The John-Henry Westen Show

00:00:00.000 What's going on in America? What's your sense?

00:00:02.320 We have priests that have done nothing wrong but tried to stand up for the truth,

00:00:06.700 being canceled and shunned by their bishop and by their dioceses, okay?

00:00:12.060 We're having little children told that they should undergo operations that would destroy their bodies.

00:00:19.820 Let's do this.

00:00:49.820 Are canceled for being good and holy priests.

00:00:53.660 And this is a huge problem, but it's in Providence.

00:00:58.200 Our Lord has it in hands, nothing to worry about, but it is time for the faithful to step up.

00:01:03.500 The faithful are actually assisting the canceled priests to be able to afford places to stay and things like that.

00:01:11.680 And the canceled priests are actually serving them in terms of providing sacraments,

00:01:15.480 particularly when they're otherwise restricted, where Latin Mass is restricted,

00:01:21.180 sacraments were restricted during COVID and all of that.

00:01:24.220 The canceled priests were there.

00:01:26.140 Stay tuned for this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.

00:01:28.380 Hey there, friends.

00:01:31.760 I just wanted to tell you about something in case you didn't already know it.

00:01:35.020 LifeSite is in partnership with a group called St. Joseph's Partners,

00:01:38.460 because in today's day and age where things are getting more and more strange out there,

00:01:43.520 we want to be sure that, you know, we have some reserves of gold and silver

00:01:48.460 so that if debanking happens, which has happened before

00:01:52.500 and seems to have gone on with the truckers and everything else,

00:01:55.680 that we at least have some backup.

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00:02:00.700 We wanted to find a company, though, that we could trust with our investments like that.

00:02:05.760 And St. Joseph's Partners is such a company.

00:02:08.480 Obviously, by their name, you know that they're Catholics,

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00:02:12.920 You can go check out the shows I did with Drew Mason,

00:02:15.840 who is the founder of St. Joseph's Partners.

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00:02:21.460 And this is really for both support of LifeSite News,

00:02:25.400 but also for gifts for those people who sort of have everything

00:02:28.880 and you wonder what you can get for them.

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00:02:49.740 So it's a collector item coin, and I encourage you to grab one for yourself.

00:02:55.780 Grab one as a gift for that person who seems to have everything else.

00:02:58.520 They might like it very much.

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00:03:04.400 We've just printed under 10,000 of them.

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00:03:09.960 God bless you and thank you.

00:03:10.840 Father John Lovell, welcome back.

00:03:14.600 Thank you, John and Henry.

00:03:15.420 It is always a pleasure to be on your show.

00:03:17.620 Father, we always start with the sign of the cross, if you could lead us, please.

00:03:20.900 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

00:03:24.360 Amen.

00:03:25.380 Amen.

00:03:26.140 I want people to know about the Coalition for Canceled Priests.

00:03:29.580 We've already told them a little bit about it,

00:03:30.960 but maybe what we've not gone into is what exactly you do.

00:03:36.040 And I think that's best told by, if you can tell us a story or two,

00:03:39.960 of some of the priests that you've worked with there.

00:03:42.280 What we do that a lot of people associate with us is that we are a financial charity.

00:03:47.740 We raise money in order that priests can pay for canon lawyers,

00:03:52.420 if need be, pay for attorneys.

00:03:54.840 We're not just limited to the United States either.

00:03:57.520 We're helping priests across the world, mainly in the United States and Canada,

00:04:02.480 but not just North America.

00:04:04.680 But it's not only just making sure that they have a due process of law,

00:04:09.000 as important as that is.

00:04:10.960 One thing that the Coalition for Canceled Priests does,

00:04:13.880 which doesn't get a lot of credit, so thank you for the question,

00:04:17.100 is that we try to have get-togethers for the canceled priests from around the country.

00:04:23.560 In fact, we had one just in January.

00:04:25.560 About eight or nine of us got together.

00:04:28.400 Because one thing that these bishops do when they cancel as a priest is they try to isolate him.

00:04:34.480 And so what we want to do is to make sure that the priests have that fraternity.

00:04:38.960 Secular priesthood, diocesan priesthood, is not a religious life.

00:04:43.500 We don't necessarily live in community like they do in a monastery.

00:04:47.540 However, what we've noticed over the last 60, 70 years is priests are now living by themselves

00:04:55.060 because of what I consider a fabricated vocation crisis.

00:05:00.300 And what we're seeing now is the secular priesthood becoming almost a bachelorhood.

00:05:06.020 And it was never intended to be that.

00:05:08.140 I'm from the Archdiocese of Chicago originally.

00:05:10.700 And when I was first born in 1980, there were 450-odd parishes all over Cook and Lake County,

00:05:20.480 which makes up the Archdiocese.

00:05:22.240 Now they're gleefully hoping to have that down to 200 because they have so few priests to staff them.

00:05:28.320 And I remember just going around seeing these large rectories that could hold four or five priests.

00:05:33.960 To have a rectory, to even have three priests living in it now in any diocese is considered a large parish.

00:05:41.840 And there's not that community life.

00:05:44.320 And we need to get back to that.

00:05:45.760 So what the coalition tries to do is to try to have about twice a year a kind of semi-formal gathering,

00:05:53.060 not necessarily a retreat, but just a time for priests to get together, cook meals together, talk, converse, have a drink.

00:06:01.000 It's just something that they could just relax and get away from the concerns of their daily life,

00:06:06.840 of being a canceled priest wherever they're living, and just come together with brother priests

00:06:10.820 and just be able to have that talk.

00:06:13.180 And I think out of everything that we've done for the priests,

00:06:16.760 what we get the most feedback from the priests about is doing those retreats.

00:06:21.880 Again, it's nowhere fancy.

00:06:24.300 You know, we usually rent an Airbnb.

00:06:26.000 We just purchased property in northwest Indiana, a safe house for priests.

00:06:30.280 So we're going to be doing a lot of those things here.

00:06:32.440 In fact, we have the Easter Octave.

00:06:34.640 We have about eight or nine priests coming just to celebrate Easter and just to have that fraternity.

00:06:40.460 So we want to make sure that they have that.

00:06:42.420 So I think those are the biggest things.

00:06:43.780 When it comes to specific stories, again, without mentioning names,

00:06:48.000 it's knowing that priests can rely on the fact that we have their back when it comes to financial matters,

00:06:56.580 yes, with lawyers, but also so they don't have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.

00:07:01.340 They do not have to worry about where housing is going to be.

00:07:05.080 We're going to make sure, whether it's here in northwest Indiana or wherever they're living across the country,

00:07:10.600 they know that they have a bed and a pillow to rest their head because so many canceled priests are just kicked out all of a sudden from their rectory.

00:07:19.780 And it's quite sad because they're public people.

00:07:23.240 And when you're removed, even if the diocese doesn't really say anything, you know, the rumor mill starts up.

00:07:30.380 It's like, well, Father must have done something wrong if the bishop removed him.

00:07:33.440 And because that's the day and age that we live in.

00:07:36.360 And so we want to make sure for priests that have done nothing wrong, but have been sidelined, have been canceled,

00:07:41.660 that they know that they have a place to live and a place to stay.

00:07:44.720 And so when we get that feedback from priests of the importance of building up fraternity,

00:07:49.560 the importance of knowing that they don't have to worry where their next meal is going to come from,

00:07:54.020 that makes it worth all the while, all the work that we do.

00:07:57.680 What to you has been one of the most moving stories you've heard?

00:08:01.440 And again, no need to use names, but what are like the circumstances that played out?

00:08:07.020 A priest actually in my diocese, we have a dozen canceled priests in my diocese, so I'm not narrowing it down at all.

00:08:14.960 But just that he knew that there were so many laity, he's actually expressed this to me,

00:08:21.300 across the country that are willing to help him.

00:08:25.360 They don't even know him.

00:08:26.600 It brought him to tears.

00:08:28.560 It just simply brought him to tears because he thought he was alone.

00:08:32.020 He's been canceled.

00:08:32.940 In fact, he just celebrated this year, 10 years of being canceled.

00:08:37.880 And for him to know that there's so many people coming in of the laity that are helping,

00:08:45.020 that are standing up and saying, enough is enough.

00:08:47.580 We want to help support these priests that should be in parishes, that should be ministering to us,

00:08:53.700 is that for him it was just knowing that there's people there that care about him and are concerned about him.

00:08:59.720 And I think not just with him, but with most of the priests that we're helping with,

00:09:03.760 they are floored when they discover the network that we have, the people that we're in contact with.

00:09:09.740 You know, I mean, we'll have priests call us from Timbuktu, and we will have somebody nearby who could go to them and help them.

00:09:18.800 We don't have a huge network yet.

00:09:20.360 We're still building it up.

00:09:21.540 But, you know, for priests to know, oh, wait, you have somebody nearby that can bring me food or can immediately help me with the situation,

00:09:28.160 or, you know, a canon lawyer nearby, that, for them, that is a lot.

00:09:33.260 And so when we hear these specific stories, it is things like that.

00:09:37.100 One specifically, too, is we're helping a priest who's actually married.

00:09:40.720 He's a convert from Anglicanism.

00:09:42.360 And for him to just simply say, even though he loves his wife and he loves the married life,

00:09:49.340 just to be able to have a conversation with priests, to talk to them about his concerns,

00:09:56.800 he says it's something that he can't do with his wife because he is a priest,

00:10:00.880 and there's just certain things that priests can only talk to other priests about.

00:10:04.240 Father, what do you make and what do the members of your coalition make of what's going on in the church?

00:10:09.080 Because from the laity perspective, it's a zoo.

00:10:16.300 And I'm not even talking in just some diocese.

00:10:21.260 It's in, I want to say most dioceses because it seems so strange.

00:10:27.400 There are some really good bishops, and thank God for them.

00:10:30.520 And those folks who live in those dioceses are so blessed.

00:10:33.500 I hope they know how blessed they are.

00:10:34.800 But, you know, I remember Father Altman used to say, it's more than half.

00:10:41.300 And everybody thought, oof, more than half.

00:10:44.320 But then we just got the numbers from Germany on that vote with the German bishops of 38 to 9

00:10:51.960 in favor of blessing homosexual unions.

00:10:56.340 Total heresy.

00:10:57.680 But it's 38 to 9.

00:10:59.180 Yeah, there were 11 abstentions, but even the abstentions are horrific.

00:11:01.980 Like, what's going on?

00:11:03.960 And what's going on in America?

00:11:05.400 What's your sense?

00:11:06.740 Well, I would say what's going on in America, and I don't know if Canada is like this as well,

00:11:10.720 but it seems like America is about 30 or 40 years behind Europe.

00:11:13.960 But what we're starting to notice, especially since the McCarrick scandal, especially since

00:11:21.480 the COVID shutdown, and now Traditionis Custodis, is that the writings of Archbishop Lefebvre

00:11:28.860 are all of a sudden picking up steam amongst Catholics.

00:11:32.440 I can't tell you, John Henry, how many Catholics who've never even been to a society chapel or

00:11:38.680 met a society priest, and full disclosure, I only met my first society priest in March

00:11:43.820 of 2021, so not two years ago, is that they're reading a letter to confused Catholics and going,

00:11:51.460 wow, His Excellency is speaking to me.

00:11:54.280 And when did Archbishop Lefebvre write that?

00:11:55.960 The 70s and the 80s?

00:11:57.660 I mean, it was 40, 50 years ago that he wrote that.

00:12:01.180 And so what we're seeing is that America is starting, sadly, slowly but surely catching

00:12:06.760 up with the modernist problem that Europe has been dealing with really since the 19th century.

00:12:16.060 And in a lot of ways, America was sheltered not only because of two major oceans, but also

00:12:21.420 because Catholics knew that they were a minority in a very vibrant Protestant country.

00:12:28.880 And we might not like to admit it, but one of the reasons why Americans, even Catholic

00:12:35.820 Americans, are kind of the way they are is because of the influence of Protestant evangelicalism.

00:12:42.140 I'm not saying that's good or bad.

00:12:43.900 I'm just pointing out the fact that that's just how it is.

00:12:46.380 And so it kind of slowed what is going on in this country, but we are catching up.

00:12:52.640 And I would just simply say this, with all the good bishops that are out there, and I agree

00:12:57.300 with you, there are some excellent, good bishops.

00:12:59.820 We need, I think, a little bit more courage from those shepherds.

00:13:04.560 I love what Bishop Paprocki said.

00:13:06.760 And full disclosure, he's from Chicago.

00:13:09.060 I'm from Chicago.

00:13:10.000 When he was a priest, I used to serve his masses at St. John Cantia in Chicago.

00:13:15.320 So I know Bishop Paprocki.

00:13:17.020 I don't know him that well.

00:13:18.460 We haven't really spoken in 20 years.

00:13:20.720 Every once in a while, we'll be at a conference together.

00:13:23.040 And we'll reminisce about the jubilee year of 2000 and how much hope we had.

00:13:29.180 And now we're looking back 20, 22, 23 years later, and we're just starting to notice there

00:13:35.280 really isn't that springtime.

00:13:36.820 But even with Bishop Paprocki and what he said, we noticed that he simply started to backtrack

00:13:43.380 almost immediately, say, oh, I'm not referring to any specific cardinal or bishop, when clearly

00:13:48.480 he was.

00:13:49.420 Clearly we know that.

00:13:50.300 And I'm not trying to be uncharitable in that.

00:13:52.600 We just know that.

00:13:53.620 And so I always strongly encourage the bishops that do reach out to us privately.

00:13:58.520 They don't want to be publicly known that they reach out to us.

00:14:01.900 Stand up and know that you do have, maybe not your own presbyterate, but you do have a

00:14:06.760 presbyterate in exile that is willing to have your back, is willing to stand up and fight

00:14:12.480 with you.

00:14:13.640 And the laity are starting to realize that too.

00:14:16.880 The laity are starting to realize that it's the priests that are going to pass on the

00:14:21.400 faith and not so much the bishops.

00:14:24.060 And that's sad to say, because the bishops are supposed to be the successors of the apostles.

00:14:28.220 That's who they are.

00:14:29.380 They are supposed to be the teachers, the fathers, and the shepherds.

00:14:32.980 And we're not seeing that.

00:14:35.000 We do have isolated incidents.

00:14:37.760 And if you look at how large the United States is and how many dioceses, there don't include

00:14:42.140 Canada in on this, it is a very small number.

00:14:45.500 I mean, we can count maybe on two hands how many so-called good bishops that we have.

00:14:51.080 And I think it's just basically because St. Pius X's prediction and prophecy is coming

00:14:56.500 true about modernism.

00:14:58.980 And it really is the summit of all heresies.

00:15:04.140 20 years ago, if you would have asked me, are there problems in the church?

00:15:07.380 I would have said yes.

00:15:08.900 If you would have asked me, is it the worst that the church has ever seen?

00:15:12.420 I would have said no.

00:15:13.480 This is not compared to Arianism.

00:15:16.120 But now, looking back, not just the 10 years, but now looking back, because I'm a history

00:15:22.380 buff, especially a church history buff.

00:15:24.020 Now that I'm looking back because of Pope Francis, I'm starting to see that it is as bad, if not

00:15:32.820 worse, than the Arian heresy.

00:15:34.560 This is what we're living through right now.

00:15:36.400 And I want to give everybody just a small glimmer of hope that whenever the church seems

00:15:43.700 to be at its darkest stage, and we all know, John Henry, you and I both know, the church

00:15:47.340 is always in need of reform.

00:15:48.880 But when it's at its darkest periods, whether it's at the Arian heresy, whether it is at

00:15:54.360 the Protestant Revolution, men and women step up and they do tremendous things.

00:16:01.740 And some of the greatest saints that we still remember today are results of the Arian heresy

00:16:08.580 and the Protestant Revolution.

00:16:11.140 You know, I think specifically St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Philip

00:16:15.560 Neary, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Catherine of Siena.

00:16:18.700 These people came out of a crisis and healed the church.

00:16:24.520 All right.

00:16:24.720 And most of the people I just mentioned were not bishops.

00:16:28.460 And so I always want to encourage the laity, don't expect, as Archbishop Fulton J.

00:16:32.560 Sheen says, don't expect the bishops, don't even expect the priests to change and reform

00:16:37.880 the church.

00:16:38.440 It's going to be you, the laity, that's going to do it.

00:16:40.900 The weapons are clear, too.

00:16:42.420 The laity, their most powerful weapons are prayer and fasting.

00:16:45.520 Prayer, ultimately, the holy sacrifice, the mass.

00:16:47.440 But even when separated from that, God forbid, but we already experienced that once, you

00:16:52.180 know, we have the holy rosary and the devotions that the church has left us that we need to

00:16:56.700 keep up with because they are scary times.

00:16:59.740 Scary so much so that we were talking just last week about not only canceled priests, but

00:17:05.620 canceled bishops, sitting bishops like in Puerto Rico, who just canceled for not going

00:17:12.120 along with the, you know, shutdown of COVID-19 and just canceled.

00:17:18.700 It's unreal.

00:17:20.400 Father, do you envision a time when you might have a bishop as part of the coalition?

00:17:25.180 It's great that you mentioned that because I wanted to ask you about Bishop Torres,

00:17:28.560 who was born in Chicago, at least as far as I know.

00:17:32.480 We get a lot of questions.

00:17:33.980 Are we reaching out to Bishop Torres?

00:17:36.240 And our response has always been, if you're able to get his contact information, we would

00:17:41.740 love to send him a message.

00:17:43.060 We would love for him to know, because remember, all bishops are first priests, all right?

00:17:48.340 And so the Coalition for Canceled Priests is going to help all priests that are in need,

00:17:54.020 especially those that have done nothing wrong.

00:17:57.280 And so when I read the article in LifeSite that Bishop Torres did the wonderful thing of

00:18:01.660 taking a year back, a year of prayer to kind of reflect on everything that's happened.

00:18:06.980 And now that he's coming out, I would love, we're having, and you're our keynote speaker,

00:18:10.860 John Henry, our conference in June, we would love if Bishop Torres would come.

00:18:15.560 He doesn't even have to say anything, just to be there, just so that people can see somebody

00:18:20.880 from the episcopacy standing up for what is right.

00:18:24.740 I mean, it would be great.

00:18:25.920 It would be wonderful to see, absolutely.

00:18:27.620 So if Bishop Torres is listening to this, we would love to have a conversation with you,

00:18:32.080 Bishop.

00:18:32.620 We would love to hear your story and see what we can do to help you, especially when it comes

00:18:36.520 to canon lawyers and all that.

00:18:38.760 But I'm pretty sure as a bishop, he has very good canon lawyers that are helping him.

00:18:43.480 These situations are so strange.

00:18:47.300 The faithful are sitting here going, okay, this is really weird.

00:18:51.540 But only those who are awake.

00:18:54.280 Part of the difficulty we have is the crush on information out there is real.

00:19:00.380 And the cancel culture, even among the Catholic media, is there, and they're shielding information.

00:19:08.840 We saw this for a long, long time with Pope Francis, right, from the beginning.

00:19:13.280 In fact, even in the very, very beginning, LifeSite was trying to, yeah, must be another

00:19:19.760 explanation for this.

00:19:20.800 So we'd give excuses.

00:19:22.120 But about a year in, we were like, okay, something's really, really wrong.

00:19:27.840 We have to actually just say it the way it is and let the chips fall where they may, because

00:19:32.520 this is beyond the pale.

00:19:36.860 And now, nine years after that, every day, we have, you know, more of the same.

00:19:43.920 I mean, I found people tend to move at different points with different things, sometimes unrelated.

00:19:52.380 But people tend to get it with very different instances.

00:19:55.940 I remember one fellow, it was e-contact that said, okay, now I get it.

00:20:02.360 And it was when the Pope used the term for eating feces.

00:20:08.860 But that was it for him.

00:20:10.080 He had sort of put up with it till then.

00:20:12.580 And then after he said that, that was it.

00:20:15.500 Because, you know, it was just so, and I find it over time, we've seen the Makara thing

00:20:24.160 was a big thing for a lot of people.

00:20:26.280 The time when it was cohabitation is real marriage and has the grace of real marriage.

00:20:30.220 That was something for a lot of people as well.

00:20:32.000 When along this road did you see there's some very serious problem going on with the papacy

00:20:37.860 right now?

00:20:38.260 You're basically asking, what was the straw that broke the camel's back?

00:20:41.520 And you mentioned somebody with feces, which I hope everybody, the straw that breaks the

00:20:45.780 camel's back is feces.

00:20:47.140 But for me, I think it was, I can't remember the country in Central America that Pope Francis

00:20:52.100 visited, I want to say about 2015, and where the leader, communist, handed him a cross, the

00:21:01.380 corpus of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it was a hammer and a sickle.

00:21:04.320 And then Pope Francis came out and corrected that and said, no, this is exactly what I

00:21:09.560 mean.

00:21:10.380 This is a very good thing.

00:21:12.400 And that's when I realized, for me, that there is a serious problem.

00:21:18.320 Now, were there other things?

00:21:19.900 Yes.

00:21:20.380 I mean, the airplane messages, briefers, press conferences, the who am I to judge?

00:21:28.760 I wanted to say, well, you're the Supreme Pontiff.

00:21:30.400 That's who you are.

00:21:31.260 All of those things were warning signs.

00:21:33.340 But you and I have talked about this before.

00:21:36.540 There were also other signs where he would, like when he, his first trip to the Philippines,

00:21:41.560 it might have been his only trip to the Philippines, where he was stridently pro-life.

00:21:46.960 I mean, and granted, he was speaking to an audience, Filipinos, who are mainly pro-life,

00:21:51.380 solid Catholics, when it comes at least to a country.

00:21:54.640 Not many of those left, sadly.

00:21:58.180 You know, so, I mean, there was always this kind of back and forth.

00:22:01.060 And I always had it described that it was kind of an Argentinian thing to always, when

00:22:07.100 you're with communists, be the best communists.

00:22:09.360 When you're fascists, be the best fascists.

00:22:12.600 But when I saw that corpus of our Lord on the hammer and sickle, I said, all right, there

00:22:19.080 is a serious problem here.

00:22:21.200 And that's when, coincidentally, it's not really coincidentally, I think it's the work

00:22:25.860 of the Holy Ghost, that several of the canceled priests in Rockford started to get together.

00:22:31.340 And then we started talking to other priests outside of our diocese.

00:22:35.320 And then what finally got the coalition started was that we had a priest that was not only

00:22:43.900 traditional Latin Mass.

00:22:45.040 In fact, he didn't even know how to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass.

00:22:47.600 But he was very much wanting his parish, Novus Ordo Parish, English Masses, vernacular.

00:22:54.260 He wanted just better devotion.

00:22:56.680 And he was loved.

00:22:58.160 And they still went after him, still removed him.

00:23:02.020 And we're starting to see that.

00:23:03.520 And I always say to those that are out there that are saying, well, I just don't quite understand

00:23:08.460 what's the big deal about the Latin Mass.

00:23:10.180 I'm like, you want a reverent Novus Ordo liturgy?

00:23:13.180 They're coming after you as well.

00:23:15.220 They're coming after you as well.

00:23:16.480 And so we need to unite.

00:23:18.040 We really do.

00:23:20.800 Just a quick note before we return.

00:23:22.980 If you would like to stay up to date on LifeSite's coverage of the latest life, family, and culture

00:23:27.320 news, subscribe to one of our many newsletters by going to lifesitenews.com slash subscribe.

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00:23:37.480 please consider making a one-time or monthly donation at give.lifesitenews.com.

00:23:43.320 And now, back to the video.

00:23:46.460 There's a really neat point that Michael Matt made the other day.

00:23:50.600 He was talking about that very concept of uniting the clans, as he calls it.

00:23:55.320 But he was talking about it with regard to Pope Francis, saying he doubts Pope Francis has a

00:24:01.860 liturgical agenda.

00:24:03.740 He thinks that his agenda is about not having this united clans because the power of the united,

00:24:12.720 I want to say faithful in the church, but I guess most people would understand it as conservatives in

00:24:16.620 the church who want a conservative liturgy would be overwhelming to those who don't want

00:24:21.460 a conservative liturgy or a conservative approach to theology, perhaps, or especially moral theology.

00:24:27.420 And he postulated, this is Michael Matt postulating, that that's really the reason why they're going

00:24:32.340 after the Latin mass, is to break up the clans.

00:24:35.120 It's very interesting.

00:24:36.460 Very interesting thesis.

00:24:37.920 No, it is.

00:24:38.860 We don't help the situation on the so-called Catholic right, at least with politics in the

00:24:44.660 United States, I'm assuming in Canada as well.

00:24:47.420 The liberals, the progressives, the Marxists, they were happy to put aside their differences

00:24:53.180 to unite around something.

00:24:55.660 I remember when Barack Obama was first running for president, he was against gay marriage.

00:25:01.420 And then it was kind of like, oh, now it's time to come out and put the rainbow flag colors

00:25:08.100 all over the White House.

00:25:09.740 And it was just like, he wasn't really serious, everyone.

00:25:12.120 He was just being a politician.

00:25:13.380 You know, now he's the first gay president in all of this.

00:25:17.300 You know, they wink and nod and just say, yeah, we'll put these aside.

00:25:22.260 You know, we'll take half the enchilada knowing we're eventually going to get the whole enchilada.

00:25:27.040 We don't do that.

00:25:28.860 We bicker and fight.

00:25:30.720 We bicker and fight.

00:25:31.980 And that's one of the reasons why, to let you, John Henry, know and to let your audience

00:25:36.440 know, I hate themes.

00:25:38.620 I hate mission statements.

00:25:41.280 You know, when somebody asks me what my mission statement is, I say, pick the prologue of St.

00:25:45.800 John or the chapter six of St.

00:25:47.780 John.

00:25:48.340 But I'm going to tell you this right now.

00:25:50.040 The theme that we have for our conference is a house united.

00:25:54.000 And it's not just because we're in Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln gave that great speech

00:25:59.140 in Springfield.

00:26:00.920 A house united against itself cannot stand.

00:26:03.380 Again, quoting our Lord, quoting scripture, but because we have to realize that we have

00:26:08.300 to come together and it has to stop this whole, oh, well, you only go to the traditional

00:26:12.980 Latin mass.

00:26:13.660 You're a little too extreme for me or vice versa.

00:26:16.060 You're not wearing a manteleta when you come into church.

00:26:18.640 I'm not going to speak to you.

00:26:20.080 We have to put aside those little differences.

00:26:23.720 Conversations are needed.

00:26:25.840 Sure.

00:26:26.560 Absolutely.

00:26:27.100 I don't agree with that.

00:26:28.040 But we have babies still being slaughtered in the womb.

00:26:32.100 We have priests that have done nothing wrong, but try to stand up for the truth, being canceled

00:26:37.640 and shunned by their bishop and by their dioceses.

00:26:41.820 OK, we're having little children told that they should undergo operations that would destroy

00:26:48.960 their bodies.

00:26:50.460 One of the things that you mentioned earlier, which I think is really fascinating, is that

00:26:55.160 Pope Francis does tend to correct people who try and massage his message so it's not that

00:27:02.140 offensive.

00:27:03.460 So just like with the, what would you call it, the communist crucifix given to him by

00:27:13.300 Eva Morales in Bolivia, there was that controversy at the beginning of the Pachamama idolatry, if

00:27:20.280 you remember.

00:27:20.680 Remember, right away we had voices saying, no, no, it's not idols.

00:27:24.780 It's the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Elizabeth.

00:27:27.300 And they're both pregnant and they're both seeing each other.

00:27:30.360 And that's what it is.

00:27:31.780 We're like a nude Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Elizabeth.

00:27:35.960 I don't think so.

00:27:37.180 But remember, it was actually Pope Francis who clarified.

00:27:41.460 He was caught on a mic and it was overheard by the media saying, no, the Pachamama.

00:27:48.520 So he does make that clarification every once in a while.

00:27:52.680 But that should alarm people all by itself because he's acknowledging what?

00:27:58.640 That they are going into heresy and accepting all these things?

00:28:03.300 Very, very strange.

00:28:04.800 I wanted to ask you too, Father, what's your take on this new rite of the mass being proposed

00:28:10.460 for acceptance in May?

00:28:12.420 I don't know if you've seen much of it.

00:28:13.740 LifeSite News broke this story.

00:28:14.860 Dr. Micah Hickson first found out about it.

00:28:19.160 Then when she contacted Cardinal Arizmendi, who is the cardinal in charge of all of that,

00:28:24.200 he actually sent her the draft rite of the mass that's going up for approval in May.

00:28:29.140 But have you been able to see any of that?

00:28:30.860 And what do you think of it?

00:28:31.720 I'm going to just tell you right now, it's trying to solidify the Pachamama.

00:28:35.680 It's trying to solidify what they did.

00:28:38.420 And it was very heartbreaking for me because that was the same weekend that John Henry

00:28:45.800 Newman was canonized, who I have great devotion to.

00:28:51.700 And to see that happening basically the same week or the same weekend, I thought, what is

00:28:59.400 this great convert to the Catholic faith of just two centuries ago thinking now of what's

00:29:05.740 going on.

00:29:06.280 Now, granted, he's in heaven.

00:29:07.640 Granted, he's seeing the beatific vision, at least spiritually.

00:29:11.620 He knows the outcome.

00:29:13.660 But it's just amazing to see that they're basically trying to codify what they're doing.

00:29:23.420 They did this, if you remember, early on in his pontificate.

00:29:26.100 One of the first things he did that was a real shocker was he washed the feet of women on

00:29:32.120 Holy Thursday.

00:29:33.060 We're coming up on Holy Thursday.

00:29:35.400 And so what did they do?

00:29:36.700 They codified it.

00:29:37.980 They said, yeah, you can do it.

00:29:39.700 OK, then when there was this great debate about whether or not there should be, quote unquote,

00:29:46.940 altar girls, what did they do?

00:29:49.620 Well, now women can be lecters and acolytes.

00:29:52.060 OK, so what I see with this Mayan right is them basically saying, well, we're codifying

00:29:57.640 it.

00:29:57.920 We're putting it in the act of the status postilier so that you cannot argue with it.

00:30:03.760 OK, we're making it part of the teaching.

00:30:06.020 And then I think what they're also trying to do, I mean, I don't mean to get too much

00:30:09.860 in the conspiracy theories here, but I think they're wondering how far is the neocon, neoliberal

00:30:14.740 media, the ones that always try to defend, what's going to be their breaking point?

00:30:19.560 And because we know that they have a breaking point, too, at a certain point, there's going

00:30:23.980 to be a breaking point.

00:30:24.720 And there was very much at the beginning of his pontificate kind of an attack on John

00:30:30.840 Paul II, theology of the body, the John Paul II Institute.

00:30:35.640 And then they kind of pulled back a little bit.

00:30:37.980 But what did they systematically do?

00:30:39.780 They just started replacing everyone at the John Paul II Institute and putting in all of

00:30:45.060 these liberals, Marxists, and just completely throwing that out quietly and surely.

00:30:50.740 So I think that what we see in this Mayan right is them basically saying, we told you

00:30:56.120 there was nothing wrong with it.

00:30:57.440 And now we're codifying it, saying that you have to follow it, especially if you're in

00:31:01.860 the Amazon, which is quite sad.

00:31:04.560 This indication of the beginning with the washing the feet is very interesting, Father.

00:31:09.220 Particularly if we look at the new Mayan right there, proving part of it was this ordination

00:31:16.440 of deacons in a weird way that almost seems to be hinting at ordaining their wives as well.

00:31:22.860 And that washing the feet, well, you explain to us, what significance did our Lord have in

00:31:28.420 washing the feet of the apostles?

00:31:30.080 And why were there only men?

00:31:31.160 Why didn't he wash the feet of his mother, who was right there?

00:31:33.100 As far as we know, at least as far as I know, at the institution of the sacred priesthood,

00:31:39.700 it was just the apostles that were there, including Judas.

00:31:44.120 And the washing of the feet was to show him as the high priest commissioning them to go

00:31:53.780 out to be the priests of this new covenant.

00:31:57.300 And what we see in the older rites, and I'm talking about 355, not 62, because they were

00:32:04.620 already changing things, and I'm not criticizing that.

00:32:07.380 I'm just pointing out a fact that you mainly only saw the washing of feet in the cathedral

00:32:14.240 where the bishop chose, oh, there was John Paul II or Pope Benedict.

00:32:18.900 It was always priests.

00:32:20.180 It was always to show that.

00:32:22.140 And then it started to get relaxed a little bit, even in the traditional rite, where it

00:32:25.760 was, okay, it's men, and you do it outside of Mass, and then you do it inside of Mass,

00:32:30.740 and now you do this.

00:32:31.660 But the whole point was, is receiving that mandatum, that mandate to go out and to be

00:32:38.780 the priests of the new covenant.

00:32:40.800 It's not the only thing.

00:32:42.600 It's not even the most important thing.

00:32:43.860 What's the most important thing that happened at the Last Supper?

00:32:46.440 The institution of the Holy Eucharist, along with the institution of the sacred priesthood.

00:32:52.080 And so what they're starting to signify is that they're wanting to say whether it is

00:32:59.000 allowing women's feet to be washed, which I think does a disservice, allowing them to

00:33:04.380 serve at the altar, which again, and we're going to have a whole conversation about how

00:33:07.880 I think it's a disservice to have women do that, to have them be acolytes or lectors.

00:33:13.380 They're just trying to slowly but surely change the attitude so they can eventually open up

00:33:20.160 to deaconesses.

00:33:21.420 And we know, John Henry, that what we call deaconesses in the ancient church is not what

00:33:26.740 they want.

00:33:27.340 What they want is basically female deacons, claiming the gospel, preaching, giving the

00:33:32.600 sacraments.

00:33:33.940 You know, that is not what the deaconesses of the ancient church did.

00:33:36.460 What the deaconesses of the ancient church did was assist in the baptisms of women, because

00:33:43.480 usually in the ancient rites, West and East, as far as I know, that when you were baptized

00:33:50.400 as a catechumen, you were baptized naked.

00:33:54.580 All right.

00:33:54.960 And just out of a sense of decency for the women, the women helped with that process and

00:34:01.760 they were called deaconesses.

00:34:02.880 But that doesn't mean it had anything in relation to the order of deacons, which we have come

00:34:08.840 down from the apostles, St. Stephen, the first seven, and now to us today.

00:34:14.040 That was a separate thing.

00:34:16.340 It looked similar for a few things, but it wasn't the same.

00:34:19.520 I don't mean to muddle on, but I hope that makes sense for everyone listening of the importance

00:34:26.560 of what happens on Holy Thursday is about the institution of the priesthood.

00:34:32.480 The institution of bringing about the service that priests have to do.

00:34:38.040 And for those that kind of wonder, well, why can't women be priests?

00:34:41.660 It's because in my opinion, and I think it's the opinion of the church, I know it's your

00:34:45.040 opinion too, John Henry, it's beneath their dignity.

00:34:47.940 Okay.

00:34:48.720 They are not called to that role.

00:34:50.900 Mary certainly was not called to that role and she would have shunned it.

00:34:54.280 She would have shunned that role that if somebody would have said, well, we think you should

00:34:57.880 be a priest too, she would have looked at them as they've had three heads on their shoulders,

00:35:03.340 I'm sure.

00:35:04.040 In persona Christi, Christ came as a man and he therefore instituted the priesthood to represent

00:35:12.440 him.

00:35:13.620 And he came as a man and that's not going to change.

00:35:17.280 Yeah, it's such a weird world we live in.

00:35:21.560 We're seeing a lot of this play out right before us.

00:35:25.360 Father, what are your final thoughts on State of the Church and the role that the Coalition

00:35:31.640 of Canceled Priests are going to be playing in the future?

00:35:33.920 The COVID shutdowns was simply a dress rehearsal for something bigger.

00:35:39.260 Again, I don't want to get into conspiracy theories or being accused of that, but I think

00:35:44.020 they wanted to see how far they could go.

00:35:46.100 And I think they were pleasantly surprised at how far they were able to go across the

00:35:50.720 world in shutting us down.

00:35:53.280 And so what I think what you're going to see in our lifetime is an underground church that

00:36:02.640 is going to be there to preserve Catholicism and to cancel priests.

00:36:09.520 They're going to be going out in order to give the sacraments.

00:36:12.640 And I think there's going to come to a point where it's so bad, people are not going to

00:36:17.140 go, well, let me see your Celebrate card or let me see your letter of good standing or

00:36:21.160 wait, are you with the Society of Pius X?

00:36:23.320 We don't want to have anything to do with you.

00:36:24.940 I think it's going to get to the point where it's going to be grateful to know that you

00:36:29.760 have a validly ordained priest that is willing to risk his life to bring the sacraments.

00:36:35.660 And for all of those that say, well, that can never happen, I will remind them of how

00:36:40.080 Catholic England was before Henry VIII.

00:36:43.980 It was called the Dowry of Our Lady.

00:36:46.540 I would remind everyone how Catholic Mexico and Spain was at the turn of the 20th century.

00:36:53.980 And in a few short years, look what happened.

00:36:56.320 I will remind them what happened in Germany and in Austria in the 1920s and the 1930s.

00:37:02.960 Persecution can come very quickly.

00:37:06.180 And anyone who says otherwise is not paying attention to history.

00:37:09.920 Very strange, too, because even before the lockdown, I got a bit of a warning.

00:37:14.720 It was off because my information said, you know, within a week, we won't be able to travel

00:37:20.700 anywhere.

00:37:21.500 So I told, you know, people this, some people, close friends and so on.

00:37:25.840 And it didn't happen in a week.

00:37:27.320 It happened in two weeks.

00:37:30.180 But the chagrin I got for telling people that it was going to be a week and then it

00:37:37.460 didn't happen was pretty extreme.

00:37:40.000 When it did happen the next week, it was like, oh, but it's amazing how things come because

00:37:46.120 no one really saw it, you know.

00:37:49.560 Oh, come on.

00:37:50.360 We're going to all get locked down in our homes and not going to be able to go even to church

00:37:53.600 or nothing.

00:37:54.040 Come on.

00:37:54.420 That's just ridiculous.

00:37:55.740 And then it happened.

00:37:56.660 And just think of how quickly and how fast, how suddenly that came on.

00:38:00.800 So in March of 2020, when they actually started shutting down the dioceses, and I can't remember

00:38:07.940 who did it.

00:38:08.380 It was up on social media.

00:38:10.580 I want to say Twitter.

00:38:11.680 There was somebody that kept putting a blackout over every diocese in the United States as

00:38:17.380 they were going black.

00:38:18.300 Because I know Chicago went one weekend and then Rockford, my diocese, which is right next

00:38:23.100 door, went the next.

00:38:24.520 And I thought, they can't sustain this.

00:38:27.220 They are dependent in the United States.

00:38:29.720 And for those that are watching international, the Catholic Church is dependent in the United

00:38:35.060 States on the collection.

00:38:36.240 So I thought.

00:38:37.240 So they're not going to be able to sustain this for very long.

00:38:40.700 They're going to have to reopen to get the collection going.

00:38:44.080 And what I noticed was, is that what many of them, Cardinal Cupich and his ilk want, they

00:38:51.940 wanted to see if they could move away from a collection-based church.

00:38:56.760 And so this is why you see the closing of churches and the selling of property.

00:39:02.680 And they're moving towards more of a mainline Protestant version of that they're hoping people

00:39:07.700 just basically leave their estates to the church.

00:39:11.340 I mean, in this country, we have a lot of mainline Protestant churches that we're kind

00:39:15.080 of going, there's nobody in there on Sundays.

00:39:17.780 How are they staying open?

00:39:19.080 It's because they build up an endowment.

00:39:20.600 And so that is what I think the church is moving towards, is building up an endowment.

00:39:27.660 And so they could say, oh, see, we changed with the times.

00:39:30.260 We're not dependent on the collection as much anymore.

00:39:34.480 And so I was kind of taken aback by that.

00:39:38.140 I realized that they were actually switching how they do things.

00:39:42.780 Some might say, well, Father, you're just being crazy.

00:39:45.280 But am I?

00:39:46.800 Because in the United States, the church doesn't pay taxes on property.

00:39:51.900 So that's the most valuable thing that the church owns.

00:39:54.540 And when they sell it, they make a lot of money off of it.

00:39:57.300 And we're starting to see this all across the country, not just in Chicago or Detroit,

00:40:02.260 all across the country.

00:40:03.500 We're seeing mass sell-offs in order to continue a program that seems to be failing.

00:40:10.980 Now, I want to say this, John Henry, because you and I are both people of hope.

00:40:15.360 I just interviewed on my show, Hope in the Desert, is that no matter how bad it might get,

00:40:22.780 no matter how bad I might be putting of doom and gloom right now, is that we have to realize

00:40:29.080 that the Lord has already won.

00:40:31.740 And I think all Catholics of goodwill know that.

00:40:36.040 But they need to be reminded of that, especially as we are now getting so close to Easter,

00:40:41.300 that the war has been won.

00:40:43.360 What we're doing now is trying to save as many souls before the end.

00:40:49.840 And we're trying to do that in the most charitable way.

00:40:52.860 And sometimes the most charitable way is to show how bad it is getting.

00:40:57.600 So for all of those that are listening right now, this is one of the reasons I love LifeSite News,

00:41:03.140 is that you want to not sugarcoat anything.

00:41:06.880 But at the same time, you're saying, sometimes you need to hear this bad stuff,

00:41:11.060 because it is so bad, it's going to wake you up.

00:41:14.520 It's going to be that straw that breaks the camel's back.

00:41:18.040 And we have to realize that.

00:41:20.160 But always remember that our Lord is in charge, that no matter what they do to us,

00:41:25.740 our, at baptism, our vocation, every single man, woman, and child, clergy, or lady,

00:41:32.000 we're called to a type of martyrdom.

00:41:34.000 And what martyrdom is that going to be?

00:41:36.840 Because martyrdom is martyrdom, if you look at it this way.

00:41:40.140 Red, white, does not matter.

00:41:41.920 Is that if you're able to give yourself completely to our Lord,

00:41:45.980 you're going to be able to walk into the Circus Maximus, into the Colosseum,

00:41:51.000 okay, and face those lions down and be a witness.

00:41:54.940 And so what I think we're going to see, again, in our lifetimes, John Henry,

00:41:58.640 is the church being built on the blood of martyrs.

00:42:03.340 We kind of forget, even though it was just last century,

00:42:07.240 that the greatest century for martyrs in the church was the 20th century.

00:42:12.260 And there was a lot of gains because of that.

00:42:15.520 And we kind of forget that a lot of that was clouded or lost

00:42:19.480 because of what happened in the 1960s and afterwards.

00:42:24.320 But we have to realize that we are called to that martyrdom

00:42:28.340 and that we will be, our lives will be a witness for others

00:42:32.080 to continue the faith long after we are dead.

00:42:36.400 And we have to keep that in mind, because if we don't,

00:42:40.440 then we're going to fall into despair.

00:42:41.780 And that's the last thing either of us want anyone listening to your show to do.

00:42:47.600 Father John Lovell, thank you so much for being with us.

00:42:49.620 Thank you for your conference.

00:42:51.240 You're coming up June 23rd.

00:42:53.980 So everybody can go to the Coalition of Canceled Priests website

00:42:56.640 and sign up for the conference.

00:42:58.020 I'll be there, as will Janet Smith,

00:43:00.920 Abby Johnson, and many other amazing speakers.

00:43:03.400 Of course, Father Altman will be there as well.

00:43:05.580 Absolutely.

00:43:06.180 So thank you so much, John Henry.

00:43:07.820 Have a happy Easter.

00:43:09.040 And please know that your wife and your children

00:43:11.340 are daily in our prayers here at the Coalition.

00:43:14.240 And God bless all of you.

00:43:16.020 And we'll see you next time.

00:43:16.840 Hi, everyone.

00:43:25.600 This is John Henry Weston.

00:43:26.720 We hope you enjoyed this program.

00:43:28.360 To see more like it,

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00:43:30.980 to get all the latest content from LifeSite News.

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00:43:42.220 Thanks for watching, and may God bless you.

'Canceled Priest' Fr. John Lovell Warning： Pope Francis Pushing Pagan Mass

Summary

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