Gabrielle Kuby is a German sociologist and prolific author, an acquaintance of Pope Benedict XVI who has visited him in his post-retirement monastery and still exchanges Christmas cards and Easter cards with him. She is the foremost European culture warrior, protecting the family from the sexual revolution. Pope Benedict has called her, and I quote, a brave fighter against the ideologies that ultimately result in the destruction of man.
00:32:25.000This whole 2,000 years of history, of Christian history, changing the face of this earth and changing millions and millions and millions and millions of hearts.
00:33:10.940That is, by the way, uh, the, the theme also of a book of Michael O'Brien, Apocalypse, Apocalypse, which I translated into, had a great joy and thought it was so important that I translated it into a German.
00:33:26.060It has come out recently in English, uh, in, in, in, in Canada.
00:33:32.260And we featured Michael on our show as well.
00:33:34.420I mean, we, we, we, we are told in the Bible, it will be tough at the end, but there will be the new Jerusalem.
00:33:45.860So we Christians are called upon whatever happens to grow in our faith to a degree that we can be a light of hope to our brothers and sisters.
00:34:00.360I think this is what we are called to.
00:34:04.820I think, uh, in the catechism, uh, they described this sort of as the mystical body of Christ, the church going through a similar passion, uh, that Christ himself did.
00:34:15.580And I, I think the, the position of us in the church, loving the church, um, is, uh, is one of our lady who had to watch, uh, our Lord be crucified, had to accept that as the will of God, uh, offer that up.
00:34:31.780And we're, we're, we're, we're, I mean, called to still witness to the truth.
00:34:35.800So despite the fact that the apostles, uh, even in the face of Jesus's death, um, still had to give witness to the truth, even though that cost them, it cost them all their lives.
00:34:47.260Uh, except John, of course, they tried to kill him, but it didn't work.
00:34:50.500Um, since they were so disappointed that they didn't, didn't even recognize Jesus when he was walking next to them, you know, because they thought everything was lost.
00:35:00.900Um, since, since we're talking about, uh, the Pope and, and, uh, I wanted to ask you too, since you're an academic, um, there's been a new thing that happened in Rome, uh, just recently, uh, you had the John Paul II Institute, this for the marriage and family, this beautiful Institute founded by, uh, John Paul II and, and, uh, given in charge of to Cardinal Carlo Cafara, who was a, a great friend of his.
00:35:30.680And, and, um, we were close to him as well, who, who, uh, since passed away, but, um, this, basically the Institute has been, uh, dismantled.
00:35:40.800It was, uh, given over, uh, in charge to, uh, first of all, the Pope, uh, did a modu proprio, a, a personal communication, changing the focus of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family to then concentrate rather on that, but on to, uh, Amoris Laetitia.
00:35:59.320He gave it to the charge of the very controversial, uh, Archbishop Paglia, who, who, uh, ran first the Academy for Life, then the Pontifical, excuse me, first the Pontifical Council for the Family, then the Academy for Life.
00:36:12.620Um, a very controversial character for very many reasons, but then, um, he basically suspended all the professors, um, keep, retains now a few and dismisses the most important professors that were in connection with, uh, John Paul II.
00:36:30.680And, uh, just wanted to get your reaction, uh, to that whole scenario, uh, since you yourself are an academic.
00:36:35.840Yes, thank you for describing it in detail, uh, it is absolutely shocking.
00:36:41.960Uh, the Church hasn't proclaimed its beautiful teaching, uh, and of, of, uh, sexuality, marriage, and family, and has not really made use of the incredible richness of the heritage of John Paul II.
00:37:00.060And, uh, the theology of the body and all the encyclicals and so on, such, such wealth and richness.
00:37:09.440I think it was founded right away after, no, it was actually John Paul II wanted to proclaim the founding on the very, very day, 13th of May, when he was assassinated.
00:37:29.860Exceptional professors, uh, were leading it.
00:37:33.620Professor Noriega and Professor Livio Melina, they were the, the, the backbones of the institute.
00:37:40.480And, uh, and other professors who were experts on the teaching of John Paul II.
00:37:45.340The institute was called John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family.
00:37:51.240It was renamed, and, uh, the, the dismantling already began, as you mentioned.
00:37:56.780But now, just the decapitation is happening.
00:38:01.720Just with one stroke of the sword, the main people are just dismissed from one day to the other.
00:38:08.580Uh, even on a legal level, uh, not to speak of a level of compassion, which we hear so often, uh, this would be impossible in a secular university setting to just dismiss people from one, one day to the other, to leave the students who have put their trust in the institution and the professors who want to do their exams there, just leave them dangling in the air.
00:38:34.260Uh, and, you know, that, that it goes on and on.
00:38:39.820We have this drawing back, drawing back from the teaching of the church for a few decades.
00:38:45.260And now the think tank, the core institution that has educated hundreds of professors who, who are able to bring the teaching into the world and to just decapitate it and put people in charge who do not share, uh, the, the wonderful inspiration and love of John Paul II.
00:39:11.460Um, is, uh, is, again, I'm missing the words, very, very, very, very sad.
00:39:20.960I immediately wrote a letter myself to, to the leading people, uh, being aware that, uh, that, uh, there's very little chance that it will have an influence.
00:39:33.020Uh, but I still, uh, we do our work anyway.
00:39:36.380We have to speak out for the truth, uh, wherever we can.
00:39:41.160You do it on a very large scale with LifeSide News.
00:40:08.220Um, actually in terms of reaction, you, you, you do talk about that in your book.
00:40:12.440Um, you, you talk about, um, anger as a reaction, uh, to, to the sexual abuse crisis.
00:40:19.340But I think also in terms of this current crisis in the, in the church, in the hierarchy of the church, um, there is a lot of anger.
00:40:26.720Can you explain what you meant by anger?
00:40:29.600Well, the first reaction of something disagreeable happens to us is anger.
00:40:34.380And when we feel angry, we have high energy, high adrenaline, and we feel strong.
00:40:39.120If you go into a process of looking beneath that anger, any kind of anger, whether about the happenings in the church or anywhere else, uh, you really find sadness and suffering.
00:40:55.280And when you are in a state of sadness and suffering, you don't feel strong at all.
00:41:01.100So we prefer to be angry and start petitions and, and, and, and, uh, but I think it's important.
00:41:09.120It's important to deep, dig down to that true feeling of great sadness that our mother church is not so, you know, is, is so devastated at the moment.
00:41:29.600Uh, and that is, uh, really great suffering.
00:41:32.900And I suppose who suffers most is Jesus Christ and his mother, Mary.
00:41:39.120Uh, what that suffering can mean in eternal glory.
00:41:42.800I don't know, but there are some spiritual teachers who say comfort Jesus in his suffering.
00:41:51.360And there must be some kind of suffering that we go off, uh, the, off this, the narrow path to eternity, to that degree in our present time.
00:42:05.140Any one of us, any one of us, we are not forced to do that.
00:42:10.740Uh, and if we remain faithful and true to the truth and to the teaching, we will have to pay, but we can walk the path.
00:42:22.620And we have lots and lots of food to walk that path, uh, especially also through the digital, digital media.
00:42:32.800So we can, if we don't have the priest in the parish who gives us nourishment, which very often is not the case, or, and then we can actually find sources of, of nourishment for our path and our soul, uh, through the media.
00:43:02.480You have in your book, uh, I, I consider a really beautiful passage.
00:43:06.680You, you talk about a solution to the crisis and I'm, I'm just going to read it out here.
00:43:11.920Cause I think it was just so beautiful.
00:43:13.100As I said, at the top of the show, uh, I find a lot of your prose, very poetic.
00:43:16.880You say, just imagine the bishops and cardinals ensnared in the abuse crisis, initiating a penitential movement and leading the faithful in prayer and fasting.
00:43:27.720Just imagine bishops who would use their power to clean the church with the full knowledge that this would put them on the way of the cross.
00:43:36.640In Nineveh, everyone from the king to the cattle repented and God spared the city.
00:43:43.720What a testimony that would be to the world.
00:43:47.160This is the only way for the church to regain its moral authority.
00:43:51.200Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
00:44:14.700I haven't seen any bishop in, in a position, in a high position or a cardinal who has actually come out and said to the world, I am sorry for what I did.
00:44:30.320And it would be such an incredible relief if that happened.
00:44:35.780Because anybody who walks the path with Jesus Christ all the time comes to, recognizes his own sins and will say to God and to the priests in confession, I'm really sorry for what I did.
00:44:52.520And if you do that, you have an incredible relief and you can, you know, you have a compassionate God and you can continue the path.
00:45:05.220You can stand up again in the face, in the light of God and continue to walk until the next fall.
00:47:46.840I wanted to even conclude with this little passage from your book, which I found so very moving.
00:47:54.840And in all honesty, I think it's very true that it is a solution for sure for priests and those who find themselves in hardship with all of the sexual temptations that's out there.