Episode 7： Why correcting Pope Francis is a true act of charity
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Summary
In this episode, John Henry Weston answers a question about the joy that Catholics are supposed to have in the Catholic Church. He also discusses the life of Cardinal John Paul Cardinal Burke, who served as Bishop of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, until he was removed from office because of his opposition to homosexuality.
Transcript
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Hello, this is John Henry Weston, co-founder and editor-in-chief of LifeSite News, and welcome
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to the John Henry Weston Show. This episode is a special episode because I'm on the road,
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and rather than skipping a week, I wanted to answer some of the questions that some of you
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have sent in, some of the comments that we've seen on the videos, and so we're going to do
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that this week, so stick around, and we'll start as we always do with the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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So, we've had many responses. Thank you for watching this show, and thank you for sharing
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it with many people. But we've had quite a few responses, some of which were concerning,
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and I want to address those. For one thing, one person wrote in to say, where is, you know,
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the joy, the love that we're supposed to have in the church? And I want to say, we do have love,
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we should have love, and I'm sorry if in my former videos, I've not demonstrated, not shown that love,
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not shown that joy for the faith. We mean to. We mean to show the joy of the faith. We need to show
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the joy of the faith, because it's in that joy, a lot of the time, that people are attracted to come
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to the one true Catholic faith. And so, it's hard, given the situation that the church is in,
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to stay joyful all the time. Yet, we're called to be joyful. It doesn't mean we're la-di-da all
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every five seconds. No, but generally, we have a character of joy. Sometimes we feel sadness and
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other things, but we come back to that stable place of joy. It's not a joy in our circumstance.
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It's a joy in knowing that the Lord is there, that the Lord loves us, that our final destination is
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heaven, and that's what we're striving for. And yes, we fall. Yes, we're all sinners. And we have
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the great grace of the sacrament of confession, of Holy Communion offered to us daily, which I beg you
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to avail yourselves of. And these are the things that bring us great joy. Then there are things like
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friends and family, your own children. And so, there are lots of things to be joyful about. And yes,
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even in the situation of the church today, there are a lot of great Catholic heroes out there.
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I think first and foremost of Cardinal Burke. And I raise him because we've received and we've seen
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lots of complaints about Cardinal Burke, as if Cardinal Burke were an enemy of the Pope, or,
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you know, hating the Pope, or jealous of the Pope. And that truly is laughable. If you know anything
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about Cardinal Burke, it's that he loves the church. He would give his life for the church
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willingly, happily. He's a joyful warrior. And yes, he's been tried and troubled and had hard times and
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many, many difficulties, but he's a happy warrior for the truth, for the truth of Jesus Christ.
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And I'll give you a good example. A good example of the truth of Cardinal Burke is this.
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You see, many people, even before Pope Francis, disliked Cardinal Burke for all sorts of reasons.
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One, he sticks close to the church's teaching, not close, right on the line of the church's teaching
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on life issues, on family issues. And today, that can be very difficult. And of course, especially around
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the issue of homosexuality, it's always very, you know, hard and difficult. People say you're a hater
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and a bigot and so on. Well, he's a happier warrior, happy warrior also in that sense. See, there was a
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parishioner, a member of his church when he was in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and he was a gay activist. His name
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was Eric Hess. And Eric Hess got so fed up, you know, with the teaching of the church, living his
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homosexual lifestyle, that he decided one day to pack up his Bible, rosary candle, and all that stuff
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and send it back into the church. And so he did. And lo and behold, he got a letter back from the
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current bishop, who then was now Cardinal Burke, Bishop Burke back then. And Bishop Burke wrote to him
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saying he was saddened, but that he would respect his wishes, asking to be removed, you know, from
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the list of Catholics. And also told him, though, you know, anytime you want to come in and talk,
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I'll be here for you. And Eric Hess describes later how, as a homosexual activist, he was very upset.
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How dare this bishop send me a letter and wrote back to then Bishop Burke saying his letter was
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harassment and that, you know, he would be in big trouble if he wrote again. And that said, he wanted
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nothing more to do with the church. Sure enough, not being discouraged, Cardinal Burke, or then Bishop
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Burke, wrote back to say, yes, he won't be contacting him again. But if any time he chooses to come back,
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he would accept him back with open arms. Well, it just so happened many years later that Eric Hess did
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have a turnaround in his life. He found himself in sickness and conversion and really felt a want to
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apologize to Cardinal Burke. And so he wrote a letter and sent it in. Now, the bishop then asked for him
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to come in to come in and see him. So he came in. And Bishop Burke then received Eric Hess. And he told
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him, as he sat there, as he sat there together, I want you to wait here for a second. And he went and
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got the box of his Bible and candle and rosary and things, and gave it back to him and said, I've been
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praying for you. And Eric Hess will attest to this day that he regards Cardinal Burke as a great father
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figure, a father figure that welcomed back, welcomed him back into the arms of Christ with an embrace so
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very warm. That's Cardinal Burke. No hater, no bigot, no one lacking in joy, just someone who ultimately
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loves the faith and loves the church and loves the Pope. You know, in his write-up on what happened
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with Cardinal Burke, Eric Hess compared Cardinal Burke to the great Saint Athanasius. He said he's an
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Athanasius of our day. And I want to take that up because there's another bishop who has a similar joy,
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a similar love for the church, who's also accused of attacking the Pope and hating the Pope. And that's
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Bishop Athanasius Schneider. And one of the things that he often says that really strikes and really
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answers this question, this concern about the need to love Pope Francis, is that the real friends,
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those who truly love the Pope, are those who question what he's doing, who call him to bring
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clarity. Because as Bishop Schneider says, anything else, showing him adulation and applauding him
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along and doing these things that we know are harmful for the church and harmful for his soul,
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aren't doing him any favors nor themselves any favors when it comes to judgment day. You know what?
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We're all called to judgment day. We're all going to face our Lord. And so I want to challenge you.
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Do you love Pope Francis enough? Do you love him enough to a pray from every day, which you should
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be doing? And I've attested to you, I do every day and all the staff at LifeSite, we pray on our
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morning prayer call for Pope Francis every day. But do you love him enough to be really concerned about
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what is going on? What's going on is very harmful for the church indeed. And I hope my video series thus
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far and will continue to show that harm very specifically with the evidence. But are you
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showing enough love to Pope Francis? Are you concerned about these things? Are you concerned
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about his soul? A lot of people have said to me, you know, if you had the chance to meet Pope Francis,
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would you? And what would you say? And I'd say, sure, I'd meet with Pope Francis.
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I'd tell him, Holy Father, thank you for meeting with me. I want to tell you I'm concerned for your
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soul. It's true. That's what we're concerned about. We're concerned for his soul. Sure, we're concerned
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about the confusion among the faithful, confusion even to our own children, as I've already described
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in previous videos. But we're also concerned for the Pope's soul. And so will you pray with me
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for a conversion of heart of Pope Francis? This is absolutely necessary to our faith today.
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It's absolutely necessary for the church today. And it should leave you a happy warrior, not someone
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with their, you know, any kind of depression or anger or anything, with a joy, a joy knowing that you
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can serve the church in offering up your own prayers, sacrifices and sufferings and joys in union with the
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Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world for the intentions of Christ himself, which are to bring
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the Holy Father to clarity. And we do all this in charity. As you know, our motto at LifeSite News,
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love in truth, caritas in veritate. And may God bless you from all of us here at LifeSite News.