In this special episode of The John Henry Weston Show, we go behind the scenes at the U.S. Bishops' Conference in Baltimore to learn more about what happened at the Rosary Rally by Bishop John Strickland.
00:05:34.960Yeah, I thought it was absolutely beautiful.
00:05:36.220Everything that was done here today was done with the utmost reverence and respect for the church and for the Holy Spirit and for our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:05:45.820And just seeing all these people coming from all over.
00:06:16.520How do we explain these things to our children?
00:06:18.180How do we explain that one of the most conservative, orthodox, righteous men in the church is being removed from his position of power, right?
00:06:37.000I pray about it a lot, and I pray for the church.
00:06:38.800I pray for my children because we love the church.
00:06:42.000This is the church that Christ made, right?
00:06:44.760And so I'm confident long-term that our Lord will protect his church, but it doesn't mean it's not going to be a bit sticky in the meantime.
00:06:52.520So hopefully Bishop Strickland can persevere and keep doing what he feels called to do.
00:06:56.780And I think as faithful, we need to pray for our priests.
00:07:20.800I drove four and a half hours because of D.C. traffic.
00:07:24.300So, what do you make of what happened today?
00:07:27.700And what do you make of the situation with Bishop Strickland?
00:07:30.400Well, I'm here to pray with Bishop Strickland because I think that what happened to him was there is a very small precedent for the removal of a bishop without any canonical process.
00:07:42.560But the problem is that Pope Francis superseded all canonical norms in order to remove him.
00:07:48.860There are only four ways by which a bishop is removed from his office.
00:07:52.040One is the death of the bishop, or he is transferred to another diocese, or he resigns.
00:07:57.220But the fourth way by which a bishop is removed is what's called privation.
00:08:01.800And privation is a punishment for an ecclesiastical crime.
00:08:05.140But Bishop Strickland has not been charged, he's not been accused, and he's not been found guilty of any canonical crimes.
00:08:11.900He's just been punished without due process.
00:08:15.160And that's why on Twitter I actually said the morning that I found out that Pope Francis acted like a Soviet-era dictator.
00:08:31.720You've reported for years on the infidelity of the bishops, the bishops' conference particularly, funding pro-abortion ventures, funding anti-life, anti-family ventures, supporting homosexuality.
00:08:45.580Even back in the day when you were with American Life League before, about the scandal of the U.S. bishops giving Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians.
00:08:57.680They are running a Eucharistic Congress next year.
00:09:01.700Tell me about what you think of the fact that they want to run a Eucharistic Congress in light of the fact that they are still giving Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians.
00:09:10.100Well, that really is kind of a huge problem.
00:09:12.200It's not just the pro-abortion politicians, but they're now talking about giving communion to divorced and remarried Catholics.
00:09:17.580They're talking about giving communion to active homosexual couples, which is a huge scandal, but it also endangers the souls that are approaching for communion.
00:09:26.400So, when they're talking about a Eucharistic revival, it seems to me more what they're talking about is expanding those to whom communion can be given, which is a massive scandal.
00:09:37.180It's going to have the opposite effect.
00:09:38.760When you have that much sacrilege being committed on a mass scale, it can only bring about the wrath of God.
00:09:45.120And I very much fear for what's going to happen because of it.
00:09:47.920So, you're standing here holding a relic of Pope Pius X. Tell us about that.
00:09:55.060And what does Pope Pius X mean to you?
00:09:57.200Pope St. Pius X is the Pope of the modernist errors.
00:10:01.340So, he wrote about the errors of modernism, which is the prime error that is facing the church today.
00:10:08.920So, I brought Pope St. Pius X with me because I figured that if anybody really understands what's going on now because of those errors, it would be Bishop Strickland.
00:10:19.940And I thought it would be very special if he blessed us all with this relic, and he did, and it was marvelous.
00:10:43.420Because we come here to stand with Bishop Strickland.
00:10:46.060He has been one of the lone voices for us, for the people.
00:10:50.600I realize that I've met him several times.
00:10:54.200He is a good, holy, faithful son of God, and he is speaking the truth, and he's speaking the truth for us, for the people, so that there's no confusion.
00:11:03.960And he's putting his neck out on the line to help us, so I figured, you know, we need to come and stand for him and show him our support, because he's suffering.
00:11:16.240He's a suffering servant, but he's very, very holy.
00:12:14.780Jack Ames has been running this prayer rally outside, rosary rally outside of the bishops' conference for years now.
00:12:22.320Jack, what inspired you to start this?
00:12:24.700Well, just being a devout Catholic, I founded Defend Life, which is a grassroots pro-life group, proclaiming the culture of life and fighting the culture of death, going back to 1987.
00:13:40.440Yeah, we had a bunch of the LifeSite crew out to this Bishop's Rickland Rosary Rally event outside of the Bishop Conference here in Baltimore, Maryland.
00:13:50.620And Louis Kanufki was for a time a Rome correspondent of ours, now a U.S. correspondent.
00:13:57.100Behind the camera here is Michael Hogan and John Paul Gutschke, also here, another videographer as well.
00:14:04.300Doug Mainwaring, our chief correspondent in the United States, was here as well.
00:14:10.660Louis, what's your takeaway from the event?
00:14:13.100Well, so I came today to support Bishop Strickland, to assure him of our prayers.
00:14:18.720I did receive his blessing also after the Rosary.
00:14:22.360And before I came, one of my friends back in D.C. who's at Catholic University asked me to tell the Bishop that those who are studying philosophy and theology at Catholic University also wish to show their support.
00:14:38.840And they wanted me to thank him for his courage in speaking up the, you know, defending the truth of the faith.
00:14:44.160And what struck me today is, you know, our Lord tells the apostles, do not be afraid.
00:14:49.480And John Paul II often repeated that phrase also, do not be afraid.
00:14:53.080And he is definitely an example of that.
00:14:58.600And I think the fallout from his removal will be that more bishops and priests also take courage to speak out and to defend the truth of the gospel.
00:15:12.240And I think it's very clear that he has done that.
00:15:15.360And his witness is very, very appreciated.