The John-Henry Westen Show - Cancelled priests & the time for courage

00:00:00.000 Believe it or not, there are all sorts of priests who actually see the scandals happening

00:00:03.900 in the church and in the world, and yet they say nothing, or next to nothing.

00:00:09.240 But you know, there's some very real reasons why they keep silent.

00:00:13.860 Sure, that silent harms the faithful, but speaking up can have real consequences for

00:00:19.260 priests.

00:00:21.580 More and more priests are suspended, some for celebrating the traditional Latin Mass, some

00:00:27.080 for the Novus Ordo Mass in Latin, doing orthodox things, and still others for standing against

00:00:32.380 abortion, homosexuality, and contraception.

00:00:34.720 We are seeing this all over the world.

00:00:37.540 Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, retweeted Father William's video with these words of

00:00:43.000 encouragement, and I quote from Bishop Strickland,

00:00:45.300 Please pray for this priest and so many others caught up in similar situations.

00:00:50.320 Pray that priests and bishops may be drawn close to the sacred heart of Jesus Christ our

00:00:54.680 Lord, living close to his heart in the Eucharist, is our greatest hope for peace and justice.

00:01:01.000 Unfortunately, Father Williams was removed from his parish despite his valiant effort.

00:01:06.420 He posted a video update in June of 2022.

00:01:10.480 Have a look.

00:01:12.980 Good morning.

00:01:14.580 This is Father Peter Williams coming to you from near Roanoke, Virginia.

00:01:20.460 On the second day of my three-day travels to Naples, Florida, I'm driving a 25-foot U-Haul truck

00:01:31.180 with all of my possessions behind me because I've been asked to leave Springfield, Vermont.

00:01:46.660 And it's a—the truck was packed and provided for by my wonderful parishioners at Holy Family

00:02:00.800 Parish.

00:02:03.480 Several priests have been suspended for celebrating the Mass in Latin, even if they're only Novus

00:02:09.680 Ordo Masses.

00:02:10.320 It was in August of 2021.

00:02:12.780 Father Sixto Eduardo Varela Santa Maria, a priest in the Diocese of Alauela, Costa Rica, was

00:02:21.120 suspended by the Bishop of the Diocese, Bishop Bartolome Buíges Oler, for offering the Novus

00:02:27.800 Ordo Mass in traditional—and, by the way, still official—the tongue of the Church, Latin,

00:02:34.300 and facing the Tabernacle.

00:02:36.740 Father Luis Hernandez Solis, the Diocese and Communications Director, wrote a letter that

00:02:41.660 explained that Varela had already been warned by the Bishop against celebrating the Novus

00:02:46.640 Ordo Mass in Latin, and that the priest had previously celebrated the traditional Latin

00:02:51.500 Mass, and Bishop Buíges asked him not to.

00:02:56.420 But he continued to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass after the publication of the Pope's

00:03:03.900 moda proprio traditionis custodis.

00:03:05.960 It was explained that the punishments on the priest, such as being removed from his parish—get

00:03:10.660 this—so it's not only removed from the parish, it's also enrolled in a psychological treatment

00:03:15.780 center.

00:03:17.180 And they say those are two—are expected to be measures that will restore the ecclesial

00:03:23.260 communion and the priest's well-being.

00:03:26.660 Yeah. 0.95

00:03:27.400 So, you've got to be insane and sent off to an asylum to not do what the Church says you 0.99

00:03:34.160 should do. 0.96

00:03:35.600 It's kind of mind-blowing.

00:03:36.920 But anyway, the priest—obviously, Father Varela—has been treated unjustly.

00:03:43.200 It's even in canon law.

00:03:44.660 Canon 928 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states, the Eucharistic celebration is to be carried

00:03:50.000 out in the Latin language, or in another language, provided that the liturgical texts have been

00:03:55.500 legitimately approved.

00:03:57.060 In other words, Varela—Father Varela was acting within the bounds of the law when celebrating

00:04:03.000 the Novus Ordo Mass in Latin.

00:04:04.620 Hello, dear LifeSite family.

00:04:08.920 The very first Christmas was a dark time, with the world in the clutches of a foreign and 1.00

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00:06:40.600 And I pray you have a happy and holy Christmas.

00:06:43.780 May God bless you.

00:06:46.200 How we pray is how we believe.

00:06:49.180 And that is the key to understanding the battle surrounding the Latin Mass.

00:06:56.080 Why is there such a strong push to get rid of the old rite of the Mass, the old Latin Mass?

00:07:01.960 Why is Pope Francis and many of the high-ranking churchmen he has surrounded himself with bent on

00:07:08.580 stopping out a flourishing community of young people seeking to deepen their faith life with

00:07:14.380 a Mass that's the same one attended by the greatest saints the church has ever known for over a thousand

00:07:20.740 years?

00:07:22.400 What is this hatred for a form of liturgy or worship that, from an outside perspective, can

00:07:29.540 only be seen as a, perhaps even a neat gimmick to revitalize a failing institution?

00:07:35.420 It's like the return of old Coke, since new Coke was a sales disaster.

00:07:42.900 Well, the answer to this central question is contained in a Latin phrase,

00:07:50.480 lex arandi, lex credendi.

00:07:52.860 The law of prayer is the law of faith, or more loosely translated, how we pray is how we believe.

00:07:59.240 And that is the key to understanding the battle surrounding the Latin Mass.

00:08:05.620 Why are all the liberal prelates stacked up on one side of this debate?

00:08:10.740 Why the Pope, Cardinal Cupich, Cardinal Gregory, Cardinal Roach, Cardinal Farrell, Bishop John

00:08:16.960 Stowe, and more?

00:08:18.380 Why are all the faithful Catholic prelates on the other side fighting for the retention of

00:08:23.420 the traditional Latin Mass?

00:08:24.580 Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Serra, Cardinal Zen, Archbishop Vigano, Bishop Schneider, and more?

00:08:30.400 Well, there are all sorts of reasons, for sure.

00:08:34.520 But I wanted to highlight one reason that perhaps few think about.

00:08:39.580 It's at the heart of all the culture war.

00:08:43.480 All those liberal prelates that I mentioned would all be regarded as heretics in more Catholic

00:08:50.560 times.

00:08:51.580 They oppose the Church's perennial teaching on homosexuality, for starters.

00:08:55.960 They also oppose the teaching against contraception.

00:08:59.920 They fight the Church's encouragement for large families.

00:09:02.720 They waver on the pro-life teachings, for instance, in their glorification of pro-abortion 0.98

00:09:08.880 politicians and the insistence on giving them Holy Communion.

00:09:11.920 They are the opposite in these respects from their faithful counterparts, also mentioned

00:09:19.220 previously.

00:09:20.720 So, how does this play out, then, in terms of the traditional Latin Mass?

00:09:25.400 Well, you will find that attendees of the old Latin Mass reject all the new-fangled anti-Catholic

00:09:33.660 nouveau theology that these liberal prelates promote.

00:09:36.900 Check out this survey of Latin Mass Catholics compared to mainstream Catholics of the Novus

00:09:43.780 Ordo that we reported on at LifeSite in 2019.

00:09:48.700 The traditional Latin Mass national survey carried out by Father Donald Closter, who celebrated

00:09:55.200 both the Novus Ordo Mass and the traditional Mass for 20 years, he noticed big differences

00:10:01.440 between the people attending the two different types of Masses.

00:10:04.940 So, he decided to do a survey of Latin Mass Catholics to see where they stood on key issues

00:10:11.520 which were common to the surveys of Catholics in the general public, carried out by major

00:10:17.680 pollsters.

00:10:18.740 So, here are a few of the issues he looked at.

00:10:21.900 The approval of contraception.

00:10:24.320 The approval of abortion. 0.69

00:10:27.240 The approval of same-sex marriage.

00:10:29.880 And the results of this survey were astounding.

00:10:35.760 Pew, the big national pollster, found that 89% of nominal Catholics or of Novus Ordo Catholics

00:10:43.840 approve contraception.

00:10:46.020 That's 89%.

00:10:47.580 You know what the number was among traditional Latin Mass Catholics surveyed?

00:10:52.460 2%.

00:10:52.980 89% of Novus Ordo Catholics approve of contraception.

00:10:58.020 2% among traditional Latin Mass Catholics.

00:11:01.520 That's an unreal difference.

00:11:04.140 Well, let's look at the next category.

00:11:06.520 Pew, again, Pew Research found that 51% of Novus Ordo Catholics approve abortion.

00:11:13.820 Among traditional Latin Mass Catholics, it was 1%.

00:11:16.980 Also, Daily Wire found, in a massive survey that they did, they found that 67% of Novus

00:11:26.100 Ordo Catholics approve of gay marriage.

00:11:28.560 And among traditional Latin Mass Catholics, it was 2%.

00:11:32.540 Those differences are astounding.

00:11:36.700 It is unreal.

00:11:38.060 Go check it out at LifeSite News for the full story.

00:11:40.260 Check out the research, how they did it, everything else.

00:11:42.200 But to me, it is no wonder that liberal prelates in the Church want to stomp out the traditional

00:11:49.440 Latin Mass.

00:11:51.820 We recently had Pope Francis join with Anglican leaders from England and Scotland on an ecumenical

00:11:58.860 pilgrimage to South Sudan.

00:12:01.140 And I think just on the last night there, they all were on stage and they gave a joint blessing

00:12:07.020 in English together.

00:12:08.200 But, Your Excellency, you've been quite clear about these dangers which are inherent in such

00:12:14.980 actions.

00:12:15.500 I think you've mentioned before that the term inter-religious dialogue is itself very, very

00:12:21.920 dangerous and it presents a lot of confusion for the faithful.

00:12:25.820 I wonder if you'd speak a little bit about that.

00:12:28.200 Yes, I consider the wrong ecumenism or the so-called inter-religious dialogue, as it is done currently

00:12:39.520 and was already initiated by the Second Vatican Council, a great danger because it contains inherently

00:12:51.980 in this form which is done in this form which is done and even in some affirmations in the

00:12:58.760 texts of the Second Vatican Council, it contains the danger of doctrinal relativism.

00:13:06.100 No one can deny this and so even exteriorly, it is a display of that basically all are equals.

00:13:18.940 The different Christian confessions, there is no, they can continue in this, everyone in his own way. 0.77

00:13:32.560 But then basically, we can, we have not to change.

00:13:38.620 This is very dangerous.

00:13:42.080 Then there is a no stable and constant unchanging truth, which is only one.

00:13:49.100 And there is undermined by these meetings and actions, as you mentioned, and other similar.

00:13:58.420 It's undermined the truth that there is only one Church of God, and this is the Catholic Church.

00:14:08.320 The Church of Peter, united with the Holy See, the chair of Peter, is the popes.

00:14:16.600 And this is undermined by these.

00:14:22.940 They are transmitting a message that it is okay that there is an Anglican Church, a Presbyterian, and all the others.

00:14:32.200 It's not okay.

00:14:33.840 It's not the will of God.

00:14:35.240 Because these non-Catholic communities are containing objective errors, which God condemns, which God does not accept, errors, doctrinal errors, or practical errors in sacraments, in some morality, 0.98

00:14:55.540 which are contrary to the will of God, which are contrary to the will of God, and what is contrary to the will of God cannot bring blessings,

00:15:05.420 which are lasting fruits.

00:15:07.660 And such gestures of ecumenical meetings or interligious dialogue are undermining this truth.

00:15:18.420 And therefore, I think these actions and meetings had to change, basically.

00:15:29.700 Of course, we have to show our charity and love for our separated brothers.

00:15:36.800 This is clear.

00:15:38.520 But nevertheless, state that they are unfortunately in an objective error, that they are called by God to join the Holy Mother Church,

00:15:54.580 which is the Catholic Church, which is the will of God, they are joined to abandon their errors.

00:16:00.960 Of course, we have to help them patiently with a dialogue, but a crystal clear dialogue, to help them to see their own errors,

00:16:13.060 help them, I repeat, with charity, but with clarity.

00:16:16.400 And this is the true love for neighbor.

00:16:20.460 When we Catholics are saying to our separate brothers, Christians, showing them respectfully, of course, their errors, 1.00

00:16:36.240 because they cannot continue to live in these errors, it's contrary to the will of God,

00:16:41.440 and to invite them to join the Holy Mother Church, which is only one Catholic Church,

00:16:48.880 the Church of God is the Catholic Church, not only subsists in.

00:16:56.420 This is a very ambiguous expression, because then it can suppose that there are other churches or other communities which got established.

00:17:10.220 No, there is only one Catholic Church, willed by God, and all the others are abandoned the Holy Mother Church, 0.73

00:17:20.500 and have this charity, this respect, to call them back, this prayers, to the unity of the one Holy Catholic, Apostolic Church.

00:17:32.500 Jesus is our only Lord, and that He desires that all humanity, for all time, may embrace eternal life in Him.

00:17:44.480 Bishop Joseph Strickland has issued a stunning letter.

00:17:49.320 He knows what's coming, he sees the Synod on Synodality is about to take off,

00:17:54.220 and he knows that he's under threat of being cancelled.

00:17:57.800 He wants to give his people, his flock, a warning.

00:18:00.500 It is one of the most heartfelt letters you will ever read.

00:18:03.940 On behalf of a bishop to his diocese, go to lifesitenews.com right now and read the full letter.

00:18:08.140 I want to give you here some of the excerpts from it.

00:18:10.560 It's just incredible.

00:18:11.980 It starts off this way.

00:18:12.980 In this time of great turmoil in the Church and in the world, I must speak to you from a Father's heart

00:18:18.180 in order to warn you of the evils that threaten us, and to assure you of the joy and hope that we have always in our Lord Jesus Christ.

00:18:26.280 He continues,

00:18:26.920 The evil and false message that has invaded the Church, Christ's bride, is that Jesus is only one among many,

00:18:36.980 and that it is not necessary for His message to be shared with all humanity.

00:18:41.000 This idea must be shunned and refuted at every turn.

00:18:45.000 We must share the joyful good news that Jesus is our only Lord,

00:18:49.940 and that He desires that all humanity, for all time, may embrace eternal life in Him.

00:18:56.860 And then, the bishop goes on to quote from St. Paul to the Galatians.

00:19:00.580 You can read it at Galatians 1, 6-9.

00:19:03.600 He says, and this is quoting from St. Paul,

00:19:06.040 I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel.

00:19:14.380 Not that there is another, but there are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ.

00:19:22.820 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel other than the one that we preached to you,

00:19:30.800 let that one be accursed, as we have said before and now say again,

00:19:35.640 if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one that you received, let that one be accursed, end quote.

00:19:42.900 That's again from the Galatians 1, 6-9.

00:19:45.980 So, Bishop Strickland goes on in his letter, and he says,

00:19:50.080 and get the wording here, it's so important,

00:19:51.900 Again, as your spiritual father, I feel it is important to reiterate the following basic truths

00:19:58.100 that have always been understood by the church from time immemorial,

00:20:01.240 and to emphasize that the church exists not to redefine matters of faith,

00:20:05.680 but to safeguard the deposit of faith as it has been handed down to us from our Lord himself,

00:20:10.680 through the apostles and the saints and martyrs.

00:20:13.220 Again, hearkening back to St. Paul's warning to the Galatians, 0.54

00:20:16.560 any attempts to pervert the true gospel message must be categorically rejected

00:20:21.260 as injurious to the Bride of Christ and to her individual members.

00:20:24.560 He goes on then to list seven points of faith that you need to read at LifeSaintNews.com,

00:20:30.640 and he warns that these are the ones we must stick to and the ones being threatened.

00:20:46.560 Thank you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - December 15, 2023

Cancelled priests & the time for courage

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