FLASHBACK： Fr. Altman received 'vile' phone calls after calling out Democrats in 2020
Summary
The coronavirus lockdown was terrible, but one of the greatest blessings that came out of that lockdown was the introduction to the world of my next guest, Father James Altman. He hit the world stage with his videos of his homilies that went viral, and he spoke the truth of Christ from his heart, without fear, with the love of a shepherd for his flock. He was not afraid to call out unfaithful bishops and cardinals who were distorting the faith, even willing to preach on the errors of Pope Francis. But it seems to have been his most recent video, which went viral with nearly a million views, that finally got his bishop to cave in and silence him.
Transcript
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I know the coronavirus lockdown was terrible, but one of the greatest blessings that actually came
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out of that coronavirus lockdown was the introduction to the world of my next guest.
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You all know him, Father James Altman. He hit the world stage with a few of his videos of his
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homilies that went viral during the lockdown, and he spoke the truth of Christ from his heart,
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without fear, with the love of a shepherd for his flock. He wasn't afraid to call out unfaithful
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bishops and cardinals who were distorting the faith, even willing to preach on the errors of
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Pope Francis. But it seems to have been his most recent video, which went viral with nearly a
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million views. It was entitled, You Cannot Be Catholic and Be a Democrat, Period. That's what
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seems to have finally got his bishop to cave in and silence him, forbidding him to post his homilies
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online, forbidding him from social media as well. But he's also been threatened now with canonical
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penalties. You're going to want to stay tuned with this interview with Father James Altman.
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Before we begin, let me just mention that LifeSite News has just launched our fall fundraiser,
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you to Christ, and bring you the truth to suss out all of the nonsense we're hearing from the mainstream
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fake news. So please help us continue this mission of LifeSite News, and we need your support to do it.
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You are in fact the driving force that keeps LifeSite active. May God bless you.
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So let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross, and perhaps if you'd like, Father,
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give us the sign of the cross, but also a short prayer if you wish.
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All right. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Heavenly Father, we ask you to send your Spirit down upon us.
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Inspire us in our words and our actions so that we can be the brightest light of Christ to the world,
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so much in need amidst all the darkness. Let us be servants to you.
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May I ask this grace in the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Amen. Thank you, Father. There's almost no introduction needed to you at LifeSite News.
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So many of us know you and love you. And as I said in the opening, right from the lockdown,
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the greatest gift of the lockdown was happening to find you,
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just because we're out there looking for something good to listen to for our Masses and homilies.
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And you came up and were an awesome blessing to my family.
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And so thank you for that on behalf of all of LifeSite and our many, many viewers and listeners.
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You know, to share the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, I mean, that's what we live for.
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I don't understand how, well, I can tell you this,
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a lot of priests that I've talked to from around the country were heartbroken
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when they couldn't share that Mass with all their people, all their faithful.
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And when the churches were closed against the people, which was an abomination,
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but it was also closed against the priests and the people.
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I can't, I just, it wasn't, how about if I be polite?
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And you've been to so many Catholics for so long.
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A voice of truth and crying out in the wilderness.
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Father, I think most of the people who would have seen you, apart from us stalwarts, who
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would have seen you during the lockdown, but most of the people would have come upon your
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You can't vote Democrat and be Catholic, period.
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You're perhaps even approaching or surpassed a million views.
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Tell us a little bit about that first and what inspired you to do that.
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And we're going to get into the ramifications right after.
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You know, if we don't have truth, we don't have leaders in the truth, I'm as lost as anybody.
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I mean, isn't that what we're all searching for?
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And ultimately, then, that means Jesus, doesn't it?
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Because he is the way, the truth, and the life.
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And so I've been asked to produce some, or not produce, but just give little talks, like
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And so we didn't do it in the Catholic Church because I thought, well, this is something
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So I spent some time preparing something on my own time and then went to a separate place.
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And the original, this original talk was like about 14 minutes long, I think, 14, 14 and
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But what I didn't know is that it can only be like as many as nine minutes and 58 seconds.
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So consequently, as sometimes happens, the most vigorous portions are what you see.
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But what leads up to those vigorous portions are what you don't see because it had to be
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I think it was middle of August, right around the Feast of the Assumption.
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And this was actually the third of three recordings.
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I know that probably sends tremors among some people out there like, what else did he have
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And the first one was all about the PNC and how I set it up.
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If you could have watched all three, when I got to that point, nobody could argue that
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And so it just, you know, with COVID, with the election coming up, I mean, if we don't
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know the truth that guides our decisions now, then we're sunk.
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So I think that really was what was behind it all is under the circumstance, the crazy,
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dangerous, truly dangerous times that we're living in with all that.
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What are we up to 110 days in Portland or something like that?
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Where's the leaders speaking the truth in all this?
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And so I think that somehow just, you know, it actually was prepared.
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I had no preliminary real intention to say anything that was said in that.
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I did the one, then I did the other, and then I started this third one, and then it just
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And I'll tell you what, they can argue with it.
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And not because I've heard people say, well, you were just trying to be political.
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Listen, I didn't say, vote for this person or vote for that person.
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All I said was, you can't be Catholic, you can be a Democrat.
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But then again, they said not too many years ago, maybe two years ago, Podesta comes on
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and, no, it wasn't Podesta, it was Perez, I think is his name.
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The head of the, I know if you're familiar with American politics, but the head of their
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whole thing says, you can't be Democrat and be pro-life.
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So I'm thinking, did I just hear rightly, did you just hand me on a silver platter?
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And so I said, well, you can't be pro-life, you can't be Democrat.
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So, well, the people that took offense are the ones that, well, that think that it is
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And it was the third, you haven't heard the first two and because, well, you just haven't.
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So it's unfortunate because it would have made more sense, this third one.
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When you approach a million views and you've touched the lives of so many people, it's an
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The response to it, other than seeing it in mass, mass numbers, has, however, also been
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You've been officially silenced by your bishop in terms of being able to post your homilies
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in terms of, I think it's social media blocking as well by your bishop, not so much by Twitter
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And that was only because we were live streaming.
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Because they wouldn't let people into the church.
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I think it's 27 times because at least he, unlike most, at least let us allow some people
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And so we were having the masses with only eight other people in it.
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And then people would be outside, even outside the church, listening on, because they could
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And then we'd let them come in like eight at a time, no more than eight at a time, so
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they could receive the Holy Eucharist, the source and summit of all grace.
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I mean, how that was denied to anybody is beyond me.
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And we had it here and being, we longed, we so longed to be there, but we were definitely
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there in spirit with you and united ourselves with it.
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That was the hardest point probably of my entire life.
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So yeah, it was, that was very, very difficult.
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But this has got for you some censure now threatened with canonical penalties by, by the
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way, this good bishop, who was one of the better bishops who allowed the Holy Sacrifice
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of the Mass at least to continue in limited numbers, yes, but nonetheless, unlike most, didn't
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And yet still, you're under this kind of censorship and in a way, persecution.
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But on the other end of that, you had an incredible show of support.
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We have a petition running for you at LifeSite News with over 70,000 signatures to this point
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and an incredible show outside of your place there where people came together in the hundreds
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Tell us a little bit about your reaction in terms of seeing that and what do you think
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And immediately, immediately, the enemy attacks and were encouraged to attack.
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And, and Father Martin tried to suggest, oh, he had nothing to do with a bologna.
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And then on his website, which he could have stopped, there was a woman that after every
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single person that commented, she put, she put the, like the doxing, right?
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And, and so my, my diocese and my own office got the most vile, despicable phone calls, letters.
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I got some terrible, always, you know, by the way, they're a bunch of chickens because
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they don't have the decency to put the return address on it, right?
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And I know when I'm, when I'm opening the envelope, I try to open them all.
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So, uh, oh, this one's going to be a doozy because they don't have the guts to put a return
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So that, but that's what happened down at the diocese.
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All of a sudden there's this massive, I got nothing better to do.
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I mean, so Maria, you know, her brother's a bishop, my, my, my assistant downstairs.
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Her, he's a bishop down in Chile, uh, cause that's where she was originally born.
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Uh, anyway, uh, so, so when this, so then of course the bishop has to act because he,
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all he's getting is flooded with the venom of the enemy.
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And, and so, uh, the support then comes and then as soon as, then he sends out this letter.
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He, he publishes a press release, which I did not know was coming that morning.
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Uh, I got a very nice letter from a vicar for clergy who would, who would I talk to for an
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hour and a half on Friday the week before and, uh, thought everything was just okay, fine.
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I mean, I understand there's going to be negative, negative.
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You, you, Jesus said, if they hated me, they're going to hate you too.
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I was a lawyer once, you know, so you're kind of used to it.
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And, uh, but, but as soon as that happened, then all of a sudden comes this, the censure,
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as you say, and, uh, all based on manner and tone, which really irritates me because
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nobody's, what about the manner and tone of the 10,000 babies that are chopped up last
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Uh, I, I can't even, you, you, nobody has seen me angry yet.
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Uh, but push another button and I know how to defend myself.
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Uh, and I know who will help me in that regard.
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And so, uh, so then, then there came this groundswell as bad as a pendulum swung this
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Thanks to people like you, uh, who realized truth is spoken.
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Um, if, if, if I sounded angry, then what every bishop in this country and around the
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world should, should, should get a clue that that's the voice of the people that I'm only
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a reflection of their voice, the most faithful Catholics of all.
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Uh, so somebody asked me two nights ago, well, what, what do you think father is the
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And I came up with about five or six things that how I prepare a homily, how much time
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I spend in, in it, how much prayer, uh, how I try to make it, the gospels present, the,
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But I said, I think that's what every priest does, but there must be something else.
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And I thought, well, maybe God is just, for whatever reason, had this providence, just,
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Um, but then it dawned on me as I was going out to celebrate a home mass on Monday at a,
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at a faithful parishioners, a farm and bless the farm.
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In 2016, the people had had it and, and they had it with the Democrats.
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They had it with the, uh, establishment Republicans.
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And finally, the voice of the people said, there's somebody out there who's speaking
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Well, uh, and, and confounded everybody, uh, every now and then just for fun, I watched
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the election night returns because it's fun to see the, the enemies go nuts.
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Maybe after 18 years of one scandal after another, after tearing, you know, these people paid for
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They paid for those statues of our blessed mother that they threw in the dumpster.
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They paid for that communion rail that they tore, tore down.
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Uh, they paid for everything that they painted over.
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And now, and then they have 18 years of scandal.
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And now, and now the coup de grace, they lock them out of their churches and deny them the
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These people are mad and they have a reason to be mad.
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It's like, they're blaming me, the hierarchy, blaming me that the people are mad.
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They just finally got someone to actually say it.
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Well, no, that's, I think that's part of the story here.
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In fact, a little bit about your background is, is an important thing here because you're
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You were over 40 years old when you joined the priesthood, when you entered the priesthood
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And so you, you've got your feet wet in terms of the world and in terms of knowing, uh, the
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Uh, there's no, there's no only clerical studious academic bone in your body.
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That's one of the big things with your homology.
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You, you say what we wished we would hear from the pulpits and haven't literally almost
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I'm glad you said it because that's exactly right.
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So you did, however, also receive some Episcopal support.
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Um, Bishop Strickland's words to you on Twitter, but nonetheless to you, not only endorsing your
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video, but then, and was probably most movies were the most moving things I have ever seen
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And he said, it's to my shame that I have not done this and done this earlier.
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You tell me one other Bishop in this country around the world who has said what he said.
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So, you know, sometimes, okay, I'm a strong man.
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I, you know, I'm interiorly, I'm secure, but then you get grief and you know, it's, well,
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did I say the wrong, right thing or something like that?
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Uh, and I, I don't, I don't choke up that easily.
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Uh, I was so moved by, um, also partly because we have a shepherd who's saying, who's speaking
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He was getting hate mail too, but he spoke the truth and he, and he, what a humble, to
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have a shepherd say that, that, that was, uh, all the world to me.
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And in him, we see this combination of courage and humility and it's truly beautiful.
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I think that's one of the things that really reaches out to people and speaks to people
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We need to hear it proclaimed with courage, with the same courage that our Lord himself
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He, he wasn't shy of using, uh, you brood of vipers, you hypocrites is by no means a
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kind of, uh, you know, pussyfooting around a light way of saying things.
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It spoke to the people as do you and as does Bishop Strickland.
00:20:00.880
An interesting thing you just mentioned is the preparation for which you do, you do your
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You pray for long hours and meditate about what you're going to say.
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Just, if you wouldn't mind, explain that a little only because I think it's so important
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in terms of letting people understand you don't come at these things lightly.
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They're thought about, they're prayed about, uh, and they're done with reflection on the
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Well, every homily starts with this, with the sacred scriptures.
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And, uh, and I could, the funny thing, I could, uh, work hours and hours.
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And even after I've given that same homily, although I usually revise them, people wonder
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A couple minutes because I'm busy revising it in between because this didn't go, this
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And so by the time I've done it the fourth time, it's like, uh, firing on all cylinders.
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The, um, so, uh, so it starts with the sacred scriptures and, and then, and then it just
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But even after I've done it, I'll be up at the pulpit proclaiming either the gospel or
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the epistles now, because we don't have lectures, uh, because of the virus.
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Uh, and, and some new thought will jump out at me.
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Something I've never seen it after even having just that day spent so much time working on
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So the inspiration is always from the scriptures.
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Well, but in like, but I always say to people, well, if I could just read you and talk about
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a story from 2000 years ago or 2,500 years ago, the older people in Nineveh or something.
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Well, how about if we make it present in our day, what do we need to repent of?
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Well, a block up the street is the abomination known as Planned Parenthood, the most racist organization
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in the, in the world, uh, founded to wipe out black babies and, uh, racist, uh,
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uh, so that's bringing you, we better repent because we've let it happen.
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Oh yeah, I, I won't go there, but I make it present.
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Well, we can read storybooks or we can make it present.
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I mean, isn't it supposed to be alive and, and, and effective in our world today?
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So that's what I strive to do is, is actually make it present with, you know, 50% of it's,
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uh, Jesus's, um, teaching was about grace and mercy and forgiveness.
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But 50% about of it was the other side of the justice part.
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Uh, and, and, and in our day and age, you know, even Bishop Barrett, he, I have a video
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of him from EWTN where he even says that after Vatican II, they forgot, they're all about
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I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
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Um, but people are just so sensitive, hypersensitive in our, in our day and age.
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Here's something else that they don't get is I've already been teaching my, my people
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here for three years, so I don't need to teach them the same thing I started with.
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I have built them up with, with Pablum to start with, let's say, and now they're getting
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And so, and they can, they understand the meat and potatoes, right?
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But, but the people that, the people out there who, uh, have been so poorly formed, they complain
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about, oh, we're poorly catechized, poorly catechized.
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But then you try to give them a homily longer than five minutes like that.
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Bishop down Southwest here, you're going to take away the fact is if you preach for more
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than five minutes, like, cause if your eternal salvation can be had in five minutes or less
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Um, so my people have already had the, they're ready for the meat and potatoes and I'm giving
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Well, then it goes out, of course, on the net to all these people who haven't had meat
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potatoes and it's causing them a little indigestion, I guess would be a good analogy.
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Uh, that's not fair to criticize me that I'm giving my people meat and potatoes.
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It was, it was so beautiful to hear the, the lady from your parish on the, uh, video that
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we had on LifeSite featuring, uh, from that demonstration that was had in support of you.
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Um, it, her, her comment, this startling, you know, saying how small the parish is and
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yet, uh, they're amazed by this and hundreds of people are there.
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Um, it's a beautiful witness to, uh, the truth of what you say.
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Uh, he, he says, you know, he'll, he'll, he'll take away, uh, the, the wolves and he'll become
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Uh, and in your case, it seems he's given you a huge flock because most of the shepherds
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aren't feeding, uh, their flocks and, uh, we're able to get some food from you.
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Father, in, uh, just to conclude, I wanted to, first of all, thank you again on behalf of
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LifeSite, upon all of our readers and, and, uh, all of our fans who are just, uh, very much
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in love with, with what you preach and what you teach.
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I want to encourage our viewers to go online and look up, uh, Father James Altman's homilies,
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which are still available, hopefully not taken down.
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If they will be taken down, I'm sure somebody else is going to put them up somewhere and
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We're going to pray for you, uh, that, uh, the Bishop, uh, stops this restriction on you
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so that you can give once again to the many souls that are longing for your teaching.
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And, uh, I wanted to ask you in conclusion, what is your agenda here?
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And, uh, what do you feel is, is your call, your calling right now in this time?
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Well, I've already, I've said this to Bishop before and to anybody, really, uh, there is
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a legitimate constituency of faithful Catholics that want them eating potatoes, as I described
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earlier, and they have been denied that throughout the world.
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I've gotten, well, I mean, you're, I'm not accustomed to it.
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You are, but I mean, from all over the world, uh, stories of, I was leaving the Catholic church.
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I had it with the Catholic church and finally somehow through this, uh, they heard, they
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I like to see a little bit, if I had an agenda and I didn't start with one and I don't, I don't
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know that I have one, but it's that, that those people get fed, not, it doesn't have
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to be by me and if it encourages other priests to step up to the plate and, and feed the people
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the truth, given the meat and potatoes of the faith that they, that they should have,
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that they're entitled to, nobody ever is concerned about them.
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We're always worried about offending somebody else on the left that doesn't know the faith
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How about we, we suddenly realize that we have faithful Catholics that, that are entitled
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to the faith, deserve to hear the faith and, and deserve to have shepherds who will teach
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Does that sound like if I had an agenda, I guess that would be it.
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I mean, to, to feed these people that I didn't know until really until this happened, I didn't
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I thought everybody talked like me because I don't go to other, I don't, I'm too busy
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with my own parish to, I don't get to hear other people preach.
00:27:24.100
So, um, it was a shock to me that from all over the world, and I mean all over the world,
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every continent, countries in every continent, that they all said the exact same thing.
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Maybe that's where I got the analogy for the meat in the face in the first place.
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Bishops, pay attention to those people who are faithful that aren't being fed.
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And fathers and mothers are looking out for their own children who in their own parishes,
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most of the time, hear nothing or worse than nothing, hear heresy.
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And I don't use that word lightly, but they do.
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And so therefore, bringing them, meat and potatoes, bringing them to the truth has been
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It's so sad that for very, very many of us, we can't do that in our parishes.
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We're blessed where I am with a faithful priest.
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And I please God, the bishops, the courageous bishops out there, the few who are really faithful
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can see the outpouring of support and in it see exactly, as you said, the starving,
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faithful Catholics who are literally begging, not only for themselves, but also for their
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own children, the shepherds to release the treasure of the faith for the faithful.
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We're starving and there's a treasure and it's being held up in the hands of the hierarchy
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And thank you for, yeah, thank you for being a bright beacon of that truth, too.
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And as we close, Father, give us your blessing, please, if you would.
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Through the intercession of St. Tarsisius, defender of the Holy Eucharist unto martyrdom.
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Through the intercession of St. Joseph of Workman.
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Father, Father of the Holy Eucharist, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother,
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Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, Mother of the Eucharist, may Almighty God bless you all,
00:30:00.800
I'd like to invite you to subscribe to the John Henry Weston Show YouTube channel if you
00:30:06.820
There you will find all the past episodes and much more.
00:30:09.880
Thanks again for watching, and may God bless you.