09:38.980 say, oh, you guys are doing amazing, amazing work.

00:09:41.240 Tell John Henry, I send my regards, and I usually say, well, can you send some money

00:09:45.240 too?

00:09:46.320 But I also say, you know, here's what I've done.

00:09:49.240 I wanted to say to people, like, well, yes, but we've been in this crisis for a much longer

00:09:53.380 time.

00:09:54.200 And so here's what I've done.

00:09:55.660 And in case you're interested in reading more about the entirety of the situation of

00:09:59.280 the past 10 years, but also the past 60 years, here's a good book for you.

00:10:03.360 So I really wanted to reach people where they are.

00:10:06.320 And I think a lot of my writing is very simple and direct.

00:10:09.440 So most people who, you know, aren't really tuned in can understand it.

00:10:13.100 So that's really the purpose and what you'll find in this book.

00:10:16.140 You're a stellar writer for us.

00:10:17.360 And it's because our concept of writing is the same as yours.

00:10:20.960 It is an apostolate.

00:10:22.360 It's actually a work more of evangelization than it is of news.

00:10:26.700 And we use news as a hook to evangelize.

00:10:29.220 So we're really trying to get people to the truth, the fullness of the truth, Jesus Christ.

00:10:34.040 And you do that very beautifully.

00:10:35.620 And what you mentioned there about easy to read is so important in that aspect.

00:10:40.620 I remember I went once to Pontifical Academy for Life and all these highfalutin speakers

00:10:46.080 were there and they spoke in a language that was so inaccessible.

00:10:50.860 And, you know, it was hard, literally hard to understand anything they were saying.

00:10:55.900 And I went out of the room thinking, sheesh, this is like impossible to comprehend.

00:11:00.660 You know, there was a professor from CUA in the lunchroom there.

00:11:04.500 And I said, you know, I'm just not cut out for that.

00:11:08.000 I can't understand a thing.

00:11:09.000 And he laughed at me.

00:11:09.720 He said, you're not meant to.

00:11:11.900 This is meant to be a showcase for people's talents and smarts or whatever.

00:11:17.720 You're not meant to understand.

00:11:18.640 The less you understand, the better the talk.

00:11:20.200 I was at a very deep level disgusted because that's the total opposite of what you should

00:11:28.000 be trying to do all the time.

00:11:29.260 You're trying to get the truth out.

00:11:32.180 That's the labor of love that true academics, that true genius is, is translating the hard

00:11:39.540 work of study into what people can receive and take it and therefore appreciate.

00:11:45.700 You do that beautifully.

00:11:47.540 We were in Rome at the, it was 2019, right before COVID hit for the Rome March for Life

00:11:53.180 and then also several other conferences.

00:11:55.760 And it was a conference on organ donation.

00:11:58.540 And I remember going into that and you were the MC completely blind.

00:12:02.700 We had a number of public prominent speakers.

00:12:04.580 Dr. Joseph Seifert was there.

00:12:06.080 Dr. Paul Byrne, who I've actually gotten to know and interact with very recently and write

00:12:10.720 about what he was saying and I was someone who had on my driver's license, I'm an organ

00:12:16.160 donor because you say, oh yes, great.

00:12:17.960 I want to give the gift of life.

00:12:19.480 And then you get into this conference and you realize in very, again, simple terms, all

00:12:23.480 these very academic, really just powerhouses of an intellect sitting here and saying, look,

00:12:30.200 you're not giving the gift of life.

00:12:31.500 The body organs decay the second the heart stops beating and the body stops breathing.

00:12:37.800 So, uh, I fortunately, um, when my sister passed in February, I had this knowledge, uh, she

00:12:45.740 was in the hospital and not doing well.

00:12:47.700 And I said to them, look, um, we don't want this for my sister.

00:12:51.700 And, uh, by the grace of God, uh, he allowed her to have a natural death.

00:12:55.960 And, uh, but it's, you know, like you said, if it wasn't for that conference and for those

00:13:00.940 efforts to simplify the truth, uh, who knows what might've happened, especially to my sister.

00:13:06.900 So you're, you're speaking absolutely very, very clearly and truthfully at the time.

00:13:11.760 Tell us, Stephen, from your take of things, having basically sat through this and been

00:13:16.700 forced in a way to pay attention to it, um, what to you is the crisis in the church today?

00:13:23.980 Well, the short end of it is that we have, uh, men and women, uh, in clerical garb wearing 0.99

00:13:31.320 investments reserved for bishops, priests, uh, popes, um, and they're walking around,

00:13:38.660 uh, not defending or handing on the Catholic faith.

00:13:42.900 They're giving a imposter version, if you will, a neo-modernist, uh, variant, uh, what

00:13:48.700 I use, I call in the book a decaffeinated Catholicism, if you will.

00:13:52.060 Um, and, uh, the real Catholic, uh, clergy are those not occupying the offices in, in

00:13:59.200 Rome, uh, in, uh, the hierarchy, uh, in the clerk, in the curia or the seminary rectorships,

00:14:04.860 they're dismissed, uh, as we saw with various clergy in the U.S., uh, but especially most

00:14:11.120 recently, uh, and others who have faith and they are being excommunicated, uh, being accused

00:14:18.760 of schism.

00:14:19.740 And so we have a complete inversion, John Henry, uh, where the occupying powers in the

00:14:25.000 church, the authorities in the church, if you will, have created a new, uh, religion,

00:14:30.140 uh, one that, as our church at Vigano says, uh, often and writes in the book is the religion

00:14:35.280 of, uh, arguably the antichrist, but especially the new world order.

00:14:38.620 And it's a humanistic religion and Catholics, when they walk into Catholic lay people, when

00:14:44.420 they walk into Catholic churches today, or ones that say they're Catholic, they're not

00:14:48.260 getting the faith, they're getting, uh, something that their ancestors would have been found

00:14:53.360 entirely, uh, heretical, uh, something that isn't completely at odds with Tritium.

00:14:58.120 And so we have here a conciliar pseudo-impostor church, uh, eclipsing, uh, as has been told,

00:15:06.200 uh, through Marian apparitions, the real church, which at this time is dispersed throughout the

00:15:11.740 world in small pockets of faithful clergy and others who are, uh, again, deemed outcasts,

00:15:17.600 et cetera.

00:15:18.320 And really this began at Vatican II, which we can, I'm sure, talk about throughout this

00:15:21.860 interview.

00:15:22.280 But that's really, I think the short end of it is that we have, uh, uh, again, a deep

00:15:26.600 church, a deep state, uh, coinciding and collaborating with, with one another.

00:15:32.200 What do you make of the other bishops, the good bishops?

00:15:36.040 Because surely Strickland, uh, has counterparts even in the U.S.

00:15:42.380 as well.

00:15:43.380 Uh, but elsewhere in the world, surely Burke does, surely Schneider does.

00:15:50.940 This handful that is always speaking up, surely there's more than that.

00:15:57.900 Where are they?

00:15:58.920 And the silence sure seems deafening from my seat.

00:16:04.020 We have to remember that in any sort of system, if you will, in any sort of hierarchy, even

00:16:08.820 outside the church, there's a handful of establishment individuals, uh, those who are challenging the

00:16:16.100 establishment, those who are near the bottom, uh, and who want to buddy up to those who are

00:16:22.440 in power.

00:16:22.840 And this goes for communist politics.

00:16:26.100 This goes for United States. 0.88

00:16:27.740 We see, um, all throughout the West.

00:16:30.360 I mean, there's virtuous signaling right now as to who can be the strongest ally of Benjamin

00:16:35.080 Netanyahu and, uh, and, and Vladimir Zelensky.

00:16:38.420 Um, this gets you a lot of currency in this world.

00:16:41.340 Uh, the powerful and elite can give rewards and benefit you in many ways, give you platforms,

00:16:46.580 et cetera.

00:16:47.000 There's a lot of human calculation going on.

00:16:48.780 We have clergy who are not, um, you know, the cardinals, they wear red because there's

00:16:52.800 supposed to be willing to be martyrs for the faith.

00:16:55.440 They are not doing that.

00:16:57.920 They are, I think, um, their mind is warped.

00:17:01.600 They follow a syncretistic, um, again, humanistic religion.

00:17:04.960 Some of them are, I think, of goodwill, uh, in, in, in, in the institutions.

00:17:09.560 Uh, they want to do what's best.

00:17:11.100 They want to ensure that traditional leaning groups, you could say, are seen in a positive

00:17:15.900 way.

00:17:16.120 They're not excommunicated and punished.

00:17:17.500 But I think the ultimate end is that it's, it's a lack of faith and courage.

00:17:21.060 I mean, the graces that I personally see, I know not everyone agrees with me in Archbishop

00:17:25.800 Vigano, uh, and others who've been treated in his manner.

00:17:29.540 That's the mark of, of a martyr.

00:17:31.460 That's the mark of a, of a, of a, of a true Catholic clergyman who's willing to go to the

00:17:37.080 greatest lengths to speak the truth and not just here and there, but to really, you know,

00:17:42.140 when the lights are on, uh, state what needs to be said.

00:17:45.700 There's a lot of politics being played and to an extent there is prudence that needs to

00:17:49.860 be, um, uh, applied.

00:17:52.540 But I think in this time, I mean, I write in my book, uh, you know, Martin Luther, the

00:17:58.700 heretic, uh, he led souls to hell, uh, and there's been visions of him in hell. 0.61

00:18:03.700 Um, he's worse than any natural so-called genocidal dictator.

00:18:08.720 Now, what does that make Francis?

00:18:10.340 Francis, uh, is leading souls in a similar way with his daily remarks, the changing of

00:18:16.400 long-held teachings.

00:18:18.520 So why is it that those who are entrusted to hand on the faith, to be followers of the

00:18:22.860 apostles, all of whom were martyred, why are they not speaking up?

00:18:26.740 Only God knows.

00:18:27.900 Only, uh, you know, they should follow in the footsteps of those who've gone before them,

00:18:31.680 like Archbishop Lefebvre and others, uh, and speak up, um, and be willing to be excommunicated.

00:18:38.200 Because as far as my own personal conviction, uh, these excommunications, they mean nothing.

00:18:42.620 It's a mark of honor.

00:18:43.400 It's a badge of honor to be excommunicated from someone who thinks, um, you know, there

00:18:47.320 should be blessings for gay couples or communion can be given to, uh, persons living in adultery 0.89

00:18:52.780 or all the litany of, uh, of, of evil doctrines that have come out of the Vatican.

00:18:56.900 And so, you know, uh, I've sort of moved into the traditional world over the past 10 years.

00:19:03.100 And, um, so I wish more of these clergymen would.

00:19:05.840 I think that's kind of my, my long answer.

00:19:07.480 I don't have an exact answer, but, um, that's kind of what I'm seeing.

00:19:11.180 While all this is going on, the laity kind of feel lost.

00:19:16.240 What can the laity do?

00:19:18.120 What can Catholics do? 1.00

00:19:19.200 We're going to be continued to feel lost and be lost to an extent because we don't have

00:19:25.080 a proper functioning hierarchy.

00:19:30.060 The Pope is there to confirm his brethren in the faith.

00:19:34.080 The church is a hierarchy, right?

00:19:35.280 It all flows downward.

00:19:36.860 St. Alphonsus says, and I wrote a book on St. Alphonsus, he says, if, if the priest is

00:19:41.520 saintly, the laity will be holy.

00:19:44.000 If the priest is holy, the laity will be, uh, okay.

00:19:47.780 Uh, if the priest is okay, the laity will be bad.

00:19:50.580 All right.

00:19:51.160 So he says, like pastor, like parish.

00:19:52.920 So, well, if we have a bad, we have bad priest, we have bad laity.

00:19:56.240 If we have a bad Pope, you consider Francis the Pope, uh, we're going to have a bad messed

00:20:01.300 up church, upside down church.

00:20:02.760 So, uh, there are many efforts today to find common ground among different traditionalists,

00:20:10.720 conservatives.

00:20:11.560 There's different flavors of all this.

00:20:13.100 Uh, you know that well, but we're not really going to have unity until there's

00:20:17.660 unity at the top.

00:20:18.380 And until the Pope is confirming us in our, in our faith, until then, the best we can

00:20:22.980 do, uh, John Henry, in my many years of traveling and meeting different clergymen who are ostracized,

00:20:30.620 we're going to just have to live through this and grin and bear our teeth and cling to those

00:20:37.920 clergy, uh, who have, uh, not understanding of the crisis to keep us away from and not collaborate

00:20:45.040 with these imposters and usurpers in the Vatican, but have the moral and doctrinal understanding

00:20:51.420 to keep us out of sin, to apply and to recommend spiritual guidance, um, that, that will keep

00:20:59.280 us, uh, in prayer and a state of grace.

00:21:01.140 And I think in, in many ways it's, um, I, I, it may be a dark or, or, or, or, uh, negative

00:21:07.160 assessment, but I think it's just reality.

00:21:08.720 It's sort of like after the Titanic went down, right?

00:21:11.340 Uh, you have some lifeboats nearby, uh, you have some people kicking and in, in, in the,

00:21:17.800 in the freezing water, they have their, their vests on, they're doing their best.

00:21:22.520 Um, you know, those who are in the lifeboats with bigger institutions and bigger followers,

00:21:27.060 they might, they might be able to survive, yeah, but that doesn't mean holes can't appear

00:21:31.780 in their own ships.

00:21:32.580 So my point is we won't get out of this, uh, chaos, this disunity, uh, until we have a

00:21:39.500 traditional Pope.

00:21:40.360 And until then we have to provide financial, material, spiritual, uh, support for our clergy,

00:21:45.840 especially that's the big thing because we can't, we can't have a church without clergy.

00:21:49.520 We can't have a church with two or laity that's happened in many times, but the, the anemic

00:21:54.400 level of priests and clergy that are sound today, that's a state of emergency because

00:22:00.060 without the mass, the St.

00:22:01.080 Padre Pio said, uh, you might as well be without the sun.

00:22:04.460 I mean, the world's not going to exist if we don't have priests saying the mass and

00:22:07.380 that's the number one answer.

00:22:08.560 So, so maybe this is an appeal to young men, John Henry.

00:22:11.740 Um, I know you have some sons out there, uh, to become priests because that's the biggest

00:22:16.200 need that we have right now.

00:22:17.940 And that's stunningly difficult because most, uh, and I think moms seem to appreciate this

00:22:22.680 more, they are like, yeah, we need priests, but, um, we don't want to send you over to

00:22:27.580 the pack of wolves to devour you.

00:22:29.280 Um, which is actually a real concern.

00:22:31.080 Uh, it's terrible that way.

00:22:33.420 Look, we're going to have to adapt to the times.

00:22:36.000 I mean, uh, you might be, if you want to be a priest today, you might have to go through

00:22:40.900 some pretty rough waters, you know, maybe biblical times, you know, you might have to follow

00:22:45.180 around one or two clergymen and just get trained privately.

00:22:48.720 Like they used to, again, in the centuries after, uh, of the apostles.

00:22:53.220 I mean, I just think it is that bad.

00:22:55.080 And, um, uh, for, for certain souls who are able to take it, I think, you know, God's going

00:22:59.880 to give it to them and hopefully they'll make it through.

00:23:02.580 Indeed.

00:23:03.100 We, we had some stunning things happen of late.

00:23:05.880 You had Bishop Schneider, who is like the most conservative conservative.

00:23:11.760 He's very, um, you know, very careful.

00:23:15.140 He insists that the Pope is Pope.

00:23:16.740 He's probably the most, uh, uh, the prelate that insists on that the most yet.

00:23:22.600 He's done some pretty stunning things.

00:23:24.820 Um, one of the ones that he did that I found so shocking was that he gave a blessing to an 1.00

00:23:32.200 independent convent.

00:23:33.600 So a bunch of nuns who, who are outside the normal structure of the Bishop, Bishop Schneider 0.99

00:23:41.040 gives them his, his blessing.

00:23:42.480 So, um, I, I'd love your take on that because that's some of that messy stuff that you were

00:23:48.280 talking about before.

00:23:49.420 There's an essay I wrote for Kelly Family News about four years ago, uh, when, you know,

00:23:56.880 George Weigel, Robert Barron were coming after Archbishop Vigano, who was attacking Vatican

00:24:01.160 to, and I basically said, look, everyone's going to be given a chance to, um, get off

00:24:10.860 the fence, if you will, to pick a side.

00:24:12.640 Are you on the, do you want to have one foot in the conciliar structure?

00:24:16.440 Do you want to have one foot in traditional Catholic world where I think that's, that's 0.99

00:24:21.960 where we all have to be.

00:24:23.420 Um, and that's going to look very un-Catholic, as you said, giving a blessing to independent 0.99

00:24:28.360 nuns, uh, maybe having the Vatican look askance at you or say you can't say public masses.

00:24:33.640 This is, this happened in, um, uh, Southern, uh, Ohio with Father Kopczynski and, uh, Father

00:24:39.940 Shannon Collins under Bishop Eifert.

00:24:42.100 I think that's what God's asking people to do, asking clergy to do, especially to say,

00:24:46.940 look, um, the, the, what scripture says to those who do not listen to the gospel, it

00:24:54.820 doesn't say if it, if that's a, if that's a Pope or a Cardinal, it says, kick the dust

00:24:59.160 off your feet and keep moving on.

00:25:00.880 It says also the blind who follow the blind, this is in Matthew, both will fall into the 0.99

00:25:06.820 pit.

00:25:07.680 We have to do things in these times that, again, may on the surface seem un-Catholic because

00:25:15.400 who wants to disobey who you think is the Pope, right?

00:25:18.300 Um, uh, but we are in such a situation where the, and we always know this, the, the, the

00:25:25.020 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

00:25:39.800 times.

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.

00:26:26.420 Okay.

00:26:26.660 This happened with Bishop Powers over in, uh, Wisconsin just a couple months ago.

00:26:30.060 Vigano slammed him for that.

00:26:40.680 How can we put ourselves under these, these, these men who elevate, uh, pagan idols and, uh,

00:26:48.520 Pachamama?

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

00:27:05.480 future, the future.

00:27:06.440 And, you know, this is going to happen very soon here with, um, the passing of Bishop

00:27:11.000 Tissier of SSPX.

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,

00:27:30.380 measure.

00:27:30.720 But, uh, we're, we are in some times where it is, um, increasingly, uh, necessary to do

00:27:41.460 what's necessary.

00:27:43.040 Uh, and that's the best answer I have.

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

00:28:09.640 States.

00:28:10.160 And you can help us reach millions more.

00:28:13.280 Please pledge your support today for these billboards at lifefunder.com slash Christ is

00:28:19.780 King.

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.

00:28:32.900 I said, this, it's really messy.

00:28:35.880 And he said, yeah, it is.

00:28:37.320 So it is a, it's a strange time for sure.

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.

00:29:12.080 Russia is, is cracking down on LGBT.

00:29:14.720 Uh, if you've read a positive story about that, you're called the Kremlin apologist, right?

00:29:18.520 I mean, every, so looking back over the years,

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

00:29:40.480 of this great battle.

00:29:41.920 I just unfortunately saw on Twitter certain persons in the Catholic world who said,

00:29:48.300 we're not going to criticize Francis anymore.

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?

00:30:01.160 We're not going to talk about the sun.

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

00:30:19.400 many times, John Henry.

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

00:30:52.880 up reading us long ago.

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.

00:31:01.160 I mean, they're, people just need to pray.

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

00:31:57.960 church, that is universal at LifeSite.

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.

00:32:18.760 Um, but the infighting is just terrible.

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

00:32:34.920 Orthodox.

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.

00:32:49.860 You're really talking about a small group.

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.

00:33:06.300 And that is just, um, it's unbelievable.

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

00:33:23.860 out to Father Altman.

00:33:25.540 And he's just so sad.

00:33:28.120 You, the, the condemnation that comes, the exclusion that they receive ridiculous, but nonetheless,

00:33:34.760 that's, that's where we're at.

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?

00:33:52.700 COVID exposed a lot, right?

00:33:54.120 COVID-19 showed the almost entire hierarchy, um, uh, of the conciliar church, uh, bowed before

00:34:01.940 the state.

00:34:02.360 Uh, it wasn't just kind of a super true I was writing about back then, closing churches.

00:34:06.920 Yeah.

00:34:07.480 It was everybody.

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

00:34:35.140 cues from, from the Vatican, right?

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

00:34:52.100 of walls are not Christians, right? 0.99

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.

00:35:06.060 Uh, I've written several articles.

00:35:07.920 The Catholic church does not oppose borders.

00:35:10.520 It does not oppose restricting immigration.

00:35:12.920 It does not oppose not allowing in migrants who are overrunning your country. 1.00

00:35:18.040 Okay.

00:35:18.580 Uh, and I heard this from someone a priest the other day.

00:35:20.480 It was, it was a fascinating insight.

00:35:21.620 I want to share it.

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. 1.00

00:35:35.340 Okay.

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.

00:35:52.040 And the, the church is part of this.

00:35:54.340 It's fueling the de-Christianization of the West. 0.95

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

00:36:09.100 two kind of stand out the most.

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.

00:36:26.780 Rome shut it down first.

00:36:28.660 The Pope shut it all down.

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. 1.00

00:36:37.440 It was the most bizarre thing.

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

00:36:48.820 be to God.

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.

00:36:58.680 That was unreal.

00:37:00.060 And it's continued.

00:37:01.640 But Francis actually had designs on that more than with U.S. politics because he made it

00:37:07.840 into false church teaching.

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

00:37:27.380 the teachings of the church.

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.

00:37:43.960 But wow, it's, it's there in black and white.

00:37:46.740 In fact, insultingly so, uh, if you, you're interested, go get Godetia da Exaltate paragraphs

00:37:52.340 101 and 102.

00:37:53.520 You'll see what I mean.

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.

00:38:17.220 Um, but that's what his platform was.

00:38:19.540 So obviously the bishops, you know, they gave him a boost as much as they could, a Francis

00:38:24.240 particular, as they could at that time.

00:38:26.620 So you're right to remember that.

00:38:28.180 So over the 11 years that you've been reporting on this, what have been some of your most enjoyable

00:38:33.960 things to write on?

00:38:35.180 One was, I wrote an article about why Catholics should avoid fast food. 0.95

00:38:39.720 It was just something that occurred to me.

00:38:41.880 And, you know, it's like 3000 words.

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.

00:38:47.120 I was like, this is bad, you know?

00:38:48.780 So I said, I got to tear this industry apart.

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.

00:39:00.340 Um, that was a nice one.

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

00:39:25.120 theory isn't evil.

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

00:39:44.460 all that.

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

00:40:00.900 world wasn't as woke as it is.

00:40:02.220 Right.

00:40:02.360 I think most of us want that.

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 1.00

00:40:13.600 in and into women's sports.

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.

00:40:22.780 Yeah.

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

00:40:43.620 beautiful.

00:40:44.580 And every time give thanks to our Lord.

00:40:46.960 It's just gorgeous.

00:40:47.860 It's, it's absolutely gorgeous.

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.

00:41:00.720 It was, anyway, it was gorgeous to see that.

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.

00:41:19.380 It's amazing.

00:41:20.340 You've seen that over and over and again.

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

00:41:31.080 even small lights shine really, really bright.

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.

00:41:43.960 How do you not get depressed?

00:41:46.240 How do you like not be always negative?

00:41:49.660 How do you keep positive on life?

00:41:52.320 How do you do that?

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

00:42:09.220 Henry.

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

00:42:18.860 imagine a sanguine saying, I can't do this. 0.97

00:42:20.520 It's too disagreeable.

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

00:42:32.740 they are trying to advance the most.

00:42:34.760 And that's in the public domain.

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

00:42:52.760 prayers as often as I can.

00:42:54.060 That's what St.

00:42:54.440 Alphonsus says is open the light of, of, of God, the window of God.

00:42:58.040 Let, let that sun shine on your soul.

00:43:00.180 So you'll be ready for the day's battles.

00:43:02.460 And, you know, so there's just some, I think things that I've been able to do personally.

00:43:07.440 Um, I think, yeah.

00:43:08.800 Is it healthy for everybody to, to always read about this stuff?

00:43:11.720 Probably not.

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

00:43:28.600 in.

00:43:28.780 Um, this is the world God's allowing.

00:43:30.900 God's, God's going through it.

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,

00:43:47.720 uh, with a level head.

00:43:48.740 So.

00:43:49.160 Yeah.

00:43:49.420 He, he created us for this time.

00:43:51.360 He gives us the grace to sustain it.

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. 0.51

00:44:02.620 That's just great.

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.

00:44:13.360 What?

00:44:13.560 And, you know, this, this Francis thing's going to end soon because he's getting older.

00:44:17.980 He's got one lung.

00:44:18.880 He's in his eighties now.

00:44:20.200 Uh, it's can't go on forever.

00:44:22.040 I mean, but people have been saying that for the last, oh, I don't know, 10 years or so.

00:44:25.460 Don't worry.

00:44:26.120 Well, there's lots to worry about, but what do you see, uh, in, in the future here?

00:44:33.760 Where do you think we're going?

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 1.00

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 0.94

00:45:03.060 and Catholic values.

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.

00:45:14.780 It was a migrant who hit a child.

00:45:16.400 It wasn't his, it was somebody else's. 0.85

00:45:17.960 This is just barbaric activity.

00:45:19.480 So I, I do think this will continue.

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.

00:45:29.420 So as St.

00:45:30.580 Alfonso says, those who are not generous to God do not expect God.

00:45:34.500 To be liberal to you.

00:45:36.060 So collectively we deserve, we deserve worse.

00:45:38.280 So I think there's going to be worse on that.

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.

00:45:49.860 Uh, we don't know what will happen.

00:45:51.260 We obviously pray to avoid the absolute worst.

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.

00:46:13.180 They tried to throw him in jail.

00:46:14.660 They've impeached him twice.

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.

00:46:24.020 Um, it's not implausible.

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

00:46:32.880 have some sort of cataclysmic event.

00:46:34.900 As far as the church goes, um, you're right.

00:46:37.900 Francis, um, will, uh, pass at some point.

00:46:42.120 Uh, his successor could be, could be worse.

00:46:45.400 Um, there's been talk of Colonel Perlian.

00:46:47.760 Uh, there's always been talk of Cardinal Tegel in the Philippines.

00:46:51.520 Um, a man who's, who's much younger.

00:46:53.680 Uh, he's in his late fifties, I think.

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

00:47:05.100 going to have a lot more treads.

00:47:06.120 At least one would hope do what would incur that from the conciliar authorities being, 0.83

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.

00:47:19.880 And again, I don't, I don't, I don't know.

00:47:21.640 I mean, there's obviously a lot of prophecies involved, right?

00:47:23.500 Fatima, uh, different visions, et cetera.

00:47:26.500 I don't have any strong views on, on, on any of them.

00:47:29.600 Obviously the Marian ones are approved. 0.98

00:47:31.660 How do we get to those?

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?

00:47:45.020 So a hundred years from then is what?

00:47:48.620 2027.

00:47:49.340 So it's coming up, 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,

00:47:59.640 right?

00:47:59.940 16, 1789.

00:48:02.240 Uh, that was a hundred years after our Lord asked through St. Mark and Mary for the consecration.

00:48:06.980 Well, let's also keep in mind Vatican II.

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. 0.80

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,

00:48:43.940 wiping out the church?

00:48:45.100 I mean, there's so many possibilities.

00:48:46.320 I just don't know where to go from here.

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

00:49:33.160 the most.

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,

00:49:42.240 I don't know.

00:49:44.380 I don't have, again, particularly strong views on any of them, but I think those two

00:49:47.340 things in particular could well happen.

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

00:50:03.360 me do the serenity prayer.

00:50:05.600 God grant me the serenity to accept the things that cannot change, courage to change things

00:50:08.180 that can, and wisdom to know the difference.

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.

00:50:22.120 So that's what I think might happen.

00:50:26.080 With such a picture, where do you maintain hope?

00:50:29.760 How do you do that?

00:50:30.640 Christ said, do not be afraid.

00:50:32.440 I'll be with you always.

00:50:33.360 And I think in the rosary, especially, I recently just started praying the Our Lady of Sorrow

00:50:40.700 chaplet, the rosary for her seven sorrows.

00:50:44.340 That's a complete gift because I had never, through my 38 years of being on this planet,

00:50:48.840 never practiced that until a month ago.

00:50:51.640 And I don't know why.

00:50:53.600 You know, there's a lot of things, you know, I'm still discovering about the faith.

00:50:56.100 We all are in many ways.

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

00:51:14.680 man's sins.

00:51:15.460 So there's nothing here for us.

00:51:16.920 We're just spirits passing through.

00:51:19.520 These bodies are vessels.

00:51:20.760 We're here today, gone tomorrow, as the psalmist says, like a flower that comes up in the

00:51:25.520 morning and goes away in the evening.

00:51:26.920 So our home is in heaven.

00:51:30.200 So let's place our heart where our home is.

00:51:34.180 Stephen Cox, your book, Navigating the Crisis in the Church.

00:51:38.080 Where can people pick that up?

00:51:39.380 They can pick it up on Amazon.com.

00:51:41.520 You can follow me on Twitter, at Stephen Cox, or obviously tune in to LifeSite News.

00:51:46.760 You'll see the story when this video goes live.

00:51:49.760 Stephen Cox, thank you so very much.

00:51:51.180 God bless you.

00:51:52.480 Thank you so much, Trent Henry.

00:51:53.460 And God bless all of you.

00:51:55.160 And we'll see you next time.

00:51:56.920 Hi, everyone.

00:52:01.200 This is John Henry Weston for LifeSite News.

00:52:03.400 We hope you found this video insightful.

00:52:05.640 For more content like this, be sure to check out the links in the description below.

00:52:09.500 You can also follow us on social media to stay updated on the latest news concerning life,

00:52:14.780 faith, family, and freedom.

00:52:15.840 Thanks for watching and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - October 29, 2024

Archbishop Viganò endorses LifeSite journalist's book on the crisis in the Church

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